PropaneFitness Podcast

This week, we spoke to Dr Anthony Jay, Biochemist, researcher and author of Estrogeneration. Do not miss this one, dude is a boss.

As you may have heard from some previous episodes, Jonny and I are in the midst of doing some self-experiments. After reading some of Dr Jay's work, I ran a male hormone panel on myself using Medichecks (use code PROPANE10 for 10% off). The goal is to see whether minimising my exposure to environmental oestrogens has an effect on my blood levels of testosterone. I'll release a more detailed article on this next month, including the specific changes that Dr Jay advised me. Stay tuned.

Interestingly, the test DID reveal that my testosterone levels are below the normal range: a result that we explore in more depth on the podcast. 

As you know, our motto is very much "Simple rules, dramatic results", and up until now, I believed that worrying about hormonal optimisation was getting caught in the weeds, obsessing over minutiae. That was until I heard what Dr Jay had to say, and until I got such a low testosterone measurement at my age. Prepare to put your tin foil hat firmly on, because the impact of environmental oestrogens is no joke - the sheer DOSES that we're exposed to based on his research, in addition to the epigenetic impact are collossal, and have huge public health implications in terms of cancer, obesity, fertility and even allergies. 

Listen below to find out more.

https://youtu.be/_dlfsuKfwyQ

Taking the piss with IIFYM

Forewarning: We are not advocating the approach described here as the paragon of 'healthy' eating. The experiment below was just what the title says: taking the piss to test the limits of an idea. This post is a guide to covering your nutritional bases while allowing yourself a huge degree of dietary freedom without hampering your body composition goals. Again, since a lot of commenters seem to be missing this point: this is NOT a dietary approach for optimum health, for diabetics or those with eating or metabolic disorders. It is also unlikely to be good for your dental health. 

Prefer to listen? Listen on Itunes Above 👆 or on Spotify below 👇

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2beBHuUZoU06HvSbBimKHm?si=Lj0sYqG2Sdqn8M1K68Z9qw

What is 'clean' eating?

Clean eating is defined as eating exclusively 'healthy' foods, where 'healthy' is determined by purely subjective and imprecise criteria. Foods generally touted as clean include brown rice, brown pasta, sweet potato, fish, milk, broccoli and wholemeal bread, to name a few.Rather than addressing this ourselves, JC Deen and Alan Aragon have laid this out far more comprehensively than we could, explaining why 'clean' food is a nonsensical label in itself, and why we should abandon categorising foods in this way. 

The crux is this, to quote Eric Helms:

‘With regard to clean/dirty foods, I don’t give much credence to these terms. The truth is there is nothing inherently unhealthy about dirty foods, it’s rather that if they dominate your diet, you generate deficiencies as a result. The paleo community has attempted to convince us that we need to avoid entire food groups in order to be like the Palaeolithic man. In actuality we don’t really know how the Palaeolithic man ate, and there is nothing to suggest what they were doing was optimal.'‘I tell my clients that their diets should be inclusive rather than exclusive, meaning that provided you hit your macros, get sufficient fruits, vegetables and fibre, and you have some macros left over, then sure, have your snickers bar. In fact I’d hedge a guess to say that results on the diet will be better this way, as you’re less likely to fall off the wagon.’

The knee-jerk reaction to the clean eating movement has been 'IIFYM': If It Fits Your Macros, i.e. as long as you hit your protein/carb/fat numbers for the day, then you should not consider food choices. This simplifies dieting right down to three numbers, and affords a great degree of liberty for the reformed clean-eater.

However, such a reduction of a multifaceted approach towards nutrition into flat-out focus on 3 numbers throws a couple of babies out with the bathwater.

The fitness industry, like politics, vacillates between extremes where certain foods or ideas are demonised. Simple minds take a concept with no understanding of the underlying science to make a Frankenstein’s monster out of it.

