7 Easy Food Swaps That Lower Your Calories Without Changing How Much You Eat | Mind Pump 2953

Key Takeaway

Make one calorie-lowering swap today without shrinking your portion: replace your usual carb-heavy snack with a protein- and fiber-rich option such as beef jerky, deli turkey, or high-protein yogurt. Protein is more filling than carbs, so this change can reduce mindless eating while helping you reach your daily protein target. Start with the snack time when you are most likely to reach for chips, pretzels, or sweets, and keep the replacement visible and ready.

Episode Overview

The hosts share practical food swaps that lower calories, increase protein, and preserve the enjoyment of familiar meals, from snacks and desserts to burgers, pizza, and pasta. They also discuss building healthier defaults, the role of structured activity in young men’s mental health, and listener questions on calorie maintenance, reverse dieting, peptides, and injury-resistant strength training.

Full Transcript

Transcript of 7 Easy Food Swaps That Lower Your Calories Without Changing How Much You Eat | Mind Pump 2953 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

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So people went to Instagram, MindPump Media. They wrote in some questions. We picked four, and we answered them. But that was after the intro. Today's intro was 54 minutes long. Now, in the intro, we talk about nutrition and fitness and fat loss. We talk about depression and anxiety and what the studies show. We have always a good time. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Crisp Power. These are high-protein pretzels, 25 to 28 grams of protein per bag of delicious pretzels.

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These are great tricks. Check it out. I like this. This is top of mind for me right now. I've got three weeks till Cabo. I like this because this is one of the ways that I will, without really tracking, just tighten the diet. Little things. Right. It's like this versus that. Just knowing that exchanging some of these foods that I would normally eat for other options, I know I automatically just lower calories. If I can just discipline myself to make those options for the next few weeks, it's enough to drop a couple percent.

You know who's king of doing these things are physique and bodybuilder competitors. They're like the best at this kind of stuff because of the— That's where I got all mine from. That's right, because of the crazy pre-contest diet, the restrictions. Top of mind all the time. It is, and it's like—and the food cravings. When you're a competitor and you drop calories, you're trying to get down to 2% body fat, which I don't recommend anybody try. It's not healthy, but the food cravings get so insane. I've only ever gotten down—I've gotten down to about 4% body fat, so I'm never down to 2%, but I remember dreaming about food.

Only time in my life. That's the weirdest thing. Only time in my life I ever dreamt about food. It was really weird. I got as far as changing my lattes to black coffee. That's a big step for me. That's out of the list. That's a big step for me. Put that on the list. Good job, Justin. I love it. No problem. All right, so at the top, this is kind of an easy one, and this does make a big difference, which is people like to snack.

Now, generally speaking, I advise against snacking. I think Adam's the one that says there are no such thing as snacks. There are complete meals and incomplete meals. I like that because snacking really does get away from you. It also takes away from the complete meals, the ones that are put together, the ones that are focused, that have kind of what you need. That being said, it's a reality. It's a reality that people like to snack, especially when they're at the movies or when they're driving or when they're at work.

So is there a swap out? Is there a way to snack that naturally reduces caloric intake and also helps you with some of the more important macros? That's a yes. So here's an easy swap out. Most snacks are carb-based snacks. There's nothing inherently wrong with carbohydrates, but carb-based snacks, carbohydrates in general, are the lowest on the totem pole of satiety-producing macronutrients. In other words, when you look at fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, carbohydrates produce the least satiety. You can eat those the most and go beyond, above and beyond, what you should be eating the easiest with carbohydrate-based snacks.

Above that is fat and then protein. Well, in the restaurant industry, they prime you with that. That's right. So yeah, they start you out with the bread, the chips to get your appetite really to start roaring. Isn't that interesting? This was me last night. Obviously, I'm heading in three weeks. I'm heading out. Part of running in a calorie deficit is there's going to be times where you're hungry. It's just a fact. You're not going to avoid that. I was really hungry last night and got up and had beef jerky.

Nine o'clock at night, it's a weird thing to have, but it's high protein, moderate calories. I think it was 230, 250 calories for the whole bag. It produces incredible satiety. Yeah, and it's 30 grams of protein towards my goal, which in the pursuit of either building muscle or holding on to muscle, it's crucial. I can always afford to have some more protein. It's hard for me to hit 200-plus grams of protein every single day. I think at that point, I was probably hovering around 170, 180 anyways, so plenty of room to have more protein.

It also satiates me, so I eat that and it felt fine. Yeah, so beef jerky is my favorite for a protein snack. The other one is like deli meat. This was back in the day. I'd go in the fridge, grab some turkey slices, and I'd eat those. It's really hard to overeat that. I could eat a bag of chips or pretzels or whatever, and I'm going to throw it down, but jerky or deli meat, it tends to hit that satiety very quickly, and I get that high protein.

What's interesting too, one of our partners, Chris Power, made a high-protein pretzel snack. What's interesting about this, which is fascinating, so this is how powerful protein is in terms of producing satiety. Satiety is complicated because you also have hyperpalatability, which plays a role in all that stuff. When our staff here eats a bag of Chris Power, which is like 28 grams of protein for a bag. Think of your typical bag of potato chips. They taste and kind of act like your typical carb snack. They're crunchy.

They've got that same kind of feel. Everybody here has a bag. Nobody goes to have two or three bags because you get that, plus it's got fiber, so that's the other macronutrient. Fiber is right under protein for satiety. If you could swap out your carb snack for a protein snack, especially one with fiber, you'll typically do a lot better. They have that new flavor, by the way, the honey mustard. Have you guys tried that? Yeah. It's so good. I think it's wild how you—I've tried to.

I've tried to have more than one bag just to see if I want it, and I can't finish the second bag. I have no desire, which if you gave me a bag of Doritos or name your favorite chip— Oh, you're going hard. Yeah, no problem. The bag you're talking about, it's a small bag. It's not like a big bag of chips. It's a very small bag. You know what's interesting? After you had a bag of those, I bet if I gave you a bag of chips, you'd be able to keep eating.

Oh, that would be interesting. Isn't that wild? Yeah, you're probably right. That's how satiety works. I'm sure I would. All right, so here's another one. This one is one of my favorite categories. I love—Adam has the best swap-outs for desserts, and I'll just set the stage for you, Adam. He loves desserts. He says he's got a sweet tooth. He definitely does. He also, at one point, became a professional physique competitor, so he's like, I have to figure out this problem while I'm dieting. Your dessert swap-outs are—I've had some of them, and they're really good.

Why don't you share some? Well, I've got a bunch. I'll tell you one that's a cool one. If you take Greek yogurt, you strain it over a cheesecloth overnight. It gets all the fluid out of it. What do you do? You just let it sit on there? Yeah, you put it over cheesecloth, like over a bowl, so it kind of strains over there, and you throw out all the liquid. Then, you take that leftover the next morning, and you whip it up, and you can whip up stevia inside it.

Then, it tastes spot-on to whipped cream, but now you have this whipped cream, high-protein flavor. Low-calorie. Dip strawberries in it. Wow. So, I get berries, which we always talk about berries as fruit, being your better fruits, high-fiber, antioxidants, lower-calorie, and so some sliced strawberries in that. You get even more creative, and you can spread that over a rice cake, and then the strawberries over the top of it, and it's like this amazing ... It's got protein. I get that crunch. I get the sweet flavor. I feel like you'd die without your pants on.

Wow. I don't know why you're picturing that. Wow. That's just the way you're describing it. That one takes a little effort to make it. I pre-make the whipped cream. You prep it. Yeah, I prep that. even just a rice cake with some strawberry jam that's sugar-free or something, so it's low-calorie. You can get no-calorie jams, too, that you spread over a rice cake. It's really easy to do. Coco Whip is a great substitution for if you like cold ice cream flavors. So, I learned that from you.

It's just called Coco Whip. It has almost no calories. This is weird. Yeah, it's tasty. It's like 30 calories. Yeah, it's really low. It's really crazy. So, what I got from you was a rice cake with Coco Whip and a little bit of jelly. Yeah. And that's like a staple at my house. I'll even mix it. I do this for Max. It's like 100 calories. This is his favorite dessert. We do a Greek yogurt and granola and berries or whatever. And I can add just a little bit of Coco Whip in there, and then it makes it more ice cream-like just by putting a little bit of Coco Whip in there.

And you got this high-protein, cold, tastes like ice cream a little bit and a little bit of berries on it. If you can afford the extra calories, you can sprinkle a little granola on there. And they now have those high-protein Greek yogurts where they add a little additional protein. Yeah, 20 grams. So, you get a cup and it's like 20 or 25 grams of protein. Some are smaller at 15. And even if you don't have that, so I like buying the ones, the brands that already have.

It's really easy to put. What do you do? Just add protein powder? Vanilla whey protein. If you can handle dairy, obviously, I'm sure you can if you're having that, right? So, you just add that. Sometimes, I actually like it that way because the vanilla whey protein added in just plain Greek yogurt gives it a nice texture and flavor. And so, that'll shoot it up to 20-plus grams by doing it that way, too. Yeah, we still, what was it? It was the protein balls, the peanut butter ones?

Yeah, that was another recipe of yours. Yeah, that's oatmeal, peanut butter, and honey all with protein powder. Yeah, with protein powder. And then, you roll them up and make them into these. You freeze them. No, you don't freeze them. You just put them in the refrigerator. They'll harden in the refrigerator. And then, make those little balls like that. All right, here's another one. First off, nuts, they are technically a whole food, but it's one of the few whole foods that acts more like a processed food, especially if the nuts are already shelled and roasted.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you will hit calories very quickly with nuts. Yeah, too quickly. Like, really, really quickly. So, one of the things you could do to reduce, whatever, the damage, I guess, for lack of a better term, that nuts can do is, rather than buying nuts that are shelled already, like a bag of peanuts or a bag of pecans or whatever, is to buy them in the shell. That process of you having to break them open slows, I'm going to tell you right now, you sit down for 20 minutes and you eat peanuts where you have to crush the shell and eat them, you'll eat a third or a fourth of the amount of peanuts you would eat if they were already shelled.

There's still that reward from it. That's right. In fact, this is what I used to do with my clients who loved nuts. I'd say, oh, go ahead and eat them, get them with the shell, and break them open, and they end up eating way less. Well, you get two things working for you right there. You've got the shell, obviously it slows down that process, and then they're also raw, so they're not roasted or salted. Slightly less palatable. That would be my advice, even with almonds, because if you do the roasted and the flavored type almonds, I could crush those wasabi ones.

Those ones, I could eat those all day long, but give me some raw ones, and after a handful of those, I'm pretty good. It's a good strategy. It makes a big difference. I used to do this. I would have a bag, and the bag always had my studio, and they were in the shell. I'd have to go back there and break them open. In between clients, I'd have five or six. Now, you give me a bag of nuts, and it's a handful, which is way different calorie-wise.

Yeah. I used to actually take seeds. I'd go through phases of chewing... Sesame seeds? Not sesame seeds. What are they? Sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just because it's like sunflower seeds... thing to do, uh, keep the mouth, you know, occupied. Uh, but yeah, that was always a strange, I know. I, I use sunflower seeds and gum. Those were the two, like during competing days, like in the shelf. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Cause like you said, you take a small handful and suck on them for a long time and just keeping your mouth.

I don't like calories. That's a bodybuilder favorite right there. All right. Here's another one. This one's really cool, everybody. So, uh, you like your cut of meat. I don't care what it is. Ribeye, tri-tip, whatever. You don't even have to change the amount of meat that you eat. If you switch from grain fed to grass fed, your calories substantially drop because grass fed meat is naturally leaner and higher in protein. In other words, six ounces or eight ounces of a typical ribeye versus, you know, six to eight ounces of a, uh, grass fed ribeye is going to cut your calories and bump your protein.

What was that? Right out of the gate. Doug looked that up. We talked about this like months ago. I remember you looked at, I was surprised by how, what a difference it was. Yeah, it was a pretty significant, it was, it was a hundred, it was, it was like an eight ounce cut, uh, ribeye, grass fed versus grain fed. The, actually the information I had was for ground beef. Ground beef is different. Yeah. Yeah. Ground because ground beef is automatically controlled for fat. Oh, for fat content.

Yeah. So if you go grain fed, grass fed, ground beef, it's 20%, you know, or 80%, it's 80%. It's the cuts of meat where you see the difference. So you could go like a eight ounce ribeye. People tell you 93, seven. Yeah. So they control for that. Yeah. So you're going to get the same, but if you go, you know, 10 ounce ribeye grain fed versus a 10 ounce ribeye grass fed, it's a, you know, it's a, it's a significant difference in calories. It's less fat and more protein.

What you got over there, guy? Yeah. I'm looking it up right now. You'll get that number of camel there. So it's a picture of the bad, it's not helpful. Doug, you know, people eat camel meat in other places. No, they don't. Yes, they do. Camel meat, kangaroo meat. That's another meat you can eat. Those sound terrible. Don't sign me up for that. Yeah, I know. I think kangaroo meat's like a, I think that's relatively common in Australia. We're, we're making this up. Yeah. I feel like I'm making this up.

I feel like you are too. Somebody in Australia. That sounds gamey. It does. Right. Right. Yeah, it does. Pretty muscular. They look really muscular. Right. I don't think that would be good at all. Yeah. Remember the video, the one that fought that dude? Yeah. Some of them get like, I don't know, seven feet tall or whatever, when they're standing upright like that. It looks like old timey boxers. Yeah. By the way they stand. All right. Here's another one. Uh, if you like burgers, you're better off eating two lettuce wrap burgers than you are the burger and fries.

Oh yeah. Yeah. This is, this is a big one. This is like a really easy, big one. It's super filling. So I, I did this the entire time, um, that I was competing, this was, uh, a part of the diet was we still ate out at five guys. It was like, uh, you know, my, my way of still connecting with my wife, since I had to eat all this boring food all the time was Friday, Friday, Friday's we'd order, we'd order five guys and I'd have two lettuce wraps.

I, I just throw it all in a bowl and then I, I cut it up with a knife. I turned into like a salad. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's like, I mean, you can eat it like this, um, but I think, uh, there's plenty of lettuce on like just one of those suckers. So I literally would just, I would actually take one off and then just throw the extra meat in there and then I'd cut it all up, dice it all up and make it into this big salad.

You haven't figured out how to not get all that grease on your hands. Like once you figure that out. Yeah. Which is why I like turn it into like a, when I go to it, so, you know, in and out, obviously a California, um, you know, uh, chain or whatever. But when I go with my family, if I get the, the burger and fries, I eat way fries way more. Oh yeah. It's just way more. It doesn't crush 700 plus calories and fry. And I just can keep going.

If I eat two lettuce wrap burgers, I'm good. Which are any, by the way, like one double is not even a 700 calories. What you got there, Doug, for the grass fed versus grain fed. What is that? Oh, let's see here. So yeah, this is for a hundred grams, 120 calories for the grass fed one 96 for the grain for only 120. Yeah. So 80 calories, less two grams of protein higher and way less fat and way less fat. And that's for a small piece. What is that?

A hundred grams. Uh, I'm not sure exactly what that is. Um, so what you would typically do, Doug, when you would Google this as you would say 10 ounce grain fed ribeye versus here's a challenge I'm having with this, Sal, is that nothing's coming up exactly as you say. So I don't need to know if this is a ribeye. The Googlers are not working. We don't even know what kind of meat the Googlers are not working very well. Sometimes you have some very specific requests that are, I feel like the internet, we all have our strengths.

Oh, okay. Yeah. I think we should just give a salad laptop. I think he's pretty good. He's pretty fast at it. There's no, there is no doubt. He's the best Googler out of here for sure. By the way, that's a whole skill man with AI, which we'll talk about a little bit later. All right. So, uh, pizza, traditional pizza versus crust free pizza. Adam, this is another one that you do. Yeah, no, you can, you can actually put this in a iron skillet, uh, all this stuff that you like, so I like to make it heavy on the meat.

So if you do like sausage or beef or chicken or something like that, and then the cheese and so what do you do? You put the cheese first. You put, yeah, you put the cheese, the cheese ends up being like a cross. So if you lay the cheese, like it's a cross and then you layer all the other things, and then I do a lot of meat, so like a layer of all, a lot of saw everything. Yeah. And then, yeah, and then you can do sauce, all the other things like that.

And then you just like to bake it in the oven and then it'll, it'll, how do you take it? You just, you literally take it off. Yeah. Cause it'll, yeah, it'll, it'll end up like the, the crusted, yeah. The, the cheese will be like hardening crust, like on an iron skillet, put it in there like that. And then, um, yeah, then you got like this, cause that's the worst part of the pizza a lot is the, the, the gluten loaded bread that you get, that you get on there.

It's the highest part, the highest calories disrupts most people's guts. And so, so long as you can handle cheese. Um, so I just, so just side note, I, so I can't do dairy. I'm the weird guy that orders a pizza without cheese. You should always, I think you guys got to see the, when you have bread, it's literally bread sauce. And like, can you call it pizza without cheese? What do you, you want bread? You want soft bread? Holding your marinara sauce. That's it. That's, that's basically your reservoir.

All right. Uh, here's another one. I've done this before. It's actually pretty good. Uh, is swapping out your spaghetti for spaghetti squash. Oh yeah. We live off of this. Do you really? Yeah. You guys do this a lot? Oh yeah. A lot. I think you can make your meat sauce with it and spaghetti squash is like no calories. It's super good. I think it's, uh, I think it's a go-to thing that we did for a really long time. In fact, it's been a while since I, didn't you just grow some squash too?

I did. How'd that turn out? Not spaghetti squash. Zucchini. You can actually do it with zucchini as well. You can do it with zucchini too. Yeah. What do you do? You get one of those tools that she's a fork. Oh yeah. I'm kind of lazy. I just go buy it at Trader Joe's. It's already done. Oh yeah. That's the way to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Good. What kind of sauce do you guys use? Your meat sauce? Yeah. I wish I had somebody who was Italian that can sauce.

I would probably use that probably 13 years of working with this guy and haven't got a can of sauce. I got to remember to do that. I've never brought you guys sauce. Not one can dog. Not one can. Salty about it. All right. I'll bring it. I'll bring you some haggis. All right. Anyways, those are good. Those are all good swaps. And I mean, literally again, it's like, uh, you know, it's one of those things you're living your life and there's definitely eating healthy. Um, and, and I think that's most important, but there's also an enjoyment factor, which we can't deny.

And these swap outs allow you to kind of enjoy. I'm super curious about like watching my, my son grow up as he gets older. Like, uh, so this is all stuff that he's like he's grown up with. He's he grew up with it. Right. And so I know that I battle with the sweet tooth cause I did not grow up this way. So I've learned to like train myself, but he actually prefers this. So it'll be interesting if that changes over time. I mean, we're, we're at seven right now and it's been really consistent that like he would choose this over the alternative on, on foods.

And so I'm wondering if like his palate will be formed like that for good. And so that he'll always do it. I remember I dated this girl that was like that were her, her family was really, really strict about processed foods her whole life. She competed also. And I remember like, even after post-comp where I was like, I wanted ice cream and pizza and like every dessert, bad thing that I hadn't had for so long, she was just like, man, I just want a steak and a baked potato sounds, you know, just, you just suddenly, I don't have to count the calories and I'll just eat a big old man.

I was like, man, that's so crazy to me that you don't crave any of the things, but she didn't grow up on that. So I'm curious to see if I'll, I'll notice a difference with, uh, you will, the data shows that your palate gets formed, uh, as early as in utero. Um, but as your brain develops, it develops around, uh, you know, some of these experiences, including experiences around entertainment and stuff like that. Does that, does that, it's the molding of the brain. I know. And I believe it, isn't it, isn't it ages three to seven is when the, when the most of that is getting done around that.

I'm not sure from a, from a neurological, from the brain. Like, I don't know, possibly, I don't know what the ages are, but I'll tell you, I'll give you an example. Uh, if you like different cultures, uh, we're, we all grew up here in America. So if you have, if you smell a fishy smell in a market, you automatically are like, ew, that's not, that's gross. But in other countries that is not perceived that way, because they grew up around those types of smells and it meant, you know, fresh fish and food.

So it's just an example. And there's foods that people will eat from other cultures that we could not, you know, we would look at and be like, that's not really tarantulas that's extreme one, but sure. Yeah. I think Doug ate a tarantula. No, I did not. Oh, you didn't do it. I saw a guy do it, but I didn't know. I thought you tried it. No, I have limits. Yeah. So, Hey, by the way, we got it. We got the number up 12 ounce ribeye, uh, grass fed versus grain Fred.

The difference is about 200 calories. Wow. 200, 200 calories. That's a big difference, everybody. And you're eating 12. You're eating a big old steak either way. Right. Isn't that cool? Yeah, it is. And higher protein. Yeah, totally. Yeah. All right. So I wanted to bring something up. So today, um, this morning I was in a text spread with my cousins and we were, you know, talking about a few different things. Um, my brother brought up a study showing the benefits of video games. And I, and there's, yeah.

So there's studies that show that video games can improve things like high hand, eye coordination. And there's some things that can measure around video games and I'm like right off the gates, you know, I'm like, this is so dumb. And so we're having this conversation back and forth. And so what it did is it prompted me to look up the actual data, uh, on, uh, the impacts of certain things on people, but especially young men. Cause that got me thinking about young men. When you think about video games, you typically think guys, guys get affected more by, you know, by playing video games.

And so I was looking up some data and, you know, AI is, uh, many things, but among all those things, it's incredible at synthesizing data. So rather than having to go find data, compile it, combine it, you know, stuff that I would have to do in the past, which would take me hours, I can just ask questions, cite the resources and where it got the studies and put it together for me. It's like, how much of an impact do these things actually make? And, uh, and, and then I remembered I had recently had, uh, Mike Malagese on the called to his kingdom series and he's this young Gen Z Christian influencer.

Okay. And so one of the questions I asked him was, you know, in regards to young men, you know, Gen Z, like, what are, what are some of the pieces of advice you have for young men? And one thing he said to me blew me away. He said, don't be bored. I was like, huh? And he goes, do things. Cause when you're sitting around bored, you have access to your phone, and that's when all this kind of crazy stuff pops up. I'm like, that is fascinating.

That actually makes a lot of sense. So I, I looked up some data and, um, here's what's interesting. Um, number one, which is, I think we've talked about this before. Uh, young Gen Z, uh, for the first time in history, this generation, this younger generation is doing worse than people in midlife. So typically when you look at the data, depression and anxiety peak at midlife. That's exactly how we're measuring doing better. Yeah. So typically midlife crisis, you know, this is like why, well, you're, you're, this is when you have young kids, this is when you have a mortgage, divorce happens at this time throughout all the time we've measured depression and anxiety.

This is the highest time for depression. Anxiety youth is always been low. Like that's not when you're supposed to be the most anxious and depressed for the first time ever, we've seen the younger generation do worse, uh, in loneliness, anxiety, and depression than people in midlife. So it's not good. It's looking really bad. And then I was thinking to myself, like, what is going on? We've measured this as far back as the great depression and our kids today are worse with depression and anxiety and mental health and people who grew up in the great depression and the world wars, like what the hell is going on?

And so I'm, I compiled some data and I'm looking at it and it's pretty wild. Uh, loneliness is high. 25% of us men aged 15 to 34 said they felt lonely a lot. This is way higher, um, than in the past. So I'm like, what is, what's going on and what can we do to like fix this? So rather than like point out, like we're sad, we're anxious. What I did is I said, Hey, here's what I want from you. What are the things that, that these young men can do that had the greatest impact on their depression, anxiety, and loneliness?

Like, give me some things that the data shows has the greatest impact. What are the greatest things that, that they can do? Like, because here's the thing with young men, I know this about young men. They don't respond as well to talking as young women do. They respond much better to doing right. So challenge purpose. Yeah. So instead of being like, Hey, let's talk about your feelings. This is why they're drawn to video games is because they're accomplishing levels and beating bosses and leveling up and becoming, you know, whatever.

And what you find in, in, uh, in the data is, you know, with young women, you can sit down and process things out. And there's some benefit to with young men, but young men tend to do better when instead of that, you go, okay, we're going to go do this. Yeah. And then you go accomplish this thing. They tend to do a lot better with that. So I'm like, what, what can they, what can they do? And immediately I thought to myself, like, what are two things that young men struggle with today that we didn't necessarily.

And that previous generations didn't necessarily, uh, uh, struggle with. And the two that came to mind were pornography and video games. And I think both of those neuter young men in the sense that, you know, like when we were kids in that age group, you have a strong desire to be with girls. But in order to be with girls, you had to go out in the real world. You had to clean yourself up. You had to figure out how to be funny, present yourself. You had to get, you know, rejected, rejected, and you got to figure it out.

You got to do the scary thing. Uh, pornography will zap that right off the gates, you know, if I was a 15 year old boy working up the courage to go talk to a girl, like, you know, give me. 30 minutes on, on porn hub. And I'm like, cool, I think I'll stay home, you know, type of deal. So there's that. And then video games, you hit the nail on the head, Adam, that desire that young man in hair that they have inherently to like, do the hard thing, struggle, accomplish something, which we did by going out with our friends, you know, climbing the hill, jumping the thing.

They just play, you know, beat level 37, you know, type of deal. So I'm like, okay, what can we do rather than telling them? Don't do this. Don't do that. What are the things that can do that have the biggest impact on anxiety and depression? I don't even think that's number one. And number two, I think social media is number one, dude. I think social media, it's so interesting. You bring this up right now. I literally just had somebody DM me. Uh, did you see the post I did yesterday?

I shared that guy did a post on, um, what percentage of people actually, uh, um, net or no, excuse me, gross, not even net a million dollars a year in, in a business and income. Did you see that? Oh, it was a really, it was a really good post. And he just talked about like, it's like the, the percentage is extremely low. Um, and, and it was the idea of the, why he was sharing that was like social media will have you believe that everybody out there that's, you know, a millionaire at 17 or 25 years old, they're driving around these Lambos and they're flaunting this and showing that.

And I actually had two different DMS from young men that reached out to me after I had post that saying like, you know, I've, and I know I've talked to them before and DM, I don't know them personally, but I've talked to them in DMS before and know what they, they do for work. They make good money. Like they were like good money trying to, they're built. One of them's building their family, like just started their family and stuff like that. And he goes, man, this really, uh, he thanked me for posting it.

And he goes, because I really was feeling like, uh, like such a loser. Like I'm not doing anything with my life. Cause I'm so far beyond everything that I'm looking at on social media. Makes me feel like everybody else is way ahead. And here I am, you know, entering my thirties and I'm still not that rich or making that much money. And so I think that, and I think a lot of guys don't openly share that, but you can't help, but think that they are competitive at spirit, comparing themselves to other end.

We talk a lot about how women do this on social media and they're comparing their bodies and stuff like that. I think a lot of men do that with success and prenatal to provide. And you see all these young kids that are flaunting their cars and their things, and you think that shit, everybody's a millionaire. I'm only getting by making 80 or a hundred grand a year. I must be a loser. So I looked up the data on that. Uh, and social media has a much greater negative impact on young girls than it does on young men.

It's has a negative impact on both. Yeah. But as a greater, you think that's because that's reported more. Uh, in comparison to previous generation, women have always reported more. They've always come forth and said, I feel this way. I feel that way when they, when they try to control for that and say, okay, are people just report it still doesn't cover because I feel like some dudes that like, I was actually really surprised that two guys felt and they would say that I'm still a stranger though, right?

We're not like tight friends and they're not like confiding it. Like, but they were willing to share that, man. I feel like I'm a, I'm a loser because I'm not doing these things. So it's like, I have this feeling that that's skewed, that, that data is skewed a little bit because there's probably a lot of men that aren't going to admit that they feel that way. It's always been that way. Like it'll manifest in other ways, like suicide and depression. I looked it up and I tried to control for that.

And they said, it does not cover the growth. It's like, it's not, that is not covering the growth of what we're seeing that it's more reported. So they try to control for that. And they're like, it's still grow. It has grown so much and it's anxiety and depression and lonely loneliness that are through the roof. And so what I did, look, we know as coaches, it's much more effective to tell a client to do something rather than tell them to not do something. Yeah. But don't you think those two things are exacerbated by, by that?

Yes. So let me, yeah. So let me get to what, let me get to what this did. So what I did is I literally said, what are the things that they can do that had the greatest impact that the data shows? Do we have data? What does it show? What has the greatest impact? Number one. Learn a skill, do a trade. Number one, working out. Number one is working out. And you know what? There's a joke on social media about, Hey dude, you're depressed. Go lift weights.

There's some truth to it. Here's what the data shows. 50% lower depression and anxiety symptoms. 50 just go lift weights, dude. Yeah. Like if you're listening right now and you're like crapped out and you feel like what's the point. Go work out, get on a schedule, go lift weights. That's number one, 50% decrease. Uh, in those feelings, number one, you're doing something hard. You're getting up and getting out of the house. Then you're also building muscle. You got the struggle. You got the challenge. I say lifting weights.

It's actually exercise in general, but I think lifting weights, obviously I'm partial to it, but I think for young men in particular, the feeling of strength, the feeling of power, self-improvement, self-improvement, 50% reduction. You want to know what the second one was? Attend church regularly. By the way, I'm not telling it what to tell me. I'm saying, show me 33% lower odds of developing depression. So if you're a young guy listening right now and you're struggling, go lift weights, go to church. Yeah. Start right there.

Probably the easiest, uh, organic way to build community, young man, right. Cause it's bigger than you. Yeah. Men are, men are really challenged with this as it is right. Going on and building relationships. We tend to like isolate ourselves or have our core friend group and say that we don't need anybody or have no friends at all. And so going to a built-in community like that, I think is probably where everybody's, uh, pointing to something bigger, you know, here's the next one. Getting a job. Do you know how unemployed Gen Z is compared to previous generations?

It's wild. It makes a big difference. You take a 17 year old kid who's at home. And again, this is what Mike was telling me. He's like, what are you doing? Like, if you're at work, you're lifting weights, you're going to church, you got way less time to be on your phone, scrolling all this crap or on social media or playing video games or working like real busy, they're not working because it's the culture has changed. I don't think parents are making their kids work. I think it's a different, like, uh, I see a huge difference in my kid when she got a job and my niece, when she got all she did was get a job and it was like totally changed.

She suddenly started making friends. She's out. I mean, I'm sure what falls in that category too, is that, cause I mean, what's the number one, uh, job now by kids where they say they want to be a YouTuber or an influencer, which is like also another way of saving unemployed. So, I mean, I think like, you know, a lot of them are aspiring YouTubers or influencers that look at this 95% higher risk of mental health problems. Uh, when you're unemployed, young men out of work, 50, 60% higher frequent mental distress, dude, go get a job.

I don't care what job you got, go do it. Be proud of your job. Do a good job. Don't care if you flip burgers. I don't care if you're shoveling, do something hard, go get a job, uh, and watch what that does for how you feel. First of all, you can't think about being sad when you're working and you're doing something, then you're accomplishing something. You're getting a paycheck. You got to deal with people. You got to deal with difficult. So you think like the, the pornography and the video games, what's more detrimental about it is less about the pornography and the video games.

It's more so that it's replacing all those things. Dude, let me put it this way. Mike made this as a, as a point. Think about, you got to, you got your typical 16 year old or 17 year old or 18 year old kid, all they do is go to school and then they come home and they're probably like playing video games. Maybe they hang out with their friends a little bit, but that's their life. Right? Homework school. That's it. Now imagine that same kids. Like I'm going to the gym four days a week to lift weights.

I'm going to church once a week and I'm going to go work three days a week. How much less time is going to have? I mean, it's, it's, it's no different. It's no different than how we coach somebody on how to diet. A hundred percent. What do we do? We look at somebody's diet, they're eating fast food, candy, ice cream, sodas, alcohol, all the things. And what we don't do is go get rid of that. Get rid of this. Stop doing that. We go pump your protein.

I want you to add this meal to every day. And what inevitably happens is that pushes out all those other things. Uh, and the psychology of telling them they can't do those things. And so it's the same coaching. It's like, instead of telling the kids, stop playing videos for this, it's like, Hey, I want you to go do these things. Let me ask you guys this. Put yourself in the, in your shoes of when you were a teenage boy, imagine if you didn't play sports or I didn't work out, none of us had jobs and we had access to video games, social media, pornography.

Uh, what are the odds that we would have been sad and anxious? Yeah. You know, I think pretty damn high. Yeah. So it's like, and by the way, again, this is effective for young. Well, it's gotta be, you know, it's gonna be difficult, uh, just having a little bit of empathy for all the parents out there. It's like, I never felt like my parents had to tell me that I just wanted to do that, where it does feel like parents are having to tell their kids that kids, kids just automatically did that.

Like did your, did your parents ever have to tell you, you have to go outside and play? No, but you know why you have to go do that? Like, you know why it's sucked to be at home. Yeah. I didn't have a million and one options of entertainment. Yeah. Like what did you guys do at home when you were at home? Yeah, there was nothing to hang on my parents all day long. Like let's go get me out of there. So that's the problem is that, well, again, I think that just, I think that highlights just how detrimental tech has been to totally just the access and a more testament to, if you have a young kid that you're raising right now is how long can you delay the tech?

Digital anything's been detrimental in my opinion. Dude, again, let me put it to you this way. 16 year old kid. He wants to go meet a girl. He's got porn in his pocket, or he's going to go out and talk to some girl. He doesn't know and probably get rejected nine out of 10 times or 10 out of 10 times. He's staying in his room, getting rid of that feeling. And he's going to just stay in there, you know, 10, nine out of 10 times at least.

So my point is, and again, young men respond well to a direction do this. So if there's a guy listening right now and you're like, man, I feel crappy. Here's what you do. Go lift weights, go to church, get a job. That's it. Just do those things. The rest starts to take care of itself based on the data. When you combine those things, 50% reduction here, 30% reduction there. You got a 95% reduction. I bet you a majority of kids listening right now, if they did that after 60 days, be like cured.

Yeah. I feel amazing. Well, at least one, right? Cause maybe it's a lot to ask them to do all of it, right? Everybody check one of those boxes and watch what happens. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I mean, again, it's just, it's no different than how, um, we would, we would do that with a client. You would just, you would choose one thing and you just add it until they get consistent with that. Then we add another thing. That's right. Up your pain tolerance. Listen to metal.

Tell me about that, dude. There was like a Jackie said, Oh, yes. More confirmation. Well, actually it wasn't cause it was like, they controlled and it was like, um, you know, it was pre con concert. So they had like a group that was like going to go to this festival. There's another group that, you know, wasn't, and they were all like kind of tested out as like their, their pain tolerance. And, uh, it didn't really happen until the actual event. So the event when they're there, like there's a spike in oxytocin and like they all like had this shared experience where it was like, they, they didn't notice you know, the bumps and the bruises and all that, like quite as substantially.

But I think it, what it's pointing to is like when you're working out and you're listening to heavy metal, uh, you know, it really kind of masks a lot of that, like it's how you, you interpret pains a lot different, a hundred percent. Music does that a hundred percent. I always done that for me, bro. If I listen to anything from Rocky while I'm working out, I'm probably going to hurt myself. Like Rocky Ford, the, the, the montage. There were times when I was training hard and I'd turn that on and it was like a new year appeared and I could just, I mean, all of my competing, I had very like, what's your song?

If you're like, it wasn't songs as much as it was, whatever phase of training I am or what I was doing changed the type of, yeah. But do you have a song? Let's say you're stuck under a car. We can't help you. And all we can do is put on a song to help you get out from under the car. What song? Metallica. How's the Jack bill. Okay. Yeah. And that'll make you, yeah. Or inner Sandman. Those two. Yeah. Those two are like, yeah, are probably, yeah.

What's yours, Justin? Oh man. It would have to be like, give me a song or some rage. Yeah. I have to think of it because it's my, my, uh, PR song. A lot of times it's, it's Norma Jean. Oh. Um, and it's, um, did you listen to that when you did your, your three 15 split press or whatever? I tried, but like when I was at, um, when I was at Jordan's gym, like we could only get like the radio playing. And so they had like a metal channel and I had, I think it had like, well, you weren't headphoned out or anything when he did that.

No, no. Is that because you were listening to cues from him? Is that why? What's that? Was that because you were listening to cues from him? Would you normally live like that? You normally live with headphones, don't you? I normally do with headphones, but I think because I was, yeah, I was in that setting and he was kind of giving me coaching and cues and also like, just, I was trying to really focus. I think it, it was different when, when I was doing something that's a little more technical like that.

I needed to like have a little more coaching cues, coaching. Yeah. You want to hear feedback? Like, Oh, that was by myself. That was too fast. You, you, you rush this or yeah. Triffids. Yeah. Triffids is my, my jam. You guys never heard of it. It's, it's, it's from Norma Jean. Okay. Um, but it's very, it's very aggressive. Just know that. Yeah. I told you guys this story. I've told this story before, but I used to love doing this back in the day. So in the late nineties, we, the music was, uh, controlled by the general Matt, uh, manager's office and we had satellite stations, but you could also put a CD in there to play.

So this was, this was like 98. I think it was like, you could actually put, yeah. So I had, so, uh, I'll be in the GM's office. So I was, uh, I'd be a fitness manager at this point. I also did this as a GM and you had, um, one way it was like a glass tinted. What was it? Mirror tinted windows. So you couldn't see in the office, but I could see out and I'd have fun with this. And so it'd be getting close to prime time and you see all these people on treadmills and ellipticals and I could see the cardio from my office.

So I'd call my staff and to my office. So like six people, I'd get over, come here, watch this. So watch everybody on the treadmills. And I'd put, uh, um, I had the tiger on and it would take about 25 to 30 seconds. Watch everybody's speed. Go. Everybody's hitting the butt course. Everybody is hitting the button. Yeah. Speeding up, you know, they have, uh, I think Spotify, I'm pretty sure iTunes does this too, where there's, there's music that's designed, like it tells you how many beats per second.

Yeah. And so like, if you want, like that's to me, that's what I was always like. If I was doing something like intense cardio, then I would have something that was like house or something crazy like that. If I was doing something that was like steady state, then I'd be listening to like classical or easy, something easy listening for it. If I'm, if I'm like PR chasing, then I'm going to do something like angry, you know, you know, rage or something, that direction, if my music has changed so much, you couldn't, you can't even come.

up with a more radical change. Yeah. I used to work out to angry, angry metal and I was pissed. I'd be working out. Nobody want to talk to me. I'm working out because I look like I'm angry. Now I listen to worship music and it's like popular where it's not even like rap or metal, Christian metal. It's like the stuff that will play at church and I'm smiling throughout my workout. I don't know how you do it. Totally dude. It's the weirdest thing ever dude. You and Justin couldn't be more extreme because I feel like I'm not like I listen to more like typically, right?

