I'm 44, six feet tall and weigh 185 pounds. I've been physically active all my adult life. I watch what I eat (not squeaky clean, but I bet I'm close to 80%), do cardio 3x a week (2 mile run), and do resistance training 3x a week (compound lifts, medium-heavey weight). I've been doing this for my entire adult life and probably haven't gone longer than 2 weeks straight at a time away from the gym in the last 28 years.

Despite this lifestyle, I have high cholesterol, high LDL and low HDL. The family doctor says it's genetic (family history of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and cadriovascular disease) and wants to put me on Lipitor. I DON'T want to be on a statin, or anything else really. The thought of having to take a pill every day the rest of my life doesn't appeal to me, and I've also read some pretty bad stories about the side effects of stains. 

I don't think there's much more I can do in the exercise/diet department, so I did a bunch of research on supplements and found some recommendations. In the interest of all others who have high cholesterol despite a healthy lifestyle, I thought I'd post my progress and results here.

I had blood drawn today and will get my cholesterol results next Wednesday, which I will post. Those results will be the baseline. I'm going to start my supplement regimen tomorrow morning and run it for a month, then get my cholesterol tested again at the end of November. I'll try to keep a daily food log as well, and post my workouts and body weight.

Edit: I've decided to keep my cholesterol experiment seperate from the weight training blog. You can keep up with my attempts to lower cholesterol at http://nutribody.com/index.php

Artificial trans fats are one of the most prevalent poisons in our food supply;  but most don't know that healthy natural trans fats DO exist.

I'm going to talk about something today that most of you have probably never heard... that there is a distinction between good trans fats and bad trans fats. There is some evidence that the good trans fats can help you with fat loss, muscle building, and even cancer prevention, while the bad trans fats have been shown to cause heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and the general "blubbering" of your body.

I'm sure most of you have heard all of the ruckus in the news over the last few years about just how bad man-made trans fats are for your health. If you've been a reader of my newsletter and my Truth about Six Pack Abs e-book program, then you definitely know my opinion that these substances are some of the most evil food additives of all and are found in the vast majority of all processed foods and fast foods on the market today.

In my opinion, man-made trans fats are right up there with smoking in terms of their degree of danger to your health. After all, they are one of THE MAIN factors for the explosion of heart disease since approximately the 1950's.

With all of the talk about trans fats in the news these days, I wanted to clarify some things, particularly regarding bad trans fats vs. good trans fats. If you've never heard of good trans fats before, let me explain in a bit.

The Bad Trans Fats

First, the bad trans fats I'm referring to are the man-made kind. These are represented by any artificially hydrogenated oils. The main culprits are margarine, shortening, and partially hydrogenated oils that are in most processed foods, junk foods, and deep fried foods.

These hydrogenated oils are highly processed using harsh chemical solvents like hexane (a component of gasoline), high heat, pressure, have a metal catalyst added, and are then deodorized and bleached. A small % of the solvent is allowed to remain in the finished oil. This has now become more of an industrial oil rather than a food oil, but somehow the FDA still allows the food manufacturers to put this crap in our food at huge quantities, even with the well documented health dangers.

These hydrogenated oils cause inflammation inside of your body, which signals the deposition of cholesterol as a healing agent on artery walls. Hence, hydrogenated oil = inflammation = clogged arteries. You can see why heart disease has exploded since this crap has been loaded into our food supply over the last 5 to 6 decades.

As time goes on, and science continues to unveil how deadly these oils really are, I feel that eventually they will be illegal and banned from use. The labeling laws were just the first step. In fact, certain countries around the world have already banned the use of hydrogenated oils in food manufacturing or at least set dates to phase them out for good.

However, keep in mind that as companies are starting to phase out the use of hydrogenated oils in processed foods, they are replacing them, in most instances, with highly refined polyunsaturated oils such as soybean oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, etc, etc. These are still heavily processed oils using high heat, solvents, deodorizers, and bleaching agents. Even refined oils are known to produce inflammation in your body...a far cry from natural sources of healthy fats.

Don't be fooled by the new onslaught of foods claiming "trans fat free"... if they use heavily refined oils (even if they're non-hydrogenated), it's still pure evil for your body! 

Once again, for the best results, your best bet is avoiding highly processed foods altogether and choose whole, natural, minimally processed foods. Your body will thank you!

The Good Trans Fats

Ok, after having trash talked the man-made trans fats, let me clearly state that there is such a thing as healthy natural trans fats. Natural trans fats are created in the stomachs of ruminant animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, etc. and make their way into the fat stores of the animals.

