The vast majority of nutritional supplements are garbage. They can kinda get away with it... There is no regulation of supplements by any governing body, so as long as the manufacturer pops a little asterisk * and says 'these claims have not been evaluated by the FDA' - they can claim whatever they want. They'll sometimes cite research to attempt to trick people into paying for the supplement, but most of the time the research is highly flawed AND/OR the dosage in the proprietary blend is laughably small compared to what was found useful in the research. I'm not saying that every supplement is ineffective, but I am saying most supplements are PROBABLY ineffective. Here are a few of the supplements that I KNOW work very well. Protein/Carb/Creatine/Vitamin/EFA supplements - I lumped all of these together because they're just food. These things are nutrients you are meant to consume in-complex when eating a full, balanced diet, and honestly, if you sorted your diet out, you wouldn't need to take these anyway. Caffeine - A drug, admittedly, but a well-tested one, with risks most adults are comfortable taking. Caffeine brings a measurable performance-enhancing effect, speeds up metabolism, and can manage hunger. I don't use it, but a lot of people do, and they love it. Every pre-workout that works has caffeine. And.. That's about it. Most every other supplement that was found effective was eventually made difficult to purchase without a prescription or simple made illegal. If you got all your calories every day from red meat, eggs and veggies, you'd never need any supplement.

It may not sound true to most people, but it's my belief that most cases of obesity and weakness revolve around some kind of nutritional deficiency. Quite frankly, I believe that there are some foods that people don't eat enough of, and are displaced by processed, junk foods that don't do much more for you other than stimulate your hunger and encourage you to eat more. If you were to only make one small step toward a better overall dietary lifestyle to start making dramatic changes in the long term, it would be this: Get 200 grams of animal-based protein a day. That may be more than a lot of you need, but if you're a healthy person there is no unhealthy upper limit of protein, and the extra benefit is that you won't have room in your stomach for a bunch of other crap you don't need.

Ever wonder why so many people disagree about what 'heathy' means or why there are so many different 'diets' that work or why everyone in the world keeps getting fatter and sicker? Well, it's very simple. The answer is: nutrition science sucks. It's not reliable at all. Most optimistic interpretation of why it's trash is that since the vast majority of nutrition science is derived from epidemiological studies (self-reporting by large population about details that are not measured or tracked over long periods of time), the absolute best anyone can do is make very poorly concluded correlations, which people of any ilk or ideology can come behind and interpret however they see fit. Most cynical interpretation of why it's trash is that there are lots of institutions with enormous political, religious, and financial incentives to keep the population in the dark about nutrition. Due to a couple key pieces of evidence, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association posting a retraction of the key science that blames heart disease and high blood pressure on saturated fat due to the discovery that large sugar companies had paid the researchers off to shift the blame, I am inclined to believe the latter of the two explanations. I don't want to be a conspiracist, but it is very clear to me that a lot of money is made off of people who are addicted to certain foods, and who are chronically sick and dependent on pharmacological intervention to get by... not to mention whatever political or religious motivations other groups may have. I won't even discuss those. So what do we do? Well, there are four ways we can test something and we kinda need to rely on all four working together before we can be very sure. Test any nutritional idea by these four criteria: 1. Is there quality peer-reviewed research supporting this idea? When I say quality, I mean, comes from a harder, more reliable family of sciences, like archaeology, biochemistry, or compared anatomy & physiology, also, if you have the capacity to do so, check the research for conflicts of interest, sound reasoning, and proper scientific rigor, take it to an expert you trust if necessary 2. Do you know anybody that experienced a benefit from implementing this idea? How many? Anecdote by itself is not great research, but in plural, anecdote is data, and data is always useful. 3. Do you understand mechanistically WHY this idea would be true? This is gonna depend on your own research and understanding, but if something doesn't make sense to you, that can be a big, red, flag. 4. Most importantly, does it work when you apply it personally? Now this isn't perfect, because there can always be confounding variables and biological variability at play, but if the entire world tells you that something is false, and when you test it, it's true... the entire world could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.

Cheat meals, broadly speaking, a meal or day during a planned period of dieting, wherein you eat as much of whatever you like. 'Cheat' in this instance means 'breaking the rules.' The problem with breaking the rules you set you to reach your dietary goals is that the rules exist for a reason and serve your goal, and if you break your rules, you move farther away from your goal. Not good... HOWEVER, There are potentially several benefits associated with varying the amount of food you eat, the kind of food you eat, or even from taking a break from strict dietary boundaries, depending on your goal. For example, if you are using energy restriction (counting calories) to lose weight, there are measurable benefits to taking a short break from being in a deep energy deficit, such as preventing metabolic slowdown and increasing motivation. There MAY be hormonal benefits to cycling into periods of high carbohydrate intake if you are deep into ketosis for long periods of time. And, remember that we eat to live, and not the other way around. You can't be expected to never participate in social or holiday traditions involving food ever again. Planned dietary breaks can help teach you how to be flexible enough to manage these events and then quickly return to the tools that are moving you toward your goals. Obviously, cheating can be problematic. Certain processed foods can cause withdrawal like symptoms and any cheating will just prolong that negative experience. It's also possible to overeat SO MUCH of the wrong thing during a cheat meal/day that you actually take a few steps back from your goal despite the benefit you may be receiving. Whether or not you can fit a planned dietary break into your nutritional program is not something I can answer generally without talking to you first, but we'd love to help build something for you that works! Also, if you mess up, and have a few, impromptu cheat days (or weeks) in a row... it's not over. And that's no reason to give up. Just start today, right now, and get back on the horse.

The single most important thing that any diet must consider if you plan on being successful long term... is hunger. It doesn't matter how great counting calories works, or fasting, or anything else, if you have to fight hunger constantly, you will, eventually, inevitably fail. Just something I want to be on everybody's mind as we start exploring more nutritional concepts soon. Hope everyone is having a great day! First course in the classroom hopefully launching this week, COMPLETELY FREE for all members. So enjoy!