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You’ve been told for decades that saturated fat will kill you. Even medical and health professionals have believed this was a “fact”. However, did you know that this “fact” has never been proven? In this article, you’ll learn why saturated fat may actually have some surprising benefits.

I’ve written many times in the last couple years about the mistaken beliefs in society about saturated fat and the false perception in the media and with MOST health and medical professionals that saturated fat is bad for you.

If you’ve seen in some of my articles, I’ve even showed you why saturated fat can even be GOOD for you in some cases, despite every health & fitness professional in the world just accepting the false belief that it is unhealthy for you.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to FINALLY see a big name publisher have some guts to publish an article about why everyone in the world may be wrong about their beliefs about saturated fat and it’s health effects.

I received my new issue of Men’s Health magazine recently, and they had a really detailed 6-page article in there about the faulty research in the past about saturated fat, and some new emerging research that is showing why it may actually be more good for you than you would have ever conceived.

I have to give them credit… the article was very well researched and laid out in an easy to understand format to summarize where the studies in the past have gone wrong, and why recent studies are showing that everyone may have been wrong for the last 5 decades about saturated fat.

I’d highly suggest you read the entire article if you can. If not, I am going to try to give you a quick synopsis of the findings here since it was a long article…

First of all, did you realize that although doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, fitness professionals, and the media all have told you that it’s a FACT that saturated fats are bad for you, this “FACT” has actually never been proven!

It’s actually not a “fact” at all. It was a hypothesis! This goes all the way back to a flawed research study from the 1950′s where a scientist named Ancel Keys published a paper that laid the blame on dietary fat intake for the increasing heart disease phenomenon around the world.

However, there were major flaws to his study. For one, in his conclusions he only used data from a small portion of the countries where data was available on fat consumption versus heart disease death rate. When researches have gone back in and looked at the data from all of the countries where data was available, there actually was no link between fat consumption and heart disease deaths. So his conclusions were false in reality.

Second, his blaming of fat intake for heart disease was only one factor that was considered. There was no consideration of other factors such as smoking rates, stress factors, sugar and refined carbohydrate intake, exercise frequency, and other lifestyle factors.

Basically, his conclusions which blamed heart disease deaths on fat intake were really just a shot in the dark about what a possible cause may have been, even though all of those other factors I just mentioned, plus many others, may be the more prominent cause.

Unfortunately, Keys study has been cited for over 5 decades now as “fact” that saturated fat is bad for you. As you can see, there certainly is nothing factual about it.

Since that time, numerous other studies have been conducted trying to link saturated fat intake to heart disease. The majority of these studies have failed to correlate ANY risk at all from saturated fat. A couple of them made feeble attempts at linking saturated fat to heart disease, however, it was later shown that the data was flawed in those studies as well.

Do we actually have evidence that saturated fat may in fact be good for you instead?

Well, let’s consider a few examples…

Did you know that there are several well known tribes in Africa… the Masai, Samburu, and Fulani tribes… where their diet consists mostly of raw whole milk, large quantities of red meat, and cows blood? Despite their very high saturated fat intake, they display extremely low body fat levels, and heart disease to natives of the tribe is virtually non-existent.

Now most critics of this example will say that it has to be related to superior genetics… however this is not true, as when they studied tribesman who had moved out of their native lands and started eating more modern day diets, their blood chemistry skyrocketed with heart disease risk factors.

This is true of certain pacific island countries inhabitants as well. Several studies have shown that certain pacific island nations had VERY high intakes of total fat as well as saturated fat from tropical fats such as palm, coconut, and cocoa. Despite very high intakes of saturated fat and total fat, these island natives were typically very lean and heart disease was virtually non-existent.

However, when researchers followed up with islanders that had moved away from their native island and adopted a typical western diet, the heart disease factors were through the roof.

In fact, did you know that although saturated fat intake does increase your LDL bad cholesterol, it actually increases your HDL good cholesterol even further, hence improving your overall cholesterol ratio, which has been proven to be more important that just total cholesterol level (actually total cholesterol is an almost useless number… inflammation is the REAL problem, but that’s a whole different topic).

Another fact worth noting in favor of saturated fat…

Saturated fat is comprised of various different types… the 3 most prevalent types are stearic acid, palmitic acid, and lauric acid.

Stearic acid is found in animal fat and cocoa in higher levels. Research continues to show that stearic acid has no negative impacts on heart disease risks. If anything, it’s either neutral or beneficial. In fact, your liver breaks down stearic acid into a monounsaturated fat called oleic acid, which is the same type of fat that makes up most of heart-healthy olive oil. Bet you didn’t know that!

Lauric acid is beneficial as well. Not only has it been shown to increase your HDL good cholesterol levels significantly, but it is also lacking in most Americans diet and has even been shown to have some powerful immune-boosting effects potentially. It is even being studied currently in HIV/AIDS research to help improve immune function in patients.

Tropical oils such as coconut and palm are the best sources of beneficial lauric acid.

Palmitic acid is the other main component of saturated fat and has also been shown to increase HDL good cholesterol to the same, if not greater extent than LDL bad cholesterol, thereby making it either neutral or beneficial, but certainly not bad for you.

So, if all of these researchers have tried so hard over the years to point the finger at saturated fat, but have continued to fail to show a correlation between saturated fat and heart disease risk, what are the REAL culprits for heart disease?

Well, here are the real causes of heart disease risk:

• Trans fats (artificially hydrogenated oils)
• Heavily refined vegetable oils such as soy, cottonseed, corn oil, etc. (inflammatory inside the body, and typically throw the omega-6/omega-3 balance out of whack)
• Too much refined sugar in the diet (including high fructose corn syrup)
• Too much refined starches such as white bread, low fiber cereals, etc
• Smoking
• Stressful lifestyle
• Lack of exercise
• Other lifestyle factors

So why does it seem that so many attempts over the years have tried to lay the blame on saturated fat… Do you think it might have anything to do with the muli-billion dollar vegetable oil industry, which has taken over for cooking oils for what used to be mostly animal fats and tropical oils in decades past…

Hmm… do multi-billion dollar industries really have an influence on the way data is portrayed to the public? I think you know the answer to that! And don’t even get me started on the cholesterol meds industry! Again, I digress.

I hope this article has opened your eyes about the truth about saturated fat and how you’ve been misled over the years.

The true FACT is that saturated fat is a neutral substance in your body, and even beneficial at times, not a deadly risk factor for disease. The REAL risk factors are what I listed above.

Keep in mind that this does NOT mean that eating 5 pounds of bacon for breakfast every morning is good for you, and you should only eat foods high in saturated fats. Rather, you still need a to strike a balance for optimal health… this means fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, healthy meats, eggs, and small amounts of whole or sprouted grains.

Again, animals raised in an unhealthy manner are not good for you… this is the case with most commercially raised meat and grain fed meat. On the other hand, wild game meats, grass fed meats, free range chickens and eggs (preferably organic) are healthy animals, and therefore the meat is generally healthy for us with better omega-3 to omega-6 ratios than standard commercial meats.

This article was written by the celebrated author,dietician,trainer Mike Geary who has helped literally thousands of martial artists and non martial artists alike to achieve healthy balanced lifestyles. With the added bonus of sound and tested methods to help you achieve the kind of body you always wanted.

To find out more on this amazing coach just follow the link.

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I know that all of the elliptical and treadmill worshipers are probably fuming at me now after that article headline, but the fact is, ellipticals and treadmills are one of the least effective methods of working out in existence. With this article, I’ll show you how to get a much more effective fat-burning workout without wasting time mindlessly exercising on a boring elliptical machine or treadmill.

Now first let me state that if you really honestly enjoy your elliptical machine workouts and treadmill exercise routines, then I give you my blessing to keep doing what you love. The reason is that even though ellipticals and treadmills are relatively ineffective compared to other types of exercises, whatever you actually enjoy doing the most is going to benefit you most in the long run because you will be more likely to stick with it more consistently.

However, don’t say that I didn’t warn you that you might be wasting your time with all these boring mindless cardio machine workouts.

I’ve talked about this previously with my ezine subscribers… I actually do not believe in cardio machines as a good form of working out at all. This might surprise you coming from a fitness nut such as myself, but I don’t think I’ve personally used an exercise bike, treadmill, elliptical, or any other cardio machine for at least 8 years or more.

In fact, I don’t even use cardio machines anymore for warm-ups before my workouts. I actually think it’s a much more effective warm-up to do dumbbell and/or kettlebell swings, snatches, clean & presses, etc, mixed with bodyweight exercises as a great full-body warm-up before working out.

Why do I think cardio machines are so awful? Well, here’s 5 reasons:

1) Treadmills and ellipticals are just a very ineffective way to workout compared to other options. Why should you do treadmill or elliptical workouts when you can get better results by doing more interesting forms of training that actually stimulate a fat-burning hormonal response and stimulate your metabolism to a greater extent.

2) Elliptical machines and treadmills are insanely expensive and a waste of money for people that work out at home… there are so many better things for home workouts you could have spent your money on rather than wasting it on an elliptical machine, treadmill, or exercise bike.

You’ll see plenty of ideas below for better home workouts if you don’t like going to a gym to work out.

3) I have seen several studies that indicated results that treadmill running may be less effective than outdoor running for various reasons such as stride abnormalities on treadmills vs natural running, slightly less caloric burn compared to outdoor running, and so on.

(although I never recommend just “jogging” anyway… variable intensity walking/running or sprinting are much more effective, training your heart rate in a much wider range instead of the same heart rate range the whole time).

4) Steady state exercise (that doesn’t require concentration on what you’re doing) while watching tv or reading a newspaper or magazine creates a mind/body disconnect resulting in extremely poor results compared to exercise that requires focused attention.

5) Elliptical and treadmill workouts are just mind-numbingly boring!

So what are some good alternatives to elliptical machine and treadmill workouts? Some of my favorites are:

• Outdoor wind sprint workouts – This is the ultimate workout for a rock hard lean body… just look at the powerful yet super-lean and ripped bodies of world class sprinters, and compare that to the withering weakling physiques of typical marathoners… what would you rather look like?
• Jumping rope – incredible mind/body connection and actually fun (you can try speed jumping, crossover jumps, and double jumps once you get good at it)
• Kettlebell workouts – nothing will get your heart pounding and sweat pouring like high rep kettlebell swings and/or snatches (or clean & presses)! These can be done with dumbbells too, but I prefer kettlebells as they have a better “feel” to them and the unbalanced nature of KBs makes you work harder)
• Bodyweight exercises – mountain climbers, bodyweight squats, push-ups, jumping drills, lunges, bear crawls, plank holds, and so on.
• The good old fashioned rowing machine – I don’t really lump this in as a “cardio” machine per se like elliptical machines and treadmills… Rather, I think the rowing machine is actually a great full body workout that actually uses real resistance)
• Hill sprinting – running as hard up a hill as possible, followed by walking down and repeating as many times as you can for a full workout (yet another classic drill for a rock hard lean body)
• Shadow boxing… a killer workout, but if you are shy, this is best done at home since you will get some crazy looks doing this at a typical gym!
• Swimming sprints – a more muscle toning workout compared with steady pace distance swimming… I actually love the upper body pump I get from sprint swimming (instead of swimming slow and steady, with sprint swimming, you swim as fast as you can exerting as much force as you can for 1 lap. Then rest for 15-20 seconds before doing another swim sprint).
• Heavy bag punching/kicking workouts, speed bag, rebounding bag… all are tremendous workouts and much more fun than boring cardio machines (requires an very intense mind/body connection which increases results).

I hope this article gives you lots of ideas you can use to go out right away and bring some more variety into your workouts instead of relying on the same old dull elliptical machine and treadmill workout routines. Have fun!

This article was written by the celebrated author,dietician,trainer Mike Geary who has helped literally thousands of martial artists and non martial artists alike to achieve healthy balanced lifestyles. With the added bonus of sound and tested methods to help you achieve the kind of body you always wanted.

Click Here!

Let’s face it… building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even despite regular hard workout schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.

I struggled for years to gain any significant muscle mass, but over the years in my personal training business and with my own experimentation have found some important things that have helped make significant muscle gains possible even for hardgainers.

So, I’m going to give 3 important tips here so you can start building lean muscle mass faster and easier.

1. Make sure that 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym are big multi-joint compound exercises.  It doesn’t matter if your goal is fat loss or building muscle… big multi-joint exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.

It’s easiest to think of it in terms of the major movement patterns such as these (focus 95% of your workouts on these):

• upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips),
• upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows),
• upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups),
• upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)
• lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc)
• lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts)
• lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc)
• abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements… your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)

The other 5% of your exercises can focus on single joint exercises (isolation exercises) such as bicep curls, tricep presses, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc.  However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.

2.  Train hard and intensely 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout.  Keep your workouts to no longer than 60 minutes as training too much beyond this point can trigger excess catabolism.  You want to stay anabolic, but you still need to train your body hard and intensely enough to trigger muscle growth.

Try a super-set style of workout program to maximize the intensity that you can train.  My favorite combinations are opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that don’t interfere with each other, such as squats coupled with pullups as a superset, or bench press coupled with deadlifts as a superset.

Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity.  The first time in my life that I experienced significant muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly (although still mixing up my training variables).

These are mainstays of almost any effective workout program — caloric intake can simply be adjusted whether your goal is fat burning or gaining muscle mass.

3.  Eat clean with quality whole foods… REAL foods instead of highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.

The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. instead of from processed protein powders, chemical-laden bars, and meal replacements.

Forget about the hyped up workouts in the muscle mags that only work for pro bodybuilders or people on steroids. Forget about the over-hyped supplement “stacks” that pay the bills for almost every muscle mag… Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you’ll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you’ve never seen before!

When I meet a mixed-martial artist for the first time, I often get asked the question, “How strong should I be?” The answer I always give is “Stronger than you were a week ago.” But after that, I tend to give in and talk a little bit about how strong and in what exercises constitutes a realistic target.

However, it must be said that the most important thing for a fighter is relative strength as opposed to absolute strength. Fighters need to be as strong as possible for their particular weight class, so if getting any stronger means an increase in bodyweight, then it may not be worth it.

For example, if you fight at 170 lbs, if you can deadlift 350 lbs, there is little benefit to bringing your deadlift to 450 lbs if it means you have to bump up and fight in the 185 lb weight class. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t bump up to a 450 lb deadlift, it just means you’ll have to work on the neural component and your movement efficiency as opposed to hypertrophy.

Now, what are some general guidelines to follow when thinking about how strong you should be if you’re a mixed-martial artist? Use the following formulas to figure out a base level of strength to aim for. Plug in the weight class you fight at as opposed to your normal weight. So if you walk around at 200 lbs but you fight at 185 lbs, use 185 lbs as your multiplier.

Max deadlift = 2.0 x Weight Class

Max bench press = 1.5 x Weight Class

Max reverse barbell lunge = 1.0 x Weight Class

Max 1-arm dumbbell row = 0.55 x Weight Class

If you’re testing these exercises, they must be performed in perfect form through the full range of motion. No partials here.

So someone who fights at 205 lbs should be able to deadlift 410 lbs, bench press 305 lbs, reverse barbell lunge 205 lbs, and 1-arm dumbbell row 110 lbs. How do you measure up?

Now these guidelines are very general and will not apply to every fighter. Everyone’s body is unique and the way some athletes are built will make it difficult to achieve some of these numbers. For example, a really tall and lanky fighter, like Kendall Grove who fights at 185 lbs and is 6’6″ tall might have difficulty achieving a 275 lb bench press, and it probably wouldn’t be in his best interests to shoot for it.

But most people have the body types to eventually be able to achieve these numbers with a properly designed training program, without neglecting conditioning, mobility, and power.

So for those of you who just have to have some numbers to go by, there you go. But take them with a grain of salt, as a narrow focus on achieving these numbers in the gym may not give you the performance edge that you need to win in the ring. Instead, set them as benchmarks and stick to an effective program that will get you the results where it counts.  For more information just follow this link.

http://www.ultimatemmastrength.com/