I was browsing Robb Wolf’s site today and I realized that he was in Toronto last week! Not only was he in Toronto but he was on Wylde on Health on CP24. I just got finished watching the show online (you can link to the show after clicking here). There was quite a bit of interesting information presented on the show. I have been slowly digesting the ideas that are presented by the Paleo movement, especially the information that Robb Wolf makes available. The basic premise is to ingest foods that do not come from agriculture as farmed foods are novel to our physiology and to move in the fashion that we may have moved when we were hunter-gatherers (lots of low intensity activity interspersed with high intensity activity). I am not an expert on anything Paleo but I highly recommend that EVERYONE start seeking out the information that is available on Paleo nutrition and Paleo lifestyle.
Image borrowed from: http://www.skeptic.com/feed/
The segment that was most interesting to me was the one with Gary Taubes. I am extremely interested in looking in to his work based on the position that he takes that obesity is caused by the dis-regulation of fat tissue. I have not done any of the research that Gary Taubes has done, so I have to take his word on it for now, but he also states that exercise does not directly cause weight loss (he jokingly says that exercise is built to make orthopedic surgeons rich). He does say that exercise provides improved body composition and strength. I need to read the material he has put out before I make a decision on what he has said in this interview but I do have some ideas to share that have been sparked since watching this interview. I am assuming that his statement with regards to the dis-regulation of fat cells being what makes people fat centers on the idea that ingesting foods that cause high insulin levels will cause fat cells to get, well, fatter. Again, I do not understand the science behind that statement as deeply as Gary Taubes or other scientists, but I do know that people who display high intake of easily digestible carbohydrates resulting in heavy insulin release tend to carry more fat. I have worked with patients in a clinical setting that improve their strength and endurance considerably but do not have much change in weight or body composition. The fact that I have seen the “right” amount of exercise not change someone’s weight or body composition allows me to entertain the idea that Mr. Taubes presents suggesting that it may not be exercise that has the greatest influence on fat in our bodies…and that is a HUGE statement coming from my educational background and general belief that exercise is of critical importance to everyone (as a Kinesiologist I have been trained to use exercise to help people reduce their weight). I can also say, in a cursory sense, that insulin can be positively managed through exercise so it is likely that exercise can help to regulate fat cells (I really need to read the information Gary Taubes is presenting before going further in to this discussion).
Speaking from personal experience I have gone through fairly dramatic body composition changes with exercise but that only took me so far. My current use of the growing nutritional knowledge that I am gaining is what has allowed me to have a positive effect on my personal fat cells. In June of 2010 I went from 153lbs to 145lbs in 21 days with nutritional guidance from Erica L. Robinson while actually slightly decreasing my activity levels. Since then I have dropped to 139lbs and approximately 10% body fat (as measured on a Tanita Scale) at 5’7″ with continued nutritional guidance from Ms. Robinson.
From my personal experience with changing my own body composition and guiding others through changing theirs, I can say, at least in an anecdotal sense, that both diet and exercise will provide positive changes to the general health state of anyone. I am actually very glad that I am learning more about the importance of intelligent nutrition and that I am developing a group of resources that will help me effectively guide people to those resources to improve their nutrition. As I have the opportunity to further investigate the Paleo movement and the nutritional recommendations related to it I will continue to write about it. Anyone reading this post that needs local (Toronto/Mississauga) nutritional guidance can check out the best source of nutritional guidance that I have come across, the aforementioned Erica L. Robinson. That is all for now. I will be back soon with another Challenge Workout! I hope you are all ready to continue improving your musculo-skeletal fitness with me and turn to the experts to improve your nutritional fitness 
I am so glad I could help provide the info that aided in the 14-pound weight removal but the work put in was all you! Aren’t you glad we Physiomed-staff undertook that 21-day-clean food eating strategy?!
As for insulin, and knowing me I am a physiology keener, the message insulin gives is anabolic or “to build.” It says Fill up your glucose stores in the liver! And when that’s full, fill up the fat stores with whatever is left! The more insulin there is, the more message to store fat there is. And once each cell is so full to the brim with glucose they shut their doors in an angry statement of “We don’t need any!” and thus spawns Insulin Resistance.
Exercise independently lowers glucose levels without needing the help of insulin. Insulin is just a message that tells cells to put the sugar gate on their wall so sugar can come in. With cells that are mad at insulin and no longer responding, exercise can alternatively tell a whole different group of sugar gates (GLUT-4 receptors) to come onto the cell membrane and uptake glucose from the blood. High glucose levels in the blood are dangerous, so lowering them through exercise is a good thing. So the effects of exercise are more so on blood glucose levels than on insulin levels. Exercise promotes catabolic reactions or “breakdown”, telling Cortisol, Adrenaline, and Glucagon to be active. All these messengers oppose insulin and lead to the breakdown of fat and glucose. However these responses can lead to fat GAIN over time, if overall stress on the body is too frequent.
Hope this jives!
It does jive! Thanks for the scientific breakdown! I need to brush up on my physiology…until I do I will hopefully be able to borrow your expertise from time to time