Tamara Makar

IFBB Pro Athlete

Ghrelin – the hunger hormone in a nutshell

Posted on February 17, 2015 by tamika

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.

A calorie is NOT a calorie – Part 2

Posted on February 16, 2015 by tamika

The thermic effect of food shows how much calories your body uses for digesting and processing the different macronutrients. The thermic effect of the different macronutrients is different. There is no exact numbers, researches show slightly different numbers, but the ballpark numbers are:
Protein is around 20-35%
Carbs 5-15%
Fats 0-5%
What does this mean? If you eat 200 kcal of protein, 40 – 70 kcal your body will use just to process and digest protein. So effectively you’ll only get about 65 – 80% of the protein you eat. For carbs it’s between 75 – 95% and for fats it’s 95 – 100% that the body will get.
It is very important if your goal is to build more muscle and you’re a hardgainer (ectomorph). Your body burns off an excessive amount of calories as heat because of your metabolism being inefficient. You need to make up for it in your nutrition. Since protein has up to 5x higher thermic effect than carbs or fats you should add more carbs or fats into your diet.
Body composition is another important factor here because the leaner you are, you show greater thermic effect.
The thermic effect of food is also higher post exercise. So if you’re a hardgainer, you should consider adding more calories (predominantly from carbs and fats) into your nutrition outside of the post workout window.

A calorie is NOT a calorie – Part 1

Posted on February 15, 2015 by tamika

I would like to talk about the calories here, because a lot of people think that all calories are equal.
For example let’s look at the difference between glucose and fructose. They’re both simple sugars and they both have the same amount of calories, but glucose can be metabolised by all the body’s tissues, while fructose can only be metabolised by the liver.
Fructose can be found in fruits and vegetables, but it is also manufactured in a lab.
Glucose is also called grape sugar or blood sugar and can be found in all major carbohydrates like starch or table sugar. They are both good sources of energy but excess glucose can be fatal to diabetic patients and excess fructose can lead to insulin resistance or non alcoholic liver disease.
Most fat gained from excessive glucose is subcutaneous (under the skin) and is not linked to diabetes or heart disease.
Fructose leads to higher ghrelin levels than glucose. Why it is important you may ask? Because ghrelin is the hormone that’s responsible for your hunger. Glucose decreases food intake.
High fructose sweeteners, soft drinks and corn syrup cause a rise in obesity. High fructose diet (too much sweeteners) promotes insulin intolerance which will cause abdominal fat gain and increased triglyceride.
So a calorie is NOT a calorie here, there’s a difference.

About fat loss and supplements

Posted on January 1, 2015 by tamika

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.

About the different diets: Keto, Atkins and Paleo

Posted on November 15, 2014 by tamika

Women in the locker room constantly keep asking me for diet tips, telling me what they do and what they heard they should do. They’re doing different diets, mostly fad diets. I believe that once you change your lifestyle and eating habits for the better and you start seeing results, you will never look back. However unfortunately many women seem to think that they can have a ‘quick fix’ to lose some weight by a crash diet and then go back to ‘normal’ which unfortunately causes all the weight and fat to come back, too.
In the following few days I will sum up some of the most popular diets, which could be a basis of how you change your eating habits.

The Ketogenic (keto) diet:

This diet is high in fats, low in carbs and moderate in protein. This diet causes the body’s metabolism to shift from glucose to fat utilisation. Ketones are produced by the liver. This diet can improve several health conditions, like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy and even cancer because healthy cells can use fats for energy, however cancer cells cannot so they starve to death. When you eat high carb foods your body produces glucose and insulin. Insulin is responsible to down regulate the glucose levels in the blood stream. Insulin is also responsible for storing fat in the body. If you produce too much insulin, you put on weight – simple.
There are different types of keto diets:

standard keto diet: you eat 20-50 gr of net carbs / day This is the same as the induction phase of Atkins diet.

Targeted keto diet: you eat carbs 30-60 mins before exercise. This is an old approach however you can give it a go because not everyone is the same and what works for one might not work for others and vice versa. But just for the records: you don’t need carbs before your workout.

Targeted keto diet alternative with no extra carbs: the idea of this approach is that your body may not need extra carbs before exercise to perform well. Again, you need to try this approach to see how you feel on it.

Cycling keto diet: what many bodybuilders use. You alternate keto dieting with high carb days – effectively you do carb loading. Use about 50 gr of carbs on the keto days and 300-600 gr on the high days – obviously depending on your needs and bodytypes. This is only for professional and high performing athletes, not for people wanting to lose a bit of weight.

The Atkins diet:

The idea is that when you cut back on carbs your body turns to your fat stores for fuel. The result is that you burn body fat and your body releases a by-product called ketones that your body will use for energy.

This diet starts off as a keto diet in the induction phase. You drastically reduce your carb intake down to 20 gr, you cut out pasta, bread, potato or any starchy carb and dairy, and you only eat certain vegetables (fibres). No alcohol, no caffeine, no nuts, seeds or legumes.

After this comes the ‘ongoing weight loss’ phase when you add back slowly more vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, berries and other fruits and eventually wholegrains.

Then comes the phase when you might be able to add more carbs and foods back into your diet depending on your body’s needs.

Because of the food limitations in this diet, especially at the beginning, you will need to supplement vitamins especially potassium, magnesium and calcium.

The paleo diet:

This diet is based on our ancestors’ diets. Back in the days humans were hunters/gatherers. Then became farmers. So instead of loading up on meat, vegetables and seasonable fruits, we eat bread, pasta and grains. Back in the days grains were not part of our diet. Grains are composed of carbs and turned into glucose to be used for energy. Any glucose that isn’t used for energy will turn to fat. Our modern diet is full with refined food, trans fat and sugar which leads to diseases like: obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s etc. There is a big difference between the fat content and quality of our modern grain fed animals vs grass fed wild animals. Wild meat is remarkably lean, and has relatively low amounts of saturated fats, while supplying significant amount of beneficial Omega-3 fats.

The foods that are OK to eat on a paleo diet are:

Grass fed lean meat, fowl (chicken, turkey, hen, duck, anything with wings), wild fish (not farmed fish), eggs, vegetables (not deep fried), oils (olive, coconut, avocado), fruits, nuts and seeds, tubers (sweet potato, yams)

If you stick to the foods you are allowed to eat on this diet you should not get fat because these foods are very nutrient densed foods so it’s almost impossible to overeat.

The foods that you need to avoid on a paleo diet are:

Dairy, grains, processed food & sugar, legumes, starches, alcohol

The health benefits of paleo:

more efficient workouts,
stable blood sugar,
burn off stored fat,
reduce allergies,
balanced energy throughout the day,
anti-inflammatory,
better skin and teeth,
improved sleep patterns

What kind of a nation….?

Posted on November 5, 2014 by tamika

What kind of a nation is that who screw over each other? Their own and the foreigner?

I know there are bad people everywhere in the world. It doesn’t have to be a specific country. However I have travelled the world and I’ve never met so self centered, two faced people, or at least not so many in one place!
At work some people want to control everything – and usually the most stupidest ones! Obviously the ones who cannot even see through what it would take.

Competitive athletes screwing each other over money for gear – as if the contest prep would not be expensive enough for everyone.

People offer you their help so that they can kick you even more when you’re down and you really need that help.
Very very bad experiences in the last few weeks and I don’t feel that happy anymore! If this is what’s going on here then it’s easy to tell why this country is where it is at.
Single minded, self centered, ignorant people. Not everyone but after a point you just don’t know who you can trust. I always thought I’m a friendly, open, happy and very helpful person but I think I need an attitude adjustment. Quick.

There are always exceptions to the rules – and those people know who they are. As for the others, my message is: what goes around comes around! If I’m lucky enough karma will let me see it…

How to burn stubborn bodyfat?

