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

Ugh, it’s time for yet another attempt at losing weight.

For some, losing weight is as simple as just looking at a vegetable.

For the rest of us mere mortals, it feels like running through quicksand.

Fortunately, helping people lose weight in a way that doesn’t suck is what we do!

And gosh darnit, we’re really good at it: we have thousands of success stories and 1 million+ people tune in each month for advice on this stuff. 

We help our Online Coaching Clients lose weight without dieting, and these are the exact tactics we use.

Want to lose weight WITHOUT hating life? Learn how we can help:

I’m going to cover EVERYTHING you need to know about losing weight quickly, sustainably, and without hating everything. Click below for more help:

• Why diets don’t work!
• Rule #1) Lose Weight Without Dieting.
• Rule #2) Prioritize Protein and Veggies.
• Rule #3) Know Your Carbs and Fats.
• Rule #4) Exercise for Weight Loss.
• Rule #5) Strength Training For Weight Loss.
• 25 tips to supercharge your weight loss.
• How fast can I lose weight? 
• The best way to lose weight.

Why Diets Don’t Work

If you’re reading this guide, you probably:

• Have gone on a diet in the past.
• Are on a diet right now. 

From popular ideas like the Paleo Diet to Keto, or Plant-Based (no prob) to Intermittent fasting (I do it), to terrible ideas like the Military Diet, juice cleanses, or the Cabbage Soup Diet, we’re all looking for that master key that unlocks effortless weight loss.

Some of these diets are certainly more effective/healthy than others, but they all come down to two truths for losing weight:

Truth #1: Nearly every diet works in the short term.

Truth #2: Nearly every diet fails in the long term.

So why does every diet work in the short term? 

Every diet you have ever tried has a clever way of restricting calories which leads to weight loss^[1]: 

• Paleo Diet: Eliminate everything but veggies, meat, fruit, and nuts. 
• Keto Diet: Remove an entire macronutrient from your diet (carbs).
• Plant-based Diet: Only eat vegetables and foods from plants.
• Carnivore Diet: Only eat meat! Eliminate everything else. 
• Intermittent Fasting: Skip an entire meal, or don’t eat for 24 hours.

99% of the reason why these diets result in short term weight loss is that they get us to eat fewer calories. 

The problems arise when we get to Truth 2: 

“Nearly every diet fails in the long term.”

Put another way: “Temporary changes create temporary results.” 

If somebody “goes Keto” for 60 days, they’ll probably lose weight, and might even feel healthier.

This is cool. 

HOWEVER.

If they spend those 60 days dreaming of carbs, counting down the days until they can “go back to eating like normal,” they will put all of the weight back as soon as they stop their diet.

This is why I hate the term “diet” or “going on a diet”: In order for a diet to create permanent results, the diet needs to be adopted PERMANENTLY! 

You’ll achieve weight loss in the short term with pretty much any diet you pick, as long as it gets you to eat significantly fewer calories.

However, today we’re going to focus on weight loss with 2 important conditions: 

• Permanently: No more yo-yo dieting. No more rollercoaster on the bathroom scale.
• Enjoyably: We’re not miserable and hating our lives while making these changes.

So, as you read about the 5 rules of weight loss below, I want you to be honest with yourself. You need to make changes you can stick with for at least a year. 

If a change seems too drastic, or giving up a food seems too scary, make the “win scenario” smaller. 

Here’s how we help our coaching clients: we work with them to pick ONE change per week that we can implement: one less soda, try one new vegetable, etc. 

In other words, we STOP thinking about “How many pounds can I lose in a month?” and instead “What can I do today that isn’t scary, but will make me better off a year from now:“

Dieting sucks. Let us help you fix your nutrition and lose weight without being miserable:

Rule #1: Lose Weight Without Dieting

There’s only ONE big-ass rule you need to follow when it comes to weight loss:

Eat fewer calories than you burn.

(Yes, I realize this article has 5 RULES, but the other 4 all build on this one.)

Study^[2] after study^[3] after study^[4] 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.

Every day, our body needs a certain number of calories to carry out its daily functions: making your heart beat, your brain function, getting your body to move, and all sorts of other stuff. 

This is called your total daily energy expenditure, and you can calculate your TDEE here. 

• 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).

So, in order for us to lose weight, we need to find a way to tip the energy balance in favor of “burn fat, sucka!”

Simplifying this really complex topic, we need to eat less and/or move more to get our bodies to start using our fat stores for energy.

Unfortunately, that’s where the problems start. 

We humans are REALLY good at:

• UNDERestimating how much we eat. 
• OVERestimating how much we burn. 

When we accidentally eat more calories than we realize, and then burn fewer calories from exercise than we assume, we think we “can’t lose weight” because of our metabolism or genetics.

Nope. 

It’s because we are eating too much.

And as we lay out in our MASSIVE Healthy Eating Guide, the most important factor in nutrition is eating fewer calories than you burn on a regular basis.

The best way to do that is to focus on the right kind of food:

• Protein: meat and legumes. 
• Fresh fruits and high fiber vegetables.
• Healthy carbohydrates: rice, quinoa.
• Healthy fats like almonds and olive oil.
• Occasional cheese and dairy.

These foods tend to be lower in calories than processed foods that have been designed to be overeaten^[6]. 

They fill us up but aren’t overly calorie-dense.

Which means we feel full and yet consume fewer calories than we used to. 

If we can do this consistently and sustainably, we will lose weight.

To drive the point home, here are two foods, both in 200 calorie increments (courtesy of wiseGEEK):

200 calories worth of a bagel:

…and 200 calories worth of broccoli:

Which one do you think you’ll be more likely to accidentally overeat? 

The bagel, duh. Who eats only 2/3rds of a bagel? Literally zero people.

So here’s how we’re going to lose weight: eat fewer calories without realizing it, and then burn extra calories without being miserable:

• Prioritize protein and vegetables on your plate: target 2 fist-sized servings of vegetables, and 1-2 palm-sized portions of protein on the plate. 
• Learn portion sizes of fat and carbs: If you aren’t losing weight, these are the culprits. Cut back on the one you’re eating more of. 
• Exercise for weight loss: Strength training is the most efficient way to lose fat. Strength train 3x per week, and then mix in fun cardio and move as much as possible. 

Let’s dig into these 3 things next:

Rule #2: Prioritize Protein and Vegetables

If our plan is weight loss that doesn’t suck, we’re gonna build better meals full of foods that fill us up and make us feel good. 

PART A) PRIORITIZE PROTEIN FIRST: Protein is fuel for our bodies to rebuild muscle. It’s also delicious and nutritious and can satiate us with an efficient number of calories.

How much protein should you eat? As we cover in our Protein Guide, aim for 1g per lb of bodyweight (2g per kg) every day (with an upper limit of 250g). 

Protein can come from any number of sources, including:

• Meat (steak, bison, pork).
• Fowl (chicken, turkey, duck).
• Eggs!^[7]
• Fish and shellfish (salmon, tuna, shrimp).
• Legumes (black beans, chickpeas).

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

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

*The 4 oz serving is for an uncooked piece of meat. Cooking reduces about 25% of the weight, bringing it down to about 3 oz.

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.

PART B) HALF OF YOUR PLATE SHOULD BE VEGETABLES: Veggies can be the difference between weight loss success and failure.

Vegetables are nutrient-dense but calorie-light, which means you can eat lots of them, you’ll feel full, but you’re unlikely to over-consume calories (remember that mountain of broccoli was only 200 calories!).

A serving of veggies is about the size of your fist, and 2 servings of veggies should take up ½ the plate!

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

• Broccoli
• Broccolini
• Cauliflower
• Spinach
• Kale
• Spaghetti squash^[8]
• Brussels sprouts
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Carrots
• Onion
• Asparagus

“But Steve, I don’t like vegetables…yet!” 

That’s cool, I didn’t eat vegetables until I was 22. Now, they’re a main staple of every meal I eat. 

If this is you, read our guide on “how to make vegetables taste good.”

RECAP: In our quest for weight loss that doesn’t suck, we need to focus on foods that have lower amounts of calories but still make us feel full and satiated and happy.

Always start with protein and vegetables, and then the rest of your plate can have fats and carbs. 

Speaking of which…

Rule #3: Know Your Carbs and Fat Portion Sizes.

If 3/4ths of our healthy plate is occupied by protein and vegetables, where do fats and carbs fit in? 

You can still lose weight by consuming fat and carbohydrates, when consumed in the right quantities. 

Remember how I said earlier “we UNDERestimate how many calories we eat every day?” 

Fat and/or carbs are almost ALWAYS the culprit.  

Let’s discuss.

PART C) HEALTHY CARBOHYDRATES FOR THE WIN. Everybody loves carbs, but most people overeat this macronutrient without realizing it.

Here are some examples of healthy carbohydrates that are less likely to be overconsumed:

• Fruit, fresh or frozen.
• Rice, Brown or white.
• Legumes, lentils.
• Quinoa.
• Potatoes.
• Sweet potatoes.
• Yams.
• Whole grain bread.
• Whole grain pasta.

This is a list of REAL foods, minimally processed, that also have plenty of fiber^[9]. 

This then puts them in the “healthy carbs” category: when consumed in proper proportion, these are great foods that can help you feel full and give you energy and all that jazz. 

Just make sure you know your portion sizes!

EVERYBODY accidentally overeats carbohydrate-heavy foods, even healthy ones, and then wonders why they aren’t losing weight.

To help you get better at eyeballing carb serving sizes:

1 serving of a starchy carbohydrate is 1 cupped hand (uncooked), or two hands forming a cup (cooked). 

Here are some images to help you learn proper portion sizes (thanks to SafeFood):

PART D) DON’T FORGET ABOUT FAT! 

Fat used to be vilified, but now it’s considered a superfood by many. 

Here’s the truth: fat is neither a superfood nor evil. 

It’s just a macronutrient that we can eat that can help us lose weight when consumed in the right quantity, or keep us from our goals if we eat too many calories of it.

Healthy fat can be found in foods like:

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

Saturated fats – consumed in moderate quantities^[10] – can come from things like:

• Whole milk
• Full fat dairy
• Coconut oil
• Grass-fed butter
• Lard
• Fatty cuts of meat

To help you gauge: a serving size of fat is roughly the size of your thumb!

THIS is a single serving of almonds (162 calories):

THIS is a serving of olive oil (119 calories, taken from Runtastic):

What about cheese? Cheese is fine, provided you consume a proper sized portion of it! 

This is a portion of cheddar cheese (116 calories):

So bringing them all together, here’s the healthy plate for weight loss (from our Healthy Eating Guide):

If you can prioritize protein, fruit, and vegetables, and keep your carb and fat intake under control, you are going to lose weight. 

“But Steve, what about low-fat diets? Low-carb diets? No-carb diets?”

Low carb diets like Keto and Paleo are all the rage right now, but are they healthy and will they help you lose weight? 

Maybe!

It depends on how your body regulates glucose (blood sugar)^[11]:

Studies show that people who follow EITHER a low-fat OR a low-carb diet will lose weight, as long as they are in caloric restriction and can adhere to the diet for at least a year^[12].

So, it comes down to: “which strategy are you more likely to stick with for a year or longer?”

If you think you can go Paleo or Keto or follow another low carb/low fat strategy for over a year, go for it.

Otherwise, make small changes!

MY ADVICE: Stick with changes that aren’t too scary. Work on reducing portion sizes or adding a new vegetable each week, and don’t get dogmatic, all-or-nothing about your diet! 

If you can find a way to reduce your total calorie intake without being miserable, you WILL lose weight over time, AND keep it off. 

There’s one other piece of the puzzle I HAVE to address.

Rule #4: Exercise for weight loss (Strength training and cardio)

Although exercise isn’t necessary for weight loss (nutrition being the most important part), I would HIGHLY recommend you exercise. 

There are three forms of exercise that I’ll cover when it comes to weight loss, and ALL three of them are important:

• Fun cardio: movement of any kind that gets your heart pumping (good).
• Interval training: variable rate training: “run, jog, run, jog” (better).
• Strength training: challenging your muscles to get stronger (best). 

#1) Fun cardio is doing any sort of exercise that gets you off your butt and moving.

It makes our heart healthier, AND it can serve as a reminder that we’re doing things differently now, and that we need to eat better so we don’t ruin our efforts!

(Whatever you do, DON’T say: “Welp, I exercised – and thus I earned this donut and Coca-Cola” – you’d have been better off NOT exercising and skipping the donut and Coca-cola).

Here are 40 fun ways to exercise without realizing it. Feel free to do a fun activity as often as you can! 

#2) High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) burns more calories per hour than steady cardio, so you get more “bang for your buck” when it comes to efficiency. 

If you’re limited on time and trying to burn more calories, 20 minutes of HIIT burns more calories than 20 minutes of steady jogging. 

Here are 3 HIIT workouts you can do today, no gym required! 

