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December 9, 2025 โ€ข 15 mins

Welcome to the โ€Youโ€™re Not Gonna Make Itโ€ podcast, where I discuss threats to your physical and mental health (and find ways to deal with them, too).

This episode: If so, how much? Let's see.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kevin Tejada: Can you actually lose weight in a week? Are all those (00:31):
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Speaker1: Lose 10 pounds in two week ads correct? (00:35):
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Kevin Tejada: Yes and no, respectively. (00:38):
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Kevin Tejada: Especially for, you know, desk workers who don't move much. Maybe they're new (00:44):
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Kevin Tejada: to weight loss and I want to help them understand (00:49):
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Speaker2: What weight loss looks like at the beginning. (00:52):
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Kevin Tejada: When you first start losing weight, (00:55):
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Speaker2: Some of it may be quick. But the thing is, a lot of that will be water weight. (00:57):
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Kevin Tejada: Shit, stuff leaving your body And when I say shit, I literally mean feces (01:03):
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Kevin Tejada: That's what a lot of it is at the beginning Obviously, keep going, (01:12):
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Kevin Tejada: you're going to lose a lot of the body fat if you're doing things correctly But right away, (01:15):
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Kevin Tejada: water weight goes away real quick So yeah, if you start off losing weight week one you (01:20):
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Speaker2: Five pounds. And a lot of a drop, and that's because of the water fluctuation. (02:08):
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Kevin Tejada: A lot of that is also because we as Americans, we eat very salty shit often. Which makes you (02:12):
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Kevin Tejada: you're not going to hold as much water and it's going to leave you and you're (02:24):
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Kevin Tejada: going to lose weight seemingly faster. (02:28):
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Kevin Tejada: If you lose weight, like actual weight, very quickly, you could lose a lot of muscle as well. (02:31):
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Kevin Tejada: Another bad thing. So I always recommend you losing weight gradually. It may not be fun. (02:38):
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Kevin Tejada: You may be impatient, but you're going to keep a lot of what you want on the way down. (02:43):
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Kevin Tejada: So the beginning part to the weight loss may seem very quick a lot of it due (02:48):
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Kevin Tejada: to water and glucose and shit like that but after a month ish it'll (02:51):
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Kevin Tejada: more on the the fat loss (03:01):
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Kevin Tejada: your body's like all right now we're in we're losing weight we're doing better (03:03):
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Kevin Tejada: things now you don't have that much fucking water to shed at this point i'm (03:07):
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Kevin Tejada: losing body fat now i'm simplifying the hell out of it but it's kind of like (03:13):
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Kevin Tejada: that let's kill some myths number one i lost 10 pounds in one week i'm crushing this diet (03:16):
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Speaker1: This happens a lot more than you think. (03:26):
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Kevin Tejada: People, they hop on something like, you know, they were a couch potato or eating (03:27):
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Kevin Tejada: garbage before, and then they make some kind of change and then they see rapid weight loss. (03:31):
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Speaker2: But most of that right at the beginning is not all straight up body fat. (03:36):
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Speaker2: A weight, glycogen, like I mentioned, just like a different form of energy in you. (03:41):
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Kevin Tejada: Sometimes muscle, it's not all just fat you're losing at the beginning. (03:48):
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Kevin Tejada: Number two, the 3,500 calorie rule. (03:52):
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Kevin Tejada: Cut 500 calories daily and lose exactly one pound per week. I mentioned this last time, last week. (03:56):
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Kevin Tejada: It's not 100% accurate, like I mentioned before, but for simplicity's sake, (04:02):
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Kevin Tejada: it's a good rule of thumb. (04:07):
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Speaker2: You eat a few hundred. (04:10):
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Kevin Tejada: Less per day, you can expect to lose a couple thousand per week of calories in that deficit. (04:11):
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Kevin Tejada: So that still applies. Again, it's not 100% accurate. Nothing is 100% accurate. (04:19):
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Kevin Tejada: And even the calorie labels on the food. (04:24):
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Kevin Tejada: You have to go into a lab and burn the food to find out how many calories it actually has. (04:26):
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Kevin Tejada: So if something says, oh, it's 50 calories per serving, whatever, (04:30):
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Kevin Tejada: it could be 48.2 or something like that, depending on your own body and how it burns. (04:34):
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Kevin Tejada: Like there's a lot of different little details that are not exactly 100%, (04:39):
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Kevin Tejada: but to keep it simple, to keep it followable, yeah, about 500 fewer calories (04:44):
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Kevin Tejada: per day will lose you about a pound a week. (04:49):
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Kevin Tejada: But it's not 1000% exact to the calorie, but it's close enough to work for you. (04:53):
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Kevin Tejada: Number three, faster weight loss equals better results. (05:00):
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Kevin Tejada: No, this is why I have kind of an issue with, well, I have a big issue with (05:04):
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Kevin Tejada: a lot of the weight loss drugs, the way people use them. (05:08):
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Kevin Tejada: They lose a bunch of weight really quickly because they've never told their (05:11):
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Kevin Tejada: hunger to calm the fuck down. (05:17):
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Kevin Tejada: So losing a shit ton of weight. and since you know they hopped into the drug (05:19):
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Kevin Tejada: instead of doing some other stuff they're probably not exercising so they're (05:23):
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Kevin Tejada: losing a bunch of fat a bunch of muscle a bunch of water like everything they're just losing and (05:26):
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Speaker2: This applies even if. (05:32):
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Kevin Tejada: You're not on drugs you're losing a shit ton of weight you're eating a thousand calories per (05:32):
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Kevin Tejada: day you're just dropping like crazy your body's not (05:35):
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Kevin Tejada: gonna have fun in that process it's not great gradual (05:38):
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Kevin Tejada: is is much better your body can adapt you keep a lot of the stuff that you actually (05:42):
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Kevin Tejada: need and also a lot uh some of the stuff people don't talk about is that is (05:46):
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Kevin Tejada: the mental part i had a client who when he started off he was he went he was (05:52):
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Kevin Tejada: props to him i said hey man you for the the calorie stuff this you got to do this (05:56):
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Speaker2: Really quickly at the beginning i was warning him hey just so you know later on it's gonna slow. (06:12):
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Kevin Tejada: Down a bit just because your body's getting used to what's going on it's not (06:17):
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Kevin Tejada: gonna be that easy going forward just keep that in mind you kept going then (06:20):
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Kevin Tejada: it started to slow down he's like kevin i (06:24):
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Speaker2: Only lost one pound. (06:28):
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Kevin Tejada: This week like first of all that's awesome secondly (06:29):
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Kevin Tejada: Secondly, remember I told you about this. Oh, yeah, you're right, (06:34):
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Kevin Tejada: you're right, you're right. I'm glad you warned me because I'd be much more upset right now if not. (06:37):
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Kevin Tejada: So this, when people forget about the initial weight loss being a lot of water (06:42):
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Kevin Tejada: weight and other stuff, they set themselves up for different expectations. (06:46):
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Kevin Tejada: You're not going to lose a shit ton of weight super quickly the whole time. (06:50):
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Kevin Tejada: Not in a happy way. It will slow down if you're doing it right. (06:53):
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Kevin Tejada: And that might get you a bit upset. It might take some getting used to. It's fine. (06:58):
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Kevin Tejada: It'll be fine. It'll work out. But just when you start off with certain expectations, (07:04):
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Kevin Tejada: it can be rough to transition to reality. (07:08):
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Kevin Tejada: So if you're losing weight way faster at the beginning, it could be cool at (07:12):
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Kevin Tejada: the beginning, but then you'll learn, oh, it won't be like this the whole time. (07:16):
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Kevin Tejada: Number four, if (07:21):
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Kevin Tejada: Isn't working. First of all, hopping on a diet, I don't recommend. (07:27):
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Kevin Tejada: I'm hoping this means, hey, the way I'm eating isn't working or whatever. (07:31):
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Kevin Tejada: Losing two pounds every week is kind of, unless you start off very obese, (07:34):
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Kevin Tejada: very obese, I would not recommend that. (07:39):
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Kevin Tejada: It means you're cutting out a thousand calories or more every day. (07:41):
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Kevin Tejada: That's not sustainable. (07:47):
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Kevin Tejada: Maybe at the very beginning, if you're very overweight, you can get away with (07:49):
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Kevin Tejada: that, but that's not something I recommend to people. (07:52):
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Kevin Tejada: Why I prep people saying, hey, (07:58):
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Kevin Tejada: about a pound a week, if you're following everything perfectly is great. (08:00):
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Speaker2: Great pace. (08:04):
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Kevin Tejada: Expect that. Again, that same client I was talking about who lost a shit ton (08:06):
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Kevin Tejada: of weight. I think the first week they lost like four pounds or something. (08:11):
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Kevin Tejada: I'm thinking, that's awesome. He's off to a great start. I got to warn him about later though. (08:14):
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Kevin Tejada: And the final myth, I can out-exercise a bad diet in one week. (08:20):
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Speaker2: This is actually true. (08:25):
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Kevin Tejada: It's just really stupid you can (08:26):
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Kevin Tejada: eat like dog shit and then work it off you're just gonna have to work a (08:29):
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Kevin Tejada: that because physical activity just you know (08:32):
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Kevin Tejada: just going for a run or stuff like that it doesn't burn that (08:35):
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Kevin Tejada: many calories compared to how quickly (08:38):
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Kevin Tejada: you can undo that with let's say junk food (08:41):
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Kevin Tejada: like donuts or something imagine you're on (08:44):
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Kevin Tejada: the treadmill you're just jogging running whatever it is you (08:46):
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Kevin Tejada: burn it says you burned 330 calories cool (08:50):
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Kevin Tejada: you're sweaty you worked a lot eat a donut that's gone (08:54):
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Kevin Tejada: that's why in terms of calories it's more (08:57):
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Kevin Tejada: about your just have a general activity level that you can account for and then (09:00):
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Kevin Tejada: keep in mind your budget at that level your calorie budget and then work with (09:05):
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Kevin Tejada: that don't say oh i'm eating extra shit let me work it just this take the hit (09:10):
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Kevin Tejada: for of the day and just continue tomorrow. (09:16):
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Kevin Tejada: Don't try to work shit off. It's going to create this, not only is it not effective (09:18):
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Kevin Tejada: long-term, it's going to create this weird thing in your mind where you have (09:21):
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Kevin Tejada: to punish yourself for eating. (09:24):
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Kevin Tejada: That's fucked. Nutrition is 80% of weight loss. And part of it is learning what works for you. (09:27):
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Kevin Tejada: So if you fuck up, learn from it and move forward. Don't say, (09:34):
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Kevin Tejada: hey, I fucked up. I'm going to lash myself with exercise. (09:39):
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Kevin Tejada: Not only are you punishing yourself for eating, but you're also making exercise mean punishment. (09:42):
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Kevin Tejada: Bad. This happens when I'm bad. That's also bad mentally. Don't fucking do that. (09:48):
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Kevin Tejada: Exercise can be very fun. (09:53):
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Speaker2: So if you. (09:55):
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Kevin Tejada: Work at a desk job all the time the thought (09:56):
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Kevin Tejada: of of a very quick start to your weight loss can be (09:59):
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Kevin Tejada: appealing but when it kind of goes back to normal you're (10:02):
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Kevin Tejada: gonna feel so bad you might just quit just go back to sitting at your desk and (10:06):
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Kevin Tejada: doing nothing else a lot if you work in tech a lot of tech workers will be like (10:10):
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Kevin Tejada: hey yeah if i i'm gonna calculate so my budget is this what would be the optimal (10:14):
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Kevin Tejada: fastest way to lose weight without wanting to die blah blah blah and it's (10:18):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't think I've ever met someone or I can even imagine someone who comes (10:24):
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Kevin Tejada: up with the most amount of calories they can possibly reduce their intake by (10:28):
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Kevin Tejada: and not die and that they're happy with it. (10:33):
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Kevin Tejada: It's just not the ideal way to do it. It's just it's not fun. (10:36):
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Kevin Tejada: And by the way, talking about all this water weight stuff, that doesn't mean (10:41):
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Kevin Tejada: don't drink water. Drink your water. (10:45):
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Kevin Tejada: Just saying, a lot of the initial stuff, it's (10:48):
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Kevin Tejada: water fluctuation so give it you (10:54):
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Kevin Tejada: know a month six weeks into your your journey (10:57):
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Kevin Tejada: before you start making expectations for yourself (11:00):
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Kevin Tejada: that'll give you a better indication of what (11:03):
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Kevin Tejada: will actually work and also taking into account that you've lost a lot of the (11:06):
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Kevin Tejada: fucking water weight already and this will be more like the normal and here's (11:09):
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Kevin Tejada: a nice tip if you lose about if you're overweight obviously if you lose about (11:14):
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Kevin Tejada: five percent of your body weight you lower your risk of heart disease and diabetes (11:18):
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Kevin Tejada: by quite a lot. So if you're 200 pounds (11:23):
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Speaker2: And you lose 10 pounds, which is 5% of it. (11:26):
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Kevin Tejada: You're significantly improving your chances of not having heart attack. And that's cool. (11:29):
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Kevin Tejada: And something I have to touch on is the whole notion of your friend losing a (11:35):
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Kevin Tejada: bunch of weight because they went low carbs or whatever. (11:40):
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Kevin Tejada: First of all, as I often say, most of the carbs that people eat, (11:42):
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Kevin Tejada: they're not vegetables and fruit. (11:46):
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Kevin Tejada: They're fucking croissants, bagels and donuts And stuff that while they may (11:48):
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Kevin Tejada: be good They might not fill you up So (11:52):
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Speaker2: You'll eat more. (11:56):
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Speaker1: Have a bunch of calories in them so not (11:58):
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Kevin Tejada: A great combo but if you look at the word carbohydrate (12:00):
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Kevin Tejada: hydrate carbohydrates hold a bunch of water so for those people (12:06):
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Kevin Tejada: who only cut out carbs even though most of them were basically pastries they're (12:09):
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Kevin Tejada: also not having a bunch of that water in their diet or water in their body anymore (12:13):
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Kevin Tejada: which makes it look like oh wow they're losing a shit ton away because they (12:18):
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Kevin Tejada: cut out carbs it may look that way at first but guess what you need carbohydrates and you need water. (12:22):
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Kevin Tejada: So keep consuming them and make it work. (12:29):
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Kevin Tejada: Eat carbohydrates that fill you up. Like those weird healthy breads, (12:33):
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Kevin Tejada: like pumpernickel, sourdough, stuff like that. Is pumpernickel healthy? I don't know. (12:37):
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Kevin Tejada: Just keep all this in mind. Just remember the beginning of your weight loss (12:43):
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Kevin Tejada: journey if you're doing things. (12:46):
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Kevin Tejada: You're doing these new things that are going to help you lose weight. (12:48):
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Kevin Tejada: A lot of it's going to be water weight at the beginning. (12:51):
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Kevin Tejada: Just keep at it. Your body gets used to the weight loss and they'll start losing (12:54):
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Kevin Tejada: real fat after like four to six weeks or so. (12:57):
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Kevin Tejada: But you wanna, I mean, you don't have to exercise while you lose weight. (13:02):
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Kevin Tejada: It's completely unnecessary, but I highly recommend it. Eat a bunch of protein. (13:04):
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Speaker2: Not only will keep you full, but you'll retain a lot of your muscle as. (13:09):
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Kevin Tejada: You're losing that weight. And I also recommend when you're weighing yourself, weigh yourself (13:12):
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Speaker1: Recommend every week. (13:19):
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Kevin Tejada: I do that for myself because I'm dumb, but I wouldn't weigh yourself more than (13:20):
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Kevin Tejada: two weeks, more often than once every two weeks. (13:25):
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Kevin Tejada: I would definitely not weigh yourself every single day. There's way too much fluctuation. (13:28):
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Kevin Tejada: You'd be like, oh, I'm 81 this, 181 this day, tomorrow I'm 178. (13:32):
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Kevin Tejada: Oh, I'm back to 180 the next day. (13:36):
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Kevin Tejada: It's just, just don't trouble yourself with that. Do it once every two weeks. (13:38):
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Kevin Tejada: That's enough time to see, you know, the bare minimum of change that you've made over that time. (13:44):
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Kevin Tejada: Even better, if you want to do it every four or six weeks and you can really (13:50):
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Kevin Tejada: see, okay, this is what has actually occurred over the month or so. (13:53):
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Kevin Tejada: Not, oh, this is the slight change that happened as of yesterday. (13:58):
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Kevin Tejada: And that way, if you do it once every four or six weeks or something, (14:01):
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Kevin Tejada: you can totally bypass that. (14:05):
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Kevin Tejada: Oh my God, I'm losing tons of weight, not knowing it's water weight, (14:07):
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Kevin Tejada: a section of your early weight loss too. So that's a tip. (14:09):
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Kevin Tejada: So to recap, in just one week. Can you lose weight? Yeah. A lot of it's going (14:13):
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Kevin Tejada: to be water weight though. (14:17):
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Kevin Tejada: And then going forward, you can still lose that weight and then it'll be more body fat than water. (14:19):
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Kevin Tejada: But at the beginning, that ratio is not going to be the one you want necessarily. (14:28):
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Kevin Tejada: But per week, whether it's at the beginning or later, yes, you can lose weight. (14:32):
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Kevin Tejada: The weight that you can see on the scale, you can. (14:37):
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Kevin Tejada: Just don't weigh yourself every day or every week. Unless (14:40):
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Kevin Tejada: you just love the roller coaster ride of fluctuations and in (14:43):
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Kevin Tejada: that case go for it but expect to lose (14:46):
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Kevin Tejada: about half a pound to a pound of body weight (14:49):
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Kevin Tejada: per week going forward if you're doing the proper budgeting and deficit and (14:53):
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Kevin Tejada: all that stuff do not be impatient you're in it for the long run so treat the (14:57):
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Kevin Tejada: process as a long one write in the comments how much weight did you think you (15:03):
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Kevin Tejada: could realistically lose in a week Was it 10? Are you insane? (15:07):
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Kevin Tejada: Also, subscribe or you're not going to make it. All right, see you next time. (15:12):
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