Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 166 - Q & A: Omega 3, Deficit size, Creatine on a cut?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome in everybody to another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. Once again, this is your host, Danny Matranga. And in today's episode, we're going to be going over some of your questions. These are questions that I have fielded from my Instagram, the tag or the handle for my Instagram is Danny dot Matranga. So please follow me over there if you like the content on the podcast. And more specifically, if you'd like to ask questions that might eventually show up on the podcast. We're going to talk about creatine today, specifically whether or not it's something that you should use in a deficit. I'm going to give you my thoughts on omega-3 supplementation as well. I'll also talk to you guys a little bit about how you should set

Starting point is 00:00:46 up your cut with regards to the specifics for perhaps the intensity of the deficit. I'll give you my favorite pre-workout supplementation recommendations, how your leg days should look, amongst many other things. Going to go through this in a fairly rapid fire manner today. It is Tuesday, the 15th of February at the time of me recording this. I am coming off an amazing Valentine's weekend. I got away to the coast with my girlfriend and we celebrated the Rams, my favorite football team, Super Bowl victory. That's a once in a lifetime thing for some fans, unless, of course, you're a Patriots or Tom Brady fan who

Starting point is 00:01:25 just always seems to be there. But if, in fact, he is retired, for those of us who are not fans of his, it's very challenging to get to the Super Bowl, let alone finish the damn thing off. And I'm so excited. I'm having a great week so far, and I just had to share that on the podcast. As far as updates go, I will be filming the exercise tutorial content for the upcoming launch of my training app. So the Core Coaching Collective will be coming to you guys with two unique program tracks, one of which is Home Heroes, which will be able to be done from home with just dumbbells and bands. It will be compound lift focused, progressive. The workouts will be short, very productive and efficient for those of you

Starting point is 00:02:09 who prefer to train at home and want to make steady gains and progress. And then there is Elite Physique, which is a gym focused program that uses machines, free weights, pretty much everything you'd find in a standard gym. It's a continuation of my elite or of female physique one and two. This is an ongoing program. So these will be updated every single month. These are things that you'll be able to do in a community too. So everybody who joins either of the respective teams will have access to the message boards where you can comment with your PRs. You can share your videos. You can interact directly with me and my coaches and Kratos sports performance and physiotherapy. I'm trying to bring everything that you're going to need to be successful somewhere in the middle, somewhere between the online coaching experience and then the PDF

Starting point is 00:02:53 guided totally solo experience. And I will be filming the exercise tutorials that will be in the app this weekend and next weekend as we get closer to our launch at the beginning of April. So stay tuned. That will be really, really exciting. And then before we get into the questions, I want to tell you about our amazing partner, Seed. Seed is a top-notch symbiotic probiotic product that contains both prebiotics, things that feed these good bacteria, and probiotics, the actual good bacteria that we want. But not just bacteria for the intestinal microbiome, bacteria that can help with things like the heart, the skin, and even nutrient absorption. I take two capsules of seed every

Starting point is 00:03:34 day upon waking, and anecdotally, I can say my skin has been quite glowy, dewy, my prevalence of breakouts has decreased, my stool and bowel movements are quite regular, and the prevalence of gas has decreased for me. I also, again, know that anecdote is not everything, but you can find all of the empirical research, all of the studies that show these strains are clinically proven to work in humans right on the Seed website. Just go to seed.com, check out using the promo code DANNY15 to save 15% off your subscription. So let's go ahead and get into our first question here today. This one comes from Blion Ashy. So Blion Ashy asks, I'm training to gain muscle and lose weight.

Starting point is 00:04:18 I'm in a calorie deficit. How would creatine help me? So assuming that we can, let's first say a calorie deficit is going to be more efficient for body fat reduction than it will for muscle gains, meaning that just simply gaining muscle, right, over time generally gets harder and harder the longer you've been training. And oftentimes for advanced trainees, trying to do that in a deficit can be counterproductive. But let's just assume you're fairly new to this. You know, you're in your first one to two years of lifting and you're lifting progressively while being in a small deficit. You can stand to gain a little bit of muscle. And a lot of people think, well, why would I want to be on creatine if I'm in a deficit? If

Starting point is 00:04:58 creatine can lead to water weight gain, if creatine can, you know, improve muscle gains and it's used oftentimes for getting bigger, why would I take it in a deficit? Well, first and foremost, let's acknowledge that weight loss is different than fat loss. So if your body fat reduction is, or you're reducing body fat and body fat reduction is happening simultaneously with water weight gain while taking creatine, the scale might stay at the same place, but your body fat will go down, right? Water weight gain is not a really big deal. It's quite a, actually, non-issue whatsoever for most people, in my opinion. But assuming you're in a deficit, assuming you're having a relatively

Starting point is 00:05:36 challenging time getting all of the different nutrients you need, right? Because oftentimes when people go into a deficit, particularly women, this question was asked by a woman, the caloric intake levels have to be smaller because of their smaller body size. And so you might be eating less carbs, a little bit less dietary fat, and potentially even less fatty foods like fatty fish and red meat, which is oftentimes where we get dietary creatine in the first place. And while we do make our own for active adults and lifters, supplementing with it can be really beneficial. And so assuming, you know, nutrients are hard to come by because you're in a deficit, particularly things like creatine, performance can decline when you're in a deficit. Something that can improve muscularity, improve performance outputs, keep, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:18 HDL in a good place. It's good for cholesterol as well as the brain. I think creatine is something that you should take kind of regardless of whether or not you train and whether or not you're in a deficit at maintenance or a surplus. I do think that you could make some specific rationalizations as to why it would be beneficial in a deficit. The first being, again, like I said, nutrients are kind of at a premium once you enter a calorie deficit and creatine can be harder to get, so supplemental creatine could help. Performance decreases are oftentimes highly correlated with decreases in caloric intake, so that can help with this stuff. So don't think of creatine exclusively as a muscle gain supplement. Think about it as a training quality supplement as well as a brain health supplement. Okay, this one comes from Odds10 10. And she asks, what are my thoughts on omega

Starting point is 00:07:05 three supplements? So omega three is something that I have for a very long time called fish oil and used those two terms interchangeably. And I wanted to kind of catch myself here because that's not a particularly effective way to communicate. Omega threes are a chain of the fatty acid family, right? And they're very beneficial, and they really help us maintain the proper ratios of omega-3s to omega-6s when we're supplementing with these omega-3s, and we're eating a diet that's very consistent, like the standard American diet or the SAD diet or the traditional Western diet that tends to be higher in omega-6s. So these supplemental omega-3s have been shown to be beneficial for a variety of things in large part because they keep

Starting point is 00:07:49 that three to six ratio right where we want it. But I oftentimes will call this stuff fish oil, fish oil, fish oil, because the most commonly sold form of supplemental omega-3s are usually sourced from fish, particularly cold water, fatty fish like mackerel, sardines, and even sometimes things like salmon and krill. I know krill is not a fish, but that's oftentimes where these things are sourced. However, with the prevalence of the plant-based movements and generally people just being more conscientious about the environment, sourcing your omega-3s exclusively from fish can be a little tricky. So there has been an advent of algae-based omega-3 supplements that seem to be quite effective at allowing people who consume them to absorb a high amount of these algae-based omega-3s. So I'll try to do a better

Starting point is 00:08:38 job in general of saying omega-3 instead of fish oil and definitely catch me on that because it's not an effective form of communication on my end. Like when I say fish oil, fish oil, fish oil and definitely catch me on that because it's not an effective communication, uh, not an effective form of communication on my end. Like when I say fish oil, fish oil, fish oil, what I'm almost always trying to say is omega three. So if you've ever heard me talk about fish oil, you know that I think it's uniquely beneficial for a number of things. I've made many videos about it, but the big things are generally going to be brain health, reduced inflammation. It can help with things like mood and depression, and it can even help with exercise performance and recovery, especially if those omega-3 to omega-6 ratios are off. Now, if you do not want to

Starting point is 00:09:15 supplement with an omega-3, you can eat more fatty fish, particularly cold water fatty fish. That is probably the best way to get omega-3 in their natural form. Now, if you are not a fish eater or you're a vegan, those algae omega-3 supplements are fantastic. And if you're just somebody who wants to supplement quickly with omega-3, you might consider a fish oil or algae omega-3 supplement. Okay, this question comes from Court All In, just like the Rams, they're all in, baby. When starting a cut, how many calories should you drop by on day one? So this is a really good question.

Starting point is 00:09:51 And I think that it's very helpful that we walk through these things together. A cut is a period of dietary restriction designed to help with reducing body fat. So understand this, a deficit is nothing more than eating less than your total daily energy expenditure. Total daily energy expenditure is the combination of the amount of calories you burn running your various organ systems, the amount of calories you burn exercising, the amount of calories you burn fidgeting and moving around and going to and from your daily tasks, and the amount of calories you burn consuming, metabolizing, and absorbing food. Those four things combined to create your total daily energy expenditure, or the number of calories you burn each and every day.

Starting point is 00:10:35 If you eat that exact amount, you will maintain your body weight. That is your maintenance. If you eat more than that, even by one calorie, in theory, you would be in a calorie surplus. For bulking or lean bulking or lean massing, my coaching team and I generally recommend 200 to 500 daily calories be added to your total daily energy expenditure. Don't worry, we'll get to fat loss in a minute. But keeping things smaller tends to be better for muscle gain because muscle gain is a rate-limited process, meaning that the later you are in your training career, the more experienced you are, the longer you've been lifting, the more of your natural gains you've made, the slower your muscle

Starting point is 00:11:15 gain will occur over time, meaning that eating more won't necessarily translate to increased muscle gains. Now, fat loss is a little bit different. There are some rate-limiting factors that can kind of control the rate at which fat loss occurs. But if you go into a 1,000-calorie deficit, you will probably lose weight about twice as fast as if you were in a 500-calorie deficit. But here is the problem. Hey, guys, just wanted to take a quick second

Starting point is 00:11:44 to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. We find that large, steep deficits tend not to be as sustainable for most people. Now, there's a time and place for these things, but in general, a 200 to 500 calorie reduction below that total daily energy expenditure is probably the best place to

Starting point is 00:12:25 start your deficit, especially, again, this was a question asked by a woman, especially if you are a smaller human being. And again, women generally have smaller frames and have lower total daily energy expenditures. So a 200 to 500 calorie reduction might be a wide range. 500 calories might be a big drop if your total daily energy expenditure is somewhere around 1600. So I tend to shoot for smaller windows when it comes to like how big the deficit should be, but aiming for longer durations

Starting point is 00:12:58 with more things like diet breaks and refeeds. Okay, this question comes from Keon ACS and she asks, what are my recommendations for pre-workout? So there are a few ingredients that I really like to see in a pre-workout, and I think it's easy to just think, okay, pre-workout is caffeine, right? It's just an energy drink, and that's not necessarily the case. There are plenty of ergogenic aids or things that can enhance acute exercise performance that might be worth including in the pre-workout window. One of the things I look for is L-citrulline. It's an amino acid that can enhance vasodilation

Starting point is 00:13:38 or the relaxation of blood vessels that allows them to expand and get bigger so they can better transfer nutrients. That's something that I like to see. So I look for L-citrulline. Another thing I like is carnosine beta-alanine, and beta-alanine is good for battling and buffering fatigue, particularly for endurance work. Now, I also quite like betaine anhydrous and L-theanine, both of which can be helpful for different things. L-theanine is something that we often think of for focus. Now, something else you might look for is some form of what many people will call nootropic, something like alpha-GPC even, or you might look for caffeine. You can also look for the presence of things like essential amino acids, calcium, sodium, potassium, those are electrolytes,

Starting point is 00:14:25 like essential amino acids, calcium, sodium, potassium, those are electrolytes, things that can help with hydration. So either way, you're probably looking for some combination of amino acids and caffeine. My go-to recommendation for a caffeinated pre-workout that contains many of those ingredients is Legion's Pulse. And if you go to Legion's website, you can check out using the promo code Danny to save 20%. But if you're like me and you wake up at about 5am and take your dog for a nice walk while you sip on some water and electrolytes and you settle into your first couple sessions and then you have a nice espresso shot, you train in the late morning, mid afternoon, you don't want to go from your espresso shot straight into your pre-workout or you just enjoy coffee more than you enjoy pre-workout and you don't want to double up. A stimulant free pre-workout can be a great option. Legion makes a stimulant-free version that contains all of the

Starting point is 00:15:09 ingredients I mentioned, but none of the caffeine. And so Legion is my go-to by far when it comes to this stuff. Okay, this question comes from Touche, and she asks, does my leg day have to look the same two weeks in a row? So assuming you're doing one leg day, even if you were doing two, I think you want to see the same series of exercises show up on either your singular or, you know, second or even third leg days. You want to see the same exercises showing up fairly regularly. And these are generally going to be exercises that work well with your body, how your body moves, how your body performs. So if you're taller, maybe it's a little bit less barbell squatting, a little bit more hex bar deadlifting, right? We make these adjustments

Starting point is 00:15:47 based on anthropometry, how you perform and the feedback we get from your body on the fly. But if you're constantly jumping around and switching, you're going to be spending more time learning how to do the exercises and getting good at doing the exercises than you are actually progressing the exercises. And so selecting exercises that you can perform with a high amount of output and doing them every single week, looking to add progressions is substantially better than changing it up every week. So your leg days should by and large look next to identical week to week. And once that progression curve starts to flatten and things start to stagnate, you can go ahead and mix it up and you can incorporate plenty of novelty along

Starting point is 00:16:23 the way to keep yourself from going crazy, but switching it up just, you know, kind of for the sake of switching it up isn't necessarily the most efficient way to get things done. I hope that makes sense. Okay, this question comes from Jill Desi. She asks, what are my thoughts on all these high protein cereals out there? Are they worth the high-ticket price? So there is one high-protein cereal that comes to mind immediately that costs about $10 a box. And my general consensus on these products is that they are marketed towards fitness fanatics and sold at unbelievably high margins so that they can capitalize on people's desire to remain fit and maybe their orthorexic tendencies to stay away from foods

Starting point is 00:17:05 that they deem bad by marketing these cereals as quote-unquote healthier and higher in protein. Here's the truth, guys. Cereal, whether it's high-protein cereal or regular cereal, is probably not the ideal place to source a large amount of your dietary protein. If you'd like to enjoy cereal but still have a higher dietary protein intake, dietary protein. If you'd like to enjoy cereal but still have a higher dietary protein intake, I would rather have one serving of a cereal I really enjoyed with a single scoop of whey protein on the side. 20 grams of whey protein has anywhere between 80 and 100 calories, and I would rather have 20 grams of whey protein and one serving of my favorite cereal than the equivalent amount of calories from a high-protein cereal that likely doesn't taste as good.

Starting point is 00:17:45 And it's not to say that these cereals aren't well-designed, that they don't include good ingredients, that they're not thoughtful in how they're producing these products. It's just more at $10 a box in the price per serving. And just the general difference between any of these cereals, like I know that many of them taste good, but it's not cinnamon toast crunch. It's not Lucky Charms. If that's your jam and you want to enjoy cereal, but also get a higher protein intake, I would do it a little differently myself. That's just me. Okay. So this question comes from J Sal 36 and he asks, what are my favorite shoulder exercises? So there are quite a few. I really love first and foremost to talk about the

Starting point is 00:18:25 musculature of the shoulder that is involved in external rotation. That is a really important mechanism that you need to maintain as you train. You have to have sufficient external rotation. It's a great way to kind of protect yourself against a lot of the overdevelopment of some of these muscles like the pecs and the lats that play a role in internal rotation. So I really love rear delt-specific work. You could do rear delt flies, reverse pec deck. Those also train the rhomboids, but I like to do the rear delt exercises usually with dual cables. The face pull is an absolute must. I love to use the TRX to do things like T flies and Y flies. I love to do prone trap raises or prone Y raises, as well as behind the back cable lateral raises and machine lateral raises. As far as the compound movements go, if I'm going to do an upright row, I'll generally do it with dumbbells instead of a

Starting point is 00:19:19 barbell. When it comes to presses, I love all of the different forms of presses, everything from machine presses to Arnold or rotational presses to standing dumbbell presses to seated dumbbell presses. I'm a big fan of shoulder training in general. Um, I tend to enjoy the variety, even though it's basically just presses in various forms of raises. But remember you have the anterior deltoid, the lateral or medial deltoid, and the rear deltoid. And so you have to train these different heads by positioning the shoulder differently. And so it gives you a little bit of variety in your training. And those are kind of my favorites so far. All right, guys, that does it for today's rapid fire Q&A. I want to thank you so much for tuning in and listening. I will catch you guys on the next episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. If you want to help me grow the show so I can reach more

Starting point is 00:20:09 people and answer more questions to help people live healthier, more fit performance centric lives, feel free to leave me a five-star rating and review right here. Whether you're listening on iTunes, Spotify, or whatever app you get your podcasts on. Thanks so much for tuning in. or whatever app you get your podcasts on. Thanks so much for tuning in. Remember, guys, take this stuff slow. Be patient. Don't rush the process.

Starting point is 00:20:32 Everything's going to fall in alignment if you just do what you need to do each and every day, taking it hour by hour. Don't derail yourself when you make mistakes. We all do that, especially in the game of health and fitness. See you soon.

Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 166 - Q & A: Omega 3, Deficit size, Creatine on a cut?

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