I listen to various health and fitness podcasts almost daily. The great thing about podcasts (or audiobooks) is that I can listen to them while doing something else, like walking, running or even cooking. 

I start most of my mornings with a light 20-30 minutes walk or jog. Sometimes I take time to enjoy the nature and listen to my own thoughts. A lot of problems find their solution when I'm in nature. 

But a lot of times I bring my phone to my run or walk and listen to some of my favorite podcasts. I almost never listen to music (I don't even have too much of it on my phone) but prefer something that is fun and useful at the same time.

I have learnt so much about working out, diet, lifestyle and business from podcasts. 

That said, here is the list of my  five favorite health & fitness podcasts.

Photo Credit: Toshiyuki IMAI via Flickr

1. Fat-Burning Man Podcast

This is my absolutely favorite podcast right now. As Abel James aka The Fat Burning Man himself says, it's about real food and real results. 

Abel James spent years and years trying to figure out how to lose weight and body fat. He was following his doctor's recommendations, eating less fat and exercising more, but all that actually happened to him was that he gained weight. 

Once he decided to try out something totally different, started adding more fat to his diet, cutting out grains, sugar and excess carbs and started to eat local, real food, things started to happen. He lost 20 pounds in just 40 days. 

He realized that the dietary recommendations we are given are basically all wrong. That's what got him started with his website and podcast. 

Abel James has a ton of information to share about his recent travels, food and lifestyle experiences and workouts. In fact, he shows how he got into a better shape by exercising less than he ever used to.

The Fat-Burning Man takes us back to our roots by talking about how we used to move and eat. I really like it. I must say that sometimes it's a bit hard for me to get used to American eating culture. All those take-away foods, GMO-s, fast food chains, boxed lunches… 

This is pretty different from where I'm coming from. We eat less, our portions are remarkably smaller, there is no need to buy organic – because pretty much everything is organic, grown in our backyards, and we eat our food from real plates. Eating from a box just doesn't taste the same for me.

When I was little, it was always so exciting to go check how many eggs my grandpa's chickens had laid.

We would pull a carrot straight from the earth, quickly rinse it and munch on it just like that.

We would drink super fatty milk that was milked just fifteen minutes ago.

It was all very natural. 

Abel James talks a lot about things like this, which I think is very important.

In addition, James interviews a lot of really interesting people. I haven't listened to this podcast from the beginning, but recently I've been trying to catch up and spent a ton of hours listening. 

Some of my favorite episodes so far: 

Wild Diet Book Tour – Updates, Podcasts, and The Other Side Of The Microphone. – James talks about his recent book, The Wild Diet, which I also have and that I am reading now. 

Chaz Branham: Ketosis, Carb Backloading, and Bodybuilding.

Vinnie Tortorich: The Truth About Ketosis, Health Podcasting And Why He Is So Darn Angry.

2. Lift Like a Girl Podcast

This relatively new podcast is hosted by fitness expert and personal trainer Nia Shanks. Nia helps her listeners to become the most awesome version of themselves, as she puts it. She is focused on weight training and sees it as the main way to lose weight, burn fat and build confidence. 

Nia's approach is very sane, simple and realistic. She talks about things like they are, without overcomplicating anything.

However, there are things that I can't agree about on her. For example, she seems to be against any endurance training at all and seems to find heavy lifting the only of working out. While I think lifting is a great way of exercising, there are people who truly benefit from endurance training and enjoy it a lot.  

Nia thinks that there is too much polemic around food and believes that we should eat in a sane and simple way, without going crazy about whether the food is Paleo, Primal, non-GMO, organic or not. However, I think these things are really important for some people and there is nothing wrong about it.

What I really like is her choice of guests and her way of interviewing them. She knows how to get the most useful and interesting information out of her guests. I have learnt about many interesting people that I never knew about before thanks to Lift Like A Girl podcast, for example Erin Brown and Joy Victoria to name a few.

Nia says exactly what's on her mind and is very honest and down-to-earth what I really like. 

Here are couple of my favorite episodes of Lift Like A Girl Podcast: 

Lift Like a Girl – “If Women Made Peace with Their Bodies, Everything Would Change” with Erin Brown

Let’s Choose to be MORE, Not Less with Jen Comas Keck

Lift Like a Girl – Ladies, Become Unapologetically Strong! with Jen Sinkler. 

3. Ben Greenfield Podcast 

A Spartan athlete, triathlonist and health and fitness expert Ben Greenfield shares tips and tricks for fat loss, improving performance and eating well. He also loves biohacking and has a lot of interesting guests talking about it. These podcast's are long and packed with detailed information.

Ben Greenfield is also known as the Get Fit Guy and shares his quick and dirty dips to shape up and slim down. These podcasts are short – mostly 5-15 minutes in length but packed with useful information. Want to know what to eat before and after exercising or how to incorporate speed into your workouts? Go check out!

One of my very favorite episodes of Ben Greenfield Podcasts is this: How To Use Unconventional Fitness Gear Like Kettlebells, Battleropes, Maces, Clubs And More! Think outside of the box!

4. Balanced Bites Podcast

This podcast is hosted by New York best-selling authors Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe and talks about living Paleo lifestyle in the modern world. Diane and Liz don't talk only about food but discuss also skincare, modern world diseases, hormone imbalances and much more. 

I have listened to this podcast for a while, but been a little inconsistent with it. One of my very favorite podcast, the one with Juli Bauer, is about one year old. Lately I've been getting back on track and I listened newer episodes too. I really loved the episodes with Emily Schromm and Jen Sinkler. 

You can find all three podcasts here:

Balanced Bites Podcast #143: “The Paleo Kitchen” with author Juli Bauer

Balanced Bites Podcast #187: Crossfit, weight lifting, motivation, and more with Emily Schromm

Balanced Bites Podcast #182: Get Fit Faster with Jen Sinkler.

5. The Fitcast

I actually just found this podcast and have only listened to couple of episodes of it. The list of people featured in The Fitcast seems to be interesting though and there are also a lot of people that I have never heard of, so I have quite a bit to catch up. 

I really loved the last episode with Jill Coleman that I just listened last night. Jill is incredibly successful, smart and beautiful woman that I have been following for a while. She had many good tips to share about building online business, time management, mindset and lifestyle. Definitely worth listening!

You can find the episode here: Episode 336: On Tour w/ Jill Coleman

Conclusion

So, these are five of my most favorite health and fitness podcasts right now. I love learning new things and finding out more awesome people and their work, so I am asking you:

Do you listen to podcasts? 

If you do, please share some favorites!