cyclical diets

The human physiology is designed with cycles in mind. The circadian cycle is an example, as is the cycling between fed and fasted state between meals. The function of the cardiovascular system is dependent on the cyclical pumping of our hearts. Exercise stimulus need to be followed by recovery in order to reap benefits. For women, the menstrual cycle is a reminder of the more long term cycles going on.

Can cycles be used for augmenting specific goals? Apparently so. The cycling of nutrients in different schemes can be benefical to promote fat loss and gains in lean body mass. The premise is that by cycling different nutrients, the anabolic hormones, the cellular nutrient stores and the enzymatic processes are primed to create an optimal anabolic environment when the time comes (e.g., nutrients are cycled in or out of the diet).

There are different approaches to nutrient cycling: The shortest cycle is promoted by the Intermittant Fasting (IF) gurus Martin Berkhan and Ori Hofmekler, respectively. The IF concept is based on 16-20 hours of fasting, followed by 4-8 hours of feeding. An IF cycle is 24 hours in length. In Lyle McDonald's Ultimate Diet 2.0 (UD2.0), a cycle is one week in length. UD2.0 is a cyclical ketogenic diet, where carbohydrates are avoided during the first part of the week, and then overfed during the latter part.Torbjörn Åkerfeldt's Anabolic Burst Cycling of Diet and Exercise (ABCDE) uses a 4 week cycle. The first two weeks consists of massive overfeeding, followed by two weeks of dieting.

Are these diets promoting optimum health? The goal for each of these diets is to achieve caloric balance over time, but the health benefits/negatives are so far unknown. Are these diets promoting optimum results in body recomposition? Surely, they have potential.

optimum topics

Here are some topics where there is some dispute amongst scholars:

• Optimum healthy fats ratios (bad vs good)
• Optimum macronutrient ratios (pro:cho:fat)
• Optimum weight loss/gain method (body recomposition)
• Optimum nutrition
• Optimum exercise

nkl research aims to analyze these topics.

Optimum healthy fats ratios (bad vs good)

There is uncertainty on how different fats affect the human physiology and how the proper ratios between these fats need to be set up in a diet to achieve optimum health.

Optimum macronutrient ratios (pro:cho:fat)

Advice on the optimum macronutrient ratio need to be revised to accomodate different needs, to promote optimum health.

Optimum weight loss/gain method (body recomposition)

There is a plethora of diets to choose for weigh loss, or less common, weight gain, to achieve a body recomposition. The aim is to find optimal methods to achieve these goals, while maintaining optimum health.

Optimum nutrition

Advice on healthy food choices need to be revised. Nutrient quality, toxicity, anti-nutrients and other health related factors need to be taken in consideration to avoid unhealthy food choices. Optimum nutrition also take into consideration the optimum preparation and cooking of meals, digestion, absorbtion, and subsequent use of the ingested nutrients.

Optimum exercise

Advice on how to exercise properly to optmize results needs to be revised.

body transformation

It isn't complicated to get in shape. Visit John Stone's web site http://www.johnstonefitness.com and witness how his motivational body transformation was done, day-by-day. He provides detailed information on his nutrition and exercise regimen. Also visit his forum for more tips at http://forums.johnstonefitness.com.

John Stones's body transformation: Jan 2004; July 2004; Nov 2005.

good fats, bad fats?

It is commonly believed that unsaturated fats are good for health, especially when the essential fatty acids (EFAs) omega-6 and omega-3 are balanced out and saturated fats are limited, but not everyone agrees with this.

Research done by Ray Peat points in another direction. His research shows not only that unsaturated fats are non-essential to humans but also toxic. On the contrary, he claims that saturated fats are healthy. You can find more information at his web site: http://raypeat.com/.

There are other researchers that claims that saturated fats and cholesterol are healthy. More information is available via the web site The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (THINCS): http://www.thincs.org/.

Future posts will go into greater detail.

mission statement

nkl research was created to consolidate research in nutrition and exercise physiology in pursuit of optimum health.

To be more precise:

con⋅sol⋅i⋅date  [kuh n-sol-i-deyt]
1. to bring together (separate parts) into a single or unified whole; unite; combine: They consolidated their three companies.
2. to discard the unused or unwanted items of and organize the remaining: She consolidated her home library.

re⋅search  [ri-surch, ree-surch]
1. diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.: recent research in medicine.

nu⋅tri⋅tion  [noo-trish-uh n, nyoo-]
2. the science or study of, or a course of study in, nutrition, esp. of humans.
3. the process by which organisms take in and utilize food material.
4. food; nutriment.

ex⋅er⋅cise  [ek-ser-sahyz]
1. bodily or mental exertion, esp. for the sake of training or improvement of health: Walking is good exercise.

phys⋅i⋅ol⋅o⋅gy  [fiz-ee-ol-uh-jee]
1. the branch of biology dealing with the functions and activities of living organisms and their parts, including all physical and chemical processes.
2. the organic processes or functions in an organism or in any of its parts.

pur⋅suit  [per-soot]
2. an effort to secure or attain; quest: the pursuit of happiness.
3. any occupation, pastime, or the like, in which a person is engaged regularly or customarily:literary pursuits.

op⋅ti⋅mum  [op-tuh-muh m]
1. the best or most favorable point, degree, amount, etc., as of temperature, light, and moisture for the growth or reproduction of an organism.
2. the greatest degree or best result obtained or obtainable under specific conditions.

health  [helth]
1. the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: good health; poor health.
2. soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment:to have one's health; to lose one's health.

Source: Dictionary.com