Information Overload

@ilovegod777 Worry about the basics first. Don't eat more calories than you need and consume good foods. Learn choices for each macro, protein (fish, powder, chicken, turkey), carbs (oatmeal, rice, wheat bread, fat (olive oil, nuts, fish oil, some omega-6 vegetable oil, some saturated fat), lots of vegetables and fruit, you can cut out sugar and all chips, soda, candy, fast food except for cheat meals.

Get some daily cardio and try to lift 3x week.

For other things look to experts who are reading papers in journals, like Rhonda Patrick who is on Rogan often or Dr Berg youtube channel. TRT is great if you are low. If not then it's more for muscle (a TRT clinic) which is great but bodybuilding isn't for health. Depends on your goals.

Get your full bloodwork done, hormones, lipids, everything.
 
@angelanz Just gotta throw in my two cents regarding Dr.Berg, he is a chiropractor, not an MD, and while being a good and persuasive presenter, is completely clueless on the topic on nutrition.

Sincerely yours, a Registred Dietitian.
 
@angelanz I disagree - not in regards to the PHD, but he has a tendency of misinterpreting research that doesnt agree with his views in order to fit his own agenda.

Here is a good example of this.
 
@purplepurple I don't see that this is an agenda issue, he messed up serum and dietary, but the paper is there, that's why I said he gives the source, because it's worth checking. Is there an example of an agenda he promotes that goes against consensus?

The OP has information overload so they just need a source to skim videos to find out about macros and what foods to choose when putting a diet together. Berg might be covering a bit too much information, I think Greg Douchette would have been a better choice for basic diet advice.
 
@angelanz Missing the difference between dietary and blood cholesterol is an absolutely massive blunder when talking about cholesterol, and Berg has gone on note promoting higher intakes of saturated fat and not believing in the relationship between high blood cholesterol levels and increased risks of cardiovascular disease.

So while providing the studies is good, its nowhere near as bad as misinterpreting studies you disagree with. Which is what he did in the video.

I dont know enough about Douchette and his qualifications on human nutrition, but i would wholeheartedly suggest Layne Norton for high quality science based dietary advice for lifters.
 
@purplepurple
Yes it's a big blunder. He is not "clueless" but he is more into keto than I realized. But the OP still needs to begin browsing through different channels to get an understanding of what foods to concentrate on. His dietary fat beliefs are related to keto, I'm not a fan of keto. My advice was to just begin to understand a Recees, Doritoes and a soda is not lunch and how to put macros together.

No one person should be the entirety of advice and for serious questions about cholesterol he should be looking at many studies himself when he gets to that point.

So this:


I immediately said, wow he looks good and is running some test. His actual bloodwork didn't show hematocrit but his test is 1165 ng/dl. So he wants people to believe his crazy size is natty and his endocrine system provides him an insane amount of natural T. I absolutely hate all these fitness people on gear who swear they were lifetime natty. He isn't natty. I'm not natty either and I recognize an enhanced physique. Yes he claims he did natty shows and was tested. So were all my friends who were running all types of androgens and either had ways to pass, didn't care or they cycled off. Also in more recent videos he's WAY smaller. Why would that be? His job is fitness. So it's extremely likely he lowered his dose.

I think now he is on TRT and in this video he was running a low dose cycle. I cannot get behind the false expectations this stuff gives to hopeful lifters. His bloodwork could have been done after several weeks off or maybe running some GH. Sitting there on the couch with muscle hanging off his arms looks more like what you get from a Dianabol cycle, a bit puffy because of water retention but very swole because of the intra-muscular water. He definitely does not have that look in later videos.

The guy to listen to is Mike Israetel, PhD in exercise science, admits being enhanced.
Click to expand...
 
@angelanz Your comments about Layne and drug use seems to be a strawman more than anything else. Why is your opinions regarding drug use relevant here?

And last time i checked the goals in bodybuilding and powerlifting are different - the latter doesnt need to be YUUUGE in order to hit their goals. The video is also 6 years old. Things happen over time.

I reccomended Layne because he has a lot of content on nutritional research and knows how research is supposed to be done and how to interpret studies, and goes out of his way to inform about his own biases. Berg does neither of these.

And yes, Israetel is a great resource for training-related topics. Would i go to him for a introduction on cholesterol? I mean, he'd clearly be capable of reading up on the subject if he had to, but its not his speciality. If i wanted to get swole as a house? Sure,that'd be another topic.
 
@purplepurple "Your comments about Layne and drug use seems to be a strawman more than anything else. Why is your opinions regarding drug use relevant here?"

Because you mentioned him and I'm giving my opinion on fake natties. Nothing to do with Berg. Completely different topic, not a strawman version of the Berg thing? I mentioned Berg and you had an opinion. I do it and the relevancy is questioned?

I hate fake natties, especially when they are fitness and diet instructors.

"And last time i checked the goals in bodybuilding and powerlifting are different - the latter doesnt need to be YUUUGE in order to hit their goals. The video is also 6 years old. Things happen over time."

Are you saying back then he was bodybuilding and now he is powerlifting? At any rate in the video I linked to he's on gear and his T is 1165. Could be an oral in the mix as well.

He claimed recently he was lifetime natty, in a recent video. I was ready to believe he just had good genetics but I suspected TRT. But he said he was lifetime clean. Then I saw the older video and I was like "who is this dude in his video?" It's him. Not even pumped and quite large. Dianabol large. I remember those days. Helmsworth had that look in the beginning of Thor 4 as well.



"I reccomended Layne because he has a lot of content on nutritional research and knows how research is supposed to be done and how to interpret studies, and goes out of his way to inform about his own biases. Berg does neither of these."

I'm not a Berg apologist and am not comparing Berg to Layne. He is presenting knowledge along with a physique, it's implied this knowledge on training and nutrition gave him that Dianabol physique. All he has to do is say he's enhanced.

"And yes, Israetel is a great resource for training-related topics. Would i go to him for a introduction on cholesterol? I mean, he'd clearly be capable of reading up on the subject if he had to, but its not his speciality. If i wanted to get swole as a house? Sure,that'd be another topic"

Not what I'm saying, Mike is good for training and some bodybuilding nutrition, similar to Layne but not a fake natty. He doesn't discuss androgen protocol, he just admits he's using.

I would go to papers if I had a cholesterol question, and is why I mentioned Berg gives the papers. The OP just wants to get started and he needs exposure to basic foods that are not Pringles. I would not advise a fake natty because if I saw that video when I was 23 I would follow his "natty" advice so I could look like him.

Which I did. Didn't work. Gear worked for that. Then everyone came out and admitted they were on. Now a new group of fake natties takes over.

Actually I listen to Dr Peter Attia lately on cancer and general longevity issues. He even did an episode on androgens with Dereck from MPMD.
 
@angelanz My brother in science - whether someone is natural or nor has less than zero relevance to what we are talking about here - accurately interpreting scientific findings. Berg does not. Layne does.

Your opinion on whether he is juicing or not does not matter and does not impact whether he knows how to read scientific studies. Layne is not telling people that the way to look like him is to interpret science like he does, and he rarely, if ever, makes any claims about himself.

So please, stop making this about stuff that does not matter.
 
@ilovegod777 They all pick something that affects many of us at some point (low energy), or something scary (cancer) or something we can convince ourselves that we struggle with (brain fog). They do this because they are trying to capture vulnerable people. It is marketing. Many of them are flat out scams.

When it comes to living a long healthy life, there aren’t any new or ground breaking ideas. Eat clean, whole foods with as much variety as possible. Exercise, again, with as much variety as possible, including exercise for your mind. Sleep. Avoid alcohol and processed foods.

Pay attention to your body. If you’re taking care of yourself and still end up with a serious medial issue, catching it early can save your life. The medical advancements over the last 30-40 years are simply amazing.
 
@ilovegod777 It’s annoying af. At the end of the day - exercise most days with intensity, sleep 7-8 hours a night, eat 400-800g produce a day, eat protein too, and bonus points if you stick to an average of 1-2 drinks a day without binging. Spend time with people you love
 
@ilovegod777 My two cents. The reason they all say they do the same thing, is because they do. Eating better. Cutting sugar. Breathing right. Working out more. Cutting food dyes and sugars and processed foods. They all do the same thing.

Make you feel better. Lose weight. Curb depression and ADHD symptoms. Give you more energy.

It's amazing how our bodies react when we do and eat the things we're supposed to.

Now, each person is different, and some people can handle different things, and some things work for others, but finding what works for you is all that matters.
 
@ilovegod777 Ignore pretty much all of it. It’s mostly bullshit anyway that YouTubers are just pushing for page views. It may be backed by some conventional wisdom and ongoing science, but most of it is either changing over time as more data and research is presented, or the impact is so small as to be irrelevant when stacked up against other contributors to various things in your life.

My recommendation is to keep it as simple as you can, build a routine that becomes a sustainable lifestyle, and then you can add complexity from there.

Stick to basics- avoid refined/added sugars wherever possible so that you can indulge in nicer things for special occasions. This doesn’t mean cutting out every single sugary thing in your life, but maybe try to eliminate most soda or juice. Take a closer look at what bread you’re buying… I have to go out of my way to buy “sugar free” sandwich bread (still has sugar, but not like 9g per slice of added sugar like so many options in American supermarkets).

Try to get 30 minutes of activity every day. Could just be a brisk walk or two. If you can do more intense activity regularly, great. Don’t push so hard that you dread doing it. The best workout is the one you actually do consistently. Take the stairs more. Park further away from your destination- having to walk an extra minute to get to the doors of the store or whatever is not going to hurt anybody.

Try to avoid packaged snacks whenever you can and just be mindful of what you’re eating. You don’t need to give up everything or absolutely optimize every sort of your existence. Just take a moment every so often to consider if maybe there’s a better alternative that maybe contains less added sugars. If you do that alone, you’ll have so many calories freed up to allocate to foods that you actually want to eat instead of just wasting them on some garbage gas station snack that you don’t even actually need to satisfy hunger. I’m guilty like most people of just eating shit like that because I’m stressed or bored… I’d rather skip it and maybe be a little hungry during the day so that I can indulge in foods I actually enjoy at a nice dinner with friends.
 
@lc715 Thanks for the thoughtful response. It is reassuring because much of it describes what I am doing and the results have been good. With diet and sugar, I am pretty strict but not to an extreme. I'll still "cheat" at a social event or on a weekend sometimes.

I listen to a lot of health related podcasts while I work. I should probably cut back or find new topics. If I incorporated everything that they recommend, I wouldn't have time for anything else.
 
@ilovegod777 My mantra about health and fitness has become something like “it is often hard, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.”

I also try not to view the diet thing as “cheating” when I have the treats or a big high-calorie meal with friends so much as budgeting my calories. Like I just save the calories for special treats instead of mindlessly wasting them on garbage that I’m not really even enjoying haha. I think that way I have an easier time being in a disciplined mental state even when I have indulgent things because I don’t view it as breaking the routine. It’s still on track; still calculated and within the limits of my diet. It’s important to still make room for pleasures and not just go down the rabbit hole of eating nothing but “suicide chicken and broccoli” like so many people who get into fitness and bodybuilding do when they don’t know how to cook well… and then get burnt o it and dont stick with anything long term.

I’ve definitely slowly drifted towards a more extreme approach, but it works for me and it’s in line with my objectives. I dont plan to eat like I’ve been eating for the last few months indefinitely, but I’d definitely like to be as shredded as I’ll ever be by next summer. Maybe maintain it for another year or so, and then relax a bit and hover around 13% body fat more long-term.
 
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