Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - All About Abs, Belly Fat, and Bloating

Episode Date: July 24, 2015

In this podcast I talk about what it really takes to get that "six pack," including how to build your core muscles properly, how to lose belly fat, and how to beat bloating. The Ultimate Ab Workouts: The 5 Best Ab Exercises for Getting a Six Pack: http://www.muscleforlife.com/ab-workouts/ The Definitive Guide to Muscle Hypertrophy (Muscle Growth): http://www.muscleforlife.com/guide-to-muscle-hypertrophy-muscle-growth/ How the Afterburn Effect Actually Works (And Why It’s Overrated): http://www.muscleforlife.com/afterburn-effect/ Why a Gluten-Free Diet Is Unnecessary and Even Unhealthy: http://www.muscleforlife.com/why-gluten-free-diet/ The Science of Stress, Cortisol, and Weight Loss: http://www.muscleforlife.com/stress-cortisol-weight-loss/ The Definitive Guide to Why Low-Carb Dieting Sucks: http://www.muscleforlife.com/low-carb-diet/ The Refeed Day: When Dieting Should Include Overeating and Why: http://www.muscleforlife.com/refeed/ How to Prevent Overtraining With the Deload Week: http://www.muscleforlife.com/deload-week/ Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

Hey, it's Mike, and this podcast is brought to you by my books. Seriously, though, it actually is. I make my living as a writer, so as long as I keep selling books, I can keep writing articles over at Muscle for Life and Legion and recording podcasts and videos like this and all that fun stuff. Now, I have several books, but the place to start is Bigger Leaner Stronger if you're a guy and Thinner Leaner Stronger if you're a girl. Now, these books, they basically teach you everything you need to know about dieting, training, and supplementation to build

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Now, as you probably know, I'm not a fan of the supplement industry. I mean, I've wasted who knows how many thousands of dollars over the years on worthless supplements that really do nothing. And I've always had trouble finding products that I actually thought were worth buying and recommending. And well, basically I had been complaining about this for years and I decided to finally do something about it and start making my own products. And not just any products, but really the exact products that I myself have always wanted. So a few of the things that make my supplements unique are one, they're a hundred percent naturally sweetened and flavored. Two, all ingredients are backed by peer reviewed scientific research that you can verify for yourself because

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about my supplements at www.legionathletics.com. And if you like what you see and you want to buy something, use the coupon code podcast, P O D C A S T, and you'll save 10% on your order. All right. Thanks again for taking the time to listen to my podcast and let's get to the show. Hey, it is Mike from Muscle for Life and I'm here with another episode of the podcast. Sorry I missed last week. I actually recorded one with someone that then he asked me not to post it because he has the product launch that's coming up, so I'm kind of waiting. Maybe it's next week.

Anyways, so on this podcast, I want to talk about, um, abs and belly fat and bloating those three subjects. Um, because I get asked quite often, uh, about, you know, how to get rid of belly fat, how to have better abs, how to have make your abs show, um, you know, how to deal with bloating, how to know if it's bloating or just fat and so on and so forth. So I thought it would make for a good podcast. So I'm just going to kind of, it's going to be a bit of freewheeling stream of consciousness. I'm just going to go because, so we'll start with, let's just start with a couple of. One of the common myths out there regarding just having good abs is that if you do a lot of heavy compound weightlifting, like a lot of squatting and deadlifting, overhead pressing, stuff like that, that you don't need to train your abs. That's not necessarily true.

It may be true if you have good ab genetics. There are some people that we've all known them that basically have always had like a six pack their entire life. And yes, those people, they don't have to do anything. You see the muscles that you think of as abs, right? The rectus abdominis. Yes, they are involved. They are activated. Obviously, I mean, you can feel them tensing when you're squatting or deadlifting or head pressing.

But EMG research, which is not necessarily the the yes there are flaws to emg research and it's not the final word on trying to determine which exercises are best for for one thing or another but uh there's a pretty big disparity between the amount of muscle activation in the rectus abdominis between something like a squat and versus like a hanging leg raise or a captain's chair leg raise uh or a cable crunch or something like that. So where, where the heavy compound lifting is great though, is more in the other core muscles, uh, which you also will see guys, sometimes guys that just do a bunch of crunches or a bunch of leg raises, although leg raises do also, I mean, obviously these exercises do involve other muscles

in the core, but, uh, you'll, you can, you can find pictures of guys, maybe you've known guys or girls that have decent rectus abdominis development, but they're missing the rest of the development. So maybe their obliques are very small, so they don't have that V taper that, that, that guys like, or, uh, going up now, they don't really have much in terms of serratus. They don't have the, you know, the little fingers that are kind of, kind of go down the side here. And especially as you put your arm up here, you'll see them in this area. Um, and, uh, the, the heavy compound weightlifting is great for, for developing those muscles,

but not so great for developing the rectus abdominis. So like, uh, there's a good example of this. There's a guy, nice guy that, that works out in the morning, uh, same slot as me. example of this, there's a guy, nice guy that, that works out in the morning, uh, same slot as me. And, uh, he right now he's pretty lean and he's lacking in rectus abdominis development. So it doesn't make sense when you look at his arms, like he's very vascular. Um, he's on drugs as well, uh, which he's open about and he talks about it and kind of interesting to talk to, cause he has, he's been, he's been doing it for a long time. So he has some, some interesting stories. Um, but, but so he's very, very lean in his arms, very, you know, vascularity in his arms.

