Are You a Health Snowflake? Accounting for Individual Health and Fitness Differences

You are an individual and have different exercise and dietary needs to the next person…   but you’re not such a unique snowflake that the basics don’t apply.  So there’s the conclusion up front and now for the meat in the middle.

Like you, I enjoy reading articles and blogs about diet, exercise, behavioural psychology, and all things related.   Some are ugly, some are bad, but many contain useful insights.  They often challenge what I believe and what the mainstream recommends.   Such challenges make me REALLY think about things, and it should do the same for you.

On websites allowing comments, there will inevitably some very annoyed “how-dare-this-person-suggest-what-I’m-doing-and/or-telling-my-clients-is-less-than-optimal…. I’ve-seen-it-work-countless-times…” types of responses next to personal sentiments and anecdotes echoing the blog author’s points.  Most people will take a side even if they have to misinterpret or oversimplify the contents of the article to do so.

This is unfortunate from a self-improvement perspective and downright irresponsible of anyone in an influential position in the health and/or fitness field.  What the increasingly prevalent “it works for me/it hasn’t harmed me/it works for my friends and clients” crowd doesn’t consider is the great diversity of human psychology, physiology/pathology, anatomy, and movement.  What works for one person may be ineffective for the next person, or may even be harmful.   Indeed, it may be harming the individual in a way that doesn’t cause immediate or obvious symptoms.  I understand the enthusiasm when something works – or seems to “work” – for you or friends and clients. The positive feedback feels great, but with that apparent success comes a greater responsibility.

A lot of common and not so common medical conditions –  e.g. hypo-/hyperthyroidism, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cardiovascular disease – are essentially defects or consequences of defects in metabolism  (the biological processes meant to keep us alive and healthy).  If your body no longer works as it should, then how it responds to food, exercise, and your environment may also be altered.  Something that is ok or even good for one person with an optimally tuned metabolism may be harmful to others.  Something harmful to the well tuned metabolism is unlikely to do someone with (or on their way to) a metabolic disease any favours.  On the other hand, something that might only improve a generally healthy metabolism a little may well do wonders for a not so healthy one.

In addition to variations in metabolic health, we also vary in our anatomy (i.e., relative limb length), posture, movement quality, flexibility, coordination, and history of past injuries.  Some of us will never be suited to some activities or movements, and many will require some tweaks to posture and how we move before certain movements/activities become suitable for us.   Simply put, one size does not fit all.  Not even close.

On top of all this, we vary in our individual allergies, food intolerances, whether we are deficient/insufficient in any nutrients, not to mention our preferences.  Should we all avoid the current food baddies? Unless you can find sound evidence that gluten/dairy/soy/brussels sprouts are a serious problem for you, cutting these or other foods out is simply limiting the variety in your diet.   By all means, go for a nutrient-dense diet high in vegetables, fruits, nuts and minimally processed foods, but give yourself as much variety as you can.

All these things aren’t static. We aren’t, for the most part, born with dysfunctional metabolisms, food allergies or intolerances, or slouching office posture.   Over time our lifestyle catches up with us. Maybe it’s a classic unhealthy lifestyle of too much stress, a junk diet, and too much sitting time. Maybe it’s some strict diet and daily long distance runs which result in one or more nutrient deficiencies and battered knees or ankles. Maybe years of pumping iron have resulted in shoulder bursitis or built up a list of strains and tears an arm long.  Your lifestyle looking good on paper surely isn’t your goal?  Your lifestyle keeping you in good health and doing things you enjoy without pain, if possible, presumably is.

Ultimately you have to do what works for you at that given point in time. To do that means being honest with yourself. You might love a certain exercise style, programme, or specific foods/dietary approaches, but life throws you a curve ball in the form of an injury, a food intolerance, an allergy to food or your favourite animal. To stay, or get healthy, you need to accept that what worked in the past or for others may not work for you right now, and be prepared to adapt accordingly; be that in the short or long term. Likewise, if you council/advise others, recognise that they may be quite different to you or your previous clients/patients. Either adapt your methods or refer them on accordingly.

Always assess if your approach is working.  Remember there are plenty of things going on inside you/others that can’t be seen or felt.   Feeling matters, but so do objective measures –  e.g. cardiorespiratory fitness, strength, joint range of motion, resting heart rate, frequency and duration of infections, blood test results etc.  In other words, listen to as much of the evidence as you can access, both the objective evidence of research – what works in groups – and the subjective evidence in you or your clients.

Yours in health,
Christian Thoma, PhD candidate, MSc, BSc, ACSM-CES,

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