The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #161 – Gain 20 Pounds in a Month, Blue Light Blocking Phone Screens, and Making Sourdough Bread

I haven’t published an update here in quite a while, but I’m hoping to get back into it.



How To Gain 20 Pounds In 28 Days: The Extreme Muscle Building Secrets of UFC Fighters

I’ve been purposely putting on weight for about a month now (I’ve gained 10 lbs. so far) but I haven’t really created a solid strategy to do it, though I have in the past. I’ve done two large weight gains over the last 15 years, once on a “SAD” Standard American Diet (before I had an interest in health and fitness) and once on an entirely vegan diet, and both were pretty miserable.

On the vegan weight gain I went from 170 to 210 in about 3 months. It sucked! I put on a lot more fat than I had hoped though so I went back down to about 185 or so and managed to stay at that weight until going Paleo, which caused me to drop down to about 150 lbs. My new goal weight is 175 lbs, with minimal fat gain, so I couldn’t have come across this article at a better time.



The Amen Diet

This sounds like a pretty extreme diet, but very interesting. You eat one meal per day at about 1250 calories, fast for the other 23 hours, drink only water, and eat entirely vegan. The creator of the diet, Dr. Amen-Ra, is freakin’ buff though!



SleepShield

I know I shouldn’t be on my phone or iPad before bed, but I do it anyway. I should definitely invest in some of these blue-light blocking screen protectors.



Three Minutes of All-Out Intermittent Exercise per Week Increases Skeletal Muscle Oxidative Capacity and Improves Cardiometabolic Health

There’s no excuse for not getting a workout in, especially when all it takes is three minutes of your time and only once per week.



I Did It: 6 Days of Eating Dog Food

Eating paleo isn’t cheap but what about eating paleo dog food? This woman ate dog food, dried and canned, and even some biscuits for snacks for a week.



Could This Baker Solve the Gluten Mystery?

Ben Greenfield has mentioned several times in his podcasts that the only bread he eats is sourdough because the fermentation process removes all of the negative aspects of grains. That still doesn’t make it safe for celiacs though. Making sourdough bread looks like a long annoying process, but I’m willing to give it a try.



Drink this 2 hrs before bed to sleep better -plus 5 tips for insomnia

I don’t have any problems falling asleep, but I seem to have problems staying asleep. I often wake up after only 4 or 6 hours and sometimes have trouble getting back to sleep. I wonder if these tips will help with that.



Biohacking: There’s An App For That!

All the apps an aspiring biohacker could ever need. There are categories here for brain training and self-quantification, sleep hacking, food sensitivities, stress management, money management, exercise & fitness, and productivity.



Small Amounts of Gluten in Subjects with Suspected Nonceliac Gluten

Here’s a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial that shows non-celiac gluten sensitivity is real. Keep in mind that this study was done on only 61 subjects, which isn’t a large sample size, but the results are interesting and hopefully leads to larger studies.



Adding Sea Salt to your drinking water can help with Hydration

Instead of drinking a gallon of water a day, drink some salt in your water so that you stay hydrated.



Kaatsu training is blowing fitness researchers’ minds

The idea behind Kaatsu training is that by applying pressure to your arms and legs while working out, you reduce the amount of blood flow from your muscles. By restricting the blood flow to the heart, your limbs fill with blood which fills unused capillaries and increases the lactic acid in the blood. This is what happens normally during long bouts of exercise, but by using Kaatsu training, you can make this process happen in a short amount of time and with minimal exercise. Your brain sends out a signal for hormonal response to recover those muscles, but with a light workout, little muscle fiber damage has occurred, allowing you to recover faster and build muscle faster. You don’t need to use the pressure cuffs mentioned in this article either. Some old bicycle tubes will work just fine.



The “Food Babe” Blogger Is Full of Shit

There are many excellent points made in this article. Influencers in the health community like the “Food Babe” spread misinformation online and stand to potentially cause more harm than good. I actually listened to an interview with the Food Babe on a podcast a couple months ago and I really didn’t like a lot of what I was hearing – lots of fear mongering. That’s not to say everything she says is bad. I think she started with good intentions, and maybe still has good intentions, but it has spiraled out of control and now it’s all business.



Yes, You Can Freeze Milk, Eggs, And Cheese For Later Use

I’m currently trying to put on weight so I’m buying a bunch of dairy products from Costco. I freakin’ hate going to Costco so I really don’t want to stock up once a week, so I wanted to know if I could buy a ton of stuff and freeze it all to use throughout the month. Looks like you can!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *