September 12, 2025 • 42 mins
We kick this one off AMA-style and with a tasty update: Buttered Maple Bacon Keto Brick is back as a seasonal drop this Sunday, the 14th, at noon Central. We talk fall vibes, pecan butter and chunks, and why the cacao-butter version hits just right.
We also run through how we’re leveling up the Natural State Savages show: bigger medals and trophies (plus a fun surprise), premium venue with dedicated dressing rooms and a backstage livestream, on-site shirt printing, top-tier vendors and a DEXA Fit tie-in, a smoother running order, and even family-friendly touches like getting the kids involved. My dad’s smoking barbecue butts all night and Stan’s grilling chicken, and judges’ feedback will happen upstairs in a single session. Competitor registration closes Sunday the 21st so we can finalize bios and peak-week logistics; spectator tickets are on the same site.
In the AMA, we cover a lot: sucralose isn’t doomsday but we still lean to stevia/monk fruit; you don’t need carbs to run if you’re deeply fat-adapted (we reference our VO2 testing and staying mostly in Zone 3). For building, accept a reasonable body-fat window—about 12–15 percent for most guys—while pushing progressive overload. We reframe “cheat days” into on-plan free meals during non-prep phases. On a budget? Eggs, ground beef, and buying from local farmers still win, and bricks are cost-effective per calorie. Protein shakes are overrated versus real food, especially when isolates crank up GI issues. We close with a reverse-diet playbook (bump protein first, then fats, progress weekly, phase out refeeds as daily intake rises) and advice for perimenopause/menopause: eat enough, lift with intent, and prioritize muscle and bone.
If this one sparks more questions, send them our way for the next AMA.
Greg Mahler is also a lifetime natural bodybuilder, and can be followed on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/ketogreg80/
Register For My FREE Masterclass: https://www.ketobodybuilding.com/registration-2
Get Keto Brick: https://www.ketobrick.com/
Subscribe to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/42cjJssghqD01bdWBxRYEg?si=1XYKmPXmR4eKw2O9gGCEuQ
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Rock'n'roll. Happy today's Tuesday.
We're rolling. We're rolling.
We're rolling. What's up dude?
I like your shirt, First off. I like your shirt man.
We're like twinning. What size you got?
This is XL, so it's a little loose because.
You get big muscles. No, it would be tight if I had
big muscles. We have to wear an XL because
you got big muscles. I'm in a large.
(00:27):
Your muscles are bigger than mine.
I could put a larger on, probably, yeah.
It's actually. Oh yeah.
Yours is yours is the other style, but my closet now is prep
clothes and offseason clothes because I literally have some of
the same shirts in two sizes because one's too loose when I'm
leaning out and one's too tight.And then vice versa when you're
(00:49):
in the offseason, it's smaller stuff, doesn't fit.
Yeah, and it's not like we recommend a massive swing in
weight, but I mean, even if it'slike 2030 lbs, which isn't like
astronomical. But I'm kind of between sizes
anyways. Yeah, so it's like it's even
more pronounced. I got this when I was shredded
in 23 Ozark iron gym had like this sale on shirts and they had
(01:12):
like this hot pink 80s retro shirt and I got it and it fit
and it was a medium and it shrunk obviously since I washed
it and now I'm not a. Medium.
So now it's like an extra small on me and I just look a little
funky and so I don't wear that one.
I think I. Gave that one to Crystal.
(01:33):
I can't even fit in the chest part because it's way too tight.
I have to get that one to Rigel.We got what to talk about, man.
We've got some questions we're going to do AMA style with this
podcast. We got some questions printed
out that kind of run the gamut on all kinds of topics.
So before we dive into that, let's talk about some new and
exciting things in the works forthe work.
(01:55):
See what I did there? So we got, let's talk with Keto
Brick first. Yep.
So you are in prep right now. You are getting your macros
dialed in. You don't let anything to chance
and you're very specific on whatyou allow in your macros on a
given day because every macro matters.
And you worked something into your macros for today.
(02:18):
I did what you work in your macros for today.
Keto brick. Keto brick.
Well, I, you know, I've actuallyhad keto brick as part of my day
going for from at this point, but I got a special flavor in
there. Special flavor today do tell A.
Seasonal season relaunch that you guys have probably seen
before this time of the year we'd like to bring back.
(02:41):
Should we tell? We tell.
Buttered Maple pecan. Buttered Maple.
And I got to tell you, the facility, the building here
smells heavenly. It's crazy.
You walk in the door and you just smell like you're just
encompassed with buttered Maple pecan.
So there's pecan butter in there.
There's pecan chunks in there. The protein is Maple pecan
(03:04):
protein. The flavor that we're rocking
this week that'll be in my mouthin a little while after this
recording probably is the cacao butter version.
Cacao Organic Cacao buttered Maple pecan.
Yep, and I, I kind of cheated the system because we mix and
pour one day and then the next day we bang them out and package
(03:27):
them and I couldn't wait and I'mdoing the alternate day fasting.
So today's a fasting day for me.So I had the guys mix and pour
me one butter made pecan brick yesterday and I stuck it in the
fridge a little bit in the breakroom to solidify them.
And then I had that yesterday. Like as fresh as it gets and Oh
my gosh man. Like I people always ask me what
my favorite flavour is and I feel like I can't really have a
(03:50):
a 'cause they're all kind of unique in their own way.
But man, biting into that bad boy, it's like this may be my
favorite. Flavor.
It is so good. The flavor is on point.
And it's like perfect for the season.
Like it's been a little brisker here in Arkansas, waking up and
so little, little bite in. 50s, sixties, yeah.
Yeah, so like, morning runs havebeen a little chillier and,
(04:13):
like, I'm excited about getting the fire going, putting a hoodie
on and, like, trying to stay warm.
And that buttered Maple pecan brick is like the holiday
season. It is.
Fall, autumn, fall like. It all that.
Wrapped up into a perfect littlebundle.
So good. Yeah, I'm excited.
I'm excited. I put I put a half a brick in
there for today. So in addition to my other food,
(04:34):
I'm going to beef. Crunch that bit.
So those are dropping this Sunday, which is the 14th, is
that right? That'd.
Be the 14th, yes. 14th at noon, Central buttered Maple pecan
baby. It's not baby, but that's,
that's what we're calling it. It's tasty.
But we're also going to make a tallow version.
(04:56):
We are. That one's not yet ready.
Yeah, not we're not producing that yet, but buttered Maple
pecan is dropping this Sunday. So you just let's keep an eye on
your inbox as on the inbox and social post.
And then we got so much competition stuff to talk about.
(05:17):
I mean, it's crazy, like we're both rocking the shirts.
These are going to be the shirtsfor the competition.
But you and I have been deep in the weeds getting everything
organized, trophies, medals. We had the meeting with the
venue to be talking about that on the Last One podcast.
I don't think we did. No, because we would have
recorded it on Monday and we hadthe meeting afterwards.
So yeah, we had a meeting with the venue event staff and it was
(05:40):
a several hour meeting with their whole boardroom and it's
just this is going to be awesome.
It is like the the show is goingto be the best show out there.
And I don't want to like get ahead of myself.
This is first time I'm promoting, first time hosting a
show. A lot of things could go wrong,
but I don't really leave much tochance and I typically overdo
(06:02):
everything. I think one of the biggest
reasons that we're super stoked and excited about it is cause
we've been in several other competition.
Like we've been at competitions and seen backstages, we've seen
venues, we've seen how the people are treated, we've seen
(06:23):
swag bags. We've seen all of it and
everything that we have experienced in our endeavors.
Everything's getting levelled up.
Yeah, everything's getting levelled up.
Like I don't want to get too farahead of myself, but there's so
many things that we're doing different that other
competitions just haven't done or don't do to the level that we
(06:44):
are. So like from a very high level
of view, our swag bags are second to none.
Like they're going to be the best swag.
There's hundreds of dollars worth of stuff and.
Not only the competitors gettingthem, but the judges are all
getting like the swag bags are legit.
We're going to be printing theseshirts on site.
All the competitors will get them by default, but then
anybody that's attending and wants 1 can get one.
(07:06):
The vendor booths are awesome. Like the actual vendors that we
have coming, sampling products, selling product, those are all
like top tier vendors. So I'm excited about that.
We've got like the Dexafit deal for anybody that's wanting to
jump on that in the open house the days prior to the
competition, the way we're formatting it with the running
format, but the way we're doing it is going to be different.
(07:28):
And we just kind of nailed that down this morning.
It's going to be so much more efficient for the competitors.
It's going to be better for thempeaking wise.
And then we're giving them incentive to stay.
We're going to get the kids involved.
We're going to get the vendors up on stage for a bit talking
about their brand. We're going to have an
(07:49):
intermission that allows them to, you know, view all these
vendors. And then we're going to have my
dad smoking BBQ butts all night long, pork butts.
So everybody's going to be able to eat them.
And then Stan's going to be cooking chicken that's
originally raised for all the competitors and people there as
well. And then we're going to have
judges feedback that is literally happening upstairs in
(08:11):
the conference room where they can get all the feedback at once
as opposed to like being parsed down.
So that's going to be unique. And then I mean the whole venue
itself, like it's just top tier,man.
Like it's Performing Arts Center.
It's nice. We've got so many different
rooms allocated for different sections.
Like the mainstage obviously is going to be super slick, but
(08:31):
like the actual competitor hangout area is the best one
I've ever been in. And we're going to broadcast
live stream the competition up to ATV up there.
Yeah, so like the competitors bebackstage, they're going to be
able to see everything in their little chill out area.
They're going to have dedicated dressing rooms, male and female.
They're going to have a pump up section behind the curtain.
(08:53):
The MCS going to be awesome. The X factors are going to be
awesome. The volunteers that are helping
are all awesome. I mean, so many of the
competitors know each other already, so it's going to be
like this big family vibe that'sgoing to be awesome as well.
It's just gonna be slick. And then we've got the host, Jim
right there where the tanning's gonna be taking place and all
the competitors are gonna have free access to that.
(09:14):
I mean, it's we're just levelling up, man.
Like I'm excited for other competitors to experience this
show that I've never done our show, but I've done other shows,
get their feedback. And then the prizes, like our
prizes are next level. Like, we've got the trophies,
the swords, all that jazz. Yeah.
Everyone gets a medal. We spend a lot of money on like
medals that are bigger, better than other medals.
(09:36):
And then we've got a little surprise that we're not even
going to tell you, but it's going to be slick.
It's going to be slick. So I'm stoked.
I'm like really looking forward to it and I'm grateful for you
for helping me with all this stuff.
But like, we've been working on this.
When did we start working on this it?
Was a while back when we, I think probably when we first
(09:57):
decided that we wanted to do something even in the fall.
Yeah, we didn't. Hadn't even had a date dialed in
and we were hashing out ideas. Yeah.
I mean, did we book the venue last year?
Was that this year? I think that was last year.
Yeah. So we've been working on it for
well over I guess 8 months now. Probably.
And we've just been dialing things in every single month,
(10:21):
chipping away at it. So it's been just super
organized, you know, from early on and there's just not going to
be missing pieces, you know, like some fluke things bound to
happen, something's, you know, going to be off kilter, but I
don't think anybody would know. Like, I feel like we're going to
have everything so dialed that from a competitor standpoint,
from a judges standpoint, from an attendee standpoint, like
(10:42):
it's going to seem flawless, organized and structured.
Yep. And flow like it should.
Yep. So it's going to be awesome.
I'm excited. Yep, come together.
So Natural State savages.com to register.
Yep, and that's where you can buy your ticket.
Yeah. And we're probably gonna put a
deadline on competitor registrations.
We're thinking the Sunday prior to peak week.
(11:04):
So that would be the what is Sunday?
Is that 21st? I think so 21st will be the
deadline for registration so that we can go into peak week
having all the competitors organized their BIOS, all that
stuff. Yeah, it's it's.
Coming together, it's it's goingto be awesome.
If y'all are not competing, haveno interest in bodybuilding, you
(11:25):
should still attend it because like just the vibe and culture
and what's going to be going on is just going to be worth worth
the price of admission for sure,anyways.
And BBQ. So and BBQ.
Yeah, So I'm I'm stoked. Yep, Yep, I'm stoked.
All right. You want to tackle some of these
questions? Yeah.
OK so we got a myriad of questions from different fans,
followers, people that submittedthese coming from the top.
(11:48):
What carbs are good for cardio like running or HIT?
What do you think of sucralose? Sadly it's in mini protein
powders. All right, Let me answer this in
reverse. So sucralose is in a lot of
protein powders for sure. It is a artificial sweetener.
It's like what Splenda uses. For those of you that use
Splenda, I don't have any issueswith it.
(12:11):
A lot of people knock sucralose.Somebody's calling me decline
that because of the studies thathave been done showing it
disrupts gut microbiome. But people have to keep in mind
like those studies are typicallyanimal model studies and they're
putting way more. It's a massive amount.
Like no human would consume the equivalent of that relative to
(12:32):
human consumption in a day. So like the gut microbiome knock
isn't really a good argument unless you have like
pre-existing gut microbiome, youknow, gut that dysbiosis or
something like that. However, I try to gravitate away
from sucralose because too much of it definitely does make me to
hold a little bit more fluid than I would like.
(12:54):
It pretty much is like a incomplete sugar molecule that
gets undigested through your system.
So like you're not really absorbing any caloric load from
it, but because it has to still go through your digestion
system, it often times, you know, holds on to water and you
can get some intestinal fluid retention.
So I typically don't like it forthat reason, which is why I
typically gravitate to stevia ormonk fruit.
(13:17):
As far as the question pertaining to carbs for running,
I mean, I've been doing a littlebit of running.
I don't do a lot of, I'm not a runner by any means for any
shorter distance. You certainly don't need
carbohydrates. If you're doing like a massively
long, you don't need them for a marathon even.
But if you're like an ultra marathon, people that are in the
low carb space that do ultra marathons, they'll often times
(13:38):
have a little bit of sugar or carbohydrate rather in the form
of, you know, a simple acting sugar or something like that.
They'll do, you know, honeys andthings of that nature to
replenish muscle glycogen as they're running.
But I don't know, I'm halfway. We've found adapted in still run
(13:59):
we've we've worked with ultra runners and ultra marathoners
that. Yeah, I'm, I'm halfway tempted
to get into the ultra space justto do it without and prove
people wrong because you certainly don't have to have it.
I mean, you especially dependingon what your aerobic threshold
is, what your VO2 Max is, These are all things I'm kind of
diving deeper into since we got our VO2 Max test.
(14:21):
But like if you're deeply fat adaptive and you're not
operating at full capacity, I mean, you and I were in like
zone 3 and we were still predominantly using fat
metabolism over glucose metabolism.
Obviously in the higher highest zone, you're still using glucose
metabolism, but you're not running an ultra marathon at a
Sprint. So if you're at a jog pace, you
(14:45):
know, heart rate between 1:20 to1:40, then I would argue that
you don't need to have the carbohydrates.
So that'd be kind of my responseto that.
OK. All right.
Next on the agenda this one saysI'm a relatively slim and
healthy 6 foot one. I recently did a low carb high
fat protein diet with much running and lifting after 2.
(15:08):
After two years or so I lost quite a bit of fat.
Question, how do I bulk up without putting fat back on?
Just eat more protein and fat and lift with more purpose or
focus. Pretty much, yeah.
Eat more protein and fat, lift with more intensity and
progressive overload principles,and that's it distilled down to
a nutshell. And you will put on somebody fat
(15:31):
like that's inevitable. Like if you're eating at a
caloric surplus, which would be optimal if you're trying to add
as much lean tissue to your frame as possible, that will
come with a little bit of body fat gain.
The caveat is there's a difference between a healthy
amount of body fat gain and an obsessive amount of body fat
gain. And there is a point of
diminishing returns of that bodyfat gain.
(15:52):
So like a little bit of added body fat is not a bad thing
because you know, it gives you more energy to tap into as a
reserve for those runs. It's just going to be better
hormonally speaking, if you've got a healthy amount of body
fat. Like you don't want to be
operating at sub 5% body fat from a performance standpoint,
but you don't need to go crazy. Like I'm in a building phase
(16:13):
now. You're about to be in a building
phase. And really and truly like for a
male, you know, 15% body fat is kind of like the upper window.
I would say between 12 and 15 isa pretty good sweet spot.
There's not really any need to go beyond that because then
especially from a running standpoint, you're just having
to carry more weight around that's harder on your joints.
(16:34):
It's not going to contribute to better performance with your
lifts. So I was just trying to stay
within that window. But if you're leaner than that,
learn to embrace going up and being in that window, because
there's nothing wrong with beingin that 12 to 15 range if the
primary objective is to add morelean tissue.
Got it. All right.
Next up, are cheat days OK sometimes or about cheat meals
(16:58):
when? Was the last time I made a cheat
day? Greg A.
Cheat day. Or cheat meal.
Man, I don't even know. I guess we should define cheat
meal or cheat day. Used to have like cheat days,
cheat meals back 10 years ago when I was doing prep that was
part of the protocol is every Friday night or whatever night
(17:20):
it would be. I could just go have whatever I
wanted. As long as it was condensed into
one feeding time, it didn't dragout.
So typically it was like a dinner so that it wouldn't
spiral down the rest of the day.Carbohydrated included I'm
assuming? Yo, yeah, this is before I was
even keto. This is like 20/12/13.
So that would be last time I canremember.
(17:40):
Just like going off the rails. Yeah.
And literally going to the grocery store and being like, I
want that, I want that, I want that, I want that.
And I would eat until I was sick.
And that was like probably the the last time I had like a legit
cheat meal and it was just trash.
It was garbage ice cream and candy and, you know, chips and
pizza and nothing with nutritional value.
(18:04):
But since then I, I don't even know to me now, I wouldn't even
call it a cheat meal. I'd call it like a free meal.
But to me now, a free meal or a free food choice is something
that wouldn't be prep worthy butis still keto, low carb, you
know, chicken wings or pizza toppings or something that's not
(18:26):
100% trackable. And then, you know, that's not
even a cheat meal, really. Yeah, I would say to their
question, you know, once you've made the decision that you're
following a ketogenic diet and lifestyle, you feel better, you
perform better, you recognize this, You know, you feel poorly
when you deviate from it. Like it's just there needs to be
(18:47):
a mental shift where it's like, OK, I don't allow those things
in my life anymore. There's a non negotiating.
You just level up. You just level up and for that
reason if the question cheat daycheat meal is referring to an
all out binge fest on carbohydrates and junk then I
would say the answer would be never.
Like I would not advocate for that ever.
However, you know, I'm not in prep right now.
(19:09):
You are in prep right now. Whether we have a specific goal,
we kind of change nutrition accordingly.
And if I'm on a prep, I'm eatingeverything to the T, I'm
tracking every macro, every gram.
There's a specific reason I'm eating every single, every
single thing I'm consuming. If I'm in a building phase, I'm
still tracking right now. This is like the first building
phase where I'm tracking everything, which I've actually
enjoyed. But generally I've gone and
(19:31):
eaten ad libitum intuitively in a building phase, right?
You never, like, go off the rails.
Yeah, never deviate from that. Change your choices.
But I'll have foods that, you know, I'm not tracking and I'll
eat ad libitum intuitively. And, you know, that would be
kind of like a cheat day by my standards now.
(19:53):
Or I guess my, my idea of a cheat day or cheat meal now
would be like, you know, during the holidays, Crystal will make
like keto cookies or, you know, keto cheesecake or something
like that. And I'll have that.
You know, for that one or two days, a freaking quarter or two
quarter, like half a year. So probably less than 5
(20:16):
throughout the course of a year.But I know it's all quality
ingredients. I know who's making it, I know
what's in it, and I know my bodyresponds well to it and I can
have that. It satisfies whatever sweet
tooth or you know, abnormal craving I'm having, but it's not
deviating me from the dietary lifestyle that I'm living, so.
And then after that, you're right back into.
It Yeah. So that would be my idea of a
(20:38):
cheat day now. Yeah, so I guess, I guess
somebody's definition of a cheatday or a cheat meal is gonna be
kind of. Personal based, yeah.
But yeah, as far as deviating from keto entirely, needing a
bunch of carbs and hitting up the, you know, Dairy Queen or
Taco Bell and eating just cramp,then I would say never.
(20:58):
I remember that one time, however many years back when I
first came out and visited you guys and we went to the Mexican
restaurant and I was like, man, we could really go for some
nachos, you know? And we brought in those bags of
pork rinds and they made the nachos on the pork rinds instead
of the tortilla chips. That was like, to me, that was
like a cheat day. A cheat meal Hard.
I mean obviously very hard. On track 100.
Percent on track as far as choices go and food and food
(21:21):
selection, but it was just not, you know, tracked 100%.
I don't know if I told you this,but I had a podcast a few weeks
back. I don't know if it's gone live
yet, but he's a keto guy and he wanted to see how his body
respond. He was tracking everything and
he had like different wearable devices.
He was tracking blood sugar, CGM, he had the OR ring, the
whoop strap, the full 9 yards blood work.
(21:43):
And for 30 days he kept caloriesconsistent leading into that
third day. So he was he was eating like
3200 calories going into it and exiting it and then for 30 days
he ate only hyper palatable processed junk food.
Oh boy. Maintained calories the same so
his weight stayed. Pretty much consistent if it
(22:03):
fits your Macaro style. Yeah, but like he and he would
even have like themed days, likea donut day, a candy day, and he
would be testing all these metrics.
So calories consistent, but all hyper palatable, processed, you
know, standard American diet junk foods.
And he's like, man, I will neverdo that again.
This. I felt horrendous.
My blood sugar volatility was through the roof.
(22:26):
Digestion was crazy. So it's like, yeah, I've got no
desire to do that. You.
Ever see that dude fit to fat tofit?
Drew Manning? I think his name, yeah, he did
that a couple different times where he just ate, ate and ate
and ate with the sole purpose ofjust being as unhealthy as
possible, and then he shed all the weight and gel back in.
So. Yeah, crazy, crazy.
(22:49):
All right. What are some inexpensive foods
that you really like for a low carb, high fat protein diet?
I find many of them to be expensive.
Eggs. Eggs.
Eggs are expensive if you get them at the store, but if you
can find somebody local, that's a.
Pretty awesome is the way to go.I mean just knowing your local
(23:10):
farmers ranchers is a huge step in the right direction.
I mean we bought a whole cow andI think the price per pound was
like 4 something. So like literally half of what
you would spend in a grocery store for a higher quality mean
in which I'm supporting my localfarmer rancher.
It's like knowing your local people is a huge win.
(23:32):
Farmers markets Farmers markets option.
I'm going to sound biased, but like the bricks are expensive
for sure, but on a cost per calorie basis, they're actually
incredibly cheap. So like from that standpoint, if
you're doing a, you know, if you're taking your total caloric
intake into consideration, whichwe should, you know, that is
(23:55):
actually very cost effective as far as like mainstream foods
that are pretty cheap that you can get away with.
I mean, like when I was broke, Iwas getting all of my food from
like Costco. So it was just, you know,
commodity feed lot beef, bulk cheese, bulk eggs.
I mean everything was from Costco or Sam's Club.
(24:15):
So they asked inexpensive foods for low carb high fat protein
diet. I mean you can still like you
don't have to go a full blown grass fed grass finished meat
for sure everything if if you can afford, you know, 8515.
Just from Walmart. Walmart great value, get the
huge long tubes. That's still going to be way
better option than any of the other junk food options out.
(24:36):
There I mean keto is not a limiting factor based off a
price point exactly. You can get as high end as you
want to get with it. You know, so whatever you're
going to afford, Yeah. Yep.
Meat, cheese, eggs, dairy, animal fat.
You can. Get I mean, shoot, I was eating
like freaking potted meat, whichis like in the human section,
but it's pretty much cat food. And I was eating that when I was
broke, you know? So, but that's still keto.
(24:57):
I mean, really? All right.
I drink mini protein shakes. I try to buy good protein
powder, but that doesn't always happen.
What's your take on protein shakes?
I can't tell you the last time Ihad a protein shake.
We put protein powder, quality protein powder in the bricks,
obviously, so I'll have one of those every day, but that's
(25:18):
bound to a high stearic acid containing fat source, which
slows the absorption of the protein and my body tolerates
that incredibly well. But like just a plain protein
shake mixed with water. Typically they're like a protein
isolator, whey protein concentrate.
Like I have no desire to drink those.
(25:38):
I kind of probably burnt myself out on the Super crappy body
fortress is at the. Walmart, Yeah.
Yep. I remember, ma'am, I remember
when I first started lifting in high school, 115 lbs.
And everyone was like. Protein shake, protein shake,
protein shake and I could only afford the Body Fortress
strawberry flavour from Walmart and I can.
(26:00):
I can I can literally visualize the canister.
It's got like that weird symbol on it.
And I would have that in my plastic shaker bottle.
Probably smelled like trash. And I would have one of those on
the bus drive home from school every single day.
And man, I remember if I'd ever lose my my bottle and then find
it a couple days later, open that thing up to clean it like.
(26:24):
You might as well just duct tapeit.
And throw in the trash. Terrible.
I think protein shakes are honestly pretty overrated
because you can get everything you need from.
Yeah, I have not found the need to consume a protein shake to
hit my protein goals in over a decade.
So like you don't need it. It's not really a cost effective
(26:46):
way to get quality of protein inif you're eating the quality.
I mean, like those really nice quality protein shakes that are
using, you know, good natural ingredients, quality proteins
and don't have a bunch of junk sweeteners in there, but they're
like 7580 bucks. Yeah.
For like 30 servings, yeah. You know, like I would rather
(27:06):
put that towards a carton of eggs or something.
So I'd only recommend it in thatregard.
Also, like there's a thing behind protein farts, you know,
like people say protein farts did.
You overdo the protein. I remember days when I was
eating 2300 grams of protein a day and I was just, yeah, GI was
just screaming. And it's amplified if you're
getting that protein predominantly from a super quick
(27:28):
absorbing, easily digested protein isolate because it goes
through your system so quickly. Like you're going to have more
of a blood sugar response First off, because there's no fat to
slow that absorption rate down. And then your body, since it's
moving through your system so quickly, like it's doing
something to your GI and you're,I don't know you, you get gassy
(27:50):
from them. I mean, so much so that listen
to this. So Crystal, she does a lot of
shakes at night. Like she loves to shake.
So she'll put ice protein powderand then like some heavy cream
or something there. So she's got fat in, it's not
just mixed with water. And she'll blend that up super
like a nut butter in there. Sometimes she'll blend that up.
She'll drink that as like her, her nightcap for the day.
(28:11):
It messes up like the gut microbiome and absorption.
So much so that Hazen, who is breastfeeding, is incredibly
gassy. And Crystal's like, what can I
do to remove his gas gassiness? And I'm like, how about you stop
the protein shakes for a little bit?
(28:32):
So she did that for a week and he is significantly less gas
really. So he's not even drinking the
protein shakes directly, obviously.
He's just getting the breast milk that her body's processing
from the protein shakes. That's not like her main meal,
but it's just one meal and he's getting gassy.
So yeah, for people to consume just a ton of protein shakes, I
I would spend money. Elsewhere man, that's like
(28:52):
second hand farts. Second hand.
Phrase man. All right, how about a reverse
dieting question? Maybe just a step by step
overview, a practical week by week plan on how to implement a
reverse diet and how do you track progress and what would
you expect? Yeah, so reverse dieting, I
mean, I've put out a bunch of content on reverse dieting.
(29:14):
It's basically as it says, the reverse of dieting.
So dieting typically being defined as dropping calories,
getting leaner, losing body fats, dropping weights, and
that's all fine and dandy, but what goes down must come up, or
what goes up must come down, so to speak.
So like when we're dining down for show, we're losing body fat,
we're getting leaner, but our calories are much lower.
(29:34):
Like right now your calories aresub 2000 and you're, you know,
5-9. You got it. 193 lbs right now
but typically walking around 2:15, 2/20.
A lot of muscle on your frame. Been spending a lot of calories
throughout the day. Like 2000 calories is definitely
below what is optimal for you toperform an elite level at.
(29:56):
So you got a reverse diet out ofthat deficit, bring more food
and fuel into your system so that your hormones regulate,
your metabolism up regulates andyou're able to perform
optimally. And that's going to come with a
little bit of body fat gain, butit allows you to perform and
build more muscle. So basically you just got to eat
more food. Now there's a lot of conjecture
(30:18):
and controversy as the best way to do that.
What I typically recommend is, you know when you're using my
protocol, protein will be prettylow there at the very end.
So we'll give an initial bump inprotein once you transition to
the reverse diet. So initial bump in protein and
then a slight bump in dietary fat as well.
And then we basically increase that intake every week.
(30:41):
If we factored refeeds in keto, caloric refeeds going into that
deficit, then we'll leave those in for the first several weeks
going into the reverse diet. And then once the daily intake
meats or exceeds what the refeedintake is, then we'll phase
those refeeds out and we'll justkeep bringing fat and protein
and overall calories up in the reverse diet until the
(31:03):
individual starts to experience,you know, point of diminishing
return. So starting to put on more body
fat relative to increases in strength and recovery and
performance. And then we'll kind of like know
that we need to level off there.So that's what I would
recommend. I've got a very detailed
breakdown of all this in my course on ketobodybuilding.com.
But yeah, reverse that is super important regardless of whether
(31:26):
you're a competitor or not. Like a lot of people just
chronically under eat. A lot of 73 year old
grandmothers don't eat enough food.
Their metabolism is down regulated, their hormones are
down regulated. Like everything's shot.
Their ability to build and preserve the muscle tissue
they've got is hindered. They would benefit from a
reverse. Right, Yeah.
It's not just competitors, it's people who are chronically under
eat and they just can't figure out why they're not losing any
(31:48):
weight and they're doing. You know, I had a client one
time come forward and she was eating 1000 calories a day, but
she was doing 1000 calories worth of elliptical every day
also and she was just stuck and we reversed and started to
diminish the cardio and wow, there you go, you just broke
through. Yeah, it's super important.
(32:10):
You gotta do it slow like it's it's like 5 to 10 grams into
your macros usually isn't it? I'll go a little bit more
aggressive. I mean, it kind of depends on
individual, but when I'm adding people down, I'm typically
adjusting in 5 or 10 gram increments.
When I'm reversed adding them up, then I'll often times double
that. So it might be, you know, 10 to
20 gram increments depending tooon how quickly they want to
(32:33):
start, you know, leveling off because it's going to look a
little bit different for everybody, but I'll be a little
bit more aggressive with them onthe reverse.
So if the cut takes six months to reverse, mainly take 2 1/2 or
3 for instance, and then people get hung up on seeing the scale
weight increase. Oh yeah, big time.
But like, that's why you have tolook for metrics outside of the
(32:54):
scale weight as a litmus test and proxy for progress.
So is your recovery better? Is your sleep better?
Are you pushing more weight in the gym?
Are all your strength metrics improving?
Are you able to implement progressive overload?
Is your libido coming back? Did.
Your cycle come back. Yeah.
Did your cycle come back? Is your blood work improving?
Like all of these things are obviously beneficial.
(33:15):
So taking stock in that is key. And then just kind of cycling
between these building and cutting phases appropriately so
that you always are making progress.
Yeah, yeah, that's a whole othertopic.
Yeah, dieting too, too frequently.
All right, we got a couple on the back here as well.
How to overcome common issues like fear of weight gain.
(33:37):
This is kind of right along the same topic.
Fear of weight gain, plateaus and what to do when you feel
quote UN quote stuck. Yeah, kind of similar to what we
just got done discussing, but soplateaus when it comes to
dieting down, if you're like trying to lose weight and you
hit a plateau and your weight stalls out, people, this is
(33:58):
highly individualized. So I'll just kind of speak in
broad, broad brush strokes. That's a tough one to say.
Broad brush strokes, broad brushstrokes.
So like if you're dining down, if you're dining too
aggressively, that's obviously, I mean, people will often times
cut calories by 500 or 1000 right off the gate and you'll
lose some initial weight. But then they'll like their body
(34:21):
will stabilize at that intake and their level of output.
Then they'll plateau. And then it's like, OK, what are
you going to do? Drop another 500 calories or
another 1000 calories? Before you know it, you've got
no caloric runway. So starting as high as you can
and then chipping away graduallyand building momentum so your
body can kind of bust through any potential plateaus.
That's first and foremost key. And then when you do hit a
(34:44):
plateau, if you are doing it correctly, then you just tweak
one thing to elicit a response. So maybe it's slightly
increasing cardio and trying to treat cardio as like a minimum
viable dose approach. Maybe it's dropping macros ever
so slight to provide some more pressure.
Maybe it's changing your training styles.
Like maybe it's just sleeping a little bit more.
You know, like a lot of people, they're holding a lot of fluid
(35:06):
retention because they're acutely stressed and inflamed
and it's because they're gettingfive hours of sleep a night.
I'm guilty of that. I'll often times drop 3 lbs when
I get a full night's sleep. So things like that add up for
sure. And on the reverse of that kind
of we were talking before is, you know, when you're embracing
the weight gain, you got to makesure you're looking for other
things and just what the scales reflecting back at you as a
(35:29):
proxy for progress, like is everything else getting better?
Like if you're in a reverse dietand you see the scale weight
increase a little bit and you'recoming from a cut where you're
excited about seeing it drop, how do you get excited about it
going up? Well, you get excited about
being able to push more weight, you can say.
Stronger. Yeah, being strong, you get
excited about having more energyto go throughout the day more
vibrantly. You get excited about, you know,
(35:51):
having libido and getting freakywith your spouse or whatever.
So all of those things you know are you can't take those for
granted. Those are non scale victories.
Right. Yeah, for sure, big time.
And I feel like a lot of people just totally missed the boat on
how to do how to cycle between these different phases the right
(36:11):
way. Because if you do it right, when
you cut down, you can't stay there.
So you have to go reverse that up a little bit.
But then if you're doing it right, where your body levels
off after the reverse that's over is in a better position
than when you started from. And then when you transition
into your next cut, you get a little bit leaner than you did
(36:31):
at the first cut. Then when you cycle it from
that, you're better left off than you did at the beginning.
So like you just keep getting better.
And you can't do that if you're haphazardly going from crazy,
you know, crash. Drives.
To the next, you know. Addressing this psychological
fear and anxiety around increasing calories.
(36:52):
We just actually kind of talked about that.
Let's see what else we got on here.
People maybe who have been eating a very low calorie diet
for a long time or in our metabolically adapted, IE 1200
calories. It's kind of online on the same
topic there. Yeah.
So there's a lot of people that fit this criteria.
(37:16):
Competitors are kind of an example of that in a very small
micro chasm, you know, bubble that you can kind of use as an
example. But like the general population
is incredibly, incredibly in line with this scenario.
I look at my grandmother who is 87, I think, and just getting
(37:41):
frail, man, Like super frail, starting to exhibit signs of
Alzheimer's dementia. I think she's like 113 lbs right
now. And she used to be taller than
me and now she's just, you know,like she's shrinking.
And you can't. I mean, when you're that age,
the goal in my mind should be tobuild and preserve as much
muscle as you can. Ideally doing that your whole
(38:03):
life leading up to that age. You've got more of a reservoir
to tap into, but building and preserving as much muscle as you
can, setting yourself up for psychological, you know, wins.
So that from a neurological mental standpoint, you don't see
your mind's ability to decay. Like you want to hedge against
that because losing your mind isa terrible thing.
(38:24):
So eating foods that your body responds well to is key, first
and foremost. And then just like having energy
to function and go throughout the day.
Like I hate seeing elderly people that just sit on their
easy chair and watch TV because they have no zeal or vibrancy or
an excitement. They've like checked out.
Yeah, and if you're eating superconvenient, hyper palatable, you
(38:49):
know, non nutritious foods, whatreason does your body have to
get up and do anything productive or exciting?
It's just not there. So, you know, she obviously
doesn't eat enough. And what she does eat isn't the
right things. You know, they're my my parents
have been great. They've been going over there
like every weekend providing food for them, cooking real
foods and proteins and stuff, which is great.
(39:11):
But like that's one day a week, two days a week.
So regardless of what chapter inlife, whether you're 97 years
old or 17 years old, you got to make sure you're fueling your
body properly. And there's times to be in a fat
loss phase where you're operating at a deficit and
focusing on getting leaner. There's very important, you
know, benefits to that. But more often than not, you
(39:34):
should be eating at a slight surplus because it takes longer
to build muscle than it takes tolose body fat.
So for that reason alone, peopleshould spend more time building
muscle than losing body fat. And the more muscle you have,
the higher your metabolic rate'sgoing to be.
So the more food you can get away with eating and nourishing
yourself with and it not resulting in excess fat gain.
(39:56):
So yeah, people like eating 1200calories or less a day, day in
day out is is they fail. Is a guaranteed.
Failure. No matter who you are,
basically. Yep, agreed.
All right, there's one more on here regarding perimenopause
slash menopause. How about any specific
strategies for women in this stage of life to manage weight
(40:20):
and hormonal changes by adjusting their diet,
specifically eating more. So it's kind of along that same
thing, you know, just got to eatenough, got to eat more.
Yeah. I mean, honestly, to just kind
of, you know, carry off a piggyback what we just said,
like women going through perimenopause, menopausal years,
like their testosterone's declining, their hormones are
all in a state of flux. Like their body is more prone to
(40:43):
losing lean tissue, losing bone density, so.
Lift. Yeah, like if if I was if I was
a woman in that chapter, I wouldmake that span the span that I
would prioritize building muscle, progressive overload,
training, lifting with intensity.
And that's going to be hard. Like it's easier said than done
because I mean, you're, I mean, your hormones are in a flux
(41:05):
then. So like it's harder to have
energy to train. It's harder to have the recovery
dialed in. Like it's harder, but like that
is not when you want to focus ondropping calories and losing
body fat. That is when you want to focus
on building and preserving as much muscle as you can, which is
also going to have a favorable effect on bone density.
So you have if, if I was in thatchapter, for any women that are
(41:27):
in that chapter listening to this, that would be when I would
recommend really doubling down despite the odds on building and
preserving as much muscle as youcan.
So eat more of the right foods and resistance strain.
Yeah, and it's gonna be a hard psychological them too, because
their body is gonna be more prone to adding body fat during
(41:48):
that phase, so. Then that plays on like the
whole mentality of seeing scale go up and seeing your body
change. So they're gonna be like,
initially women in that chapter can be like, all right, now is
where I need to do a cut. You know, now I need to like,
really, I'm, I'm sick of this extra 15 lbs I'm carrying going
through menopause. I should do a cut.
(42:08):
That is when you need to be focusing on building the muscle,
not necessarily transitioning into a hardcore deficit.
All right, words of wisdom rightthere.
Yeah, buddy. Always a pleasure Greg.
Enjoy these AMA style chit chats.
The Work podcast in general is alot of fun, so we got a lot to
do today. And you've got to eat your butt.
I hear them in the kitchen, busting the bricks out of the
(42:32):
molds. So my mouth.
Is. Watering sweet little nothing.
So butter Maple pecan goes live on Sunday.
There you go, there you go. Till next time y'all talk, talk
for now. See ya.
Rock'n'roll. Happy today's Tuesday.
We're rolling. We're rolling.
We're rolling. What's up dude?
I like your shirt, First off. I like your shirt man.
We're like twinning. What size you got?
This is XL, so it's a little loose because.
You get big muscles. No, it would be tight if I had
big muscles. We have to wear an XL because
you got big muscles. I'm in a large.
(00:27):
Your muscles are bigger than mine.
I could put a larger on, probably, yeah.
It's actually. Oh yeah.
Yours is yours is the other style, but my closet now is prep
clothes and offseason clothes because I literally have some of
the same shirts in two sizes because one's too loose when I'm
leaning out and one's too tight.And then vice versa when you're
(00:49):
in the offseason, it's smaller stuff, doesn't fit.
Yeah, and it's not like we recommend a massive swing in
weight, but I mean, even if it'slike 2030 lbs, which isn't like
astronomical. But I'm kind of between sizes
anyways. Yeah, so it's like it's even
more pronounced. I got this when I was shredded
in 23 Ozark iron gym had like this sale on shirts and they had
(01:12):
like this hot pink 80s retro shirt and I got it and it fit
and it was a medium and it shrunk obviously since I washed
it and now I'm not a. Medium.
So now it's like an extra small on me and I just look a little
funky and so I don't wear that one.
I think I. Gave that one to Crystal.
(01:33):
I can't even fit in the chest part because it's way too tight.
I have to get that one to Rigel.We got what to talk about, man.
We've got some questions we're going to do AMA style with this
podcast. We got some questions printed
out that kind of run the gamut on all kinds of topics.
So before we dive into that, let's talk about some new and
exciting things in the works forthe work.
(01:55):
See what I did there? So we got, let's talk with Keto
Brick first. Yep.
So you are in prep right now. You are getting your macros
dialed in. You don't let anything to chance
and you're very specific on whatyou allow in your macros on a
given day because every macro matters.
And you worked something into your macros for today.
(02:18):
I did what you work in your macros for today.
Keto brick. Keto brick.
Well, I, you know, I've actuallyhad keto brick as part of my day
going for from at this point, but I got a special flavor in
there. Special flavor today do tell A.
Seasonal season relaunch that you guys have probably seen
before this time of the year we'd like to bring back.
(02:41):
Should we tell? We tell.
Buttered Maple pecan. Buttered Maple.
And I got to tell you, the facility, the building here
smells heavenly. It's crazy.
You walk in the door and you just smell like you're just
encompassed with buttered Maple pecan.
So there's pecan butter in there.
There's pecan chunks in there. The protein is Maple pecan
(03:04):
protein. The flavor that we're rocking
this week that'll be in my mouthin a little while after this
recording probably is the cacao butter version.
Cacao Organic Cacao buttered Maple pecan.
Yep, and I, I kind of cheated the system because we mix and
pour one day and then the next day we bang them out and package
(03:27):
them and I couldn't wait and I'mdoing the alternate day fasting.
So today's a fasting day for me.So I had the guys mix and pour
me one butter made pecan brick yesterday and I stuck it in the
fridge a little bit in the breakroom to solidify them.
And then I had that yesterday. Like as fresh as it gets and Oh
my gosh man. Like I people always ask me what
my favorite flavour is and I feel like I can't really have a
(03:50):
a 'cause they're all kind of unique in their own way.
But man, biting into that bad boy, it's like this may be my
favorite. Flavor.
It is so good. The flavor is on point.
And it's like perfect for the season.
Like it's been a little brisker here in Arkansas, waking up and
so little, little bite in. 50s, sixties, yeah.
Yeah, so like, morning runs havebeen a little chillier and,
(04:13):
like, I'm excited about getting the fire going, putting a hoodie
on and, like, trying to stay warm.
And that buttered Maple pecan brick is like the holiday
season. It is.
Fall, autumn, fall like. It all that.
Wrapped up into a perfect littlebundle.
So good. Yeah, I'm excited.
I'm excited. I put I put a half a brick in
there for today. So in addition to my other food,
(04:34):
I'm going to beef. Crunch that bit.
So those are dropping this Sunday, which is the 14th, is
that right? That'd.
Be the 14th, yes. 14th at noon, Central buttered Maple pecan
baby. It's not baby, but that's,
that's what we're calling it. It's tasty.
But we're also going to make a tallow version.
(04:56):
We are. That one's not yet ready.
Yeah, not we're not producing that yet, but buttered Maple
pecan is dropping this Sunday. So you just let's keep an eye on
your inbox as on the inbox and social post.
And then we got so much competition stuff to talk about.
(05:17):
I mean, it's crazy, like we're both rocking the shirts.
These are going to be the shirtsfor the competition.
But you and I have been deep in the weeds getting everything
organized, trophies, medals. We had the meeting with the
venue to be talking about that on the Last One podcast.
I don't think we did. No, because we would have
recorded it on Monday and we hadthe meeting afterwards.
So yeah, we had a meeting with the venue event staff and it was
(05:40):
a several hour meeting with their whole boardroom and it's
just this is going to be awesome.
It is like the the show is goingto be the best show out there.
And I don't want to like get ahead of myself.
This is first time I'm promoting, first time hosting a
show. A lot of things could go wrong,
but I don't really leave much tochance and I typically overdo
(06:02):
everything. I think one of the biggest
reasons that we're super stoked and excited about it is cause
we've been in several other competition.
Like we've been at competitions and seen backstages, we've seen
venues, we've seen how the people are treated, we've seen
(06:23):
swag bags. We've seen all of it and
everything that we have experienced in our endeavors.
Everything's getting levelled up.
Yeah, everything's getting levelled up.
Like I don't want to get too farahead of myself, but there's so
many things that we're doing different that other
competitions just haven't done or don't do to the level that we
(06:44):
are. So like from a very high level
of view, our swag bags are second to none.
Like they're going to be the best swag.
There's hundreds of dollars worth of stuff and.
Not only the competitors gettingthem, but the judges are all
getting like the swag bags are legit.
We're going to be printing theseshirts on site.
All the competitors will get them by default, but then
anybody that's attending and wants 1 can get one.
(07:06):
The vendor booths are awesome. Like the actual vendors that we
have coming, sampling products, selling product, those are all
like top tier vendors. So I'm excited about that.
We've got like the Dexafit deal for anybody that's wanting to
jump on that in the open house the days prior to the
competition, the way we're formatting it with the running
format, but the way we're doing it is going to be different.
(07:28):
And we just kind of nailed that down this morning.
It's going to be so much more efficient for the competitors.
It's going to be better for thempeaking wise.
And then we're giving them incentive to stay.
We're going to get the kids involved.
We're going to get the vendors up on stage for a bit talking
about their brand. We're going to have an
(07:49):
intermission that allows them to, you know, view all these
vendors. And then we're going to have my
dad smoking BBQ butts all night long, pork butts.
So everybody's going to be able to eat them.
And then Stan's going to be cooking chicken that's
originally raised for all the competitors and people there as
well. And then we're going to have
judges feedback that is literally happening upstairs in
(08:11):
the conference room where they can get all the feedback at once
as opposed to like being parsed down.
So that's going to be unique. And then I mean the whole venue
itself, like it's just top tier,man.
Like it's Performing Arts Center.
It's nice. We've got so many different
rooms allocated for different sections.
Like the mainstage obviously is going to be super slick, but
(08:31):
like the actual competitor hangout area is the best one
I've ever been in. And we're going to broadcast
live stream the competition up to ATV up there.
Yeah, so like the competitors bebackstage, they're going to be
able to see everything in their little chill out area.
They're going to have dedicated dressing rooms, male and female.
They're going to have a pump up section behind the curtain.
(08:53):
The MCS going to be awesome. The X factors are going to be
awesome. The volunteers that are helping
are all awesome. I mean, so many of the
competitors know each other already, so it's going to be
like this big family vibe that'sgoing to be awesome as well.
It's just gonna be slick. And then we've got the host, Jim
right there where the tanning's gonna be taking place and all
the competitors are gonna have free access to that.
(09:14):
I mean, it's we're just levelling up, man.
Like I'm excited for other competitors to experience this
show that I've never done our show, but I've done other shows,
get their feedback. And then the prizes, like our
prizes are next level. Like, we've got the trophies,
the swords, all that jazz. Yeah.
Everyone gets a medal. We spend a lot of money on like
medals that are bigger, better than other medals.
(09:36):
And then we've got a little surprise that we're not even
going to tell you, but it's going to be slick.
It's going to be slick. So I'm stoked.
I'm like really looking forward to it and I'm grateful for you
for helping me with all this stuff.
But like, we've been working on this.
When did we start working on this it?
Was a while back when we, I think probably when we first
(09:57):
decided that we wanted to do something even in the fall.
