From Protein to Coffee to Sex, We've Found Your RDA of Everything
Staying fit is a numbers game – but with the news cycle constantly churning out fresh ones, it’s hard to know which of them count. We consulted a panel of pros to help you walk that fine line between excess and shortfall. Here’s all you need to know to look out for number one.
Caffeine
It’s the world’s most widely consumed drug, and it’s been designated both a wellness panacea and a health hazard. While overdoing the jump-start juice does have its risks, the European Society of Cardiology has linked two to three cups of coffee a day to a longer lifespan. ‘It’s generally accepted that anything over 1,000mg of caffeine (five to 10 cups of coffee, depending on strength) per day is too much,’ says Harpal Bains, longevity doctor and medical director at Harpal Clinic. But individual genetics can lower that limit. ‘Many people can easily tolerate between 200mg and 400mg of caffeine a day, but there’s no one-size-fits-all optimal dose.’ Symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, headaches, nausea and palpitations are all signs you might be overdoing it.
It doesn’t matter if your caffeine is synthetic or natural, but taurine, found in energy drinks, allows for a bigger ‘punch’ without the heart palpitations. ‘Over a long period of time that can dampen our natural defences against excessive caffeine intake,’ says Dr Bains.
Drinking habits: To avoid disruption to your circadian rhythm, the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews advises getting your last caffeine hit eight hours and 48 minutes before you go to bed.
200mg to 300mg: This much caffeine, taken 30 to 45 minutes before you train, could help you smash your goals.
Screen time
We spend an average of nearly seven hours glued to our screens every day. If your job is laptop-based, there might not be much you can do about that. Currently, there’s not enough research to establish clear guidelines. ‘But the more time you spend on screens, the less time you spend moving your body, sleeping or connecting with friends,’ says Hector Hughes, co-founder of Unplugged, which specialises in digital detox escapes in nature.
‘Most experts recommend keeping screen time below two hours a day outside of work,’ he says. ‘But phone use, especially at night and in the morning, also has a big impact on sleep and mood.’ If nothing else, Hughes advises avoiding your phone at these times.
Escape room: Taking a break from your screen every 30 to 60 minutes lets your brain make new connections, consolidate information and helps to improve your focus and creativity.
9pm: If WhatsApp-free evenings don’t work for you, ditching your phone even one hour before bed has benefits.
Protein
Good for more than just muscle growth, protein plays a vital role in almost all of your body’s processes. ‘If weight loss is your goal, studies have shown that eating more than the recommended minimum of 55g a day for men can improve body composition, even when total calories aren’t being tracked,’ says Andrew Tracey, a personal trainer, nutritionist and Men’s Health fitness director.
Protein is both ‘metabolically expensive’ – meaning it burns more calories in digestion than fats and carbs do – and highly satiating. ‘About 1.6g per kg of body weight is a good target,’ suggests Tracey, ‘but if you think that you’ve got a lot of weight to lose, aim for about 80% to 90% of your height in centimetres, in grams of protein daily.’
But is there such a thing as too many chicken breasts and whey shakes? Calories aside, regularly eating more than 2g per kg of your body weight per day has been linked to digestive discomfort, dehydration, headaches and even liver and kidney harms. There’s also no real muscle-building benefit to it.
Chew it over: Focus on scoring your protein target from a broad variety of natural sources, from chicken and fish to pulses, tofu and eggs.
10g to 15g: If you’re serious about upping your intake, shoot for this much protein per 200 calories.
Sleep
Nothing rocks your foundations harder than poor sleep. Getting less than the recommended seven to nine hours can wreck recovery, hamper mental health and damage immunity. ‘In the short term, you might feel irritated and anxious and have trouble focusing,’ says Dr Bains.
Bad sleep is also a fast ticket to weight gain, heart disease and diabetes. ‘Once you drop below seven hours, we can start to measure objective impairments in your brain and your body,’ warns Matthew Walker, director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley and author of Why We Sleep.
Regularly clocking more than 10 hours can also be harmful. ‘Hypersomnia (excessive daytime sleepiness) puts you at an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes,’ says Dr Bains. But the total time spent snoozing isn’t all that matters: one study* of 60,977 people found sleep regularity to be a more accurate predictor of life expectancy than total duration.
Snoozers lose: Focus on what you can control. Shoot for consistent sleep-wake timings to boost the quality of your night-time reset.
30 mins: For best results, aim to keep your sleep/wake times within the same half-hour window.
Work
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. We know that. It cuts productivity, too. But when does hustle get harmful?
‘Work is varied, so there’s no hard answer,’ says Jonathan Leary, founder and CEO of Remedy Place, a social wellness club based in the US. ‘Working seven days a week might not be as harmful in low-stress jobs. However, research shows that extremes of working long hours without breaks poses significant health risks.’ That includes mental health issues, such as depression and burnout.
Compared with a working week of 35 to 40 hours, research from the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that working 55 hours or more weekly is associated with a 35% higher risk of a stroke and 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease.
Less is more: Research has shown that output drops sharply after a 50-hour work week. Aim for 38-hour weeks to hit the work-life balance sweet spot.
50 hours: Ease off. Your productivity tanks after your work week hits this marker.
Vitamins
Vitamins and minerals that occur naturally in foods are often water-soluble, consumed in amounts that your body can easily manage. ‘If you take excess amounts, your body flushes them out when you urinate,’ says nutritionist Kimberly Snyder. It’s the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K your body stores that you need to consider. ‘Because your body does not naturally excrete them, they can build up to toxic levels,’ she says.
Still, a case of vitamin toxicity – also known as hypervitaminosis – is rare. You’d have to take very large doses to be at risk. Don’t take more than 1,000mg of vitamin C, 100mcg of vitamin D, 35mg of niacin (also known as vitamin B3), 1,000mg of vitamin E and 1.5mg of vitamin A.
Keep it real: Research shows that naturally occurring vitamins and minerals in food are more readily absorbed by your body.
6 months: Make sure you’re supplementing with vitamin D from October through to March if you live in the UK.
Training
For basic health maintenance, the bar is relatively low. In fact, the NHS advises a weekly minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week (hiking, cycling, mowing the lawn), or 75 minutes of vigorous cardio (running or playing a sport, such as football or rugby), plus two strength-building activities (lifting weights, yoga, strenuous gardening work).
But even if building muscle mass is your goal, you don’t need to beast yourself six days a week to see the benefits. ‘If you’re full-body training, you can still expect to see gains from as little as two big weights sessions per week; alternatively four to five shorter sessions of around 20 to 30 minutes can still be effective, if you train with focus and intensity and aim to progress your reps, sets and weights each week,’ says Tracey.
As for how much is too much? Well, most people are more likely to be undertraining than overdoing it. But signs of overtraining include poor sleep, impaired recovery or persistent soreness, fatigue and reduced immune function.
‘Go much over 20 sets per body part, per week, and you’ll start to see diminishing returns,’ Tracey adds.
Heavy duty: If strength gains are what you’re after, effort trumps duration. ‘Focus on hitting each set hard and progressively overloading with more reps and bigger weights as consistently as possible,’ says Tracey.
75 minutes: Hit your target for high-intensity cardio with three 25-minute runs a week.
Ice baths
Cold plunges initially stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, triggering adrenaline and feel-good hormones serotonin and dopamine. It can help reduce stress, fight depression and may also boost immune function.
‘The lower the temperature, the less plunge time is necessary,’ says Lana Power, a neuroscientist and expert for Sauna & Plunge, a spa and health club in London. ‘Studies show effectiveness of up to one hour at 14°C.’
But going colder than this isn’t necessarily better. ‘While some people can go lower, the benefits start to taper off beyond 4°C,’ Dr Bains says. Go too cold – or stay for too long – and you could face severe consequences, including hypothermia, heart stress and nerve damage.
Power-up plunge: Research suggests that ‘pre-cooling’ for two to three minutes at 10°C can help to boost workout performance and increase focus and energy.
20 seconds: Even a short plunge in 2°C water has been shown to have brain benefits.
Alcohol
It’s not just your liver you have to worry about. Putting away more than five alcoholic drinks a day – or 15 a week – can raise a man’s risk of colorectal, breast, oesophageal, liver, stomach, mouth and throat cancers by up to 500%. Not to mention the hangxiety.
If you’re serious about minimising your risk, NHS guidelines advise men to stick to 14 units a week, spread over three or more days. That’s a little over six pints of 4% beer. ‘If you go from 14 to 28 units a week, your risk goes up significantly,’ says David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist and the author of Drink? The New Science Of Alcohol And Health. ‘But it’s still not outlandish.’ Above that, things get stickier. Men who drink more than 50 units a week (20 to 25 pints) are considered to be at high risk of alcohol-related harm. ‘The more you drink, the bigger the benefits you’ll see from cutting down,’ says Professor Nutt.
Down in one: Try to limit drinking to social occasions rather than keeping a bottle in the fridge, and aim to take at least two consecutive days off each week.
6: The number of pints of 4% beer that translates to your weekly units.
Nicotine
Swapping ciggies for a vape can be a positive step. According to Public Health England, vaping is 95% less harmful than smoking. Despite the nicotine hit, it reduces your exposure to toxins that can cause cancer, lung disease and heart disease. Plus, you’d have to vape hard to hit a (30mg to 60mg) lethal nicotine dose.
‘Some studies show that nicotine use might improve cognitive function and movement,’ says Erikas Simonavičius, a research associate at the nicotine research group, King’s College London. One small study published in Sports Medicine – Open found that chewing a low-dose (2mg) nicotine gum 20 minutes before exercise improved leg extensor torque – also known as muscle strength.
Big quitter: Using vapes alone has had higher success rates when it comes to quitting smoking than other methods – 64.9% compared with 58.6%.
10 years: Your risk of death from lung cancer falls to half that of a smoker in the decade after you quit.
Masturbation
There’s nothing wrong with a little self-love. And it seems that there might even be certain advantages: research from Harvard University suggests that men who ejaculate 21 or more times a month may benefit from a 31% lower risk of prostate cancer compared with those who do so four to seven times.
‘There’s no normal frequency for masturbation, nor is there a frequency above which I would start worrying about specific medical risks,’ says Peter Stahl, senior vice president of men’s sexual health and urology at US telehealth service Hims & Hers. ‘That said, we know that masturbation – like porn and sex – can become addictive,’ he adds. ‘If it starts to have a negative impact on your wellbeing or relationships, you might be doing it too much.’
The feeling’s mutual: ‘If you have a partner, some reports show that masturbating together can encourage increased intimacy in relationships,’ says Dr Stahl.
45%: The proportion of men in a Men’s Health survey who report having sex at least once a week; 16% never have sex.
Fasting
Whether you choose the 5:2 diet or restrict eating to eight hours a day, research suggests that intermittent fasting is relatively safe.
‘All the things we associate with poor metabolic health and disease risk – cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, diabetes and low energy – are essentially a manifestation of fuel mismanagement,’ says Adam Collins, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Surrey. Fasting can help us better store, liberate and use fuel in the right way.
Is there an optimal fasting time? A ‘fasted’ state typically starts 10 to 12 hours after your last meal. This is when ‘you’re forcing your body to be a better resource manager – to use its reservoirs of energy’, says Dr Collins.
Some experts suggest you can safely fastfor up to 20 hours; others recommend 12- or 13-hour daily fasts due to a lack of long-term studies. All advise consulting a doctor first.
Be steadfast: ‘Whichever protocol you choose, make sure you do it consistently,’ says Dr Collins.
10 to 12: The number of hours after your last meal when a ‘fasted state’ normally kicks in.
Calories
In the simplest terms? If you’re gaining weight, you’re in a calorie excess; if you’re dropping weight, you’re in a deficit. That said, establishing a baseline to aim for can be helpful.
‘Many calorie calculations use your body weight as a basis, but depending on how much weight you have to lose, this could skew your target too high,’ says Tracey. ‘Personally, I recommend using your height.’
To establish what your maintenance needs are, begin with 2,000 calories, then add 70 calories for every inch you stand above 5ft. So, a 5ft 11in man would require 2,770 calories. ‘From here, we can subtract 10% to 20% to get us into a deficit,’ says Tracey.
Crunching numbers: To look at it another way, the NHS recommends a steady weight-loss rate of 0.5kg to 1kg a week, which translates to a deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories per day.
2,500 calories: The NHS average recommended daily intake for an adult man.
Meditation
It’s free, you can do it (almost) anywhere and it’s been linked to a whole host of benefits, from reduced stress and better focus to increased patience and self-awareness, lower blood pressure and better sleep.
As for the minimum effective dose? ‘Studies have demonstrated that 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation has roughly the same effect as 20 minutes when it comes to reducing traits such as anxiety, while techniques that focus on the breath can have positive physiological effects in just a few minutes (lowered heart rate and blood pressure, increased concentration and heart rate variability),’ says Tracey. ‘So while a consistent daily practice of at least 20 minutes may have more beneficial effects in the long run, regular “micro-meditations” throughout the day can be incredibly useful,’ he adds.
The real ‘goal’ of meditation is to gain deeper insights into the inner workings of your mind. Lowering your reactivity and having a calmer default demeanour may require more time on the cushion, with some schools of thought recommending up to two hours per day. But that’s pretty hardcore.
Free thinker: Start with 10 minutes in the morning and again in the evening, if you can. Try to keep your mindfulness consistent off the cushion.
10 minutes: Studies show this amount of meditation a day can help with repetitive, anxious thoughts.
Sunlight
Humans need sunlight. And not just for looking good by the pool in budgie smugglers. The big golden orb supplies vitamin D, which in turn affects our levels of calcium and phosphorus, all vital for bone strength. It unlocks serotonin in the brain and boosts energy. But too much ultraviolet radiation can damage cell DNA.
‘Optimum sun exposure per day for lighter skin is 10 to 15 minutes and 25 to 40 minutes for darker skin,’ says Dr Bains. ‘Without sunscreen, avoid more than one hour of sun if over 50% of your body is exposed.’ But remember: even slathering on sun cream up to your eyeballs doesn’t make sunbathing safe. No SPF can provide 100% protection, and a tan is a sign of skin damage (sorry).
Rays your game: Try to get 10 to 20 minutes of morning sunlight to stabilise your circadian rhythm and improve your sleep cycle.
1 hour: SPF can’t do it all. If more than half your body is on show, limit your time in the sun.
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