Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

It’s time to learn how to portion control!

There are all sorts of “tips” and “tricks” out there, but today we’re going to show you the best method.

What makes me so confident?

For many of our Online Coaching clients, we create portion control strategies for weight loss that don’t suck. Today, we’ll share them with you too!

No shame, no judgement, just results! Learn more about NF Coaching.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What are 5 methods for portion control?
• How to learn portion control (the best method)
• What is the Correct Portion Size Part 1: Protein and Vegetables
• What is the Correct Portion Size Part 2: Carbs and Fats
• How to use portion control containers and plates
• How to control portion sizes when eating out
• How to portion control for weight loss (Next steps)

Let’s do this thang!

What Are 5 Methods for Portion Control?

As you might know from our “How to lose weight” guide, the key to sustainable weight loss is getting ourselves to consume fewer calories in a way that doesn’t make us miserable. 

Because our brains and bodies are complicated emotional disasters, there are some tips and tricks we can implement to protect us from…ourselves:

1. Use smaller plates. Folks will often eat what’s placed in front of them, so using smaller dinnerware has been shown to help people eat less.^[1]
2. Drink a glass of water before your meal. If you chug a glass of water 30 minutes before you plan on eating, the H20 will take up some room in your stomach. This might help you eat less.^[2]
3. Take it slow. It can take about 20 minutes for your body to come around to the fact that it’s full, so slowing down your meals can help you eat less.^[3]
4. Use a food journal. Recording everything you eat and drink is a great way to become aware of portions, which can help you control them.^[4] In fact, one of the first missions we have Nerd Fitness Prime members complete is creating a food journal. 

All of these strategies will work to some extent, and they’re good to keep in mind and also practice.

However, nothing will get more consistent results than actually learning the number of calories in the food you eat (Portion Control Tip #5)!

This is our number one recommendation for how to lose weight. 

Study^[4] after study^[5] after study^[6] shows that our bodies obey the laws of thermodynamics and that in order to lose weight, we need to burn more calories than we consume regularly.

• When you consume more calories than you burn, your body tends to store those extra calories as fat (weight gain).
• When you burn more calories than you consume, your body will pull from fat stores for energy (weight loss).

However, as we point out in our Calories In, Calories Out guide, determining your exact “calories in” can be a real pain. Not only that, but many people with certain personality traits can become neurotic about tracking every single calorie, and worrying if they go 1 calorie over their daily allotment. 

So, what’s a nerd to do? 

Unless you’re going to weigh out all your food (something I’ve done before) and be militant about tracking, is it possible to “track” your food with a high level of accuracy without having it take over your life?

The answer: yes, by getting darn good at estimating! 

Portion Sizes: How to Portion Control (The Best Method)

You already carry with you the best method for portion control.

Your hands!

We’re going to use them to build a healthy plate, as shown above.

The “Nerd Fitness Healthy Plate” was originally published in our Guide to Healthy Eating, which was inspired by our friends over at Precision Nutrition.  

We’re not going to worry about being exact. 

It’s really hard to be precise anyway.^[7]

However, using your hands as a tool for portion control provides a “good enough” strategy that can help your food intake:

As you can see, we’re going to focus our portion control strategy on:

• Protein
• Vegetables (technically carbs, but important enough to deserve their own category)
• Carbohydrates (think starches and fruit)
• Fat

Each macronutrient will correspond to an area of your hand, to give you a sense of what a proper portion size should be. 

We’ve learned that using your hand as a guide is the most helpful strategy for portion control:

• You might not always have access to small plates.
• You might forget to drink water before each meal.
• You might have a short lunch break without the luxury of eating slowly.
• You might grow tired of logging all your food intake.

However, having an intuitive sense of what foods should be eaten in what portions will help you level up your healthy eating.

When in doubt, match the food in front of you to your hand and carry on.

Let’s break this down a little by talking about protein and veggies. 

What is the Correct Portion Size Part 1: Protein and Vegetables

The above video was live-streamed to Nerd Fitness Prime members, as part of our NF Kitchen series.

In it, Coach Lauren and Justin discuss the two most important parts of every meal: protein and vegetables.

Here’s something that might seem counterintuitive: our #1 recommendation for portion control isn’t about limiting food. Instead, make sure you get a proper serving of protein and vegetables every time you sit down to eat. 

In other words, when you begin your healthy eating journey, don’t even worry about nixing any specific food. Just make sure you are leaving plenty of room for protein and vegetables.

A serving of protein is about the size and thickness of your palm:

Protein can come from any number of sources, including:

• Meat (steak, bison, pork).
• Fowl (chicken, turkey, duck).
• Eggs!^[8]
• Fish and shellfish (salmon, tuna, shrimp).
• Legumes (black beans, chickpeas).

Not a meat-eater? Read our massive plant-based guide!

A serving of veggies is about the size of your fist:

Here’s a quick, non-complete list of veggies that can fill half your plate:

• Broccoli
• Broccolini
• Cauliflower
• Spinach
• Kale
• Spaghetti squash
• Brussels sprouts
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Carrots
• Onion
• Asparagus

When it comes to learning portion control, start by making sure you eat enough protein and vegetables.

How much?

As we discuss in our protein guide, when building a plate aim for the following amount of protein:

• Dudes: 1-2 servings (6-8 oz or about 170-228 g): two palms
• Dudettes: 1 serving (3-4 oz or about 85-114 g): 1 palm.

For vegetables, in practice you can probably eat as much as you can stomach (the fiber will likely slow you down), but aim for about 2 fist fulls at most meals, or about half your plate.^[9] 

Don’t like veggies? I was once like you. Check out 10 ways to make vegetables taste good. 

Here’s why you should prioritize protein and vegetables if you’re struggling with portion control:

• Protein. Eating enough protein will assist your health as you age.^[10]Plenty of protein will also help you retain and grow muscle.^[11] Plus, prioritizing protein will help you stay full and satiated between meals.^[12]
• Vegetables. Veggies are both high in nutrients and low in calories, which makes them ideal for a healthy plate. Plus, the fiber will not only help your health, it’ll also keep your indoor plumbing in proper order.^[13]

In the video that kicks off this section, Coach Justin makes a great point: aim for a little better than you are today.

Meaning if you don’t really plan your meals at all, start by having ONE meal include a good protein source and some veggies.

So maybe you make chicken stir-fry this week. 

Once you have that win under your belt, you can aim for doing a little bit more next week (TWO meals that include protein and veggies).

We’ll close out today’s guide with some more ideas on how to get going.

Before we get there, we need to talk about what else can go into your healthy plate. 

