Weights and Stuff: October 2016

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Portion Sizes When Going Out to Eat

If you’re not a bodybuilder who’s getting ready for a show and on a strict diet, you probably go out to eat once and a while. Going out is great! You don’t have to cook, there’s no cleanup, and you can just sit back and relax with maybe a drink or two. When you go out, however, you no longer have complete control over the food or portion sizes. In this post, I want to touch a little on said portion sizes.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that when you go to a restaurant, all the portion sizes of the menu items are the same. Yes, some places offer small, medium, and large options but for a considerable amount of establishments they are relatively the same. People, however, are not all the same. This is especially true between men and women, in terms of body size and lean muscle mass.

It’s not uncommon for a couple to have a 50 to 100-pound weight difference between them. The guy, for explanation’s sake, could weigh 200-220 pounds and the girl 100-120. I’m a little weird, so when I go out to eat I take a look around and notice portion sizes and the types of oils and stuff that are being put in the food. If you’re at a dining establishment that serves large portion sizes and you’re a guy, that’s great, but if you’re a girl who’s not trying to put on any pounds then this isn’t the best scenario. It’s especially tough sometimes to stop eating halfway through a meal when your mind is programmed to finish what’s in front of you. Think back to when your parents told you to finish what was on your plate when you were a kid. It’s literally been programed into our minds since we were little children to finish the food in front of us. Going back to the explanation above of the nice couple on their date; do you think that the girl who is half the size of the guy needs the same amount of food as he does? No, probably not. Considering the amount of lean muscle mass, she could probably get away with eating half of the plate of food, and have leftovers for the next day. Lucky her, unlucky him. He’ll have to cook for himself the next day.

These large portion sizes make it difficult, especially for women, because there is not an established portion size for either gender. It would be interesting to see a restaurant menu that had distinct portion sizes for men and women. I’m sure the women’s rights activists might be up in arms about that, but objectively speaking, it may be suitable to have varying portion sizes to account for differences between people. Customers might also gain a better understanding of the importance of portion control.

So next time you are out for dinner, or lunch, or brunch, take a look around and see if you notice this. Sometimes it’s too easy to just set your mind on autopilot when you are out to eat and not pay much attention to what’s actually on the plate in front of you, because after all you went out in the first place to not have to worry about making your meal. That’s one of the nice perks to cooking at home; you know what exactly goes into your food and control how much of it gets served. This is just a thought to consider the next time you go out.

Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below.

Ryan Goodell, CSCS

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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Why Inflammation Can Be a Good Thing

Everyone hears about reducing inflammation because it’s a bad thing; however, that’s an absolute statement and, as always, there is another side to consider. Is excessive or chronic inflammation bad? Yes, excessive or chronic inflammation are not something to be desired, but as the same time inflammation is a crucial process for healing and recovering. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of inflammation and see how they relate to training and recovery.

There are three stages to the healing process: the inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling phases. The three phases must flow in that order to promote proper healing. You need each of the phases for healing, and inflammation is the first key step towards recovery.

Every time you train, you cause micro damage your muscles. The soreness that you feel afterwards is called DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), and I’ve discussed it in my post 2 Myths, the Truth, and How to Deal with Muscle Soreness. The training itself is merely the stimulus through which you tap into your body’s natural growth-inducing mechanisms. The only thing training does is create damage, from which the body then needs to recover. This is where inflammation occurs. If you prevent inflammation from occurring, by taking an anti-inflammatory, for example, then your body’s healing process will be hindered. On a micro level, you need inflammation to occur, but NOT excessively. After inflammation, your body can enter the proliferation and remodeling phases of the healing cycle, where bigger and stronger muscles are built.

Training is more than sets, reps, and trying to make yourself as sore, beaten up, and as tired as possible. An understanding of the physiology that is actually going on is equally important to get the results you desire. Depending on what type of training stimulus you use, you can cause different physiological effects to occur in your muscles and your body. That’s a topic for a different day though. To boil it down to simplicity: train hard and smart, and recover well.

For consultation/personal training/coaching inquiries email: ryangoodell@weightsandstuff.com