The IIFYM movement is a step in the right direction, but along with it comes a false nutritional enlightenment, the thinking that because calories are the MOST important determinant of weight loss in a diet, dumbos will extrapolate that to it being the ONLY thing that matters in a diet. Chris Masterjohn says it best:

"Calories in calories out is absolutely true. But just because calories count doesn't mean nothing else counts. If you're going to build a plane, and you don't believe in gravity, then I'm not getting in your plane. You should be building your plane with the central understanding that you are interacting with gravity."

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IIFYM - the downsides

The primary things that purist IIFYM doesn't account for are satiety and micronutrients.

A) Satiety

Compliance is THE biggest factor in a diet's success. It doesn't matter how physiologically optimal a diet is if you only stick t...

Interview with Dr Mike Banna

This week on the Propane Podcast Yusef is joined by GP Dr Michael Banna, AKA Dr Mike II. Mike has successfully lost over half his bodyweight, kept it off, changed his life and become a spokesperson and author for "Lifestyle Medicine"

They discuss Dr Mike's life changing transformation, how he lost half his bodyweight, the impact it has had on his medical practice as a GP, the dangers of restrictive diets and why the Birthday Cake Grenade Bar is his absolute fave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9H6n2rLpOo&feature=youtu.be

Dr Mike The Author

Dr Mike on Twitter

Dr Mike on IG 

Free Gift for Podcast Listeners

How to set up your day for maximum productivity.

This week on the Propane Podcast a solo Jonny discusses how to be more productive and set up bullet proof strategies to ensure a productive day.

Why your fitness approach needs to complement your lifestyle

This week on the Propane Podcast Jonny discusses why your fitness approach needs to be one which doesn't prevent you from enjoying your life and why strict plans that demand 100% adherence are likely to fail. 

Free Gift for Podcast Listeners

In this Shot of Propane Jonny discusses what constitutes a real flexible diet and why it isn't just about making Pop-Tarts and Pizza fit your macros.

THE STORY

https://www.facebook.com/PropaneFitness/videos/258601958331706/

THE LESSON

If eating out fills you with anxiety about going over your macros and sends you into a tailspin, then perhaps you need to review your idea of flexibility. Take an objective view of the bigger picture rather than being emotionally attached to your daily macros.

We love answering questions from our audience! The best way to submit one is through our contact form on the website, you can access that here: Contact Us

Life Hacks 105 

This week on the Propane  Podcast, Jonny and Yusef join Chris Williamson on his Modern Wisdom Podcast for another episode of Life Hacks. They discuss their favourites Apps, Websites, resources and tools for an efficient and productive life.

In this Shot of Propane Jonny discusses the benefits of a good night's sleep and how detrimental poor sleep habits can be to your day to day life. While a complete sleep overhaul can seem overwhelming, there are simple steps you can take to track your baseline sleep habits and improve them.

THE STORY

https://www.facebook.com/PropaneFitness/videos/2194892980722844/

THE LESSON

Establish your baselines before you get sucked into any optimisation recommendations. Once you have a number, normalise your wake time, allow your sleep time to auto-regulate and adjust. Then you can establish a shut time routine at night and a morning routine.

We love answering questions from our audience! The best way to submit one is through our contact form on the website, you can access that here: Contact Us

In this Shot of Propane, Yusef discusses the potential downsides of over-egging the pudding with training and diet and why abnormal practice can lead to less than desirable results. 

THE STORY

https://www.facebook.com/PropaneFitness/videos/1878988065490464/

THE LESSON

If you aren't getting the results you think you should be getting, review all aspects of your diet and training and consider if you're doing too much of anything. More does not always result in better, it fact it can sometimes be detrimental to your goals.

We love answering questions from our audience! The best way to submit one is through our contact form on the website, you can access that here: Contact Us

In this Shot of Propane, Yusef discusses the potential downsides of over-egging the pudding with training and diet and why abnormal practice can lead to less than desirable results. 

THE STORY

https://www.facebook.com/PropaneFitness/videos/1878988065490464/

THE LESSON

If you aren't getting the results you think you should be getting, review all aspects of your diet and training and consider if you're doing too much of anything. More does not always result in better, it fact it can sometimes be detrimental to your goals.

We love answering questions from our audience! The best way to submit one is through our contact form on the website, you can access that here: Contact Us