I asked my audience for the 15 most

popular unanswered questions about how

to lose fat or to gain muscle mass. The

first one, how do I lose weight fast?

But we just answered that.

>> Yeah. The second one is creatine is a

miracle thing that everybody should be

taking.

>> There's almost nothing creatine can't

do. Wow, some statement.

Next, is there any harm in eating too

much protein? It's rare, and in fact,

almost everybody who has some degree of

an issue with their body fat levels

under consume protein. The next question

is about PCOS. What would you say to a

woman struggling with PCOS in terms of

dietary prescription? That's a damn good

question, man. Can I go into detail with

this? Because a lot of people are very

misinformed about this stuff.

>> The floor is yours. Okay, so Alan Aragon

has been using science to help elite

athletes unlock peak performance for

over 30 years. And now he's breaking

down the nutrition and training

strategies that actually deliver

results. It's important to take an

evidence-based approach to diet,

nutrition, training, supplementation.

Because if you don't, then you end up

wasting a lot of time. So let's start

with protein. So how much protein should

I be eating to gain muscle? What is your

goal body weight? It's around 90. Take

90 and multiply that by

There's your protein target. What about

calorie restriction? I've heard you say

that 10 or 20% of your calories can come

from pretty much anything you want.

Literally anything. So I could eat

McDonald's or something, and I could

still lose weight theoretically. That's

true. And this is reflected in research

along with diet breaks. That's one of

the tactics that you can use for a

long-term adherence to a plan. And I'll

explain how. I also wanted to talk about

the ketogenic diets, menopause, fasting,

sugars, and this.

That that always gets me, man. That that

picture always gets me. Why? I used to

drink heavily. I was overworked and

trying to be the best father and the

best husband.

And it got real bad.

I just needed to stop. And I did. How? I

just

Wow, really? Yes.

I see messages all the time in the

comment section that some of you didn't

realize you didn't subscribe. So if you

could do me a favor and double-check if

you're a subscriber to this channel,

that would be tremendously appreciated.

It's the simple, it's the free thing

that anybody that watches this show

frequently can do to help us here to

keep everything going in this show in

the trajectory it's on. So please do

double-check if you subscribed, and

thank you so much. Because in a strange

way you are you're part of our history,

and you're on this journey with us, and

I appreciate you for that. So yeah,

thank you.

Alan,

why should I listen to you? What have

you done in your career in over the last

30 years that

has given you the knowledge, the

information, the wisdom that you have on

nutrition, dieting, fitness, etc.?

Who is Alan?

I have over 30 years of experience in

the field. The first 10 years consisted

of personal training. The second decade

of my career was nutritional counseling.

Just counseling people on on how to eat,

what to eat. And then the third decade

of my career, which is actually

running on 13 years now, is the research

and education side. My colleagues and I,

we in quotes do the science, we publish

the science. I've been a part of

30 publications. 30 studies?

>> Yeah. Yeah, a combination of narrative

reviews, systematic reviews and

meta-analyses, and randomized controlled

trials. And how many people have you

worked with directly over the last 30

years in terms of in your your

nutritional counseling role, but also as

a as a trainer? Individually, it's

it's triple digits. Groups,

potentially

quadruple. Yeah.

And some of those people that you've

worked with over the years are fairly

high profile. Yeah.

Probably my

most interesting story is getting an

email from Steve Austin. And and

wrestling fans know him as Stone Cold

Steve Austin. In so many words, he said,

"Hey Alan, I've been

I've been doing my research, and

you're you're the guy. So I want to work

with you.

Um I know that you mentioned that you're

not working with clients, but could you

please make an exception for me? Here's

my number." What did you do with him?

With Stone Cold?

I

helped him get his nutrition right for

his

uh in quotes uh

comeback to television. It was mainly

focused on

primarily fat loss.

And you worked with Derek Fisher as

well, who's the five-time NBA champion.

Yes. Longtime LA Lakers player. Yeah.

And Pete Sampras, the former

world number one tennis player, Grand

Slam champion. Yeah, Pete Sampras,

that's right.

When people come to you,

and when they message you and DM you,

there's probably similar themes. Similar

themes as to like what they're trying to

accomplish and what their goal is. If

you just from the top of your head had

to state

the most popular themes that people are

trying to accomplish,

what are they?

How to improve body composition. What

does that mean?

How to lose fat

and or gain muscle.

One of the things that I'm I'm

particularly intrigued by, which kind of

dovetails into both of those subjects of

fat and muscle gain, is the subject of

protein.

And um

because there's been so much said about

protein. You know, when I was growing

up, they said you have to have protein

right after you eat your meal, you have

to have this much protein, you have to

have it before you eat your meal, it

doesn't matter when you have it. So I

want to do a bit of myth-busting on the

subject of protein.

What are what are the biggest myths that

people currently believe about protein

consumption?

The biggest myth is that they have the

hierarchy of importance all screwed up.

Like everybody's worried about how much

protein per meal you need to have for

this or that goal. When do you need to

time protein relative to the training

bout or waking or sleeping or all that

stuff. The

main thing they need to be focused on is

how much protein do they need to eat by

the end of the day. Because when you hit

that goal,

you've basically won the whole game. The

the relative placement, the

distribution, and the doses of the

protein, the timing of it,

oh man,

it rarely matters.

It it it rarely matters beyond

getting that protein in in a way that's

comfortable and convenient for you and

in such a way that you can stick to in

the long term. Some people are more like

grazers. Some people are more like

gorgers.

They're both fine as long as you hit the

total by the end of the day. So the

hierarchy is

of utmost importance, get your total

daily protein.

And then of secondary importance would

be what is the distribution of the

constituent doses of that protein total

through the day. And then of third

importance down here is like

when specifically are you supposed to

time that protein around the the

training bout? So So yeah, the

what the way that I put it is like this.

The day the daily total for protein,

that is the cake.

The distribution

of the doses through the day, that's the

icing on the cake, and it's a very thin

layer of icing. And how do we know that?

How do we know that it doesn't really

matter what time you have the protein,

and that the most important thing is

just making sure you get the protein.

That's a great question.

The reason that we know that

distribution doesn't matter as much as

the total is through a couple lines of

evidence that I can think of. So there's

Yasuda who who compared a three-meal

model with a two-meal model.

And the three-meal model had superior

effects for um for muscle gain.

But there is a study that was just

published

gosh, within the last month.

