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 that time for the weekly episode. Before I get into it, if you can and have not already done so, leave a review. That helps to get this show out to more people. Share this with people who you think could get some value out of this. Because the ultimate goal of this show is just to help more people live better, look better, feel better. all those good things that we want to get from health and fitness.
Speaker: The topic for this week, it is time for another Q&A. So we have five questions today, questions that I get from people online, questions that I get from clients, and questions that I just get from everyday conversation. I try to find common trends or maybe things that I'm hearing a lot of and then bring those to the podcast or every once in a while somebody will just ask me a really interesting question whether that be a client or just somebody that I'm having a conversation with that I think would be really good to dive into on the podcast and so I bring it to the pod so we have five questions for today which are my thoughts on GOP ones does weight loss really come down to mostly nutrition
Speaker: What to do in the gym when you're starting fresh and unsure what to do? Number four, can you build muscle while losing fat? And number five, how do you stay consistent when motivation wears off?
Speaker: Let's get right into a Question number one. What are your thoughts on GLP ones? This is question number one. So a little bit of my background, obviously, most people who have listened to this show at all, you know, I've lost a bunch of weight. I did that 10 years ago. And so this was before GLP ones were around, or definitely before you had access to those things. I didn't have surgery. I didn't do anything like that. I just lost it through diet, through exercise and through lifestyle change. And so These type of things weren't really around. And I think my approach in general is typically just to focus on the basics as much as possible. I'm not a guy who takes a bunch of supplements. I take maybe three or four on a regular basis. I don't really do anything with peptides. I never have. I don't really, i'm not super interested in getting involved in that kind of thing. I tend to let things like new diets or trends or workout styles just kind of play out before I ever curate my own opinion on those things or maybe even try some of those things. And so I typically like to focus on the basics, focus on the principles. GOP ones is probably not something that I would have ever dabbled in, but now they're extremely popular. They seem to be helping quite a few people. And as a guy who helps people with weight loss, it's something that I come in contact to quite a bit now. Like there's quite a few people who I've met, some people who I've worked with who have been on GOP-1s. And so it's something that I have researched a little bit more and just been able to come up with my own opinion on these things.
Speaker: My thoughts is they are effective for quite a few people. If you look at some of the studies, roughly 80 to 85% will see some sort of meaningful change when using GOP-1s. So what they classify as meaningful is losing at least five percent of your body weight because when you lose that much body weight you start to see some positive benefits so quality of life maybe start to improve better you start to feel a little bit better maybe your health markers start to improve a little bit and so five percent it's definitely not nothing like for people who need to lose a lot of weight that can be 10 15 20 pounds
Speaker: So losing at least 5% of your body weight is going start to have some positive benefits. Now, some people lose more, but that percentage of people starts to go down. So people who lose 10% is a little bit less than that 85%. And then people who lose more than 15% up to is a little bit less. So Closer to like that 50% or lower range. So it is pretty effective for a good majority of people, not everybody, but a lot of people do see positive benefits when they take these things.
Speaker: With that being said, I do not think that that means that these things are for everyone because there are some There some pros, there are some cons, there's some side effects, there's some things that you probably need to consider before you hop on one of these, which I'll get into. But before getting into that, I think it's important to talk about why people have such strong feelings about these things. So a lot of times when you get on this subject of GLPs, people will be on one side or the other.
Speaker: Most people aren't really in the in the middle. A lot of people are like GLP ones are cheating. People shouldn't be taking these. We don't really know what the long term effects of these things are going to be. And then you'll have people on the other side who say these are the best things ever created. This is going to solve obesity. This is going to be super helpful, save a lot of lives. It's awesome.
