February 2018 – Whitecoat Fitness

Macro-friendly Cake Baking with Grant!

My ten-year old son Grant has developed an interest in cooking and baking! It reminds me of when I was around 10 years old and became interested in watching PBS cooking shows such as “The Frugal Gourmet” and “Yan Can Cook”. I also have great memories of spending time with my favorite Aunt Jewel and Memaw Evans baking up cookies, fudge and a southern specialty, Divinity, in the kitchen.

Today, we have the Food Network, Cooking Channel and Google that provide us with a tremendous opportunity to cook and bake our favorite dishes right at home. I like to take recipes and test to see if I can make them more “healthier and macro friendly” and of course, tasty! It is also a great opportunity to spend time with your kids and teach them how to lead a healthier lifestyle with food.

This past weekend, Grant helped me grocery shop for the week and he found a Pillsbury Moist Supreme Cake mix”that he really wanted!” After arguing with him in the aisle for a few minutes that we would could find a healthier cake option, I gave in and bought the pre-mix and decided this was a perfect opportunity to test the waters by changing up the box recipe and creating a more macro-friendly cake!

We also replaced the box recommendation to use a pre-made frosting that is laden with fat and sugar with a more”protein rich cream cheese frosting”.

Here is exactly how we did:

For the cake, we did use the mix but substituted 1 cup of applesauce for the oil, 4 egg whites for the 2 whole eggs and used 1/2 cup of Almond Milk versus 2% milk to reduce the overall fat and calories.

For the frosting, we created our own and ramped up the protein and eliminated a ton of sugar and fat. We mixed a half a cup of 1/3 reduced fat-free cheese with one package of sugar-free vanilla pudding mix and 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder. We used more almond milk to obtain the desired frosting consistency.

For decorations, we dusted with unsweetened coconut flakes and non-edible silver balls and mini chocolate chips.

Grant wanted to use the bundt cake pan instead of the usual 9in pans recommended on the box.

The result? A quite tasty and I must say, not a bad looking cake either with much higher protein and significantly less fat and overall 280 less calories per serving than the regular mix! Plus, invaluable time spent with my son!

Comparison of calories and macros per serving:

Regularly prepared serving:

555 calories

71 grams carbs

17 grams fat

1.5 grams protein

Modified Healthier version with added chocolate chips!:

280 calories

40 grams carbs

7.5 grams fat

10 grams protein

Give the recipe and let me know what you think!

Until next time,

Be fit,

Brian

Training While Injured

Labor Day weekend 2014! I still remember it like it was last week! My family and I drove to Vermont to hang out with friends for a weekend of relaxation. I had just decided a month earlier to begin training for my first body building competition in May 2015. I had a coach to help with nutrition and a workout regime to adhere to, but this weekend would be a time to relax with friends and maybe have a few beers before getting serious with training. On our first night in Vermont, I was persuaded by friends while sitting around the fire to give mountain biking a try. How bad could it really be I thought? Not knowing what downhill mountain biking actually entailed, I agreed and the next morning, we headed to the mountain, rented our bikes and gear and were on the lift in nothing flat!

Upon reaching the lift’s end, we exited with our bikes and we were off! It was the fastest 2 minutes of biking anyone could have ever experienced! I encountered a sharp, loosely graveled curve, lost my balance, hit the brakes and over the handlebars I flew! The next thing I remember is getting off the bike and feeling an intense burning pain in my right shoulder with a “crunchy” sound as I tried to lift my arm…..yes, I severely broke my collar bone but was lucky that no head or spinal injury occurred! It was a tough lesson to learn with a long road of recovery ahead. Fortunately, I was able to continue practicing Periodontics and Implant Dentistry despite the severity of the break and was extremely lucky to avoid surgery! I did not miss a single day of work! After a few weeks of sitting around being inactive and feeling sorry for myself, I became very restless and impatient that I could not workout.

Bone stimulator (I used daily for 30minutes)

I learned a great deal about myself during the next 12 weeks post-injury and realized that there are ways to work around an injury, even if it means completely avoiding a body part, or in my case, my entire upper right body altogether!

Here are the key factors that I learned to work around an injury which kept me active and to still compete in the May bodybuilding competition goal!

Nutrition

You have to keep a solid nutrition plan in place when an injury occurs. Giving your body adequate proteins, fats and micronutrients is critical for recovery and repair of injured tissue. Carbohydrates should be consumed to a level to give sufficient energy. Examples: I included more foods with anti-inflammatory properties such as healthy fats from avocados, salmon and fish and olive oils. I also eliminated pro-inflammatory items such as processed, high saturated foods and anything with trans fats. I added turmeric and vitamin C supplements to aid in anti-inflammation.

Be Smart

Do not attempt to train an injured body part. Follow your doctors instructions to a tee! Give the injury ample time for healing and use this time to work on weaknesses with other body parts that you may have. Use the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) principle for the injured area after workouts. Example: Prior to my clavicle break, I trained lower body once a week but due to the injury, I was forced to avoid upper body resistance training for 6 weeks. I used this time to add second and third lower body training sessions to increase the amount of exercise volume. I basically split up the lower body sessions by training quads one day, hamstrings and glutes one day and the third was an overall leg day with lighter weight and higher reps. I found by the end of my healing period, my lower body was significantly stronger!

Use lighter weights and higher reps

Despite having the clavicle break, I was still able to train my left arm, shoulder and chest. In the beginning, I used little to no weight with very high reps. An example would be a shoulder press with a 5lb dumbbell for 25 reps for 4 sets. I normally use 60lb dumbbells! You may say that going from 60 to 5 pounds of resistance will be sure to equal muscle loss. I say no! The key is to “do something” and time under tension is the key to maintaining muscle mass during injury recovery. Additionally, I was told by some that unilateral training will only cause a muscle imbalance. Well, there is a plethora of studies that actually show training a unilateral body part sends a neurological stimulus to the injured body counterpart. Recently, scientifically sound studies and a few extensive meta-analyses seem to confirm that contralateral strength gains are real, not just an experimental relic. Check this article out. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17190532

Do Cardio

An injured lower body part or back may make doing cardio more challenging but no excuses for those with upper body injuries such as shoulder or arm injuries. Even a simple 10-15 minute walk with keep the blood circulating and promote more wound healing.

In summary, avoidance through proper warm up and stretching is the best advice that I can give but for most of us, injuries are inevitable and seem to increase as we age….or make dumb decisions like attempting to downhill mountain biking with no previous experience!

The key is to not let injuries keep you inactive and ultimately lead you down a state of depression. Learn to persevere and know that most of the time, you can indeed work around most injuries!

2 days post injury! The look on my face says it all!

8 months later and 2 days before my first body building competition! Perseverance and working around the injury help me reach my goal!

Do not forget to comment and subscribe!

Until next time, be fit!

Brian

Macronutrients: What are they?

Let’s talk macronutrients! What are they?

Colleagues, friends, family and absolute strangers in the gym approach me frequently and ask what do I eat on a daily basis to stay lean and how do I lose weight. My response is that I hit my macros and am consistent with training and nutrition.

“Do you know your macros? Have you ever thought about weighing your food?” I get a blank stare from folks when I ask these questions similar to when I ask my patients do you have any questions after I have given them way too much information about how a dental implant works!

Today, I would like to explain how we figure out macros and NO! You do not have to weigh your food to lose weight but you do need to have a good estimate of how many calories your taking in on a daily basis!

Macronutrients are essentially three sources of calories that we consume in the form of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Look at the nutrition labels on foods you buy in the grocery store and you will find them. What is important to know is that:

1 gram of Protein= 4 calories
1 gram of Carbohydrate= 4 calories
1 gram of Fat= 9 calories

As you can see, fats are the most caloric dense of the macronutrients at 9 calories per gram. Based on the amounts of each macronutrient we consume in grams per day determines our total daily calories.

For those of you who calculated your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) after reading my previous blog titled: What to lose weight, figure out your daily caloric needs! http://www.drbrianevans.com/?p=32, you are now ready to figure out how much of each of the above macronutrients you should be consuming. For those of you who didn’t, please go back and make those calculations! (If you need any help, feel free to comment below with any questions and I will answer them!)

There will be some variability among individuals on the percentages of macronutrients they should consume daily which we will dive into in another blog but for now, let us assume the average percentages for an active 180lb male with a TDEE of 2000 calories per day. The most common percentages of macronutrients are 35% protein, 45% carbohydrates, and 20% fats.