Both of these activities can help tip the energy balance in favor of “weight loss” when combined with calorie restriction. 

When you’re in a “caloric deficit” for weight loss, the hope is that your body will mostly pull from fat stores, though depending on how you are exercising it will also break down muscle too.^[13]

Said again: when you are eating a caloric deficit, your body will pull from both its fat stores AND existing muscle for energy.

From a physique and health standpoint, obviously we’d prefer that we don’t break down muscle when in a caloric deficit, and instead get our body to use ONLY fat stores.^[14]

Your goal in fitness shouldn’t only be “weight loss,” despite the common vernacular used.

The goal instead is to reduce body fat while also keeping the muscle you have (or even building more muscle).

Which brings me to the most important form of exercise for weight loss:

Rule #5: Strength Training For Weight Loss

#3) Strength training is the prizefighting champion when it comes to weight loss.

You can find study^[15] after study^[16] after study^[17] that shows you the benefits of strength training for weight management when combined with “calorie restriction.”

Let me explain it here quickly, borrowing from Harry Potter:

(You know, the wizard.)

At the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when each student arrives they put on the “Sorting Hat,” an actual hat that determines which House (group) that child will join for his/her time at Hogwarts.

The hat acts like a traffic director:

“Harry, you will go to Gryffindor! Draco, you will go to Slytherin!”

Your body operates in a VERY similar fashion: every day, it receives new calories (when you eat), and it needs to decide what to do with them!

It’ll sort those calories into one of three Houses:

A: Burn for Fuel.

B: Rebuild Muscle.

C: Store as Fat.

There’s a number of calories your body burns each day just existing: to keep your liver functioning, your heart pumping, your brain operating, and so on – it burns a good chunk of calories just keeping the lights on.

Here are two quick examples (from our TDEE calculator!):

• A 6’, 34-year old male weighing 250 pounds burns 2,300 calories a day just by existing.
• A 5’5”, 40-year old female weighing 140 pounds burns 1,350 calories a day just by existing.

When you start strength training, actual wizardry starts to happen.

When you do push-ups and pull-ups or do a strength training workout, your muscles are “broken down” during the exercise itself, and then they rebuild themselves stronger over the next 24-48 hours.

Guess what happens during those 24-48 hours?

Your body diverts as many calories as possible to “Rebuild Muscle!”

It also diverts additional calories to “Burn as Fuel” to handle this increased “muscle rebuilding” activity.

Which means two amazing things:

• Rebuilding muscle is a calorie taxing activity!
• Your metabolism is revved up for this period of time, burning more calories than normal.

There are significantly fewer calories available for “Store as Fat.”

AND THEN IT GETS BETTER.

When you consume fewer calories than your body burns each day, strength training will cause your body to get even more efficient. 

Your body can pull from “Store as Fat” to make sure all the work still gets done, including your daily functions as a human, and rebuilding the muscle. 

This is the Tri-wizard cup^[18] of physical transformation victory:

• You get stronger and keep the muscle you have.
• You burn through the fat you’re trying to get rid of.
• You’re decreasing your body fat percent and keeping your muscle = look good naked.

This would be a “win-win-win” according to Michael Scott, Regional Manager, Dunder Mifflin Scranton.

So NO, you don’t need to lose weight first before you start strength training.  

You will lose weight BY strength training (and keep the muscle you have).

Here’s how to start with Strength Training:

• No gym? Try our 20-minute Beginner Bodyweight Workout Routine.
• Pick one of our 5 Beginner Strength Training Workouts.
• Gym newbie? Try our 6-level Gym Strength Training Routine.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER: Doing a strength training workout 3 times per week is the most efficient way to lose the right kind of weight and look better naked. 

Adding in intervals or fun exercise on your off days is a fantastic supplemental activity to strength training. 

Want help learning how to strength train? You can absolutely build your own workout, or you can work with one of our coaches who can create a custom program that’s specific to your goals and lifestyle.

We’ll even make sure you’re doing the movements correctly via video, because we’re nice like that 🙂

Start strength training safely with our Coaching program! Learn more:

25 Tips to Supercharge Weight Loss

The 5 Rules Above give you the best chance to lose weight in a way that doesn’t suck. 

Changing your nutrition is like playing a video game: if you attack too many high-level bad guys at once, you’re going to lose. 

Instead, you’re better off picking 1-2 smaller bad guys (changes) that you know you can win, and level up slowly. 

THAT’S how you make changes that stick. 

No more temporary dieting for temporary results! 

Permanent changes create permanent results. 

Here are 25 other quick tips that are supplementary to the above important ones!

1) Consider low-carb OR low-fat diets. Studies show BOTH low-carb and low-fat diets will result in weight loss, IF you can stick with it.^[19]

Many people tend to have more success faster on low carb, but they’re also more likely to abandon the diet. You don’t need to do Keto or Paleo if you don’t want to, and instead, just work on reducing carbs overall. 

2) Consider intermittent fasting. Fasting helps you keep your caloric intake under control by eliminating or narrowing your eating window  – it simply means skipping a meal or occasionally doing 24-hour fasts.

It affects men and women differently, but has tons of benefits and is backed by science. Read our Guide on Intermittent Fasting. I’ve been skipping breakfast since 2014!

3) Minimize liquid calories. Beverages with calories in them are probably sabotaging your weight loss efforts.

Cut out the sodas and lattes and high-calorie smoothies (unless you account for them in your calorie goal!). Stick to sparkling water, black coffee or tea, or other zero-calorie beverages.  

4) Cut back on alcohol. Yes, you can still drink alcohol and lose weight, but you still need to account for the calories, of which there might be many!

And if you make poor food choices while drunk, it’s going to be tough to lose weight. Read our guide on alcohol and stick to low calorie beer, whiskey neat, or vodka with club sodas.

5) Know your condiments and cooking oils. Just because you’re eating grilled chicken and vegetables doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to lose weight!

If those foods are smothered in sauces or covered in 1000 calories of healthy olive oil, the calories still count! Keep an eye on the sauces and oils you use to cook with.  

6) Know your next meal. Most of our coaching success stories plan in advance what their next meal is.

Because it’s a pre-made decision, it removes emotion and makes them less likely to make a bad choice while hungry, sad, or angry.

Think of it this way: you can still eat unhealthy foods with this strategy because you plan ahead and can eat a healthy meal before and after. No harm done!

Want help implementing these tactics to lose weight? Learn more about our Online Coaching:

7) Look at restaurant menus before going. Restaurants give out notoriously large portions of food, often with hundreds of hidden calories.

