Those are the first two things you need to know when considering if sugar is bad. After all, your body is perfectly designed to metabolize sugar. When you eat carbohydrates (any carbohydrates, vegetables included) your body eventually breaks them down into glucose (AKA sugar).

So, the idea that sugar is bad when your body is designed to use it and convert it into energy just doesn’t make sense.

Now, that’s not to say that too much sugar can’t be a problem. It can, but understanding your limits can make your diet a lot less stressful and a lot more delicious. Let’s dig in.

Is Sugar The Cause of Obesity and Diabetes?

If you’re going to stand up for sugar for anything (because, again, it has some downsides, which we’ll discuss), it’s the belief that sugar is the cause of diseases like obesity and diabetes.

Yes, sugar can play an indirect role in both. But, data and research don’t align to suggest that both diseases are driven by sugar.

Over the last 40 years, our sugar consumption has shifted from 20.8 teaspoons of sugar per day in the 1970s to about 23 teaspoons of sugar per day. Both numbers are too high, but the ~2.2 teaspoons increase is only about 32 added extra calories. Again, too much sugar, but the increase in sugar is not what’s driving obesity.

After all, according to USDA data, calorie consumption has increased by anywhere from 600 to 700 calories over the same time period. For reference, the consumption of fats and oils jumped from 52 pounds per year (per person) in the 1970s to 82 pounds per year more recently.

The problem with obesity is too many calories. And that is a complicated problem that includes many factors such as food availability, hyper-palatable foods (think fat, salty, and sweet combined), psychological factors, social factors, and genetics.

Can sugar potentially make you desire to eat more? Yes. But, as you’ll find out, the poison is in the dose and the source. It’s not one or the other.

The same goes for diabetes. Many people believe that sugar causes diabetes. In reality, it’s excess body fat that triggers the disease. If you have too much body fat, then it creates insulin resistance, which means your body’s natural glucose control breaks and you start storing and processing sugar differently. That’s what leads to prediabetes and, ultimately, diabetes.

So Why Do People Think Sugar is Toxic?

The short answer: because it makes for a compelling narrative in a book or documentary.

Listen, sugar has its downsides, and limiting sugar is a good thing. But, the idea that you need to avoid all sugar isn’t supported by science.

If sugar is bad and “toxic,” then what should you think about fruit?

Before you buy into the easy-to-sell idea that sugar is the root of all evil, you might want to consider that over the last 50 years, different ingredients or macronutrients tend to be blamed for all health issues.

Despite science that suggests one food is not the reason for all health shortcomings, many are convinced that carbs and sugar are inherently bad.

Sugar’s real “toxicity” level is something like 6 pounds per day (test in rats). That’s not happening to even the biggest sweet tooth.

When people talk about toxicity, they usually are referring to the addictive nature of sugar. The anti-sugar crowd likes to compare it with addictive drugs.

But, if you were to eat a spoonful of sugar (cue Mary Poppins), how much would you want to shovel down a second, third, or fourth spoonful?

The answer is most people wouldn’t because sugar alone does not drive palatability. There are many factors, which include:

• A combination of sweet, starch, and fat
• Mouth-feel
• Salt
• Consistency

Even research suggests that sugar-alone isn’t driving food obsession. A comprehensive review found that sugar was not addictive, but that high-fat savory and high-fat sweet foods are much more likely to be overeaten than mostly sugary sweet foods.

Which Sugars Are Better and Healthier?

Sugar is far more than just the white stuff you spoon into your coffee. (That’s sucrose.)

In biochemistry, sugar is either a monosaccharide or a disaccharide (“saccharides” being another name for “carbohydrates”).

• A monosaccharide is a simple sugar.
• A disaccharide is a sugar composed of two simple sugars.
• An oligosaccharide is composed of two to ten simple sugars.
• A polysaccharide is composed of two or more simple sugars (300 to 1,000 glucose molecules in starch).

In short, all carbohydrates are composed of single sugars. If we go back to the example of sucrose, or table sugar, that’s actually a disaccharide of the simple sugars glucose and fructose.

Meanwhile, starch, dietary fiber, and cellulose are polysaccharides. That’s an important distinction for those of you keeping score at home: fiber — something most people know as good — is also a form of sugar.

Of those three, we can only digest starch, which is composed of glucose. Starch is also what you’ve probably heard call “complex carbs” or “slow carbs” — slow because the body needs time to break them down into single sugars (notably glucose, the “blood sugar”).

So the idea of a true non-sugar diet means kicking out a lot of foods that are perfectly healthy. Sure, you can live without ingesting sugars, or even carbs … but only because your body can synthesize the glucose its needs out of fatty acids and amino acids.

This happens because your body needs sugar. Glucose is needed as fuel for important functions, like your nervous system and your brain. (Yes, your brain doesn’t only function on glucose, but it does need glucose; and glucose also helps cells interact.)

Maybe more importantly: there are many perfectly healthy foods that contain sugar (see below).

Any no-sugar diet that removes all of the following foods is likely flawed. And that’s the point: any diet that veers towards extremes oftentimes is misguided, and that includes the catch-all “don’t eat any sugar.”

When Does Sugar Become Bad For You?

Like most things in life, the poison is in the dose.

As we’ve seen, your body actually needs sugars, to the point that it’ll manufacture some even if you avoid all carbohydrates.

We already discussed that body fatness is the main driver of type-II diabetes and obesity. But sugar can contribute to overeating. And, too much sugar also results in an increase in advanced glycation end products, and so in skin damage and a greater risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

That’s why added sugar can be dangerous: not because it’s “as addictive as cocaine.”

The real danger with sugar is not that it’s inherently fattening. A gram of sugar is still just 4 calories. And 4 calories will not make you fat.

However, you can eat a lot of sugar and not feel full. And that’s the typical pattern. You eat some sugar (usually combined with other foods and hidden in beverages)…and then some more…and then some more…and next thing you know a box of cookies are gone, a can of soda, and sugary coffee drink are all gone…and you’re still feeling hungry.

Added sugars are too easy to over-consume. That’s true of every added sugar, no matter how healthy-sounding it may be.

Is Honey Better Than Cane Sugar?

Don’t be fooled into thinking honey or maple syrup or agave is better for you. Sugar is sugar. Even the much-vilified high-fructose corn syrup (55% fructose, 45% glucose, usually) isn’t a lot worse than sucrose (50% fructose, 50% glucose).

What are especially treacherous are sugars in liquid form. You can drink and drink and drink mass quantities of them—enough calories to account for a five-course meal—and yet still feel hungry.

Perhaps it’s unsurprising that soft drinks are linked to the current obesity epidemic. Sodas and colas are by far the main source of added sugar in the average American’s diet, accounting for 34.4% of the added sugar consumed by U.S. adults and children.

In that respect, fruit juices aren’t any healthier. In fact, they can be even worse.

Why? Because the sugar in fruit juice is fructose, which can stress the liver (only the liver can metabolize fructose in any large amounts).

There’s one “sugary” drink that doesn’t pose the same threat: milk.

While milk contains sugar (lactose, a disaccharide of glucose and galactose), it has far less than fruit juice, since milk also contains protein and fat. Back in the day when fats were the enemy, low-fat milk was considered healthier than whole milk; the same isn’t true today.

Now that fats have been (partially) redeemed, whole milk is back in fashion — and backed by lots of evidence.

Is The Sugar In Fruit Bad?

No, fruit is not bad for you. If we could scream it from the mountain tops and plaster over every Instagram feed, we would tell you:

There is no evidence that eating fruit, even in high amounts, will harm your health.

Unlike fruit juices, whole fruits are filling. Apples, though solid, are 10% sugar … and 85% water; that alone makes them very hard to overeat. In addition, recent studies show that whole fruits may help regulate blood sugar.

How Much Added Sugar Is Safe?

Here’s something we can all celebrate: you don’t need to feel guilty each time you eat added sugar. But, you should stay aware of your consumption and do your best not to exceed these limits:

• 100 calories/day if you’re a woman (about six teaspoons, or 25 g);
• 150 calories/day if you’re a man (about nine teaspoons, or 36 g)

What does that mean in real food?

That’s the equivalent of about 1 full-sized Snickers bar or about 7-8 Oreo cookies.

That’s not to say you should add Snickers or Oreos to your daily eating plan. The example simply illustrates the safe, maximum amount you can have each day.

The reason it’s not so simple is that added sugar winds up in a lot of unexpected places, like soup, pizza, and granola.

While the average consumption of sugar in the United States may be decreasing, it’s still way too high.

If you want an easier way to keep your sugar consumption in check, use the guide below. It’s based on the model of the old school Food Guide Pyramid, which was released in 1992 and replaced in 2005 by MyPyramid—before that was eventually replaced by whatever this thing is that the government is using nowadays.

The Sugar Pyramid is a new spin on dietary sanity.

The base of a healthy sugar pyramid is made of vegetables and fruits: Not only are they filling, but they also provide you with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals (biologically active compounds found in plants, some of which are beneficial to our health).

Whole milk also fits into the base of the Sugar Pyramid. The little sugar naturally occurring in bread doesn’t count as added sugar, either—but the sugar that’s often added during manufacturing in the U.S. does.

As for fruit juices, honey, and maple syrup, they all count as added sugar, as does high-fructose corn syrup.

If the base of your personal sugar pyramid is wide, then sprinkling a little added sugar at the top won’t make it collapse. It’s only when most of the sugar in your diet comes from soft drinks, sweets, cookies, and breakfast cereals that your pyramid is likely to topple, and your health along with it.

READ MORE: 

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

Healthy Fat: Which Foods Should You Really Be Eating?

Kamal Patel is director of Examine.com, an education company he cofounded in 2011. Since that time, Examine.com’s growing team of researchers has reviewed thousands of studies on supplementation and nutrition. Today, over a million visitors each month rely on Examine.com to separate marketing hyperbole from scientific evidence.

The post Is Sugar Bad For You? appeared first on Born Fitness.

People need to stop freaking out about one day where diet rules seem to no longer exist.

Every year, you’ll see people (full disclosure: it’s usually fitness or nutrition pros) recommending complete withdrawal of your favorite foods, or showing you how many minutes of exercise you need to complete in order to burn off your 3 servings of pumpkin pie.

Back. Off.

The holiday isn’t prep for a bodybuilding competition. It’s a day designed to be with family, relax, express thanks, give back to those that have less, and — if you want to — eat a few more calories than you normally do.

People will say we should not use food as a reward. That makes sense.

But, that’s not what this is. Sometimes, food is part of culture and tradition. This is not a bad thing.

Want to know what’s really wrong?

Trying to convince people that overeating too many calories for one day will make a difference. It doesn’t.

What happens when you overeat? (The Surprising Science of Fat Gain)

You’ll see plenty of stats about how the average American will gain anywhere between 5 and 10 pounds between now and the end of the year on diet plans that lose all focus.

Guess what? That weight gain does not occur in a day or two.

Here’s the truth: if you were to overeat by 1,000 to 2,000 calories in one meal, you will not gain any fat. Even if you extend that to 3,000 calories, you’re not going to add any real fat to your body.

You might feel bloated. You might be holding water. But, that will regulate. Science shows that one bad meal does not cause fat gain. It doesn’t happen in a 24-hour cycle.

That’s the same flawed mentality that drives so many diet books to pinpoint one factor that causes weight gain or sparks weight loss.

Go ahead and eat to your heart’s content on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

If you still are stressed, turn your concerns into a math problem for stress relief (and some dietary sanity).

To gain weight, you need to eat roughly eat 3,500 more calories than you typically consume. (It’s probably even more than that. And yes, the old 3,500 calories equals a pound isn’t exactly accurate, but this example still proves a powerful point.)

So, let’s say you normally eat 2,000 calories per day. If you wanted to make any real damage to the scale, you’d probably need to consume at least 6,000 calories in a day.

That is a ton of calories. Even most surveys suggest that American’s only hit about 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving. 

Many factors can cause weight gain. One bad day of eating — especially on a holiday — is not one of those causes.

Need more proof? Take the logic of one gluttonous day of eating and apply it to exercise.

Imagine if you spent one entire day exercising, burning calories, and being the human version of the Energizer Bunny (you keep going… and going… and going). And then the rest of the week (or month) you did nothing.

Would you really expect to be healthy, fit, and look incredible?

Of course not. That one day of massive calorie burn would not offset the energy imbalance created by the rest of the time.

With weight loss and gain, you have to see the bigger picture and understand that nothing occurs in a vacuum. You don’t gain muscle off of one set of curls; it’s the accumulation of volume and stress over time. And you don’t add fat from the infrequent binge, no matter how ridiculous the meal could become.

Is this a license to throw all caution to the wind, eat everything you want, and give the middle finger to a healthy diet? Of course not.

You should still eat with comfort and enjoyment in mind. If you’re doing anything to the point that you don’t feel good, then you’re probably pushing a little too aggressively.

Or, if you know from past experiences that one big indulgence leads to a month of bad habits, then it’s your job to put some restrictions on how much you eat to prevent the single day of enjoyment from turning into a longer period of time.

What To Do After You Overeat

When you have an “off” day and eat too much, you don’t need to do anything special. You simply need to return to better, normal eating habits.

Restriction and living in fear is not needed. Life is meant to be enjoyed, and sometimes that means eating foods that aren’t healthy, not punishing yourself for those behaviors, and acting like that these diet breaks are allowed (because they are).

Every day isn’t a party or a holiday. And you shouldn’t eat like it. But, when those days occur, food stress shouldn’t factor into the equation.

It might not seem healthy, but adding in a few days where you don’t have rules into the mix of many days when you have boundaries is a fair, reasonable trade.

It’s sustainable and will lead to better results. Because any diet that includes food you can enjoy with foods you know are good for you, is likely to be followed for a longer period of time, and that’s when you see the biggest transformations.

It might not sound exciting, but better health, less stress, and more good holiday. memories is something we can all celebrate.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Holiday Diet Plans: The Broken Weight Loss Model appeared first on Born Fitness.

Following a vegetarian diet is a common approach for most people looking to follow a healthier lifestyle. The catch? It can feel difficult to fill the gaps on a meatless diet, especially when it comes to protein, which is a key to building muscle and losing fat.

So we turned to Eric Helms, Ph.D. Not only does Dr. Helms have a master’s in sports nutrition and a doctorate in exercise science, but he’s also been following a plant-based diet since 2011. Here is his advice on following a plant-based diet, and how to build muscle on a vegetarian diet.

Ok, you reflected on what you want and decided to follow a vegetarian lifestyle. But you’re also interested in building muscle (or making sure you don’t lose the muscle you’ve already earned). How do you do it?

You might be surprised that building muscle on a vegetarian diet isn’t that different from a meat-filled plan. In fact, no matter what eating style you follow, if you want to build muscle then you need to eat slightly more calories than you burn in a day (called a “caloric surplus”), and make sure you emphasize protein. All that changes is the source of protein you need when following a vegetarian diet. Do that while training consistently and voila! You will add muscle.

Vegetarian Diet Muscle: Start with Calories

Your first step is to figure out your “maintenance level,” or the number of calories you must eat to keep your weight consistent. To do that:

1. Identify your goal weight. Think “where you want to be,” not “where you are.”
2. 
Use that figure to calculate an estimate of your daily intake using this equation: goal weight x (workout hours per week + 9.5) = daily number of calories
3. Track how much you eat. Online logs like MyFitnessPal can be helpful.
4. Monitor your intake and your scale weight for a couple of weeks. (Weigh yourself first thing in the morning, after you’ve went to the bathroom but before you eat or drink anything.)

If your body weight holds steady, you’ll know that you’ve accurately hit your maintenance number.

If you’re losing weight, you can bump up calories. Add about 100 per day across a week — so, if you were eating 2000 calories per day last week, you’d bump up to 2100 calories per day this week.

If you find you’re gaining weight, do the opposite. Drop a hundred calories per day.

When you reach a number that keeps your weight consistent, voila! You’re at the maintenance level.

But if your goal is to add muscle, you can’t just stop there. To gain muscle, you need to eat more calories than you burn. How many more?

Let’s say you are an intermediate level lifter, meaning that you have been training for a few years.

• If you are a woman or a smaller guy, you’re probably going to want to eat an extra 100 to 200 calories above your maintenance amount.
• If you are a larger, taller guy, you’ll want to focus on an extra 200 to 300 calories.

This should result in you gaining one to two pounds per month. It’s a rough guideline, but one that will cover most people (although not everybody).

[Ed. note: Could you gain more muscle than this? Sure. But this is a realistic rate of growth. Don’t buy into promises that sound great on paper but will only leave you frustrated and want to quit.]

From there, you’ll want to monitor your weight and ask yourself: Am I gaining at the rate of weight that I want? If the answer is “yes,” then great. But if “no,” then continue to bump up your intake incrementally.

How Much Protein, Fat, and Carbs Do Vegetarians Need?

Let’s imagine that you’ve determined how many calories you need to gain muscle. For the sake of keeping the math easy, let’s say you need 3,000 calories per day.

From there you can budget your macronutrients, or how many grams of protein, fat, and carbs you should aim for in a day. Do it in this order:

1. Start with protein. Note that your protein intake will not actually be based on your total energy intake. Your target protein number should be based on how much lean body mass you have. [Ed. note: “Lean body mass” is the weight of everything in your body that isn’t fat — muscle tissue, bone, etc.]

Most people don’t have an easy way to calculate that accurately. So, instead, a good surrogate number to use for calculating protein is your goal body weight (If you are 180 pounds and want to weigh 200 pounds, then that is your goal weight). Multiply that weight by .8 to 1.0, and you’ll have your target protein intake in grams.

You can eat more than that, but you don’t need to. The times when you might want to consume more protein would be if you are gaining weight too quickly because you are hungry all the time. Protein is pretty filling, and going above your bodyweight-based target may help you feel fuller longer.

2. Next up, calculate fat. Let’s go back to the example of 3,000 calories per day with a goal weight of 200 pounds. That means you want 200 grams of protein per day. That equals 800 calories from protein (since protein is 4 calories per gram). You have 2,200 calories remaining for fat and carbohydrates.

A good range for fat in your diet is anywhere between 20% and 40% of total calories from fat (Note: exceptions do exist, such as if you choose to follow a ketogenic diet.). For the 3,000 calories-per-day example, here’s what it would look like:

• Goal weight: 200 pounds
• 
Protein: 200 grams
• Fat calculation: 20-40%
• If 20% of 3,000 calories = 600 calories from fat (or 600/9* = 67 grams of fat/day)
• 
If 40% of 3,000 calories = 1,200 calories from fat (or 1,200/9 = 133 grams of fat/day)

[*Ed. note: fat is 9 calories per gram]

3. Carbohydrates take up whatever calories are remaining. Divide that remainder by four and you’ll find the number of carbohydrates you want to eat in grams. So for each of our examples above:

What Are the Best Protein Sources for Vegetarians?

When you go on a vegetarian diet, it’s hard to find many foods that are pure protein. That’s because many vegetarian protein sources have a lot of crossover – i.e. a grain like quinoa will be high in protein but also high in carbs, or nuts will have protein but also a lot of fat.

That’s especially true as you move toward a strict vegan diet. Picture all plant-based diet on a spectrum, with flexitarians or pescatarians (people who’ll eat fish, eggs and dairy) on the left and strict vegans on the right. The closer you go to veganism, the more difficult things will be.

If you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian, eggs and dairy alone provide you with ample opportunity to get sufficient protein. If you have a few protein servings from one of those sources at each meal, you should be set.

For a lacto-vegetarian, again, it’s not hard to keep your protein up. You can consume whey protein or non-fat Greek yogurt, and both are high in protein while being low in carbs and fat. They might as well be meat in terms of their macronutrient breakdowns (although with some extra carbs in there).

For an ovo-vegetarian, egg whites provide basically the same thing: a food that’s high in protein and low in everything else. You could stick with just those if you were trying to control calories. Or you could mix in as many yolks as you want to hit your fat target for the day.

Best of all: In both cases (lacto and ovo), you’re getting a high-quality protein source. What I mean by that, from the perspective of someone who wants to gain muscle, is that they are high in essential amino-acids like leucine, which is one of the triggers for muscle protein synthesis (the process of building of new muscle).

If you’re a vegan, you have to worry to some degree about complementary proteins. Basically, many plant-based protein sources don’t have all nine essential amino acids. [Ed. note: if you don’t have all the essential aminos, then you can’t put those aminos to use for building muscle.] So you’ll have to mix different sources of plant-based protein together in order to get a complete set of amino acids.

A common example is rice and beans. Together, those two foods provide a complete protein source.

You don’t need to worry about complementary proteins on a meal-to-meal basis. You just want to look globally at your diet. Are you consuming multiple sources of proteins — rice, beans, quinoa, tofu to some degree — that are complementary in nature? Eating a variety of protein sources as a vegan ensures that you’re getting all of the essential amino acids.

Here are some of the vegetarian diet protein sources:

High Protein

• Edamame (1 cup, cooked) = 16g of protein
• Tempeh (3 oz.) = 16g
• Seitan (6 oz.) = 15g
• Textured Vegetable Protein (¼ cup, dry) = 12g
• 
Hemp Hearts (3 tbsp.) = 10g
• Spelt (1 cup) = 10g

Moderate Protein

• Red lentils (½ cup) = 9g
• Peas (1 cup) = 8g
• Red Beans (½ cup) = 8g
• Kidney Beans (½ cup) = 8g
• Quinoa (1 cup) = 8g
• Tofu (3 oz.) = 8g
• Black Beans (½ cup) = 7g
• Great Northern Beans (½ cup) = 7g
• Almonds (1 oz.) = 6g
• Garbanzo Beans  (½ cup) = 6g
• Pumpkin seeds (1oz.) = 5g
• Collard greens (1 cup, raw) = 5 g
• Hubbard Squash (1 cup, cooked) = 5g

Lower Protein

• Asparagus (1 cup) = 4 g per cup
• 
Spinach (1 cup) = 4g per cup
• 
Sweet potatoes (1 cup, roasted with skins)= 4g
• Beet Greens (1 cup) = 4g
• Brussel sprouts (1 cup) = 3.9g
• 
Mushrooms (1 cup) = 3g
• Broccoli (1 cup) = 3g
• Broccoli Rabe (1 cup, cooked) = 3g
• Mung Bean Sprouts (1 cup, cooked) = 2.5g
• 
Kale (1 cup, raw) = 2.5g
• 
Zucchini (1 cup, sliced) = 2g
• Cauliflower (1 cup, chopped) = 2g

Vegetarian Diet Protein Powder: A Primer

If you are a vegan, it’s likely that you’ll want to invest in a pea protein (or pea protein blend).

Why pea and not soy, the most common one?

There’s some research showing that soy protein, in large amounts, could potentially affect sperm quality and quantity in men. There’s other research indicating that soy could potentially affect estrogen levels, but that’s less consistent. Some studies show it, some don’t.

Women probably don’t have to worry about this stuff because even if estrogen changes, you’d still be within normal, acceptable ranges compared to how much estrogen you’re normally producing. But, I’m not comfortable enough with the ambivalence of the research, and the potential consequences, to advise having soy as a large part of your diet, as a vegan or a vegetarian.

Notice I said “large part.” Having a serving of soy per day is not a big deal. So if you want to have tofu once a day, that’s all good. If you have a scoop of soy protein once a day, that’s totally fine. You just wouldn’t want to have 40-50% of your protein intake come from soy. That’s probably not a good idea.

Instead, you probably want to invest in a protein blend that is high quality, complete, and doesn’t have those issues. Pea protein or a rice-pea blend is what you want.

In fact, pea protein performs really well in research. It’s comparable to whey protein in terms of its leucine content. A term that I’ve seen thrown around is “vegan’s whey,” which is roughly a 70/30 blend of pea protein and rice protein. You actually get a very similar essential amino acid profile to whey.

Outside of just the amino acid profile, we’ve actually seen studies where people perform just as well in terms of body competition change (ratio of muscle to body fat) and performance when they eat pea protein after a workout, compared to whey.

The one thing to note about pea/rice blends is that they bulk up a lot. No matter how much water you add to it, it will have an earthy flavor. The mix is pretty filling, I’ve found, but drinking it can feel a little bit tiresome due to that mouthfeel. If you are accustomed to whey protein, which is very thin, this will be different than what you are used to.

A way to work around that is to mix small amounts of vegan protein powder into things like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You can’t put a huge amount in there or it can start to get a little gritty and weird, but sneaking in a little bit will help you up the protein count of your meals – and save you from having to drink shake after shake.

How to Tell if a Vegetarian Diet is Working for You

When your goal is building muscle, start by tracking your weight. You’ll also want to track your workout performance. Whether or not the weights you are using, or the reps you can perform, are going upward or downward can tell you a lot about how well your lifestyle is supporting your goals.

But remember: external goals aren’t the only thing that matters. You also have to live in the body you’re building every day. So create a rating scale for yourself, say, from 1 to 5. Each day, rate how you feel on the qualitative aspects of your life. This includes:

• sleep
• energy
• hunger
• mood
• 
mental clarity
• 
workout quality or enjoyment

Those subjective ratings are important. Also, while it’s a little bit uncomfortable to talk about, you may even want to monitor whether it’s easier or harder to use the toilet. If you’re eating appropriately and drinking sufficient water, it should get easier.

While we’re on the subject, here’s another thing to note: When you increase your vegetable consumption, you may experience an increase in gas. Really, that’s true whenever you make a large-scale change to your diet. Two things to note:

1. Try Gas-X (it’s a lifesaver).
2. Typically, things should start to normalize as your gut microbiome gets more accustomed to what you’re taking in. You’ll likely notice an improvement over a few weeks to a month.

Your energy levels shouldn’t fluctuate that much if you’re doing it right. If you feel really off, even though your macronutrients and your total calories are the same, that can indicate some type of micronutrient problem. That’s not always the case, but it’s worth watching. If the issue is persistent, try a blood test.

For Long-Term Success, Be Clear About Why You Want to Be a Vegetarian

Whenever I first start talking to someone who wants to make a shift over to a vegetarian or vegan diet, but who is also interested in athletic performance, the first thing I ask is: Why do you want to do this?

A common response is, “Well, we know vegetarian diets are better for health and performance.” That’s where we have to stop and take an objective look at what we really know about vegetarian diets.

There are two things that often skew people’s viewpoints:

1. The “rose-colored glasses” problem. It’s natural for people to see only the positives in data, especially when their ethical beliefs are driving it. Someone who promotes vegetarian diet, or who believes it is unethical to not eat vegetarian, may only highlight or acknowledge research showing that vegetarian diets are healthier.

2. The confounding variables problem. When you look at the broad spectrum of quality research, you see that, yes, vegetarians are healthier and live longer compared to the general population. The thing is, a person from the general population is not someone who really thinks about what they are eating, other than perhaps to ask, “Do I want more salt on this?”

So in these studies, as soon as you look at a vegetarian, you are bringing in someone who has made a serious decision about their nutrition. Which usually means they are more attentive to their health in general. They’re typically more active. They drink and smoke less. They are more conscious of calorie intake. They usually have a lower BMI. All of these things predict a longer life and better health. So yes, compared to the general population, vegetarians typically do better.

Here’s the “but.” But, when researchers get comparable controls to vegetarians (i.e. people who tick those other boxes about less drinking/smoking, lower BMI higher activity levels, and so on), it starts to wash out those differences. You don’t see such drastic health benefits.

That’s not to say a vegetarian diet can’t be healthy. Fruit and vegetable intake are highly important for health. But you can eat meat, fruit and vegetables, and likewise be healthy.

I would say that the only “evidence based argument” to do a plant-based diet would probably be for ethics – and even then, it’s going to be subjective, and specific to your personal ethics.

I encourage you to assess your own beliefs. Figure out what you feel the most ethically comfortable with. Instead of just rigidly trying to follow someone else’s plan, ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish?”

Vegetarian Diet for Muscle Building: Quick Notes

• • Building muscle on a vegetarian diet is very possible. The basic rules are the same: Eat a little more, prioritize protein, get sufficient rest and sleep, and then kick ass in the gym.
  • If you’re a flexitarian, pescetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, you have plenty of options for getting sufficient protein. Whey protein is your friend. So is Greek yogurt and eggs.

READ MORE:

The Best Protein Sources

The Myth of the Best Diet Plan (And How to Find What Works for You)

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

The post How to Build Muscle on a Vegetarian Diet appeared first on Born Fitness.

The statement is so simple and common, and yet merely telling someone to not stuff their face as often is also incredibly wrong.

Sure, if you eat less you’re likely to lose some weight and it’s an important part of the process. But saying “eat less” obviously isn’t that simple, and it’s those instructions alone that do plenty of damage.

With dieting it’s more effective to win at a smaller game than to lose at a bigger game.

The reason is in the process it takes to do so. Eating less usually means changing habits, such as what you eat, when you eat, or how much you stress about each and every meal. So eating less really isn’t just eating less; it’s making more decisions that trigger a series of reactions.

It’s those reactions where fat loss usually fails. It’s the rules, poor decisions, and demonizing of certain foods that make simple concept (eat less) the reason why people generally hate diets.

Tell someone not to eat a burger, and they might believe that removing one food they love will trigger weight loss. The truth: that removal will do more harm than good, especially when you realize that burgers (or really any food) can be a part of an effective diet plan.

Instead, the most effective diet programs don’t settle for cliches (eat less, move more), or even scapegoats (gotta be the carbs, right?), instead it’s about simplifying the lifestyle factors that make it easier to understanding how fat loss works.

That’s a real ingredient that is most often overlooked, and the backbone of Fat Loss Happens on Monday, a new book by Josh Hillis. If you want to take a new and more effective approach to weight loss, here are just a few of the principles that will make the process more doable and less of a headache.

Fat Loss Nutrition: Time to Choose

On of the biggest issues with most plans is the inflexibility. Quite simply, you have too many rules that force you to take a plan that doesn’t really fit how you eat and live.

A smarter approach is to look at your day-to-day habits and the build the plan around you, since making a diet fit your life is a big part of making sure it’s successful. Let’s take on of the most common problems as an example: your most difficult meal

The Problem: Mealtimes and Obstacles

Despite the surge in snacking behavior, most people still base their days around the concept of eating three meals per day.

Let’s say Bill has a hard time figuring out how to “get time for breakfast”, which becomes problematic because he repeatedly blows his lunch because he’s starving by the time he gets there. (Sounds familiar, right?)

Or Amy might feel breakfast and lunch are easy because she has a routine, but the wheels come off the wagon at dinner.

And Suzy might have no problem with breakfast and dinner, but work meetings often run through lunch and that’s where she struggles.

All of these three clients have very different issues hitting their meal plan, and it would be silly for each of them to work on the same thing.

At the same time, they all feel like they are “failing at fat loss” and they go searching for another diet, another superfood, another magic workout. But another diet or workout isn’t going to solve the issues they have with food.

Essentially, all of their issues are strategy issues.  They need to play the game of making the “problem meal” work.

Don’t Make Lists, Simplify The Changes

The first step to making realistic change is narrowing the focus of which mealtime to fix.

The easiest approach is to start with the meal that causes the most trouble, rather than trying to solve every meal. (Hint, you should do that for yourself right now).

And then you choose – how many meals do you want to take on next week?

The mindset is simple: you want to create your own fat loss game each and every week. It’s a s simple challenge.
Which meal time do you want to go to work on?
How many meals do you want to work on?

Maybe Suzy is really confident she can follow the plan.  She chooses: “I’m going to crush five lunches next week.”

And then the process begins. Suzy would take her day planner, look at her meetings, and plan what to do — strategically — to make that happen.

Maybe on meeting days when she can’t take a lunch, she brings two snacks to eat at her desk. Or on days when her lunch just gets pushed back, she brings a substantial mid-morning snack to get her through to the late lunch.

The point is, it’s not about a new diet or workout, and it’s not a willpower thing. It’s a matter of looking ahead to see the roadblocks that always come up, and handling them ahead of time.

Maybe Bill is working on breakfast, but he absolutely can’t see any way to make breakfast work because he never has time. So instead of mastery, the focus just becomes on achieving one good breakfast for the week.

Instead of solving a massive issues that’s always been an issue, now the focus is clear: How do I eat one good breakfast? And what are the barriers?

Usually the problems become clear: no breakfast foods in the house, no time in the morning, no ability to cook.

So you try to make adjustments for the reasons you struggle with food. Instead of planning in lunches in a calendar, Bill would be making time to go to the grocery store, or setting his clock 30 minutes earlier to wake up and have time to eat. These are lifestyle adjustments that help change behavior.

For Bill, because these are big changes he’s only focusing on that one meal.  He’s putting all of his willpower and discipline and energy and planning into winning at that one meal – and he doesn’t have to worry about the rest of the week’s meals or workouts or anything else besides that one meal.

It might not seem like much, but this is where long term fat loss begins.

It’s Not About Perfect, It’s About A Change You Can Make

That’s another reason that you get to choose how big of a change you make — because you want to know you can win at it.

For the one person, changing five meals could feel totally doable, if she had a plan. For the other, changing one meal seemed really big, and would also take a plan.

Is one better than the other?  Not at all.

If they both win at the games they chose for themselves, then they’re moving forward. It doesn’t matter if you win at 1 meal next week or 5. What matters is that you choose a game that is going to forward your goals, and you win at it.

With dieting it’s more effective to win at a smaller game than to lose at a bigger game.

It’s no different than the Tipping Point theory. But the difference here is you make up the game, so it’s your job to create a world where you know you can win.

Then, after you win the game one week you can create a new game for next week. And continue on focusing on winning one game at a time.

The 4-Step Plan to Fat Loss Nutrition

If you’re just getting started or hit a roadblock, here’s a 4-step plan you can follow to help on the path to fat loss success.

1. Choose which meal you are going to work on next week — breakfast, lunch, or dinner .  (Depending on your situation, you might even get more specific — dinners out, lunch when I have to work a double, ect.)
2. Choose how many meals you are going to take on upgrading next week — One? Three? Five?  (Whatever you do, take on a number you are confident you can win.)
3. Do the planning – work backwards from the meal(s), figuring out what you need to do differently this week. Be strategic about the roadblocks that always throw you off for that meal.
4. Avoid distraction. This week, don’t stress about your workouts or the rest of the meals you eat, just nail the meal(s) you are working on this week. You can always expand or change what you are working on next week. But for this week, just focus on the one thing that you choose.

This could be a completely different way of looking at fat loss from anything you’ve seen before. It’s simple, reasonable, and doable.  Hopefully, it almost seems too simple.

If you stack up little wins every week you’re going to be shocked at the impact these “little wins” have on your leanness and scale weight over the next couple months.

READ MORE: 

6 Exercise Upgrades for Better Results

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

Eating at Night Does Not Make You Fat

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post A New Approach To Fat Loss Nutrition appeared first on Born Fitness.

Can a new way of looking at diet plans and eating, a new fat loss formula, along with a new way of exercising make a chronic disease go away and restore health? For David Musikanth, the answer is a resounding yes.

The Ultimate Weight Loss Battle

A good plan is one where you eat what you like. It’s something you don’t see in most diet plans.

For most of his life, Musikanth had suffered from Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disorder that brings on unpredictable spells of pain, diarrhea, bleeding, and constipation. It also causes fatigue and, in general, makes your life miserable.

“You can be at home and you want to go out and all of a sudden your stomach isn’t 100 percent and you can’t go out,” he says. “You absolutely can’t. You have to stay somewhere where you have facilities. Crohn’s ruled my life.”

Musikanth was medicated for the condition, and he did exercise, but even then he says it’s still difficult to control symptoms. Finally, a little over two years ago, at age 43 with a wife and two children, he reached a point where something had to change.

“You realize you’re not getting any younger,” he says. “Health is a bigger issue and it was hitting home much harder than it ever did. I wanted to do something for myself that didn’t involve doctors and treatment.”

His first stop, as it is for most of us, was the internet. What could he find? Who could help? He didn’t really have a set diet (“I didn’t think much about it at all”) and his workouts had never changed his body in any meaningful way.

Soon he stumbled on trainer Adam Bornstein’s Twitter feed. “I was intrigued by his posts,” Musikanth says. “So I just asked him some basic questions about nutrition and exercise.”

Bornstein engaged and suggested that Musikanth overhaul his approach to both eating and working out. The first change? Instead of eating the way he’d always had, Bornstein suggested intermittent fasting. It’s a simple concept: Between the hours of noon and 8 p.m., you eat all your normal meals. The rest of the time you consume nothing. “It sounded completely crazy,” Musikanth says.

Ditching Diets for Nutrition Plans

He and his wife decided to try it together – “It’s a lot easier if you have someone to do it with” – along with a change in what he was eating. “Before, there was no concept of diet. A typical meal would be like hot dogs or hamburgers and chips. And a Coke. I wouldn’t even think twice about it.”

Musikanth eliminated the garbage food, but also changed what he eat for the majority of his diet. He’ll eat chicken and vegetables. Fish. Eggs for breakfast. An occasional steak. “It was very strange at first, fitting all my meals into a set timeframe,” he says.

The biggest difference, though, was the flexibility. There was no talk of removing family favorites like pizza night and sushi. Instead, it was understanding how to build a eating style around a lifestyle, and then make sure the plan was doable.

The first three months were tough because of the adjustment of the “good foods” to eat, not because of what was restricted.

“What was amazing was where I initially struggled,” says Musikanth. “It’s not strict in terms of avoiding all foods. A good plan is one where you eat what you like. It’s something you don’t see in most diet plans.”

“But the bigger issue is how much you stay on plan versus having flexibility. In time, your body becomes trained for it. Now it’s second nature. More importantly, Adam set expectations so that when progress stalled, we knew that the plan didn’t stop working. Instead, we discovered how plateaus can be part of progress.”

Bornstein also gave Musikanth a new approach to fitness – a combination of strength and metabolic training that he’d never encountered before. “I did go to a gym, but what I did was very old fashioned, very boring kind of stuff,” he says.

“Now I walk into the gym and have to do all these strange movements. It was very weird at first. But in four months, my whole body changed. Even the people at the gym were asking me, ‘What kind of training is this?’ These were exercises that no one had ever seen.”

Reinventing The Fat Loss Formula

In those first months, Musikanth dropped 22 pounds, which took him from flabby to shredded – an unexpected side benefit. “I hadn’t been majorly fat. It wasn’t like I needed to lose this weight, but it was simply my body shedding fat. Now I look completely different.”

But again, to really appreciate Musikanth’s story, you have to look past the aesthetics. In those first months, along with the physical changes, all of his Crohn’s symptoms disappeared.

Musikanth has been on Bornstein’s plan for 2 years, is now 45, and is quite literally a changed man. “I changed everything. I did a complete change in what I ate, a complete change in how I train. I’m still on the Crohn’s medication, but I have no side effects. It’s in complete remission.”

There’s one more eye-opening bit of information you should know. Musikanth lives in South Africa. Bornstein splits his time between Denver and Los Angeles. This man managed to engage a trainer and successfully implement his plan from half a world away.

Think about that. Some people live 10 minutes from their gym and still can’t make it work with trainers.

Musikanth has thought about this. “I go to a beautiful gym,” he says. “But you look at the trainers and they’re very young. To me, what makes the relationship work is having commitment on both sides. When you see the results, obviously, you see the results. Then it doesn’t matter which side of the planet you’re on.”

The Born Fitness Family: David Musikanth

The Results

I went from 83 kgs to a constant 69-70 kgs. My body fat dropped from 20 percent to below 10 percent and my fitness level just improved like mad enabling me to do my 1st 10km run as well as complete 2 Impi challenges, which is a 12km trail run with 20 odd obstacles in between.

These would never even have been contemplated before Born Fitness online coaching. More importantly to me is that in the now 3 years of Born Fitness I have not had one incident of  Crohn’s disease throughout this period which is quite astonishing!! Even my doctors are at a loss. For me this has been the real success of Born Fitness, helping me get my life back.

Why Born Fitness

I grew up in a home where diet certainly wasn’t an issue, so I was always overweight even though as a kid I went to the gym and did routine weights. In my 20s I was diagnosed with the chronic disease Crohn’s which affected me really badly both from a diet perspective and a training perspective, it all went flat from there on.

Even though I still trained I just had no plan and I ate pretty freely as well as being on chronic medication daily. This went on until I discovered Born Fitness when I was 44! Once I had joined Born fitness my life did a complete u-turn even at this late age. I got a managed, educated, designed and completely different training and eating plan that delivered the results I so desperately craved in its 1st month!!

Certainly a plan designed just for me and diet constructed around what I eat just made it easier and much more simple to negotiate. I would definitely say that a new world of exercises in a structured plan was what instantaneously made a difference. A mix of functional cardio and focused weight training just breathed new life into my system.

Want to Join the Born Fitness Family?

Learn more about your personalized approach to fitness. Apply here. 

The post The Fat Loss Formula for Any Age: The David Musikanth Story appeared first on Born Fitness.

If the engine is broken, it doesn’t matter what type of fuel you add to the machine.

But if the fuel is terrible, your body still won’t function the way you want.

Between fears of high protein diets, high fat diets, and really any type of carbohydrate, eating has become an overcomplicated mess that creates more stress than needed.

It’s time to change that mindset while simultaneously changing the way your body looks.

Use this guide to understand what your body needs, and why you don’t have to frustratingly avoid certain foods that you want as part of your healthy living plan.

Carbohydrates: The Misunderstood One

Carbohydrates seem to be the focus of most diets you read about (especially fat-loss diets), so it makes sense to start here.

Carbs have taken a real beating in the media ever since some guy named Atkins (you may have heard of him) decided we weren’t allowed to eat doughnuts anymore. (Prior to this we were allowed to eat doughnuts, but they had to be reduced fat; this made us feel better about ourselves.)

All joking aside, carbs have a bad reputation, or at least a worse one than they deserve.

Carbs come in a variety of forms. Some are good for you, and some are bad. The bad ones are usually highly processed and could barely be considered food other than the fact that they’re edible. They may be delicious, but they’re also the result of some crazy scientific processes.

Of course, if you process the crap out of anything, it reaches a point where it just isn’t healthy anymore. This doesn’t mean carbs are evil and to blame for the obesity epidemic—it just means that eating processed foods that are loaded with sugars and highly palatable are great at making people fat.

Why? Because we end up eating far too much of it. The reality is, your diet can include some processed carbs too, as long as it’s a minimal amount of the overall amount you eat.

Carbs 101: Simple vs. Complex

Carbohydrates are made up of sugar molecules, which your body breaks down into fuel, especially when you’re working hard. Sugars, starches, and fiber are all basic forms of the carbohydrate.

There are two main types of carbohydrates: simple and complex.

We could also mention fibrous carbs that you can find in foods like green veggies, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, spinach, cauliflower, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini … buuuut we won’t.

For the purposes of this discussion of carbs, we only want to touch on stuff that is probably causing issues with your weight. This doesn’t mean that these foods don’t count. They do.

But I don’t think a primary cause of weight gain is eating too many vegetables. And after coaching literally thousands of people, it’s become very clear that eating more veggies has always been a good thing.

Quite simply, eating vegetables allows you to eat more. And by eating more, you’re less hungry. And when you consider that hunger is strongly associated weight weight gain, winning war on hangry is half the battle.

Simple Carbohydrates

In the most basic sense, simple carbohydrates include table sugar, syrup, and soda. Most of the time, these carbs should be avoided (exceptions include cheat days or small daily indulgences, which should be included in any plan) and are usually the “bad carbs” that fitness pros talk about. Also included on this list are things like candy, cake, beer, and cookies. In other words, the best ones.

Complex Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates include oatmeal, apples, cardboard, and peas.

For a long time, people believed that complex carbohydrates were universally better for you than simple carbohydrates, but that isn’t always the case.

You see, your body takes both complex and simple carbohydrates and tries to break them down into useable sugar energy to fuel your muscles and organs. It’s not the type of carbohydrate that really matters, but how quickly your body can break it down and how much it will spike your blood glucose levels.

It’s not as simple as dividing complex carbs from simple ones, though. A slightly more sophisticated way to rate carbohydrate quality is something called the glycemic index (GI).

The GI attempts to classify foods by how quickly they break down and how high they boost blood sugar levels.

For a while, the GI was all the rage, and people argued that by following a low-GI diet, you’d keep insulin levels in check even while eating more carbs overall.

This has turned out to be only partially true. Which is to say that while it’s probably better to eat low GI foods than high ones, there probably won’t be a tremendous difference in your waistline if you’re still eating your weight in sweet potatoes instead of Cheerios.

Neither low-carb diets nor low-GI diets are a magic pill for fat loss; the main thing is to eat the right amount of healthy foods that fuel metabolism, which in turn will help you burn fat.

The important thing to remember is that your body needs carbs, even if some of the fad diets tell you otherwise. This becomes even more important if you’re performing intense exercise. Without carbohydrates, your body will begin to break down your muscle tissue to fuel your body, which will sabotage your efforts.

Carb lovers lament low-carb diets, and anti-carb crusaders posit that you can avoid carbs for the most part and still do well.

It is true that low-carb diets offer many health benefits, but as I’ve stated before, low carb doesn’t mean no carb.

Just as important, those health benefits don’t mean low carb is strategically better for fat loss. Research published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition dropped a bomb when it compared a lower carb diet to a higher carb diet and discovered no significant difference on fat loss, metabolism, or muscle retention.

Your Eating Tip: Ultimately, the number of carbs you eat is going to be highly based on personal preference, activity levels, and how your body reacts to what you eat. Carb intake should be determine after you prioritize fat and protein levels.

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Fats: From Zero to Hero?

For a long time, fats were like carbs—blamed for every health problem possible. It’s the reason that for nearly twenty years, low fat was synonymous with healthy.

And for many people—maybe even several of you reading this—that’s still how you determine if something is safe to eat. If it’s low fat, it has to be good. Or if it doesn’t have saturated fat, then it’s okay.

Much like any silver bullet nutrition solution, this isn’t the case. As our nation’s fat consumption decreased, its obesity increased, according to CDC data. This was due to a variety of factors—the frequency of meals and snacks, the size of meals, and the consumption of sugar.

So what is the bottom line on fat? For starters, fat is a necessary component of your diet and something you’re probably not consuming enough of.

Fat is good. It’s good for testosterone. It’s good for your heart (yes, you read that correctly). And it’s good for your muscles.

Fat plays an important role in helping the general functioning of your body. Fat is a critical coating for nerves. This coating serves to speed up conduction down the nerve so that every neurochemical signal that is sent through your body (any time your brain wants to tell your body to do something), it happens efficiently.

What’s more, fat also serves as a substrate for a whole set of hormones known as eicosanoids. Eicosanoids are essential for numerous functions that regulate things like blood pressure, inflammation, and even blood clotting. This kind of fat is needed for basic human physiology, which is reason enough to include it in your diet.

Now that you know what fats are needed in your diet, here’s what you should know about the different types of fats—and why each needs to be included in your diet, with the exception of trans fats.

Monounsaturated Fat

Monounsaturated fats are found mostly in high-fat fruits such as avocados as well as nuts like pistachios, almonds, walnuts, and cashews. This type of fat can also be found in olive oil.

Monounsaturated fats help lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol. They’ve also been shown to help fight weight gain and may even help reduce body fat levels.

Polyunsaturated Fat

Like monounsaturated fats, these good fats help fight bad cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fats stay liquid even in the cold because their melting point is lower than that of monounsaturated fats.

You can find polyunsaturated fats in foods like salmon, fish oil, sunflower oil, and seeds. Polyunsaturated fats contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which have largely been processed out of our food.

Omega-3s and 6s are very important and are oftentimes referred to as essential fatty acids, or EFAs. These cannot be manufactured by our bodies, and so it becomes essential to ingest them. And because your body needs these sources to function optimally and remain healthy, it’s your job to make sure your diet has enough of these fats to avoid problems and breakdown.

Saturated Fat

Saturated fats might be the most misunderstood substance you can eat. And for good reason: there have been studies linking high intake of saturated fats to heart disease. But those studies also have more questions than the Riddler.

When researches have gone back in and looked at the data from all the countries where data was available, there actually was no link between fat consumption and heart disease deaths.

Much of the debate about dietary fat comes from sources like The China Study and movies like Forks Over Knives, which have pointed the finger at saturated fats—and all animal fats—as the reason for all health problems. And yet, these studies all took a very slanted bias toward the saturated fat hypothesis and completely ignored populations that were incredibly healthy despite diets based on saturated fats.

In fact, people who live in Tokelau (a territory off of New Zealand) eat a diet that is 50 percent saturated fats, and they have cardiovascular health superior to any other group of people, and yet this data and information is ignored.

There are several studies of hunter-gatherer tribes that consumed 50 to 70 percent of all their calories from saturated fats without any health problems. When you receive the specific calculations for your fat intake, up to half of the fat can derive from saturated fats.

Even Walter Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard, has publicly stated (after a twenty-year review of research) that fats—and more specifically saturated fats—are not the cause of the obesity crisis and are not the cause of heart disease.

Listen, saturated fat is one of the best sources of energy for your body. It’s why your body naturally stores carbohydrates as saturated fat.

Are you going to argue with one of the most basic structures of how your body was intended to work? Not to mention, saturated fats are some of the most satiating foods, meaning they keep you fuller longer.

And research shows diets that are higher in saturated fats are oftentimes lower in total calories consumed.

That leaves you with one option: assuming you’re not a vegetarian, you should be eating red meat, dairy, and eggs to consume your share of saturated fats. Not overeating them, or downing sticks of butter like they’re going out of style. But also not avoiding them as if they’ll break the scale.

The exception: Trans Fat

Trans fats are the black sheep of the fat family. Trans fats are the worst fats, and in truth, one of the worst forms of food that you could possibly consume. They’re found in foods such as French fries, potato chips, and most fried foods.

While some trace amounts of trans fats are naturally occurring in meats and other foods, by and large, most are not naturally occurring. Instead, they are generally manmade.

Trans fats are made by a chemical process called partial hydrogenation.

Manufacturers take liquid vegetable oil (an otherwise decent monounsaturated fat) and pack it with hydrogen atoms, which convert it into a solid fat. This makes what seems to be an ideal fat for the food industry because it has a high melting point and a smooth texture, and it can be reused in deep-fat frying.

Essentially, trans fats come about as a result of overprocessing our foods in order to offer consumers a longer shelf life. If your food is pre-packaged, it’s a pretty safe bet that it has its fair share of trans fats. If you are serious about your goals, you should try to avoid trans fats at all costs. Or if you just don’t want to be eating plastic garbage.

Of course, we take a moderate approach. If you’re limiting your intake of junk foods, exercising regularly, and getting good nutrition otherwise—including a variety of healthy fats—then chances are, you can have the occasional Twinkie once every few months and be okay.

Your Eating Tip: Research suggests that about 20 to 35 percent of your daily calories should come from fats.

Protein: The White Knight

While both carbs and fats have spent their time as public enemy #1, being demonized or lauded by turns, no macronutrient has enjoyed the rise to prominence and popularity as our friend, protein.

A favorite among bodybuilders, athletes, and just about any fitness enthusiast, protein is used by your body to repair damaged muscle, bone, skin, teeth, and hair, among other things. Think of it as the mortar between the bricks; without it, the entire structure of your body begins to break down.

Unlike other nutrients, your body can not assemble protein by combining other nutrients, so it needs to be prioritized if you’re to achieve your healthiest (and best looking) body possible.

Protein helps to create an anabolic hormonal environment (good for muscle building and fat loss), and along the lines of the brick metaphor, it provides a lot of the materials used to build your muscles.

There are two categories of protein: complete and incomplete.

Protein is comprised of smaller molecules called amino acids. There are twenty-two amino acids that warrant attention, of which nine belong to a subcategory that can only be obtained through your food. Your body can manufacture the remainder of the amino acids.

The nine amino acids that are obtained from food are called essential amino acids. For those interested in such things, the essential amino acids are:

• Tryptophan
• Lysine
• Methionine
• Phenylalanine
• Threonin
• Valine
• Leucine
• Histidine
• Isoleucine

A complete protein (also known as a whole protein) is one that contains adequate portions of those nine amino acids. By contrast, an incomplete protein is one that is lacking in one or more of those amino acids.

These amino acids also help your body create hormones that help regulate things like blood pressure and blood sugar levels, which are directly responsible for your metabolic rate and muscular growth. In short, protein is extremely important, especially the complete proteins that are found in foods such as fish, poultry, eggs, red meat, and cheese.

The Pink Elephant: The Kidney Question 

Some “experts” would like to have you believe that eating lots of protein will cause all sorts of problems, ranging from kidney stones and gallstones.

For most people, this is not a concern—or rather, it is a moot point. That’s because there’s no research showing any relationship between eating lots of protein and developing kidney problems.

In fact, a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research tested up to 400 grams of protein per day without any negative consequences. Now, if you have a preexisting kidney problem, it’s possible that a higher protein diet could be hard on your body. But if you have a kidney problem, you should be talking to your doctor about your diet anyway.

If you’re healthy, you are clear to eat protein and not worry about any health problems—because there are none.

What’s more, protein is one of the most metabolic macronutrients, meaning that the more protein you eat the more calories you burn. For that reason–and protein’s ability to help spare muscle mass–it’s a common reason why if you’re going to overeat on any macronutrient, protein is usually your safest bet.

But don’t forget—calories are still calories so you can’t eat as much as you want.

Your Eating Tip: Protein should be set about .5 to 1 gram per body of goal body weight. If you’re very active, you can veer slightly upward, but it’s not necessary and should be based more on food preference than anything else.

Personalize Your Menu

Still need help figuring out what to eat and how to train? Let a Born Fitness coach help you create your own personalized workouts and meal plans. Learn more here.

READ MORE: 

Big Meals vs. Small Snacks: What’s Best For You?

Eating at Night Does Not Make You Fat

How Many Eggs are Safe to Eat?

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Fix Your Diet: Understanding Proteins, Carbs, and Fats appeared first on Born Fitness.

The second rule of eating is picking a goal and sticking to it for more than a month.

The third rule of eating is tossing out most of what you think you know about dieting because it might be the reason you’re currently stuck in a plateau.

Macros are not for everyone. Yes, counting works, but sometimes the number crunching does more harm than good from a practical standpoint.

While rule #3 has plenty of exceptions, it’s usually necessary for even the savviest of dieters and fitness pros. Why? Because what we know oftentimes makes it harder for us to accept new information or to question what we already assume as fact.

When it comes to building the right diet for you, simply avoiding what didn’t work in the past or blindly following what appears to work now is important (see rule #1), but it has many limitations. The biggest of which is understanding that progressing to a new level of success and noticeable results usually means identifying flaws in your current plan, and understanding why what you’re doing might not be the most efficient way to get the job done.

To help provide more clarity, use this guide as a starting point for any diet plan you create. It will help you understand what you we know about good diet design, as well as what factors might relate to seeing the most results out of your body.

The Macro Question: Does IIFYM Work?

The undeniable aspect of counting your macros (AKA “if it fits your macros” or IIFYM) is that science is on your side. This is a very good thing if you’re looking for a way to finally jumpstart weight loss frustration or a stagnant muscle building plan.

The laws of thermodynamics are very real, so if you receive a good macro plan that understands progressions, how to manipulate the nutrients, and how to factor in types and duration of exercise, then playing by the numbers is a great path to results. If you know what you want to look like or a have a goal weight, use this as your starting point (instead of your current weight). This will allow you to eat towards a goal.

That said, macros are not for everyone. Yes, counting works, but sometimes the number crunching does more harm than good from a practical standpoint. Becoming OCD about how much to eat or worrying about being 5 grams “over” on daily carb intake (which, honestly, is not a big deal) is something that is determined by your personality.

For some people, creating food templates that allow for “serving-size” based eating is a style that takes a macro approach without all the math. This means breaking down your meals into types of foods, and then just filling in the gaps with what you want to eat.

If you’re not going to count all your proteins, carbs, and fats. however, you still might be best served by a 1-week counting and measuring period that will help you learn portion sizes.

If that still feels like too much, start by learning how to measure portion sizes by eyeballing quantities. The images below (via Precision Nutrition) area great start to visualize individual portion sizes.

Either way, if you’re struggling with your diet, the best way to start in the right direction and make progress is by recording your foods.

You see, research in the New England Journal of Medicine has suggested that those on a weight loss diet tend to under-report how much they eat by as much as 47 percent and overestimate how much exercise they perform by 51 percent. You don’t need to be a math major to see how this ends up.

Recording your foods does not have to be a long-term approach; just the opposite, it’s a short term investment that will offer you eating freedom for the long-term. At the same time, it will allow you to be honest with what’s happening in your body and why you might not be seeing the results you want.

Goal-Based Eating: Understanding Macro Meal Plans

Remember rule #2? The one about goal based eating? This is why so many “one-size-fits-all” plans simply don’t work.

On one level you need to know your primary area of focus. While it’s certainly possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time (despite what many people might suggest), maximizing your results is about maximizing your focus.

If fat loss is the goal, don’t worry about your biceps becoming bigger.

If muscle gain is what you want, getting the most out of your plan might mean adding a little bit of fat. (But nothing crazy; there’s no need to go on some old-school type of bulking program. In fact, that could lead to more problems.)

After you choose your general goal, then you need to adjust for your own personalized goal. (More on this below.)

As I tell my clients, the goal is to eat for the body you want, not the body you have.

So setting up a clear target will make the process of building your diet easier.

Finally, you’ll want to start with a generalized approach and then adjust as you see how your body adjusts.

Here are a few breakdowns of what a diet might look like, based on goal

Maximizing Fat Loss

The Approach: higher protein, moderate fat, lower carbs

Your Nutrition Plan: 40% protein, 35 % fat, 25% carbs

Recomp (mild muscle gain and progressive fat loss)

The Approach: Building an isoisocaloric (AKA balanced) macronutrient split. Want equal parts muscle gain and fat loss? Then it should come as no surprise that your diet is going to be fairly evenly spread out across all macros.

Your Nutrition Plan: 33.3% protein, 33.3% fat, 33.3% carbs

Stubborn Mass Gain

The Approach: For the stubborn mass gain, ingesting a lot of calories is key, and oftentimes more protein beyond a certain amount is not as productive as upping the carbs to achieve the extra food.

Your Nutrition Plan: 30% protein, 40% carbs, 30% fat.

Understanding Diet Design: Is This for You?

The guidelines above are for people who spend anywhere between 4 to 7 hours of training each week. This includes all types of activity, such as weight training, recreational cardio, and sports.

These numbers are not designed to meet the calorie needs of endurance and endurance-type athletes who have a high training volume. This type of person needs  more carbs.

Why the Diet Design Works

Muscle Gain and Fat Loss

The balanced breakdown of the ensures enough protein for muscle repair, growth, and maintenance. It provides enough fat to support optimal testosterone production. It supplies enough carbs to provide training stamina, as well as synergy with the protein for muscle growth. It does not have the tendency to provide carbs in excess of the individual’s training and physical activity demands; instead it supports lean gains and lean mass maintenance.

Maybe most importantly, it allows for the full range of food groups in order to get not just the proper macronutrients, but also a good range of micronutrients. By focusing on macronutrient splits (instead of just focusing on particular foods), it allows you to focus both on foods that are good for you (animal and plant proteins, vegetables, fruits, fibrous starches, dairy) while still enabling you the flexibility to eat foods that you enjoy.

After all, research in the International Journal of Obesity suggests that the diet you can follow for the long term is always the best option for you.

Although alcohol and desserts are not listed, they can be used sparinglly. These foods are a highly individual matter; research shows that 1-2 drinks per day may have health benefits without hindering physique goals.

However, if you don’t already drink, there’s obviously no need to start. As for desserts, either limit your intake to 1-2 large desserts per week, or a very small portion per day, max (try to limit this to 100-200 calories of dessert of you intend to have dessert daily or most of the days per week).

Maximizing Fat Loss

In the scenario of a very low-carb diet with high training volume, there’s domino effect of defensive physiological phenomena that can help fat loss or cause trouble.

For instance, going to low carb as you push intensity can stimulate your hunger hormones at the same time as decreasing the hormones that suppress hunger. This leaves you wanting to eat everything and the kitchen sink, all while experiencing a drop in the hormones that regulate your metabolic rate.

Translation: this is why so many ultra low carb diets combined with high intensity exercise is a fast road to frustration or failure.

It’s not that these changes are significant enough to halt progress altogether, but what they do is prime your body to fight against losing fat and weight. Or more importantly, they set up your body for rapid weight and fat regain once the dieting phase is over. In a nutshell, that explains your typical yo-yo diet.

The best way to minimizing these dietary backlash is to diet as little as possible in the first place; in other words, your caloric deficit should be as little as necessary to achieve the desired rate of loss, and carbohydrates in particular should be set at the highest level possible that will allow the desired rate of fat loss.

Planning Cheat Days

That said, while severe carb restriction combined with training amplifies the body’s natural defenses, sometimes it is necessary to achieve extreme levels of leanness. But these approaches should only be applied once you achieve levels of the super lean. (In general, starting below 8 percent body fat.)

In this case, carbohydrate “refeeds” serve the multi-purpose of replenishing glycogen, and reversing the defensive hormonal and metabolic events that occur with severe restriction.

However, in order for the refeeds to be effective for this purpose, they must be rather massive (picture a carb shoveling fest spanning from a few hours to a few days).

But in the case of the less severe and gradual fat loss diet, a traditional refeed used in cyclical ketogenic (low carb) dieting isn’t necessary or beneficial.

Instead, a single indulgence meal can be employed. The purpose of the hyperfeed is more psychological than anything else, since it isn’t being used for that purpose of reversing the effects of severe prolonged carb restriction.

Unlike traditional low-fat carb-based refeeds, the hyperfeed can be anything on Earth you damn well want to eat, just keep it to a single main dish, plus a dessert if you’re feeling like eating like a king.

Men at 15% body fat or lower (for women, around 20%) can enjoy a hyperfeed once a week by having it in place of a main meals.

If you’re concerned about weight gain, you can either cut out all snacks or cut out an entire meal on the day of a hyperfeed.

Those dieting for a show or a photoshoot (mind you, with enough weeks in the pipeline to not need to diet severely) can  get away with a weekly hyperfeed, but it’s a touch riskier. Most folks in this population refuse to take advantage of this meal even when given “permission”, but a hyperfeed every 2 weeks is certainly not gonna impede progress regardless of how much of a banger it is.

The Pink Elephant: Personalization

The worst thing that can happen is for you to read the numbers above and think, “I’m set for life.”

Good nutrition is much more about understanding how to eat healthy and work around your frustration than trying to find a magical formula.

All of those formulas will help you; but most people will receive benefits only up to a certain point. The formulas should serve as a ballpark guide, not a set-in-stone blueprint. Everyone has unique requirements, genetics, and food sensitivities.

Just as important (and often overlooked) is that your current state of body composition (your ratio of muscle-to-fat) will significantly influence how your body responds to what you eat. It’s not fair, but very lean people can “get away” with eating more carbs and treats, whereas those with more weight to lose don’t have as much room to slip up in the amounts that they eat.

Notice, I didn’t say that being heavier means you can’t eat good food. Therein lies the joy of a good diet and a macro based plan: any diet has room for treats and indulgences. So it’s not about restriction, but instead a matter of control and confidence that it doesn’t take being perfect to be healthy.

Rather than committing to staying within the lines, use all diet plans (like the one above) it as an initial template from which to adjust according to your results.

Just make sure you weight long enough. Too many people change diets within a matter of days, when in reality it’s best to measure progress after about 2-4 weeks, and then continually adjust.

Diet Planning 101

Still not sure what to eat? Sign up for a risk-free month of personalized coaching, including assessments that reveal the biggest mistakes with your current plan.

Get started now. 

READ MORE: 

How Much Fat Should I Eat?

Big Meals vs. Small Snacks: What’s Best For You?

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Diet Plans: Considerations for Muscle Gain and Fat Loss appeared first on Born Fitness.

Both have been identified in books, conferences, and even research as the reason and answer to the question everyone tries to answer: “Why are we fat?”

The real answer is that you are asking the wrong question.

Trying to pin an epidemic like obesity or a psychological battle like eating disorders on a single nutrient is a trigger. It begins a vicious process that underlies the real reason why the number of overweight people continue to grow, despite tremendous efforts to make people healthier. Making a diet stressful and cumbersome only makes it more likely that a particular approach will not succeed.

That’s not to say focused behaviors that limit food options don’t work. The Paleo movement has shown there are plenty of people that can and are willing to cut out all processed foods. The low carb movement has stricken bread, pasta, rice, and all other starches from diets and people have lost weight. But these are relatively small sub-segments and inadvertently designed for people that are wired a certain way.

Fitness communities love to berate “fat people” for not being able to make certain changes. Words like “lazy” or “lack of willpower” are tossed around at ease. But what if the changes that are being suggested aren’t sustainable for their lives, their habits and mindset, or even their budget?

The intent of these suggestions isn’t the issue: whether you believe the low carb or low fat hypothesis (or any other effective dietary approach) doesn’t matter. Each side desperately wants to help. And their research does just that with one fatal flaw: most are “extremist” approaches that create an exclusivity mindset.

Your eating habits should not be black and white. But it’s that very mentality oftentimes forces dietary habits into a position that make it more likely that people will fail and spiral into behavior that will leave them gaining weight.

Fat Frustration: Why Diets Keeping Failing

There isn’t one “right” way to lose weight. And there’s no urgent need to discover new mechanisms of shedding fat. We already know plenty of effective mechanisms. Instead, more effort needs to focus on why people struggle with the current approaches that work.

Over the last 10 years I’ve worked with hundreds of people to help them lose weight, and while I have preferences (usually a mix of calorie and carb cycling), different techniques work for different people. Some love to count calories while others do not. Some want several small meals while others prefer fewer snacks and more big meals. When you look at all of the plans, many of the nutrition principles are the same, but the application is different and never extreme.

The ongoing search for a “magic bullet” that solves every nutrition problem is where the system breaks down. It’s hard to make sense of what’s good and bad when you can barely mute the mob mentality screaming from different dietary camps:

Fat is the problem!

Carbs are the problem!

Sugar is the problem!

High fructose is the problem!

Gluten is the problem!

Throw in dairy, organic, and whatever is to come and it’s easy to see that the list goes on and on. Pretty soon no food will be safe.

The truth is many things can make us gain weight, and fat and sugar just happen to be two easy targets. Heck, too much protein will make you fat if you eat too much of it. Sounds like something your parents would say, but it’s that type of common sense approach that is all too frequently missing from dietary dogma.

The poison is always in the dose.

In the last 40 years, we’ve increased our consumption by about 450 calories per day. Of those 450 calories, about 200 comes from carbs, 200 from fats, and about 50 calories from artificial sweeteners.

Do you feel confident in picking out the culprit? Not to mention, the average energy expenditure on a daily basis has lowered nearly 150 calories. (Basically, we move less.)

When you look at things from a bigger picture it becomes clear: One problem isn’t the reason for the rise in obesity.

We eat more fat. We eat more sugar. We eat more in general. And we move less. The reasons for these behaviors are numerous, so to solve the problem we must stop looking for a single answer.

A Fat Loss Solution that Works

Finding healthier solutions starts with a more inclusive mindset. Dietary freedom and understanding can only occur when the “one thing to remove” mentality is eliminated.

Dietary dogma is a science of overreaction: The only result is dramatically pushing away from one type of food, only to fill our diets with other types of foods. The trend repeats itself over and over.

The low fat camp is eating too much sugar. The low carb/low sugar camp is eating too much fat. And everyone is eating too many calories because they are stuffing the gaps in their diet with partial nutrition that oftentimes leads to no consistency, overeating, or breaking the plan and binging…and then the vicious cycle repeats.

Some people have to avoid certain foods. Allergies and sensitivities are very real. But those problems are not experienced by everyone. If you feel better when you remove certain foods (even if you don’t have an allergy), then go for it. But when you believe that your weight is directly tied to a certain food, that’s when the overreaction starts and it’s just a tipping point.

The question is not “What food is the worst?” Instead, the focus should be on “What can I do better?”

Add in components that are missing and then reduce aspects that might be problematic. The process starts when we cease the negativity, finger pointing, and scapegoating, and start simplifying.

The principles of a good diet are universal: Eat most “real” foods. Avoid much of what is processed. Enjoy plants and fruits and if you eat animals, then enjoy those that are fed and raised in a healthy manner. There’s room for dessert and for packaged food. And most people need that, either for convenience or budget. Just make sure those foods are the smallest portion of what you eat.

In the end, a diet that includes some of the “bad stuff” and a lot of the good stuff will deliver results that will probably blow your mind. It won’t provide a food group to blame, but it will deliver a healthier body that is sustainable. And when that starts happening, that’s when the questions will stop.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Why Are We Fat? appeared first on Born Fitness.

The health scare surrounding saturated fat and cholesterol was overblown.

That was Walter Willett’s conclusion after reviewing 21 studies on high-fat diets. While Willet’s name doesn’t jump off the page, he is the chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard University. And his powerful statement came after Harvard published a study that showed there is no evidence that dietary saturated fat is associated with coronary heart disease, stroke, or cardiovascular disease.

This was a defining moment in a 30-year battle to determine if eating fat makes us fat. The confusion began in the 1980s when obesity rates began to climb. The low-fat craze took over, and the next thing you knew, we all became fatter. But that was just beginning. People assumed that despite all the clever marketing, maybe we were all still eating too much fat.

Only nothing could be farther from the truth. Consider this:

• In the last 30 years the number of overweight people increased by 30 percent.
• During the same time period, the amount of fat consumed decreased by 11 percent.

While this doesn’t mean direct causation, it’s solid evidence that the consumption of fat wasn’t the problem. What people didn’t realize is that not only is fat not bad, it’s actually an incredibly potent weight loss tool and essential for your health.

So How Much Fat Do I Need?

Research now indicates that as much as 20 to 35 percent of your calories should come from fats.

Not only do the fat-filled meals keep you full, they also burn calories. Researchers from Georgia Southern University found that eating a high-protein, high-fat snack increases your resting calorie burn (think of this as your metabolism) for up to 3.5 hours.

Just as important, eating fat has been shown to:

• Help protect and run your immune system
• Allow good production of testosterone and estrogen
• Play an essential role with nutrient absorption (think important vitamins like D and E)
• Help all of the cells in your body work as intended

When it comes to understanding fat, your options can be broken down into two main groups: saturated and unsaturated fats. (Yes, there are other specific sub-types of fat, but you can understand most of what you need by focusing on these two.) Both of them have a role in your diet, and both possess a variety of benefits.

The Different Types of Fats

Let’s start with the unsaturated options. Monounsaturated fats—MUFAs (pronounced MOO-fahs), for short—come from the healthy oils found in plant foods such as olives, nuts, and avocados.

A report published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that a MUFA-rich diet helped people lose small amounts of weight and body fat without changing their calorie intakes. Another report found that a breakfast high in MUFAs could boost calorie burn for 5 hours after the meal, particularly in people with higher amounts of belly fat.

What’s more, a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who swallowed 1.9 grams of omega-3s daily (you’d find twice that in a 4-ounce portion of salmon) reduced their body fat, lowered their triglycerides, and raised their HDL cholesterol.

Polyunsaturated fats are more typically discussed as omega-3 and omega 6. Most people actually consume more than enough omega 6, so extra focus is not needed. They are essential, found in nuts and seeds, and most commonly the vegetable oils that many use to cook.

Omega 3s are the typical area that need a little more love. They help your HDL cholesterol, can fight against inflammation, and help heart and brain health. These friendly nutrients can be found in grass-fed meats, fattyfish (like salmon), walnuts, and chia seeds.

For most people, this is an easy barrier of entry: Eat nuts, seeds, and fish. But here’s where most people misunderstand fats.

Saturated fats—like those found in red meat, eggs, and milk—used to be avoided. But now they can be considered an essential part of a healthy diet. No food represents the benefits of fat better than eggs.

If you are skipping out on the yolks in eggs for fear of fat, then you’re missing out on one of the best fat loss foods.

A study in Nutrition Research showed that the fat in eggs helped reduce appetite for up to 24 hours. And British scientists discovered that dieters who ate eggs for breakfast instead of a bagel lost 65 percent more weight—without any negative consequences to their cholesterol or triglycerides. Research has also found that consuming calcium dairy foods, such as milk and yogurt, may also reduce fat absorption from other foods, which makes it easier to stay lean.

The Bottom Line on Eating Fat

You have a lot more freedom to eat “fatty” foods than anyone would have thought 10 years ago.

When I design diets for my online clients, I do so by giving them a wide variety of options that they can plug into meal. This means enjoying everything from steak, pork, chicken with skin, eggs and fish, as well as dairy products, avocados, nuts and seeds and nut butters.

When it comes to cooking, butter, olive and coconut oil are all great options. While each individual is different, a good rule of thumb is that you the higher level of your fat intake will be around .4 to .5 grams per pound of your target body weight. (For example, if you want to weigh 180 pounds, you could eat as much as 90 grams of fat.) The number might initially seem like a lot, but when adjusted for how many calories you should take in per day, it’s exactly right.

READ MORE

Healthy Fat: Which Foods Should You Really Be Eating?

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

Big Meals vs. Small Snacks: What’s Best For You?

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post How Much Fat Should I Eat? appeared first on Born Fitness.

I sucked at love.

You see, by that admittedly young age, I had already made enough mistakes—and been crushed by enough women—to believe that relationships just weren’t for me. Ok, if we’re being fair, I screwed up my fair share too.

I had already been engaged, and watched that relationship wither away in the most brutal of fashion. I tried dating multiple women at the same time, only to have them discover what I was doing and make me feel the wrath of their anger. And I’ve been cheated on over…and over again. (At one point, I had a streak of 4 straight relationships filled with infidelity. It got to the point that I legitimately wondered if I my true purpose was pushing women towards other men.)

I come from a loving family. My parents have been married for 38 years, and I felt like I knew what to look for in a significant other. I met enough of the wrong women to know what was right.

And yet, I was convinced that I shouldn’t be in a relationship or know how to be a good boyfriend.

If this sounds overly dramatic, you’re right. I was painfully delusional but it felt real to me and it was my universe. Relationships and me: Just not going to happen.

I was young and bitter. My mindset shaped by lots of attempts that never resulted in what I wanted. It wasn’t even that I wanted marriage—I just didn’t want things to end in disaster.

You see, I’d try everything: date different types of women, take it slow, move it fast, try the advice of my friends. None of it worked. The goals shifted but the results were the same: failure, failure, and more failure.

So I came to a seemingly rational conclusion: some people are cut out for relationships and others are not.

Seeing versus Believing: The Great Fitness Error

Just as I was about to quit and give up on relationships that’s when everything changed. My willingness to believe that things could be different enabled the unthinkable to happen: I succeeded.

It happened because despite my doubts I didn’t quit.

I went on a blind date and knew—in that very moment—everything I told myself was a lie. I didn’t know if I’d actually marry this girl (for the record I did), but I knew that the idea that I was just no good at relationships, couldn’t be happy, or wouldn’t find what worked for me was nonsense.

My past failures didn’t mean I wasn’t destined to succeed. It just meant that I had to be patient and wait for the right situation for me.

In many ways, you could substitute the every instance of the word “relationship” with “workout” or “diet.” The majority of people who have contacted me over the years or enter my online coaching program all start from the same place: A learned belief that no matter what they do, they can’t lose weight and are unable to see the type of body they want. More than a plan that works, they want an explanation or confirmation of their failure rather than a reason for hope.

Because we don’t see results—especially after repeated efforts—we don’t believe that our body is capable of changing.

Just as we expect the sun to set in the west, we expect that we will always be fat, unable to build strength or muscle, or live a healthier life.

We all have a breaking point. After you experiment with enough diets and workouts that don’t work—the same ones that you see work for other people—you begin to believe the problem isn’t the exercises or foods. You tell yourself that the problem is you.

I understand this frustration because I’ve been there before. Not just in relationships but in fitness. I spent 5 years toiling away, following the programs and advice of others, and genuinely believed that I would always be skinny fat. That is, until I opened my mind, learned more about science, and then started trying out proven techniques to see what worked best for me.

There was no cookie-cutter plan that would guarantee me success. It was about personalizing what works and applying it to my lifestyle, my schedule, and my goals.

In reality, finding a workout routine and a diet is no different than having success in a relationship. After all, this is a relationship with your health. But to make it work in the best way possible, you need to go on a few dates, struggle through some frustration, keep an open mind, and be willing to open up to new experiences. Most importantly, you have to be able to believe that things can change.

Genetics: The Fit Body Fallacy

In two of my most recent books, Man 2.0: Engineering the Alpha and The Men’s Health Big Book: Getting Abs, I explain why genetics are the ultimate equalizer. They will always play a very important role in the results you see. People that win the genetic lottery can have an easier time burning fat and building muscle, and might be able to eat fast food and still look incredible. It sucks, but that doesn’t mean your genetics prevent you from creating your own form of awesome.

In other words: just because something comes easier or harder, doesn’t mean that the end result can’t be the same.

Oftentimes when I’m working with clients who are struggling to see hope and believe in change, I use the analogy of comparing fitness to the journey of successful companies. Some companies are “blessed” and begin with large sums of money and lots of funding, while others can maybe start with a small loan—if any financial backing at all. The starting point is not an indicator of success.

The companies that start with more capital certainly have fewer barriers, but the path to success wasn’t any more guaranteed for them than anyone else. And those that have more barriers are capable of as much growth, success, and prosperity—if not more—than those who appeared to have it easier.

The lesson: Success is not inclusive. It’s open to those who can dream of the end goal and are willing to plug away and never quit until the vision is achieved.

Hacking Your Fitness and Diet Plan

You want to know the big “secret” of the health and fitness industry: Many approaches work, but sometimes you need to experiment more than you’d like to find the right formula. In many ways, that’s why people hire fitness coaches, trainers and nutritionists, or why you try a variety of programs you read in books or see in magazines. Sometimes, you have to date the different options until you find the right one. And once you do, everything changes.

When you find what works you understand why your previous failures were clearly mistakes, and why your current path will lead to the best version of yourself.

To help you find the best workout plan for you, I’m creating a series that will explain all of your different options to make this entire process easier. One of the biggest issues we face today is that we have so much information it’s hard to determine where we should start. So I’m going to create a live guide that will hopeful ease the process. From the best exercises to different workout splits (full body, upper/lower, high reps versus low reps), I want to provide you with several roadmaps.

I can’t guarantee which path will work for you, but I can make it easier for you to navigate.

If you’re looking for a clearer path, please leave a comment below and let me know what questions you have. It can be about a specific exercise or if training just 1 day per week can be done. And if you have diet questions, include those as well. Food is part of the equation, and that will certainly part of this project. Ultimately, I want this guide to be as comprehensive as possible.

Consider this the start of a new approach to your health. No guarantees. No false hopes. But one simple truth: If you believe finding a plan that works for your lifestyle is possible and keep searching for “the one,” you will find it. And when you do, you’ll be proud you didn’t stop trying.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

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