Weight Lifting Is a Waste of Time : So Is Cardio, and There’s a Better Way to Have the Body You Want

by John Jaquish

Carnivore/Low-Carbohydrate Nutrition Once we realized this after reading so much bad “ketogenic nutrition” information, it led us to our next conclusion: eating meat only is the easiest way to reach your daily protein requirements. John can easily consume 250 grams of protein in a single meal. He might eat three steaks or a family-sized bucket of chicken minus the skin.

John is often asked about vitamins when he discusses his carnivore diet. In response, he points to two studies. One shows that if you’re eating whole foods and your goal is to get to the recommended daily intake of vitamins, you’d need to consume 27,000 calories a day.121 Clearly, no one ever comes close to that.

Honolulu Longevity study. In this, people in the highest quartile for strength (lean muscle mass) showed a 250 percent increased chance of living until one hundred years old.127

More recently, researchers have begun to focus more on body composition as measured by DEXA scans, caliper measurements, and even waist circumference, which has been shown to be significantly more accurate.128 Now that more relevant metrics are being used, it is becoming clear that individuals with a lower percentage of body fat live longer.

It quickly became apparent to us that the majority of the human diet should come from protein. What’s more, our recommendation of one gram per pound of body weight per day (2.2 g/ kilogram) doesn’t leave room in the intestines for much more—especially when we factor in the option of time-restricted-eating windows, another one of those few nutritional principles that has little to no conflicting research.

The way to maximize muscularity while getting as lean as possible through nutrition became obvious: eat high levels of animal proteins that offer the potential for even higher quality essential amino acid complexes.

We’ve already cited literature demonstrating time-restricted-eating windows, even with the same caloric daily total intake as ordinary eating patterns, preserve more muscle while decreasing body fat.

In other words, only the fats or the carbohydrates you eat are stored as body fat, even when you are at a calorie surplus. Excess protein your body cannot use seems to contribute to increasing your body temperature and enables you to use the energy while digesting.

Perhaps the most egregious nutritional recommendation most of you will remember is “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” This idea was invented in the nineteenth century by Seventh Day Adventists’ James Caleb Jackson and John Harvey Kellogg to sell their newly invented breakfast cereal.136 There is not a single study that supports this idea. Absolutely none.

Neither red, processed, or white meat consumption are consistently associated with all-cause or cause-specific mortality.137 Vegetarians have no mortality advantage over meat-eaters.138 In fact, a vegetarian diet is associated with poorer health (higher incidences of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders), a higher need for healthcare, and poorer quality of life.139 Another study concludes, “We found no evidence that following a vegetarian diet, semi-vegetarian diet

A study of forty-two European countries found lower cardiovascular disease and mortality among countries that consumed more fats and meats. Higher cardiovascular mortality was linked to carbohydrate consumption.141 Plant-based diets are indicated for causing bone density loss, NOT helping it: “The findings gathered consistently support the hypothesis that vegans do have lower bone mineral density than their non-vegan counterparts.” The researchers go on to say that science is not clear if the issue is calcium plus vitamin D or if it’s another factor, such as protein or even muscular performance.142

Data indicate, “when soy protein is substituted for meat protein, there is an acute decline in dietary calcium bioavailability.”143 Twenty studies comprising 37,134 participants showed that “compared with omnivores, vegetarians and vegans had lower BMD at the femoral neck and lumbar spine and vegans also had higher fracture rates.”144 Five randomized, controlled trials included in a meta-analysis revealed, “cholesterol lowering interventions showed no evidence of benefit on mortality from coronary heart disease (1.13, 0.83 to 1.54) or all-cause mortality (1.07, 0.90 to 1.27).”145 A twelve-study meta-analysis concluded there is no relationship between protein consumption and kidney function.146 In fact, there has never been any scientific evidence showing higher protein consumption damages kidney function. Not a single study. Picked up by the mainstream media, this hypothesis has been disproven multiple times, yet the myth unfortunately

Lower LDL does NOT equal lower risks. “The lowest LDL-C group (LDL< 70 mg/dL) had a higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR 1.95, 1.55–2.47), CVD mortality (HR 2.02, 1.11–3.64), and cancer mortality (HR 2.06, 1.46–2.90) compared to the reference group (LDL 120–139 mg/dL).”148

“Extensive research did not show evidence to support a role of dietary cholesterol in the development of CVD. As a result, the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) removed the recommendations of restricting dietary cholesterol to 300 mg/day.”150

Humans in Western countries consuming a diet of 70 percent plant-based calories also have 70 percent of adults suffering pre-diabetes or T2 diabetes. This rate is even greater in India, which has the highest rate of vegetarians,

In doing research, we found science favors a carnivore diet. If it had shown vegan nutrition was optimal for performance, that would be our recommendation, but it has not. Keep in mind, the current Western diet is 70 percent plant-based.159 We are fatter and sicker than ever, so why would going 80 percent or 90 percent plant-based help?

For example, nightshade plants like tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants contain toxins that cause inflammation.160 The entire reason people take antioxidants is because they are oxidizing, or becoming inflamed. When you cut out toxin-filled plants, you’ll no longer experience inflammation from these substances, and many studies have suggested inflammation is the driver of multiple chronic diseases involving the nervous system, immune system, and brain impairment.161

there’s protein in broccoli but would it be physically possible to consume enough broccoli to hit that number? For example, to get to one hundred grams of protein, you would need to eat at least eight pounds of broccoli.

