The Fight Against Ultra-Processed Foods

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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Monday motivation

• Can protein offset ultra-processed foods?

• The weight loss swap that works

• Workout of the week

Arnold’s Corner
Monday Motivation

It’s FUBAR release week! On Thursday, June 12, FUBAR Season 2 will be on Netflix worldwide.

The timing is perfect — Father’s Day weekend — because let me tell you, this show has BDE (Big Dad Energy). 

I’ve already watched the second season twice, and I can tell you that it is bigger and more fun than season 1. We’ve also added an action icon, Carrie-Anne Moss, to the cast, and she’s the perfect adversary.

My whole team is back, and if you remember how season 1 ended, we all start this season living in a safe house together under one roof, which just leads to a lot of laughs. That’s the thing about this season—it’s just more action and more laughs, and I loved how much we raised the bar every single day of filming.

Today, I want to take you behind the scenes. Because filming a TV show is not easy, and it requires using a lot of the rules I talk to all of you about every week.

It starts with vision. When we started filming, Nick Santora and the rest of the writers’ vision was perfectly clear to everyone. That was important because filming eight episodes is a lot of work.

You have to leave your family (and my animals) for four and a half months to live in Toronto. You work 12 hours every day. Sometimes, you work all night. You do physically-demanding stunts and have to learn lots of dialogue.

Without a vision, it would be brutal. With a vision, and seeing the final product in your mind the way it will be on your TVs this week, you find the energy and the power to get it done.

Because the next thing it requires is a lot of reps. An endless amount of reps.

The reps start for me long before filming. I sit down with the 8 scripts and do rep after rep of my dialogue. I work with a friend and we read together over and over. As I learn my lines, I make the reps harder by wandering around and doing things like feeding and playing with my animals as I try to remember my lines.

The reps continued the day I arrived on location. Carrie-Anne and I have a big dance scene, and the first thing we did was meet with our dance instructor, Hollywood, to start learning our moves.

I know you’ve seen me do the tango in True Lies and ballet in Pumping Iron, so let me be honest: dancing does not come naturally to me.

It takes a lot of work. After 12-hour days of filming, Carrie-Anne and I would meet to continue practicing. When she left town for a break, I would meet with Hollywood and dance with him.

When I wasn’t dancing, I was meeting with our incredible stunt team to work on fights and shootouts.

I think it’s easy to see what’s on your screen and imagine the director just yells action, and we do it all without much effort, but that’s not true.

It takes an endless amount of reps before you even get to the filming.

Finally, every time I film something like this, I’m reminded that there is no such thing as a self-made man.

Behind every show like FUBAR is an army. There would be no show without Netflix and Skydance. Nick and the writers provide the scripts and refine them. The hair and make up and wardrobe teams ensure we all look our best. The stunt teams keep us safe and make the show badass. The catering and craft teams keep us fed.

There are hundreds of people you never see on the screen who light it, film it, and do all of the work.

Without all of them, there is no FUBAR. So as we head into promotion this week and all of you see it for the first time, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to all of the cast and crew that made it possible.

I also want to say thank you to all of you. There would be no season 2 of FUBAR without the fans. We are here because you made season one a huge success.

So, I hope that as you turn it on this weekend and watch every single action-packed episode, you will know how grateful I am to you and how much work went into the finished product on your screens.

Thank you.

Nutrition
Can Protein Save You From Ultra-Processed Food?

Protein can help you feel fuller and eat less. But when it comes to ultra-processed foods, even the protein has limits.

A high-protein diet reduces calorie intake and increases energy burn, but people still overeat when consuming ultra-processed foods.

In a tightly controlled study, researchers wanted to see if dialing up the protein in ultra-processed foods could reduce the tendency to overeat. They brought 21 healthy adults into a metabolic chamber and fed them two different ultra-processed food diets —one high-protein and lower-carb (30% protein, 3.3 g/kg/day) and one normal-protein, higher-carb (13% protein, 1.5 g/kg/day). All meals were matched for fat, fiber, calories, and taste, and participants could eat as much as they wanted.

On the plus side, the high-protein group ate 196 fewer calories per day and burned 128 more calories per day.

The hormonal signals that influence hunger shifted as well, with ghrelin (hunger) decreasing while glucagon and peptide YY (fullness) increased with higher protein.

But even with all those positive shifts, participants still overate on both diets—just a bit less on the high-protein version. That’s because the food itself, not just the nutrients, drives behavior.

Ultra-processed foods are designed to be devoured. They’re softer, easier to chew, and eaten faster. They’re also carefully engineered with the right combo of fat, sugar, and salt to hit your brain’s reward system like a slot machine. The result? Even with more protein and less hunger, your body still wants more.

Together With Momentous 
The Weight Loss Swap That Works

Just because protein doesn’t overwhelm the effects of too much ultra-processed food doesn’t mean you can’t use it as a swap that jumpstarts weight loss in a big way. 

Research suggests that protein shakes can be more effective than traditional diets at supporting weight loss, but the devil is in the details. 

In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 randomized controlled trials, researchers wanted to see if replacing meals with shakes actually works and supports long-term weight loss. 

Across all studies, participants using a meal replacement combined with a lower-calorie diet lost significantly more weight than those who cut calories without the help of the shake.

The most extreme results occur when participants consume approximately 60 percent or more of their daily calories from meal replacements. To be clear, having that many shakes is not something we recommend, but it illustrates why a protein shake can be an effective addition to a diet. 

Protein shakes and meal replacements simplify decision-making and remove guesswork, which leads to better adherence. Fewer choices reduce decision fatigue, and meal replacements help manage hunger while keeping nutrient intake consistent. In other words, structure makes success easier.

The duration matters, too: results were best when people committed to at least 3 to 6 months, which gave enough time to see progress.

If you struggle with planning or sticking to a diet, take one meal—ideally the meal you struggle with the most—and swap it out for a protein shake. 

Make it a habit rather than a one-time shift. If you struggle with lunch at work, turn your lunch into a protein shake and an apple. Remember: consistency beats perfection, so find an approach you can stick to.

And be mindful of what protein shakes you use because many add unnecessary calories that can undermine your results. 

That’s why we recommend Momentous Protein. The whey protein is just 90 calories per serving, and the plant protein is only 130 calories. Both are packed with more than 20 grams of protein per serving. And research suggests these protein-packed shakes can help keep you feeling fuller for longer, despite not loading up on calories. 

After testing dozens of protein powders, Momentous is our choice because of its investment in quality, purity, and safety. Every batch is tested to ensure no dangerous levels of metals or toxins and that every label is accurate—a rarity in the world of supplements. 

As an APC reader, get 35 percent off your subscription or 14 percent off any one-time purchase. Either way, you’ll pay about $2 per meal — or less — which is hard to beat. Use the code PUMPCLUB at checkout to swap your most difficult meal for one that serves your body and health goals. 

Fitness
Workout Of The Week: Total Rep Dominance

This week’s workout flips the script: instead of aiming for fixed sets and reps, you’re chasing a total rep goal. That means you control the pace, manage fatigue, and fight to beat your best. 

Total rep targets allow for auto-regulation, which means you adapt to your current strength, fatigue, and performance level while keeping effort high.

Every rep counts—and every week, the goal is to do just one more. That’s how progress is made.

How To Do It
You’ll perform four exercises, each with a total rep goal. Choose a weight that allows you to complete 6–10 reps in your first set. Then, perform as many sets as needed to hit the total number, resting 1 to 2 minutes between sets. Don’t move to a different exercise until you hit the recommended total reps.

Exercise 1: Dumbbell Goblet Squat: 50 total reps
Exercise 2: Dumbbell Bench Press: 40 total reps
Exercise 3: Dumbbell 1-Arm Row: 40 total reps per arm
Exercise 4: Dumbbell Lunges: 40 total reps per leg

Give it a try and start your week strong!

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell