Working out and doing cardio are less than half of the battle when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle. You can workout all you want, but if you eat pizza every meal and drink ten beers every night, you are not going to have a six pack (unless you are a genetic freak of nature). There are plenty of debates on the internet, in books, in magazines, in gyms and on podcasts about the best diet or the best supplements - most of these things work in some fashion, but not all of these different diets and strategies are the right solution for everyone.
The most important thing to remember regarding diet is that everyone’s body is different; we all have different genetics, different DNA and our bodies react to varying diets in completely different ways. A keto diet might work great for one person, but not for another. A vegetarian diet might be great for one person, but the carnivore is better for another person. The key is to find out what works for you, what is doable for you in your lifestyle, then stick with it! The biggest problem is when you pick a diet, then drop it two weeks later because it’s too hard, or it doesn’t realistically mesh with your current lifestyle! What did you accomplish!? Pick a diet that you can stick to on a regular basis; and if necessary, allow yourself to cheat every once in a while - or you will likely give up on it entirely.
Let’s start from square one. How much should you eat and when should you eat? One thing that has really helped me stick to good shape in my old age (early 30s) where I spend 80% of my time at work sitting at a desk and in front of a computer is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is when you only eat (or drink caloric beverages) within a specified amount of time during the day, what I like to call the feeding window. To clarify, I consider black coffee and non caloric sugar free teas OK to consume during the fasting window.
When I first heard about it on Joe Rogan’s podcast, I thought to myself “I could never do that… I love eating and love breakfast way too much. Besides, the Rock eats seven meals a day... if I want to look like the Rock, I need to be constantly shoveling food down my mouth hole.” However, once I tried intermittent fasting (starting with a 14-10) using the “Zero” app on my iPhone, I found after about a week that I had increased energy levels and a good portion of excess body fat (my “love handles” in particular) finally disappeared, after working out and eating healthy for years - nothing else melted that fat.
So, I mentioned 14-10 above - what the hell is that? It means I fasted for 14 hours with a 10 hour eating window throughout the day. Generally I would open my window at about noon and stop eating at 10 PM. This worked best for me, because I go to the gym after work. I usually don’t get home until about 8:30 PM, then I shower and eat dinner.
I have since upgraded to a 15-9 and sometimes get to a 16-8, but since I eat dinner so late, it makes it difficult. If I eat lunch too late (2-3 PM), then I’m still full when I go to the gym at about 6-7 PM. I don’t want to workout on a full stomach, therefore during the work week, I find it more difficult to hit 16-8, but during the weekends, now that my body has become adept at fasting, I sometimes go all day without eating until dinner time (AKA “Warrior Diet”).
What fasting window is most recommended?
Most experts recommend at a minimum a 14-10 window, but for best benefits to do a 16-8 window. There are other methods as well, but I prefer to stick to the time restricted eating methods of fasting, but have considered longer periodic fasts (like Tim Ferris’ monthly 3-day fast) to compliment the daily intermittent fasting.
What are the benefits of fasting (besides weight loss)?
There is a lot of research (mostly on mice) showing that fasting reduces inflammation, which can reduce the odds of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer risk and alzheimers. In addition medical benefits include increased metabolism, insulin sensitivity and HGH levels. First-hand, I can tell anyone who tries intermittent fasting, the first week or two you might feel sluggish, but once your body adapts, you will notice increased energy levels, enhanced mental clarity, a greater ability to become hyper-focused (achieve workflow status) and the ability to go quite some time without hunger pains. Honestly, it has many of the beneficial effects of taking adderall.
In addition, you will likely save money, because you won’t be eating as much food throughout the day and you will save time not cooking as many meals.
The benefits of longer periodic fasts, like the monthly 3-day fast mentioned above is that your body may activate autophagy pathways clearing out damaged cells and growing new, healthy cells. Studies show these longer fasts (generally of 3-7 days) are proven to increase lifespan by shedding these old, damaged cells and activating stem cell regeneration of organ tissue and other bodily cells (I’m not a scientist, so that’s the best way I can put it). Now, how does anyone fast 3 full days? Check this out.
Enough of the fasting if you aren’t into the Baelor the Blessed diet, there are a few diets I recommend giving some thought, but find the right one for you and stick with it!
I’m not going to discuss the vegetarian or vegan diets as legitimate healthy diets, because I don’t believe they are healthy. Vegetarian and vegan diets lack necessary proteins, iron, vitamin B and zinc. Eating veggies are healthy, but not when you are lacking protein. If you are doing it after watching an anti-meat documentary - I get it, but humans have been eating meat since the beginning of our species. If you are going to go this route at least go pescatarian and eat fish along with veggies to get your source of protein into your diet, along with other healthy fish oils and good fats.
The most popular modern diet right now is the ketogenic diet. Personally, I love the general idea of the ketogenic diet, but it’s a lot more difficult to stick to for people who train in the gym regularly than people realize. The ketogenic diet is a low carb, high fat diet with a goal of replacing your body’s primary fuel source from glucose to ketones. Glucose comes from carbohydrates and sugars whereas ketones are generated from consuming and burning healthy fats. The ketogenic diet has some of the same benefits as intermittent fasting; weight loss, cancer prevention, heart-disease prevention and Alzheimer’s disease. In addition the ketogenic diet is known to combat acne, diabetes and Epilespy.
The issue I have as a workout nut with the ketogenic diet is the standard keto diet requires eating a diet of 75% fats, 20% protein and 5% carbs. Personally, I eat way too much protein to hit those levels and don’t believe I eat enough fat - though I have been known to put MCT or coconut oil in my morning coffee and believe the foods stressed in the keto diet are all awesome. Meat, fish, eggs, nuts, green veggies, avocados, cheese and other healthy fats. Even though I don’t actually eat enough fat and eat way too much protein, I primarily try to stick to the keto foods in my diet.
The next most popular fad diet right now (besides being vegetarian or vegan) is going to the opposite end of the spectrum with the carnivore diet, which is exactly what it sounds like - you only eat meat, fish and animal products. Why would this diet work? Protein is more filling than carbs, therefore when you are on the carnivore diet, you simply eat less food with the side benefit that the foods you are eating are high protein and all natural. There are certain individuals who report feeling better on this diet than any other, because high fiber foods like green veggies might cause issues. In my opinion, you are missing out on a lot of important vitamins with the carnivore diet and it’s not the best option, but it’s better than some.
Personally, I try to end up somewhere in the middle of the ketogenic diet and the carnivore diet with what some might call a low-carb, low sugar diet - but I add quite a bit more protein and meat to my diet than most of these diets call for. What does this mean exactly? Let me take you through a walk in my average day of eating.
Morning: I drink ice water and black ice coffee (with Lion’s Mane mushroom powder mixed in), while continuing to fast. Sometimes on weekends I’ll go to Starbucks and get a QuadShot espresso on ice.
Vitamins: I’ll pop my vitamin B and vitamin C first thing in the morning.
Lunch (usually around 1 PM): My usual lunch contains mostly protein with some green veggies on the side (pre-cooked and reheated in a microwave). I usually like to include a chunk of cheese and at least a half avocado.
Beverage: Generally I reload the caffeine around lunch with either a kombucha (twice per week) or another ice coffee (this time it’s okay to add some half & half or goat milk - not sugar)
Vitamins: I take the rest of my vitamins at lunch, see the stack below.
Snack (usually around 3 PM): Pistachio and Almond mix (high carb, so just eat a small portion)
Pre-Workout (before gym, about 6 PM): Honest Green Tea (no sugar) with PurePump pre-workout (2 scoops)
Post-Workout (after gym, about 8 PM): “Zero” or “Quest” low sugar protein bar immediately after finishing the workout.
