Dehydration – water retention

Your body dehydrates if your fluid intake is less than what your body puts out. You lose fluids by breathing, sweating, exercising, urinating, vomiting etc so when your body doesn’t have enough fluids to carry out its normal functions, you get dehydrated.

The common causes of dehydration are: vigorous exercise or exercising in hot weather, diarrhoea, vomiting, fever or excessive sweating. It is very important to replace any fluids that you’ve lost before you get dehydrated.

The symptoms of mild dehydration are:
* thirst
* dry sticky mouth
* sleepiness or tiredness
* decreased urine output
* dry skin
* headache
* constipation
* dizziness

When the colour of the urine is darker, it can be an indication that you’re getting dehydrated.
What to do? Increase the fluid intake! Pay attention when the hot weather comes that you need to drink enough water throughout the day. When you exercise, always drink water to replenish the fluids you lose by sweating.

It’s worth mentioning that sometimes water retention can be an indication that you’re not drinking enough fluids. When you drink less water than what you put out, your body is trying to balance it by retaining some water to prevent dehydration. When you experience mild dehydration what you need to do is start drinking more water slowly to replenish the lost fluids.

This is not the only cause of water retention though. It could be just as simple as having too much salt, spices or sugar in your diet.

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Ghrelin – the hunger hormone in a nutshell

Ghrelin is produced by ghrelin cells which are found in the stomach, lungs, pancreas and kidneys. It is a hormone that regulates hunger. When the stomach is empty, ghrelin is released. When food is eaten ghrelin secretion stops. Ghrelin increases appetite, increases food intake and promotes fat storage.
Ghrelin also promotes the release of growth hormone from the pituitary gland which breaks down fat tissue and helps building muscle tissue.
When people go on ‘yo yo’ diets – extreme calorie cutting diets, the weight they lose during dieting comes back on quick when the diet stops. One of the reasons why this happens is because the ghrelin levels are dramatically increased. The hormone levels stay like that for some time after the diet has stopped. The body reacts as if it went through starvation – which effectively it did, and to protect itself from future starvation it produces more ghrelin. In layman terms: you go on an extremely low calorie diet to lose weight. Your ghrelin levels increase so you feel more and more hungry. You are effectively starving on the diet to lose weight, and when you finally stop the diet, the body – to protect itself from further starvation – produces more ghrelin. Because you stopped the diet you go back eating normal and because you feel hungry you eat more and more – hence you put more weight back than what you’ve lost.
Ghrelin levels are primarily regulated by food intake. Levels of ghrelin increase when fasting (with increased hunger) and are lower in people with higher bodyweight than in lean people.
The different nutrients effect differently the release of ghrelin: protein and carbs slow down the production of ghrelin to a greater extent than fats – eating protein and carbs will make you feel fuller.

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About fat loss and supplements

Let me spare some thoughts on weight loss and supplements. I’ve heard this several times: I want to lose weight,I can’t take supplements. It depends on what supplements we are talking about. Whey protein? Well I believe that you can get away with not taking whey protein. If your main goal is to lose bodyfat then I would say try and stick to real, clean food. Why? Because the main aim of any whey protein is to get digested and absorbed quickly and easily. You see where I’m going with this? If it is easily digested then the body don’t need to put effort into digesting it = it won’t use much energy (calories) to digest it. However when you eat clean food – ie chicken, tuna, turkey etc – your body will burn more energy by just simply digesting the food. So I would say if you need to lose a lot of weight you can stay away from whey protein. Where will you get your protein from you may ask? First of all from your food – that should be the main source. Clean food: eggs, chicken, tuna, fish, red meat, turkey etc The second most important source should be amino acids.
Amino acids are the building blocks for protein. There are 20-22 standard amino acids, 8-10 of which are considered essential. That means you need to supplement these because your body cannot synthesize them. There are around 14 non-essential amino acids and a lot of other metabolites that are derived from these 8 essential amino acids.
Amino acids can be used for energy. When they’re used for energy, they cannot be used for building tissue and performing their other metabolic functions. Ladies, you don’t need to put on too much muscle, but you still need to understand that the more muscles you have the higher your metabolism is, which means you burn more energy even when resting. So some muscles will not only look good on you but will increase your metabolism which also means you will need to eat more, too. Quite handy, isn’t it?
During starvation the body releases amino acids from muscle issue to be used for energy. This also occurs during exercise and when the body runs out of carbs fuel from the diet or from glycogen stored in the muscles and liver. Unless proteins are present in the diet aminos are released, even if the body has fat for fuel.
BCAAs (branched chain amino acids) are used by muscles to supply a limited amount of energy during strenuous exercise. These are isoleucine, valine and leucine. Leucine is depleted the most frequently. Trained person’s muscles use up some amounts of leucine even at rest. Complete proteins are proteins that contain the essential amino acids in amounts that are sufficient for maintenance. Incomplete proteins are usually deficient in one or more of the essential amino acids.
So my advice: regardless of your aim in training (losing weight or putting on muscle) supplementing with amino acids and BCAAs is essential.

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How to burn stubborn bodyfat?

