Hi Everyone!
The 90-Day Fitness Challenge is in full swing. Hope you’re in the mix. You can follow my challenge on my blog and ask specific questions on the Message Board we created for it. Here are those links:
http://steve-edwards.blogspot.com/http://forums.teambeachbody.co...8299664/m/4221048961Now on to this week’s questions.
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Hey Steve,
It's amber in IT. I have a question -- what is your take on salt? What impact does salt in your diet have when trying to lose weight?
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This is one of my favorite subjects because it's a great example of why we can't just go around believing everything we read. The RDA for sodium (salt is sodium/chloride) is 2500mg/day. RDAs are averages, for everybody, and since you aren't everybody they have almost no meaning to you. For example, does it make sense that a 350 pound NFL lineman and a 100 pound librarian have the same nutrient requirements? According to the RDA they do. Ridiculous? Um, yeah.
Salt is the easiest example because you lose salt anytime you sweat. So the move active you are the more salt you need. Let's start with the basics:
A sedentary person needs very little salt in their diet, perhaps only 500mg/day or so to be healthy.
A triathlete can lose 2,000mg in ONE HOUR racing in hot weather.
So the amount of salt you need can vary between 500 and perhaps 20,000mg per 24 hour period. So it probably makes sense that most sedentary people get too much salt and most outdoor endurance athletes don't get enough, which is true.
No matter who you are you need to consider you salt intake. You don't need to get it perfect, unless you're racing (even then, usually). You just need enough, but not too much. So the RDA average is actually okay, if you're average. Most of you are not.
Here's how I figure out salt.
When eating at home you tend not to use much. I liberally salt my food but looking on a salt label you can see it takes a bit. I used to not salt anything until I began cramping during bike races. When I'm not riding/racing I don't use much salt. When racing/training hard I salt a ton.
Restaurants are where things get difficult, especially if you don't exercise a lot. Most over salt to extreme measures. Denis or Joe recently published an article showing restaurant items with 10,000mg/salt in ONE DISH! Insane, unless you did an ironman that day. And most people eating at the Macaroni Grill (I think this was it) don't do ironmans.
Fast and prepared foods are notorious for using a lot of salt.
So, anyway, I figure I need at least 500mg/salt per hour of training--more when it's hot or my training is very intense. The rest of my salt intake is based on what I do. If I'm in an air conditioned office sitting in front of this screen, I'm using very little. If I'm working in the yard on a hot day, it's 500 or so mg/hour.
Finally, salt intake isn’t really about weight gain or loss, but health. Too much in either direction is dangerous to your health. Too much can lead to hypertension. Too like to hypernatremia. Both conditions are deadly. The only time I’ve ever heard of people reducing their salt intake in order to lose weight is when bodybuilders sodium deplete for photo shoots and contests. And this they will only do for a few days at a time because it’s dangerous to do it longer.
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I have a question about the number of calories burned during a moderately intense Hip Hop Abs workout (for say 30 minutes or whatever time measurement you might have). In a chat with one of your representatives, she recommended I email you.
Her response:
“You can up to 300 calories in general with the Hip Hop Abs program.”
Can you be more specific than that. For instance giving me a range (or a specific number) for say a moderately intense workout? I'd rather not guestimate on the high end, but would like a number that would represent a moderate level and then I could go up or down a bit from there based on the level of intensity for a particular workout. Thank you.
Thanks much,
Caren
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The numbers we give our customer service reps are ballpark and rounded down, so it probably is in the ballpark of what you’re looking for. But there is really no way to guestimate exact caloric burns without being able to hook you up to a machine. Almost any activity can be done at different intensities. We do often monitor our test groups and will get some people burning double the calories of others. It’s a matter of how hard you work and how difficult the exercise is for you.
I recommend only using these numbers as a rough ballpark figure. You don’t want (or need) to figure your caloric intake down to the last calorie. All you need to do is get it close, and then pay attention to how you feel. You only want to eat enough to fuel your workouts. If you eat too little you will begin to bonk—run out of glycogen and energy—during your workouts. The easiest way to figure out a good calorie number is to reduce the amount you eat until you are fighting to get through a workout, and then start adding cals until that workout feels great. Then you’re probably close to where you need to be.
The harder you train the quicker your body will change, so that is always your nutritional goal.
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I used to work out at night but now I do it at 11 am. I find that I'm tired most of the day from working out. Shouldn’t I be getting more energy and strength by now ? I've been doing P90 for almost 5 weeks.
Thanks, love the work outs.
Bob
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Ah, the beauty of muscle confusion! In most programs you’d be well through your adaptation period, but not during X!
When you train your body always goes through a period of adjustment. During this time you are in a constant state of breakdown (think about Rocky when he first started training to fight Apollo). In most programs, you adapt in a few weeks. In X, because it keeps throwing different stuff at you, the curve tends to be a little longer. So hang in there. It’ll get much better soon.
For more on this go to my blog and click on the P90X label. Then scroll through those posts until you come on one titled Adaptation. That will answer this in more depth.
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Dear BB scientists,
I would like to make a recommendation or a suggestion for a shift in the
ingredients of all the BB powdered drinks. Given the predominance of additive sugars in just about every single powdered drink, and given the ridiculous increase of diabetes throughout this country, and its absolute correlation to sugars added to most all drinks, and given that BB is dedicated to increasing health, and to increasing health for those with diabetes, then, is it at all possible BB powdered drinks could be made into two categories, each powdered drink comes with two options
1 - with fructose
2 - without fructose
Personally, being a regular human with sensitivities to sugars, I would choose the drink without the fructose because I can then control the amount of sugars I am drinking. This gives me the option to add my own version of sugar, such as stevia or agave syrup or just a banana and apple.
To me this would a true revolutionary action to offer a non-fructose drink to the public.
I hope you like my idea and I am happy to discuss further.
Stephanie Forest
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This is a great idea, in general, and something we’ve thought about. I’m sure as we go forward you’ll be seeing more of our products sweetened differently. However, we don’t use a lot of fructose right now, other than in the meal replacement formula. And we are considering your option for it (or just changing the formula altogether to be sweetened more naturally).
We do need both an energy source and a transport vehicle for those drinks, and sugar actually fits that bill better than anything else. As an example, let’s look at our Recovery Formula and our Male Strength mix.
Both of these use sugar (dextrose, because it’s got a higher glycemic index) because it speeds the nutrients to your system and the quicker it delivers them the more effective it is. For more on this you can search my article archive. I’ve written on it a bunch.
But it’s vital to keep in mind that these are PERFORMANCE supplements and only work if you are putting in the work. For MS&M, you take it before or after an intense workout only. RF is based around you extinguishing all of your blood glycogen during your workout. If you don’t do this than you should not be taking these supplements. They must be earned.
Even our Meal Replacement was designed for this—to take between meals when your blood sugar is crashing. The sugar in this formulation (we use fructose because its lower GI absorbs slower and speed isn’t vital if you haven’t worked out) is to provide energy and also help transport the whey and soy proteins into your system efficiently. A non-sugared drink would not work as well in this case.
There are, however, times when a non-sugared drink would be beneficial, and we are considering that option.
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That’s all for this week. Keep your questions coming and don’t just train hard, train smart!
Steve
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