Speaker: Tons of people should be on these things. And I fall somewhere in the middle. But I think a lot of people have really strong feelings about these because So often people attach their moral judgments to weight loss. So if somebody says, I'm not very good at math, I think I'm going get a tutor. Nobody thinks anything bad of that. Like nobody really has sort some sort of like strong opinion or strong judgment about that. They're just like, oh yeah, you're not very good at math. Yeah. Why wouldn't you just get a tutor? That makes sense. But if someone says I'm really struggling to lose weight and I think I'm going to try a GLP-1, I've tried dieting in the past and I've tried all these different things and nothing's really ever worked for me. So I think I'm going to try this thing and see if it helps me.
Speaker: People tend to have some sort of strong opinion about that, about like you're lazy or you don't have the willpower or you're just unmotivated. You just need to work harder. And I think people just don't think about this a little bit more critically than they should.
Speaker: Of course, you have responsibility to take care of your health and there's things that you can do to lose weight. But I think it's just kind of silly to think that losing weight, keeping it off, staying lean isn't harder for others than it is for some other people. Some people just based on their genetics, based on how they grew up, based on their environment. based on their culture based on a lot of different things they don't have any issues with gaining weight or maintaining a healthy weight for other people you put them in an environment where there's tons of food there's tons of easy to overeat stuff we're more sedentary than we've ever been you grow up in a household that doesn't really prioritize health any of those sorts of things. And it makes it very easy for some people to become overweight and then struggle to ever get that weight off.
Speaker: All that to say, that doesn't mean that you can't improve your situation. As I said, it is your responsibility to take care of your health and nobody can do it for you. So it's important to realize that you do have ownership in this and there are things that you can do. And just because Maybe you are set up with a little bit tougher time to lose weight or even just keep that weight off and live and maintain a healthier lifestyle. That doesn't mean that you can't improve on those things.
Speaker: I don't really come from a fit family. I don't really think I have great genetics as far as like keeping weight off and different things like that. I didn't grow up in an environment where health was prioritized. I didn't have people showing me how to eat healthy or showing me what exercise look like or different things like that. But at a certain point, I just decided that I didn't want to live with all that excess weight to deal with health problems. to have all the issues that come along with not prioritizing your health, with being overweight and different things like that. So I made the decision to start figuring it out, decided that I wanted to lose weight, started doing that. And a lot of the things that help you lose weight and keep it off are skills and are things that you can get better at over time.
Speaker: Of course, I just said like genetics, environment, all those things are part of it. But so much of losing weight and keeping it off is just learning new habits and learning new skills. So you can learn how to track food.
Speaker: You can learn how to cook quick and easy, healthy meals. You can learn how to set yourself up with a healthy environment. You can learn how to eat out without having to overindulge all the time. You can learn how to build habits around walking. You can learn how to lift weights. You can learn how to be healthy and active. You can learn how to bring more awareness around food and make better decisions. There's so many different things that you can get better at over time. You just have to make sure that you're making a conscious choice, that it's something you want to do, and then deciding that that's where you're going to put your time, your effort, and really try to make this change over time.
Speaker: But the reality is that some people either really, really, really, really struggle with this or they just don't want to put their time, their effort and their focus into these things. Maybe they have a bunch of other things going on. They have kids, they have life, they're stressed, they're this, they're that. And that's just a decision that some people make. I'm not saying that's right or wrong.
Speaker: I'm just saying that people make those decisions based on where they're at. That's a personal choice. But I think with that being said, if you are thinking about maybe taking one of these things, you should definitely weigh the pros and the cons. Because as I said, I don't think they're for everyone. There are side effects with these things.
Speaker: We don't necessarily know all the long, long-term benefits that's going to come with these things. And so talking about some of the pros and some of the cons, some of the pros, it works for quite a few people. As I said, 80 to 85% see some sort of meaningful weight loss, which is a good thing. So they tend to help people with appetite regulation and helping people feel more full and satiated. So it just helps people to stay in that energy deficit or that calorie deficit, which over time helps people to lose weight.
Speaker: It helps people to improve their health markers because if you lose 5%, 10%, 15% of your body weight, those health markers are going to start to improve, which is a great thing.
Speaker: Maybe one of the reasons that people don't really think about how these things can be super helpful is it gives a lot of people hope because they see progress and they see quicker progress than maybe they have before. One of the things that is noted in studies with people who tend to be successful long term with weight loss is that a lot of those people see earlier progress. So maybe they see that scale going down.
Speaker: or they see that what they're doing is working, they're making progress, they're losing inches. And that is super beneficial for people to have earlier on in their journeys in order to actually stick with this for the long term. Because if you're doing something over and over and you're not really seeing any sorts of progress or feeling like you're making much headway, it's much easier for people to not do those things or to quit or to give up. And so I think these things can be maybe one of those things that can help people to get started with weight loss and maybe take it a little bit more serious and invest a little bit more into it. But with that being said, as we'll get into with some of the cons, you have to have some sort of exit strategy unless you plan on taking these GOP ones for the rest of your life.
Speaker: So some of the cons, probably the major one that you hear is just the side effects with it. So stomach issues, digestion issues, nausea, those sorts of things are pretty common side effects that a lot of people have reported with these things. So these medicines affect people differently. Also, just depending on your dosage and those sorts of things, you can have some side effects with these things.
Speaker: Maybe even a bigger thing would be the muscle loss. And this is not strictly about GLP ones. It's basically just about how quickly you are losing weight. So when you lose weight very quickly, especially if you're not training training, a lot of that weight that you're losing is coming from muscle mass, which is not a good thing for weight loss. And it's especially not a good thing for being able to sustain that weight loss. We know that if we want to keep our metabolism high, if we want to look better, if we want to feel better, we need to have a lot of muscle mass. So you don't want to sacrifice losing a lot of weight quickly. If the weight that you're losing, a lot of that is coming from muscle mass. And with GLP-1s, people tend to see much faster progress, but a lot of that progress, a lot of that weight loss that they're having is coming from muscle. And that's not a good thing, especially for the long-term.
Speaker: Other things on this cons list, taking this medicine without lifestyle change has has some detriments as well. So a lot of people will just take this medicine and they're not really changing their ways. So they're not really increasing the types of good foods that they should be eating, maybe not eating enough protein, maybe they're not exercising or lifting weights or different things like that. And so you're still going to end up with some of these health issues. So you may be losing weight, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're solving all your health issues just by losing weight. If you're not improving some of those other things that we know are also important, like eating whole foods, like eating protein, eating fiber, sleeping, stress management, all those things. So this isn't just a pill that's going to solve everything. This isn't just a drug that's going to completely make you a healthy person. And I think you just, that's something that you should realize if this is something that you're planning on taking them.
Speaker: And then the last one that I would say about this is that like most weight loss strategies that you use, the way that you lose the weight is typically going to be something that you have to do for the longterm. So if you use a specific diet to lose weight, that's typically going to be the diet that you need to continue to use in order to keep the weight off. Because if you use some sort of crash diet, use some sort of fad that you can't stick with, Eventually, you're going to go back to your normal eating style. And when that happens, that weight typically tends to come back. If you're using a really extreme exercise program, along with like some crash diet, and you're just not going to be able to sustain that exercise program. Well, then when you stop exercising as much, some of that weight is going to come back. So typically, whatever kind of method or strategy that you use to lose the weight is typically something that you're going to need to keep up to keep that weight off. So the same thing goes for these drugs. So when people get on these drugs, a lot of people think, oh I'm just going to get on these drugs. I'll be on it for a year. I'll lose the weight and then I'll be good. But we know now through statistics and just how these things have tended to play out. People who get on these drugs, lose weight and then get off these drugs.
Speaker: a large majority of these people gain the weight back. And that's not anything different than most weight loss because people use methods that they don't really plan on sustaining for a long time. So that's also something to consider if you're going to get on these and you plan on getting off these, you have to really take a look at what are the things that I'm going to be implementing over time, these lifestyle factors.
