How to develop a growth mindset and become large with whatever you want to do, but haven’t. Learn to apply progression and consistency to achieving goals along a path that you’ve shaped.

DO YOU ever find yourself on YouTube watching one video after another of some massive beastly human lifting some massively beastly weight off the ground?

No? Well, I do.

It’s not because I aspire to being a truck-lifting hulk.

Yesteryear, perhaps, but now my physically oriented focus is on different things, like aging well, getting leaner, more flexible, and maintaining sufficient strength to handle my own body weight, not an elephants.

Chances are your focus is more akin to mine than developing the capacity to move huge poundage, and yet I point you to the amazing beasts of YouTube, and say: “Hey, lookie here!”

Why?

The reason is that there’s some pearls of wisdom that can be drawn from these beasts that are applicable to anyone’s life, whether you give a hoot about lifting 1,000 pounds off the floor or not.

Take a look, and then wade into how I apply this to your life:

So, what did you see in the video?

No, actually, that’s not the relevant question, but rather it is:

“What did you think/feel about the BeastPeople in the video”?

Some of you may be disgusted that, in this case, men would devote countless hours to grunting and groaning over some massively heavy weights. (Women do it to.)

For what purpose?

To those of you who think that to get that big and strong is a waste of time, I completely get it.

What are the chances that one of those guys who can lift 1,000 pounds from the ground is going to be passing by in one chance moment to lift the back end of a car that slipped off its tire-changing jack, and is pressing the life out of some damsel in distress?

If that were the purpose for committing one’s life to getting massively strong, you could cogently argue that it’s commitment misplaced. But that, of course, is not the purpose for these beasts.

More likely it has something to do with self-concept, self-esteem or the expression of a genetic capacity that, like Mozart’s, simply makes doing anything else unseemly.

Simply put, the beasts have become beasts because it serves them.

The insight to be gained here is not WHY they do this but How, for it’s the consistently and progression that the beasts apply to their craft that all of us can use to become the beast in our own chosen milieu.

What Beast In You Needs to Be Fed?

We all have one, this beast. For most of us it’s just a meowing kitten seeking a small dish of milk.

My metric for using this metaphoric image is a Forbes article that posits that 70% of workers hate their jobs. To me, this means that this large majority of people are not cultivating the beast within, but rather doing whatever expediently led them to their current work.

The result is that something is nagging such people, meowing if you will, but the occasional small dish of milk will never grow the kitten into some beastly tiger.

Occasionally lapping at the milk in your life is not Mozart-making.

Mozart was a beast because he quickly understood the specific highest and best use of his innate potential, and then worked on it like a beast to become one.

Like the guys in the video, Mozart – like everyone who accomplishes something akin to lifting 1,000 pounds off the ground – applied himself to progressively getting better through consistent practice.

The beauty of weight lifting in this context is that it beautifully demonstrates progression and consistency.

Progression is adding a pound to the bar every workout.

Consistency is doing the workout x times per week, every week.

What’s keeping you from working out your kitten so that someday it becomes a Tiger?  Could be that your mindset is holding you back.

What’s Your Mindset?

Let’s start with a definition. Mindset is:

“A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations.” (Source)

The definition states that mindset is “fixed”, which makes sense given the “set” in mindset.

This is the key to understanding how mindset can either keep your beast potential meowing all your life, or – metaphorically speaking – grow to lift that 1,000 pounds.

The reason is that…

Mindset shapes how you will respond to change.

In effect, you need to reset the “set” in mindset. If you let it represent a mind that’s “fixed” then you will never muster the change required to build something new in your life.

A “Fixed Mindset” holds that what kind of person you are is fixed, and although you can at times do things differently, the important parts of who you are can not be changed.

A person with a Fixed Mindset…

- Has a problem with failure, because failure means you have failed as a person, as opposed to failing to accomplish a particular task.

- Has a tendency to avoid challenges that could result in failure as a person.

- Believes that his/her abilities are static, rather than elastic.

A “Growth Mindset” allows that you can change substantially, including the basic parts about what kind of person you are.

A person with a Growth Mindset…

- Believes that abilities are like muscles that can be built up.

- Accepts challenges despite the risk of failure, seeing failure as a natural part of the growth process.

- Takes a long term view and applies herself to progressive accomplishment.

- Sees the brain as a muscle that is not fixed in capacity but can be made stronger and move from a fixed to growth mindset to take on new challenges.

Is your mindset fixed or in growth mode?

How To Develop a Growth Mindset and Become a Beast

Here are seven steps:

1. Select something you want
2. Believe that it’s possible
3. Cut it into small achievable pieces
4. Schedule your actions
5. Do what you’ve scheduled
6. Bask in your glory
7. Repeat

Yes, indeed, there’s a very critical step that I’ve left out:

What do you want to develop a growth mindset to achieve?

Remember that kitten? Well, what is it meowing about?

If to prepare an answer to this question, you start digging at what may be your “life’s purpose”, please stop right now, as you’ll just dig yourself into a hole before you’ve developed enough muscle to haul yourself out.

If you don’t already know what it is, just put your life purpose aside for now. What we seek is something simpler; after all, we need a light weight to begin with, not 1,000 pounds.

#1 Select Something You Want

Since this is a health site, let’s focus on a health topic, like body weight. Body weight is good because, if you’re an American, there’s about a 60% chance that you could improve your health by losing a few.

Therefore, our example is going to be losing weight, and we’re going to say that you’ve got 30 extra pounds that are not contributing to your wellbeing.

But, you may declare, this 30 pounds is nontrivial, that it’s been plaguing you for years, defeating all your attempts to dump it, that “It’s my 1,000 pound gorilla!”

(Take note that we now have beasts, a kitten, tiger, elephant and gorilla playing important roles in this post, but only two weights under consideration, 30 and 1,000, given that the gorilla seems to have gained weight and is no longer the “800-pound gorilla”.)

OK, that attitude has to change straight away. You’re talking like a Fixed Mindset person.

Whatever has been your past difficulties and experiences with losing this 30 pounds needs now to be put aside and out of your way.

The past is not prologue here.

#2 Believe That It’s Possible

Let’s again go back to the beasts in the video.

There was a time when none of them could dead lift more than 100 pounds. For some that might have been when they were three years old, but you get my drift.

If you went back in time and said to them, “Hey, do you believe you could lift 1,000 pounds someday?”, you might have had a couple of them say “Damn straight!”, because after all, they have that Mozart feeling of being genetically predisposed to being beasts, but that response would be more swagger than conviction, I’ll wager.

Back in 100 pounds days, the goal was not 1,000 pounds, but perhaps 150. Add five pounds per workout to the bar and 25 workouts from now you’re 50% stronger.

Progression + Consistency = Achievement

To get to that place of believability, absorb how others have done what you want to do. Watch them, read about them, learn their techniques, and get to a place where you say to yourself:

“I’m not so special that I can’t do this.”

Get that twist?

It’s not that you need to be so special to be able to do it, but NOT to be able to.

#3 Cut It Into Small Achievable Pieces

In their fantastically insightful book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (affiliate link), brothers Chip and Dan Heath write about what it takes to make lasting behavioral changes. I got a part of that mindset stuff above from them.

Two tips they extol are to “shrink the change” and “shape the path”.

Applying these concepts to our desire to lose 30 pounds, you’ll want to:

· Shrink the poundage planned into smaller milestones, and
· Shape the process by beginning where there’s advantage.

I wrote about shrinking the change in my post, Why Your Goals Should Be Small. The idea is not that your goals shouldn’t be lofty, but that once you’ve aimed at the big goalpost, you focus on the first 10 yards, then the next 10, etc.

These 10-yard marks are milestones and consist of clearly formed can-do steps done each day.

In Switch, the Heath brothers cite legendary UCLA former basketball coach John Wooden views on the matter.

John Wooden said:

“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur… don’t look for the quick big improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens, and when it happens, it lasts”. (Source)

What Coach Wooden is speaking about are small wins, and to use another famous coach’s perspective on it, enter Bill Parcells, former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Coach Parcells says that when referring to “small wins” you want them to be meaningful and “within immediate reach”, the latter being more important than the former.

So, what to do about those 30 pounds?

Ø Shrink the change by making each milestone a five-pound lose. (Progression)

Ø Shape the path by focusing on what diet or exercise habits you already have, and seek to expand those first. (Consistency)

Ø Write it down.

#4 Schedule Your Actions

There’s that old adage that goes something like, If you don’t write them down they’re not goals but dreams.

You need to write down the actions required to get to each milestone, each five pounds in our example.

These actions need to be scheduled.

And, naturally, they need to be actionable.

I remember an example pertinent to this in productivity expert David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (affiliate link). He wrote that often times when people make a list of things they want to do, they do not yet have the ability to take direct action on whatever’s on the list.

An example he gives is getting a tune-up for the car. Is that an action you’re ready to take, he posits? Well, do you have the mechanic’s phone number? If not, this “to do” item is not actionable. What first needs to be on the list is to “Get the mechanics phone number.”

Now this might seem silly because you think that getting the phone number is implicit. But the point that David Allen makes is if you’re looking at the list and what you’re reading is not immediately actionable in the moment you want to take action, it has a greater chance of not being done.

That small achievable step was not taken.

Turning to our goal of losing 30 pounds, do not write on your list, “Eat better”, or “Go on a diet”. How is that directly actionable? Either of these items requires other steps, and without them clearly spelled out, they’re unlikely to be crossed off the list.

Instead of “Eat better”, you could write “buy a head of broccoli by Tuesday, steam it and eat at least four ounces a day till it’s finished.”

That’s one of the weeks goals, but you’re not done with the planning part. Next, write down in your goal planning notebook or schedule, “Eat 4 oz broccoli” for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc.

So, what you’ve done is listed both your week’s goal for this part of the weight loss agenda and what you’re going to do daily to accomplish it.

(For some diet ideas, read my Diet 101, select two things suggests there, and do them by x date.)

So, what to do about those 30 pounds?

Ø Write down when and what you’ll be eating for each meal during the week.

Ø Choose the healthy foods that you already like and eat. (Shape the path.)

Ø Eat them for only 2/3rds of your meals. (Shrinking the change.)

#5 Do What You’ve Scheduled

OK, you’ve identified your milestones and have written down actionable steps to achieve them. It’s all right there in that notebook on your desk.

You’re not done.

You have to do what you’ve scheduled.

Are you facing resistance?

Well, again, shrink the change and shape the path to lose those 30, perhaps by doing this:

Ø Grab a timer, set it for five minutes and until it rings, exercise. You can try Megan Hoffman’s 5-Minute Exercise Routine. (Shrinking the change.)

Ø Schedule this when your soon-to-be exercise buddy visits. (Shaping the path.)

When you no longer resist doing this, get progressive by adding a minute to the exercise routine, and get more consistent by doing it even when alone.

#6 Bask In Your Glory

At some point, as scheduled, your milestone has been reached.

Yes!

Time to preen and be glorified. Grab a piece of 70% cacao dark chocolate, find a spot in the sun, lay back and mumble your gratitude mantra.

Get energized for the next milestone.

By the way, congratulations.

#7 Repeat

Yeah, you now have a proven method for behavioral change that works for you and gets you growing into the beast you want to be.

Grab the next thing you want to change, to become, to experience and do #1 – #6.

Conclusions

Changing one’s behavior is hard because what we’ve been repeatedly doing is baked in.

Cemented.

The way to break apart the cement is by slugging it with a hammer, a bigger one each week (progression).

Everyday (consistency).

To even get to the hammer pounding point, you must examine and probably change your mindset.

A fixed mindset will hold you in the past.

A growth mindset will free you to explore change.

Find and apply a process that will work for you, but make sure you’ve “shaped the path”, “shrunk the change”, that it incorporates progressivity and consistency, is written down and is actionable.

Yep.

Over and out.

Related posts:

1. “10 Things to Learn from Japan” A Lesson for the World
2. Youtube Radiation Scares. True or False? NYT’s Radiation Animation

There’s more to you than you think. Like 100 trillion more. Your gut bacteria have an enormous influence on your health. Feed it right with synbiotics.

MY INTENTION in this post is to convince you to add “symbiotic” foods and supplements to your diet.

“Fat chance”, you say, perhaps even before learning what “synbiotics” are.

Well, to that I say, just suspend disbelief a bit and read on, because your 100 trillion guest — that are never going to leave — are counting on you.

I will provide convincing information that shows that the right beneficial microbiota in your gut can:

· Improve mental and emotional health
· Enhance your immune system
· Help prevent or treat insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity

Before we dig into this, let’s first get our arms around a few concepts and definitions.

Microbiota Concepts and Definitions

Contemplate what is no longer semantics:

You Are Not the “You” You Think You Are

We’ve all entertained the thought that we are not our bodies. Think about it: we refer to our arm, as “my arm”, rather than “this part of me”.

My leg, my chest… even my mind… they’re all considered as possessive – something you own rather than being you.

It’s rather natural to consider whatever is physically manifested as part of us to be, at the same time, not us. Therefore, when I write: “You are not the ‘you’ you think you are”, it makes sense to assume that I’m referring to that common context of body parts, or even your body as a whole.

But I’m not.

Rather, within the context of microbiota, the concept that your body is not you references the fact that…

Your body contains more bacteria than mammalian cells!

