That’s me in the picture. You don’t have to be perfect.
If the thought of eating a french fry makes you want to gag at the impurity of it all, this article isn’t for you. I’ve been trolled for saying it’s okay to eat candy, you can lose weight eating carbs, and six-pack abs aren’t all that healthy.
I’m far from perfect. Most weeks, my family eats processed meals from the frozen section of the grocery store and fast food once or twice (sometimes more). The clean eaters of the world likely think that means I’m unqualified to give health and fitness advice. If that’s you, I get it.
Hear me…
Unconventional advice fitness pros won’t tell you
Bryan Krahn first tells this story in an article titled, “Survivorship Bias in Fitness,”
When planes began returning to base riddled with bullet holes during WWII, the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) knew it had a problem.
How could they shore up the planes to better protect the crew?
The brightest minds at the USAAF immediately began looking for ways to reinforce the damaged areas.
They studied the areas riddled with bullet holes, particularly the wings and tail.
That is until Abraham Wald, a statistician and mathematician, made a key observation — they were only looking at the damage on…
What you should know when the scale makes you say WTF
It’s that time of year when millions of us renew our focus on health and lifestyle changes we want to make for the coming year. Whether you choose to go on a diet, start exercising, exercise more, or some combination of new habits, the start of a new year is a great time to approach your goals with enthusiasm and vigor.
As with any goal, you’ll need to measure your progress. For those interested in losing weight, the bathroom scale often becomes a torture device — one that can make or break your day in a matter of seconds.
As…
Hint: intermittent fasting helps, and you don’t need to give up carbs
You may have heard the term metabolic flexibility recently. The concept isn’t new, but the idea has gained more traction on popular websites, as being metabolically flexible is becoming a key marker of health.
Metabolic flexibility’s formal definition is the ability of an organism to respond or adapt according to changes in metabolic or energy demand, as well as the prevailing conditions or activity. That’s a lot of scientific speak to say metabolic flexibility is how well your body can switch from using carbohydrates to fats for energy depending on what you’re asking from it at the moment (i.e., working…
#6 something called optic flow
By this point in our evolutionary history, we all know walking is good for us. Yet, many of us still leave this fundamental component of health up to whatever we manage to squeak in while walking around the house, to and from work (if that’s even happening), or while running errands.
We may think we counteract the amount of time we spend sitting with a 30–60-minute gym session, but our bodies weren’t designed to sit all day and then push as hard as possible for a brief amount of time.
According to a study in Diabetes,
The average non-exercising person…
When you’re marketing to broken people, it pays to keep them broken
Every time we start a diet, we imagine our future selves buying new clothes, posting “after” pics on Instagram, and receiving the praise and attention we’re desperate for. The multi-billion dollar weight loss industry thrives on this dream. They sell transformation, hope, happiness, moral superiority, and health through diet, exercise, and supplementation.
We never start a new diet wondering what we’ll do when the program we invested our time, energy, and money into doesn’t work. Unlike when we buy an expensive item at the store, we can’t take it back if it quits working after a few weeks. …
Why restriction works for some and not others
Give me a training program, and I will follow it to a fault. If I have to skip a gym session for whatever reason, it will gnaw at my conscience until I can make it up. Tell me to eat 130g of protein, and I’ll whip up a protein shake before bed to get it done.
It’s also why I’ve paid a coach, despite being one myself, for several years. Tell me what to do, and it’s as good as done. My strength is that I can adhere to a list of rules. My weakness? I often preach about moderation…
Not getting the results you want and feeling miserable
I first heard the term “metabolic wasteland” a few years ago when completing a flexible diet certification program. The problem, said my instructor, Dr. Mike T Nelson, is most people on a low-carb diet eat too many carbs for ketosis and too few carbs to fuel their daily activity. You end up stuck, not getting stronger, craving energy, and feeling rundown.
He defined the wasteland range as around 50–100 grams of carbohydrates per day. At this amount, you’re neither in ketosis nor are you providing enough carbohydrates to fuel exercise. …
False and misleading messages leave the average person with no idea what to consume
Browse headlines, and you’ll see all kinds of attention-grabbing statements around what and what not to eat. Add to those recent documentaries making wild accusations regarding the impact of certain foods (while failing to disclose conflicts of interest among the producers), and it’s no wonder the average person is left with little truth and lots of anxiety.
In today’s society, people are as passionate about their food choices as their politicians. Find someone who’s lost weight on a ketogenic diet, and they’ll tell you insulin is the root of all evil and carbs should be avoided at all costs.
Find…
Bodyweight won’t tell you if you’re gaining muscle and losing fat
I’m an advocate of weighing yourself daily, but not for the reasons you might think. Your weight is a measure of your relationship with gravity. It tells you very little about how much is fat, muscle, water, organs, bones, etc. If you think weight is all that matters, check out #screwthescale on Instagram.
Daily weight measurements will allow you to see a trend. Is it going up, down, or staying roughly the same? Bodyweight will always fluctuate to a degree, so weight stability is typically within a 2–6 pound range, depending on your gender and size. …
