Last month I discussed some of the basic concepts of nutrition and training used to lose fat and gain muscle. Losing fat and gaining muscle are separate and distinct physiologic processes and were initially discussed separately for just that reason. This month I’ll pick up where I left off and talk about how to do both, lose fat while gaining muscle — at the same time. When you are gaining muscle Although gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is certainly possible (we see it happen all the time) it is not easy. There’s not much room for error. You have to do everything right and I strongly suggest you read The Parrillo Performance Nutrition Manual if you haven’t already. There is simply too much information for me to summarize it all in a short article like this. More important than how many calories you eat is, what kind of food do you eat? The Nutrition Manual has a detailed list of the foods you should be eating to build muscle and lose fat.

In the world of nutrition, there are the RDAs, the DVs, the GI, to name just a few. Now comes another acronym to add to the alphabet soup: “DE.” DE stands for “dextrose equivalence.” It’s a measurement you’ll be hearing and reading more about. DE describes the degree to which “hydrolysis” (a chemical reaction with water) breaks down corn starch and converts it into dextrose (an older name for the simple sugar, glucose). If the starch is converted to mostly dextrose, the resulting “hydrolysate” is said to have a high DE. Conversely, if less starch is converted into dextrose, it has a low DE. On a scale of zero to 100: Pure starch has a DE of zero; pure dextrose, a DE of 100. The closer a hydrolysate gets in DE value to 0, the less sugar content it has. At this point, you may be asking “So what?” At issue is maltodextrin, a slow-release carbohydrate with performanceenhancing powers. It forms the carbohydrate base of many powdered supplements, drinks, and sports bars - including many of our own. Maltodextrin is created through hydrolysis and assigned a DE value.