The Tight-Waist Vitamin

A dramatic waist-to-shoulder ratio might be one of the most coveted aspects of a fit physique—and one of the hardest to achieve. If you’re looking for that Adonis-style trait, add a healthy dose of vitamin D to your daily regimen. Researchers at Purdue University gave 12 overweight twenty-something subjects 4,000 IE of vitamin D and 500 milligrams of calcium every day for 12 weeks, while a similar group received a placebo. All subjects performed a moderately intensive weight-training regimen three days a week. It turns out that the fatties who took vitamin D lost more body fat, specifically the kind that hangs around the waist. The waist/hip ratio for the vitamin D group saw significant improvements compared to those taking the placebo. Researchers believe that 12 weeks was actually far too short to see the full benefits, and they expected even greater improvement when supplementing with vitamin D is adhered to for two years or more.

The Holy Grail Of Fitness

A new study from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, just proved that the Holy Grail of Fitness—losing fat while you build muscle—is possible. The bad news is it’s really hard. Researchers took two groups of young fit men and put them on strict meal plans for four weeks (all calories were carefully controlled throughout the study) that totaled 40 percent fewer calories than they needed to maintain their bodyweight. One group received a high-protein diet (about one gram per pound of bodyweight), and the other group was given half that amount of protein. All subjects performed four days of intense weight training and two days of high-intensity interval sprint training each week. After four weeks, the results were pretty amazing. The low-protein group lost almost eight pounds of body fat. The high-protein group lost approximately 10 pounds of body fat and added two pounds of muscle. Most surprisingly, both groups lost very little muscle. While these changes are impressive, especially considering the four-week window, the lead researchers admit that the subjects were pretty miserable, and by the end of the experiment all the subjects could talk about was their own hunger.

Long Muscle Memory

A new study published in The Journal of Experimental Biology makes a great case for early life involvement in lifting weights. We know that building muscle the second time around feels much easier than adding that mass the first time. Scientists have discovered a cellular memory in muscle that seems to remember hypertrophy and is able to regain mass faster after losing it. One aspect of hypertrophy is the recruitment of myonuclei form satellite cells. Muscle fibers that have attained a higher number of myonuclei grow faster. Research now shows that muscles hold onto those myonuclei even when subjected to atrophy from disuse. Scientists hypothesize that muscles retain this feature for over 15 years and possibly for life, although elderly athletes have a harder time attracting myonuclei than younger ones. Still, this is nothing short of a public service announcement for the introduction of weight training to teenagers. Training your muscles early in life, and thus developing a string personal muscle memory, can pay dividends for years to come.