What is the Correct Portion Size Part 2: Carbs and Fats

After making room on your plate for protein and vegetables, what’s next?

As Coach Lauren and Justin mention in the Nerd Fitness Prime video above, it’s time to include some healthy carbohydrates and fats!

Depending on what fitness camp you find yourself in and your history of “dieting,” eating carbs and fats might make you nervous. 

But as Coach Lauren points out, they have a purpose on our healthy plate! You just need to portion them out correctly.

A serving of carbohydrates is about two hands cupped together:

If it’s uncooked, it’s about half the size, so one cupped hand.

Examples of healthy carbohydrates:

• Brown rice or white rice 
• Legumes, lentils
• Quinoa
• Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Yams
• Pasta
• Whole grain bread

You also want to make sure you’re including healthy fat in your diet too.

Fat is actually the most calorically dense macronutrient, so comparatively it’ll take up less room on your hand.

Here is a serving of fat, roughly the size of your thumb!

Healthy fat can be found in foods like:

• Avocado 
• Almonds 
• Walnuts
• Macadamia nuts
• Olive oil
• Almond butter 
• Peanut butter

The reason people call it “healthy” is because the fat is unsaturated, although science has recently come around on saturated fat too in the correct amounts.^[14]

We cover this in detail in our Guide to the Keto Diet.

Saturated fats can come from things like:

1. Whole milk
2. Full fat dairy
3. Coconut oil
4. Grass-fed butter
5. Lard
6. Fatty cuts of meat

When it comes to portion control, we need to pay close attention to carbohydrates and fats, because this is where people have the tendency to overeat. 

However, that doesn’t mean we want to completely ditch both food groups either. 

Here’s why you need to eat these two macronutrients:

• Carbohydrates. Did you know fiber is a type of carbohydrate? Yep. As we mentioned earlier, you need plenty of fiber for good health.^[15] Carbs are also a great source of quick energy, especially fruit.^[16] 
• Fats. Some nutrients like Vitamin A are fat-soluble, meaning they are best absorbed alongside some fat.^[17]Fat will also help you feel full, which can help with overall portion control for the day.^[18] While a little goes a long way, you wouldn’t want a “zero fat” diet.^[19]

Just be careful here.

When we analyze the diets of our coaching clients who can’t seem to lose weight, it’s almost always because they are overeating carbs or fats.

If you find yourself in this group, take a look at your hand the next time you sit down to eat:

• How much pasta are you serving yourself? It should fit within your cupped hands.
• How much olive oil did you place on your salad? It should be about the size of your thumb or a tablespoon. 
• How big is your serving of peanut butter, REALLY? One serving, a tablespoon, is about the size of a walnut:

Remember: you don’t have to get this perfect. You just need to be pretty good most of the time.

Even just consciously thinking about if your portion sizes are under or over is a great start.

And as long as you are consistent with your measuring techniques, then you can adjust your portions based on your progress!  

You might also find some special plates or containers helpful when serving yourself. 

How to Use Portion Control Containers and Plates

One hack Coach Justin uses is simple Tupperware containers to portion control his meals:

You can also use some glass containers too if you want to get fancy:

Don’t stress about finding the perfect container that exactly holds each macronutrient you need.

The point here is that you have a quick frame of reference for portion sizes:

• The largest portion of the container: vegetables go here.
• The two smaller portions: these are for your protein and carbs.
• The small little holder: your fats go here.

Again, don’t stress if your container doesn’t fit this description exactly. We’re all working off estimates here, so let’s focus on the big picture.

These are some cool glass containers if you’re looking for something to buy.

How to Control Portion Sizes When Eating Out

An area of concern when attempting to portion control is dining out.

It seems like restaurants serve you twice the amount of food that you need.

So do what Coach Justin does: ask for a to-go box as soon as you place your order.

Yeah, it’s a little weird, but as soon as you get your food, place half of it in the container.

Boom, an extra meal for later. 

Another thing to consider: restaurants want you to leave feeling full.

They often do this by piling on the carbs. Think extra bread, lots of rice, plenty of pasta, etc.

So it might make sense to split these portions in two, and you’re set for lunch the next day.

Also, if you get hungry after eating only half your meal, no problem. Just eat the other half. Even if you’re still at the restaurant.

The point is to consciously think about how much you’re eating. A break half-way through can be used as a decision tree: 

Should I keep eating?

This question alone can help with portion control.

One last thing: we know eating out at restaurants is often a family or friend bonding experience, so we’d prefer you ENJOY the night. Food is more than just calories. 

Just plan for it! If you eat a really large dinner for a celebration, eat slightly smaller portions for the next day or so and your body will be right back on track. 

How to Portion Control for Weight Loss (Next Steps)

In the video above, Coach Lauren and Justin walk you through eating a Nerd Fitness Healthy Plate IRL (In Real Life).

It’s all well and good to build a healthy plate at home, but what if you’re at a restaurant? 

What if you need to order a sandwich?

How about pizza?

Here are some tips from the Coaches for portion control IRL:

#1) Sandwich

The trick here is to pack in as many vegetables as you can. Yeah, you’re probably not going to get two fist fulls in, but you can squeeze in a lot of spinach, onion, sauerkraut, and tomato (yeah, it’s technically a fruit, whatevs) on your sandwich. 

• Your carbs can be some type of whole grain bread (you can do an open face sandwich if you want to limit this). 
• Your protein can come from some turkey. 
• Your fat can be a little avocado. 

Boom. 

You now have a turkey sandwich that matches our healthy plate strategy.

#2) Chili/Soup

This can be a little tougher when everything is mixed together.

If you’re making it yourself, perhaps you measure out your hand portions as you cook.

• Put a palm-size portion of ground beef in.
• Your vegetables can be onion, garlic, and tomatoes (again a fruit, but who cares).
• Your carbs can be pinto and/or kidney beans.
• Your fat can be a little bit of cheese sprinkled on top.

Sure, maybe you’re doing less than two fistfuls of vegetables, and more than a cupped hand of carbs (beans).

It doesn’t matter. Again, the point is you’re putting a little thought into proper portions.

If you’re eating out and ordering soup or chili, maybe just think of the end product in mind:

“After portioning everything out, it should be about two fistfuls of food. So that’s what I’ll eat. Everything else I’ll take home.”

#3) Pizza

This is a little trickier because pizza is mostly bread (carbs).

But Coach Justin has a solution for this.

First, he eats something he’s proud of, like a salad. 

Then he portions out his pizza, which if he uses his hand strategy, would be about two slices:

Is it perfect?

Nope.

