Podcast #139 from http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2011/03/episode-139-the-

last-diet-youll-ever-need-part-1/

Introduction: In this podcast the last diet you’ll ever need, the bar method of

working out. What to do if your calves are too big, and a couple of

questions about training on a bicycle.

Ben: Hey folks, it’s Ben Greenfield here and somehow I’ve managed to

figure out to get you a podcast while I’m basically stranded on top of

a mountain in the middle of a small Island called Nevis in the West

Indies. There are monkeys climbing on top of the roof of my little

hut, appear perched on top of the hill and I’m amazed that I even

have an internet connection, but I do have my portable microphone

and I am here because I have a very cool interview for you today

with a guy named KC Craichy about a very cool book. And it’s

called “Super Health: The Last Diet You’ll Ever Need”. I would

highly recommend you listen in to this interview. It’s not often that

I recommend diet so this might be once in a blue moon. After you

listen be sure to tune in towards the end of this episode where I am

gonna tell you how to score a free book from KC. As a matter of fact,

I’m gonna tell you how to score the very book that we’re talking

about for free. It’s pretty easy for you to do. So, stay tuned til the

end of this podcast and let’s get started in to this special

announcement.

I mentioned this last week and I remind you again. On April 12 I am

hosting a live free video webinar called the shocking truth about

Vitamin D and fish Oil. Dr. Rick Cohen from Bioletics is gonna be

in on that video seminar and I've got a link to it in the show notes to

this podcast, podcast #139. Just go over to

BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Click on the show notes and you 'll be

able to RSVP for that. It's free. It's gonna be very cool, Dr. Cohen

has a ton of research I haven't seen before that he is gonna be

releasing that day about Vitamin D and about fish oil. So, I highly

recommend it. Whether or not you're actually taking those

supplements this would be a very good one to sit it on. It's gonna be

on Tuesday, April 12 at 6pm. The other special announcement is

going to be saved for the end of this podcast. So let's jump right in

to this week's listener Q and A.

Ben Greenfield: So if you have a question you can just use the "Ask Ben" form on the

podcast show notes over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com. You can

also ask question through the iPhone app or the android app. Both

are free and you can download them over on the right side of the

page at BenGreenfieldFitness.com or the other way you can ask

your question is via Twitter. You can just Twitter to

@bengreenfield to ask your question or go follow @bengreenfield if

you want more tips from me during the day. Alright, let's go ahead

and go to this week's first question which is from listener Violet who

says I have always had large calves. And no matter how much

weight I lose, they don't change. I don't want the muscle any bigger,

I just want to lose fat, specially the fat right under my knee. I have

done calf raises on the stairs but is there anything else I could try.

Also I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but I am very

hyper mobile especially in my knees.

Well, first of all, as far as the last part to that question, flexibility

and hyper mobility really aren’t going to affect fat deposition in a

certain body part or body area. But in terms of reducing, toning or

losing fat in one body part, the issue with that is that basically your

body has to be put into a state where it actually has incentive to

mobilize that fat. In this case, the fat that surrounds your knee.

That’s storage fat. And the only way that your body is going to have

incentive to mobilize that fat is if it’s put into a state where it has to

burn that as a fuel or has to rely on it as fat. And some people tend

to burn storage fats more predictively or more favorably in certain

locations and find it easier to lose fat in those locations, you know.

The women who are listening in know what I'm talking about and

find it frustrating when the very first place they ever lose fat when

they begin to lose weight is the chest. And a lot of women don't

want that to happen. But as far as the knee goes, you should be

coming at this from a nutritional and a workout program stand

point. And not a targeted exercise stand point. And the reason for

that is that doing things like squats and calf races those might

improve the metabolic activity in that area just slightly. Just

slightly improve heat, fat burning etc. But they're not going to hold

the candle to what you'd be able to achieve by getting your diet

dialled in, taking into account a lot of the diet or recommendations

that I give out on the show and also getting things like unfed cardio

sessions in in the morning, doing higher intensity cardio vascular

intervals in the afternoon. Making sure you're incorporating weight

training so you get that hormonal response to fat loss. All those

type of things will help. Now, in terms of actually reducing the size

of the muscle, that's an issue where you’re literally having to

cannibalize your body's own lean muscle tissue. Some people are

born with larger calves than other people and that’s just appeared

genetics. But in terms of actually cannibalizing some of that lean

muscle mass, the issue is that whenever you start to tap into your

body's own lean muscle mass, it's stress from the body, it tends to

pressure your immune system so you want to do it rather slowly but

the best place that I would recommend you start is by doing unfed

cardio sessions. And those will simply allow you to actually begin to

cannibalize your body's own lean muscle tissue. It's a good strategy

if you really are wanting to burn through fat and then subsequently

burn through muscle also. Now, when I tell people who just wanna

burn fat, to do this passive cardio sessions, I warn them no to go too

hard. But if you're trying to lose muscle, go all out, starve yourself

and go lift weights, do cardio intervals, do high intensity cardio.

When I say starve yourself, I mean don't eat a big meal and go do

those workouts. Do them on an empty stomach. And it's gonna be

stressful to your body. I don’t recommend that you incorporate a

session like that any more than three times per week and you

should always space them by about 48 hours. But that will allow

you to start to kind of tap in your body's own lean muscle tissue.

And of course the issue with this is that if you genetically have very

large calves, you may start to tap in the lean muscle tissue in the

areas that you don’t want to. Your arms might get smaller, your

thighs might get smaller. All those type of things could actually

happen so it's that risk that you take. If you don’t notice your calves

getting smaller and other parts of your body are getting smaller you

don’t want to get smaller, then you may want to actually stop doing

that because it will make your calves looks disproportionately even

bigger. So shrinking a muscle is tough to do. I hope I'm giving you

that impression, but the final thing that I would tell you is when

you’re working and you’re doing exercising and you're trying to

work your calves, definitely don’t work out in the repetition range

that is known to cause hypertrophy or that growth of muscle size so

don’t work out in like the 8 to 12 rep range. Always go like 15 20

reps plus when you're working the calves and that will have keep

you from putting on new muscle fiber and really, if you really

wanna get smaller I wouldn't do work too much at all and I

definitely wouldn't be working into fatigue. So, it's kind of a tough

stage that you are in and it really is kind of related to a book that I

am working on trying to teach folks how to work out for their body

type. But that is where I would start with you, with unfed high

intensity cardio interval and weight training sessions, avoiding like

a hypertrophy type of rang, going for the fat at the back of the knees.

