Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host Lathan Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and i It is time for that weekly episode. Quick reminder before we get into this, if you can continue to leave reviews if you have not done so, share this with people who you think it gets in value, continue to grow this show, help people Live better lives, healthier lives, happier lives. That is the entire goal of this show. And that only happens with your help. So I appreciate you in doing that.
Speaker: The topic for this week, it is time for a Q&A episode. it's been about four or five weeks since I've done these. So it is time for another one. Got six questions that I'm going to answer. Always appreciate doing these episodes. Allows me to dive into some topics, some questions, some things that you guys are interested in and dig a little deeper on these. So the topics for today, the most important metrics to track for fat loss.
Speaker: What exercises do I think are underrated? How I would structure training if I only had three hours to dedicate to it. What are some of my go-to high-protein, low-calorie meals and snacks?
Speaker: How to go about losing that last 20 pounds after you've already lost some weight? And books that I would recommend for somebody trying to lose fat, build muscle, and increase their overall health and longevity.
Speaker: Let's get right into it. Question number one, I'm working on losing 30 pounds. I'm pretty early in the process, but starting to work on my habits. I'm wondering what are the most important metrics to track for fat loss?
Speaker: Honestly, this is a really great question. And before I even dive into this question, i love the fact that they said they are focusing on their habits that is how you make sustainable changes is by changing your habits because the only things that you're going to be able to keep those results that you're going to be able to sustain come from the things that you're willing to do consistently day after day week after week month after month so changing your habits is the only way to change your life for the long term With that being said, i also really like this question because you're talking about measuring things and actually focusing on the things that matter.
Speaker: There's this old quote that people say that what gets measured gets managed. And I see people spinning their wheels so often for this reason. Lots of people go into weight loss or trying to improve their health, maybe trying to build some muscle. They don't really have any sort of tangible plan.
Speaker: And while I'm all for just getting started and trying to figure it out as you're chasing these goals, you're going to be a lot better off if you have some sort of structure, some sort of plan rather than just winging it. Because the amount of times that I hear people say, oh I'm eating pretty healthy, but I can't lose weight. Or i go to the gym pretty consistently, but I can't build muscle. I've been working out for a really long time and focusing on my health, but I don't really look any different.
Speaker: It's because you're not following a plan and you're not focusing on the right things. When you know exactly what to focus on and when you have a structured plan, this stuff actually gets relatively easy. You take all of the guesswork out of it and then you don't have to get so frustrated and get so emotional about not seeing results because as long as you're doing the things each day or each week or each month, you know that over a long enough period of time, you're going to see progress. That progress is inevitable as long as you're putting in the work that you need to put in on a consistent basis. So I split this into a couple of different categories. We have daily metrics. We have some weekly metrics and then some monthly things that you want to focus on when it comes to your daily metrics, things that you want to focus on tracking.
Speaker: There's four main things. So we have calories. You want to hit your daily target. So typically that's going to be about 20 to 30% off of your maintenance calories will put you in a calorie deficit. So let's say you're a person who is eating roughly 2,500 calories and that's how much you eat to maintain your weight. You might want to eat somewhere closer to around 2000 calories to put you in a calorie deficit and you're going to focus on hitting that target every single day.
Speaker: You don't know your exact calorie deficit. There's tons of different ways that you can find this out now. or Just Google it. You can use AI. There's plenty of ways where you can figure out how many calories you should be eating on a daily basis just by putting in some of your information. So super simple there. And then in order to actually track these things, I'm going to give you some tools, some apps, some different things like that towards the end of this question. The second thing after calories is protein.
Speaker: So in order to build muscle, in order to manage hunger, those different things, we really want to focus on protein. So at the very least aiming for 0.7 grams per pound of body weight, all the way up to a gram per pound of body weight. But if you're getting that 0.7 grams per pound of body weight, you're going to be in pretty good shape.
Speaker: You want to have a little bit more if you like protein, if you feel that it helps you stay satiated and full, which for a lot of people it does, and you want to aim for that one gram per pound of body weight, that's great too. But this is going to help you build muscle, retain muscle, stay fuller for longer, help deal with hunger, all those things that you want to be doing when you were in a dieting phase.
Speaker: Number three, the third metric is to focus on steps. I recommend getting anywhere between 8,000 to 10,000 as a good goal to work up to. If you're getting more than that, even better.
Speaker: But as a general rule, trying to work up to about 8,000 steps at a bare minimum is a really good goal for pretty much everyone. And there's a lot of research backed behind this. If you can get up to about 7,500 steps, you're going to get a bulk of the benefits that people get from being more active so i just round it up to 8 000 and then if you want to work up to 10 000 12 000 15 000 that's great too but at a bare minimum focusing on getting 8 000 steps per day increasing that activity burning a few extra calories staying active all good things when you're trying to lose weight and the fourth thing that i have people track on a daily basis is their weight
Speaker: Now, when you're taking your daily weigh-in, you don't need to be super hyper-focused on each singular day because that scale is going to fluctuate. I've talked about that numerous times on this podcast. Your weight will fluctuate based on a lot of different things, and most of that is just water weight from that day-to-day. if that scale drops multiple pounds or goes up multiple pounds, a lot of that from day to day is just your body holding and releasing water. It could be because you had more salt, more carbs, you had a hard workout, you had less sleep, your digestion is a little off, you had a little bit more food.
Speaker: There's so many different reasons that that scale could be fluctuating day to day, but we still want to take that measurement daily because it's going to give us more data points to actually see the trend over the weeks and over the months. so don't focus so much on what that scale says every single day but get that way in that way you have more data to actually look at to see if you are trending in the right direction when move on to weekly metrics a couple things that i like to focus on is workouts so i didn't put workouts in the daily section because you don't need to work out every single day if you're getting some activity every single day that's awesome but as far as like structured workouts go
Speaker: You want to be in that range of at least two workouts per week. If you can work up to three or even four workouts per week, even better, focusing on strength. And then if you can add in some cardio a few times a week, that is awesome too. But I like having a weekly target more. because it allows you to be a little bit more flexible with it versus trying to work out every single day because for majority of people they're not going to be able to work out every single day and that's just not going to be something that's super sustainable and you don't have to work out super hard every single day any kind of movement you're getting on a daily basis is awesome but as far as getting your structured strength training sessions in
Speaker: Two to four times per week is awesome. So having that weekly target tracking that metric is going to be a good thing. Second weekly thing is to look at your weight trend. So as I mentioned, we're taking weigh ins every single day, but we're looking at our weight trends over the week. So over the course of a week, you want to see that average trending downwards and then once you start to get multiple weeks week one versus week two versus week three we want to see that average trending down so let's say we weigh ourselves seven times throughout the week we can look at that we could actually get an average of that and then our week one average to our week two average should be trending downwards so from week one if we're at 205 and then week two we're at 203.5 on average we know that we're trending down in the right direction and if you're losing roughly about a pound a week, that's really good progress. A little bit less is fine. A little bit more is also fine. But overall, we want to see that trending down week to week.
Speaker: When we get into our monthly metrics, couple things to think about here. Again, I like to look at weight over a month basis as well, because sometimes with weight loss, especially as you get deeper into your weight loss, that scale is going to slow down.
Speaker: So looking at even just week to week, you might see a half pound drop. There may even be some weeks where you don't lose anything at all. And then over the course of a month, you can look back from day one to day 30 and you should see a good downward trend from there. So over the course of a month, if you're losing anywhere between three to five pounds, that's pretty dang solid of progress. And I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but if you lose three pounds for an entire year, that's 36 pounds.
Speaker: If you lose five pounds per month for an entire year, that's 60 pounds. So if you're losing three to five pounds a month, that's 35 to 60 pounds that you lost in a year, which is life changing for pretty much everybody. So don't get too wrapped up in a day to day, even the week to week. Don't put too much pressure on yourself to be making crazy fast progress. If you're making solid progress month after month, it's going to take some time, but you will eventually get to that goal. And most importantly, you're going in a place where you can actually sustain those results. The second thing that I like to have people focus on on a monthly basis is to measure progress in some other ways. So progress pictures, measurements, or how your clothes are fitting are all really good things to pay attention to. I've mentioned the scale multiple times now. But that is not the only thing that you want to pay attention to, even if your main goal is weight loss. And the reason being is because, again, as you get deeper into that weight loss, your progress may still be happening, but it's not always going to show up on the scale. You may be building some muscle, maybe losing fat a little bit slower, but you're starting to change your body composition, which are things that you can notice by looking at progress pictures from month to month. You may look a little bit leaner as you start to take those progress pictures each month. You notice that certain areas Maybe your stomach area, maybe your kind side love handle area. Maybe you're getting a little bit more toned in your picture, seeing a little bit more muscle definition. Maybe you're seeing some vascularity in different spots. That means you are losing fat and building muscle.
Speaker: If your measurements are going down, so let's say you measure your waist, your stomach, thighs, arms, that type of thing. If those are going down or going up in the right ways, like maybe on arms and legs, if you're building some muscle and losing some fat,
Speaker: then you know that you are making good progress. If your clothes are fitting better, that's also a really good sign because if you're not seeing tons of changes on that scale, but now your jeans are fitting a little bit looser in the waist, and maybe they're a little bit tighter in some of those other spots like your glutes or different things like that. Maybe your shirts are fitting a little bit differently, so a little tighter around the arms because you're building a little muscle, but they're a little looser around the stomach area.
Speaker: That is all good signs. I was just having this conversation with somebody yesterday in the gym because she has been training for a couple months now really consistently. And I asked her if she took progress pictures when she started this, because I've noticed that she's definitely gotten more muscular and more toned. She said that she did take pictures, but she hasn't really lost a whole lot on the scale, but she could tell by the way her clothes have been fitting that she has been making progress. And I told her that's a great sign that you're losing fat and building some muscle if your body composition is changing. But if she was solely just focused on what the scale said,
Speaker: She would probably think that she wasn't making much progress, but obviously by looking at progress pictures, by seeing how the clothes are fitting, you know that you are making progress. So don't get too caught up in that singular number on the scale. It's a great data point to use, especially if you do have a lot of weight to lose, but don't get so wrapped up in that end goal weight that you forget to Notice all the ways that you're making progress because at the end of the day, you want to feel good. You want to look better. You want to be healthier.
Speaker: And a singular number on the scale can give you some data as far as if you're moving in that right direction and getting towards those goals, but it can't tell you everything. So you need to take a bigger picture, take a step back and look at the entire process that's going on and make sure that you're not missing all the progress that you are making. And then the last thing with just the monthly metrics is to look at your workouts. Are you getting stronger from week one to week four or from one to month? If you are getting stronger, that's a very good sign that you are building some muscle and getting healthier. So we want to make sure that we are tracking our workouts over time to make sure we're increasing our strength.
Speaker: When it comes to actually tracking these things, I use what's called the TrainerEyes app for myself and for my clients. It tracks literally all those things that I just mentioned. You can track your progress pictures, you can track food, you can track your steps, you can track your workouts, you can track your measurements, you can track all that stuff in one area, which I really like because the more convenient and easier you make it to track and measure things,
Speaker: the more consistent that people are going to be with this but with that being said different places that you can track these different things so any kind of food tracking app you can track your calories you can track your protein track your macros your meals those sorts of things so my fitness pal or any of those other popular apps are something that you can use for fitness tracker or phone app you can use to track steps for fitness apps you can track workouts you can often track body weight you can often track progress pictures in these things Or if you want to do this stuff the old-fashioned way, you could always use a notebook or the notes app on your phone to track measurements, track body weight, track workouts, like rep sets, that sort of thing. But I think the most important thing is to try to find a way to make it easy, make it convenient, and do something that you're actually going to do consistently so that you have good data to use and that you have a good way to track. Because again, if you track these things, you know that you are going to make progress and you're going to be able to Make sure that you're doing all the right things. Hold yourself accountable. See progress, which is exactly what we want to do in order to reach that end goal.
Speaker: Question number two, what exercises do you think are underrated? Great question. So I would define them or I would define an exercise as underrated is not enough people do them. And number two is that you get a lot of benefits with these things.
Speaker: with the effort or at the time required so like you get a lot of bang for your buck in other words like it doesn't take a ton of this exercise to get really good benefits or it's an exercise that just comes with a lot of really good benefits so a couple general ones that i would throw out there which this is a similar question i had in a podcast recently but i would say Cardio is one thing that I would say is underrated.
Speaker: You get better recovery when your cardio improves. So between sets, you can recover faster. You get better recovery between day to day. So your workouts, you can go in and have really hard workout and then recover better and be able to do that the day after and the day after, which also runs into just your normal quality of life. Because if you're sore every single day from working out, That doesn't make your day to day life any easier. You want to be able to get some good sleep, get some good food, work out really hard and then be able to do that day after day after day, not just in the gym, but also all the things that you have to do outside of the gym. If you have kids, if you do have other hobbies, like you don't want to be crushing yourself in the gym and then just feel drained or feel like trash every single day outside of the gym. and having better cardio fitness allows you to recover better so you're not always feeling so drained or don't have this energy or feeling super sore as you increase your cardio you also increase your capacity to take on and to handle more stress and again this goes for in the gym and outside of the gym you just become more robust so you're able to handle more i think about this with running since i got into running
Speaker: The things that I'm able to do now, it's just crazy how much my body can handle compared to what I thought that it could handle. So like now I can run 40 miles a week. I can lift four or five days a week. I can go play basketball.
