Healthmaxxing: Why pushing your health to the max may backfire

Americans are going all in on their health. Instead of taking gradual steps to improve their health, they are pushing health benefits to the limit, what people now refer to as healthmaxxing. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing?

Types of healthmaxxing

Social media has made many forms of maxxing go viral, but the most popular forms include sleepmaxxing, fibermaxxing and proteinmaxxing.

Sleepmaxxing

Instead of trying one way to improve your sleep hygiene to increase the likelihood of getting quality sleep, sleepmaxxing involves using every method at once.

“Making lifestyle adjustments to improve your sleep quality is great, but it’s important to not get carried away,” explains Dr. Nadia Homedi, a family medicine physician at Aurora Health Care. “You don’t want to put so much emphasis on trying to improve your sleep that it ends up taxing your mental health and therefore interferes with quality of sleep.”

Some trendy ways people are trying to improve their sleep can also be quite dangerous. Methods that aren’t backed by research include taking extremely high levels of melatonin; mouth taping, the act of putting adhesive tape over your mouth to promote nasal breathing during sleep; and focusing too much on sleep tracker results.

Fibermaxxing

Fibermaxxing involves making all of your meals high in fiber and often exceeding the recommended daily amount of 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories consumed.

“Eating fiber is important because it helps keep your digestive system healthy with consistent bowel movements, helps you stay full between meals and helps lower your cholesterol levels,” Dr. Homedi says. “Too much fiber can cause abdominal pain, bloating, hard-to-pass stool and diarrhea. Plus, eating excessive levels of fiber doesn’t boost the health benefits any further.”

Proteinmaxxing

The proteinmaxxing trend has only gotten easier as more food and beverage companies add protein to everyday items. Similar to fibermaxxing, proteinmaxxing involves prioritizing protein at every meal and exceeding nutritional recommendations. The latest guidelines recommend eating 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per 2.2 pounds of body weight per day.

Protein is great for building muscles, keeping you full between meals and supporting bone health. But eating too much protein can increase your risk for kidney stones, especially if you’ve experienced them before.

“Your kidneys filter out byproducts that are created as protein is digested,” Dr. Homedi says. “In high amounts, this can kick the filtering system into overdrive and cause your urine to contain high levels of uric acid and therefore potential kidney stones.”

Should you rethink healthmaxxing?

Focusing too much on one nutrient, such as fiber or protein, can cause you to miss out on other key nutrients. Instead, focus on eating a balanced diet and try to meet the recommended daily intakes of each nutrient.

Also, if you’re experiencing trouble sleeping, you may benefit from seeing a sleep specialist. Sometimes following all the tricks in the book to fall or stay asleep might not work due to underlying health concerns. A specialist can help rule out other conditions and provide additional sleep health guidance.

“These health trends are well intentioned but are often not maintainable and can cause other health problems due to their excessive nature,” Dr. Homedi says. “Instead, focus on making lifestyle changes that you’ll actually stick to and are proven to benefit your health when they are followed in recommended amounts.”

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