Protein shake (when I get home): 2 scoops of Gold Standard vanilla whey protein, a handful of frozen fruit (usually a strawberry / banana blend), almond milk as necessary, a few leaves of spinach, 1 teaspoon of creatine, ¼ teaspoon of resveratrol and one scoop of natural (no filler) peanut butter.
Dinner (about 9 PM): A large portion of protein with veggies on the side. Sometimes couscous is added to make kind of a dinner bowl, but usually not.
Desert (only a 2-3 times per week, about 9:30 PM): A small bowl of greek yogurt with natural cinnamon sprinkled on, a drizzle of organic local honey and a couple chunks of high cocoa dark chocolate.
I’ll likely go further into detail on some specific meals in a future blog post, but I’ll need my wife to contribute since she does most of the cooking in the family. However, I am big on useful supplements and vitamins, so allow me to explain my “stack” as noted above.
I take the following vitamins first thing in the morning:
Solaray High Potency B-Complex Chewable
Kirkland Chewable Vitamin C
I like to take the chewable vitamins in the morning, because you can only take so many swallowable pills in a day and in addition chewable vitamins are easier on your stomach than whole vitamins. You want to start your day without a stomach ache.
Vitamin B helps me wake up and provides a morning boost (also great when drinking to help prevent hang-overs). Vitamin C, because I don’t drink morning juice (too much sugar).
I add to my morning coffee the following:
Maju’s Mental Mushrooms (Chaga/Coryceps/Reishi/Lionsmane blend)
Quest MCT Oil powder
Zint Grass-Fed Beef Collagen powder
The MCT oil helps to add fats to get me through to lunch as I’m fasting - no carbs. The mushrooms are great for mental clarity (especially early in the morning) and have tons of benefits you can read about here. The collagen protein powder is great for skin and nail health.
At lunch time, as I eat I take this stack:
(2) 365 Multi-Vitamin gummies
(2) Zenwise Advanced Joint Support Glucosamine & Chondroitin
(1) New Sports L-Glutamine (1000 mg)
(2) Do Vitamins BCAA
(2) Carlson The Very Finest Fish Oil (700 mg)
Multi-vitamins are a must, in case you don’t consume one of the food groups that day. Glucosamine and Chondroitin help sore muscles and joints recover from general soreness and after working out. Glutamine is a must for workout recovery - I workout almost every day, when I don’t take Glutamine, I really feel sluggish after consecutive workouts.
BCAAs are a new one for me - I have taken many pre-workout drinks with BCAAs, but I’m just now testing how the pure BCAA vitamins help. Fish oil is great (when it’s the right product - there are a lot of snake oil vitamins out there. Make sure you buy from a legit vendor.
Pre-Workout:
Honest Green Tea with two scoops of Do Vitamins PurePump pre-workout formula (shake).
The best two mixers for this pre-workout are Vitamin water and Green tea (no sugar). Try mixing it with water and you will be coughing your entire workout, because it doesn’t taste great, but it’s all natural and works great without giving you the jitters or the shits.
Post-Workout Shake:
2 scoops of Gold Standard 100% Whey Protein Isolate (vanilla)
1 teaspoon of Bulk Supplements Creatine Monohydrate (5,000 mg)
¼ teaspoon of Bulk Supplements Resveratrol (399 mg)
Protein and Creatine are both the building blocks for building muscle. See my entire shake recipe above. Check out the benefits of Resveratrol here - or drink a glass of red wine if you prefer it to a protein shake.
When it comes to health, going to the gym is important - but if you don’t control your diet and consume the correct supplements to boost your workout gains, you might just be treading water. To read about my intense workout regimen, please click here!
SOURCES:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322293.php
https://humanwindow.com/tim-ferriss-intermittent-fasting-routine/
https://podcastnotes.org/2019/01/09/patrick/
https://fastlifehacks.com/tim-ferriss-3-day-fast-method/
https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/news/20180118/are-there-health-downsides-to-vegetarian-diets
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ketogenic-diet-101#types
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/carnivore-diet#downsides
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/lions-mane-mushroom
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/13-benefits-of-fish-oil#section2