In that body of yours, whose eyeballs are peering at these words, there are approximately 100 trillion microorganisms.

The human gut alone holds ten times more bacteria than all the human cells in the entire body, with over 400 known diverse bacterial species.

The strange truth is what mainly comprises your body are bacterial cells, not human ones.

(Please do not tailspin into an identity crisis yet… there’s a lot more to consider here…)

Before we continue, let’s take a quick look at terms and definitions.

Gut or digestive system and gastrointestinal tract is being used here interchangeably; it’s that whole area where you digest food and make poop.

Microbiota (or microflora) refer to bacteria and other microorganisms in an ecosystem, which in this case is your body. Bifidobacterium is good, e-coli is bad.

Probiotics are live microorganisms, or beneficial microbiota, that may confer a health benefit on the host (you). Yoghurt contains lots of these, kefer even more. You can also buy probiotic supplements.

Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth and/or activity of bacteria in the digestive system in a manner that may be beneficial to health. Fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi have prebiotics. You can also buy prebiotic supplements.

Synbiotics refer to nutritional supplements combining probiotics and prebiotics in a form of synergism, hence “synbiotics”. You can buy synbiotics as supplements or eat foods containing probiotics and prebiotics, as mentioned above.

Metabolic Disorder is a medical condition characterized by problems converting food to energy. Some chronic health issues that can be caused by or magnified by metabolic functions are obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Diagnosing a metabolic disorder can be difficult, as a wide variety of problems create similar symptoms; many patients end up enduring a battery of tests and seeing multiple experts before the root cause of their problems is identified.

Now we know that the problem could be among those 100 trillion critters in you.  But they’re also the solution.  Just need the right ones to be dominate.

OK, time to dive into some details about how strikingly significant is the microbiota inside you, and why you should pay attention to how you feed it…

Synbiotics May Improve Mental and Emotional Health

Professor Mark Lyte and his associates at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center posit that you may be able to fine-tune your mental and emotional states by the right combination of probiotics.

As above mentioned, probiotics are the “good” bacteria that normally reside in your gut and are available in most health food stores, or online.

Professor Lyte says that probiotics can generate neurochemicals that affect your brain — even improve your psychological health, and that neurochemicals generated by the brain can also affect these bacteria.

It’s a visa versa sorta thing.

In his research paper, Lyle lists several neurochemicals (normally produced by the brain) that are also produced by various probiotics in the gut:

If Professor Lyte’s hypothesis is confirmed by further research, microbial endocrinology may emerge as a strangely exciting, if not unorthodox, approach to treating patients with psychological problems.

(Which gives new meaning to having a “gut feeling.”)

Stephen Collins at McMaster University and Premysl Bercik at the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute report on experiments with mice that underscore some of the experimental results submitted by Professor Lyte’s team.

In this case, Collins and Bercik have determined that behavior and brain chemistry varies depending on the type of bacteria resident in the gut.

(And you thought you were in control of your emotions!)

Messing with healthy adult mice, the researchers showed that disrupting the normal bacterial content of the gut with antibiotics produced changes in behavior; the mice became either anxious or less cautious.

This change was accompanied by an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which has been linked to depression and anxiety.

When oral antibiotics were discontinued – which destroys beneficial microbiota — bacteria in the gut returned to normal, as did normal behavior and brain chemistry.

The findings are important because several common types of gastrointestinal disease, including irritable bowel syndrome, are frequently associated with anxiety or depression.

In addition there has been speculation that some psychiatric disorders, such as late onset autism, may be associated with an abnormal bacterial content in the gut.

Your take away from this:

- Always consume probiotics/synbiotics when on antibiotics and for a few weeks thereafter. And every other day too.

Synbiotics May Enhance Your Immune System

Who doesn’t want a better immune system?

This is where I garner some compliments, as year in, year out, I don’t get sick.

My friends tire of this, but do begrudgingly ask how this can be, and part of the answer is that I’ve built strong intestinal fortitude built by consuming good microbiota (aka “synbiotics”).

The May 2011 publication Influence of gastrointestinal commensal bacteria on the immune responses that mediate allergy and asthma makes clear the mutually beneficial relationship between humans and our microbiota.

The publication distills down to this…

The human intestine contains more than 100 trillion microorganisms that maintain a symbiotic relationship with the host. Under normal conditions, these bacteria are not pathogenic, and in fact confer health benefits to whoever is hosting the critters.

One big benefit of a healthy microbiota colony in your gut is their contribution to maintaining immune tolerance via its ability to activate and drive regulatory T-cell differentiation.

T-cells are a type of white blood cell that helps boost our immune system’s capacity.

A key to building a strong immune system is to populate the gut with beneficial microbiota from an early age.

A great start is to consume mother’s milk. But I’ll make the bold assertion that if you’re able to read this, mother’s milk is no longer an option.

Given that good ole mom is no longer in the mix, we’re back to synbiotics, that dynamic duo of prebiotics and probiotics.

You’ve gotta consume the foods and supplements that build up and support the beneficial microbiota in your gut.

Which I’ll get to in a minute.

Your take away from this:

- I repeat: “You’ve gotta consume the foods and supplements that build up and support the beneficial microbiota in your gut” (aka “synbiotics).

Synbiotics May Help Prevent or Treat Insulin Resistance, Diabetes and Obesity

The January 2012 publication Is the gut microbiota a new factor contributing to obesity and its metabolic disorders? demonstrates that gut bacteria play a role in metabolic disorders such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

The mechanisms by which gut microbiota affects metabolic diseases occur along two primary routes:

1. The body’s innate immune system response to certain types of bacteria resulting in inflammation; and
2. The body’s reaction to the bacterial metabolites of dietary compounds (e.g., producing short chain fatty acids from fiber, or creating TMAO).

Scientists are in the process of confirming the hypothesis that the alarming rate of obesity and type-2 diabetes (the combination of which, Dr. Mark Hyman calls “diabesity”) may be influenced by gut microbiota.

Naturally, factors specific to each individual, such as microbiota strains existing in the gut, along with a person’s behavioral and genetic predispositions work in concert to affect health outcomes.

That said, enough research on this matter has been done to change how scientists view the microbiota model.

Now it’s clear that gut microbiota join the classic risk factors such as a person’s genetics, behavior and environmental factors as a potential key determinant of, or explanation for, metabolic diseases.

The illustration above shows the new and old models describing the factors that contribute to the development of metabolic diseases. (Source)

The old model is based on direct interactions between the environmental factors and genetic variations of individuals (“nutrigenomic” interactions).

A new model includes the emerging discoveries related to the gut microbiota and the host, which is you, by extension, but specifically to the mice studied.

Environmental factors such as dietary fats (fatty acids) affect the composition of the gut microbiota. The reverse is also true — different profiles of gut microbiota regulate the production of short-chain fatty acids. These two-way interactions can be described as “nutri-metagenomic interactions”.

So, what this means is that scientists who study this stuff think it’s likely that what you eat – in this case, fat – affects your gut microbiota, and that your gut microbiota affects your health, particularly your metabolic functions – basically, the conversion of food/drink to energy.

A similar “crosstalk”, in effect, can also occur between the host and gut microbiota, so-called “host-metagenome interactions”. There’s evidence that mutations of a host gene lead to alterations of gut microbiota profile and that mice colonized with different gut microbiota have different metabolic phenotypes supports the host-metagenome interactions.

This takes things one step further than the macronutrient level (protein, fats and carbohydrates) into the realm of genetics, or more specifically, epigentics (behavior’s influence on gene expression).

What’s suggested here is that mice gut microbiota – and by extension, yours – can have an effect on gene expression (epigentics) and visa versa.

Wow, this is like having a previously unknown squatter in your basement acting as the puppeteer… and you’re the puppet!

Clearly, it’s very important to get your gut microbiota colony pulling for you rather than pushing against you. You want friends down there in the basement, not creepy creatures seeking to blow up your furnace.

These basement dwellers are important guests. It’s not true that if you simply ignore and don’t feed them that they’ll leave. No, rather, they’ll get cranky and mess with your health.

Again, I’m talking prebiotics and probiotics = synbiotics.

The final incentive to begin consuming synbiotics is your belly girth.

Look down at it right now.

Whether or not it overhangs your belt, read on…

Your take away from this:

- The food you eat, your environment, behavior and genetics all affects the type of microbiota in your body. But it’s not a one-way street. Visa versa is in play here. So, it’s really important to get your microbiota working for your benefit.

- Did I mention: eat synbiotics?

Synbiotics May Help You Loose Abdominal Fat

A new Japanese study says that daily supplementation with Lactobacillus gasseri may help in weight loss in obese people.

(Technically speaking, Lactobacillus gasseri is not a synbiotic, but simply one of its component parts, a probiotic. But why quibble.)

Remember, obesity is no longer some scarce situation – it’s estimated that one-third of all Americans are obese, and when added to those merely overweight, the proportion is a weighty two-thirds.

That’s two out of every three people.

The World Health Organization estimates that by 2015 there will be more than 1.5 billion overweight people worldwide. In America, the health care costs of the overweight will in 2015 be $117 billion.

Are you overweight or obese?

Here you can tell at a glance (kinda, maybe):

From left to right, as labeled in the original image, the “healthy” man has a 33 inch (84 cm) waist, the “overweight” man a 45 inch (114 cm) waist, and the “obese” man a 60 inch (152cm) waist.

Note: depending on height and gender, you can be overweight or obese with a much smaller girth.

Back to the Japanese study…

So, the good thing about this study, unlike those already discussed, is that this one used real healthy people as lab rats, who for 12 weeks drank fermented milk containing a dose of 100 million colony forming units (cfu) of Lactobacillus gasseri.

(Kefer would have been better IMHO… easier to digest.)

Result: An 8.5% decrease in abdominal fat.

Two things to know:

1. Smaller doses were less effective; and
2. The weight crept back when dosing stopped.

Let’s wrap up this creepy buggy post with a summary of a recent article written by Acupuncturist Chris Kresser on this very subject, entitled, Heal Your Gut.

Mr. Kresser underscores what we now know about the role and influence of the gut’s microbiota:

It promotes and supports normal gastrointestinal function, enhances immunity from infection and stabilizes metabolism.

Unhealthy gut flora, he says, “has been linked to diseases ranging from autism and depression to autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto’s, inflammatory bowel disease and type 1 diabetes”.

If you do this or have the following, you may have an unhealthy gut flora, says Kresser:

• Antibiotics and other medications like birth control and NSAIDs
• Diets high in refined carbohydrates, sugar and processed foods
• Diets low in fermentable fibers
• Dietary toxins like wheat and industrial seed oils that cause leaky gut
• Chronic stress
• Chronic infections

But the happy news, Kresser continues, is that all this is potentially reversible, if you do this:

• Remove all food toxins from your diet
• Eat plenty of fermentable fibers (starches like sweet potato, yam, yucca, etc.)
• Eat fermented foods like kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, kim chi, etc., and/or take a high-quality, multi-species probiotic
• Treat any intestinal pathogens (such as parasites) that may be present
• Take steps to manage your stress

Yep, I couldn’t have said it better myself, which is why I copied what Chris Kresser wrote.

Your take away from this:

- Read the next section…

How to Get Synbiotics In Your Gut

If you’re still with me, you should be nodding your head affirmatively when I ask if gut microbiota is important for health.

Further, you should want to take steps to help ensure that yours is healthy.

Here’s what to do:

1. Re-read Chris Kresser’s suggestions above;
2. Choose which prebiotic (fermented) foods you’ll begin eating;
3. Choose which probiotic (yogurt, kefer) foods you’ll begin eating; and
4. Select good prebiotic, probiotic and/or symbiotic supplements to take on a regular basis.

Note 1: Ditch the fruit-in-the-bottom yogurt. Many of them contain as much sugar as soda. Go for no-flavored low or full-fat (not no-fat) organic yogurt. Kefer is even better because it typically has more beneficial microbiota.

Note 2: In that picture of me at the start of this post I’m holding the Clover brand of blueberry kefer. It tasted great, but a) I’m guessing any organic brand is equivalent to this one and b) mixing blueberries and kefer is suboptimal; seperate, both are great.

Below, are some high quality probiotics that I’ve tried and can vouch for, not because I counted up all the beneficial microbiota they helped establish (got tired after 54 trillion), but because I felt good taking them and their reputations are swell.

I have no experience with prebiotic or symbiotic supplementation, as I simply eat fermented food rather than supplement with prebiotics.

If you rather go with supplements to get enough synbiotics in you, make sure what you select is a reputable brand, such as Life Chapter, NOW, Life Extension, Jarrow and ProHealth.

That’s it.

Ciao for now!

P.S.  For those strange few that still want more information on this, check out the Human Microbiome Project.

(Click on any of the images below to learn more about them. These are affiliate links.)

Related posts:

1. Gotta Feed The Brain!
2. 9 Ways to Fight Diabesity with The Blood Sugar Solution

Yes, stress is a super ager, but it’s manageable and the benefits of doing so are huge. Watch SciShow’s Hank Green present some details, and Physicist Michio Kaku dive into how stress messes with genetics.

MY OPEN secret is that I’m very focused on life extension, as in mine — and thru many of the topics here explored on this site, yours.

Over the years, the stuff I’ve been doing seems to be working, and this has not gone unnoticed.