Does it help Coach Justin reach his goals and allow him to still enjoy life?

Yep!

So experiment a little by creating some rough guidelines, see how you feel, and course-correct as you go.

Remember, any step you take on leveling up your nutrition is great.

If you don’t know where to start, I actually recommend you begin by not worrying about what to take OFF your plate, but instead what to add! 

Make sure every meal you eat has a healthy protein source and a vegetable. Once you have that dialed in, THEN you can worry about portion controlling your carbs and fat. 

If you need help along the way, we got you.

Here are three ways to continue your journey with Nerd Fitness. 

#1) Liked the video we showed in today’s guide? Want to watch more like them live and get your questions answered? Join Nerd Fitness Prime!

Nerd Fitness Prime is our premium membership program that contains live-streamed workouts with NF Coaches, a supportive online community (with many like-minded people dealing with “portion control”), group challenges, and much more! 

#2) Our Online Coaching program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.

As I said before, we teach portion control to our clients who struggle with overeating, so we’ll provide a non-judgmental expert to help you reach your goals.

You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you:

Our coaching program changes lives. Learn how!

Option #3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.

Sign up in the box below to enlist and get our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, the Nerd Fitness Diet Cheat Sheet, and much more!

Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit

• The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.
• Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.
• Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.

Alright, I want to hear from you:

Do you have any tips or tricks for portion control?

Do you use the hand strategy that we covered today?

What’s your biggest challenge with portion sizes?

Let us know in the comments!

-Steve

PS: If you’re just starting your weight loss journey, make sure you check out:

• The Ultimate Guide for Healthy Eating
• The 5 Rules of Weight Loss
• How Many Calories Should I Eat?

###

Photo Source: Fresh lobster rolls, bean-there-donut-that-40358-2, Taco trike, Peanut/Walnut

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Research of the Week

Ancient Irish elite were largely incestuous.

In a recent study, coronavirus shows up on tons of hospital surfaces but with very low viral loads. Present but not transmissible.

Having a younger blood donor is linked to shorter hospital stays.

“Conservation areas” don’t actually conserve anything.

Losing body fat probably improves cancer resistance.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 429: Rob Mack: Host Elle Russ chats with Rob Mack, an expert on the interplay between happiness and success.

Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 65: Laura and Erin chat with Jacob Glass about finding and following your passion.

Media, Schmedia

The NBA plans on using OURA rings to track symptoms as they restart the season.

Interesting Blog Posts

Powerful links between vitamin D and COVID19 outcomes.

A topic most people don’t consider: What’s the best watering can?

Social Notes

Is this true?

Regarding setbacks.

Everything Else

The psychobiome knows you. Do you know it?

New rules for travel into Cambodia.

Low-dose hydrogen sulfide for life extension?

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Important conclusion: “Whole-fat dairy, unprocessed meat, eggs and dark chocolate are SFA-rich foods with a complex matrix that are not associated with increased risk of CVD. The totality of available evidence does not support further limiting the intake of such foods.”

Interesting idea: The universe running its own simulation.

Paper I liked: More caffeine, more glutathione in your red blood cells.

Result I hope we can pursue further: Psychedelic-assisted therapy appears effective, often moreso than traditional therapy.

Dietary Guideline I can get behind: No added sugars for under 2 year olds.

Question I’m Asking

How are you spending Father’s day?

Recipe Corner

• Paleo shrimp tacos with lettuce wraps.
• Moroccan salad platter.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Jun 14 – Jun 20)

• 8 Comebacks for Keto Criticisms – How to fire back.
• Dear Mark: Increased Red Meat, Reduced Carb, Increased Death? – Is this true?

Comment of the Week

“When I was reading, I couldn’t help but think ‘It’s got what plants crave.’”

– Ha, Patrice.

The post Weekly Link Love — Edition 86 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Although fermented cabbage has been around in some form or another since ancient times – Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote of the stuff in the first century A.D. – modern methods for making sauerkraut were developed sometime between the 16th and 18th centuries. It’s primarily known as a German staple, but most other European countries use it in their traditional dishes. It’s pretty easy to understand why it was so popular: it keeps for a long time without refrigeration. Dutch, German, and English sailors found that the vitamin C-rich kraut prevented scurvy on the open seas, and the fact that it was salted and fermented made it ideal for long voyages without other preservation methods.

As the name would suggest, sauerkraut is quite literally sour cabbage. The sour flavor comes from the process of lacto-fermentation, similar to the pickling of cucumbers. But instead of soaking the cabbage in a vinegary brine solution, sauerkraut preparation requires only salt and the lactic acid bacteria already present on raw cabbage.

Is sauerkraut good for you?

You may have heard before that sauerkraut, or fermented foods in general, have a number of health benefits and you should eat more of them. Here’s what we know.

Health Benefits of Sauerkraut

More than just a delicious, tangy flavor, the beauty of sauerkraut also lies in its considerable health benefits:

• Rich in vitamin C
• Contains lactobacilli, a class of friendly bacteria that may aid digestion and immunity
• Isothiocyanates, compounds shown to prevent cancer growth¹
• Manganese, vitamin B6, folate, and fiber from the cabbage itself

But most of us get our kraut at the grocery store. Going that route means you’re probably losing all the good stuff through pasteurization which involves heating to high temperatures. There are refrigerated brands that have not been pasteurized, but I personally like to control the process and ingredients to get the quality I want.

So, why not make your own? It’s incredibly easy. All it takes is some cabbage, some other vegetables if you’d like to include them (carrots, different colored cabbage, garlic, onions, beets, even apples), a storage vessel, a bit of sea salt, and patience. If you can chop and sprinkle salt, you can ferment your own homemade sauerkraut.

Is Sauerkraut Keto?

Coming in at 3g of carbs per 1/2 cup serving, sauerkraut is a keto food. Eat it on its own, or use it to add zing to other foods like soups and stews, pork chops, burgers, and more.

How to Make Homemade Sauerkraut: the Recipe

Servings: 16

Time in the kitchen: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 head organic green cabbage
• 1-2 organic carrots (optional)
• 5-8 organic cloves of garlic, chopped (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. fine sea salt

Equipment

• Cutting board
• Knife
• Fermentation jar: ceramic fermentation crock or a large wide-mouth mason jar (no plastic or metal)
• Smaller mason jar to use as a weight
• Mixing bowl
• Wooden spoon

Before You Start, Sanitize Everything

Even if your cutting board, knife, mixing bowl, wooden spoon, and mason jars are clean, clean them again with soap and hot water. The fermentation process encourages microbes to breed, and you want to grow the ones you want, and not the ones you don’t. Allow your equipment to cool before starting.

Making Sauerkraut at Home

Begin by chopping your cabbage. I used green, but you can throw in some red cabbage to make the batch pink. You can include the heart, as the fermentation process will soften it. Tip: shred your cabbage as finely as you can. We’re going for is high surface area, because more surface area means more fermentation and exposure to the juices. Dump it into the mixing bowl and add salt as you go.

I like to include carrots and garlic here, but it’s not required. I like intense flavors, so I’m going to peel and grate the carrots and dice the garlic to get the most out of both vegetables. Drop these into the bowl and sprinkle in the salt as well.

Mix the ingredients together in the mixing bowl. Allow it to sit for a few minutes, and allow the salt to draw out the juices. You want to stimulate the natural juices of the vegetables, because they’re going to be your brine. You can help the process along by smashing the cabbage with the wooden spoon.

Start packing your mix into your fermentation jar. Just make sure you can cover whatever vessel you use. Pack it down hard, going slowly to make sure each addition is completely compressed in the jar. This will extract water and ensure the fermentation process goes smoothly.

Continue to press the mixture down with the wooden spoon until all of the cabbage is under the brine. Fit the smaller mason jar into the larger one to keep all of the vegetable submerged. Cover the whole thing loosely with a cloth or towel to keep bugs out.

For the next day or so, press down on the top several times a day to make sure the mix is submerged in brine. If it seems dry, you might have old cabbage. That’s fine. Just add a bit of water to cover everything, along with 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Check your kraut every day. The volume will reduce as fermentation begins, and that’s exactly what you want.

That’s basically it. So really, it’s all about waiting. The actual preparation takes just a few minutes.

How Much Salt Should You Use?

To achieve a finished product with the perfect balance of tangy and salty, aim for a 2% brine.

For the most accurate calculation of how much salt to use, you’ll need a food scale. Set it to grams, and weigh your cabbage. For every 100 grams of cabbage, you’ll need 2 grams of salt.

You don’t have to have a food scale to make sauerkraut – the ingredients list above will come pretty close to the correct concentration.

How to Know When Your Sauerkraut is Ready

Start tasting your kraut after the third day. It should be tangy by now, and you can begin to gauge just how pungent you want it. The taste will get stronger as time increases. Every time you eat some, make sure you pack the rest of it in just like before: tightly packed, submerged, and with a weight pressing down.

How to Store Sauerkraut

Though sauerkraut is usually ready to eat in 3-7 days, if it’s cool enough, sauerkraut can improve for months. If you live in warmer climates, you might want to move your kraut into the fridge after a few weeks. If you store it, remember, it’s alive. Cover it with a loose lid or a banded cloth. Your ferment could release enough gas to pop the top and leave you with a mess.

How to Make Sauerkraut in a Crock

Making sauerkraut in a crock is exactly the same as making sauerkraut in a mason jar. Using the same methods, pour your mixing bowl of salted vegetables into your fermentation crock. Put the weights on top, add the lid, and your kraut should be ready in a few days.

Mold vs. Kahm Yeast

In most cases, your sauerkraut is totally protected by the brine, but things can go wrong. Mold should be discarded, but kahm yeast won’t ruin your ferment. Here’s how to tell the difference:

• Mold. If you see fuzz, dark circles, colors, a raised texture, a funky smell, or any other indications of mold on the top, toss the whole batch and start over. It happens to the best of us.
• Kahm yeast. Kahm yeast is white or slightly off-white, and looks almost like a thin layer of plastic wrap is sitting on top of your ferment. There can be bubbles, or it may have a stringy appearance. You can skim it off if you wish.

You can do a Google image search for “mold vs. kahm yeast” to get a side-by-side comparison of what both look like.

Cabbage is cheap, so even if yours goes moldy, you only lose a few dollars. Don’t let fermentation intimidate you. Once you try it, you’ll be hooked, and you’ll probably start experimenting with lacto-fermenting other vegetables. Have fun with it.

Further Reading:

How to Make Pemmican

10 Primal Foods You Aren’t Eating Enough Of 

How Gut Bacteria Affect Mental Health

The post Sauerkraut Benefits (with an Easy Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe) appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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When Egypt’s famous pyramids were excavated, archaeologists found pots of honey dating back approximately 3,000 years. Surprisingly, it’s still perfectly edible! Ancient Egyptians revered honey, using it medicinally to treat skin and eye diseases, cover wounds and burns, and of course, to beautify their skin. And, it’s no wonder, since, among other things, honey has […]

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There is nothing more certain in life than the certainty of death. It’s the great equalizer of the world, and it is blind–no matter if a person is rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, good or bad, wise or ignorant, any sentient being that experiences life must also experience death. It behooves anyone who wishes to improve themself to be mindful of death and one’s mortality. 

read more

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“I went off the rails this weekend…”

“I feel like I lost all my progress…”

“I couldn’t make it a day without eating a piece of bread…”

The path to success is often paved with setbacks. And the fact of the matter is, if you haven’t had one yet, you probably will sometime in the near future. Is that a reason to freak out? No. But it is a reason to arm yourself with the tools to, as they say, make the comeback stronger than the setback.

Changing behaviours takes time and patience. Trust me, I see this with most of my health coaching clients. And, like I always tell them, there is no expectation to knock a massive lifestyle change right out of the park on your first try. I don’t care if you’re trying to change your diet or your workout routine or your sleep habits — it’s never a linear journey. There’s always a combination of successes, plateaus, and setbacks.

What Is a Setback?

By definition, a setback is an event that delays your progress or reverses some of the progress you’ve previously made. It can be frustrating, humbling, and can likely trigger some negative self-talk. After all, you put time and energy into this endeavor. Maybe you spent money. Or you told all your friends and family what you were doing. And now what?

Listen. A setback, or even a few setbacks, doesn’t have to be the end of your story. In fact, quite the opposite. A setback might be exactly what you need to get where you want your health to go.

Can Setbacks Make You Stronger?

Researchers in this study ¹ conducted in-depth interviews with 85 elite athletes and coaches, seeking to understand the motivating factors of what breeds success. Turns out, most of the top athletes interviewed had suffered a significant setback early on in their career. That’s what fueled their success. They found a way to turn the defeat of a setback into a reason to push themselves further the next time they competed.

In another study, ² UVA economist Adam Leive compiled a database of medal winners in Olympic track and field events to see how their lives played out after winning. He found that the athletes who just missed out on getting the top podium spot were more ambitious in their post-sports careers than their gold medal counterparts. The trauma of not securing the top spot actually seemed to have made the athletes stronger. And, they actually lived longer.

