What it means to rebound

Today's blog is probably somewhat pertinent considering the biggest bodybuilding event in the uk will be taking place this weekend

Rebound diet

What? 

Rebound diet

We all hear about the build up to comps, the countdown of weeks days hours & minutes till show time! 

We all hear about the massive pig outs people are going to have afterward & the post comp stash of goodies ( I have one & it's enormous!) 

We all hear about the athletes who can't wait to bulk again but what does it really mean when the post comp meal is consumed & life returns to some semblance of normality?

Well if you think it means getting back on the 3000 plus calories & eating cake till you're sick, think again! 

It means reversing out 

Huh? 

Reversing out. 

Reverse dieting

Gradually building back up to your calorie ceiling & re-revving the metabolic engine. 

You see when a body builder diets, it's a slow gradual burning of fat. But as the body enters the starving state all sorts of things happen. The body wants to survive, it knows it's starving. For all it knows this phase can continue indefinitely. So it starts putting safety features in place. 

It slows down the metabolism in a desperate attempt to preserve body fat & calories.

If we were to resume our normal pre contest diet straight after competing your poor sluggish system is going to go into overload. At the very least you're going to put on bodyfat. At worst you can cause some serious systemic problems

So what do we do ? 

Reverse the process. A slow gradual build up of calories to rev the metabolism. Avoid pigging out on crap. This will only cause digestive inflammation & possible intolerances. Eat nutrient dense foods. By all means have a treat now & then but respect the brutal journey your poor body has gone through & give it some gentle love & care in the recovery process 

Have a diet in place & happy off season everyone x 

Homemade bounty bar

This my friends is a piece of heaven 

Bounty bars have been my favourite since I was a small child & they're dead easy to make 

If you want to make them vegan just swap normal dark choc & condensed milk for vegan alternatives 

Here's what you need 

Dedicated coconut 

Condensed milk 

Dark chocolate 

Amounts are really dependant on how big a bar you wish to make but for arguments sake I will make them bounty size 

So 2 cups of coconut will make around 6-8 bars, then add just enough condensed milk to make it mouldable. Put each moulded bar on a greased baking tray & refrigerate until set ... About an hour is generally good

Melt chocolate & cover the bars

Voila! 

Awesomeness 

Vegan protein fudge

Ok so here's the recipe it isn't quick & easy but it's well worth it 

PRIOR WARNING! 

This is fudge ... I will give healthier alternatives but ultimately it's a sweet so it has a metric shit tonne of sugar in it! 

250g of soft butter 

397g of vegan condensed milk ( recipe below) or ordinary if you're not vegan! 

175g of thick coconut milk 

800g granulated (yes 800g!!!) sugar or truvia or xylitol if you want a healthier alternative 

2 teaspoons of vanilla 

2 scoops genetic supplements vegan caramel protein 

Method 

This is great fun!

Put a jug of iced water to side if stove for testing the readiness of your fudge

Place all ingredients in a heavy saucepan & cook for 15- 20 mins on a rolling boil

To test readiness plop a drop of fudge into iced water if it turned solid but squishy your fudge is ready 

Remove from heat & add vanilla 

Whisk the mixture with an electric hand whisk for 5 mins until thick like peanut butter then add the protein

Place into a large greased tin & place into fridge to chill for no longer than 2 hrs but long enough to set.

Voila!! Awesome protein fudge 😊

Vegan condensed milk 

3 cups thick coconut milk

1 cup sugar/stevia/xylitol or 1/2 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Cook the milk & sugar over a medium heat until just steaming. Lower the heat & cook for around 2 hrs or until the mixture has thickened

When it has reduced by half add the vanilla & let it cool completely use straight away or store in a sterilised jar 😊

BMI

The subject of today's ranty blog was somewhat chosen for me

BMI ... Somebody posted a question on my fb page what is the difference between BMI & body composition

While those of us who know may scoff & laugh, it is, actually, a very valid question.

Dr's all use the body mass index as a guide or a measure for obesity general population all the time. Surely we should know what it means? 

The fitness industry tends to use body fat measurements as a guide 

So why the difference? 

Well it would probably help if I gave you some info on both 

BMI was first devised in 1832 by a Belgian mathematician/statistician named Adolphe quetelet. 

What he was looking for was a way to define the "normal" man. His thesis was intended to describe the standard proportions if the human build. 

The equation was largely ignored by the medical community until in 1972,a chap by the name of Ancel Keys published "indices Of relative weight & obesity" it was a landmark study of over 7400 men in 5 countries.

Keys considered quetelets equation to be the best indicator of body fat percentage & renamed it the body mass index.

Because it was simple & cheap to do compared to trawling through complicated historical data or studies or measuring skin folds, it began to catch on in the medical community. 

However like Quetelet, Keys never intended the BMI to be used for individual diagnosis. It was only ever meant as a population marker. 

It doesn't take into account gender, age, ethnicity, frame size or muscle mass ratio. 

So how about body fat. What's so special about that ?

Well it's exactly what it says on the box. 

Measuring the amount of body fat a person has in relation to the rest of their physical makeup 

There are around 6 formulas one can use to calculate bodyfat if which the 3 Jackson pollock skinfold methods are probably most popular 

The others are parrillo, durnin/wormersley & just the good old fashioned tape measure 

The problem with these are that the person taking the measurements has to be very consistent & accurate. 

The measurement site has to be exactly the same each time & so does the pressure in the calipers. 

The advantage of this method is that it's cheap, relatively quick & if the practitioner is skilled, reasonably accurate ( enough for the general population anyway) 

There are other ways of taking BF measurements. But these involve quite large & expensive machinery 

Bio electrical impedance ( home machines are now available but notoriously inaccurate ) 

Hydrostatic weighing

Dual X-ray absorbtiometry

Air displacement plethysmography

The last 3 are very accurate but it's also hard to find somewhere that will do it 

And they can be very expensive. 

But do we really need to be that accurate?. Well for the general population no. Not all of us are physique competitors & athletes. All we need is a rough guide as to whether or not we are fat. Or rather our body fat percentage 

This is more helpful in the indication of both health & obesity but doesn't tell the whole story. For this good old fashioned medical check ups & blood tests are still necessary

However in the search for reliable methods of assessing general obesity I have another idea.

2 really useful tools, ones I swear by, we all have access to & are dead easy to use 

The mirror and plain common bloody sense 😀