Some good info. I need to subscribe to the podcast and check it out.
In the meantime
In the second installment of the Weight List, brought to you by the Three Amigos Podcast and Bloody Elbow, our own Iain Kidd and leading nutritionist, George Lockhart discuss the importance of protein, how almonds can be beneficial in helping to lower blood sugar, the causes of muscle cramps and how to relieve them, and which micronutrients should be targeted during weight cuts.
Question: We saw Johny Hendricks say he was eating a huge amount of venison coming into his last fight. A lot of guys seem to think that a diet that's just high in protein, with a ton of meat, is very healthy. There's also this idea that protein is more or less the only thing you need to pay attention to if you're at the gym or working out. How important is protein really?
George Lockhart: Protein is kind of like a ‘fake weight-loss'. When you have a diet high in protein and low in carbs you lose stored glycogen in your muscles, and the water that the glycogen holds (roughly 3g water for every 1g glycogen). When I take protein it releases hormones that tell my body to release energy through glucagon. With a high protein diet you'll feel good and feel energetic.
To use an analogy, taking protein is like pressing the gas pedal on a car. The protein helps my body use the fuel it has, but the actual fuel tends to be carbohydrates; the protein isn't fuel. Protein has a thermogenic effect and will increase your metabolism, but if you don't have the fuel, you can't power your muscles.
Iain: Your body is really bad at turning protein into energy. There are some methods it can use to break protein down and turn it into energy, particularly glyconeogenesis, but it's very inefficient and you run the risk of your undergoing muscle catabolization. That will actually break down your existing muscle fibers for energy. Really for energy your body needs fats or carbs.
George: Yeah. Through glyconeogenesis your body will break down other macronutrients outside of carbohydrates for energy. Your body uses glucose to fuel the brain. In low-carb diets your body starts using ketones for energy, but just because your brain can use ketones for energy doesn't mean it should.
Iain: For those of you who don't know, ketones are produced by your liver and allow your body to process fat for energy. The more ketones you have in your bloodstream, the better your body becomes at processing fat for energy.
Iain: The myth tends to be that the only thing you need to pay attention to is that you're getting enough protein to build your muscles. The problem is that those muscles need carbohydrates to work. Especially if you're an athlete, you kind of need a high carb diet. If you're an average Joe who never hits the gym, a low carb diet can be fine, but athletes kind of need a high carb diet.
Question Two: Stephie has recently started eating almonds at my recommendation, and she wants to know why almonds are so fantastic. She says they taste great and she feels great since she started eating them, so what makes them so special?
George: They taste great and have a lot of healthy fats in them. Almonds are an easy snack to carry with you at all times, they're high in magnesium which kind of act as a muscle relaxant and they're a great food to eat before you go to bed. They're also a really nutrient dense food that you can take everywhere you go.
I always tell people that if you can't get healthy food, or you can't carry food with you, just carry almonds around with you. It's a game changer. There are a ton of nutrients in them, they keep your blood sugar very low and they're a great source of healthy fats you can carry everywhere you go.
Iain: Speaking of magnesium, a very popular supplement is ZMA, which is zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6. Almonds are a great source of zinc as well as magnesium, so if you find ZMA useful, or if you just want to get a better night's sleep, eat a handful of almonds before bed.
As you touched on, almonds have a very interesting effect on the insulin response of your food. There are a few studies showing that if you eat a handful of almonds with high glycemic index foods, like bread, or something high in sugar, it will lower your body's insulin response as though you had eaten a low GI food instead, which is pretty fantastic. That being said, almonds are pretty high in calories and fats, so what would you suggest is an ideal amount of almonds to eat each day?
George: An easy rule of thumb is that two almonds is about one gram of fat. How many you should eat depends on your size, but a smaller woman would want to have anywhere from 5-9 grams of fat per serving, so just double that. So to get 5 grams of fat, each 10 almonds. If you're a bigger guy you can have up to twenty or thirty almonds. As you said, the calories can pack on really quickly, because you can eat a ton of almonds really fast, so you have to keep an eye on that calorie content.
Question Three: We have a question from Jackson, who wants to know which micronutrients to focus on when cutting weight.
Iain: I tend to think that sodium and potassium are two of the biggest micronutrients to manipulate when you're cutting weight. What kind of roles do they play in a weight cut, George?
George: Being able to eliminate sodium at the right time is everything when you're cutting weight. It dictates so many things; from the contraction of muscles to the amount of water you're actually holding. A lot of people don't realize when they're cutting weight that the sodium is needed; it creates an actual charge inside of your cells. A lot of guys start stressing because they feel like they're losing technique, but a lot of times they just cut out the sodium a little bit too early, which affected their muscle's ability to contract.
Four hundred milligrams of sodium can hold about 2lbs of water. A lot of people don't realize how much sodium is in everyday stuff. A lot of guys are like, ‘I don't eat a lot of sodium,' and when I ask what they ate they'll say chicken, but that they didn't put any salt on it. They don't realize just how much sodium is in plain chicken (around 80mg per 100g).
Potassium helps your body send nerve signals and plays a key role in muscle contraction. There's this idea that low potassium is behind most muscle cramps, which I don't agree with, but I digress. On average you want to get about twice as much potassium as you do sodium in your diet. In reality Americans get about five times as much sodium as potassium.
When you orally rehydrate, the situation is slightly different. To create a balance of osmosis inside and outside of the cell you want almost double the amount of sodium to potassium. That's actually one of the few times you want more sodium than potassium.
Sodium and potassium balance each other out. Your body needs that balance for optimal contraction of muscles, holding water in the correct place and the correct hydration inside and outside of the cells. Cutting these micronutrients at the right time, and reintroducing them at the right time, is vital to a successful weight cut.
Iain: I want to touch on something you said there, that a lot of people say that low potassium is what leads to muscle cramps. I agree with you; that's wrong. I've read a lot of research on the issue, and it doesn't support that. It's crazy how, ‘Oh you have cramps? Eat a banana,' became conventional wisdom. It doesn't help! That's just now how it works. You've fought in MMA and trained marines. You're not just a nutritionist, you know your stuff when it comes to exercise as well, so I have a question.
Question: When it comes to muscle cramps, what's the best way to for people to relieve them?
George: Almost every fighter I've worked with have a problem with their lower back towards the end of a camp. What causes that is a deficiency in magnesium. Magnesium helps the muscles relax. If you have an abundance of calcium in your diet and not enough magnesium, you'll start cramping up and a lot of people will actually have back spasms.
If someone is cramping up a lot, it could be a hydration issue, especially when guys are cutting weight, but most of the time I find it's a magnesium deficiency issue.
