Lipolysis, lipogenesis... Strange names aren't they ?! Both are processes which involve the fatty acids (fat) in our body and actually, these two words are opposite. As a matter of fact, the fat is very useful for humans because it's a source of energy and it can be stored.

The lipogenesis is the process in which the fat and sugar coming from the feeding is stored into our adipose tissue : on the belly, the bottom, the hips, the boobs you name it.

The lipolysis is the opposite process in which the fat (triglycerides) is removed from the stocks in order to be used as energy. Directly used into the muscle cell or used after a transformation into sugar.

What we have to know :

- If you eat too much carbohydrates you're gonna inhibit the lipolysis because the body is able to deal with this overconsumption of sugar. It also means that you don't put on weight only because of the sugar but also because of a limited lipolysis (the decrease of the fat oxidation).

- Some studies show that sugar is mainly stored in muscles and liver. Only after they can suffer a transformation in the liver (lipogenesis de novo) into fat to be stored in the adipose tissue (only 12 gr per day).

- That are the fatty acids (fat) coming from feeding which intervene mainly in the lipogenesis process.

- As a matter of fact the adipose lipogenesis has a very low energetic cost (about 2%) while the hepatic lipogenesis (conversion of the sugar into fat) has a higher cost which is about 25% of the energetic content.

Well, I'm sure that I forgot a lot of things, if you have any questions or doubts, feel free to post them as a comment. Hope you appreciated this post anyway.

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Unknown

2:00:00 ص

Water seems to be the best solution during physical exercise. When we get thirsty it's very natural to drink water. Ok, but isn't there a better solution than just water ? During sports, our body suffers a loss of water (perspiration) but not only, it loses as well glucose (sugar) and mineral salts. Dehydration is not really recommended, decrease in salt leads to a loss of performance (and dehydration) and glucose it's simply the main source of energy for our muscles but also for our central nervous system. Then, as far as I can understand it would be a good idea to drink a mixture of water, sugar, vitamins and mineral salts, no ?! Ok ok we don't need to be an Oxford graduate to find that but the problem is not there. Notice that not all drinks can be effective ! Effective means real rehydration and prompt absorption of glucose. Yes, some beverages can even have an opposite effect : dehydration and/or a not sufficient absorption of glucose. Héhé, as you can see it's not so easy huh ?!
Ok, I'm gonna give you the secret : o s m o l a r i t y ! Osmolarity is the concentration of particules (sugar, salt...) in a liquid.
- So, an isotonic drink is a liquid which has an identical osmolarity than our plasma (blood) therefore both have a same osmotic pressure. Wow !!! Really good to know... lol ! Ok, it simply means that all the components of this isotonic drink can be absorbed faster.
- If you drink a hypotonic drink that is a less concentrated liquid (water is hypotonic) it will be absorbed as fast as an isotonic one but with a low absorption of nutrients (glucose, sodium...).
- Sodas, lemonades, energy drinks and some fruit juice are all hypertonic. They are the bad ones ! Actually they have a high level of concentration and decrease the quick penetration of water and nutrients in the organism. These ones can cause dehydration (the water contained in cells get out to balance the osmolarity).

Recipe for 1 liter of an isotonic drink :
- 1 liter of water
- the juice of an orange or lemon for the flavour (optional)
- half of a teaspoon of salt
- 30 gr of sugar by hot weather or 70 gr by cold weather (replace sugar by honey if you want)
- If you intend to exercise for more than 2 hours, you can also add 40 gr of maltodextrin (it's a low GI sugar sold in drugstores).

About beer, a lot of people use to drink a beer just after a tough competition. Some studies show that drinking a beer after a physical exercise allows a good recovery (high GI) but some others maintain that beer is far to be a good rehydrator (diuretic) then I think this kind of beverage must be drunk in moderation to avoid bad surprises.

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Unknown

11:20:00 ص

Once a week I try to do a workout based on interval training.

As I already spoke about that, I guess I have to show you a practical example. This speed session called "treshold" isn't to work the maximum aerobic capacities. That's why I ran 3 intervals of 1600 meters at almost 13 km/h (instead of 15km/h in shorter intervals, 200 m or 400 m). I ran at about 85% of my maximum aerobic speed. This kind of training allows the athlete to postpone effects of lactic acid*. This acid is generated by our muscles and in huge quantities it stops our efforts due to a fatigue and burn sensation. Then, this training learn the athlete how to sustain a higher effort level during long runs.

