Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
While doing his research as a senior fellow in intensive care medicine at Stanford
University, Scott Connelly, MD, created a high-quality protein formulation, Metamyosyn®, which
later became the key ingredient in MET-Rx®, the original high-protein meal replacement
product. According to Dr. Connelly, MET-Rx formulation is currently being issued as standard
nutritional protocol in Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women's burn care trauma unit
and Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital. Dr. Connelly is also a visiting professor at UCLA's School
of Medicine with teaching responsibilities in the area of the physiology of nutrition and muscle
metabolism.
What general approach do you recommend for power-strength athletes who want
to lose fat or who must make a specific weight category for competition?
My general recommendations are probably different from the norm in that I advise
people to minimize “weight loss” relative to “energy loss” by embracing a strategy that
engenders pure fat loss with no loss or even modest gain of LBM. This isn’t really that difficult,
especially for weight training individuals. My advice would be to increase the protein to
carbohydrate ratio two to one and make up the energy differential with “negative calorie” fats
[i.e., MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides) and diglyceride]. Consumer-friendly [i.e., palatable,
versatile and no GI issues] sources of these are coconut oil/cream and enova oil, respectively.
Monounsaturates in almonds could probably be included in this category although less human
data exists on these fats.
More extreme outcomes demanded by special circumstances, for example,
bodybuilding competitions, are benefited by additional calorie and macronutrient manipulations
that are time-dependent and usually very transient and are beyond the scope of these
generalized considerations. Aerobic exercise below the intensity of the anaerobic threshold
(point at which breathing becomes labored) is additive, but not absolutely necessary. These
strategies require execution over a more protracted period of time, but do provide superior body
composition results to methods calling for a prominent restriction of calories. Finally, on the
horizon are nutritional constituents that directly activate the cascade of transcription factors in
muscle that underwrite the balance between hypertrophy and atrophy in skeletal muscle. For
the past five years I’ve been collaborating with a group of investigators abroad in the elucidation
of the effects of such compounds in muscle cell cultures, animal models and human trials and
our recent success in commercialization will allow us to move forward with this product release
in the foreseeable future.
[Editor´s Note: It’s now clear that a diet with higher protein and reduced carbohydrates
improves body composition during weight loss. These diets provide a metabolic advantage
during restricted energy intake that targets increased loss of body fat while reducing loss of
muscle mass and stabilizing regulations of blood glucose. Dr. Donald Layman, a world leader in
this area, has proposed that the branched-chain amino acid, leucine, is a key to the metabolic
advantage of a higher protein diet (J Am Coll Nutr, 23:631S-636S, 2005).
A recent study reported that consumption of a diet rich in medium-chain triglycerides
(MCTs) results in greater loss of fat compared with olive oil, perhaps due to increased energy
expenditure and fat burning observed with MCT intake. The investigators concluded that MCTs
may be considered as agents that aid in the prevention of obesity or potentially stimulate weight
loss (Obes Res, 11:395-402, 2003).]
How can average gym rats sort through all of the science and pseudo-science to
determine for themselves if claims for nutritional products or regimens are valid?
The simple answer is “average” persons can’t distinguish truth from poetry in these
areas. Prudence would suggest the need for the availability of a clinical human trial conducted
by a third party without financial ties to the outcome. Unfortunately, even with this qualification,
trials conducted under controlled conditions may not translate to free-living individuals.
Technique errors and intellectual dishonestly are common in academic research. Published in
the “journal of irreproducible results” is more than just a cliché. Probably the best measure is
street credibility coupled with a well-articulated premise for efficacy. Products that perform well
consistently over time are perpetuated in the marketplace by word-of-mouth market forces.
Products that are over-hyped or are out and out frauds quickly disappear. My best advice would
be “don’t be one of the first consumers to buy a product that seems too good to be true.”