Speaker: and just understanding around food and building better habits and things like that so that when I do come off these, if that is a decision that I'm going to make, how am I going actually keep this weight off? Because if you don't have any of these solutions, you don't have these new habits, new mindset, new lifestyle factors, then that weight is going to eventually come back. so with that being said my honest opinion is if this was me all over again and i was trying to lose 100 pounds again today in 2026 i would honestly stay away from the glp ones because i would want to just try this with the basics first so i would give it six solid months i would track food i would walk 10 000 steps a day i would lift weights two to four times a week i would eat plenty of protein plenty of fiber I would focus on all those basic things and I would do those very consistently.
Speaker: I know that if anybody does those things, you will certainly feel better. You're probably going to lose weight. You're probably going to build some muscle. You're going to feel better. You're going to get healthier. And if you continue to do those things and just build that up slowly over time, you are going to feel better. You're going to look better. You're going to get healthy. With that being said, i know that some people aren't going to want to do those things. And so if that is you, you need to start to consider some of these pros and some of these cons. So before you decide that I want to take a GOP, you should probably talk to a health official, somebody who you trust, who can give you some good advice on this. But even beyond that is just weigh the pros and cons for yourself as well. And then think to yourself, are you willing to be on these drugs for an extended period of time, like for years, decades, maybe the rest of your life? And then also like what lifestyle habits are you going to implement if you are going to take these? Because it's not just taking these things and then just keep going about your normal everyday life. If you truly want to feel great, look great, like have better health, then you need to focus on some of these lifestyle habits that you're implementing along with these things. So
Speaker: Take all that into account. Talk to somebody who you can trust, a medical professional, and then make the best decision for you. Number two, that was a long one there. Does weight loss come down to mostly nutrition?
Speaker: The short answer is yes. Most of weight loss really does come down to nutrition. But with that being said, exercise is still really important when it comes to losing weight. and I'll explain why that is. So if you can really understand this with some nuance you will be much better off and be able to lose weight more effectively and actually keep it off so i read this book a while back and it was called burn it was by this professor who studies thermodynamics and is a professor at duke and he wanted to know how many calories the hadza tribe were burning because the hadza tribe they still hunt and gather all their food And they walk like 15 to 20,000 steps on average. They're just moving around, hunting, gathering. They get tons of activity in. So like his thought process was like, they're moving a ton. I wanna know how many calories they're burning because it has to be an absolute crap ton.
Speaker: Spoiler alert alert, when they did this testing on this tribe, they found that they were not burning very many more calories than anybody else. So when they compared them to sedentary people here in America, they were barely burning more calories than them. And I know this sounds crazy, like how could that be? But when they adjusted for body size, it was very similar in calories that people in America were burning to these Hasla tribes. So they're typically smaller versus American people who weigh a little bit more. But when they adjusted for those two things, the amount of calories that people were burning in a day were very similar. And so you start to ask yourself, OK, how can that be? but
Speaker: we know now that there is this energy model that is called the constrained energy model so basically that's just a fancy way to say your body starts to compensate in other ways when you're burning lots of calories through exercise or through just like physical activity so for example if you go and you're getting tons and tons of steps in and you're doing that day after day after day, your body is pretty good at finding other ways to save calories. So for example, people who diet for a really long time, they will start to notice that their meat level goes down, which is basically your non-exercise activity thermogenesis. So think about all the activity that you do outside of like structured exercise. your body is really smart at down regulating that if you are in a calorie deficit for a long period of time because it's not getting that energy to keep those activity levels up and because it doesn't want to be too low with that it starts to compensate in certain ways and the same thing happens with activity so if you're a super active person all the time and you're not eating tons of food your body will start to find ways to down regulate over time
Speaker: people often have this idea like more activity is better and of course being active and having activity is going to help you to burn some extra calories and be a good thing overall but when it comes to just strictly burning calories it's not nearly as effective as people think because again your body is pretty good at compensating in other ways And we don't necessarily know all those different ways. Like we know through NEAT, our body starts to downregulate, but there's also some things that we don't really know yet, but we just know that the body is pretty good at compensating with those things. I think right along with that, one of the issues that I see all the time is that most people wear like smartwatches or fitness trackers or things like that. And a lot of the readings that we get around calories just aren't that accurate. So like a workout that you did for 30 minutes will tell you that you burned 600 calories and
Speaker: Oftentimes these things are being overshot by a lot. So people think in a super basic model of like, oh, I'm burning this many calories every single day. i exercise this much. My watch tells me I burned 3,200 calories today. can eat whatever I want. And that's not the case. Like it's just not very accurate. And the moral of the story here is that we just highly overestimate how many calories we're actually burning. And so some things that you actually need to understand as you lose weight, you start to become fitter.