Based on these percentages, we would calculate the total grams of macros needed as follows:

Protein

2000 daily calories x 35% (protein) = 700 calories

700 cal/4 cal per gram of protein=175 grams of protein

2000 daily calories x 45% (carbohydrates) = 900 calories

Carbs

900 cal/4 cal per gram of carbs= 225 grams of carbohydrates

Fats

2000 daily calories x 20% (fats) = 200 calories

200 cal/9 cal per gram of fat= 22.2= rounded to 22 grams of fat

Macro Summary: Below are the daily macros for the person above to consume in order to maintain body weight?

175 grams of protein

225 grams of carbs

22 grams of fats

Now that you know you what macros are and how to calculate the average daily percentages based on your TDEE to consume, it is essentially as simple as using an app like https://www.myfitnesspal.com to enter all foods eaten during the day via meals or snacks. This app is perfect to help you organize! It has an enormous library of basically any foods you can imagine and breaks their macros down. It even includes many restaurant foods. Take Starbucks for example. You go have a cafe latte (non-fat of course) and a breakfast sandwich, enter them into My Fitness Pal for that day and like magic, the calories and breakdown of macros for each will be provided!

I realize this is work! Having to understand TDEEs, macros and entering food you eat into My Fitness Pal but as they say, Rome was not built in day! It will take time and some effort but once you “know your macros” and are consistent in hitting those numbers each day, you will be armed with the knowledge that can absolutely help you reach your weight loss, gain or maintenance goals! I am here to help you along the way! If you’re overwhelmed, please feel free to comment, ask questions and please subscribe to the blog!

Until next time,

Be fit!

Brian

Tips to Stop the Super Bowl Sunday weight gain!

Welcome back guys! It’s Super Bowl Sunday! One of my favorite days of the year for parties and celebrations! It is also prime time to blow your nutrition plan on caloric dense foods and beverages if you are not careful. I have employed a few strategic steps over the years to negate weight gain for parties and celebrations, because let’s face it, you have to live a little!

Tips:

Plan on consuming mostly protein and veggies throughout the day keeping your calories relatively low but protein high! Personally, as an example for breakfast, I will have a combined 2egg/4 egg white omelet with peppers and mushrooms with coffee and sugar-free Coffeemate Italian Creamer and a protein shake for lunch.
Add in an extra few minutes of cardio to your normal resistance or cardiovascular training. An example: if you perform HIIT (high intensity interval training), do 3-5 more rounds or walk/run an extra 15 minutes to “make more caloric room” for later.
Drink tons of water! I typically consume 1-1.5 gallons of water a day and on days of planned parties, I will have an extra glass or two before the party begins. The water will make you feel fuller while salivating over those wings, nachos and dips!
If you do plan to consume alcohol, try to stick with mixed drinks using calorie free mixers/sodas. Consuming diet sodas will easily save you 100-150 calories per drink. If you must drink beer, stay with the lower calorie options if possible.
Simply enjoy yourself and do not go overboard! Like I initially stated, you have to live a little. Expect that you may have a slight weight gain the following day or two that will mostly be related to water retention from the sodium in many of the party foods. Just get back on your normal routine the next day and stay consistent and that water weight will drop!

Below is a high protein, low carb buffalo chicken dip recipe that we make for Super Bowl that is off the charts just as good as any other dip I have eaten! Give it a try! You will not be disappointed!

Comment on what you think or what you would like to read about next time!

Until next time, be fit!

Brian

Healthy High protein Buffalo chicken dip

Ingredients:

1 lb of shredded chicken breast (rotisserie chicken works great as alternative to baking or crock pot cooking)

1 cup of non-fat plain yogurt

1/2 cup of fat free cream cheese

1 cup of reduced fat shredded Colby cheese

1/2 cup of blue cheese crumbles

1/4 cup of Frank’s Wing sauce

1/4 cup of Frank’s Traditional Red Hot sauce

1 Tbsp of Hidden Valley Ranch dip mix

Directions:

Bake chicken or place in crock pot until fully cooked. Place shredded chicken in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix together. Once mixed, place the dip into a 9 x 13in baking dish and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Eat with your favorite Tortilla chips or Veggies such as carrots or celery sticks.

Serves 10 people

130 Calories per serving: Macros: Protein: 22 Carbs: 4 Fat: 2