Ben Greenfield Podcast 96
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Transcript of Ben Greenfield Podcast 96
Podcast #96 from http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2010/05/episode-
96-how-to-know-if-you-ate-enough-carbohydrates/
Introduction: In this podcast episode: how to know if your carbohydrate
intake is proper, how long should it take for the heart rate to
recover after exercise? Are some fruits better than others?
Eating before a morning workout, how to stop appetite
cravings, cardio before weights or weights before cardio?
Should athletes train their bodies to burn fat? Does getting
stronger make you faster? Do you have to give up a muscular
body to be an Ironman triathlete and is something called
Zone 3 training a bad thing?
Ben: Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield coming at you
with podcast number 96. Wow, we‟re almost to 100. I have to
be completely honest with you, I have no special plans for
the 100th episode but if you have ideas about something
special to do for that 100th episode, let me know. I‟ll probably
end up doing something special anyways. But either way, it‟d
be nice to hear what you guys want for that 100th episode.
Here‟s what I was thinking, I‟m only going to answer
questions that I get from call-in listeners. Just to keep it
interesting. I think that would be pretty cool. But I want to
hear what you think. So, as usual leave a comment in the
Shownotes to this episode number 96 if you have feedback
for me. And really anything that you want to talk about that
you hear in this podcast, go leave it as a comment on the
Shownotes. I actually love to start questions and discussions
and comments and just a second, you could see right there I
fumbled. I‟m having difficulty. Did you hear that? That was
my morning cup of coffee. It‟s about 5:30 a.m. right now
while I‟m recording this podcast. Makes it far more simple
when you record from a home office not to have children
running around and screaming in the background. The only
problem is that was decaf coffee. Because I‟m racing a
triathlon in a few days and I really don‟t want to put too
much caffeine in my body. However, the decaf still gives me
that wonderful placebo effect. Okay. I‟m droning on. Let‟s go
ahead and move on to this week‟s special announcements.
Our featured topic today is going to be Dr. Cohen who you
longtime podcast listeners have grown familiar with as the
expert from Bioletics and he‟s going to be talking about a
really cool new blood sugar and carbohydrate test that they
have called the A1C. So, listen in to this podcast episode later
on after the Q and A if you want to catch that interview. Now
another couple of special announcements. I have actually
just put the finishing touches on a vegan meal plan. And like
most of the meal plans and the training plans that I write all
of that is available over at my Training Peaks store and if you
want to link to that, just head over to podcast number 96
because not only did I just release that vegan meal plan but I
also just put out an “exactly how to train and how to eat for
the last four weeks leading up to Ironman” plan where all
your workouts and your meals get delivered to your email or
to your phone, whichever you‟d prefer. And I also have a few
different marathon training, triathlon training fitness and fat
loss programs over there that you can simply grab and
download to your computer and follow. They send you an
automatic email every time that your workout is coming up,
you can go look at your calendar for the week, get your meals
delivered, things like that. It‟s the same type of software that
I use to dynamically coach the clients that I work with for
endurance training or for sports or for fat loss, but I also
have some pre-packaged more budget-oriented plans that
I‟ve written, and I‟ve just released that vegan one that I think
is quite interesting. So the next special announcement is that
the Summer Body Challenge is underway. We have people
from all over the country who have sent in their photos and
their videos and those are of course completely private. I‟m
the only person who sees those but that is how I am judging
the contest to keep it fair. Each person gets a weekly mailing
for me that gives them their fitness tips, their nutrition tips
and their recipes and then they go from now until August 1st,
and whoever has the best progress by August 1st wins. If you
still want to get into that challenge, technically you‟re no
longer eligible for the $300 and the exercise tools and the
other prizes that come along with that competition but if you
just want the accountability then head over to the link that
I‟ll put in the Shownotes and you can get into the Body
Transformation Club and be a part of the Summer Body
Challenge. Or you can get into the Body Transformation Club
and not be in the Summer Body Challenge, whichever you
want. Now, the next announcement is that the Get Fit Guy
podcast, my new Quick and Dirty Tips podcast to slim down
and shape up has been ranked as one of the top podcasts in
iTunes for the past few weeks. The number one podcast in
the fitness category. If you‟re looking for something that‟s
really very quick that you can listen to, maybe during
breakfast or your drive to work or you want something that‟s
a little bit more basic, you know someone who may not be an
Ironman triathlete or something like that but just needs to
start from square one, it‟s a really good podcast to listen to.
However, I also put some tips in there that get a little bit
more advanced. For example, this next episode coming up is
going to be on spot reducing. How to take a certain area of
your body and target and tone it. So, you‟ll want to check that
out. We‟re going to go ahead and move on to this week‟s Q
and A. As you have probably discovered by listening, I am
struggling this morning with my talking. Oh, just one more
time. There we go. Let‟s get this Listener Q and A done with.
It‟s really good today, by the way.
Now if you have a question for the podcast then you can call
8772099439 and I‟ll put that number in the Shownotes as
well, but that‟s a good way to leave a voice mail message for
me. The other thing you can do is email
[email protected] or if you‟re international
outside the US and you want to leave a Skype message, just
Skype to Pacific Fit and any of those will work well for
getting a hold of me and asking a question.
Now the first question that we have today is from listener
Mark.
Mark asks: I regularly run with a heart rate monitor. At the end of a
short run, I‟m used to seeing my heart rate quickly drop to
below 120 when I slow to a jog. A couple of times now,
following runs longer than an hour, my heart rate has barely
slowed when I slow down. For example, this past weekend
following an 80 minute run, I walked for at least five minutes
but my heart rate remained in the 140 to 150 range. When I
came to a complete stop, my heart rate actually increased by
10 points over my walking heart rate. It took five to ten
minutes of sitting in the shade before my heart rate dropped
below 120. On this long run, I didn‟t have any water or food
and I may have been starting to bonk as I‟m prone to low
blood sugar. I also was exercising right around and
occasionally above my threshold for the last two miles. Could
any of these factors explain why my heart rate took so long to
return to normal?
Ben answers: For you podcast listeners out there who know what‟s going
on here, jump through your mp3 player or computer and try
to answer Mark‟s question because I know you‟re screaming
at the top of your lungs right now, right? I will go ahead and
just go into a little bit of the idea behind this whole concept
of heart rate recovery, because your body has several liters of
blood flowing through it. Basically that blood has to be
distributed to your entire body and depending on how
efficient your body is at grabbing oxygen from that blood,
your heart is either going to pump slower or pump faster
depending on how efficient you are. Now, if you‟re very
inefficient, you‟re going to have a higher resting heart rate,
you‟re going to have a longer time to recovery and you‟re
going to have typically a higher heart rate while you‟re
exercising as well. Whereas if you‟re efficient, you‟re a
trained athlete then your heart rate is going to be lower. It‟s
going to recover faster just because you‟re better able to grab
that blood as it comes around. Now a few things that could
affect your body‟s ability to be efficient at utilizing that blood
would be one, if you just don‟t have enough blood to go
around and interestingly one of the primary determinants of
adequate blood volume is adequate hydration and if you are
dehydrated you are going to have a higher heart rate during
exercise and a longer time to recovery during your heart rate.