Speaker: As you start to become fitter, you become more efficient at using energy, which means your body needs less calories to actually function doing the same day to day things, exercising, walking around, different things like that. So for example, when you first start running, especially when you're out of shape, and maybe you're a little bit overweight, you're going to burn quite a few calories. But as you start to lose some weight, as you start to get more fit, as you start to be able to handle running a little bit better, your body doesn't need as many calories to run because it just becomes more efficient. And that's just with everything as you start to get in better shape, as you start to lose weight, those different things, you don't need as many calories, right along with that, as you start to lose weight, you become smaller, which means you need less calories. So a 300 pound person is going to burn more than a 250 pound person if they have similar activity levels just because you're a bigger person it takes more calories you need more energy just to function and do all those different things so as you start to lose weight it starts to become harder because you need less energy so when we think about these things
Speaker: How do you actually use this information? So exercise in itself is still helpful for losing weight. It's just not going to be the main role. That's always going to be nutrition, but exercise can be helpful in a lot of different ways. It does help to burn a few extra calories. It is better to be active because healthy people are typically active people. If you look at people who have lost weight, kept it off, they're typically pretty active, but for a lot of other reasons, exercise becomes helpful. helps to preserve muscle mass if you're lifting weights, helps to regulate your appetite, helps to have better mental health, helps to typically make better choices if you're making sure to focus on exercise, relieve stress, all those different things are tons of reasons that you should be exercising. So even if you never lost a single pound, like if you had weight loss goals, exercise would still be one of the best things that you can do.
Speaker: As you lose weight and as you get closer to your body goal or your goal weight, your body is going to require less calories. So you probably should adjust your nutrition accordingly if you do want to continue to lose weight and get towards those goals. That's just something to understand. And this is where things like diet breaks can make a lot of sense. And just the strategies that you use while dieting can be super helpful. you know Making sure that you're eating more fiber, more protein, those sorts of things can also make this process a little bit easier. And so the bottom line is weight loss, if that is a goal, you wanna make sure that nutrition is dialed because that is going to play a far bigger role than exercise. Now, again, exercise is still highly beneficial, but for a lot of reasons, that's not going to be the main contributor to your weight loss.
Speaker: In general, it obviously makes sense to focus on both. So continue to exercise, but also just make sure that nutrition is super dialed in, especially if you have weight to lose and are still working towards that goal.
Speaker: Question number three, I'm about to start back up with working out and I don't really know where to start. Any suggestions? So before you do any kind of workout program, before you start looking for a program, any of that stuff, I think it's important just to identify your goal.
Speaker: Start with the end in mind. Where do you want to be? And number two, why are you chasing that certain goal? So Where do you want to get to be very specific about this? Do you want to lose 20 pounds? Do you want to lose 50 pounds? Do you want to gain muscle? Do you want to feel better? Do you want to gain energy? Like be specific about those things. so You actually have that goal in mind so you can make a better plan to achieve that goal. Second thing I would say is just dig a little bit deeper on why this is actually important to you. I think so many times because I've had at this point hundreds of conversations with people about fitness goals and different things like that. And so often people just throw out generic goals that they don't actually care about.
Speaker: they say, Oh, i want to lose a few pounds, or I want to do this, or i want to run this marathon or do this. But like, a lot of times, they just don't actually want to do those things, which is fine. But just be specific about what your actual goal is, and then make sure that it actually is meaningful to you. Because most goals that you chase, especially fitness wise, they're going to take a little bit of work, you're going have to do some things that you don't always want to do, you're going to have to do things when you're tired or unmotivated or busy and so if it's not actually meaningful to you like if you don't have a real reason that you're trying to chase this goal you're not going stick with it you have to make sure that the goal that you have is actually important to you and then make sure that you have a good reason to chase this goal so a lot of times working with people like kids comes up a lot like people like i want to be fitter for my kids i want to be a better parent better mother better father i want to be able to run around with my kids all those different things or Another one that I hear all the time is confidence. Like I want to be more confident. I want to be strong. I want to look a certain way. I want to feel a certain way. And a lot of people can get that through fitness.
Speaker: For some people, it's just getting out of pain or injury prevention. For some people, it's living a longer our life or having better energy. There's lots of really good reasons. But I think if you can really dial in why this is important to you, you'll have such a better chance at actually achieving this goal and then actually being able to sustain those results that you get.
Speaker: if you don't know exactly where to start i think getting strong and building muscle is always a really good idea you can never really get too strong or have too much muscle like nobody's accidentally getting super huge and ripped and having muscle and getting strong it's just so beneficial for so many different facets of your life so if you don't know exactly what kind of goal to chase i think getting stronger building muscle is always a really good idea getting to a decent level of cardio also a really good idea if you care about living a better quality life and living longer and those sorts of things so to get practical with it if you don't know anything what to do like you don't have any kind of gym experience i would say get around somebody who can help you so maybe that's a coach with like a group class maybe that's a one-on-one trainer maybe that's a friend who's super knowledgeable and will take you to their workouts with them but get around somebody who can't help you be because they're going to be able to teach you some things they're gonna be able to hold you accountable a little bit and just help make this process getting back into things a little bit easier From general recommendation standpoint, lifting weights two three times a week, I think is a really good place to start. i think too often many people just way overshoot it when they're trying to get back into these things and they try to do things that are unsustainable, like working out five, six days a week and that lasts for about two weeks and then you're burned out.
Speaker: Rather than doing that, just start on the low end two to three times a week. get in the gym do some strength training you can always start with machines that's a little bit less intimidating you can do some things like focusing on just the basic human movements so pushing pulling hinging squatting some core exercises if you're covering those five exercises you're going to be in pretty good shape so find some machines or some exercises where you can hit all those movements and then just focus on getting stronger over time think of working out as just practice you're not trying to achieve your goal in 30 days or hit this crazy milestone in eight weeks. Just think about this is something that I want to be doing for a long time and I'm just going to practice getting better over time. so I'm going to get a little bit stronger. I'm going to get a little bit fitter. I'm going to get better at moving. And when you approach it with that mindset, I think it's so much more sustainable. some general cardio guidelines getting in there once two three times a week 15 to 20 minutes on any kind of cardio machine that you want you could go easy you could go harder you could take bigger rest you go moderate honestly it really doesn't matter the biggest thing with this is that you just find something that is sustainable that you can do consistently and do it consistently for three months six months something like that Once you get to that point, once you start to build the habits, you start to build a good foundation, then you can focus on doing something that's a little bit more detailed, maybe finding a little bit better program or doing something like that. But I think for most people, if you can just really keep it simple, to start to establish the habit of showing up.
