How To Supercharge Your Immune System

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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Number you won’t forget

• How to avoid getting sick

• Weekly wisdom

• What we’re reading

Nutrition
Number You Won’t Forget: 100

The next time you or a friend struggles with weight loss, don’t forget changing your body requires you to overcome resistance from your mind. 

Research suggests that for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) you lose, your brain triggers hormonal changes that tell you to eat up to an additional 100 calories. 

This does not mean you can’t lose weight. But it does mean that if you can understand how hunger works, you can outsmart the changes that typically causes weight regain.

Your brain has a survival mechanism designed to help fight against weight loss. So, when you burn more calories, your body tells you to eat more calories. And the more calories you cut (and the more weight you lose), the more your body cranks up the feeling that you need to eat more. 

If you want to offset this mechanism and lose weight without regaining it, focus on behaviors that help reduce your hunger. Scientifically proven ways to crush your cravings include:

• Getting enough sleep (hunger increases when you get below 6 hours)

• Eating more fiber

• Eating more protein 

• Staying hydrated

• Too much stress

• Eating fewer hyper-palatable foods (options that have added fat, salt, and sugar, or are very soft and easy to chew)

Practicing habits that reduce hunger can help you overcome the desire to eat more when you drop body fat. 

Together With Eight Sleep 
Want to Avoid Getting Sick? This Might Be Your Best Defense

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could avoid the sniffles this season?

Research suggests better sleep can significantly reduce your risk of catching the common cold — even when exposed to illness.

We know that sleep is essential for the immune system, but the researchers aimed to quantify how much sleep influences your body’s ability to defend against the most common types of illness. And they did it by purposely making the participants sick. 

The study included nearly 200 participants who reported their usual sleep patterns before the study began. They were then exposed to the rhinovirus (the virus that causes the common cold) through nasal drops. Over the next five days, researchers monitored whether participants developed cold symptoms and tracked how long they slept during this period.

The research suggests if you sleep less than six hours a night, your chances of catching a cold are over four times higher. Those who got 5 hours or less of sleep per night had the highest risk, with an almost 5.5 times greater likelihood of developing a cold than those who slept at least 7 hours. This suggests that sleep deprivation weakens the immune system, making it much easier for viruses to take hold.

Beyond just sleep duration, the study found that sleep quality also played a role in strengthening your immunity. Participants who reported poor sleep efficiency (how well they slept without interruptions) were more likely to develop cold symptoms, even if they clocked in the same number of hours as others with better sleep quality.

While it's easy to overlook sleep in our busy lives, these findings highlight how important it is to prioritize sleep, especially when trying to stay healthy. Getting enough quality sleep isn’t just about feeling rested—it’s about giving your immune system the time it needs to recharge and defend your body from common illnesses.

If you want to improve rest, it’s worth looking at your mattress if. Research shows that changing your sleep environment can improve the quality of your rest. 

If you’re going to invest in a mattress, we tested six different options, and the Eight Sleep earned our respect as the best option for all types of sleepers (including overtired parents).

The Eight Sleep pod is clinically proven to give you up to one more hour of quality sleep per night. In the study, those using the sleep pod fell asleep faster, slept longer, had fewer sleep disturbances, and had more energy the next day. Specifically, they increased their deep and REM sleep, improved cardiovascular recovery, and reported feeling calmer and more comfortable. 

As members of the positive corner of the internet, we love getting you deals on the best productions. Use the code “PUMPCLUB” to save up to $350 OFF the new Pod 4 by Eight Sleep, including a risk-free 30-day trial. Eight Sleep currently ships within the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and select countries in the EU.

We are paying customers, and, to us, it’s one of the best health investments you can make. 

Weekly Wisdom

What We’re Reading
Do You Really Need Protein?

You might not think you need to prioritize protein because gaining muscle isn’t a priority, but that would mean you’re overlooking all of the benefits of protein. 

Research suggests that you must prioritize protein if you lift weights, run, play sports, care about longevity, want better skin quality, focus on hydration, or are just trying to maintain general health. 

To illustrate its importance, award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson explored protein from all angles and discovered that it isn’t just for bodybuilders. Here’s a snippet of his article on the topic: 

We usually think about protein in the context of repair—and for good reason. On any given day, you’re breaking down 1 to 2 percent of the muscle in your body and rebuilding it. Hard training increases that number. Overall (as muscle physiologist Luc van Loon notes), that means you’re completely rebuilding your body every two to three months. The protein you eat provides the amino acids that serve as the building blocks for repairing existing muscle and adding new muscle.

But protein can also play a role in refueling and rehydrating. Moore points to research showing that downing a recovery drink containing carbohydrate and protein rather than just carbohydrate after a hard workout helps your muscles restock their glycogen—the form in which your muscles store carbohydrate—more rapidly. Similarly, there’s research showing that protein can increase fluid retention when you’re dehydrated, which is one of the reasons that milk is sometimes tipped as a good recovery beverage. There’s even research suggesting that protein helps you acclimatize to heat training more effectively.

The entire post is worth reading, but the advice we’ve been sharing here for months — all based on the latest research — remains the same. 

The ideal amount of protein appears to be anywhere from 1.6 grams per kilogram to 2.2 grams per kilogram of goal body weight (or .6 grams to 1 gram of protein per pound of goal body weight).

The lower ends are best for less active people, whereas the higher ends are needed for those more active or anyone wanting to maximize muscle growth. Beyond the 2.2 grams per kilogram of goal bodyweight, there doesn’t appear to be more muscle-building benefits.

And that’s it for this week. Thank you for being a part of the positive corner of the internet, and we hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

-Arnold, Adam, and Daniel

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell