HOW ATHLETIC BIOTUNING WORKS
For most people, a change in body composition with gradually increasing body fat percentage and reduction in muscle mass and strength starts already in the mid-20's if you don't exercise and eat optimally to prevent premature physical decay. A modern Western eating pattern and lack of physical activity with enough anabolic stimulation to preserve muscle mass accelerates this physical aging process. The result is a gradual decrease in metabolic and anabolic hormonal sensitivity and efficiency, less effective protein synthesis and reduction in metabolic flexibility and burn rate at rest. The sum of these changes also results in a reduction in physical performance and tolerance, increasing the risk of injuries when practicing sport activities that were well tolerated in younger days.
If you have followed the official health authorities' standardized advice for good health, weight management and reversing obesity you have probably tried:
# calorie restriction
# frequent small meals
# Low fat choices
# cardio training
Telling people to eat little and often and do more cardio is advice that it's easy to see doesn't work well. It can actually make it even more difficult to develop and maintain a healthy lean body composition. If the traditional methods had worked well, obesity and related diseases would not have been the biggest global health problem we face today.
If you have followed a modern Western diet and the standardized advice to eat little and often over a long period of time, you have programmed your body to prioritize easily available energy from your last meal. This inactivates the hormonal processes that regulate your metabolism, fat storage and appetite (Insulin/GLP-1/ Leptin) and suppresses metabolic flexibility, the inborn autoregulating homeostatic ability to frequently switch to using body fat as a primary energy source. The result is a dependence on frequent eating and snacking to have enough sugar in the bloodstream to function well physically and mentally.
Simply put, you've gone from being an efficient metabolic flexible fat burner to a hormone resistant, carb dependent sugar burner. The result is that your body remains in an almost constant energy-saving fat storing mode.
New science technology breakthrough!
The development of new advanced medical analyzing technology has lead to revolutionary research discoveries that has given us a completely new biologic understanding of what is the real, underlying cause behind the health threatening gradual increase in body fat percentage that most adults in the Western world experience today, and why calorie restriction that official health authorities still advise, often makes the problem worse.
New technology has revealed the surprising fact that muscles are endocrine organs with hormone producing glands that are highly involved in the processes that regulate energy partitioning and body composition. These discoveries show us that restricting calories to reduce body fat is only a symptom treatment that has no healing effect on the real problem. Prolonged calorie restriction leads often to loss of muscle mass witch can further worsen the situation. Maintaining muscle mass is essential to prevent loss of functional ability and early biological ageing, as well as vital recovery ability in the event of serious injury and illness with prolonged bed rest.
Resent internationally recognized research confirms that lifestyle related high body fat percentage and loss of muscle mass only are physical symptoms of an underlying systemic hormonal imbalance, most often caused by a biologically unfavorable eating pattern with frequent small meals and poor food choices that keeps the insulin levels high. This leads to metabolic resistance and hormonal imbalance, which means that more of food you eat goes to fat storage and less to recovery and rebuilding of muscles, bones and connective tissue. The intestines are never given time to recover enough between meals to restore a healthy bacterial gut flora and sensitivity to insulin and the satiety signaling hormone Leptin. This makes the body enter an almost constant fat storing mode, reduced protein synthesis and loss of metabolic flexibility, the body's evolutionary inborn ability to efficiently switch between energy sources and frequently prioritizing stored body fat as the primary energy source.
In healthy, normal-weight people, appetite-regulating hormonal processes act as a thermostat that ensures that a feeling of satiety occurs when the body has received enough nutrition to maintain its genetic natural weight set point. In obese people, this natural auto-regulating mechanism is out of balance due to reduced hormonal sensitivity to the fat-storing hormone insulin and the satiety signaling hormone Leptin. (Ref: Grehlin & Leptin explained)
Attempting to starve the fat cells by eating less and leaner food is therefore only symptomatic treatment which creates an unpleasant feeling of hunger and a drop in blood sugar which reduces mental and physical well-being and performance. It becomes a battle that most people give up over time and which has zero effect on the underlying hormonal causes behind the gradually increasing fat percentage. A long-term large calorie deficit can actually worsen the situation, as it very often results in a slowing down of the metabolism, so-called "starvation mode", which means that the body enters an emergency mode where it burns fewer and fewer calories the less you eat and starts to deplete amino acids from the muscles. This leads to a very unfortunate loss of muscle mass and further slows down weight loss, even if you try to further limit your food intake. Cardio training mainly burns sugar available in the bloodstream from the last meal instead of body fat, in addition to increasing feelings of hunger.
Insulin works like a door opener to the fat cells: either you are in fat burning mode or in storage mode. Eating frequently elevates insulin levels, specially carbohydrate rich food, resulting in that you almost constantly stay in storage mode and very seldom switch to burning body fat for fuel.
The good news is that the human body is extremely adaptable and can easily be trained to perform more efficiently, also at a hormonal level!
Athletic Biotuning™ (ABT) is a game-changing chronobiologic* lifestyle method specially developed by experienced health professionals to prevent and reverse lifestyle related premature fall in metabolic and anabolic efficiency, physical decay and physical performance.
NATURAL HORMONE THERAPY
Athletic Biotuning™ works on a systemic hormonal level, resetting slowed down vital metabolic & anabolic processes that regulates body composition and longevity health biomarkers back towards younger days significantly more efficient and healthier levels.
The ABT-method restores an efficient balance between signalling and perception of the appetite regulating hormones grehlin & leptin and activates auto-regulating metabolic flexibility. This means that the feeling of hunger and satiety is reset to correlate with the body's real caloric needs and that the evolutionary ability to effectively and more frequently switch to burning stored body fat as main fuel source is reactivated (metabolic switching). These are abilities we all are born with, but most of us to some degree have lost due to a modern Western eating pattern where we almost constantly have food in our digestive system and elevated levels of sugar in the blood.
The result is a life-changing new situation for most people;
when hormonally adapted to the auto-regulating eating pattern of Athletic Biotuning, you can eat tasty & nutrient rich food you really like until satiated at all meals while getting and staying lean!
The effects of Athletic Biotuning can be further maximized if combined with the anabolic stimulating, hypertrophy focused ABT resistance training program. The combination and interaction of these methods significantly reactivates inter-cellular anabolic signaling and triggers a stronger and more prolonged muscle protein synthesis response, maximizing the ability to build muscle and burn body fat, not at the same time, but in short micro-cycles, several times a week.
IT'S ALL ABOUT TIMING AND FOOD CHOICES ADAPTED TO YOUR BODY'S NEEDS!
The chronobiologic nutrition methods used in the ABT-system consist of easy to follow eating pattern with focus on giving your body food with the macro-nutrient combinations needed to optimize and enhance the different metabolic and anabolic processes your body goes through every day. The method is easy to adapt to any life- or family situation, also were you don't prepare the meals yourself, since you just follow the ABT-guidelines by taking more or less of the different meal ingredients that are served at the different meals. The method is so effective at restoring metabolic efficiency that i eliminates the need of a calorie focused strict and clean diet to stay lean, giving room for enjoying calorie dense food like pasta, pizza and deserts several days a week when metabolically adapted.
Nutritional guidelines with recommended food choices adapted to your chronobiological needs are described in detail in the ABT-Nutrion E-guide.
Simply explained;
Giving your body WHAT it needs, WHEN it needs it, changes EVERYTHING!
Re-sensitizing your body to your own systemic hormones enhances anabolic response to training and lets you eat more of the food you like while getting and staying healthy lean!
GO FROM SLOWED DOWN & CARB DEPENDENT STORAGE MODE TO FAT BURNING ATHLETIC MODE!
The hormonal effects of ABT-method significantly changes how your body responds to food and training within a few weeks, unlocking new health and fitness improvements at any age.
By re-sensitizing receptors for hunger and satiety signalling hormones, you will experience that the feeling of hunger will gradually begin to correlate with your body's real nutritional needs. The result is a life-changing new situation for most people. When hormonally adapted to this new eating pattern, you can eat tasty & nutrient rich food you really like until satiated every day, while staying lean!
The ABT nutrition E-guide describes in detail how you strategically can compose your meals with food choices with the macronutrient content that is most beneficial to optimize the different metabolic and anabolic daily phases your body goes trough.
The human body is extremely adaptable and in only 2-4 weeks most people will start to go through significant hormonal and physical changes, without unpleasant hunger or the need of exhausting cardio training as a tool to loose weight. Already after 4 weeks will most people experience noticeable physical and energy improvements. Athletic Biotuning™ is easy and pleasant to follow as a permanent lifestyle method for most people. Unlike all other nutrition methods; when adapted to the flexible & auto-regulating eating pattern of Athletic Biotuning, you can eat normal, tasty & nutrient rich food you really like until satiated at all meals while getting and staying lean!
THE CARDIO-CARB-LOOP...
Many people use cardio as a tool to lose weight. Cardio training burns calories, but mainly in form of sugar in your blood stream from your last meal and seldom taps into burning calories from stored body fat. Even high intensity cardio has little prolonged after burning effect. Resistance training on the other hand, elevates your metabolic burn rate at rest up to 36 hours after a session with adequate intensity. Do cardio training to achieve cardio-vascular health effect. It can be done through sport activities you enjoy if you don't like running or cycling.
WHY CALORIE RESTRICTION DOESN'T WORK!
'Caloric restriction diets to try to reduce body fat is unsustainable for most people and results best case in short term success. It can actually worsen the situation, since caloric restriction often results in starvation mode (severe reduction in metabolic burn rate at rest) and loss of muscle mass, the organ responsible for metabolic and anabolic efficiency and longevity health!
ABT MAIN GOALS:
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Reactivate and enhance metabolic & anabolic hormonal sensitivity and production
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Maximize fat burning in daily "cutting" micro-cycles through the release of ketones from stored body fat on rest days and pre-workout on training days
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Maximize restitution and muscular hypertrophy in "gaining/bulking" micro-cycles post work out on training days, several times each week
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Optimize longevity health biomarkers
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Activation of cell renewal by autophagy
Nutrition methods used in Athletic Biotuning:
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Chronobiologic macronutrient adaptation: Giving your body the type of nutrition it really needs, WHEN it needs it, has a great impact on food partitioning, simply explained, how your body utilizes the food you eat at different time. The ABT-method stimulates the body to utilize the nutrients in the food you eat to restitution and building new lean tissue instead of fat storage and primary energy fueling. The method focuses on making food choices based on macro-nutrient content adapted to your body's changing activity and chronobiological cyclic dependent needs. The ABT nutrition E-guide describes in detail how you strategically can compose your meals with food choices based on macronutrient content to optimize the different metabolic, anabolic and catabolic phases.
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Flexi-fasting : A gradual introduction in the initial adaptation phase to an moderate form of time restricted eating/intermittent fasting we call Flexi-fasting, 3-5 days a week - A gradual adjustment where your meal timing follows your metabolic rhythm makes it happen without unpleasant hunger or blood sugar fall for most people when following the ABT-guidelines. Flexi-fasting reactivates slowed down metabolic processes and increases insulin sensitivity, activating metabolic flexibility, the body's ability to effectively switch to utilizing stored body fat as main fuel source without the need of a low carb diet.
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Protein focus: Fewer but larger, nutrient rich meals with focus on high quality protein that keep you satiated for longer periods and eliminates blood sugar fall and cravings for sugar and snacking between meals
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Re-feed days: 1-2 days a week with room for enjoying your favorite calorie dense food , desserts & drinks (for pleasure and to prevent starvation mode (a prolonged reduction in metabolic burning rate and stop in fat loss that is common with caloric restriction diets). Frequent re-feed days also promotes long term motivation and sustainability, making it easier to keep the new eating pattern as a permanent lifestyle and prevents stagnation in progress.
The combination and interaction of these methods re-activates your metabolic switch and enhances anabolic hormonal processes, maximizing the ability to burn stored body fat and build muscle, not at the same time, but in short micro-cycles, several times a week.
Timing - the key to lasting success!
The body has very different fluctuating nutritional needs and food is processed and utilized in different ways at different times of the day influenced by activity, rest, sleep and the circadian rhythm, the body's internal central clock. The body's cells have also their own time units or "clocks" in the mitochondria, where different processes oscillate in cycles of approximately 24 hours. If you follow the simple ABT nutritional guidelines with recommended food choices adapted to these variations, your body will get supplied with the nutrients it really needs, when it needs it and insulin and blood sugar levels will remain very stable throughout the day.
Most people experience a significantly more stable, higher physical and mental energy level than they had before, after the adaptation phase of 2-4 weeks when implementing the ABT methods. The typical insulin spikes and drops in energy and blood sugar levels, which are typical after a high-carb breakfast will disappear. The ABT method provides a significantly more stable and longer lasting supply of energy throughout the day. The release of ketones from stored body fat also increases the secretion of hormonal neurotransmitters similar to endorphins. This is the reason why many people experience an elevated and more stable mood as well as an increased feeling of well-being when practicing this eating pattern over time.
Simply explained, Athletic Biotuning resets your metabolism to function like it evolutionary was built to function, becoming far more flexible and efficient at burning fat for fuel, building muscle & strength and exchange old, dead cell parts with new, rejuvenating material by autophagy.
Unlike all other health and fitness nutrition plans, with Athletic Biotuning you can eat normal, tasty & nutrient rich food you really like until satiated at all meals while getting and staying lean, when adapted to this new, auto-regulatory eating pattern. The micro-cycles and re-feed days also prevent "starvation mode" a plateau that normally hinders fat loss after a while when going on a traditional calorie restriction or low-carb diet. This results in improved recovery ability and makes the body switch to cyclic ketogenic burning of body fat as main energy source through ketosis, without following a daily low carb diet!
