Welcome to the first edition of the women’s research review!

Let’s get straight into it, this will be a no nonsense newsletter delivering facts every Thursday.

Study 1 - Extending your life

Let’s start with the big dog of the 3 today. Is there an easy way to improve your life expectancy?

A 2018 study explored the impact of adopting 5 different low-risk lifestyle factors

1. Never smoking
   

2. Staying in the “normal” BMI range
   

3. Getting at least 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity per day
   

4. Low-risk alcohol consumption (i.e., low-to-moderate intake)
   

5. High diet quality score (quantified using the Alternate Healthy Eating Index score)

Study reference: PMID: 29712712

People who adopted all 5 low-risk HEALTHY lifestyle behaviours, had a projected life expectancy that was about 13 years longer!

• 14 years for females

• 12.2 years for males

Just look at the graph above, it’s a beauty.

The light blue line is all 5 healthy behaviours adopted.

But look, even ONE gives you a boost of 2-3 years. If you could do 3 you’re hitting an 8-year improvement.

If you’re already a non-smoker, you’re off to a good start at 1. If you’re not a heavy drinker, well done, you’ve gained 2 out of 5 with ease.

If you hit your steps daily, boosh you’re now at 3 out of 5!

All you have left is to hit a “normal” BMI (I hate the word normal). So in realty this just means for most people (as 65% of the UK population is overweight) to drop a few dress sizes to start with and this may tick this box. Nothing drastic is needed here as losing weight too quickly or harshly may cause a huge amount of stress which I would estimate to take many years from your life.

And the final one is diet quality. Much of this you already know, but let me show you a graph of what they mean by having a high score on this. It’s called the ‘Alternate Healthy Eating Index Score’.

Shock, what we’ve been told for years!

The graph above is based on a high score from that index. (More info here if you wanted to be bored to death about veggies)

The researchers also estimated the gained life expectancy related to each of the lifestyle factors.

As expected, increased exercise is also associated with a longer life expectancy

A healthy dietary pattern is also associated with a longer life expectancy. Other ones, such as not smoking or a reduced amount of smoking if a smoker, moderate alcohol intake, and optimal body weight, were ALL associated with a longer life expectancy

SUMMARY AND COMPARISON

If you see it this way, 49.4% difference on the life expectancy of women who adopt the 5 healthy lifestyle factors vs the ones who didn’t.

For men, 48% difference in life expectancy.

Other studies noted in the research also found that adopting a low-risk healthy lifestyle was broadly consistent in different countries, too:

✓ 8.3 years (women) and 10.3 years (men) in Japan

✓ 17.9 years in Canada

✓ 13.9 years (women) and 17.0 years (men) in Germany

✓ 14 years in the United Kingdom.

You know what stands out to me on this study? It’s the BASICS.

No magic diet pill. No gut health super pill, no magic 47-minute workout to torch fat and depression. Not a single superfood to extend life beyond 120.

Just. Do. The. Basics.

And the most beautiful news of all about this is that you can start adopting these behaviours at age 50 and get the benefits. It’s NEVER too late to improve your lifestyle and quality of life.

Study 2 - Do BCAAs reduce muscle soreness?

BCAAs saw a sharp rise to fame a decade or so ago and was trumped as the ultimate anabolic drink.

I remember carrying my Scivation Xtend (most popular one at the time) around Uni and drinking it all day, thinking it would be my ticket to being ewwge.

So what does the research say about it today?

A 2010 study also published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism found that taking branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) before doing squats can reduce muscle soreness and help maintain muscle strength after the exercise. PMID: 20601741

The study involved 12 young, healthy, untrained women who took either BCAAs or a placebo before doing 7 sets of squats with 3 min rest intervals between sets and then checked for muscle soreness and strength 2 days later.

PMID: 20601741

The results showed that the women who took BCAAs had less muscle soreness and maintained more of their muscle strength compared to the women who took the placebo.

Average levels of soreness in the placebo trial while squatting on Days 2 and 3 were 6.4 and 5.8, respectively, while in the BCAA group, the levels of soreness on Days 2 and 3 were 4.2 and 4.5, respectively.

Even though some muscle soreness still occurred in the participants who took BCAAs before exercise, it was significantly less than the muscle soreness experienced by participants who took the placebo.

The study concluded that taking BCAAs before exercise can reduce muscle soreness in untrained individuals and is, therefore, a beneficial supplement for these individuals. Would this help trained individuals? Maybe not.

BCAA supplementation for fatigue may be beneficial, based on a 2021 meta-analysis of BCAA effects on markers of muscle damage. However, The results found that BCAA supplementation reduced muscle damage and muscle soreness after exercise, but may NOT speed up the recovery of muscle performance. PMID: 34612716

So all in all, BCAAs are OK but with recent developments in technology we can now drink a complete protein like Clear Whey Hydro and have the same taste as BCAAs. That fruity watery type drink vs milky whey.

Clear Whey Hydro is superior in all ways to a BCAA drink as it includes all the amino acids and whey protein Hydrolysate is the top protein, it’s essentially pre-digested so causes no bloating or irritation and in some research is shown to improve power recovery by 20% more than whey protein isolate.

The good news is that as Turtle Method we do source clear whey hydro, the bad news is that we’re out of stock (let me know if you want it back in stock ASAP and what flavours)

So if you’re going to spend money on supplements, just get a complete protein not BCAAs or EAAs.

Study 3 - Work out fasted or fed?

Does it make a difference? Let’s find out.

16 women were divided into two groups, one that did the workout on an empty stomach (fasted) and one that had a meal before the workout (fed).

The study found that after 6 weeks of HIIT, both groups showed improvements in body composition and muscle function, but there was no difference between the fasted and fed groups.

Change in total body fat and lean mass analysed from DEXA scans

The researchers concluded that a short-term low-volume HIT is a time-efficient strategy to improve body composition and muscle oxidative capacity in overweight/obese women, but fed versus fasted-state training does not alter this response.

But…. but…. maybe fasted helps burn more fat? Surely? I wake up after 12 hours of not eating, so my body uses more fat as energy, so I’ll lose more fat? Not so fast buddy.

A 2014 study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition aimed to see if doing aerobic exercise after fasting overnight helps young women lose more body fat compared to doing it after eating. PMID: 25429252

20 healthy young women were randomly divided into 2 groups: one group did the exercise after fasting overnight, and the other group ate a meal before exercising.

Both groups were in a 500-calorie deficit and performed 1 hour of steady-state cardio 3x per week for 4 weeks.

Both groups lost weight and body fat, but there was no difference between the two groups.

So there you go, would you rather train before or after eating? Do whatever suits you.

I kind of like training fasted, I feel more nimble but if I were to go for a long run (hardly ever) or play sports or want to go for a big PR for a workout I’d 100% eat a solid meal high in carbs 2-3 hours before it.

And that’s a wrap for edition 1.

I hope you enjoyed it and learned something!

Take home from today is really to do the basics, they really do make a difference.

Until next week,

Scott “5/5 lifestyle factors” Flear

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