Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2817: Should You Bulk or Cut First? (Most People Get This Wrong)

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Should you bulk, cut, or try to recomposition your body? In this episode of the Mind Pump Podcast, Sal, Adam, and Justin break down one of the most confusing decisions in fitness: when to bulk, when t...o cut, and when body recomposition actually makes sense. They explain why most people struggle with fat loss long term, why starting with a bulk or reverse diet can actually make fat loss easier, and how building muscle creates the metabolic "runway" needed for sustainable results. The guys discuss the psychological challenges of dieting, the mistakes many trainers make when cutting calories too aggressively, and why recomposition is often a "black belt level" strategy that requires patience and discipline. If you've ever wondered why fat loss plateaus happen, why people regain weight after dieting, or how to structure your nutrition phases properly, this episode breaks it all down. They also explain the reverse dieting process and how gradually increasing calories can rebuild metabolism, improve strength, and set you up for a much more successful fat loss phase later.   Reverse Dieting 101 Guide 50% off ($23.50) ⁠mindpumpreversediet.com⁠ Code: Diet50   This Episode is brought to you by ORGANIFI ⁠http://organifi.com/mindpump⁠ Code "MINDPUMP" for 20% off   (00:00) Intro (01:24) Should You Bulk, Cut, or Recomp? (09:01) Why Most People Should Bulk First (16:37) The Problem With Cutting Calories Too Soon (25:46) Why Recomposition Is the "Black Belt" Diet Strategy (33:30) The Psychology of Bulking vs Cutting (42:47) Real Coaching Example: Fixing a Broken Metabolism (50:37) Why Building Muscle Changes Your Metabolism (01:00:13) Reverse Dieting Explained  (01:15:21) Reverse Dieting Guide & Episode Outro

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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, should you bulk, should you cut, or should you do a recomp right now? How do you know which one you should start with, which one is right for you?
Starting point is 00:00:27 by the way, we have a reverse dieting one-on-one guide. It breaks it down for you. So you know when to add the calories, how fast to add the calories, to do an effective reverse diet to set you up for an effective cut. And it's 50% off. It's $23.50. You can go to mind pump, reverse diet.com. Use the code Diet 50.
Starting point is 00:00:48 This episode is brought to you by a sponsor. Organify. They make organic supplements for health, wellness, fitness, muscle gain, and fat loss. and you can get 20% off. Go to Organify.com forward slash mind pump. That's or G-A-N-I-F-I-D-com forward slash mind pump. Use the code Mind Pump for the 20% off discount. All right, real quick, if you love us like we love you,
Starting point is 00:01:11 why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at Mind Pump Store.com. I'm talking right now, hit pause, head on over to Mind Pump Store.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. All right, you're wondering if you should go on a bulk, a cut or just recomp your body.
Starting point is 00:01:29 How do you know when it's the right time? That's what we're talking about today's episode. Let's do it. I've shifted my opinion on this over years. And I would say almost always, just because I believe there's always an exception to the rule, but almost always, I'm going to bulk somebody. Out the gates.
Starting point is 00:01:52 Almost always. It leads to the other ones? Yeah. Yeah. Well, so even like like even if you like imagine the person who someone thinks that like they think is probably the exception of the rule. You're a hundred pounds overweight. You haven't worked out. You're eating McDonald's.
Starting point is 00:02:09 It's like you can't possibly be telling me you're going to bulk that person. Yeah. And I would say yes. But then I think there's some nuance to explaining what that looks like. Totally. But I would say yes. I would bulk them first. Before we go further, though.
Starting point is 00:02:25 for us non-like bodybuilder type. Explain to me the difference of recomp, you know, between the bulk and cut. All right. So we'll start with the, we'll explain the first two and they get to recomp. So bulking is the process of trying to gain. Typically, it's muscle.
Starting point is 00:02:43 Usually people don't go in a bulk to gain body fat, but it's to try to gain. A cut is the attempt or process at which you're trying to get leaner. And recomposition is... Like maintenance. Well, you're trying to... to, you're trying to recomp, meaning change your body composition. I'm going to get leaner and build some muscle.
