Nutrition – Page 2 – Beary Strong

What You Should Know About Collagen

Sticking to the facts.

There is a new trend in the supplement and fitness industry: collagen. The name has a greek rooth: kólla means “glue” and the suffix -gen denotes “producing” as it was used in the past to produce glue out of skin and tendons of slaughtered animals. Now, it is either sold as a powder, hydrolyzed or undenatured, or as one of the components of bone broth and it should help against joint pain, autoimmunity, skin aging, gut issues and more. Even if a big part of the claims are exagerated as usual, there is a bit of truth behind. Let’s have a closer look at it.

Stop The Snacking

An innocuous habit with big consequences.

Snacking. It’s just what we do, right? Well, at least that’s what the food industry wants us to believe. And while it is true that at the end of the day energy balance is pretty much the only thing that matters for fat loss and yes, you can fit in those junky snacks and still lose weight, doing so comes with a boatload of problems. So let me explain why snacking is probably the number one habit that is holding you back from attaining your body composition goals.

Do You Have To Track Macros Forever?

Tracking macros is a great tool to achieve body composition goals, but it can be mentally very tasking. I can understand, that you have enough of tracking, weighing and measuring everything in your life and you are afraid of having to do this forever. Relax. No, you probably don’t have to track macros for the rest of your life, there are varying degrees of freedom regarding your nutrition. Intrigued? Read on!

The Metabolic Damage Myth

Busting another fitness myth with the power of science.

Media and the more agressive representants of the body positivity movement promoted the idea that dieting is bad. Their idea is that being in a caloric deficit for a more or less extended period of time permanently damages the metabolism. Therefore you will be dooomed forever to eat a ridiculously low amount of calories otherwise you will become fat. Gladly there is plenty of good evidence on this subject, so let’s take a look at it and once and for all get rid of this myth!

How To Meal Prep

Basic calculations and cooking guidelines.

Even if meal prep sounds like something only fitness freaks do, it is a very convenient and time efficient way to assure that you get something proper to eat for the whole week. It may also be a great strategy to save money since often it is cheaper to buy certain foods in bulk. Meal prep is more than just cooking something in batch and then putting the leftovers in tupper boxes, although this is already a big step in the right direction for most people who are not used to cooking. Here we delve a little deeper: distribution of protein, balancing calories and eating well while doing so.

Intermittent Fasting

The new magic pill for health and performance?

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his research on autophagy. Since then intermittent fasting has received increased overall attention as it is related to autophagy with potential health benefits. If you have been in the fitness game for quite a long time, this is nothing new. Many people have succesfully lost weight with this strategy, but is intermittent fasting the ultimate panacea for health, fat loss and/or muscle growth?

How To Calculate Your Macros

Basic calculations for everybody.

Now that you know how to calculate your energy intake, the question is “How much of each macro should I eat?” Calculating your macros is rather easy and I think everybody should know how to do it by himself. Considering that there are services out there that “calculate your personalised macros”, I can help you save some money too. Read on and enjoy the Beary wisdom gains!

How To Calculate Your Energy Intake

Easy calculations and adjustments for every goal.

The question seems trivial on the surface: How much should I eat? If you dig deeper into it, determining your energy demand can get quite complicated. Countless different formulas try to calculate what can only be guesstimated in real life. Therefore I show you an easy way to do the calculations yourself and how to make sure the numbers fit your goals.

Nutrition Myths That Are Sometimes True

Looking behind myths to find the truth.

Ahhh, nutritions myths, one of my favourite topics! The constant desire of people looking for a quick fix, biohack, or magic pill meets bad science, lacking evidence and superstition, giving birth to a never ending onslaught of diet myths. But occasionally there is something to be learnt from even the ugliest nutrition offspring. Let’s take a look!

Diet Breaks

Clarifications, possible benefits and drawbacks.

Cheat days, refeeds, diet breaks and similar strategies are quite popular within the fitness crowd. It seems counterintuitive to deliberately break your diet by overconsuming more calories. We want progress fast and not waste any time, right? So let’s take a closer look and see what’s behind those concepts and if they are a viable tool for weight loss.