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Heyo,

I'm currently solo parenting because Kris is away for work. Unfortunately for me, Amara's going through a major mum phase, which resulted in her waking up at 9:30 pm, crying and asking for Kris. And as I sat there, being slapped by a cacophony of crying and "NO!" and "MUMMY!", I had a few realisations–

1. I used to think I was a patient person until I had a kid. Turns out, I'm not patient at all; I was just really good at swerving people's bullshit.
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2. Productivity isn't spending 3 hours every morning completing the 'perfect' morning routine––it's the exact opposite: Doing what you need to do even when things aren't perfect. Like, say, writing this email while running on two hours of sleep because you've committed to it.

Anyway, let's get to today's email.

Note: If you missed the email last Tuesday, I'm testing out two emails per week for a little bit. On Tuesdays, I'll answer reader questions, and Thursdays will remain the same with our regular Vitamin email.

Q- What is your opinion on Zoe and similar companies that claim to track your gut microbiome, blood fat and glucose levels to deliver you a personalised nutrition plan?

These companies are just a new breed of fad diets wrapped up in fancy packaging.

Firstly, healthy individuals without diabetes shouldn't be worried about their glucose levels since glucose spikes are a totally normal physiological response.

But even if you decide to ignore that statement and use a glucose monitor anyway, you would need to be confident the device is able to give you an accurate reading. However, a recent study found glucose monitors can vary quite wildly in their response to the same meal eaten a week apart. [PMID: 37503002]

So much so that the individual variability in post-meal blood sugar response to eating the same meal had as much variability as eating an entirely different meal. And I don't think people should overhaul their entire diet based on potentially faulty readings. (This is a great video illustrating the unreliability of glucose monitors.)

But let's assume that glucose monitors could accurately predict individual glucose responses to a meal; would this result in more weight loss? It doesn't seem so.

A 2022 study found no difference in weight loss over 6 months between a group assigned to a low-fat diet (control group) or a personalised diet that estimated post-prandial glucose response to foods using a machine learning algorithm (personalized group). [PMID: 36169954]

A 2023 study aimed to compare changes in blood sugar variability and HbA1c levels in two different calorie-restricted weight loss diets in adults with prediabetes or moderately controlled type 2 diabetes (T2D).

• Standardised Diet: A one-size-fits-all low-fat diet.
• Personalised Diet: A diet personalized to reduce blood sugar spikes, with feedback via a smartphone app.

The conclusion? The personalised diet didn't lead to greater reductions in blood sugar variability or HbA1c levels compared to the standardised diet.

As for the gut microbiome, the truth is we still know very little about what impact the gut microbiome has on overall health, despite how confidently some people on the internet talk about it. For instance, a recent review paper pushed back against the idea that most diseases are due to an altered gut microbiome. [PMID: 37524974]

Also, the claims that an imbalance in the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio (these two bacteria make up 90% of the gut microbiota in humans) is a hallmark of obesity hasn't been reproduced in human studies. "For these reasons", notes one review, "it is currently difficult to associate the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio with a determined health status and more specifically to consider it as a hallmark of obesity." [PMID:32438689]

Yet, the lack of evidence isn't stopping these 'personalised health' companies from selling you overpriced bullshit or making you obsess about normal human physiology, like glucose spikes.

If you're worried about your insulin sensitivity, your first priority should be losing excess body fat and implementing regular physical activity since these will have a far bigger impact on improving your overall health than anything else. As for the gut microbiome, it's probably a good idea to do what most people already know they should be doing–eating a minimally processed diet with lots of fruit and veggies.

Until there's more solid research into this stuff, I'm not convinced these companies are the future of health improvement. They're just a distraction from the things you should actually be doing to lose fat and get healthier.

💡 Client spotlight

One of the first things that falls to the wayside when people get busy is their health and fitness.
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This is often more pronounced in people who were fit and active in their youth since their high activity levels helped compensate for the complete lack of nutrition awareness. So when life hits, and they start gaining weight, they don’t know what’s happening.
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That’s where HG* found himself when he reached out for coaching.
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(*Yes, this is a pseudonym – he told me I wasn't allowed to use his real name because he's a spy.)
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(**Ok, I'm lying - he's not a spy. But he also didn’t say he wasn’t a spy, so...)
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Now that he had a daughter and a super-demanding job (like, you know, being a spy), he didn’t have the time to figure things out by himself.
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He knew hiring a coach would allow him to focus on doing the right things that actually moved the fat loss needle so he could focus on the rest of his life.
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And that’s what we did––remove all the things he was doing that weren’t helping him make progress and had him focus on the few things that actually mattered.
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👉 Strategies to help him stick to the deficit with his hectic travel schedule.
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👉 Increasing his calorie intake to account for his individual energy expenditure (fun fact - he finished the cut eating more calories than he “thought possible”).
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👉 Designed a training program he could complete in 30-40 minutes, focusing on a few key lifts and progressive tension overload.
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👉 Consistent meals throughout the day to help him avoid coming home hungry and overeating.
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Fast-forward three months, and he dropped ~17 lbs, lost ~13 cm from his waist, and very likely gained some muscle based on the increases on his chest, arms, and legs over the same timeframe.

Here's what HG had to say:

FIT Bites​
​Water for fat loss?

If I surveyed random people on 'tips' for fat loss, I'm willing to put money on 'drink more water' showing up quite consistently.

But does drinking more water actually help with fat loss? I came across a recent systematic review and meta-analysis that investigated this question. [PMID: 38612997]

The what: A total of eight randomised controlled trials were included in the final meta-analyses consisting of a total of 1,034 participants.

The why: Water intake has long been hypothesized to aid in weight loss by inducing satiety and reducing energy intake

Results: There was no significant effect of drinking water on reducing body fat, which suggests that drinking more water doesn't materially impact food intake over the long term.

Yes, but: Unsurprisingly, when sugary drinks (that contain calories) were replaced with water, there was a small (though marginally insignificant) effect on body fat reduction.

Oh, that's interesting: This study found replacing water with artificially sweetened beverages reduced body fat slightly. While this seems to jibe with other research, the subgroup analysis examining this relationship only comprised two studies, so let's not get too excited. But it does make some intuitive sense–if drinking artificially sweetened drinks helps you curb sugar cravings, you're less likely to consume calorically dense foods to satisfy said cravings.

Takehome: You should drink more water (duh), but it's overrated for fat loss.

Got a question?

Drop your questions in the form below and I'll answer them in a future email, probably.

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–Aa

P.S. What did you think of this week's email?

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