Um, and it doesn't really have much fat to grab anywhere on his body right now, but because his abs are very underdeveloped, uh, it just, he has an underwhelming, you know, core. It just, there's not, there's his abs don't have that, you know, clear defined, almost like blocky type of look. And which is what most guys want. And in terms of girls, most, I mean, I guess it kind of, it kind of varies. I know girls that really don't want the, the horizontal lines. They would, they'll take, you know, they, they like the line down the middle and the lines down the side, maybe a little bit of horizontal, but nothing much. Whereas other girls want something a bit more like what guys want, where you have clear

abs that show. Um, but, uh, getting there though requires that, yes, you have to be lean. Um, obviously if your body fat percentage is too high, you're never going to see your abs. If you're, if you're a guy in your body fat percentage, once you get around 10% is when you would start when you have abs. That's when you'd say, you know, when somebody would look at you and be like, Oh, you have a six pack. Right. And as every percent that you get under 10%, it becomes more and more prominent. And once you get down to 7%, give or take you get in that range. And then you, you have, there's just not much fat

to pinch. I mean, uh, anywhere really. And, uh, your abs are very clear. Like when you flex them, that's when you have that kind of like shredded type of look. Right. And, uh, you can see your abs, even when you're not flexed, when you're just breathing or whatever, you'll see them through shirts like this and stuff. If the shirts are tight are tight. And for girls, it's probably about 20% is when the stomach, when they start getting that look, the lines start showing every percent they go below that, it becomes more and more, I mean, the abs just become more and more prominent. So those are two key things is you have to have a low body fat percentage and you have to have good muscle development in your abs. And, uh, the, again, even if you are doing, uh, you know, a lot of heavy compound weight

lifting, which is great. If you are lacking in rectus abdominis development, then you are not going to have, uh, a great looking core. Even when you get lean. You know, you'll have, what you'll commonly see is guys and girls that have, it's an underdeveloped, it almost like, it reminds me of like how a teenager's stomach might look, you know, where it's just small abs and not very developed yet. And it takes time, like any muscle group. You know, I naturally, genetically, my abs, time. Like any muscle group, um, you know, I naturally genetically my abs, um, I didn't really have abs growing up. I was never fat. I just was, I always played sports. And so I wasn't really into weightlifting when I was a teenager. Um, I was playing hockey and so I stayed, you know, I was like, I don't know, maybe like 14% body fat or something like that. And didn't care. I just

ate whatever and just played a lot of sports basically. Um, but when I, uh, you know, got into, got into working out, I actually did a lot of ab training for many years. And, but I was always too fat to really see the fruits of my labor. So I was always like for my first six or seven years of weightlifting, I was probably around 16, 15, 14 to, I would say like 16, 17% body fat. Uh, I don't think I ever really went as high as 20%, but again, I didn't really know what I was doing and I didn't really even think I could get really lean. I thought that that was more, you know, I just, I don't know. I just didn't, I didn't put any importance on it until several years ago when I started to, when I decided to

really kind of inform myself and, and learn what does it take to have the type of body that I really wanted. Um, so when I did finally get lean, I actually had good ab development, but I, you know, I, I did, I had been training my abs for, for years at that point. Um, and I didn't really get a chance. I never saw what, what my stomach looked like when I was lean up until that point. So, you know, I don't think I really had genetics much on my side in that regard though, because, um, growing up, I never had, you know, I never had outstanding ab development at all. Um, but the point is even, even from, from that time, several years ago, when I, when I got maybe down to the, you know,

seven, 8% body fat range for the first time and saw abs and, uh, you know, looked pretty good. I still wanted them to be a bit more developed, just a bit bigger. Um, and for just the kind of look that I like. So, um, and it clearly, you know, where each ab is just more clearly defined. Um, so I, I did, uh, quite a bit of weighted cable crunches. I mean, kind of this is stuff that I talk about in my books, Bigger Than You're Stronger and Thinner Than You're Stronger. You only need to do a handful of exercises to train your abs. It's not like you need to be doing a ton of different exercises. It's like every muscle group, really. I mean, if you want to build a great chest, you're going to want to do a lot of heavy barbell and dumbbell pressing.

You're going to want to be emphasizing incline pressing. Dips, weighted dips are great. And fly movements are okay. They'd be more for the end of the workout, higher rep type stuff, but that's really all you need. You don't need to be doing a bunch of fancy type of exercises. You stick to the basics and you get stronger and you make sure you're progressing and you build a chest. Same thing with abs. You have a handful of exercises that have been shown to, um, you know, train the muscles, uh, effectively and more effectively in other exercises. So you just kind of stick to the handful that are, that you, that do well and, or do you get the job done and you just stick to it and make sure that you are progressing. And then, you know, in time you get where you get to where you want to be.

and make sure that you are progressing. And then, you know, in time, you get where you get to where you want to be. And in terms of those exercises, my favorites are cable, weighted cable crunches. And doing some weighted training is important. Remember that if you have, if you are lacking development,

especially with the rectus abdominis, like any muscle group, it's going to respond best to progressive overload. And if you don't add any weight, if you just do a bajillion reps, high reps, just burnout,, burn out, burn out, burn out, you're not going to see as rapid of development of the muscles themselves as if you were doing something with a bit more weight. I, you know, if you're familiar with my work, you know that I'm a big advocate of heavy weightlifting. Um, you know, if you're going to be squatting and deadlifting and bench pressing and overhead pressing every week, then, you know, I highly recommend that you be doing, you know, uh, at least a handful of sets that are with 80 to 85% of your one rep max or more, depending

on what you're doing with your program. Um, I don't do that with abs. I stick to higher rep stuff with abs 10 to 12 rep, which would be more like 70% of one rep max. Um, just because I find it more comfortable. It's kind of uncomfortable to do four to six rep weighted cable crunches, and it's just not necessary. I think it's much harder to build a great chest or build great shoulders or build any other muscle group than to build what you need in your abs. Um, so it's important though, that you do some weighted ab training. I always do whenever I'm doing my

circuits, uh, my ab circuits, they're always, I'm always starting with three or sometimes even six sets of weighted ab work. Um, I remember hearing this, I don't remember where or whatever, but that Ronnie Coleman, for instance, uh, that his weighted cable crunch might've been like the only exercise he did for abs. If that's not the case, it was that that was like his favorite exercise. He did a ton of weighted cable crunches. Um, and, uh, it's, it's a good exercise. Uh, also hanging leg raises are good. Any sort of leg raise movement is good. Um, I like captain captain's chair, leg raises. You can add weight to the hanging leg raise or the captain's chair by like snatching a

dumbbell in between your feet. Um, and so if you get to a point where like you're just doing, you know, 50 and you can go forever, then it makes sense to add weight. Um, air bicycles are good. Uh, planks are okay. Um, air bicycles are also good for getting the obliques. And I don't recommend that you do side bends or any sort of weighted. Well, I'll say that unless you're really lacking in oblique development, I don't recommend you do them. I mean, I've done

very little oblique work even over the course of all the years I've been weightlifting. And I have done absolutely none, uh, in the last four or five years, um, or let's say three or four years, uh, because the bigger your obliques are, the worse you're going to look. If you're not really lean, basically you're gonna look fatter. You're gonna have that wide waist. It's going to look almost like a muffin top. So you want your obliques and you want them to, you know, you need oblique development to have that kind of V taper and to have, you know, the type of core that, you know, that you see on fitness models, for instance, does require a bit of oblique development. But you really don't want to go too far with your oblique development because then you're going to just kind of just gonna make you look fatter basically. Um, unless you stay really, really lean and that's tough to do. Uh, so don't do side bends. Don't do, you know, especially don't do weighted side bends or people sometimes do it on the hyperextension bench. Um, uh, instead what I've found works well for, for obliques is just relying on the heavy compound

weightlifting because that does though like heavy squats, heavy deadlifts, heavy overhead press, um, is, is, is definitely involving the obliques more so than the rectus abdominis and, uh, something like an air bicycle type of movement is good. It does involve the obliques, but you're not adding weight and you know, you just want to, obliques are something you do want to see developing, but you don't want to see developing too quickly and getting too big basically. Um, so yeah, those are, those are, those are like really my primary exercises. Uh, ab wheel rollouts are good.

Reverse crunches are good. Um, I'll link an article down below that you can go and check out if you want to see, uh, how to do all these exercises and how to put them together into a workout. But generally what I like to do is, uh, three to six sets of weighted, like I I'll do nine sets basically in a circuit. And I'm going to be doing starting with usually it's three sets of weighted and then three sets of one exercise, like weighted cable crunch, or maybe a weighted hang leg raise or a weighted captain's chair leg raise. And then going into three sets of, uh, into, uh, well, what I'll do is I'll do a weighted set and then I'll go directly into an unweighted set to failure and then directly, or it's going to be weighted,

weighted, uh, and then followed by a, uh, a set of unweighted. So I'm doing three sets back to back super set type of style. And I'm generally against super setting. Like I don't super set anything else when I train, because if you're, you know, when, why are we lifting weights? We're lifting weights to get stronger. That's the, that's our biggest goal. Really as a natural weight lifter, you need to be getting stronger over time. Super setting gets in the way of that. You're just, you're going to be more fatigued. You're not gonna be able to push as much weight. Um, it's counterproductive. A lot of people, uh, they think that super setting type, the superset type of workouts where you're going, you know,