Yeah, we didn't. Hadn't even had a date dialed in
and we were hashing out ideas. Yeah.
I mean, did we book the venue last year?
Was that this year? I think that was last year.
Yeah. So we've been working on it for
well over I guess 8 months now. Probably.
And we've just been dialing things in every single month,
(10:21):
chipping away at it. So it's been just super
organized, you know, from early on and there's just not going to
be missing pieces, you know, like some fluke things bound to
happen, something's, you know, going to be off kilter, but I
don't think anybody would know. Like, I feel like we're going to
have everything so dialed that from a competitor standpoint,
from a judges standpoint, from an attendee standpoint, like
(10:42):
it's going to seem flawless, organized and structured.
Yep. And flow like it should.
Yep. So it's going to be awesome.
I'm excited. Yep, come together.
So Natural State savages.com to register.
Yep, and that's where you can buy your ticket.
Yeah. And we're probably gonna put a
deadline on competitor registrations.
We're thinking the Sunday prior to peak week.
(11:04):
So that would be the what is Sunday?
Is that 21st? I think so 21st will be the
deadline for registration so that we can go into peak week
having all the competitors organized their BIOS, all that
stuff. Yeah, it's it's.
Coming together, it's it's goingto be awesome.
If y'all are not competing, haveno interest in bodybuilding, you
(11:25):
should still attend it because like just the vibe and culture
and what's going to be going on is just going to be worth worth
the price of admission for sure,anyways.
And BBQ. So and BBQ.
Yeah, So I'm I'm stoked. Yep, Yep, I'm stoked.
All right. You want to tackle some of these
questions? Yeah.
OK so we got a myriad of questions from different fans,
followers, people that submittedthese coming from the top.
(11:48):
What carbs are good for cardio like running or HIT?
What do you think of sucralose? Sadly it's in mini protein
powders. All right, Let me answer this in
reverse. So sucralose is in a lot of
protein powders for sure. It is a artificial sweetener.
It's like what Splenda uses. For those of you that use
Splenda, I don't have any issueswith it.
(12:11):
A lot of people knock sucralose.Somebody's calling me decline
that because of the studies thathave been done showing it
disrupts gut microbiome. But people have to keep in mind
like those studies are typicallyanimal model studies and they're
putting way more. It's a massive amount.
Like no human would consume the equivalent of that relative to
(12:32):
human consumption in a day. So like the gut microbiome knock
isn't really a good argument unless you have like
pre-existing gut microbiome, youknow, gut that dysbiosis or
something like that. However, I try to gravitate away
from sucralose because too much of it definitely does make me to
hold a little bit more fluid than I would like.
(12:54):
It pretty much is like a incomplete sugar molecule that
gets undigested through your system.
So like you're not really absorbing any caloric load from
it, but because it has to still go through your digestion
system, it often times, you know, holds on to water and you
can get some intestinal fluid retention.
So I typically don't like it forthat reason, which is why I
typically gravitate to stevia ormonk fruit.
(13:17):
As far as the question pertaining to carbs for running,
I mean, I've been doing a littlebit of running.
I don't do a lot of, I'm not a runner by any means for any
shorter distance. You certainly don't need
carbohydrates. If you're doing like a massively
long, you don't need them for a marathon even.
But if you're like an ultra marathon, people that are in the
low carb space that do ultra marathons, they'll often times
(13:38):
have a little bit of sugar or carbohydrate rather in the form
of, you know, a simple acting sugar or something like that.
They'll do, you know, honeys andthings of that nature to
replenish muscle glycogen as they're running.
But I don't know, I'm halfway. We've found adapted in still run
(13:59):
we've we've worked with ultra runners and ultra marathoners
that. Yeah, I'm, I'm halfway tempted
to get into the ultra space justto do it without and prove
people wrong because you certainly don't have to have it.
I mean, you especially dependingon what your aerobic threshold
is, what your VO2 Max is, These are all things I'm kind of
diving deeper into since we got our VO2 Max test.
(14:21):
But like if you're deeply fat adaptive and you're not
operating at full capacity, I mean, you and I were in like
zone 3 and we were still predominantly using fat
metabolism over glucose metabolism.
Obviously in the higher highest zone, you're still using glucose
metabolism, but you're not running an ultra marathon at a
Sprint. So if you're at a jog pace, you
(14:45):
know, heart rate between 1:20 to1:40, then I would argue that
you don't need to have the carbohydrates.
So that'd be kind of my responseto that.
OK. All right.
Next on the agenda this one saysI'm a relatively slim and
healthy 6 foot one. I recently did a low carb high
fat protein diet with much running and lifting after 2.
(15:08):
After two years or so I lost quite a bit of fat.
Question, how do I bulk up without putting fat back on?
Just eat more protein and fat and lift with more purpose or
focus. Pretty much, yeah.
Eat more protein and fat, lift with more intensity and
progressive overload principles,and that's it distilled down to
a nutshell. And you will put on somebody fat
(15:31):
like that's inevitable. Like if you're eating at a
caloric surplus, which would be optimal if you're trying to add
as much lean tissue to your frame as possible, that will
come with a little bit of body fat gain.
The caveat is there's a difference between a healthy
amount of body fat gain and an obsessive amount of body fat
gain. And there is a point of
diminishing returns of that bodyfat gain.
(15:52):
So like a little bit of added body fat is not a bad thing
because you know, it gives you more energy to tap into as a
reserve for those runs. It's just going to be better
hormonally speaking, if you've got a healthy amount of body
fat. Like you don't want to be
operating at sub 5% body fat from a performance standpoint,
but you don't need to go crazy. Like I'm in a building phase
(16:13):
now. You're about to be in a building
phase. And really and truly like for a
male, you know, 15% body fat is kind of like the upper window.
I would say between 12 and 15 isa pretty good sweet spot.
There's not really any need to go beyond that because then
especially from a running standpoint, you're just having
to carry more weight around that's harder on your joints.
(16:34):
It's not going to contribute to better performance with your
lifts. So I was just trying to stay
within that window. But if you're leaner than that,
learn to embrace going up and being in that window, because
there's nothing wrong with beingin that 12 to 15 range if the
primary objective is to add morelean tissue.
Got it. All right.
Next up, are cheat days OK sometimes or about cheat meals
(16:58):
when? Was the last time I made a cheat
day? Greg A.
Cheat day. Or cheat meal.
Man, I don't even know. I guess we should define cheat
meal or cheat day. Used to have like cheat days,
cheat meals back 10 years ago when I was doing prep that was
part of the protocol is every Friday night or whatever night
(17:20):
it would be. I could just go have whatever I
wanted. As long as it was condensed into
one feeding time, it didn't dragout.
So typically it was like a dinner so that it wouldn't
spiral down the rest of the day.Carbohydrated included I'm
assuming? Yo, yeah, this is before I was
even keto. This is like 20/12/13.
So that would be last time I canremember.
(17:40):
Just like going off the rails. Yeah.
And literally going to the grocery store and being like, I
want that, I want that, I want that, I want that.
And I would eat until I was sick.
And that was like probably the the last time I had like a legit
cheat meal and it was just trash.
It was garbage ice cream and candy and, you know, chips and
pizza and nothing with nutritional value.
(18:04):
But since then I, I don't even know to me now, I wouldn't even
call it a cheat meal. I'd call it like a free meal.
But to me now, a free meal or a free food choice is something
that wouldn't be prep worthy butis still keto, low carb, you
know, chicken wings or pizza toppings or something that's not
(18:26):
100% trackable. And then, you know, that's not
even a cheat meal, really. Yeah, I would say to their
question, you know, once you've made the decision that you're
following a ketogenic diet and lifestyle, you feel better, you
perform better, you recognize this, You know, you feel poorly
when you deviate from it. Like it's just there needs to be
(18:47):
a mental shift where it's like, OK, I don't allow those things
in my life anymore. There's a non negotiating.
You just level up. You just level up and for that
reason if the question cheat daycheat meal is referring to an
all out binge fest on carbohydrates and junk then I
would say the answer would be never.
Like I would not advocate for that ever.
However, you know, I'm not in prep right now.
(19:09):
You are in prep right now. Whether we have a specific goal,
we kind of change nutrition accordingly.
And if I'm on a prep, I'm eatingeverything to the T, I'm
tracking every macro, every gram.
There's a specific reason I'm eating every single, every
single thing I'm consuming. If I'm in a building phase, I'm
still tracking right now. This is like the first building
phase where I'm tracking everything, which I've actually
enjoyed. But generally I've gone and
(19:31):
eaten ad libitum intuitively in a building phase, right?
You never, like, go off the rails.
Yeah, never deviate from that. Change your choices.
But I'll have foods that, you know, I'm not tracking and I'll
eat ad libitum intuitively. And, you know, that would be
kind of like a cheat day by my standards now.
(19:53):
Or I guess my, my idea of a cheat day or cheat meal now
would be like, you know, during the holidays, Crystal will make
like keto cookies or, you know, keto cheesecake or something
like that. And I'll have that.
You know, for that one or two days, a freaking quarter or two
quarter, like half a year. So probably less than 5
(20:16):
throughout the course of a year.But I know it's all quality
ingredients. I know who's making it, I know
what's in it, and I know my bodyresponds well to it and I can
have that. It satisfies whatever sweet
tooth or you know, abnormal craving I'm having, but it's not
deviating me from the dietary lifestyle that I'm living, so.
And then after that, you're right back into.
It Yeah. So that would be my idea of a
(20:38):
cheat day now. Yeah, so I guess, I guess
somebody's definition of a cheatday or a cheat meal is gonna be
kind of. Personal based, yeah.
But yeah, as far as deviating from keto entirely, needing a
bunch of carbs and hitting up the, you know, Dairy Queen or
Taco Bell and eating just cramp,then I would say never.
(20:58):
I remember that one time, however many years back when I
first came out and visited you guys and we went to the Mexican
restaurant and I was like, man, we could really go for some
nachos, you know? And we brought in those bags of
pork rinds and they made the nachos on the pork rinds instead
of the tortilla chips. That was like, to me, that was
like a cheat day. A cheat meal Hard.
I mean obviously very hard. On track 100.
Percent on track as far as choices go and food and food
(21:21):
selection, but it was just not, you know, tracked 100%.
I don't know if I told you this,but I had a podcast a few weeks
back. I don't know if it's gone live
yet, but he's a keto guy and he wanted to see how his body
respond. He was tracking everything and
he had like different wearable devices.
He was tracking blood sugar, CGM, he had the OR ring, the
whoop strap, the full 9 yards blood work.
(21:43):
And for 30 days he kept caloriesconsistent leading into that
third day. So he was he was eating like
3200 calories going into it and exiting it and then for 30 days
he ate only hyper palatable processed junk food.
Oh boy. Maintained calories the same so
his weight stayed. Pretty much consistent if it
(22:03):
fits your Macaro style. Yeah, but like he and he would
even have like themed days, likea donut day, a candy day, and he
would be testing all these metrics.
So calories consistent, but all hyper palatable, processed, you
know, standard American diet junk foods.
And he's like, man, I will neverdo that again.
This. I felt horrendous.
My blood sugar volatility was through the roof.
(22:26):
Digestion was crazy. So it's like, yeah, I've got no
desire to do that. You.
Ever see that dude fit to fat tofit?
Drew Manning? I think his name, yeah, he did
that a couple different times where he just ate, ate and ate
and ate with the sole purpose ofjust being as unhealthy as
possible, and then he shed all the weight and gel back in.
So. Yeah, crazy, crazy.
(22:49):
All right. What are some inexpensive foods
that you really like for a low carb, high fat protein diet?
I find many of them to be expensive.
Eggs. Eggs.
Eggs are expensive if you get them at the store, but if you
can find somebody local, that's a.
Pretty awesome is the way to go.I mean just knowing your local
(23:10):
farmers ranchers is a huge step in the right direction.
I mean we bought a whole cow andI think the price per pound was
like 4 something. So like literally half of what
you would spend in a grocery store for a higher quality mean
in which I'm supporting my localfarmer rancher.
It's like knowing your local people is a huge win.
(23:32):
Farmers markets Farmers markets option.
I'm going to sound biased, but like the bricks are expensive
for sure, but on a cost per calorie basis, they're actually
incredibly cheap. So like from that standpoint, if
you're doing a, you know, if you're taking your total caloric
intake into consideration, whichwe should, you know, that is
(23:55):
actually very cost effective as far as like mainstream foods
that are pretty cheap that you can get away with.
I mean, like when I was broke, Iwas getting all of my food from
like Costco. So it was just, you know,
commodity feed lot beef, bulk cheese, bulk eggs.
I mean everything was from Costco or Sam's Club.
(24:15):
So they asked inexpensive foods for low carb high fat protein
diet. I mean you can still like you
don't have to go a full blown grass fed grass finished meat
for sure everything if if you can afford, you know, 8515.
Just from Walmart. Walmart great value, get the
huge long tubes. That's still going to be way
better option than any of the other junk food options out.
(24:36):
There I mean keto is not a limiting factor based off a
price point exactly. You can get as high end as you
want to get with it. You know, so whatever you're
going to afford, Yeah. Yep.
Meat, cheese, eggs, dairy, animal fat.
You can. Get I mean, shoot, I was eating
like freaking potted meat, whichis like in the human section,
but it's pretty much cat food. And I was eating that when I was
broke, you know? So, but that's still keto.
(24:57):
I mean, really? All right.
I drink mini protein shakes. I try to buy good protein
powder, but that doesn't always happen.
What's your take on protein shakes?
I can't tell you the last time Ihad a protein shake.
We put protein powder, quality protein powder in the bricks,
obviously, so I'll have one of those every day, but that's
(25:18):
bound to a high stearic acid containing fat source, which
slows the absorption of the protein and my body tolerates
that incredibly well. But like just a plain protein
shake mixed with water. Typically they're like a protein
isolator, whey protein concentrate.
Like I have no desire to drink those.
(25:38):
I kind of probably burnt myself out on the Super crappy body
fortress is at the. Walmart, Yeah.
Yep. I remember, ma'am, I remember
when I first started lifting in high school, 115 lbs.
And everyone was like. Protein shake, protein shake,
protein shake and I could only afford the Body Fortress
strawberry flavour from Walmart and I can.
(26:00):
I can I can literally visualize the canister.
It's got like that weird symbol on it.
And I would have that in my plastic shaker bottle.
Probably smelled like trash. And I would have one of those on
the bus drive home from school every single day.
And man, I remember if I'd ever lose my my bottle and then find
it a couple days later, open that thing up to clean it like.
(26:24):
You might as well just duct tapeit.
And throw in the trash. Terrible.
I think protein shakes are honestly pretty overrated
because you can get everything you need from.
Yeah, I have not found the need to consume a protein shake to
hit my protein goals in over a decade.
So like you don't need it. It's not really a cost effective
(26:46):
way to get quality of protein inif you're eating the quality.
I mean, like those really nice quality protein shakes that are
using, you know, good natural ingredients, quality proteins
and don't have a bunch of junk sweeteners in there, but they're
like 7580 bucks. Yeah.
For like 30 servings, yeah. You know, like I would rather
(27:06):
put that towards a carton of eggs or something.
So I'd only recommend it in thatregard.
Also, like there's a thing behind protein farts, you know,
like people say protein farts did.
You overdo the protein. I remember days when I was
eating 2300 grams of protein a day and I was just, yeah, GI was
just screaming. And it's amplified if you're
getting that protein predominantly from a super quick
(27:28):
absorbing, easily digested protein isolate because it goes
through your system so quickly. Like you're going to have more
of a blood sugar response First off, because there's no fat to
slow that absorption rate down. And then your body, since it's
moving through your system so quickly, like it's doing
something to your GI and you're,I don't know you, you get gassy
(27:50):
from them. I mean, so much so that listen
to this. So Crystal, she does a lot of
shakes at night. Like she loves to shake.
So she'll put ice protein powderand then like some heavy cream
or something there. So she's got fat in, it's not
just mixed with water. And she'll blend that up super
like a nut butter in there. Sometimes she'll blend that up.
She'll drink that as like her, her nightcap for the day.
(28:11):
It messes up like the gut microbiome and absorption.
So much so that Hazen, who is breastfeeding, is incredibly
gassy. And Crystal's like, what can I
do to remove his gas gassiness? And I'm like, how about you stop
the protein shakes for a little bit?
(28:32):
So she did that for a week and he is significantly less gas
really. So he's not even drinking the
protein shakes directly, obviously.
He's just getting the breast milk that her body's processing
from the protein shakes. That's not like her main meal,
but it's just one meal and he's getting gassy.
So yeah, for people to consume just a ton of protein shakes, I
I would spend money. Elsewhere man, that's like
(28:52):
second hand farts. Second hand.
Phrase man. All right, how about a reverse
dieting question? Maybe just a step by step
overview, a practical week by week plan on how to implement a
reverse diet and how do you track progress and what would
you expect? Yeah, so reverse dieting, I
mean, I've put out a bunch of content on reverse dieting.
(29:14):
It's basically as it says, the reverse of dieting.
So dieting typically being defined as dropping calories,
getting leaner, losing body fats, dropping weights, and
that's all fine and dandy, but what goes down must come up, or
what goes up must come down, so to speak.
So like when we're dining down for show, we're losing body fat,
we're getting leaner, but our calories are much lower.
(29:34):
Like right now your calories aresub 2000 and you're, you know,
5-9. You got it. 193 lbs right now
but typically walking around 2:15, 2/20.
A lot of muscle on your frame. Been spending a lot of calories
throughout the day. Like 2000 calories is definitely
below what is optimal for you toperform an elite level at.
(29:56):
So you got a reverse diet out ofthat deficit, bring more food
and fuel into your system so that your hormones regulate,
your metabolism up regulates andyou're able to perform
optimally. And that's going to come with a
little bit of body fat gain, butit allows you to perform and
build more muscle. So basically you just got to eat
more food. Now there's a lot of conjecture
(30:18):
and controversy as the best way to do that.
What I typically recommend is, you know when you're using my
protocol, protein will be prettylow there at the very end.
So we'll give an initial bump inprotein once you transition to
the reverse diet. So initial bump in protein and
then a slight bump in dietary fat as well.
And then we basically increase that intake every week.
(30:41):
If we factored refeeds in keto, caloric refeeds going into that
deficit, then we'll leave those in for the first several weeks
going into the reverse diet. And then once the daily intake
meats or exceeds what the refeedintake is, then we'll phase
those refeeds out and we'll justkeep bringing fat and protein
and overall calories up in the reverse diet until the
(31:03):
individual starts to experience,you know, point of diminishing
return. So starting to put on more body
fat relative to increases in strength and recovery and
performance. And then we'll kind of like know
that we need to level off there.So that's what I would
recommend. I've got a very detailed
breakdown of all this in my course on ketobodybuilding.com.
But yeah, reverse that is super important regardless of whether
(31:26):
you're a competitor or not. Like a lot of people just
chronically under eat. A lot of 73 year old
grandmothers don't eat enough food.
Their metabolism is down regulated, their hormones are
down regulated. Like everything's shot.
Their ability to build and preserve the muscle tissue
they've got is hindered. They would benefit from a
reverse. Right, Yeah.
It's not just competitors, it's people who are chronically under
eat and they just can't figure out why they're not losing any
(31:48):
weight and they're doing. You know, I had a client one
time come forward and she was eating 1000 calories a day, but
she was doing 1000 calories worth of elliptical every day
also and she was just stuck and we reversed and started to
diminish the cardio and wow, there you go, you just broke
through. Yeah, it's super important.
(32:10):
You gotta do it slow like it's it's like 5 to 10 grams into
your macros usually isn't it? I'll go a little bit more
aggressive. I mean, it kind of depends on
individual, but when I'm adding people down, I'm typically
adjusting in 5 or 10 gram increments.
When I'm reversed adding them up, then I'll often times double
that. So it might be, you know, 10 to
20 gram increments depending tooon how quickly they want to
(32:33):
start, you know, leveling off because it's going to look a
little bit different for everybody, but I'll be a little
bit more aggressive with them onthe reverse.
So if the cut takes six months to reverse, mainly take 2 1/2 or
3 for instance, and then people get hung up on seeing the scale
weight increase. Oh yeah, big time.
But like, that's why you have tolook for metrics outside of the
(32:54):
scale weight as a litmus test and proxy for progress.
So is your recovery better? Is your sleep better?
Are you pushing more weight in the gym?
Are all your strength metrics improving?
Are you able to implement progressive overload?
Is your libido coming back? Did.
Your cycle come back. Yeah.
Did your cycle come back? Is your blood work improving?
Like all of these things are obviously beneficial.
(33:15):
So taking stock in that is key. And then just kind of cycling
between these building and cutting phases appropriately so
that you always are making progress.
Yeah, yeah, that's a whole othertopic.
Yeah, dieting too, too frequently.
All right, we got a couple on the back here as well.
How to overcome common issues like fear of weight gain.
(33:37):
This is kind of right along the same topic.
Fear of weight gain, plateaus and what to do when you feel
quote UN quote stuck. Yeah, kind of similar to what we
just got done discussing, but soplateaus when it comes to
dieting down, if you're like trying to lose weight and you
hit a plateau and your weight stalls out, people, this is
(33:58):
highly individualized. So I'll just kind of speak in
broad, broad brush strokes. That's a tough one to say.
Broad brush strokes, broad brushstrokes.
So like if you're dining down, if you're dining too
aggressively, that's obviously, I mean, people will often times
cut calories by 500 or 1000 right off the gate and you'll
lose some initial weight. But then they'll like their body
(34:21):
will stabilize at that intake and their level of output.
Then they'll plateau. And then it's like, OK, what are
you going to do? Drop another 500 calories or
another 1000 calories? Before you know it, you've got
no caloric runway. So starting as high as you can
and then chipping away graduallyand building momentum so your
body can kind of bust through any potential plateaus.
That's first and foremost key. And then when you do hit a
(34:44):
plateau, if you are doing it correctly, then you just tweak
one thing to elicit a response. So maybe it's slightly
increasing cardio and trying to treat cardio as like a minimum
viable dose approach. Maybe it's dropping macros ever
so slight to provide some more pressure.
Maybe it's changing your training styles.
Like maybe it's just sleeping a little bit more.
You know, like a lot of people, they're holding a lot of fluid
(35:06):
retention because they're acutely stressed and inflamed
and it's because they're gettingfive hours of sleep a night.
I'm guilty of that. I'll often times drop 3 lbs when
I get a full night's sleep. So things like that add up for
sure. And on the reverse of that kind
of we were talking before is, you know, when you're embracing
the weight gain, you got to makesure you're looking for other
things and just what the scales reflecting back at you as a
(35:29):
proxy for progress, like is everything else getting better?
Like if you're in a reverse dietand you see the scale weight
increase a little bit and you'recoming from a cut where you're
excited about seeing it drop, how do you get excited about it
going up? Well, you get excited about
being able to push more weight, you can say.
Stronger. Yeah, being strong, you get
excited about having more energyto go throughout the day more
vibrantly. You get excited about, you know,
(35:51):
having libido and getting freakywith your spouse or whatever.
So all of those things you know are you can't take those for
granted. Those are non scale victories.
Right. Yeah, for sure, big time.
And I feel like a lot of people just totally missed the boat on
how to do how to cycle between these different phases the right
(36:11):
way. Because if you do it right, when
you cut down, you can't stay there.
So you have to go reverse that up a little bit.
But then if you're doing it right, where your body levels
off after the reverse that's over is in a better position
than when you started from. And then when you transition
into your next cut, you get a little bit leaner than you did
(36:31):
at the first cut. Then when you cycle it from
that, you're better left off than you did at the beginning.
So like you just keep getting better.
And you can't do that if you're haphazardly going from crazy,
you know, crash. Drives.
To the next, you know. Addressing this psychological
fear and anxiety around increasing calories.
(36:52):
We just actually kind of talked about that.
Let's see what else we got on here.
People maybe who have been eating a very low calorie diet
for a long time or in our metabolically adapted, IE 1200
calories. It's kind of online on the same
topic there. Yeah.
So there's a lot of people that fit this criteria.
(37:16):
Competitors are kind of an example of that in a very small
micro chasm, you know, bubble that you can kind of use as an
example. But like the general population
is incredibly, incredibly in line with this scenario.
I look at my grandmother who is 87, I think, and just getting
(37:41):
frail, man, Like super frail, starting to exhibit signs of
Alzheimer's dementia. I think she's like 113 lbs right
now. And she used to be taller than
me and now she's just, you know,like she's shrinking.
And you can't. I mean, when you're that age,
the goal in my mind should be tobuild and preserve as much
muscle as you can. Ideally doing that your whole
(38:03):
life leading up to that age. You've got more of a reservoir
to tap into, but building and preserving as much muscle as you
can, setting yourself up for psychological, you know, wins.
So that from a neurological mental standpoint, you don't see
your mind's ability to decay. Like you want to hedge against
that because losing your mind isa terrible thing.
(38:24):
So eating foods that your body responds well to is key, first
and foremost. And then just like having energy
to function and go throughout the day.
Like I hate seeing elderly people that just sit on their
easy chair and watch TV because they have no zeal or vibrancy or
an excitement. They've like checked out.
Yeah, and if you're eating superconvenient, hyper palatable, you
(38:49):
know, non nutritious foods, whatreason does your body have to
get up and do anything productive or exciting?
It's just not there. So, you know, she obviously
doesn't eat enough. And what she does eat isn't the
right things. You know, they're my my parents
have been great. They've been going over there
like every weekend providing food for them, cooking real
foods and proteins and stuff, which is great.
(39:11):
But like that's one day a week, two days a week.
So regardless of what chapter inlife, whether you're 97 years
old or 17 years old, you got to make sure you're fueling your
body properly. And there's times to be in a fat
loss phase where you're operating at a deficit and
focusing on getting leaner. There's very important, you
know, benefits to that. But more often than not, you
(39:34):
should be eating at a slight surplus because it takes longer
to build muscle than it takes tolose body fat.
So for that reason alone, peopleshould spend more time building
muscle than losing body fat. And the more muscle you have,
the higher your metabolic rate'sgoing to be.
So the more food you can get away with eating and nourishing
yourself with and it not resulting in excess fat gain.
(39:56):
So yeah, people like eating 1200calories or less a day, day in
day out is is they fail. Is a guaranteed.
Failure. No matter who you are,
basically. Yep, agreed.
All right, there's one more on here regarding perimenopause
slash menopause. How about any specific
strategies for women in this stage of life to manage weight
(40:20):
and hormonal changes by adjusting their diet,
specifically eating more. So it's kind of along that same
thing, you know, just got to eatenough, got to eat more.
Yeah. I mean, honestly, to just kind
of, you know, carry off a piggyback what we just said,
like women going through perimenopause, menopausal years,
like their testosterone's declining, their hormones are
all in a state of flux. Like their body is more prone to
(40:43):
losing lean tissue, losing bone density, so.
Lift. Yeah, like if if I was if I was
a woman in that chapter, I wouldmake that span the span that I
would prioritize building muscle, progressive overload,
training, lifting with intensity.
And that's going to be hard. Like it's easier said than done
because I mean, you're, I mean, your hormones are in a flux
(41:05):
then. So like it's harder to have
energy to train. It's harder to have the recovery
dialed in. Like it's harder, but like that
is not when you want to focus ondropping calories and losing
body fat. That is when you want to focus
on building and preserving as much muscle as you can, which is
also going to have a favorable effect on bone density.
So you have if, if I was in thatchapter, for any women that are
(41:27):
in that chapter listening to this, that would be when I would
recommend really doubling down despite the odds on building and
preserving as much muscle as youcan.
So eat more of the right foods and resistance strain.
Yeah, and it's gonna be a hard psychological them too, because
their body is gonna be more prone to adding body fat during
(41:48):
that phase, so. Then that plays on like the
whole mentality of seeing scale go up and seeing your body
change. So they're gonna be like,
initially women in that chapter can be like, all right, now is
where I need to do a cut. You know, now I need to like,
really, I'm, I'm sick of this extra 15 lbs I'm carrying going
through menopause. I should do a cut.
(42:08):
That is when you need to be focusing on building the muscle,
not necessarily transitioning into a hardcore deficit.
All right, words of wisdom rightthere.
Yeah, buddy. Always a pleasure Greg.
Enjoy these AMA style chit chats.
The Work podcast in general is alot of fun, so we got a lot to
do today. And you've got to eat your butt.
I hear them in the kitchen, busting the bricks out of the
(42:32):
molds. So my mouth.
Is. Watering sweet little nothing.
So butter Maple pecan goes live on Sunday.
There you go, there you go. Till next time y'all talk, talk
for now. See ya.
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