Why You Overeat (And How To Take Control Of Hunger)

Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. Every weekday, we make sense of the confusing world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and offering quick tips designed to make you healthier in less than 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.

Today’s Health Upgrade

Monday motivation
How to Oktoberfest like Arnold
Is this the secret to hunger control?
Workout of the week

Arnold’s Podcast

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Arnold’s Corner
Monday Motivation: Build Your Team

This weekend, I had an absolutely fantastic time at Oktoberfest in Munich with my FUBAR team.

We ate sausages and schnitzel and kaiserschmarrn. We drank beer. And we laughed and laughed. We connected outside of our intense, long days filming our great show, and we couldn’t have been happier.

That’s the power of connection.

We have shared a lot of studies here in the newsletter about how connecting with people around you — friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, members of your community — is just as important to your health as eating well or training.

I get a lot of questions about how to beat loneliness.

And we know that people who build connections live longer, healthier lives.

Today, I want you to focus on that word: build.

It is not a passive word. It’s active.

Building — whether you’re building a brick wall, building your body, building new habits, or building friendships — requires effort.

Too many people think that connections and friendships are passive. They require work. You have to put yourself out there.

When we wrapped the first season of FUBAR two years ago, I put out the invitation to celebrate with me and my friends at Oktoberfest in Munich.

Milan, my fantastic co-star, was the only one who showed up, and he had a fantastic time. He came back and told everyone about the fun we had, and when we were getting close to the finish line of this season of FUBAR, I put out the invitation again.

Even if just one showed up, I knew it was worth it. But, this time, the whole team jumped at the opportunity.

The FUBAR cast takes on Oktoberfest.

We had cast, we had crew, we had writers.

We had a team.

It required effort from everyone. I handled planning for Oktoberfest and meals, and they had to figure out travel and hotels.

Every single one of us would tell you it was worth the work.

We connected around our Oktoberfest table and at other meals around town. We looked up at each other instead of down on our machines.

The effort made our friendships and connections stronger. Those friendships enrich all of our lives.

This week, I want you to focus on building your team. I want you to make an effort to connect.

Whether it’s taking a co-worker to lunch or having a phone-free meal with your family or FaceTiming a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, it will require work.

But I want you to do it because I want you to feel the way I do after connecting with my own team.

Do something to build your real-life connections, not your social media connections on your machines.

I promise you, you will thank me.

Build your team!

Together With Schaller & Weber
How To Oktoberfest Like Arnold

As we just mentioned, Oktoberfest is one of our favorite times of the year.

Does it make sense for a health and fitness newsletter to celebrate a festival based on tons of sausage, pretzels, and beer?

Yes.

The answer is yes because we believe that you eat well most of the time so that you can enjoy your life — not so that you can live a life of constant limitations.

Schaller & Weber is a New York City icon, serving up meats since 1937 and cornering the market on charcuterie and Bavarian-style meats.

Schaller & Weber has everything you need for an authentic Oktoberfest experience at any time of the year. That includes the best mustard we’ve ever had and sausages that would fit right in if you were celebrating in Munich.

There are very few producers in America who make a true Bavarian-Style Weisswurst. Schaller & Weber does, and they have numerous gold medals to prove it. Their quality has earned awards in both Germany and Austria, most recently at the 2022 Deutsche Fleisch Verband / American Association of Meat Producers competition in Frankfurt. But the really cool thing about Schaller & Weber is that they combine their old-school recipes with new-school values.

Their Weisswurst (and pretty much everything else) is made with humanely raised, vegetarian-fed, antibiotic-free meat and no artificial ingredients, so you can treat yourself and feel good about it.

Schaller & Weber also makes delicious grab-and-go salami sticks, which we’ve been enjoying for a protein snack that feels like you’re cheating because the flavors are that good.

As a member of the positive corner of the internet, use the code PUMPTOBERFEST20 on anything in their store to get 20% OFF.

You don’t train and eat well just to train and eat well. Nothing matters if you’re unable to have fun.

So join us in the celebration. When you see us in the news with our pretzels, beer, and sausages, you’ll know we are all in this together. Once you have Schaller & Weber, you’ll understand why we had to share their delicacies with you. They are truly fantastic.

Nutrition
Is This The Secret To Hunger Control?

If you struggle with appetite control, it’s getting harder to deny that certain foods make overeating more likely.

A new study found that ultra-processed foods significantly increase overeating. What the researchers found—and how easily it was to instantly reduce hunger—is worth your attention because it shows how the food you select can change your eating habits.

The scientists randomly assigned participants to one of two groups: eating ultra-processed or non-ultra-processed foods. They strictly followed the diet they were assigned for one week. Then, they took a two-week break and switched groups (so those who ate ultra-processed foods for a week then ate non-ultra-processed foods).

No matter which group they were in, every person was given foods that contained an equal number of calories and macronutrients. So, the calories in the foods were the same, but the level of processing was different. They were told to eat as little or as much as they wanted and were shown pictures of an appropriate portion size.

When participants followed the ultra-processed food plan, they ate approximately 800 calories more per day than those who didn’t. Remember, everyone followed both diet conditions. So, switching to fewer ultra-processed foods instantly reduced calorie intake without any other adjustments.

As a result, the ultra-processed diet led to more weight gain and worse liver function — in just one week.

Remember, ultra-processed foods are not all processed foods. They tend to have added levels of fat, sugar, and salt and are designed to be softer and easier to consume. That’s important because the newest research tracked a little detail that could help you eat less at any meal. The scientists also tracked how much people chewed their food.

Participants chewed much less and ate much more when following the ultra-processed diet. This is important because other data show that soft foods that require less chewing are linked to overeating.

It was also clear when the overeating occurred and what foods were more problematic. When following the ultra-processed diet, protein-filled foods weren’t an issue, and breakfast didn’t change much. But people consumed more fat and carbohydrates at lunch and dinner.

It appears that hunger is influenced not just by how foods are made (their level of processing) but also by their texture, which affects eating speed.

If you recall, don’t forget Tool #4: Take 20 minutes to eat your meals. Part of hunger is a timing game. It takes approximately 20 minutes for your stomach to signal to your brain that it’s full. So, if you take longer to eat, chew, process, and be present with your food, it helps control your appetite and reduce your intake.

So, even if you have some ultra-processed foods, you can better control your hunger if you focus on harder foods, more chewing, and longer meals. But the easy button is cutting back on ultra-processed foods, which can significantly improve the quality of your diet and make your meals feel more satisfying.

Fitness
Workout Of The Week

If you’re going to do a full-body workout, using supersets — or doing back-to-back exercises with little rest — is one of the most effective ways to build efficiency without sacrificing results. However, combining opposite muscle groups is the most effective way to superset exercises. So you might do a chest exercise followed by a back exercise and then rest.

In this workout, you’ll combine three different supersets to hit every major muscle group, but in a fraction of the time. Do all the sets in each superset before moving to the next exercise pairing. Once you’ve completed all three groups, your workout is done.

Superset 1