So on a normal lift days like Def Leppard or ACDC. So it's like it's rock, but it's not like you don't go and it's definitely not like that music to relax. I don't remember where we were going. We were going somewhere one time and it was early man. I don't, we were, I don't, it was back in the day and Justin's driving. Um, I know I normally drive, so I would, you can't even understand the lyrics. It's like first thing in the morning, there's still like do outside sun's coming up and Justin is starting.

I'm like, bro, I cannot let my coffee hit first because I'm not like anti that music, but I'm like, I need to like be up a little bit. You guys gotta understand. It's like, uh, I play it too. So it's like, yeah, I get that. Yeah. It's like a little difference there. I get a lot of inspiration from, but it's, I know it's weird cause it like escalated to that in college. Like I was like very punk in like, I was very Scott and like, you know, reggae and like all that.

Cause you know, I grew up in like a surf town. And so that's like, Oh, I would listen to a lot of sublime and I still do. That's like pretty much what I listened to more than anything else. But like there was just something, I don't know when I was in the cold and like Chicago was like, I didn't have any friends and it was just like, that was like my, my blanket. You're the few, Courtney and I have the same music tastes. Her, she does.

Her, her, her playlist is exactly like mine. Anytime we like, we get around each other. Like who made this? I'm like, Oh, she totally, this is exactly like exactly the same. If we were stuck in the wilderness, Justin would be the first one to go feral. You know, you know how they take, like if you take like a, you know, if you take like a, like a, like a farm pig and you put in the woods and it becomes like, yeah, like you would for sure.

If everything hit the fan true within a week, Justin would be like blood on his face. Well, he's also the one that would survive the longest for sure. A hundred percent. I would just, I'd find Justin and cling to him. Hey man, can you, can I be your friend? Yeah. All right. I'm gonna change the subject. Uh, we, so we got a message. We've had a couple callers, uh, say this and this doesn't happen often, but it's enough to where I think we should address this where, you know, we talk a lot about, um, hitting optimal protein and the data shows it's much higher than what the RDA will recommend.

So RDA recommends, uh, essential protein, meaning you don't eat below that and you're okay. But the data shows much higher than that will typically give you better performance results, muscle gain, fat loss, satiety, all that stuff. So it's a lot higher. And we typically tell people one gram of protein per pound of target body weight, which is hard to do. And occasionally we'll get the message and it's usually a female that says this and goes, it gives me digestion issues. Like I try to eat that much protein and, uh, it doesn't feel good.

It feels like a brick in my stomach or I feel constipated or whatever. Yeah. And typically what we'll do is try to narrow down the protein sources and maybe change it. Because many times that makes a big difference. It does. But sometimes just the fact that it's a lot of protein. Okay. So what do I do? And usually what I would say is like, well, then you eat less. It doesn't work with you. But lately, uh, what I've been doing is pointing people towards, uh, paleo valleys, uh, bone broth protein because it's so easy to digest and you can really ramp it up.

You could rant, bro. I've had 80 gram protein shakes from bone broth and it sits just fine. No, it's like I drank water. Yeah. So I've been pushing that to people who are messaging us and they're coming back and be like, no problem. And by the way, bone broth is often recommended for gut health issues so that the protein itself is high in certain amino acids that seem to help with gut health. So if you're listening and you're like, man, I tried the high protein route.

I've even bumped my fiber. I've tried to isolate, you know, which protein it is. It still bothers me. Yeah. Like you can slam grams of protein from their bone broth. Who doesn't have gut problems? I know. Let's be honest. If you're in denial, I feel like this makes you feel better. I just say that because we all do, right? I saw that video you did. Uh, the, there's a, there's a girl that has an Instagram page like dedicated to like being anti-protein. That's crazy. By the way, you didn't see it.

Yeah. It's you guys remember what I said? Does everybody remember what I said 10 years ago? We would demonize protein. So this is what the fitness industry does. They go through cycles of demonizing a macronutrient or whatever. And it was fat and it was carbs. And I'm like, at some point it's going to be protein. And sure enough, you've got influencers now, which it makes total sense because we've gone so ridiculous the other way too. It's like, even as much as we promote and push people that most people need to increase their protein, but now you can get, you know, protein Doritos, you know, you can get protein, Oreo cookies, you can get protein, everything now.

And so everything's becoming infused with protein. And so of course you're going to have some sort of a backlash or pushback, but then, I mean, when you have people like that, I'm just not a fan of, because what she said, because I know what you're talking about. I did. I think I did a reaction video. You did. It just went, it went up on our Instagram. I didn't see it until it literally sounded like, uh, 1992, uh, RDA, like a, like a representative from the RDA, like what she was saying.

Yeah. It was a carbs are the ones that we need. Our bodies run on carbs. I'm like, yeah. Okay. I'm not saying going back to the old pyramid. Yeah. I'm like, I'm not saying carbs are bad. They're not, uh, they're great for performance. I'm not an anti-carb person, but they're actually not essential. So what she's saying is actually of the macronutrients, that's the one you could never eat and be okay. Yeah. And then the art, the essential protein is only like 0.3, which is like, so minimal.

That is not for somebody doing any sort of athletic endeavors. That's not for anybody who's lifting weights. That's definitely near optimal. And then all the other benefits that you get from a higher protein diet. So I just think, so I think it's a terrible message just because I'm just telling like, if that's you paleo valleys, bone broth protein, you're like, try it out. It's like literally like drinking water. You'll be, you'll, you'll probably digest it very, very well. So do you guys know that a milestone inhibiting drug just passed?

No. Yeah. It's not FDA approved. Maybe Doug can look it up. Uh, it's approved it. Yeah. I think it just passed. Um, let me double check here. FD. I think it just passed phase three, uh, trials. So it will, it will be available here. Will be considered like a peptide. Yeah. Uh, it's say what will be considered a peptide. No, it's a drug. It is a drug. So what would it, what, what, where would it like somebody who has like severe muscle loss, like some sort of like a disease or something like that.

It's like, so there it is right there. I don't even know how to say that. What's it, how do you say that? A pedigro med, a pedigro map. I think it is. It's, it just got FDA approval. Um, and so it blocks milestone activation. So it's great for people with like muscular, uh, atrophy. So that's where you would use it. That's the only way that they would do that. Right. That's what it is. Doesn't Luke Garrix fall into that or no, was there off on that?

I think you're right. Yeah. I think you're right. Here's what I think they're going to do. I think they're going to just combine it with GLPs. I think this is the stack. Oh my God. That they're going to, they're going to find a way to never have to work out again. That's right. And they did a study on with this milestone inhibiting drug with a GLP and they just dropped their calories. They weren't lifting weights or anything like that. And they lost half as much muscle.

So actually it's quite effective at what it does. I mean, they thought that about, I thought they thought that about red at two when they first started doing trials with red. No, no, no. This is because they combined it with this. And the next thing we'll talk about is muscle quality at that point with everybody, you know, who's gonna get their hands on this and get wild with it. Bodybuilders. Of course, I am curious to see because bodybuilders, the pharma knots, they don't care. I mean, even, Israel said he would, of course, he'd be all over.

He'll do anything science, bro. If they combine this with their crazy genetics, with their start, like what's going to happen? Are they going to grow like muscle out of their ears? Like what's going to happen? And they'll be the first ones to show us how dangerous it is. Cause you know, they're going to not take what you're saying to the limits. Yeah, exactly. They're going to keep pushing it to see threshold. This is going to be weird, dude. What's, what's interesting about this, uh, from what I've read and from talking to, uh, people in the field, it doesn't produce, uh, performance benefits necessarily.

So you might just like mass. Now I, yes, but I don't know if that's true. If the person trains, which is what most people would care about. Anyway, I would think, yeah, yeah. If you're training in this would compliment that, but like, maybe you're somebody that's yeah. Not even interested in that. You're just going to have a, like a better looking physique. That's like not functional. Well, you could get big muscles and be more like an obese person. I think it's pretty obvious where we'll go with it.

I mean, we, we put silicone in our bodies to enhance things. So yeah, if that's, that's more, when you really think about it, that's more absurd. This is going to be taking a drug that, that like just shuts off something that allows you to feel more muscle or something. Or it's yeah, we do, we do, we do way, we do way crazier stuff for sure. Going to be the stack for sure. I don't know how they they're going to get there, but at some point it's going to be like, here's your GLP and here's your myostatin inhibitor and we got to take these both.

Wow. It's wild. It just got, it just passed. Yeah. We can't do that though, Sal, because then the big, the big thing, the big thing about the, the, the natural limiter or regulator of the GLP one with muscle loss is that, or is that, okay, if I eat too low calorie, too low approach, I lose muscle. If I take a drug that counters that, then I'm still going to, I would think you're still going to lose. Here's what the study showed. How's this going to affect the organs?

Here's what the study showed. They did still lose muscle half as much. They did nothing else, but take this with the GLP. Yeah, but what about, what about bone? What about other things that, cause now you're, now you're, now you're extending how well, yeah. Like how long is this study? Three months, six months long? Like what happens when somebody is not hitting their essential, essential macronutrients and nutrients. Probably nothing good. Of course not. I mean, so you keep your muscle, but your hair, you lose your hair and your nails start falling out.

Yeah. You look, you look white as a ghost and like, yeah. And your, and your liver and kidneys start shutting down and you get all these other things that going on, but Hey, we got, he got, you kept half of your muscle this time. Like that. I have no idea. You look great. I feel like right now, even though it's not healthy, even though it's not a good thing, it's the wake up call that the GLP one users need. Right. It's like you take this and then if you did a deck, so before, and you go, Oh wow, I lost 50 pounds, but 25 of that was muscle.

Then most, any, any doctors with half a brain are going, Hey, we need to slow down this, this dosage, or we need to go on a focus on building muscle, reverse diet, whatever the things are. Where if now, if you just take that out, then we just extend the period of like malnutrition. I don't know. It can't be, I don't know. And then the next thing is, will they even, because it's not, because it's a drug and not a peptide, will they allow it to be prescribed for a lot?

Like I wouldn't think they would be highly regulated to just those types of diseases. Yeah. I think that's how it's, it got, I think it got approved for specific reasons. I haven't looked into it, but I'm pretty sure, but I'm very interested in seeing what the black market does. Cause you know, for a fact, here's what's going to happen. Somebody will, here's what's going to happen. The drug gets approved. It's controlled here in the U S some other country is going to make it, and then you can buy it from them or China or whatever.

And you're going to have the, or somebody will make it in their house. And the two categories of people that are going to play with this are celebrities, but for sure, bodybuilders for sure. Bodybuilders like we're 10, we're five years away from bodybuilders going ham with this and combining with all the other stuff that they take. And so it will know, by the way, we'll know. Cause you can see, it's funny if you, and just for people who are into bodybuilding you don't need to be into bodybuilding.

But what's interesting is when you look at the decades of bodybuilding, you can see these massive jumps, these sudden jumps in physiques. And you're like, well, what happened? And it was the drugs. It was the dose. And it was, yeah. So like you go from the seventies to the eighties, there was a massive jump eighties to nineties was a massive jump. And since the late nineties, we haven't really had a huge jump because that's when they figured out super high doses of everything. So. I don't know.

There's a few guys you've seen that are crazy looking like, what's his name? Uh, yeah, but they don't like, they're not like bigger than like Coleman or, you know, Cutler who, yes they are. What's what's his, uh, uh, big Rami. Yeah. Look at pull up big Rami right now. His last one of his. Yeah. But I mean, I could show you bodybuilders from the nineties that didn't win, but we're just as big. Really? Yeah, for sure. As big Rami. They're not doing anything different than, uh, than the bodybuilders of the nineties.

No, I know. He looks crazy. Yeah, for sure. But like put up, yeah. Like I said, that's a crazy picture of him. He's seen way crazier pictures, but dude, here's what I think. I think in five to 10 years, there's gonna be another jump. I don't even know what the hell going to look like after that. What do you do? I know it's wild. Let's let's see what happens. All right. So I'm excited to share with you something really cool. Fatty 15. Now it uses this fatty acid called C 15.

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That's a staple. Now I also add C 15 from fatty 15. Go check it out. Get 15% off. Go to fatty15.com slash mind pump. The code mind pump gets you that massive discount back to the show. First question is from hook line and senior. How do you figure out your average calorie burn a day when trying to decide on calorie intake for muscle building? I feel like that's like Doug's dating website right there. Calling me out. Gotcha. Hook line and senior. That's Doug's handle. Or his farmer only page.

Sorry, Doug. All right. I had to say that. All right. So the best. So here's the deal. There's a really expensive way to figure out your calorie burn, but it'll just tell you that day. Yeah. But how would we do it? Best the best way that I've only I've been able to do this is you literally track For a week or two. Yeah, and if you don't lose weight didn't gain weight weeks. That's your maintenance the key to this is You have to understand Like what a what a normal week looks like for you that that's the only coaching I have to do to this like if someone like say someone hired me I have to remind them like hey This isn't like let's go impress your coach the next two weeks and go be doing all kinds of extra steps and cardio and workouts It's like doing it I need an average of a week or two of what like your normal life looks like if you normally Drove to work and you came home and then you watch TV and you did the thing like just do the thing for a week or two a lot of times I can get it in a week a week is if you're consistent with like you can tell me like that was a Normal week of my life for the last year both eating behaviors Which is including like hey if you would skip that meal and then you'd have that one snack or you order that time I want my client to do all the normal things so I can see how their their body kind of Maintains which most people will probably maintain in that week, and then I have an idea of like okay That's Clark maintenance, and then and then before we actually even start to cut I actually want to change what they're probably doing so we talked about this earlier in the episode It's like so let's just say you track like that and let's say your goal is fat loss You want to lose weight and we track and we see your averaging?

2,800 calories, but when I look at the foods you're eating I see when the most things that are most egregious are low protein higher on sugars higher unsaturated fats Not enough fiber and so there's like four levers right away I can decide to move and so before I start going Oh cut your calories from you know 2,800 or 2,500 down to 2,000. I'm gonna actually make Adjustments to like hey Let's add this meal a high fibrous meal every single day and actually stay at maintenance and just start to tweak the the macros And and or put them in a reverse diet before cutting you know 100% and by the way you can get a general idea At maps macro calm, but it will not give you nearly as specific as what Adam said So that's really the only way to get that real good number, but if you need a general idea you can go to maps macro It's free you can enter in some information will give you kind of a general idea of what where you're probably maintenance is Next question is from darn to how long should I be in maintenance before I cut this is the first time?

I figured out my maintenance. I went from 1,900 calories to 2,600 calories So that seems like a good place to cut especially if you're a female Typically when I reverse diet someone I'll stabilize them for about three weeks before I do a cut so if I jump to you I'll keep you there for maybe three weeks, and then we'll decide to do a cut so it's I mean And you can jump and then cut right out the gates But then you don't really give your body a chance to kind of work with that new maintenance right so I'd say probably three weeks No, I'd 100% agree the only thing I would probably add to that is If I had somebody at this and they were telling me they're still hungry.