Low blood sugar wouldn‟t necessarily cause the heart rate
issues, but low glycogen levels – being glycogen depleted
would affect efficiency and for any given effort would
actually increase your heart rate and increase the time to
recovery. Now there are actually calculations out there and
research out that that shows that more than a 50 beat per
minute reduction in your heart rate after a one minute
period will reduce your risk of a heart attack or is indicatory
of a reduced risk of heart attack. Less than a 30 beat per
minute reduction after one minute is a predictor of a heart
attack. What you need to understand though is that most of
those studies were done after a very short exercise period –
typically three to five minutes long. Not a long hydration
depleting, blood sugar depleting, glycogen depleting run like
the one you went on. And the fact that in your shorter runs,
you‟re not experiencing this. Your longer runs show that you
are experiencing this point to the fact that with you, it‟s
probably less of an issue of a cardiovascular problem –
although I‟m not a doctor and you could go get that checked
out if you wanted to – as much as an issue of not drinking
enough or eating enough and having that affect your heart
rate. It comes back to showing the importance of taking care
of your body from a hydration and a nutrition perspective
during exercise and doing your whole depletion at a different
time. We‟ll get into that in a little bit more detail in another
question today‟s podcast. But ultimately what it comes down
to is you need to be drinking more – preferably at last 10 to
15 ounces an hour while you‟re exercising and making sure
that you keep your blood sugar up and your glycogen levels
up by having a gel every 30 minutes or so while you‟re out
there on that run, Mark. So, hope that answers your question.
And the next question is from listener Patrick.
Patrick asks: In keeping with your holistic fueling plan, I‟ve gotten pretty
used to keeping nuts and fruit on hand to snack on after
shorter workouts. Or for just afternoon hunger pangs. In the
beginning, I stuck mainly to Granny Smith apples but now
that summer has hit, I‟m eating more of the sweeter melons
like cantaloupe and watermelon. How do sweeter fruits stack
up nutritionally with the more conservative choices like
grapefruit, pineapple and blueberries? Is there a significant
difference from a recovery or general health perspective or
am I splitting hairs?
Ben answers: You know what this question boils down to for those of you
who aren‟t really familiar with the differences between fruits,
is that some fruits have a low glycemic index meaning that
the sugar in those fruits is not released quite as quickly and
some fruits have a high glycemic index. I‟m not going to get
scientific and say exactly how the sugar is actually
metabolized but suffice it to say that some fruits are fast
releasing and some are slower release. For example, berries
are very low on the glycemic index. Cherries are very low on
the glycemic index. Apples and pears and grapefruit, and if
you use any of the nutrition plans that I write you‟ll know
that those are typically the fruits that I encourage you to eat
because as you move up the index from apricots and peaches
up to figs, up to dates and finally to a lot of the citrusy,
melony fruits – the melons, the mangoes, the papayas, the
pineapples – fruits get sweeter and sweeter. Now the issue
here though is that fruit is very low in calories. Meaning that
it is a low glycemic load. And the glycemic index is an
indicator not only of the rate at which the sugar is released
but also the actual number of calories in a serving, and
because the calories in fruit are very low – you take
something like watermelon and it‟s basically mostly water –
it has a low glyemic load. As a matter of fact the glycemic
load of a serving of watermelon is lower than the glycemic
load of apples. And so, what this boils down to is that to a
certain extent you are splitting hairs especially if you‟re an
active individual. Now the people that I really recommend
focus on lower glycemic index foods most of the time are
people who are pre-diabetic, who struggle with blood sugar
issues. Again I‟m not medically managing their diabetes, I‟m
making suggestions on the foods that are going to be less
likely to cause the blood sugar levels to go on a roller coaster
ride and the people that would want to pay attention to the
glycemic index of fruits would be those types of individuals.
If you‟re active, you have nothing to worry about. I mean you
could eat ten pears a day and you‟d probably be just fine as
long as you didn‟t have a pre-diabetic or a diabetic condition.
So, in your case Patrick, as a triathlete because you‟ve
written into the show before and I know that you are an
Ironman triathlete, you would probably be splitting hairs
with this. But for someone who is very concerned about
getting every little advantage that they can get, someone who
is very concerned about stabilizing blood sugar, that‟s when
you would want to choose as your primary fruits – the
berries, the cherries, the apples, the pears and the grapefruit
and maybe not do so much of the melons, the citrus, the
papaya, etc. but like I said, very, very small issue. There are
much bigger fish to fry if you‟re trying to eat healthy, but
good question. Now the next question comes from listener
Anonymous. Beautiful name.
Anonymous asks: Living in Virginia, it gets pretty hot in the summer. I like to
run in the morning as soon as possible to avoid the heat and
humidity. What do you think would be a good thing to eat so
that I can run, but not be starving during the run. I usually
eat half a power bar to take the edge off. My runs are usually
an hour long. I am part of a Master‟s swim group that meets
at 6am. I really don‟t want to get up and eat at 4:30 just so
food will sit well in my stomach. Any suggestions?
Ben answers: Sure, I have a quick answer to this one. We just got off the
topic of fruit. This is a great time to get back on it. But just a
little bit of fruit just to spike the blood sugar slightly is fine.
Because when you wake up in the morning, your body
primarily has burned through its liver‟s carbohydrate stores.
Your muscle carbohydrate stores are still full, ready to
rumble and a lot of times just a little bit of fruit to spike the
blood sugar is great. As a matter of fact, for primarily an
aerobic workout, as long as it‟s under an hour, you‟re fine
with not really eating anything at all. So long as you have a
little bit of breakfast afterwards to replenish the nutrients
that you‟ve gone through while you‟re working out. So, if you
don‟t like the fiber, the solidness of the food, then you can
also use a sports gel or a little bit of sports drink but even
something as small as 50 to 100 calories right before you
head out is just fine. And a lot of times you‟ll be a little bit
groggy for the first 10 to 20 minutes of that workout and as
soon as your body really starts to efficiently tap into that
muscle glycogen and bring your blood sugars up, you‟re good
to go. So I have had people complain about that before when
I‟ve told them to go out and do their morning workout
without eating and once they get 15 or 20 minutes in, they
say wow that actually didn‟t feel too bad. So, good question.
The next question is from listener Olivia.
Olivia asks: I just finished my first half Ironman. Now that it‟s over I
think I would like to focus on losing the weight I gained
during training. I‟m 5‟8 and weighed 152 pounds before
training, but now I‟m pushing 159 pounds. What are the
chances that this weight gain is muscle? If it‟s not muscle, I
want to lose the weight but I‟m having a really tough time
eating less now that I‟m not training as much. Do you have
any advice for how to taper calories and change the eating
habits I started during training? I‟m still hungry.
Ben answers: Olivia, I see this happen all the time with Ironman athletes
who get done training for an Ironman or a half Ironman.
And they‟re so used to being able to eat anything they want
and tons of calories that as soon as they stop and lay off that
intense exercise protocol, they balloon and any weight that
they put on during that training – unless they‟re doing a
significant amount of weightlifting – which it doesn‟t look
like you were, then it‟s a pretty slim chance that any weight
gain experience during that training was muscle. And it‟s
usually cortisol related, stress hormone related water
retention. And a lot of times that‟s a bigger issue for people
who are eating a ton of food, typically inflammatory foods,
high amounts of carbohydrates, doing a lot of slow aerobic
training versus the people who are eating more of the protein,
the healthier foods, the non-gluten based foods and engaging
in a lot more of the interval based intense training. Those
people usually do a lot better with not putting on weight and
fat during the Ironman or the half Ironman style of
endurance training. So that being said, you‟re at a point now
where you need to satiate your appetite and get your body
able to be satisfied with less or lower caloric intake. A few of
the ways that you can do that is you can make sure that you
increase the fiber content of most of the foods that you eat
and choose fiber dense foods. Do a lot of beans and legumes.
You‟ll want to do things like quinoa, amaranth, millet, sweet
potatoes and yams are fiber dense. Although they‟re not so
fiber dense that you can‟t have them before a workout. Do a
lot of vegetables, salads, leafy greens. Anything or most of
those will kind of expand in the stomach. A lot of fruit that
has the skins on it – apples are good, peppers are good,
strawberries, berries – typically any of these types of things
would be much better choices than lower fiber foods. For
example, breads that are not whole grain, cookies, biscuits.
You‟ll want to avoid juices, sports drinks, bars, things like
that. Things that aren‟t so dense. So focus on that. Focus on
increasing the protein content because protein is very
satiating. That‟s why protein diets sometimes tend to work.
It‟s not because protein does something magical. It‟s just that
it makes you less likely to eat a lot and so if you include a soy,
a whey, a rice or hemp protein that would be good. That
Living Green Super Fuel is really good. That‟s one that‟s over
on the www.pacficfit.net Web site, and that‟s got both the
high fiber and high protein. We interviewed the guy that
designed that on the show sometime back and that‟s
something that‟s really good that I‟ll actually tell a lot of my
clients to include as a meal replacement that satiates the
appetite for a long period of time. It‟s called Living Greens
Super Fuel. Any of those types of things can also be
replicated in your blender like a VitaMix, taking a bunch of
vegetables, fruit juices – cranberry juice usually works quite
well – and blending all that together. I know a little earlier I
told you not to drink juice but if you‟re using the juice as
something to mix a ton of fiber with, then it‟s not an issue. So
go with the high fiber. Add proteins into your diet. You could
also go with nuts as well. I talked about the beans and
legumes already. If you struggle with gas while you‟re
consuming high amounts of those, soak them. I actually just
shot a video for the Rock Star Triathlete Academy on how to
make your own homemade hummus and I walked people
through the process of doing that, and one of the things that
I point out in that video was the importance if you‟re doing
this at home to soak the garbanzo beans or the chickpeas
overnight in water. That improves digestibility and then
you‟ll also want to rinse them after you boil them, which
again will improve the digestibility and give you a little less
gas. The other thing you can do is as you boil them, drop a
little bit of seaweed in there. Drop a little bit of Nori in there
and that also will reduce the amount of gas that they produce
after they‟ve been consumed. Just a little bit of pre-digestion
going on so your stomach doesn‟t have to do it. So the higher
fiber, the higher protein and then include some blood sugar
stabilizing type of compounds. Chromium is good, vanadium
is good. Both of those are in the Thermal Factor that‟s over at
Pacific Fit. I‟ll just put a link to Pacific Fit in the Shownotes.
Cinnamon is also really good. You can work in anywhere
from two to four teaspoons of cinnamon into your daily diet,
that also helps stabilize the blood sugar, satiate the appetite.
This is all stuff that I talk about in the book 100 Ways to
Boost Your Metabolism. So I‟ll put a link to that as well. Now,
the higher protein, the higher fiber – I didn‟t mean to make
that sound like a commercial but the Thermal Factor, the
100 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism and Living Greens are
also really good as well. So I‟ll link out to that stuff and that
should help you out.
Now, the next question comes from listener Eric.
Eric asks: I‟m a big proponent of weight training. I really believe you
are too, and I like your strong triathlete training guide. My
question is that most of the days I lift, I don‟t have time to
split my endurance training and my weightlifting so on an
average day I might do a hard 45 minute lift, an intense 60
minute spin class and then a five to seven mile run with
some intervals thrown in. I know I have depleted a lot of my
glycogen stores during the lift, and so this always makes
cycling and running a lot harder. But knowing the times and
paces I want to hit, I‟m able to maintain the same outcomes
as the days I didn‟t lift. So if this is the case, is it better, worse
or indifferent that I lift before all the training and on days
like this, should I be eating something during or after the
workout?
Ben answers: There have been studies done on the whole weight before
cardio, cardio before weights issue and what it boils down to
is that if your focus is strength and power, then what you
want to do is not glycogen deplete and fatigue your body
prior to weightlifting. And in a case like that you would want
to do your weightlifting and then your cardio. If your goal is
endurance training which it appears that yours is if you‟re
talking about triathlon, probably your primary competitive
goal is endurance training then you would actually want to
flip that and do your high quality cardio prior to your
strength training. Now, the issue with doing the strength
training prior to the cardio is not only that you‟re going to
deplete your carbohydrate stores before you go do your
cardio, but you do muscle damage and so you‟re exercising
damaged muscles that are in need of recovery after you
strength train. If you‟re able to rearrange your workout to do
cardio before strength, that would be ideal. So what you
would do is you would have your pre-workout meal two
hours prior or have a little snack before you head to the gym.
