Zane Griggs

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Zane Griggs For high performers who feel off
Data-driven metabolic correction
Stop guessing. Get clarity.
👇 Start with labs
www.zanegriggs.com

Following my passion for health and fitness, I became a certified personal trainer in 1998.... and that's when the education really began. Working with many, different people, I found that the textbook nutritional guidelines were really not effective for many of my clients to achieve a healthy weight. This was especially true if the person were obese or had another metabolic issue. As I began looking for alternative sources of information I found that the people who much of the fitness and nutrition industry considered to be "questionable", were actually getting results with their methods and had biological explanations for it. I've had the great opportunity to work with one of the popular weight loss shows for two seasons, one for the entire season and the other for the last three months, to help two participants lose approximately half of their body weight. These were not only incredible learning experiences but also very inspiring. I was actually both frustrated and inspired. Frustrated by the false messages being sold to the public by the government and health authorities, as well as the food industry profiting from and perpetuating the misinformation, while we, as a nation, continue to get fatter and sicker. Inspired to explain the truth about our food and how our bodies work to whomever will listen in a clear and approachable way.

When I tell people I eat a high-carbohydrate, relatively low-fat diet, I think they sometimes imagine I’m living on cere...
10/15/2026

When I tell people I eat a high-carbohydrate, relatively low-fat diet, I think they sometimes imagine I’m living on cereal, bagels and sugar.

That’s not what I mean.

A typical framework can be incredibly simple: lean protein, a substantial starch, plenty of fruit, vegetables, and enough dietary fat to meet your needs without making fat the primary source of calories.

This sample day lands around 2,339 calories with 123g of protein, 402g of carbohydrate and 40g of fat.

Breakfast might be Greek yogurt, oats, banana, blueberries, mango and honey. Lunch could be chicken, white rice, pineapple and grapes. Dinner could be shrimp, potatoes, watermelon, strawberries, vegetables and fermented food. c
That is what I mean by high carb.

Fruit. Potatoes. Rice. Oats. Whole-food carbohydrate sources alongside adequate protein.

And no, I’m not saying everyone needs 400 grams of carbohydrates per day. Your calories and macros should reflect your size, activity level and goals.

I’m showing you this because a lot of people have become so afraid of carbohydrates that they have a hard time imagining what a high-carb diet actually looks like outside of processed food.

It can be nutrient-dense, protein-rich, fruit-forward and built almost entirely from whole foods.

Carbs aren’t automatically junk food. And low-fat doesn’t have to mean low-nutrition.

Somewhere along the way, we started treating hunger like a symptom that needs to be eliminated.I hear people say they av...
10/14/2026

Somewhere along the way, we started treating hunger like a symptom that needs to be eliminated.

I hear people say they avoid carbohydrates because carbs make them hungry, while a very low-carb, high-fat diet shuts their appetite down. Appetite suppression is also one of the primary features people celebrate with many weight-loss medications. Excessive fasting and very-low-calorie diets can blunt hunger signals too.

But eliminating hunger is not the same thing as restoring healthy metabolism.

Your body is supposed to communicate with you. Hunger tells you when energy is needed. Satiety tells you when you’ve had enough. In a healthy system, you should be able to get hungry, eat a nutrient-dense meal, feel satisfied, and comfortably go several hours before hunger returns.

Metabolic dysfunction can disrupt that communication. Insulin resistance and obesity are often accompanied by altered leptin and ghrelin signaling, which can make hunger and fullness cues much harder to interpret.

The answer, in my opinion, isn’t to silence those signals indefinitely.
It’s to help restore them.

For many people, that starts with three substantial meals built around whole-food sources of protein, carbohydrate and fat. Eat enough at each meal to actually feel satisfied and carry you roughly 3–5 hours until the next one instead of constantly restricting, grazing, fasting or being afraid of food.

You’re also feeding more than yourself.

