The Skinny on Fats

 The 80’s will be remembered for a lot of things. Big hair, Spandex, and horrible makeup jobs are a few things that immediately come to mind for me. The 80’s can also be remembered as the decade when Americans started to pay closer attention to their health, weight, and fitness. Steroids ran rampant, places such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig grew in popularity, and, with hopes of slimming their collective figures, America became obsessed with the fat-free trend. Food companies recognized this “fat phobia” and flooded the market with fat-free foodstuffs ranging from cookies to chips, many of which are still produced today.  On the surface this may seem all well and good, but any gourmet can tell you that fat in food equals flavor and if these companies remove fat, they have to replace it with something to keep the food palatable. For food companies the answer is easy, replace the fat with sugar and other simple carbohydrates. Let me give you an example; next time you are at the supermarket look at the difference between the reduced fat and regular peanut butter. You will see that the regular peanut butter has more fat (obviously), but you will also notice that the reduced fat has more carbohydrates and sugar. Swapping fats for sugar makes zero sense and it can be argued that altering food in this way is actually fueling America’s obesity epidemic.

What can’t be argued however is that fat is a vital and essential part of our diet. Fats are integral to forming the very cells that make up our entire body. Fats are also needed to produce various hormones, to absorb essential vitamins (A, D, E, K), and to provide high-density energy to the body. A diet that is deficient in the needed amount of fat can experience all sorts of ill effects ranging from hair, skin, and nail conditions to mental and hormonal disturbances.

We know that fats can be good, but we also know all too well that fats can be bad. There is a mountain of evidence that links certain high-fat diets to heart attacks, cancers, and diabetes. Not all fats contribute to these diseases so it is important that we know what fats we should consume and what fats we should avoid.

Polyunsaturated Fats

Polyunsaturated fats are important because they can help to lower cholesterol. However they lower all forms of your cholesterol including HDLs, which is considered your “good” cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. A variety of oils contain polyunsaturated fats including cottonseed and corn oils. Seafood is a good source of polyunsaturated fats as well as being high in protein.

Monounsaturated Fats

Monounsaturated fats will also help lower blood cholesterol, but unlike polyunsaturated fats, they do not lower HDL-cholesterol. Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature and there are many natural foods that are high in monounsaturated fats including: olives, olive oil, canola oil, peanuts, peanut oil, almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, pistachio nuts, and avocados.

Saturated Fats

Saturated fats come mainly from animal products but are also found in tropical plant oils such a coconut and palm oil. Saturated fats are usually solid or firm at room temperature. Diets which are heavy in consumption of saturated fats have been linked with many diseases including heart disease. Stay away from tropical oils and fatty cuts of meats including beef, pork, and go easy on the egg yolks.

Trans Fats

Trans fatty acids or trans fat is a byproduct of hydrogenation, a process where unsaturated fats are combined with hydrogen to make them more saturated and thus more stable at room temp. Trans fats are the bad fats that I mentioned earlier as they raise your body’s cholesterol levels and increase your risk of disease.  Many fast foods and processed food are high in trans fat to aid in prolonging shelf life. In short consume little to no trans fat.

Recommended Daily Intake

While individual needs for daily fat intake can vary drastically, the following are general recommendations that should suffice for your average population: 1) daily fat intake should be about 30% of your diet. 2) Around 10% should be from saturated sources 3) with the remaining 20% coming from unsaturated sources. If you have special considerations such as the need to compete in high level athletics or a condition such as high cholesterol you may want to consult with your physician or a registered dietician for more specific guidelines.

Remember to get the majority of your fats from whole food sources while avoiding foods high in saturated fats. Avoid trans fats at all costs. Not only will having a diet made of the proper ratios of fats make you healthier, but it will also make you feel fuller longer between meals to help avoid overeating. It’s time for America to get over this phobia and embrace fat as an ally in the battle for good health. 

Not all trainers are created equal........

I recently applied for a job with a company I never heard of and in their questioning of me they asked if I would reccomend their certification to a potential training candidate, to which I replied that I would not. Long story short I didn't get the job (maybe due to something I said), but it got me to thinking on my reason why I said I wouldn't recommend the NHE certification.

The personal training business is largely unregulated in the United States. Unlike doctors, or physical therapists, personal trainers do not have to have a license from the state to practice their craft. Truth is they don't even really need a certification. Any old person can call themselves a trainer and proceed to maim a client because they have no clue what they are doing. It really is scary when you think about it. Your are trusting your body to someone who may or may not be qualified enough to keep you safe. 

The easiest way to reduce the risk of working with unqualified trainers is by doing a little research. First, ask around. See if any of your friends or co-workers have worked with anyone in particular they like. If not you can always turn to online reviews. I highly recommend IDEA located here. 

So if you are wondering which certs rank tops let me tell you. 

