Barbell Shrugged - Real Chalk  — The Fit to Fat to Fit Journey w/ Drew Manning  — 26

Episode Date: June 5, 2018

Drew Manning is creator of TV Show #FitToFatToFit, NY Times best-selling author of Fit2Fat2Fit, host of Fit2Fat2Fit Experience Podcast, and personal trainer. Drew went on a quest to go from fit to fat to fit again in one year in order to better understand the weight-loss struggles of his clients and the online community. He embarked on this journey to prove to clients, website followers, and people across the country that it is possible to get back into shape. In this episode, Drew shares his journey of going from Fit2Fat2Fit. He talks about the effects of gaining weight on his body, how he measured his blood biomarkers, and what issues arose, primarily with blood pressure and testosterone. Drew also spends time focusing on the psychological and emotional challenges associated with becoming overweight, and goes over the positive transformation he had simply by eating a healthy diet. He also dives into the ketogenic diet, ketosis, and more. Enjoy! - Ryan and Yaya ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc_manning ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please support our partners! Thrive Market is a proud supporter of us here at Barbell Shrugged.  We very much appreciate all they do with us and we’d love for you to support them in return!  Thrive Market has a special offer for you. You get $60 of FREE Organic Groceries + Free Shipping and a 30 day trial, click the link below: thrivemarket.com/realchalk   How it works:  Users will get $20 off their first 3 orders of $49 or more + free shipping.  No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week anyway, so why not give Thrive Market a try! ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedp... TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, this is Doug from Barbell Shrugged. I just want to let you know that we now offer 11 of our top training programs as a part of a single membership site that we're calling the Program Vault. We used to launch training programs every few months and people were always bummed that they couldn't sign up at any time. You had to be around for the launch. The launch was only 4 or 5 days. If you missed it, then you had to wait 6 months or a year depending on what training program we were offering next.

And it was kind of a hassle, even when people signed up up for training programs to switch to a different program when they got to the end of their current program or they just happen to be in a new phase of training they hit their their past goal and now they have new goals and new goals require different training programs so inevitably it was a pain in the ass for people to switch programs so we took all that feedback and we decided to just put all of our programs together on this thing we now call the program vault that way all shrugged athletes could have access to all the workouts that we have and move from program to program as they saw fit for themselves makes sense so there's 11 programs three of them are long-term very comprehensive programs where there's you know a warm-up and there's mobility and there's nutrition added in there all the workouts are there there's a cool down there's there's stuff

to do on your off days they're super super comprehensive and those programs last for over 18 months if you want to stick around for that long and there's also eight short-term programs these programs are three months long and these are basically add-on programs so if you are already doing classes at a gym and you don't want to stop doing your classes but you want to work on one particular thing maybe you want to like work on your shoulder health or you want to work on your conditioning like your your aerobic capacity or maybe you just want to work on your squatting strength or your pull-up strength or something like that then we have these short-term add-on programs that are super low

volume but they're just like an extra you know two or three exercises at the end of your workout to help work on whatever those very specific goals are that you have. So the three long-term programs are flight weightlifting. That's a very weightlifting specific training program. It builds you from someone who is more like beginner intermediate at weightlifting and builds you up to be a more technical professional style weightlifter you know over the course of 12 or 18 months we also have muscle gain challenge if you just want to put on muscle mass and you want a higher volume training program this in my opinion is more of an intermediate program if you don't have good technique on the olympic lifts yet you're going to kind of be throwing right to the wolves so to speak that It doesn't ramp you up like flight does. Flight has very specific progressions for weightlifting

to let you learn all the technique over time. Muscle gain challenge kind of just throws you right into it. So ideally, you already have some experience with Olympic weightlifting before you start the muscle gain challenge. And there's a very high emphasis, of course, with the muscle gain challenge on gaining muscle. So that means you've got to eat a lot of food. So there's a lot of emphasis on how much to eat, what to eat, and your recovery as a part of that program.

So that way you can get bigger and stronger. Also, we have Strug Strength Challenge, which is more of a traditional kind of CrossFit program. If you do CrossFit classes at a CrossFit gym, you probably do some strength movements at the very beginning of class, you know, maybe do front squats for five sets of five, and then you do a Metcon that's, you know, 20 or 25 minutes or whatever it happens to be. That's more typical of the shrugged strength challenge where strength is the goal, but certainly conditioning is a key part of that as well. It has more of a strength bias than kind of a regular generalized CrossFit-y type program. So the eight short-term training programs, again, these are about three months long, and they're kind of an add-on program.

So the first one is Boulders for Shoulders. That's a shoulder health and stability program, health, mobility, and stability program. That doesn't mean you're going to be doing a whole lot of jerks and overhead presses necessarily. This is, again, an add-on program. So you're going to be doing a lot of assistance workks and overhead presses necessarily. This is, again, an add-on program. So you're going to be doing a lot of assistance work for your shoulders, your thoracic spine, etc. That way you can have the healthiest shoulders possible. There's the aerobic monster program, which is adding in a bunch of extra mostly aerobic conditioning. You're going to be on the airdyne a lot. You're going to be on the rower a lot.

You're going to be doing a lot of monostructural stuff. So, you know, if you already have your regular workout, you do strength, you do your Metcon, and then, you know, as a very overly simplistic example, you do, you know, 20 minutes of rowing or you do 30 on, 30 off for 10 rounds or you're doing a hard 30 and an easy 30 or whatever it is. Just a little bit of extra aerobic work. There's the Squat the House program where, you know, we add in two leg exercises three days a week. So you might squat and then do some lunges or something like that. Depending on what your regular classes are like, you might already be doing a lot of squatting. But if you're not currently able to do a lot of squatting and you want to do some more squatting

and you just want to add that onto your current training, then Squat the House is a great program. Anaerobic Assault, that is a high intensity interval style program where you're doing very fast Metcons. So you might be doing airdyne sprints, you know, 30 seconds on 100% full speed and then take a three minute break and do it again. Or even, you know, five touch and go deadlifts followed by, you know, 10 burpees, rest two minutes and then do it again. But you're doing it all 100% speed really teaching how to kick it into high gear and move very very quickly when you're doing your metcons there's my first pull-up which is not going to give you a whole lot of actually doing pull-ups these are

this is a program for people that can't do a pull-up yet so there's a lot of assistance work for pull-ups and there's a lot of extra assistance work for just all the muscle groups involved in doing pull-ups. Everything from just doing extra lat work, extra scapular retraction, rhomboid lower trap work, extra bicep work, et cetera, to help get you to the point where you can do your first pull-up. There's a strongman accessory program where you can be doing yoke walks, picking up stones, pulling heavy sleds, and things like that. And then there's two more programs that are kind of a little bit higher volume you could do them on your own if you wanted to and you also can combine these you could do aerobic monster and anaerobic assault and my first pull-up all

together if you wanted to if you just wanted to add extra volume but the last two open prep is exactly what it sounds like just gets you ready for the CrossFit Open or other similar competitions. You'll be doing a lot of Metcons. And the last one is Barbell Beginner to Meet. It's prepping you for your first Olympic weightlifting competition. Each program is scheduled between three and five days per week.

There's videos explaining all the programming. There's demos. There's technique explanations for everything. And then also you have access to the Private Strug Coll collective facebook group that way you can get advice from ourselves we'll be in there hanging out our guests from our shows we also have a bunch of athletes coaches and strength experts that are friends of ours that are in there too to help you out if you're interested since i've been talking long enough you can go to shruggedcollective.com backslash vault for all the information.

Again, that is shruggedcollective.com backslash B-A-U-L-T. That spells vault. Go there, check it out. If you have any questions, email help at barbellshrugged.com and enjoy the show. Welcome to Real Chalk, a Shrugged Collective production. Mike Bledsoe here. Stoked to be launching this network so that we can introduce you to amazing content providers like Ryan Fisher.

We'll be posting new shows every weekday, so be on the lookout. As a thank you for listening, Thrive Market has a special offer for you. You get $60 of free organic groceries, plus free shipping and a 30-day trial. Go to thrivemarket.com slash real chalk. This is how it works. Users will get $20 off their first three orders of $49 or more plus free shipping. No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week,

so just hit up Thrive Market today. Go to thrivemarket.com slash realchalk to get set up. Enjoy the show. And you know who it is, your favorite ever podcast host, Yaya coming at you. Don't tell Fish I said that. This is the real chalk podcast right here you guys are tuned in to the shrug collective and we're coming at you with a brand new episode this time we sat down with drew manning who most of you guys probably know as the fit too fat too

fit guy but before that drew was just a regular personal trainer who just wanted to be better at his job. So basically what this guy did, if you guys have never heard of him, Drew wanted to feel closer to his clients and be able to understand what they're struggling with, especially the obese and overweight clients that he was working with. Drew has always been an athlete his entire life, so he was never obese. He never struggled with eating disorders or anything like that but he understood in order to be an expert, he needed to be an expert on all levels. a cool thing to do drew completely let himself go for six months gained over 60 pounds eating processed foods and doing food challenges every single week on his youtube channel such as the fut ruckus channel challenge which involved like a burger and fries and his big ass sundae i'll let him tell the story of how that ended but after those six months he went back got himself back in shape and now looks the way he looks again honestly guys before even listening to this i would head over to his website

fit2fat2fit.com if you guys have never seen him the before and after pictures are just absolutely out of control we talk about the mental effects the social social effects, how he felt while being so overweight. He has a story where he basically explains or he tries to explain to people around him all the time that that's not him. This isn't actually what I look like because of the impact and everything that was happening because of his physical appearance. But like I said. He really feels like he came out on the other end. Just a better trainer. And a better person all together. So we talk about the mental effects.

The social effects. Then we kind of go a step further. Of what Drew is doing now. He has not only a New York Times best selling book. But he also has an A&E hit TV show, Fit to Fat to Fit, where other trainers now are going through the same concept that he is going through under his supervision. So super cool stuff. Then we kind of go into more what he's doing now, the ketogenic diet. He also fasts a lot, seven-day fast, three-day fast, one-day fast, whatever it is.

Actually inspired me to do a three-day fast, but more on that a little later to come. I'll let you guys jump into the episode. Have a blast. All right, kids. Here we go. All right, we're back. Paleo FX sitting down with Fish. Still here on our little Ikea couch.

Not quite. Target, sorry. We're bringing it back today yep we're returning it after this after we've been sitting on it with our sweaty buds all weekend long so whoever picks up a used couch in austin texas next weekend you guys are welcome we also got another sweaty butt on the couch today we're sitting next to fit to fat to fit on instagram i got your own little booth here at Paleo FX, so we figured this would be a cool little meeting. Yeah, for those people that don't know you, which I think is not a lot, let's give you the stage and introduce yourself, and then we'll go from there. Yeah, so most people know me as the Fit2Fat2Fit guy, obviously. It's something I did back in 2011 where I was this crazy personal trainer

who had this idea to better understand my clients. I decided to get fat on purpose. I know it sounds crazy. It sounds ridiculous. But what I did for six months was I stopped exercising. I ate an unrestricted diet, mostly processed American food like sugary cereal and soda and chips, cookies, crackers, macaroni and cheese, hot pockets, SpaghettiOs, all that stuff.

Keep talking. I don't want to make you guys too hungry. It's insane to me. I remember watching this and just being like, wow, this is insane. And I remember like every single day I wanted to tune in because you had some other weird challenge. And I brought it up to you before we started. I remember you doing the Fuddruckers burger challenge.

Yes. Because we had a Fuddruckers where I grew up in New Jersey because that's where I was living at the time. Oh, wow. So what's that? Just eat a Fuddruckers burger every day? Is it like In-N-Out? Or is it worse? It's worse because it was like, I think it was called the One Pound Fuddrucker Challenge or something. So here's a really quick backstory. Once a week, I would do a crazy food challenge, like a man versus food type of food challenge for entertainment purposes. The other six and a half days of the week, I was eating normal foods.

I wasn't stuffing my face every single meal. But once a week for entertainment, I would do a food challenge. So the Fuddruckers food challenge is like a one-pound burger with the bun and like a huge plate of fries, and not the skinny little fries. They were like the potato wedges. And then on top of that, it was a huge-ass bologna sundae at the end. And I was two bites away from finishing,

and I threw up. Shut the fuck up. Yeah, I failed. And I remember watching him throw up, too. It was awful. So once a week, I would do those

crazy challenges, but that's what I did for six months. It was 75 pounds of pure fat that I gained. I went from 8.5% to 32% body fat, 193 to 269 pounds at my

heaviest. 269? 269 at my heaviest. Holy fuck. And here's the thing. Physically, I knew I was going to get man boobs and a big gut and a big butt, but it was crazy how much it affected me on the mental and emotional level more so than just physical. Does that make sense? Totally. So that's where the greatest lessons were learned because when you grew up your entire life in shape, it's for me, it was easy to think, Oh, it's not that hard to lose weight. You just eat healthy. You exercise what's wrong with you. You put the soda down, you go to the gym, you do the workouts that I give you as a personal trainer and you just do it. Right. Cause it was easy for me. And people would tell me,

you don't understand Drew for you. It's, it's always been easy, but for me it's hard. And i was kind of i kind of took that to heart i'm like okay like that makes sense um let me think of ideas and this idea it was like one of those lightning bolt moments where it popped up in my head and i instantly knew i was gonna do it i was like one of those moments i felt called like i'm gonna do this i even googled to see if anyone had done this before on purpose and nobody had done it so. So it was crazy, and I planned it out for a few months, created a YouTube account, a Facebook account, a website, and I'm like, all right, I'm going to document this whole thing.

And it was way harder than I thought it would be, to be honest with you. It was truly humbling. When you say it mentally affected you, what were some of those effects? So if I went out in public, even at 20 pounds overweight, I wanted to go up to strangers and tell them, hey, here's my before picture. This is not really me. It's just an experiment. I don't really eat this way.

I remember one time I was at the grocery store, and there were these three kind of hot ladies behind me at the grocery store. My shopping cart was full of cereal, soda, cookies, all kinds of shit. And I wanted so bad to tell them, hey, hey, ladies, this isn't normal. I don't look like this. I feel bad just having a mustache sometimes. I'll try to have a mustache for, like, two weeks in the gym, and everyone's like, dude, you look like such an idiot. I can't imagine having 60, 70 extra pounds on my body.

Do you ever have moments where you forgot that that's what you look like and you kind of, like, saw yourself in the mirror and you're like, oh, fuck, I forgot a fat? 100%. So here's the thing. You know when you go on TV, they say camera ads like 10, 20, 30, 70 pounds. Yeah. When I was on Jay Leno, that was the first TV show I ever did. Did you say 70 pounds?

Yeah, sometimes it adds 70 pounds. I looked back. I'm like, I could barely breathe. Like my shirt was like, you know, the button-up shirts were like, they're about to pop any second. That's what I looked like. And it just, I didn't realize how big I had gotten. It was weird because I got comfortable resting my hands on my stomach like this.

Holy shit. And I never imagined I would have that. But it was only for six months. But I will say, you know, I learned a lot of lessons. It was truly humbling. And it changed my perception of how I view transformation, like how I help people on transformation. Did you get any blood work or anything done during that time as well?

Yeah, I had a doctor monitor me every month. I don't remember all the numbers. Everything was in the red for the most part. My blood pressure got up to 167 over 113, my heaviest. And my testosterone dropped to the low 200s. Whoa. Right? What was it before?

Actually, I don't know, but not that low for sure because I definitely noticed a difference. No sex drive. I was married at the time. No sex drive. Oh, you were going through all this married? Yeah, I was married at the time. You had kids. It was hard.

Were you still a trainer? I actually stopped training during the journey because I knew here was the thing, and this sounds stupid, but I knew if I was in the gym training people, it was a temptation to want to work out. And, two, I didn't want people to judge me as a fat trainer. I mean, can you imagine? That was my first thought in my head. That makes sense 100%.

Why is that guy training him? He's fat on him. So I was worried about what other people were going to think of me, and that's kind of what I had to go through. But anyways, it was a good experience now that it's over. You know, I did get back to fit. How long did that take? Six months.

So six months of losing weight. And the way I did it was the first month I didn't do any exercise. Like I totally skipped exercise. I just changed my nutrition to show people how important that part is when it comes to actually seeing results. You could do P90X or CrossFit three times a day for the most part for most people. And if you're still eating junk food or not eating the healthy food, you're not going to see the abs, like the muscle definition that you want for most people, right? And so I want to show people how important nutrition is.

So for 30 days, I just did that. And, you know, I didn't get ripped and shredded in 30 days, but my testosterone more than doubled in 30 days. I lost 19 pounds, and all my blood work went back to normal levels. So that's a really good point. Definitely. I want to take a quick step back to the mental effects. Did you notice anything as far as, like, mental performance went to?

Like you were more tired, you were kind of sluggish, like all those things that usually are associated with a bad diet 100% dude like so that's why uh my ex-wife she hated me because I was so I wasn't like lazy naturally but this made me lazier because I just didn't have those energy levels to help out with the dishes chores kids like I used to right and um it really did affect me way more than I ever thought it would be. Like I would be taking naps during the day. I was sluggish. I felt like I had to have caffeine like legit like every three hours throughout the day. But I will say this, though.

Like it's weird because exercise was my therapy in a way, like my outlet. And I didn't have that anymore. So my outlet had to become the food, which is a vicious cycle because it comforted me. Like a huge-ass bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is comforting. I'm not going to lie. And it tastes really good. But then I felt horrible afterwards.

I wanted to take a nap. And then I would have, you know, something else like, what was another good food of mine? You know, Hot Pockets. It's so good. I would feel good for a minute. That had to become an outlet. It was an up and down

relationship. Does that make sense? Right after you eat, you get the dopamine effect of, oh my god, this is amazing. I feel great. Was there particular foods that made you feel worse than anything else? If it was something super high in sugar or super high in carb or super just like wheat intensive or anything like that? Yeah, so I'll say this.

The food challenges that I did that were the hardest were the sugary ones. I felt so nauseous. Like, for example, my first one was trying to eat a dozen donuts. And after seven, I was about to throw up. And I just felt the worst. Like the meaty, you know, food challenges that I did, I didn't feel nauseous. It was the high sugar, like, you know, 200 grams of sugar, you know, in one sitting is. Yeah.

Yeah. Brings back nightmares. You're passing out as you're talking right now just thinking about it. Yeah, that's the thing is like people are like, oh, it must have been so fun. It was fun for about two weeks. And then I was so sick of it. And I'm like, I have another five and a half months of this. How am I going to do this?

I was so sick of those food challenges by the end too. Dude, I can't even imagine that. Because even if I go on vacation or something and you're away from home. And maybe you work out once or twice while you're gone. But it's nothing. You do a body weight workout, right? Plus you're on vacation, so you allow yourself a little bit more food and all that stuff or even like a fucking long weekend in vegas right you're like four days in vegas and by sunday night you're like oh my god dude i fucking feel disgusting i just want chicken and water and workout all day long and that's four days you know what i mean so six months, I can't imagine that that's like such a mental block as well,

especially if you know so damn well what you're doing is wrong. Exactly. And that's what you see every trainer on the TV show. So there's been two seasons of my TV show where instead of me doing this, because I can only do this once. I can't do it more than once. So with the TV show that we created was to take other trainers through this process. Every single one of them goes through the same thing that I went through,

where it's like it's fun for a minute, and then the mental aspect kicks in. And they're like, what am I doing? So they're all doing the same challenge. Yeah, but for four months. So the trainers on the TV show have to get fat for four months, and then they have to train their client and lose the weight with their client the next four months. I was just going to ask you, has anyone else done this challenge, but you're making other people do it?

That's awesome. Yeah, so, you know, and you see each trainer come out of it more empathetic, more respect, better understanding of kind of what their clients go through, not an exact understanding, and their clients respect them so much more. They're like, wow, you did that for me. Like, that makes me want to work my ass off for you because you're doing this to try and understand what it's like. And I don't want to pretend to say, oh, yeah, it it's an exact understanding doing a little experiment for four months or six months or even

if i did it for a year or two years it's not the same as someone who grew up their entire life out of shape yeah but it does give you a better understanding with the whole understanding type of thing because you said that exercise to you is like an outlet and i think a lot of us definitely on this couch definitely like in this room right now are the same way where it's like an outlet and i think a lot of us definitely on this couch definitely like in this room right now are the same way where it's almost like therapy not not just in a bad way like i'm not just fuming every time i come to the gym like oh my god i gotta blow off some fucking steam but like i always use the term active meditation you just kind of like get to be by yourself and like get that out a little bit but i think for us because we've been exercising for so long we've seen the positive effects that it has.

And we also know our bodies so well that we kind of know where to push and where not to push and do all those things. For somebody who has been out of shape or obese or just simply hasn't been working out their entire life and then tries to get into it, working out is not fun, right? Everything hurts. You don't know how to move. Your nervous system gets overwhelmed. Your joints hurt, especially if you're super heavy so they don't know what that what that feeling is like to like walk out of the gym be like oh my god i feel fucking great right i we just did a podcast yesterday and i was talking about the same thing with sleeping so when i was in college

i was sleeping like three to four hours a night right the entire time through college yeah then after college picked up crossfit and realized that with crossfit i needed to make a lot of changes in other aspects of my life just to be able to perform so it was definitely nutrition but it was definitely sleep so i started sleeping like eight nine hours every single night and all of a sudden i like woke up and i was like holy fuck i've been in this fog for like three four years whatever it was it was, and now I can't go back. Yeah. Right?

So do you ever see that click in your clients where all of a sudden they flip over and they realize for the first time like this is what it means to feel good? Yeah. And I've literally felt like 20% of myself for the last 10, 15, 20 years, whatever it is. 100%. And I think that's where the transformation starts to stick in as a lifestyle instead of just a diet. They're like, okay, I actually am starting to feel what it feels like to be healthy. And that's the thing that I think people need to change their perception is they think healthy is to be skinny and ripped and shredded. That's a byproduct of living a healthy lifestyle over time. But if they could just feel what it feels like to feel healthy, I think that's the good start for them to see it as a lifestyle change and want to live it as a lifestyle change.

Instead of suffering a diet mentality of like, this sucks, I hate this, I can't wait until it's over to go back to my old ways. And so I think that's what helps people live it as a lifestyle because then they start to feel that way. And they're like, I want to feel like this all the time. You know, like the sleep thing that you mentioned. Absolutely. So I think that's a good analogy, a good comparison. I think actually being ripped and being shredded is not an indicator at all of being healthy because it can totally swing the other way. You know, there's people that are way too obsessive and are not eating enough and are working out way too much.

And they look great, you know, but if you really look at their lifestyle and maybe even their quality of life, it's not there. Yeah. But that's the problem is from an outside perspective, people who see us on Instagram, these health and fitness accounts, are like, oh, well, these are the leaders. I guess I've got to look like that. That's what I'm supposed to look like, and if I don't look like that,

then why even try? And so it's changing people's perception of what health and fitness is and realizing we have to teach people you're healthy, looks different on your body than my version of healthy, right? And you have to know what's optimal for you. But we get into this comparison game as human beings where it's like, I need to look like this celebrity. I need to look like this Instagram model.

Otherwise, I'm not healthy, right? Totally. So that's what, you know, and I think it's important for people to realize there's more to health than just physical aesthetics. I think for females, that's a huge problem. There's a ton of females out there that don't even have periods. Their hormones are

super jacked up. Their recovery is all messed up. Sleep is messed up. Their personal vision of themselves is super messed up. I think Instagram has solely been responsible for ruining a lot of women's lives. Oh, I agree 100%. It serves a good purpose but also comes with a bad side too,

just like anything else. So I get that. And I think women have it harder because they're harder on themselves, and I think there's more social pressure on women to look a certain way, whereas if a man is kind of pudgy or overweight, it's, like, socially acceptable somewhat. And the dad bod is a thing now. it depends on what your sport is too like some yeah it's definitely like if you're if you're like hey i play in the nfl and you're like a little bit like soft or

whatever like no one's gonna say shit dude the other thing too is eating for performance and eating strictly just for aesthetics is a huge difference also yeah you know that going into crossfit that was a big thing getting enough food and you might be the best possible athlete you can be but you might not look like the guy on instagram you know but it's a healthier version of that but it's really hard to communicate to somebody yeah it's hard it's an uphill battle but i think you know it's going to take some time for people to realize that and like i said that's what i mean that's what my brain is trying to do i'm trying to get people to realize there's more to health than just, you know, your body. Right. And so it's, it's going to take some time, but, uh, going back to what you're saying,

I just did a triathlon in, in Hawaii, which I suck at triathlons, but you know, I'm in shape and stuff like that. But I have 80 year old overweight women that are passing me on the swim. And I'm like, you know, I thought I was good. I thought I was in shape, but you know, I'm getting passed by, uh, overweight, older people. And you know what, like know, I thought I was good. I thought I was in shape. But, you know, I'm getting passed by overweight older people. And you know what? Like you got to swallow your pride and let go of your ego at some point and realize that, you know, I'm just doing the best I can. And I don't care if I get beat, you know, by other people.

It's very humbling, but it's good. I remember being on a triathlon and literally I could not go any faster on my bike. And some old guy literally went by me like I wasn't even moving. I mean, he fucking flew by me. I was like, holy shit. You know what my first thought was? I was like, I need a more expensive bike. Yeah.

It's the bike's fault. It's the bike's fault. It's the same thing when you play Mario Kart and the other guy wins and, like, Mario wins, right? And then the next race you switch and you play with Mario because, obviously, his car is faster. So it's got to be that. It's 100% not you.

It's never you. All right. So now we have all that out of the way. Yeah. That's all done. Thank God. Yeah, thank you. And now there's a TV show about it, which is awesome.

Where can they find the TV show? A&E. Season one was on A&E and season two was on Lifetime. So it should be on demand. If you look on like Hulu or Roku or iTunes, you can find the episodes on there. So now your main focus, we're going to shift a little bit. We're going to go into this highly popular subject right now called keto. So you're a strong advocate for the keto diet,

I imagine. So let's say I know nothing about keto, but I keep seeing it on Instagram and I keep seeing this girl that I, or I'm a girl, and I look at another girl, and I'm like, I want to look like that, and she does keto. You keep hearing this really, really popular word. Let's talk about what keto – how to actually be keto. What are the most common mistakes of keto? Because a lot of people think that they're keto, and they're really not. Yeah, 100%.

So let's just go into all that. 100%. So keto has obviously go into all that. 100%. So keto has obviously become very popular, but it's actually been around since the 1920s where it first started helping kids with epilepsy and controlling their seizures. So a lot of people don't know that. They think it's just a new Atkins, new version of Atkins, and a weight loss, fat loss diet.

So what it is in a nutshell is it's a high fat, about 70% of your calories from fat, 25% protein, so a moderate amount of protein, and 5% or less of carbs. So high fat, moderate protein, low carb approach. And yes, there is a fat loss, weight loss component because what it's doing is it puts you in a different metabolic state where you're switching fuel sources. So humans can run off of two different types of fuel, glucose or ketones.

And if every human stopped eating today, right, we all could survive more than a day without food. We could survive, you know, maybe a month, maybe some of us with more fat stores, two months, three months, depends on the person. Your body taps into its backup system called ketosis, where it uses its own fat as an energy source. So it breaks down the fatty acids, converts them into ketones, and the ketones are used as an alternative fuel source to glucose for our brain, our muscles, our organs, so we can still function and go out and hunt if we needed to, so we can go a day or a few days or weeks at a time with no food and still survive. Where in history did that switch happen? Because if I had to guess, I would say that 98% of people in America, maybe even the world, are running off of the glucose and carbohydrate diet, right?

Where if we have those two fuel sources, when did everybody kind of sway to one way? Probably with the initiation of civilization, where we were civilized. We started creating grocery stores and access to food whenever we wanted it. So probably like in the past like 100, 200 years, you know, maybe our grandparents' generation where we didn't have to hunt for food all the time. But, yeah, back in the day when you were just around and there was no grocery stores, you had to provide your own food. You had to provide your own family with food.

But, like, you know, we grew up in a generation, our parents grew up in a generation where it's like, oh, you want food? I'll go the grocery store and buy it yeah any time of the day that i want right 24 7 so um our generation has never had experienced that right most people have ran their entire life off of glucose and they don't know what it's like they don't know what it feels like to run off of ketones to get into ketosis though you either have to stop eating which is not fun for a lot of people uh people don't want to do that obviously so the way to hack that is by eating a keto diet because your body can't convert those calories from fat into glucose so it forces your body to produce ketones um and so yes it can be used as fat loss and weight loss but there's also a lot of therapeutic applications

like we talked about epilepsy um alzheimer, Parkinson's, some forms of cancer, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, because there's a neuroprotective benefit for your brain by being in a state of ketosis. Because your brain mainly, even for me, who's not in ketosis, runs on fats, correct? Yep. Well, it does run off glucose. Your body, even if you don't eat glucose, your body can provide its own source of glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis. Yeah, you don't break down protein and create carbohydrates. Exactly.

So your body already has the system to create the glucose it needs for your brain and your liver and maybe a couple other organs that need a small amount of glucose. It doesn't need glucose from food. So you're running off a different fuel source in a state of ketosis. But here's the thing. There's a transitionary phase for most people. It's not like if you start eating keto today, you're going to be in ketosis and your body is going to be happy and you feel awesome. There's a transitionary phase because you've been running off glucose for 20, 30 years. This is very important because people give up very quickly.

Very quickly. So let's talk about that transition phase. So this is the keto flu, right? The keto flu. Because here's the thing. Like I said, you've been running X amount of time running off glucose, which your body loves. It's a very fast burning energy. You feel good. You know, I kind of compare it to you have a fire, you throw lighter fluid or paper on the fire, you get a huge burst in flames. But then very quickly,

your body burns through it and it goes back to its normal levels. That's glucose. Ketones are the coal or the logs of the fire. So it's a slow burning sustained energy source. So that transitionary phase can be one to two weeks and sometimes it's hard for people because your body doesn't know how to use ketones yet. So your body's like, where's this glucose that we want? We're suffering

here so you feel brain fog, lethargy, you get cramping sometimes, you're dizzy, you're lightheaded and people are like, this doesn't feel good. I don't want to do this this sucks I'm gonna go back to eating glucose so people never give their body enough time to adapt so here's a few hacks that you can do to help alleviate those keto flu symptoms the number one thing is hydration when you're running when you eat mostly fat as fuel your body excretes a lot more water carbs you know

make you retain more water. That's why bodybuilders or physique competitors will cut out carbs before their show so they look more shredded to get all the water out. Your body isn't retaining as much water, so you need to rehydrate more. Two, your electrolytes are off balance. With your body getting rid of a lot

of water, you excrete a lot of minerals like sodium, potassium, magnesium, and that's where you feel those keto flu-like symptoms. If you're drinking enough water, you excrete a lot of minerals like sodium, potassium, magnesium, and that's where you feel those keto flu-like symptoms. So if you're drinking enough water, you're getting in enough electrolytes, sodium, potassium, magnesium, which for sodium, you're looking at about five to seven grams per day is what you want. Potassium is 1,000 to 3,500 milligrams per day of that. And magnesium is 300 to 500 milligrams per day of that. And if you're getting those ranges in, you should be fine with the keto flu symptoms. Okay.

But still be patient with your body one to two weeks, and your body should start getting adapted to using ketones. Do you have your clients, when they flip over to keto, just quit carbs, cold turkey? Or is it kind of like you're taking out 50 grams per week and just slowly tapering them off? It depends. But most people, here's the thing, you're either in ketosis or you're not. Like it's not like you can slowly taper your way into it if that's what you want. If you're going from 500 grams of carbs per day and you try and go to 30 grams or less,

it's going to be pretty hard on your body, right? So if people want to do that approach, they can. But the quicker you actually get or the quicker you you do keto and you get into ketosis the more your body's going to convert those ketones yep and you'll feel better quicker but if you kind of slowly taper it down you might um it might take you longer to actually get into ketosis so it depends on the person but i just recommend people start out with it supplement with those electrolytes and the water and that that first week or two shouldn't be that bad and correct me if i'm wrong i think the biggest misconception with keto is that people with those electrolytes and the water, and that first week or two shouldn't be that bad.

And correct me if I'm wrong, I think the biggest misconception with keto is that people think they get into ketosis way faster than they actually do. I mean, I'm looking at this truck right now, right outside the window, and it literally says instant ketosis on it. Like, I'm about to drink whatever that is and just go right into ketosis, which is completely impossible. Yeah, we were joking about that. Yeah, it is impossible. What that is, the supplements, exogenous ketones, put your body in a simulated version of ketosis,

right? Okay. So if you test your blood ketones and you drink that stuff, within 30 minutes, you'll see a raise in blood ketone levels, right? But that's not the same as nutritional ketosis, where you're making your own ketones as energy. That can help out with the transition too, like the electrolytes that I talked about. That can help you feel better during the transitionary phase. But nutritional ketosis is not the same as supplementing with exogenous ketones.

So just because you have elevated blood ketone levels from supplementation doesn't necessarily mean that you're burning more fat for fuel. Gotcha. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. So that's different. Let's talk about that because I know the testing process is something that you can't really feel if you're in ketosis.

It's more like the blood levels that you were talking about. So if I'm somebody at home trying to get into ketosis, what do I need in order to test my blood levels? What do I need to know? Where do I need to be at? What are those levels that I want to see? Yeah, so nowadays it's become so popular, it's so much more convenient than what it used to be. Now there's these blood ketone monitors you can buy for $20, $30 on Amazon. The test strips are about $1.

Yeah, the strips I hear about quite a bit. Exactly. So most people start to use the urine strips, which are super cheap. They're not accurate, and it doesn't tell you whether you're in a state of ketosis. Because here's the thing, your body at first is getting rid of the ketones that it makes because it doesn't know how to use them yet. So it'll show up on a urine trip. But then after a couple weeks, your body starts to learn how to use them. You're not going to see those levels like you did in the beginning.

So they're not accurate. The blood ketone monitor is the gold standard. So you've got to prick your finger, you know, and use the test strip and the ketone monitor. But go on Amazon. You'll be able to find a blood ketone monitor and the test strips. Super easy nowadays. And it's a lot more convenient. And is that like a pregnancy test? It's like, yes, you are, no, you're not?

Or are there levels that I need to know? 0.5 millimolars and above is nutritional ketosis. So anything above 0.5. The optimal range for most people is 1.0 to 3.0. That's kind of pretty much all you need to know. Anything above 0.5. What am I at right now with somebody that's not in ketosis? Zero to maybe 0.2.

Here's the thing. Everybody fasts. When you sleep eight hours, you're in a fasted state. So you're probably producing a mild amount of ketones. So you might see that number at 0.1, 0.2, 0.3. If you go to a long period of time without any food, you might see that number. 0.1, 0.2, 0.3. If you go a long period of time without any food, you might see that number. I'm still faster right now. You might be mildly in a state of ketosis.

You wouldn't really see that, though. So for a lot of athletes, I feel like they might switch over, and then they're going to eat too much protein. What does that look like as far as ketosis goes? Is that just all being converted to gluconeogenesis, or are you totally messing up the whole flow? This is where it's very bio-individual. And so all the athletes listening out there,

there's different approaches for, like, let's say someone that's doing CrossFit has a lot of lean muscle mass. They can get away with more protein and more carbs than your average sedentary person that's doing it for therapeutic reasons, like, hey, I want to lose weight. Your athlete that's doing it for performance, it's going to be a different approach. So what I recommend first for all athletes that want to try keto as an athlete

is to first get keto adapted. But that period is going to take about a good two months to where your body is learning how to use ketones as its main source of energy. And the reason that that's important is because the longer that you're in ketosis, the more efficient your body is going to become at using them as an energy source. Sure. So that's really important. Just realize that as a CrossFitter, for example, you might see a dip in performance. So just be aware of that. It's hard because you're switching fuel sources.

And it's temporary. Exactly. It's temporary. So don't freak out about it. It's going to take a good two months. And then from there, once you become keto adapted, then you mess around with your macros where you maybe bring your fat down, up your protein. You test your blood ketones to see what your protein threshold is. Right? That's why it's important to test. So find out what your protein threshold is. Like, for example, when you're 25% when you first start out, it might be 100 grams of protein, which is really low for some people.

Right? which is really low for some people, right? And then from there, once you get adapted, up into 110, 120, and then see how much protein you can get away with before you're knocked out of ketosis, right? So you get up under 0.5. So I keep upping the protein intake, keep doing my blood levels, and as soon as I get under that 0.5, that's how I know I can find it. Yeah, then you know that's kind of like your threshold. And then you do the same thing with carbohydrates. So you're 30 grams of carbs per day, up into 35, test, up into 40,

test the next day, and then you find out what your protein threshold is. So for example, everyone listening, I can probably get away with 60 to 70 grams of carbs, 60 to 70 grams of carbs per day, which most people are like, that would knock them out of ketosis, right? Is that because you work out a lot and you kind of burn through those super fast? Exactly. And I've been doing it for a long time super fast exactly and i've been doing it for a long time so my body is very efficient at using that glucose and then switching over to ketones um and i've been doing it for a long time so that's what it's that's why i'm saying it's very bio-individual yeah so you gotta you gotta figure out uh what you're just like everything else yeah exactly so yeah uh one of the biggest arguments against ketosis, especially kind of from the CrossFit side, is that CrossFit is such a fast-paced type of fitness.

For example, if I'm doing Fran, it's going to take me somewhere around two minutes. And for most people, just like you said, with the lighter fuel on the fire, that's the effect that I want, right? I want to go two minutes as fast as I possibly can. And usually, from what we've learned up until this point, carbs are I want to go two minutes as fast as I possibly can and usually from what we've learned up until this point, carbs are the way to do that. So even me, like during the Open, I had like my little gummy worms.

So like I threw the gummy worm in like literally right before the workout started. Spike those like blood sugar levels and like get the glucose and get up and going. And this is the cool part from an athlete's perspective. This is kind of where I geek out on it because I think there's, your body was designed to run off of both fuels. So once you become keto adapted,

there's a targeted ketogenic approach that works really well for glycolytic athletes, right? Sprinters, CrossFitters. So what you do once you become keto adapted is you start messing around with carbs pre and post workout. So you take about 10 to 15 grams of carbs uh in like maltodextrin form really quick really utilize fast like that lighter fluid on the fire right yep and then your body's ability to shift over once it burns through that to ketones is a lot more efficient now so that you don't have any kind of suffering as you burn through the glucose and your body's like oh where

where's our fuel source now it's like oh boom we can go into ketones right okay so the targeted ketogenic approach I think works great for glycolytic athletes that are doing it. So you run like a hybrid almost. Exactly. So that's the cool thing is like once you kind of learn how to do that and become your own science experiment, it's really cool what you can do. But the hard part is people's like, I don't want to go through that two-month transition of switching over. I want to see that different performance. And mean let's be honest donuts taste really good cinnamon toast crunch tastes really good um so i get it um i don't do keto for fat loss or for

athletic performance for me the thing i love about it is the the improvement in cognitive function and mental clarity my brain feels so sharp throughout the day. I can get a kick-ass CrossFit workout in the morning, fast all day, do podcasts, speaking engagements, travel, and have to only eat once or twice a day. I'm not losing my lean muscle mass. And my brain feels so much sharper. My digestion is better. And so that's why I do keto is for the, I see it as nutrition for your brain. So, but from an athlete's perspective, it depends on what your goals are and then that's what you got to tailor your approach to keto and the the mayo clinic in minnesota which is like the most probably one of the most famous health hospitals in the country potentially even the

world yeah like 80 of their patients are on keto diets for all sorts of like cancers and different things and the science behind it all the peer-reviewed journals and stuff on PubMed, keto is huge when it comes to health durability and health longevity and all that stuff. So I've been a huge fan of it for a long time, and I pretty much only eat carbs after workouts now just for the muscle benefit of it. And I've played around with a little bit of the 10, 15 grams pre-workout. And if I'm doing something like Fran or something like that, I can definitely feel what you're talking about and i think that's really really cool yeah and i also think it's really really important for people who are going to try to

drink a shit ton of water yeah i think that does matter quite a bit yeah um and then when you start getting really really into it you can start messing around with the fasting stuff which i've seen you do as well where you had like i saw your three-day fast recently which is really interesting i that's like one thing I don't know if I could do. Could you not eat for three days? Yeah, like our generation has never had to experience that. Could you not eat for three days? That's like an experiment, baby, but that's about it.

It's so hard. Lock yourself in a cage. Yeah, exactly. Lock me in my room, then. It's hard, dude, because I have kids, and I had to feed them food. I had to touch it and smell it, and I wanted to lick my fingers. So it is hard. But here's the thing. It depends on your why. Like why like why am i doing i'm not doing it to get skinny or lose

weight i understand the science behind longevity anti-aging um it's a great cleanse uh reset for your body and honestly i feel so great doing it it's so weird because i'm like you know you need food to survive but our generation has never had experienced that so let's say the apocalypse happens i can go seven days i've done a seven day fast before. That's my, the most I've ever done. I know I can go seven days without food and be optimal. I can take care of my kids. I can work. I can still function as a human. Are you going to work out during those seven days? Um, I did not work out actually. I went for a walk every day. That's my only workout during those seven days. Like, yeah. Could I do CrossFit? No way. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm not trying to do that, but it was a good, I'll do it once or twice a year as like a reset or a cleanse. Like after my triathlon, I did all that training, the endurance training. It's hard on your body. I took a week off of training, did a four-day fast, and now

I'm back to eating and, you know, changing up my workout routine. My goals are more hypertrophy right now. So, you know, I'm back to eating and you know changing up my my workout routine my goals are more hypertrophy right now so you know I go through these phases and you know once or twice a year it's great for anti-aging you know so I know intermittent fasting is also like a big thing especially in the circles that we are in right now and I know it pairs really well with ketogenic diet as well they kind of like go hand in hand yeah let's talk about that after this the first thing i want to ask with the three-day fast or the seven-day fast um what are the benefits compared to just like intermittent fasting i do like a 16-8 whatever it is and then so you do intermittent fasting all the time and then implement these like three seven-day fasts on top of it yeah so

currently what i'm doing now is um you know after the triathlon I'm doing three meals a day again, and I haven't done that in a long time. I usually do intermittent fasting 16-8, eat at noon and 6 p.m., right? And that's kind of what I've been up to. And it works great. Like if I'm just maintaining and I'm not trying to, like, improve my athletic performance, I feel great doing that. Are you still eating clean calories,

or are you just going for it to get your calories in? No, I'm eating keto. But, like, I'm at a calorie surplus a calorie surplus during those three meals a day. The other maintenance phase where I'm doing the intermittent fasting, the 16-8, the two meals a day, is just more like maintenance. I'm not trying to gain or lose or anything like that. How many calories do you fit into those two meals? Probably around 3,000.

That sounds about right. Yeah, yeah. So I eat around 3,000 calories a day. That's what I'm just maintaining. Now that I'm eating three meals a day, it's actually, I'm like, oh, this is so much food. It's so weird. I used to eat seven small meals a day throughout the day, like all day.

