Over these past few weeks, I haven’t been hitting the weights as often as I should, simply due to a crazy busy schedule—not a hot excuse, I know. But, I’m back in gear! I’ve been picking up the iron, sweating like a teenage boy at football practice … in 90 degree weather, and earning some picture-worthy stares by my fellow gym mates. I’ve definitely earned the “disgustingly sweaty” award and am PROUD of it!

But, now that I’m back on board, I’m awaiting to see some muscle poppage, indicating my iron pumping has increased the size of my muscle fibers or number of muscle fibers. Yet, to date, I have no significant poppage to report, but I’m not worried … and I’ll explain why. Please note: the info I’m about to share  is one thing that I learned early on and never forgot because it’s so gosh-darn cool … I think

Building Muscle Does Start in the Brain & Spinal Cord aka Your Central Nervous System (CNS)

Research has shown that early increases in strength are primarily associated  with  neural adaptations (i.e. CNS adaptations) that increase activation of muscle. Simply put, at the start of a weight-lifting program, the CNS, composed of your brain and spinal cord, begins recruiting more and more muscle fibers to do work and consequently, increases strength.

This was shown in a study of men and women who participated in an eight-week, high-intensity resistance training program twice a week. When all was said and done, strength had increased substantially, BUT muscle biopsies showed that there were only minor increases in muscle fiber area. This study supported the research that strength gains are at first the result of your noggin’ and spinal cord sending more signals (aka action potentials) to more of your muscle fibers, causing major activation and you to become stronger!

Studies show that these CNS adaptations make their greatest contribution to gains in strength roughly in the first 8 to 10 weeks of training. After this point, the bod will begin to show increases in muscle! Woo-Hoo! However, if you’ve simply taken some time off from your iron-pumping ways, it’ll likely take less time to start increasing muscle size (aka seeing results) because some of those neural adaptations are already there.

The Time and Effort are Worth the Result

Even though gaining some muscle poppage may take some time, the results are worth it for more reasons than one—increased balance, improved mood, and the appearance of long n’ lean muscles (don’t fear ladies, pumping iron will not cause the “Popeye effect”).

But most importantly, those gains in strength and muscle are creating a fat-fighting, calorie-burning machine—you! So, when you’re sitting, doing absolutely nothing, you’re torching more calories than you would be if you didn’t have that added muscle. Simply because muscle is metabolically active! A pound of muscle burns roughly about 15-30  calories per day, while fat slashes almost next to nothing—placing muscle on your side.

Bottom Line

If you don’t see immediate results from hitting the weights, don’t get discouraged! It just takes some time along with healthy eating! And just because you see no results ASAP, this doesn’t mean that you got nothing going on in that bod!

So keep up the FaB work or start a lil’ weight-lifting regimen. Personally, I dig  feeling strong and get the same endorphin rush when I’m pushing myself to the weight-lifting max, as I do with cardio!

Muscle up and enjoy!

What’s your FaVe muscle-blasting exercise?

Mine = Bent-Over Rows!

P.S. Need a low-cal, protein-full, fiber-licious meal after that lifting session? Check out my Stuffed Pepper recipe at Skinny In the City!

References: Physiology of Sports and Exercise (awesome text!)

Being the “semi-snoop” I am, I listened to what people were ordering and peered at  the ready-to-drink cups cradled in their pebble brown sleeves marked with their “order code.” I realized everyone was buying the Holiday drinks!!! Interesting…

Personally, I always buy a Venti Tazo Passion tea—hot–with 2 tea bags. Hence, I am somewhat “out of sorts” when it comes to all these Holiday offerings. I remember the Pumpkin Spice latte—but the Caramel Brulee, Eggnog, Peppermint Mocha, and Gingerbread Lattes I was not on the nutrition “up and up” about.

Hence—I did some “nutrition research” on what the folks in that crazy line were waiting to buy. I took the most decadent way you can have one of these prepared—Venti (largest size), whipped cream, whole milk—and compared it to the “healthiest” way to have one prepared—Tall (smallest size), no whip, and non-fat milk. Also—I of course showcased my herbal infused natural tea and some plain ol’ Joe.

Shall we?