very, very low rest. One exercise into another is better for losing fat. That's generally why, why people, at least that, that I thought I talk with why they're doing those types of workouts. Um, and, and research shows that those types of workouts, you might burn a little bit more calories, uh, doing, uh, you know, uh, a low rest kind of high intensity superset type of workout, uh, versus a heavier weightlifting type of workout where you're resting a few minutes in between sets, but it's really not that big of a difference. Actually, like in terms of a one hour workout, you might be looking at a 30 calorie difference. Uh, and then when you look at the, the afterburn effect of exercise, which is basically the

calories burned after the workout, which is because your body has to, there's various things that have to occur for your body to recover from the workout and come bring, go, go back to like a normal resting state. And I'll link an article down below if you want to check that out anyway, that the afterburn calories are a bit higher in the weightlifting and the heavy weightlifting type of workouts than in the lower weight workouts. So it all just kind of balances out. So it's not, you know, superset workouts are not better for losing fat basically. Um, but you know, what you are sacrificing when you're doing a super superset type of workout is you're sacrificing strength. You're going to be weaker. Um, you know, when you, when you're doing a super set type of workout is you're sacrificing strength. You're going to be weaker. You know, when you go from one exercise into the next, into another exercise, that second exercise,

you are going to move less weight than if you would have just did your first exercise, rested, let's say a couple minutes, and then did a set of your second exercise. Or if you are even, you know, just doing like low rest type of training with one exercise alone. So you do your first set, rest one minute, do your second exercise, or if you are even, you know, just doing like low rest type of training with one exercise alone. So you do your first set, rest one minute, do your second set and so forth. If you're, uh, rested, I mean, especially if you're trying to try to push heavy

weight. So if you're trying to work, let's say in like, I don't know, four to six, five to seven, even six to eight rep range, and you're only resting one minute in between sets, you are going, you are not going to be able to, uh, get as many reps. You might even have to even drop the weight as if you had been resting, let's say three minutes in between those sets, especially as you get into heavier, heavier weights. Um, so generally super setting, not worth it, but with abs, um, I found that it works well and there's, uh, I guess there's just no reason not to with abs again, you know, you, uh, uh, uh, comparatively speaking, a little bit of ab training goes a long way. Um, you,

because it's a small muscle group, it does recover quickly. So you can train it a few times a week. You could do a, like, I try to go for about six to nine of those circuits I was talking about. So like, uh, that triple set type of superset circuit. So I'm doing six to nine of them circuits I was talking about. So like, uh, that triple set type of superset circuit. So I'm doing six to nine of them. I do them in while I'm, while basically I'll do them like while I'm resting on my major muscle group. So let's say I just did, uh, let's say I'm doing chest and I just did some heavy, I just did a heavy set of bench press. Then I go, I'm going to go do my abs and then I'm going to probably rest another, you know, I don't know, 60, 90 seconds, just let my heart rate come down and then go back to the bench and just do it that way.

So I'll do six to nine of those circuits. You can do those six to nine, two to three times a week. And that's all you need. And if you just stick to it, it doesn't take that long. Like I saw a pretty dramatic change in my abs over the course of like six months of doing that. And I still do abs now, but I do them a bit less because I don't want, I don't want them to overdevelop, especially with my obliques. Um, so I kind of just want to keep things the way they are basically. So I'm doing abs, I'm doing abs twice a week right now,

but I'm only doing four to five sets, uh, total total sets twice a week. Um, so that's basically like the, the general overview of, of how you develop a good core and how you have, uh, you know, uh, good abs and, and, uh, and a six pack. Um, and the same, the same thing, I mean, what I've been saying is kind of slanted towards guys, but it really applies to girls as well. Um, it's just most of the girls that I've spoken with and worked with, again, they're not looking for the same level of ab development as, as guys are. Uh, so, but I've also found that there aren't, it's, it's, it takes a lot like how girls just in general build muscle a lot slower than guys, primarily because testosterone levels are so much lower in girls and guys.

Girls have on average a 10th to a 15th of the testosterone as, as guys. And that really is the, in terms of hormones, that's the primary driver of muscle growth. Um, so, you know, it's not just like anything. It's, it's really, really hard for a girl to get bulky anywhere in her body. And the same thing applies to abs. So it's not like if, if, if you're listening to this and you're worried that if you start doing some weighted ab stuff or start doing this routine I'm talking about, you're going to end up with, you know, bulky blocky abs that you don't, that you're not going to like, it's not going to happen like that. You would have to work very hard for that basically. And you have to be very lean for that. Um, in my experience, when, when girls do this type of routine, they get lean and then

instead they just have the type of stomach they like, which is generally it's the line down the middle and it's the lines on the side with a little bit of horizontal. It doesn't look like a six pack, but it just looks like a washboard type of stomach or whatever. All right. So now let's talk about bloating because it kind of goes hand in hand. People ask me, you know, basically they don't know, is it, is it belly fat they're dealing with or is it, is it bloat? And, uh, some people, they know that they're just bloated, but how do you, how do, what do you do about it? So you can tell if you're just bloated or dealing with belly fat pretty easily, um, bloating, it comes and goes. So you might