We call it "treshold" because it's a balanced effort level in terms of low production of acid lactic and better oxygen consumption. Beyond this effort level, body generate much more acid lactic and the exercise won't go on for a long time. I spoke about a percentage of 85% above, this percentage is important because it matches pretty much this treshold.

The active recovery after each intervals is important because it allows to get rid of a part of the acid lactic stored in the muscles. At the end of this workout we have handled easily more acid lactic than if we should ran without intervals.

I really liked this workout but I need a Heart Rate Monitor to do it better !!! What ?! I am a sporty geek ??? Ok ok I know that I don't need to carry a computer on my back to manage to run but I'm a man and men like this kind of stuffs !! ;)

*About acid lactic : muscles are always generating acid lactic but in presence of oxygen this acid is recycled in real time and then it is never stored up. When body do a big or long effort, it will face a lack of oxygen. Then, the acid lactic can't be recycled as fast as it is produced and that's why we have a strong breath (because body wants to find more oxygen). A deepest breath during sports shows athlete that he is in lack of oxygen, normal if you are a 100 meters runner, a footballer or a bicycle sprinter, not really normal if you're a long-distance runner.

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Unknown

2:01:00 ص

We all heard a lot about diets and I guess the most common ones are loss weight diets. But they aren't the only ones. Actually, a diet is not always a loss weight way, in fact that's basically all the rules that organize our feeding (ex : vegan diet, low salt diet, balanced diet, high-protein diet, etc...)
Diets are important for those who practice sports. If you exercise a lot, you probably noticed that you eat more than before. It's normal, body is like a car : the more you drive, the more your car needs gas-oil.
As I already spoke in this blog, the first energy source used by body is the glucose. Glucose is the most basic sugar form (a little molecule). It's one of our muscles fuels and the only one of our brain. We can find this carbohydrate in pasta, rice, potatoes, beans etc... (body needs also fats and proteins).

Body is really well done, and it knows how to store its sugar stocks into the muscles and liver in order to use it later. So, when you go exercise you cut into these stocks. If you do a long time exercise, you'll run out of your inner sugar (after 1h30). Of course, you'll able to continue exercising (remember that body is well done). Actually, body will continue using fats and it will going to transform proteins in sugar (Gluconeogenesis). Obviously, when that's happen, your performances are really reduced, you feel fatigue and it's quite dangerous if your brain suffers a lack of glucose. That's why it's important to eat and drink during your long trains to postpone these effects.

When I say that body is well done, that's because it's really well done... While a car has a tank which contains a fixed quantity of fuel our body is able to increase his inner sugar stocks ! Incredible no ? It's all about overcompensation (if you run out of your sugar stocks, after a due recovery the body will increase these stocks)

Ok, now I can talk about the Dissociated Scandinavian Diet...
This famous diet was created by scandinavian researchers for athletes and is a way to work the overcompensation in order to raise the amount of stored sugar in the muscles just before a big competition. It's based on the dissociation of nutrients and it's made out of 2 steps, the firts is a low carbohydrate period and the second is a high carbohydrate period.
This diet lasts just 6 days :
- the firts 3 days : the athlete must to reduce the part of his carbohydrated food down to 10% (fat : 55% and proteins : 35%). In parallel with this diet modification, the athete must to have an intense training, always in order to run out of his sugar stocks.
- the last 3 days : Now it's time to fill up with carbohydrates (sugar). Athlete must to increase the part of his carbohydrated food, up to 80% ! (fat : 8% and protein : 12%) Of course, the training must be reduced in order to save the sugar saturation.

Some tests showed that this diet allows to multiply by 2 or 3 the amount of sugar contained in muscles.

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Unknown

8:00:00 ص

A lot of people think that calories are the most important standard in diets. Maybe because it's really an easy way to quantify the energy value of what we're eating. But unfortunately it's a mistake. The Glycemic Index is a better notion to have an accurate value of what we have in the plate. But it's a notion more difficult to understand.
So, I'll take the bread as example all along this post.
- 100 gr of white bread = ~255 calories.
- 100 gr of wholemeal bread = ~240 calories.
As you can see, both have almost the same calorie value (the difference is not huge, about 4 gr).
If we believe these values, we could eat both without having a big difference. It's again a mistake ! You'll understand later...

