Habits and Hustle - Episode 380: Jordan Syatt: The Truth About ‘Starvation Mode’ + Must-Have Supplements

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Fitness myths abound, but few are as persistent as the idea of "starvation mode." In this Fitness Friday episode, I get into the truth of this myth with Jordan Syatt, a 5x world record powerlifter.  We discuss the science behind metabolic adaptation, why meal frequency doesn't matter for fat loss (if calories are in check), and the potential risks of intermittent fasting. We also share the top two essential supplements for overall health.  Jordan Syatt is a 5x World Record Powerlifter, Founder of Syatt Fitness, and Gary Vaynerchuk’s Personal Trainer. He’s charismatic, undeniably knowledgeable, and insightful in ways you might not expect.  What we discuss:  The myth of "starvation mode"  Metabolic adaptation  The ineffectiveness of short-term fasting Importance of calorie control for fat loss, regardless of meal frequency The recycling of diet trends in the fitness industry (e.g., keto, Atkins, paleo) Discussion on animal protein vs. plant-based diets Essential supplements Myths about creatine supplementation, especially for women Different types of creatine (monohydrate vs. micronized) Find the full episode here:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-167-jordan-syatt-5x-world-record-powerlifter/id1451897026?i=1000561980894  Thank you to our sponsor: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off To learn more about Jordan Syatt: Website: https://www.syattfitness.com/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syattfitness/  Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it! Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up. What are your thoughts on the Trilite panel? Before we dive into today's episode, I first wanna thank our sponsor, Therisage. Their Trilite panel has become my favorite biohacking thing

for healing my body. It's a portable red light panel that I simply cannot live without. I literally bring it with me everywhere I go and I personally use their red light therapy to help reduce inflammations and places in my body where honestly I have pain. You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle. Red light therapy is my go-to. Plus it also has amazing anti-aging benefits including reducing signs of fine lines and wrinkles on your face

which I also use it for. I personally use Therisage Trilite everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective. Head over to Therasage.com right now and use code BEBOLD for 15% off. This code will work site-wide. Again, head over to Therasage.com and use code BBOLD for 15% off any of their products. Whatever happens to start your body goes into starvation mode. Do you remember this whole theory where it's like if you don't eat for too long, if you don't eat for too long, once you start eating again, basically your body is going to hold on to every calorie because it's like starving.

Remember that? That's the concept. Yeah. So that is also, it's half myth, half not. There are several different types that people think of starvation mode. One type of starvation mode that people will say, this is a complete myth that if you don't eat enough, then your body's going to store on a fat, uh, that's absolute nonsense. Cause if that were the case, then, you know, people in Holocaust camps,

like in concentration camps would have been getting fat. Prisoners of war would be getting fat. People struggling with anorexia would be getting fat. Right. So there's eating too little doesn't make you fat. All right. And we have, that's a super, super, super common myth. And that's what a lot of people call starvation mode.

What you spoke about, uh, is often termed metabolic adaptation. And this is real. This is real where if you don't eat enough for a long period of time, and then all of a sudden you bring calories back in, your metabolic rate will have decreased enough to where now you, your metabolism rate will have decreased enough to where now you, your metabolism is slower. So you more easily gain weight back. Um, that won't happen with a 72 hour fast that like your metabolism won't decrease enough

in a 72 hour, even a week long to make that happen. Um, but what will happen and what I see happen all the time is someone fast for three days and then they get super fucking hungry and they develop a terrible Relationship with food so they binge eat and it's not difficult to eat three days worth of calories in several hours once you know fasting It's very easy. Like it's very easy to do. It's not challenging at all So I see a lot of these people not only gaining weight but Developing severe disorder relationship with food where they're binging all the time but developing severe disorder relationship with food where they're binging all the time.

And that's one of the reasons why they perpetually fast because the only time they have an on and an off switch and that's it, there's nothing in between. There's no moderation. They're either fasting and not eating anything or binging and eating everything. And that is not healthy in any way, shape or form. So from a fat loss perspective,

fasting has no benefit if your calories are not in check. And research shows this very clearly. There was actually a big article in the New York Times that came out today, which I was very surprised. I'm not like the biggest fan of the New York Times, but like they had a big article today about new research coming out and it was accurate. I was looking at the paper how meal frequency is irrelevant for fat loss if calories are not in check, right?

So it doesn't matter if you have 17 small meals a day or six moderate sized meals or four big meals or one gargantuan meal, from a fat loss perspective, if your total calories are in check, you're fine regardless of your meal frequency. So for some people, and let's just call it intermittent fasting, what it is, is you're skipping breakfast. That's what, you skip breakfast, maybe lunch. That's all it is is you're skipping breakfast. That's what that's you skip breakfast, maybe lunch. That's that's all it is. Right. It's nothing special. So calorie deficit, basically.

Correct. Yeah, it's like we're gonna eat a little bit less. So if you if you like breakfast, then eat breakfast and just eat fewer calories to be in a calorie deficit. If you don't like breakfast, feel free to skip it. And then still be in a calorie deficit at the end of the day, and you'll still lose weight. So that's really what it boils down to. Right. I mean, I tend to agree with you and I've had a lot of people on this podcast who are doctors, who are big believers in the fasting for longevity and for autophagy and for this and for that.

And I still have not been able to like, you know, for me personally, anytime I've tried, I wait four hours, I get nauseous, I'm hungry, I got a headache, and I'm like, screw this. And I go eat like, I eat 10 times the amount because I was starving. Right? So I guess, and I think it's a behavioral thing. I don't know how people are able to like just deprive themselves like that.

I just don't, it's, it also is maybe just for their own personal, like you were saying earlier, for their own, to see if they can do it, you know, a lot of times, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of people, there are certain benefits to doing hard things just to see if you can push through it, but not with this. Like this is, it's just frankly stupid.

And the amount of, of disordered relationship with the food that I've seen coming out of it is, is truly remarkable. This is one of the things that I think within five to 10 years, we're going to see a lot of research coming out about people struggling with binge eating because they're trying to do long duration fasting and all that stuff. It's like, it's just, it's not necessary and it's not healthy. No, I, I, yeah, I'm a believer. I agree with you.

Um, so then you're not a faster obviously, and you eat breakfast. I love breakfast. I mean, I've tried intermittent fasting. When I did it, I did it from like 18 to 21. Uh, did you, yeah. And actually one of the, I wrote when I stopped intermittent fasting, um, I wrote a whole article on it in 2012, talking about how I remember the title was something to the effect of intermittent fasting might not be right for you and here's why.

And they basically explained all the stuff that's where we just spoke about. It's been around for a long time. Forever, I know. These diets, like everyone, like now it's in men's fitness and all over the news, but it's been around for years and years and years in different forms and names. I mean, the ketogenic diet's been around for such a long time in different forms and names. And that's what the fitness industry does. It recycles different diets and fads with new names to sell it.

Of course, like the Atkins, it was called the Act, you know, the Atkins diet. It's like a year or so ago or like the Zone diet or this diet. Like, and now the Paleo diet, like they're all the same, just different iterations of it. So then what do you eat? Like, what do you tell people? Like, what do you, what do you think about? I mean, obviously I know you like carbs. I mean, cause you're, you're someone, you're not, you seem to be very like rational, but give me a break.

And what do you think about animal protein? Do you think people who are vegans or are able to get enough sufficient protein to build real, like to build muscle and to maintain muscle and to be healthy? Um, so, so I'm a big fan of animal protein. I love meat and fish. I love all of it. People who have a plant-based diet, they can get enough. It's significantly more difficult.

It's significantly more difficult. I don't necessarily think that a plant-based diet is inherently healthier for many reasons. In order to get enough nutrients to live a healthy life as a plant-based individual, you have to be supplementing with various supplements to make sure you're getting enough micronutrients and some macronutrients as well. You have to be supplementing. Personally, I don't think a diet that requires you to be taking extra supplements could inherently be classified as healthier.

Not to mention that if we take people who are plant-based versus people who are not plant-based and we look at their lifespan overall, we don't see a difference in terms of health or longevity as long as both people are exercising regularly and like, you know, not smoking or drinking or overweight. There are people who are overweight and plant-based, and there are people who are plant-based who smoke and drink and they are not healthy individuals. So it has far less to do with them being plant-based and more just to do with like, are they maintaining a healthy body fat percentage?

Are they exercising? And I think, you know, we got to where we are today by being omnivorous creatures. We've eaten meat and fish for the entirety of our existence as human beings. That's why we have the teeth that we have. That's like, that's what we're made to do. And it's why if you have a healthy diet that's rich in all these vitamins and minerals and different plant and food sources, then you don't need to take supplements if you don't want to. You could live a full life without having to do that, but if you're plant-based, you are required to actually do that in order to get enough nutrients in. So what supplements do you believe that people overall should be taking? Do

you take any supplements or? Yeah. So I'm not a huge supplement guy and I very much think they're called supplements for a reason because they should be a supplementary to your nutrition and lifestyle. Right. I know you're in LA so you probably get plenty of sun but most people are massively vitamin D3 deficient so I take vitamin D3 every day. I take 2000 IUs and I'm in Texas so I still get plenty of sun but it's so easy to be deficient in it and it's very hard to overdo vitamin D. So I think it's for your mental health, emotional health, physical health, hormonal health,

massively vitamin D is super important. Fish oil, I eat a lot of fatty fish, so like salmon and whatnot, but I still take fish oil as well just because it's the most researched supplement in the entire world. There's so many health benefits to it, also from a hormonal perspective.

So D33 fish oil. Um, I do take a multi it's not essential though. Um, we live in a first world country. Most foods we eat are fortified and like, we probably get plenty of nutrients without it. I look at it as my like nutritional insurance policy. So I do take a multivitamin as well. Um, and then creatine is if you had spoken to me like a year ago, I would have said,

creatine is really just for getting stronger and building muscle, but creatine and fish oil are the two most, uh, research supplements in the entire world. And in the past year or so, there've been a lot of research around creatine's neuroprotective benefits, uh, and that the effects that it can have on your brain and just on, on thought processes and actually maintaining, uh, reducing the risk of things like dementia and Alzheimer's as you get older. So if you'd asked me a year ago, I would have said, no, it's only important if you just want to build muscle, but there's a lot of research coming out

now about creatines and its neuroprotective benefits that I'm like very interested in. So I do take creatine as well. Um, I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to take creatine. My mom thought it was a steroid, so she wouldn't let me. Right, right, right. But you know, we all eat creatine when you eat red meat. You have creatine and you have eggs. You have creatine.

Your body naturally produces it. Like, it's not bad or dangerous for you at all. It's actually, it's if you have blood pressure issues or liver issues or kidney issues, definitely talk to your doctor before you take it, but it's, it's very low cost, very, very effective. Uh, and there are reasons to take it outside of simply gaining strength. So do how about women? Are they able to take, I thought when women would take creative, like it

was, it would bulk you, that would bulk you up. No, no. So it doesn't bulk you up. It doesn't automatically build muscle at all. Um, it's like, I wish it did that. It doesn't have to do that. I thought that's muscle at all. Um, it's like, I wish it did that. It doesn't have to do that. I thought that's why every guy I know takes it before they work out. No.

So creatine, what it does is it gives you more prize, more ATP gives you more energy. So it gives you the, the, uh, potential to be able to lift a little bit more weight. And what I mean by that is let's say you were, it's not like anabolic steroids at all, what, what it does is it gives your muscles more energy to use and so practically speaking Let's say you could do 10 reps with a certain weight if you start taking creatine Maybe you can now get 11 or 12 reps like it's a little bit What does happen though and where the bulking idea comes from is creatine monohydrate, which is one type of creatine Can often make you

hold onto more water. So you can look and appear a little bit more bloated. So a lot of women, they obviously don't want that and a lot of men don't want that either, but they tend to be a little bit more okay with it than the women do. So in that case, I recommend a micronized creatine. Micronized creatine is actually what I take as well, mainly because creatine monohydrate can cause some stomach upset with certain people. And I always felt nauseous when I took it, but micronized creatine, slightly more expensive, a little bit higher quality, I would say, uh, and you

don't get any bloating with that. Where'd you get that? What's what kind? I never heard of that before. So you can, I mean, if you Google it, you'll find I take it from Legion athletics. Yeah. So I take Legion and it's, it, you take Legion. Yeah. Yeah. So I take Legion and it's, it's in their post-workout supplement.

It's micronized creatine. Micronized. Okay. That's a good to know. That's a good tip actually. I like that. Yeah. It's really good.

I really like it. It helps a lot. And you'll, you'll notice it if, depending on how you take it, uh, within a month, you will notice like, uh, significant improvements in your performance.