Speaker: I can do all that stuff day after day. I can do all that stuff in a single week and still be fine. Like, yeah, I'm sore. have little nicks and different things like that from time to time. But overall, I feel really good and my body's able to handle more. And that's because I have increased my cardio and just added more volume into my program, which allows me to just do more.
Speaker: And then the last thing I'd say about this is that just having a good level of cardio is one of the best predictors we have of longevity. So living a long life, if your VO2 max is higher, just meaning that you have better cardio fitness, you are more likely to live a longer life, which I think is a goal for most of us as well. The second general one I throw in here is just being able to train with machines. You're able to push the intensity really hard when you use machines. And the other thing is that with most people's goals, a big part of that goal is to build muscle. So if you want to look better, you want to increase the quality of your life. If you want to have better health, then having muscle mass is really important for that. And machines allow people to
Speaker: push the intensity really hard and build muscle without all the complexity that can come with strength training. So a lot of people are turned off from strength training because there's a big learning curve. You have to learn new things. It can be intimidating to go into a gym with people who are more experienced or stronger than you or different things like that that can be hard for a lot of people not to mention that with people and how busy they are and different things like that it's much easier to just go into a gym and just hop on a machine that you've used before and push yourself really hard for two or three sets and then hop to the next machine versus going in there and having to Focus on what workout am I going to do and just really like dialing technique and different things like that when it comes to using free weights and not to say that free weights are a bad thing because I love free weights and I think there's tons of values with that. But I think for a lot of people, training with machines sometimes can just be a really simple way to add in some good intensity and just get a really good workout.
Speaker: When it comes to more specific underrated exercises, I would say single leg training. So I really like single leg training because if you can get really strong on each leg, you're going to be pretty strong on pretty much any other activity that you do with both legs. And so what I mean by that is like, if I get really strong at like lunges or split squats or reverse lunges or RDLs, different things like that, if I go and do those exercises with two legs, or if I go and do a back squat or a front squat or a normal deadlift or things like that and i've done a ton of single leg strength training i'm gonna be really strong in those other areas but that doesn't always translate the other way so if i get a really strong back squat or front squat or deadlift that doesn't necessarily mean that i'm going to be super strong on one leg
Speaker: And I learned this when I did an internship at Elon College and the guy that I was working under was really big on single leg strength. They did some bilateral stuff, so things on two legs as well and got really strong at squats and deadlifts and stuff like that. But he was a big proponent of using a ton of single leg stuff because again, if you can get really strong on a single leg, you're going to be in pretty good shape. So I tend to prefer to, in my own training, use a lot of single leg training. And I also like it because I don't have to use nearly as much weight, which is kind of nice, both mentally and physically. i like not having to load up 400 pounds on a squat or a deadlift and order to get a really good stimulus i can use half of that and get a really good workout on a single leg and the last reason that i really like single leg training is for imbalances so since i tore my acl and just had a lot of imbalances in between my two legs i started using single leg training
Speaker: as a way to balance that out a lot more. Because when I was doing tons of stuff on two legs, i could just notice that I was shifting more, i was protecting that weaker leg, and I just wasn't getting as strong as I wanted to on that single leg. But since doing mostly single leg training for the last several years, I've noticed that I balanced those two legs out quite a bit more and it just helps with other things like running like playing basketball like all those other activities that i like doing it helps with that as well so single leg training is something that i would say any kind of exercises where you're doing them on one leg so your bulgarians your split squats with dumbbells or barbells your reverse lunges your single leg rdls your walking lunges all that stuff is great and the last one that i would list for this i would say pull-ups
Speaker: I used to actually hate pull ups when I got into strength training because I couldn't do them. As a big guy, like I just couldn't do any pull ups and so I never liked them. But as I started losing weight, I started adding pull ups into my routine and got stronger at them. I came to love them and I like them a lot because they train a ton of muscles in the back. If you can get really good at pull ups, you're gonna have a pretty strong, pretty muscular back.
Speaker: in order to do pull-ups you have to have decent shoulder mobility and just that hanging from the bar and strengthening those shoulders up is good for that shoulder health i like it because it also trains some grip strength and i really like it too because if you can do pull-ups that means that you have the ability to control your body weight and if you have pretty good strength relative to your body size, that is a good sign that you are fitter.
Speaker: And also that your body composition is probably pretty decent. Like if you have the ability to do pull-ups and do pushups and do dips and do like body weight exercises, I think that translates very well to your quality of life because you could go in, lift, squat 400, 500, 600 pounds. But if you can't do a set of five pull-ups, how functional are you for everyday life?
Speaker: I think finding that balance in between getting really strong, but also being able to handle your body weight is the best mix of actually having those things that you want translate to your everyday life. Because again, if you can handle your body weight, if you can do a single leg squat, if you can do pull-ups, if you can do push-ups, if you can do dips, you're going to be able to handle any kind of activity and do all your hobbies just fine. Like you're going able to play with your kids. You're gonna be able to go on a hike. You're going be able to play some sports. You're to be able to do all those different things that you want to do if you have relatively good strength in reference to your body size.
Speaker: Question number three, what are some of your go-to high protein, low calorie meals and snacks? I made an entire cookbook of these because I get this question so often and also just with the last 10 years of really being dialed into trying to lose weight and then keep it off. I've just tried a lot of different recipes over time and my cooking skills have gotten a lot more improved. and the meals that I eat are things that are much more enjoyable now than when I first started. When I first started this whole process, I didn't really know a whole lot. And on top of that is like my cooking skills and just the things that I was able to do and that I knew didn't really show up. So like I was just eating really plain stuff. Like I was just eating your typical bodybuilder diet, chicken, rice, broccoli, like that sort of thing was just over and over. and I didn't really use tons of sauces or tons of seasonings or different things like that. I was just kind of
Speaker: gritting my way through it and eating that stuff because I knew that it worked. But now I've gotten to a place where i still eat really simply a lot of the time. But I've also found ways to kind of spruce things up a little bit, use different sauces, different seasonings, add some other meals that are a little bit more fun or maybe add a little bit more variety, a little bit more tasty. So it makes my diet more appealing. Like I look forward to all the things that I eat now.
Speaker: And when I look back to when I first started my weight loss journey, that was not always the case. Like there was times where i was just eating stuff and I was just like, this kind of sucks. Like it doesn't have a lot of flavor. I'm not really enjoying this, but I'm just eating this because I know it's going to give me the result. And you can do that for a while, but I think ultimately you have to get to a spot where you genuinely look forward to the food that you eat.
Speaker: The meals that you have, if you're not looking forward to them and you actually like them, it's not going to be super sustainable. So a couple of things that I like to use. And again, if you want those recipes, just send me a message on Instagram or Facebook or whatever, and I'll send you that cookbook 100% for free. I put it together to help other people. So If you want that, let me know. Otherwise, just some examples with these. So breakfast, some of my favorites, some of my go-tos. I eat protein waffles or pancakes pretty much every morning. Greek yogurt bowls with fruit is another really simple one. Takes less than two minutes to make these. Protein oatmeal.
Speaker: eggs with some cheese and some toast, all these things, you can get 40 to 15 grams of protein in under 10 to 15 minutes. Most of these you can make in a couple of minutes. So you can find really simple high protein recipes that don't take very long to eat, which again, I think is really key because the more convenient that you make these things, the more likely that you're actually going to use them and stick to them. When it comes to like lunch or dinner, I typically just eat different combinations of like chicken, beef, or ground turkey, and then mix in different types of vegetables and sauces and then throw in some sort of carbs, so like rice, potatoes, pastas, those sorts of things. and When you do this, you can make tons of different combinations. so You're not always eating the same exact thing, although I don't mind eating the same thing day after day. You can mix up what you're eating from day to day. So some typical things that I'll eat are like burger bowls, taco bowls, chicken stir fry bowls. I'll have pasta with like buffalo chicken or sometimes I'll have pasta with like spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce.
Speaker: And then I'll also mix in some things like burgers, like pizza, different things like that, where you can find lower calorie recipes for the foods that you love, but they're a little bit more macro friendly and help you stay in line with your goals. When it comes to snacks, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt are probably my two go-tos. And then i also eat Ninja Creamy ice cream just about every single night. So super high in protein, low in calories. Those are probably my three most popular snacks that I eat that are higher in protein.
Speaker: Other things you can use, shakes, bars, beef jerky, those are all really good as well. So just some examples there. Again, I think the big thing is to find things that you genuinely enjoy and things that are easily repeatable. And if you need some ideas, just shoot me a message and I'll send you that link to that cookbook. It's got over 50 recipes in there with the directions, with the macros, with the ingredients, all that different stuff. And I will send that over to you 100% free.
Speaker: Question number four, I think it is. I think there's two more of these questions. I have about three hours most weeks to dedicate to training. I'm wondering what's the best way to spend that time, weights, cardio, or something else. So I would say with three hours, which this is a pretty common scenario for a lot of people, having you know two, three, maybe four hours to dedicate to training because you have other things going on. I think strength training should always be the foundation. And then if you can mix that with getting your eight to 10,000 steps, which I mentioned a little bit earlier in the podcast, I think getting those two things is a really, really good solid foundation and a great place to start. And then if you can eventually add cardio couple times a week, you're kind of covering all your bases there, but strength training, Always a really good foundation. I think when it comes to this question, there's some things that you have to ask in order to make sure that it's going to fit you and your lifestyle and your preferences. So like, what's your main goal?