Do your cardio session, after your cardio session, replenish
your glycogen stores, your carbohydrate stores because that‟s
really what your body taps into while you‟re weightlifting by
eating for example a banana or an apple or an energy bar. Do
your weightlifting and then have your post-workout protein
and carbs based meal. Now, if logistically it‟s impossible for
you to actually do the cardio before the weights, do your
weightlifting and then take in your protein and carb based
meal and because you‟re going to need better digestibility,
the way that I would suggest you do that is just take in for
example a branch chain amino acid source. Roctane is an
example of a gel that has both branch chain amino acids and
carbohydrates. Recoveries is a supplement in pill form that
you could take with again like a banana, an apple, little bit of
carbohydrate. And the protein will help you with basically
the muscle cannibalization or the lack of muscle recovery
that‟s going to occur during the cardio session that you‟re
doing after your strength. So best case scenario is cardio
before weights. Next best case is do the weights, take in a
protein-carb blend and make sure that the protein is easily
digested. Chicken would not fit into that. Branch chain
amino acids in powder or capsule form are usually a really
good choice in that situation and then move on to your
cardio. And then of course have your post-workout meal and
try and get it within 20 minutes especially after a two and a
half or three hour session. I mentioned this before on the
show, but essentially you take your target body weight, you
multiply that by two calories for each pound of your target
body weight and that‟s how many carbohydrates you should
take in. And then protein would be half that. So, if you want
to be at 150 pounds, then you would take in 300 calories of
carb, 150 calories of protein 20 minutes after and then about
an hour later have your post-workout meal.
Omar asks: I have been told that I have a very nice body. This is a result
of a lot of weight training that I‟m used to doing after playing
football in college. I‟m down to 187 pounds but I can‟t seem
to shed more weight and honestly I‟d still like to have a nice
body. Is this something I‟ll have to sacrifice in order to be an
Ironman triathlete? I‟m 6‟3 so it‟s not like I‟m huge although
I do know that I have a large volume compared to most
people my size. When I get your Ironman Triathlon
Dominator program, will I be able to consult with you in
order to maintain both my goals in check?
Ben answers: You know, it is kind of an interesting deal with Ironman
training and the amount of muscle that you need. If you look
at Ironman athletes even at the pro level, they‟re always a
little bit meatier, a little bit muscular than the small, spry
sprint and Olympic distance athletes simply because muscle
does help you a little bit on a long 9, 10, 11, 12 hour day. That
muscle, that strength is something that you need a little bit
more than you need during a shorter 1 or 2 or 2 ½ hour
event. So, the muscle does help you just a little bit in the
Ironman, but yes you do know from looking around at
people that Ironman athletes a lot of times will tend to have
that gaunt marathoner type of look. And you may notice that
even muscular people tend to lose some of their muscle.
When I first started into triathlon, I was at 205, 210 pounds
of muscle hanging right around in there and now I‟m at 175
and most of my weight loss was not fat. It was muscle. Now,
it is possible to still have a lean, cut, muscular look whether
you‟re a guy or a girl if you‟re doing Ironman triathlon. But
the trick is to, as I mentioned earlier, incorporate lots of
intervals, harder intervals in your training. Not do a lot of the
long slow aerobic training, especially unfed long slow aerobic
training. Make sure that you‟re eating a healthy diet. You can
use the Holistic Meal Plan, Omar, that you‟ll get with that
Dominator plan. And then make sure that you follow the
weightlifting in there very closely. There‟s two chances to
weight lift during the week. If you follow all the rules that I
write in there, you go at the intensity that I recommend, then
you‟re going to find that you‟re actually able to maintain a
pretty nice body. And remember that your body fat is
probably going to dip a little bit as you‟re doing your
Ironman training as well which even if you drop a little bit of
muscle is going to make you look more muscular. So the way
to do it is to just not do the long slow aerobic style of
Ironman training with no weightlifting. You can combine
weightlifting, intense intervals, still do your Ironman
training and the way the Dominator plan is written, a lot of
the longer sessions are taking place towards the weekend
with a lot of shorter interval based stuff during the week.
You‟ll be fine. I would like to say that I still had a pretty nice
body when I was doing Ironman. Right now I‟m focusing on
half Ironman, but you know, you can do it. You can still look
pretty good when you‟re doing Ironman. It is possible and
I‟ve seen a lot of other guys and girls who do have nice bodies,
who don‟t look like they‟ve starved myself, who go out and do
Ironman. Now that being said, if you really want to take it to
the next level and podium, you‟re probably going to have to
get pretty gangly and you may not have the gun show that
you‟re looking for.
So the next question is from Alicio.
Alicio asks: I‟m using your Triathlon Dominator package to prep me for
Ironman. I must say for the money it is a steal and extremely
useful program. I‟ve used many plans before but nothing
comes close to what is included in your package. (So, thank
you.) I also love the Web site as it has lots of great
information and secret tips. (That‟s awesome Alicio, thanks.)
My question about the package are regarding your heart rate
zones and workouts in these zones. When I compare your
zones to other programs, they seem a bit higher. Because of
this, it seems that there is a lot of Zone 3 work from which I
understand leads to mediocre racing or injury. Do you have
any thoughts or perspectives as to why or what the intent is
behind training in Zone 3 under your program?
Ben answers: You know, the whole Zone 3 training being bad for you idea I
think initiated from Joe Friel‟s Triathlon Training Bible, and
in that he indicated that Zone 3 training was at a high
enough intensity to deplete your muscle‟s carbohydrate
stores but it wasn‟t at a high enough intensity to give you a
good fitness response. The issue with that is that if you look
at Zone 3 and I‟ve studied this in the lab, most of the Zone 3
calculations put Zone 3 right smack dab at the peak of fat
oxidation, which is the money zone for an Ironman triathlon.
Zone 3 should be the zone that you‟re in during the bike and
really the majority of the run up until about the 20 mile mark.
And so my question is if you‟re going to race in that zone
then why wouldn‟t you be doing some training in that zone?
Versus doing all aerobic training and all interval based
training? Because of that, that‟s why I put that into the
Dominator Program and that‟s what really differentiates it
from a lot of programs that I‟ve seen, is a typical workout for
you like in your base training – rather than doing a four hour
Zone 2 aerobic bike ride, you might do 90 to 100 minutes
smack dab right at Zone 3 at peak fat oxidation. And so,
you‟re literally throwing down a workout that‟s exactly in the
zone that you‟re going to be doing your Ironman training in.
Now that being said, yeah if you‟re going out and you‟re
always at – Zone 3 feels like about 70, 75% but if you‟re going
out and all your runs are at 70, 75% and all your swims are
just at that mid-distance or mid-intensity pace and all your
bikes are there, then you‟re just training yourself to be kind
of a ho-hum medium paced athlete. But if you combine a few
solid focused Zone 3 sessions – Zone 3 especially key
workouts like a key Zone 3 bike, run and swim and then you
supplement that with easier Zone 2 recovery workouts and
then Zone 4, Zone 5 and Zone 6 high interval based workouts,
that‟s an ideal program. So the idea behind eliminating Zone
3 is that it‟s not intelligent – at least that‟s my perspective of
it as a coach and as a physiologist because you‟re avoiding
the zone that you‟re going to be racing in. Now, for those of
you who really don‟t understand zones, essentially the way
that you get a zone is – and this is the way I do it in the
Dominator plan – you go out and test either with power on
your bike or heart rate on your run or your bike and your
swim is pace-based – and based on that test, you have zones
that are set up according to your heart rate or your speed. So
if you go out and you test and your heart rate is at 175 and
you follow the test instructions, then essentially Zone 1 might
be 130, Zone 2 might be 136 to 140, Zone 3 might be 140 to
150, Zone 4 might be 160 up to 170, Zone 5 would be 175 plus,
Zone 6 would be max, etc. So that‟s the idea behind the zone
training. But good question, Omar. Or I‟m sorry, Alicio.
Omar was the first question. You guys are coming at me with
these unique names. At least for America.
Chuck asks: As a triathlete, would it make me faster overall to get
stronger especially in the disciplines that I need a lot of
muscle recruitment like the bike and the swim? I‟ve been
doing pretty hard lifting sessions three to four times a week
but how can I actually put on muscle while training at half
Ironman distance volume and can this muscle and weight
actually be beneficial in getting me faster, not slowing me
down?
Ben answers: This is kind of interesting because it relates a little bit to
Omar‟s question about maintaining muscle and having a nice
body. The idea is that maintaining the muscle and having a
nice body is not going to make you faster. Getting stronger is
not going to make you faster. There‟s no research to show
that strength training actually makes people run or bike or
swim faster. Now, power training – plyometric training,
doing lighter loads and lifting them very quickly – that can
make you faster. However, doing the strength training – the
benefit of that would be of course as we talked about earlier,
being able to maintain a nice body if that‟s what you want to
do but also being able to strengthen the joints and the
ligaments and support the things that you‟re working in
chronic repetitive motion so that you avoid injury. Whenever
I‟m doing strength training I get injured far less and if I‟m
doing an intelligent strength training program, I barely get
injured at all. Especially in the rotator cuff and the knees –
two areas that a lot of triathletes tend to have problems in.
So the reason for strength training would be for injury
prevention and based on that, there‟s really no need for you
to be going more than two times a week if you‟re doing about
45 to 60 minutes and more than three times a week if you‟re
doing a shorter 20 to 30 minute session and I really wouldn‟t
recommend you be spending a lot more time than that in the
gym unless you have something that really needs focused
work like a rotator cuff issue, a core strength issue and that‟s
a case where I would put an athlete in the gym just a little bit
more to do targeted sessions that focus on that weak spot.
And then as soon as that weak spot catches up, back off that
volume, taper that weight volume so they can focus more on
the swimming, the biking and the running. So ultimately
getting stronger won‟t make you faster but it can help you
reduce your risk of injury.
And we have a question here from Kevin. Kind of a long
question but it‟s our last one before we move on to the
interview with Dr. Cohen.
Kevin asks: I‟m a 47 year old male. Ran my first marathon in the early
80s and over the years have competed in ultras, runs, long
distance swimming and triathlon. I‟m 5‟9 and weigh 150
pounds. Back in the late 70s and 80s, we used to follow a
strict carb load diet prior to an endurance event which
included two days of no carbs followed by three days of carb
overload. In those days, there were no gels and sports drinks.
Water tables in races included water and pop. I primarily
drank water and on occasion watered-down Coke. What did
we know? We ate raisins instead of gels on long runs,
sometimes bananas and even had chocolate in the very long
events. Then along came Dave Allan who believed in -- (I
wonder if you mean Dave Scott. I‟ve never heard of Dave
Allan, but I could be off. Maybe you‟re mixing up Mark Allan
and Dave Scott, but either way…) – then along came Dave
Allan who believed in using body fat for endurance events
with a theory of training at a low heart rate to encourage the
body to use fat as opposed to carbs for fuel. Interestingly, I
recently read in a runner‟s magazine two articles both in the
same magazine. One covered the carb load and the other
dealt with runners that rely on fat for fuel. The no-carb
runner does not train with gels or sports drinks and just uses
water. The thought being that as the run progresses, they get
stronger compared to other runners who rely on
carbohydrates for fuel. What is your opinion on what works
best? Have you ever tried to train your body to use fat as
opposed to carbohydrate as a fuel?
Ben answers: Great question Kevin, kind of opens up a big can of worms.
Should you go out and train with no carbohydrates so that
your body becomes more efficient at burning fat? Well, first
of all let‟s split this into a couple of camps. We have the
people who are trying to lose fat and then we have the people
who are trying to get fast, trying to do endurance exercise.
For the people who are trying to lose fat, what it comes down
to is that laboratory studies have shown that if you don‟t eat
anything during a long primarily aerobic training session,
your body actually tends to slow its metabolism during that
session and also shuts down the post-exercise metabolic rate
resulting in you getting subpar results compared to if you
fueled that long training session and then engaged in your
caloric restriction outside of that session. So from a pure
weight loss perspective, going out and doing long, starved
sessions is not doing you any favors unless that session is no
longer than about 60 minutes. So an easy aerobic session
after an overnight fast is fine. Going out and doing a two or
three hour ultra running type of workout would not be a
good way to go. Now, if you‟re an endurance athlete here‟s
the deal. Research has shown that if you exercise in a
glycogen depleted state, your body can actually get stressed
out to the extent that it has a stronger fitness response
because the workout – essentially you‟re artificially making
that workout harder by exercising in a glycogen depleted
state and assuming that you take care of your body
afterwards and refuel and recover properly, you can have
blood markers that indicate that you‟ve had a better fitness
response to that workout. However, the question is can you
actually push yourself at a fast pace, at a race pace when you
are training in a glycogen depleted state? And the answer to
that is unless you‟re training for an event that is an ultra
event like a very long bike ride – we‟re talking about racing
across America type of distances, 500 miles up around there
or up to the thousands of miles mark – if you‟re training for a
very long run, the 50 mile, 100 mile events – then yeah, it
would be a slow enough pace where it‟s really not going to
matter if you‟re burning carbs or doing the beta oxidation of
the fat as long as you‟re maintain enough sugar to keep you
awake and keep your brain going. However, the practice of
not eating carbohydrates during workouts for athletes who
are wanting to compete in pretty much like Ironman athletes
on down is really not all that smart because you‟re going to
be essentially engaging in fat burning which results in your
body being able to work out or having to work out at a slower
pace. No matter what, when you‟re burning fat you just have
to go slower. The body does not engage in beta oxidation or
fat burning at a rapid enough rate for you to be moving fast.
So, a long unfed session every now and again just to basically
make you stronger as an athlete mentally – that‟s okay. If
you‟re trying to cannibalize lean muscle, shed weight and if
that‟s truly your goal to cannibalize lean muscle, that‟s okay.
I did it a little bit when I was coming down off bodybuilding
and I knew I had to lose some muscle to be a faster triathlete.
And if you are training for an ultra distance event then that‟s
okay. Otherwise I would make sure that you fuel your
training sessions and engage in your caloric restriction
outside of the training session. So I hope that makes sense.
Hopefully that wasn‟t too convoluted a response. But, if you
have follow up questions to any of these topics that I just
covered then leave it as a comment in the Shownotes and we
can generate a discussion around it. Now, the top question of
this week – because I really did think it was an interesting
question and the person who‟s going to win a free month‟s
membership to the Body Transformation Club is Kevin. The
question I just answered, because I thought it was very
interesting. So Kevin, shoot me an email and I‟ll hook you up
with a free month‟s membership to my Body Transformation
Club. You‟ll get a postcard from me every week with fitness
tips, nutrition tips and access to a secret video page where I
shoot videos for you, put up recipes for you and really help
you along your health and fitness journey.
So, we‟re going to move on to this week‟s interview with Dr.
Richard Cohen.
Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield. I‟m here with
Dr. Richard Cohen from Bioletics. And if you‟ve heard
podcast number 53, number 64 or if you‟ve just been to
www.bengreenfieldfitness.com, and done a search for “Dr.
Cohen” or for Bioletics, you are missing out on a ton of
fantastic information on the internal performance factors
that are just as important as things like a new pair of shoes
or decreasing weight on your bike and as many of you know,
I‟ve been using a protocol from Bioletics in my own training,
in my racing and seeing some fantastic results. But I was on
the Bioletics Web site and it‟s actually a fantastic Web site
over at www.bioletics.com and I noticed that they actually
have a new assessment there called glycohemoglobin.
Dr. Richard Cohen: Glycohemoglobin.
Ben: There we go. Glycohemoglobin blood glucose. And at first I
thought that this was just a normal blood glucose
measurement but apparently it‟s not so I wanted to get Dr.
Cohen on to explain to you what it is and why you should
even care about it. So, what is the glycohemoglobin blood
glucose and is there a shorter term that I can use for it so I
don‟t have to say it over and over again?
Dr. Richard Cohen: Well I mean some people call it hemoglobin A1C. And we can
call it A1C.
Ben: A1C, I‟ve actually heard of. So that makes sense.
Dr. Richard Cohen: A1C. So let me tell you what it is, glycohemoglobin is glycated
hemoglobin and by glycated, it‟s almost – the analogy is
when proteins become exposed to sugars they brown. So
you‟ll see browning in bread. It‟s actually the proteins
changing its structure. So what happens in our body is the
sugars – the glucose specifically – in our body binds with
protein and that‟s really not a good thing. In fact, it‟s one of
the components of aging and illness, is the structural
changes in protein. Glucose is damaging and that‟s really the
key component to think about. It is a toxic substance and our
body has a very specific way of trying to keep those levels as
low as possible. But also to provide the necessary energy that
we need to survive. As the sugars in our blood, it actually
binds with hemoglobin. Hemoglobin has proteins in it and
this marker called glycated or glycohemoglobin. Basically in
the most simplistic terms, it gives us a sense of the average
amount of blood sugar that we‟ve had over the past three
months. And that‟s specifically what it tells us, is what our
average blood sugar has been for three months.
Ben: So it‟s not just like a snapshot of your blood glucose levels,
but it basically tells you how good of a job you‟ve been doing
at monitoring your blood glucose levels?
Dr. Richard Cohen: Right, well yeah. Maybe monitoring -- typically if most
people are aware of it, if you‟re in the medical or health field
you‟ll think of diabetes and that‟s what it‟s traditionally been
used for is to sort of get a snapshot of what a diabetic‟s blood
sugar has been over the past three months and if the
percentage of glycated hemoglobin is over 7 to 8%, you say
no either job is not good enough. The blood sugars are high
and like I said before blood sugar is toxic to the body,
especially the higher it goes, the more risk you are at. Where
if you check individual blood sugars, you‟re hitting and
missing and you don‟t know depending on what you ate, did
you exercise afterwards or what‟s someone‟s ability to handle
sugar. So this three month snapshot from the medical
perspective tells us if the sugars are too high. So, why I added
it to the performance. I guess we know we do… we‟ve talked
about the plasma amino acids and we‟ve talked about the
essential fatty acids.
Ben: So, if people want to go back and listen to previous podcasts
they can hear about those.
Dr. Richard Cohen: Right. So we have a way of assessing the body‟s ability but
basically capacity to produce structural proteins from amino
acids and essential fatty acids with regards to the immune
response. I really was looking for a way to determine how
well people are handling blood sugar issues. And what this
tells us and it‟s an interesting way to look at this is like we
said blood sugar of glucose is toxic. Fortunately, a lot of
athletes – and it‟s the one saving grace – when you are
physically active you burn up your glucose stores which is
something called glycogen. So a lot of times athletes can get
away with eating a lot of carbohydrates and not put on
weight. So you tend to think and that‟s sort of where the
whole carbohydrate loading issue has gotten in and people
and athletes using a lot of carbohydrates for energy and then
burning up and saying “Am I really doing the right thing?” I
think even recently you‟ve talked about that in a previous
podcast. We‟re learning that lots of carbohydrates really are
not the ideal energy source for most people. So what I
wanted to see was an ability – let me backtrack – so while we
can burn up the carbohydrates and the glucose with our
physical activity, it is a stress on the body. It‟s a metabolic
stress on the body. It‟s a hormonal stress on the body. And
we do in Bioletics, we do evaluate everyone‟s metabolic fuel
needs. But I wanted a marker to get a sense of where and
how well people are tolerating their carbohydrate load.
Because they may feel like they‟re doing fine and they may
even be performing okay. But if we take a snapshot of their
glycohemoglobin and it‟s sitting in the mid fives, to me it‟s a
sense of a metabolic stress on their body. Ideally, so we
talked about diabetics being around 7%, glycated. A healthy
person should really sit under 5 or even 4 ½. In that case we
know their metabolism is really right on. They‟re handling
their insulin, they‟re processing their sugar. They‟re not
dealing with high bursts of sugar on a regular basis. So our
body only – let‟s go back here, what that can mean. In the
perfect world, you might eat a meal and then check your
blood sugar an hour afterwards. It would tell you how well
your body is able to handle that blood sugar load and with
people with cardiovascular issues and problems, in some
ways it‟s a very powerful tool because sugar affects your lipid
levels and it changes them to the more damaging type of
cholesterol and it causes swings in blood sugar and can affect
your mood and energy levels. But obviously that‟s not very
practical and realistic for a generally healthy person. He‟s not
going crazy and monitoring themselves. So what we‟re able
to do is get a sense of on average – is a person overloading
themselves with carbohydrate? Are they able to process the
carbohydrates effectively to use them for energy as well as
storing them for body fat? So, someone is carrying too much
bodyweight, that glycohemoglobin is going to be a tell-tale
sign. If it‟s sitting in the fives, you know you‟re eating too
many carbohydrates for your own body‟s metabolism. Does
that make sense?
Ben: Yeah, absolutely. And do the type of carbohydrates affect the
A1C, for example if I‟m eating more sweet potatoes than
bread, does the gluten content affect things? Does the grain
content affect things?
Dr. Richard Cohen: Yes and no. It‟s really all going to vary and ultimately if
someone has a problem, if their glycohemoglobin is coming
in five or six, especially for (inaudible) person, we then
would need to go back and say you know what? It might be
worth you taking a look at some of your meals that you think
you have nailed, that you think are right for you and then you
might want to check a blood sugar an hour later. Just a
simple little finger stick and that will give you your clue. So
it‟s kind of hard to say. For the most part, glutinous grains
are worse. Processed food, sugars, alcohol is going to give
you the worst response. But some people individually –
sweet potatoes could be a problem. Typically you‟d want to
see a fasting sugar which could vary – I‟m sorry, not a fasting
sugar, pre-meal sugar should sit around 75 or so, 70 even.
But if you eat a meal and you‟re shooting up to 140 whatever
that meal is, even if “it‟s a healthy meal” that load is too
much for your body so it also plays a role of what types of
food and what the quantity of food is. The healthier the more
metabolically balanced, the better your vitamin D is, the
better your central fats are, the thinner you are – or leaner
would be a better word – the leaner you are so your muscles
and the receptors in the muscles are more active and more
sensitive to insulin which drives glucose in to the cells, the
less you‟re going to be at risk. But as you start to get older
and some of these other systems start to down-regulate and
as you have deficiencies in those other critical nutrients we
took a look at, this is something that ultimately could do you
in weight wise and metabolically wise as well.
Ben: So, this would be for people who are not just trying to say,
lose weight, but also people who are concerned about their
metabolic efficiency?
Dr. Richard Cohen: Absolutely. Your ability to process the carbohydrates for
energy and then what that load is on your system, and that‟s
why I put it in there so it really gives us now a way to look at
proteins, fats and carbohydrates. A screen, a snapshot of how
well your body is processing fuel for energy and how well it‟s
utilizing this fuel to create the key factors in your system and
ultimately performance – it‟s going to allow you and it‟s
another cornerstone for me to sort of say to someone hey you
know what, if you‟re still following the old carbohydrate load
or eat carbohydrates as an endurance athlete and your
glycohemoglobin is sitting in these upper fives, low sixes and
you‟re a little bit healthy – it‟s like the proof is in the pudding
there. Even besides if we would do a metabolic fuel
assessment and they‟d come back – someone who really
needs to eat more protein and vegetables – but it‟s been
honed in so many people for so long to eat lots of
carbohydrates as an endurance athlete and I think that‟s
starting to – things are finally starting to fall.
Ben: And the interesting thing about this test is you can kind of
tell if people have been honest too, right?
Dr. Richard Cohen: Oh absolutely. From the diabetic – from the traditional
doctor – you could tell if they‟re cheating. So it gives a
sense… and this is not cheating. It‟s ultimately how your
body is handling it and the lower it is, whatever the fuel that
you‟re taking, the lower it is it says to me that your body is
that much more efficient. It‟s that much more efficient at
processing fuel for energy. I‟m not saying just go eat proteins
and fats and not eat carbohydrates but if you‟re active and
you‟re processing things well and your energy is good, that
should be in the fours. Otherwise, something‟s off
metabolically or you‟re just eating more than your body
needs with regard to carbohydrate load. Or carbohydrate on
a daily basis. So it‟s a nice little reminder and from a health
perspective as I mentioned briefly before, that
glycohemoglobin or the high sugars relate to triglycerides,
they relate to healthier lipoproteins and unhealthier
lipoproteins and so forth, so it is kind of a powerful first
screen on your overall health status as well.
Ben: So walk me through the steps where somebody would
actually – how does it work logistically? Is this blood? Saliva?
Urine?
Dr. Richard Cohen: Yeah, it‟s another blood stick. So, actually we‟re using the
same lab that we‟ve used for the vitamin D. So if I‟m on the
initial assessment, it‟s really just another drop of blood in the
process. If someone‟s done a vitamin D or they‟re not doing
one concurrently, it‟s just two drops of blood.
Ben: Now, if someone „s A1C levels turn out to be high after
they‟re tested, what can they do about it?
Dr. Richard Cohen: Most importantly is take a look at how you‟re fueling yourself.
Most likely they‟re eating too many carbohydrates for their
metabolic needs. So it‟s going to be reducing those specially
major offending substances and then finding out where that
happy balance point is and like I said earlier… concurrently
though trying to see what else is imbalanced, out of balance
so typically essential fatty acids and vitamin D are going to
be a problem for people with carbohydrate intolerance.
Ben: Gotcha. Okay so basically people get this test sent to their
home, it‟s a blood stick test. You test A1C and then you guys
send the results back. How long does it take if I get this test
where I‟m actually getting it, doing the blood stick and then
sending it back to you guys?
Dr. Richard Cohen: One week. So it‟s pretty quick. It‟ll just give you a snapshot of
where you are with how you‟re fueling yourself and then
allow you – ultimately then if someone hasn‟t done it, they
probably want to say hey what are my metabolic nutritional
needs? What‟s my blood type? We‟ve talked about am I
someone who is closer to an Eskimo than an Asian and
obviously the typical American diet is very carbohydrate
laden or like I said if you‟re following a higher carbohydrate
diet because you‟re an endurance athlete, you need to re-
evaluate that. The simple analogy that I always use with my
patients is think about a fire. If you want to start a fire and
you know how the carbohydrates are the newspaper and
paper that you stuff in there. They‟re really hot by they don‟t
last very long. You need some of the carbohydrates though to
get the wood burning and the wood is in essence your fat. Fat
provides two to three… it‟s 9 calories per gram and
carbohydrates are 4, so two and a half times… almost two
and a half times the energy per gram. That‟s actually based
on how your body metabolizes it, it‟s probably even more
than that. So think of carbohydrates as to start that fire but
it‟s really your fat stores that are going to give you the long
lasting energy. So if you‟re someone who‟s existing on low fat,
high carbohydrate it‟s sort of like burning a fire with sticks.
You got to keep feeding that fire to keep the energy going
where ideally your body should utilize its fat stores and have
a little bit of carbohydrate to get the process going. It‟s funny,
ironically, a couple of weeks ago I was in Marin, we were in
Headlands and there was an ultra marathon there and I ran
into (Udo Erasmus) down there. We had a great, great chat.
Ben: For those people listening in and don‟t know who Udo
Erasmus is, he‟s the guy that‟s the inventor of the Omega 369
Oil, right? And author of Good Fats, Bad Fats.
Dr. Richard Cohen: Correct. A pioneer in the field of fatty acid metabolism and
health. They‟ve gotten to the point using their 369 oil, having
athletes use that – actually carbohydrate deplete a little bit
and using the 369 oils to fuel themselves and this is not for
everyone. Depending on… we talked a little bit about
individual needs but the majority actually find that much
more beneficial because they‟re sort of like throwing a thick
log onto a fire as opposed to using the sticks. So something I
wouldn‟t recommend you going out and trying right away
but it‟s just fuel for thought and the fact that maybe we‟ve
missed the boat a little bit on how to fuel ourselves. So that‟s
the easiest way to think about fats and carbohydrates. Fats
really are our primary fuel, much more effective. So if you‟re
someone who – and one way to just get a sense for yourself is
if you find yourself hungry frequently all through the day and
sort of nibbling on carbohydrates and snacks – your body is
not efficiently using fuel. So, not even the person who gets
low blood sugar type symptoms and they have to eat all the
time, but if you can‟t make it five, six hours without needing
something, your body is not as efficient as it needs to be.
Ben: Interesting. Now as far as the glycohemoglobin A1C test,
people should basically at this point thinking of that as kind
of like the next – not the next best thing but really the next
wave in terms of science as far as measuring the effectiveness
of your body and metabolizing blood glucose and also the
levels of blood sugar fluctuation. That‟s kind of what it boils
down to.
Dr. Richard Cohen: Right, this is an old marker. It‟s been around a while. It‟s just
now available by finger stick but it‟s a way – and what we‟re
trying to do is take some of these markers which are used for
disease and sort of turn them around so we‟re using them for
health. How do they tell us how we can fine-tune our body?
Because we‟re not just trying to avoid disease. We‟re trying to
understand how we can perform and live at our best. If
you‟re interested in your health, it‟s using these simple
markers as guideposts to determine what you need to do. It‟s
not the latest book. It‟s not the latest story. You use your
body as feedback. So just as we were talking for some person,
a particular meal may be just fine but for the other person
it‟s not. And it‟s going to affect their blood sugar. It‟s going to
affect their metabolism and unless you have some way of
monitoring it with the focus on optimal health so the sense is
if you came in with a glycohemoglobin of 5 ½ to your doctor
– someone came in to me when I was in more medically
oriented practice – Great, you‟re doing fine. But with a sort
of different set of glasses on, if we‟re really trying to finely
tune our body to perform, you‟re not doing fine. You could be
doing a lot better and those small tweaks make all the world
of difference in your body utilizing energy and it‟s just that
little bit of difference with vitamin D or essential fats or your
metabolism of sugar which can make all the difference in
your performance. I‟m trying to get that across to people how
powerful small little changes – and for some people dramatic
changes with these key factors – can be for their health and
performance and so if you‟re not recovering well, your
performance is not improving with training, look into your
body. It‟s really straightforward. It‟s just a different way. It‟s
something new. We haven‟t looked at performance with our
body and I think you‟ve seen a difference. I have yet to see
one person not feel better.
Ben: Yeah. I completely agree. I got a lot of my athletes doing very
well with the protocol from Bioletics and I want to thank you
Dr. Cohen for giving your time to come on the show and
explain that new A1C test and I hope that people – especially
people that are concerned about blood sugar management
and about performance – are going to look into that. So,
until next time… oh go ahead.
Dr. Richard Cohen: Yeah. I guess the point is it‟s something we‟ve spoken about.
If you‟ve looked at the Bioletics, there are ways… just take a
step at a time. It‟s not overwhelming to yourself. It‟s just to
understand individual key factors whether it‟s a vitamin D or
whether it‟s your blood sugar. Take one step at a time and
that‟s going to be your greatest advantage.
Ben: Fantastic. This is Ben Greenfield and Dr. Cohen, thanks for
coming on Dr. Cohen.
Dr. Richard Cohen: Appreciate it Ben.
Ben: Alright, bye.
Now for those of you who really enjoyed that interview with
Dr. Cohen and want to hear more from him, we‟re actually
going to have Dr. Cohen on for a live Q and A over at the
Rock Star Triathlete Academy and he‟s going to be giving all
the attendees to the Q and A a coupon for a $20 discount off
their new performance health profile as well as a brand new
booklet that he‟s completed on internal performance factors
for athletes. So if you‟re a triathlete and you really want to
get some one on one with Dr. Cohen and ask him some
questions, engage in discussion with him, then make sure
that you get into the Rock Star Triathlete Academy before
June 9th which is when that interview is going to be. It‟s
going to be on Wednesday June 9th. So check that out. Now,
in addition, anything that I talked about today you can access
in the Shownotes to podcast episode 96 including a link to
the new Get Fit Guy podcast, a link to the Body
Transformation Club and the Summer Body Challenge and a
link to those Training Peaks meal plans and training plans
that I talked to you about including the vegan meal plan.
That would be perfect for someone who is wanting to try out
a vegan diet and see what it‟s actually like. It‟s about 12
weeks of vegan style eating. Now if you like this podcast,
please do me a quick favor. Go to iTunes. Do a search for Ben
Greenfield and leave the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show a
ranking in iTunes. That really helps the show out. You can
also leave a comment if you like. So until next time this is
Ben Greenfield finally waking up. I think that decaf coffee is
hitting my system and I will be back with another podcast for
you next week from www.bengreenfieldfitness.com. Have a
great week.
For personal nutrition, fitness or triathlon consulting, supplements, books or DVD’s
from Ben Greenfield, please visit Pacific Elite Fitness at
http://www.pacificfit.net