Basically giving your diet and your workout program dialled and

not doing like specific targeting sessions for the knee itself. Okay,

the next question is from Mike.

Mike: Hi Ben this is Mike Colin. Was wondering what was your take on

power cranks. Can't seem to find it on your website. Doesn’t look

like you’ve covered it before. Yeah. So thank you.

Ben: Well, contrary to what the name may sound like, power cranks are

not a new novel form of drug. They are actually a bicycle training

apparatus. And basically they are cranks. And they attach to your

bicycle and they move independently of one another. So normally,

when you pedal your bike, both of the arms that your pedals are

attached to, or the cranks that your pedals are attached to, they

move at the same time dependently on one another so as one is

going down the other one is going up. And with power cranks, they

move independently so both of your legs have to work on their own

to figure out how to manage the pedal stroke. So by isolating both

your our legs and preventing, for example, the dominant leg from

compensating for a weaker leg, the power cranks will train your

muscles how to incorporate your muscle mass and basically teach

your brain how to recruit muscles a little bit more efficiently during

the pedal stroke. They've got tons of great reviews. I know a lot of

athletes that used them. The problem is that it’s kinda like learning

to walk again. Or even for experienced cyclists learning how to ride

your bike again. You feel very inefficient and feel very frustrating

when you first start to use them. It literally takes you a good two to

three months to gain back your prowess or your efficiency on the

bicycle using these power cranks. And then, at that point you can

use them just in training, you can use them in racing, you can use

them as a training tool just a few times during the week or use them

all the time, but I've never spoken with a person who has used them

and not found that they vastly improved biomechanics and helped

with power as well. You'll spend either about a $700 with these

cranks but if you use them on your bike they are probably going to

help you become a better cyclist and pedaling inefficiency is

something that you deal with, it’s going to be something that could

help you out tremendously. So, do I personally use them? No, it’s

not an investment that I have made yet. But I do have some

athletes that use them, and I've spoken with others who have used

them, and they swear by them in terms of making you a better

cyclist, so it’s a great question.

Ron: Several podcast have mentioned flax seed oil positively, my

research differs. I stopped taking flax seed oil a year ago because of

its very high phyto estrogen content. Men’s Health had an article

on soy milk, also high in phyto estrogen, awhile back, in which a

male was drinking two quarts a day and his breasts were enlarging.

Ben: Interesting. So phyto estrogen, they are basically the substances

found in plants. And they can imitate, to a certain extent, the

activity of estrogens in people. And the plants can’t make human

estrogens but they make this hormone like substances that help to

regulate estrogens within the human body and we call these phyto

estrogens. And they can definitely impact males or females in

terms of your normal hormonal metabolism. But there is very little

evidence that something like phyto estrogens in soy milk could

cause male breast enlargement, which is also known as

gynecomastia. The way that it would happen, if it did happen,

because anecdotally there's been cases where it's suggested that it

could have caused a male breast enlargement. But basically the soy

milk phyto estrogens are known as isoflavones and those are very

similar to certain estrogens within the human body and the reason

that when you ingest isoflavones they could actually cause this

breast enlargement is that they could increase the estrogen

concentrations enough to where a male actually starts to take on

female characteristics. Now, you have to drink the equivalent in

order to get that amount of isoflavone. You have to drink the

equivalent of about three quartz of soy milk a day. Or that's about

350-400 mg of isoflavones in a day. So a cup of soy milk has about

25mg. So you have to be drinking a ton of soy milk to really get that

phyto estrogen response. But it is feasible you can do it, I guess, if

you were just like living on soy milk or doing lots of tofu and other

isoflavone sources on the side. When you look at flax seed, the

phyto estrogen content of flax seed is through the roof compared to

soy milk and so these really sets a lot of people off because they're

like well, I may take just a little soy milk but man, you don’t have to

take in much flax seed oil in order to get the same amount of phyto

estrogen. Well that is true. You’re gonna get a lot of phyto

estrogens with flax seed oil but the main phyto estrogen in flax seed

oil is not this isoflavones. It’s basically a lignan. And there's a big

difference between a lignan and an isoflavone. An isoflavone will

very strongly bind to the estrogen receptor and can increase

production of the estrogen like compounds. Whereas a lignan

weakly binds and actually inhibit some of the production of the

estrogens. So huge difference in terms of the response and there is

really zero evidence of flax seed oil causing something like male

gynecomastia or breast enlargement. Now, of course, flax seed oil is

a seed based oil and because it does contain phyto estrogen, that

means it does contain phytic acid. And phytic acid is one if those

things that can be considered, in high amounts, to be in anti

nutrient. It can bind with a lot of the minerals and the nutrients in

your digestive tract and keep you from absorbing them and that is

why we wouldn't go overboard with flax seed oil. I do the

equivalent of about a teaspoon a day or few capsules a day of flax

seed oil and that should be enough. Remember also that good

digestive health helps your body to produce some pythases that can

actually cause phytic acid to do a little bit less damage to your

digestive tract. So doing something like taking a digestive enzyme

will also be really a good idea if you’re taking flax seed oil. Ok, so

the next question comes from Ranieri.

Ranieri: Hey Ben. What's going on? This is Ranieri Palavicini. Well, I'm

doing a training plans from the Jude Training plans for the Half

Ironman. And I've been training in the indoor training with a bike

and like two days ago, it was very warm here, I live in Elizabeth in

New Jersey, and I get out very nice riding you know like 1 hour of

riding I did like, I don’t know, 20 miles, 21 miles, and all of a

sudden, I mean it was fine but two days after that is where the

weird about, two days after, my knee starting pain. So I get up

yesterday morning and, you know, that was two days from the

training day and it starting pain, my knee like that's very, very weird.

So, I probably sleep bad or something but I think and I remember

that "oh two days ago I did some bike and its first time outside with

a bike without training. I didn’t change the seat or the fitting.

Nothing! I didn't change anything. Do you have any idea why that

might be happening?

