Ted Naiman Bulked Up and Shredded
Dr. Ted Naiman is a board-certified Family Medicine physician who has used his extensive knowledge and understanding of diet, nutrition, and exercise to treat patients, helping them lose weight, greatly improve their health, and drastically improve – in some cases reverse – metabolic and autoimmune diseases.
Having been a vegetarian and a steady-state runner, Ted’s focus is now on optimizing body composition, strength, and endurance using a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet and high-intensity training. In addition to his medical practice, he is also a musician, an Ultimate player, and a practicioner of Krav Maga.
Have you listened to the first episode with Ted yet? Check it out by clicking here!
Contact Dr. Ted Naiman:
In this episode, we cover:
- What happened when Ted did full-body HIT workouts every day for six months
- What stacking stresses involves and how it can affect your results and gains
- What Ted thinks of the controversial zero-carb diet and when calories matter (or don’t matter)
- How to maximize fat loss and muscle definition with intermittent fasting
- Do free-range, organic, and grass-fed really matter?
- The case for not eating vegetables
- … and much more!
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- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
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This episode is brought to you by ARXFit.com, ARX are the most innovative, efficient and effective all-in-one exercise machines I have ever seen. I was really impressed with my ARX workout. The intensity and adaptive resistance were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I love how the machine enables you to increase the negative load to fatigue target muscles more quickly and I love how the workouts are effortlessly quantified. The software tracks maximum force output, rate of work, total amount of work done and more in front of you on-screen, allowing you to compete with your pervious performance, to give you and your clients real-time motivation. As well as being utilised by many HIT trainers to deliver highly effective and efficient workouts to their clients, ARX comes highly recommended by world-class trainers and brands including Bulletproof, Tony Robbins, and Ben Greenfield Fitness. To find out more about ARX and get $1,000 OFF software licensing fees, please go to ARXfit.com and mention Corporate Warrior in the how did you hear about us field.
This episode is brought to you by former podcast guest, Alex Fergus, Alex is a passionate health coach and has worked with 100s of clients to help them transform their body composition and health. He’s been featured on Paleo f(x), The Mind Muscle Project, and Superhuman Coach. Alex is an accomplished athlete, representing New Zealand in rowing, winning national bodybuilding titles and breaking powerlifting records. He’s a beast, and has very impressive quads, and won the Paleo f(x) RealFit competition, beating people like Ben Greenfield, and get this – 9months leading up to the competition, Alex only trained for 15min per week using BBS HIT principles.
Alex pays close attention to every aspect of his health. As a former chronically sleep-deprived young adult, Alex has invested heavily to optimise his own sleep quality for maximum benefit and has devoted much of his time to researching how to maximise sleep quality to improve your overall health and performance. Alex is giving away a FREE 4 part sleep improvement series with tips that will help you fall asleep faster, give you more energy, and improve your body composition. To get access to his FREE 4 part sleep improvement series, go to highintensitybusiness.com/alex and sign up now.
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Fairly recently, Ted posted something interesting on his Twitter page, giving us a quick look at his bodyweight HIT routine and his resulting gains.
The fitness industry doesn’t want you to know that you can get strong on your own with 8 mins of daily bodyweight exercise in your garage. ???? pic.twitter.com/hLvedEX8Ui
— Tᕮᗪ ⚡️ ᑎᗩIᗰᗩᑎ (@tednaiman) September 24, 2017
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Have you tried doing a daily / high-frequency HIT workout? How did it turn out for you? Please let me know in the comments at the bottom of this post.
