Beer N Biceps Podcast

In this podcast episode, I look at the real reason behind the obesity epidemic, and I also attempt to dispel many of the incorrect theories out there. Now, while I am fairly confident that my theory is the right one, there is no single reason for the obesity epidemic, but more a collection of reasons.

Whilst researching an article for work, I stumbled across a study from 2002 that looked into how portion sizes have increased over the years. The study found that in the 1970s portion sizes increased substantially, and that in the 80s portion sizes increased massively. Ever since, portion sizes have continued to grow and grow. Today, what we would think of as a regular-sized portion would seem absolutely massive to someone from the 1950s.

Think about it. There are people born in the 80s today who are in their 30s and 40s, who have never seen a 1960s sized portion. As a society, our entire perception of a normal meal size is warped. There were several reasons as to why this happened. Sure, there was probably a bit of profiteering from food companies, but the price of food dropping made a huge difference. While house prices seem to do nothing but go up, the cost of meat and grains is at an all time low.

I don’t want to get into a meat vs vegan argument here, but meat is an excellent example of how our perception of portion sizes has changed. Anyway, tune into the podcast to learn more.

I was not a massive fan of this beer, but I do not believe that it is a bad beer, just not to my taste. I don’t really like milkshake IPAs nor do I like Ice Cream IPAs, I think that the worlds of IPA beers and desserts should be kept separate. Though I do enjoy dessert flavoured stouts (I never stop talking about some of them).

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll probably know about the downsides of steroids, and many of the benefits. But what is my actual opinion on them? Should steroids be legal? By which I mean, should they be legal to buy without a prescription? Or should the status quo remain?

My opinion on the legality and benefits of steroid use has lurched from one extreme to another over the years, and it has taken 15 years to establish my current belief. This is that steroid use should not be legalised without a prescription.

Not because steroids are particularly worse than most other non-prescription drugs, but due to the nature of the men taking them. Taking testosterone so that you are just maintaining healthy levels of testosterone has hundreds of benefits, and very few (if any) downsides.

But steroid abuse (which is what professional bodybuilders do) can have many downsides. My issue is that most men if given the option to take small dosages would quickly abuse the drug. “If taking one pill of testosterone has given me all these benefits, then why not take four pills?”. You get the idea.

One thing I am certain of though, there needs to be more debate around this issue. At the moment there are two camps. There are people who are staunchly pro steroids, who don’t really believe that anything bad will happen to them. Then there are the people who are just as staunchly anti-steroid. These are the type of people who think creatine monohydrate should be banned!

Education is vital here. I’d also be happy if doctors were more likely to prescribe testosterone to older men, as many men can have testosterone levels that are lower than healthy. Food for thought at least.

This was a pretty decent English pale ale, though not as good as my usual favourites (Speckled Hen, Greene King, Hobgoblin, Doom Bar). You don’t often see craft pale ales, and when you do they are almost always American Pale Ales, which is slightly different.

Still, very cool can design, and it meant that I could use my Stormtrooper pint glass, which is a glass that I don’t get to use very often. So no complaints from me. Interestingly, the Stormtrooper line of beers is all brewed by Vocation brewery! One of my favourite craft breweries.

Most diets fail. They either fail immediately, within a couple of weeks or after a number of weeks. Sometimes they can appear to succeed, but after a year, you’re back to square one. Which if you think about it is a fairly common result. In this podcast, I give five reasons why your diet is failing.

I won’t go into each specific point, that’s what the podcast is here for. But the main reason for a failing diet is not taking it seriously enough during planning. What is your goal? How are you going to achieve it? How long is this diet going to last? What is your current situation?

Answer these questions and you will be well on your way to creating a successful diet that achieves exactly what you set out for it to achieve. Sadly, what usually happens is that you wake up after a particularly calorific meal or a night out and vow to go on a diet. You throw out all the junk food in your house and then purchase a new diet book and a tonne of “healthy” meals.

You give up everything you love, and after a few weeks, you have a complete meltdown and gorge yourself. Does that sound familiar? It certainly does to me. Not only have I seen hundreds of clients do it (before signing up with me), I’ve been there myself. At University, I gained a load of weight, and tried carb-free diets, for a good 2 weeks before I ate an entire loaf of bread in one sitting.

During the podcast, I promised to link you to some articles on goal setting, nutrition, and exercise. Check them out here:

Today’s beer came courtesy of Lidl, and it should be mentioned that it came at a very low price point. Twisted Knots IPA is a very dark beer, almost red in colour. It had a decent head, that mostly disappeared while I tried to get a photo of it. The taste was a little too bitter for my liking, but not too bad at all.

This is a beer that I would not exactly search out, but wouldn’t turn down if offered it. Considering the price, it is not a bad beer, but I prefer Lidl’s other IPA, which tastes a lot better in my opinion.

The inspiration for this podcast came from an article I wrote a few months back, it was looking at the potential health benefits of drinking beer, and weighing them up against the downsides. The article was fairly interesting to write, and I thought that it might suit podcasting even better. So, is beer healthy? Let’s find out.

There is a lot of evidence that light to moderate beer drinking can provide some health benefits, but heavy drinking is guaranteed to cause health issues down the line. In the podcast, I conclude that while beer may well provide some health benefits, it isn’t good practice to think of it as healthy.

Think of it as a nice treat, something to savour and enjoy, but not something to overindulge in. In the same way that having a nice steak every once in a while can provide some excellent health benefits, but that too much steak can lead to weight gain, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease!

For a bit of a change, I decided to have a beer from my Perfect Draft machine during this podcast. A Spaten Oktoberfest beer. I’ve had the Perfect Draft machine for a few months now, and have been really impressed by it.

I love German lagers and pilsners, and Oktoberfest beers are a personal favourite. Though I have learned not to attempt to drink a stein’s worth of it too often. At over 6% abv, it’s just too strong for little old me!

A nice half-pint or two every now and again is a really nice luxury. But after talking about the benefits of light drinking rather than heavy drinking, it seems mad to be getting through a keg of 6% German beer too quickly! The kegs last for 30 days, so I’ve been spreading it out and taking my time.

In this podcast, I talk about the seven mistakes I made as a personal trainer. This was not the most enjoyable thing for me to do! But it led to a pretty damn good podcast (in my opinion). Much better than if I’d named my seven greatest successes or my best features.

Analysing my mistakes as a trainer helped me improve, and now that I’ve got some perspective on my time as a PT, it’s really helping me to plan for the future. I’m not going to list the mistakes here, you can hear them on the podcast. But there is a common theme for most of them, which is:

The second one is a bit of an odd one because in many ways I had too much confidence in myself! When you are a trainer, you have to act like the best trainer in the world, and in some ways, you start to believe your own hype.

But when dealing with my clients, I erred on the side of safety too often. Particularly when it came to diet. I’ve learned from that now, and as I say in the podcast. Caring about your clients so much that you end up being overly-cautious, is not the worst trait to have as a trainer.

What a lovely surprise this beer was. In two different ways. My Mrs came back from the Co-op with a gift box of two bottles of Shelby and a beer mug, all for £5. While I’m fairly indifferent to the Peaky Blinders tv show (have only watched one episode to be fair), the mug is fantastic.

The beer was gorgeous too. I guessed that it was an English IPA rather than an American IPA, and this seems to be the case. The main hop used is Fuggles which is an English hop variety, and there is a distinct lack of American hops. It also uses a combination of English and German malts.

It’s an excellent English IPA, and I am definitely looking forward to drinking the other one as soon as I finish writing this! Check out my article on English beers to see some similar varieties.

I’ve been planning on writing an article that answers the question “can bodybuilding be considered a sport?”, but decided to do a podcast first. I’ll write the article at some point and may come out with a completely different answer!

In the podcast, I first discuss my relationship with bodybuilding. Anyone who has met me in person will NOT be surprised to know that I have never had any interest in being a bodybuilder.

But after 60+ articles on bodybuilding history, famous bodybuilders through the years, and several articles on the more recent Mr Olympia competitions, I now have a greater knowledge of bodybuilding and an appreciation for it.

That does not mean that I think it is a sport though. Though you’ll have to listen to my podcast to find out my exact thoughts, and why it is such a difficult question to answer.

On the podcast, as is now customary, I make a big fuss about the pointless distinction between stouts and porters (they’re the same thing). But don’t let that distract you from how much I enjoyed this beer! Peanut Riot had me wary as my first impression was that it was going to be too sweet.

It smelled like a Snickers bar, with that chemical aftertaste you sometimes get with sweet porters and stouts. I am not a massive fan of sweet porters and stouts, I find that they can get rather sickly after a while. But Peanut Riot surprised me. The taste was less sweet, you could definitely taste the peanut, and it was very smooth. An excellent beer all in all.

Fierce brewery is based in Aberdeen, and that means that there is ANOTHER amazing Scottish craft brewery! Seriously, Scotland is absolutely smashing it when it comes to craft beer these days. I may have to write a follow up to my Celtic Craft Beer article.

I talk about creatine a lot, I’ve written hundreds of articles online about its benefits, drawbacks, and supplements that contain it. I’ve been a freelance fitness and nutrition writer for 6 years now, and clients are always asking for articles about it. This podcast talks about five surprising benefits of creatine.

I am not about to ruin the surprise for my podcast listeners here, that would be pointless. If you want to find out the hundreds of scientifically proven benefits of creatine then go onto the examine.com website and find out for yourself.

Creatine is known for its ability to improve athletic performance. Allowing you to train harder, and to see gains in strength, speed, and power. But it has many benefits, particularly for the elderly and for vegetarians/vegans.

For some reason, creatine got a bad reputation among the general public, based on misinformation. Creatine is NOT a steroid, is NOT illegal, and is NOT dangerous. Our bodies produce it naturally, and it is found in meat and fish. Supplementation has many benefits for old and young alike.

Innis & Gunn produced one of the first craft beers I ever had. Their bourbon-barrel-aged Scotch ale was a revelation. At least it was to all my friends, I wasn’t a massive fan. Then again, I’m not a big fan of bourbon, so perhaps this was not surprising.