But it’s not just athletes who are able to reap the rewards of setbacks. Researchers have studied diverse groups from students³ to scientists ⁴ and found the same thing — failures along the way can make you stronger than those who never had a stumble.

4 Steps to Overcoming Setbacks

In light of this research (and about a decade of helping my clients through inevitable setbacks of their own), I wanted to share my personal strategy, designed to take you from setback to success.

1. Look at the big picture. Sure, you had a setback, but my guess is you also had some successes along the way. Despite slipping back into your toast-and-cereal-for-breakfast routine or discovering that your favorite pants are currently too tight, ask yourself what’s gone well over the past few days, weeks, or months. What changes have you made that have contributed to a more metabolically flexible lifestyle? What habits have you implemented since you began your journey?

Also, take an objective look at what didn’t work. Was there a stressful event or period of time that interfered with your progress? Did you get overly hungry or not eat enough protein? Get really honest with yourself and write down your successes and your struggles. Seeing them on paper without emotion can help you move forward more easily.

2. Recognize your obstacles (and have a plan). If summer BBQs trip you up, have a plan. If vacations make you loosen your commitment, have a plan. Key takeaway here? Have. A. Plan. Figure out what situations, places, or foods are your triggers and learn how to navigate them. Or avoid them all together until your confidence around your ability to choose gets stronger. It’s one thing to consciously enjoy a cookie at your favorite coffee shop; it’s a totally different story if you accidentally ate one and decided you “screwed up” so you might as well binge on sweets for the rest of the day.

Keep in mind the theory of cause and effect too. Binging on carbs over the weekend will likely send your brain begging for more pastries, pizza, and pasta come Monday morning. And if you’re someone who subscribes to “food as a reward,” those pints of Ben & Jerry’s can look awfully tempting after a few weeks of “being good.” Acknowledge your obstacles and find a way around them.

3. Surround yourself with support. In a world of whole-grains-this and low-fat-that, not to mention old-school doctors who whole-heartedly believe that saturated fat will send you right to your grave, it can be a challenge (to say the least) to get the support you need to make lifestyle changes that last.

That’s why it’s so important to have a network of people who have your back, whether it’s our community here on Mark’s Daily Apple, a health coach like one from the Primal Health Coach Institute, or a group of friends and family members who understand the science behind why your heart won’t explode by following a diet free of refined carbs, sugar, and industrialized oils.

4. Take a step forward. Ditching your whole efforts or punishing yourself with a grueling workout after a setback won’t get you any closer to your goal. As I mentioned earlier, the journey is never linear. It might feel like you’re taking one step forward and two steps back, but eventually you will get there. Your path is still there. There’s always a next step. You just need to choose to take it.

Think about what you can do right now to start making progress. It doesn’t need to be a huge sweeping change either. It can be as small as going for a walk, preparing a big-ass salad, or getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Having a long-term goal is great (and something I highly recommend) but getting there requires you to take the first step.

Remember, setbacks can actually make you stronger. So, if you’re in the midst of a massive change and wondering what to do to get back on track, put aside your frustration and follow these four steps:

• Look at the big picture
• Recognize your obstacles
• Surround yourself with support
• Take a step forward

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Amidst the reopening growing pains, most beginners will continue to participate in purchasing or researching online programs or fumble. Personal trainers and or coaches who aren’t sold on online coaching, take note. This article will be a discussion about the win-win situation for the average gym patron and online coach.

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Intermittent fasting has taken the world by storm. No longer is it the province of fitness freaks. No longer do you get weird looks because you skipped the break room donuts. Now you’ve got grandmothers trying it and doctors recommending it. It’s here, the benefits are legion, and you’re interested. But how should you do it? Are there different types of intermittent fasting? Are there different benefits associated with the various flavors of IF?

Thinking about fasting, reading about fasting, and reciting the benefits of fasting are all pointless if you don’t know how to go about doing it.

First, the most fundamental concept central to all the flavors of intermittent fasting is not eating. Skipping meals, skipping entire days of meals, letting yourself get a little hungry. There’s no getting around that. It will happen. let’s go over the different variations of fasting. I’ll give a quick rundown. Each involves not eating for a period of time, unsurprisingly.

A couple other rules that apply to all the given methods:

1. Sleeping hours (provided you don’t sleep-eat) count as fasting hours.
2. Eat well regardless. While some fasting plans tout their adherents’ ability to eat crappy food and still lose weight, I’m not interested in fasting solely as a weight loss method. Keep your food Primal as possible.

Okay, on to the variations.

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12:12, 16:8, 18:6, or 20:4 Intermittent Fasting

As the names suggest, these breakdowns of intermittent fasting involves fasting for either 12, 16, 18, or 20 hours and taking in all of your food for the day over the remaining window of hours.

How to find out which fasting length is the the best one for you? There’s only one way. You have to experiment.

You can start with a 12:12 intermittent fast, which comes with the benefits of intermittent fasting and is easy to do for most people. You stop eating a couple of hours before bedtime, and delay breakfast a couple of hours after waking. If that works well, extend your fasting period the next day, and repeat until you find the eating and fasting pattern that feels good.

Lots of diets have added more detail to the intermittent fasting model, but bare-bones intermittent fasting is simply a shorter feeding period.

If you’ve heard of Leangains, Martin Berkhan’s incredibly popular fasting protocol, you’ve heard of 16:8 intermittent fasting. How does it work?

1. A daily 16 hour fast during which you eat nothing containing calories. Coffee, tea, and other non-caloric fluids are fine. Some people get away with a little cream in their drink.
2. A daily 8 hour eating window.
3. Three days of weight training, ideally performed at the tail end of the fasting period. To improve performance and muscle protein synthesis, you have the option of consuming 10 grams of branched chain amino acids 10 minutes before the workout.
4. Always eat high protein.
5. On training days, eat more carbs and less fat.
6. On rest days, eat more fat, fewer carbs, and slightly reduce calories.
7. Most people begin their fast after dinner (say, 9 PM), workout in the afternoon (at around 12 PM), and break their fast immediately post-workout (at around 1 PM), but you can use any schedule you prefer as long as you hit the 16 hours of fasting.
8. Your post-workout meal should have about 50% of your day’s caloric allotment (a real feast).

Who should try it?

12 or 16 hours isn’t a long time to wait for a meal, which makes intermittent fasting a great model for anyone who wants to experiment with fasting. One benefit of fasting this way is that it’s not that long a fast – you eat every day. It is totally doable. Whether you add the detailed lifting days and carb days is up to you.

