Stuff You Didn't Know About Diet & Exercise

I hope a few simple facts will clear up several popular misconceptions about both diet and exercise:

1. Don't Confuse Muscle with Fat. Sometime around age 20 our metabolism changes significantly and almost overnight, begins converting excess calories, fat and sugars directly into muscle mass. This helps explain why I "looked thinner" in photos taken when I was 20. Actually I just had less muscle mass.

2. Never Eat Just One Dessert. Nibbling at desserts is guaranteed to make you gain weight. Your digestive system can only handle a limited amount of sugars and fat at one sitting and after reaching that amount, any excess goes "straight through the pipes" because it's too much to be absorbed all at once. That's why when I'm in the mood for doughnuts or peanutbutter pie, I eat the whole box (or three pieces) at one time ... without worrying for a moment about where it's gonna end up.

3. Weight Training Does NOT Increase Muscle Mass. Any "muscle gain" from weight training is deceptive, because anabolic muscle "gains" are nothing more than fluid retention. You start sweating when lifting weights, ... and what you haven't sweated out by the time you finish your workout is trapped there under the skin, making your muscles look big and unnaturally swollen.

This is easily proven: Do you feel stronger, or actually weaker, after you've finished working out with weights? All you are is extra thirsty. Nuff said.

4. Diet Coke Dissolves Calories. Everybody with an e-mail account knows Diet Coke dissolves stubborn toilet stains, so just imagine what Diet Coke can do to food waiting to be digested inside your tummy. Calories are instantly destroyed and reduced to harmless gas ... and every burp actually burns off 5000 calories and eliminates up to 65 fat grams.

5. Increase Your Energy By Eating Fewer Leafy Greens and Vegetables. The African Cheetah is the world's fastest land mammal ... and when's the last time you saw a cheetah chowing down on a salad or a bowl of green beans?

Deep-fried sugar is aggressive, and actually attacks wimpy trans-fatty acids, converting harmful cholesterols into pure oxygen on contact while we’re chewing. It’s the additional oxygen released by foods like french fries, pizza and peanutbutter pie that gives us the happy "rush" we feel when we eat them.

On the other hand, stuff with excessive green color (salads, spinach and green beans) actually raises our chlorofill levels to dangerous proportions, which causes our bodies to start photosynthesis the next time we're exposed to sunlight. Our skin starts releasing oxygen like trees and shrubs, which leaves (get it?) us feeling drained and tired.

And that's all I know.