| Q&As: Ask the Nutritionist (Last updated: 26 Nov 2005) If you have a question on supplement, nutrition or training to ask, email to questions@ultimatesg.com |
| Q) I tend to develop pimples on my back when taking protein drinks, any advice that can help? A) Protein powders are very acid forming in the body, this somehow increase the likelihood of skin eruptions. My solution is to take fruits or even raisins when taking protein drinks. These are alkaline forming and they do help in controlling the skin eruptions. Another advice I will offer is try to avoid the chocolate flavoured ones and they tend to be more "heaty". Q) Is it possible to stay lean and gain size? A) It is hard for drug (I mean steroids)-free bodybuilders to not change their body fat percentage and gain significant mass. I better strategy is to gain 5kg as a mass cycle and try losing 2-3kg in the cut cycle. In the end you gain 2-3kg of more or less lean mass. Q) What is the best strategy to look ripped?? A) Avoid salt-laden food stuff. Increase natural fruits and veggies intake, the potassium will flush out excess water and without the unnecessary sodium that cause excessive water retention. Train as heavy as possible and add interval high intensity sessions like skipping rope or running to your routine. Reduce cereal and grain products so that your carbo intake will dropped to 200-300g daily and maintain a high protein intake. Fat wise restrict to not more than 50g per day and add Omega 3 and green tea supplement to your diet. Some caffeine can increase the expel of water from the body further. In about 2 weeks to 4 weeks time you will be ready. Remember to make your skin look darker as that will increase the ripped look. Q) What do you think of the sudden death cases from jogging in Singapore? A) I believe they are causing excessive alarm and unnecessary fears about exercising regularly. Most of the cases I noticed maybe due to inadequate warming up, I mean running slowly for 2-3 minutes ready. Also the victims may be pushing too hard. All in all, some exercise is better than no exercise. Aerobics like running has their place in a fitness programme. Q) What are the good fruits and bad fruits? Give me some tips in fruits shopping. A) All are good and taking a varieties is the key. Depending on personal liking, choose 3-4 of your favourite depending on taste, price and texture. Personally, I love water melon, honey dew, bananas, strawberries, fragrant pears, golden gala apples, raisin and dried apricots. They can be quite cheap too. $5 of fruits can last me 2 days. Good investment! Q) I heard about a miracle supplement called Lectin that it can improve the absorption of certain nutrients, do you sell it? A) Lectins are naturally found in legumes and grains like wheat, kidney beans, soy beans and peanut. Lectins are not digested, instead they attached themselves to the intestine wall to cause the space between intestinal cells to expand. This process increase the risk of partially digested food proteins and even micro organism to enter the blood stream intact (increase health risk and chances of allergic reaction). Since legumes and grains are very much part of our diet, we are not going to be too concern about it at least for now. But taking Lectin deliberately? The risks far outweigh the benefits. Q) What is this protein cycling theory that you sometimes talk about ? Will bodybuilders benefit from it? A) The theory is if we take lots of protein continually for more than 3 days or so, our body get used to the high protein intake and start using protein very ineffectively. The inefficiency results in the need for a very high intake of protein to maintain positive nitrogen balance. I believe there is no harm trying out 2 days high, 2 days moderate and 2 days low. On high day one can go for 2-2.5g of protein per kg body weight, on moderate one can go for 1.8-2g of protein per kg body weight and on low day one can go for 1.5-1.8g of protein per kg body weight. One can leave the last day of the week as a "detox" day if they like it to give their digestive system a rest. Oh yeah, I like this definition, a detox day is a day to give digestive system a rest, not nonsense like induce diarrhea, or attribute headaches, pimples or other symptoms to the removal of "toxin" from the body etc. The concept of protein cycling can help bodybuilders utilised protein more effectively. Q) What is the most ideal bodybuilding diet in your opinion? A) I believe a healthy bodybuilding diet comprises of the following. 1) balance intake of Omega 3 to 6 (or at least adequate DHA intake daily, the most sought after Omega 3 in our body). 2) Adequate protein intake like 2g per kg body weight per day on average with lower and higher intake cycling every 2 days . 3) High intake of fruits and vegetables to ensure high anti-oxidants intake and alkaline-forming minerals to neutralise the acidity of a high protein intake. 4) At least 300g of carbohydrates intake or more daily. Q) Who can benefit from Creatine supplementation? A) Virtually every athletes or weekend warrior as long as their activities involved repeated bouts of explosiveness. Especially valuable for weight trainers, even when half saturated (taken 1 scoop daily for 1-2 weeks), they should be able to feel a significant boost. I have come to the conclusion after talking to some many people who use Creatine Monohydrate that just by taking 1 scoop most of the day will give a significant boost to just about anyone. I have heard about many good feedback that Creatine Monohydrate help them in giving extra energy in 2.4km run and I also believe that Creatine buffer the lactic acid production in their bodies during intense muscle contraction which they may not know. Creatine Monohydrate also comes with many health benefits to the heart and brain (areas I am still researching on). And with an intake like 5g daily there is probably no health risk whatsoever as Creatine is a part of the human diet for very long when we feast on a high meat intake during evolution. |
Above (Product X): Whey not
instanised properly. Float on top
after being added.
instanised properly. Float on top
after being added.
Above (Product X): After stirring
for 30 seconds vigorously in
125mL of room temperature
water. Lots of undissolved
clumps and globs....
for 30 seconds vigorously in
125mL of room temperature
water. Lots of undissolved
clumps and globs....
Compare this with
Below: ISS
Research....
Complete Whey
Below: ISS
Research....
Complete Whey
Above (ISS Research Complete
Whey): After stirring for just 5-10
seconds vigorously in 125mL of
room temperature water. No
clumps, no globs, completely
dissolved! Super smooth! Full
details below.
Whey): After stirring for just 5-10
seconds vigorously in 125mL of
room temperature water. No
clumps, no globs, completely
dissolved! Super smooth! Full
details below.
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