Speaker: And also just realize that when everybody starts in the gym, they all felt the same way that you probably feel right now. Like everybody feels like they don't know what to do or feel kind of out of place or they're like just a little bit nervous about it. Like everybody feels that. Like I think back to my first experience in the gym. And I didn't really want to go into the gym and lift weights for the first time like when I was in middle school because I was intimidated by the high schoolers who were in there lifting weights. Like I didn't want to look dumb. I didn't know what to do. I was going to be weaker than everybody. I thought everybody was going to be looking at me and everybody feels that way. Like some people experience that when they're in middle school like I did. Some people experience that when they're in their 20s when they go to the gym for the first time on their own. And some people experience that when they're in their fifty s like.
Speaker: It happens to everybody, but I think the more that you get in the gym and you just build this habit and you just practice showing up, that stuff starts to go way over time. And then as you start to see progress, as you start to get fitter, as you start to view a little bit better, this stuff all becomes a little bit easier. So if that was me and I was trying to approach things, that's exactly the mindset that I would take into this.
Speaker: Question number four, is it true you can build muscle while losing fat? Short answer is yes, you can build some muscle while losing fat. It typically happens most in a couple of certain scenarios though.
Speaker: If you're new to the gym, like if you're a newbie, you can lose fat and gain muscle pretty easily for a while. If you have a lot of weight to lose, you can also build quite a bit of muscle while losing fat.
Speaker: Or if you have been in the gym previously and then maybe you took some time off, which caused you to lose some muscle, lose some size, lose some strength, you can typically get that back a little bit faster than most people so those are kind of the three common scenarios where you can build quite a bit of muscle and lose quite a bit of fat at the same time outside of that you still can build muscle and lose fat but it's a much much much slower process so in general it typically makes sense to focus on one of those goals versus the other so building muscle building strength or
Speaker: trying to cut fat, it makes sense to really dial in on one of those goals, because it's going to be faster focusing on one versus the other than trying to do both at the same time. If you're somebody who's a little bit more advanced, you've been in the gym for a while, or something like that.
Speaker: With that being said, i know there still is some certain situations where body recomping, so building muscle and losing fat is a focus that more people want to do. Somebody who's bulking, they may not want to gain any weight. I hear this a lot with females, like I don't really want to put on a lot of weight. And so for them, body recomp would make a little bit more sense. If you don't mind it taking a little bit longer, then you can focus on building muscle, losing a little bit of fat.
Speaker: things you want to do with that eating a high protein diet, eating around your maintenance calories pretty consistently, and obviously training really hard to build muscle, you'll start to notice some differences. So you may not see that scale move a ton one way or the other, but you'll start to notice maybe you're losing inches or your clothes are fitting better. or Progress pictures are look looking a little bit better, which means that you are losing fat and building muscle. But again, with that being said, i think, yes, you can build muscle, lose fat at the same time. But unless you're in one of those special situations, it typically makes sense to cut to lose fat or to bulk to build muscle because it's just going to be a little bit faster.
Speaker: Question number five is our last question of the day. I've been consistent for a couple of months, but struggling with motivation lately. What do you do when this happens? Good question.
Speaker: Motivation is something I get asked about quite a bit. I think the first and maybe the most helpful thing you can do is reframe your idea around motivation. It's really nice when it's there, but it's just something that you can't rely on.
Speaker: I think of it similar to your job or your work. Hopefully you have a job that you like, at least sometimes. And if you don't, maybe this still applies because you still show up because you need to. And it's just something that you do. Working out is the same thing. So hopefully you find a way to work out that you actually enjoy sometimes. But there's going be some days where you just don't want to do it. You just have to show up. You have to get the work in.
Speaker: You continue to chase those goals. And as you start to do those things, you just notice that you're making progress and you just start to learn how to show up even when you don't necessarily want to. With that being said, there's tons of things that you can do to make working out more enjoyable in the same way that hopefully you enjoy your job sometimes. And there's ways that your job can be more enjoyable.
Speaker: Fitness can be the same way. So I'm a firm believer that there's a certain way to work out or a certain fitness thing or a niche within the fitness world that you can actually enjoy. And as a trainer, I've worked with many different people in many different ways. So small group,
Speaker: large group. I worked one on one. I worked with a couple people at a time. I've worked with people doing online remote fitness. I've just seen lots of different ways that people approach fitness and just different styles that people like. And so I think there's something out there for everybody. So taking some time to actually figure out what that looks like for you, find something that is really enjoyable if you like working out with other people. maybe that's working out with a group or maybe that's joining a class if you like having somebody hold you accountable or having a coach who can really teach you maybe that's working out with a trainer if you like doing your own thing but you want somebody to hold you accountable from afar maybe that's online training if you just completely like doing your own thing and you like building your own workouts maybe that's working out on your own all the time There's so many different things that you can do to make this more enjoyable. And I think finding the style of training that you actually like that you will do consistently is probably step number one. But even outside of that, there's things you can do, like people that you work out with can make it more enjoyable. Music that you listen to can make it more enjoyable.
Speaker: Where you work out so the gym that you're at can make it more enjoyable. If you have specific goals that you're chasing that make it more enjoyable. There's just a lot of different ways that you can make this more appealing. And the more of those things that you can find the better that it's going to be and the more motivated and just the easier that it's going to be to show up and do those things.
Speaker: Other things I would do around this is just get clear on your why again. So I talked about finding your why earlier, finding that thing that is just important to you that you can refer back to when it would be really easy just to skip or just to quit for a while. Because if you have that strong motivator, it makes it so much easier to show up when you really don't want to.
Speaker: When I have clients who tell me they're trying to work harder or get in shape or lose weight because they want to be a better father or they want to get their confidence back, it's much easier for those people to show up than somebody who's just showing up because like, oh, I want to lose 10 pounds. Right. Like there's a difference between those two things. So get back to your why and really think about that. and really focus in on why it is that you want to achieve these things and then just from a practical standpoint i think breaking it down so that you don't fall off or just completely skip is always really helpful so what i mean by breaking it down is instead of maybe getting that hour-long workout in you just go and you get a 20 or 30 minute workout and keeps the momentum rolling and something is always going to be better than nothing
Speaker: Weekly minimums, really good thing that I like and something that I implement with a lot of my clients. So have a weekly minimum standard. So maybe that's two times a week, three times a week, four times a week, whatever that may be. But that is your standard that you can hit no matter what.
Speaker: For a lot of people, it makes sense start on that lower end and then work your way up. But I know for me, like four times a week in the gym is my minimum. I know that I'm hitting that regardless every single week. I don't have any excuses or any reason why I can't do that. have a gym in my basement. I have two gym memberships. Like I can always get four workouts in. Like can always squeeze out a 20 or 30 minute workout in four times a week. Have that weekly minimum. Maybe that's just twice a week for you, but stick to that no matter what, get those two in. And then anything that you do on top of that, Awesome. That's a bonus. But have that weekly minimum that you have to hit.
Speaker: And then lastly, I would say a really easy thing that you can do with this too is just to find something that gets you excited about training again. So if you're getting back into it, maybe that's finding some new goal to chase. Maybe that's joining a new gym. Maybe that's finding a new program that you're really excited about trying a new workout class. Any of that stuff can just get you excited about getting back into the gym again.
Speaker: Hopefully that was helpful. That was five questions. I feel like those were some longer questions this time around, but always good to do these. Dive a little bit deeper on some of these questions. If you have any questions for me in the future, you can always send me a message and I would love to answer some of these questions on the pod in future episodes. The one-on-one coaching link, if you want some help with your fitness goals, specifically around body transformation, weight loss, building muscle, I can help you out with that.
Speaker: With that being said though, that is all I have for this week. Continue to leave reviews and share this with other people if you can get the show out to more people. But with that being said, I appreciate you and we will see you week.