It was better from a methodology

standpoint because they fed the subjects

an abundance of protein. So Yasuda and

colleagues who and colleagues who tested

the two versus three, he totaled

everybody out at

1.3 g per kilogram of body weight per

day. That's the total daily protein

dose. And so we know now that that's

a suboptimal total if you want to push

muscle growth. So for pushing muscle

growth, we know you you should be at 1.6

g per kilogram of body weight, which

translates to 0.7 g per pound of body

weight.

That's where you really want to be if

you want to maximize

muscular adaptations to resistance

training, like muscle size and strength

gains. So

this latest study,

they compared three

uh three protein feedings versus

five protein feedings.

And the totals

of protein intake in the day in both

groups were around a gram per pound. So

right around 2.2-ish g per kilogram of

body weight. So we have the

optimized daily total, and we're testing

three versus five protein feedings.

We're doing progressive resistance

training. And this is the key. This

happened in resistance-trained subjects.

There were no significant differences in

in muscle size and strength gain between

the three protein feedings a day

versus five protein feedings a day. And

this is the best-designed study to date

on the on the topic. And and so Because

when I grew up and read stuff about

gaining muscle, it said you had to have

like five or six meals a day.

>> Mhm.

Um it said that's what bodybuilders do.

Whenever we we talk about any kind of

physical goal, any any sort of fitness

goal,

we have to address

two main things. So who's the Who's the

population

and what goal are we talking about? And

maybe a third thing we need to address

is what is at stake. So, what level are

we talking about? So, population, goal,

what level? What's at stake? So,

with bodybuilders

at elite levels,

it is

most of them

consume

five, six meals a day.

Some of them do like even seven or eight

in the off-season.

And these are individuals who are

enhanced.

And so, their ceiling for muscle growth

and their rates of muscle muscle growth

are significantly higher than people who

are, in quotes, natural.

And the amount of food that these

individuals can process and use

productively is significantly more.

And so, with that population,

I can see it being

pretty standard for them to be consuming

at least five, six

meals a day.

Since they tend to have to Since they

tend to be eating double

the amount of of the average person.

And so, but the interesting thing that

happens is that the guidelines from this

very sort of fringe elite population,

that's what trickles down into the

general public and then they're stuck

thinking, "Okay, maybe I need to eat

every 2.5 hours or or some such." But

yeah, with the with the general

population and even um

recreational athletes and people who are

hobbyists and and and stuff,

you really

the impact of actual protein

distribution is

inconsequential compared to the total.

So, how much protein should I be eating

a day? Cuz you I think you disagree with

the recommended daily sort of allowance

that they suggest we

as a I think I'm 90 kg. Mhm.

How much protein should I be eating to

gain muscle? Lean muscle mass.

Okay.

So,

we're going to apply you to the

population and the goal and the stakes

questions. So, what would you say your

training status

is? You're obviously not a beginner.

Um

so, you're somewhere between

intermediate and advanced.

>> Mhm.

Right?

>> Yeah. So,

what is your goal?

Just to lose fat and gain muscle. Okay.

Familiar story, I'm sure.

Okay. The way that I do it is I go

1.6 to 2.2 g per kilogram of target body

weight or goal body weight.

Mhm.

So, that's the range that you would be

looking at. Now,

with you in particular,

I would go more towards the upper end.

Because you mentioned that you part of

your goal is

to decrease body fat to a

to a to a minor degree, but you're still

you're pushing the envelope cuz you're

already lean.

So, there's an interesting thing about

highballing protein that facilitates

that

reduction in body fat. So, if if I have

a lot of protein,

it helps to reduce body fat. Yeah.

Yeah, it does.

The way that we know this is because

there have been several studies now.

Four trials, one case study

um by Joey Antonio and colleagues.

And they

examined the effect of very high protein

intakes anywhere from about 3.3 all the

way to 4.4 g per kilogram of body

weight.

Roughly, gosh, you know,

a gram and a half to 2 g per pound. Is

that because you're eating less

carbohydrates? You're sort of

substituting it for something else

essentially in terms of you feeling

hungry. So, if I'm having 3.3 g of

protein, I'm probably not going to be

having something else which is more

fatty.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So,

this particular line of research was

done on people who are resistance

training.

And it was done in free-living

conditions.

And they just gave them the assignment

to essentially

increase their their protein intake by

50%.

And

literally add

80 to 100 g of protein on top of their

existing habitual dietary intakes. So,

what would you say to me then? You'd say

push even higher

in terms of grams per kilogram of body

weight.

What is your goal body weight? I don't

actually have a goal body weight to be

honest. I just have more of a

a goal in terms of like strength.

>> How about this? Were you ever in the

shape that you

are wanting to be in? And what What was

your body weight at that time? I was

around 90. I think I was just a little

bit below 90 kg. So, I think I was about

88. Okay. So, you know what? Let's take

90 Yeah.

and multiply that by 2.2. 90 * 2.2.

There's your protein target. 198 grams

of protein a day. So, if my if a protein

shake gives me 20 g of protein, I I need

to have basically 10 g 10 protein shakes

a day.

That seems like a lot of protein. That

is a lot of protein.

Uh I I would

give a little caveat here.

You can probably achieve your your goal

with

1.6

g per kilogram of body weight. So, that

would be the lower end. So, multiply 90

by 1.6

and that's where you can start. So, if

if that 198 number seems

kind of far-fetched

or even a little bit like, "Hmm, how

would I even achieve that?" then start

off at the lower end. Do women have a

different prescription in this regard?

Is there a different approach if you're

a woman?

Yeah, if you're a woman, you would

almost always start at the low end.

Because women have a higher proportion

of body fat and and by default, they

have a lower proportion of lean mass.

So, with women, it would almost always

be, "All right, let's start at 1.6 g per

kilogram of target body weight and see

how you do with that." And we can always

ratchet it up if needed. Is there any

such harm in eating too much protein?

It's rare. Uh you would have to have a

pre-existing chronic kidney disease

and then it's generally not a good thing

to be highballing the protein.

Um but even people with chronic kidney

disease have to realize the tradeoff

that they're incurring with a low

protein diet and

older age sarcopenia and stuff. How are

they going to mitigate that? But for the

general healthy population,

there have been many studies that have

rolled out looking at effects on kidney

function, liver function, bone health.

And there is

virtually zero threat to those organ

systems that that you would think might

be threatened by a high protein intake.

So, the human organism

perfectly well equipped to metabolize

and handle high protein amounts. And not

all protein is equal, I guess, because

you've got you've got these animal

proteins and then plant proteins

um that come from things like eggs and

so on. What is the best type of protein,

do you think?

Is there such a thing?

I think that the best thing you can do

is get a mix of different types of

protein.