Now, when I do a detox cleanse, my buds clamor to jump aboard. When people are visiting and they see me reach for the supplement box, they want to know about my latest protocol. And, they wonder, why a once-committed gym rat now rarely enters one; or why I now stress mobility rather than heavy weightlifting exercises.

(I have nothing against gyms, just wanted to test what’s possible without one.)

Another open secret is that I intend to finally focus this blog on health matters related to living a long and strong life.

After all, that’s what I’m doing, day in, day out… step by step, I’m tweaking that which will – hopefully – add up to some fine, long, strong unencumbered living.

One tweak that is essential, and so really is not a “tweak” at all, but a “major rehab” is the topic of this post: “why stress is the biggest super ager of them all.”

We “Age” Based On How We Live

Let’s begin with the two ways you can measure aging.

In our normal parlance, the way we measure “age” is by math: Today’s date minus date of birth. The other way age may be measured is determined by genetics and behavior. Often this measure is called “bioage”, or “real age”, as Dr. Oz and his associates like to put it.

There’s nothing you can do about chronology – the math that measures your years on this planet, but there’s a ton that you can do about your biology, or bioage.

I follow a fellow named Doug who writes a blog called Health Matters. Recently, he tweeted a link to his Pinterest page that shows “385 of the most inspirational fitness pics you will ever see.” One is particularly relevant to us at present.

This is a picture of Ernestine Shephard, a 74-year old body builder who never stepped into a gym till she was 56!

How old do you think you’re body’s going to be when you’re 74? Certainly, Ernestine proves that chronology does not equal biology – her biological age is far younger than her actual age.

And, not to leave the other gender out of play, consider the famous example of Dr. Jeffry Life, the medical doctor who in the process of working away his obesity committed himself to youthful hormone balancing, healthy eating and lots of weight lifting.

This is Dr. Jeffrey Life at 72:

I present some details about him and his work here.

Now that you’ve had a glimpse of what’s possible, let’s turn to what may be the biggest thing in your life that could prevent you from living a long and healthy life.

It’s not a lack of exercise — though that does contribute to premature aging — nor is it sitting all day, overeating or binge drinking – all significant factors as well.

But the single biggest premature ager of them all is stress.

Chronic stress!

Chronic stress is not the type that enables you to instantly spring into action to avoid being tiger food, but the type that hold’s onto you all day, and all restless nightlong.

Hank Green now enters our stress story with a fun introduction to the biochemistry of stress in his SciShow video, “anxiety”. (Yeah, anxiety is stress.)

The Cortisol/Telomere Dance

We need to drill down into cortisol and telomeres, because when they join hands they can bring you down to your old, achy knees.

Cortisol is the major reason that I suggest you moderate your consumption of coffee. 

Yes, it’s true that some recent research suggests it can be healthful, given that those with poor diets may get most of their antioxidants from coffee. But, using coffee as your primary source for antioxidants may be a high price to pay:

–> Drinking one cup drunk at 8:00 AM and your cortisol levels will be elevated till about 10:00 PM.

[If coffee, red meat or saturated fats are topics of interest, read: What You Need To Know About Coffee, Saturated Fat and Red Meat.]

Cortisol has earned its nickname, “The Death Hormone.” Elevated cortisol has long been known to do various nasty things to you, such as altering immune system responses and suppressing the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.

But cortisol does something else that’s far more pernicious, which has only recently been proven, and was significant enough to win Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn a Nobel Prize in 2009.

Before I tell you what she discovered, you need to know about telomeres.

Telomeres are nucleotides found at the end of chromosomes that keep them (the chromosomes) from deterioration subsequent to each cell division. Telomeres are commonly compared to the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces; without them, the shoelace would fray and eventually become useless.

As telomeres shorten, we age. In fact, scientists can accurately determine lifespan by measuring the length of your telomeres.

Back to Dr. Blackburn…

What Dr. Blackburn discovered was that the enzyme that keeps telomeres intact – called telomerase – is compromised by the elevated cortisol existing in a particular population, that of long-term care givers.

Turns out, this was the ideal group in which to measure consistently high cortisol levels. Long-term caregivers, such as those with both elderly parents and children to care for – and let’s add in a job – are under constant, if low level, stress.

Their adrenals are not making them sprint up a hillside to avoid the tiger, which would be fine (assuming the getaway was successful), because the cortisol pumping into the body would be temporary in this situation. Instead, the issue at hand here is the chronically elevated cortisol, which leads to reduced telomerase activity, and premature telomere shortening.

Next up, Physicist Michio Kaku talks telomeres and the one proven (and unpleasurable) way to extend lifespan:

Reduce Stress This Way

Have you heard the proposition that stress exists only inside your own head?

The idea here is that we each have a conscious choice about how to react to any external event that may intrude upon us.

The typical example is how two people could react completely differently to the same traffic jam. Person A leans on his horn, sticks his head out the window to hurl invectives, sweats and cusses. Lotsa cortisol pumping for Mr. A. Whereas, Ms. B is rocking to the music on her radio. She notices the pretty day, and gets a kick from watching Mr. A turn red, a really pretty shade of red, she thinks.

Our goal is to be B.

Integrating the right attitude into our consciousness is the first thing to do. (Remember, your thoughts and emotions constitute your attitude).

Other stress management activities include:

• Eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise and plenty of sleep
• Practicing relaxation techniques
• Fostering healthy friendships
• Having a sense of humor
• Seeking professional counseling when needed

The payoff for reducing stress is pretty darn big. Beyond peace of mind, we’re talking a longer, healthier life.

UPDATE: Dr. Mercola just posted a good review of the damage stress does and his video reviewing some stress-busting ideas right here.
 

What’s Your BioAge?

As long as we’re on the topic, know that Dr. Oz, Dr. Rosen, and others have put together a questionnaire that measures your BioAge, or “real age” as they term it.

They also say that stress is the biggest ager of them all.

I recently watched a Dr. Oz show, which I think was called, “Drop A Decade”, where he shared some aging stats.

Here are some activities and the amount of “real age” reduction they enable, according to Drs Oz and Rosen:

- Meditation, 1.7 years
- Social Interaction, 8.5 years
- Daily Walk of 30 Minutes, 12 years
- Vitamin D, 1,000 IU/day, 2.6 years
- Daily Flossing, 6 years

I suggest that you don’t regard these numbers as set in stone, but estimates; still they give an idea of the relative merits of each activity.

If you’re curious about all this, you can go to the RealAge site, answer a comprehensive set of questions, and get an estimate for your real age.

Also, you may wish to read one or more of these posts pertinent to the subject at hand that live right here on this very site:

The Anti-aging Effects of Exercise

5 Common Injuries of 4 Aging Athletes

Here’s Why Exercise Slows the Aging Process

Boost Your Testosterone Naturally

Fellas, How Sturdy Is Your Morning Wood?

Ray Kurzweil’s 100+ Pills per Day Age Defying Fight

How To Live To 100 – Watch

Boost Your Human Growth Hormone In 20 Minutes!

Nine Reasons To Drink Tea and Limit Coffee

Why Coffee May Be Good and Bad For You

The Surprising Reasons Your Kids Should Care About Your Genetics

What A 50-Year Old Volkswagen Can Tell You About Your Lifespan

Yeah, that’s quite a list, but I assure you that there are some pearls in each of the above linked posts. If you have no time now, come back.

And with that, I bid you adieu.

Yep.

Related posts:

1. Beware Stress…
2. Four Solutions to Antibiotic-resistant Super Bed Bugs

If you drink coffee or eat read meat, you need to read this post and take a stand. New studies are creating a stir. Beware red meat, they say. Some health bloggers are hitting back. Come dive into the fray.

SINCE I started blogging over some three years ago, certain truths in the world of health have been stood on their heads.

Sometimes really thorough research challenges long held truths; other times it’s the chorus of bloggers or other opinion-makers who may or not be ahead of the truth curve.

As a health blogger, I can say unabashedly that there are times when I don’t feel like I’m on solid ground. Like many of those voices out there, each seeking a megaphone, there are often more questions than definitive answers for me.

Which brings me to the three seemingly unrelated subjects of this post: Coffee, Saturated Fat and Carnitine.

These three have two things in common:

1. The health benefits of each are vociferously debated; and
2. They’re all connected via some recent studies that have rocked the blogosphere.

The reason you might wish to challenge your views about coffee, saturated fat and carnitine, is that it’s highly likely that you ingest each on a daily basis.

Oh, not carnitine… I don’t eat that, you may be thinking?

Well, if you eat meat (particularly red meat), fish, fowl and the like, you do ingest carnitine, and to a lesser degree with many other foods too.

A warning:

This post is long, perhaps too long.

When it begins to wear you out, by all means take a break, but don’t abandon it, because, presuming you’re interested in health matters, these three hotly debated subjects will find their way to you again, in large part to a:

- Group of scientists;
- “Bulletproof Executive”;
- Blogging acupuncturist;
- Highly influential strength coach;
- Diet movement inspired by the Paleolithic Age; and
- Cast of other characters.

Their views will be explored as I tackle coffee, saturated fat and carnitine by citing arguments for them (“good”) and against (“bad”), by providing links to resources for more information, and weighing into the mix with my own views.

Let’s get started…

COFFEE

Everyone has tasted coffee, and in many parts of the industrialized world, people drink it daily.  Truly, coffee has become a morning meditation and a good reason for meeting up.

Recently, a slate of studies have emerged that say coffee may not be as bad for you as once thought.  After all, it gives you a productive buzz, and for some is the single greatest source of antioxidants.

So, what’s the truth about coffee?

Coffee is Bad 

Coffee has traditionally been seen as bad for you.  Coffee usually contains caffeine, is always acidic, and is often drunk with sugar and cream.

The non-caffeinated variety typically possesses certain chemicals that helped neuter it, and adds to the toxic load present in the bodies of industrialized people.

Not to mention what coffee is doing to you biochemically.

- Cortisol

Drink a cup of coffee at 8:00 AM and your cortisol levels will be elevated till around 10:00 PM.  Cortisol is refereed to as the “death hormone” because too much of it over an extended period of time significantly impairs health, even lifespan.

What happens is that cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands in reaction to stress. In effect, the adrenals, through its production of cortisol, is preparing for a fight or flight response.  The problem is that if you’re neither fighting nor flying, but instead fuming in traffic or at home battling a teenager, those adrenals can burn out, among other unsavory things.

Cortisol suppresses immune function and increases blood pressure.  Insulin is made less effective and sugar levels increase.  You start to crave carbohydrates and unhealthy fat builds up in the abdomen. Gastric acid production increases in the stomach. Bone formation, libido, and cognitive function are hampered. Eventually, the adrenal glands can ‘burnout’.

Now this stress thing is a huge topic when it comes to health.

Yes — if chronic — stress can “burn out” (interesting term) the adrenals, as noted, but there’s an even more nefarious possible effect, one that earned Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn a Nobel Prize.

- Telomeres

What Dr. Blackburn discovered is that chronic stress shortens telomeres!

Since I ended the above sentence with an exclamation point, you may be wondering  — if you don’t know about telomeres – why short ones are to be avoided?

Well, you can get all your telomere details here, including a video of Dr. Blackburn explaining it all at Google headquarters, but suffice to say that:

“Telomere length is the marker for longevity – the shorter they become, the shorter your life.” (Source)

If it were true that cortisol creates the biochemistry of stress in the body, wouldn’t you like to know if a daily coffee habit could shorten telomeres?

Stay tuned — that day is coming soon, as a company named Telome Health plans on making a test available for individuals this year.

- Dr. Mark Hyman

One of my favorite docs, Dr. Mark Hyman, is in the “coffee is bad” group.  In my post, Why Coffee May Be Bad and Good For You, I summarize his “10 Reasons” that coffee is not good for you, which include:

- The cortisol argument cited above;
- It’s addictive;
- Produces higher levesl of triglycerides;
- Creates digestive discomfort, indigestion, heart burn;
- Promotes an elevated urinary excretion of important minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium; and
- Etc.

And in what I think is a mighty fine post on HuffPost, Dr. Hyman engages in an online debate with Patricia Fitzgerald about coffee, which you can read here.

All of the above has been, and largely still is, a strong narrative associated with coffee.  But a new narrative has emerged, which says: coffee is good for you.

Resources for “Coffee is Bad”:

Ten Reasons to Quit Your Coffee, by Dr. Mark Hyman
The Toxic Effects of Coffee, by the Duke University Medical Center
Cortisol – The Death Hormone, by Dr. Nicholas Perricone

Coffee is Good 

The “coffee is good” crowd is a diverse group, medical types and bloggers alike, armed with studies that have begun to disassemble the long-held “truth” that coffee is bad.

Lookie here…

- Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald

In that highly interesting online debate with Dr. Hyman above mentioned, Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald, Health Editor of the Huffington Post, makes the following points about the goodness of coffee, based on certain studies:

- Coffee can lower your risk of several kinds of cancer, including prostate and skin cancer;
- Caffeine in particular may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and increase longevity;
- Coffee can reduce depression and stroke risk in women; and
- Etc.

- Lee Myer

A Twitter acquaintance of mine, Lee Myer, of Peak Testosterone fame, points out some more pro coffee stuff, citing studies that suggest:

- Coffee may reduce the risk of diabetes;
- The caffeine may help reduce body fat;
- It boosts endurance and, therefore, performance in many exercise and athletic conditions;
- It reduces the incidence of prostrate cancer; and
- Etc.

- Dave Asprey

In this fine camp of coffee drinkers is self-hacker extraordinaire, Dave Asprey of The Bulletproof Executive, who has made his “Bulletproof Coffee” very popular given its great taste (for coffee drinkers) and advertised benefits (supported by cited studies presented on his website).

Dave is pro coffee, but with a clear and definitive twist, which distills down to:

- It must be organic;
- Grown in high elevation;
- Air dried;
- Contain no mycotoxins (basically, mold);
- Be made with coconut oil (or the MCT derivative) and butter (from grass-fed bovines).

Coffee thus created, Dave says, can:

- Improve brain function, memory, and energy levels;
- Provide a great source of antioxidants;
- Fuel your body for half the day;
- Melt the fat away; and
- Etc.

Resources for “Coffee is Good”:

Bulletproof Coffee Upgrades Your Head, by Dave Asprey
Ten (Really Good) Friggen Reasons to Drink Coffee, by Lee Myer
The Case for Drinking as Much Coffee as You Like, by Linday Abams, The Atlantic

My 2 Cents on Coffee

I’m concerned about coffee’s impact on cortisol levels and therefore I’ll be keeping my consumption at eight ounces per day, with monthly breaks of one week each.

When at a café, I used to add three tablespoons of cream to my coffee, but now it’s four tablespoons of milk. (I admit – I miss the creamer taste of cream, but expect to get used to it, like moving from full fat milk to skim).

Most often, however, the coffee is made at home so I can control the quality, and experiment with “Bulletproof Coffee”.

- The Bulletproof Coffee Experiment 

Over the past three months, I’ve been experimenting with Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof Coffee.

Kinda.

I did not buy the stuff that Dave sells, but the coffee I use comports to his criteria cited above. And instead of the MCT he and others sell, I’ve simply used the organic, cold pressed coconut oil sold by Trader Joe’s.

I really enjoy the taste, but my body fat has not melted away as Dave said it did for him, and as many of his blog’s commenters say happened for them.

It could be that I do not have that much fat to whittle away, whereas Dave did.  Perhaps when what you’re dealing with is 10 pounds as opposed to 100 (the amount Dave lost), the coconut oil butter coffee doesn’t cut it.

It could also be that I didn’t use his exact products, although – and kudos to him for this – Dave does write that one could use substitutes as long as they have the same characteristics as what he sells.

Or it could be that, except for the first few times I made it, I stopped using the butter, as when combined with the coconut oil the resulting brew was just too fatty tasting for my palate; plus I admit that I just couldn’t accept that consuming butter was good.

Yes, saturated fat is good in this Bulletproof Coffee story, which, dear reader, allows a finely tuned segue into the next debatable health topic, the goodness of badass saturated fat.

But, before that, know that one of the most important considerations about whether coffee is a good drink for you is simply to check in and get a sense of how well you metabolize it.

- Precision Nutrition’s View: Coffee Metabolization

Brian St. Pierre in his post on PrecisionNutrition.com addresses the coffee metabolization topic nicely. He writes:

“One reason that evidence on the health effects of coffee is so mixed is that people clear caffeine at different rates. Caffeine is broken down and cleared by the liver, and our genetic makeup shapes how quickly and effectively we can do this.

“On one hand, “slow” metabolizers of caffeine don’t process caffeine effectively. These are people who are adversely affected by caffeine, get the jitters, and are wired for up to nine hours after consumption.

“Others just get a boost in energy and alertness for a couple of hours; they are considered “fast” metabolizers of caffeine.”

Surely, it makes sense to determine how well you’re metabolizing coffee.  Get the jitters? Can’t sleep at night?  Sweat? Yep, drink tea.

Resources for “Nuanced Views” about Coffee:

Is Coffee Good or Bad for Me?, by Dr. Donald Hensrud
Is Coffee Good for You?, by Dr. Andrew Weil

SATURATED FAT

I’ve tackled fat on this post before.

(Perhaps, that’s why it still clings to me.)

In posts like Eating Fat is Good… Maybe… Could Be… Sometimes, I dive into the differences between fats, and end up saying something like:

“Eat more omega-3 fatty acids (flax seed, hemp seed, chia seed, avocado), some omega-6 (cold pressed, organic olive oil), just a bit of the saturated variety (diary, meat sources) and no transfat (in some processed foods).”

I’d guess that most nutritionist would still support the above assertion, but the new deal on fat says that saturated fat is not the artery plaque builder, heart disease promoter it once was thought to be.

Yeah, maybe this is yet another “health truth” getting stood on its head.

Saturated Fat Is Good

A large part of the “saturated fat is good” crowd is populated by Paleos. 

- The Paleo Diet

No, these are not unfrozen, reconstituted people from the Paleoethic Age, but a growing number of diet-focused people who believe that the best way to eat is the way these pre-agricultural age humans did, which comes down to consuming anything nonhuman (presumably) that walks, swims or flies, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds.

Now, those on the Paleo Diet extol the benefits of saturated fat, such as our before-mentioned Bulletproof Exec., Dave Asprey.  They cite studies that say the role saturated fat plays in clogged arteries and heart disease is overblown, and/or just plain wrong.

Further, they stress that saturated fat actually helps bump up those pesky testosterone and other sex hormone levels that seep down to emasculating levels as men age (and women too, a bit).

- Mike Mahler

As an aside, know that another one of my Twitter acquaintances, Mike Mahler of AggressiveStrength.com, has written a series of in-depth posts about hormone optimization, and right here, somewhere in the middle of the post, he dives into this saturated fat story.

Note: rather than meat grizzle or butter, the saturated fat that he –and many others – advocates is coconut oil.  That’s because the saturated fat in coconut oil is a medium chain triglyceride, which the body uses as fuel more easily than the typical long chain saturated fat.

As mentioned, I was convinced enough about coconut oil to experiment with my version of Bulletproof Coffee, but always had this uneasy thought that I was messing with my very good cholesterol numbers.

So I looked for dissenting opinions that could perhaps convince me to stop bathing in coconut oil, metaphorically speaking (although that’s probably good for your skin).

Such views are abundant.

Resources for “Saturated Fat is Good”:

In Defense of Saturated Fat, by Charles Poliquin
What If Bad Fat Is Actually Good For You?, by Nina Teicholz, Men’s Health
Hacking Your Heart and Preventing Diabetes, by Dr. Rocky Patel and Dave Asprey

Saturated Fat is Bad

Less than one mile away from my home in Sausalito sits Dr. Dean Ornish’s Preventive Medicine Research Institute.  Dr. Ornish has become a pretty famous guy, particularly in health circles because, among other things, he has generated a lot of data.

- Dr. Dean Ornish 

Dr. Ornish is known for using a low fat diet to reverse coronary artery disease and other chronic conditions.  His research has included tens of thousands of individuals that have followed his diet protocols, and the results are hard to debate.

But debated they are!

Dr. Ornish has become the whipping boy for the “saturated fat is good” crowd. When I read some of the vitriol hurled about, I’m reminded of how personal is one’s diet, and that people become very committed to their way of eating.

Try to tell a Crossfit advocate, many of whom have adopted the Paleo diet, that the new glistening muscles for which they toiled so hard are being improperly fueled by meat and saturated fat.

Or suggest to the legions of new Bulletproof Coffee adherents that the body fat they’re losing by consuming butter and coconut oil blended into their coffee may come at the high price of heart disease, eventually.

And what about that guy who plops down in front of his sizzling sirloin, drool forming at the edge of his mouth, eyes ablaze, knife and fork clutched in his hands – tell him that his frequent steak eating is gonna mess with his health.

Well, that’s what Dean Ornish does, kinda.

He keeps churning out these studies that basically assert that high fat diets, particularly of the saturated fat variant, do the body harm.

In response, angry words get hurled his way with sufficient vigor that Dr. Ornish has been compelled to push back in great detail, such as here where he asserts, among other things, that:

- People who reduced dietary fat to 10% of calories reversed their coronary heart disease;

- Those on his low fat diet experienced 2½ times fewer cardiac events such as heart attacks, bypass surgery operations, angioplasties, and  hospital admissions.

- It’s important not to tell people what they may want to hear—“meat and butter are good for your heart”—when the science does not support it. (Source)

Other well-known medical doctors wary about saturated fat are Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Bill Salt, who in response to a question about the dangers of eating saturated fats, write what follows.

- Dr. Oz:

“Eating too much saturated fat can raise your level of LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase your risk for heart disease. LDL cholesterol plays several important roles in the body, but particles of it can build up in the blood and attach to the walls of arteries.

“Over time, LDL cholesterol and other substances can form blockages that lead to heart attacks and other serious health threats. You can cut back on your consumption of saturated fat by limiting your intake of fatty meats, whole milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, cakes and cookies.”  (Source)

- Dr. Salt:

“The more saturated fat you consume, the greater your risk of developing high cholesterol, heart attack, stroke, circulation problems and certain types of cancer (like colon cancer).

“Furthermore, there are more calories in each gram of saturated fat (9 calories) than there are in each gram of protein (4 calories) or carbohydrate (4 calories). If you eat fatty foods, you are more likely to have a weight problem.

“Limit saturated fat intake by eating fewer fried foods (most fast foods), butter, cream, cheese, other full-fat dairy products, unskinned chicken, fatty meats and products made with palm and coconut oil”.  (Source)

As long as we’re talking about digesting saturated fat, there’s one more thing to digest on this topic, and that’s “my 2 cents”, up next.

Resources for “Saturated Fat is Bad”:

Reply to TierneyLab, The New York Times, by Dr. Ornish.
What Are The Risks of Eating Saturated Fat?, by Drs. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Michael Rosen and others.

My 2 Cents About Saturated Fat

I’m punting.

Here’s the reasoning…  

I’ve looked askance at the claims that saturated fat was OK, but my resolve was beginning to weaken by Dave Asprey’s views and associated data, and then one knee fell to the floor when I recently read something that Dr. Andrew Weil wrote.

- Dr. Andrew Weil

He said:

“… my thinking on saturated fat has evolved. One catalyst was a scientific analysis of 21 earlier studies, which showed “no significant evidence” that saturated fat in the diet is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease.

“The 21 studies analyzed included nearly 348,000 participants, most of whom were healthy when they were enrolled. They were followed for five to 23 years, during which 11,000 developed heart disease or had a stroke.

“Looking back at the dietary information collected from these thousands of participants, the investigators found no difference in the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, or coronary vascular disease between those individuals with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat.

“This goes completely against the conventional medical wisdom of the past 40 years. It now appears that many studies used to support the low-fat recommendation had serious flaws.”  (Source)

Note that one important characteristic of the studies that Dr. Weil references above is that the participants were “healthy”.

- The Two Important Distinctions

From what I can gather, there are two important distinctions when this pro or neutral data is compared to that generated by Dr. Ornish’s work:

1. Although he’s done many studies, it seems that participants in some of Dr. Ornish’s diet were prone to or had some measure of heart disease when they began the study that then was ameliorated or erased by adhering to his low fat diet.

2. The Paleo adherents, and people like Dave Asprey, underscore the importance of the source of the saturated fat; that it must be from healthy grass-fed animals, whether the end product is meat or diary.

Thus, could it be that if healthy saturated fat eaters eating healthy, grass fed saturated fat (in effect) were compared to Dr. Ornish’s (and other) low-fat diets, the outcomes would be similar?

- How Fat Figures In My Current “Diet”

Right now, I’m experimenting with a low carb, medium fat, and medium protein diet.

I’m convinced that carbohydrates are the most pernicious of the macronutrients, and since I’m not a long-distance type athlete or exerciser, I’m currently limiting them.

Since the early 1970s when they become so refined and put into nearly all manufactured food (often as high fructose corn syrup), Americans have gotten fatter, as these graphs clearly reveal.

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative reporter Michael Moss concurs, and finely describes the slick methods used by manufactures to hook consumers in the post, Are You A Bit Addicted to the Holy Trinity of Salt, Sugar and Fat.

I’ve eliminated nearly all the simple, non-complex carbs in my diet, such as bread, pasta, white rice and white potatoes. (Sweet potatoes are fine.)

To make up for the calories, and to experiment with training my body to more efficiently utilize fat as fuel, I’m consuming more fat, but mostly it’s of the omega-3 fatty acid variety, such as fish oil, seeds, nuts and avocado.

The daily target of total fat is 83 grams, 747 calories (9×83), which is 35% of the 2140 calories I’ve estimated I need to consume in order to lose about one pound of body fat per week.

Due to the Bulletproof Coffee experiment I’m doing, much more of this 83 grams of fat ingested is coming from saturated fat then is normal for me. Typically, the only saturated fat I consume comes from high quality organic yoghurt, kefer and cottage cheese, amounting to between 10 and 20 grams per day.

I’m now ingesting 14 grams of saturated fat from just one-tablespoon of coconut oil in my coffee. (Blended of course.)

Frankly, besides the fact that it tastes good, and does give me sustained energy* for a good part of the day, I remain leery about this new coffee regimen, as I’m unclear about what it may be do to my cholesterol levels.

(*Note: could be that this sustained energy could also be due to, in part, my morning ingestion of 30 grams of protein within the first 30 minutes of awakening, as popularized by Tim Ferriss.)

In addition to Bulletproof Coffee, the other fat taking regimen that I’m on is described below when we get to “carnitine”, but suffice to say here that I’m also guzzling 16 grams of fish oil, added to the other omega-3 fatty acids taken each day.

So, here are the fat numbers:

- Saturated Fat Grams – 14 (coconut oil) + 10 (eggs) + 15 (avg. diary) = 39.
- Omega-6 Fatty Acids – 12 (olive oil).
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids – 32 (avocados, almonds, Brazil nuts, flax seeds and sunflower seeds).

Total = 83 grams/day

This puts my consumption of saturated fat at nearly half of my entire fat consumption. Given that I’m not sold on the benevolence of saturated fat, this worries me some.

As an aside, know that I recognize I may need more protein to get better results from my resistance training (HIIT, weightlifting and calisthenics), but find this challenging, as I’ve lost my taste for red meat – particularly after reading what you’re about to – and am losing it for chicken. This leaves fish, some low-protein vegetable sources and protein powder supplementation.

(There will be more about this in subsequent posts, but for now read How To Measure Your Metabolic Rate.)

- Get Tested

My last thought here on saturated fat concerns testing.  You simply can’t be sure about what’s going on inside you without getting tested.

Given some symptoms I was experiencing some months ago, I decided to get a full Male Comprehensive Hormone Panel provided by the Life Extension Foundation, and discovered that I had low testosterone numbers – completely unsurprising for a middle aged man (not that I’m admitting I am).

(You can read this story here.)

The blood test I had done included measurement of HDL (the so-called “good cholesterol”), LDL (the so-called “bad cholesterol”) and triglycerides.

These were my numbers:

As you can see from the above table, my cholesterol and triglyceride numbers are very good, and I want them to remain that way.

Given my recent consumption of coconut oil, a “good” saturated fat, but one nonetheless, I will want to soon get tested again, and so should you.

UPDATE: A friend of mine just said, “BTW, you say “get tested” but tested for what?  Lipids panel? I want a TMAO test.” OK, the good news is that the Life Extension Foundation is having a sale on several blood tests. (“Life Extension Annual Blood Test Sale – Members Save Up To 50%”)  Check out the Male and Female “Comprehensive Hormone Panel”, the “VAP” test, and the “Mitochondrial Function Panel”, which does check carnitine levels but I don’t know if you can make any assumptions from such results regarding your body’s TMAO levels. The bad news is that I don’t know any TMAO test currently available to the public, as yet.

Resources for “Nuanced Views” about Saturated Fat:

Why Cholesterol May Not Be the Cause Of Health Disease, by Dr. Mark Hyman
Rethinking Saturated Fat, by Dr. Andrew Weil

CARNITINE

And now, finally, with carnitine we get to connective tissue between coffee, saturated fat and, well, carnitine.

Recently, the New York Times, Forbes and other news outlets reviewed some studies which assert that eating red meat may be worse than originally thought in line with the established conviction that saturated fat makes cholesterol that clogs arteries, etc.

The new culprit, the studies said, was carnitine, a compound prevalent in meat and biosynthesized from two amino acids.

Carnitine is a very popular supplement among athletes because it “transports” fat into cells’ mitochondrial, which there become “fuel” for the body. The idea is to make the body use fat calories as fuel rather than the jiggly stuff.

I use it.

Yep, guru strength coach, Charles Poliqin turned me on to it via several blog posts and videos, one featuring Dr. Mark Houston, who uses carnitine in combination with fish oil as a weight loss protocol for overweight patients in his clinic.

Poliqin and Houston convinced me.  I’m taking a smaller portion of the amounts of carnitine and fish oil that Dr. Houston administers to his overweight patients, but I’m nonetheless invested in this carnitine debate, and a debate is what it’s becoming!

That’s because those aforementioned studies say that something called Trimethylamine N-oxide (“TMAO”) is created by a particular type of gut bacteria when digesting the carnitine in red meat; a bacteria present in meat eaters, but not vegetarians.

TMAO is a common organic compound found in animals, and is thought to increase the risk of heart disease ten times greater than cholesterol, which, as mentioned, has traditionally been thought to be created by saturated fats, a contention that is now hotly debated.

The carnitine in this carnitine-created TMAO is found in high concentrations of red meat, some energy drinks, and some dietary supplements.

The Nexus

So, what we have so far is this:

1. The scientists conducting the studies are concerned that carnitine, when digested by certain kind of bacteria in the gut, create TMAO, a bad news precursor for heart disease.

2. This certain kind of bacteria is most prevalent in the guts of meat eaters, they say.

3. Paleo and Bulletproof Coffee adherents believe that there’s nothing wrong with eating meat and saturated fat, so these studies are in conflict with their beliefs, lifestyle and the countervailing studies they cite.

Therein lies the fuel for the debate.

Let’s next get into what two news outlets reported about these carnitine/TMAO studies, and how the Paleo and Bulletproof camps have responded.

I’ll tell you before hand that no definitive conclusion has been reached as yet.

The Carnitine/TMAO Studies

For easier digestion, I’m going to list the points made by two news outlets reporting on the carnitine/TMAO studies, and then present countervailing arguments, and then add “My 2 Cents”.  

In the article, Culprit in Heart Disease Goes Beyond Meat’s Fat, the New York Times article reported:

1. Dr. Stanley Hazen of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues “grilled” eight-ounce steaks and gave one to each of six men and women, five of whom were regular meat eaters, one who was a vegan and had not eaten meat for a year.

2. TMAO, a predictor of heart attack risk, was found in the five meat eaters only, and “…virtually no TMAO appeared in the vegan’s blood.”

3. Additional studies with 23 vegetarians/vegans and 51 meat eaters demonstrated that the meat eaters had more TMAO in their blood, whether eating meat or consuming carnitine in supplement form.

4. To test if it was the bacteria particular to meat eaters was metabolizing carnitine, and thus creating TMAO, antibiotics were given participants, which wiped out most of their gut bacteria. They were subsequently tested and TMAO was no longer in their blood after eating meat or carnitine. The conclusion was that it’s the gut bacteria in meat eaters that cause the TMAO.

5. Researchers then tested people that had high blood carnitine or TMAO levels to see if they were at higher heart disease risk. They analyzed blood from more than 2,500 people and discovered that they were at higher risk, and that the effect was solely because of TMAO, not carnitine itself.

6. Based on this work, these researchers believe “that TMAO enables cholesterol to get into artery walls and also prevents the body from excreting excess cholesterol”.

7. From his work at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Hazen found 10,000 people at risk for heart disease had TMAO in the blood that was traced to carnitine molecules metabolized by intestinal bacteria.

Now let’s turn to some additional information about the same study provided by an article on Cleveland.com entitled, Compound in red meat, energy drinks linked to heart disease in Cleveland Clinic research:

8. TMAO has “proved to be a 10-fold stronger predictor of heart disease than cholesterol”.

9. Although the “connection between a diet high in red meat and heart disease is well established, the association can’t be entirely explained by the amount of cholesterol and fat in the foods”, but now “seems to account for some of that unexplained risk”, said Dr. Hazen.

10. “’Chronic dietary pattern has a real profound effect on the intestinal flora composition and your ability to make TMAO,’ Hazen said. Vegans and vegetarians seem to lack the microbes necessary to break down the carnitine, which may help explain the heart-protective benefit of such a diet. “

The Counter Arguments

Dave Asprey and Chris Kresser have written post at their respective websites that rebut the findings of these Carnitine/TMAO studies.

You’ve been introduced to Dave Asprey.

Chris Kresser is an acupuncturist who writes a Paleo-centric blog at ChrisKresser.com.  Both these guys are smart, well informed and committed to Paleo and its underlying precepts, two of which are:

- Meat is good (although quality matters); and
- Saturated fat is OK (maybe even good, and quality matters).

No Paleo worth his salt (which isn’t advocated) is going to let these Carnitine/TMAO studies float by without some pushback.

- Dave Asprey’s Counter Argument

This is a difficult topic to fairly represent, especially since the science here is new, so I hope you go read Dave’s counter argument in full: The Red Meat Scapegoat: The New York Times, Carnitine, Heart Disease and Science.

As I glean it, he says:

1. The TMAO effect is a “gut biome issue, NOT a meat issue”.

2. The meat used in the studies was not grass-fed, non-antibiotic, etc.

3. The meat was seared during cooking, which creates nitrosamine, which forms a toxic substance that’s part of TMAO biochemistry.

4. Certain substances in vegetable byproducts “also form TMAO when digested by certain bacteria in the gut”.

5. It’s not a problem if TMAO enables cholesterol to get into arteries and/or prevents it from excreting excess cholesterol because cholesterol is not harmful.

- Chris Kresser’s Counter Argument

UPDATE: Chris posted a compilation of articles and blog posts in support of red meat eating and against the TMAO conclusions of the studies herein evaluated. There’s lots here so buckle up and have a good read. And as you do so try to be aware of any biases held by the writers, as it appears that several are dyed-in-the-wool Paleo red meat connoisseurs and would thereby resist information that conflicts with this lifestyle.

In his post, Red Meat and TMAO: Cause for Concern, or Another Red Herring?, Chris Kresser begins his counter argument by underscoring his distain for the long-held, but erroneous (in his view) conviction that “eating cholesterol and saturated fat increase cholesterol levels in the blood, and high cholesterol levels in the blood cause heart disease”.

He suggests that some of the thinking that lead to the above-cited erroneous causality is present in the creatine/TMAO studies, and then launches into three reasons he thinks the studies are flawed:

1. The evidence is inconsistent because if elevated TMAO levels are the heart disease culprit, “we’d expect to see higher rates of heart disease in people that eat more red meat”, and lower rates in vegetarians, neither of which is true. (Older studies showing lower rates in vegetarians were later disproven, he says.)

2. Meat eaters may have more unhealthy habits than vegetarians, and this was not controlled for in the studies. Such habits could “have been associated with undesirable changes in the gut microbiota.”

3. The evidence linking TMAO to red meat consumption and to heart disease is inconclusive because of the inadequate sample size of one vegetarian, and a mouse study based on them ingesting a carnitine supplement, not the red meat that contains it.

My 2 Cents About Carnitine/TMAO 

Whew, well if you’re still with me, you’re a masochist.

- Dave Asprey’s Points Reviewed

I think that Dave Asprey makes a good point about the quality of the meat used in the studies (#2), as it’s easy to accept that animals fed food already adulterated with mycotoxins and other unsavory stuff might have a negative effect on gut bacteria.

What I don’t get is why he contends that this is a “gut biome issue, NOT a meat issue” (#1), as the studies hypothesize that that gut biome makeup is directly influenced by red meat consumption (#2, #4 of “The Carnitine/TMAO Studies”), given that vegetarians were shown to have a different gut biome makeup (#10).

The argument that the “meat was seared” (#3) might have merit if searing meant the meat was charred, but nothing I’ve read suggested that is was charred.

Dave’s “cholesterol is not harmful” argument (#5) does take some the wind out of these studies, but that TMAO is reportedly a 10-fold stronger predictor of heart disease than cholesterol (#8 of The Carnitine/TMAO Studies) seems to make this moot.

And, finally, that TMAO is found in vegetable by products is not in dispute, but rather the amount and concentration that are present in red meat eaters.

- Chris Kresser’s Points Reviewed

Chris’ first point is news to me (#1) – that vegetarians actually don’t have a lower incidence of heart disease – but I’ll give him that, as he says the recent studies support that contention.

It could be that his assertion that meat eaters may generally be less healthy than vegetarians and thereby have gut microbes that make TMAO makes sense as well.

It would have been interesting to see what would happen if the scientist reintroduced meat to the meat eaters after their gut bacteria was wiped out with antibiotics to see if –starting from scratch, if you will – they would then produce the very same types of bacteria that produced the TMAO.

Chris Kresser’s final point (#3) is the one that I don’t buy.

The studies’ conclusions were not predicated on the gut biome of one vegetarian.  One study used 23 vegetarians (#3 of The Carnitine/TMAO Studies), and a Cleveland Clinic study (#7) used 10,000 with high TMAO test results.

In the accounts I read, the Cleveland Clinic study of 10,000 individuals was not expressly reported to have studied meat eaters exclusively, but they did have the meat eater profile given that they had TMAO in the blood traced to carnitine molecules metabolized by intestinal bacteria.

- Here’s What I’m Going Do

Until more information arises, I’m going to maintain my carnintine + fish oil regimen.

It doesn’t seem that this is particularly risky for me because I rarely eat red meat, and so am hoping that my gut bacteria colony doesn’t metabolize TMAO from carnitine.

Plus, I’m going to soon get another blood test to check on testosterone and cholesterol levels.

For those of you committed to meat eating, it may be helpful to know that Dr. Hazen, the lead scientist of a couple of the studies here examined, still intends to eat red meat, but reduce consumption to once every two weeks, and no more than four to six ounces per serving.

My big RED FLAG gets waved to the red meat eaters supplementing with carnitine. Do yourself a favor and get your blood tested.

Resources for “Carnitine is Good/Bad:

Right now, virtually all the pro and con views on carnitine were established before these new studies, so I’ll not link to some assortment of them here.  Let’s wait a few months and see how views shift around.

MY CONCLUSIONS

Here they are in a nutshell…

Coffee

I’m on board my particular version of Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof Coffee train for now (although I’m in the caboose), but will want to be tested for cholesterol due to the coconut oil simply because it’s hard to jettison old, ingrained indoctrination.

And I am a health blogger, of sorts, so we gotta figure these thing out.

However…

Less is more for me when it comes to coffee, cause the cortisol argument is solid and I’m happy with switching to green tea after my first cup of joe.

For you, my recommendation is that you check in and figure out how well you metabolize coffee, given the very solid reasons stated above by Brian St. Pierre of Precision Nutrition.

I’ll end my “conclusions” on coffee with something Mike Mahler of Aggressive Strength said when he wrote something like, If you hafta have it, don’t use it.

Saturated Fat

I already tipped my hat on this one in my first sentence in this “conclusions” section.

Yeah, I get it that coconut oil is a better saturated fat than cheese, but the Paleos don’t seem to care much, as all saturated fats are fine.

I still care, and, again, will monitor my saturated fat intake and get my blood tested.

My recommendation to you is to be modest with your saturated fat intake and monitor your cholesterol numbers.  But most importantly – make sure the sources of your animal fats come from animals that were grass-fed with no hormones or antibiotics added.

Carnitine

The studies cited in this post would make me concerned if I both ate red meat and supplemented with carnitine.

I’d be more than concerned if the red meat I ate was not healthy, grass-fed, etc., and I did little to no exercise.

If you’re that person, get some blood work.

As a non red meat eater, I feel (nearly) comfortable enough to stick to my carnitine supplementation for a while, but I plane to get some blood work done soon.

And so I say onto you – at last – over and out.

Yep.

P.S. I must have pushed some buttons with the views expressed in this post, so don’t hold back — express yourself in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. Nine Reasons to Drink Green Tea (and limit coffee)
2. Why Coffee May Be Good and Bad For You — Yeah, Both!
3. Saturated by Fat and TV News? Get Simple!

Few things are as confusing as diet and health information.  Here, I attempt provide some clarity as I dive into the myths and truths of eight common diet strategies.

Yahoo recently posted an article written by Janice Graham entitled, The Surprising Truth About 8 Common Diet Strategies, and me thinks it’s largely spot on.

Except for a few things, some pretty important.

And it’s these few things I’d like to dive into and expound upon so that you, dear reader, are left with the clarity of Buddhist chimes.

Well, at least as pertains to these eight “strategies” about diet.

The “8 Common Diet Strategies” cited by Ms. Graham (along with my quick comments in parenthesis) are:

1. To lose a pound, you must cut 3,500 calories.
(Correctly deemed “FALSE” but there’s more to it.)

2. Three squares a day works as well as a “many mini meals” plan.
(Typically “TRUE” as stated with an important caveat.)

3. A history of yo-yo dieting wrecks your chances of future weight-loss success.
(Yes, “FALSE” as stated, and I have pretty much nothing to add to Graham’s assessment.)

4. Exercise does not burn off pounds. 
(No, no this is not “TRUE” as claimed for specific reasons I’ll cite.)

5. It’s best to set challenging weight-loss goals.
(I’m OK with “TRUE” but there is an important footnote.)

6. Milk drinkers lose more weight.
(Yeah, “FALSE” is right on and there’s an even better alternative to the suggested yogurt.)

7. Tracking carbs is the best way to keep pounds off.
(The “FALSE” claim on this one is confusing, but I’ll yak about it anyway.)

8. You have to watch what you eat – forever.
(This is marked as “TRUE” and it is for most of us.)

OK, now that the stage is set, let’s get into the details presented in The Surprising Truth About 8 Common Diet Strategies, and then launch into my twist on things.

From time to time, it may be handy to refer to Janice Graham’s article, which is right here.

The Truth (and My Truth) About 8 Common Diet Strategies

1. To lose a pound, you must cut 3,500 calories. (“FALSE”)

The reason this is marked “FALSE” is that while in the lab 3.500 calories equals a pound of fat, this doesn’t necessarily hold up in the real world with real human bodies.

Remember: a “calorie” is the approximate amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. (Source)

Which makes me wonder if scientists figured out that it takes 3,500 calories to make a pound of fat by heating up water hot enough to burn a pound of the unsightly jiggly, and then measured how much energy was needed to make the heat.

(Just kidding.)

Anyway, the point Yahoo makes from citing the work of Kevin Hail, Ph.D. is that as you lose weight your metabolism slows down, and thus as you get thinner and thinner, each extra pound of fat takes more caloric energy (calories) to burn off.

The example provided in Ms. Graham’s article is a 46-year-old woman who weighs 170 pounds and thinks that she needs to cut 500 calories per day to drop a pound per week, losing 26 pounds over six months, but will actually only lose 19.5 pounds according to Dr. Hall.

Dr. Hall has created a “body weight simulator”, which is how he did the math expressed above for our 46-year-old, which looks like this:

And can be watched in action here.

There’s one more thing relevant to this topic – and that’s about the equality of calories.

Are all calories created equal? 

I –and those who actually study this stuff for a living — assert that they’re not; Ryan Andrews over at Precision Nutrition, for example.

The idea here is that different foods will affect insulin sensitivity, metabolism and fat storage differently.  Manufactured food – the stuff that lives in cans and boxes and resembles nothing like that which is grown on farms – are “non-foods”.

As Ryan Andrews puts it in his post, All About Dietary Displacement:

“Non-food” calories are more likely to be stored as fat, degrade health, lead to further hunger, lead to further food preoccupation, and low energy levels.”

The moral of the story is to eat a variety of lean protein (grass fed meat and low-mercury fish), complex carbs (low glycemic brown rather than while), healthy fats and as little manufactured food and drink (soda, fruit drink) that you can manage.

More about calories:

• Metabolism’s Role in Burning Body Fat
• More Than 50 Ways to Cut Fat Calories
• How to Measure Your Basil Metabolic Rate (BMR)
• Want Longevity? 5 Alternatives to a Calorie Restricted Diet
• This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight!

2. Three squares a day works as well as a “many mini meals” plan. (“TRUE”, somewhat)

In the Yahoo article, this one is marked “TRUE”, but then correctly makes an important caveat, which is: three meals per day is as good as several frequent meals throughout the day only if you’re good at portion control.

If you’re going to eat three modest meals and two healthy snacks each day, the key is not to actually wind up eating five modest meals.

Frequent eating requires good food quantity control. If you aren’t adept at that, then stick with the traditional three squares per day.

More about meal frequency:

• How Many Meals Per Day Do You Think Is Optimum?
• Get Thin With These 5 Foods

3. A history of yo-yo dieting wrecks your chances of future weight-loss success (“FALSE”)

Over the years, it’s been an oft-cited mantra that yo-yo dieters are damned to eternal fatness. But now the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle says something like, “not so, yo-yo”.

Their research asserts that even women who lost 20 or more pounds on three or more occasions were still able to follow yet another new diet and exercise program just as ably and successfully as those who don’t yo-yo.

(Yes, their focus was women because, apparently, they are overwhelmingly representative of yo-yo dieters.)

This is good news and I hope it get propagated throughout the land till everyone who is dejected and dizzy from yo-yoing realizes that they can still get trim.

4. Exercise does not burn off pounds. (“True”, they say; “Not, say I.)

Janice Graham, the writer of the Yahoo article under review here, begins this part with:

“It’s hard to believe, but in a study of 411 women, those who worked out for one, two, or three hours a week for six months didn’t lose significantly more than those who’d devoted themselves to Suoku or other sedentary purists.”

She goes on to say: “You’d think this finding was a fluke…” and then mentions 15 studies that conclude the same.

The reason touted for this surprising, “fluke”-like result is explained by how the body adapts to weight loss by lowering resting metabolic rate, thereby burning less calories – a similar situation as described in #1 above.

If, like me, you’re thinking that these outcomes don’t pass the smell test, Diana M. Thomas, Ph.D., of Montclair State University in New Jersey, provides us a clue about what may be actually going on here.  She says that although the exercisers didn’t lose weight, the exercise:

“… helps reduce your waist and gives you a firmer, leaner-looking shape overall.”

So, I’m thinking that two things are going on here that unwittingly contributed to the assertion that “exercise does not burn off pounds:

a)    Total pounds may not have gone down but the fat component decreased, as the muscle component increased, thus resulting in Ms. Thomas’s description about improved “shape overall”; and

b)   The women’s exercise intensity and type were subpar to burn fat.

Listen up and listen good:

It’s true that, generally speaking (that is – for most of us), diet is more important than exercise from a strict fat loss point of view. But as the economists like to say: this is a necessary but insufficient condition.  (Irrelevant fact: I studied economics in grad school.)

To the extent that your exercise builds muscle, that muscle – although weighing some 40% more than the fat it replaces will increase your basil metabolic rate (burn more calories at rest) and slow down the ravages of aging.

Not to mention, make you look better.

Nuff said.

Learn more about fat-burning exercise:

• Five Diet and Exercise Myths that Need to Die
• The Anti-aging Effects of Exercise
• Boost Your Human Growth Hormone in 20 Minutes!
• 90% of Sustained Weight Loss Includes Exercise and Diet
• How to Measure Your Metabolic Rate and Why It’s Important

5. It’s best to set challenging weight-loss goals. (“TRUE” with a twist.)

A Dutch study is cited showing that:

“… the more weight loss the participants strived for, the more effort they made – and the more weight they reported losing after two months.”

The conjecture is that ambitious goals are more “energizing” and pumps up “your commitment and drive.”

I have no complaint with this assessment, but my twist is that although you can make your goals ambitious, they should then be parsed into smaller, more easily achieved sub goals that as achieved they step by step enable you to complete the bigger ambitious goal.

As I wrote in Why Your Goals Should Be Small:

“Make goals that are small, but in the direction you want to go.”

The point is to make them achievable, because there’s nothing like one success that catalyzes another.

The example I use in Why Your Goals Should Be Small is a person who is 50 pounds overweight.  My presumption is that someone in this situation got there over the course of many years, and through “an assortment of activities, propensities, emotionally charged stuff and habits.”

And that it’s precisely because of these big, entrenched reasons that losing 50 pounds is too big of a goal psychologically for most people.

It probably took years to gain that weight through an assortment of activities, propensities, emotionally charged stuff and habits.  And it’s precisely these big entrenched reasons that make losing 50 pounds too big of a goal.

I think it would be better to break down the process of achieving the loss of 50 pounds into specific, achievable sub goals, each leading to the rapturous one.

What do you think?

More on this:

• Why Your Goals Should Be Small
• Practice Your Fears With Tim Ferriss
• Six Tools To Make Your Resolutions Come True

6. Milk drinkers lose more weight. (“FALSE”, yep.)

Researchers from Harvard examined 29 studies about this and found that over the long run, milk does give you a white mustache to help your friends take their eyes off your increasing girth.

Do you like diary?  Eat yoghurt, or better yet, kefir.

Kefir?

Yep, the probiotics contained in kefir far exceed those in yoghurt in both quality and quantity.  You can get it at many grocers and all health food stores.

Why should you bother?

Well, in addition to substituting a fat-producing diary drink (milk) with a lower calorie, healthier alternative (kefir, or yoghurt), you will also be taking a large step toward gastrointestinal health.

You might have read that our bodies have more organisms that are “not us” than are “us”.

Trillions of them.

Some are beneficial and others are not.  Simply put, probiotics feeds the good guys and that’s really good for us.

Read more about probiotics:

• All About Probiotics
• End Sluggish Digestion
• Eating for a Long Life: WebMD’s 13 Tips

7. Tracking carbs is the best way to keep pounds off. (“FALSE”…)

As mentioned, the Yahoo write-up on this confuses me.  Basically, the assertion is that counting grams of carbs or fat ingested doesn’t make for a successful weight loss technique as compared to a balanced plan:

“A balanced plan topped the usual technique of counting carbohydrates or fat grams in a study of adults who had recently lost a significant amount of weight.” (Source)

I don’t get if the point is that counting any macronutrient (such as fats or carbs) is futile for weight loss, or if it’s the actual amount of each respective macronutrient that is being, uh, weighed?

If you have a moment, go here and scroll down to #7, read it and tell us what you think.

The conclusion presented about the need to make your carbs be “low glycemic”, along with a balance mix of healthy fats and proteins is one I can readily get behind:

“The study’s balanced plan included lots of whole grains, fresh vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, healthy fats like olive oil, and lean fish and meats; it excluded heavily processed foods like white bread and instant rice.” (Source)

 The skinny on carbohydrates:

• What’s Making Us Fat and Sick?
• Pump Up Your Metabolism: Eat Protein, Not Wheat
• Why Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid May Be The Best Diet
• How Sugary Is Your Blood?

8. You have to watch what you eat – forever (“TRUE”, typically)

Yes, indeed, we all know someone who can eat anything and still stay trim.  That’s not me, and, likely, that’s not you either.

We need to pay attention to what we eat and how much of it.  This is particularly true in this age of manufactured food, where most of what you can buy in a supermarket is adulterated food; meaning, processed.

Manufactured foods possess the “Holy Trinity” of salt/sugar/fat, and it’s designed to make you want as much as you can stuff in as often as you can.

As weight-loss researcher Fiona Johnson, Ph.D., of University College London puts it in the Yahoo article I’m here referencing:

“… the constant bombardment of food temptations has led to a situation where self-control is essential.”

Psychologists suggest that rather than live a life completely denying yourself the guilty pleasures of the Holy Trinity, do occasionally indulge.

“Occasionally” is the operative word.

Here, a scale is useful.  As in, use it.

Weigh yourself regularly and when you see that an extra pound has appeared out of nowhere, remember what “occasionally” is supposed to mean.

As long as you take swift action in reaction to thoaw uninvited pounds, they won’t sneak up on you year by year till one day you look in the mirror and wonder where you went, and where that other person staring back at you came from.

Good stuff to know about diets, et al:

• Diet 101
• Food, Diet and Nutrition
• Lose Weight Without Dieting
• 5 Simple Things to Live Longer, Better
• 10 Unusual Tips About Losing Weight
• Are You Addicted to the Holy Trinity of Salt, Sugar and Fat?

Conclusions

1. Calories are confusing critters.  The way they affect your body is largely determined by the food/drink source of the calories and what’s happening to you metabolically as your lose weight.  Eat high quality fats, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, low glycemic, so-called complex carbohydrates, and lean protein (grass fed meat, low-mercury fish, organic diary). To help with gastrointestinal health, consume probiotics.

2. When it comes to the number of meals you eat per day, know yourself.  If you’re good with portion control and can really eat two small, healthy meals intermixed with three modest sized ones, try it.  Otherwise, stick to three.  Whichever you do, consider consuming 30 grams of protein within the first half hour after arising, as this might set you on the right path the whole day, given the satiety that the protein will provide.  (Read Like Time Ferriss, I Try to Overeat Without Gaining Weight.)

3. While it’s true that – if you had to chose just one — diet is more important than exercise for losing weight… for true health you must move the body and eat right.

4. Make your goals manageable.  “Reach for the stars and you may get the moon” is an apt analogy, because you know the stars are unreachable from the outset given from where you’re starting.  So, if the stars are really the dream, make the first goal a star ship, next the moon, and go from there.

5. Remove “diet” from your mindset and replace it with “lifestyle”.  The point here is to make a lifestyle change that incorporates a new and different way of eating for the long haul, as opposed to some restrictive diet that you have to suffer through for some defined time frame.

OK, so that’s it for this post.

Please feel free to dive into the Comments below.  You may agree with me, or tell me I’m nuts.

Yep.

Related posts:

1. Five Diet and Exercise Myths that Need to Die
2. The Reboot Cleanse Diet – Two Common Struggles
3. 12 Myths About Cholesterol

With all the debate about what constitutes the best diet, who – or what – should you believe? The official U.S. Dietary Guidelines is now “MyPlate”, but Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Pyramid is, I think, the better bet. Here’s why…

ON JUNE 2, 2011, a colorful plate replaced the food pyramid as the official icon representing U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Dietary pundits generally have applauded “The Plate” thinking it an improvement over “The Pyramid.”

But there are some conceptual chips and cracks in this new dinnerware.

My sense is that another opportunity has been lost to give Americans the best up-to-date information about what constitutes an ideal diet.

The food recommendations of “MyPlate,” (http://www.choosemyplate.gov/) surpasses the widely reviled “MyPyramid,” the confusing, rainbow-hued version of the food pyramid that the U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled in 2005. But is it good enough, accurate enough?

Let’s take a peek at the new “Plate” and consider how it compares to renowned integrative medical doctor, Andrew Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid.

What’s In MyPlate?

The new, simple, plate-shaped graphic is split into four sections:

1. Red for fruits,

2. Green for vegetables,

3. Purple for protein, and

4. Orange for grains.

A separate blue section, shaped like a drinking glass, represents dairy foods. I like the fact that the green section is largest, providing a visual reminder of the most fundamental nutrition truth: Vegetables, the foundation of a healthy diet, should fill most of a plate at every meal.

The MyPlate graphic also lists general dietary principles, and I agree that they’re superior to the old Pyramid that it replaced. I particularly like “Drink water instead of sugary drinks.” If Americans would heed that advice alone, the obesity and diabetes epidemics would begin to abate overnight.

And speaking of sugar, in the “Fruits” section, no distinction is made between fruit juices and fruits — a half cup of fruit juice is listed as equivalent to a half cup of fruit. This ignores the fact that the glycemic load — an indication of how quickly a food is converted to blood sugar — is far higher in fruit juices than in fruits.

Metabolically, the difference between a glass of filtered, pasteurized apple juice and a glass of soda is minor. It is far better to eat the whole fruit, as the accompanying fiber dramatically slows digestion, leading to more stable blood sugar and a longer-lasting feeling of fullness that can help prevent overeating.

Similarly, in the “Grains” section, there’s no difference cited between intact grains — I term these “true whole grains” — and grains that are ground into flour. As with fruits, keeping grains intact, rather than pulverized, slows digestion and stabilizes blood sugar.

In the “Protein” section, I appreciate the fact that fish is emphasized — we are urged to eat eight ounces per week, which would help Americans improve their woefully deficient consumption of healthy omega-3 fatty acids.  But it’s unfortunate to see swordfish among the recommended species. Not only is it vastly over-fished, but also as a predator species, it tends to bioaccumulate toxins such as mercury.

I recommend striped bass, wild Alaskan salmon, herring, sardines, anchovies, mackerel and Alaskan halibut, as these meet the dual criteria of abundant stocks and low toxic residues.

In the “Dairy” section, I’m disappointed to see a strong emphasis on low-fat and fat-free choices. This advice is becoming outdated, as new research has revealed full-fat dairy does not pose a heart-health risk, and may offer unique benefits. In fact, given the evidence, it’s now pretty clear that the girth of Americans over the past 40 years has not been due to eating too much fat, but to eating too many simple carbohydrates, aka – sugar.

And if you have any doubt about that assertion, simply check out the data in my post, What’s Making Us Fat and Sick?

The Anti-Inflammation Food Pyramid by Dr. Weil

Eating according to the dictates of MyPlate would almost certainly improve the average American’s nutritional profile, but the Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid, as fabricated by Dr. Andrew Weil, remains the superior choice.

Given that most adults in the U.S. are consuming between 2,000 and 3,000 calories per day and, based on Dr. Weil recommended that the average diet should consists of the following macronutrient proportions:

- 40 to 50 percent carbohydrates,
- 30 percent from fat (particularly omega-3 fatty acids), and
- 20 to 30 percent from protein (particularly low mercury fish and grass fed meat).

Here I must underscore that there’s nothing set in stone about these proportions. Some individuals will do better with relatively more of any particular macronutrient, the common examples being the weight lifer who will require proportionally more protein, and the marathoner who will require proportionally more carbohydrates.

The fundamentals of the anti-inflammatory diet include boosting fruit and vegetable intake, seeking out fresh food, avoiding refined sugars, eating healthy fats from extra-virgin olive oil and cold-water, oily fish such as wild-caught salmon, choosing foods high in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, and decreasing processed foods.

It provides abundant vitamins, minerals and fiber; facilitates stable blood-sugar levels; and helps to control the inappropriate inflammation that underlies many of the developed world’s chronic diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, heart conditions and many cancers.

Indeed, many health professionals consider inflammation to be the major underlying cause behind all chronic, degenerative diseases.

Until the USDA incorporates all of the latest science in its official recommendations, I encourage you to rely on the Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid as the most comprehensive graphic guide to how to eat for optimal health.

Here’s a picture of Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid:

[Click image to enlarge]

Hopefully, you’re intrigued enough to go check out the interactive site, as there you can scroll over and click each food category for more information.

What you’ll discover is that Dr. Weil’s Pyramid is:

• A practical eating guide that consumers of all ages can use, with tips on how to reduce risks of age-related diseases and improve overall health through diet.
• An interactive educational graphic to help today’s families prevent disease while eating well.
• A simple tool that promotes optimum health and healthy aging by providing dietary advice that addresses inflammation.

For instance, if you’re interested in knowing about “Healthy Sweets” at the top of the Pyramid, you click on it and, viola, get this:

[Click image to enlarge] 

Similarly, get some insights about Dr. Weils suggestions for “Healthy Fats” when you click on that section of his Pyramid, which looks like this:

[Click image to enlarge]

Conclusions

1. The U.S. “Plate” is better than the old U.S. Pyramid, but better still is Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Pyramid.

2. Foods that reduce inflammation, or do not introduce them at all, will help you avoid many chronic and debilitating diseases, because inflammation is considered to be a precursor to many such ailments.

3. Sugar is a killer.  Sugar is dominant in fruit juices and simple carbs, like white grains and processed foods, so avoid them.  Check out Dr. Weil’s “Whole and Cracked Grains” section in his Pyramid for his suggestions for low glycemic whole grains that digest slowly, and thus do not spike your blood glucose level. Over time, insulin resistance can cause adult-onset diabetes.

[See The Diabesity Epidemic – It May Be Coming to You, an article about Dr. Mark Hyman’s work about the confluence of diabetes and obesity in America.]

Over and out.

Related posts:

1. The New Food Pyramid is a Plate
2. Food, Diet and Nutrition — The 6 Best of the Year
3. Yes, Choose My Food Plate!

With health of Americans rapidly declining as quickly as their girth is expanding, the junk food industry is under the microscope.  What investigators are uncovering is reminiscent of the tobacco industry: Addicts are good for profits. Watch.

YOU NEED only glance around a supermarket to quickly get that most of the “food” offered Americans is manufactured.

You’ll see the perimeter of the supermarket stocked with veggies, fruit, dairy, and meat – the things that mostly look like they did on the farm.  In the vast middle will be stocked everything else, the manufactured food.

What I mean by “manufactured” is that the adulterated food contained in boxes, jars and cans has no resemblance to its former life as real food before it was processed, denatured, pulverized, enhanced and mixed with a bunch of other non-food stuff to become the contents of said boxes, jars and cans.

This is by design and is highly profitable to the manufacturers of such “food”.

They spend millions of dollars to get to the “Holy Trinity”, the ultimate destination of manufactured food makers.

The Michael Moss Discovery

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative reporter Michael Moss spent four years researching the scientific research that goes into each bag, box or bottle of processed junk food.

In the above video, he describes the “Holy Trinity”.

The Holy Trinity is based on the Three Pillars of sugar, salt and fat.

The Holy Trinity is:

• the Bliss point of Sugar,
• the Mouth feel of Fat, and
• the Flavor burst of Salt.

When the Holy Trinity is achieved, consumers of manufacture food find it irresistible, because this combination of the Three Pillars – which were never intended by Nature to go together – is addictive.

Yes, addictive.

Think that the some in the manufactured food industry are different than the tobacco industry?

As Lays Potatoes would say:

“Betcha can’t eat just one!”

The reason many people cannot “eat just one” is demonstrated by brain imaging machines.

Francis McGlone, a former food scientist and neuroscientist routinely tests how the pleasure centers of brains “light up” when a person eats Holy Trinity food.  These are some of the very same parts of the brain that are turned on by cocaine and other drugs.

So, if you haven’t already, watch the video presented above.  Get educated about what’s happening to you when you eat manufactured foods.

Learn about “sensory specific satiety” and “vanishing caloric density”.  And if you think this is overblown, check out my post,

What’s Making Us Fat and Sick?

It’s full of graphs, charts, explanations of complex and simple carbohydrates, and quotes like this:

“Today, each year an average American consumes between 110 and 156 pounds of sugar. At the end of the 19th century that number was just five pounds.”

Still here?

Want to learn more about the dangers of manufactured food?

Good, cause there’s one more video to watch: Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewing our aforementioned journalist extraordinaire, Michael Moss, in an article called: Salt Sugar Fat: NY Times Reporter Michael Moss on How the Food Giants Hooked America on Junk Food.

In a hurry?  Read the transcript.

Have a salt habit? 

“Salt Linked to immune rebellion in study”, is an article by BBC News Health and Science reporter James Gallagher, who writes:

“The amount of salt in our diet could be involved in driving our own immune systems to rebel against us, leading to diseases such as multiple sclerosis, early laboratory findings suggest.”

More here: Salt Linked to Immune Rebellion.

Please share this information with those you know are eating too much from boxes, jars and cans.

Yep.

Related posts:

1. Sugar Tsunami: “The Men Who Made Us Fat”, Episode 1 of 3
2. Are You Getting Fat and Sick from Sugar?
3. Sugar is a Toxin, say Three Celebrity Doctors. Watch the Interviews.

The Bay Area lights up tonight, March 5, 2013, and over the next two years as the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge gets dressed up in individually programmed 25,000 LED lights. Here’s the story and links to the show.

THIS POST is a call out to my sister and the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the forgotten one.

Yes, the Bay Bridge that reaches over San Francisco Bay and connects San Francisco to the East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland, etc.) is often overshadowed by its better known and – many would say – more magnificent partner, the Golden Gate Bridge, which every day suspends thousands of vehicles, bicyclists, runners and walkers over the mouth of San Francisco Bay as it opens to the Pacific Ocean.

Perhaps it’s because it bridges the gateway to the Pacific, or was for nearly 50 years the longest suspension bridge in the world at 1.7 miles, or because it connects San Francisco to bucolic, wondrous Marin County, specifically, Sausalito, my home, that the Golden Gate Bridge humbles its little brother (though the Bay Bridge is longer at 4.5 miles).

Yeah, the Golden Gate Bridge has more boxes checked: location, history, tourists, San Francisco — which the famed, local, now dead S.F. columnist Herb Caen called “Baghdad by the Bay” before “Baghdad” conjured a decidedly different image – but change is in the wind.

A forthcoming two-year LED light show is set to challenge this inequity.  Or at least close the popularity gap.  Because the Bay Bridge is about to get an illuminating polishing of sorts, starting tonight, March 5, 2013.

The project is simply called, “The Bay Lights”.

From The Bay Lights website:

“The Bay Lights is the world’s largest LED light sculpture, 1.8 miles wide and 500 feet high. Inspired by the Bay Bridge’s 75th Anniversary, its 25,000 white LED lights are individually programmed by artist Leo Villareal to create a never-repeating, dazzling display across the Bay Bridge West Span through 2015.”

Here’s a preview via an artist’s rendition:

Six of the eight million dollars required to construct and maintain this light show over the next two years has been raised, much of it from Bay Area luminaries such as former Googler and current Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, legendary start-up financier Ron Conway and JP Conte, the Chairman and Managing Director of Genstar Capital. (List of Patrons.)

Despite the shortfall, the show will go on. (You can donate here.)

Which brings me to my sister, Kerrilyn.

I’ve had a bird’s-eye view of this project due to Kerrilyn’s role as Executive Producer/Director of this The Bay Lights project.  She’s one of a large, talented team of people committed to this prominent light project that is expected to be seen by billions of people via the media and online.

Speaking of online, do check out Kerrilyn and her team’s work starting tonight with the “Grand Lighting Ceremony” at 8:30 PM right here.

Good luck, Kerr: have fun, and make us Bay Area peoples proud!

Yep.

Life Extension doesn’t often put its outstanding supplements on sale, and I’ve never seen them this inexpensive, so pull out your wish list and order while the best antioxidants, essential fatty acids, phyto extracts and hormone balancing supplements are still available at these wonderfully low prices.

UPDATE: I just took advantage of this sale and ordered online at Life Extension a few minutes ago (2/28/13) and want to point out that the “Free Shipping” code must be inputted as in the Product Discount Code field (box), and it will thereby be reflected in the checkout basket like any other product.  The actual “Discount Code” shown below is not needed, as the discount prices are already reflected if you use this link.

LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION is one of my favorite health information and vitamin supplement sites.  As the name suggests, much of the material covered at LEF.org is about aging better.

Here’s what LEF’s Dr. Mike Smith says about the products and this Life Extension Overstock Sale:

[Discount Code: SKB301W   Free Shipping Code: LIVELONG1]

When I wrote “must-have” in this post’s title, I’m making a presumption that you’re interested in what vitamin supplementation might be able to do to help reduce the typical health issues associated with aging.

After about an hour on the site, you’ll realize that we don’t need to age so poorly! The prevalent aspects of aging — inflammation, arthritis, weight issues, cell oxidation, cardiovascular disease, and hormone unbalance, and more – can be ameliorated by various protocols, including supplementation.

Over the years, I have learned much from LEF.  The organization has helped influence my own quest to age better, and with that aim, I’ve become a big consumer of their information and products, from the male hormone blood panel (they have one for females too, both here) to one-of-a-kind formulated supplements.

So, it’s without hesitation that I encourage you to dive into LEF right now, because it’s now they are offering an unusually large discount on overstock supplements.

Lookie here for a very small sampling of what’s available… and then grab the Link your Discount Code and Free Shipping Code below…

Those were just a small taste of the discounted supplements available.

Go see the rest, for surely there’s something savory there for you.  Continue on to:

- Life Extension Overstock Sale Link for discounts up to 75%

- Use the Discount Code if required: SKB301W

- And don’t forget the Fee Shipping Code: LIVELONG1

Apparently, this sale will continue until April 8, 2013, but don’t dawdle as the supplies will get quickly sold out!

Yep.

P.S. The links above that take you to a product page are likely Affiliate Links, which means that should you buy something, I’ll get some dollars; however, know that this does not affect the price you pay.

Related posts:

1. Supplements and Food that Protect Against Radiation Poisoning
2. Dr Hyman: “Ten Simple Tips That Will Save Your Life”
3. Nine Immune Enhancing, Flu-Busting Supplements You Need Now!

What’s in the mirror? Hopefully, you see a beautiful you, but if you’re like most of us, there’s more pounds on that frame than is healthy. More than half us are overweight. Time to measure your Basil Metabolic Rate, and target a lower body weight goal. Here’s how to do it… (check out the three infographics)…

EVER NOTICE how nearly all the people in old movies are far leaner than in current movies? Yes, it’s obvious that over the last 40+ years, the people of the industrialist world are getting progressively heavier.

[Here's why.]

Time for a reset.

This post is about:

1. Getting some clarity about the damage that those extra pounds can do to your health and well being;

2. Resetting your caloric target based on your Basil Metabolic Rate and activity level; and

3. Taking some physical action with a most simple and effective exercise.

Let’s go!

Below are three infographics that tell the tale:

• One clearly depicts America’s over weight/obesity problem (mirrored by much of the industrialized world, by the way);

• One indicates how calories in and out must be understood to help solve the eating part of the problem; and

• One offers a simple activity to help solve the sitting part of the problem.

First up is “Infographic #1: Obesity”, and it peppers us with the daunting statistics about obesity, as well as average, run of mill overweightyness.

(Yes, I made up the word and I like it.)

Obesity

The Obesity infographic below states that:

• Nearly 55% of Americans are overweight, and
• About 25% of Americans are obese.

If you suspect these numbers appear too low, a trip to the mall might confirm your suspicions.  As you scan the bevy of shoppers, your perceptions may suggest that 25% obese and 55% overweight might be a tad on the light side.

Indeed, the reliable U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) puts America’s adult obesity rate at 36%, 11 percentage points higher than what’s shown in the Obesity Infographic., and the percent overweight (including obesity) at about 65%; again, 11 percentage points higher.

Here’s the CDC graph depicting these numbers:

If these statistics don’t alarm you, perhaps because you just sat your skinny self down to read this after a 15 mile run, consider that obesity combined with diabetes (Dr. Hyman’s so-called “diabesity“) is becoming a national health catastrophe that will affect everyone via a crippled American health care system.

So, listen up.

Back in 2009, I wrote in a post called, The Seriously Serious Problems of Obesity, which cited a New York Times’ projection that 43% of Americans will be obese by 2018.

When you add that number to total overweight, will anyone be able to do more than waddle from building to car come 2018?

Thus, this first infographic sounds the alarm bells.  Check it out, and then scroll down to  “Infographic #2: Calories”.

Unless readers of this blog are exclusively health nuts, odds are that the Obesity Infographic hit a nerve.

Perhaps, then, there’s appetite for Infographic #2: Calories.

Calories

Calories measure the energy we get from consuming, digesting and using food. 

These days, there’s much debate about the quality of calories, meaning that food source of the calories determines the extent to which the body produces energy (or fat).

For instance, 200 calories of candy will affect your body differently than 200 calories of avocado.

Due to the sugar content, the candy will cause a fast spike in your blood glucose level.  At this point – all other things being equal – if you don’t use this extra energy, some portion of the associated calories will be parked as fat.

“Yes”, the body is saying, “we’ll just store this excess energy as fat until you need it later, like during the winter when food is scarce”.

Now, this Calorie Infographic takes the bold step of declaring an ideal proportion of macronutrient mix.  Given the wide range presented: 10-25% Protein, 20-35% Fats, 45-65% Carbs, some ratio within this mix should be adequate for most people.

Serious weightlifters might want more protein.  Long distance aerobic types might want more carbs.  And there are unusual individuals who live on either side of the bell curve, and thereby simply have to find their individualized macronutrient mix.

Just make sure that, more times than not:

1. The carbs are complex (low glycemic), unless ingested prior to a one hour plus exercise routine when simple carbs will be used to fuel rigorous activity;
2. The fats are mostly omega-3 fatty acids; and
3. The protein is from lean, grass fed meat, no-mercury fish or preferably organic vegetable sources.

[Read my posts, Blueprint for Eating Right, and Pump Up Your Metabolism – Eat Protein, Not Wheat]

OK, here’s a primer on calories…

How to Determine Your “Stable” Daily Calorie Intake

Here, we’re going to dive into determining the amount of calories necessary to sustain you at your current activity and weight level, and then at the weight objective (aka “target”) you may desire.

First, calculate your Basil Metabolic Rate (“BMR”)

The BMR is the daily amount of energy your body expends at “rest”, as measured in calories. (source)

Note that “rest” doesn’t mean sleeping or lounging on the couch, but refers to normal daily activities. It does not include any vigorous activities, whether it be a long walk, weightlifting or mountain bike ride.

It might be a bit hard to read the equation part in Calorie Infographic found under the header, “How to Determine Your Daily Calorie Intake”, so I’ll type it out.

The Basil Metabolic Rate formula looks like this:

Females: 655 + (4.35 x weight in lbs.) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)

Males: 66 + (6.23 x weight in lbs.) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)

According to Answers.com, in the USA the:

• Average female’s height is 63.75 inches (5’3.75”) at 152 pounds.
• Average male’s height is 69 inches (5’9”) at 180 pounds.

It’s taking me too long to find a reliable average age for men and women in the U.S., so for purposes of this example, I’m going to use 45 for both genders.

Plugging these numbers in the above formulas:

Average Female: 655 + (661) + (300) – (212) = BMR of 1,404

Average Male: 66 + (1,121) + (876) – (306) = BMR of 1,757

Second, determine your activity level

The next part of determining your daily caloric target is to adjust your BMR number by your activity level.  The Calorie Infographic presents various multipliers for that starting at 1.2 for the sedentary life style to 1.9 for “extra active”.

Read the descriptions related to each multiplier and choose the one that best fits what you actually do, not what you wish you were doing.

If our very average man or woman in the above example were smack in the middle of the high to low activity level, his/her multiplier would be 1.55.

Third, calculate your “stable” daily caloric intake

The daily caloric intake (consumption) target is the BMR multiplied by the activity level multiplier.  For our average candidates, that would be:

Our Average Female’s Caloric Intake: 1,404 (BMR) x 1.55 (Activity Level) = 2,176

Our Average Male’s Caloric Intake: 1,757 (BMR) x 1.55 (Activity Level) = 2,723

At this point, there are three comments I’d like to make about this BMR/calorie stuff:

1. It’s highly unlikely that your numbers are the same as these examples, so don’t think that these results fit you.  Plug in your own particulars into the appropriate equation given your gender.

2. If you have a lot of muscle, it will affect the BMR formula results.  Muscle weighs more than fat, so a 5’8” male body builder could weigh 195 pounds and have no excess fat at all.  Also, muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.  The result is that these formulas may not be relevant for muscled people.

3. Realize that the daily caloric intake numbers here calculated so far are the calories required to maintain the current body weight of these average people profiles.  That’s why I used the word “stable”, referring to keeping the current weight stable.

Fourth, calculate your daily caloric intake target

If you want to lose weight, there’s another – lower – caloric intake number, and we’ll call it the “daily caloric target”

So, if our average male said, “I’d be a hell of a lot better off if I weighed 160 pounds instead of my portly 180” (hmm, does anybody really refer to themselves as “portly”?), then he could pop “160” into the BMR formula, adjust his activity multiplier if he was going to increase his activity, and then calculate his caloric intake target.

Given the lower weight inputted into the formula, unless the activity level multiplier offsets the new weight input, the caloric intake number will be lower.

In other words, our pal will have to consume fewer calories to drop the weight.  Makes sense, yes?

Walk

Last up is “Infographic #3: Walk”.

Indeed, for many people, walking is the first step (ha!) toward integrating sufficient activity into their lives to help lose weight and get fit.  Everyone knows how to do it, and no special equipment is required.

Check out all the benefits attributable to walking in the Walk Infographic:

That’s a heck of a long list of good things. Surely, walking does a body good.

Now, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to bench press your body weight, run a marathon or fold yourself into a pretzel simply by walking a lot.  But if the only thing you’ve been exercising of late it your TV’s remote control, walking is a good way to begin getting active.

Three Conclusions

1. Yes, you are phenomenal, but you may also be a bit overweight.  Unless you’re packing a lot more muscle than average, use the BMR and caloric formulas above to determine the calorie target to get to your ideal weight.

2. If you’re more than a wee bit overweight, stare hard at the Obesity Infographic and consider what actions you may be willing to take.  Then do #1 above. And #3 below.

3. Unaccustomed to exercise?  Well, try walking.  Start by noting all the associated health benefits derived by walking, recruit a buddy or two, and get marching.

Over and out.

Don’t forget to share this with someone who might be interested, and comments are always welcome (scroll down for that).

Yep.

P.S.  Many thanks to L.A. Bariatrics, Greatist and Everybody Walk for their wonderfully illustrative infographics!

Related posts:

1. Forget Aerobics — Burn Your Fat with Metabolic Circuits
2. Get Lean And Strong With Dr. Hyman’s Metabolic Boosters
3. This Holiday, Overeat and Gain No Weight!