4 Easily Implementable Tips From Health and Fitness Experts

The following tips come from a few experts that I have done a heavy amount of research on and trust their input, including:

• ​Shawn Stevenson, health and fitness expert who speaks at conferences and has helped thousands lose weight and gain muscle. He states that nutrition, exercise, and sleep are the “three pillars of health”, has the bestselling book Sleep Smarter, and one of the most popular health and fitness podcasts, The Model Health Show.
• Ben Greenfield, a triathlete known for biohacking and also teaching people how to be athletes in the healthiest way possible. Also has a bestselling book, Beyond Training. He has written over a dozen books on health and fitness, runs an extremely popular blog and podcast, Ben Greenfield Fitness, and is also the CEO of a supplement company, Kion.
• Mike Matthews, a fitness expert who teaches people how to build lean muscle mass with his extremely popular books and programs, Bigger Leaner Stronger for men and Thinner Leaner Stronger for women. Mike also has an extremely popular blog and supplement company, Legion Athletics, and a popular podcast, Muscle For Life.

All of these folks I believe genuinely want to help as many people as possible and also do a ton of their own research, this is why I trust their work.

Here are some tips that are taken from their work that are easy for anyone to implement but are great foundations of health:

How much water should I be drinking?

Shawn Stevenson states that you should drink at least half of your body weight in pounds, transferred to ounces. So since I am 160lb, I should drink at least 80oz (he also says that if you are 200lb or over, you don’t need to go any higher than 100oz). He states that you should drink 20-30oz extra for any workouts so if I workout in the morning, I should make sure to get about 100-110oz of water through the day.

Mike Matthews states that you should drink about a gallon of water each day. This converts to about 128oz. And he also suggests drinking an extra 30oz if you work out.

Here are some tips I use that makes it easy to get at least 100oz of water each day:

• ​Start the day off with 20-30oz of water (thanks, Shawn)
• Keep a water bottle within reach at all times throughout the day
• Keep the goal in mind of reaching 100oz until it becomes habit to drink this much​

How much protein should I be getting?

Mike Matthews interestingly prescribes more protein for those trying to lose weight than those trying to gain muscle. He suggests 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight if you are trying to gain or maintain muscle and 1.1 grams of protein per pound of body weight if you are trying to lose weight.

Ben Greenfield states that you do not need any more than 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight if you are trying to gain muscle.

Protein is a highly debated subject but Mike Matthews I believe has done the most research in the areas so I trust his information the most. Obviously, still pay attention to what source your protein comes from and know that it can be dangerous to get any more than 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

How can I improve my sleep and increase my energy levels?

Several experts have been speaking out on how crucial sleep can be. Shawn’s book Sleep Smarter is a great resource for several things, especially this topic. The saying “sleep is for the weak” couldn’t be more wrong.

​If you lack the sleep you need, here are negative side effects we all get:

• Accelerated aging
• Increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even Alzheimer’s
• More likely to make bad decisions
• ​More susceptible to weight gain
  

We all should average 5 sleep cycles per night, which is normally 7.5 hours of sleep. I struggle with this and can usually only get 4 cycles (6 hours) but I do some things to improve my sleep quality like:

• ​Avoiding blue light exposure an hour before bedtime. I set my phone features to change to red light between 9PM nd 4AM and avoid turning lights on in my house if I need to get out of bed for any reason. Shawn Stevenson provides studies that show how blue light exposure before bedtime can weaken your first hour of sleep dramatically.
  
• Work out in the mornings. This is not only the most convenient time for me but also is a fantastic way to start the day. Shawn has also shown how this regulates your hormone function throughout the day so cortisol is keeping you up during the day and melatonin kicks in at night to let you have a good night’s sleep.
  
• Cold baths a half hour before bed help fall asleep faster and improve sleep quality by lowering body temperature. I don’t do this every night but when I can. Cold water immersion has been said to have several other interesting benefits like increase immune function as well (thanks Ben Greenfield).
  
• Avoid caffeine after about 4PM and don’t have more than 400 grams per day. Caffeine has a half-life of 5 or 6 hours so if you have 300 grams at 4PM, you still have 150 grams active in your system at 9 or 10PM. Caffeine has been proven to weaken your sleep quite dramatically. Shawn shows how even if you do not feel like it makes your sleep worse, it indeed does and increases your risks for all the things listed above and more. Mike Matthews shows how, even though people say caffeine is dangerous, almost anybody will not have any negative side effects if they have less than about 400 grams per day.

How many servings of fruits and vegetables should I have each day?

Many experts are saying that we should not groups these together! You can’t really overdo it with vegetables but fruit you can absolutely overdo with the amount of sugars and carbohydrates that they contain.

Shawn Stevenson advises at least 2 servings of vegetables and only 1 serving of fruit (mainly berries) each day.

​Mike Matthews suggests at least two or three servings of vegetables each day and at least 1 serving of fruit each day.

All of these experts (Shawn, Ben, and Mike) suggests plant-based diets, even if you are trying to build muscle. If you have trouble reaching these servings of vegetables, I would also suggest a Green Superfood Supplement. 1 tablespoon of that stuff mixed with water can equal multiple cups of leafy greens. I personally try to get 2-3 cups of a variety of vegetables each day but I use a green superfood supplement on certain days I only get 1 cup of veggies. I make sure 1 cup at least is in my lunch each day.

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Thank you for reading and I hope this helps someone!!