It is true that gram for gram,

generally speaking, animal proteins are

more, in quotes, anabolic

than plant proteins, meaning

that they stimulate a greater

growth response of muscle.

>> at the muscle level. So, they stimulate

muscle protein synthesis more potently

than plant proteins.

And

there are There's maybe one exception to

that that we know of, which is

mycoprotein, which is a fungus-based

protein that actually outperformed milk

protein for stimulating muscle protein

synthesis.

So, there's interesting exceptions like

that. But generally speaking, animal

proteins are

better for muscle protein synthesis than

plant proteins. Now, with that said,

Stephen,

once you consume a certain amount of

total daily protein,

then it doesn't appear to matter how

much of your protein is animal-based

versus how much your pro your protein is

plant-based if we're looking at things

like muscle size and strength gain.

Because this has been actually

compared

in controlled interventions where um

vegan group has been compared with an

omnivore group

and total daily protein was optimized at

1.6 g per kilogram of body weight per

day or 0.7 g per pound in both groups.

Progressive resistance training for 12

weeks.

No significant differences between

groups in muscle size and strength gain,

whether it was a omnivorous protein

intake or whether it was a

plant-based protein intake. And we have

two studies showing that now.

You must have so many moments where

you're working with someone through your

career who's got a goal and he feels

like they just can't accomplish it.

Where you find yourself saying the same

thing over and over again

to people about how to lose fat or to

gain muscle mass.

Is that same thing just to eat have more

protein?

It's a common thing with the general

population, with the lay public.

Like my my protein target is

at least 160 g a day.

So,

I just make sure that I have four meals

with at least 40 g

of of protein per day. And it's so easy

to do. It's incredibly easy to do

because

two of my meals per day are just real

whole foods.

And then two of my meals per day, two to

three, are protein smoothies.

And so, uh it is just so incredibly easy

for me to to get my protein intake

through like two scoops of protein, bam,

that's almost 50 g of protein right

there.

So, you have two of those a day, got

more than half my protein covered. But

if I if I have all of my protein in one

meal,

Mhm.

is that going to impact my ability to

gain muscle or lose fat if I have it all

in one meal? If I just have like one

massive protein shake? If I put like

five scoops?

Now, if you were telling me, "Hey Alan,

I want to place really good in the

nationals this year. The NPC nationals

classic

classic physique or you know, classic

bodybuilding or just any one of the

physique divisions,

I would say, you know,

you are not going to want to try to get

all your protein in a single meal.

Because what we want to do is we want to

maximize the number of micro anabolic

events in the course of the day. We want

to maximize the amount of times you

maximally stimulate muscle protein

synthesis in the course of the day.

And

just from a a pragmatic standpoint,

you could probably do that at least

three or four times.

And if you're able to do that three or

four times in the day versus once

with that one big banger of a meal,

then you might actually over time gain

more muscle than you would have.

And this could make the difference

between placings at the end of the uh

end of the prep period. So, but

as somebody in the general population,

theoretically, you could

Mhm.

I am going to challenge you to do

something here. I asked my audience

about weight loss and asked them for

their 15 most popular questions that are

currently unanswered for them

>> All right.

>> about weight loss.

The first one was "How do I lose weight

fast?" Ha.

So, essentially, you can engage

what would could be classified as a as a

as a protein-sparing modified fast.

You're basically crash dieting. Um

I don't love doing that though,

honestly.

Listen, I've got a wedding. I need to I

need to lose weight fast. How do I lose

weight fast? Losing weight fast. So, you

would basically do an aggressive caloric

deficit. So, anywhere I I would say

20% below your maintenance needs, 20 to

possibly 40 depending on the individual,

percent below your maintenance needs.

And then

keep the protein high.

And this is going to default you to

relatively low carbohydrate, relatively

low fat.

And

just train regularly. Don't hurt

yourself.

Um Protein high, you said? Yeah, protein

high. And calories-wise, so for example,

if you maintained at we'll we'll just

take a round number, 2,000 calories.

So, you would just lop off about a third

of that.

And then just go. And see if you can

maintain your fat loss

while maintaining strength levels

relatively. You're it's almost

inevitable to crash diet

and

lose some strength in the process. But I

mean, we're we're talking about

something that's not an optimal process.

But yeah, that that's that's the game.

Basically,

aggressive caloric deficit,

keep protein very high.

And then you just go And the deficit

could be anywhere from 500 to a

thousand-ish calories below what you

normally take in. The second one is,

"Why do I regain weight after stopping

Ozempic, Wegovy, etc.?"

All right, so

those GLP-1

RAs, the recep- GLP-1 receptor agonist

drugs like Wegovy,

they

have um at least three different

mechanisms that all converge towards

almost nullifying your your hunger and

your appetite response.

And so, when you cut out the drug, then

your

normal appetite comes back.

And

an unfortunate reality for a lot of

GLP-1 users when they get off the drug

is

they just don't have the habits and they

don't have the skills necessarily to

maintain their weight loss. And of

course, once again, they're fighting

their appetite. So, I would say

perhaps try um a weaning off process

instead of just a jumping off process. A

weaning off process where you are

reinforcing

countermeasures to overeating, where you

are reinforcing

good training habits and good dietary

habits. And we're all where you're also

progressively learning how to live with

and deal with sensations of hunger

between meals.

And just train those habits in.

And uh

it can be done. I I I

I'm not one of the people in the camp

who says it's impossible to get off of

weight loss drugs successfully.

So, number three again is, "Is my

metabolism damaged after dieting?" And

they're asking a question here about

something called adaptive thermogenesis.

>> Yeah. Okay, so this is not really a

short shot here. Okay. So, the the

process of metabolic adaptation is kind

of complex.

And it happens in both directions,

whether you try to gain weight or

whether you try to lose weight. So,

earlier we talked about uh an increase

in non-exercise activity thermogenesis

or NEAT. An increase in NEAT in response

to an increase in calories.

So,

that occurs and

across studies, I I gave an example that

showed a 336

calorie increase in NEAT when a thousand

calories were stacked on top of people's

maintenance.

But there are other studies where the

caloric increase was not quite that

aggressive. So, so on average, increases

in

NEAT or non-exercise activity

thermogenesis are about two to 300

calories. So, you increase your energy

expenditure about two to 300 calories

if you're overeating. Yeah. So, your

body will start to twitch more and move

more, burning more non-active calories.

>> That's correct. When you're overeating,

yeah. So, that's an adap- that's an

adaptation.

>> That that's the adaptation in the

caloric surplus side.

So, in the caloric deficit side,

it's just the opposite thing. Just the

mirror of it. So, people decrease their

non-exercise activity thermogenesis or

their NEAT. They decrease it on average

like two to three-ish hundred calories

Okay. as a result of dieting. So, this

is part of a metabolic adaptation that

occurs with dieting. Is this why people

don't think the calories in, calories

out system is working for them

sometimes? Because they don't realize

that if they're in a cal- calorie

deficit sometimes,

they are subconsciously moving around

less, which means that they're burning

less calories.

Um so, actually, they're not in a

calorie deficit.

Yes, that's correct. So, with the

dieting side of things, which is much

more of a public health issue, weight

loss is is much more of a

a necessity than the weight gain.

It's it's tougher for most people.

Because in addition to the decrease in

non-exercise activity that'll cost

people two to 300-ish calories that

they're

no longer uh no longer burning at the

end of the dieting cycle,

then you've got

what's called

adaptive thermoreduction.

Okay, so you mentioned adaptive

thermogenesis.

Technically, that is the there's

non-shivering adaptive thermogenesis and

there's shivering adaptive

thermogenesis, but that all has to do

with increases in energy expenditure in

response to cold environments. So,

that's technically that's what adaptive

thermogenesis is. It's increase in

energy expenditure.

When people diet,

there's something called adaptive

thermoreduction.

And that is the

part of it is a decrease in non-exercise

activity thermogenesis. You're you're

basically saying that the body changes

when we're in a calorie deficit.

>> Mhm. It stops doing as much. Yes, that's

the activity part. Yeah. But then

there's also the metabolic part. So,

we've got a decrease in non-exercise

activity. Yeah. Then we have

adaptive thermoreduction,

which has to do with a

a metabolic component that has to do

with the sympathetic nervous system. And

also

potentially thyroid output as well.

So, there's this metabolic change that

goes on. And there's

behavioral or activity change that goes

on. So, when people say I've got a slow

metabolism,

they might be telling the truth. When

people say I have a slow metabolism,

what's usually happening

is they have a pretty massive drop in

NEAT or non-exercise activity to the

order of two to 300 calories. Now,

adaptive thermoreduction

is another 50 to 100 calories. Okay. So,

we're looking at in the neighborhood of

like

possibly three, four hundred calories

that they're no longer burning as a

result of the dieting process. Now, if

you take somebody with um

clinically diagnosed

hypothyroidism,

then their resting metabolic rate could

be 7 to 10% lower than somebody without

a thyroid issue. So, you add another

1 to 200 calories less burned over here,

then you have the potential

for 5 to 600 calories

uh of energy expenditure that this is

challenged with

at the end of their dieting cycle. So,

they're So, I guess it is kind of true

in a in a way that people understand it

that if you overeat, your metabolism

as far as they understand what their

metabolism is, is increasing and if you

undereat, then your metabolism is

slowing down.

Yes, but I have to emphasize the major

component that slows down

is your non-exercise activity. You're

not moving around as much. Yes, the

other components, like adaptive thermo

reduction and potential thyroid issues,

that is the minor component. The major

component is a drop in fidgeting, a

slowing of the rate that you walk

around, an increase in the amount you

sit around. And you can control that.

Yes.

It's it's hard to put a put a finger on

it, but as long as you know that stuff

goes down, I'll give you an example of

physique competitors.

They are

as their cutting cutting phase

progresses, they're literally lying

around in between their cardio sessions

and their resistance training sessions

and their

Tupperware meal sessions. Okay, they're

no longer

tapping their heads, bob you know,

tapping their fingers and bobbing their

heads and they're no longer have a pep

in their step. They're no longer doing

non-exercise activities, basically.

Question four.

What diet actually works best for

long-term weight loss, keto, low-fat,

Mediterranean, intermittent fasting and

you got to give me a

answer here.

I'll say it in one sentence.

The diet with enough protein, enough

total calories,

that is comprised predominantly of

healthy food choices

that fits the individual's personal

preferences and tolerances.

How do I lose belly fat specifically?

Can you target the belly?

Targeting belly fat specifically is a

matter of targeting total body fat.

You can't

necessarily

spot reduce the belly fat.

Now, if we're go a layer deeper, it is

possible for certain diets to be more

conducive to preventing visceral fat

gain or maybe even accelerating visceral

fat loss. Visceral fat is the fat in the

within the abdominal cavity around the

the organs.

And so,

it is possible for certain diets to be

more conducive to reductions in visceral

fat and that would be diets that have a

lower proportion of

saturated fat.

What's What's What's What's What's an

example of a saturated fat food? Land

fatty land animal meats. So, land animal

fats are going to be your saturated fats

that are more conducive to visceral fat

gain. So, if you were to switch out,

let's say fatty cuts of meat, just trim

that fat out and if you replaced it with

something like avocado nuts,

olive oil, seeds,

On menopause, why is fat loss harder and

what actually works?

Okay.

During the menopausal transition, which

begins at

a woman's mid-40s on average and then

ends in in the mid-50s,

there are changes physiologically and

hormonally

that can

challenge a fitness program. So, it can

challenge their ability to execute the

fitness program and adhere to it.

And so, things like

hot flashes

and joint pain,

changes in sexual function,

and poor sleep,

all of those things

can converge to

lead to a a decreased ability to stick

to a program and do the necessary

physical activity and dietary adherence

to reach the sort of the standard rate

of progress for body composition change.

And so, the solution to that

would be simply you don't have to

rearrange a whole program because

somebody's going through menopause. You

don't have to cut out nutrients and do

any special things.

What has been effective is just lowering

the expectation of progress. So, whereas

I would typically have somebody gun for

a pound a week of fat loss,

somebody in the menopausal transition,

they have more challenges to that going

on simultaneously. So, we would go for

about half of that.

Protein?

What do What do they do in terms of

protein? Just keep the protein high?

Same range. Yeah. So, with protein, I

got to say

there's sort of a two-tiered

recommendation. So, the general public

with average goals Mhm. will do just

fine on 1.2 to 1.6 g per kilogram body

weight. That's kind of like the general

population average goals folks.

Somebody like yourself,

uh somebody like

me and

folks who are oriented towards maybe

pushing the envelope

a little bit more than the average.

1.6 to 2.2 g per kilogram of body

weight. And you know, there's a little

margin over here

for people on the fringe, physique

competitors,

who I would have no problem seeing them

go higher than that 2.2 g per kilogram

cut off. Is there anything else that

peri- or menopausal women need to

understand about

gaining muscle and keeping fat off when

they're going through menopause? Is

there anything else that we've missed?

You know, I would just emphasize the

understanding that midlife presents

maybe the highest point of psychological

stress

in in people's lives.

So, starting from the late 40s going all

the way

into people's 50s and 60s, it's it's

like that you know, the concentrated

period in the menopausal transition,

mid-40s to mid-50s, is when people are

dealing with

ailing parents, the stress of ailing

parents, the stress of kids going

through high school or college, the

stress of

hitting a high point in their careers,

the pressures thereof, the time and the

that is necessary

to allocate for all of those things.

Mhm.

All of those things distract from oh,

I've got a fitness program here. Oh, my

coach is

making me do this and this and this and

now he's making me diet like this.

That's the thing that I would emphasize.

There's nothing special or different

that needs to be done. And in fact,

there's a lot of mythology that's

circulating the space right now where

coaches and gurus and even some

physicians are telling women that they

are just doomed to gain a bunch of belly

fat and lose a bunch of muscle during

menopause. It just happens, you're

doomed. Well, that's just not true.

Uh there is a study called the SWAN

study, that's the longest and largest

study of its kind.

And the average amount of fat gain

during the entire menopausal transition

was 1.6 kg, which is

3 and 1/2 lb.

And the average amount of muscle loss

total during the menopausal transition

was 0.2 kg. That's about half

half a pound of muscle loss.

Statistically significant? Yes.

Insurmountable? No.

So, and are there going to be outliers

who experience double the muscle loss

and double the fat gain of that? Yes.

But none of this is insurmountable. What

do you think about taking say HRT? Does

that help?

Yeah, well well, it it helps those who

need it.

So, HRT should be looked at on an

individual basis. One of the things that

really annoys the absolute crap out of

me is when I'm seeing the comment

sections on social media with people

telling everybody that hey,

you just turned 40, time to go on HRT.

That is between you and your doctor.

People are trying to universalize major

changes like

HRT,

some people definitely benefit from it.

And

just the same, there are a lot of people

who don't need it. The people that

benefit from it, do they find it easier

to gain muscle mass and to

not gain fat?

Is that kind of like what

>> That is a common Okay. That is a common

result, yes.

But my thing with HRT is is this. So,

there has to be

a symptomatologic reason to get on it.

So, you have to be incurring or

experiencing

symptoms that are disrupting to your

quality of life, Mhm. regardless of what

your blood labs are. Like for

testosterone, for example,

if you are out of range for

testosterone, on the lower end, let's

say, but you have no symptoms

and you feel fine, you perform great in

all aspects,

then

it's really up to you whether it bugs

you enough that you're below range or

lower on the lower end of the range um

to correct that. It it's up to you. And

so, symptomologically driven. Now, the

other thing to look at with HRT is and a

lot of people they get a single testing

point and they judge their need to get

on hormonal replacement therapy based on

a single single test.

What people need to do is see whether

there is some sort of trend going on in

one direction or another or not.

And if that trend is going in a bad

direction over time and you you can do

this by just multiple time points over

over an extended period. It's debatable,

maybe 6 months, 12 months to see what's

going on. Try to correct things through

lifestyle and diet and often they are

correctable. Um

I've just I've come across many cases

where

a guy will be under-slept overworked

eating like crap

gets his testosterone levels tested. Oh,

you're right at the bottom or you're

even below range. Oh, time for HRT.

Well, hold on a second.

Let's get this guy some sleep. Let's

improve his lifestyle. Improve body

composition and then bang, testosterone

levels double.

This is not an uncommon thing.

And so, I'm very much a proponent of

first are there symptoms driving the

justification for HRT? And then

secondly, are we basing things on a

single time point or did we actually see

a trend over time?

My next question's about PCOS. Mhm. A

lot of women are struggling with PCOS

and that's causing them to have

irregular menstrual cycles and

um

fertility issues.

What would you say to a woman who's

struggling with PCOS in terms of

dietary prescription?

Okay.

So, PCOS shares a lot of metabolic

characteristics with type 2 diabetes.

So, um there is insulin resistance going

on. There there is

impaired glycemic control going on.

And so, we can pretty much justify being

cautious with

total amount of carbohydrate intake

with um PCOS.

With type 2 diabetes, there's

two tiers of importance dietarily. So,

of first importance with type 2

diabetes, you have to structure the diet

so that it allows body fat loss.

The success of GLP-1 drugs has actually

proven that at the heart of type 2

diabetes

is overeating.

Uh an abundance of body fat. So, the way

that type 2 diabetes happens is in

genetically predisposed individuals,

they gain total body fat and then they

gain visceral fat an

undue amount of visceral fat and then

this leads to insulin resistance and

impairment of glycemic control.

So,

PCOS is is very similar in this regard.

Uh there is no standard or

consensus-based PCOS diet protocol. But

because it shares so many similar

characteristics with type 2 diabetes,

then we can

pretty much employ the same principles

of how we would intervene with type 2

diabetes, which would number one, put a

priority on total body fat reduction.

And then tier number two would be, all

right, do we need to restrict

carbohydrates even further?

And so, that would be very similar with

with PCOS and at kind of a population

level with type 2 diabetes

um roughly 130-ish grams of

carbohydrates a day seems to be sort of

the sweet spot uh below which people

have an easier time controlling their

blood sugar than above that total

amount. But that's just a statistical

average. We still have to look at things

case by case. My girlfriend, she um has

PCOS and she did the ketogenic diet with

me. She's on it at the moment. We've

been doing it for about 8 weeks now.

>> Mhm. We we do it intermittently

throughout the years. Um and she said

her menstrual cycle has perfectly

corrected itself. I think at its maximum

it was like 60 days, her menstrual

cycle. Mhm. And then because she's

restricted her carbohydrates as you were

saying in in in this way using keto it's

it's like she said it's perfect. It's

like perfectly predictable now. That's

awesome.

>> I I I say that in part because people I

think people don't with PCOS who have

irregular menstrual cycles don't often

consider that

carbohydrates, sugar, glucose, whatever

could be the perpetrator. Yeah.

Yeah, well, cuz it's framed as a disease

like you're you're born with it, maybe

it's heritable. Maybe there's an element

of truth to that, but

um it's crazy that that dietary

intervention had such a profound impact

on her menstrual cycle. It's glad to

hear that you found something that

works.

Yeah.

>> that's an you know, that's anytime you

present with some sort of clinical

condition

I would first tell you, hey, see see an

endocrinologist or see a doctor who

specializes in that particular issue.

And in terms of menstrual cycles

generally, if you do have an irregular

menstrual cycle, is there anything you

should be thinking about?

Number one, see a doctor. Number two,

consider whether or not you were

overtraining and undereating. Yeah. So,

what happens with female physique

competitors?

Menstrual disruption, menstrual

cessation a few months into prep. You

sometimes even a few weeks into prep

depending on how aggressive the diet is.

And so, menstrual disruption is very

common in competitive athletes and in

recreational athletes who have to

maintain a certain level of leanness

while maintaining a high volume of

exercise output.

>> Is that the body from an evolutionary

perspective saying, listen, we we don't

have the energy to have a baby here? So,

we're just going to shut this down. That

is right on. Mhm.

So, you kind of do you don't want to be

restricting your calorie consumption too

much if you have an irregular menstrual

cycle and you're trying to correct that.

Yeah. No, no.

Um the so-called female athlete triad

begins with overtraining, undereating

potential eating disorder nurturing

going on there and then down the line

the menstrual cycle gets disrupted and

stops and then hormonal changes happen

that are negative and then at ultimately

results in osteopenia

osteoporosis. And so, that chain of

events is unfortunately really common

with women who um

don't pay attention to

healthy menstrual cycle. People use this

term all the time, muscle memory. Mhm.

I I I I thought it was

nonsense.

But I spoke to somebody the other day

and they said to me, actually no, your

your body does have a muscle memory,

which means that if I fall off now

uh and I stop going to the gym, my body

is going to be able to get back to my

current physique faster because I was

here once upon a time.

Is this is this true? That is true.

There's some debate going on amongst the

community what what goes on

physiologically with like when you

train, you create you create new

myonuclei. So, you increase your

so-called myonuclear domains and those

stay relatively permanent even during

times of detraining.

But there's still the so-called

proprioceptive or motor component to

training that sticks with people. Sort

of the skill aspect of it that sticks

with people to be able to execute the

movements and do the things to cause the

adaptations. So, not only do you have

that

muscle memory from the myonuclear domain

standpoint but you have the motor

learning and the neurological component.

And to a degree, you you also have the

skeletal component to be able to

capacitate those that rebound in loading

and muscle gain muscle regain, rather.

Is the gut microbiome playing a role in

my ability to lose weight?

Mhm. Not a big one. Um of course, if I

Why did you make that sound?

Well, there's some people in the space

who

put the microbiome at as the master

regulator everything. But it's

definitely a part of the the axis of

organ systems that that we

manifest whatever, you know, result

we're looking at. It's part of it, yes.

But it's not the the

it's not the main puppeteer of

everything. Everything works in concert

to and and I'll just give you an example

there. So,

there are

certain supplements that are um

that are claimed to be able to in quotes

fix the gut microbiome and cause greater

weight loss.

So, there have been many studies looking

at this sort of phenomenon.

And while there is a

statistically significant effect in some

cases the absolute amount that they can

help for things like body fat loss or

body weight loss is usually not

practically significant. It's it's too

small to be considered meaningful. And

so, I wouldn't necessarily rely on

changes in the gut microbiome for

impacting like global changes in body

fat.

Here, I have 20 eggs.

I heard that you eat 20 eggs per week,

which is about, you know, four eggs a

day potentially.

Why do you eat so many eggs?

Well, number one, I'm one of those

weirdos who actually loves eggs. I love

the I love the taste of them.

Um they're a great source of protein.

Uh uh source of fat. Most of the fat in

there is oleic acid, by the way, which

is a monounsaturated fat predominates

olive oil. It's a low saturated fat.

Then, of course, the knock on eggs is

their cholesterol content.

Um but, interestingly, uh it's

dietary saturated fat that has the

greater magnitude of impact on blood

lipids than than dietary cholesterol,

interestingly enough. I recognize that

the major health agencies would want you

to stop your egg consumption to like one

a day, possibly two a day if you're an

elderly person.

But,

I

take the uh health agencies,

um or even the consensus guidelines, as

a okay, that's cool. That's a good

starting point. Um I happen to like

eggs. I'll eat more than that. Check my

blood, check my health. I'm doing just

fine. So, I'm one of those people who

can do four eggs a day just fine. Is

this part of your broader testosterone

protocol?

I I like the fact that uh

eggs are conducive to testosterone

production.

>> So, you're 53 years old, right?

>> Yes.

>> test your testosterone levels?

I have not tested my testosterone levels

in forever.

But, I'm not concerned with it. Because,

once again,

it would be a symptom-driven thing for

me to even care. So, if I was

experiencing the symptoms of low

testosterone, then that would give me a

reason to check it out and see what's

going on. And then, I would have to take

a step back and look and see

what can I modify with lifestyle, what

what do I have available to change

non-drug wise. And you know what? If I

ever need

to take exogenous testosterone, if that

day ever comes, well, then so be it. I'm

just not there. What supplements do you

take every day?

I take a multivitamin. I take two

multivitamins, actually.

Uh the reason why I take two

multivitamins is because

it really uh certain key um nutrients in

there,

they they have to be in such small

amounts per single pill that it's really

just meaningless. And so, I take two

multivitamins, one of them with iron,

one of them without iron.

And uh I also take fish oil.

Uh I take magnesium. And I take vitamin

D3.

I take vitamin C. And and by the way, I

really should preface this with this is

the broscience side of my personal

habits, because I'm taking my vitamins

more on

uh placing your bets basis, rather than,

"Hey, man, this is just the bottom-line

evidence-based. I think everybody should

do this."

Okay, so I want I want to make sure

that's clear. I also take magnesium.

And I also take collagen.

And I also take creatine.

If I told you you could only take three

of those supplements, which three would

you pick?

That's a damn good question, man.

Can I have uh can can I I'm going to

count my two multis as one. So, your

multivitamin. Would Would that be the

first one? Yes. Okay, so multivitamin.

And omega-3s, fish oil.

Vitamin D3. So, you you sacked off the

creatine.

You're a genius.

That's those are those would be those

would be the top three. I would Can I

add creatine in there? Could I squeeze

it in there?

>> no, no, no. Oh, bro.

>> Pick three. So, you picked the

multivitamin, omega-3, vitamin D3. Uh

well, it might humble me to kick the

creatine out. So, okay, fine. I'll I'll

leave those three. You call creatine

king creatine. Yeah. Why'd you call it

that?

It's the only non-pharmacological

supplement that that

really really has a very strong and deep

and broad evidence base for

um enhancing the effects of of

resistance training. So, strength gains

and size gains. More strength than size.

This the size gains,

they they come with the initial uh

loading phase, where

a lot more intramuscular water

happens, or you know, in- in-

intracellular, intramyocellular

hydration. That is the

the big immediate part of creatine that

that folks feel when they go on it and

when they go off of it. So, you you'll

lose a few pounds of lean mass if you

get off of creatine.

I call it king creatine because it has

possibly

close to a

I want to say it's reached a over a

thousand studies. And the majority of

those studies show um positive effects.

Usually with with creatine, if you were

to compare a group

taking creatine versus a group not

taking creatine. So, the creatine group

will have like a 20% increase in their

lifting capacity, whereas the

non-creatine group will have like 12-ish

percent increase in their lifting

capacity over a typical study length, 8

to 12 weeks-ish.

And so, that is a significant strength

gain advantage. And over the long term,

that would definitely augment muscle

hypertrophy, as well. And once you're

loaded with creatine, so

being loaded with creatine means that

you saturate your muscle creatine

stores. And that requires either a

loading phase of 20 to 25 g per day for

5 to 7 days, or um a maintenance phase

that you engage with 3 to 5 g a day.

You'll be loaded at um about 30 days.

And so, during that loading phase, it's

pretty common for people to gain roughly

2% of their body weight um as lean mass.

Hm. People seem to talk about creatine

like it's this miracle thing that

everybody should be taking.

That's one of the one of the few

supplements that it seems all the

experts I speak to about this stuff seem

to agree upon. They obviously vitamin D

and omega-3 comes up all the time and

multivitamins.

But, creatine seems to Yeah, nobody

seems to have much of an issue with it

or be able to point to many side effects

of taking with it, both for men and

women. Yeah, it's got the

musculo- musculoskeletal um benefit.

There Believe it or not, there's even um

benefits for creatine on on joint

health. So, um not only that, not only

the

athletic performance and muscle

hypertrophy side, but there are things

like uh improved glucose control,

improved memory. So, different domains

of cognition can be enhanced by

creatine.

The

level of creatine in the brain can

increase with with supplementation. And

then, you create a pro-energy

environment in the brain, and that's how

uh these positive effects on memory

happen with creatine supplementation,

especially in people with uh cognitive

decline.

So, so it there's almost nothing

creatine can't do. Wow.

Hm. Some statement.

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with code diary. Diet breaks.

What's a diet break, and why does that

Why is that a useful tool? Yes. So,

one of the big things that dieters

encounter

are progress plateaus.

And so, we can define a progress plateau

as four

to possibly eight weeks of no change in

body composition, despite good

compliance to the program. With that

definition out of the way,

then

intervening and overcoming or managing a

plateau is really sort of this

individualized process that

needs to be looked at case by case,

where, for example,

if somebody feels like they're in the

midst of a plateau,

and they have been on program, then

there's really only two reasons the

plateau happened. So, reason number one

is that their compliance was

inconsistent.

So, poor compliance is number one.

Or number two, they have reached

energy equilibrium. So, they've reached

a genuine and bonafide new maintenance

point.

But, there's something that is

overarching with the plateau concept

that people need to understand.

So,

we automatically look at progress

plateaus as something negative.

When people need to their perception

of what a plateau is. And the plateau is

just the body doing its job. When we

look at the body as an adaptive survival

unit,

then homeostasis

is a big part of that. So, if the body

achieves homeostasis, then hallelujah,

we're we're going to live. We're going

to survive. So,

if for example somebody has a lot of

weight to lose, let's say somewhere to

the order of

over 20 lbs, 20, 40, 60 lbs to lose.

They have to understand that multiple

plateaus will be encountered en route to

their ultimate goal.

And

the way that the body changes is always

going to be this surge, slow, stop

pattern.

And it just continues this way.

And with every progressive plateau, the

surge part

gets shorter.

And the slowing part and then the

plateau part gets longer. So, you can

think of it as

staircases and landings. So, with each

successive plateau, the staircase gets

shorter, the landing gets longer. But,

it's supposed to go like that. And the

plateaus should be getting longer

because the ultimate goal after all is a

plateau of sorts. And when people come

to realize that, then they can look at

plateaus as what I call maintenance

practice.

So, if they have that mental shift from

seeing plateaus as this negative thing

where I need to go sniff out the next

great diet or the next great product,

they can look at it as, all right, so

the plateau is a good thing, the body is

doing its job.

Now, we have an opportunity to practice

maintenance.

And think about it this way, too,

Stephen.

Anybody can get weight off.

But, weight loss maintenance really is

the issue.

So, the better you get at weight loss

maintenance, then the more you can win

the game. How do I get good at weight

loss maintenance? All right, so in order

to properly maintain,

you have to properly get there.

And so, properly getting there means

that you have to

do your best to maintain your lean body

mass while you're losing body fat.

So, what happens to a lot of people when

they diet

is they lose a lot of lean body mass

along Lean body mass, you mean muscle?

>> mass.

>> Muscle mass. Along with their fat mass.

And so,

muscle tissue is something very

important to keep on the body while

you're losing fat. Because muscle is we

can look at it as our metabolically

active Every tissue is metabolically

active, even even body fat.

But, muscle tissue specifically is the

center of our dietary fuel usage.

It is the metabolic engine of the body,

if you will. And so, if you're losing

muscle tissue,

you're really losing metabolic leverage

while you're losing body fat. So, the

way that I infer that is that muscle's

very greedy.

Yeah, it it takes a lot takes up a lot

of calories. So, if I lose my muscle,

when I get when I drop my weight,

it's almost like

the greedy guy who who sucks up all my

calories is no longer there.

And so, I'm quite likely just to to

rebound quite quickly. That's a great

analogy. And and it's accurate, too. And

in fact, there is a phenomenon that in

the literature, it's called collateral

fattening.

And that happens when the body senses an

energy crisis at the end of a diet where

you've lost a bunch of muscle mass.

The body senses that, oh my gosh, we

just lost a bunch of precious tissue. We

have to do whatever we can to get it

back.

And so, your hunger signals ramp up.

And your body kind of behaviorally and

even metabolically does what is

necessary for you to feed that back as

soon as possible. And

this does not necessarily happen,

certainly not to that kind of magnitude,

if you keep your muscle mass

while you're losing body fat. You don't

experience this collateral fattening

type of phenomenon where people just

rebound like crazy because their

appetite is out of control at the end of

the diet. So, the way that you preserve

muscle mass during the fat loss process

is a couple things. So, you have to make

sure that your rate of weight loss isn't

indicative of

something that's too quick.

So,

about a half a percent to a full percent

of your body weight lost per week

is as fast as you really want to go.

So, what roughly a pound a week.

Uh some people who start off heavier,

okay, 2 lbs a week is fine at the very

beginning.

But, you generally don't want to lose

more than 1% of your total body weight

per week because then that increases the

chances that you're losing an undue

amount of muscle mass along with your

fat mass.

And so, if you can

in essence

control the weight loss rate,

then you will keep your lean mass. Now,

the other two things that need to be

going on at the same time are you need

to be resistance training

and you need to be consuming enough

protein. So, strength training and

protein.

Enough protein,

you got resistance training, and then

you have

sort of a top speed limiter on how much

weight that you lose per week.

And 1% loss a week

1% loss a week is spectacular, actually.

For most people. Even a pound a week,

even half a pound a week, you're looking

at like in 2 years you lost 50 lbs. Most

people took like two decades to put on

that 50 lbs.

>> So, you actually don't want to lose

weight too quickly or else you are

susceptible to rebound.

It is going to come off quickly if you

have a lot of weight to lose. It'll come

off quickly at the beginning.

So, for example, uh somebody who is in a

state of obesity, let's say they weigh

250 lbs. And let's say they're losing

two to a half pounds a week at the

beginning of the program, that's fine.

But,

on average,

on average, you you would want to look

at roughly a pound a week is a good

benchmark. And I still would not

frown upon or scoff at a half a pound a

week

for certain cases. And we can talk about

some of those stubborn cases. Like

it on the topic of plateaus, for

example.

I had a client, uh I I'm sure she

doesn't mind being named uh she's a

great person, Pam Pam Greshock. She's a

veteran coach in the space.

Uh she's perimenopausal, so she's in her

her 40s.

And she wanted to

lose what we calculated out to be 8 lbs

of fat. And she stored the majority of

it where she didn't want it was

around the midsection.

And I had in mind that, okay,

this is somebody who's perimenopausal,

so there's going to be a lower rate of

progress going on.

This is somebody who is

highly trained,

so she doesn't have a lot more muscle to

put on that would

give her some, you know, some extra

in quotes

So, she's highly trained,

perimenopausal,

wants to lose 8 lbs of fat, which would

represent the final

8 lbs, sort of that that pushing the

envelope.

Knowing those three things, I knew that

this is going to be a difficult and slow

going process.

So, whereas I would normally have

somebody

expect

roughly or at least gun for a pound a

week loss,

for Pam, it was more like,

are you going to be okay with

1 to 2 lbs per month? Like if we can get

rid of 1 to 2 lbs of body fat per month,

I would be happy with it and I think you

should be happy with it.

And so, I convinced her of that.

And with her wanting to lose 8 lbs,

I think it helps to give people a visual

of what a certain amount of

weight loss looks like.

So, coincidentally, a gallon

a gallon jug, if you fill it with

butter,

that's 8 lbs.

And so, I had her visualize this 8-lb

jug.

And um I also had her do a butter

visualization, too.

So, um a standard stick of butter is 4

oz. So, four sticks of butter is 1 lb.

And uh in her case, she wanted to lose

well, she wanted to lose 8 lbs, so

that's 32 sticks of butter

that would be removed from her body at

the end of the dieting cycle. Is that

what this is here? What is this?

That is 10 lbs of butter.

This is an amazing freaking visual and

this is because

you asked about diet breaks as a tool

for people achieving long-term weight

loss or just breaking through plateaus

or managing plateaus. So,

every 5 to 10 pounds that somebody loses

in a dieting cycle

is high time for a diet break. The way

you can define a diet break and put some

parameters on it. So, it it's what I

call non-yolo maintenance. So, you take

off the rules, take off the

restrictions, but you're not eating with

sheer abandon. You're just relaxing the

diet.

You take a week off the diet

either every 4 to 8 weeks while you're

dieting or you take a week off of the

diet

every 5 to 10 pounds that you lose.

And the sound of 5 to 10 pounds seems

like, "Oh, that's nothing." Mhm. But,

no, it's a milestone. This is 10 pounds.

Yes. That's crazy.

10 pounds of of

butter off the body.

So, yeah, every time you you lose 10

pounds, it's

5 to 10 pounds in in my experience is

high time to take a diet break to just

alleviate the mental

and the physical fatigue of dieting.

And that's one of the tactics that you

can use for long-term adherence to a

plan.

On the topic of plateaus,

you can when you're dieting, you will

hit a point where

the plateau periods or the maintenance

phases

are going to be longer than the dieting

phases. I think that that's ideal to be

able to hit that point for a long-term

weight loss goal.

And so,

it's a lot

easier or at least a lot less

intimidating for somebody to know that

they're going to be dieting for

4 to 8 weeks at a time

in between a let's say a 2 to 3-month

maintenance phase. What about fasting?

Do you think that fasting is cuz a lot

of people talk about this thing called

autophagy where if you fast for I don't

know, 48 hours, your body switches into

the state of autophagy where it starts

to heal and repair itself.

Are you a fan of fasting?

For weight loss or for autophagy or

other things?

For the control of

calories in,

fasting is legit.

And it's also legit for it it actually

works as a as one of the options for

dieting. There just has been a massive

accumulation of studies

showing that it works great.

So, the intermittent fasting variants,

we have one one we talked about earlier,

time-restricted eating.

And we've got

every other day fasting.

And then the other third major variant

would be twice-weekly fasting or the 5:2

type of model. And then you have

like consecutive day fasting

type of models as well, which are less

studied because there's more risk

involved in them and it's tough to, you

know, incur that risk in research. When

you bring up autophagy,

that's where I kind of have to push back

on not on your

your mentioning of it specifically, but

just in general.

People will say will make claims that

yeah, autophagy

and

we can say that we can explain autophagy

as a way that the body

gets rid of parts of damaged cells.

It's an important process within the

body.

And it is a catabolic process or a

breakdown process.

But, the thing is

it happens in a caloric deficit

regardless of whether fasting is

involved or not. Really? Yes.

You maintain hypocaloric conditions,

autophagy ramps up.

Um you can have a linear hypocaloric

model or a non-linear or intermittent

hypocaloric model.

And

you'll get similar degrees of autophagy

if you match the caloric deficit by the

end of the week.

Now, the other interesting thing about

autophagy

is that you can ramp up autophagy

through exercise.

And not only that, but

both major types of exercise will

increase autophagy. So, resistance

training

increases autophagy.

Endurance aerobic type training

increases autophagy.

So, if you want to in quotes chase