Are you overdoing cardio, eating a low carb, low fat, and high protein diet? That was the advice I got when I began my “fitness and health journey.” I followed those guidelines, and I even got success: I did get very fit and lean, but if you work out five days per week for 2 hours each time inevitably, you will get there. Please bear in mind when I mean two hours, I mean no Instagram or emails involved: strictly hardcore exercise. The “diet” I followed was definitely “bro-science”: avoid or minimize carbs and fats, and you can eat as much chicken and low-fat dairy as you want. How did this work?: lousy sleep, mood swings, constipation, “hangry “ episodes, and accelerated ageing. My face from this period looks much more mature than it should have been, and today I look much younger than then. I no longer overtrain or eat this “ageing and brain decline diet.” At the time, though, that was “the golden rule of bodybuilding.” Oh, and I almost forgot: “the cheat day,” right! This day that you binge and consequently collapse in a food coma on the sofa, you gain two kilograms (“it’s just water,” they say), but you need to recover for two more days after, till you get into “burning” again.
After I studied nutrition and all I have learned, those methods seem so funny now. However, we didn’t have the information and knowledge we have today about metabolism, the connection between the gut microbiome and the brain, thyroid hormones and carbohydrates, sleep/recovery and carbohydrates, premature ageing, hormonal balance, epigenetics, and more.
The energy demand
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