1. The Caramel Brulee Latte (Venti, whole milk, whipped cream)

• 580 calories
• 20 grams fat
• 12 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 86 grams carbohydrate
• 66 grams sugar
• 14 grams protein

2. The Caramel Brulee Latte (Tall, non-fat milk, whipped cream)

• 240 calories
• 0 grams fat
• 0 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 50 grams carbohydrate
• 38 grams sugar
• 9 grams of protein

3. Eggnog latte (Venti, whole milk)

• 630 calories
• 30 grams fat
• 17 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 69 grams carbohydrate
• 64 grams sugar
• 21 grams protein

4. Eggnog latte (Tall, non-fat milk)

• 350 calories
• 15 grams fat
• 9 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 42 grams carbohydrate
• 39 grams sugar
• 13 grams protein

5. Peppermint Mocha latte (Venti, whole milk, whip cream)

• 540 calories
• 22 grams fat
• 13 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 78 grams carbohydrate
• 67 grams sugar
• 16 grams protein

6. Peppermint Mocha Latte (Tall, non-fat milk, no whip)

• 220 calories
• 2 grams fat
• 1 gram saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 46 grams carbohydrate
• 40 grams sugar
• 10 grams protein

7. Gingerbread Latte (Venti, whole milk, whipped cream)

• 440 calories
• 21 grams fat
• 12 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 48 grams carbohydrate
• 46 grams sugar
• 15 grams protein

8. Gingerbread Latte  (Tall, non-fat milk, no whip)

• 150 calories
• 0 grams fat
• 0 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 29 grams carbohydrate
• 29 grams sugar
• 9 grams protein

9. Venti Passion Tea (HOT)

• 0 calories
• 0 grams fat
• 0 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 0 grams carbohydrate
• 0 grams sugar
• 0 grams protein

10. Venti Black Coffee

• 5 calories
• 0 grams fat
• 0 grams saturated fat
• 0 grams trans fat
• 0 grams carbohydrate
• 0 grams sugar
• 1 gram protein

WOWZA!!!

Some of these  Holiday favorites pack enough calories for a meal!!! And, beyond calories—some are loaded with not so heart healthy fat! To go even beyond the high calories and fat  in these beverages is the fact that they offer little nutrition. They offer a wee-bit to NO phytochemicals (those lil’ chemicals in plants that help protect us from disease), vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates, heart healthy fats, or fiber!!!

Hence, I advise you to limit these beverages NOT ONLY because they’re high in calories, added sugars, and perhaps fat BUT because they’re taking the place of nutritious wholesome foods in your diet! A SHAME, if you ask me!

Bottom line

Opt for tea, coffee, or a low-fat/non-fat regular ol’ cappuccino or latte instead of one of these drinks. But, if you insist on getting in the Starbucks Holiday Spirit—go ahead and have one. I’d suggest the Tall non-fat/low-fat version with no whip.  BUT, if you insist on going “all out,” have the “full-on” version… and savor every succulent drop!!! And, just a word of advice—I wouldn’t do this every day—your body and perhaps jeans, after awhile, won’t thank you. And, to be perfectly honest … neither will your bank account! Those suckers are expensive!!!

FYI!!! The lovely Jessica at A Fete for Food just informed you can order a “SHORT” for all these drinks–even smaller than the Tall. I wasn’t sure you could, but now I know! Thanks Jess! To get the info on the “shortie” visit Starbucks nutrition information page.

Happy Healthifying!

What’s your favorite Holiday beverage???

I happen to take great pride in my sweating abilities. Once or twice I have been embarrassed, but nothing feels better than the completion of a kick-ass workout accompanied by those “I feel so good neurotransmitters,” otherwise known as endorphins.

With all my heart pumping and sweat drenching, I wonder how many calories I’m torching. I know the gym machines always exaggerate, but by how much? Then—I received my belated birthday present from my dad—a Mio Motiva Petite Pink Watch! Can we say … exciting?!?

My Mio Experiment

The Mio is a watch that provides electrocardiogram (ECG) readings of your heart. All this means is that it has built-in sensors, allowing it to measure the electrical activity of your heart’s contractions. Simply put, the watch allows a pretty accurate reading of  your heart rate.

What’s even more exciting is that my Mio can track how many calories I burn during my sweat sessions.

With this knowledge I set out on a calorie burning experiment. I strapped on my Mio Motiva Petite Pink watch—what a name, huh?—and chronicled my workouts over the last few days. Note—I only used it when doing cardio.

Below are my results:

Machine Causing Me to Sweat Buckets	Time On Machine (minutes)	Calories Burned According to Machine	Calories Burned According to Mio
	60	7oo	500
	30	292	242
	20	232	215
	60	612	696
	60	915	597

As you can see, my Mio results were all lower than the machines’ estimate of calories burned. The elliptical-type machines were most “off.” Now, I know what you’re all thinking … “Well, how do you know your Mio is right?” To answer your question—I don’t. BUT, I do know that it is more accurate than the gym machines and that the results more closely match the rule of thumb for calorie burn—approximately 100 calories per every 10 minutes of heart-pumping, sweat-dripping exercise.

Just as the machines do, the watch asks for your age, gender, and weight and times the length of your workout. But, it also continuously assesses your heart rate, measuring your level of exertion. It then takes into account of all these factors, does some calculations, and finally, displays your “torched” number. Oh, how I wish it matched the machine’s number, that would mean a lot more chocolate covered raisins for me, but nop … maybe next time…

Now, my goal is NOT to parade my Mio—though I do adore the watch. But, rather to simply show that the machines in the gyms, particularly the “ski-like” ones, overestimate the number of calories torched. To more closely examine this point, I turn to one of my all-time favorite New York Times pieces by Ms. Gina Kolata, Putting Very Little Weight in Calorie Counting Methods. Kolata writes,

Claude Bouchard, an obesity and exercise researcher who directs the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., found that if, for example, the average number of calories burned with an exercise is 100, individuals will burn anywhere from 70 to 130 calories.

What Determines Your Exercise Burn?

• Level of exertion (aka are you barely blushing OR are you creating the next Niagara Falls?)
• Time exercising
• Calories burned per day, regardless of exercise (aka resting metabolic rate)
• Age
• Sex
• Size
• Body weight
• Body composition

What you do while on the machine also matters. William Haskell, an exercise physiologist at Stanford, explains this in Kolata’s article,

…with treadmills, the calories are not accurate if you hang on the bars. Hanging onto the rails reduced the number of calories burned by 40 to 50 percent. The same thing happened with stair-climbing machines.“I’ve seen people hanging on stair climbers who think they are doing 1,200 calories an hour,” Dr. Haskell said. “They probably are doing 600 calories an hour.”

A Message From Me to You

Ladies and gents—keep up those sweat sessions, just don’t take the calorie counts on the machines number for number—they’re not accurate. However, I must note that out of any machine, the treadmill is most accurate in terms of calorie counts.  BUT, keep in mind that not one “calorie counting tool” is dead-on, since there are MANY factors that determine how many calories your muscles are burning, and they just can’t be measured precisely by the average Joe or Jane in the gym. But, hey—if you have a device that can do this, ya better get on that … you’ll make a lot of moola.

Also—exercise to keep you feeling good and healthy. This is SO Important! (you know it is because I put it in red). Time and time again, it’s shown that those who exercise are happier, healthier, and more energized.  Remember—we’re in this to be Healthy Inside and Out!

Lastly, the nutrition in me must tell you this–just because you worked out, doesn’t mean you are entitled to a double serving of Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream . I hate to be the wind that ruffles your feathers, but it’s true. Think about it, if you run for 30 minutes, you torch about 300 calories—which equals about 25 wheat thins (yes, even the Multi-Grain kind) and a slice of cheese. Hence, it is important to still keep your nutrition basics in your mind’s forefront. To nab some workout fuel tips, read my post—Fooding the Fire.

Til next time, I will leave you with the words of Jillian Michaels (yea, I know she “sold out” with her line of “diet” pills, BUT you can’t deny that the woman knows how to work you out!),

Don’t forget you have to be smart about what you eat. Don’t erase all the work [you] did … by eating badly. Make sure that you’re eating healthy, staying focused on your workouts, and remember that this is about … being strong, being healthy and making time for you…

Want to get a better idea of how many calories you’re burning during your sweat sessions? Click HERE for a “Calories Burned Calculator.”

Happy Healthifying!

What are your thoughts on gym machine calorie counters?