I’ve always had my doubts around “cutting”

I would watch people starve themselves, lose all motivation and see just about everything in their life go downhill.

Even though they might have gotten a set of abs…

It still seemed like a terrible deal.

Restricting food and getting trapped in calorie prison did not look worth it.

It seemed like all fitness communities were missing one important point… 

Starvation is not a healthy thing.

Why would you make yourself less healthy to reach a goal related to health?

It didn’t make sense.

I couldn’t let go of the feeling that there had to be a better way.

I refused to believe that the only path to a lean physique and health was starvation.

After trying 5 different diets and experiencing the dreadful existence in a calorie prison… 

I found the answer hiding in plain sight.

I wouldn’t say it’s a secret…

But people are so stuck in the common perspective of “calories in calories out” — that it might as well be.

There is a better way to lose fat.

One that does not involve sacrificing your strength, motivation and love for life.

The path to health has always been holistic and always will be.

Let’s dive in.

The Problem With Calories

“Eat less calories than you burn”

The most regurgitated and misunderstood concept in the health and wellness industry.

This is what every fitness influencer and “health expert” preaches about without a second thought of the actual nuance that goes into it.

They don’t see the infinite complexity in between.

Telling someone that body composition is a calorie balance, is like telling someone a phone works by pushing the buttons of it.

The problem is not that it doesn’t work…

The problem is that it’s too simple.

And because of its simplicity — people suffer.

They sacrifice their health, energy and well being all because an article told them it was the only way to lose a bit of fat.

They quite literally sacrifice their lives to try and get a set of abs.

It’s no wonder they end up quitting after a few weeks.

But the average person isn’t the one who suffers the most. 

The disciplined bodybuilder who never questions the dogma of cutting will starve himself to the brink of death with a smile.

It may be admirable, but it is not an efficient or healthy way to live life.

The idea of calories in, calories out is so deeply rooted in people that no one even questions it.

But the things which you must not question are exactly those that you should.

So let’s question the fuck out of this all too common perspective.

Trying to lose weight by restricting calories creates a few problems.

Let’s break them down.

1. Cutting is a downwards spiral

A calorie prison is often counterintuitive.

Your body’s metabolism (how many calories you burn) isn’t set in stone.

It changes depending on a few things:

• The amount of food you eat

• The amount of exercise you do

• The quality of the food you eat

When you eat too few calories – your body will lower your metabolism to make up for the deficit.

You won’t lose weight but you will lose all energy, strength and motivation for life.

This is why people who are on a cut have to decrease their calories every month or so.

But this creates a downward spiral.

Your body isn’t stupid – it won’t continue burning energy if you stop giving it fuel.

But this creates a cycle of you decreasing your calories and your body decreasing its metabolism until you reality becomes a gray mass of lifeless objectivity.

It’s not a fun experience.

I remember being on a cut in high school.

Micromanaging my breakfast, dividing up the school lunch and turning down friends wanting to eat out.

I was dead set on getting a six pack, no matter the consequences. 

Because that’s what I’d been told was the way by everyone on youtube.

It wasn’t a problem in the beginning – but my life soon started to go downhill.

I had to watch my strength in the gym and enjoyment for training disappear. 

I lost my previously high energy, couldn’t think clearly or even focus.

But more than that…  life itself lost its zest.

Eventually, I got fed up and quit. 

The little fat I’d lost was nowhere near worth sacrificing the gift of life for.

Calorie prison is no joke.

It easily creates a downwards spiral where you end up without energy, motivation and enjoyment of life.

This is the 1st problem with cutting calories.

1. Weight Loss vs Fat loss

“You can’t break the law of thermodynamics” 

Yes.

If you eat less calories than you burn – you will lose weight.

That’s just thermodynamics. 

But you also can’t break the rules of biology.

Because, your body composition isn’t ruled by calories – only your weight is.

And unless you’re in a sport with weight classes – you probably don’t want to just lose weight – you want to lose fat.

When you enter a calorie deficit – more often than not – you just become a smaller version of yourself.

If you were a little bit pudgy before – you’ll become a smaller (but equally pudgy) version of yourself. 

Losing weight and losing fat is not the same thing.

