| Hey there, Can eating according to your DNA help you lose fat faster? What type of weightlifting cues work the best? Can you boost your physical performance with boring ol’ baking soda? The answers in this email, according to science! More evidence that “DNA diets” work no better than regular diets for weight loss. The idea behind DNA-based diets is you mail some slobber to a company that sifts your spit and looks for genetic markers that determine your exact dietary needs for optimal fat loss, muscle building, and health. Another example of better living through science . . . or better marketing than substance? That’s what scientists at Stanford University Medical School wanted to explore when they had 609 young and middle-aged obese men and women restrict their calories and follow either a high-carb, low-fat diet or a low-carb, high-fat diet for a year. They also measured the participants’ insulin sensitivity and various genetic markers thought to make people more efficient at metabolizing either fat or carbs (you’ll sometimes hear people say they’re “good” or “bad” at burning carbs or fat as if this were an immutable genetic trait). The result? People’s genetic makeup, insulin sensitivity, and macronutrient intake had zero impact on their weight loss. The only difference between the groups was that the low-carb group experienced a larger rise in LDL (“bad”) and HDL (“good”) cholesterol than the high-carb group, and a larger decrease in triglycerides, which is a sign of better cardiovascular health, but the changes were too small to matter. This study punches yet another hole in the theory that people who are less sensitive to insulin are more successful with a low-carb diet, and it casts more doubt on the idea that you can profitably fine-tune your diet based on your DNA. TL;DR: Following a diet based on various genes related to your metabolism won’t help you lose fat faster. Weightlifting cues can make you stronger, but only if you phrase them correctly. A weightlifting cue is a mental mantra you recite during exercise that draws your attention to a particular aspect of your form. For example, “squeeze the bar” is a common weightlifting cue for improving your bench press, as it encourages you to maintain upper body tightness and aggressively drive the bar upward. You can divide weightlifting cues into two categories: internal cues and external cues. Internal cues direct your attention toward what you’re doing with your body (e.g. “hips up” in the squat), and external cues direct your attention toward how your movements impact an object in your environment (e.g. “push the floor away” in the deadlift). Researchers—spearheaded by Dr. Gabriele Wulf—have proven many times over that external cues are superior to internal ones for improving performance in many types of activities. For example, external cues improve endurance, balance, agility, coordination, speed, movement efficiency, and throwing, kicking, and golf shot accuracy. Most of these studies have focused on skill-based sports, however, and while one study showed that internal cues are about as good as external ones for improving leg extension performance (yawn), no researchers have carefully examined how different kinds of cues impact weightlifting performance . . . until now. In a study conducted by scientists from Australia and Croatia, researchers combed through the results of seven studies and found that external cues boosted strength significantly more than internal cues on the whole, especially for the exercises we care about most like the squat, deadlift, and mid-thigh pull. Most importantly, when the researchers looked at long-term data, they found that weightlifters who used external cues tended to gain more strength over time (particularly lower-body strength) than those who didn’t. The conclusion is simple: If you want to improve your technique or form in the gym or on the field, external cues will be more productive than internal ones. For a catalog of my favorite weightlifting cues, check out this article: Complete List of Weightlifting Cues for Perfect Form & New PRs TL;DR: External weightlifting cues (“break the bar in half” in the bench press) will help you perform better than internal ones (“squeeze your pecs”). Baking soda boosts athletic performance, but don’t take too much. Scientists are still unraveling exactly what causes fatigue during exercise, but one of the things they’re fairly certain of is that it’s related to a buildup of acidic compounds inside your muscles. One potential way to improve athletic performance, then, would be to take something that can improve the body’s ability to accumulate less of these acids and clear them faster–something like baking soda, which is a base (it has a pH above 7, whereas acids have a pH below 7). Researchers have been investigating this idea for years, and according to a study conducted by a team of scientists from around the world that analyzed the results of 146 individual studies on baking soda and performance, it indeed has legs. Specifically, the researchers found that supplementing with ~0.1-to-0.2 grams of baking soda per pound of body weight (8-to-16 grams for a ~180 pound man) improves muscular endurance during high-intensity exercise lasting between 30 seconds and 12 minutes, including weightlifting. Moreover, baking soda may also work synergistically with creatine and beta-alanine. There’s evidence that taking the trio may enhance physical performance more than each can in isolation. So, “bicarb” sounds like a banger, right? Well, why isn’t it more popular, then? A few reasons: 1. It tastes foul and you have to consume a large amount. 2. It can cause bloating, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain if too much is taken at once. 3. It’s cheap and widely available, so there’s little incentive for supplement sellers to market it. That said, if you want to optimize your athletic performance, it’s worth giving baking soda a try. To avoid any unpleasant side effects, however, I recommend splitting your daily dose into two or three mini doses. Oh and if you want to combine it with creatine and beta-alanine, check out my post-workout supplement Recharge (which has creatine) and my pre-workout drink Pulse (which has beta-alanine). TL;DR: Taking 0.1-to-0.2 grams of baking soda per pound of body weight reliably improves athletic performance during exercise that lasts about 30 seconds to 12 minutes. So much for this Research Roundup! What’s your take on these studies? Any feedback you’d like to share? Hit reply and let me know! Mike | 