wake up with, uh, you know, relatively flat stomach, thin skin and, you know, at whatever weight. And then by the end of the night, you weigh like two to five pounds more and your stomach is kind of distended, put, you know, pushed out. Uh, maybe you have some gas and discomfort, your skin might, you know, be noticeably thicker. And then you wake up again, you might be a little bit less and maybe, maybe a lot less, a little bit less. So there's a lot of fluctuations. Like if you were to measure your, your stomach at, uh, at the navel, you would see like, let's say morning and middle of day and night. If you have bloating issues, you would see it'd be all over the place. And there'd be like large fluctuations. If, if it's belly fat, one belly fat, you can't

grab like bloating. It increases your, the amount of like the water under your skin can increase a bit. So kind of gives you that soft puffy look, but you can't grab it. It's not like fat bloat doesn't jiggle fat jiggles. So if you have like, if you can grab fat and if in, in jiggle it, that's fat, that that's notat. You may all, you may, you may be dealing with bloat on top of that, but the problem is more that belly fat, not bloating. Now, if you are having trouble with bloating, or if you have been having trouble with bloating, there are a few likely reasons why this is happening. Um, of course there are different diseases and things that can cause that, but that's probably not the problem. The problem is most likely down. Basically you have the foods you're eating, uh, which we'll, we'll talk about in a second,

or there could be some hormonal things going on. So on the foods, um, a lot of people are lactose intolerant and don't really realize it. Uh, you know, you have lactose, which is the sugar and dairy. Um, a lot of people's bodies, they lack the enzyme lactase to break it down. So it goes through the small intestine on unabsorbed, hits the large intestine, gets bacteria start eating it, causes gas, bloating. Now, there are other types of foods that can cause these indigestion issues as well. A lot of people, I mean, lactose intolerance is pretty well known. A lot of people have figured out on their own.

They eat some dairy and then realize that an hour later, they're just bloated. Stomach doesn't feel good. But there are a type of carbohydrate called a FODMAP, F-O-D-M-A-P. And basically, what happens to the body is very similar. A lot of people's, I wouldn't say a lot, I actually don't remember, I don't know if I've seen an exact percentage, but, uh, in terms of just wide population that whose bodies, they don't deal with these types of carbohydrates well, but I know that it's, that it's, um, fairly prevalent. It's not, it's not super low, like a, like a gluten allergy or something like that. Um, in fact, what a lot of people think is a gluten allergy or sensitivity is actually a sensitivity FODMAPs. And, uh, the, the FODMAP,

it's F O D M A P. And it's, it's, it's short for fermentable oligo di monosaccharides and polyols is the long complicated fancy talk. Uh, so then it just shortened to the acronym FODMAP. And basically it's similar in that, uh, so these types of carbohydrates, they are not digested and they're not broken down and absorbed from the stomach through the small intestine. They make it to the large intestine, bacteria get on them, and it causes gas and bloating and indigestion. And another, and what we talked more about, like in terms of what those foods are. Um, unfortunately there are quite a few of these foods. So like you have grains like wheat, barley, and rye, you have beans, dairy, onion, garlic, artichoke, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprout, cabbage, chocolate, apple, apricot, avocado, blackberry, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, plum, prune, watermelon, cauliflower,

mushroom, and sugar alcohols is actually a, those are just more of the common, uh, FODMAP type of foods that, that people have issues with. Um, there are quite a few more, uh, and if, if FOD, if you are having issues with FODMAPs, um, I'll link an article down below where you can go see a bit more on this and, um, kind of a guide on, cause there's basically, you have to eliminate all the, all the potential foods that are causing issues and see how things are. If it improves your situation, then you know that that was obviously, that was a cause. And then you start introducing foods back in. You start challenging, that's what it's called.

It's a diet challenge of, okay, so you're going to bring back in, let's say you really like, you know, I don't know, wheat or something like that. So you've eliminated it with all these other foods. And then you bring wheat back in and see, does it cause the bloating and the indigestion and the problems? If it does, then you have to, you have to leave it out of your diet. And then, you know, you kind of run down the list of the foods that you like to eat. If you really like dairy, you really like Greek yogurt or something like that, then okay. Then you introduce Greek yogurt again. Uh, you only one food at a time, of course. Anyways, I'll link something.

I'll link an article down below where you can go. It's kind of a guide on how to do it. But there's, so there's that. You have the lactose issue. A lot of people eat too much dairy and it upsets their stomach and it just makes them bloated. Eating different, these certain type of carbohydrates that your body can't process well cause the same issues. And then there's, um, sodium potassium imbalance. So if you're, and this is, this is very common, actually, I'd say this is probably

the most common reason why when people that, that, that, that I hear from that are having problems with bloating and water retention, um, they're surprised to when they, when they look at the, their sodium potassium intake, they usually find that their sodium intake is really high. Their potassium intake is really low and which is just not good for health. You, you want, I mean, the Institute of Medicine recommends the opposite that your sodium intake should be anywhere from like 1.5 to 2.3 grams a day, which I know I ran across something on this. I don't remember some research basically showing that, uh basically showing that that might be conservative. Actually, it looks like you could go even as high as six grams a day of sodium and be totally fine.

Basically, the link between sodium intake and high blood pressure isn't as sound as we thought it was, kind of like the link between eating eggs and bad cholesterol. Now we know that's not true. However, I still just stick to the Institute of Medicine's recommendations because, you know, kind of like saturated fat, like, yeah, saturated fat may not be as bad as we once thought, but I don't think we know enough yet to just say, oh, we can just eat all the saturated fat we want. And really, I mean, how much sodium and salt do you really need? Two and a half grams of sodium a day is probably like close to four grams of table salt a day.

That's kind of a lot. A teaspoon of salt contains, I believe, about a little bit over two grams of sodium. If you're doing anywhere from a teaspoon to two teaspoons of salt a day, it's quite a bit. Anyways, potassium, by the way, the reason why a lot of people's potassium levels are low is because, you know, you get potassium primarily from fruits and vegetables and a lot of people aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables. So what, coming back to the point here is if your sodium intake is fluctuating, which it does, where people, it depends on, because a lot of people, they don't eat the same foods every day. So one day they might go out to lunch at some restaurant and you know, if you're eating out, your sodium levels are gonna be fluctuating a lot. If you're

eating out a lot because you make food like salt brings out the flavor in food. Uh, a general rule of cooking is your, your food, you want it to be basically salted as, as you're going to have as much salt as you can, uh, as you can, as your palate will allow essentially, like if you want to, you want to err on the side of maybe even over salting a little bit than under salting, because it under salted the less salt, uh, it's in a dish or in food, the less flavor there's going to be. So when you go to a restaurant, the rules of course, of making food tastes good is a lot of salt and a lot of fat. So a lot of you have butter, dairy oil, because fat also brings out flavors. So that's why eating out a lot is kind of a nightmare for, uh, for dieting because you don't know in terms of calories, like a dish could

easily have an, have, uh, 500 more calories than it really should have just because by adding those – maybe that's a bit much. Let's say a couple hundred calories more than it should because adding that butter, adding that cream, it does add a bit to the dish. But let's say it adds like improves mouthfeel and taste by 20% but it increases calories by 80%. Is that worth it? I don't think so, but that's, that's restaurant food. Um, salt as well. Restaurant food is going to be very, depending on what you order. Now, of course, if you just go order a salad with some chicken on top or something like that with a, with a vinegar based dressing that's on the side and you do it, you can, you can be smart about it of course, but if you're just going and ordering things off the menu and whatever, just know it's going to be very, very salty or very, very high sodium food, generally speaking.

So when you increase your sodium or potassium intake above the normal, so in either one, if you have a noticeable fluctuation up, then you're going to hold more water. And that's right. Even with potassium as well, if you, if your potassium levels are fluctuating a lot, you're going to see fluctuations in the amount of water that you're holding. Um, and if you reduce sodium intake, of course, then you're going to see a reduction in, in the amount of water that you hold. So what I find with a lot of people that deal with water retention issues is it just follows their sodium potassium intake. Potassium tends to be a bit more static because again, they, you're not adding potassium to food. I mean, you're getting your potassium from your food or you're supplementing with it and that's it.

But the amount of salt that you can, you know, a person's eating or that you're, that you're eating can change wildly depending on the foods. Um, so then, uh, what I find is when, when people look at it and they, they, they're surprised to see they're eating, so then, uh, what I find is when, when people look at it and they, they, they're surprised to see they're eating, you know, six grams of sodium a day, but it can fluctuate anywhere from, you know, it could be two grams one day and then six grams the next day and then three grams, then four and then one. And then what, when they level it out, when they start getting it a bit more, let's say just keeping it in the two to three grams a day range, then voila, their bloating problems go away or they find that their skin is a lot thinner and they're not holding

nearly as much water as they were before. So those are the major things. Oh, there's hormonal disturbances as well. So basically the long story short on the hormones is the hormone cortisol. If the higher cortisol levels are, the more water and the more bloated, more water, you're going to hold the more bloated you're going to look. Um, I, you know, if you're familiar with my work, I don't talk much about hormones because they're kind of just, uh, uh, a scapegoat. It's very popular right now to just blame stuff on hormones. And a lot of, a lot of people use it to sell bullshit books and bullshit pills and powders and stuff. I mean, the, the bottom line is if you're having any issue with

losing weight, you know, gaining weight, uh, if you're having issues with bloating, if you're having a really any sort of unwanted body condition, it's unlikely that it's a hormone problem. Uh, you know, if you're not able to lose weight, it's probably because you're eating too much food or you're not moving your body enough. You're not, you know, you're not in a negative energy balance. If you're having trouble gaining weight, it's probably because you're not eating enough food. Uh, and you know, there might be some training things, but it's really like the majority, you're gonna get the majority of results from just following the fundamentals and your hormones are probably fine. But, uh, when it comes to bloating and, uh, water