That being said, I am well aware that their original beer is well-loved, and it’s not that I dislike it. I’m just not going to order it. Their passionfruit pale ale on the other hand, is very decent, and I’d consider a second or even a third if offered.

I wrote an article on Celtic Craft beer, and completely neglected to mention Innis & Gunn, so hopefully, this podcast will rectify the situation somewhat. They deserve to be mentioned alongside Brewdog, and I can’t think of higher praise!

In the past, I’ve written articles for other websites that have argued for and against the paleo diet. This may sound hypocritical, how can I write one article while having an opposing opinion? Well firstly, I got bills to pay y’all. Secondly, I am not for or against the paleo diet. So I can write positive and negative articles while staying true to my beliefs. So, what is wrong with the paleo diet?

In the podcast, I talk a lot about some of the illogical aspects of the paleo diet. The appeal to nature, the condensing of 2.5 million years of diet into a quick recipe book for paleo cookies, and how the diet does not represent the nature of palaeolithic people.

If a palaeolithic person saw a Big Mac and chips they would not turn their noses up at it because it contained bread. They would eat it, because that’s what the constant threat of famine does to a person!

But just because I don’t like the theories behind the diet, does not mean that I think the diet is a bad one. It is overly-complicated, unnecessarily restrictive, and irritating. But it also encourages you to eat more fruit and veg, and reduce your intake of processed and red meat in favour of leaner meats such as game and poultry.

These are not bad things and provided you enjoy following it, I won’t judge anyone who genuinely enjoys it. Just don’t pretend like it is in any way superior to a normal diet!

My Mrs (would be my wife if Covid hadn’t cancelled our wedding) made me a beer advent calendar. The day of recording was Dec 1st – yes, this podcast is being scheduled WAY in advance. Efes draft beer (canned) was the number 1 beer on this calendar.

I really enjoyed drinking this beer. It had a strong honey aroma which I really liked. I’ll be honest, I’ve read a few tasting notes for this beer and absolutely nobody else has mentioned honey, but I was/am certain that this is what it tasted and smelled of.

I’ve talked about Turkish beer before, and it is a fascinating story. The mixture of secularism and religion in Turkish politics has had a marked effect on beer, leading to total domination of the domestic market by Efes. But for all that, it is an excellent lager. Worth a try.

Today’s podcast is all about discovering why personal trainers hate cardio. Obviously, not all personal trainers hate it, but there are enough PTs spouting off about their hate for traditional cardio for it to be worth looking at. Do they have a point? This episode explores the truth.

The podcast looks at the legitimate reasons why personal trainers don’t often add cardio into their sessions. High injury rate, practical issues, coaching issues, and risk/benefit analysis. It also looks at the lesser-known reasons why personal trainers may not want to add cardio into their workouts.

At the end of the day, there is a time and a place for cardio, but I can understand why a PT would not feel it necessary. If you aren’t training with a PT then adding some cardio into your life will provide many benefits, and the purpose of this podcast is not to discourage you from that.

The beer I was drinking during this podcast was a New England IPA (NEIPA) from Lost + Found brewery called TrioJ 26. An absolutely shocking name for a beer! I’ve talked about NEIPAs before, and they aren’t exactly my favourite style.

But this was by no means a bad beer. It was not as bitter as I had expected a NEIPA to be, and bitterness is one of the main reasons why I usually avoid NEIPAs. But at 6% it is stronger than I like my IPAs to be. My ideal IPA is a session IPA, one I can drink a few cans of without feeling absolutely trashed. Yep, I’m a volume kinda guy!

If you enjoy your beer hoppy, fruity, and not overly bitter, then this beer is a real find. Excellent as a one-off, but not something I could see myself drinking five of.

Can You Lose Weight While Drinking Beer? That is the type of question that Beer n Biceps was created to answer! In fact, I’ve already written an article about it, check it out here. But not everyone has time to waste reading words on a page, so I decided to do a podcast on the subject too.

Looking at the question in the most simplistic way, yes of course you can lose weight while drinking beer. If you stopped eating for 20 days and only drank one can of Guinness for sustenance, do you really believe you wouldn’t lose weight? You absolutely would.

But that wouldn’t be a healthy way to do it, nor would it be enjoyable. But it is important to point out the fact that you can do so. Weight loss is all about calories in vs calories out over a period of time.

If you consistently consume fewer calories than you burn, you will lose body fat, as your body will dip into your stored fat to make up the energy difference. Sort of like dipping into your saving after a month of your outgoings being higher than your income.

You can fit beer into your diet, and still maintain a calorie deficit. You just have to be realistic about how much beer you can have per week, while staying within the deficit. 10 pints? Unlikely. 5 pints? Perfectly possible.

What is there to say about Guinness that I haven’t already covered in my Guinness fact file or article on beer in Ireland? Not much. I was very impressed with the canned version, tasted as nice as any pint I’ve had in a pub, and a decent price too. Poured beautifully, and allowed for a decent head.

Instagram is full of craft stouts, imperial stouts, and crazy porters, but a can of Guinness beats all of them in my opinion!