Starting point is 00:02:59 Right, right, which would be like trying to golly locks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that would be a good way to say it too. It's Goldiloxone or, you know, stay at maintenance. Too hot, too cold. Which I thought it was like, whenever I heard that term, I thought I were referring to like a reverse dieting or something. Well, reverse dieting, which we'll get to, would be a bulk, right?
Starting point is 00:03:16 This is where you're trying to eat more to try to build. But so here's where people typically start. Should you bulk cut or recal or recalcule? It depends on your goal, is what people would say. You're trying to lose weight, then you go to cut. You're trying to gain weight. You want to bolt. Recomp, that's just you want to kind of get leaner and build muscle at the same time.
Starting point is 00:03:34 Not quite. Not quite. That's not a determining or the determining factor that you should consider on whether or not you should be on a bulk cut or recomb. I think there's a few other things you need to consider. And I think this is kind of where you're going at them, which is, okay, you want to lose weight, but do you have runway? to go on an effective cut, right? In other words, is your basal metabolic rate or is your metabolism, to put it loosely,
Starting point is 00:04:03 is it burning hot enough to where I can bring your calories down, but I have room to go down to take you to a place that you can sustain? In other words, just to paint the picture, you're overweight, and on average every day, you're inactive, but on average every day you're eating 2,000 calories a day. And you want to lose 50 pounds. Well, in order to lose 50 pounds, you might think, oh, just go down to 1,500 calories or 1,200 calories. You could do that, but you would plateau very quickly.
Starting point is 00:04:33 You might get 10 or 15 pounds off your body, but now you're left with, you know, another 20 pounds or something to go. And now you're at 1,200 calories, and you can't really go down from there. You go below that, and you're feeling really bad. You're not getting adequate nutrients. Proteins and fats aren't adequate. And it's not sustainable. So that's one of the big things to consider. or is do I have runway?
Starting point is 00:04:55 We just had a live caller this morning, female, weighed 167 pounds. And she wants and was, you know, 5-11. Yeah, was complaining of like carrying a body fat in her stomach area. We talked, we must have talked to her about a bunch of other things for a good 10 minutes before I finally asked her, do you track calories and, you know, where are you out right now? And, you know, I wish I would ask her that the first two minutes because we would have got to the conclusion way faster. she's eating 1,600 calories. Like, there's no way I'm taking that person on a cut from, you know, 511, 167 pounds. She'd be miserable.
Starting point is 00:05:30 And she was active. Yeah, and active. It won't move the needle. Yeah. Training moves a lot of steps, works a physical job. Yeah, no way. And that's more common than not where people have kind of plateaued. This is why my argument to the bulk.
Starting point is 00:05:46 Now, what it kind of looks like, to be honest, it does kind of look like. like a recomp moving into a bulk. What do I mean by that? So let's take the example of the obese person who's over 100 pounds of weight, over overweight, right? And let's just, they're sedentary. They have never, never worked out or haven't worked out in a very long time, eat fast food predominantly junk food, so I thought.
Starting point is 00:06:11 What I tell them is like this, we're going to eat whole foods. I want you to hit 180, 200 grams of protein or what I thought a day. and so naturally what happens is that person who was eating fast food and some of that, they might have been at high, high calories. Like they might have been at really high calories. And that's what got them there. And I tell them to eat whole foods, 200 grams. And I tell them to eat as much as possible.
Starting point is 00:06:35 And they think they feel like it's a bulk. But it actually controls the calories a little bit. And so it actually ends up being more like a higher protein bill. Right, right. It ends up being kind of a recomp. But then what I quickly want to do is as soon as we start building muscle and then their appetite starts to increase, I want to feed it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:51 You know, and even though that person needs to lose 100 pounds, the signal that I'm looking for first is, oh, my God, this is too much, which is normally, this happens. This happens all the time with someone like this. That's that overweight. And then you get them to change their diet to from process junk food to whole foods. They think the food is just way too much and they can't fathom, how's this possible? I'm over 100 pounds. And I can't eat all the food you're telling me to eat.
Starting point is 00:07:16 And it's like, yeah, it's because you're eating whole foods and you're eating protein first. And so I don't want to just stay there. I could just stay there and they'll probably just keep losing weight, but I actually want to build their, I want to build muscle. I want to build metals. And I want to build that runway you're talking about because maybe what that looks like at first is like 2,800 or 3,000 calories on this 300 pound person. And I actually prefer them to be more like 35, 4,000 calories. And then we have a schedule. We need a lot of room to lose 100 pounds. Yes. You need a lot of room to go downward in calories to cause. And by the way, if you get your calories, the lower your calories get, the more likely it is that your body will try to
Starting point is 00:07:52 pair muscle down to adapt. Right. So, you know, if you go from 4,000 to 3,000 calories, it's a 1,000 calorie drop. And let's say your body's burning 4,000. Let's say you're like, you've got a really humming metabolism. You're losing body fat at 3,000 calories. And if your strength training, muscle loss may be minimal or not at all. But you take someone who's at 2,000 calories and you cut them down to 1,000 calories.
Starting point is 00:08:16 Same calorie deficit, same type of individual, wants to lose weight. Those calories are so low, the body is really trying to adapt quickly to it. And it's pairing muscle down. And so the odds of muscle loss and a slower metabolism are much higher. So the easy answer here for a bulk would be, I want to build muscle. There really is no, someone comes to me that wants to build muscle. We're going to put you on a bulk. We're going to try and eat more calories than we're burning.
Starting point is 00:08:43 We're going to try to eat a high protein diet and lift a lot. That's an easy answer right out the gate. There's almost no situation. I mean, I could pull some if I really think hard where someone comes to me and says, I want to build muscle and I said, we're not going to put you on a bowl. Yeah, we're going to go cut first. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Maybe gut health issues or something else, but somebody's coming who wants to build muscle,
Starting point is 00:09:03 easy bulk, easy bulk. Everybody else, I would agree with you, Adam. I think that the direction to go, even if you want to cut, is to move in a direction that boost metabolic rate to set us up. for sustainable fat loss. Because the problem isn't fat loss. I know that's what everybody thinks the challenges when they want to lose weight.
Starting point is 00:09:23 Like the hard thing is to lose weight. But if you actually look at the data, it's easier to lose the weight than it is to keep it off. The keeping it off part's actually the problem we don't want to look at. In other words, we need to look at this problem and really consider the keeping the weight off part of the problem and make that the most important thing we consider.
Starting point is 00:09:44 Because that's the issue. That's the challenge. The weight loss isn't the challenge. It's challenging. But when you look at the data, there's a percentage of people that lose the weight. There's actually a decent percent of people that lose a significant amount of weight when they really put their mind to it. But the majority of them gain it back. The vast majority of them gain it back.
Starting point is 00:10:03 And so if you look at all the people that attempt, almost all of them gain the weight back. A percentage lose the weight, but almost all of the ones that lose the weight gain it back. So that's the thing we need to focus on the most. And so giving us ourselves runway with a hotter metabolism, which means more muscle, which gives us more flexibility and more calories in the cut is the way to go. Because to put it simply, is it easier for somebody to lose way eating 2,500 calories or eating 1,500 calories, right? Obviously, the 2,500 calories.
Starting point is 00:10:37 You don't feel like you're starving yourself all day long. It's a way better strategy. If you go the other way, then that person almost always, even if you're highly motivated at first to restrict and lower calories for this cut, the inevitable happens where you start that slows the process of you losing weight starts to slow down. And then the cravings are growing like crazy and you've been just white knuckling it for weeks on weeks and maybe you're down five or seven pounds. but it's like now it's moving really slow. It is so hard for that client versus the client who I flipped the model on its head and I'm like, hey, I want you to eat. You hungry? I want you to eat again.
Starting point is 00:11:23 Just choose these types of foods. And let's really focus on getting stronger. Let's not worry about the scale per se right now. Don't worry. I know you came in. The goal is to lose 100 pounds. We're going to get there. I promise you.
Starting point is 00:11:33 But let me, let me build that metabolism. Let's build some muscle on your body. And it'll make that process so much easier. When you do it this way, it's crazy how much easier it is for the client to adhere to that long term. This is, in fact, I like this conversation because there's controversy in our space around it. And there's typically controversy in the newer young, educated trainer who's just gone through their courses certification and is reading just the science. Very familiar with what law thermodynamics looks like and that calories in versus calorie out. And that's exactly how I thought as a trainer when I first started.
Starting point is 00:12:09 was like, oh, this really overweight person is eating too many calories. Move more and I'm going to cut their calories down and I'm going to move them more. That's the law of thermodynamics and that will lose weight and it would lose weight initially. And then we get to a point where that slows down. So what do I do? Ramp up the intensity or ramp up their movement more, cut their calories some more. And then eventually this person is eating 1,900 calories, training three to five days a week strength and doing cardio outside of that. and they're just like feel like they can't eat anything outside of the perfect diet that I've given them.
Starting point is 00:12:44 And that almost always eventually failed. Even the ones that I got to the goal failed later on. They put the weight back on. And so it's just it's a failing strategy, although that's what we're taught. So someone might be listening and thinking, well, what if I just cut first and then do what you're saying, right? What if I just, because I want to lose this weight. And I get it. I get it.
Starting point is 00:13:05 I get the urgency. You've finally got the motivation. You've been dealing with this for a while, right? You didn't gain 60 pounds overnight. It took a little bit of time. And you've thought about it a lot over the last however many years. And now you're finally motivated enough to really do something about it. And so you're like, look.
Starting point is 00:13:26 They're going to channel that. I want to get the weight off. Like, I finally am going to do something about it, you guys. Why don't I just lose the weight doing it what you're saying the wrong way, which is just, I'm just going to eat. eat way less because I feel motivated. Work my way back. And I'm just going to work out.
Starting point is 00:13:40 And when I lose the weight, then I'll do what you're saying. Then I'll do this slow increase of calories and I'll try to build my... I get the weight off first. I got to get the weight off first. Well, I'm here to tell you, first of all, that is a strategy.
Starting point is 00:13:52 So I'm not going to say that's not a strategy. That is a strategy. But it's harder. It's actually harder than what we're saying. It's way harder. What we're saying is easier. It's an easier strategy.
Starting point is 00:14:01 Now, the challenge with what we're saying is the fear around it. The psychological challenge. Total. Like, okay. One's a really physical challenge. Physiological challenge.
Starting point is 00:14:11 Cutting calories really low and moving a tonne, physiologically and psychologically. And psychologically. It's difficult. Yeah. Initially, it doesn't feel that way, but it'll be. The other one isn't as hard physically, but it's definitely as challenging psychologically. It is initially.
Starting point is 00:14:25 So initially what you're going to find with the first approach, which is just just cut. And then I'll worry about building later is initially because you're motivated. It actually feels great. That's like I'm doing this. I'm eating my whatever chicken breast and rice or my paleo diet, whatever the heck you're doing. You're white knuckling it. Or my shakes.
Starting point is 00:14:44 And initially you're losing, wait, 10 pounds, 15 pounds. Let's go. Let's keep going. Oh, yeah, I'm going to get to that 60 pounds. And then I'm going to reverse and I'm not going to worry about it. And then at some point, months later, after you've plateaued because you will, when you're frustrated and you're like, oh, my God, I lost the first, I lose 60 pounds. The first 25, you know, I did it.
Starting point is 00:15:04 Now I'm like stuck here. Like what's going on? I'm not eating much, everybody. I'm working out like crazy. Motivation fades because it will. And then you're done. You're over. And by the way, this is probably what you've done before.
Starting point is 00:15:16 You've probably followed this. The rebound, the yo-yoing. That's right. This is where all that kind of tends to happen. And you know this because you know you've done it. You've done this two or three or five times in the past over the course of however long you've ever tried to lose weight. So it's not going to work again.
Starting point is 00:15:34 I hate to break it to you. And it's actually harder because it doesn't work. What we're saying initially is hard because you're telling me that I'm just going to eat high protein and feed myself and lift weights and not worry about the scale. And initially with that motivated state of mind, it is going to feel frustrating, okay, because you might step on the scale. It's more delayed gratification. That's right. And you might see that, okay, my weight's not going down. Maybe even went up a couple pounds.
Starting point is 00:16:02 Okay, I am strong on the gym. That part's kind of cool. like I'm lifting more weight, but God, I want to get the 60 pounds off, you guys. Like, what's going on here? And then you're eating a little more and you're like, okay, am I ready to lose? And, you know, you've got one of us as your coach. We're like, no, we're going to go up in calories again. Let's feed more muscle.