Therefore, the milk fat and the fat within the meat of these animals can provide natural healthy trans fats (best in grass-fed organic versions only).

Natural trans fats in your diet have been thought to have some potential benefit to aid in both muscle building and fat loss efforts. However, keep in mind that the quantity of healthy trans fats in the meat and dairy of ruminant animals is greatly reduced by mass-production methods of farming and their grain and soy heavy diets. Meat and dairy from grass-fed, free-range animals always have much higher quantities of these beneficial fats.

One such natural trans fat that you may have heard of is called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and has been marketed by many weight loss companies. Keep in mind that these man-made CLA pills you see in the stores may not be the best way to get CLA in your diet. They are artificially made from plant oils, instead of the natural process that happens in ruminant animals. Once again, man-made just doesn't compare to the benefits of natural sources.

Here's a great site I found that I use to order all of my healthy grass-fed beef and other free range meats.  The service is impeccable and they deliver right to your doorstep in a sealed cooler. It's worth it to know that you and your family are actually eating meat that's good for you instead of the normal grocery store junk.

Now that all of your labels should be listing grams of trans fat, keep in mind that if a quantity of trans fat is listed on a meat or dairy product, it is most likely the natural good trans fats that we've discussed here (*I only recommend grass-fed meat or dairy). Otherwise, if the quantity of trans fat is listed on any processed foods, it is most likely the dangerous unhealthy crap from artificially hydrogenated oils, so stay away! 

One more important note about food labels and trans fat listings... keep in mind that food manufacturers are allowed to label a food "trans fat free" if 1 serving size contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat.  So you may see some products with hydrogenated oils as one of their main ingredients, but if they make the serving size small enough so that it contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, they can label it as trans fat free... now that's BS!  just another example of our broken system!

I hope you've enjoyed this interesting look at good trans vs. bad trans fats and use the info to arm yourself with more healthful food choices for a better body. 

As you may have already discovered, the squat (along with deadlifts) is at the top of the heap as one of the most effective overall exercises for stimulating muscle gain and fat loss. This is because exercises like squats and deadlifts use more muscle groups under a heavy load than any other weight bearing exercises. This stimulates the greatest hormonal response.

University research studies have proved including squats into your training program also increases your upper body development, even though upper body specific joint movements are not performed. Whether your goal is gaining muscle mass, losing body fat, building a strong and functional body, or improving athletic performance, the squat and deadlift and their variations are the ultimate exercises.

Squats can be done with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or even just body weight. Squats should only be done with free weights--never with a machine. Machine limit the range of motion and movement and don't involve the numerous support muscles. 

The type of squat that people are most familiar with is the barbell squat where the bar rest on the upper back of the shoulders. Many professional strength coaches believe front squats, where the bar rests on the shoulders in front of the head, and overhead squats, where the bar is locked out in a snatch grip overhead throughout the squat, are more functional to athletic performance than back squats, and have a smaller risk of lower back injury.

A combination of all three will yield the best results for overall muscular development, body fat loss, and athletic performance. Front squats are moderately more difficult than back squats, while overhead squats are considerably more difficult than either back squats or front squats. I’ll cover overhead squats in a future article.

If you're only accustomed to performing back squats, it will take a few sessions to become comfortable with front squats, so start out light. After a couple sessions of practice, you'll find the groove and can start increasing the poundage.

To perform front squats:

The front squat recruits the abdominals to a much higher degree cmpared to back squats because of the more upright position. It's mostly a lower body exercise, but is great for incorporating core strength and stability into the squatting movement. It can also be difficult to learn how to properly rest the bar on your shoulders. There are two ways to rest the bar on the front of the shoulders.

1. Step under the bar and cross your forearms into an “X” position while resting the bar on the dimple that is created by the shoulder muscle near the bone, keeping your elbows high so that your arms are parallel to the ground. Hold the bar in place by pressing the thumb side of your fists against the bar for support.

2. Hold the bar by placing your palms face up and the bar resting on your fingers against your shoulders. For both methods, your elbows must stay up high to prevent the weight from falling. Your upper arms should stay parallel to the ground throughout the squat. Find out which bar support method is more comfortable for you.

Initiate the squat from your hips by sitting back and down, keeping the weight on your heels as opposed to the balls of your feet. Squat down to a position where your thighs are approximately parallel to the ground or lower, then press back up to the starting position. Keeping your weight toward your heels is the key factor in squatting to protect your knees from injury. It's a myth that deep squats hurt the knees. Done correctly, squats actually strengthen the knees.

Practice first with an un-weighted bar or a relatively light weight to learn the movement.  Most people are surprised how hard this exercise works your abs once you learn the correct form.