Give yourself the best chance to succeed by looking up the menu online before going and decide BEFORE you get there.

Also, consider taking HALF the entree and boxing it up for an additional meal (A tip we mention in our Guide to Portion Control).

8) Eat the same foods over and over. The healthiest, most successful coaching clients we have tend to eat the same handful of meals over and over.

Once you learn portion sizes and calorie counts of your favorite meals, you’re much more likely to eat within your goals for the day.

9) Learn to batch cook. Read our guide on batch cooking! If you can prepare all your healthy meals ONCE at the beginning of the week, you are setting yourself up for success.

Why? Because now your default, easiest, laziest option is to simply reheat and eat the food you have at home – much less work than ordering takeout or driving to fast food! Win-Win-Win.

Here’s how I batch cook chicken for the week:

10) Employ the “Never 2 in a Row” rule. If you ever eat an unhealthy meal, simply make the next one healthy.

One bad meal doesn’t ruin a day, so letting an unhealthy breakfast derail you for the rest of the day isn’t smart. 

Simply eat a healthy lunch and get right back on track.

11) Ask “What would Batman do?” If you’re not sure what you should eat, ask what would Batman do.

A study showed that children were more likely to pick an apple instead of candy when instructed to ask this question.^[20]

And we’re all kids at heart, right?

12) Track your calories. If you can’t lose weight, it’s most likely because you’re accidentally eating more calories than you realize. Use an app or spreadsheet and track your food for a week.

I bet your intake is 20-40% higher than you realize! You can calculate how many calories you burn every day too. 

13) Weigh your food (advanced): STILL not losing weight? It’s time to get your portion sizes fixed too.

Get a cheap food scale and weigh your food for 2-3 days. Doing this, I discovered I was eating an extra 400 calories without realizing it. 

Struggling to lose weight? Let us help. Learn more about our Online Coaching:

14) Eat more slowly!

If we’re not careful, we can eat more than we realize because we eat too quickly for our body to understand it’s full!

Tactics to help with this include consciously working on chewing your food more frequently before swallowing.

Studies show eating slowly led to decreases in energy intake within meals in healthy women.^[21]

15) Use smaller plates and forks! If we have big plates and big utensils, we’re more likely to pile more food on our plate AND consume it more quickly.

Throw out your big plates and get smaller ones. Get smaller utensils, and you’ll trick yourself into eating smaller portions without realizing it.^[22]

16) Don’t “Eat AND [activity].” Just “eat.” We eat more food if we’re eating while doing something else (watching TV, scrolling through our phones, etc.).^[23]

Why don’t you try JUST eating? Enjoy each bite. Savor the food. Make it an experience. You’ll tend to eat less.

17) Stop snacking. All calories count. Instead of snacking throughout the day, why not eat 3 regular sized meals that you truly enjoy?

As we cover in our Guide to Intermittent Fasting, it doesn’t matter WHEN  you eat, it only matters HOW MUCH you eat. Not snacking between meals gives you more leeway during your actual meals!

18) Seek professional help! If you have an emotional relationship with food, consider speaking about it with a therapist or doctor.

We believe mental health is really important here at Nerd Fitness, and we know food can be an emotional trigger for lots of people that struggle with their weight. You don’t have to do this journey alone! 

19) Fidget more! From tapping your toes to getting up frequently, fidgeting (small micromovements) can account for up to 350 additional calories burned per day.^[24] It all counts. So get wiggling!  

20) Move more. From parking farther away at the grocery store to taking the stairs instead of the elevator, do whatever you can to MOVE MORE!

Get a cheap fitness tracker and try to get more steps than you normally do.

Don’t rely on the tracker for calories burned (they’re all notoriously inaccurate), but it’s a great ‘trend tracker.’ Do more than you did before and you WILL get results.  

21) Find ways to exercise in a fun way! ANY sort of movement helps, so check out our 40 ways to exercise without realizing it.

Dance, yoga, wrestling with your kids, rock climbing, hiking, it all counts! Just like your parents told you when you were a kid, “Go outside and play!”

Exercise doesn’t have to suck. Let us build a workout you’ll ACTUALLY do:

22) Get strong as hell. Pick up heavy weights.

Our bodies have to burn tons of calories to recover from a heavy strength training session.

Plus, you get to keep the muscle you have and burn the fat on top of those muscles. That’s how you lose weight AND gain muscle at the same time! 

23) Hack your Batcave: We are creatures of our environment, so use that to your advantage! Stop relying on willpower, and instead get smarter.

Increase the steps between you and the activity you’re trying to avoid (eat junk food), and decrease the number of steps between you and the NEW activity you want to do more of (eat healthy):

• Throw out your junk food so you don’t need to waste willpower not eating it. 
• Put a bowl of fruit on the counter so your default activity becomes “eat fruit!”

24) Surround yourself with people who are healthier than you. We’re the average of the 5 people we associate most with.

Join a running club. Eat lunch with healthier people than you at the office.

We subconsciously adopt the traits of the people around us, so use that to your advantage! 

25) Forgive yourself. We are all flawed. If you eat a bad meal or have a rough weekend, who cares?!

The month is not ruined. Make the next decision a healthy one and get right back on track. Remember “never two in a row.” 

I know this is a lot to absorb, so don’t beat yourself up if you’re totally overwhelmed! 

If you want help implementing these tactics and supercharge your weight loss journey, that’s what we do best. Click below to learn more!

Losing weight doesn’t need to suck. Let us help you on your journey! Learn more:

How fast can I lose weight?

There are MANY factors that are involved in how quickly you can lose weight, but here are the big ones:

• How much weight do you need to lose? Somebody who needs to lose 250 pounds will be able to lose more weight than somebody who needs to lose 10 pounds, simply because there is more weight to lose. 
• How big of a caloric deficit below your TDEE are you doing? If somebody normally eats 5000 calories per day and switches to 1500 calories per day, they’ll lose weight faster than if they switched to 4500 calories per day. Now, reducing calories significantly can create all sorts of “I’m miserable and hate everything” feelings as our body learns to stop expecting a ready supply of food and has to start burning fat instead. 
• Are you going low-carb like Paleo or Keto? As you’ll see below, cutting out carbs can create significant weight loss in the first weeks due to a reduction of  ‘water weight and bloat.’ But cutting out carbs might also make you miserable! 

First Week Weight Loss Expectations: Depending on how poorly you eat now, if you swap out unhealthy food for protein and veggies – reducing your calorie intake significantly – you might lose upwards of 5-10 pounds (5kg) in your first week. 

It’s awesome to see the scale drop by that much in the first week, but it’s important to note that this type of weight loss won’t be typical week to week. 

If you normally eat a lot of carbs and sodium, your body is carrying a lot of extra bloat and water weight. When you switch to mostly protein and veggies, you’ll lose TONS of water weight and some fat initially.

We’ve seen many Coaching Clients lose 5-10 pounds in their first week, again mostly due to the reduction of water weight with SOME fat loss. 

First Month Weight Loss Expectations: Depending on how strict you are with your nutrition – you can lose 1% of your body fat, or 1-3 pounds per week after that (heavily dependent on how much weight you have to lose). 

We have seen people (who have a lot of weight to lose) lose 20 pounds in their first month, mostly due to large water weight reduction in the first week, with a steady consistent drop after that. 

(Curious how quickly you can lose weight? Use our Total Daily Energy Expenditure TDEE Calculator.) 

There’s nothing wrong with losing weight quickly, provided you’re doing it in a healthy, SUSTAINABLE way – like following the rules and strategies laid out in this article. 

Quick weight loss doesn’t guarantee long term success. 

It comes down to making PERMANENT changes!

If somebody reduces their calorie intake by 1000+ calories a day, they might be so damn hungry and angry all the time that they abandon their journey after a week or two.

This is bad news bears.

They would have been better off reducing their calories by 200 calories a day for 6 weeks, and then by another 200 6 weeks later, and so on.

We want sustainable changes, and sustainable weight loss, creating permanent progress. 

So it doesn’t really matter how much weight you lose in your first week or first month, but rather how much weight you have lost after 1 year, and how you feel after that year. 

As we cover in our “Why can’t I lose weight?” guide, this is a lifelong journey, and one you should be thinking about as a lifestyle adjustment and not a temporary diet change.

Put your focus on building the habits and fixing your environment. Focus on the changes you can make on a day to day basis, and with each meal. 

And over time, your weight WILL drop in a way that’s sustainable and healthy.  

How to Lose Weight Quickly

“STEVE JUST TELL ME EXACTLY WHAT TO DO TO LOSE WEIGHT QUICKLY.”

Fine! But you don’t need to yell at me like that! 

Here’s what I would do if I needed to lose weight quickly but ALSO didn’t want to hate life:

• Focus MOST of my effort on building a healthy plate. 
• Cut out all snacks between meals. Focus on making better meals.
• Cut way back on booze and only drink zero-calorie beverages (black coffee, sparkling water).
• Learn to cook a veggie or two and prioritize protein.
• Strength train 3 days per week, probably following THIS gym routine.
• Move as much as possible, tracking my steps with a Fitbit.
• If the scale doesn’t go down, start tracking calories and measuring food.

I’ll leave you with some final words of wisdom: this is NOT all or nothing.

If you can implement just ONE change and stick with it, that’s a victory. That’s better than doing 10 things and giving up after a month. 

I realize I threw a LOT of information at you, but I hope you can implement this stuff in your day-to-day decisions, because these rules WILL change the scale, and they WILL change your life. 

If you are looking for more guidance, support, and instruction, we have 3 options for you to level up:

#1) JOIN OUR COACHING PROGRAM: We provide nutritional guidance, constant feedback and support, customized workouts for your goals, and keep you accountable wherever you are. 

We are really good at this stuff and would love to help you reach your goals.

Our Coaching program changes lives. Learn more here!

2) Exercising at home and need a plan to follow? Have questions you need answered? Join Nerd Fitness Prime!

Nerd Fitness Prime is our premium membership program that contains at-home exercise routines, live-streamed workouts with NF Coaches, a supportive online community, group challenges, and much more! 

Learn more about Nerd Fitness Prime!

#3) Join The Rebellion (it’s free)! Sign up for our biweekly newsletter and join the Nerd Fitness Rebellion!

I’ll send you tons of free nutritional guides and bonuses to help you get started on your journey today.

Sign up below:

Download our free weight loss guide

THE NERD FITNESS DIET: 10 Levels to Change Your Life

• Follow our 10-level nutrition system at your own pace
• What you need to know about weight loss and healthy eating
• 3 Simple rules we follow every day to stay on target

If you were just trying to start building healthier habits and lose weight sustainably, instead here’s what I would do:

Make 1 change per week. 

Change ONE meal a week, or cut back on ONE soda. Make a change that’s so small that it doesn’t make you sad or scared. 

And then repeat. 

What’s the ONE change you’re going to make this week to make your weight loss journey SLIGHTLY easier? 

-Steve

PS: Make sure you check out the rest of our Sustainable Weight Loss Content:

• Why Can’t I Lose Weight?
• How to Start Eating Healthy (Without Giving up the Food You Love)
• How to Lose Weight and Build Muscle at the Same Time.
• How to Portion Control (Without Counting Calories)

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Here we go again, another food recall. It seems that these are becoming more and more prominent, pushing consumers to wonder if there are any really safe foods or grocery stores? The FDA has just issued a mass recall of potatoes, lemons, limes, Valencia oranges, and even organic limes due to a potential Listeria monocytogenes […]

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Things are going great. You’re eating well, moving your body regularly, lifting heavy things, getting good sleep. Then wham! Something happens, and all your best laid plans are out the window. Maybe it’s a crisis at work, the loss of a loved one, a vacation, or, I don’t know, a global pandemic that changes everything. Sometimes it’s nothing memorable, you just sort of… stop trying.

What do you do when you realize you’ve fallen off the wagon?

It’s simple. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and climb back on.

Were You Really “Off the Wagon?”

Before talking about how to get back on the wagon, it’s worth asking yourself if you were really off in the first place. It’s one thing to lose your way for a while and make choices that erode the health gains you’d made. It’s another to allow yourself to enjoy a decadent dessert at a fancy restaurant, or to have one stressful week at work that leaves you with no time to meal prep or go to the gym.

There’s no set timeline where you can say, “Now I’m officially off the wagon.” There’s no set number of lenient meals, sweet treats, or sedentary days in a row that determine that you’re not “in” a healthy lifestyle anymore. It’s subjective. There’s no membership card.

The point of this exercise is to avoid the temptation to make a big deal over minor blips. Diet culture is all about “cheating” and “failing” and “starting over.” That’s not the spirit of living Primally. We strive to make day-to-day choices that support health while also allowing for life to happen.

It’s the 80/20 principle, remember? Self-flagellation or shame spirals aren’t part of the plan. Sometimes dessert is just dessert.

