Physical Health: A Call for Sanity

Introduction

For many people, there is a strong internal and external desire to be skinny, muscular, and attractive. But often, the conversation focuses so heavily on the results it forgets about what is actually healthy. This is part of the reason the nutrition world is dominated by fads - high protein, low-fat, high fiber, no carbs, etc.

But in the past five years, we have learned quite a bit about leading a healthy lifestyle, sometimes through painful experience, and wanted to share our experiences. We decided to write this, because Instagram is the worst teacher. There are some good recipes and influencers, but the information can be somewhat inaccurate.

This article hopes to talk to the “average” person. It is meant to be practical advice to a friend living a fairly normal life, not to be an authoritative source of knowledge. It won’t make you a professional athlete, definitely not in the short run, and if those are your goals, you would do well to talk to a nutritionist and exercise coach. This is not medical advice, and you should do further reading and research to find what fits for your life, especially if you have chronic health conditions which may require a special diet.

Here we delineate the three major components of physical health: food, exercise, and sleep, and conclude by discussing the limitations of this, and some queries.

Food

Calories In/Calories Out is preached by fitness gurus everywhere, but it is ultimately an incomplete view of food. It tells the story of your weight, but it does not necessarily tell the story of any kind of health, satiety, body composition, etc.

Although you may lose fat on your body by only focusing on reducing your caloric intake, it may be a miserable, unnatural experience which causes stress about food, losing muscle and bone, cause other health problems, and leaves you feeling constantly hungry.

Nutrient Content

Macronutrients

Please eat them. All of them.

Cutting out fat will not help you be healthy. There is a misconception that eating fat causes fat gain. After all, fat is calorie-dense, and eating saturated and trans fats can increase risk of heart disease, and are likely the most dangerous parts of people’s diet. But fats are important for chemical signals such as hormones, many vitamins are fat-soluble (meaning need some amount of fat in order to absorb those vitamins), and they are highly satiating. Diets high in unsaturated fats are very good for health and decrease risk of heart disease. Unintuitively, a diet high in unsaturated fat may end up causing less overall caloric intake simply because the compulsion to eat is less. One of the healthiest things you can do is to replace the saturated and trans fats in your diet with omega 3 and 6 unsaturated fats such as olive, sesame, and avocado oil ¹¹ There are 3 types of omega 3 fatty acids: EPA, DHA, and ALA. Although the ones your body needs are EPA and DHA, it can also convert ALA to both. The efficiency of this process is poor, and EPA and DHA are not easily available without fish, so vegans and vegetarians should eat more foods rich in ALA to compensate. Algae oil has EPA and DHA, but it is niche and ALA is abundant enough that it may be easier to make it a natural part of your diet..

High protein as a fad is potentially less harmful than cutting out fat, but one of the biggest misconceptions with protein is how much of it you need. Although gym bros recommend 1g per lb, for most people, even some professional athletes, this is unnecessary and unsustainable. It isn’t dangerous, but when building muscle the gain from eating more protein is marginal compared to the additional calories consumed, and that threshold is reached far before 1g. If your focus isn’t to build muscle, you only need 0.36g per lb. Once you reach 0.7g, there are highly diminishing returns in building and repairing muscle. If you are in a calorie deficit, more of your diet proportionally may need to come from protein to prevent muscle loss, but overall most people can be moderate in their protein intake and be just fine.

Carbohydrates need not be aggressively cut. What matters more is the type of carbohydrates. Complex carbs (starches) and fiber are an essential part of a balanced diet. Simple carbs (sugar) are not evil, but they spike blood sugar, and over time can lead to insulin resistance and even diabetes. Especially in combination with fat, they are also not satiating, and can be easy to overeat.

Micronutrients

All micronutrients have a function. Although you may be able to survive eating just chicken breast and rice, you will not get enough of the micronutrients you need for your body’s functioning. To fix this, eat a wide range of foods. Frankly, it is also more enjoyable. You don’t need much of each type of micronutrient, so just rotating between different foods over time and eating foods with many ingredients, especially vegetables, is enough. Additionally, maintain your gut microbiome. Eat prebiotics and probiotics via fermented foods like kimchee, kombucha, yogurt, sauerkraut, soy sauce, etc.

Intuitive Eating (and the mindset of naturally skinny populations)

Certain populations like in East Asia tend to be naturally leaner. The foods they eat fit a different paradigm, and the environment naturally reinforces that. The quality of food easily available tends to be better, standard foods are satiating, and people intentionally monitor their hunger as they eat rather than waiting for their stomach to stretch (for example, “hara hachi bu” in Okinawa ²² Okinawa is considered a “blue zone”, with an extremely high ratio of centenarians) and to avoid overeating.