You probably already know the 3 macro nutrients that we need to live : fatty acids (fat), proteins and Carbohydrates (sugar). So, the Glycemic Index measures effects of the carbohydrated food in blood sugar level. A food with high glycemic index releases a lot of sugar in blood streaming. So it increases the blood sugar level (hypergliceamia). This peak of hypergliceamia appears 30 min after taking food. Too much sugar in blood streaming is not really good for us, it could causes a lot of pathologies and even comas (cf : diabetes). So, thanks God, our body is fantastic (when it works lol), it will release an hormone, insulin, that allows the storage of this rascal sugar in the muscles and in the liver cells. But if this sugar level is really too much high, body must to store this sugar also in our fat cells (ass, hips, belly, breast... you know well where they are... lol) In these cells, sugar is transformed in fat.

Don't forget that insulin is a key which open cells door for sugar, if there is a lot of insulin in blood, it can causes a hypoglicaemia (due to an overstorage). This decrease of blood sugar level will make you hungry.... You understand what it means...
A food with a low glycemic index doesn't increase too much the sugar level because it doesn't release all his sugar. This notion is important. The whole sugar contained in food is not automatically taken by the organism. So, if the sugar level is balanced, you'll feel hungry more later (less calories, less fat storage)

Eating always high GI food means releasing too much insulin. This high rate of insulin in blood may causes a resistance to it by organism. It means that cells don't let enter sugar into them, leaving sugar in blood stream. This resistance is one of the indication of a type II diabetes.

see below a graph of GI :

Let me take again the bread example,

As we already saw above, those two type of bread have almost the same calorie value. But they definitely don't have the same glycemic index :

- white bread, GI = 90

- wholemeal bread, GI = 40

The maximum glycemic index is 100. So, white bread has a big GI, and wholemeal bread has a quite low GI. Now, you can notice that this two types of bread won't be absorbed in the same way. It also means that when we eat 100 gr of white bread we can eat 225 gr of wholemeal bread instead (for the same level of sugar absorbed). Eat more and keep in shape, doesn't it what a lot of people want ?

Keep in mind that :

- Taking low GI food reduces risks of type II diabetes.

- Taking low GI food helps you to control your hunger.

- Adding fibers, proteins or fat joined with carbohydrated food decrease the GI. So it's better to eat potatoes with a bit of olive oil than to eat them without nothing ! Incredible no ?

- Pasta too much done increases GI

- Rapid cooking rice have a high GI

- Beer has a GI of 100 !

Take a look at a Glycemic Index Table

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Unknown

8:45:00 ص

Definitly YES !!! But I go run even so ! I don't care, I just need it !

Why is it so tough to exercise when it's warm outside ?
All of you know that practicing sports in warm weather is hardest. But why ?
Our body need to get colder to work perfectly (and to stay alive). That's why we sweat when we're exercising. So, body starts fighting against heat by sweating, by increasing the heart rate and therefore, it increases breathing as well. When it's warm that's physically more difficult to get rid of heat. So it's obvious that cooling down the body needs some energy. If you want to keep your same training level, you're going to feel a hardest effort just because you'll be sharing your strenght between exercise and struggle against heat.
Yes, all of you already know that doing two things at same time is difficult, and the body doesn't break this rule.

Let me add another explanation, not prooved at all but I think it's quite logic... So, when it's warm, air is more expanded and then it has less oxygen for a same volume breathed. So, it encourages a heavy breathing.


What's the risk ?
The risk ? You're asking me what's the risk ? Come on, the risk is death ! Wake up, open your eyes and face the reality !!! Risk is heat stroke, it can be fatal, adios, bye bye, au revoir, hasta la vista baby, see you in the other side !


I actually don't wanna die, so what can I do ?
Stay at home and play video games, you can also eat pizzas, drink soda and pray Jesus Christ to have a low cholesterol level ! Come one, spare me please!!! Sports are for men, not for kids ! Otherwise, you can eventually drink water often, wear a cap and take it easy !

Be smart for God's sake !

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Unknown

1:03:00 ص