The ABT-nutrition method will produce a significant effect on its own, but the effect can be further maximized if combined with the anabolic stimulating resistance training. The low-volume/low frequency ABT strength training protocol includes exercises for both mechanical tension and metabolic stress in each session. You can choose between weight training or body weight training programs that give you the flexibility to train anywhere.
The ABT method is divided into 3 phases:
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Adaptation phase
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Development phase
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Maintenance phase
The adaptation phase is the initial phase where your body gradually adapts to the new nutrition pattern. This first phase lasts from 2 - 4 weeks, depending on current diet, general physical condition and genetic predisposition. The main goal in the adaptation phase is to reactivate slowed down metabolic and anabolic hormonal sensitivity and production and gradually re-establishing auto-regulating caloric balance. Going from dependence of frequent eating and snacking between meals to keep high energy and blood sugar levels, to gradually convert to use stored body fat as main fuel source. This process is driven by a combitation of chronobiologic macronutrient adaptation and giving your intestines time to rest and resensitize between meals. For those who want to maximize the fat reducing effect of the intitial adaptation phase can chose to increase weekly days with Flexi-fasting from 4-5 to 6-7.
The development phase is the phase in which the body undergoes major changes at both hormonal and physiological levels. If you respond like most people, your body composition will already show visible signs of change in a few weeks. If you also follow the Athletic Biotuning resistance training program that is specially designed to interact and enhance the hormonal effects of the nutrition program, you will maximize the release of your genetic potential for athletic body composition. The development phase lasts until you reach your body composition goals.
The maintenance phase begins when you have reached your goals or your genetic potential or when you dedicated effort haven't experienced any progress several months. If you have responded to the method like most people, you have achieved auto-regulatory metabolic flexibility and become fat adapted, showing impressive improvements in your body composition. It is now that you truly can harvest the long term positive effects of the Athletic Biotuning lifestyle and enjoy the physical and mental energizing positive effects of this new way of giving your body a health boosting combination of activity, nutrient intake, fasting and restitution. Many people feel they are at their best in the fasted part of the day, with sharpened mental focus and physical energy.
Opposite to traditional caloric restriction diets, the longer you practice ABT, the more effective the method becomes. Most people experience that they can eat more carb rich food without weight gain the longer they have practiced the method. The reason behind this is that the combination of few, large protein rich meals and fasting programs your metabolism to become more efficient switching to fat burning combined with increased insulin sensitivity, processes that needs time to reach maximum effectivity.
IS BODY RECOMPOSITION REALLY POSSIBLE?
Many nutrition and fitness experts still proclaim that unless you are obese or untrained, building muscle and losing fat at the same time is physically impossible, referring to the law of thermodynamics. Simply explained, the law of thermodynamics says that to lose weight you must be in caloric deficit and to build muscle you must be in caloric surplus. The basics of this theory is true, but since muscle fiber and fat tissue are totally different organs with completely separated metabolic cycles, calories are directed towards muscle and fat mass independently. This is called calorie partitioning and can happen when the conditions described below are present.
Building muscle is an anabolic process that apart from protein, micro-nutrients and water needs calories to happen.
These calories can come from 3 sources:
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From glycogen (sugar) & triglycerides (fat) in the blood stream
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From glycogen stored in the cells and liver
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From ketones released from stored body fat
Glucose and fat are non-essential nutrients that can be created by the body itself, as long as you eat enough protein. If you ate nothing but protein, your body will convert the glycogen and fat it needs for metabolic processes and brain function through gluconeogenesis and lipid protein conversion. Even if you have very low body fat percentage, you have almost unlimited energy available for building muscle and all other physical needs from your stored body fat.
Traditional bulking and cutting is less effective the older you are. Trying to press feed a middle-aged body without gaining a lot of unwanted fat is impossible for most people. This old school approach is beside being mentally demanding, also unhealthy and can worst case produce insulin resistance, elevated LDL cholesterol levels and increase risk of cardiovascular disease.
The Athletic Biotuning method takes body re-composition one step further! By strategic macronutrient selection and timing in daily micro-cycles, you set your body in a caloric surplus with a optimal combination of macronutrients after each training session and in a deficit on rest days and before workout on training days with macronutrient supply to facilitate fat burning. This micro-cyclic nutrition method gives
THE CONCLUSION!:
Yes, you can build plenty of muscle when in a caloric deficit! It may take a little longer time, since the body will need a little more time to release needed energy from stored body fat, but the end result will be the same. AND, you avoid the unpleasant and mentally demanding and unhealthy fat gain you will experience with long periods in a caloric surplus! With Athletic Biotuning you can easily maintain an athletic, lean body composition while you build muscle, the whole year around without the hassle of strict cutting diets!