Why The Road To Better Health Often Runs Through Your Diet

Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. We’re here to make your life healthier, happier, and less stressful. At the bottom of each email, we explain our editorial process, stance on AI, and partnership standards.

If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.

Today’s Health Upgrade

Number You Won’t Forget: 12%

Eating 12% Fewer Calories Can Do A Lot More Than Support Weight Loss

Most diets are built around a large calorie cut, which helps explain why so many are difficult to sustain. A two-year study aimed for a 25% reduction. The participants didn’t come close.

They averaged about 12%. But even at half of the goal, that was still enough to produce the changes that mattered.

Eating at a calorie deficit of 12% led to significant weight loss that reduced their estimated diabetes risk and slowed the projected rise in 10- and 30-year risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study focused on healthy adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who were not obese. Researchers randomly assigned them to eat fewer calories or continue their usual diets. 

After two years, the calorie-restriction group saw major improvements in body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, which shifted their projected health risks.

To be fair, the study didn’t last long enough to count heart attacks or new cases of diabetes. It estimated how the changes seen during the trial could affect future risk. 

The study offers a better look at the real upside of healthy weight loss: A smaller calorie reduction, maintained for long enough, can add up in ways that reduce bigger health risks. 

The participants achieved less than half of the original target and still lost a substantial amount of weight while improving several markers tied to long-term health.

For anyone trying to lose weight, reducing usual intake by roughly 10% is a reasonable starting point. Keep protein and fiber high, eat plenty of produce, do resistance training, and adjust from there. The most useful part of this study wasn’t the size of the calorie cut. It was that people sustained it for two years.

Mindset
Weekly Wisdom

Everyone has heard that small actions add up to big results. You've probably nodded along, but questioned how well it holds up in real-life situations.

You’re familiar with stressful days when, late at night, you want something that’s maybe not the healthiest thing to eat, so you crunch the numbers. The math will say one candy bar isn’t a big deal (it’s not). So you rationalize it. The same goes for the one workout when you want to sleep in. Or the extra work you pass on. 

In isolation, these things can be rounding errors. 

One walk won't show up in the mirror. One skipped dessert won't move the scale. 

The flaw is in what the equation leaves out. It prices every choice by its immediate payoff, calories burned or calories saved, and assigns zero value to the thing each choice is building: the behavior itself.

Behavior compounds on a different schedule than calories in, calories out. 

When researchers followed adults building a new daily habit for 12 weeks, habit strength climbed along a curve that rose steepest at the start. 

The earliest repetitions, the ones that look most pointless on paper, produced the biggest jumps in how automatic the behavior became. Later reps added less. 

The walk you almost skipped tonight does more habit-building work than a walk six months from now will.

William James understood this back in 1890. He described a man who waves off every fresh slip with "I won't count this time!" James grants that the man can refuse to count it. Then he points out that the nervous system keeps its own tally, storing each choice whether the person acknowledges it or not.

James spent his career studying how habits get wired. The small choice gets recorded either way. You only decide what gets written.

Most of us keep score of the easy thing to track and overlook the important thing that tips behavioral change in your favor. 

We track pounds, inches, and personal records. Those can move slowly, which means the scoreboard can read zero and make quitting feel tempting.

The scoreboard that changes who you are is simpler: Did you show up for the version of today you could manage and that helps support the version you want to be tomorrow?

The people who eventually change in big ways rarely start big. They do the unremarkable actions on good days and bad. Ten minutes on the bike after a brutal shift. Water between drinks at a birthday dinner. 

None of it looked like progress at the time. What it built was evidence. 

Turn Wisdom Into Action

After a few weeks of receipts, "I'm someone who shows up" has exhibits attached, and your brain stops arguing with you. Belief follows. 

So the next time the math gives you an excuse, remember that logging the behavior you want doesn’t always show up on the scoreboard, but those choices help you win at achieving your goals.

You can even be like Arnold back when he first started lifting and making tally marks for doing the reps. 

Read those tallies for what they are: proof about who you are and what you can accomplish.

Reader Question
Yes, Fish Oil Has a Purpose

I read your item about DHA, and it made me wonder if I should stop investing in fish oil. It’s not cheap, so what’s the point?

Earlier this week, we shared that taking supplemental DHA increased levels in the brain, but it didn’t result in signs of improved memory. 

So many of you wrote in to ask: If DHA didn’t help memory, is fish oil worth taking?

And the answer is sometimes, and most definitely if you never eat fish. 

The study we shared tested high-dose DHA in older adults at risk for dementia. And to be clear, it’s just one study, in one population, and it didn’t test every possible form, memory, or potential brain benefit.

But even if supplemental fish oil doesn’t end up being a big benefit for your brain, that’s not the only reason your body needs it.

Fish oil reliably lowers triglycerides, helps reduce preterm birth, and may prevent heart attacks in higher-risk people. 

Triglycerides arguably have the strongest evidence. Across 86 trials involving more than 160,000 people, omega-3s lowered triglycerides by about 15 percent on average. Prescription doses of 4 grams per day can lower high triglycerides by 20 to 30 percent, sometimes more. 

Pregnancy is another strong use. A review of 70 trials involving nearly 20,000 women found omega-3s reduced preterm births by 11 percent and births before 34 weeks by 42 percent. During pregnancy, discuss it with an OB or midwife. Lower-mercury fish remains the best starting point.

The heart data is promising, although not quite as consistent. Across 13 trials and 127,000 people, omega-3s reduced heart attacks by about 8 percent. 

The largest benefits came from prescription doses in high-risk patients. Four grams of pure EPA lowered major cardiac events by 25 percent in statin users with high triglycerides. Another 4-gram trial using EPA plus DHA found no benefit. A 2025 dialysis trial reported 43 percent fewer serious cardiovascular events, but those patients started with unusually high risk.

On the other hand, the evidence for extending life, preserving memory in healthy or at-risk older adults, and improving muscle, cancer, and macular degeneration is too inconsistent. 

EPA-heavy formulas may offer a small benefit during depression treatment or help with anxiety, but that’s a medical conversation. 

For most people, eating fatty fish twice a week is enough. If you rarely eat fish, about 1 gram per day of combined EPA and DHA is good supplemental health insurance. 

Two important notes: First, if you’re taking blood thinners, check with your doctor.

And remember to read the back label and only use products with third-party testing, such as NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport.

In one study on fish oil, 32 supplements were analyzed, but only three contained the amount of EPA and DHA on the label. And two-thirds of the products had less than 67 percent of the claimed dose.

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.

—

Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell