I’m pretty lean.

(It’s always fun to start off with some narcissism)

But what shocks most people is that I barely follow any of the common advice.

• I never count calories

• I eat how much I want

• I don’t spend hours on the treadmil

And I still have the energy to enjoy existence and move through life.

I’m flexing a bit to establish authority, but it’s all part of the bigger picture.

Because it’s important that you learn how to lose fat from someone who’s actually done it. Not from someone who’s obviously failed to do so themselves.

But what’s even more important is that you’re not learning from someone who made a tradeoff between getting lean and life. From someone who had to sacrifice all that makes life worth living in the process.

• Energy

• Motivation

• Enjoyment

(Which is most of the fitness industry at this point).

But even though I’m at a pretty solid place right now, my journey has been extremely bumpy.

Because when I was young, I was nose deep in the common perspective on fat loss. And it felt like I sacrificed my whole enjoyment of life just to fail at getting a six pack.

I would obsessively count every calorie. Weighing every grain of rice and politely turning down friends inviting me to go out and eat.

I remember dragging myself outside during the could autumn nights of Scandinavia. And running to the point of being drenched in sweat.

But a few months of torment, I made the crushing realization that the reflection in the mirror hadn’t change at all. That despite all my pain and effort, I’d barely lost any fat.

But what I did manage to lose was my energy, creativity and passion for life. Because when I looked at the state of my life — it felt like walking through a post apocalyptic town.

My friendships had grown weaker, my ability to focus had pretty much left me and the little muscle I’d previously gained had withered.

If this was the only way of losing fat, it wasn’t worth it.

Fed up, I rejected the idea of cutting altogether.

But the irony is this:

• When I stopped obsessing over fat loss

• When I started working out for the fun of it

• When I prioritized good food because of how it made me feel

I actually started to lose fat.

And this is where I’m at now:

When I think back to my younger self, I just want to shake the living crap out of him.

Because starvation and desperation is not a way to live.

Because of course cutting calories robs you of your energy. Of course it closes your mind and takes the joy out of existing. It should be the most obvious thing. But it’s obviously not obvious at all.

What I couldn’t see back then was that being fat is so much more complex than calories in calories out.

And that’s what I want to show you in this letter.

A path to a six pack that’s actually sustainable. And a path that doesn’t require you to sacrifice food or your enjoyment of life.

Because if that path didn’t exist, being lean wouldn’t be worth it.

And I’ll show you why in just a minute.

The Complexity Behind Being Fat

You can’t solve your problems because you’re only looking at them in one dimension.

Most people are busy putting a bandage over their lives without actually attending to the wound. But because they never look beneath the surface — they’re never able to heal the wound causing them so much suffering.

When you miss the true complexity of a problem, you end up solving the symptom rather than the cause.

And you get trapped solving an infinite amount of problems — without any time left to actually live your life.

This is the problem with the way most people try to lose fat.

Because the common perspective on fat loss is to just cut your calories and hope for the best.

But it almost always ends in a terrible existence.

People starve themselves for months, losing their energy, motivation and list for life in the process — in order to get a glimpse of their abdominal muscles. But because they don’t see the depth behind their high bodyfat percentage, they end up sacrificing their lives on the way there:

• They stop enjoying the interests that previously made life worth living

• They can’t do their best work because of their complete lack of mental energy

• They don’t have the mood or energy to actually enjoy the six pack they basically sacrificed their lives for

And after a while of living inside a dim existence — they eventually increase their calories.

But when they start eating in a way that allows for life again, they regain the little fat they did lose and end up hating the way they look again. And so, after a few months of glances at the mirror filled with disappointment — they start a new cut and the cycle continues.

Trying to lose fat by cutting calories is a double bind.

Because you end up having to choose between being able to enjoy life but despising the way you look, or having that six pack but not the energy to enjoy or even appreciate it.

If you care about your existence (which I’m presuming you do), neither of which are really alternatives.

This is why I strongly believe the dogma of calories in calories out has done more harm than good to people. Because not only is long term calorie restriction directly harmful to you, but it doesn’t work.

Because calories doesn’t make you fat — they’re your source of life.

And when you cut down on them, your body rightly fights back.

• Depression

• Mood swings

• Increased hunger

• Decreased NEAT

• Lower body temperature

And your entire life takes a hit because of it:

• You can’t pursue meaningful work because you’re always lacking energy.

• Your sleep and conscious existence goes down the drain because your body thinks it’s starving.

• You close down your creativity and get trapped where you are because your body is flooded with stress chemicals.

Yes, if you decrease your calories you’ll lose weight. But it doesn’t mean you’ll lose fat!

When you only decrease your calories, what often ends up happening is you just turning into a smaller version of your old self. But one with less energy, less motivation and less life overall.

If you were a little chubby before, you’ll turn into an equally chubby but now smaller version of yourself.

When it comes to fat how you look, the problem isn’t the amount of calories you eat. The problem is how your body uses them. What matters is your metabolism.

Does your body use the energy you give it to fuel your passions, physical activity and life’s work?

Or does it store it all as fat, robbing you of the resources to do what you want with your life in the process?

You have to understand that being fat isn’t an isolated problem. It’s the tip of the iceberg that is your crappy metabolic health.

By thinking it’s as simple as cutting calories, you’re just solving the problem superficially (if it even works). And as soon as you start eating an amount of calories that allows you to do what you want with your life, the problem appears around your waste again. Because you never actually solved it.

You get trapped having to choose between the energy to live your life or actually liking the way you look.

In both cases (unless you’ve completely transcended your ego), you’re trapped in a life you can’t really enjoy. Which is the only objectively wrong choice you can make in this life.

And that’s not to mention that being fat is shortening your lifespan, increasing you risk for cancer and heart disease, boosting inflammation and stress and causing neurodegenerative diseases (because it’s a sign of something deeper).

The key thing you have to realize is that that how you look on the surface:

• Body fat

• Skin quality

• Muscle mass

Are all just your health working underneath.

You can cut calories, run for 3 hours a day and spend 1534$ on skin care, but if you never treat your underlying health, the problem will always pop up again.

Think about why you find certain qualities in people attractive. It’s because it’s signaling good health.

And so the only sustainable (and intelligent) path to a favorable appearance is by improving what’s underneath.

Because looking at problems uni dimensionally has never truly solved anything.

So let’s take a look at that other dimension.

And that is your metabolic health.

You’re Not A Bear, So Stop Hibernating!

When winter approaches, bears start putting on more fat.

In the months leading up, they spend over 9 hours a day just eating (that’s more than a full time job).

They indulge in berries, nuts, seeds and the occasional unlucky salmon. And when winter finally hits, they’re so fat and their metabolisms so slow that they can spend the entirety of winter in one bout of sleep.

So why am I telling you this?

Well, because it’s interesting. But more so to drive home a point.

Because just like bears — your body has a similar ability.

Because fat isn’t a bug,  it’s a feature.

Fat is your body’s way of preparing for scarcity and winter. Because when it’s cold, nothing grows and food is scarce — putting on more fat and slowing your metabolism makes sense.

A long time ago this would have come in very handy. We could slow our metabolisms, get very fat and enter a sort of mini hibernation that allowed us to survive the winter more easily. Expending loads of energy, moving around and being lean would have been a complete waste of resources.

But today, food is no longer scarce (shoutout to grocery stores). Yet people’s bodies haven’t caught on. They’re in a way still sending signals of scarcity. And their bodies diligently responds.

And most people are still living in a state of hibernation.

• They can’t motivate themselves to do what they want in life

• They can’t get below 20% bodyfat without starving themselves

• They can’t find the energy to workout or to improve their situation

Because your metabolism doesn’t only affect your body, but your mind as well. Things like mood, joy and motivation are actually high metabolic functions. And they require energy to exist (as we discussed last week).

So when you’re starving yourself (cutting calories) — you enter a vicious circle.

Your metabolism makes you more sluggish, less motivated and more depressed. As a result you put less effort into taking care of your health and therefore metabolism. As you gain more fat and your metabolism gets even slower — you spiral down towards a state of hibernation and life stops feeling the same.

And when you’re in that low energy state, your mitochondria aren’t working at their full capacity. And the degree of insulin resistance your cells have accumulated prevents the calories you eat from being stored as anything other than fat.

In other words, when you’re in that state of mini hibernation you can’t lose fat (more or less). So when you increase your calories again you can guess what happens.

This is the complexity behind being fat.

Because it’s not a problem you can take on without tending to your metabolism.

Cutting calories is like your sinking boat of water when there’s a giant hole at the bottom. It wont’t work in the long term. And while you’re busy throwing out water, you don’t have any time or energy to actually sail and enjoy having a boat.

A list of reasons why you’re fat:

• Your body can’t break down your fat cells

• Your body can’t use the energy you’re giving it

• Your lifestyle and diet is sending signals of scarcity and hibernation

• Your hormones are so imbalanced that burning fat is and impossible task

In other words, you’re fat because you’ve coded your metabolism for just that.

But it also means that you can do the opposite. And just as you can go down the spiral, you can move upwards as well.

There is really no reason for anyone to be overly fat these days. It just requires the right knowledge and a speck of discipline.