And then I went to eating one or two and then these longer fasts. And now eating three meals a day is like really hard. I'm like, man, that's so weird because I'm so used to it. But there's a synergistic effect. Like I said, the quickest way to get into ketosis is to fast. Intermittent fasting will put you in a mild state of ketosis, right? And then on top of eating a keto diet, you're going to get into ketosis quicker. So you can combine those two approaches for faster results.

Now, the difference between intermittent fasting and these extended fasts is just the period of time that you're doing the fasting, the more benefits you get to a certain extent. It's a U-shaped curve. So it's not like if I fast for 100 days, I'll be healthier. It's not like more fasting is better. There's a certain range. And I did the seven-day fast, and I found out that was too hard for me. I was already pretty lean. So days six and seven were really hard.

So I've done a couple three-day fasts. I'm like, lean, so days six and seven were really hard. So I've done a couple three-day fasts, and I'm like, I didn't feel the benefits that I did the first time. So a four-day fast, I think, is optimal for me. And so, yeah, honestly, giving your digestive system a break is great for your body. And I used to be of the opposite mindset, thinking you've got to have to have food to perform to survive and why would you ever go a day without food i mean our species never would have survived if we weren't designed to go right here's the time without food you know but for us like our generation it's like oh dude i'm hungry i haven't eaten in three hours yeah it's been three hours i gotta eat you know looking at your bicep yeah exactly that's what everybody does right once like, you haven't eaten in a while, you haven't worked out in a while, you're always like. Or you check the abs.

You're like, yeah, the vascularity is going away. I got to eat. Is there the same benefit or at least some of the benefits for somebody like me who's not eating a keto diet to go on a three, four, five, six-day fast? I think everybody, yeah. But you got to do your research first. So the book that I would recommend is The Complete Guide to Fasting. There's health benefits to these extended fasts for a lot of people,

but for some people, it might just be 24 hours, right? For some people, I know some people that have done 30 day fast, right? But obviously they have a lot of fat to live off of, right? So it depends on the person. But I think a 24hour fast here and there is good for physical health reasons, mentally to know that, you know, you don't have to be a slave to food. And then there's, I'll be honest with you, there's a spiritual component.

That's why almost every major religion has had fasting for centuries. Why is that? Right? Because you're more in tune with your body. You get more in touch with your spirit, if you will. So I know there's a spiritual aspect, too. Absolutely. And it's been around for centuries, but just our generation has never been accustomed to

it because we're like, that's weird. Why would you ever fast? But it is becoming more mainstream. You have people like Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan and these big names in the industry talking about it. And it's like, OK, if they're talking about it and they do it, maybe I'll check it out. So look into the science.

Don't just eat a whole pizza and be like, all right, I'm going to start my fast. Drew said do three days, seven days, I'm going to start tomorrow. That's the worst thing you can do. You've got to go into this prepared knowing what you're doing. And, I mean, one thing that, correct me if I'm wrong, but I still think it's true that it's a big misconception for somebody who is new to the fitness world. They're like, okay, I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to stop eating.

And it doesn't work like that. So when you're saying someone goes into a 30-day fast because they have a lot of fat, it's not like they're not going to eat for 30 days and now all of a sudden they're jacked and shredded. Because at some point your metabolism just goes on energy reserve mode and doesn't really burn calories anymore. That's what I'm saying. More fasting isn't better. There's a certain point of where it's like, okay, now it's getting detrimental. It's slowing down your metabolism. So if you're at a calorie deficit for an extended period of time, that's where it damages your metabolism. Like you see people on The Biggest Loser that go on these shows where they eat 1,000 calories.

They work out six, seven hours a day, week after week after week. And then after the show, that's why they all gain the weight back is because their metabolisms are so jacked up. So the whole fasting approach isn't to, oh, I got to lose weight because you're going to gain the weight back right afterwards. Once you start eating, like, you know, I gained all my weight back within, you know, four days after my seven day fast. Right. Wow. And so, you know, there's, there's different theories or studies on, okay, how much does it damage your metabolism after a certain point? I've heard anywhere from 24 hours to, you know, after four days, then your metabolism

starts to slow down. Okay. Right? So, but I think it's very bio-individual. Each person is different. Like, I haven't lost muscle mass doing these fasts. Like, I know Dominic D'Agostino, who was on the Tim Ferriss podcast, after a seven-day fast, he deadlifted 585 pounds for reps, you know,

after his seven-day fast, which is crazy. That's actually where I got my inspiration. I'm like, dude, if this guy can do a seven-day fast and go deadlift that much weight afterwards, I'm like, it's not like we think it is. It's not like, oh, I'm going to lose all my muscle, lose all my strength. Totally. And when you say fasting, what does your daily intake look like? So I'm sure you're drinking a ton of water. Yeah.

Right? Then you said something with electrolytes, I'm sure. Do you take any supplements, coffee, any of that stuff? That's a good question. So there's different approaches. A true fast is nothing but water, right? People that are purists will say, hey, if you have anything with calories, a little bit of calories, that's technically not a true fast. So that's like I really want to know that question.

You know how Bulletproof is so massive right now? Yeah. And you can drink your Bulletproof coffee if you're fast. I'm like, that doesn't make any sense to me. You're consuming calories. Yeah. And you're consuming the highest dense calorie there is. Fat.

You're getting nine calories per gram of fat. So there are benefits to a fat fast is what it's called but it's not a true fast as far as autophagy goes and and uh using your fat as an energy source because if you're taking in that amount of calories 500 calories in a bulletproof coffee yeah the the thing that's going to happen is you're getting calories into your body but you're not getting an insulin spike so that's why they're saying like it's it's it's mimicking fasting in a way where your your insulin isn't going to spike as if you had a huge meal. You're still going to get a rise in insulin, even from Bulletproof Coffee,

just not a spike like you would if it's real food. But the way I approach it is this. It's like, why are you doing the fast in the first place? If it's for health reasons, if it's to reduce your insulin, for type 2 diabetes, there's a different approach. But when I do my fast, I do water, salt, for like type 2 diabetes, there's a different approach. But when I do my fast, I do water, salt, electrolytes, black coffee, tea with no creamer, no added fat. I'll do apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of lemon in my water.

And then I have used exogenous ketones, right, as a supplement. Perfect, too. You just wrapped my mind. Because it does help suppress your appetite. I will say that. And it gives your brain a boost. Like, that's the thing I love about exogenous ketones is as a pre-workout or when I'm fasting, it gives my brain a boost. So I don't feel that brain fog as much.

A lot of the exogenous ketones, though, that I see, I look on the package and there's some sugar in there sometimes. Oh, from erythritol. Or, I mean, if it's not erythritol, there's like three or four grams of sugar straight up. Like someone gave me one the other day at the gym. Really? A couple packs to try, and I saw there was sugar in it, and I was like, dude, I can't have this. There's no way. Yeah.

Well, some of it, I know erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol, is labeled as sugar. Or even sucralose. Yeah, sucralose is a— I know it doesn't affect your insulin levels apparently, but I mean a lot of those things have that stuff in it. Exactly. So you just got to be careful what you're putting in your body. For example, some exogenous ketones use MCT oil in conjunction with the BHB salts because it's been shown to be more effective at raising your blood ketone levels. So technically, that's breaking a fast, but there's a benefit, there's a brain boost,

and it's not going to raise your insulin levels, but at the same time, it is going to break your fast, but it's going to help you insulin levels, but at the same time, it's not going to – it is going to break your fast, right? But it's going to help you feel maybe more optimal during the fast. So I've done – but this last one I did with four days, I didn't take any exogenous ketones. And that was the one I felt the best on with just water, salt, electrolytes, black coffee and tea, and no exogenous ketones. And I felt great. So I've done it a few different ways. Find what works best for you.

You know, experiment a little bit. People in ketosis also do exogenous ketones when they're not fasting, correct? Like before workouts and stuff like that to boost performance. Yeah. So it does, it can be used as like a pre-workout in a way. Cause you're giving your body a bull list of ketones, which are a fuel source, if you will. Right. So people like to use it before like a CrossFit workout or pre-workout or as a brain boost. If I have a busy day or if I'm traveling all day and I don't want to feel hungry and I want my brain to feel sharp, I'll take Exhaustionist Ketones. Okay, cool. Any other supplements at all during the fast?

It depends. Like I said, if you're going to do the fat fast, you can add MCT oil to your coffee because you're not going to get a spike in insulin from that. Any vitamins or anything like that? I don't take vitamins during it. The electrolytes, the sodium, potassium, magnesium are probably the things that you want. And if you don't take those, do you feel like you cramp up a lot or anything like that? You might feel like that, yeah, because just drinking water isn't enough. That doesn't replenish the electrolytes that you're losing.

So the water with the electrolytes is going to make you feel optimal. So I know you have your own kind of line of supplements as well, right? So what are those and where does that help me going into ketosis? Your supplements are new, right? I haven't seen these before. Yeah, only a couple months old. It's called Complete Wellness, but they're a keto support line of products. So right now we have a flavored MCT oil powder. You add to your coffee. It's 95% C8, which converts to ketones the quickest by the brain.

So it's a fuel source that's really fast for your brain. So it gives you brain boost. I add it to my coffee. It's sweetened with stevia. It's very creamy. You just add it in. We have powdered greens with the MCT oil powder in it, so boosting those healthy fats with the organic powdered greens

and fruits in there as well. Greens with MCT oil? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. I've never heard of that. Yeah, it's a unique approach. It's got the healthy fats in the greens. And then we have a probiotic that's sweetened with allulose,

and that's just like a little pixie stick. So allulose is another natural sweetener that won't affect your ketone levels, but it tastes legit like sugar. It tastes like a pixie stick. You just put it in your mouth. So a unique approach to keto supplements that are very different than what's out there. And so we're coming out with some other products here in the near future. I saw on your board some long name.

It says, are you taking this or why should you take this? What was that? XC something complete wellness on your board it says like are you or why should you take this supplement it's like a long like something from Hawaii or something Oh Hawaiian astaxanthin yeah okay gotcha that's a company that's not my supplement company it's a company I work with out of Hawaii okay I used to live out there on the Big Island I met these guys honestly the reason I started taking astaxanthin was because everyone told me it protected

your skin from the sun. And I was like, what do you mean? Like you take a pill and it legit protects your skin from the sun. Like I did not get sunburned taking that on a daily basis. So it's a powerful antioxidant. They farm it in Hawaii and Kona because that's perfect year-round weather for it. And so they also have spirulina as well. They're a good company.

It's called BioAsten. That's what it's called. I saw that, and I was like, I wonder if that was one of your products. I wasn't sure. What is your brand called? Complete Wellness. Okay. Yeah, so you can find our products at shop.completewellness.com,

and you can try out the MCT oil powders. Probably our number one selling product. Cool. For people that want to find out more about ketosis, fasting, all those things, I know you mentioned a couple books already. Do you have any other resources, forums, blogs, online, podcasts? Yeah, I have a podcast called The Fit to Fat Fit Experience, and I've had Dr. Dominic D'Agostino and some other experts come on my show

talking about the basics of keto and how it works. But also I recommend the book Keto Clarity if you want to read a book about the basics of keto. And I'll just say this. I am coming out with my second book in February. It's going to be a keto book. Just because I, you know, ever since I went on the Dr. Oz show talking about the keto diet, my brand has kind of switched over from Fit2Fat2Fit to keto. I still run both of those brands, but people now know me as the keto guy as well as from Fit2Fat2Fit to Keto. I still run both of those brands, but people now know me as the Keto guy as well as the

Fit2Fat2Fit guy. And so, you know, I have some digital programs and things like that. If you just go to Fit2Fat2Fit on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or my website, you can find my Keto programs on there. And can they all see all these crazy videos of you back in the day? Just go to YouTube or Google and type in Drew Manning Fuddrucker Challenge. All right, cool. If you want to be entertained in a gross way, it's all there.

Dude, that's like a weird, like, sexual thing now, too. Like, there's so many people, like, eating food. Right? That's a whole thing, dude. Don't read some of the comments on YouTube. YouTube is some of the weirdest people, I think, you know, because people are getting turned on by. Oh, my God.

Dude, I swear to God, that's the thing. Someone told me about this chick yesterday who has, like, a million subscribers on YouTube where all she does is she buys, like, these, like, breads and danishes and all that stuff, and she puts her face in it, and then that's it. That's the end of the video. What? And she gets paid lots of money. Yeah.

And she is, like, blowing up. Like, she has millions of subscribers. I forgot what the fuck. It's, like, Bakeface or something like that. I don't know what it's called. I've heard of it, too. And she's just getting, like, horny off of it. People are so. fuck. It's like Bakeface or something like that. I don't know what it's called. I've heard of it, too. She's just getting horny off of it. People are so – no, she isn't, but people at home for sure are.

Oh, my God. That's funny, man. People are so fucking weird nowadays. It's an interesting world we live in. That's for sure. Yeah. Do you have anything to add, Fish? Yeah, guys.

You guys know me, CEO of Chalk Industries. Chalk Sports Performance, performance training. If you guys want to follow our workouts, we have a little over like 1,000 people right now worldwide that follow our online app and the workouts that we do every day in the gym. Unlike Netflix, you don't have to cruise through it all day to figure out a good workout. You can find one at the click of a button very easily. And then Yaya, our web.

Graphics. Graphics and all that stuff. That's his deal. go ahead and tell him about that yep so uh anything you guys see going up on chalk real chalk fish's page my page um that's all from me so we've been doing a lot of content this week um do anything graphic design related from web to logo video photography so if you guys ever need anything in that area at all um hit me up at yaya at crossfitchalk.com we got at yaya on instagram at ryan fish on instagram at 50 fat fit on instagram boys this was a lot of fucking fun um thank you guys let's go fast for a couple days. And go watch some really interesting pastries on YouTube. Yeah, exactly.

Dude, thanks so much for doing this. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. And that's it. No more. I know you guys wanted more. I know you guys can never get enough,

but you're going to have to wait until next week to hear our beautiful voices once more. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. And to find Drew drew like i said fit to fat to fit dot com or fit to fat to fit on instagram look at those before and after pictures guys they're absolutely insane and i'm just gonna completely blow you away as always kids appreciate you guys so much for tuning in you guys make all this possible cool trips to austin we got a couple other trips coming up that I can't yet tell you guys about.

But just because of your support, my life has completely changed and I just wanted to say thank you. On top of that, saying thank you in one sentence and then asking for something in the next sentence doesn't really work. I'm going to do it anyways. Make sure you guys are subscribed to the Shrug Collective.

Make sure you guys leave us a comment letting everybody know that Real Chalk is just that much better than all the other shows in the collective. So we have some bragging rights going forward. We love you guys. I'm Yaya. I am out.