1) NSCA 

The NSCA has three training certifications. The CPT is the personal training certificate and requires a high school diploma. The CSCS is made for individuals who wish to pursue sports training and conditioning and requires a BA/BS degree, and the newly created CSPS is certified to work with special populations defined as people who have "chronic and temporary health conditions". The CSPS has rigorous requirements including 250 practical hours in the applicants particular area of expertise.  Overall the NSCA is tops in my book. (http://www.nsca.com/Home/)

2) ACSM 

The ACSM is one of the oldest and most highly regarded personal training certifications in the country (by others, not me). Depending on the certification pre-requisites may include a high school diploma or a BS in Exercise Science, Exercise, Physiology, or Kinesiology. (http://acsm.org)

3 & 4) ACE & NASM

ACE and the NASM are both the same in that they do not require a diploma or GED. NASM fall behind ACE however because they are younger, they are for-profit, and their test is about $200.00 more than ACE. Plus ACE is much more well known. (http://www.acefitness.org/ & http://www.nasm.org/)

5) AFAA

AFAA is a three day workshop and then you study and take a test. There are ZERO prerequisites. Not even a CPR/AED requirement, which all the other four on this list require. However they are at least a respectable company and I have known plenty of good AFAA trainers. (http://www.afaa.com/)

This list is mostly subjective and based on my own beliefs, but it is important to note that a 2002 study done by the UCLA exercise physiology lab found that:

"...a bachelor's degree in the field of exercise science and possession of American College of Sports Medicine or the National Strength and Conditioning Association certifications as opposed to other certifications were strong predictors of a personal trainer's knowledge, whereas years of experience was not related to knowledge." They go onto suggest "that personal fitness trainers should have licensing requirements, such as a bachelor's degree in exercise science and certification by an organization whose criteria are extensive and widely accepted, before being allowed to practice their craft." READ MORE

I agree with the authors wholeheartedly, but until that day comes make sure to scrutinize your trainer just as you would your doctor or other health professional. Look for qualified trainers with the right credentials and do not be afraid to say something if you do not feel you are getting what you pay for. You should feel comfortable with your trainer and confident in his/her abilities. If you are not getting that vibe, than most likely it is not the right fit for you. -Aaron

LFS Product Review - Contour Core Ab Sculpting System

Carve abs in bed!! That's the late-night sales slogan for the Ab Contour Belt. If you have never seen this thing, it's basically a belt that contains what we in the physical therapy business refer to as an electrical stimulation (e-stim) machine that one is suppose to place over their midsection. Now the makers of the Ab-Contour belt would have you believe that you can "sculpt your abs in just minutes a day – while you work or while you play!” No seriously...that is quoted right from their website 

E-stim has been around for quite some time. There are reports of ancient Egyptians using eels, or other similar fish which produce an electrical shock, for the purposes of pain relief. Fast forward some 4500 years and to this day we still use e-stim for that very same purpose in physical therapy clinics around the world. E-stim is also used when we need to re-train a muscle on how to work, after an injury for example. Countless studies have been done to back up these claims on e-stim.

Ok, so we know that e-stim is helpful in reducing pain and atrophy…what about actually helping the normal “healthy” person gain muscle, or what we in the business call muscle hypertrophy? A 2002 study done at University of Wisconsin set out to look at just that. Without boring you to death on the details (which you can read here), basically what they concluded is something I knew as soon as I saw the Ab-Contour belt on TV…the makers of the belt are full of shit. The final conclusion of the study was that “EMS had no significant effect on [body weight, body fat, [limb] girths, isometric and isokinetic strength, [or] appearance (via photographs).]”

If you have seen the commercial you are probably saying to yourself, “but they had that fancy camera and a Dr. who told me it works!” I hate to burst your bubble my friends but that is all just smoke and mirrors. Let’s start with the “Dr.” Watch the infomercial and you will notice the letters that follow his name are not MD; they are DC which is “doctor of chiropractic”. I repeat he is a chiropractor, not an actual medical doctor. Does he know about e-stim? Yes he does. Is he qualified to speak about its uses? He sure is because chiros use e-stim just as much as we PTs do. This guy should know all the evidence about e-stim that I just yammered on about for the last two paragraphs, yet he purposely endorses this product as effective…pretty shady if you ask me. So what about that fancy thermal camera? The thermal effect you are seeing after the belt removed is real, I mean the model just had a belt on that was pretty much sending controlled electrical shocks to his stomach. Electricity = heat so it's no surprise he was heated up. If I thermal imaged you after you stepped out of a sauna you would light up like aurora borealis, but that doesn’t mean you just had the workout of your life, it just means your body is hot.

So please save yourself the $179.99 for the next piece of “revolutionary” fitness equipment that I am sure we will see on another infomercial in the near future, but if you still can’t shake that urge to want to shock yourself at least go with one of these units. They do the same thing, are much cheaper, and you don’t look like an idiot wearing them either.