And we’ll get to that in just a moment.

But first — we need to understand a little but about how your mitochondria works.

And the best way to do that is by highlighting the story I told you about bears.

(That’s what I call a ”Chekhov’s gun”)

The Thing About Bears

Why did I bother to tell you that story about bears in the last section?

To illustrate how most people live in a mini state of hibernation yes. But more specifically — how your lifestyle codes your metabolism. 

And therefore:

• Appearance

• Energy

• Life

Let me paint you a picture.

When bears are preparing for winter, they get very picky with their food choices. They especially prefer:

• Nuts

• Seeds

And in the process, they put on massive amounts of fat and slow their metabolism to a tee.

What these foods have in common is that they’re much higher in omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids and oleic acid than other foods.

But because correlation is not causation, let’s take a look at how your mitochondria works.

(This will get a little sciency. If you want to, or if you’re short on time — you can skip this section. But it will be a lot harder to understand the tools we’ll get to when we start building your metabolism.)

Your mitochondria are the organelles in your cells with the kind of important job to create the energy you need to live. The way they manage this is by creating an electrical gradient between its inner and outer membrane.

The exact same way a regular battery works.

Through a series of steps we won’t get into, protons are pumped out of the inner membrane, creating a more positive charge outside and a more negative charge inside.

These protons are then allowed to flow through the membrane via a special protein complex called ”ATP kinase”.

Like a power generator, ATP kinase takes the energy from the moving protons and creates ATP. Which is energy your body can now use to think, feel, plan, move and live.

Here’s a picture for more clarity:

But to keep creating energy and fueling whatever it is you want to do with your life — the membrane needs to be intact. If it isn’t, protons will leak through and destroy the charge. In other words, the energy from the food you eat can’t be used to create energy.

And how intact your mitochondria membrane is, is determined by the fat you eat. (Because cell membranes are made up of fat).

So when you eat poly unsaturated fatty acids (like linoleic acid) as bears do before winter — get incorporated into your mitochondrial membrane.

The problem is that this causes the permeability of your mitochondria’s inner cell membrane to increase. In other words, it makes your life batteries leaky. 

Not fun.

This is the problem with linoleic acid

As for oleic acid, this little rascal really does a number on your metabolism.

Oleic acid up-regulates a transcription factor called PPAR-Alpha which in turn increases D60 activity. This all pushes oleic and linoleic acid down a process of becoming toxic signaling molecules that has been shown to cause insulin resistance and directly obesity.

But it doesn’t end there.

Oleic acid also triggers SCD1 which turns saturated fats into monounsaturated fats. Creating a feedback loop. All which leads to a slow metabolism, a hibernation like state and more fat.

Which is good if you’re about to sleep for 6 months, but if you’re not — it can be a real problem.

To give some examples, when you inhibit the SCD1 gene in mice, they pretty much cannot get fat. So there is really something to be said about oleic acid and obesity.

So this diet high in linoleic acid and oleic acid is in other words… designed to make you fat, sluggish and drift into mini hibernation.

But I’m not saying that these fatty acids are bad. They’re crucial in the right amount.

But in the larger amounts (which is what the majority of people are consuming) they acts as signals to your body.

And they carry the message of winter and scarcity!

This is important because it means that calories isn’t what determines your body composition. It means that lifestyle and diet quality will always trump that.

A long time ago long in northern countries, the ability to turn into a sluggish meatball had tremendous survival value.

But because we have grocery stores, because most of us wants to look good and enjoy life.

And because it isn’t a thousand years ago — there’s no reason we should code ourselves for hibernation.

There is no reason you should have to fight to do the things you want in life, to feel like everything is impossible and have a dimmed experience of existence.

In other words, you’re not a bear.

So stop hibernating!

(And if you are, don’t listen to me).

Metabolic Mastery

Harsh truth:

If you don’t have a visible six pack, you are not metabolically healthy.

This may be a reality check, but it should also be encouraging.

It means that you have a lot of your potential left to fulfill. It means that you’re not doomed to being fluffy. And that more aesthetics, energy and a better quality of life awaits you.

Because at the end of the day, you don’t care about how you look (not really).

You care about how you feel.

• The motivation you have to take on life

• The energy you have to pour into projects

• The joy you find when you open your eyes in the morning

When you take the long road to getting a six pack, you might not get there as fast as someone just cutting their calories.

But it will be sustainable!

• You stay at a lean and healthy body fat without being in calorie prison

• You retain and increase your energy while getting lean instead of sacrificing it on the way there

• You can eat until you’re full and enjoy life without having to worry about turning into a meatball

And in the process, you’re sparing your body from the damage long term calorie restriction has on your organs and health.

You avoid the accelerated aging you get from your body thinking it’s in starvation (as we’ve already talked about). And you improve both your skin health and longevity.

Because when your mitochondria are working smoothly, you have enough energy to maintain, build and repair your body.

And that’s not to mention the psychological benefits you get from a healthy and strong metabolism.

• More open-mindedness

• Higher levels of motivation

• Better mood and optimistic outlook on life

Which we talk about (as well as the giant implications) in the letter: ”Your potential is trapped inside your head (how to unlock your mind with biology).”

The benefits in physical appearance are a very welcome bonus. But they are only the tip of the iceberg. Because how you look on the surface is just your health working underneath. The real benefits and improvement in life quality lies deeper. In your underlying metabolic health.

The long road to getting a six pack is only logical option to intelligent people.

Because it’s the only way of sustaining a low and healthy body fat while still enjoying life with vigor and energy.

The intelligent person understands that an attractive exterior can’t be sustained by an unhealthy interior.

But before we get into:

• How to master your your metabolism

• Unlock energy for the things that matter in life

• Burn fat without trying (and still enjoying life)

Let’s knock out some limiting beliefs around losing fat.

Dealing With The Egoic Mind

The mind is tricky.

Because it reeeeeally doesn’t want to change.

So here are some of the most common objections to losing fat and wanting to stay in your bubble of reality:

Objection 1: “It’s all genetic”

Most people have a specific set point for bodyfat.

And your body will always work to keep you within that range.

• It will influence fat storage

• It will regulate your appetite

• It will alter your temperature and metabolic rate

And that set point is to some degree decided by your genes. So at first glance it seems as though you’re destined to stay at the bodyfat you’ve always been at.

But if you just look a little bit deeper —you’ll find hope again (remember, you need to stop thinking uni dimensionally).

There is something called epic genetics, which is your body’s ability to boost or inhibit certain genes. And what determines that is your diet and lifestyle.

Objection 2: “I don’t have the motivation”

You have to realize that motivation itself is a high metabolic function.

Yes it will be difficult to eat healthy and create a better lifestyle in the beginning. But when you get over the first small resistance, your motivation, joy and even discipline will be supercharged by your increased metabolism.

Instead of the vicious circle of cutting calories where it gets harder and harder as time goes on. Improving your metabolism gets easier and easier as time goes on.

Because you get more motivation, more energy and more joy in your life.

And after a point, it will be difficult to stop.

Objection 3: “I don’t want to eat super strict”

The only diet that will ever work is the one that doesn’t feel like a diet.

I can guarantee you that if you eat nutritious foods full of energy, it won’t feel strict at all.

You will love it.

Because your body will literally rewire itself to prefer those foods. It will make you seek out nutrient density instead of the empty calories you were previously used to.

And the boost in mood and motivation will make it even easier to continue. Because you will start to associate that feeling of motivation and energy you get afterwards to the foods themselves.

And if you eat ENOUGH calories, your hunger signaling will actually work as it’s supposed to and overeating will generally not be a problem.

Because yes, you can binge eat and get fat off of any type of food. At the end of the day, your body can only burn so many calories.

But when you’re eating in a way that is optimal for your body, you’ll stop when you’ve had enough, you’ll move a lot more and your body will generally take care of the energy balance itself.

And what I see as a good diet is your own personal diet that uses the animal based diet as a base (as we talked about in the letter ”become a health polymath (if you want to thrive in life)”.

Because think what you want about him, Paul Saladino really hit the nail on the head. And I highly recommend binge watching some of his content to get the basic understanding.

To sum this up:

Even if you’re skeptical about having a ”strict” diet.

Try it.

You won’t be able to stop.

Building Your Metabolism

Your metabolism is the key to a lot of things in life.

• Energy

• Fat loss

• Motivation

• Enjoyment

• Skin health

And I think there are really 3 big components to a supercharged metabolism.

1. Energy Production

2. Mitigating oxidative stress

3. Pulling out the metabolic brakes

And then finally how to solve your psychological problems (because they’re important).

So without further we do, let’s get into building your metabolism.

There’s a lot to talk about (so the structure of this section might get a little messy).

1) Energy Production

Let’s start with the most obvious thing.

Increasing the amount of energy your body can create.

And there are really two parts to that.

• Providing the right metabolic nutrients

• Building more (and more efficient) mitochondria

Because if you want to burn fat and better fuel your life, this is how you’re gonna get there.

You can create all the perfect conditions for a smooth metabolism, but if you never take the steps to elevate it — you’ll always stay where you are.

So let’s get into it!

Metabolic Nutrients

Diet is probably the most important thing when it comes to coding your metabolism.

The key when tinkering with your diet to improve your metabolism is what processes you’re fueling and what processes you’re limiting.

First: You want to fuel energy production by catering to every step of your metabolism:

• Thyroid

• B - oxidation

• Citric acid cycle

• Electron transport chain

And secondly: (as we’ll get to later) limit fat storage processes:

• Lipogenesis

• De novo lipogenesis

To produce energy, your mitochondria needs a set of specific nutrients. And the more you provide these, the more efficient your metabolism becomes. The same goes for your thyroid which is the gland that controls your metabolic rate.

So here are some of the most important metabolic nutrients you should look out for:

And then:

• Iodine

• Selenium

For thyroid function.

And here’s how you get them through diet (because supplements are often BS).

Liver

This is nature’s multivitamin.

Liver contains:

• Riboflavin

• Niacin

• CoQ10

And many more essential nutrients for you well being.

And so for me, getting liver into your diet should be a no questions asked (specifically beef liver). I usually sear 1 kg or so and put it into the freezer. Then I eat 30 grams or so every morning.

Muscle meat

To cover the intake your morning liver didn’t, muscle meat is a great choice.

No it doesn’t cause cancer, no it doesn’t cause heart disease —  it’s probably even a non negotiable part of an optimal diet.

Just because we’ve evolved so closely with it and as it contains so many nutrients that we probably have no idea about as of now. So until we’ve figured out how to code all the proteins and nutrients of a steak, meat is probably your best bet.

And the easiest, healthiest and often cheapest source is ground beef.

Your personal amount will vary depending on activity and bodyweight. But 500 g is probably a good number to start playing around with.

So why not pork or chicken?

Well the problem is that they’re often fed terrible diets full of seed oils that gets incorporated into their cell membranes. And when you follow the cycle of life (and eat them), you get those nasty seed oils into your own membranes. And your metabolism and life takes a hit.

Cows are on the other hand often fed much better diets and are more protected by their enormously complex digestive system.

So look for grass fed beef as often as you can.

Raw Cacao

The majority of people are EXTREMELY deficient in magnesium.

But it’s one of the most important nutrients for sustaining your metabolism (and therefore your six pack).

The daily requirement is around 400 mg. Where it gets problematic is that it’s not found in sufficient quantities in animal foods. It is found in things like nuts and seeds which isn’t that great as they decrease your metabolic efficiency. (Yes I know it’s all pretty ironic).

But I’ve recently started thinking a lot about cacao.

100 grams contains around 500 mg magnesium. So if you want to reach the daily requirement with just cacao, you’d have to eat around 80 grams. But that’s a lot.

Your best bet is probably to spread out your magnesium intake and then get some cacao to backfill what the rest of your diet didn’t cover.

I’m able to reach my magnesium intake with about 30 grams of cacao.

No I don’t eat it raw.

I mix it with some milk into a dark and delicious beverage that I very much enjoy.

Cacao has a lot of other benefits such as:

• Antioxidants (as we’ll talk about alter)

• Increased blood flow to your brain

• Decreased inflammation

I definitely think it’s something to try adding to your diet.

Carnitine

If you ever want to burn fat, this nutrient isn’t optional.

It’s through carnitine that fats are transported into your mitochondria, oxidized and burned.

It’s a nutrient that your body produces with the help of vitamin C.

And even though it’s found in some animal foods as well, my favorite way of doing it is making a glass of lemon water as soon as I wake up.

This also helps to improve the PH of your gut, digestion and your emotional compass (as we talked about a few letter ago). It has also been shown to improve energy and respiration during workouts.

Iodine And Selenium

If your thyroid isn’t working, it doesn’t matter how well your mitochondria are.

Because it’s what controls your cells’ metabolism and respiration. And it does this with thyroid hormone, especially T3 and T4.

And to make these essential hormones, your thyroid gland requires iodine and selenium.

Iodine is relatively easy to get enough of (people who live near the sea get enough just by breathing). And most table salts are iodine enriched.

Selenium is a greater challenge but is still relatively easy (if you eat 4 eggs a day you’ve covered the daily required intake).

But because we’re looking to brighten up our existence, I think it’s worth experimenting with more selenium and iodine in your diet.

Some foods you can try increasing are:

• Shellfish

• Dairy

• Fish

You also want to avoid soy products as they interfere with iodine uptake and can lead to hypothyroidism. Meaning, that your metabolism becomes extremely slow.

Summary:

Even though there are many foods packed with essential nutrients, it’s still important to spread it out over many different sources.

Diet is a complex game and you can’t live on pure beef liver. Because there are so many other nutrients that you need as well. Not to mention that it’s not really the best tasting of foods. So to charge your metabolism you should be spreading out your intake of micronutrients over several different sources.

In other words, you need to hit this from every angle.

Which is what makes this game tricky (and what makes it fun).

Here is how I do it for inspiration:

Breakfast: Greek yoghurt (300g), Eggs (4), Berries (100g), Banana (1), Orange (1), Green tea (500ml), Honey (60g), Liver (30g), Creatine (5g), Lemon juice (20ml), Ginger tea (1 bag)

Lunch: Ground beef 12% fat (300g), Rice (250g), Cucumber (100g), Parmesan cheese (20g), Butter (10g), 30g raw cacao + milk

Dinner: Ground beef 12% fat (200g), Rice (250g), Cucumber (100g), Butter (10g), Berries (100g), Honey (30g)

I stack most of my vitamins and nutrients in the morning and then simply try to hit my macronutrient goals with lunch and dinner.

Now that we’ve covered the nutrients we need — let’s get into turning up the heat on our mitochondria.

Improving Your Life Batteries

Exercise is code for your being.

When you move your body, you’re also telling it how to rewire itself.

And this is especially the case with your metabolism, energy and fat storage. Because as you push your body to its cellular respiration limit — you’re creating an order for new and more efficient mitochondria.

You’re in other words building more and improving your old life batteries.

There are 3 angles to hit with this:

• Resistance training

• HIIT

• SIT

Resistance training (or weight training) is probably the easiest and most efficient way creating new and more efficient life batteries. Because not only are you increasing the mitochondria density in your existing cells, but you’re creating also creating new metabolically active muscle cells.

And all things being equal, you increase your metabolism and burn more calories. You also get a much greater potential of storing energy as glycogen instead of fat. Which is stored glucose your muscles can use very efficiently.

So how do we get the most out of this?

The 1st step is to get a gym membership.

The 2nd is to train in a bodybuilding fashion with some focus on strength movements like bench, squats or the deadlift. Another point is to go pretty close to failure and try to increase the weight you’re lifting in mesocycles of about 4 weeks.

If this sounds complicated (it’s really not), you can check out ”How to build more muscle (and find meaning in life)” where we go over all this in more detail and simpler terms.

The final step is to track your freaking progress. Because you won’t get anywhere unless you know where you are.

Once you have more mitochondria and muscle cells, you can start to crank up their metabolic activity.

And you do this with HIIT (High intensity interval training) and SIT (Sprint interval training).

HIIT is the sweet spot between building new and improving the mitochondria you already have. It’s were you’re working at about 80% of your capacity for a brief period and then perform multiple sets.

SIT is where you’re pushing your cells to the limit and radically increase the efficiency of your mitochondria. It’s were you go all out 100% for short bursts of intensity.

A simple guideline would be to aim for:

• 20 minutes HIIT (2 minute rest between sets) 2 times a week

• 4 minutes SIT (1 minute rest between sets) 1 - 2 times a week

This is the jist of it.

But if you want the full picture of endurance training and metabolism — check out ”why you’re never ready (or have the energy to workout)”.

2) Pulling Out The Metabolic Brakes

Most of us are fighting uphill battles.

But what we often miss is that it was we who choose to climb the hill. It was we who choose to ignore the trail cutting around it.

Even though fueling your metabolism is crucial, removing the friction is even more important.

And that friction is:

• Energy storage

• De novo lipogenesis

• Mitochondrial membrane integrity

Because if your batteries are leaky, it doesn’t matter how optimized your metabolic nutrients are.

If your body is continuously turning over carbohydrates and proteins into fat, it doesn’t matter how fast your metabolism is.

And if your body is dead set on storing every piece of energy as fat, it doesn’t matter how efficient your mitochondria are.

You won’t lose fat.

So let’s go over how to solve each roadblock towards a higher metabolism and a brighter life.

Energy storage

A calorie only has 3 fates once it enters your body:

• Stored as glycogen

• Used for energy

• Stored as fat

And if you want to get the most out of your metabolism (and life), you want to prioritize the first too.

And there’s a few ways of regulating lifestyle and diet to charge one or the other.

1. Stress

When I say stress I mean chronic stress.

The kind you go around carrying as tightness in your chest or as a lump in your throat for weeks or eve months at a time.

The main thing this does is up regulate your cortisol (the stress hormone).

And when cortisol is chronically elevated, your body becomes extremely good at building up fat and breaking down muscle. It also exacerbated every single known effect of aging. It in other words burns through your life and health span like a flamethrower to a candle.

It’s not something you want.

