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From several readers: You mentioned that coffee is a diuretic and can inhibit the absorption of some vitamins and minerals? Can you elaborate on this?
Thanks for the question Mike. Coffee is indeed a diuretic, but a very mild one at best. The story that coffee make you dehydrated has been completely blown out of proportion. When you drink coffee, you do urinate at an increased rate. Have you ever noticed the same thing after drinking beer? Water? Yep, they’re all liquids, and liquids make you pee. I dug a bit deeper into this question and most research seems to suggest that only heavy doses (500-600 mg+) have any diuretic effect, and that caffeinated beverages should indeed count towards your water intake for the day. Water is still the best choice, but as always, I encourage people to drink coffee because the benefits far outweight the risks.
With that being said, caffeine has been shown to increase the excretion of existing calcium from the body; research has not shown that caffeine inhibits the absorption of calcium, but it would likely be unwise to take a calcium supplement with a cup of coffee. Water-soluble vitamins (B-vitamins and vitamin C) can easily be excreted if consumed with an excessive amount of any liquid; these vitamins should be taken with food. As I mentioned in one of my Supplements 101 posts, multivitamins should be taken with food for this purpose. Some minerals, like magnesium, should be taken on an empty stomach with minimal water. I just put together that calcium is excreted in the presence of coffee and that magnesium and calcium are good to supplement together- so if you supplement with these, take them together, several times daily, on an empty stomach, and not within an hour of drinking coffee.
In the end, the main thing is that you make an effort to eat a variety of unprocessed foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals. Supplements should then be taken according to the research that has been done on their absorption rates with or without food, and taken in the absence of any possible inhibiting substances. If you have a question regarding a more specific supplement, please don’t hesitate to let me know and I’ll give you my recommendation!
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From Sam in Quebec: I’ve been reading through your blog and this is the only place that I’ve ever heard you should skip breakfast. Don’t you need to eat first thing in the morning to get your metabolism going?
Ah, the breakfast question. Thanks Sam, I love talking about this.
Sam is of course referring to a few of my previous posts: Skipping breakfast, How to capitalize on skipping breakfast, and More reason to skip breakfast. Here is my opinion on the subject:
I cannot argue with anyone who eats a clean, natural diet and chooses to eat breakfast. If you don’t consume sugar or processed foods, odds are that you are extremely healthy and don’t have to worry about your weight. However, most people are looking for strategies to burn more body fat, and are more likely to implement strategies if they are easy to tackle. Skipping breakfast is an effective and simple way to burn body fat. Why?
- Unless you are an extremely active person in the morning (an athlete, construction worker, etc) there is absolutely no reason to consume carbohydrates in the morning. Your body has plenty of fat and glycogen stores for energy from the night before. You won’t waste away, I promise.
- When you sleep for multiple hours, your body has no food to breakdown for energy. Hormonally, your body begins to break down body fat instead. When you wake up, this is the state you are in. If you eat, you immediately stop burning fat and starting burning food for fuel, and store any extra food as fat. Double-negative.
- If instead you wake up and drink a coffee, this will boost your metabolism and keep you in an elevated fat-burning mode. Adding coconut oil to your coffee is a great choice as well, because this type of fat is used immediately for energy and will not be stored (so if energy is your concern, do this!)
- Your hormonal and fat-burning peaks will have peaked 2-3 hours after you wake up, and at this time it is best to continue to avoid carbohydrates (you don’t want a huge insulin spike). A small amount of unprocessed carbs should be fine, in combination with lean protein and healthy fats, but avoid sugar!
- As with any type of intermittent fasting (not eating breakfast will mean that you will likely go 10-14 hours without eating) you need to make sure that you use your remaining hours of the day to eat enough calories, and you will want to make sure that your diet is nutrient-rich (lots of veggies and natural protein and fat sources)
Once you are no longer concerned about fat-burning, you can eat breakfast all you want- but I will never agree that it is necessary for anyone to consume carbs in the morning unless they have an extremely active morning planned (even, and especially, for kids: http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/3594.html). Eating first thing in the morning will get your metabolism going, but in the wrong direction. If you want to get your metabolism going, wake up, have a coffee, and go do some exercise!
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From several readers: Do I need to get fat in order to build muscle?
I love this question- and thank you to those that asked!
The answer is no, you absolute do not have to get fat in order to build muscle. Is it easier to gain strength and size if you are completely unconcerned with adding body fat? Arguably yes. This is the approach that I took for several years when I started lifting weights. I would eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and was simply happy if I continued to get bigger and stronger. Eventually though (most notably after I turned 25 and my metabolism started to drop off), I ended up looking like a muscular milk bag:
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Here’s the skinny: In order to get larger, stronger muscles, you have to exercise properly and eat more food. If your workout program isn’t properly structured or executed, your muscles will not adapt. If you are eating the wrong kind of foods, you will add body fat, and your muscles will not grow if they are not receiving adequate nutrients. Sleep and stress are other factors that can determine the amount of body fat you store and the amount of muscle you build (too much cortisol, which is brought on by stress and lack of sleep, is the major culprit here). In all honesty, it takes a lot of discipline and effort to build muscle and stay lean. but if this is your main priority in life, it is extremely achievable. The rules to follow?:
- Eat lean meat, lots of veggies and healthy fats
- No processed junk food (the sole exception being immediately post-workout, but you cannot make a habit of this and expect to stay lean)
- Limit carbohydrate intake on non-training days
- On training days, eat the majority of your carbohydrates within 2-3 hours post-workout ***You NEED carbohydrates post-workout to build muscle, end of story
- Drink 3-4 liters of water per day
- Get minimum 6 hours of sleep every night. 8-10 is optimal.
- Do your best to limit stress; try not to get worked-up over the little things in life!
- Pay an expert to make you a workout program; this same person should also be available to you for questions, motivation and if possible to assist you at the gym; again, a poor workout plan or poor execution will prevent you from reaching your goals
If you follow these rules, I can pretty much guarantee that you will gain muscle without gaining fat. As I mentioned above, this goal will almost certainly have to become the number one priority in your life, but the results are achievable.
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That’s all for this edition of ‘Ask a Certified Nobody’. I’d like to thank everyone for their questions and encourage my readers to keep’em coming! Again, I’d love to hear from my international readers as the majority of my questions continue to come from my local Canadians (who I love dearly)!
I can be reached at fitinafatworld@gmail.com, via Twitter @FitinaFATworld, or via message on my Fit in a FAT World Facebook page! Hope to hear from you soon!
- DW
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