If you have plans to develop a six-pack before the beach weather rolls around, you might want to listen to fitness and wellness expert, Dr. Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS, also known as “The Rogue Nutritionist” – I bet you never thought nutritionists could sound cool! Bowden holds a master’s degree in psychology and has written nine books on wellbeing, food, and longevity, including The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth and Living Low Carb. We spoke to him about his new book, and asked him how to get a six-pack in time for summer.
According to Bowden, ‘My book The Great Cholesterol Myth is all about how dietary recommendations over the past 30 years to lower animal fat, reduce saturated fat, and stock up on grains and high-carbohydrate foods is all bulls**t. There are so many misconceptions about what we need to do to get lean and healthy, about what we should or shouldn’t be eating, that I never take it at face value when someone says that they “eat healthy.” People are clueless.’ With that in mind, Bowden showed us a few unconventional and lesser-known approaches to getting in shape for the summer.
1. Train on an Empty Stomach: Bowden details, ‘In the olden days of Gold’s Gym at MuscleBeach, guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu, and Frank Zane would never eat before they worked out. They weren’t masters of physiology, but they said “You’ll burn more fat.” and they were right! The best time to work out when you’re trying to burn fat is in the morning after you’ve fasted all night when blood sugar is kind of low. Why load up on glucose and carbs and then just burn that when working out?’
2. Don’t Eat Immediately After a Workout: ‘There’s a compensatory mechanism where we get hungry and then overeat because we think, psychologically, that since we worked out that we can afford extra calories,’ says Bowden. ‘Then we miscalculate and go into a calorie overload. [But] to lose body fat and keep the muscle you have, it might be better not to eat after workout to allow your body to break open fat cells to use for repair and energy … instead of adding more fuel. I know the classic argument: “But you have to replenish your glycogen storage!” There are 1,800 calories in your glycogen storage. Do you know how many hours you have to workout to burn those 1,800 calories? Most people don’t have to worry about that. If you have a great metabolism, no insulin resistance, and your carbohydrate metabolism is okay, sugar after a workout is fine. But 99% of the people with whom I have interacted with aren’t in that category. For those people, eating sugar afterwards is a bad thing to do.’
3. Don’t Shun Saturated Fats: Bowden explains, ‘Cavemen didn’t eat low-fat bison; they ate what they could hunt, fish, gather, or pluck. So if you eat foods like eggs, coconut, or grass-fed beef, you’ll be getting plenty of fat in your diet. Don’t add more [saturated fat] to your diet, just don’t avoid foods it’s naturally found in.’
4. Revisit Your Refined Carb Intake: ‘People who say, “Don’t eat saturated fat! Don’t eat meat! Eat lots of carbs!” are wrong … and they’re literally instructing you to turn on an insulin fountain,’ warns Bowden. ‘The hormone insulin is what drives weight gain. Carbs have the strongest and most direct affect on insulin; protein has a minor effect on insulin; and fat has zero effect on insulin. So we’ve come up with dietary recommendations that make 65% of our diet the things that raise the fat storage hormone! We took all of that good fat that had a neutral effect on insulin—the fat storage hormone—and replaced it with bulls**t sugar, grains, and high-carb food that we think are healthy but really aren’t.’