Speaker: How many days a week do you actually want to train? And then what kind of style of training do you like? Because if I tell you, hey, you should go do this style of training, you should train this many days a week, but you don't really like that, that doesn't really fit with your lifestyle. it's not going work for you. So you just have to ask yourself some of these basic questions as you're trying to figure this out. But to give you a couple of recommendations, if somebody came to me with these general things and I wasn't able to ask them any questions, I would give them these two options to think about.
Speaker: three days per week, you're going to go an hour session. I would a full body session, or I would do something like an upper, lower, full body type of split, or you could potentially do like a push-pull legs. So each session that you come in would either be full body, you could do upper, or lower, full body, or you could do like a push-pull legs, but have some certain sort of goal for that training session that you come in, one hour. 45 minutes of that hour is going be focused on strength, so building up your overall strength, and then hypertrophy. So Pick like one or two main strength exercise movements and then like four or five kind of supplemental, more hypertrophy type of exercises.
Speaker: Two to three sets for those anywhere between like five to 15 reps for each set is going to be pretty solid. Pushing towards that progressive overload, taking sets close to failure, all that good stuff. And then. 15 minutes of that session will be cardio focused. So you could do some higher intensity cardio since you don't have tons of time, you're going to get a little bit more bang for your buck with this. if you had more time, you could do something a little bit lower intensity, more moderate cardio. But in this particular situation, I would say 45 minutes of like strength and muscle building and then 10 to 15 minutes of higher intensity cardio. So this could be like
Speaker: intervals this could be sprints this could be any kind of conditioning where you're getting your heart rate up really high and then resting for shorter amounts of time for 10 to 15 minutes is going to be solid there another option that you could go with is maybe you want to do four days a week but you want to include a little bit more cardio in this you could do like an upper lower split you're going to four 30 minute strength focused workouts so One day you come in, you do upper. Next day you come in, you do lower. Maybe you take a rest day, then you do upper or lower again. That's going to give you your four sessions, 30 minute sessions.
Speaker: You are focusing on strength and then some muscle building, little bit shorter rest time so you can get a little bit more work in. This is actually what I'm using right now. This is the format that I'm training with because I don't want to spend tons and tons of time in the gym at the moment. So I'm using this exact template for myself.
Speaker: that gives you two total hours. So that gives you an hour left. So with that remaining hour, you could do 40 minutes of lower to moderate intensity cardio at some point, and then do like 20 minutes of HIIT. And you could even split that up into 10 minute sessions. So maybe after two of your strength sessions, you do 10 minutes of HIIT training, and then maybe like on a Saturday or a Sunday, you go out and you do a longer run or a moderate bike ride or something like that. That way you're getting a little bit more cardio in this, but you're still covering your bases and getting your strength foundation. And that just mixes in both of those really well so there's endless ways to do that but that's just a couple super or simple guidelines or a couple simple formats that you could follow if you have specific questions about this stuff you can always shoot me a message too and i'm happy to talk about it with you question number five i've lost about 40 pounds which i'm super happy about but i'm really struggling to get this last 20 pounds off any advice
Speaker: Yes, I've been there and just some things to understand is that this is pretty normal. This happens to a lot of people. You are going to go through different seasons and maybe even hit some plateaus like this. And I think people will sometimes think that it's supposed to be this linear progression where you're just constantly losing weight, but that's not really how it works for a lot of people. Lots of people, myself included, you'll lose weight and then you'll go through a period of maintenance where you don't really lose a whole lot of weight and you're just practicing maintaining and then you go into another fat loss phase where you're able to maybe get 10, 15, 20 pounds off and then maybe you maintain again for a while so
Speaker: A lot of times, if you have a good amount of weight to lose, it's not going to be a single year project. It's a multi-year project because you spend some time losing fat and then you spend some time maintaining and you sort of repeat that cycle until you get to where you want to get. This happens for a lot of reasons. Metabolic adaption happens. So your body starts to become more efficient. You don't burn as many calories and that is a very real thing. And so that does make it a little bit harder to lose weight as you get closer to that goal. I think the bigger thing that happens though is that consistency starts to waver over a long period of time so people get what's called diet fatigue where they just don't really feel like dieting it's hard to stick to a certain diet especially if you're using really harsh protocols or you're in a really deep fat loss phase where you're really aggressive with it that can be hard to do for a long period of time i think the other thing is just you go through different seasons of life so it's harder to stick to a diet when you're busy when you're stressed when you're taking on other new things when you have a new kid, you get a new job, different things like that, it might not be the best time to continue to focus on fat loss when you have tons of different stuff going on. So you may have to wait a little bit until things slow down just enough.
Speaker: You don't want to use that as a continuous excuse to never chase your fat loss goals because then you'll be waiting forever. But if life is just absolutely nuts, then maybe trying to lose fat in that particular season isn't the right move.
Speaker: With that being said, some next steps with this is the good news is you already have a lot of the skills to lose weight. You have a good foundation, but a lot of times you'll have to realize with getting the last 15, 20, 25 pounds off, you're going to have to take things to a higher level of effort and attention to detail. So maybe with tracking food, hitting your steps, getting workouts in, planning, making better swaps with different things, getting some accountability or somebody to push you a little bit might have to happen. So when you start with a big weight loss goal, like losing 60 pounds in this case, getting that first 20 30 even 40 pounds off sometimes can come off pretty easily like it takes work it takes effort but when you have a lot of weight to lose you can be a little bit more lenient you don't have to be quite as consistent but the closer you get to that goal you do have to be more consistent you don't have as much freedom and flexibility to get that last 10 15 20 pounds off You just have to understand that it's going to take a little bit more of you. You're have to take things to a bigger or more focused level. And it's going to take a little bit more attention to detail. And with that, I would say you just have to weigh the pros and cons. Like if you have 20 pounds to lose and you really, really want to get it off, you just have to be willing to make that trade off.
Speaker: I think a lot of times people have this goal weight in their mind and they think, Once I get to this goal weight, like I'll be happy and I'll be able to sustain that and everything will be good. But a lot of times I've noticed that people lose some weight and then they say they want to get to 180 or they want to get to this certain number, but they're not willing to do the things to get to that number.
Speaker: You can get pretty fit. You can lose a good amount of weight. You can improve your health without getting crazy lean. And in order to get leaner and leaner and leaner, it's harder. It takes more of you. I came across this graphic a while ago and it was called the cost of getting lean.
Speaker: And I have always thought about fat loss differently since I've seen this because it laid it out so perfectly and gave you these visuals. Going from, let's say 30% body fat to 20% body fat is not that difficult. Like you can do that by just cleaning up your diet a little bit, exercising consistently, maybe tracking a little bit of food, eating more protein. but then going from 20 to 10% is significantly harder.
Speaker: It takes more attention to detail. You can't do social events as much. You have to track food a little bit more diligently. Maybe you have to do some extra cardio, some extra exercise, different things like that. And then to go from like 10% to like 8% is just as hard as going from that 20 to 10%, if not even harder, because now takes even more attention to detail It takes more focus. It takes more effort. And I think sometimes people don't really realize that in order to not only get to that weight, but then sustain it, you're going to have to do a lot of the things that you are doing in order to lose that weight to sustain that weight.
Speaker: So if you're not willing to track your food all the time, if you're not willing to exercise, five, six days a week and then do cardio on top of that. If you're not willing to maybe give up some social events and not eat out as much, then maybe that's a trade off you're not willing to make, at least at this very time. If you do decide that I do want to get really lean and this is important to me and I do want to get to 12% body fat or get to this goal weight. and I'm gonna do what's ever required of me, then that's totally fine. But I think you just have to be really upfront and honest with yourself if you're willing to do the habits that you're gonna have to do to sustain that, or are you not? Because if you're not, then it doesn't really make sense to continue chasing that because even if you do get to that momentarily, you're not gonna be able to sustain that. So think about the long-term play here, especially from a lifestyle perspective. If you wanna get those results and keep those results, just understand what comes with it.
Speaker: And number six, last question of the pod. I've heard you reference. You've learned a lot about fitness, health and weight loss through reading. Do you have any books you recommend for someone trying to lose weight, build muscle and improve their overall health? Yeah, that's a great question. I love reading. I've been reading a ton ever since I got into this whole fitness journey. So it's been 11 years now. Yeah, graduated college around 22. And then ever since then, I've just been taking in tons of books, a lot of stuff about health, a lot of stuff about nutrition, a lot of stuff about human behavior and psychology and different things like that to help me with both the mental and the physical side of all this. And so I read a ton. I try to read at least 10 pages a day. And so I've read a couple hundred books over the past 10, 11 years.
