William Sells

3/14
Proposal
Although many professional athletes and health and fitness models have the body of
Greek god, anyone can have the body they want. Extended research indicates that
supplementation, proper nutrition, and sculpting can allow a person to attain his/her ideal
physique. This paper considers how one person can shape his/her body in terms of how they eat
and workout in order to reach their full potential. More specifically, I am researching how proper
diet and nutrition techniques have been and can be used to help someone reach his or her
physique goals.

Literary Review
The research I have been conducting has been focusing on the wrong topic of interest.
Just a week ago I changed my proposal from focusing on steroid use in Bodybuilding to
Research backing how proper diet and nutrition techniques have been and can be used to help
someone reach his/her physique goals. The past research that I have conducted was focused on
gaining muscle and losing fat. Most people dream to lose the flabby love handles on their
stomach. When a man is shirtless at age 55, does he have a six pack like when he was 17? My
new research will develop very similar to the past research. The only difference this time is that
the diets, workout trends, supplements and accessories available to consumers are completely
different than they use to be.

Rather than just focusing on what meal to prepare or what set I should perform, I will be
researching what foods and exercises are genuinely good for the human body. For instance
caffeine will give you lots of energy, intense focus and endurance. Caffeine can even help boost
your metabolism, but at what cost? Tachycardia and nausea can come from the over consumption
of caffeinated substances. The TED talks that I watched and observed were focusing on diets and
exercise and their effectiveness. All of my sources are credible and I am supposed to have ten to
twelve credible sources by the end of unit two. Having quality sources helps the validity and
credibility of my research paper.
In terms of what sources I chose and why, as I mentioned earlier, all sources are required
to be credible. For this course using Google Scholar, TED Talks, NPR, PBS and Books are some
very effective search engines that we can use. My sources and their topics were all relative. For
instance one topic of discussion was focused on how the media has changed societys perception
of the female body and what looks good for a females physique. Many factors play an
important role in this debate. Weight, Muscle, Hair length and eye color and skin color are only a
few of the many physical factors that society observes and judges to determine what is
attractive or not. For instance if you look at losing weight and Dieting advertisements the
actor/model that is shown is normally a female. Therefore does society disregard genetic
predispositions? Why is it that society portrays or assumes that dieting and eating healthy is a
feminine activity to take part in?
In the US, 80% of girls have been on a diet by the time they're 10 years old (Sandra,
2013). If you lose a lot of weight your brain reacts to this change in calories and exercise as a
form of starvation. People who lived hundreds of years ago did not understand the harsh facts
about health, metabolism, and exercise. Sandra Aamodt says in her TED talk, Even if youve

managed to keep the weight you lost off for seven years, your brain keeps working to make you
gain that weight back. The opposite happens when you gain a lot of weight quickly. That
temporary weight gain can permanently linger on your body for years. When unhealthy food is
more available than it was five hundred years ago, the eating environment we have today makes
staying healthy more difficult. In a study Sandra presented on a slide, the results showed that the
relative risk of death was seven times higher in obese people than the healthiest people that were
surveyed (Sandra, 2013). With statistics like that America should be motivated to get up off the
couch, put down the bag of potato chips and just go for a walk, or indulge in a grilled chicken
salad.
Another three sources of mine focused on the genetics of human obesities, dieting and
supplementation. The world of supplementation does not just pertain to protein powders and
muscle shakes, but continues to cover granola bars that have added protein and fiber to them. Fat
burning pills and testosterone boosters are also two very common performance enhancing
supplements. The financial cost is not the only expenditure of supplements and dieting. Data
collected from 2004 -2013 showed the public that nearly 71.8% of Emergency Room visits were
due to the use of energy-boosting and weight-loss supplements. Take me as an example, I was
rushed to the emergency room my first semester of college due to a reaction that my body had
with this fat burner supplement called Hell Fire. This fat burner I was using contained large
amounts of Ephedra, 1,3 Dimethylamine, and caffeine. Ephedra is an illegal substance no longer
allowed in supplement or food products. 1,3 Dimethylamine is a stimulant like both caffeine and
ephedra that also has addictive properties . A quick rush of energy is followed by a devastating
stimulant crash that can make someone feel so bad that they choose to consume more of the

