Barefoot in the Hills, Sun & Paleo/Primal Spread

I had such a textbook paleo/primal morning today that I felt it had to be posted here as well as on the training blog.

I ran the hills glorious sunshine, barefoot (practically naked in fact), and enjoyed the pleasures (and suffered the irritations) of nature, before coming home to a primal/paleo spread, having not eaten since the night before.

The write-up on Train Now Live Later, is here.... Read more

Two Weeks of Paleo/Primal Workouts and Food

I have discovered I can create YouTube videos from Picasa slide shows. I recently created a slide show to illustrate my last two weeks of workouts for Train Now Live Later (here), and realised that since it includes meals and hiking too, it may interest Pay Now readers. It's also a thinly veiled way to buy time between blog posts because I have been too busy to write any ;-)

Thanks to Lightning for the tip on using YouTube with Picasa.

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Running - is it Paleo / Primal?

I've just posted an article on Train Now Live Later about running that may interest Pay Now Live Later readers.

There's Running, and there's Running

In the article I review a couple of great books that have inspired me to consider distance running, when done a certain way, to be very much part of a Paleo / Primal lifestyle.

I also question how much attention we should pay to the studies that suggest running is damaging to our health, given the myriad forms it can take and the tendency of these studies to focus on one particularly extreme type.... Read more

Exercise WILL Make you Thin - if You Really Want it to

For years we thought you needed to exercise to lose weight. Don’t exercise, you get fat. Exercise, you get thin. Simple.

Then we realised this advice may be wrong. Studies showed that exercise increased the appetite, so people ate more. Books like Good Calories Bad Calories dismantled the calories-in-calories-out hypothesis. Respected commentators stated that getting the diet right is by far the most significant contributor to weight loss.

Recently, an article appeared in Time magazine article, Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin. It was widely commented on in the health and fitness blogging community and touted as evidence that the mainstream might finally be 'getting it.'

Yet, one such commenter, Rusty Moore on Fitness Black Book posted an analysis of the article which contained a single, important phrase, challenging this new doctrine:

The biggest flaw in the article is his notion that exercise gives you no choice but to over-eat.

Bingo.

Key questions of health and fitness almost always get polarised. People want simple – and the there are those who exploit that for their own gain. The subtleties are brushed aside in an orgy of gourd following a lá Life of Brian.

Two subtleties that do discussed in health and fitness circles are:

• Intense, interval-based training may be more likely to create the conditions for weight loss without self-defeatingly stimulating appetite.
• The effect on appetite of exercise may vary according to the type of food eaten and the metabolic state of the subject (i.e. are they adjusted to a low carbohydrate diet or riding the high carbohydrate merry-go-round.)

Rarely is psychological state discussed in any depth. How badly does a person want to lose weight? How strong is their will power and self discipline? The research appears to treat people as machines. Get hungry, eat food.

I believe that if someone really wants to lose weight with exercise, then they will, regardless of the type of exercise they are doing or food they are eating.

I will admit up front that I am far too lazy to delve into the full detail of all the studies on exercise and weight loss - scientific papers make my eyes bleed; but I did look at the methodology section of a study referenced by the Time article. This is what it said about how the subjects were recruited:

… 464 postmenopausal women within the age range of 45 to 75 years, who were sedentary (not exercising more than 20 minutes on 3 or more day a week, and [less than]8000 steps per day assessed over the course of one week), overweight or obese (BMI 25.0 to 43.0 kg/m2), and had a systolic blood pressure of 120.0 to 159.9 mm Hg were randomized to 1 of 3 exercise groups…

Notice that the criteria here are mostly physiological. Machines. Get hungry, eat food.

Two things I would have wanted to know about the subjects:

1. What was their attitude to weight loss? Did they want to lose weight? We cannot assume that just because they were overweight or obese that they wanted to lose weight.
2. How strong was their willpower?

I am not pretending that either of these is easy to measure – but equally I think we can assume that the psychometric testing industry has successfully tackled them at some point.

The attitude to weight loss is especially important. The implicit point of studies like this is to evaluate how effective exercise is as a weight loss tool… a tool which one assumes would mainly be used by people who want to lose weight. So there’s not much point studying people who don’t want to lose weight, right?

I have not examined the results section of the study. For the sake of my eyes, I did not delve beyond the methodology; but what we can assume is that the average weight loss for the exercise group was no greater than the average weight loss for the non-exercise group.

Yet by the laws of natural variation there must have been exercisers who did lose more weight than the average non-exerciser.

In other words, for whatever reason, at least some people must have lost more weight through exercise. Why?

In my experiment, the subjects would be tested for attitude and personality characteristics:

• Do they want to lose weight? How badly?
• How much will power and self-discipline do they have?

We would then look for a link between these factors and weight loss. If there is a link, is it more pronounced amongst the exercisers? Perhaps people with willpower and self-discipline can lose weight through exercise.

Moreover, could actually knowing that exercise affects your appetite make a difference to the result? In a follow up study we might tell one group of subjects that exercise will increase their appetite and sabotage the weight loss benefits. Could that knowledge elevate those with less will power to a position where they, too, can lose weight though exercise?

Anecdotally, I know this to be possible. A few years ago I lost several pounds by religiously sticking to the types and amounts of food I consumed daily while increasing my weekly running mileage by 15 miles; and I witnessed my gym partner drop nearly a stone in weight over 3 months by the addition 30 minutes of post-weights cardio and a determination not to eat more food than usual.

I’ve nothing against people who want to issue advice that’s most likely to lead to success for everyone – after all, I advocate the Paleo diet, which takes the lowest common denominator approach to nutrition.

So if you have to chisel something onto a stone tablet, then yes,

Exercise is not the key to weight loss: it’s mostly about what you eat

…would be the best thing.

However, it would be nice to see more recognition by both commentators and researchers that humans can apply free will in this matter.... Read more

Mountain Runs, Lake Swims and (Mostly) Paleo/Primal Eating

This is probably the best photo I have taken of Buttermere Valley in the English Lake District. It gives you an idea of the kind of weather we enjoyed last weekend.

On Train Now Live Later I've posted a photo-story of our 4 days of hiking, mountain running, wild swimming, tree-top workouts and Paleo/Primal eating.

The 'Buttermere Duathlon' and Other Exploits

Well, in Mrs M's case I would say mostly Primal/Paleo eating, as you will see...... Read more

Primal in the Pyranees (In a Nutshell)

We started in Paris - nothing much Primal happened there - too much of this ... but we did do some walking, such as here Then to the Pyrenees, where we stayed here and were presented with local produce (well, not the bananas or melon!) - so local that the eggs were laid by her and her sisters who lived in the grounds. In the morning I sprinted here and here followed by this We hiked here where we found these wild bilberries and picked this many In the evening we ate this local food Next day, more eggs followed by a hike to here and here then a swim here (cooold!) and some sunbathing. Later this for lunch. Next morning, a dawn hike for more of these getting this haul which included wild raspberries. So we had this for breakfast, ahead of some seriously primal activity here and here and here followed by this in the evening. On our final evening, this then on the boat journey back, more sun!

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Sister Blog Launched: Train Now, Live Later

A quick note to announce the launch of a sister blog, Train Now, Live Later. The site will offer 3 things:

Exercise Library: lots of videos and links to give you ideas for workouts and exercises, with the emphasis on the unconventional - all searchable by equipment or body part.

Workout Diary: a record of my workouts - each exercise I mention will be referenced with videos or images.

Articles: thoughts, ideas, comments on the media, references to good posts on other fitness blogs...

Please swing by and take a look - use the comments link for this post to tell me what you think. I have a number of things I plan to improve and am always happy to add your ideas to the list.... Read more

The Hunter Gatherer Lifestyle: One Religion, Several Bibles

This week saw Mark Sisson post on his blog a preview of his upcoming book, The Primal Blueprint, which promises to be something of a bible for those wishing to emulate their hunter gatherer ancestors to live healthier, happier lives. Coincidentally, I have just finished reading The Protein Power Life Plan by Michael and Mary Eades, which, although it is not clear from its title, is similarly themed.

Mark has been blogging about his Primal Blueprint for some time, but by choosing to publish a book to enshrine the philosophy he joins a more select group which, as well as Michael and Mary Eades, includes the likes of Loren Cordain and Art Devany.

There are some differences between the respective philosophies of these (and other) proponents of ancestral living. For example, Lauren Cordain's Paleo Diet emphasises the importance of lean meat, whereas others believe we should not fear saturated animal fat as it was a key part of our ancestors' diet. However, the commonalities far outweigh the differences, to the extent that choosing your bible is less about what you believe in and more about the angle from which you want to see it covered.

Michael and Mary Eades are doctors who have spent years treating patients with disorders like heart disease and diabetes by prescribing a hunter gatherer lifestyle, with dramatic success. So the underlying theme of the Protein Power Life Plan is how that lifestyle can be safely implemented in stages to arrest or reverse the progress of serious disease. To underpin their approach they devote more than half their book to a chapter-by-chapter coverage of key areas in which modern life is falling short of the optimum. Whilst I am not suffering from any of the conditions they have treated this way, and have no intention of following their stage-by-stage plan, nevertheless I found the book fascinating and enlightening. The doctors justify their recommendations with detailed but comprehensible medical explanations of the biochemical mechanisms at work, relating these to what we know about how our ancestors lived.

Loren Cordain combines supreme academic rigour with an interest in the human as an athlete. Whilst I have not read The Paleo Diet, I have read The Paleo Diet for Athletes, which along with his website and newsletters, is what I base my assessment on. Unlike the Eades book, Cordain references all his assertions, although I did not pay any attention to these, since I already know Cordain to be well-respected and certainly don't have time to explore the papers. My impression is that Cordain is the scientist and researcher of the field. He has authored and co-authored many academic papers that explore issues around ancestral lifestyle and the style of his writing reflects that - it's not as accessible as the Eades book, and so perhaps more for the academically inclined who demand evidence for every assertion.

Art Devany's book has been due for imminent release for so long that it has taken on an almost mythical aura. He released a paper some years ago outlining his 'Evolutionary Fitness' philosophy, which he is due to expand upon in the upcoming book. I think he may also have recently released the first chapter and perhaps even an outline of the all the chapters. Assuming his book turns out to be an expansion on the essay, and based on the time I spent reading his blog, my observation is that Devany's approach is influenced by his also being an economist and a weight lifting enthusiast. As with his co-proponents of the hunter gatherer philosophy, Devany covers diet as well as exercise, pitching his science somewhere between the Eades partnership and Cordain: whereas he goes into more technical detail that the Eades book, he does not use references. Nevertheless, as one might expect from the name 'Evolutionary Fitness', there is a sense that Devany's true passion is the exercise component.

So where does this leave the Primal Blueprint? On the basis of his blog and chapter outline, I expect Mark's book to neatly slot in as the first truly viable mainstream advocate for the hunter gatherer lifestyle. The thing about Cordain and Devany is that they are unashamedly technical and prefer, I suspect, not to sacrifice precision for the sake of the layman. The Eades book, does a great job of bringing the subject to the layman, but by its title and emphasis on treatment does to some extent exclude itself from the mainstream.

I think The Primal Blueprint will combine the best aspects of these other works into a hunter gatherer bible the man in the street will feel comfortable reading and recommending. As a former professional athlete who has looked into the science of nutrition and exercise in great depth, Mark is likely to justify the Primal Blueprint with as much science as the layman requires without blinding him with more than he wants. His blog has a vibrant community of readers and contributors, of which I am one. So although the others do offer a holistic view, I expect The Primal Blueprint to add a real-world, man-in-the-street feel that has not yet been seen.

The question is, in the field of promoting the hunter gatherer lifestyle, how mainstream is mainstream? Could Mark hope to match the sales figures generated by the Atkins movement, for which the primary sales driver was arguably vanity rather than a desire for health and balance? Is the idea of radically changing what you do now to pave the way for a happier, healthier life in the future something society is ready to embrace, or an idea likely to remain at the margins in a world still fixated on more immediate gratification?

I have given the hunter gatherer pitch to most of the people I know at some time. I'm getting pretty good at it. I am also getting good at recognising the difference between belief and intention to act.

The look I get from most people during my impromptu seminars says I believe you, but honestly, I just don't care enough to do something about it. These are the thirty and forty-something equivalents of young smokers, unable to see the point in forgoing pleasure now when the effects will not be seen for years, and are in any case determined by probability rather than certainty. They are not denying the facts, merely choosing to ignore them.

It's easy for people in the communities that surround our blogs to believe it's only a matter of time before the word gets out and everyone embraces the hunter gatherer philosophy; and whilst I remain cautious about whether we can realistically expect this to happen soon, I nevertheless think Mark's book has the potential to be the catalyst.... Read more

One Year Later: Hunter Gathering and Body Composition

It's 12 months since I radically changed my diet and exercise to mimic our hunter gatherer ancestors. I hesitate to give my lifestyle a label after this recent clarification from Mark Sissons made me remember that there are, so to speak, a number of tribes. Paleo, Primal, Evo-Fitness - I am influenced by them all but for the sake of neutrality will stick to Hunter Gatherer.

Either way, I have Natural Messiah to thank for the introduction and to commemorate the anniversary I thought I would share the data I have been recording on body composition since 2005. Scroll the graph to the right to move forward in time. If you are less interested in the physical aspect, I explain here how it transformed my formerly routine-bound life.

I recorded the data by weighing myself each night before bed using a set of Tanita scales. They have metal pads that use a combination of height, weight, electrical resistance and standard formulae to estimate body fat percentage. There's no doubt that this is a rather blunt tool to measure body composition and I treat with a pinch of salt the readings it gives me each night. Nevertheless, it has become something of a ritual - one routine I was evidently unable to give up.

Notice the telltale rises and falls between November 2005 to November 2007 as I vainly followed the bulk-and-cut dogma espoused by bodybuilding magazines. In fact at the time I was doing a lot of running too, which no doubt made matters worse. You can see that each time I went through the bulking phase I gained muscle but also fat - then when I cut the calories to lose the fat, off came the muscle as well.

You can see that from November 2007 to the present day I have lost over a stone in weight. For the most part, my fat has continued to fall while muscle, bone etc has remained static. In the last couple of months there has been some loss of muscle, bone etc. One thing this may be attributable to is hydration. Around two months ago I decided I was over-hydrated and stopped drinking so much water. This was partly because I could find no research proving it was of benefit beyond a certain point and partly to see whether it would help me sleep better (it did.)

Other things to consider are that the composition of my muscles may well have changed now that I am not following routines design to bloat the muscles or consuming a high carbohydrate diet.

The real test, of course, is how you look. My own sense, and the considered opinion of Mrs M (whose honestly about such matters frequently borders on the undiplomatic) is that even though I now weigh only 11 stone, I look a lot better than I did in 2006 when I was 11.5 stone.

I will periodically update the graph so you can see how things pan out.

Don't worry, I don't plan to publish photos of myself with no shirt on. Ever.... Read more