Women may have better success with slightly shorter fasting windows—12-14 hours long instead of 16 hours. To understand why, check out my post on women and fasting.

People with steady eating schedules will have more success than people with erratic schedules. A huge benefit of intermittent fasting is the hormonal entrainment induced by regular feeding times. Once you get locked into your routine, your hunger hormones will adapt to the schedule, and the fasting should get easier, or even effortless. For this reason, it’s a good idea to get a feeding schedule and stick to it.

OMAD — One Meal a Day

Ori Hofmekler’s plan is based on the feast-and-fast concept:

1. Eat one meal a day, at night, and make it a big one. A real feast. You have three or four hours to eat until full. So it’s basically 20/4 hours.
2. You can occasionally snack on low-calorie raw fruit and vegetables during the day, but try to limit protein as much as possible until the feast.
3. Exercise during the day, in a fasted state.

Who should try it?

People who have trouble sticking to a stricter fast will do better on the OMAD, as it allows light eating during the time leading up to the feast, but I wonder if you’d be squandering some of the benefits by eating.

Alternate Day Fasting

Researchers often use this method in lab studies:

1. Eat normally one day (last meal at, say, 9 PM Monday).
2. Don’t eat the next day.
3. Resume eating the day after that (at, say, 9 AM Wednesday).
4. It works out to a 36-ish hour fast, although there’s plenty of wiggle room. You could eat at 10 PM Monday and break the fast at 6 AM Wednesday for a “mere” 32 hour fast.

Who should try it?

People who have no trouble going to bed hungry. With other intermittent fasting methods, you can always manage to get to bed with a full belly; with ADF, you will be going to bed on an empty stomach several times a week. That can be tough.

That said, the therapeutic benefits to serious conditions will most likely really be pronounced with this way of fasting. The casual 20-something Primal eater who lifts heavy things and enjoys going out with friends? Probably not ideal. The older Primal eater interested in generating some autophagy and maybe staving off neurodegeneration? It might just work out. And while I’m not able to tell a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy what to do, I’d guess that the longer fasts will be more beneficial in that regard, too.

Eat Stop Eat

Put together by Brad Pilon, Eat Stop Eat is really basic:

1. Once or twice a week, don’t eat for 24 hours.
2. Start your fast in the morning, at lunch, or at dinner. It doesn’t matter as long as you don’t eat for 24 hours.
3. Break your fast with a “normal-sized meal.” Don’t try to make up for the lost calories by feasting.
4. Exercise regularly.

Who should try it?

People interesting in fasting for the therapeutic benefits (cancer protection, autophagy, life extension, etc.) would probably get a lot out of this method, as opposed to people interested in the body composition benefits.

Going a full 24 hours without food is a much tougher slog than going for 16 hours. In my experience, going lower-carb and higher-fat makes longer fasts easier, so I’d have to say a low-carb Primal eater would do better than most.

But my personal favorite way of implementing fasting?

WHEN — When Hunger Ensues Naturally

I’m not going to put any bullet points here, because none are required. Instead, I’ll give a few scenarios:

I wake up bright and early on a Saturday morning. It’s about 65 degrees, the sun’s out, my dog is walking around with the leash in his mouth, and Red Rock Canyon is kinda calling my name. I’ve got my coffee already and I’m actually not all that hungry from dinner. You know what? I’ll go on that hike, skip breakfast, and really work up an appetite for lunch. Or not. If I’m hungry afterwards, I’ll eat. It’s a fast, but not really.

I hit the gym, put in a light workout, then swing by the beach for some sand sprints. I’m toast by the end and have to stagger back to my car, but I’m not hungry. Even when I get home and smell the grilled salmon, I have no desire for it. I might eat later that night, but only if my appetite returns. I’m fasting post-workout only because it doesn’t occur to me to eat, not because I’m following a plan.

I’m away on business, stuck on a layover that’s turned into a delay that’s turned into an overnighter. The only food available is a Kudos candy bar – I mean, healthy granola bar (they seriously still make these?) from the mini fridge, a greasy pizza joint on the corner across the street from the hotel, a Chinese takeout place next to the pizza joint, and a slew of fast food restaurants some ways down the road. It’s late, I’m tired, I had a Big Ass Salad before I left for LAX… you know what? I’m just going to skip the “meal.” I’ll figure out something at the airport in the morning (20 hour fast) or once I land (24 hour fast). And I’ll be okay either way.

That’s eating When Hunger Ensues Naturally.

This is the most natural, most effortless way of “fasting,” at least for me, because it allows a person to eat intuitively. Although most people will eventually acclimate to more regimented fasting schedules, and many may even need and thrive with that structure, I prefer a more fractal, loose, random pattern of “missing” (in quotations because I don’t feel like I’m missing anything, and that’s the whole point!) meals. I have no data on whether it’s as effective or more effective than the more popular methods, but I do know that I’ll often fast for 16 hours and eat for eight, or skip an entire day of eating, or sometimes (but very, very rarely) even approach a full 30 hours, and it seems likely that this random pattern of eating characterized the eating “schedules” of our ancestors.

In short, we’re all doing the same thing, chasing the same goals. We’re all skipping meals, reducing calories, staying active, and all the while we’re doing this without feeling miserable and restricted. It just so happens that because we’re efficient Primal fat-burning beasts, switching over to burning our own body fat reserves for energy during a fast is a natural, seamless transition. We often don’t even notice it. There’s no effort involved.

That’s the key: lack of stress. If any or all of these fasting methods stress you out, make you irritable, kill your performance, make you feel restricted, or reduce your ability to enjoy life, and these feelings persist beyond the first five fasts you attempt (when some adaptation difficulties are totally expected), you shouldn’t employ them. You should shelve fasting for a while and come back to it later, or never. It’s not a “requirement” or anything. It’s just a tool you can wield if your situation warrants it. In fact, this is the perfect opportunity to conduct an informal experiment of one. Try one style for a week or two, then throw in a a different style once or twice a week for a bit, then try another method. Compare and contrast. How did you feel? How did you perform at work, at home, and in the gym? Take some waist measurements perhaps, or analyze your favorite barometer of body composition to see how the different fasting methods worked – or didn’t work – for you.

Now, I’d like to hear from you. What’s your favorite fasting method? Do you have one, or you just kinda go with the flow? Be sure to review the previous installments below and if you have any questions about any of the stuff I’ve covered in this series, leave them in the comment section and I’ll try to get them answered for you next week. Thanks for reading!

The post How to Intermittent Fast and Which Type of Fasting Is Right For You appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Breathing is one of the most natural things we do – in fact, our bodies do it for us without a second thought even while we work, eat, or sleep. However, just because this bodily function is so automatic (and often, understandably, taken for granted), doesn’t mean that we are all doing it correctly. Breathing […]

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When I say “electrolytes,” what do you think of? Maybe rowdy professional athletes dumping a cooler of some neon-colored sports drink over their coach’s head after winning the championship. Electrolytes have a much bigger role in winning than just soaking the coach. What do electrolytes do?

If you’re an endurance athlete or a keto dieter, you might already supplement electrolytes as part of your daily routine. But do you know why? What are electrolytes anyway, and why do you need them? Does everyone need electrolytes, and are you missing out if you aren’t taking electrolyte pills?

In fact, electrolytes are unsung heroes that allow your body to run smoothly. Too much or too little, and your health is seriously impacted. Thankfully, the body’s delicate system of checks and balances usually keeps everything operating as it should. Still, you need to be mindful of your electrolyte intake if you want to maintain optimal health. (And isn’t that what we all want?)

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What Are Electrolytes?

Electrolytes are minerals (and some proteins) that carry an electrical charge when dissolved in water. These positively or negatively charged ions play an essential role in a wide variety of metabolic processes. Electrolytes allow nerves to fire and muscles, including the heart, to contract; regulate acid-base balance; support hormone and tissue production; and maintain proper fluid balance within cells, interstitial fluid, and blood plasma.

There are many electrolytes in the human body, but the most important are:

• Sodium
• Potassium
• Chloride
• Bicarbonate
• Calcium
• Phosphate
• Magnesium

Sodium, chloride, and bicarbonate are highly concentrated in blood plasma and interstitial fluid outside the cells. Potassium, phosphate, magnesium, and, to a smaller degree, calcium are concentrated within cells. The body regulates hydration status and acid-base balance by maintaining the right gradient, or concentration, of electrolytes in different fluid compartments. Water and electrolytes are constantly diffusing through membranes to preserve the delicate balances.

Cells also use active transport to “pump” electrolytes across membranes using ion channels. You may remember learning about the sodium-potassium pump in high school biology class. Active transport of these electrolytes across the cell membrane is how nerve, muscle, and endocrine cells generate impulses and fire.

Most people get all the electrolytes they need through a healthy diet. Some folks—notably those following a ketogenic diet and endurance athletes—may need additional supplementation.

Electrolyte Balance and Imbalance

For the body to function properly, it needs the right amount of each electrolyte, and it needs them in the proper ratios.

In healthy individuals, electrolyte balance is tightly regulated by hormones, especially parathyroid and antidiuretic hormones and aldosterone. The kidneys filter water and electrolytes in the bloodstream, returning what the body needs to circulation, and excreting the rest. To a lesser extent, electrolytes are also excreted in stool, sweat, and respiration.

Electrolyte imbalances can occur with:

• Poor diet
• Improper hydration (too much or too little water)
• Vomiting or diarrhea
• Excessive sweating
• Diabetes
• Gastrointestinal disorders that interfere with absorption
• Kidney disease
• Some cancers
• Respiratory diseases like COPD
• Certain medications like diuretics, beta-blockers, and corticosteroids
• Trauma, burns, surgery
• Old age

You might not notice any symptoms if you have a mild imbalance. Following a short illness, for example, if you return to eating your typical Primal diet and drinking a reasonable amount of water, your body will likely regulate itself without any major issues.

Signs that you might have a more serious imbalance include:

• Headache
• Fatigue
• Irregular heartbeat
• Muscle weakness
• Muscle cramping
• Loss of coordination
• Nausea and vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Irritability
• Confusion
• Edema

Specific symptoms depend on which electrolyte(s) are out of balance, and whether you have too little or too much. Very severe imbalances can even lead to seizures, coma, or death. Your doctor can test electrolyte levels with a simple blood test.

What Do Electrolytes Do, How Much Do You Need, and Where Do You Find Them?

Sodium

Main functions in the body: Along with potassium, regulates the fluid volume in cells, interstitial fluid, and blood plasma. Needed for muscle contraction and generating nerve impulses.

Dietary sources: Most sodium in our diet comes from the salt we add to food. Much smaller amounts naturally occur in foods like beets, carrots, celery, and dairy products, and in drinking water. Someone eating a typical modern diet gets the bulk of their sodium from processed, packaged foods.

Recommended intake: In recent decades, doctors and the folks behind our governmental dietary standards have told us to limit sodium intake, mostly in the name of heart health. However, experts are increasingly challenging that advice. Multiple studies point to a greater risk of negative health outcomes with too little sodium^{1 2 3} Many believe that the current recommended daily intake of 1,500 mg per day for adults is woefully inadequate.

Instead, the sweet spot seems to be between 4 and 6 grams per day. That’s about 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt like Redmond Real Salt or a heaping tablespoon of kosher salt. (Remember, the salt we eat is not pure sodium, it’s sodium plus chloride—NaCl.) However, individuals with salt-sensitive hypertension or kidney disease will want to consult their doctors, as these populations probably do need to restrict sodium.

RELATED POSTS: Salt: What Is It Good For?, Dear Mark: Salt and Blood Pressure 

Potassium

Main functions in the body: Along with sodium, potassium regulates fluid volume and allows for muscle contraction and nerve impulses. Regulates heartbeat.

Dietary sources: Fruits and vegetables. Bananas have become synonymous with potassium, but a medium potato actually contains twice as much potassium as a medium banana. Avocado is a better source as well. If your diet includes a variety of vegetables and perhaps some fruit, you are probably getting enough potassium.

Recommended intake: 2600 mg per day for adult females and 3400 mg per day for males.

While sodium gets most of the attention when it comes to heart health, potassium is at least as essential, if not more so. People with higher (but not excessive) potassium intake have lower blood pressure, less risk for cardiovascular disease, ⁴ and lower all-cause mortality.⁵

Research also suggests that the relative amounts of sodium and potassium you eat—the sodium:potassium ratio—is as important as the absolute amounts of each. You want to avoid high levels of sodium with low potassium. On the other hand, increasing potassium intake seems to offset the supposed dangers of higher levels of sodium intake (within reason).^{6 7 8}

RELATED POST: A Primal Guide to Blood Pressure

Chloride

Main functions in the body: Maintaining fluid balance, which is vital for regulating blood pressure and pH of body fluids. Also a primary component of gastric juice in the form of hydrochloric acid.

Dietary sources: Mostly from added salt—sodium chloride and, to a lesser extent, potassium chloride. Seaweed and many vegetables also contain some chloride. You can also get chloride through the skin if you use a magnesium spray, which is usually magnesium chloride.

Recommended intake: 2.3 grams per day for adults up to 50, 2.0 grams per day up to age 70, 1.8 grams per day thereafter.

Calcium

Main functions in the body: In addition to structural roles (bones and teeth), calcium helps muscles contract and nerves fire. Calcium also has a role in blood clotting.

Dietary sources: Leafy greens, broccoli, nuts and seeds, fish like sardines and anchovies where you eat the bones. Dairy products, if you consume them, are good sources as well despite any controversy about bioavailability.

Recommended intake: For adult females, 1,000 mg per day up to age 50, 1,200 mg per day thereafter. For males, 1,000 mg per day up to age 70, 1,200 mg per day thereafter.

RELATED POST: Dear Mark: Calcium for Women

Phosphate

Main functions in the body: Like calcium, most phosphate is stored in bones and teeth, acting as a mineral reserve. The rest is used by cells for energy production and in cell membranes and DNA.

Dietary sources: Derived from phosphorous, which is found most abundantly in animal products—meat, dairy, eggs.

Recommended intake: 700 mg per day for all adults

Bicarbonate

Main functions in the body: Crucial for maintaining extracellular acid-base balance. Moves carbon dioxide through the bloodstream.

Dietary sources: We get bicarbonate from baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), but the body also produces bicarbonate endogenously (on its own), so it’s not necessary to target it in the diet.

Recommended intake: Has not been established

RELATED POST: Dear Mark: Does Dietary Acid/Base Balance Matter?

Magnesium

Main functions in the body: Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions, including ones that allow nerves to fire and muscles to contract. Maintains regular heartbeat.

Dietary sources: Leafy greens, dark chocolate, nuts and seeds, fish, avocado

Recommended intake: For adult females, 310 mg per day up to age 30, then increases to 320 per day. For males, 400 mg per day up to age 30, increasing to 420 mg per day.

RELATED POST: The Complete Magnesium Manual

Natural Electrolyte Supplements

When people talk about supplementing electrolytes, they generally mean sodium, potassium, and magnesium. For the average healthy person, you can meet your electrolyte needs by eating a varied diet rich in different vegetables, perhaps some fruit, and animal products, especially fish.

However, you may need to supplement if you eat a restricted diet or have certain health conditions such as gastrointestinal issues that interfere with your ability to absorb nutrients, or kidney or liver disease. Because supplements can interact with medications, talk to your doctor before starting any kind of supplement regimen.

Obviously, if you get an electrolyte panel done by your doctor, and it shows a deficiency, that’s another good reason to supplement. Likewise, if you’ve had a bout of vomiting or diarrhea, or if you’re having issues such as brain fog or muscle cramping. Don’t go overboard; it is certainly possible to have too much of any electrolyte. Drinking some salty bone broth or trying a standard dose of a potassium or magnesium supplement should be safe.

I should note, though, that dietary deficiencies in potassium are uncommon. It’s never a bad idea to track your food for a few days using an app like Cronometer. See how much you’re getting from diet so you can tailor your supplementing appropriately. It’s probably much more likely that you’re getting less sodium than you need if you’re eating mostly close-to-nature foods, especially if you’re hewing to conventional wisdom about restricting salt.

What Are the Best Forms of Electrolytes?

For sodium, all you need is good old salt. Different forms of salt contain varying amounts of sodium, so look at the label.

For potassium, I like potassium citrate. You can also use LoSalt or Nu-Salt, which contain potassium chloride. They are found with the table salt at your local grocery store. Some folks make their own electrolyte blend with cream of tartar (yes, the same stuff you bake with), which is potassium bitartrate. Any of these will work, but I think potassium citrate is the superior option.

For magnesium, the most bioavailable are the chelated forms that end in -ate. Different forms of magnesium are thought to have specific benefits, but magnesium malate or glycinate (also called bis-glycinate) are good all-around options. Magnesium L-threonate is particularly touted for cognitive benefits because it crosses the blood-brain barrier.

Is Potassium Supplementation Safe?

Because potassium is closely linked to heart function, there is a concern that supplementing potassium could lead to arrhythmias or even heart attacks. However, a 2016 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found no risk associated with supplementing within normal guidelines in healthy individuals.⁹ People with heart or kidney problems should definitely talk to their doctors, though.

Although I think supplementing potassium is generally safe, it’s also reasonably easy to meet your potassium requirements through diet alone. Potassium supplements are limited to 100 mg per dose by the FDA anyway, which is a fraction of what you need.

Considerations for Keto Folks

If you’re following a keto diet, you probably do need to supplement. When you drop your carbs low enough for the liver to start making ketones, this also triggers a (normal) hormonal response that leads the kidneys to dump water. Along with water goes sodium and potassium especially. This can lead to low blood pressure, and it’s the reason why some people feel so crappy when they first go keto—-the dreaded “keto flu.”

If you’re eating a keto diet and your workouts are suffering, or you have low energy, headaches, or brain fog, low sodium and/or potassium is the likely culprit. Some people find that they need to supplement when transitioning into keto but not once they are keto-adapted. Others feel better if they continue supplementing.

In particular, many keto folks feel better when they increase their sodium considerably—3 to 5 grams above what they get from food, or perhaps even more.

Considerations for Athletes

Electrolytes, especially sodium and chloride, are lost through sweat, so many athletes use electrolyte supplements as a part of their training nutrition. This probably isn’t crucial for the average person working up a sweat at the gym. For hard-charging endurance athletes pounding away for hours, especially in intense heat, it might be the difference between making it to the finish line or not.

If you’re taking in a lot of water during a training session, it’s a good idea to add a pinch of salt, and perhaps a bit of carbohydrate, to your water. For one thing, this increases absorption. Drinking too much water without adequately replacing sodium losses can also lead to the dangerous, even fatal, condition of hyponatremia.¹⁰ I’m not a huge fan of most commercial electrolyte drinks due to their high sugar content, but it’s easy to make your own using one of the many online recipes. You can also use salt pills. It might take some tinkering to dial in the amount you need.

Some athletes also take sodium bicarbonate supplements in an attempt to offset exercise-induced acidosis. (Recall that bicarbonate helps maintain acid-base homeostasis.) Research shows that doses of 200 to 500 mg/kg may reduce lactate concentration and improve aerobic exercise performance and hand-eye coordination.¹¹ Doses at the higher end of the spectrum seem to be more effective, but they can also cause undesirable gastrointestinal symptoms. If you experiment with this, make sure to take into account both the sodium and the bicarbonate you are adding and, if necessary, adjust your additional sodium supplementation accordingly.

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