One myth on this subject that persists in vegan discussions is that broccoli, for example, has as much protein as steak. This is often perpetuated by infographics comparing protein per calorie. Many are simply inaccurate, but even the correct statistics can be misleading when presented in this way. For example, one hundred calories of broccoli have eight grams of protein. That same number of calories of New York steak has 13.6g of protein.

Falsehood #1: Cardio Is Healthier than Strength Training

“Strength training is fine, but you need to do cardio to be healthy.” In our experience, people using the word “cardio” in this way are referring to endurance aerobic activities like spending hours on the elliptical or running long distances, without the inclusion of a strength training component. Using the term “cardio” to describe this type of exercise is quite misleading.

But more importantly, when it comes to cardiac health, weight training provides the same, if not more cardiovascular benefits compared to strictly “cardio” exercise.

In one experiment, patients with Type 2 diabetes in a group assigned to perform strength training saw improved blood lipid profiles and glycemic control while the group assigned to “cardio” exercise saw no statistically significant improvements in these metrics.162 Other research shows strength training improves endothelial function, an important component of cardiac health,163,164 and can effectively lower blood pressure.165

To be clear, when we say “cardio” isn’t necessary, we don’t mean that you shouldn’t care about your cardiovascular fitness. You should care, and so do we. But when you evaluate the evidence, it shows strength training provides all the cardiac benefit people currently associate with long-distance running or hours on the elliptical.

Cardiovascular endurance—in other words, your aerobic fitness—begins to decline just seven days after you stop working out. Structural fitness, or your body’s ability to withstand the impact of stressful cardio activities, is lost almost as fast.

Falsehood #2: There Is One Superior Method for Testing Body Fat

Falsehood #3: Cardio Is Great for Weight Loss Research shows prolonged cardio—logging long runs, for example—is an ineffective means to lose weight. By upregulating cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, cardio can have the complete opposite effect of what you’re trying to accomplish. It actually can contribute to your body holding on to the kind of “stubborn fat” so many people have trouble losing with traditional exercise routines.

The one thing cardio can do very effectively is produce chronic joint damage. The repetitive impact caused by long-distance running, for example, puts stress on the joint and compromises joint positions.

So if you want to be a long-distance runner or bike the Tour de France, by all means, have at it. Do it for the fun and adventure. But just realize that this is not an optimal path if you aim to be healthier and thinner, with any significant muscle development or definition. And,

Falsehood #4: Muscle Confusion Theory/Muscle Damage Is Required for Growth Muscle confusion theory is the idea that you have to constantly change your workout to keep getting muscular gains.

Muscle confusion theory is a driving force behind complicated fitness fads such as P90X, Bodypump, and ClassPass.

Many people believe muscle soreness is the sign of a good workout and impending muscle growth, but it is actually indicative of muscle damage.

Muscle damage doesn’t do anything except compromise your body and delay the onset of muscle protein synthesis associated with real hypertrophy.

Besides, if you’re always trying a new workout, you’re always learning a new form and getting used to new movements. This is likely to detract from the actual intensity of your efforts.

Finally, muscle confusion theory has been tested and it turns out people who stick to a consistent exercise routine achieve better results.

American College of Sports Medicine recommends “progressive overload” as the most effective way to post muscle and strength gains.173 This strength training workout method continually challenges your muscles through increasing resistance, weight, repetitions, or a combination thereof. It is the type of workout X3 gives you.

Falsehood #5: The Well-Rounded Athlete There’s no good reason to set your fitness goal as bei...

That’s because these workouts have conflicting goals. When you do endurance activities, you’re upregulating cortisol, which keeps fat on the body and breaks down muscular tissue. When you do strength training, you’re downregulating cortisol and upregulating growth hormone, which promotes body fat loss and protects lean tissue.

Falsehood #6: Most “Facts” about Muscle Fiber Types

You may be good at distance running, but that doesn’t prove you have more slow-twitch, endurance-specific muscle fibers. It may just be that you enjoy running, trained hard, and became accomplished at it.

Consider this: any untrained non-athlete living a sedentary lifestyle still has a specific amount of fast- and slow-twitch muscle, but does it make them particularly good at any athletic endeavor—weightlifting, running, sprinting—as compared to someone who trains for that kind of exercise?

Second, muscle fibers can change when properly stimulated.

Third, science shows regular strength training can grow all muscle fibers; you don’t have to worry about which fibers will benefit and which will languish.

Falsehood #7: Training Different Ranges of Motion Some people believe you can grow muscle that works only in specific ranges of motion.

You’re exercising the same muscle at the bottom of the range as you are at the very top. By training that muscle in the strongest

Falsehood #8: Isolating Parts of a Muscle This one is a variation on training the ranges of motion commonly espoused by bodybuilders. Here, people perform specific exercises in an attempt to change the shape of a specific muscle. Perhaps a bodybuilder wants their bicep to look more spherical in the center. In an attempt to change how it looks cosmetically, they decide to do hammer curls instead of regular ones.

When people do incline presses to build their upper pectorals, all they’re really doing is injuring their shoulder joints because the movement puts too much pressure there.

Falsehood #9: The Anabolic Window The concept behind the anabolic window is that there’s a period of time right after a workout where the body is more apt to absorb protein and turn it into muscle. There is no scientific merit to this claim. The truth is, significantly elevated protein synthesis in response to exercise occurs for approximately thirty-six hours after training, a process that normally happens when you’re sleeping.

Falsehood #10: Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) Gives You an Advantage A lot of people think endocrinologist-

prescribed TRT is an advantage. Essentially, they see TRT as a workaround to illegal steroids.