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- Skinny-fat and struggling 👇
I want to share this email exchange. For context, this person applied for coaching, and this was their reply to the initial application questions I sent.
Q) Andy, I don't think I'm ready for coaching. I'm a full-time graduate student, employee, and a father to a 16-month-old. Sometimes, I only have time and energy to train twice a week. I need more, and I swing between either doing nothing, or far too much, to compensate.
I get hyper-fixated on how my body looks rather than on how it…Read more - Q) Do insulin spikes prevent fat loss? 🤔 Q) I’ve heard that I should avoid sugary foods to lose weight, as blood sugar spikes and insulin prevent fat loss. I’ve even seen a lot of influencers wearing glucose monitors to track their blood sugar. Is it true that insulin prevents fat loss? Should I wear a glucose monitor to track my blood sugar?
A) Great question, and I understand the confusion.
This idea comes from something called the carbohydrate-insulin hypothesis of obesity, an outdated idea still promoted by many doctors and…Read more
- What he did wrong 👇 Last Friday's email — Upset Reader Quiz — Can you spot what he's doing wrong? — was the most popular I have written to in a while.
As I said in my email to him:
Donate $200 to the charity of your choice. Send me a screenshot of the receipt. I’ll tell you in one sentence exactly where you’ve gone wrong and are continuing to."
Here's the sentence:
Stop trying to gauge your progress based on estimations of body fat percentage.
As one reader called Raymond said, "He’s panicking over something…Read more
- Two conferences I'll be at — Come say hi! 👋🍻 Hello!
I'll be at two conferences in the next couple of months.
I'm not speaking at either. I'm there to hang out, see friends, and make new ones.
Countless good things in my career have come from the friendships I have made at conferences. So, if you want to come and say hello, please don't be shy. I'll introduce you to the gang.
International Fitness Summit — 8-10th September, Brighton UK
A fun conference more than a geeky one, with a "meet your favorite fitness people and have a beer with…Read more
- Upset Reader Quiz — Can you spot what he's doing wrong? I offended a newsletter subscriber this week.
It seems I was mistaken in my assessment of you, as quite frankly, it feels insulting to be spoken to as if I’m a golden retriever.”
He didn’t like my reply to his email. Exasperated. Desperate. Full of detail. Our 11th exchange over the past six years.
Donate $200 to the charity of your choice, send me a screenshot of the receipt, and I'll tell you in one sentence exactly where you've gone wrong and are continuing to."
It wasn’t my intention to…Read more
- Is a lack of soreness after training a problem? 💪 When you first started training, you likely experienced crippling soreness for a few days after your workouts. This is called delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS.
After a couple of weeks, this faded to a manageable level. And now DOMS beyond a background feeling may be rare.
You’re reminded of how this feels whenever you change your program, join a buddy for a workout, or return to the gym after time off. And while hobbling around the house is unwelcome, there can be comfort in a little…Read more
- WHO warns against artificial sweeteners? Here's our take. The World Health Organization (WHO) has released new guidelines advising people not to use artificial sweeteners in place of added sugars for weight control.
Facepalms were heard everywhere across our non-lunatic corner of the fitness industry. 🤦♂️
Their statement is a near-100-page PDF. We can’t address it all, but the most misleading sentence is arguably:
Replacing free sugars with artificial sweeteners does not help with weight control in the long term."
This flies in the face of the…Read more
- Troubleshooting Fat Loss — Calorie Logging Edition I'll be restarting the podcast next month. But this time, I'd like you to join me.
If you'd like to have me troubleshoot any physique problems you are having (like I do for Jon in today's email), make sure you click link at the bottom of the email.
Troubleshooting Fat Loss — Calorie Logging Edition
For context, today's question comes from a client of over two years who lost 70 lbs (310 lbs > 240 lbs). He finished coaching at the end of last year. I received this email a few days ago.
Q) Hey,…Read more
- You can't hold yourself accountable 🤝 Today, on my morning walk, I listened to Ramit Sethi talk about his new Netflix show about money on the My First Million Podcast.
In part of the conversation, he talked about his struggles with fitness. This took me by surprise as last month we were hanging out in Tokyo, and I thought he looked pretty buff.
Anyway, he talked about the turning point in fitness for him. It's remarkably simple:
All of us say we want something and do something different.
I remember multiple people in college…Read more
- Does "Biohacking" create fragility?👨🏻🔬 In internet entrepreneur circles, biohacking is rampant.
It’s in their nature to always look for an edge, and seeing friends get sucked into this nonsense is maddening.
My friend Itamar Marani, who is a mindset coach to entrepreneurs, has a unique perspective on this:
An unpopular or unsexy truth is that biohacking creates mental fragility.
From what I’ve seen, biohackers usually become victims of their optimization checklists. What starts as a net positive optimization (even a tiny one)…Read more