We have adipose tissue all over our bodies. This tissue is made of adipocyte (fat cells) and its sole job is to store energy in the form of fat. There are generally 2 types of bodyfat:
  • visceral – surrounding the organs,
  • subcutaneous – beneath the skin, 80% of bodyfat.
Body fat comes in different colours:
  • white is the fat that makes up 90% of your bodyfat. It has a very low metabolic rate, so it doesn’t burn calories therefore it is more like a storage unit for calories.
  • brown fat can burn calories because of its rich blood supply. Unfortunately we have very little of them.
  • beige fat is in between white and brown in terms of calorie burning capacity.
Losing stubborn bodyfat is not easy. According to some studies: spot reduction does occur, however it occurs on such a marginal level that it is insignificant. Your body will burn the fat from areas where it’s easier to get rid of it. That’s why when you start a diet and exercise program, some of your areas in your body look leaner and you can recognize the progress quicker and easier, and there are other areas that look ‘unchanged’. Your body burns the fat all over, but burning the stubborn fat is more difficult and takes more time.
Stubborn fat is physiologically different than other fat. There are 2 different types of receptors in fat cells: noradrenaline and adrenaline. These hormones bind receptors in fat tissue that send the signal to speed fat release of slow fat release.  These receptors are the alpha and beta-receptors. Alpha receptors slow down the fat release. Beta receptors speed up the fat release. Stubborn fat has a high density of alpha-receptors compared to betas, is more insulin sensitive and receives less blood flow than less stubborn fat. Subcutaneous fat is more stubborn than visceral fat or intramuscular fat (fat in your muscle). The most stubborn areas of fat are hips, butt, thighs of women, and the love handles for men.
To burn fat you have to release it from a fat cell (lipolysis). That fat then has to be brought inside of another cell and be burned. That’s why the blood supply to and from the tissues is important. Stubborn fat releases its fat more slowly than non-stubborn fat. Stubborn fat is more insulin sensitive (or less insulin resistant) than regular fat. A fat cell that’s more insulin resistant stores less fat and releases more of it. Other hormones have an effect on fat release, too. Thyroid activity ramps up beta receptor activity and turns down alpha receptor activity. Estrogen increases the alpha receptor activity – that’s why during the female cycles stubborn fat is more stubborn.
Stubborn fat has less blood flow, therefore even if it gets released it doesn’t get moved out of the area to be burnt easily. Alpha receptors impact blood flow. More alpha receptors = less blood supply. Also, stubborn fat is in areas that are harder for the body to heat up: love handles are further away from the center of the body.
One of the things people tend to do when they want to burn stubborn body fat is they go on a diet and exercise more. It can work out at the beginning, when you clean out your diet, start counting your macros and start an exercise regime. However if you’re not preparing for a competition, then you need to think of other ways because this way in the long run you only reduce your BMR (basic metabolic rate) which means you will need less and less calories and eventually your body will go into ‘starvation’ mode and start storing the fat instead of burning it. To come off the diet you can either eat less and exercise less (ELEL) or  right the opposite: eat more and exercise more (EMEM).
  • ELEL allows a very low calorie or low carb diet because you reduce your resistance training and cardio during the week therefore you don’t need high calories but you don’t burn that many calories either because of the lack of exercise. This doesn’t mean you have to sit in front of the TV all day. You should still go for a walk and do low impact cardio on a daily basis. The key word here is ‘low impact’.
  • In the EMEM approach you increase your calorie intake but you also increase the intensity of your workouts. This approach is better and more healthy because high intensity workouts and more food will also increase your metabolism and your fat burning.
You need to bear in mind that metabolism is very reactive and adaptive. It differs from person to person how long it takes your body to adapt but sooner or later it will. To avoid this you need to cycle your diet and that keeps your metabolism guessing.

Exciting plans

Hello all,

Summer is over unfortunately! I love the sunshine, the warm weather, my shorts and skirts 😉
Now the hoodies are coming out of the cupboard again and have to wear layers in the gym, too if I don’t want to be cold!
I wish I could live in a warm country! Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be hot, but by just having the sun out puts you in a better mood. I think this was one of the most enjoyable things in Istanbul during my holiday: the constant sun. But you cannot ignore the fact that the quality of the food is much better over there as well, because they grow most of their vegetables and fruits. When I came back I tried to cook the same way but food just doesn’t taste the same here. I guess I might have to go back again to enjoy again what Istanbul has to offer 🙂

But first things first: today I have a photo and videoshoot with Doc Ajay (Lee Priest’s photographer who Lee brought over from LA during his time in the UK while he was competing at the NABBA Universe and travelling around the UK and Ireland for seminars). I really look forward to this because his work is very remarkable! Not to mention that a lovely guy, very easy going which makes him really smooth to work with him. This is one of the photos he took at the seminar:

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Thankfully the weather seems to be nice today, hopefully it will hold it until we finish the outdoor shoot in Windsor. It’s a bit windy, but I don’t mind that as long as the sun is out.

ON the 3rd of November I will be going to the Stars of Tomorrow UKBFF competition in Hayes. One of the girls from my gym, Katie competes for the first time in the physique class and I have been following her journey. I look forward to seeing her on stage and all the other competitors as it is always very motivational! It will be nice to catch up with fellow athletes as well who I haven’t seen or met for ages! This year I haven’t gone to too many competitions, only the local ones I visited.

And on the 8th November I’m going to Hungary again, for a short visit! I look forward to catching up with the athletes there and meeting with friends and fans again! So if you are in Hungary and would like us to meet drop me a line so that we can arrange it!

That’s it for today, I gotta go now as I have a busy day ahead! Enjoy this lovely day, don’t think there’s many left before the rain and cold weather come again!

First week in Istanbul

Time flies when you’re on holiday! Especially when you’re having a good time!

Morning starts with cardio, then breakfast. Rest after that until the next meal, then we try and have some fun as well in the afternoon. We either go for a walk in the town, go to the shops/market, or go for a bicycle ride around the town.
Here we feed doves. Metin has about 20 of them.
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Then another meal before training when things get serious.

The meals/food is different from what I normally have back home, yet it’s still the same: chicken, turkey, beef and fish. I’ve never been a big fish lover but I have to admit the way they grill fish here made me love it! I could have that every day! One night we made BBQ on the terrace with chicken, beef and sausages! Luckily the weather here is still lovely, around 25 C during the day with a lot of sunshine.
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That’s all for today, check back for updates later!