That said, there are times when you’ve well and truly fallen off the metaphorical wagon, and you’re ready to get back on track. Let’s break this down into three parts: what you need to do immediately, in the short term, and making plans for the long term.

Stay on track no matter where you are. Instantly download your Primal and Keto Guide to Eating Out

What to Do Today to Get Back on the Wagon

Just start. Make your next meal a healthy and satisfying one. Pick one of the Primal Essential Movements and do one set. Set a bedtime alarm on your phone and actually hit the sheets when it goes off. Whatever success looks like to you, take one concrete step. That’s it.

Fasting to Get Back on the Wagon

“Start by fasting for a day”—it’s common advice. I’m of a couple minds here.

On the one hand, fasting offers a quick jumpstart. A 24-hour fast (eating dinner one night and then not eating again until dinner the following day, for example) burns through glycogen, accelerating fat burning and putting you on the road to ketosis if that’s your plan. It’s also symbolic, marking your commitment to making today a changing point.

On the other hand, this probably isn’t a good strategy for people who have struggled with disordered eating behaviors in the past. Fasting isn’t inherently problematic, but it can be, such as when someone gets into a cycle of “cheating” then fasting to atone. Also, if you’ve been eating a standard high-carb diet for a while now, you might not be equipped to fast comfortably, at least not for 24 hours. Don’t do it if you’re likely to get discouraged and quit again if you find yourself white-knuckling it through the first day.

If fasting isn’t your thing, no problem. A high-intensity exercise session also burns through glycogen and ramps up fat burning, especially if you don’t replenish with carbs after. You can commemorate your first day by starting a new journal, circling the day on your calendar in red marker, preparing a special meal, making a public commitment to friends and family, or hiring a health coach. Or, as I said, you can just take the first step and not look back.

If fasting does appeal to you, a shorter fasting window, say 16 hours, is also fine. There’s no reason to go longer; a three-day long fast is overkill for this purpose. Twenty-four hours is plenty.

Bask in Your Initial Victory

Once you’ve eaten one healthy meal or done one workout, congratulations, you’re back on track. Now you have to stay on track, but take a minute to commend yourself.

If your inner critic tries to tell you that you won’t really be back on the wagon until you string together 30 sugar-free days, or you’re deadlifting your previous personal best, shut that voice down. Those are great goals, but you don’t have to achieve them before you are allowed to feel proud that you took the first step.

What to Do in The Short Term to Stay on the Wagon

Once you’ve taken that first step, there’s more work to be done. You don’t want to immediately veer off course again! This means getting some systems in place to keep you moving in the right direction.

Start Building Better Habits

Building better habits boils down to this: Make it easier and more rewarding to do the things you want to do. Make it harder and less appealing to do the things you don’t want to do.

Simple, right? Sure, but not always easy. Start by identifying some basic things that, once done, will increase your chances of success. Things like:

• Stocking your fridge with on-plan foods, and tossing or donating foods you don’t want to be eating
• Picking a few basic recipes to get you through the first few days, or starting your week with a meal prep
• Getting your home workout equipment out of the closet and putting it someplace prominent
• Buying those new running shoes and leaving them where you see them first thing in the morning
• Moving the TV and the phone and tablet chargers out of your bedroom

Ask yourself:

1. What is my biggest obstacle, and what can I do today to remove that obstacle, or at least make it easier to avoid?
2. What are two or three things that I can do today to make it easier to stick to my goal?

Do those.

For more guidance on building better habits:

• 6 Concrete Ways to Rewire Your Brain for Successful Habit Change
• How to Develop Good Habits
• The Definitive Guide to Breaking Bad Habits

Keep A Journal, Food Log, or Calendar

This is optional but recommended. Keeping written track of your behavior is uber-helpful for two reasons. One, it gives you a visual representation of your progress. Just like earning gold stars in kindergarten, you get positive reinforcement from seeing your “good days” accumulate. Two, it allows you to troubleshoot when necessary.

Basic food and exercise logs work well for accountability. They’re even better when combined with journaling about your internal states—hunger, stress, emotions—plus sleep, menstrual cycle, and any other relevant details. The more info you have, the easier it is to spot patterns and make connections. For example, you might learn that carb cravings increase at certain times of your cycle, so you decide to experiment with carb-ups. Or, you might realize you often eat poorly two days after a bad night’s rest. That tells you that you need to work on sleep, not just diet per se.

What to Do in The Longer Term to Stay on the Wagon

One silver lining to falling off the wagon is that it’s always a learning opportunity. That’s what we should all be doing—learning and adapting. It doesn’t mean you’ll never fall off the wagon again, but hopefully you can avoid repeating the same patterns over and over.

Sometimes it’s obvious what happened. You went on vacation, or got sick and stopped working out, but never returned to your healthy habits. Other times it takes some more digging and soul searching to understand how you got derailed (again). It’s never just a lack of willpower or desire. There’s a root cause that needs to be addressed.

Some common reasons people fall off the wagon are:

Caving to social pressure

It’s hard to stay on track when you’re surrounded by naysayers, or if you’re frequently in situations where your willpower is tested. Develop strategies that allow you to deal with these people or situations constructively, or avoid them if you must.

Not managing stress appropriately

If you change your diet, but everything else about your modern, high-stress life stays the same, you’ll inevitably falter.

Digging yourself into an energy hole

Not eating enough, not eating often enough (too much fasting for your body and activity level), and not sleeping enough will land you in the red, energy-wise. Your body will respond with hunger and cravings that become impossible to ignore. Motivation to exercise plummets, as does performance. Chronically depriving yourself of the fuel and rest you need is a recipe for disaster.

All-or-nothing thinking

You’re guilty of all-or-nothing thinking if you make one “bad” choice and then decide, “Forget it, I blew it. Might as well just give up.” The actual health consequences of your choices were probably small to negligible; the resulting guilt and shame spiral are what really hurt you. With all-or-nothing thinking, you create unrealistic standards of perfection, when what you should really strive for are progress and growth.

Trying to live a life that you don’t actually enjoy

Falling is inevitable if you don’t enjoy your food or your workout routine, your choices are causing friction with your partner, or you’re otherwise missing the joy in life. Sure, you might choose to suffer through a period of restriction to lose weight, especially if you have hardcore physique goals. Making short-term sacrifices in the service of a larger goal is one thing. Trying to commit to a “lifestyle” you hate is quite another. There are many roads to health. Find one that works for you.