Your gut microbiome responds quickly to the foods you consistently eat. Whole-food carbohydrates containing different fibers and resistant starches help shape the microbial population that plays a role in digestion, inflammation, metabolism and even appetite signaling.

A short period of tighter structure may help interrupt bad habits.

But long-term health shouldn’t require you to be afraid of hunger—or afraid of eating.

The goal isn’t “no hunger”. The goal is healthy hunger, healthy satiety, and a body you can actually trust.

10/12/2026

No one really warns you about this part of getting older: your labs can be called “normal” while you feel progressively less like yourself.

For both men and women, hormones often drift downward with age. And because reference ranges are broad, you can still land inside the “normal” category while dealing with fatigue, lower libido, brain fog, declining recovery, stubborn body composition changes, and a general sense that you’re losing ground.

That’s where the phrase “age-appropriate” can become misleading.

Age-appropriate simply means your numbers may be similar to what is commonly seen in people your age.

It does not automatically mean those numbers are optimal for how you want to feel, perform, recover, and age.
And it definitely does not mean every symptom should be dismissed as “just getting older.”

If those symptoms are slowing you down, why wouldn’t you address them?

There is a meaningful difference between being technically inside a lab reference range and having physiology that supports the level of health and performance you want.

That is why I look at the whole picture.

Symptoms. Sleep. Recovery. Body composition. Strength. Metabolic health. Thyroid. Glucose regulation. S*x hormones. And where your numbers actually sit inside the range.

Because age-related decline is common.

But common and optimal are not the same thing.

“Age-appropriate” decline isn’t a diagnosis.

And it does not have to become an excuse.

Comment GUIDE and I’ll send you the hormone ranges I look at for both metabolic and s*x hormones.

10/04/2026

Does what you’ve been eating for the last few days change what happens when you suddenly eat a massive amount of carbohydrate?

Researchers tested exactly that. Subjects followed either a high-fat, mixed, or high-carbohydrate diet for several days, then everyone was given the same 500-gram carbohydrate load and monitored over the following 24 hours.

The prior diet did change how the carbohydrate was handled, but the actual numbers are what make this study interesting.

After the high-fat diet, about 222 grams of carbohydrate were oxidized, 278 grams were stored as glycogen, and only 0.8 grams were converted into new fat

After the mixed diet, about 300 grams were oxidized, 197 grams went to glycogen, and 3.4 grams became fat.

Even in the group that had already been eating a high-carbohydrate diet, 331 grams were oxidized, 170 grams were stored as glycogen, and only 9 grams out of 500 became new fat.

So yes, prior diet changed the numbers. The high-carb group produced more new fat than the high-fat group.

But even in that “worst-case” condition, less than 2% of the carbohydrate load was converted into fat.

The overwhelming majority was either burned for energy or stored as glycogen.

That distinction matters because people often talk about carbohydrate as if eating it means your body immediately starts converting it into body fat. That simply isn’t what happened here.

The authors themselves concluded that even after an enormous carbohydrate load, lipogenesis remained too limited to meaningfully increase body-fat content.

None of this means energy balance stops mattering or that overeating can’t lead to fat gain. It means the direct conversion of carbohydrate into fat is a much smaller pathway than people are often led to believe.

500 grams of carbohydrate went in. Even under the highest-carb condition, only 9 grams became new fat.

The math matters.

Study: PMID 6696064

10/02/2026

Does having more body fat make you convert carbohydrates into body fat more easily? Researchers actually tested it. 👇

In this study, six lean adults and six adults with obesity consumed 500 grams of carbohydrate as a dextrin-maltose solution, then had their metabolism tracked for 14 hours.

That is an enormous carbohydrate load.

So how much of it actually became newly synthesized fat?

In the lean group, about 4 grams of new fat were produced.
In the obese group, about 5 grams were produced.

That works out to roughly 0.8% versus 1% of the 500-gram carbohydrate load.

And the difference between the two groups wasn’t statistically significant.

That’s the part I think gets lost in the way carbohydrates are talked about online.

People hear:

Carbs raise insulin.
Insulin promotes storage.
Therefore carbs must easily turn into body fat.

But when researchers actually measured de novo lipogenesis — the conversion of carbohydrate into new fat — it was remarkably small, even after an intentionally massive carb load.

And the body wasn’t simply “shutting off fat burning” while it dealt with all that glucose.

Fat oxidation continued while carbohydrate was being oxidized and stored as glycogen.

Both processes were happening at the same time.

That doesn’t mean calories don’t matter.

It doesn’t mean you can eat unlimited carbohydrates and never gain body fat.

But it does challenge the idea that eating carbs means those carbs are rapidly being converted directly into fat.

The physiology is more complicated than:

CARBS → INSULIN → FAT

And the actual math matters. Even with 500 grams of carbohydrate, only a tiny fraction ended up as newly synthesized fat in this experiment.

Carbs turning directly into fat is not nearly as easy as the internet makes it sound.

Study: PMID 3799507

There’s an important difference between food energy and cellular energy.Calories are potential energy—the raw material c...
10/01/2026

There’s an important difference between food energy and cellular energy.

Calories are potential energy—the raw material coming in. But your cells actually run on ATP, the usable energy your mitochondria produce from that food. ATP powers muscle contraction, nerve signaling, hormones, repair, immune function and virtually everything else your body does.

So what happens when plenty of fuel is coming in, but your mitochondria aren’t converting it into ATP efficiently?

Your body still gets the message: We need more energy.

That can show up as hunger, cravings, fatigue, brain fog or that 3 PM need for something sweet or starchy.

The hunger is real.

But the deficit may not be in the amount of food you ate. It may be in the machinery converting that food into usable energy.

One mechanism I’ve been exploring is mitochondrial dysfunction associated with high exposure to polyunsaturated fats, particularly linoleic acid from industrial seed oils. When these fats are incorporated into mitochondrial membranes and oxidized, they can generate compounds like 4-HNE and MDA that can interfere with the structures involved in energy production.

And this isn’t the only path. Chronic undereating, excessive fasting and metabolic stress can create similar symptoms.

So what do you do?

Start by removing some of the things creating unnecessary metabolic stress.

Eat enough food.
Stop living in a constant calorie deficit.
Be careful with excessive fasting.
Build your diet around whole foods instead of processed foods where seed oils are hiding everywhere.
Reduce your total exposure to industrial seed oils over time.
And give your body the basic resources it needs to repair, recover and produce energy efficiently.

This isn’t a one-week fix. Mitochondrial dysfunction develops over time, and rebuilding metabolic health takes time too.

The goal isn’t simply to eat less.

It’s to help your body become better at turning the food you eat into the energy your cells actually need.

What an incredible weekend at the final Mindshare Summit.I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of experiences in this indust...
09/28/2026

What an incredible weekend at the final Mindshare Summit.

I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of experiences in this industry over the years, but this one meant a lot.

I was honored to be nominated for the Mindshare Impact Award, a peer-nominated award recognizing people who use their voice, platform, and work to make a meaningful impact in the lives of others.

I didn’t take home the award, but being nominated alongside so many people I respect was an honor in itself. When recognition comes from your peers—people who understand the work that goes on behind the scenes to educate, serve, build, and hopefully leave people better than you found them—it hits a little differently.

And because apparently one meaningful professional moment wasn’t enough for the weekend, I also got to fulfill what I can only assume is every 80s kid’s lifelong dream: Dressing up as Richard Simmons and working out on stage with Celebrity Nutrition Expert + Fitness Hall of Famer. 😂

There are not many people who get to put that sentence on their résumé.

JJ has been a force in the health and fitness industry for decades, so getting to laugh, dance, sweat, and completely commit to the short shorts alongside her was pretty damn fun.

The whole weekend was a good reminder of what I’ve always loved about this industry. It’s the people. The conversations. The friendships. The opportunity to keep learning, keep evolving, and use what you’ve learned to help somebody else.

I’m grateful for the nomination, grateful for the people I got to spend the weekend with, and grateful to have been part of the final chapter of an event that has brought so many people together.

And yes, Richard Simmons may have officially retired after this performance. 😂

09/26/2026

Bread, jam and fruit juice. Nearly 500 grams of carbohydrate in one meal. If the common argument is that carbs raise insulin, shut off fat burning and then get turned into body fat, this should have been a pretty good test of that idea.

Researchers gave six healthy men a meal containing 479 grams of carbohydrate and tracked exactly where that energy went over the next 10 hours. About 133 grams were burned for energy, while another 346 grams were stored as glycogen.

That accounted for essentially the entire carbohydrate load.

At the same time, the body continued burning fat. About 17 grams of fat were oxidized during that same period. So even with a very large carbohydrate intake, fat oxidation did not simply shut off while the body dealt with the glucose.

The net result was essentially zero fat storage over the measurement period, possibly even slightly negative.

That is what makes this study so interesting. The researchers themselves concluded that even after an unusually large high-carbohydrate meal, fat synthesis from carbohydrate did not exceed the amount of fat being oxidized. They also challenged the common idea that converting carbohydrate into fat is an important pathway for retaining dietary energy and accumulating body fat.

That is not my interpretation. That is the conclusion of the study authors.

Now, this does not mean calories do not matter, and it does not mean someone can overeat indefinitely without gaining fat. But it does show that eating carbohydrate and converting that carbohydrate directly into stored body fat are not the same thing.

The body has multiple places for incoming glucose to go. It can be burned immediately, stored as liver glycogen, stored as muscle glycogen, and all of that can happen while fat oxidation is still occurring.

So when someone reduces the entire discussion to carbs raise insulin, insulin stops fat burning, therefore carbs make you fat, they are leaving out a large part of the physiology.

Study: PMID 6755166

If repeated insulin spikes from carbohydrates are what cause insulin resistance, then we have to ask an obvious question...
09/25/2026

If repeated insulin spikes from carbohydrates are what cause insulin resistance, then we have to ask an obvious question:
What about foods that raise insulin just as much — or more — without being high in carbs?

In the classic Food Insulin Index study, equal-calorie portions of different foods were compared. Beef produced a greater insulin response than white pasta. Fish, cheese and other protein-rich foods also produced substantial insulin responses.
PMID: 935654.

That doesn’t mean beef is bad.

It means an acute rise in insulin is not the same thing as insulin resistance.

Protein can raise insulin too, and in low-carb, high-protein meals glucagon also rises. Glucagon helps maintain blood glucose by signaling the liver to make more fuel available when carbohydrate availability is low. PMID: 6389060, 2873976
So when you cut carbs, you haven’t “escaped” insulin or glucose regulation. You’ve changed the hormonal environment your body uses to manage fuel.

This is why I don’t think the goal should be keeping insulin as low as possible.

The goal should be staying insulin sensitive.

Can your muscles take up glucose? Can your liver respond appropriately to insulin? Can you eat carbohydrates, replenish glycogen, train hard, recover and return blood sugar toward baseline?

That is metabolic health.

There’s also research connecting low-carbohydrate states, glucagon signaling, thyroid changes, mitochondrial function, immune signaling and digestion — and research examining carbohydrate availability in relation to stress hormones, mitochondrial function, thyroid function and insulin sensitivity.

The point isn’t “protein bad, carbs good.”

The point is that the simple story — carbs spike insulin, therefore carbs cause insulin resistance — doesn’t explain the full physiology.

Stop fearing a normal insulin response. Build a body that handles fuel well.

Research cited:
PMID: 9356547, 6389060, 2873976, 34295325, 31026811, 3359907, 2488472, 39599691, 31067015, 6761185, 31042670, 27385608, 38189051, 28076316, 6865776, 35254136, 3181870, 31652899, 27154056, 19188683, 500814, 13591100, 17679787, 495550
DOI: 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.1036.3

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