Hell yeah! Science! (Latest TVC is out)

A few months back, I wrote about my scientist job. Think, think, think, oh yes a unique biomarker derivative. It was a fun commercial to shoot, but also extra exciting because I had the opportunity to speak in the commercial.

While I am working on finding the full English version (which I doubt I will find), you can hear me in the background with the Thai voiceover… as always enjoy.

While on the topic of science, I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about 2 more things.

• My favourite TV show: Breaking Bad (a bit of science spiced in there)
• A common nutrition myth

On the Breaking Bad note, I have been watching it again on Netflix. While not completely immersed as I was on the plane to Korea last fall, I can say I thoroughly enjoy the show. The gradual change of protagonist to antagonist is unique for a mainstream show. My favourite movie the godfather follows a very similar structure this way. Of course, I find it further interesting when they add the bits of Chemistry whether in the production of meth or how hydrofluoric acid won’t eat through a particular plastic. Those moments make me go aha!

As I have discussed many times, my background is a Bachelor of Science: Applied human nutrition. A facebook conversation with a few friends the other day lead me to something I should share with everyone. The nutrition myth: Margarine is one molecule away from plastic.  I have heard this so many times. 

Let’s start with what plastic is. Plastics are made up of smaller molecules linked together in a long chain. The main component of plastics is usually petroleum based products, which is where people become scared of this myth.  The thought of consuming a plastic bag, being the same as consuming car oil is rather repulsive. Plastics can also be made from wood, corn, other plants, and even sugar. Check out this about bio plastic. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/star.19930450806/abstract)

So as you can see one fear is that plastic and margarine can both be made from vegetable oil, however that is where their congruency meets demise. Furthermore the thought that just one molecule could change margarine completely is a little naive. With margarine there are hundreds of molecules that vary from plastic. Many other simple even life giving substances can be made deadly with a change of molecule. Even without change sometimes. For example: H₂O is water, but HF (hydrofluoric acid) in the right concentrations is used to etch glass or even burn your skin (Breaking Bad did this if you remember).  Or standard table salt sodium chloride/NaCl as another example: pure sodium in water reacts rather explosively. And Cl or chlorine, we know as a common antiseptic, but was used in World War 1 as a weapon. Clearly 1 molecule can make a difference.

I hope that clarifies things a little for you about that 1 molecule thing with margarine.

One last note. Thanks everyone for the support so far. I should be cracking 20 000 views very soon. 

Crazy Catabolic Carb Complex 2 – The results and wtf happened with Pics

Category	September 6, 12 Results	October 19, 12 Results	Change
Weight (lbs)	172	169.4	-2.6
Fat Free Mass (lbs)	153.3	150.5	-2.8
Fat Mass (lbs)	18.7	18.9	+0.2
Body fat %	10.9	11.2	+0.3

As you can clearly see, I look leaner physically. As a matter of fact my muscles appear larger. So why is my body fat up, my fat free mass down, lets take a closer look and see what may change these numbers.  And yes I know the lighting and angle is a little different but you work with what you have got.

Body fat percentage I feel like is something worth touching on. My change in body fat % is rather small, a variance of .3% or 0.003. This value based on the % change is 2.75%. Either of these numbers being used does not provide a significant amount of data to be statistically significant. Bummer right, my change is within the percent of error. 

How about that fat free mass now? Well you will notice that both my weight and my fat free weight dropped this time and my fat stayed mostly the same. At first glance it would appear that I lost roughly 2.5 lbs of muscle. With some insight and review of diet over the past week a relatively easy explanation is available.  Right here is where I explain the crazy carb complex.

Geeky science brain is trying to take over but lets take a basic review of carbohydrates. Carbs or CHO (nutrition shorthand) are the most basic form of energy we consume, providing 4 cal per gram, all calories must be changed to CHO before we can use them. By stoking your bodies fire with exercise, it increases your bodies need for CHO. When CHO run out like a keg at a frat party we go to find more hardcore sources of energy. In comes fat and protein, the nutrients get sent to the liver to be converted to none other than CHO.  Still following?

If you are consistently exercising as I have been, your body goes to an extra effort to store these CHO in your muscles (aka Muscle Glycogen). In order to store the extra CHO your body needs to hold onto more water. I can’t recall exactly but it is somewhere to the tune of 3g water for every 1g CHO. 

Fade in and out to a scene of me chomping on salads and asparagus this past week sans rice. Yup I cut out close to 4 cups of complex carbs per day. While I didn’t fall flat on my workouts, the water weight my body normally stores was released. The result a 4 lb drop.

The pieces begin to fall into play now. I lost 4 lbs when I cut out carbs, therefore my lean mass dropped. Since lean mass is muscle, water, bone, hair, skin, etc. I saw a decrease. A decrease in muscle mass is what is known as catabolism (anabolic being addition, catabolic being taking away). My theory being that my body fat should be lower, I felt leaner and looked it, so I decided Friday to experiment with returning my carbs to normal. Not all the carbs were complex, as a matter of fact, I had my first can of pop (A &W Rootbeer) in who knows how long.  Then this morning upon returning to the gym for my morning workout I stepped on the scale, tipping in at 175 lbs.

6 lbs in one day, the only change being more carbs confirmed what I had believed. Dropping carbs didn’t necessarily help burn fat but caused my muscles to hold less CHO and in turn, less water. Obviously fat didn’t increase overnight, so lets look again at those initial numbers.

Fat mass – 18.9 lbs

Today’s weight – 175.6

Normal CHO body fat % - 10.7

While it really doesn’t make a significant difference, it does confirm for me that over the past 6 weeks, I have added 3 lbs of muscle. Unfortunately I didn’t achieve my goal of under 9, I did learn about how my body reacts to CHO and refreshed some of my nutrition vault. I will have to start analyzing my exercise program and see what I can do to tweak it for the better.  

Lastly check out my new shades. They are the Oakley Plaintiff Infinite Heros.