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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Number you won’t forget: 20%

• The science of red light therapy

• Weekly wisdom

• Maybe you should have carbs at night

Nutrition
Number You Won’t Forget: 20%

If You’ve Ever Struggled To Lose Fat, This Explains A Lot Of The Friction And Frustration

Sometimes, the scale feels broken. You eat the right foods. Don’t have any cheat days. But the number on the scale doesn’t shift. 

Study after study suggests that people, on average, significantly underestimate how much they eat. 

One study found that people underestimate how much they eat by about 20%, and this holds even for healthy foods. That means if you’re trying to lose weight, the deficit you’re creating isn’t as much as you think.

But despite the bad calorie math, Monday to Friday, you’re still getting the job done. Then, Saturday and Sunday hit.

In one year-long study, dieters lost weight steadily on weekdays and stalled or gained every weekend, with no sense that they'd eaten more.

When you start looking at all the research around weekend eating and other weekend habits, such as eating at restaurants and drinking alcohol, it’s easy to see how two more relaxed days can easily overwhelm five days of healthier eating.

Scientists found that you eat about 200 calories more per day on the weekend than on weekdays, and that’s not counting the 20% overage. 

If you eat out at restaurants, then you’re likely to add another 200 calories over what you normally consume.

And if you’re drinking alcohol, you pay a double calorie tax: there are the calories from what you’re drinking, and scientists found that you want to eat more as well (although, if you’ve ever had booze, you don’t need a lab to confirm the associated hunger), and that costs you another extra 250 calories.

You don’t have to be great at math to see how it all adds up.

The fix isn’t necessarily cutting out all the foods you love on the weekend. You could do that, but the underlying issue is awareness. 

If you take a few days or a week to understand what you’re eating and how much your body needs, you can still include foods you like while making the necessary adjustments. 

That’s why the nutrition tracker in the Pump Club app has helped so many people. It doesn’t require you to count calories. Instead, it helps with visibility and accountability, and shows you how to make the changes you need, without cutting out everything you love.

Even if you don’t have the app, you can borrow the science of what makes it effective. For one week, track everything you eat. Pay close attention to the places you might overlook, such as beverages, cooking oils, and marinades. And make note of things like eating off your kid’s plate.

You will start to see trends of where you can make adjustments. If that’s too much, start by focusing on your weekends. That’s where things spiral, so making sure two days of no-plan eating don’t undo five days of healthy eating can be a simple focus that gets you closer to your goals.

No matter your approach, the research is clear that you don’t need seven perfectly controlled days. And you can enjoy more on the weekend. But it’s hard if you overestimate daily and then go off the rails on the weekend.

Create more consistency and awareness, and you can stop feeling blindsided by your lack of progress. 

Together With Celluma 
Why Your Skin, Joints, and Hair All Respond to the Same Light

A deeper line around your eyes. A knee that suddenly has opinions about stairs. A hairline beginning a slow retreat.

We treat them as separate signs of aging, which usually means buying three separate solutions. But skin, joints, and hair have something important in common: They all depend on cells having enough energy to repair, recover, and keep doing their jobs.

We discuss the foundations of health every week: movement and exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress reduction, and social connection. All conversations of aging start with those habits. 

But if you want to support those behaviors, there’s extra credit that can help.

Red and near-infrared light has been demonstrated in clinical trials to support the energy-producing systems in your cells, promoting healthier aging.

The downstream effects vary by tissue — more collagen in skin, less inflammation around a painful joint, or better support for a struggling hair follicle — but the cellular starting point is similar.

Take your skin, for example. A controlled trial found that people treated with red and near-infrared light developed greater collagen density and fewer fine lines than untreated controls. In a later trial involving women, researchers measured roughly a 30 percent reduction in wrinkle volume around the eyes.

Joints respond differently, but also positively. A 2019 review analyzed randomized trials in people with knee osteoarthritis and found that light therapy reduced pain and disability more than placebo. A separate analysis reached a similar conclusion for neck pain.

Light can reduce pain and stiffness, but it doesn’t rebuild damaged cartilage. So think relief, not regeneration.

And even hair growth shows up too. A 2019 meta-analysis of 11 double-blind trials found that light therapy significantly increased hair density compared with sham devices in both men and women. 

It works best when follicles are thinning but still active, and the improvement takes time because you’re supporting growth rather than resurrecting follicles that are already gone.

None of this makes red-light therapy magic. It’s closer to giving struggling cells a better working environment. Use it consistently, and the natural signs of aging can gradually move in the right direction sooner than you might expect.

The problem is that most devices do only one job. 

You buy a mask for your face, a wrap for your knee, and a cap for your scalp. Before long, you have a shelf of expensive gadgets, each designed for one small part of you.

But Celluma Light Therapy offers FDA-cleared devices backed by methods tested in clinical research. And their devices do a lot more than one thing.

Celluma’s technology supports skin health, wrinkles, pain management, hair growth, acne, and body contouring. They offer 15 devices, from a new LED mask that treats the face and scalp together, to versatile battery-powered panels, and full-body light therapy solutions.

Whether you’re targeting younger-looking skin, reducing pain or inflammation, or hair regrowth, Celluma’s multi-mode technology adjusts to your needs with no needles, no downtime, and no nonsense. 

It’s professional-grade technology, trusted by clinics worldwide, designed to adapt to different parts of your body, not another single-purpose marketplace gadget.

Right now, APC readers can save up to $1,000 on their first Celluma. Just sign up with your email and get the code.

Mindset
Weekly Wisdom

You sit down to try a new habit, maybe journaling. You want to write about something positive. And yet, the only thing that comes to mind is an embarrassing incident from years ago.

You try to bounce to another memory, and you do. But this time you’re thinking about an email you forgot to send. Fifteen minutes later, you take a break and start to tell yourself, “I’m terrible at this.” 

It’s easy to think that your inability to do exactly what you wanted is a problem. But the real issue is the internal judgments that force you to stop before you even started. 

Nearly two thousand years ago, Epictetus identified the distinction between what happens and the meaning you assign to what happens. Much of our suffering doesn’t come from the doing. It comes from the story we attach to it.

You can’t stop thoughts from appearing any more than you can stop your heart from beating. But you can learn how to notice a thought without automatically believing it, fighting it, or turning it into evidence that something is wrong with you.

This is a reason why so many people quit before they ever have the chance to succeed, whether it’s a workout or any form of self-improvement. The early stages of change are filled with friction and frustration.

But you expect calmness, clarity, and success. When your experience doesn’t match your expectation — and it often doesn’t — that’s when the stories in your head begin. 

Noticing where your mind goes, without judging those thoughts or turning them into distractions or diversions, can keep you on track and undisturbed. 

Every time you catch the thought and release the judgment, you practice the exact skill Epictetus described.

You’re learning that a thought can be uncomfortable without being dangerous. A memory can appear without needing to be relived. A bad moment can remain a bad moment instead of becoming proof that you’re a bad person, having a bad day, or living a bad life.

Turn Wisdom Into Action

The next time your mind wanders — during meditation, a workout, or even a shower — notice the two-step process.

First comes the thought. Then comes your opinion about having the thought.

Try dropping only the second part. Don’t correct the thought, chase it, or criticize yourself for it. Let it arrive, notice it, and allow it to leave.

Use It Or Lose It 
What Happens If I Eat Carbs At Night?

The old adage is that if you eat carbs at night, they are more likely to turn into fat.

However, that’s not the case.

The carbs you eat at night are not more likely to turn into fat (unless you are overeating), and those same carbs might also improve your rest.

Scientists found that people who eat carbs a few hours before bed fall asleep faster and get more REM sleep.

The results were strongest with higher-glycemic carbs — think white or jasmine rice, or potatoes — not the slow-digesting kind.

The scientists believe that carbs support sleep by helping tryptophan, a precursor of the sleep-friendly serotonin, reach your brain.

If you want to carb-up at night and sleep better as a result. Aim for 20 to 60 grams of carbs at dinner, at least 3 hours before bed. If you eat too close to sleep, then the digestive process can disrupt your rest.

To ensure the carbs support your rest rather than disrupt it, aim for a normal portion of carbs with dinner, about three to four hours before bed.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for being a part of the positive corner of the internet. And remember: don’t wait to make a change. Take action on any goal, don’t quit in the hard moments, and the results will come. Have a fantastic weekend!
-Arnold, Adam, and Daniel

The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards

We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.

1. The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).

2. Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to edit and review our interpretations of the research, ensuring scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.

3. Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted by “Together With”). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell