Should Geeks Take Vitamins and Other Supplements?

One of the main things that struck me when reading Fitness for Geeks was the importance that Bruce Perry gives to all kinds of nutrients, such as vitamins. Why is that?

[color-box]In 2014 I read, viewed and listened to a lot of stuff. To keep a record of what I learned, I’m going to organize these reviews around an important question asked and/or answered in the book. This is the first one about Fitness for Geeks[/color-box]

Five out of the book’s eleven chapters deal with food. It’s that important according to the author. We all should monitor our food intake much more closely.

I’ve tried to log all my food intake using many of the tools provided. I must admit, it was just too much work for me to go into that detail. I’ll give food logging a few more tries in the future, but I doubt I can be motivated to do this properly.

There were however a number of points that did stuck:

  • Try to add vitamins and other nutrients to your diet. Although multivitamins are not ideal, I think it’s manageable even if you are busy.
  • I started wearing a FitBit and was surprised how sedentary my life is, except for a few bits of sports here and there. Trying to get to 10k steps a day is much, much harder than you expect. I’m now at about 8500 steps a day. Up from about 5000 when I started wearing it. What gets measured really does improve.
  • You absolutely have to take care of your sleep.

In general, the book was enlightening. It does get very technical at some times, so keep that in mind. Also the last chapter felt a bit tacked on and was a mix of a lot of stuff, without much flow.

Overall, this book is recommended. But only if you plant to actually do something with the lessons in it.