supplement in order to chase the high it provides. Engaging in behavior as such is an easy way to
end up in the hospital or even worse, injured or dead.
The reason why people, especially Americans, struggle with not only losing
weight but maintaining a healthy lifestyle is because of the normal American lifestyle. In recent
years, about 36 percent of adults were found to be obese. That is more than one-third of adult
Americans (Audrey, 2015).When you get off of work at 5pm after an eight or nine hour shift the
last thing an adult wants to worry about is running three miles and eating a healthy spinach salad.
Meanwhile there are two kids needing to be fed, bathed and put to bed by 7pm. The time
schedule and added stress from work, relationships, money and family can tack on extra pounds
and take time away from daily workout routines. I know from experience that when I am stressed
the last thing I focus on is eating healthy or doing sit ups. That being said working out is an
extremely healthy outlet for stressed people. Exercise and physical activity helps deliver oxygen
and nutrients to your tissues and also allows your cardiovascular system to perform more
efficiently. When your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you have more energy to go about
your daily chores (Mayo, 2014).

Citations

1. Steroid Usage and Side effects

Kovak, J. R., Scovell, J., Ramasamy, R., Smith, R. P., Rajanahally, S., Coward, R. M., &
Lipshultz, L. I. (2014, July 8). Men regret anabolic steroid use due to a lack of
comprehension regarding the consequences on future fertility. Retrieved February 08,
2016, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/and.12340/epdf

2. NPR Bodybuilding
Hamilton, J. (2013, August 12). New Muscle Drugs Could Be The Next Big Thing In Sports
Doping. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/sections/health-

shots/2013/08/12/210487410/new-muscle-drugs-could-be-the-next-big-thing-in-sportsdoping

3. Steroids and Bodybuilding

Robson, David. "Steroid Undercover: A Pro Bodybuilder Tells All About His Steroid Use."
Bodybuilding.com. David Robson, 14 Aug. 2006. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

4. Ted Talks Bodybuilding

Andreasson, Jesper, and Thomas Johansson. "Learning Bodily Sensations - Getting the Pump."
Learning Bodily Sensations Getting the Pump. Springer Link, 2014. Web. 12 Feb.
2016. <http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137346629_4>.

5. NPR supplements
Stein, R. (2015, October 14). Dietary Supplements Send Thousands To ERs Yearly. Retrieved
March 14, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/sections/healthshots/2015/10/14/448322590/dietary-

6. NPR Dieting

supplements-send-thousands-to-ers-yearly

Dietary Supplements Send Thousands To ERs Yearly. (2016, January 20). Retrieved March 14,
2016, from http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/10/14/448322590/dietarysupplements-send-thousands-to-ers-yearly

7. Google Scholar: Books on Obesity

Bouchard, C. (n.d.). Google Books. Retrieved March 14, 2016, from
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en

8. Does working out reduce stress and burn calories?

M. (2014, February 5). Fitness. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389

9. Bodybuilding.com: The Simplest Weight-Loss Diet Ever!

1. Fernandez, M. L., & West, K. L. (2005). Mechanisms by which Dietary Fatty Acids
Modulate Plasma Lipids.The Journal of Nutrition, 135(9), 2075-2078.
2. Riccardi, G., Giacco, R., & Rivellese, A. A. (2004). Dietary fat, insulin sensitivity
and the metabolic syndrome. Clinical Nutrition, 23(4), 447-456.
3. Vaughan, R. A., Garcia-Smith, R., Bisoffi, M., Conn, C. A., & Trujillo, K. A. (2012).
Conjugated linoleic acid or omega 3 fatty acids increase mitochondrial biosynthesis
and metabolism in skeletal muscle cells. Lipids in Health and Disease, 11(142),
2090-2098.

4. Maroon, J. C., & Bost, J. W. (2006). Omega-3 Fatty acids (fish oil) as an antiinflammatory: an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for discogenic
pain. Surgical Neurology, 65(4), 326-331.
5. Xu, Y., & Qian, S. Y. (2014). Anti-cancer activities of Omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty
acids. Biomedical Journal, 37(3), 112.
6. Grosso, G., Pajak, A., Marventano, S., Castellano, S., Galvano, F., Bucolo, C., ... &
Caraci, F. (2014). Role of omega-3 fatty acids in the treatment of depressive
disorders: a comprehensive meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. PloS One,
9(5), e96905.

10. NPR: Obesity

Audrey, A. (2015, November 13). Despite Encouragement To Eat Better, Obesity Rises Among
U.S. Adults. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from
http://www.npr.org/2015/11/13/455862562/despite-encouragement-to-eat-better-obesitystill-rises-among-u-s-adults