Posted on November 1, 2014 by tamika

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.

Talking about fats in a nutshell

Posted on October 24, 2014 by tamika

Fats give you energy and they have 9 kcal in each gram. Fats are a very important part of the diet because they help in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K). Fats are either saturated or unsaturated.

Saturated fats is solid at room temperature. It is mostly found in animal foods (milk, cheese and meat). Poultry and fish have less in them. Foods made with butter or margarine have a lot of saturated fat.
Unsaturated fat is liquid at room temperature. It is mostly in oils from plants. The types of unsaturated fats are:

Monounsaturated fat: you can find it in avocado, nuts and vegetable oils. These fats may help lower your ‘bad’ cholesterol and they also keep your ‘good’ cholesterol levels high.

Polyunsaturated fats: mainly in vegetable oils such as safflower oil, sunflower, seasame, soybean. It is also the main fat in seafood. The 2 types of polyunsaturated fats are Omega-3 and Omega-6.
The fat you need to avoid however is the trans fat. This fat has been changed by ‘hydrogenation’. It is also called on labels ‘hydrogenated fat’. This process increases the shelf life of fat and makes the fat harder at room temperature. Trans fat can raise your cholesterol. You will find it in:*processed foods,

*snack foods (chips),
*cookies (yes!),
*some margarine and salad dressings.

I am available for personalized nutrition and training plans. Please contact me for details or read my Services.

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2014 by tamika

2014 is here finally! I wish you guys all the best for 2014. Thank you for following me and supporting me, it means a lot to me!

2013 was full of ups and downs, and more downs than ups. Unfortunately we tend to remember the negatives more than the positives. So let’s just look at the positives now:

I have met some amazing people. Through work, through training and places you wouldn’t even think it could happen. One of my best decisions this year was to switch countries when it comes to competing. I competed in Hungary and represented Hungary at an international competition. I didn’t place, but it’s not the reflection of my success here. My success in this process was to be able to get into that shape and stand on stage and be proud of how I looked because that was one of my best shape and conditions ever. That is success for me because even though it is a competition where you compete against other people but the biggest competition is with yourself to improve how you looked last time. Not only that but it was a great feeling to finally belong to a team, belong to a country. Even though I have lived in London for the past 10 years, I competed in this country and represented the UK at international events in 2012, there was never any signs of team spirit here. Thank you for the Hungarian team and Zoltan Vida to make me feel I belong there. He has also done a wonderful job with getting me stage ready in the last 3 weeks of the prep when no-one could help me anymore and my weight just didn’t want to go down. These were the progress photos:

and how you screw it up after the competition 🙂

Probably one of the biggest sandwiches I’ve ever had

I have had a few photoshoots with different photographers but one really stands out: Jakob Gronkjaer. He is a perfectionist. He would not stop until he gets the photo right and then the photo is not just good, but it’s awesome! I’m hoping to have another shoot with him soon, we have some unfinished business!

I was very lucky to be able to travel a bit in 2013. I visited Hungary twice, spent some time in Turkey and went to Hamburg to compete.

It is definitely not everything but the most important things that happened in 2013. I feel blessed because I have a family that support me, I have true friends and even though not everything works out the way I want it to but I know that everything happens for a reason. You might not know the reason straight away, but don’t lose the faith. Even if something bad happens to you, it is because there’s something a lot better coming your way in the end. And maybe – just maybe – you appreciate the good a lot more if you have to go through a lot of bad before it happens. Can you imagine if everything happens the way you want it, when you want it? Have you ever thought about that if you could have whatever you want, would you even want it? So try and work with what you have. Never give up your dreams, miracles happen every day!

New video from a training session

Posted on December 15, 2013 by tamika

Went to Monster Gym last week and had a wicked chest session there with my friend, Paul from Realfemalebodybuilding. We also recorded a short video from the training session, check it out: