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Podcaster and media persona Joe Rogan showered praise on Israelis in his recent podcast on March 23, saying their experience in the Middle East's hostile environment has steeled them for the complexities of life and has led them to appreciate it. 

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The podcast featured a lengthy discussion with tech entrepreneur Antonio Garcia Martinez on a whole range of issues, including the influence of progressives on the daily discourse in the United States, which according to Rogan, sometimes results in "nonsense problems" taking center stage. At one point, Rogan, said that Israelis generally don't have debates over gender pronouns and other progressive matters, because of the other problems in life, recalling the impression he got from an Israeli friend's attitude toward life.

"I have a good friend of mine who was my kickboxing coach back in the days, his name was Shuki. He lives in Israel now," Rogan said. "I went to dinner over to his house once and his wife and kid was there, and there he is playing bongos and there is cooking and everyone is dancing and I go, 'You are so happy, so many Israelis love to sing and dance and party and it's like a real-life version of the Zohan. I go, 'What is it?'"

According to Rogan, Shuki replied, "When you are in Israel, every day you could you die, you don't know what is going to happen ... there is constant conflict, you are surrounded by all these Arab states, any day you can die, so everybody is just in the mood for party-party-party, because when you are alive you are happy."

Rogan said that this taught him how Israelis look differently at life, and perhaps Americans don't realize that their lives are so good, because "when you have don't have a problem and a real thing to rise against, people find nonsense to squabble over."

Rogan said that in Israel "it's real life and real death, this s**t you are dealing with, but here it is about the traffic, and people hating their job. It's nonsense problems." He added, "As our society becomes softer and softer we get angry and upset about some of the dumbest things possible. Whether it's pronouns or whatever it is, the current outrage du jour, we are weird; we almost exist at our best state when we are in some life-or-death scenario." 

The interview was held before the recent spate of attacks in Israel, which saw more than 10 people murdered in the span of a week.

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Polls have indicated that nearly one-quarter (24%) of US adults have tried intermittent fasting to lose weight, but data engineers at Lumen – which has developed a handheld metabolism tracker – are now seeing that an overwhelming number of their users are experiencing what they call a stress response to fasting too many hours.

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The Luman tracker measures a person's body carbon dioxide concentration, based on a breath sample, and analyzes it to determine if they are burning fats or carbohydrates for fuel.

The Lumen data team looked at over 1 million monthly metabolism measurements from Lumen users and arrived at insights that can help dieters avoid a counteractive stress response, which is what happens when the body overextends its fat-burning state and is triggered to use carbs rather than fat for fuel.

However, the data still supports the benefits of intermittent fasting, if optimized for an individual's needs. According to Lumen, users of its tracker who fasted progressively in an optimized and measured framework were able to achieve fat burn.

"People can reach great results by using fasting as a tool for weight loss and achieving a healthy metabolism, however, optimizing your fasting routine is crucial since each one of us has a different metabolism. Therefore, some will need longer fasting windows than others in order to optimize the result of their fast," says Lumen's head of data Barak Alon.

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During Islam's holiest month of Ramadan, Techno-Gym transforms into a late-night hot spot for young men struggling to stay in shape. In addition to self-discipline and prayer intended to bring adherents closer to God, the month is famed for its lavish meals and heavy desserts that follow a daylong fast.

"I come here during Ramadan to maintain the vitality of my body," said Anas al-Najjar, a music teacher, on a break from a set of back-muscle exercises. "As I have been training for a while, it's not good for the body to stop in Ramadan."

On a recent night, pop music mingled with the clanging of dumbbells and metal weight plates as fitness enthusiasts grunted and panted. The gym's black-and-yellow color scheme and bright blue lighting had a disorienting effect as the clock ticked into the early hours.

The Ramadan routine, with high-calorie fast-breaking "iftar" buffets, sugary staples and hours of sedentary screen time, is a headache for fitness trainers. A growing group of middle-class men in Gaza are preoccupied with the prospect of gaining weight.

The main culprit is the Ramadan dessert known as "qatayef" – fried pancakes stuffed with sweet cheese or nuts, soaked in homemade sugar syrup. A sliver of cheese qatayef contains some 350 calories. Fitness trainers acknowledge that it's hard to resist after a day of deprivation.

Ammar Abu Karsh, a trainer, said he tailors meal and workout plans, especially for Ramadan, taking into consideration the month's unique diet, but his clients often get off track.

"We have a problem in our customs and legacy because eating desserts and qatayef can never be found in any dietary plan," he said. "People say 'it's just a month and it will pass, so why should I deprive myself.'"

Abu Karsh has supplemented his Ramadan workout plan with intensive cardio sessions for "those whose bodies gain weight fast," scheduled in the late afternoon before the iftar meal.

With the gym's hours extended until 2 a.m. for the holy month, some Palestinians come in late at night to hone their muscles and work up a sweat.

Over the past decade, the gym business in the Gaza Strip has boomed.

Some 120 gyms, two-thirds of which are professionally equipped, are scattered throughout the territory, according to Tareq Abu el-Jedyan of the Palestinian Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation. It's a significant spike from Gaza's pre-2000 gym count: a mere 10.

"Sports culture and awareness has gained online, allowing for more gyms to open," Abu el-Jedyan said. "Today, things are also more professional than in the past ... trainees get to know how to exercise right with the correct technique."

The upscale Techno-Gym opened three years ago, complete with a swimming pool, steam and sauna rooms and modern bodybuilding equipment imported from Italy.

The gym, which primarily caters to workers in banks, telecom companies and aid agencies who have the cash to spend, serves as a rare respite from the misery of life in the enclave, where unemployment surpasses 50%, tap water is undrinkable and electricity cuts are routine. The frequent cycles of bloody clashes with Israel have compounded daily struggles.

"As I live in Gaza under siege and pressures, such beautiful and neat gyms help us replace the pent-up energy with something good for our health," said al-Najjar.

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