Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha

remained elevated or are constantly spiked, your body eventually breaks down in every way possible. You age faster. You gain weight more easily. And you suffer from disease.
    So in order for you to remain happy and good-looking, it’s important that you keep your cortisol in check.

    You see, high cortisol creates interruptions in sleep patterns. In other words, it makes you sleep like crap and wake up feeling even worse. But it’s a vicious cycle because poor rest means your cortisol becomes elevated even more, which will ensure that your sleep will continue to get worse. What’s more, less sleep also robs you of your testosterone, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association . And we’re not talking a tiny drop; the researchers indicated that poor-quality sleep could cause up to a 15 percent decrease in testosterone—giving you one more reason to focus on your rest.
    What’s most amazing—and scary—is that the changes were almost instant. After just one week, the researchers noted the drop in testosterone and the men reported feeling more moody, having less vigor, and struggling with concentration. Even worse, the highest drops occurred during the afternoon hours and into the late evening (around ten P.M .)—meaning your testosterone will be lowest when you need it most to perform in bed.
    So while we’d love for you to get your eight hours of sleep, we’ll settle for improving the quality of your rest and leaving you with plenty of time for the more important things in life like watching football, reading books, and having sex.
    5. Insulin Spikes
    Have you ever had a bagel and then felt like you needed a nap? Of course. We’ve all been there. Doesn’t matter if it’s bagels or pizza. Some delicious carb meals knock you down quicker than a Tyson uppercut.
    A lot of nutrition “experts” will tell you that you should simply avoid bagels. But we’re not going to do that because we love bagels. And there’s no amount of science that will make bagels less delicious than they are. Our advice is the opposite—if you like carbs, we want you to be able to eat them. It’s when you don’t take the right approach that your intermittent treats can create an internal environment that is dangerous for your long-term health.
    Anyone who’s ever been on a low-carb diet can tell you that eating carbs crashes your insulin and makes you tired. Once in a while is not much of an issue, but the frequency with which you do this can be dangerous. If your insulin is spiking and crashing all over the place every single day, you’ve got a problem. You’re going to cause something called insulin resistance, which is the opposite of what we want—insulin sensitivity.
    With insulin resistance your insulin is chronically high, which means your body is primed for fat storage. You might not think this is your issue, but the standard American diet includes about 300 grams of carbs per day. And if you enjoy a bagel for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, pasta for dinner, and some crackers and fruit as snacks throughout the day, then you’re already near the danger zone. And that doesn’t even account for sweetened drinks (that includes juice), desserts, and the “healthy” muffins they offer at work.
    Even the USDA screws up its recommendations. It suggests about 200 to 300 grams of carbohydrates per day. While we’re all about the occasional carb binge, it’s not good to eat like this every day. And here’s why: the insulin spikes will become more pronounced, and it will take less food to achieve them. It’s sort of like being an alcoholic. But instead of needing more alcohol to feel drunk, you need fewer carbs to achieve the same insulin spike. This is why so many people fear carbs. When you eat too many carbs consistently, it makes each and every carbohydrate you eat worse for your body. And that’s exactly what we want to avoid.
    Insulin resistance isn’t just inconvenient; it’s downright dangerous. Obviously we’re worried about fat loss and muscle. But there’s also a direct relationship between insulin and failing health—including obesity and diabetes. Do you want to be fat, ugly, and diabetic? Of course not. No one does. We want you to be fit, lean, and awesome.
    And that starts with establishing a smarter baseline of carbohydrate consumption. We don’t want you all over the map. Not only is eating high carbs every day bad for you but so is cycling between high and