Are You Skinny Fat? Find Out Why.

 When it comes to meals there’s breakfast and lunch but then there’s brunch. A similar combination exists when it comes to weight, there’s skinny and fat and then skinny fat. Skinny fat is a person who’s thin for the most part but has a high body fat percentage. Skinny fat can also apply to that friend who you think can eat “whatever she wants” and stay skinny. Skinny fat people may weigh the right amount for their height, they may look fine in clothes but under it all there’s extra, some mush, less muscle mass.

What type of exercise makes you skinny fat?
For some reason cardio, in particular spinning, takes a lot of heat for its connection to skinny fatness. A trainer named Charles Poliquin was asked about spinning in Oxygen magazine and let’s just say he was not a fan.

“In spinning exercise, the body adapts by storing both intra-muscular and subcutaneous fat in the thigh and hip areas to provide a more readily available source of fuel for the aerobic recovery periods. The body figures out, if I store fat there it reduces the time to get to the muscles to provide the energy source. Result: Kobe beef thighs and butt, all plump and marbled with fat inside.”

 I enjoy spinning (I’m a Flywheel fan) but I think the key word in the harsh (Kobe beef thighs?) quote above is “adapts”. Our bodies adapt to anything. I think those most in danger of being skinny fat, or not changing their bodies, are those who only spin. We need more than spinning and ultimately more than cardio too. Whether it’s superslow training, barre, Crossfit you need some strength work and variety. Getting better at something may be when your body gets worse. And let’s face it,  some skinny fat people don’t exercise at all.

When you eat may make you skinny fat

Another ingredient for skinny fatness is erratic eating.  Some erratic eaters skip breakfast, others “save up” for dinner. Or the biggest clue when I’m talking to a client when it comes to skinny fat is “I’m not hungry.” You’re not hungry when your body assumes food isn’t coming in regularly, so it hangs onto that fat. Hungry people are the ones burning through all their food.

Sitting
This information was relatively new to me. I mentioned it when reviewing Drop Dead Healthy. Sitting isn’t bad because you’re not moving. It’s worse than that. Lipase helps muscles absorb fat. When we sit, we don’t produce lipase so fat can “go off and do naughty things”. 

Does Veganism Make You Skinny Fat?

Vegan Diets get picked on for making people skinny fat. I’m not a vegan but it’s not all vegan diets it’s vegan diets or any diet missing one of the following

• Protein- I know I’m going to hear it (read some of the comments in “are meat substitutes worse than meat”) but when I drop my animal protein down, I feel a little skinny fat. Organic chicken, wild fish, grass-fed beef, if you aren’t morally against them, may help. And yes, some vegans get plenty of protein.
• Good fats- certain types of fat, consumed strategically can decrease body fat. Omega 3’s in fish, omega 3 eggs and chia seed. We’ve also discussed the power of sunflower seeds. And finally, a little coconut oil is a good saturated fat.
• Vegetables- every 10-gram increase in fiber decreases body fat by over 3 percent in a couple of years. Not everyone who avoids animal products is automatically consuming enough fiber and certainly the same can be said of most omnivores. Salad is not enough. Try for produce at every meal and hone in on crucifers: broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy and kale. I also think cabbage needs more love.

We can joke at this skinny fat term but doctors are seeing lots of young people who aren’t overweight but exhibit signs of pre diabetes. You can be skinny fat on the inside too. Mark Hyman writes “they are normal weight but metabolically obese with all the same risks of disease and death as the obese. One in seven normal weight kids has pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes.”

There are also some skinny fat variables are out of our control. Getting older with the natural decline in muscle mass can lead to complaints of skinny fat. And some may feel skinny fat is fine. The New York Times documented the hipster belly among men that don’t want to be muscleheads. Just one more way I’m not hip.

Are you aware of the term skinny fat? What do you think it's about? If you spin, are vegan or sit a lot I'd love to hear from you.

Is One Workout Enough?

So this week I haven’t covered the most cerebral topics. Monday was Kelly, who loves Jelly Bellys, and her diet book, Wednesday highlighted nut milk delivery, which I’m pretty sure only happens in New York and today’s workout-related topic isn't going to vastly change your life. I promise to comment on the latest obesity predictions next week; I take that back, I don’t because I like these fun topics.

The NYT ran a story on a current NYC fitness trend. I can’t imagine why but six separate people emailed or tweeted me the link with a version of “maybe you should blog about this.” The “this” is the trend among women, the article stated it is a female phenomenon so I’m not stereotyping, to scurry from one intense workout class to another. Whether it’s barre, boot camp, spinning or running for many women one workout isn’t enough. The Times distinguished “this is different than the elliptical and then weights.” While that sounds somewhat elitist these exercise classes are each 45 to 60 minutes long and intense.

I consulted two of my favorite fitness professionals for their two cents on this trend. Kate Albarelli is the creator of the brutal, yet beneficial, barre class Figure 4 and Riley Nickols is a running/triathlete coach and owner of Mind Body Endurance. It did occur to me that this leaves us taking advice from a ballerina (you know their work ethic) and a 5-time ironman (which is technically an octuple workout). They both said that they many of their students or clients do double workouts but not every day. At Foodtrainers, if a client has been doing the same daily workout for years I will suggest one weekly “doubleheader” as we call it. This wouldn’t be something for someone new to exercise. Riley, in exercise-physiology speak, said “I do believe that adding in a double workout to your schedule can be a helpful way to make fitness gains and break through a "plateau".  The body is amazing at adapting to the stress you place upon it, so switching things up can have physiological and psychological benefits.”

There is also a limit and more exercise is not always best. I asked about the prevalence of the “triple threat” and Kate explained “I have seen 3 classes for sure, however at that point, I start to wonder why. Not for everyone, but at a certain point, it becomes less about fitness and more about obsession and that can be dangerous.” It also becomes competitive, the article mentioned a woman who said “you see other people doing it” and “it’s a type A New York thing.”  I had a client come in who said “since when is one workout not enough?” And Riley clarified "I would suggest double workouts only on a few conditions for the recreational exerciser:  

1. The individual has the availability in their schedule (that does not take away from family/work responsibilities) and the resources to devote to double workouts and 
2. The individual views the double workouts as being enjoyable rather than an obligation.” We all know type A can be a nice way of saying neurotic.

I’ll often do a run before Figure 4 or yoga. It’s hard to go all out, ether I’ll do a quick run between dropping my children at school and class or I’ll do a good run and tack on a barre class as an extra. You only have so much gas in the tank and I never have as much to put into Figure 4 when I’ve pre-fatigued by legs. Kate concurred “If the student is really giving it all they have with one Figure 4, there is no need to do another right after.” It may come down to a question of quantity versus quality. And Riley mentioned the concept of periodizing workouts that he uses with his athletes “similarly to triathletes/runners, recreational exercises can also benefit from periodizing their workouts incorporating periods of higher training volume (e.g., double workouts) but also building in periods of rest and/or lower volume training."  

Many of my friends and colleagues have their favorite doubles. Sam, from Mom at the Barre a great fitness blog mentioned she does a Physique57/Refine Method double and also likes FlywheelSports/Physique. In her email about this she added “I met your friend Shari at As 1effect today, she was wearing a Foodtrainers t-shirt.” It’s a funny fitness world in NYC but nothing made me laugh more than this statement. A few friends were emailing about the workout article while trying to arrange meeting for a lunch or a workout. Everyone has busy schedules with dental visits and meetings and one friend said “I was thinking 8:30 Soul Cycle and 9:30 Figure 4 this Tuesday...because I have 11:30 acupuncture and 1:00 physical therapy.  Holy cow, I take a lot of maintenance!”

So help me here, is this a NYC thing only? Do you do doubleheader workouts? How much do you think is too much? Any men want to confess to  double?

Clare Veronica Walsh was Fearless Too

I was wasting time on Twitter Monday, while my boys finished skiing. Many of the people I follow were tweeting about a Clare Walsh. I’ve never met Clare Walsh but learned that she was a teacher at Soul Cycle, in her early twenties and passed away on Christmas Day.  Details were scant and I’m still not sure why I found myself searching for them. Perhaps it would help to have an explanation for someone young and seemingly healthy dying. One thing was clear this Clare Walsh was special.  Though clearly beautiful, many expressed that her inner beauty was remarkable.

In my weird hunt for information about this beautiful person I had never met, I came across a stirring tribute on a blog called Stilettos on Sullivan. Caitlin described a Clare that was full of energy and adept at motivating others. And then in talking about how Clare lived her life, she called her “fearless” and commented that she wanted to be more fearless like Clare. For those of you who read my blog regularly you’ll recall fearlessness was my friend Jen Goodman Linn's platform. Her website was youfearless.com. I made this connection and continued along. In remembering her beloved teacher, Caitlin advises us not to take anything for granted and to “dance your ass off everyday.” I got goose bumps. Whenever I am blue I watch Jen’s Happy To Be 40 video which you must watch if you haven't already.

The fearlessness, the ability to inspire others, the spinning (Jen you’ll recall started Cycle for Survival) and the dancing…you may say coincidence but I think it’s more than that. I think Jen and Clare are dancing together and it’s up to those of us who are here to dance our asses off everyday.
What are you fearful of? How can you envision being more fearless? When is the last time you danced? 

Is Blunt Better?

I have a friend who has been spinning a lot lately at a local studio.  She told me about a pal of hers who has lost a significant amount of weight; I believe it was 100 pounds. We’ll call my friend B and B’s friend N (I’ll explain reasoning later). Before a recent workout, B reached into her bag and took out a banana. N, as in Nazi, looked at B and said, “if you’re going to eat that you may as well not spin.” B relayed the story to me and asked, “isn’t that the meanest thing you’ve ever heard?” It’s not but before I gave my two cents I asked, “so what do you say or do?” B told me she switched her pre-workout snack to an apple.

So let’s first look at the accuracy of Fruit Nazi’s comment. While the banana is a higher carbohydrate fruit, let’s bear in mind it’s still a fruit. One medium banana is around 105 calories. Forty-five minutes of spinning will burn four to five bananas. So even if ¼ of B’s class was spent burning off her banana she still has over 300 net calories burned, endorphins pumping and a great start to her day. N may have cut bananas out on her road to weight loss, she may work out on an empty stomach but her advice to B wasn’t correct and, as mentioned, B found it hurtful.

Due to my profession, I rarely offer face-to-face unsolicited advice. Even when asked or when I have a strong opinion, I’m usually pretty diplomatic (real life is different than the blog). At the end of the day you don’t want to discourage anyone from trying to get fit or eat better. I feel differently when it comes to food companies and organizations I feel don’t have consumers’ health in mind.  I also have trouble being tactful when it comes to processed food, sweeteners and the “s” word, soda. The interesting tidbit with the banana example is that B, though offended, was impacted enough to make a change.  She switched her pre-workout ritual and I would bet will not eat many bananas going forward.

Sometimes blunt is better and certainly sticks with us. I sat in a lecture on organic food once and the speaker said, “I would never, ever eat a conventional grape.” I don’t think I have knowingly consumed one since. I would bet many of you reading have your own habits you can trace to someone who told you something about food or exercise with such conviction that you followed suit. For the record, I bet that if I were to inspect what Fruit Nazi ate in a typical day we’d find some things tweak-worthy, maybe even sweeteners or soda (blech).

Do you think blunt is better? Any behaviors you recall changing based on directness? Do you eat bananas?