retention, the hormone cortisol particularly, uh, can, can really screw with you. And the reason why people that are generally into fitness will run into this issue is because when you're in a calorie deficit, your cortisol levels are naturally higher. Um, if you are, you know, let's say, you know, skimping on your sleep to get up to work out, uh, if you are, you know, let's say, you know, skimping on your sleep to get up to work out. Uh, if you're, you're restricting your sleep, your cortisol levels are going to be higher. Um, if you are following a low carb diet, your cortisol levels are going to be higher. Uh, if you have any sort of life stress and stuff that's going on, all of these things add up, add up, add up. And especially when you go into a calorie deficit and if you're

over-training doing a ton of exercise and a calorie deficit with a low-carb diet, your cortisol levels are going to be very high. And you're very likely to struggle with bloating issues just because of that alone. So what you want to do is you want to bring your cortisol levels down. And you can do that in different ways. One, don't bother with low-carb dieting. If you're trying to lose fat, you're not going to lose fat faster. Low carb is really for people that are sedentary or who don't do well with carbohydrates. Some people, even though they're relatively lean and they're active, they just, if they eat any more than let's say 50 grams of carbs in a meal, they get sleepy, they get tired.

Okay, fine. That's knowing your body. That doesn't mean though that you necessarily have to follow a low carb diet. You just have to restrict the amount of carbs you're eating in one sitting. A lot of that just comes down to insulin response, insulin sensitivity. Um, for instance, I have a very good insulin sensitivity, I guess, uh, because I mean, I can eat a huge amount of carbs and just be totally fine. I can eat 250 grams, 300 grams of carbs in one meal and really not even get tired and just be like, I might be full, but, uh, you know, I'm not going to go pass out unless, I mean, I, I, for me to get the pass out and I've done it before, uh, the last time I really passed out, I guess it was like Thanksgiving last year. I ate six plates of food, full plates.

And that was stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, protein. Yeah, six plates of that. I ate until I actually was in pain. I couldn't even move. I was laying there in pain. And then once the pain subsided, passed out. So that's what it takes to read it as I probably ate 7,000 calories in one meal. Um, but you know, if I, so if I go eat like 1500 calories

in a meal, it's, I don't even get full from that. Like I don't get hungry really. So it doesn't matter, but I'll, you know, it's funny. Like my, uh, best friend and business partner, Jeremy, we'll go out and eat sometimes, or you just will be there if I'm eating a lot of food. And he's always just amazed at like how much food I'll eat and then just be like at six. I'll be like, ah, he'll ask me, be like, so where are you at? I'm like, I don't know, maybe I'm like 60%, maybe 70% capacity. He's like, that's ridiculous. Anyways, so low-carb dieting sucks.

Anyways, so low-carb dieting sucks. And I would say it's good for people that are very overweight or it's good for people that don't move their bodies. But it doesn't really make sense if you are physically active and especially if you're weightlifting because your workouts are going to be much better on a higher-carb diet. You're going to build muscle faster. You're going to build muscle faster. You're going to get stronger, faster. And when it comes to weight loss, um, you're going to find generally your people find a higher carb diet, more satiating, more psychologically enjoyable because carbs are awesome. Uh, the carby foods taste good, right? A lot of different great tasty ways to eat carbs. Um, and also it keeps cortisol levels lower. Um, so another, another way to reduce cortisol levels is to have a refeed meal or day where basically you are, it's one day and it's not really important until you get leaner. I'd say as guys, once you start getting to the 10% range and you're going under, then refeeding once a week definitely makes sense.

Some guys even refeed twice a week as they start to get very lean. These are usually guys that are competing though. They're getting down to four or 5%. So once they get to like the 8% range, they start doing two refeeds a week. And what a refeed is, is where you're basically eating a ton of carbohydrates. Essentially, you know, you're eating, let's say two grams of carbs per pound of body weight, uh, one gram or 0.8 grams protein per pound. And as little fat as possible for the day, obviously that wouldn't, it's not a good, that's not a healthy way to eat as a lifestyle,

but doing one day doesn't matter. So when I refeed, I keep my fats around 10 grams. It's real low. So I'm eating pasta. I'm eating, I haven't done it in a little while, but white potatoes, sweet potato. Sometimes I'll make pancakes because I just leave out the egg and use

water, um, maple syrups, a ton of carbs, obviously. Anyways, fruit is okay. Um, and what that does is, um, one, it helps with leptin, which I'll link an article down below on refeeding. So you can go check it out if you want to learn more, but, uh, it helps with, it helps with, uh, leptin, which is a, a, a hormone related to, uh, it's, well is a hormone related to quite a few things. It's related to metabolic speed, and it's related to testosterone production. It's related to satiety, feeling full.