Additionally, most naturally skinny populations are more willing to store food for later. They have an abundance mindset towards food, and do not force themselves to eat or finish their plate if it causes discomfort or does not bring them much enjoyment ³³ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5pUCdKQ1m0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRS2uoMVEAw. Sometimes, this can feel strange, especially when storing very small amounts of food for later, but this practice, when undertaken honestly, ultimately leads to a healthier relationship with food while making reaching fitness goals achievable.

Routine

Eating at the same times daily can also improve digestion. Your body comes to expect foods at certain times (i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and maintaining those times prevents over or undereating. Skipping meals like breakfast or lunch is possible, but it creates the risk of overeating later in the day during lunch or dinner. It also makes choosing good food more difficult, since eating habits may become more compulsive, and can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food and promote excessive caloric restriction.

Exercise

Exercise can be split into cardio and strength training. Cardio can then be split even further into aerobic (walking, jogging) and anaerobic (sprinting, swimming) cardio. None of these forms of exercise are sufficient in themselves, but as a whole, they create the basis of a healthy body.

Aerobic exercise can be done actively, but it is also more accessible since it can be done passively. It controls how efficiently your body metabolizes energy. Walking or biking to work, taking public transit, going on walks, etc. are for many people the simplest way to get exercise without having to go to the gym. These are also the easiest and least uncomfortable. Passive exercise should be done every day. More specific aerobic exercise like stairmaster can be done a couple times a week. Countries which are on average leaner tend to have more passive exercise built in through extensive public transit networks, walkable neighborhoods, and other infrastructure.

Anaerobic exercises are also necessary, because they improve your body’s ability to pump oxygen and clear waste products. They are more uncomfortable and require you to push yourself, like sprinting. They can be done once a week at a minimum. Going quickly on a stationary bike or sprinting on the treadmill for half an hour at a time is great for this. Ideally, the difficulty should come primarily from your heart and lungs and being forced to breathe harder, not from your muscles.

Strength training can be thought of in two ways: gaining strength, and gaining muscle mass. Doing low reps and high weight will help gain strength, and doing high reps with low-to-moderate weight will help gain muscle mass. Doing compound exercise until you are nearly (but not necessarily quite at) failure will do both. Although you may gain muscle mass more slowly, you will gain overall strength. In general, choose a few exercises (some push, some pull, and some for legs), and do them consistently three times a week (although any strength training is beneficial, and if you are too sore to exercise well, then you will create a disproportionate amount of fatigue for the benefit you will get). By far, this strategy gives the most “bang for your buck”. One simple strategy is to do pullups (or assisted pullups) and barbell rows for pull exercises, bench press and overhead press for push exercises, and barbell squats and calf raises for leg exercises, as well as one core exercise like crunches or leg raises where you can get close to failure within twenty reps. This list is nonexhaustive, and any core, pull, push, and leg exercises will work.

Sleep

Go to sleep at the same time. Every day. Wake up seven to nine hours later. Every day. That’s it. For the sake of filling the word count we made up just now, invest in a good pillow, sleep on a firm mattress, sleep in a cold, dark, and quiet (enough) place. Try not to eat right before going to sleep. It’s okay to have a little variance, but treat sleep like food. If I told someone “I didn’t eat for 2 days to make time to study for an exam”, they would be concerned more than impressed. People treat sleep differently, but it really isn’t.

Conclusion

One of the hardest things about fitness is its ongoing nature. The “ideal” physique people try to achieve is something built on the scale of years, not months. Make practices sustainable and realize that consistency is what matters. It is what you do 80% of the time which defines both your health and your appearance, not going out to dinner with friends once or twice a week. So it is okay to have ice cream and pizza and corn chips every now and then. Buying “protein/low or no fat/high fiber” versions of unhealthy foods like chips, following crash diets, and going into an excessive calorie deficit are ultimately unproductive. Your body and mind will be better served by cultivating a healthy relationship with food and exercise. Depending on the person, this may mean not tracking calories, using cheat meals strategically, spending time with friends and family, etc. Although the short-term visual impact is promising and is real, it is a false promise. The weight loss or steroid-based muscle gain will never be enough, and it typically won’t last for long, and if it does, it will cause far more damage physically since the underlying mindset does not support the body or the lifestyle. This article’s scope is limited to physical health. It doesn’t address other aspects of health such as mental health, all of which have a symbiotic relationship with physical health. But following this “middle path” over time will provide you a healthy life where you look and feel good and satisfied.

~ Coauthored with Normathan Boyd