K-Squared Bombs, Episode 1

I’ve read some interesting articles lately making liberal reference to the term “K-Bombs.” Judging by the content of these pieces, I naturally thought this stood for krock-of-shit bombs—which would be highly appropriate but for the fact that crock is spelled with a ‘c,’ and not a ‘k.’ I did a little more research on this terminology, and I discovered that a K-Bomb is a “knowledge bomb.”

I checked the calendar, and it wasn’t April Fool’s Day—which surprised me, because when so-called “authors” recycle and reuse the sort of anecdotal garbage I was reading, then attempt to pedal it as actual knowledge, I’m always looking around for hidden cameras. The joke has to be on us, right?

With that said, I thought I’d ante-up with some Friday K-Squared-Bombs, where you can think of the K-Squared as a Kiefer-Knowledge Bomb. Or Knowledge-Squared—because it’s essentially the same thing.

 

1.   Ketosis and Ketogenesis Are Different.

People often confuse these two terms and their meanings. Ketogenesis occurs whenever your body makes ketones from fat[1]. This is a normal, daily process. When you first wake up in the morning, you’re ketogenic. When you exercise, you’re ketogenic and during long fasts—or, more specifically, for long periods without carbs in your diet—you’re ketogenic[2-12]. Your body makes ketones. This means you’re ketogenic. We’re all ketogenic at least once during a normal day (during the nighttime fast).

Ketosis, in contrast, is the abnormal situation where your body produces more ketones than it uses, and excretes them through urine, sweat, and feces. Not everyone goes through ketosis, and it’s actually an unreliable way to tell whether you’re burning fat or not[7]. This is also why, in a seemingly counterintuitive turn, having a carb back-load can ignite ketosis as it shuts down ketogenesis. The sudden rush of glucose means the body can no longer use the ketones, so it starts flushing them from the system (thereby making poor Atkins turn over in his grave).

2.  Women burn more fat during exercise than men.

When women exercise they tend to preserve muscle glycogen stores and burn more fat[13-15]. Caveat Emptor: once women stop training, the fat burning stops, too[16]. For men, however, training burns off more glycogen and creates a fat-burning window of time that extends for up to 21 hours, which explains why men burn more fat than women over the course of exercise programs[17]. This is why prolonged, high-intensity training is better for women if getting rid of body fat is the goal.

3.  MetCons don’t help the body burn more fat.

As with everything CrossFit touches, they fucked this one up too. The whole metabolic conditioning craze is one of the stupidest things going. Despite CrossFit’s overlord’s contention that “science is stupid,” there’s a shit-ton of research to show their way doesn’t work. Research has clearly shown that rest periods of 1 to 3 minutes between sets stimulate the most fat burning during resistance training[18-24]. Resting for 30 seconds or less minimizes this effect[24]. So, the next time anyone says, “Don’t rest between sets,” go ahead and take your sweet time.

4.  Your body can create new fat cells over the course of your life, but it takes ten years for them to die.

Contrary to popular belief, the body can make new fat cells throughout your entire life if you give it the right hormonal and nutritional environment[25-28]—which, as Americans, we pretty much do every day from sunrise to sunset. The downside, however, is that fat cells are robust little bastards and don’t die easily. Scientists used to think they were vampires, sucking our lifeblood for an eternity, but recent advances in radio-isotope marking of living tissue discovered that fat cells will die, but the process takes about ten years[29].

The issue with this, however, is that if the fat cell is full, a new fat cell springs into existence to replace it. This means that to permanently lose body fat, you need to keep fat cells empty for a decade or longer until they expire. It’s a good reason to take the weight off and keep it off.

NOTE: There may be another way to kill these uglies by creating a special hormonal environment found with The Carb Nite® Solution, but this has only been shown in animals thus far[30-34]. And by “uglies,” I’m referring to fat cells. Dieting, unfortunately, won’t fix your face.

5.  White rice is the cleanest food you can eat for a carb back-load.

As I discussed in a recent article about all the potentially harmful chemicals that plants produce—particularly the ones we eat—I didn’t mention the few things that don’t contain much in the way of potentially harmful chemicals: white rice and white flour[35]. Since flour contains gluten, which 50% of people have some degree of allergy to[36], white rice is the clear winner.

6.  You can use Carb Back-Loading™ without resistance training.

Yes, your jaw just dropped, and you threw in a “Holy shit.” Research has shown that you don’t need to resistance train to make CBL work[37-38]. Of course, your food choices won’t be nearly as fun, and it’s only been shown to work during calorie deficit, but there’s still something very powerful about cycling macronutrients as described in the Carb Back-Loading™ book.

7.  Cortisol is a fat burner.

Cortisol’s main function in the body is to cause tissue breakdown, but it decides which tissue to destroy based on what you eat. If you eat carbs, it’ll destroy muscle when the opportunity arises. When you don’t eat carbs, it destroys fat stores instead[39-44]. This is why it’s absolutely critical that you avoid carbs first thing in the morning when cortisol levels peak[39,45].

 

So there you have it: your first series of K-Squared-Bombs. Unfortunately, these will probably surface all over the internet as the newest series of “original” k-bombs offered by other authors because that’s how the fitness gangstas rolls. Such is life. But if you want access to the bleeding edge instead of waiting for it to trickle down through the fitness-world sludge, then stay tuned for the next exciting installment of K-Squared-Bombs, found only on DangerouslyHardcore.com.

 

Featured Image by: runofthemill 

 

References (click to expand)