Jason Actualization

I rotate between chest/back, legs, and arms, and have recently implemented HIIT on a stationary bike on "off" days. The #1 thing, if I could go back in time 10 years to when I began lifting, that I would communicate to my younger self, is the importance of training volume. Essentially, the idea of muscle confusion and exposing your muscles to novel stimuli, is misleading, whereas what actually matters is how many sets, taken to or close to (within 1-2 reps of) failure. If you arrive at a point that you are no longer making the intended/desired progress, your total weekly training volume for a particular muscle group must simply increase. For example, one set of bench press is enough to elicit a growth stimulus for a complete beginner, whereas someone who has been benching for 10 years, may need in excess of 10 sets to elicit a growth stimulus (of course there is nothing wrong with doing far less to simply maintain). Ultimately, high volume training is the master key to hypertrophy.

Meat is indeed androgenic but particularly misunderstood in and how it affects/impacts human health. I've eaten over 1 ton of red meat throughout my 20s, and benefitted from a health transformation that brings me to tears to contemplate. I, for example, used to have an esophagus that was so inflamed I would struggle just to swallow food. I'll attach a before and after picture from age 20 on the left, to age 30 on the right. My testosterone level is right around 1,000 ng/dL, and I'd be happy to share any other labs or health metrics you may be interested in. I had a DEXA scan done on my 30th birthday just a few days ago, which came back at 12.4% body fat with a FFMI of 24.2 (for reference, the 90th and 95th percentiles are 20 and 21, respectively). I am not in any way special, I simply implemented information that was handed to me at a time I needed it most (heartbroken and desperate for change). The carnivore content is good in that it helps recontextualize cholesterol, but the issue is that they do so by seemingly celebrating sky high cholesterol as if that is not at all a cause for concern, which is only partially true. For optimal hormone output, overall health, and resistance to cardiovascular disease, omnivore will always be optimal (having carbohydrates to stay out of ketosis will improve your free testosterone to cortisol ratio). The key to cholesterol is to reduce the amount of absolute oxidized cholesterol in circulation, which requires a potent source of antioxidants, which carnivore diets are devoid of. I will attach a PDF write up I've made to help guys optimize their endocrine system (let me know if it's inaccessible). Ten Tips To Max Your T Levels.pdf

Yes, Sabth is the OP, I just wasn't sure the temperament of her post since I'm unfamiliar with her.

OP is not being sarcastic I take it?

Americans consume 4-5 tablespoons worth of highly oxidizable, industrial seed oils due to their processed food consumption, per day. It would be practically impossible to consume the amount of linoleic acid contained therein by consuming whole, minimally processed food. This linoleic acid incorporates into the cell membranes throughout our body and facilitates oxidative stress, giving rise to cardiovascular disease and dementia not the least of which.

I recall you saying that money is tight, but once able, please let me know when you'd like to compare comprehensive bloodwork and other health and fitness metrics such as FFMI, grip strength, RHR, OGTT, and blood pressure.

Did you get DHT and estradiol measured concurrently? What time of day did you have your blood drawn, and is that the same as you have historically?

Absolutely, I recommend folks use a non-nano zinc and beef tallow-based sunscreen on their face each day. The other high leverage maneuver is to eliminate seed/vegetable oils from ones diet as the linoleic acid they contain will incorporate into the cells of one's skin and make it more prone to oxidative stress and UV damage.

Unfortunately this is a colossal cognitive error. Saturated fat is actually divinely healthy and it is the ancestrally inconsistently high amounts of polyunsaturated fats, predominately facilitated via industrial seed oil consumption, that is perpetuating the diseases of modern civilization, heart disease not least of which. To get ripped and maximize your muscular potential, eat 0.82 grams per lb of bodyweight per day, in at least two divided doses, of animal protein (red meat, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, etc) while engaging in a properly formulated resistance training program. Saturated fat based on % of calories is irrelevant. For fat intake, the most relevant marker is the % relative to total fat intake. For example, for me, I consume 55% of my fats as saturated, 38% monounsaturated, and 7% polyunsaturated. What is your current height and weight? Being in a calorie surplus is not necessary depending on your current body fat percentage. Recomping is entirely possible, and I would submit optimal, depending on the current state of your physique.

Gotcha. What is your current height and weight if you don't mind sharing? I am 5'9, 175 lbs for reference. I was 150 lbs when I began weight training. I found that engaging in resistance training greatly augmented my appetite. Red meat and eggs are divinely healthy, and meal prep can be quite useful. Do you digest dairy effectively (that is another superfood) such as whole milk, cheese and Greek yogurt?

Beef is a superfood and that is quite unfortunate for you, I'm sorry to hear that. I eat one pound every day. I haven't taken a day off work due to sickness in over 4 years, I sleep for 8+ hours straight nightly, have reversed a number of medical conditions that have no recognized medical cure (such as eosinophilic esophagitis) and am able to engage in and recover from daily weight training sessions. The highway back to optimal health for me was one paved with a lot of red meat, albeit, more importantly, the absence of industrial seed oils. Unfortunately, saturated fat and cholesterol are abominably misunderstood, and this misunderstanding has potentiated myriad misconceptions about the role of red meat in fostering optimal human health.

Beef is divinely healthy. Steer clear of the aisles in your grocery store.

All of the above, with the exception of properly formulated breads such as Ezekiel. People are overfed because they are undernourished. Ultimately this does boil down to chronic caloric surpluses, but the resolution is not to confine oneself to a calorie-restricted prison, but rather, to emphasize food quality, and food quantity will naturally handle itself. What is considered "food" in 2023 is truly abominable, and myriad examples entailing bags, boxes, cans, and containers, are truly perverse and poisoning humanity. Big Food corporations are selling you the problem, and Big Pharmaceutical companies are attempting to sell you the solution. Have you ever appreciated the elegance of how pharmacies are situated inside supermarkets (saying this as a pharmacist myself)? Processed, packaged foods have hijacked our body's satiety mechanisms, and because these Frankenfoods are fundamentally devoid of the nutrients our body yearns for, we fail to feel satiated when consuming them. The solution is to ship at the perimeter of your grocery store of choice, opting for whole, minimally processed foods.

What are you hoping to achieve with this? Fantastic. Generally these are just expensive urine given the lack of bioavailability of the constituents, but I'm more than happy to take a look. My personal philosophy with supplements is to adopt a sniper as opposed to bazooka approach, i.e., rely on your diet to offer the overwhelming majority of your micronutrient needs, and then simply fill in the missing pieces with spot supplementation as opposed to a broad spectrum multivitamin. I would drop supplements 1 and 4, personally. A work of art. Magnesium is generally the first supplement I would have someone explore. Next, I would be curious to know what your vitamin D level is currently and consider a D3 supplement if it's less than 40.

Caffeine is a chemical crutch: it's okay to lean on when you absolutely need it, but long-term it will cripple your baseline state.

100% this.

Ridiculous, indeed. The modern medical establishment is a broken system that serves to keep civilians sick by prescribing chemical crutches that get forever leaned on, and don't allow one to ever embody an optimal, holistic state of health. I've been a pharmacist for the past 5 years, but that time would have been better spent being a farmer, actually producing high quality food for folks on the front end, so they don't have to attempt to buy back their health pharmaceutically on the backend.

Bingo. Likewise. Dr. Berg strikes be as the antithesis of nefarious, he seems quite well-intended and his information far outshines the mainstream medical paradigm. I have dispensed thousands of pharmaceuticals in my life, and I am 100% confident that I could coach any one of the such people dispensed to, how to reverse their chronic condition(s), primarily mediated via dietary changes.

Yeah, there is definitely an adaptation period that you could eventually get past, but I prefer being metabolically flexible by eating plenty of carbohydrates, but also being able to burn ketones by only eating twice daily without snacking in between.

No harm, no foul man. I am very passionate as well and so I understand and appreciate your enthusiasm. I wish you equally well. I am so unshakably confident in my position that I have shared my dietary philosophy with all of my close friends and family members. I will share future imaging studies and laboratory tests on this forum, being 100% transparent, displaying the power of my nutritional paradigm that I have full confidence in.

That's horrifying. Mainstream health advice is horrendous and akin to a map leading to the cliff of your demise. His advice is generally quite good, with the exception being that ketosis is not the optimal state for human performance. Neglecting the carbohydrate macronutrient will not render ideal endocrinological outcomes. The notion that carbohydrates are toxic is complete nonsense.

Yeah, so it would depend on which micronutrient(s) and genetic polymorphisms are being consider. For example, if a person had a 5-MTHFR gene mutation and could not effectively assimilate folic acid, I would ensure that they have a good source of bioactive folate in their diet such as egg yolks.

As Hippocrates said, let food be thy medicine.

Gary Brecka is very intelligent and I'm a fan of the diagnosis he outlines, but not the treatment. The genetic polymorphisms that he draws attention and concern to do not necessitate supplementation to circumnavigate, but rather, the bioavailable forms of the bioactive nutrients from whole foods, i.e., beef, liver, eggs and full-fat dairy.

Yes, and I have a personal relationship with one of those authors, her name is Susan Carlson and she oversees a laboratory in Kansas City, Missouri. She is going to personally assay a sample of my adipose tissue in November. Care to guess how she personally navigates and advises others to navigate the linoleic acid infested world that we inhabit? She avoids it all cost and I have spoken with her ad nauseum about this matter. She is helping me save the world from seed oils by not only assaying my own adipose tissue (to prove that my dietary intake is both what I preach and practice) but also the phospholipid composition of my erythrocytes for social media purposes, i.e., to faciliate the proliferation of this this life-changing information. I'm sorry you feel that way man. In your lifetime, invariably, you are going to be burdened by enduring the same cognitive dissonance that I have in arriving at these conclusions (having been a traditionally trained pharmacist background spanning the past decade). The truth will eventually come to fruition, and I hope you are able to let it land my friend.