Welcome to your modern fitness daily news report! Every weekday, we break down the trending fitness news, tips, and insider scoops to keep you informed. Each read will be under 3 minutes so that you can stay shredded and thumb through no-nonsense fit-quips. Thanks for reading!
TODAY’S LEVEL UP:
Coach's Corner: Cholesterol After 40: The Bloodwork Numbers Worth Actually Understanding
Supplement Spotlight: Vitamin B12 — Energy Metabolism's Quiet Requirement
Question From Our Readers: "My total cholesterol is high but I'm in good shape. Should I worry?"
Did You Know?: Most cholesterol in your blood isn't from the cholesterol you eat
Fit Trivia: Which action star performs his own stunts and has broken his nose, ankle, and skull on set?
Cholesterol After 40 — The Bloodwork Numbers Worth Actually Understanding
You get a lab printout once a year, glance at whether anything is flagged red, and file it. Meanwhile, the numbers on that page are among the better predictors of how the second half of your life goes. Worth ten minutes of understanding.
The panel, translated:
LDL cholesterol: The one that drives plaque buildup in arteries. Lower is generally better; most guidelines want it under 100 mg/dL for average-risk adults, lower if you have other risk factors.
HDL cholesterol: Often called "good" cholesterol. Higher tends to be favorable — roughly 40 mg/dL or above for men — though raising it artificially hasn't proven protective on its own.
Triglycerides: Circulating fat, strongly tied to diet, alcohol, and body fat. Under 150 mg/dL is the usual target, and this is the number that responds fastest to lifestyle change.
ApoB: The one most men have never heard of and increasingly the one cardiologists care about most. It counts the actual number of plaque-causing particles in your blood rather than the cholesterol inside them. Two men can have identical LDL with very different ApoB — and the one with more particles carries more risk. Worth asking your doctor to add it.
What moves these numbers:
Triglycerides respond fastest: Cutting added sugar, refined carbs, and alcohol can drop them substantially within weeks.
Fiber lowers LDL: Soluble fiber — oats, beans, lentils, apples, psyllium — binds cholesterol in the gut. 5–10 grams a day of soluble fiber has a measurable effect.
Swap saturated for unsaturated fat: Replacing butter and fatty processed meat with olive oil, nuts, avocado, and fish reliably lowers LDL.
Exercise and body composition: Regular aerobic work raises HDL and lowers triglycerides; losing excess fat helps every number on the panel.
One honest caveat: genetics set a big part of your baseline. Some very fit, very disciplined men still need medication, and that isn't a personal failure — it's biology. Get the panel, ask about ApoB, and treat the results as information rather than a verdict.
Supplement Spotlight: Vitamin B12 — Energy Metabolism's Quiet Requirement
B12 is essential for red blood cell formation, nerve function, and DNA synthesis. It's also one of the few nutrients where absorption genuinely declines with age — which makes it more relevant after 40 than it was at 25.
Here's what it does: B12 is required for your body to convert food into usable energy and to maintain healthy nerve tissue. A true deficiency can cause fatigue, weakness, and nerve symptoms like tingling in the hands and feet. Worth being clear about the limits, though: if your B12 is already adequate, taking more will not give you an energy boost, despite how it's marketed.
Why age matters: Absorbing B12 from food requires stomach acid and a protein called intrinsic factor, and both can decline with age or with long-term use of acid-reducing medications like PPIs and metformin. That's why older adults are more likely to run low even on a diet that looks adequate on paper.
How to take it: Adults need about 2.4 micrograms per day. It's found almost exclusively in animal foods — meat, fish, eggs, dairy — so men eating mostly plant-based diets should supplement. B12 has no established upper limit and excess is excreted, but that's a reason not to worry about it, not a reason to megadose.
We recommend asking for a B12 level with your next blood panel rather than guessing, especially if you're on long-term acid reducers or metformin.
FROM RYAN’S DESK
Strength isn't built during the crisis. It's built beforehand. Train your body, sharpen your habits, and prepare yourself while life is going well. Preparation gives you something to rely on when things get difficult. Be the guy who prepares before he's forced to. That's where resilience is built.
Question from Our Readers: "My total cholesterol is high, but I'm in good shape. Should I worry?"
Total cholesterol is the least useful number on the panel, so don't conclude it alone. It's simply LDL plus HDL plus a fraction of your triglycerides — which means a man with high HDL and low triglycerides can post an elevated total while carrying a genuinely favorable profile. Fit, active men land here fairly often, because training tends to raise HDL.
So look underneath it. What are your LDL and triglycerides doing separately? Ask your doctor about ApoB, which measures particle count and gives a clearer read on risk than total cholesterol ever will.
Being in good shape is real protection, but it isn't full immunity — familial hypercholesterolemia and other genetic patterns show up in lean, athletic men too. Get the full breakdown rather than reassurance from one summary figure.
Did You Know?: Most Cholesterol In Your Blood Isn't From The Cholesterol You Eat
For decades, dietary advice treated the cholesterol in food — eggs, shrimp, organ meats — as the main driver of blood cholesterol. It turns out that's a modest factor for most people. Your liver produces the large majority of the cholesterol in your bloodstream, and when you eat more of it, your liver generally makes less to compensate.
That's why the 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines dropped the long-standing 300 mg daily cap on dietary cholesterol. Saturated fat intake, excess calories, refined carbohydrates, and genetics turn out to influence your blood numbers considerably more than the cholesterol on your plate. A minority of people are "hyper-responders" whose levels do track dietary intake closely — but for most men, the egg was never the villain.
Our Picks: Supps We Actually Use
Some of our coach’s favorite supplements:
Creatine (Travel Packs) - $36
Add this to your water in the morning or in your post-workout shake. Creatine is one of the few supplements that has a mountain of data proving its benefits. Don’t miss out on it!
A great way to hit your protein goals. Don’t rely on a protein powder alone, but add it as a post-workout shake or midday shake to increase your protein intake and hit your protein goals. Remember, high protein equals higher muscle and higher satiety.
Replenishes essential electrolytes. Use this if you sweat a lot, do intermittent fasting, or go on long-distance walks, hikes, or runs.
We are a proud partner of Thorne Supplements! We are affiliated and use these products. We may receive commission from your purchase.
Fit Trivia: Which Hong Kong-born martial artist and actor — known for blending acrobatic comedy with genuine kung fu, and for performing nearly all his own stunts across films like Police Story and Rumble in the Bronx — has broken his nose, both cheekbones, an ankle, several fingers, and cracked his skull on set?
Answer: Jackie Chan! His films famously run outtakes of the failed and injurious takes over the end credits — an honest reminder that the athleticism on screen was earned through an enormous number of missed landings.
Ryan Engel, Intl. Fat Loss Coach
Ryan is a leading fitness coach and one of the most known professionals in the space.
He specializes in Body Recomposition and visual body aesthetics and has reached millions worldwide with his powerful messaging. He brings a unique, non-nonsense, yet sophisticated approach to body change.
Publisher: Ryan Engel
Editor: Michael Pender
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