Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How to Get the Body You Want With Flexible Dieting

Episode Date: February 20, 2018

If you dread the idea of “dieting,” I understand.Most diets feel more like punishment than self improvement. Instead of educating you on how the metabolism truly works and giving you the tools you need to manage it effectively, most diet “gurus” resort to fearmongering and food restriction instead.If you want to lose fat or build “lean muscle,” they say, you can kiss just about everything you like eating goodbye.Grains…anything containing gluten or sugar…high-glycemic carbs…red meat…processed foods…fruit…dairy…caloric beverages…granola…it’s all gotta go.All your toys. Throw all that shit into the fire. No pain no gain! Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion!Maybe you’re not up to this, you think. Maybe you’re not tough enough. You’ve always had trouble with willpower and dedication. Maybe abs aren’t really worth it.On the other hand, who knows, maybe all you need in life is chicken, eggs, and vegetables? Starving children in Africa have it much worse…Stop! Put the Kool-Aid down and slowly walk away.What if I told you that you could dramatically transform your body eating foods you actually like…every day…7 days per week?What if all you had to do to build muscle and lose fat was follow a handful of flexible dietary guidelines…not starve and deprive yourself?And what if I promised you could forever break free of the restrictions and anxieties most people associate with dieting and learn to love it instead?Too good to be true, you think? Downright heresy?I know. I used to think the same thing. I now know the truth, though, and in this episode, I’m going to break it all down for you. Let’s get to it. 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/

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fish oil supplement Triton. Now, Triton is a high-potency, high-purity, 100% re-esterified triglyceride fish oil with added vitamin E to prevent oxidation and rancidity, and natural lemon oil to prevent the noxious fish oil burps that we all know and hate. Furthermore, Triton is made from sustainably fished deep water anchovies and sardines and is molecularly distilled to remove natural toxins and contaminants. So if you want to optimize your mental and physical health and performance and reduce the risk of disease and dysfunction,

then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Triton today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout, and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.lesionathletics.com now, place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet.

And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. Alrighty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's get to the show. Hey everybody, this is Mike from Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics and in this video podcast I want to talk about flexible dieting. And of course this is something I have written a lot about and I have spoken about in previous podcasts and previous videos, but I wanted to put together a concise video that breaks down what flexible dieting is, how it works, and how to use it to not only get the body that you really want, but to keep the body that you really want for the long term. So what is flexible dieting? Well, first, it is not a diet in the way that most people think of diets, right? So it is a diet

in dictionary sense. It's simply a way of eating food, but it is not a way of eating that you do to lose weight or to detox your body. I guess those are probably the two main reasons why people go on diets, right? Either to lose weight or to somehow improve their health. And flexible dieting, sure, you can use it to lose weight and you can use it also to improve your health, but you can also use it to just maintain your weight or you can even use it to lose weight and you can use it also to improve your health, but you can also use it to just maintain your weight or you can even use it to gain weight. So what flexible dieting is then is it's simply a way of eating that is based on some simple scientific principles, some fundamentals of the human metabolism. So you have energy balance, which is the relationship between the number of

calories or the amount of energy, right? As measured in calories that you're eating versus the amount of energy that you are burning, which of course can also be measured in calories. And you also have macronutrient balance. So how do those calories that you're eating break down into the three primary macronutrients, which is, or which are protein carbs carbs, and fat. And finally, food choices. So where are you getting your calories and your macros, as they're called, from? What foods are you eating? And what flexible dieting allows you to do then is it allows you to use those things, energy balance, macronutrient balance, and food choices to manipulate your body composition as you desire. So you can use those things to lose fat. You can set up your diet in a way that it will allow you to lose fat and not muscle. Or, you know, at least

if you are going to lose muscle, it's going to be as little as possible. You could set your diet up when you are flexible dieting to just maintain your body composition. So you're not really going to gain much muscle to speak of. You are really going to gain much muscle to speak of. You are not going to gain much fat to speak of. And of course, you're not going to be losing fat or muscle either. You're just going to kind of maintain a state of homeostasis, I guess you could say. And then also you can use those three factors to set your diet up so you can maximize muscle gain and minimize fat gain. So those are the scientific underpinnings of flexible dieting, energy balance, macronutrient balance, and food choices. And then you have four points that I guess comprise an outline of sorts that kind of comprise the core philosophy of flexible dieting,

how you use those fundamentals. And the first one is, as far as your body composition goes, how much you eat is more important than what you eat. So in other words, in terms of your body fat percentage, in terms of how much lean mass that you have, how many calories you're eating every day, and how those calories break down into protein, carbs, and fats is more important than the foods that you are eating to get those calories and to get those macros. Now, as far as long-term health goes and not getting diseases and dying goes, of course, the foods that you eat matters. You want to be getting the majority of your calories from relatively unprocessed, highly nutritious foods. That goes without saying, but as far as body composition goes, it really does not matter. And there's something to be said for body composition and health too, of course.

Just being muscular, having above average muscularity and below average body fat levels is very healthy. It's conducive to good health. So that's the first point. As far as body composition goes, how much you're eating is more important than what you're eating. So the second point here is you should tailor your daily food choices to your preferences, your goals, and your lifestyle, which means that you should be eating foods that you like every meal, every day. You should be looking forward to every meal, even when you are dieting to lose weight or dieting to lose fat. And when you start to view foods more quantitatively than qualitatively, meaning when you start to view foods more in terms of calories and macronutrients as opposed to good or bad foods

or healthy or unhealthy foods, it makes it very easy to do that. It makes it very easy to eat foods that you like every meal of every day. And that's really what you want for long-term sustainability. Even when you are dieting to lose weight, you should be eating foods that you like every meal of every day. Now, of course, that doesn't mean you should be eating pizza, pop tarts, and ice cream every day. You should be eating half of your calories from junk food like that every day. Hopefully there are foods that you like that are also relatively nutritious. And if you don't like, for example, if you don't really like fruits, if you don't really like vegetables, if you don't like whole grains, if you don't like nuts, and these are the types of relatively

unprocessed foods that you want to be at least getting several servings of each day, then just force yourself to eat them over and over and you will come to like them. There was, I think it was, was it a movie or was it a TV series? I think it was a TV series. I didn't see it, but I heard about it, where it was one of these celebrity chefs who actually, it may have been a book actually, regardless. What this guy did is he made a list of all the foods that he hated. And he basically, over the course of a year, made himself eat them over and over and over. And a lot of the foods were pretty gross actually, like monkey brains and snails and cow balls and shit, stuff that you would really never want to eat anyway. But what he found is after eating pretty much

anything about eight times, he actually came to like it. And we can do the same thing. So if you don't like green vegetables, for example, not that you have to eat any specific green vegetable, but it is smart to include some dark leafy green type of vegetable in your diet. So let's say, you know, for me, I like spinach. Let's say you don't like spinach. If you one, just get some recipes, learn how to cook it in a way, maybe that makes it more palatable to you. And then two, just eat it over and over. You will come to like spinach. Ultimately though, if spinach is not your thing and you prefer something else that is dark and green, then sure. Just go with that. Again, coming back to this point,

green, then sure, just go with that. Again, coming back to this point, tailor your food choices to your preferences, to your goals, and to your lifestyle. Make the diet work for you. Make your food choices work for you. Again, with flexible dieting, there is no individual food that you simply can't eat or any individual food that you have to eat. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode

and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. for Life and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Okay, so the third pillar here in the philosophy of flexible dieting is to forgive your dietary lapses and simply keep calm and carry on. Now, one of the great things about flexible dieting is it makes it easier to stay on track. It makes it harder to fall off the wagon, mostly because you are eating foods that you like. And also, it allows you to eat foods that other styles of dieting don't allow. So again, if you're getting,

let's say, 80% of your daily calories are coming from relatively unprocessed and nutritious foods, you can do whatever you want with those other 20% of calories. So if that means some ice cream for you, great, have some ice cream. If that means a cookie or two, have the cookie or two. For me, I like dark chocolate. So that would be my 20%. Now, I would say I probably get 90% to 95% of my daily calories from just relatively unprocessed nutritious foods. And I do have some dark chocolate every day. I just don't have much of a sweet tooth. I'm not into fast food or junk food. I just don't really care. But you know, if I wanted to, if I wanted to a lot more of my daily calories to stuff that doesn't really have any nutritional value,

it's just nice to eat, you can. Now, when we are dieting to lose fat, and especially when we have a fair amount of fat to lose, so it's going to take a fair amount of time, we should expect to slip up now and then. We should expect that we are going to end up eating too much of one thing or another here and there. It's going to happen. And the nice thing about flexible dieting is because, again, it is based on scientific principles of how the human metabolism works, you can know that it's really not that big of a deal. So what? All right. You ate, uh, you know, 2000 calories, let's say over your target in a day. And, you know, I wouldn't say that's necessarily a binge, but it might feel like a binge. Now, many people out there that just follow different types of fad diets, they feel so bad

when they do that because they don't understand what's going on in their bodies. They just know that, you know, their diet says that if you eat sugar, it's going to be stored as fat. Every gram of sugar that you eat is going to be stored as fat. So then when they eat a bunch of sugar, you know, they think that they just set, they have no idea how they think maybe they just set themselves back. Maybe, maybe now they've screwed up their metabolism. Even not only have they set themselves back and like gained back all the fat that they lost, but now they, you know, set off, um, a whole chain of events inside their body. That's going to make it impossible to continue losing fat. And that of course makes them feel even worse, which then it leads to more overeating

and that then of course can spiral out of control. which then it leads to more overeating. And that then of course can spiral out of control. And then they've given up and they really have gained back, let's say all of the fat that they lost when they were sticking to the diet strictly, and maybe even more now with flexible dieting, because you actually understand how the metabolism works. You understand that again, all right, so you ate 2000 calories more than you planned, or let's say you ate 5,000 calories more. You know that it's really just not that big of a deal because you really can't gain that much body fat in a single day, regardless of how much food that you eat. And if you ate only a couple thousand calories over your target,

you would, you will not gain more than let's say a quarter pound of fat. And depending on where those calories came from and depending on what type of exercise you're doing, you might gain so little fat that it's actually, actually negligible. And in the 5,000 calorie scenario, 5,000 calories above your target, let's say, you know, you can gain, yeah, a quarter to maybe a half a pound depending on again where those calories came from and how active you are what type of exercise you're doing and so forth regardless even if you did gain a half a pound of fat in a day you know that that's really not that big of a deal because it only takes let's say for most people most conditions most circumstances

three or three or four days to lose a half a pound of fat. So really all you've done is you've added three or four days to your diet. Big deal. And that's why the flexible dieting mindset is to expect slip ups. They're going to happen. Just set up in your mind a little if-then trigger when you are dieting to lose weight. That if you slip up and if you eat more than you planned on eating, then shrug it off and keep going because it's just not that big of a deal. Okay, so the fourth and final pillar of flexible dieting is long-term

compliance is the key to sustainable improvements. And really what this comes down to is the old saw, the best diet is the one that you can stick to. And there's a lot of truth there. And really what this comes down to is the old saw, the best diet is the one that you can stick to. And there's a lot of truth there. It really captures the essence of successful dieting because if you can stick to the plan well enough, you don't have to be perfect. You just have to be good enough for long enough, then you can reach your goal. And the idea of flexible dieting is that it is not a quick fix. It is a long-term solution to controlling your body composition and controlling your health. In many ways, it's quite similar actually to how most people eat. Most people don't give much thought as to what they're eating beyond what do they feel like

eating. And so they don't understand calories. They don't understand macronutrients. They don't understand how the metabolism works. They just eat the foods that they feel like eating when they feel like eating them. Flexible dieting just reigns that in. It gives that some structure. It gives that some guidelines. It says that, sure, you can eat foods that you like and you should be eating foods that you like, but you should also keep these things in mind. You should keep energy balance in mind and you should understand how that affects your body. You should keep macronutrient balance in mind and understand how that affects your body. You should keep your food choices in mind and understand how that affects your body, in particular, your long-term health. And in the end then, what you get is you get an eating plan,

I guess you could say, that checks all of the boxes. An eating plan that allows you to eat the foods that you like and eat them when you like, because that doesn't matter when you eat carbs, for example, whether you're eating them first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed, doesn't matter as far as your body composition goes. And that also though has energy balance working for you, has macronutrient balance working for you, meaning that you have your calories and your macros set up in accordance with your goals, whether you are trying to lose fat or just maintain or gain muscle. And lastly, when you do it right, your eating plan gives your body enough nutrition to stay healthy. And that is also a lot easier to do than many people think. Really what it comes down to is eating a couple servings of both fruit

and vegetables every day, throw in some whole grains and throw in some healthy fats. My favorite sources of healthy fat are monounsaturated sources like avocado and nuts, for example, and you're there. And in terms of which fruits and vegetables, if you just eat anything that you like, that's better than nothing. If you really want anything that you like, that's better than nothing. If you really want to optimize your diet, you can get very specific and say, okay, so include some colorful fruits like blueberries, for example, or strawberries, because the pigments in particular are very good for the body. And as far as vegetables go, including a variety of vegetables in your diet, for example, onions, garlic, mushrooms,

cruciferous vegetables, dark leafy greens, because all of them are going to provide differing amounts of essential nutrients, but they also provide certain molecules that are hard to get otherwise that are good for your body, that promote good health. But you don't even have to go that far if you don't want to. If you stick to the simple guidelines of getting about 80% of your daily calories from relatively unprocessed, nutritious foods. So again, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, lean protein, and then the remaining 20%, you do whatever you want with, you're doing it right. So that's flexible dieting in a nutshell. Now, if you want to give it a go, you want to do it,

then you have to first figure out how many calories you should be eating. And then you have to figure out how those calories should break down into macronutrients. And then you have to take your calories and your macros and turn those into a meal plan, actual specific foods that you're going to eat. And to help you do that, I have an article that I wrote on flexible dieting that has a calculator that will help you figure out your calories and your macros, and also breaks down the meal planning process and links out also to another article, more in-depth article I wrote on meal planning in particular. And it should just

be right up here. So if you just click this little link up here, it'll take you to the article and just scroll down. If you want, you can read the whole thing. This though discussion that I just had kind of summarizes all the information in the article. So if you want to just skip straight to the calculator, it's about at about the midpoint, three quarter point through the article, you'll have a calculator that will help you figure out your calories and your macros. And then if you keep reading, it will help you turn those things into a meal plan. make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course,

if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to looking for constructive feedback. So please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fish oil supplement Triton. Now, Triton is a high potency, high purity, 100% re-esterified triglyceride fish oil with added

vitamin E to prevent oxidation and rancidity and natural lemon oil to prevent the noxious fish oil burps that we all know and hate. Furthermore, Triton is made from sustainably fished deep water anchovies and sardines and is molecularly distilled to remove natural toxins and contaminants. So if you want to optimize your mental and physical health and performance and reduce the risk of disease and dysfunction, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Triton today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast to checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your

money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.lesionathletics.com now, place your order, and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.