I'd still lean in So let's so if you're still getting stronger And you still have an appetite, and we've reversed I this far then I would say let's go to 2,800 Let's go 29 so the further we go the more runway We're going to have and if you still feel like you have a time my goal always with my clients I reverse diet was to get to a place where they're like man I'm eating so much food almost to where it starts to become Inconvenient to eat that much food because then it becomes really convenient for me to go all right I just want you to eliminate that meal or cut back on this and then it's easy for them because they were already working so hard to hit that many calories That now coming back down say three to four hundred calories becomes really comfortable for them to be out and now we're in a caloric Deficit so that's kind of the two ways I'd look at it you are high enough now I'd stabilize like Sal saying before I start to reduce or if you're like I'm still hungry I'm still getting strong like keep going.

That's a good say if it's whole natural foods, and you're hungry keep going Next question is from Mick Daniel 95 Steroids versus peptides, what's the difference? Please break it down for me like I'm a five-year-old case Yeah, generally speaking steroids are exogenous hormones Peptides are chains of amino acids that tell the body to make something or release a hormone itself now Here's where it gets a little tricky is human growth hormone is a peptide hormone so a human growth hormone is considered a peptide But it's also a she's considered a peptide it is it's a peptide, but it's a peptide hormone Really?

Yeah, so by the way, it's made. It's HGH is considered a peptide. Yeah, so it's a it's a long chain of amino acids I don't know. Yeah, so so I know semi I mean, I know that Tessa Moreland and all those are peptides that are supposed to signal growth hormone But I didn't know actual HGH is considered a peptide. Yes. He dug but pull it up It's a large single-chain polypeptide comprised of 191. No shit. Amino acid. Is that the only example of a hormone? Let me double-check Is it a peptide?

Yeah, so it's another it's another hormone. So you're right. So that's two right there Yeah, and they're both kind of lumped in right especially growth hormone because it's a they would say it's a performance enhancing Yeah, see it's another peptide both by the way could be very dangerous if you took too much not growth hormone Not as much what? Yeah. No, you can take a big old dose of growth hormone. You just feel like crap insulin will kill you For sure. Yeah, I know for sure, but the even HGH I mean over time But like if I gave you like a giant shot just one time right now.

Yeah, you would you might get low blood sugar It would take a lot. You might hold a lot of water But if I give you a big-ass shot of insulin, I could kill you. Yeah for sure testosterone I give you a big-ass shot of testosterone. You're fine. Yeah, you're totally fine, but steroids are Hormones, they're either the hormones you make or they are based off of the hormones you make so anabolic steroids take typically testosterone or DHT And what they'll do is they'll tweak it a little bit to make it have different you know a little bit more anabolic or longer acting in the body, but it's based off of the Androgen now, let's push HGH and insulin aside because I feel like they're the only ones that are rare that all other peptides You there's no side effects of taking it for a certain period of time and shutting anything off in your body Where if you could do that with exogenous, so that's another tricky one, right?

So typically when you take a hormone you get a negative feedback loop So if I take testosterone, my body will stop its own production of testosterone Growth hormone will do it in the moment peptides Maybe and what they might do is down regulate receptors So taking like like high doses of peptides might make the body less sensitive to the peptides So I know there's some peptides. I recommend that you cycle. So it's not like a straightforward. I'm like, tell me like I'm five years old I don't know if I can You know, you basically it's a hormone versus something that tells your body to make I feel like somebody that would ask the question and frame it this way is I I don't want to take I'm super anti steroids I wouldn't want to take that that sounds dangerous bad or a drug I'm curious about peptides because I've heard all these great benefits of it.

And so is it like that? Am I taking something that's dangerous? Even though growth hormone is a peptide hormone. Let's just call it a hormone, right? I could take growth hormone or I could take a peptide that tells my body to make more growth hormone, right? And so that would be kind of the difference, right? I could take testosterone Is Endogenous or if it's like working with your body's systems or no, it's still from outside is coming in Yeah, so so I could like I could either take testosterone or maybe I could use a peptide that makes my body make more Yes, that's wrong.

So that would be kind of but I don't think it's very clear-cut like, you know Next question is from finish flash for me progressive overload is difficult I get stronger go up and wait and then injure myself and go back to square one How do I avoid the yo-yo of trying to get stronger? another thing is that if I don't injure myself I get so sore that it takes me days to get better and by then I Never have progressed. So at some point no matter what when you get super strong I don't know if this is your case need to reinforce that You know there comes a point when the risk versus reward just isn't worth it I'll use myself as an example.

So the the high and this for me is very heavy I know those guys that lift way more than this But for me, I'll use the deadlift because that's my favorite exercise to brag about The most I've ever deadlifted with 605 pounds now could I at this point try to chase a let's say 650 pound deadlift and could I potentially get there? Maybe I think I could is it worth it? No Because at that point It's just the risk first. I'm not gonna get lots anything from going up to 650 except for a dramatic increase risk of injury now Here's where now that's for some people, but usually it's not that usually it's this it's you need to do different exercises You need to move in different planes linearly Yes, which I think is you know, it works in the setting of like this is my goal.

This is my one lift I'm really trying to you know, maximize and so the specificity of that matters. However, if you're getting into this same kind of Like conundrum I get to this point, you know, I my body's, you know fighting back I end up like facing injury, you know, but maybe I'm not incorporating rotation Maybe I'm not incorporating these other types of movements that would reinforce the joint So it creates more of that joint integrity and strength and stability So now I could produce more force which is gonna give me over that plateau hump that I keep experiencing doing the same progressive repetitive Playbook, so I think that like you need to start thinking outside of that how we can like come around reinforce the joints more You know change your training up come back and then go through that same progress You know, we don't talk about this very much because we used to hammer it, you know 10 13 years ago When we first started all this but you know, we wrote Maps anabolic maps performance and maps aesthetic in in that order for a reason And it's for exactly this like In if if you've never ran through those three programs in that order in a year You really should especially if this is one of the things that you're being challenged with is because we wrote him considering trying to consider like all types of clients like somebody who would want to build muscle people that wanted to lose body fat people that want to develop certain muscle groups and then people that don't want to get injured and like pursue training for Longevity for a long time and if you cycle through all those programs you kind of check all those boxes And so, you know and and the other thing that we talk about we do talk about more recently is at the bare minimum Whatever your goal is no matter what it is Every year you should cycle through either one round of performance or one round of symmetry.

That's it That's what I'll tell this person whoever wrote this in like go and do a cycle or two of symmetry Performance and then come back and see how you feel make a big difference and I bet it'll make a huge difference I'll bet you'll hit PRS and that hurt yourself because this is typically the result of doing the same kind of movements Pushing the same kind of movements. That's right. Not bolstering the ability to stabilize not bolstering Your ability to support yourself with these weights and so you just once you get past a certain way, one of my favorite examples of this was Justin and his 405 pound bench press he did years ago.

And what did you do? You actually I remember you said you would get up to a certain Number. Yeah, you would always get her and then what did you do to finally get her? I finally like I started that's what introduced me to Indian clubs and I started to Start to go through those those external rotational patterns and which is something that's like alien You know, I just thought like stretching or like, you know, that was just for warm-up and dynamic warm-ups But then you start loading it and there's a progressive way to actually load Those types of movements and so I started to kind of go Progressively from like one pound to you know Three pounds to five pounds at ten pounds and like, you know, just start working my way through that then there's like mace bells And so that's another way to kind of you know, add a little bit more weight to that The strength stability that created was like substantial.

So now when I go to bench now I'm locked in and I didn't have that same Fail point like it just went right. What was the number you got stuck at before you were able to finally hit to get 405 Was when would you start hurting is like about 350? So three feet and it always happened always happened and then boom you went up 50 pounds just from yeah belies your shoulder joint Yeah, yep. That's the one right there. Look if you like the show come find us on Instagram.

It's my media We'll see you that you for listening to mind pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and Maximize your overall performance check out our discounted RGB super bundle at mindpumpmedia.com The RGB super bundle includes maps anabolic math performance and maps aesthetic nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to Systematically transform the way your body looks feels and performs with detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos The RGB super bundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers But at a fraction of the price the RGB super bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee And you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com If you enjoy this show Please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by Introducing mind pump to your friends and family.

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