Ben: That's a great question. And I understand your frustration when it

comes up like that out of the blue. But when on your bike and

you're riding indoor s, you tend to stay in a relatively constant

position. You don’t move around too much when you're training

indoors. When you go outdoors, you're standing up, you're sitting

down, you're shifting forward, you're shifting back, and all these

changes in position can not only utilize new muscles, but they can

also cause more movement in terms of your patella or your knee

cap in that groove that's between the femur and the tibia. And so

what can happen is there can be a little bit of dragging that goes on,

a little bit of irritation, some inflammation, and it’s likely that what

you felt was either you're kinda 48 hour delayed on said muscle

soreness from using the quad a lot more than you were used to

using them, or you actually had some patellar tracking issues from

moving around a lot. Now, for the patellar tracking the best thing

you could do is to strengthen your quads and also make you’re your

hamstrings are flexible before you head out on a ride. And even

something as simple as including your quadriceps strengthening

sessions once a week and then doing hamstring stretching everyday

can solve that issue. And then the other thing that I'd look into is

simply giving yourself a little bit more time outdoors on the bike.

Do a few more rides. See if it happens again. And if continues to

happen then it’s likely that it’s not a conditioning issue. You know,

it’s like a muscle soreness in the quads issue but it really is that

issue with patellar maltracking. And then you know this is probably

pretty unlikely since you aren't feeling your pain when you’re riding

indoors, but you're only feeling it when you’re riding outdoors, but

in terms of your saddle height you may want to look into raising it

just slightly and also moving your seats slightly back and I realize

that you didn’t have an issue with your seat height and your saddle

position where its currently at when you're riding indoors, but it

would be definitely something to try at this point before you head

outdoors to ride again: just putting the saddle up or bring the

saddle back just a few millimeters and bring the seat post up just a

few millimeters and that will take some stress off the knee as well.

If you do too far though, it can create pain on the outside of your

knee and the back of your knee. So be careful. You don’t really

want your knee to be extended more than about 25 degrees at the

bottom of that pedal stroke.

Alright, we've got one more question and this question comes from

Mer .

Mer: Have you ever heard of the bar method? In Chicago and LA, it’s

taking off like wildfire. Lots of bold claims, lots of youtube coverage

as well. I think and my muscles think I would get bored with this

formulaic type class 3 times per week.

Ben: So basically with the bar method is, is you've got this bar almost like

a ballerina wood work on and this is a one hour work out that is

primarily body weight exercises combined with certain moves that

you do stabilizing your body with this bar. And the idea is that it’s

kind of a mix of some cardio vascularly intensive aerobics type

moves along with some Pilates as core moves, and some almost like

dancer type of flexibility and calisthenics moves. Now this type of

routine is great for, say, somebody who needs to improve their

mobility or needs to improve their flexibility. Pretty good for

somebody who's already got muscle but wants to, say, tone the

muscle a little bit more, maybe not put on more muscle and also

wants to again, improve like core strength flexibility and mobility.

It would be also pretty decent for somebody who really is just

getting started and is able to move around and is pretty mobile but

wants to start with something that has more body weight than like

free weight or cable or dumbbell, barbell, weight machine based.

And they would also see results from this initially. The problem

with it is, it misses a very important component of fitness and that

is some form of heavier weight bearing to actually stimulate the

hormonal response that occurs when you expose your body to heavy

loads and also to stimulate that muscle mass or lean muscle mass

formation. So if you were doing something like this, like this bar

method 3 times a week, you would wanna mix it up and include a

couple of weight training sessions, you'd probably want to include

like some cardio interval sessions, as well, like some bicycling or

treadmill sprints or going hard on the elliptical trainers, some

things that get you moving in that harder like anaerobic state that

you are not gonna get into when you’re doing this bar method. And

then use the bar method the same way as you'd use, you know, say

yoga class or Pilates class or body weight only workout. Something

that you include as a supplement to a weight training in cardio

vascular interval based workout. But there are definitely benefits

that you could get from this, if you’re using it as the sole method of

getting fit though it wouldn't really like hit all the muscle system.

And that's a really good way to look at any workout program as you

know, is this limiting itself to just one or two different muscle

system or is this hitting them all? So a good program should have

weight bearing, should have some body weight stuff, should have

some flexibility, some mobility, some easy aerobic cardio, some

cardio vascular intervals and not just one mode of exercise.

So, I hope that helps, and now we are gonna move in to this

interview about "The Last Diet You'll Ever Need". This is a two part

series so part two will come out next week. This is well worth

listening to. I learned a ton when I was interviewing KC and also

reading his book to learn more prior to interviewing him. Again I

don’t really endorse many diets, this is one I would certainly

consider listening into and then listen for a special announcement

at the very end about how you can get a book that we talked about

for free.

Ben: Hey folks, this is Ben Greenfield. You know, a few months ago,

actually all the way back in March of 2010, with a podcast called

"Are You Eating Dead Food?" And I had a gentleman named KC

Craichy on the call and he talked about the difference between live

food and dead food, and came up with some really interesting

concept study shared and I would put a link to that podcast in the

show notes to this episode. Well, KC is back and I'm gonna tell you

why he is back on the show. A few weeks ago, I got an envelope in

the mail. And I had a book in it. And I got to tell you I typically get

about two to three books a week that come in envelopes in the mail

with a request for me to review them to read them to talk about

them on the show. It's very rare that I actually will do a thorough

reading of the book from cover to cover and not put the book down

the entire time. It's also very rare that I am so impressed by the

book that I actually get the person that wrote the book to come on

to the podcast and talk about it. You know, you've heard some of

the podcast that we've done in the recent past with authors like Art

de Vany, Phil Maffetone. Well, when it comes to books one of the

genres of books that tends to be the most diamond dozen, over

written, over hype style of book is the diet book. As you probably

know, there are thousands of them out there and I've had just about

everyone that there is shot in front of my face at one point or

another. And so, when I received this book in the mail called the

super health diet "The Last Diet You'll Ever Need", I was pretty

tempted to put this one towards the you know maybe I read when I

get really bored pile. But I did see that it was written by KC, and

you know I had KC on a podcast a few months ago, and I was pretty

impressed with some of the stuff that he had to say. As a matter of

fact I actually eat everyday in my diet a few of the powders in the

living food supplement that KC's company creates. So, when I saw

this book I decided you know what KC wrote this, I should at least

take a look and I wasn't really prepared to capture anything I

haven't seen before. Well, I was wrong. This is not the average diet

book. So, when I open it up, the first thing that I've found was that

the first half of the book didn't really even talk about eat this, not

that, what to eat. All it did was give me the most thorough and

comprehensive overview I have ever encountered in any book of

every single diet, every single weight loss strategy, every single

surgery, every supplement, everything that's out there that could be

use for weight loss and every study and every little bit of research

and everything that has to do with how to stop works, whether it

works, why it works, if it's safe, all the way up to basically 2011

when this podcast is being produced. So completely up to date, pure

gold in terms of content and then it goes on and actually talks about

what to eat and it’s definitely not a rigid diet plan that I'm used to

seeing in this diet book. It's a very free flowing, very common sense

way of eating that we are gonna talk about in today's show. But the

book is called Super Health Diet. The author is KC Craichy. He is

right here on the phone with me today. So, KC thank you for

coming on the call.

KC Craichy: It's my pleasure Ben, I tell you, with you opening like that you make

me wanna read it.

Ben: Yeah, you should, you should. I've got a copy. I'll send it to you.

KC Craichy: Thank you.

Ben: I'll sign it on. Let's jump right into the pure content, KC. In your

book, the Super Health Diet, you started off by describing every

other weight loss club and diet that's out there, so in your opinion,

why are there's so many diets and diet books?

KC Craichy: Ben, you know, your opening was so powerful and that you know

there are so many and we've seen them all and I've drudge through

them all and I had a weight issue that I had to try figure out over my

lifetime and the truth is though, that based on what most people are

eating and doing, I am sure you would agree that basically any diet,

plan, programs, scheme that’s in existence could have most people

losing weight for a time. Because basically when people stop doing

what they're doing and do something structured, it usually has an

improvement for one and secondly, when they go from this

American diet to a plan which they can apply their fate to, even

though the plan is not always true, and usually, and thus far, none

of them have been all true that I've seen, then they get the benefit of

the placebo effect which essentially is that they are able to believe it

for a time and create a, we know now in medicine that even if you

tells somebody it's a placebo in the clinical studies, their actually

gonna get benefit anyway. So real power comes when you apply

your faith to something that is actually true. And so this is why I

went to write this book, because I have been so confused that how

in the world can a system, that completely different systems, both

be correct. Or multiple different systems all be correct. And you

got these weight loss programs and yes, many them was started by

people with passion that would actually open up and solve their

own health issue and then they help others solve their issue and

then they help to a lot others solve their issues and then they would

sell out to a corporation who was in it for profit and then they

would cut quarters and again now you are dealing with a system or

a multitude of systems that are out there to make money. And they

keep making money because nobody lost their weight permanently.

Ben: Yeah. With so many diets out there you actually name kind of some

of the ways that you would recommend people look at a diet to

recognize whether or not a diet is indeed a fad diet. What are some

of those ways that you can actually know if something is a fad diet?

KC Craichy: Well, one is that, if it tells you to eat this one food all the time like,

for instance, call with a juice fast, for instance. You know, a juice

fast, many many people have go on to say a juice fast for reasons of

losing weight, but you know what happens when people don't get

enough protein and get enough of all the vital nutrients? They lose

precious muscle, they don't lose weight, they lose precious muscle

that they get to the end of the term and lo and behold, now there are

way more than there before, and unfortunately they have changed

the composition of their body, so decrease in muscle mass and an

increase in fat mass which is exactly opposite of what they were

looking for.

Ben: Gracias. So one thing, and you know I got to tell you what, when I

pick up your book I kinda thought that this what's you gonna do

because I know that, like your company makes protein powder and

meal replacement powders and you know what I thought when I

picked it up was, "Whoa this is just gonna tell me eat KC's protein

powder and meal replacement powder for every meal,” it doesn't do

that at all. But, that is a good point that, yeah, a lot of these diet tell

you just to eat one thing.

KC Craichy: And then you got things like grapefruit diet. They add grapefruit to

every meal somehow to miraculously burn fat. You know, and it

gets pretty silly when basically when something's sounds too good

to be true, it almost always is.

Ben: Now what are some other ways that we can recognize fad diet aside

from just having like one thing that you’re supposed to eat?

KC Craichy: Well, they normally have silly names. You know, like the cookie

diet or the you know, you see all this out there, the Hollywood diet.

I mean, you see these diets out there that are, you know, they are

basically rehashes old diet like the macrobiotic diets. So you got the

Hollywood diet, it’s really just the macrobiotic diet with somebody

else's name on it. You see, so we actually identify all these core

diets like macrobiotic and the Mediterranean diet and all of those

things in the book. So basically somebody comes along and they,

what they like one of these old diets for whatever reason and they

take pieces of it and put it into a new system and give it a new name.

Ben: What about exercise in the diet book? If diet does or does not

prescribe exercise, is that something that would make an

impression on you in terms of the…?

KC Craichy: Yeah. There’s your obvious fad diet. Eat this way and you don’t

have to exercise and you eat all you want and life will be fine. It

goes all the way, you would be of perfect health and so on. Yeah,

that is an obvious one that people tend to harp on.

Ben: What's the maximum amount of weight that someone should be

seeing in terms of the promise that the diet might promise them?

KC Craichy: You know that's a pretty broad question because if they're doing

ketogenic diet, which are protein and fat and cut off the carbs for

the most part, they're gonna lose 5 to 10 pounds in the early going ,

in the first week or two. But the loss of weight is from losing

glycogen from the muscle. So when you lose a stored carbohydrates,

stored is glycogen in the muscle, you automatically loose 3-4 times

than amount weight in water because 1gm of glycogen holds 3-4gm

of water. So water weight is lost at the outset so they do claim large

of muscle weight loss but the real weight loss happens once you

finished their diet and go back on reasonable amount of

carbohydrates and get that 5-10 back so the net weight loss is the

only real weight loss. Now a lot of these people are talking about

this program is all about 1-2 pounds a week and it say you can't

safely loose more than 1-2 pounds a week. The truth is you can lose

dramatically more than that, including 5 pounds a week or 10

pounds a week depending on how heavy you want is as long as you

supply every nutrient the body needs including amounts of protein

necessary to not lose muscle mass. So, there are ways to lose a lot

of weight that are not safe like the shake for breakfast, shake for

lunch and then reasonable dinner kind of scenario, because they

don't provide all the nutrients necessary, particularly don't provide

nearly enough protein to lose weight. Because one of the biggest

problems in health is age-related sarcopenia, which is simply

muscle loss over time. In your sport we talked about this sometime,

for some reason the people are muscular and hold on to on their

muscles but when they go into like the endurance sports like the

marathon kind of sports, they have very skinny upper bodies,

they're tuning up their muscle for building other things like a body

or tear the bathroom down, they build the kitchen for instance.

Because they don't have enough flow of protein into the body. So

it's really important for one to realize is that when calories go down

the actual need for protein actually goes the other direction. Now,

this is something I put in my book and put references behind it that

you actually need, when you lower your calories, you need to

increase your protein and not decrease your protein. And virtually

every diet system fails in that area.

Ben: Why is that, that you would want to increase your protein when

calorie count goes down?

KC Craichy: Interestingly, and as for like you do in triathlon as such, people

have large amounts of calories and so when you have a large

amount of calories, protein digestion actually gets much more

efficient. It's opposite of what you would actually think. Coz when

you drop the calories, protein digestion becomes very inefficient. So

you need to increase, one needs to increase their protein amounts.

Now, I have a whole chapter which I'm sure we'll talk about later on

the dynamic role of protein but that is more of a complex subject for

what we just mentioned but the truth is, that if people are lowering

their calories like many people say, hey I need to lose weight so I

just gonna have a salad for lunch. How many times have you heard

that? So, what happens is, they're giving themselves a pillar that

has a nice amount of nutrients in it but not nearly enough protein to

drive metabolism and drive muscle mass increase.

Ben: Got you. So, when we are talking about diet, you know, there is

recent study in the New England journal of medicine compare to

ton of different diets, and found that in terms of the composition of

the fats and the proteins and the carbohydrates, that there is a

really large range in terms of just about all of them being somewhat

effective as long as total caloric intake was low, in terms of, you

know, high fat diet, high protein diet, high carb diet etc. So it

seems that there's a bunch of ways to lose weight. So is there really

any perfect diet or can people just kind of choose any of these diets?

KC Craichy: Well, the truth is it depends on the goal. You see, everyone has a

clinical study of one. So, not everybody is the same and they

respond differently to different things. But see the truth is, the goal

should never be weight loss. The goal should be super health, the

nice side effect of super health is weight optimization. So, when

you’re comparing these diets as the journal did, they're comparing

how they work in terms of weight loss over a given period of time.

You see? And so we know that you can, that there's the guide into

twinky diet. You read about that in there. I mean, you can literally,

I mean the clinical research shows, if you have lower calories of

exactly what you are eating, regardless of what you're eating, you

want to lose weight. Okay. So, in terms of just dropping pounds for

a window, then you can lose weight on just about any system, but

when you get off of that system, that is where the problems begin.

And so you are not losing the right kind of weight when you drop

calories unless you have the right mix of nutrients.

Ben: It's a very good point and I've actually encountered many people

who come in for weight loss who literally have damaged

metabolisms from nutrient-deprived diet that they went on that did

just fine for weight loss but didn't knew the many favors to all when

it came to their health or their longevity.

KC Craichy: Absolutely, and you know, you got these people, these weight loss

clinics live on people coming back. You know, so it obviously is not

working or they wouldn't be having people repeat or come back.

And so part of the reason I put this book in writing about all these

systems is that you know, how does a person who comes back from

the doctor, and they tell their wife that, the doctor said that my

blood pressure is too high, and I weigh too much and then I'm

gonna have to start eating right and exercising. And then he says to

his wife, what does that mean? Well, I don't know, let's go to

weighing system, I saw a commercial about this particular system

yesterday and they guarantee an X number of weight of pounds will

be lost so let's go there. Well, how do they know that low glycemic

is better for them than just pure power restriction or you know all

the other various systems out there? So, what I wanted to do was to

clarify guys, listen if you're gonna go that route, at least understand

what you are getting into and see how that might that work for you.

Ben: Well, in terms of diet, obviously pills and prescriptions and

procedures are a big focus of a lot of diets and you talked about

some of the more serious dangers and complications, liver damage,

central nervous system damage, a lot of the different supplements

and procedures out there, but you are also fan of a few fat loss

supplements. And I don't necessarily want you to give away the

farm here, but what are a couple of the supplements that you

actually do agree with and encourage people to take when it comes

to enhancing weight loss?

KC Craichy: Well, the things that are clear is that increase in anti-oxidant is

helpful. And so increase in anti-oxidant, pro spectrum anti-oxidant

in terms of broad amounts of nutrients and even supplements is a

wise thing to do. But you know, one that you're gonna love and I'm

surely agree with this is, fish oil. Fish oil, it actually supports

weight optimization. So as the fat CLA, which is the omega 6 fat.

CLA is helpful there. Supplementing with chili pepper had been

shown to me very effective in assisting in weight optimization. And

there are other thing out there like white bean extracts which has

been shown to block carbohydrates but my experience is, people

that take that actually eat more carbohydrates because they feel like

they’re block and so they can eat more. So, it doesn't really end up

working. So, there's some powerful thing out there that people can

do and if we list a lot of them, you know there is that avandia

nutrient, I mean the research on that thing is very impressive but I

personally couldn't tell a difference at and will above the dosage

recommendation so, if you just go read the literature though, it

would seem to make sense to take these nutrient regardless because

of its enhancing cell signaling and so on. So, things that you take

like chromium that anything that you would take as a nutrient that

would actually enhance blood sugar management actually then will

be effective and weight optimization also. So, there's a number of

one out there that are good and like you say, we list a bunch of them

there in the book.

Ben: Yeah. I never actually heard of Avandia before until I checked out

your book and you're right, the research looks interesting that you

also, I thought it was cool how many of these things you've tried or

you've had some of the clients before you work with try and you

know the study didn’t do anything even up to four times the

recommended dosage.

KC Craichy: Yeah. That to me was very disappointing because a lot of people out

there are talking about 30 pounds and after you get how many

weeks and with no changing your diet and yeah, again, that's where

those signal words but it seemed pretty impressive so I didn't have

30 pounds to lose but I was trying to see what would happen and

you know, it really was a big zero as far as I could tell, but the

research again would say, "hey you know what, if it hangs cells

signaling you should take it anyway".

Ben: Now, what about spas and clinics, you talk about those in your book

and this is probably the first diet book that I've seen that actually

goes and kind of looks at some of the different clinics that are

spread out there around the world and what they're based on but

can you kind of give an overview of what a weight loss spa or weight

loss clinic actually is? What somebody does there and whether they

actually work?

KC Craichy: Well, you know, again, it is basically, there are actually a fair

amount of them and I named some really good ones in the book

that people enjoy. But, you know, when people are frustrated in

their lifestyle and their habit are so deep as you've seen I mean, if

people are just used to doing things in certain ways and they have

certain things in their house and if its near them they're gonna eat it.

And they eat their diet as like you said they have broken

metabolism so they really don't feel like working out. So, at some

point they get to the point where say listen, I am just gonna go

somewhere and all I do is focus on diet and exercise. And those

things can actually be very positive for people because they wake up

and their breakfast is managed, their lunch is managed, their

dinner is managed and if they get a snack it's something that's

healthier. Now I don't always agree if you see in a book with a

dietary approach of some of these places but the fact that people are

able to go out of their normal environment and enter a structure is

actually quite positive for a lot of people.

Ben: And in terms of like spas, clinics, things of that nature, can you talk

about maybe just one of them that you discussed in the book just a

few of them kind of get an idea of what this type of things are?

KC Craichy: Sure. You know, the one I always go back to, we have the Canyon

Ranch those are good ones, and the Cooper Clinic has a program

and Duke Diet and Fitness. Now, I really am not a fan of the more

medical approach clinics as much but, you know, Hilton Head

Health Institute has a great program. When I say great in terms of

you go, get a structure. But one of the places I like is, because it

really is about going to a structure. If you go to a place, and they

will, like, if you go to a Ritz Carlton spa in like Orlando or Naples or

out there in Bach Rigault in California. They have tremendous

work out facilities and people can work you out. So, if you go there

and you tell them what you are trying to accomplish, it doesn't even

have to be one of these ones that I list in the book. It could be the

Ritz Carlton and they say unless I'm gonna feed you, breakfast is

gonna be eggs and lunch is gonna be whatever you guys agree to,

and then you follow the workout program. In fact, if you do two a

day, you know, you are working out morning and night, that can be

very effective also. So I don't really think it's the magic of the

specific program. I do mention them all in here and the good, the

strengths and the weaknesses, so to speak. But, mainly it’s getting

out of your environment and on to a structure.

Ben: Yeah. I think that the structure is very important. When I was a

personal trainer, I had a few of my clients come to me about a

couple of times a year for what we call the fat camp, where we

would just put them through a week of meeting with the trainer 3

times a day. And I brought up their entire meal plan, you know, for

each day of the week. And it was kind of exhausting mentally and

physically for the person but they lost a lot of weight. So I agree

there is something to be said for these spas and clinics.

KC Craichy: They lost a lot of weight and they had you, they saw you all the time,

they had accountability in the thing, they had structure and they left

what you are talking about, what you are talking about there is of

course I am certain, every good as good as going to one of these

places and probably better because you know what you are doing.

But the point is you are also teaching them to live that way.

Whereas if they go to a center then, they maybe a lot different

because they're eating in restaurants every meal and so on.

Ben: Good point. So you talk about the thyroid hormones in weight loss

and on this show, we talked about thyroid before. But in terms of

giving people little of your view because I like the way that you

explained it in your book, how would you explain how

hypothyroidism causes somebody to gain weight and what they can

actually do about it?

KC Craichy: Well, you know, it's really important issue. I mean, we’re now

learning, I saw a study come out this week that hypothyroidism is

actually one of the primary causes of Epstein barr and those chronic

fatigue kind of syndromes. It's an under diagnosed, extra ordinarily

under diagnosed in those syndromes where people have no energy.

So, if you’re gonna get by your thyroid, it generally should be set to

where, if you're a car and you stop at the stoplight, the car should

run smooth and not sputter. But when you have hyperthyroidism,

you drive up to the stop sign, and you push the break and the car is

really shaky and is about to shut off. You know, that's the feeling

I'm talking about here, the situation. Well, people that have

hypothyroidism, basically have their motor adjusted too low. And if

it is low enough there is really not a whole lot they can do to lose

weight. They can go out they don't feel like working out, when they

work out, they don't get the boost that most people would normally

get when they work out. And they don't digest food as quickly, they

tend to gain weight more easily, they don't feel that well and so on.

So, hypothyroidism can be caused by a number of things. Nutrient

deficiency is being one of them, you got the minerals, you got

selenium, you got iron, and copper and zinc, and all the mineral and

all the vitamins also can accomplish the same thing. Vitamin D is a

really big one that very few people know about and most people

listening right now, probably not to your podcast because you talk

about it, but most people in general are Vitamin D deficient, very

significantly deficient in Vitamin D. And they are very confused

about the new recommendations for Vitamin D, they were not

increased that much because they are only based on what the bone

health aspect of Vitamin D might be. We now know that immunity

and so many other things are dependent on the levels of Vitamin D.

It's immune modulator which you know Vitamin D comes from the

sun. It also comes from supplement in Vitamin D3 and eating foods

that are rich in Vitamin D but the point I'm trying to make is, low

Vitamin D actually can cause thyroid dysfunction. nd people are

not that aware of that. Low vitamin D can do that. Low iodine can

do that also. So there are so many things that are from a nutritional

perspective that can, like low Vitamin D can cause reversed T3

conversion. So, we really are really talking about that you really

must maximize the nutrients that are essential for the body in order

to have optimal thyroid function.

Ben: Yeah. You really give quite a shot gun of different thyroid boosters

in the book. To get people pointed in the right direction, obviously

you're not dishing out medical prescription in the book but from

iodine to thyrocine to a ton of different herbs like oatstraw and

alfalfa and gotocola, a natural glandular support, ton of stuff and I

do know, I saw a chapter that you actually did quite a bit of

consulting with a thyroid M.D. on this part of the book. And I think

that it's one of the more comprehensive treatises on

hypothyroidism and how to attack that from a weight loss

perspective. Right after that, you talked about sex hormones like

testosterones. Can you explain how a loss of testosterone could

actually cause weight gain?

KC Craichy: You know, it's a very important fixed thing, I'm glad you brought

that up because men over time are told that you just naturally have

lower testosterone level as you age. And in fact it's in the actuary

table that when you get a blood test and you're 40, they’re expecting

your testosterone to be less than when you're 30 and when you're

25 and so on. So low testosterone though, now has been shown not

only to create lethargic men, you know, they have low sex drive, low

drive in general, they don't feel like exercising, they get weight gain

around the middle, they got actually, now we know that actually

increases the likelihood of heart disease and stroke and other very

significant risks in the body. So, it seems very clear now that

managing testosterone level over a lifetime is a very important thing.

And so I'm not just saying those straight to take in testosterone and

if you back up just a moment we talked about the thyroid. There

are some people who had thyroid surgery, some people that have to

have thyroid, have to take thyroid in order to give that optimal level.

But my advice is that you take natural compound in thyroid and not

the synthetic kind that are generally prescribed. Back to

testosterone, the same thing goes with testosterone and

progesterone and estrogen. The drug companies have gone out

there and they’ve taken a natural molecule of testosterone, of

estrogen, of progesterone, and what they’ve done as they’ve added a

molecule to that in order to secure patents. And essentially make a

synthetic hormones using that patent and now it is a drug and they

sell that to the masses so most people who are on a hormone

actually are taking synthetic hormone and almost every case, if it

hasn't yet, over time it likely will, these kind of synthetic hormones

cause disease, particularly cancer in the body. So, there is no little

thing, I do give some references of how to find practitioners that

know how to do this. But not everybody needs to take testosterone

or estrogen or progesterone, sometimes, you just need to optimize

your own level and that's normally the first approach one would

take. So, we talked about our product sold by Life Extension

Foundation called Super MiraForte, basically chrysin and other

nutrients have been shown to block the aromatase enzyme.

Aromatase converts whatever estrogen is in the body, whatever

testosterone is in the body, to estrogen. So it takes, it makes a man,

man, in terms it of what makes a woman, woman. And now, men

have levels of estrogen naturally, but not high estrogen. And

women have levels of testosterone, but not high testosterone. So it

becomes a big problem when you have high aromatase. Let's go

back to aromatase. What happens when these levels drop and

people eat the American diet and they're sedentary they don't feel

like working out, is that they get belly fat. And what happens in

belly fat is it becomes literally the largest endocrine organ in the

body. So, basically have a de facto organ that's now creating things

like Interleukin 6, TNF Alpha and the enzyme aromatase which we

just talked about. So people are sitting with their belly fat and the

belly fat starts to work against their energy levels, against their

vitality and so they're lowering their testosterone level because they

have belly fat and then they have belly fat because they have little

testosterone levels. So it’s a spiral that people have to climb out of.

Ben: Yeah. Interesting. And in terms of aromatase inhibitor, that is one

of the things that I really encourage the older males that I worked

with to look into taking, basically keep testosterone from converting

into estrogen and you know, that's useful not only for energy in

your performance but, you hear a lot of guys complaining about

what they call these days man boob. And a lot of that is also related

to that conversion of testosterone into those more female like

hormones so.

KC Craichy: Absolutely, but see man boobs, these things you are talking about is

not just how unsightly or embarrassing that might be, it’s such a

huge metabolic disturbance going on that will lead to death if left

unchecked.

Ben: Yeah. And that is actually what I appreciate about your book. You

come after from the health stand point. From a, be there and be

able to see your grand kids grow up stand point not just the good

look goodness swimsuit stand point. So yeah.

KC Craichy: It is nice look good at swimsuit, too, but let's stay around a while. I

believe it's a shame that the regulating bodies over these very sports

have listed testosterone as one of these banned substances because

we now have a system where athletes are getting older and playing

the sports longer and these athletes are really risking their health by

not managing testosterone level as they get older.

Ben: Yeah. It's tough. I do have some athlete, some males, who have

gone through some pretty serious andropause, and they are on

testosterone patches and testosterone injections, and they are

walking a fine life if they end up on a podium of an Ironman

triathlon, so yeah. Aside from aesthetic reasons, we mentioned that

you don't really believe that weight loss is necessarily the only thing

that should be the goal of the diet program. In your book, you

actually talked about 14 different reasons that people should lose

weight, that kinda go beyond just looking good. What are some of

those reasons that you feel are most important for people to

consider for weight loss aside from just, say, getting a flat stomach?

KC Craichy: Well, you know, we talked about the problem with belly fat, you

know, belly fat being the big culprit in messing up the hormonal

balance in the body. So that would be the first one that I would go

to. We know that people who are obese are far more likely to get

the flu and things like the swine flu and other things than people

who are not obese. Now that is pretty amazing when you think

about it. What is going on with these people that they're obese and

they're now they have lower immunity as a result. It's just

fascinating. And so, we know that people who are obese actually

have longer hospital stays that they actually stay a couple of days

longer than someone who is not obese no matter what the reason

that they went to the hospital. It's fascinating.

Ben: What about what we’re doing to our kids in terms of the possible

link of obesity in a child and obesity in parents?

KC Craichy: Well, it's really terrible because now we know it's not just 5% of the

likelihood of another generation having the same problem. So

when you realize that the reason the kids are overweight and

unhealthy is not because they inherited their parents’ genes, it's

because they inherited their mom's cookbook or their dad's

cookbook. And you know, it's really an amazing thing that now we

know through epigenetics that there is actually a programming

layer above the gene that actually can create good or bad

characteristics that actually sort of re-override the programming in

the genes and can pass on to next generation either a good habit or

good trait or a bad habit or bad trait. This we see in alcoholism and

smoking and so on but also works in fit, healthy life styles, as well.