Speaker: And if I had to boil this down to probably the top three that I would start with, they would be these. Number one would be Atomic Habits. I have referenced this book multiple times and James Clear is one of my favorite authors and a ton of the stuff that I talk about, I got from him and I got from that book. The 1% Better You Hear Me Talk About. The stuff about changing your identity, habit change, changing your environment. I learned all that through his book. And it's been probably the most influential book I've ever read because it's so practical and it's really helpful, not just from the physical side of like what to do, but also from the mental side, the psychology side, the identity side, which I think you really need both when you're trying to make changes for a lifestyle.
Speaker: And so a ton of the stuff that I learned, a ton of the stuff that I talked to you guys about, I've learned from this book. And so I would highly recommend that book. Some of the biggest takeaways, the importance that identity plays in what you do and who you want to become. That's a huge part of that whole book.
Speaker: How critical it is to put yourself in the right environment in order to do the things that you want to do. It's so much harder to make changes when you're in an environment that doesn't support the change that you want to make. And when I think it comes to fitness, when it comes to weight loss, when it comes to improving your health, Putting yourself in the right environment and around the right people is a really underrated thing to do. And then the last thing that I would mention from this is just probably the the power of small changes, which that's again where the 1% better thing came from that I always talk about. You can change your life by just doing small things consistently.
Speaker: And I think a lot of people overlook that, but... I've lost 100 pounds that way. I've run a marathon that way. I've helped a lot of other clients lose a lot of weight that way. Like it comes down to just doing small things most days. And when you're consistent at those things, you can change your life in a really huge way. So highly, highly recommend that book if you have not checked that one out. I think I've read that book three times. So even if you read it before, I think there's a ton of value to come back to it, get some tips and tricks and different things like that.
Speaker: The second on this list would be the muscle and strength pyramid nutrition edition this one will help to explain and most importantly tell you the things that you should focus on the most so i think a lot of people really struggle with nutrition because there's so many different things that people are telling you so many differences in opinion but when it comes down to it like when you really understand the principles especially when it comes to like improving your health losing fat even building muscle like when you understand the couple main things that you're supposed to do you can get rid of all the other stuff and kind of cut through the noise and the bs and not worry about all the different things that people are talking about because you have the solid three to five things that you should be focusing on and I really like this book because it lays it out in a pyramid fashion. So you focus on the bottom of the pyramid and then you slowly work your way up. And those are the things that you want to be putting your focus, your time, your energy into those things, because if you get those things right, you're going to make the most progress by focusing on those things.
Speaker: at the right time. So it gets into things like calorie deficit, energy balance. it talks about macros, micronutrients, meal timing and frequency. It talks about supplements and different things like that. But some of the biggest takeaways with this is just understanding what energy balance is and then also just knowing where to put your focus. So on calories, on protein, on food quality, different things like that. And I actually did an entire episode based on this book. It is episode 110 and it explains the whole fat loss pyramid. So if you want to check that out, I'll actually put that link in the show notes as well. You want some insight into that because it is a super helpful book. And then the last one that I would mention just to kind of round this out and give you some information on actually training would be a book called the starting strength by Mark Ripto. It's very simplified, but I think that's good.
Speaker: it teaches you about progressive overload principle it gives you some simple programs to follow and it gives you some main takeaways that you should understand when it comes to training because again this is such a area that can be over complicated there's so many different programs so many styles of training so many different ways that people look at training and everybody has an opinion on what's better and what sucks and what's you should avoid and different things like that but again when you understand the principles then you can kind of cut through some of the noise and you can make the best decision for you as long as you're getting stronger and you're building muscle you're going to be improving your health and this book really nails that point home that you can do that by doing really basic stuff like really simple exercises repeated over time and getting really strong at those exercises you can get a ton of the benefits that you want to get building muscle looking better feeling better improving your health And all that comes from just understanding this basic principle of progressive overload. So lifting more weight for more reps with better technique over time. And when you understand those simple things, you can do a lot of really good things with health, with fitness, with looking better, with getting that body that you want, all that different stuff.
Speaker: I think this book is a really simple read. It's a good read. You get a good basis of what you should be focusing on. And then if you wanna add different things, if you wanna do different styles of training, if you wanna to add little tips and tricks here and try different stuff, then you can do that. But I think it helps to have a really good foundation of this. So this book is a good place to start for that.
Speaker: And with that being said, that is the podcast. I could probably list 10 other books to read and that you would get a ton of value from, but I'll just keep it short with that. Those three selections for now. If you want some references or some different books to read or have different questions about any of that kind of stuff, again, you can always shoot me a message. I really enjoy doing these podcasts and getting questions from you guys. So if you have questions that you want answered, again, you can always reach out, hit me up. I'm always down to help people out in any way that I can. So as always, i appreciate you listening. Continue to leave reviews, share this with other people you think could get value. And i appreciate you listening. We will see you next week
