5 Lessons from Improving my Health

Newsletter


Hey friends,

Content Warning: This email contains lots of references to body weight, calories, protein, body fat % etc. If you’re not a fan of those topics for whatever reason, you may like to skip this issue šŸ˜ƒ

I recently had my third DEXA scan. A DEXA scan is a sort-of full-body X-ray that doctors normally use to check out a patientā€™s bone density, to see if theyā€™ve got osteoporosis (weak bones) usually in old age. But a DEXA scan also tells you some great information about how much fat and muscle there is on your body.

Those two quantitative bits of data – fat and muscle mass – are why DEXA scans are quite popular with athletes, and also with people like me who want to take their health more seriously and who enjoy seeing broadly objective metrics.

I had my first scan 12 months ago, and then the second one 6 months ago, and then the third one this week. And these scans have been probably the single most game-changing thing for my health that Iā€™ve ever done (they cost around Ā£100/$150 each).

First, a tip of the hat to my friendĀ Cliff WeitzmanĀ for turning me onto the idea of having regular DEXA scans. Cliff is absolutely jacked, and when I first got to know him over Zoom during lockdown, I asked him how he did it. He recommended getting a DEXA scan every 3-6 months as an objective way to track progress. So I waited a few years to take his advice, but finally bit the bullet a year ago.

The very first scan I did a year ago was a wake-up call for me. I was around 76kg, and at around 26% body fat, a lot of which was Visceral Adipose Tissue, ie: fat surrounding my inner organs in the abdomen. This is the ā€˜badā€™ kind of fat, the fat that you donā€™t necessarily see on someoneā€™s body, but that correlates with all the bad health outcomes like cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Not good.

The guy who did the scan for me (BodyScan UK) explained the results afterwards. He explained that I was quite ā€˜skinny fatā€™ – ie: I looked skinny, but I actually had quite a lot of fat in me. This is the standard setup for South Asian men (he told me), so if I wanted to be healthier, Iā€™d have to take some action. And the first thing to do would be to lose quite a bit of fat, not to aim to get six-pack abs, but instead to get the Visceral Adipose Tissue down to reasonable levels so that it would reduce my risks of developing heart disease etc.

So then I did some low calorie dieting for a bit, started weighing myself everyday, and dropped 3kg over the next 6 months. I went in for my DEXA scan 6 months later (ie: 6 months ago) hoping for a pat on the back. What we found was that yes, Iā€™d lost 3kg, but actually, most of that loss was in muscle rather than fat. What?!

See, turns out that when youā€™re on a caloric deficit, you lose weight. But if you want to maintain muscle mass while losing weight, you need 2 things: (1) high enough protein intake, and (2) a stimulus for muscle growth, ie: weight training. I was half-arsing both of those things, which meant that my body was breaking down muscle rather than fat. All those hours in the gym trying to become a Gymshark athlete, wasted because of lack of consistency in my diet and in my workout regimen.

This was a second wake-up call. So at the start of 2023, when I was setting my personal and company goals withĀ Eric Partaker, my CEO coach, I decided to set a personal goal to build more muscle. That would involve weight training 3 times a week. Eric asked if I could add further accountability to this, and I remembered that Iā€™d come across a fitness coach on Twitter by the name ofĀ Dan Go. Iā€™d seen that Dan had been tweeting some really helpful threads about how to build muscle, and how to stay healthy, in a way that didnā€™t idolise six-pack abs but that seemed genuinely about helping people live healthier lives across the board. So I messaged Dan and asked if heā€™d work with me.

He very kindly said yes, and so Iā€™ve been working with Dan for the past (almost) 6 months. Heā€™s been programming my workouts, and helping to keep me accountable for tracking my macros, hitting my protein targets etc.

And the results from the latest DEXA scan are showing positive results – Iā€™ve maintained a weight of 73kg, but in the past 6 months, Iā€™ve lost around 1.5kg of fat, and gained around 1.5kg of muscle! This went exactly according to plan – weā€™re trying to do a body recomposition, where we maintain my weight, but try to lose fat while gaining muscle. This is a very long process, but hopefully by staying consistent with it, Iā€™ll be healthier in terms of reduced fat, but also in terms of increased muscle mass. Both these things (reduced fat, increased muscle) seem to be pretty correlated with positive health outcomes and longevity (side note: Iā€™m reading Peter Attiaā€™s new book Outlive these days, and so far itā€™s absolutely phenomenal – Iā€™m around 20% through it).

Anyway, that was a lot of long-winded context for what I wanted to share in this email – some lessons that Iā€™ve learned over the past 12 months of taking my health more seriously.

As usual, these are notes and reminders for myself, but Iā€™m hoping that if youā€™re reading this, you might find some of them helpful too.

Tip 1: Itā€™s useful to weigh yourself everydayĀ – There was apparently a study that found that if you took two groups of people, and one of them weighed themselves everyday, and the other didnā€™t, then with zero additional things, the group that weighed themselves lost weight on average. Iā€™ve been weighing myself everyday (unless travelling) for the past 6 months, and itā€™s pretty useful to see the fluctuations in my weight. I use aĀ WiFi Enabled Smart ScaleĀ which syncs aytomatically with Apple Health.

Tip 2: Automate your protein intake. Iā€™ve been aiming for 150g protein per day. This is actually somewhat hard to do. The trick is to automate protein intake – 2 protein shakes a day, 40g each = 80g sorted, which means just 70g needed the rest of the day, which is way more doable (lunch and dinner with a high ish protein serving of chicken or fish does the trick). On days where I have a protein shake as the first thing in the morning, and then as a mid-afternoon snack, Iā€™m 100x more likely to hit my protein target than on days where I donā€™t. Need to make this more of a habit.

Tip 3: Donā€™t drink calories. When youā€™re tracking everything with MyFitnessPal, you realise very quickly that calories add up, and that drinking calories is a recipe for blowing through the ā€œcalorie budgetā€ for the day. Sparkling water, black coffee (or coffee with a splash of milk), tea (with a small amount of milk) are reasonable options. Sparkling water is particularly good because itā€™s more filling than still or tap water.

Tip 4: Avoid red meat. Yes itā€™s a good protein source, but usually thereā€™s a tonne of fat in steaks etc, which ramps up the calorie count. Plus I found out recently that my cholesterol is a little higher than it should be, so cutting down on red meat is pretty sensible anyway.

Tip 5: Get the 10,000 steps in per day. Walking is a remarkably underrated activity for ā€œburningā€ calories while preserving muscle mass, and as a generally relaxing and nice thing to do. Iā€™ve found that investing Ā£300 in aĀ treadmill underneath my standing deskĀ has been a great way to get in the extra steps while working, or while playing video games. In X days of using the treadmill, Iā€™ve managed to walk Y km, which is Y km more than Iā€™d have walked if Iā€™d just been sitting at the desk instead. I find that walking while working on deep work tasks is also nice as a way of helping me stay focused and not get distracted.

There are plenty more tips that Iā€™ve learned over the past 6 months but I think 5 is enough for now šŸ™‚

Hereā€™s a struggle though – currently, I donā€™t enjoy working out. My goal is to build muscle and lose fat. But I also want to generally ā€˜improve my fitnessā€™ through better cardiovascular ability (eg: VO2 max). And I want to be flexible and mobile so I can do cool stuff like acro yoga and martial arts.

But right now, this strength-training-in-the-gym stuff feels like Iā€™m having to go uphill. Each time I see ā€˜gymā€™ on my calendar, I tell myself ā€œargh I donā€™t feel like doing this, but I know itā€™s good for me and I value the goal, therefore I should do itā€. This is commonly referred to as ā€œdisciplineā€.

The issue is that I donā€™t enjoy relying on discipline to fuel my performance. I think discipline is fine in small doses, but itā€™s an unsustainable recipe over the long term. Instead, Iā€™d love to find a way to make improving my fitness feel good. Iā€™d love to find a way to make it enjoyable and energising, to the point that I look forward to my workouts / exercise each day, rather than feeling like I have to push myself to do them.

This has always been my approach to work and productivity – instead of relying on discipline or willpower, find a way to make it enjoyable and energising so that I want to do it, rather than feeling like I have to do it. In fact, this is exactly what my upcoming bookā€™s about – more on that in a few weeks šŸ˜‰

But when it comes to fitness, I havenā€™t yet figured out an approach to weight training that feels enjoyable and energising. Iā€™m working with Dan to craft one, and weā€™re trying out a new workout routine from next week thatā€™ll hopefully tick that box. But in the meantime, Iā€™d love to hear from you – have you managed to find a way to make gaining strength, losing fat, improving cardiovascular fitness, and increasing flexibility and mobility, more fun?

If so, Iā€™d love if you could hit <reply> and let me know.

Anyway, I hope you found something in this email interesting or at least vaguely useful.

Have a great week!

Ali xx

PS: A huge thank you to the 200+ people who replied to last weekā€™s email – Iā€™ve managed to reply to around 50 of you, but probably canā€™t make the time to reply to the other 150+. I do however, read absolutely every reply personally, so your email isnā€™t being lost in the ether, itā€™s just piling up in my ā€˜emails I should probably reply to but realistically wonā€™t have the timeā€™ list lol. If that admission means youā€™re less likely to reply to future emails, then no hard feelings – just thought Iā€™d flag that up in case it changes anything for you. But if you like the idea of replying to these emails knowing theyā€™re being read, but not necessarily replied to, then Iā€™d love for you to continue replying to these – I love reading them and theyā€™re often very insightful, interesting and helpful for me šŸ˜€

šŸ§  Brilliant – Use Your Screen Time Smartly

Over the past few months weā€™ve seen an incredible advancement in technology and mastering it requires learning new skills. And the best way Iā€™ve found to do this is withĀ Brilliant.

With 1000s of concise, informative and interactive courses, Brilliant makes it easy to level up your understanding of the tiny (and sometimes massive) technological drivers of the modern world.

By having the app easily accessible on my phone, Iā€™ve begun to use small chunks of time throughout my day to level up my knowledge on things like neural networks and how theyā€™re impacting our lives instead of just scrolling through social media.

ā€‹Join over 10 million people around the worldĀ and explore all the ways Brilliant can elevate your downtime with a free 30-day trial today.

Thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring this issue of Sunday Snippets šŸ™

āœļø Quote of the Week

ā€œIf youā€™re ready to realize a much bigger and more powerful future, then you must stop asking yourself, ā€œHow can I accomplish this?ā€ That question, although common, leads to mediocre results, frustration, and a life of regrets. A much better question is: ā€œWho can help me achieve this?ā€

FromĀ Who Not HowĀ by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy. Resurfaced usingĀ Readwise.

Already read the book?

Let me know what you thought of it here.