Whereas ghrelin, which is kind of its counterpart, or I wouldn't say its counterpart. Actually, it's like an antagonist, which stimulates hunger. So it helps spike leptin levels, which cause quite a few beneficial changes in the body. But also just the huge increase in insulin reduces cortisol levels because there's a relationship there. Whereas insulin levels rise, cortisol levels drop. So having a refeed day is a good way to drop cortisol levels. Maybe taking a deload week in the gym, which I'll link an article down below. If you're not familiar with the deload is basically where you're, you're dramatically reducing the intensity and the volume of your workouts. If you

haven't done that in a while, there is a point where your body does need a bit of a break. Deloading is a great way to do that. Um, you know, even maybe increasing your food intake. If you've been in a calorie deficit for let's say eight, 10 weeks or so, maybe 12 weeks, and you've been refeeding and your body, you're just, your workouts are dragging and you just, you get this rundown kind of feeling increasing your food intake for a week, maybe like, you know, jumping up by you're jumping your, your, your daily calorie intake up by a few hundred calories, three, four, even 500 calories a day. Um, and, uh, you know, I would, I would do a lot of that in carbs that can help just give your body a break.

So there's a lot of things you can do to reduce your cortisol levels, make sure you're sleeping enough, make sure that's a priority. Um, and if you do that, if you bring your cortisol levels down into a more normal range, uh, you'll find that, uh, you will, the bloat just goes away. Like you're just not going to be holding nearly as much water. So, um, I think that's about everything just to recap. So if you want great abs, um, first and foremost, you have to be lean. You're never going to have it. If you're a guy, if you're over 10% body fat, you're probably never, I mean, depending on the look you want, if you want that like real, you know, cut tight, shredded type of look, that's, that's, uh, anywhere from, you know,

6% body fat on guys is really shredded. That's like your paper, almost paper thin skin. Um, and I would say, you know, 7%, 8%, all in that range is where generally the kind of look that most guys want. Like if you follow me on Instagram and see my pictures or whatever, I'm about 8% all in that range is where generally the kind of look that most guys want. Like if you follow me on Instagram and see my pictures or whatever, I'm about 8% body fat. So, you know, just to have that as a reference point, um,

for girls, it's about 20% is where, where the, the magic kind of starts. And then I'd say that the look that most girls want where you're, where you're athletic, um, you're not like super shredded.

You still have curves. Um, is probably about 17, 18% is where, where most of the girls that I've spoken with and work with, that's where they kind of, they get to that point and then they're happy and they just stay there. Um, so that's the first thing, be lean enough. Uh, another thing is make sure you're training your abs, make sure you're doing weighted training, make sure you're training them several times a week. Uh, just doing heavy compound weightlifting is not enough. And remember, don't go crazy with the oblique training. Don't do a bunch

of weighted side bends and stuff like that, or you will regret it. At some point, you're going to realize that your obliques are overdeveloped. And if you don't stay really lean, it's just going to kind of look like a muffin top. So don't make that mistake. And it's probably also just worth saying that on those weighted ab exercises, make sure that you're progressing. Like any other exercise, you want to be getting stronger. You want to be moving up on those weights. So if you start your cable crunches with 100 pounds and you can do 10, let's say, six months later, you'd be good if you're at 180 pounds or 170 pounds and you can do 10. So don't just go through the motions. treat it like any other exercise in any other muscle group. You really want to make progress. And on the bloating side of things, if you've been dealing with bloating issues, you know, if you suspect you might be lactose intolerant, kill dairy from your diet. See how that plays out. Look into FODMAPs.

You know, I gave kind of a long list of foods. Again, I'll link an article down below or a guide down below so you can learn more about that, but that could be the issue. What, you know, you might think that, uh, it's a gluten thing. So you stop eating gluten containing foods, but then you find that you still have bloating issues because there are other carbohydrates in that. Yes, wheat is one of them, uh, that, that, that contains this, this, this type of carbohydrate that, that some people's bodies don't process well, but there are a lot

of other foods as, as you heard that you would never suspect that you think like avocado, for instance, you'd think avocados are great. Avocados are healthy. Yes, that's true. But, uh, certain people's bodies do not deal with the carbohydrates in avocados well, and it causes, uh, you know, IBS. Well, I can't avocados don't themselves cause IBS like symptoms, but there are, you can, if you're eating too much of these FODMAP, uh, carbs and your body doesn't do well with them, you will develop IBS like symptoms. Um, you know, it can be pretty uncomfortable and it can be very, very annoying and very, very mysterious as well, because you can be eating all these quote unquote clean foods and, and, you know, having, and having all these issues.

Um, and then last but not least, there is the, uh, well, it's not the last actually. So you have the sodium potassium, um, getting those leveled out and getting them, making sure that you're not, uh, way too high on your sodium and way too low on your potassium and making sure that your, your levels don't fluctuate all over the place. And then last is, uh, is, is the hormone issue. If you've been dieting to lose weight, um, then, and you're dealing with water retention or bloating, it's, there's a good chance that it, that, you know, there's something that you're doing, uh, or you're doing too much in the, your cortisol levels are just too high and you need to bring

them down. So that's about everything. I hope you find this helpful. You can ask questions. If you're watching this on YouTube, ask questions down below and I'm able to answer pretty much all of them. Maybe I can't get to everyone because YouTube's comment management system sucks, but I try my best. And if you're listening to this in the podcast, you know how to reach me, social media, email, and so forth. And I will see you next week.