But most people go about solving it in the completely wrong way. They think it’s either entirely psychological or physiological. That it exists only in the body or only in the mind. The truth however, is both.

There are many breathing techniques, meditations and mental frameworks that really calms down your brain. And this isn’t only crucial when losing fat but when you want to make any change in your life at all.

Just because stress closes down your mind and keeps you in a reactive pattern (but we’ve already talked about this).

But the stress inside the body requires a whole set of different solutions.

• Intense exercise

• Weightlifting

• Walks

• Stretching

Are some examples of direct methods to ease your physiological stress.

But you need to send the right signals with your diet as well. And the key point here is getting carbohydrates.

Because glucose is the signal of abundance. 

It works to ramp up your metabolism, fuel your mind and ease the burden of your mental torment. It’s telling your body that things are okay and that you’re not starving.

I talk about in the letter ”stop fearing this molecule (if you care about your existence)”.

Go read that one after you’re done with this.

2. Nutrient partitioning

The way you move your body will determine how the energy you consume is stored.

If you sit down all day, your body will diligently save as much energy as fat as possible (and give you a nice cushion to continue sitting on).

But if you move around and actually use your muscles and mind — you will shift your metabolism towards storing calories as glycogen and burning them for energy.

You will also better fuel the cells that allow for performance more than survival. Muscle cells being just one example.

Another example are your sensor cells that control appetite. When your nutrient partitioning is coded for performance, your hunger signaling actually works. Meaning, you get full when you’ve eaten enough calories and don’t continue to binge.

All this is a concept called nutrient partitioning.

It’s how your body distributes energy to different cells. And the best way to influence it is through exercise and some diet tinkering.

So here’s how you shift your nutrient partitioning in your favor:

• Take a walk after every meal

• Get up and move every hour of the day

• Divide your macronutrients in a 1:3 ratio

• Lift heavy objects at least 3 times a week

• Get 180 minutes of zone 2 cardio every week

De novo lipogenesis

Your body is amazingly tricky.

If it thinks you’re in starvation and wants to put on fat, it doesn’t need direct fat intake. It can turnover carbohydrates and proteins into fat through a process called ”de novo lipogenesis”.

And although this is an incredible feat by your body.

But it’s your worst enemy when you’re trying to lose fat and live your best life.

So what triggers de novo lipogenesis?

Many things.

But we’ll focus on these 2:

• Oleic acid

• High fat diets

1. Oleic acid

You’re already familiar with this little rascal.

But to understand the role this fellow plays in your metabolism, you’ll need some context.

SCD1 is an enzyme that controls the conversion of saturated fatty acids into mono unsaturated acids and energy storage. In other words, it’s greatly involved in de novo lipogenesis. And oleic acid has been shown to trigger SCD1.

So to put it another way, excessive oleic acid triggers the conversion of carbohydrates and proteins into fat.

You can start to see why this may be problematic.

And oleic acid is found in nuts, seeds and your precious olive oil!

This puts a lot of people on edge, because olive oil has for so long been revered as the ultimate health food. And it certainly has benefits. But do some critical analysis of most research papers and you’ll start developing some doubts.

But as with anything I’m telling you, don’t take this as complete absolute truth. That’s just you being lazy. If you ever want to get the most out of life through health — you’ll need to be open minded to you being wrong. Which we talk about in ”your potential is trapped inside your head (how to unlock your mind with biology)”.

So as with any diet experiment, try to cut it out for a month or so and look at how your body composition, mood and energy changes. As someone who used to eat a lot of olive oil, this is something I’m experimenting with lately as well.

2. High fat diets:

Because of something called the ”randle cycle”, the metabolism of fat and glucose are in constant competition with each other.

Meaning, if you eat a lot of fat, you’re also outcompeting the metabolism of glucose i.e. carbs. And as they can’t be used for fuel, they can only be stored as either as glycogen or fat.

And if your metabolic health needs work, the degree of insulin resistance you have will lead that glucose to be stored almost exclusively as fat. Which, if you’re trying to lose fat, is obviously a problem.

So how do you solve this?

Start by not eating extremely high fat diets.

Aim for around 33% of your daily calories. There is a bit of wiggle room between individuals. So make some experiments.

The keto or carnivore diet is a different example as they don’t contain any carbs, but they have a million other gigantic problems I won’t get into here (but that we talk about why you should probably eat more sugar in this letter).

Cell membrane integrity

The final step is to make sure your batteries aren’t leaky.

In other words, that the integrity of your mitochondria’s cell membrane is high.

As we’ve already gone over, linoleic acid gets incorporated into your cell membrane and allows more protons to move past the membrane.

And because it’s so deeply rooted int he western diet, this is a problem almost everyone you know deals with. 

And unless you’ve diligently sorted out nuts and seeds from your diet for a long time, you probably are as well. Because what makes this even more problematic is that the excess linoleic acid stays in your system for 6 years.

Which means that if you cut out all linoleic acid today, your metabolism (and by extension life) will still be shot for over half a decade.

But even though there is no short cut to optimal health, you can still speed up the process.

Because the goal is to replace the linoleic acid stuck inside your cell membrane with saturated fatty acids as they make it much higher of integrity. Because of the lack of double bonds, they create a much tighter membrane, keeping the charge inside your cells.

And when you eat more saturated fat, it speeds up the process of flushing out linoleic acid from your cell membranes.

It will still take some time, but what other choice do you have?

Living in hibernation at 30% bodyfat for the rest of your life?

It doesn’t sound like much of a choice to me.

So here’s the basic framework:

So step 1: Cut out all seed oils, nuts, seeds and other sources of linoleic acid. (Even if you don’t try, you will get the required amount of omega 6 anyways)

And step 2: Replace your fat intake with saturated fats such as grass fed butter, tallow or gee. (No it won’t kill you, and I’ll make a letter in the future on exactly this topic).

3) Antioxidants

A life full of energy will take its tole on you.

When your metabolism is running on full blast, you’re also producing a lot of ROS (Reactive oxygen species). These little rascals accelerate aging, damage your cells and can exacerbate cancer. In other words, they’re just not something you want.

This is why everyone is telling you you need to eat more antioxidants. Because they’re nutrients that stop the oxidation of oxygen radicals and protects your mitochondria and cells from sustaining too much damage.

But the source of these antioxidants MATTER.

Here’s a list of some to incorporate:

• Berries

• Oranges

• Bananas

• Green tea

• Raw cacao

• Raw honey

• Onions (if you cook the shit out of them)

Lifestyle is also something that greatly influences the amount of free radicals in your body.

So to minimize your oxidative stress:

• Exercise

• Hydrate yourself

• Learn to manage stress

• Sleep until existence becomes easier

• Cut out alcohol (you can learn to build state without it)

The Psychological Aspect (The Thing Most People Forget)

I can’t rightly talk about fat loss without mentioning the mind.

Because it doesn’t matter if you know exactly what to do if you don’t do it.

The problem isn’t that people don’t know what to do, it’s that they just don’t do it.

So to cut out crappy food, implement healthy habits and follow the principles we’ve gone through — you’ll need a couple of psychological methods and tricks to get your mind on your side.

Let’s shoot them all off:

1. Understanding Alone Is Curative

We do stupid things because we can’t see how stupid they are.

This is why the first 3 sections of this letter was about showing the problems that comes with a crappy metabolism.

Because when you know how much seed oils mess up your metabolism and enjoyment of life, it’s very easy to abstain from them.

The same goes for anything else.

2) The Mind-Behavior Connection

If you want to break a bad habit, the solution is counterintuitive.

Indulge in it. But do it consciously.

If you want to break the habit of eating junk food, don’t try to abstain from it using sheer willpower. It will only take away energy from better things you could use it for and you’ll eventually cave.

What you do is buy some junk food and eat it completely and utterly consciously. As you take a bite of that cheeseburger, feel the grease, sense the stomach ache building up and that sluggish feeling you get. Think about all the bad things this is doing to you but without judgement.

What this does is strengthening the neural connection to your prefrontal cortex and that behavior. As a result, your willpower becomes more effective to control that behavior.

And after a while, abstaining from it won’t be a problem at all.

3) Identity Shifting

Your identity is created by your behavior.

And so any behavior change is identity change.

And as we go over in this letter, your identity or ego, does not want to change. And it will fight to keep you where you are (something called ”ego backlash”).

So when you’re changing your habits and behavior, go slow and be very accepting of yourself.

Take breaks if your mind is really acting up with depression and doomsday speculations et. Then continue onwards and upwards.

The Intelligent Path To An Aesthetic Physique

When you look beneath the surface, the answer becomes clear.

You might not want to. It might hurt to acknowledge where you are. But if you bite the bullet and take a peek, you can actually change what’s above.

You can actually improve and strengthen the aesthetics of your tower because you’ve looked, examined and improved the foundation of it.

And after having repaired the hole in the hull of your boat, you can empty it of the water permanently and finally set sail again.

In other words, you can finally live your life as you want to.

This has been a lot of information. So take your time with it, read it again and implement as much of it as you can. But don’t be too urgent. This will take time.

All worthwhile things do.

With that my friend, thank you for your time.

I really appreciate you reading this, and I’ll see you in the next one.

I’m out.

- Simon