Ben: I got in some deep water a few months ago when I tweeted on

Twitter that being fat could possibly make you stupid. I probably

did not put that as kindly as I could have. However, you do

mention in your book that there could be a loss of brain tissue that

occurs in obese individuals. How does that actually work?

KC Craichy: Well, Jermo of human brain mapping saw exactly that. They

compared the brains of over 90 people in their 70's, they were

healthy, but they are impaired, and they found that the actual

weight of the brain of the obese people was dramatically less than

the ones who weren't. That's fascinating. It’s a fascinating study.

Ben: You know, from Type II diabetes to an increase and disabilities to

the gut theory, you mentioned more things and talked about that

gut theory, what's the idea behind the obese individuals on the gut

theory?

KC Craichy: Well, what was back up to the diabetes, I think, is so important that

if you go to Type II diabetes, diabetes is basically, basically diabetes

is by choice. People choose, I say that and I always get a lot of

emails when I say this, people choose to be diabetic, for the most

part vast majority of people who are Type II diabetic choose that,

because it has been very clear that diet and lifestyle can completely

reverse that situation. And most of the time, not somebody maybe

who’s had it for very long time, maybe there has been so much

damage and it's not gonna reverse like it would for someone who

has had it a shorter time. But we know that pre diabetes and

diabetes are reversible. I'm sure you've even seen this, Ben, in

people you work out. That they got blood sugar issues, they were

told they're pre-diabetic, they're told they're diabetic, but lo and

behold, they work out and they go to this program and they are not

diabetic anymore. Well, that is not by accident. Diabetes

interestingly, most people have too high of insulin all the time. They

eat all the time, they drink sweet drinks all the time. And they

become masters, their body become masters at putting fat in

various places in the body. So that they as their blood sugar insulin

are high all the time, the body is like getting really good at storing

fats in places. Well, I say it happens in most people and I'm

classifying most people in the "diabetic / blood sugar issues"

category is that it's like a drug in the gas pump. And they put the

gas tank in the car and when they spill they click it a few more times

so it runs down at the side of the car and then they roll it back, wind

it down and fill the back seat with gasoline. The truth is, the body

has about as much capacity to deal with the gasoline or the extra

fluid or the extra fuel that they're eating, sugar that they're eating,

as the car has the capacity to deal with the gas in the back seat. So

people are becoming very unhealthy because they are letting their

blood sugar stay high all the time, they're eating all the time and so

on. So the trick is, according to the research that resting blood

sugar level should really be below 80. And most people are telling

you it's ok if it's 90, it's ok if it's 95 as long as they don’t go higher.

Ben: Yeah. I used to say that all the time. Eat six plus meals a day and

based on the things that you are talking about now, I've completely

changed my view on that and I'm getting better results with my

clients. They are actually staying healthier because of that loss of

blood sugar fluctuations. What about bacteria in the gut and the

link between obesity and gut bacteria?

KC Crachy: Clearly, people who are overweight have pathogenic bacteria in the

gut. It's amazing how that, just if you count all the things we talked

about during this short time, the amount of things that are negative

associated with being obese. It's just, you got to have a good

balance of intestinal flora and you got to have enough good bacteria

to offset the bad bacteria, otherwise you’re gonna get sick. And

that's what happens with people who are obese. And we need to

talk more maybe next time we’ll have a segment about this. You

know six meals a day versus three meals a day kind of scenario.

Ben: Actually, you know what, that's exactly one of the things that we are

going to be getting into when we release part two of this interview

next week. And as a matter of fact, as we get close to wrapping up

this part one, I did wanna mention something because I do have

KC's book right here as I'm talking to him about it. One thing that I

failed to mention is that there are little quotes in the side bar as you

go through this book and actually many of them are very funny. For

example, here is one from Dave Barry, it says, I recently had my

annual physical examination which I get once every seven years and

when the nurse weighed me, I was shocked to discover how much

stronger the earth's gravitational pull has become since 1990. I

chuckled through the whole book because it actually kept me, kept

me turning the pages towards this kind of quick, funny, witty quote

on each page. So kudos for working those in. We’ve talked today

about obesity and weight loss and diet and some of the issues as far

as that’s concerned. And next week, I'd like to get into the solutions

with you, and some of the things that you talk about in this book,

the Super Health Diet. But for those of you listening in right now,

I'm going to put a link to this book in the show notes to this episode,

it's called the Super Health Diet, The Last Diet You’ll Ever Need. I

would encourage you, whether you are a health practitioner, a

personal trainer, a nutritionist, someone who is trying to lose

weight, someone who wants to be healthier, or if you know someone

who is trying to lose weight or be healthier, that you pick up this

book, it would be a super investment for your personal library. KC,

thanks for contributing to part one. And I’ll be looking forward to

having you back next week.

KC Craichy: Ben you got a great work out.

Ben: Well, folks, that is part one. Part two is coming next week. But as

promised, I'm gonna tell you how you can win a free autographed

copy of KC's book the Super Health Diet. What you can do to get

that book is actually make a video. It can be with your cell phone, it

can be with your computer, it doesn't matter. But in that video,

what you need to do is actually let me know how you feel this book

can help you. What your biggest problem is with diets, nutrition,

losing weight, or staying healthy. You know, you get sick all the

time and you wanna know how to boost your immune system. You

lose weight and put it back on again and take it off and put it on and

you want to learn a complete solution to yo-yo weight loss issue. Do

you have troubles sticking the fad diet and you want something that

is finally not a fad diet. Whatever it is, whatever your struggle is,

what you can do is actually shoot a video explaining what you

struggle with and why you feel this book will help you. And then

post that video to the BenGreenfieldFitness Facebook Page, which

I’ll link to in the show note to this episode, Episode #139 from

BenGreenfieldFitness.com. So what you’re gonna do is make that

video, upload to the Facebook Page. We're gonna choose the 12

best videos and send you a free autographed copy of this book. And

of course next week, we're going to continue with part two of the

Super Health Diet. So, be sure to check out the show notes for this

podcast, Podcast #139 for information on everything that I talked

about in this show over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Have a

healthy weekend. By the way, the reason I'm actually in the

Carribean down here in the west Indies, is I'm doing a triathlon

here called Tri Star Neves. And I will be reporting on that race over

at the website Everymantri.com. Alright, over and out, this is Ben

Greenfield.