Do the Deeper Healing Work

If self-sabotage is a repeating pattern for you, there is deeper work to do here. Therapy is fantastic for people dealing with unresolved past trauma, disordered eating tendencies, or feeling unworthy. You deserve to live your healthiest, most vibrant life. It’s your birthright as a magnificent human.

Psst, It’s Not Really a Wagon

This is where I admit that I’m not a fan of the whole “falling off the wagon” analogy. If you fall off a wagon — and I’m assuming we’re picturing a haywagon or something of that like, not a child’s wagon — it keeps going without you. If you don’t get back on quickly, you miss your chance. Your health gets more and more out of reach, and it gets more and more discouraging.

I think a better analogy is falling off a bicycle. When you fall off, the bike is still there, ready to be ridden at any point. Some falls are pretty gentle, like tipping over at low speed into soft grass. Some falls are pretty spectacular, like flying over your handlebars and tumbling down an embankment. In any case, though, you can usually climb back on and peddle away, if gingerly perhaps.

At the same time, bike owners know that the longer a bike sits unridden, the more work it requires to get it in tip-top shape again. It’s better to keep riding it and do regular maintenance.

It doesn’t really matter which analogy you use, of course, as long as you feel empowered to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and set your sights on the road ahead.

The post Getting Back on the Wagon appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Male menopause is a real thing, and the medical term for it is andropause. According to the Mayo Clinic, the term “Male Menopause” has been used to describe decreasing testosterone levels related to aging. See this article from Mark back in 2018.

One of the symptoms of male menopause can be erectile dysfunction (ED). Although for younger men, you can have ED without male menopause. ED can destroy a man’s confidence not just in the bedroom but in the larger picture of his life by causing depression, stress, moodiness and anger all things that peak performers do not want to associate with. But for men aged 35-64 these things can sneak up on us, fast.

We are all so busy “performing.” Being a Dad, a good husband, business owner, a hard worker, friend, trying to get your workouts squeezed into an already hectic week. In many cases, this usually leads to a pattern of not not getting enough sleep because of late night emails for work after having put the kids to bed, up early the next day to get right back at your hard charging life, with too little exercise and not enough Primal Nutrition. Which leaves you with high stress. Stress leads to high cortisol (more about cortisol below).

Maybe you had a little too much wine at dinner … it happens. Your wife or lover wants to “play” and so do you, but no response. Once, certainly is nothing to worry about but the definition of ED is “is the recurrent or persistent inability to attain and/or maintain an erection in order for satisfactory sexual performance.” So, what to do?

First, let’s look closer at the leading causes.

Possible Causes of Erectile Dysfunction

In order to eliminate the frustration of ED we must first understand what may be causing it.

Too Little Sleep

Research from Mathew Walker’s book “Why We Sleep” point to the necessity of 7 plus hours of sleep per night. Of all the healthy things we can do to at the very least preserve our hormones, sleep is number one! According to Walker in his book, “If you have hopes of reproductive success, fitness or prowess, you would do well to get a full night’s sleep every night.” In fact as far as Testosterone is concerned, Walker cites a study done at the University of Chicago where a group of lean healthy young males in their mid 20’s were limited to 5 hours of sleep for one week. After the sleep deprivation for a week, “sample hormone levels circulating in the blood of the participants showed a marked drop in testosterone.The size of the hormone blunting effect was so large that it effectively ages a man by ten to fifteen years in terms of testosterone virility.” WOW is all I can say!

Too Much Stress

It’s a vicious cycle. Lack of adequate sleep, stress from family and work, financial stress, all of this leads to worry. Worry leads to high cortisol levels. Cortisol is also known as “the stress hormone” and chronically high levels can lead to irritability, moodiness and depression. The results of all that stress is hormones out of whack, especially testosterone, thyroid hormones and adrenal hormones. In other words, cortisol is part of the “fight or flight” mechanism that is built into all of us. When it is ON all the time, that will disrupt our hormonal levels which may lead to ED.

Inflammation

We need our inflammation response. When you slice your finger on a kitchen knife and you see a red ring around the cut, that’s acute inflammation.

Systemic chronic inflammation is the kind that causes problems. Caused by, you guessed it! Vegetable oils cooked under high heat, refined carbs, stress and not enough sleep. Chronic inflammation will not only hurt your sex life but long term, is a leading cause of dementia. These killer culprits lead to insulin sensitivity and inflammation and thus fat gain and yup, hormone distress again.

Not Enough Exercise

According to a report out of Harvard Medical School, “There is no specific exercise program for men looking to reduce the risk of ED. But a well-rounded exercise program that includes just half an hour of physical activity on all or most days of the week delivers solid health benefits.”¹

Although the above statement is true, call this less science more anecdotal but it’s my observation that men need to lift heavy objects every now and then. Lean muscle mass is healthy, fat mass is not. Obesity is a leading cause of low testosterone while pumping iron raises it. You don’t have to be a bodybuilder or gym junkie but you do need to lift some weights, carry some heavy objects, climb a rope, do some body weight push-ups, pull ups, sit ups or simply join a CrossFit class for two times per week. The reason, blood flow.

Promising Approaches to Erectile Dysfunction

Ok, now that we know some of the leading causes of ED let’s dive into fixing it, the natural way without having to reach for the little blue pill.

Step 1: Improve your sleep.

Tips to improve your sleep:

• Keep you bedroom between 65-68 degrees Fahrenheit
• Eye mask to sleep
• Room darkening shades
• Cover all lights in room with electrical tape (you know those little red and green lights that your laptop or LED TV have)
• Phone face down or on airplane mode or off
• CBD with Melatonin
• Ear plugs to block noise
• Blue light blocking glasses if looking at a device before bed

Step 2: Lower Stress

Tips to to Lower Stress:

Meditation, prayer, breathing exercises, stillness or yoga are all wonderful ways to relieve stress. The best part is you don’t have to take up large amounts of more time with traveling to a yoga class for an hour and a half class and then drive back to the office home thus taking up a total of two hours of your precious time. I recommend this site and thus you can do yoga right from home or even the office. The best part, you get to choose how much time you have. Often, i will select the 10 minute session, that’s all you need to lower that blood pressure and get blood circulating again.

One other tip, I highly recommend the book “Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday.

Step 3: Eat more grass fed beef, wild caught fish, organic vegetables

It’s not as hard as you think. You are already here at Mark’s Daily Apple so you have already taken the first step!! Next, if you haven’t already is to dive into the Primal Blueprint Laws. Eating primally provides your body with the building blocks it needs to create and balance hormones.

