Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1505: Seven Day Fat Loss Kickstart

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover how to kickstart fat loss without destroying your metabolism. Why context matters when it comes to rapid fat loss. (2:13) Understanding what your behavior and pattern interrupters are. (7:08) Why you have to resist the temptation to continue eating in a calorie deficit long-term. (11:55) Seven Day Fat Loss Kickstart. (15:06) Step #1 – Intermittent fasting/meal skip. (16:57) Step #2 – Drop calories to 500. (21:25) Step #3 – Target protein first and fibrous vegetables. (22:28) Step #4 – Focus on working inward/low-intensity workouts. (26:09) Step #5 – Mindset is everything! (30:50) Clues and hints you have done this properly. (34:43) How to come out of this process the RIGHT way. (37:43) Related Links/Products Mentioned March Promotion: Get in Shape for Summer – Promo code: “SPRINGBREAK” at checkout Visit Legion Athletics for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Fasting is a Terrible Way to Lose Weight Intermittent Fasting Guide - Mind Pump Media A Beginner's Guide To Intermittent Fasting Mind Pump #1220: The 4 Best Sources of Protein Why do we Need Protein? Stop Working Out And Start Practicing - Mind Pump Media Mind Pump TV - YouTube Visit Joovv for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Visit Drink LMNT for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! What are the Top Benefits of Strength Training? - Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You are listening to the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Okay, in today's episode, we are talking about a seven-day fat loss kick-star. Now, before you freak out and think, what the heck happened to Mind Pump?

Are they going the clickbait route? We explained it all in this episode. We talk about who this is not for and who this is for. And we tell you the right way to do it and why you may want to try something like this out. So listen to the episode. We drop some amazing wisdom and we tell you step by step how to utilize this strategy to modify behaviors and get yourself back on the right track.

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which are coming around the corner. So the first program is Maps Hit. This is high intensity interval training. The second program is Maps Split. This is high-intensity interval training. The second program is Maps Split. This is an advanced bodybuilding style workout. Then we have the bikini bundle, which is multiple programs combined and put together, already discounted. You can discount all of these in additional 50% off.

You can get all of these 50% off the original sale price, which is pretty cool. Go check all of these out. Go to mapsfitinitnessproducts.com and then use the code spring break for 50% off. I wanted to bring up this conversation that I probably had with, I don't know, at least half, if not most of my clients over the years of training. It was something that I had just recently implemented myself. And I thought, you know what,

I don't think we've discussed this in detail on the podcast. And the question that the client had, or the person that DM me, was, I just went on vacation and, you know, I ate a ton and put on like 15 pounds. And he goes, I know you guys are not, you know. That's a good vacation.

Right, right. Well, it's very realistic though, right? I mean, I've done it, I've done it for sure. He goes, I know you guys don't advocate for crash dieting. He goes, but my hips are hurting, my back is hurting, I feel inflamed, I don't feel good. You know, what do you suggest? And I said, you know, that's interesting,

you ask that right now because I too, I'm going through something. So now I didn't just go on a vacation where I gained 15 pounds, but I have been on a pretty aggressive bulk ever since I started the testosterone therapy. And my theory on that was like, okay, I've got the extra testosterone. I'm going to build some muscle right now. I'm boosting these calories up. I'm lifting more consistently. And so I've been really enjoying this bulk. I've been putting on size very well, I'm getting stronger. Like, I like the way I've been looking,

but this last couple of weeks, man, my hips started hurting again, my joints are just, they're talking to me right now. And so I made a quick adjustment just this last week and a half. And I went on like a, and I forget what they call it when you do this, but it's not exactly a fast, right? Nothing, but I'm only eating 500 calories. And I'm doing it for a short period of time.

And then I'll go back to eating a more moderate amount of calories. And what I like about that is the way my body responds from being on really high calories for an extended period of time. And so I suggested this to him. Now this isn't for everybody, but this also can be a great way to kickstart somebody who may be in the same situation. Yeah, we need to tread carefully, right?

Because there's so many crappy, bad diets and crappy, click-badi advice out there that's saying stuff like, six days to whatever, or five ways you can crash, get your body in shape quick, or lose 15 pounds fast, or whatever. So we need to be very careful because that is not a great strategy for a lot of people. In fact, it's a terrible strategy for most people because most people don't go in with

the understanding of what they're going to get out of it and what they should need to focus on, right? Right. And how they should navigate after going through that. Yes, because there is a great way to utilize what you're talking about, Adam, as a reset, but rather it's more of a behavioral reset, it's more of a getting going in a new direction

and people do operate very well in the short term and this is a short term thing, right? It's not something you're gonna be doing in a long term. No, no, I mean, context matters a lot here. So if that guy DM me and his question, or if he said, as the same thing, right, he had put, let's say he had had put on 15 pounds over the last course of who knows how long ago,

but if he said something like, Adam, I've been trying to lose weight for a really long time and I just, my body is not dropping off this weight. I have all these aches and pains, all the same stuff, but that he has been trying to lose weight for a significant period of time and his body is not responding to that lose weight. I wouldn't advise this because the first thing with my experience that goes through my head if that's the case is he's probably got a pretty slow metabolism and that's part of the reason why he's not seeing the results because he's been in some sort of a calorie deficit that he's been trying to lose and he's unsuccessful and me giving him the advice of oh go eat 500 calories every single day I think would be terrible advice to that person because that person already has a very slow metabolism

but he didn't say that what he said was I went on vacation I ate like an asshole admitted admittedly, you know, drank eight, had a great time, put on 15 pounds, and now I'm here, what would you suggest I do? Which is more similar to my scenario where I've been in a surplus eating a lot of extra calories for several, I've been over a month now of doing that, and feeling the same way that I need to drop some weight, and I'm using the strategy. And I think even more important is the mindset understanding of what you're doing and what position you're coming from. It's like fasting, right?

If you have issues with restricting yourself with food, if you've had food related, you know, relationship issues, eating disorders, whatever, fasting is terrible. Terrible idea. Yeah, you're starving yourself and it's just gonna make things much worse. So it's very important we talk about who this is for, who this is not for. And it's also very important we talk about what the real benefit is of an approach like

this. Because if you go in at the right way, the right understanding, you can come out of this very well and also understanding this is a short term process. You need to have a long term system for afterwards. Now here's something that is very true with human psychology. And you learn this as a trainer, training people for decades. That people do very, very well in the short term

with clear cut rules and guidelines. This is why diet books that are very basic and simple, that say things like only eat these four foods, or you can eat carbs, or only drink celery juice or whatever, are so successful because in the short term, it's easy. I know what I need to do. It's three things, it's two steps. Here we go. Terrible long-term approach, but in the short-term, there is some noticeable effect. But again, you have to go in with the right understanding and the right attitude. And of course, Adam, you're the perfect person for this.

You're very self-aware. You've been, you know, you understand how to feed your body. You're not dealing with all these crazy food issues or insecurities. And so this is a great, well, there I say kickstart for someone like you. The healthy foundations have to be established first. And I think that's why on the show, especially we're always like reiterating what the long-term

strategy is, what the healthiest practices, what these things to get towards, you know, healthy fat loss and healthy muscle gain. But you know, there are things where there's interruptions. There's ways to break cycles of pattern. I think this is one of those opportunities. If you have a healthy metabolism and you're looking to get a new stimulus that you can then benefit from, this could be a strategy. I love that you pointed out it's mostly a behavior thing because the truth is, how'd I been doing a very modest bulk

or doing what we recommend most of the time, which is a bulk thing, cut, bulk thing in these short periods of time? I probably wouldn't be in the situation I am, but the truth is, I was enjoying the bulk so much that it was easy to pile on the burger and fries every now and then.

It's like, I'm getting strength gains in the gym. My body's packing on muscle because I have this extra testosterone in my body. So I was happy with what was going on for most of the part as far as results. So it was really easy for me to allow, like, oh, I know that I'm only supposed to be eating about 300 to 500 more calories, but what's the thousand today?

Right, right. The thousand the next day. What ends up happening because I'm seeing these results in the gym, muscles coming on, my body's changing the way I like, okay, I'm just gonna keep going, keep going. And those are bad behaviors that even I, being as aware and as experiences I am,

started to do. You needed a pattern interruptor. Yes. A behavior and pattern interruptor. And if you go into this understanding that's what's happening, then you're gonna be okay. If you go into this thinking, I want to lose weight, this

is gonna be the best way to lose weight fast. I got to lose weight fast because in two weeks I'm gonna be going to the beach or I'm going to this party. Terrible approach. Everybody's done that. We all know what happens. You gain the way back and then some or you do these wild swings where you go extreme restriction to back to binge type behavior.

So you have to have the right attitude and understand what you're looking to accomplish. For example, I'll give you an example, fasting is a great example. If I go into fasting, let's say I wanna do a 48 hour fast, I'm not eating anything at all for 48 hours, and I go into it thinking, I'm gonna lose five pounds in two days.

This is gonna be awesome. It's a great way to lose fat real fast. Terrible approach and it will fail and it'll cause bad behaviors and bad relationship to food. If I go into the fast thinking, I'm gonna detach from using food as a way to medicate, self-medicate.

I'm gonna work inward. I'm going to focus on how I deal with stress because normally I reach for food and for snacks. I'm going to not distract myself so much. I'm gonna reset my relationship to food and I'm going into it from a healthy standpoint. In other words, I'm not going into it having dealt with anorexia or restrict type

eating behaviors in the past. Then fasting, this is why fasting is a spiritual practice. Fasting is present in every major religion in the world, not for the weight loss, but rather for the detachment. And fasting works on lots of things, not just food. You could do this with electronics or whatever. So it's all about that. So if you do this the right way,

what we're about to talk about, then you can see some benefits. If you're the right person and you do this the right way with the right mindset, if you go into this and you're wrong person with the wrong mindset, you're going to come out of this way worse off than you were before. Well, and to add to your your short-term point is you have to resist the temptation to keep doing this, right? Because it's very hard.

It's very hard to do because I saw great results in the last seven days. Well, what did I actually really see? In the last seven days, the scale dropped 10 pounds. I mean, and if you were somebody who's put on 15 pounds or you've been carrying lots of extra weight for a long period of time, that can be like, whoa! Game changer.

This is, yeah, this is it. I just gotta do this for a few more weeks and I'll be there. But what I know is that first of all, a majority of that was waterway, which is great because I know that's also gonna help with my joints. Inflamation of waterway. Yeah, inflammation is gonna help with me feeling better,

which is the main reason what triggered this for me to start doing this. And so that's great, I already feel a lot better, but I also know that my body didn't lose 10 pounds of just body fat in this last week. Sure, I might have shredded a couple pounds along the way, but I also know that I'm already sending a signal in my body to get adapted to this new low calorie intake, and I know that I don't want to be here long term because you bet your ass, I went to bed every night

this last week, hungry as fuck. So I don't want to be here for the rest of my life. It'll be a miserable way to live. And so you have to resist the temptation to wanna stay this low for a really long time because you're setting yourself up for a really slow metabolism and eventually for the way to all come back.

And so you need to have a post strategy, right? So it's short term, you give yourself a timeframe a week I think is a good timeframe. So I'm gonna do this for a week. After that, don't just say it's going to be over after a week. Because if you don't have a strategy for after, then you may actually go in the opposite direction. You say to yourself, here's what I'm doing for this week.

And then after that, here is my strategy for afterwards, because you need a long-term strategy, otherwise this will fail. You will fail miserably if you try doing something like this without that kind of a strategy. But yeah, in that short, and I do this too, Adam, and very similarly, if I want to, you know, get myself going and work on those behaviors and detach from certain types of behaviors and learn how to, you know, deal with certain feelings without reaching for food or whatever, I'll do that,

you know, similar, I'll do something like that similar, I do something very, very short. And I do notice, reduce inflammation. That's the number one thing. When you drop your calorie significantly, you do get this kind of anti-inflammatory effect in the body. Yeah, well, you mentioned fasting, and for me, some of the biggest breakthroughs were just to be able to get beyond the cravings

that I felt so compelled to, so drawn towards, you know, like if it was later at night or, you know, I just had this moment where I just had a little bit of the hunger, grouse, and I just was immediately drawn to having to shove my face with something. And I know I'm not alone. I know there's a lot of people out there

that, you know, once they feel that sort of sensation, they'll pull their car over and just try to find whatever is available at the moment. And so to break free from that and be able to kind of write it out and wait till I get like, you know, a better meal options was a big deal, you know, as well as just breaking free of just all the very specific meals

I had to have at very specific time. Right, so number one, understand that the benefit of this is to modify your behavior and for some detachment from ways that you were treating food or using food to medicate or to numb or to distract. It's, this is a behavior shift. That's the mindset that you're going this with. You're not going in trying to lose a certain amount of weight.

You're not going in trying to look a certain way at the end of this. Go in with the right mindset. It's very, very important. I think fasting is a very important part of this. Because fasting is literally that detachment aspect of it. Well, it's step one of the five steps, right? So, I like to organize this in a way where we give somebody kind of like the five steps

and you guys can add or take away however you guys feel, but of what I kind of go through when I put myself in this position, right? So, I know I'm gonna go extremely low calorie. And so, I set several goals for myself for the period of time that I'm gonna be doing this and then I'm also mindful of post and putting something together to make sure

that I come out of this, because here's another thing. I think the most challenging part is not the staying super low calorie for seven days while the results are coming on. It's knowing that I can't stay there for a long time and when I reintroduce more calories, the temptation to wanna go crazy,

because you get hungry. I mean, every night I'm going to bed hungry, and then watch, I also know that once I start giving myself more calories, which I'm doing today, and I started yesterday, that my body is gonna be like more, more, more, more, and I gotta really rain that in. And while that's happening, guess what happens? It's starting to fill all my muscle bellies in,

and I'm lifting weights heavy. And so I see. Start to justify. Exactly. I start to justify the added calories because it's looking good on my physique, but I have to understand what's going on physiologically with my body when I do this and resist the temptation

to keep going crazy. So a plan is important. Definitely. The first step, with you said, is how intermittent fasting. So I don't like giving it a name, but we can give it the intermittent fasting name. For me, it's just, I'm ill-skipped.

I know that I'm only going to allow myself 500 calories a day. So that's really, really low for me. I could easily eat that in one meal, or it's two kind of small, small meals. So I quote unquote, intermittent fast, I just say, I skipped the first meal or two. That's what I do. I mean, I know we've marked people of marketed books around this, but the truth is, the only reason why I'm doing it,

I don't actually go to the point where I'm like, oh, I'm gonna follow the warrior diet during this time, and I'm going to- Or 12. Yes, yeah, I'm not going, I'm gonna stop at this time or eight this time. I just know that I can only eat 500 calories, so that's really tough to just spread out over three or four meals.

So I gotta get rid of some meals. So it doesn't really matter if it's meal one and meal four or it's meal one and two or whatever. Now I'm glad you said that because a lot of the fasting advocates, when they talk about the health benefits of fasting, a lot of stuff, they'll recommend that people fast later in the day, right? So eat in the morning, don't eat at night. Now from a behavioral standpoint, I like the opposite.

I don't think I don't get, I would prefer to fast in the morning in the afternoon and then eat it night, going to bed without any food is way more challenging for me than being up during the day, keep being busy, and dealing with my feelings during the day, right? So, you know, by the time noon comes around, I'm getting hungry, I haven't eaten anything in the morning. Okay, I know for the next seven days or whatever, I'm not gonna eat until, you know, dinner time or I have one meal, let me just deal with these feelings.

What are these feelings saying to me? Now for me, it's literally just getting comfortable with feeling hungry. It's a feeling like any other feeling, and believe it or not, you can start to feel comfortable with feeling hungry. It's a feeling like any other feeling. And believe it or not, you can start to feel comfortable with the feeling of craving or whatever. By the way, it's not true hunger.

True hunger kicks in much later. But it's more of a, I'm used to eating at this time or I have a craving for food. That's a good feeling to deal with and to be okay with, to sit with. Maybe you are somebody that starts to feel anxious or stressed or maybe you're upset and normally the way you numb yourself

or distract yourself is by feeding yourself. But now since you're fasting for most of the day, now you gotta sit with those feelings. What can I do instead of eat? That's usually what comes up for me. All right, I'm not gonna eat. It's new, normally I take 30 minutes to have lunch or whatever.

I'm not gonna eat. what can I do instead? I'm gonna go for a walk or I'm gonna read something or I'm gonna do some mobility work or something like that. So I prefer like you Adam, I'll do it, I'll skip the first few meals and then I'll have something in the evening and you're saying focus on about 500 calories, I think that's a figure target. Yeah, and by the way, I mean, it's just some arbitrary number.

I just know that 500 calories is really, really low for me. My body probably, I just saw you have the, so we have some context here, so the listener knows. I was eating closer to 33,000 to 3500 calories. So it's a big drop. Yeah, so it's a big drop for me. So it's a significant drop. If you're somebody who only, and this is Y2,

again, the context matters. If you're somebody who is on a 900 to 1300 calorie diet, you hear this podcast and you think there's a good strategy for you, you're not the person for this. Reducing down to 500 when you're already down to 900 to 1300, one, you're gonna see minimal to know results from it.

And all you're really gonna do is slow your metabolism down anymore. Yeah, if you've been restricting for a while. Yes, and then this, do you think of it as a matter of view? This is great, too, like Justin said, it's a great for pattern interruption. If I have been on a bulk for a long period of time, there's a great way to just reset that.

Reset my behaviors, reset my metabolism, cut out all the calories, lower inflammation, and then restart what would be a great diet. Or somebody who just came off of vacation, where they drank and ate and had a massive surplus of calories for consistent seven days, those are the people that I think are great for this. And to your point, Sal, I love the skipping

and the morning stuff because that's when my day is busy. And it is easier when I got things going on because every once in a while, I would get this, oh, I'm kind of hungry right now, but I have to go do this and I have to go do that. And then I stop thinking about it. It's easier for time to go by and me not to be thinking about my cravings when I'm busy doing stuff.

It's much more difficult for me when I get home at four, five o'clock at night, kind of play with Max and I'm kind of sitting there. I'm sitting there and watching TV, I'm doing so that I want to have at least one of my meals, at least 200 or 300 of my calories, to be consumed around that time for behavioral reasons. And while you're doing that, I want to ask you, Adam, because for me, when I do something

like this, similarly, the first, I'd say two to three days or where I get the most challenged. After that, I start to kind of get into this very solid rhythm and it becomes much easier. But it's the first like two to three days that I tend to be the most challenged. How was it for you? Yeah. No, I would actually say it was really only the first day's the first like two to three days that I tend to be the most challenged. How was it for you? Yeah, no, I would actually say it was really only the first day. The first day is the hardest day. I mean, it really is. You just came off of like telling your body that maybe the second thing was a fool.

Yeah, lots of food, lots of calories, and then you dramatically go down to 500. Your body goes, huh? You know, and you feel that. But then after about the second or third day to your point, it does start to adapt. It realizes it may not be getting calories for a long period of time, which is this is the reason why this isn't good long term.

Yeah. Because already in the first few days, you already feel that adaptation process happening. You already feel how smart the body is and starting to figure things out, you want to stay ahead of that. So also, you know, to that point, so you're limiting it down to 500 calories, right? That would be like the second step.

Now, if we focused on macronutrients, where would you steer towards? Great question. So, and again, there's different strategies to this, and this isn't like it has to be this way. I find the most benefits for it with targeting protein first and then fiber-sfoods, so vegetables. So that's where I want to, carbs, carbs are gonna stimulate appetite.

They're gonna fill me up. I'm also, I'm trying to maintain as much muscle mass as I can so I wanna feed the muscles what it needs. I know I'm not gonna get my daily protein and take as it is. And you're gonna get some fats from the proteins because you're getting them from natural sources. Exactly. So protein and fiber are the main sources

that I wanna target for these 500 calories. Now what I would do is I would have a small piece of meat, steak, chicken thigh, something like that. And then I'd have a big serving of well-cooked vegetable. Yeah, like Brussels sprouts or broccoli, big, and honestly, so you're the one that got me on doing this. Until we met, I've actually never seen somebody sit down and eat like a giant bowl of vegetables before.

A salad bowl. Yeah, and you, you, the one that, and you do like a little bit of butter, or you do olive oil, you do something on there to give it a little bit of flavor and stuff or season it up however you want. I had never done that before and it's actually very satisfying,

especially when you're doing something like this. So yeah, I'll cook up a big ol' bowl of that. And protein and fiber are the most satiating things you can eat. Fat is relatively satiating as well, but protein in particular, very, very satiating. And then fiber also helps as well. So you're more likely to be successful doing something like this by having that protein

and then lots of fiber meal from those vegetables. Otherwise, it's going to be a much more challenge. And I don't overthink this, right? So I know at the audience, and people like to be totally exactly like what to eat, but it's like, listen, if you're staying around, and by the way, around, it doesn't have to be exact, I'm not even going exactly 500 calories. You're estimating. Right, I'm estimating right around 500. I know that anything around 500 is dramatically less than 3000. I'm going to get the benefits I'm looking for from that. So, some days it might, I might be making choices where there's,

you know, pork involved, it might be steak another day, it might be making choices where there's pork involved. It might be steak another day. It might be chicken thighs or chicken breast in the day. So I'm not worried about exactly what meats I'm choosing and I'm not counting calories at that point. One day might have been 575 and another day 490 and then another day 600. It doesn't matter like that to me. If you got seven days in a row of that low of calories, you're going to deplete everything. Inflammation is going to come down. Water is going to come off. All those things are going to me. If you got seven days in a row of that low of calories, you're going to delete everything. Inflammation is going to come down. Water is going to come off. All those things are going to happen.

Yeah. And to the inflammation point, what I like about like focusing like specifically just on the protein and vegetables for myself, noticing too with, you know, some auto immune type, you know, immuno. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just like certain foods don't agree with me. Like they used to and it really helps to highlight that when you go through a process Like yeah, by the way, so our reasons for doing stuff like this can be a little bit different, right? But it's all resetting kind of behaviors for me You know I typically do this is when my gut health is starting to go south and the reason why it's going south is because I let things in my diet Yeah

That tend to bother my gut and I start to go down that snowball effect. Then I'm like, oh my gosh, my gut is just, I got to do something. It's really hard for me to do the slowly. I need to do kind of a reset. That's when I start to do something like this. Like you said, Justin, the well-cooked vegetables and proteins and the locala is in the fasting. It really works well on my gut. After about the third or fourth day,

my gut is feeling almost like there's no problem at all. So you got repaired, yeah. Now, the fourth step or strategy that I do is another hard one to communicate to clients and get them to understand, because imagine you're like this guy who gained 15 pounds over the week or you're somebody who wants to lose body fat

or wants to kick start, your fat loss journey or whatever, you, at that moment, a lot of times we're very motivated. We would tell me what I need to do, coach, whatever I'll do, whatever. And that thought process, you apply to weight the way you train. And the way I want to think this week

is completely opposite of that. Yes, because going into your workouts, super hard and super intense, is going in with the mindset of I need to lose weight. Yes. Going in the mindset of resetting Behaviors means you're gonna work out in a very different way. Not to mention I'm not feeding my butt body The building blocks I need to build a bunch of muscles. So why am I gonna go in the gym and hammer the weights and hopes that I'm gonna build a bunch of muscle. It's not going to happen or get on the trip

Why would I get on a treadmill and try and burn tons of calories that I'm gonna build a bunch of muscle. It's not going to happen. Or get on the trip. Why would I get on a treadmill and try and burn tons of calories when I'm already super low calorie? So if I'm doing any sort of activity or exercise, it's more inward or it's more low, low moderate intensity. So it looks like mobility. It looks like walking. If I'm strength training, it's of easy workout.

You're practicing exercise. Yeah, exactly. I'm practicing the movement. I'm doing things that I've probably neglected and I haven't done in a while trying to work on the mechanics or addressing in balances. Like, this is a time for me to kind of, I'm resetting a lot of things. I'm not trying to make gains.

I'm not going to make gains on 500 calories. So why would I push my body? I'm, and if you do, you're only making it more difficult for yourself in the coming weeks. You are all you're doing is you're feeding bad behaviors. If you're going into this and you're restricting and hammering yourself in the gym, you're actually treating this the wrong way.

And like we said earlier in the episode, you are going to come out much worse. Go into your workouts with a lower intensity, practice your exercises, because again, you're resetting. So why not treat the workouts the same way? Now physiologically speaking, like Adam said, makes perfect sense. Your calories are so low,

it doesn't make physiological sense to go into the gym and beat yourself up. You're not gonna make gains doing it that way. And in fact, if you go crazy with the calorie burn with the low calorie, you're gonna get a very strong metabolic adaptation in a direction that you don't necessarily want. In other words, you're gonna slow your metabolism down quite a bit and believe it or not, your body can actually adapt quite quickly in just a week.

Instead, go into your workouts or your activity in a way where you're kind of taking care of yourself, you're practicing exercises, since I'm resetting myself with nutrition, why not reset myself with technique and form, right? Why not go into the gym and say, okay, normally, I'm pushing the weight, I'm getting a pump, why not go into the gym and perfect my form, focus on my mobility, work on my flexibility, and actually go straight together. And there's anything like that too, being eliminating a lot of inflammation from your diet too,

and then working through that is a great opportunity for you to then fortify those joints. Well, I also know that, so for myself, why this thought process is, I was on the bulk, I was adding calories more than I should have, I was training intensely, loving the gains going on. So I need to break that. I need to break that cycle and that mindset for the guy who just put on 15 pounds and for over vacation, who probably didn't exercise,

the reverse is true for him too. This is, he doesn't need to do very much to see his body start to make change anyways, because he hasn't been doing anything for exercise-wise for a week. So why go super intense right now when he's already real low calorie? So the advice is the same,

even though we have two different situations that we're coming from. He put 15 pounds on from a week of drinking and eating bad and no exercise. I put it on from over training, over eating for several weeks or months in a row. Bold of us, same protocol.

Yeah, and it's funny because it sounds counterintuitive. Oh, I'm gonna do this thing. Why am I not working out real hard? Well, that right there is a clue that tells you that you're not going into this with the right mindset and you shouldn't do something like this. Again, you're going into your workouts and you're treating them as a way to modify behavior in a good way. What does that usually mean? It usually means you're going easy, perfect form, mobility. When I do stuff like this, in fact, I often don't even lift weights at all.

Now, the reason why I don't lift weights is because it's not because there's something wrong with lifting weights, but rather, I know my own behavior enough. I never miss workouts. I never miss weight training workouts. So for me, it's a good time to detach from weights. So I actually don't lift weights on purpose when I do something like this. And what do I focus on? All the shit that I tend to neglect.

So I tend to do lots of stretching. I tend to do lots of walking. And I tend to do lots of stretching, I tend to do lots of walking, and I tend to do more mobility stuff. Again, mindset is everything when you go into this. Speaking of which, let's talk more about mindset. How are you framing this whole thing? Well, I mean, one of the ways I'm framing it is I'm thinking about, I'm working inward, first of all.

Like I'm thinking of all the things that I haven't been addressing. I'm not worried about the strength training, the aesthetics, it's not that at all. So I'm looking of all the things that I haven't been addressing. I'm not worried about the strength training, the aesthetics. It's not that at all. I'm looking for the health benefits that are coming from this. I'm already thinking about when I come out of this, the things that I'll need to start to do right away. How will I reintroduce calories?

How I know how much should I reintroduce? I'm already thinking in that mindset going in or coming out of this seven days low because once you've got, okay, here's my goals, 500 calories, eat protein, all the things that we talked about. Okay, great. I'm going to hit that for a week. Okay, now what do I do? And how do I not just totally diminish everything that I worked, I did seven days for? Yes, there's a big difference between working out and working in. Okay, so I'll give you some examples of ways that you could kind of get yourself working more in. So let's use the example of a squat. Typically, when you do a barbell squat, you'll breathe in, brace, go down to the bottom, and then breathe out with the tight core, and with good force to

give yourself maximal strength and leverage and, you know, CNS activation. And that's the way you should squat when you're lifting heavy to build muscle. But what if I'm squatting in a way to work inward? Here's a nice tip. Reverse the breath. So what do I mean by that? Breathe in as you go up from the squat. Now, I know that sounds weird, but you're not going heavy anyway.

And what it does is it forces you to slow down and treat the squat very differently. So you're at the bottom of the squat, breathe in as you come up from the squat, breathe out as you, and reverse the breath. And you'll find that it makes you work more inward rather than outward. There's also, there's lots of things

that we can go over like through this, right? So another strategy and will you keep on the squat thing, right? This is also, and I've talked about this in the podcast before, where I like to have a session like this where I will go squat, very, very light, like you're saying, and then I will break down my squat. I'll either video myself or I'm watching in the mirror and I'll look at every detail, you know, is my left foot, which is in my case, is what will happen. My left foot slightly externally rotating when I get at the very bottom of that. Do I feel my hips kind of shifting

when I do that? Do I struggle to keep one knee more out than the other knee from collapsing in? Like I start looking at all the, am I able to really retract my shoulders and keep my chest upright when I drop down into the squat? I start nitpicking all the parts of my squat and then I take a break, I do the set and then I go over and I do a bunch of priming

and mobility stuff and that might be 10, 15 minutes long And then I come back to the squad again and I do it again And I see how those things that I just did did improve those things that I was looking at and then I do that set And then I go back and do more of it and I pay attention to how that's improving I find this to be a great opportunity to for self-improvement So because I'm already in that mindset, I start to focus on spiritual health, I start to focus on maybe not being on electronics as much, I'm gonna start reading things

that are about making myself a better person. Because I'm already in that mindset and because I'm, again, working on those behaviors, it just makes sense for me to do all that stuff. How I can be a better partner, how I can be a better dad, you know, those kinds of things, like how it can be more, like pay better attention, be more present, you know, things, it kind of forces that, right?

You have to be present because like you're battling a lot of these feelings of, you know, hunger and like need to, you know, consume something. And it really is, it's a good challenge for you to go through that. And for me, like physically, you guys mentioned a few of those techniques. For me, I like to then take myself through a lot of these unconventional type movements, your Turkish get-ups and your windmills and things like that. For me to then really express different types of movement that my joints could really benefit from.

Here's some clues and hints that you've done this the right way. A big one is how you feel after you're done. If you finish this process at the end of the week and you can't wait to eat a burger or you are just, oh my God, I'm so done with all that. It's just anxiety. It caused so much stress. I'm done.

Let's go enjoy ourselves. Oh my God, it's over that seven week. Excuse me, that seven day period or whatever is over, you had the wrong mindset and you treated it the wrong way. Here's how you should feel coming out of this. You should feel calm, focused, and at peace. That's how you know that you did this the right way. You should feel good coming out of it.

Ready to move with the next phase, which is the long-term approach, in a very calm, focused way. It should not feel stressful. It should not, focused way. It should not feel stressful. It should not feel obsessive. It should not feel like you're ready to go in the opposite direction. If that happens again, you did this totally wrong way.

Yeah, you know, and add a benefit to it, you'll see that, you know, I have psoriasis. I've talked about that. That's an autoimmune. It's been the best it's been in a long time. You gave your gut a break. Yeah, and boy, did it. It made a huge difference on that.

And I mean, I use all the tools, like I talk about the benefits that I've used from Juve and I know when I've got my vitamin D up, all those things help it, soft water, a boy, the fast man, or going this low calorie for seven days probably did more than anything else that I've ever seen just by doing that alone. So if somebody, and it doesn't have to be psoriasis, if you have an autoimmune issue, pay attention to it during this seven days, you'll probably see some serious benefits. Yeah, oh, one more thing, little tip.

Make sure you drink enough water and you may want to add a little sodium to your water or have some electrolytes because sometimes when your calories are low, your electrolytes get thrown off because you're not eating food, maybe you're not eating with a lot of sodium, you can actually start to get headaches and feel light headed, right? So sodium helps quite a bit. I'll drink the you know our element which we get you know from Wal-Bulf's company now

I'll do something like that. That's a good point because I was doing that I didn't mention that and that's like a no-calorie thing right so I'm not I can totally drink that with my water It gives me a little bit of flavor in my water, makes me feel satisfied for a little bit. I do feel the energy boost from it after I do it, especially when on this low calorie. So I like the idea too, during this time, we didn't touch on this of addressing water and tank. Because you can't have any calories or anything else,

it's a really good time to pay attention to like how much water were you drinking before, and now this is keeping your mouth busy by drinking all day long and keeping that up. A lot of times some of the benefits you'll feel is just simply from that, it's also increasing water. One thing I used to do is I would get, like, sample a greener, right?

The, the, what is it? The fizzy mineral water, so I get like a glass bottle of that. Then I would add a piece of lime in it, and then I take sea salt, and I'd sprinkle it around the rim, and sprinkle some inside. And just because I wanted the sodium, I wanted a little bit of flavor

and then because it's fizzy water or whatever, it's more fun to drink. Drink fake margarita. Basically, it's like a corona light light. It's like water that was thinking of being a beer at one point, but it's still water. Okay, so now you're done with this process. So you've done the seven day or whatever process. How you come out is extremely important. So let's start with

that, Adam, how did you come out of it? Did you just jump back to what you were doing before? No, because before I said I was somewhere between 3,000 and 3,500 calories, I'm more like 2,500 to 2,800 now. So you came back lower than you were before? Yeah, because I know that I wasn't at maintenance before. So I had to, again, you had to be aware and you have to be very honest with yourself on was my maintenance calories that I was at before or was I probably overeating? Yeah, was I overeating quite a bit.

So, and by the way, and I wanna make this clear because this is what has always made coaching and the fact that there's a massive individual variance on everybody, so when I give numbers and say things like this, you know, all that could be changed. You could be completely different, even if we have the same weight. These are atoms numbers. Yeah, these are my numbers. And my numbers, I say these numbers like 25 to 2800 because I give myself room to kind

of play with that and pay attention to what I notice over the next couple of days. So 2500 to 2800 is about where I'm at now, right? So that's kind of where I'm watching. And so what I'm watching is my weight, how quick do I start to put the weight on? Now I know right away, when you go from eating 500 calories a day, I increase up to 25 to 28. Right away I'm gonna see a little bit of initial weight gain,

a pound or two real quick. Water. Yes, right away. You increase sodium, you increase your carbohydrates real quick. Water. Yes, right away. You increased, you increased sodium, you increased your carbs, your carbs. Carbohydrate intake, carbs pair with water, that I'm gonna hold more water. Plus I have more calories.

It's not fat. I didn't also get fat, so don't let that scare you and go, oh shit, I gotta go back down low calorie again. It's okay, it's totally normal. It's part of the process. From there, after I got those first couple pounds that is that now I'm really trying to see, can I hover around that weight?

Am I going down? Am I staying the same? And I kind of want to hover. I don't want to go up or down. I want to stay right around in that range. I'm not trying to aggressively cut right now. All I'm trying to do was reset. And I want to be in a place that's probably

a healthier place of calories for myself. So that's the goal. It's 25, 28 times. So you basically, you need to give yourself a target when you're done. Don't leave it loose because you might swing really hard in the opposite direction. So give yourself a target, kind of stick to that target,

pay attention to how you feel. Right. You're gonna gain some water weight. That's totally normal. My body, you know, it's, everybody's different, by the way. My body can fluctuate in water like you have no, it's insane.

I mean, I could go seven, eight pounds in water within a few days. So I know when I come out of it, oh, my weight went up, you know, four pounds on the scale, it's water, you didn't gain or lose body fat. I also like to either one start a strength phase. Yeah, I was just gonna say that right now. Or if I was a strength athlete or somebody who trains a lot

in the strength phase, most of the time where I was a strength athlete or somebody who trains a lot in the strength phase, most of the time where I was just currently before this, I like to switch whatever type of phase I was in. So for me, I typically lean more towards the bodybuilder, hypertrophy, 12, 15 rep type of stuff. I always tend to gravitate back to there and so I do that more often. So this is great.

So I come out of this. And now I'm gonna go to heavy lifting, kind of strength focus, more maps and a ball of ice. So that's what I'll go to right now. If you're somebody, I would say that's probably Sal or Justin who leaned towards strengthen on that. I would recommend going to something different, like hypertrophy type training.

The idea is that I am sending a new signal that my body is less used to. So any additional calories, say I'm off on my 2500, 2500. Maybe I'm actually eating three at a 500 more calories and I probably even really need, that's okay because guess what? I'm sending a new signal to my body that it's not used to by training differently than what I'm used to. And so the theory is that I'm hoping that those additional calories, if I am eating additional calories, get partitioned over to building muscle. Right. Now, here's why I like the strength phase for a lot of people,

is because training for strength, you could also do this with mobility, by the way, takes your focus off of the mirror and off of how you look, and it's more focused on performance in the gym. Now, why is this a good thing? For some people, even if you go on the right mindset, you still may be challenged by the fact that you lost a lot of weight and you don't wanna gain it back.

And if you get too focused on the mirror, you may find yourself swinging too up and down. Maybe you're restricting even longer now because you like the fact that you look leaner because you lost all the water. When you're focusing on performance, whether it's strength or mobility, it's measurable, it's objective, it's not the mirror,

so you don't have those insecurities creeping in. And so I like that for a lot of people, but like you said, Adam, if that's what you're always in, it makes more sense, change the stimuli, let's get the body to want to build muscle when you're coming out of that. Yeah, and then you're just, and then you're watching the scale,

and watching the scale, and I'm using the mirror, and I'm not married to either one of those things, okay? I'm not watching the scale because I'm freaking out if it goes up or down a pound. I'm just using it as a tool to kind of monitor that I'm not seeing huge fluctuations. I don't care if I see one or two pounds north or south, what I care about is if I saw a pound go down,

the next day down, down, down, down, and then that tells me I need more calories. I'm not eating enough, I need to get it up there. I'm not trying to go down that fast at all. And the opposite is true. If I see, every time I get on the scale, oh, I'm up another round, oh, I'm another pound, it's like, okay, I'm adding too many calories.

I need to come down from where I was calorie wise. So I'm using the, and then of course, I'm being objective by using the mere two and saying, okay, I noticed that, I look like I'm building muscle, I'm not the, and then of course I'm being objective by using the mere two and saying, okay, I noticed that I look like I'm building muscle, I'm not putting body fat on. That's how you use these things as a tool and not something that you allow to really shift

like the direction that you're going as far as you're training. It's not something that I'm married to. Yeah, very good. Look, if you like this episode and you want more great information, fitness-related information from MindPump, go to MindPumpFree.com and check out all of our free guides. We have a lot on there and you can get all of them and they cost you nothing.

You can also find all of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at MindPump Justin, me at MindPump Salon, Adam at MindPump Adam. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free

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