Starting point is 00:16:17 And you're like, what? I don't want to do that. But you follow it and you follow along. And after three or four months, you're now consuming, you know, 3,000 calories a day, 3,200 calories a day. You've built great strength. Your body's got different shape to it. And then you come to us and you're like, all right, can I do it now?
Starting point is 00:16:34 And we're like, let's do it. Let's cut now. And then we cut, and then here's what happens. Fat falls off your body. Suddenly you burn body fat. The plateaus aren't as hard. You're doing less work. And then when you do plateau, you've got more runway to cut again.
Starting point is 00:16:47 And you end up in the much more sustainable place. Now, what's interesting about the recomp? Because people are like, well, what if I just want to recomp, right? I want to do this kind of slower. Recomp is actually hard, but also easy. What I mean by hard, it's hard. to be in that perfect, you know, lose fat, build muscle, lose fat, build muscle. But it's actually, the process actually looks like this.
Starting point is 00:17:13 Eat your target body weight and protein. Only eat whole foods. Eat when you're hungry and lift weights. And then what happens is your appetite dictates the calories. And then it kind of looks like this. I bulk a little, I cut a little, a bulk a little, without you even thinking about it. Yeah, yeah. Bulk, cut, bulk cut, bulk cut.
Starting point is 00:17:30 And then the body slowly recomping takes. longer. Yeah. Slowly change is over time. That's right. I just got to stretch it out. I mean, I personally like recomping, but I think the person who, and this is why I said 90 plus percent or whatever, I would almost always go to a bulk first is just because it's an
Starting point is 00:17:51 easier thing to focus on with somebody. Recomping takes a lot. Because here's what can some, when you're in a, when you're teetering back, because when you're in a recomp, what it really means is that you're trying to hover around maintenance, which there's no such thing as maintenance. It means that there's periods of time when you're in a slight surplus. There's periods of time when you're in a slight deficit, which is this. Small angelic.
Starting point is 00:18:12 Sometimes your body's building a tiny bit of muscle. Sometimes it's burning a ton of it. And so it's these, and what sometimes that looks like and why it's tough, I think, for that person is it doesn't always translate into getting stronger in the gym. Sometimes you don't feel that much stronger because maybe at that's no dramatic changes. Yeah, there's no dramatic shifts anywhere. The scale typically stays right about the same. And so that really tends to, you're also too, glycogen isn't always filled all the way up in the body. So your muscle bellies aren't always filled all the way up and you don't look like.
Starting point is 00:18:41 So recomping is, you know, is I think the healthiest, the best approach, but also black belt level, in my opinion, dieting for somebody. If you do. Like that discipline to know what you're doing is right. That's right. And wait. And just wait and just know it'll, that takes a lot of discipline. Now, here's how that works. Because someone's like, well, how do I know I'm eating the right amount?
Starting point is 00:19:01 like if I'm recomping. How do I know? Your appetite, this is going to sound crazy because you're like, my appetite's what got me here in the first place. But your appetite
Starting point is 00:19:09 will actually tell you, but you have to eat in a way to where your appetite signals are accurate. Right. Okay. So you can't eat. This recomp diet
Starting point is 00:19:20 and this way is a zero, zero processed food diet. It can't be cravings. There is no processed food in your diet. It's all 100% whole natural foods and you're eating every day
Starting point is 00:19:31 consistently your target body weight and protein from whole natural foods. You're minimizing all processed foods, including protein shakes, okay? Because this is what helps dictate if you're eating the right amount of calories. Protein provides satiety. Whole foods, really you have accurate systems of satiety with whole foods. Processed foods throws it all out the window. I mean, you can eat potato chips all day long, whole potatoes that are plain, not nearly as much.
Starting point is 00:19:58 That's just one example. So if you do that and you're patient, and this is how I loved doing it this way with clients, because when I would work with clients, I know I could be with them. These are personal, like in-person clients, by the way. I would see them twice a week. And I would talk to them through the whole process and talk to them the whole process. And it could take a while. And sometimes it takes a lot longer than you think because although it sounds simple,
Starting point is 00:20:24 it's actually for a lot of people, especially people dealing with weight, you know, issues. It's hard. it's hard not to eat processed foods all the time. Yeah. Like there's, it's, it's hard. And then when you do,
Starting point is 00:20:34 you go off the rails because those appetite signals are out the window. But if you want to recomp and you want to do this in a way that's like, look, I'll take the time and I'll just let my body reach its healthy state. It's whole natural foods only. Hit your target body weight and protein. Lift weights two to three days a week and hit eight to 10,000 steps a day. And over time,
Starting point is 00:20:55 most men will eventually land at a kind of, healthy body fat percentage and so will most women. Well, and it just works. Part of what it looks like too, that's really difficult is there's little to no movement on the scale. Yeah. There shouldn't be. And now in the beginning for sure.
Starting point is 00:21:09 At all, really. If you're doing a real true recomp where you're just, you're constantly losing a pound of body fat, adding a pound of muscle type of deal. I mean, if you need to lose a lot of weight, you'll eventually see, you know. Yeah, but that's way down the road. That's right. And really, a recomp is not what I would do with a person like that, right? a person that's got way overweight.
Starting point is 00:21:29 You can actually show movement faster with the reverse diet first and then the cut. Yeah. Which is, yeah. So, and honestly, psychologically for that client, it typically is a better strategy. It's like, we're just no scale. We're just focused on getting strong, adding, adding calorie. And then I come the other way so I can show them more movement. Recomp, like I said, to me is black belt status, like you have to have.
Starting point is 00:21:49 Sounds like you have to be like intuitive. Very. Knowledge with very work. And just be happy with, I feel good. I'm working out. I'm eating this healthy food. I'm not too worried about what's happening or how fast it's happening. I'm not tripping out on the scale,
Starting point is 00:22:03 dipping up or down one and a pound or two. It's like you're just kind of hovering. And you're trusting the process. Just to give an example, what this would typically look like, and I'll just paint like a general scenario. If I had a client that needed to lose 40 pounds, and we use the recomp method, only whole foods, high protein,
Starting point is 00:22:21 you know, strength train two or three days a week, hit 8 to 10,000,000 steps a day. what it would look like, and if they were good with it, it would look like an initial 10-pound weight loss. Some of it would be water, some of it would be body fat, and they would be stuck for a while. It would be like a long period of just getting stronger, getting more fit, getting more fit, getting stronger, getting more fit.
Starting point is 00:22:42 And then down the road, you would start to see the weight loss happen. And then boom, here we are. The reverse diet process would be a little faster to get to the cut. And then, again, the question about the cut, like, how do I know it's time? Like, I'm good for a cut. you're eating a lot of calories. You've got good muscle and strength. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:58 You've really stressed yourself. And you want to get leaner. Now you can go on a cut. And I don't like to cut men who aren't eating at least, you know, 3,000 or 3,200 calories. I don't like to cut women who are at least eating 26, 27 hundred calories unless they only have like 10 pounds to lose. I just don't like to cut because the plateaus are nasty.
Starting point is 00:23:17 And you end up in this low calorie place. You end up in a low calorie place. It gives them no metabolic flexibility. It means that, oh, now that you've got down to this weight, you can't ever eat out. side of this box or you're going to automatically go back up. I think it's important, too, to know when talking about the bulk because this is an area that I think even I messed up in my late 20s, even partly in my 30s, I'd say it doesn't take a lot to bulk. So I think people
Starting point is 00:23:42 sometimes hear us say bulk and it sounds like, okay. Hard. It sounds like a thousand at least. Yeah, green light to like just, what the research shows, it's very, it's 100 to 200 calories is enough to be considered in a bulk. That's right. You don't need. to be eating in this massive surplus to be considered in a bulk. You're eating over maintenance, a good solid 100 to 200 calories. And so it does, and so it's not the green light to go eat like an asshole. I feel like sometimes. Bolt doesn't mean eat garbage.
Starting point is 00:24:09 Right. I think sometimes when it's communicated and like you, someone hears like an episode like this to go like, okay, that makes sense. And like, okay, it sounds like somebody to do. Okay, well, I'm going to. I'm a reverse diet. Yeah, yeah. I'm a reverse diet.
Starting point is 00:24:21 And their reverse diet doesn't look like a diet at all. It looks like I'm just going to eat whatever I want. call it a bulk and it's like that would be a dirty bulk which we didn't talk about which is not. Which means you get really fat. Right, which is not what we would advocate for. I don't advocate for and that's not what I mean when I say I would bulk everybody. I would not dirty bulk anybody.
Starting point is 00:24:38 I would switch them over to whole foods and I would really stretch their capacity to eat high protein. But it works, you guys. I mean, you know, I have lots of examples of clients I've worked with who've done this. It's quite remarkable. The science around metabolic boosting is a little bit, you know, it's a little bit fuzzy because... It doesn't tell the whole story.
Starting point is 00:25:00 It doesn't tell the whole story. But when you talk to coaches and trainers who've worked with people, like, I'll tell, I'll give you an example. And this is not... You've seen it multiple times. All the time. This is not, this example I'm going to give, I guarantee you there's a coach or trainer listening who's like, oh, that happened to my client.
Starting point is 00:25:16 Like, I had one woman that I trained. And she was running 20 to 30 miles a week, so she liked to run. Okay, so it's a lot of miles. plus she was lifting weights four days a week and she was consuming about 17 to 18 hundred calories a day and you know she was fit she was doing good with her running but she wanted to get leaner she wanted to change her
Starting point is 00:25:36 she was very frustrated because for all the work that she was doing she's like I just don't feel like I reflect now she's like is it my genetics you know as overweight as a kid is this just as good as it gets so here's what we did we slowly cut her running at her strength train about three days a week,
Starting point is 00:25:54 and we cut her running down from 20 to 30 miles a week down to 10, and then down to 5. She was lifting weights three days a week, and I reversed diet her. And I got her up to almost 3,000 calories. And she, through that process, dropped body fat and built muscle through that process. So now she's sitting at like,
Starting point is 00:26:13 wow, I'm eating 2,600 calories, 2700 calories. I'm not running 20 to 30 miles a week. I'm way stronger and I look way better. This is easier. This is way easier to maintain. Yeah, this is the part that I don't like that gets countered on the internet with the studies that talk about one pound of muscle versus one pound of fat. It's way more complex than that.
Starting point is 00:26:34 Yeah, there's trainers that try to simplify that building 10 pounds of muscle doesn't make that big of a difference on your metabolic crate and the bullshit. In a lab, when you pull both of them out and you test it, yes, in a situation like that, what they're burning metabolic. but there's so many more factors that go into what it, what it takes to build that muscle, what it takes to maintain that muscle, lifestyle changes, habits that have changed. And the metabolism knows how to become more and less efficient. And by the way, and then this is what we know about the metabolism, which is what third place
Starting point is 00:27:08 in the most complex things in the universe? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it's just like how arrogant sometimes we are to be like, this is what it is. Like, okay, buddy, this is what we know so far about it. I can tell you this, if trained hundreds of people. that I this it doesn't add up it doesn't add up how this little petite girl that was eating 1,900 calories is now eating 2,800 calories doing less cardio she gained two pounds of muscle yeah yeah
Starting point is 00:27:32 yeah and she's only put on five pounds on the scale like that doesn't math at all based off of that and and she's not doing anything radically to affect she's doing less activity right which there goes a lot through thermidamics and so something is off here so definitely benefits your blood sugar too i mean you gain more lean muscle tissue and then, you know, stores that glucose. Your hormone profile. There's like there's so many benefits to it. It's interesting to me that they would argue in a different direction. Yeah, they try to over simplify it to such a crazy degree.
Starting point is 00:28:03 Yeah. So look, I hope that answer everybody's question. But here's what we have. We have a reverse dieting one-on-one guide because it is a process. And so anytime we talk about a reverse diet, people are like, okay, how do I know how many calories to add? How do I know where I'm at? when do I add the calories? What does this all look like?
Starting point is 00:28:21 So we have a guide. Again, it's the reverse dieting 101 guide. Breaks it down. It's 50% off right now. You can get it for $23.50. Go to Mind Pump, Reverse Diet.com. Use the code Diet 50 for the 50% off. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.
Starting point is 00:28:37 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 Mind Pumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes Maps Anabolic, Maps Performance, and Maps Aesthetic.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having
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