Step 4: Eliminate Inflammatory foods

Eating in a way that minimizes inflammation will help get roadblocks out of the way. Take massive action and throw out any and all inflammatory foods from your cupboard. Going Primal and eliminating industrial seed oils (like corn, soy and sunflower) will help a lot! Replace them with avocado and olive oil.

Guard your health because well, your bedroom time and your life may depend on it. Eat more whole foods, and learn, study and live Primal. Have a sweet tooth? No problem, you can still have dessert! Just choose healthy ingredients. For example, here is my go-to almost daily after dinner dessert:

• One cup organic berries
• One Primal Dark Chocolate Almond Collagen Fuel Bar cut up
• Organic Cinnamon, ginger, or whatever spices you like to sprinkle on
• Organic vanilla unsweetened almond milk
• An occasional teaspoon of organic honey

Step 5: Lower Inflammation

How to support a healthy inflammation response

• Cold shower of ice plunge. Doesn’t sound like fun? Well, start out with just 10 seconds at the end of your shower and work your way up from there.
• Infrared sauna
• Daily moderate exercise
• Research supplements such as Curcumin and CBD

Step 6: Get Moving!

Although I advocate for pumping iron, at the end of the day just move! Take up whatever form of exercise you like whether it be swimming, biking, hiking or tennis but get moving, get that blood circulation in high gear and oh, get out in the sun a little! That Vitamin D is also good for raising your testosterone. https://blog.insidetracker.com/can-vitamin-d-restore-low-testosterone-levels

Lastly, as a bonus here are a few herbs and other “hacks” as they say in the biohacking community that may help with libido issues:

• Maca Root
• Ashwaganda (included in the Adaptogenic Calm formula)
• Tong Kat Ali
• Horny Goat Weed
• Foods high in nitric oxide, arginine and citrulline such as arugula, beets pistachios and watermelon
• Peptides, particularly PT-141. or if you want an erection while also getting a tan, Melanotan 2.

Always work with a qualified medical professional when choosing supplements and health regimens. 

Tthanks for reading everyone. I hope this helps and at a minimum opens your eyes to addressing bedroom woes through healthy lifestyle choices and perhaps reducing your reliance on pharmaceuticals while still remaining in poor habits. You can do it! You are a Champ!

About Peter Montpelier, Health Coach/Longevity Expert at Team Appollon LLC

I am the co-founder and lead health coach of Team Appollon ( teamappollon.com) a peak performance and health company. I help people lose weight, build strength and create energy in their life to do the things that they love. Sign up for my free weekly health newsletter here.

The post Male Menopause Is a Thing. What to Do About It appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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You may have heard the saying, ‘What you don’t know doesn’t hurt you.’ I challenge that not knowing does matter. Especially when it comes to feeding yourself and your family. What you don’t know could really, really harm you.  Would you change the way that you eat and what you feed your family if you […]

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We can generally get our hands on a watermelon any time of year, but these are the months when they actually taste sweet and juicy. As soon as watermelons come into season, my Summer Watermelon Salad comes out of hiding. It’s a late summer treat that reminds us that even though we’re hearing the first whispers of school starting and pumpkin spice, it’s still summertime.

This watermelon salad is a sweet, crunchy, tangy accompaniment to any summer meal.

Tip: feel free to leave the feta cheese out if you are dairy-free, or replace it with goat cheese or fresh mozzarella.

Summer Watermelon Salad Recipe

Time in the kitchen: 5 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 cups cubed watermelon
• 2 oz. crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup basil
• 1 large tomato sliced into wedges
• 1 chopped cucumber
• 5 chopped radishes
• 1/3 cup sliced red onion
• 3 Tbsp. Primal Kitchen® Lemon Turmeric Dressing
• salt and pepper

Directions

Chop the watermelon into ¾”-1” cubes. Slice the tomato into wedges and chop the cucumber and radishes.

Thinly slice the red onion and the basil.

Combine the watermelon, chopped basil, tomato, cucumber, radishes and red onion in a bowl. Pour in the Primal Kitchen Lemon Turmeric Dressing and fold it into the salad along with the feta.

Season with salt and pepper and garnish with more basil leaves.

Nutrition Information (¼ of recipe):

Calories: 146
Fat: 6g
Total Carbohydrates: 19g
Net Carbohydrates: 17g
Protein: 5g

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It is probably not every day, if at all, that you think of the noise generated by human activity on planet earth. But, between March and May 2020, during the most extensive COVID-19 lockdown yet, vibration on planet earth generated by humans was down an average of 50%. What exactly does this mean, and is […]

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Research of the Week

More evidence of admixture with ancient hominids.

Vegan and vegetarian weaning of infants is a real bad idea with potentially lasting effects.

In middle aged people, taking 5 grams of collagen every day improved language function and appeared to alter brain structure.

Using a very-low-carb ketogenic diet to reverse super high triglycerides.

Yogic pranayama breathing exercises have remarkable effects on anxiety and negative effect.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 438: Robb Wolf: Host Elle Russ chats with Robb Wolf about his new book.

Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 72: Laura and Erin chat with Trudi Lebron.

Media, Schmedia

I always link to anything orangutan-related.

Wine windows are back.

Interesting Blog Posts

How the NBA has changed.

A week on “the bean protocol.”

Social Notes

Genes are not your destiny.

Everything Else

Bats are always arguing.

Modifying the human ACE2 receptor to prevent viral escape (and thus, proliferation).

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Dire results: A recent study finds that UK women are incredibly deficient in a broad range of essential micronutrients.

I’m not surprised: Type 2 diabetic men with low testosterone do TRT and abolish their T2D.

I thought leaky gut was just a myth though: Restoring gut barrier function extends lifespan.

Article I found interesting: Literate but not numerate.

Drug that might actually help: IL-1 blocker blocks arthritis.

Question I’m Asking

Have you ever been consistent with breathing exercises? What have you noticed?

Recipe Corner

• Crazy looking St. Paul Sandwich.
• Get your thiamine: pork chop and apple skillet.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Aug 1 – Aug 7)

• Menopause: Beyond the Stereotypes  – Looking a bit further.
• Are You Doing Microworkouts? Here’s Why You Should.  – You really should be.

Comment of the Week

“But… Forrest Gump got COVID-19!”

-Good point, jeff.

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The kitchen is truly the heart of your home. It’s where family and friends gather for coffee, conversation, and cooking great meals. But when this dirty little secret gets out, your hub will quickly turn from light and airy to dreary and stale. And worse, you’re inviting more than just house guests into your kitchen […]