Show Notes
Click the link below to listen from the exact time stamp on Overcast:
- Ted talks about doing a daily single-set to failure HIT workout, his resulting gains, and his recent thoughts on training frequency [6:20]
- Have Ted’s thoughts on how to optimize strength and hypertrophy changed? [13:55]
- What does Ted’s workout routine look like now? [16:14]
- Does doing single-legged squats increase your risk for injury? (And how bodyweight exercises stress your body’s connective tissue) [17:50]
- Ted’s thoughts on why higher-frequency HIT workouts might potentially be beneficial (and its potential long-term risks) [19:00]
- What inspired Ted to work out every single day? [23:49]
- Ted and I talk about stacking stresses and how it takes a toll on your overall health and fitness [24:46]
- Ted’s thoughts on alcohol consumption in relation to muscle composition and how it taxes the body [28:10]
- Ted’s thoughts on optimizing muscle hypertrophy [32:07]
- On protein satiety and the protein leverage hypothesis, how it affects how we eat, and why we still find carbohydrate-based foods so tempting [33:37]
- Ted talks about mitochondrial health, why it matters to us, and what you can do about it [43:16]
- On intermittent fasting, what the ideal protocol is, and what Ted thinks of Art De Vany’s approach to fasting and meal timing [49:09]
- How do fasting and decreased meal frequency affect caloric intake (and should you worry about it)? [52:39]
- How much does the quality of your food matter? Should you always buy organic, free-range, and grass-fed? [57:02]
- Does Dr. Ted Naiman agree with Dr. Shawn Baker’s proposition that vegetables are redundant? [1:00:48]
- The case for why you shouldn’t eat vegetables, nuts, and seeds [1:05:20]
- What does Ted’s diet look like now? [1:07:50]
- Ted talks about being a vegetarian for most of his early life, how it affected his health, and what switching to a meat-based, higher-protein diet did for him [1:09:53]
- Why protein is critical to weight loss and optimal body composition [1:12:37]
- Ted’s take on Dave Asprey saying “there isn’t evidence that you get fat eating too much of the right fat,” and why you shouldn’t eat fat and carbohydrate together [1:15:30]
- How much do calories really matter, and what happens when you have an energy surplus? [1:18:23]
- What happens if you consume any excess amount of protein? [1:21:32]
- What happens if you consume an excessively high amount of fat? [1:22:15]
- Does protein drive insulin in the same way carbohydrates do, how worried should you be about occasional insulin spikes, and is the carbohydrate-insulin model still valid? [1:27:02]
- Ted’s thoughts on The China Study [1:30:52]
- Is there an ideal bodyfat percentage or range for men and women? [1:32:14]
- Are there some people with specific body types or conditions who simply can’t achieve optimal bodyfat percentage? [1:33:38]
- Has Ted changed his opinion on certain biohacks such as blue-light blockers? [1:35:30]
- Is drinking too much coffee harmful? [1:37:46]
- Has Ted changed his mind about anything related to diet, nutrition, and exercise recently? [1:39:11]
- What’s the best health and fitness book Ted has read recently? [1:40:55]
- What does Ted’s family think of his Twitter activity? [1:41:20]
- What is Ted’s lifestyle like nowadays? [1:43:23]
Selected Links from the Episode
- DEXA Scan
- BodPod
- PURENJOY Body Fat Caliper Set ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- Muscle-up (exercise)
- Doug McGuff’s Big 5
- Bosu Balance Trainer ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- Single-legged Squat (exercise)
- Drew Baye’s Project Kratos
- Convict Conditioning Strength Training Program
- ARX (Adaptive Resistance Exercise)
- Sarcopenia
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Krav Maga
- The LLVC Show | (Episode 1146): Dr. Ted Naiman – 2016 Low-Carb Cruise Lecture
- Bulletproof Radio with Dave Asprey
- The Surprising Health Benefits of Extreme Hot and Cold Temperatures (interview with Dr. Rhonda Patrick)
- The New Evolution Diet by Art De Vany ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- Autophagy
- Slow-Carb Diet
- Alternate-Day Fasting and One-Day Fasts: Benefits and Research
- Alternate-day fasting in nonobese subjects: effects on body weight, body composition, and energy metabolism (Study)
- Effect of Alternate-Day Fasting on Weight Loss, Weight Maintenance, and Cardioprotection Among Metabolically Healthy Obese Adults (Study)
- What are ruminant animals?
- Shawn Baker’s NequalsMany.com
- Brassica (plant species)
- The Best Low-Carb Fruits (and the Worst)
- Which Fruits Have The Lowest Glycemic Load?
- Loma Linda University
- The James Altucher Show | Ep. 224 – Dave Asprey: Live Like a Biohacker (Activate Untapped Brain Energy, Work Smarter & Think Faster)
- Dr. Ted Naimain – Insulin Resistance (Video)
- The China Study – Denise Minger
- Ketogains
- Effects of blue light technology
- Ketogenic diet improves sleep quality in children with therapy-resistant epilepsy (Study)
- Cold Brew Coffee
- The Nature of Nutrition: A Unifying Framework from Animal Adaptation to Human Obesity by Stephen J. Simpson & David Raubenheimer ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
People Mentioned
- Dr. James Steele (Listen to our episodes here: Part 1 and Part 2)
- Bill DeSimone (Listen to our episodes here: Part 1 and Part 2)
- Doug McGuff (Listen to our episodes here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)
- Dave Asprey
- Mark Sisson (Listen to the episode with Mark here)
- Jimmy Moore
- Dr. Rhonda Patrick
- Art De Vany
- Dr. Shawn Baker (Listen to previous episodes here: Part 1 and Part 2)
- Gary Taubes (Listen my interview with Gary here)
- Denise Minger
500 – What I’ve Learned After 11 Years of Interviewing World-Class HIT Experts and Fitness Entrepreneurs (Luke Carlson interviews Lawrence Neal)
499 – The Best HIT Protocol for Strength, Muscle Mass, and Hypertrophy (SuperSlow VS High-Volume HIT Debate with Dagoberto Vila and Dr. James Fisher)
498 – How to Fine-Tune Your HIT Workouts and Design A Great Client Experience (with Luke Carlson)
Hey Lawrence,
I enjoyed the podcast.
I bet you know already , but Brad Schoenfeld announced that some future studies will show that high frequency (above 2x week) isn’t necessarily better than 1-2x week. As he states, total volume in a week matters most. Just wanted to share. Saying this, like Ted mentioned , higher frequency is probably not inferior per se , as long as total workout volume per session is managed.
Second, I completely agree with the protein leverage hypothesis! However, I am surprised Ted did not discuss basic human anatomy first, where was the discussion of the second human stomach , the ‘dessert stomach’? https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/5881756_700b.jpg.
Cheers.
Julien
Awesome Julien! Where can I find Brad’s announcement? Thank you
Nevermind, found it
Amazing podcast guys – I think this will be your most popular one going forward Lawrence! Ted, I’ve been thinking a lot about this stuff recently and I’ve ended up in pretty much the same place you are: ie frequent (every other day), full-body weight, brief HIT workouts and upping the protein. It was great to hear you validating this approach: however: I don’t know if you have heard the recent Bulletproof Radio podcast where Dave Asprey interviews Mark Sisson https://blog.bulletproof.com/metabolic-flexibility-fasting-sleep-fresh-look-keto-revolution-435/ Mark and Dave agree that high protein is NOT the way to go: saying they believe that it causes excessive gluconeogenesis – and because this is a very inefficient process will cause an excessive amount of free radicals to be produced, also create a toxic nitrogen load. I was a bit disheartened to hear that, as I had up till then read an awful lot about the benefits of going (very) high protein (ie over 2g/Kg of bodyweight – as advocated by Jose Antonio, Stuart Philips, Donald Layman, Gabrielle Lyon, Layne Norton even Chris Masterjohn to name but a few) What are your thoughts on Mark & Dave’s point of view? (their words are copied & pasted below from the podcast transcript):
“Dave Asprey: It’s interesting. I finally, look…the Bulletproof diet is a low to moderate protein diet but a lot of times, especially when you back into the ’80s/early ’90s, there’s these high protein diets to try to force the body to burn protein for fuel. If you’re on a low carb, high protein, low-fat diet, what happens to the body?
Mark Sisson: Oh my god. I mean, yeah. Right, so your body is trying to convert excess … First of all, it’s trying to get rid of what would be considered a toxic amount of amino acids. Then it’s trying to convert some of those into energy. It’s a very energy inefficient pathway. It probably has a lot of reactive oxygen species and free radical damage that accompanies it. The irony is that most of the guys who were doing that, or a lot of the guys who were doing that – 300 grams of protein a day – were also doing steroids so the body could actually use all of that nitrogen and incorporate it. If you’re an average person trying to take in 300 grams of protein a day, it’s not only counterproductive, but then we can talk about the mTOR pathway.
Dave Asprey: Yes, that’s where I was going.
Mark Sisson: Yeah, so you can talk about the upregulation of some of these growth pathways that benefit a young child who’s growing or benefit a teen adolescent who is trying to put on weight. At some point, growth in the human body segways from muscle mass to precancerous conditions and things like that. I think there’s a real whole area of investigation into what is an appropriate amount of protein, and how much is too much. I know guys like Ron Rosedale have been talking about this for a long time. Ron would say more than a 100 grams a day is problematic. I’m not sure I’m there yet, but I can say 200 a day is problematic. As we look at … that kind of brings us back to, “What is a meal? How many meals are you gonna eat in a day?” How could you possibly eat 250 grams of protein a day in good conscience and think that you’re doing yourself a favor. Unless you’re trying so hard because you’re doing skinless chicken breasts … and by the way, Dave, have you ever tried to eat a lot of skinless chicken breasts day after day after day?
Dave Asprey: Years ago when I weighed 300 pounds, absolutely. It’s actually worse that tofu in terms of …
Mark Sisson: It’s horrendous. You get sick of it so quick, so anyway, we’re back to what sort of things we eat on the Keto Reset Diet?
Dave Asprey: Right, right, and it’s not that. I want listeners who are new to keto just to understand we’re not talking about those high protein things. A lot of people who aren’t familiar ketosis and these higher, healthy fat diets, they’re actually thinking they’re going to be in ketosis if they eat a steak and chicken breasts and eggs every day. I know that your books settles that. It sets it straight, and we certainly agree on that point. That’s not how you get into ketosis, and that’s not how you live a long time. It’s not gonna even have you look good. It’s 1980s logic, just like the low fat thing.”
I’m not saying Dave and Mark are wrong, I agree with most of the above but remember they’re both in the business of selling high fat diets, caveat emptor!
Hi there Lawrence! Another interview with a great room for thought. Great job in this regard.
Now to the question of the day: The closest I came to everyday workouts was about 10 years ago, when I practiced a method called HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), which stands for increased frequency, moderate vloume and intensity. Basically it was 3 weeks of 3x fullbody workouts per week, 1-2 exercises per muscle group, about 8-10 in total (over and again), 1 WSNTF, then 1 week 1 WSTF, folowed by 2 weeks of “strategic deconditioning” e.g. active rest from strenght training. I discontinued it after about four months, because I developed significant pain in both elbows and lower back. In the time I was not doing “slow”, but rather ” controlled” movements. It was barbells, dumbells and machines. IMO I had a rapid build up of strenght due to the frequency and the limited exercise selection, to which my answer at the time was increased weight on the bar. As for appearance, I did notice a change, such as may be subjective muscle feel and fullness, which also would go away during the 2wks deconditioning phase, so from my today’s perspective it was rather inflamation based effect. Nothing stayed with me after I discontinued, besides the lower back pain, which accompanied me for another half year or so… So it was not exactely everyday and it was not good form HIT and it gave me hell pretty quickly.
So I’m thinking why I would like to train bodyweight every day and be able to progress to one arm chins (altgough with my 88-90 kilos seems unlikely), only to loose it if I do not practice it for two weeks as happens with Ted Naiman?! Still believe that adaptation and deadaptation must be considered a great deal, when a workout is designed.
With regards to the diet part..honestly got a little confused, but I enjoyed the talk and also the comments below. I’d like to point out, that from all being said, claories matter, macros have a great input, but it seems to me, that the Fasting practice weights the most in the equation. May be Lawrence will confirm. With regards to protein things become really confusing. We have to “ramp it up”, but as repeatedly stated if it is more than 50% of calories things get problematic. It has the satiety and thermal effect, BUT it does not seem as the preffered energy source…we look for fats and carbs…
For me problematic is the definition Grams per pound of bodyweight or lean bodymass…always confusing and not the same imo.
“Ramping up” for a 150 pound person is one thing and for 220 pounds person totally different in real food! If you are 220 pounds and you consider eating real food and your calories…well things get tough.
I just remembered a quote form Mike Mentzer’s early 80’s book:
“Protein requirements depend almost entirely on your body weight, not your level of physical activity, because it is not used as fuel as long as the body′s energy supply is adequate. The rule of thumb is one gram of protein per day for every two pounds of bodyweight. There is no reason to buy expensive supplements since the amount of protein can be obtained from any well-balanced diet that includes meat, fish, or dairy products. I maintain my weight at about 220 pounds and consume about 60 grams of protein a day, less than recommended for my weight, and I′m still growing muscle…”
From ′The Mentzer Method to Fitness – A Revolutionary Weight-Training System for Men and Women′, by Mike Mentzer with Ardy Friedberg (1980). p. 179.
It’s antiquated, old, but somehow I belive works as well.
Fun episode here, I have a few thoughts as usual.
First off regarding Ted’s exercise frequency, I think that it’s all well and good in an N=1 context but surely Ted lies at the extreme end of the bell curve even assuming he is meeting “Baye” standards of intensity every day. How useful his experience is to the average trainee I just don’t know. I have a feeling that either way, neuromuscular adaptation and the repeated bout effect plays into his results a great deal. (That said, next week I intend on upping the frequency on a lagging body part and monitoring the result) but to drag out the old skeptic’s meme “the plural of anecdote is not data”
I find some Ted’s views on nutrition attractive but honestly it sounds like some of his rationalisations are made up on the spot, he’s constantly moving the goalposts. I also find it hard to believe someone that is so quietly yet closely aligned with the ideological cranks at WAPF. To use another skeptic’s saying “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. Some of his ideas about vegetables are laughable, some are just downright false. Brassicas for example have been a documented crop for centuries, kale was artificially selected for from at least 1500yrs ago for example and cultivated in America from the early days of colonisation.
I won’t go into depth on my views on industrial animal agriculture here but it’s not good for the animals, the environment or the consumer, even if it were perfect it’s not going to feed 7 billion people. Ignoring that though Lawrence, read “The Ginger Pig Meat Book” if you want to understand why not to buy meat from the supermarket and get some expert cooking advice at the same time.
Just read a really interesting article that seems appropriate to share. http://m.nautil.us/issue/15/turbulence/fruits-and-vegetables-are-trying-to-kill-you
As a father of a 3-month old, I would be interested to hear Ted’s thoughts on formula (if supplemental to breast milk) and what to start feeding them when they start solid food especially considering the popularity of baby cereal as introduction to solid food. I don’t remember if this even came up in the previous podcast.