(As you’ll come to find) your body-fat isn’t determined by the amount of calories you eat… 

It’s your metabolic health.

This is the 2nd problem with cutting calories.

1. Starvation Is Not A Strategy

Starvation is not healthy.

I don’t understand why people try to get around this.

When you cut calories – you’re in controlled starvation. 

This is what I don’t get.

You can’t starve yourself and expect to be healthy. 

You need energy to fuel your life. 

• Your brain needs energy to function

• Your organs need energy to work

• Your body needs energy to move

Without it, you lose the very ability to experience it.

Life becomes dull and listless, and experience itself becomes dim (as we talked about in last week’s letter)

When you restrict calories – you put yourself in low power mode:

Doing the things you love in life becomes extremely difficult.

And chasing your goals becomes a drag.

• You can’t be creative because your mind won’t work

• You lose discipline because you lack all energy

• You can’t connect with people because you feel like a shell of your old self

If you put yourself in calorie prison — you will break the fuck out.

You’re fighting millions of years of biology.

Your body doesn’t like being held captive – and it will fight back.

If you want to lose fat, improve your health and brighten the experience of life…

Restricting calories is not the way to go.

The secret is fixing what goes on in between.

The Battery That Is You

You are a battery.

More specifically…

You are 36 trillion microscopic batteries called cells.

And every single one plays a part in fueling the being that is you.

Everything you are and everything you do is energy. Your body is potential energy, your mind is fluent energy. 

The source of all energy is the efficiency of your batteries.

This is your “energy efficiency” or “metabolic health”. And it’s the closest predictor for lifespan in animals and humans (it’s also the closest metric for overall health).

Think of these batteries as a dimmer for your life.

When they work well – the experience of life becomes bright.

You gain a never ending supply of energy, motivation and discipline.

You fight diseases, build your body and (as you’ll find) lose body fat effortlessly.

When they work poorly however – the experience of life becomes dim.

You stop appreciating sights, people and even your own accomplishments. Your body more or less crumbles. You put on fat and lose the ability to use your mind.

To put it another way, you become too tired to experience life.

Most people’s batteries are in this dreadful state (and it’s one of the biggest causes for the obesity epidemic).

It’s not an overstatement that having our batteries work well will improve everything about our health and life.

And it goes the other way around as well.

The efficiency of your batteries will determine your:

• Energy

• Body composition

• Quality of life

(You’ll be able to draw this conclusion in just a second)

If your life is a result of where and how much energy you’ve invested – ignoring the source of energy is handicapping your potential.

To put it another way, if we want more out of life – we better fix our damn batteries.

But to do this (and put them on full blast) we need to understand how they work.

Let’s take the example of a regular battery.

A battery works because there is a difference in charge between two separate spaces.

When you connect a wire between the spaces – energy flows through the wire to even out the charge.

The flow of this energy can be used for everything from driving a car to powering the computer you’re reading this on.

In exactly the same way, your mitochondria creates a difference in charge by pumping out positively charged particles (protons) outside its cell membrane.

Finally your mitochondria lets the positive particles flow through the cell membrane through a special channel that works kind of like a power generator (ATP synthase).

It creates ATP, which is energy your body can use to fuel your mind, body and life

(Look up the electron transport chain in biology)

But a battery only works on one condition… 

The positive and negative spaces must be separated. Otherwise, the differences in charge will even out and you’ll lose the ability to extract power from it.

In other words, the battery becomes useless.

In the case of your cells, the negative and positive particles are separated by your cell membrane. 

The problem is, that depending on what you eat – you increase or decrease the permeability of the membrane.

When you eat polyunsaturated fats (seed oils, nuts, seeds), the devil himself (linoleic acid) accumulates in your cell membranes.

This is where it gets dangerous.

Having polyunsaturated fat in your cell membrane will increase the permeability. It lets protons leak through the membrane and even out the difference in charge.

In other words — the batteries that fuel your life will become leaky.

This creates a cascade of problems.

The food you eat can’t be turned into energy to fuel your life. Instead, the energy is stored as fat.

It’s been shown in animal models that consumption of seed oils increases fat storages (Which is pretty crazy).

Think of it like this.

You have these batteries that fuel your entire life:

• Mind

• Body

• Motivation

And eating polyunsaturated fats makes them leaky. 

I don’t know why this isn’t blasted all over the news (actually I do, but that's for another time).

This is the biggest problem with the CICO diet (calories in, calories out).

It doesn’t take into account what happens inside your cells – what the energy is actually used for.

If your metabolic health is down in the dumps, it doesn’t matter how few calories you eat.

When you can’t use the energy fully, you’ll store it as fat.

To lose fat, you need to tap into your physical potential. You need to protect and recharge the batteries that fuel your life.

When you do this – the food you eat actually turns into energy. 

Your mind works faster than you thought was possible, your body moves without effort and you’re filled with motivation and enthusiasm.

But before we continue, there’s one important thing we have to cover.

Repairing The Batteries Of Your Life Takes Time

Greatness doesn’t happen overnight.

To fix your batteries, metabolism and life you have to be patient.

For seed oils to completely leave your body, it can take up to 3 years.

Fixing your batteries isn’t a switch on, switch off process. 

A lot of people for this reason, give up the idea of detoxing from seed oils and see it as hopeless.

But it doesn’t make sense.

Why would you handicap your experience of life because you’re too impatient to wait 3 years? I get that 3 years is a long time, but what’s the alternative?

To continue destroying the batteries that fuel your life and watch your health go down the drain?

The fact that this will take time is not an excuse to avoid it. 

The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, but the next best time is right now.

As the seed oils are leaving your body, you will have to be more mindful about how many calories you eat.

Because your batteries aren’t working at 100 percent (yet).

This is why people will find that the only way they can lose weight is through starvation.

Because the majority of the world’s population have so much Linoleic acid stuck in their cell membranes.

It’s also why studies comparing the effects of a low and high seed oil diet doesn’t show significant differences.

Because there isn’t a control group without seed oils in their cell membranes.

You can’t really switch from your current diet to a new one and expect your whole metabolism to change in an instant.

But as time goes on, the difference will become clear. 

Your energy and motivation will start to resurface and life will become more vibrant.

So hang in there, enjoy all the other benefits from eating a quality diet until the day comes when your batteries are finally at full power again.

When life regains all its lost colors and you see it for the first time again.

Because…

When you fix your biological batteries, you unlock a way of life unimaginable to most people.

• The food you eat turns into pure energy

• Your body repairs and builds itself effortlessly

• The experience of life becomes bright

If you want to lose fat, if you want more energy and if you want more out of life… 

Fix your damn batteries.

The Importance Of Flowing With Your Biology

Your health is a river.

When you try to swim against it – you get swallowed by the waves.

But when you flow with it – you gain its power.

Just in the same way, when you try to manipulate your biology for your own gains:

• Cutting calories for lower body fat

• Seeking energy in caffeine

You end up agitating it and causing it to fight back.

And as a result:

• Your body lowers its metabolism

• You get trapped in a spiral of never recharging your energy

And so, in trying to reach your goals – the river pulls you further away.

Because you see, you can’t swim against the river. You can go sideways or along with it, but never against it.

“Truth is not what you want it to be, it is what it is. And you must bend to its will, or live a lie” - Miyamoto Musashi

The only way to get anywhere, is to flow with the river. 

By giving up control.

When you give up trying to control your health:

• You eat enough calories from good food

• You caffeine fast or limit it to the early day

Your health goals will come effortlessly:

• Your body burns fat as a result of your metabolic health

• Your body gives you more energy because it’s actually allowed to recharge

When you are flowing with your health, with your biology – health will come without you having to force it.

The secret to any health goal is to let go of it. And to act in such a way that most benefits your whole health.

Because every health related goal you seek is just a manifestation of good holistic health:

• Low body fat

• High muscle mass

• Clear skin

• High energy

• Clear mind

But when you try to manipulate your health for one of these goals… 

You lose them all in the process.

It’s like when you’re trying to solve a Rubik's cube.

You turn, swap and flick on it until you’ve managed to fill a whole side with the same color.

But when you try to repeat the process, you find that it’s impossible to do so without disturbing the harmony of the side you’ve already cleared.

The secret to solving a Rubik’s cube is this…

You have to do it in such a way that every side gets equally solved at a time.

In exactly the same way, the secret to solving the puzzle of your health is this…

You can’t put all your focus on one aspect without disturbing all the others.

You have to always take into account the different sides and colors of the magnificent puzzle that is your health.

When you’re in the process of solving a Rubik’s cube, it looks nothing like it’s being solved.

From an outward perspective, the whole thing might as well be turned randomly.

The pattern of the solution is not apparent at first glance.

But if you take your time, and let the cube do what the cube wants. All pieces will eventually gather together in a harmonious pattern of colors.

One side red, one side blue, one side green and one side yellow.

But just as in the same way, when a Rubik’s cube is in the process of being solved, it looks nothing like it… 

When the puzzle that is your health is being solved, it too looks nothing like it.

But what is conflict on one level is harmony at another.

When you zoom out, you realize that even your current situation adds up to some kind of sense.

All the effort you’ve put in your health that doesn’t seem to bring any results, suddenly bears fruit all at once.

Then suddenly, as you’ve persevered with the same bland diet and the repetitive workout routine for long enough — everything connects.

• The stale beef and rice becomes the highlight of your day. 

• The dreaded workout routine becomes an hour of play and pure enjoyment.

• Your excess body-fat disappears and your energy comes back.

But in the process, you can’t see that your health is in fact improving.

As you let go of the feeling of control, and you trust your body to do its thing – the control comes back to you.

Just as when you give your breath away – it always comes back to you.

But if you try to hold on to it — you lose it.

When you limit your calories, you enter a bloody fight with the nature of yourself.

You’re playing the role of God over your body and claiming that you know just how it works and that you can manipulate it to your will.

But like any other subject to attack – your body will fight back.

The key to health is to trust your body, trust your mind and trust the universe.

The whole principle of health (and life) can be boiled down to this… 

Do not force.

Follow the way.

The 3 Levers Of Body Composition

Your body is the result of 3 things:

1. Drive – The things you put in your mouth

2. Build – How your cells process and uses these things

3. Burn – How much energy is used and burned

By flowing with these 3, you fix your batteries and unlock a life of energy and effortless health.

It’s difficult. But then again – everything worthwhile is.

These 3 levers all play on biological factors that will improve your metabolic health, increase your metabolism and decrease the amount of fat your store.

The goal here is to code your mind to a new way of living.

To rewire your life for optimizing your batteries and in so doing, your health.

Let’s dive in.

 1) Drive (The Metabolic Magnet)

Everything starts with the things you put in your mouth.

(There has to be a better way of saying that)

It’s the energy that fuels your life and the building blocks you’re made of.

To fix your batteries and fuel your life, you need to put the right things in your mouth (I can’t stop).

You want to create a “metabolic magnet” for the quality and quantity of foods most conducive to your health.

In other words, you want to wire your brain to crave the right foods and the right amount of them.

But people struggle tremendously with this.

They just can’t walk past the cookie jar more than 3 times without absolutely emptying it.

They curse themselves, swear to never eat another cookie again but repeat the exact process the next day.

They get trapped in a cycle of hating themselves and not even enjoying the cookie.

The puzzle might seem like an impossible one to crack… 

But the solution is actually pretty straightforward and simple.

We just need to understand how our brains work.

But first, let’s briefly go over a quality diet.

Because unless we know what a high quality diet is – everything we’ve talked about becomes useless.

A quality diet is very likely the one we have evolved with for over 20 000 years.

Because why would it be anything else?

An evolutionary consistent diet includes the following:

• Meat

• Organs

• Dairy

• Fruit 

• Honey

These all contain essential nutrients for our bodies and fit perfectly with our gut microbiome (the topic for a future letter).

We can see the effects of such a diet by studying the remaining hunter gatherer tribes.

The hadza tribe in Indonesia is a perfect example.

They live primarily on meat and fruit. But when they think of meat, they think of organs as well. 

Organs are parts of animals that our ancestors never would have wasted. They’re packed with all sorts of bioavailable nutrients and minerals we need. 

It’s the reason eskimos can survive on a pure animal diet. They eat it all.

The hadza tribe’s love for honey is so strong that the majority have developed a tolerance to bee venom (from literally sticking their hands into bee nests).

Honey has been shown to improve so many markers for health.

It lowers insulin levels in diabetics, contains many essential micronutrients and even heals wounds.

The Hadza tribe only eats grains, stems, nuts and seeds if they’re literally starving.

Sorry vegans.

In other words — they don’t like Omega 6.

The hadzas are all lean and have extreme stamina and strength. 

They enjoy life with a bunch of energy because they eat and live as our ancestors did.

If you want to dive deeper into this and learn how to create your own personal diet, check out the letter “your diet is your destiny”.

But now that we know what a healthy diet is, let’s break down how to program our brain to crave it.

Our metabolic magnet is made of 2 things:

• Satiety

• Preference

1. Satiety

It is possible to get fat eating only high quality foods.

That being said, if your metabolic health is good – it’s really fucking hard. Because most of the food will just turn into energy that fuels and builds your body.

But it is possible.

Especially in the beginning of detoxing from seed oils.

That’s why we need a mechanism to tell us to stop eating. Which thankfully, we do.

People tend to glance over this, but it’s the biggest factor in health and body composition.

After all, you are what you eat.

Fighting hunger is difficult.

It’s the most fundamental drive we have.

When you’re fighting hunger – you’re also fighting millions of years of biology.

You will lose.

And even if you manage to stay in the fight – it’s not an enjoyable way to live.

Your mind will always be dominated by thoughts about hunger. 

You won’t be able to focus on your goals or enjoy life because your mind will always be in a fight with your impulses to eat (and psychic entropy will ensue).

A better way is to satiate our hunger in a way conducive to our health.

Our satiety depends on 3 things:

• Energy

• Nutrients

• Food quality

Let’s break them down.

If you don’t eat enough food – you will still feel hungry.

Don’t go to calorie prison.

If you lack nutrients – you will still feel hungry.

Eat foods high in protein, fat, minerals and vitamins.

• Red meat

• Dairy, butter, tallow

• Liver & other organs

• Fruit

If you eat certain foods – they will hijack your satiety mechanism – and you will still feel hungry.

Foods like seed oils and processed sugar hijack your satiety mechanism and make you feel hungry far beyond your natural setpoint. 

Avoid them!

2. Preference

When the average person sees the health nut, he can only see a man torturing himself with a bland and lifeless diet – when it’s actually the complete opposite.

What you eat wires your brain.

If you eat like crap – healthy foods won’t pick your appetite.

If you eat like a saint – crappy food will make you disgusted and healthy foods will make your mouth water.

Once you’ve eaten healthy foods for long enough, your brain will reset and you’ll start to crave healthy foods.

I never eat chips, sweets or anything of the sorts and I don’t have the slightest desire to do so.

But when I was eating that stuff regularly, I couldn’t stop my cravings.

To reset your metabolic magnet, you have to stick with a healthy diet for long enough – and you’ll eventually start loving it.

This is how you fine tune your metabolic magnet.

2) The Cellular Construction Site

The problem with CICO is this

It completely ignores what happens between the calories in and calories out.

It misses the “cellular construction site”:

• What is the energy used for? 

• How much of it is stored as fat?

• How much is stored as muscle and lean body mass?

To attain good metabolic health, to fix your batteries and brighten your experience of life…

You need to optimize your cellular construction site.

There are 2 parts to this:

• Diet

• Exercise

1. Diet

You are what you eat.

Your cells are built by the things you put in your mouth.

Health is achieved by listening to your body and giving it the fuel it needs.

With a good metabolic magnet this becomes rather easy – but you still need to know what specific foods you need (scroll up if you forgot).

To avoid making your life batteries leaky you need to avoid linoleic acid (as we’ve already talked about).

Also known as omega 6 fatty acid, it is found in:

• Seeds (sunflower, pumpkin)

• Nuts (almonds, cashew)

• Seed oils (Canola oil, soybean oil)

• Grains (oats, wheat)

These will destroy your life batteries.

Avoid them!

To fix your batteries you need to eat fats that strengthen your cell membranes.

You need saturated fats from animal sources:

• Butter

• Tallow

• Dairy

If your metabolic health is good, you don’t need to worry about eating too much saturated fats (just don’t go overboard).

Once your batteries are at full power, you won’t need to worry about it.

But as you’re getting there, don’t eat 500 grams of butter a meal.

Slowly ramp up.

Saturated fats will strengthen your cell membrane and decrease the permeability of protons.

Your cells will start turning food into energy more efficiently and stop storing it all as fat.

You’ll feel like you got a second wind of life.

Eating saturated fat is how you fix your life batteries.

2. Exercise

Exercise determines how your energy is used.

It directs the current of energy created by your life batteries.

The biggest lever you have for this is strength training.

When you lift weights you’re coding yourself. You’re telling your cells to use the energy to build and repair your muscles.

Muscle cells are also metabolically active. 

They burn a lot of energy just to exist which lets you eat more food and increase the energy in your body and mind.

This is how you lose fat sustainably.

Creating a weight lifting habit is one of the most powerful things you can do for your health (and life).

If you’re already going to the gym 4 times a week or more, you’re golden.

If you don’t – what are you doing?

Go lift some damn weights.

This is how you flow with your biology.

3) Burn - Your Inner Campfire

How well your life batteries work is your metabolic health.

How much power they produce is your metabolism.

You can think of this as your inner campfire.

The higher your metabolism, the higher your energy levels are. And the more life you experience.

Once you’ve fine tuned your magnet and fixed your batteries – it’s time to increase the power.

And the best way to do this is… 

With a high quality diet (shocker I know).

The organ most responsible for your metabolism is your thyroid. It’s a complex that sends out hormones that tell your cells to increase or decrease their burn rate.

A healthy diet will create a healthy thyroid. And a healthy thyroid will create a healthy metabolism.

A low quality diet (especially one high in omega 6) will create a low and unhealthy metabolism.

It will handicap your experience of life.

Linoleic acid (omega 6) has been found to inhibit the function of T3 and T4. Both are thyroid hormones responsible for regulating your metabolism.

When they’re inhibited, you’re essentially putting your body in hibernation.

You stop burning energy and store it as fat instead.

This is exactly what bears do when they’re about to hibernate. They eat nuts, seeds and other omega 6 sources to put on fat and decrease their energy.

Linoleic acid has a function. But I’m guessing you don’t want to put on 30 kilograms of fat and lower your energy enough to sleep for 6 months.

So if you’re not a bear about to hibernate…

I can’t stress this point enough — cut linoleic acid out of your diet:

• Nuts

• Seeds

• Grains

• Seed oils

Your diet is your most powerful lever for body composition (there’s really no debate against that).

When you couple it with behaviors like weight lifting – you flow with the river of your biology.

You give your body what it wants for performance and health.

And in doing so, you gain the power of the river.

Recovering Your Inner Self

Health isn’t black and white.

It’s not something you can improve on one side and forget the rest.

You have to develop all parts of it at the same time – it’s too complex to manipulate it to your will.

Restricting calories is trying to force weight loss to happen.

It works, but usually not in the way you want it to.

More often than not you just become a smaller version of yourself.

And in the process of doing so you:

• Lose strength

• Lack motivation

• Can’t enjoy life

Calorie prison is not a nice place to be at. 

And your body will fight back.

But when you give your body what it wants:

• High quality food

• Activity and exercise

• Enough fucking calories

You flow with the river of your biology and health will find you.

You’re letting your body reach its natural state of being.

You’re recovering your inner self.

Vanity metrics like a lean physique, a lot of muscle and clear skin become effortless to you.

Just as the beautiful leaves are a result of the tree – looks and high energy is a result of your health.

What people deem as “attractive” is just another word for “health indicators”.

But when you stop focusing on them and instead put all your attention to your health.

• Evolutionary consistent diet

• Lifting weights

• Avoiding linoleic acid

Everything else will come naturally.

Losing fat won’t be a problem and you’ll have so much energy and list for life that you won’t care about it.

You will lose fat without trying and still enjoy life.

There is a better way to lose fat than going to shawshank calorie prison. 

When it comes to health, don’t try to manipulate it – because it will only snap back in your face.

See your health for what it is – a river.

Don’t force it, flow with it.

That’s it for this week.

If you’ve enjoyed this, subscribe, share and read previous letters that catch your interest.

Peace.

- Simon