We all overcomplicate fitness and nutrition because we all want to optimize our our health and fitness.

The Confusion

When it comes to health and fitness, the internet is the worst place to go to try and get advice. Left and right someone will always contradict the thing you were just reading about.

“Fasting is terrible for your body.” => “No, fasting is actually great for your body.”
“You really only need to worry about calories in, calories out.” => “That’s detrimental to your health! You need to focus on quality foods and a balanced diet.”

And on, and on…

No one seems to make it simple, and those that do make it simple just get shot down by the very next remark. Now, objectively, that doesn’t mean that the advice given is necessarily bad. It also doesn’t mean that the contrarian is wrong either. Both can be right at the same time: shocker.

But, that’s just the human race. We always want to be right as individuals. We don’t like being told that what we’re doing is wrong and that what other people should be doing isn’t what you’re doing. So, maybe it’s not necessarily the fact that people don’t want to be wrong, it’s that people don’t want to change what they’re doing because it’s not the “best” way to be eating/working-out.

Does it really matter, though? I mean really?

Should the average person that wants to try to be healthier try to be optimal with their health, or should they just start with the simplest thing they can do? I know my answer…

START SIMPLE!

Seriously, let people start simple with their nutrition and exercise. Who cares if that still includes McDonald’s every week and a cookie for dessert? It’s obnoxious hearing people constantly say, “you shouldn’t be eating that”, “that’s not the optimal way to lose weight”, “stop thinking only about calories”… SHUT UP!

Leave the poor person be… It’s their life and you know what, at least they’re trying to be healthier by reducing every day McDonald’s to only a couple times a week and introducing a good 30-minute walk every day. It’s a simple, easy beginning to one’s health and fitness journey. If there was any more friction added to the beginner’s mix, they would give up almost immediately. How is that a hard concept to understand?

Additionally, why should health and fitness be about denying yourself the enjoyment of life? Taking care of your health shouldn’t be about denying yourself the little things that make you happy just to optimize your life. Is it really going to be worth it in the end? Probably not. When you’re on your death bed, are you really going to be reminicing about that time you DIDN’T eat at McDonald’s? Are you really going to praise your salad eating every Christmas Day feast for the last 40 years because you didn’t want to break your diet and you wanted to live as long as possible? No, probably not. And, if you are, you’re lying to yourself so just stop.

I want to live a long, happy life, too, you know. I would prefer not to die an early death. But, I also don’t want to deny myself the chance to chow down on an epic Christmas Dinner with my family or to skip out on the fun weekend restaurant trip with friends just because I can’t control what’s in my food for “optimal health outcomes”.

Dude, seriously, you don’t even know if the way you’re taking care of yourself is even going to pay-off in the end. You can’t predict the future. Sure, there are some guarantees for the average person if you quit smoking, drinking, and consuming excessive amounts of processed food. But also, cancer doesn’t care about your healthy choices. Accidents don’t discriminate against healthy individuals. Life is messy and unpredictable. Have that nightcap with your spouse at the end of a long week. Have that cigar with your mates to celebrate their big accomplishment. Take your child to McDonald’s for a fun treat.

Basically, moderation. (I really hate that term…)

The Catch

Why do I hate “moderation”? Because people also use it as an excuse to do whatever they want “in moderation”. They’re not wrong, of course, but they’re missing the point more often than not that someone is trying to make. Sure, moderation is important, but you also can’t deny that even in moderation, certain things are just bad for you like smoking and drinking. But, that doesn’t make someone’s statement “you should just stop smoking/drinking as your first step” wrong. Quite frankly, it’s often times more accurate than someone else’s “yeah, but actually, if you just do X in moderation, you don’t have to give it up”. Statements like this drive me insane. Generalizations are so much more helpful to me than everyone chiming in with their little edge-cases. I have a brain, I’m more than capable of thinking through the nuance myself, thank you. I don’t need someone’s pee-brained, micro-case comment to be added to my already over-complicated health and fitness research.

In terms of health and fitness, I find generalizations the most helpful. For example, if I want to lose weight and I’m getting overwhelmed with the shear amount of information I’m finding online, being told to just focus on calories in, calories out and hit your protein goal for the day makes getting started 1000 times easier. Then, I can focus on adding in an awesome workout every other day while also focusing on my small nutrition goal. And then, later on down the line, when I’ve been more consistant and habitual with my efforts, I can start thinking about “optimizations”. Getting started is the hard part though.

An OK starting point

I really like Alex Hormozi’s stupid simple diet recommendation breakdown: Calculate the calories you need for your goal, calulate your protein needs for the day, eat to your protein goal, then the remaining calories can be whatever you want. It just makes getting started so much easier, and getting to keep dessert is a huge bonus, too.

Overcomplicating life is stupidly unhelpful. The average person is too tired to go through the overwhelming amount of information that exists out in the world. Not to mention the fact that the average person only reads at about a 6th grade reading level, according to this article from Snopes[^1]. So, in essence, understanding any of the scientific studies is out of the question for the average person. Uh oh, did I say that out loud? Oh well.

But, it’s true. Shoving X, Y, or Z study in everyone’s face isn’t going to be helpful for those “incapable” of doing the deep dive research. Why do you think podcasts and simple articles from experts synthesizing information into digestable, easy to implement content is so popular? Surprise, because it helps the AVERAGE person get up off their sorry butt and get to work taking care of their health with easy, acionable steps.

In all, stop overcomplicating everyone’s lives. You’re not being helpful, you’re being annoying and at worse doing more harm than good. Let people do the simple diets and workouts and leave your edge-case annoyances at home where they belong. Lastly, the internet isn’t even that diverse in opinion. There are more people out in the real world doing the simple things than you think. I’d place a bet on that.

Get fit and get healthy in the way that works for you and keep your annoying opinions/comments to yourself.

[^1]: This is really sad, honestly. I remember learning that the average reading level was about 9th grade a couple years before the Gallup Poll referenced by Snopes was published.