Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Butt Wink, “Fat Freezing,” Cheat Meals, Starting a Blog, and More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello there and welcome to Muscle for Life. I'm Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today for another Q&A installment where I answer people's questions. Questions that people have asked me over on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness. Come follow me and you might notice that I have not been active. I haven't posted anything in the last four to six weeks, but that's only because Instagram restricted my account for, I think it's like an eight week penalty or a six week penalty, something like that. So then it cut my visibility by, well, cut it down to like one eighth to one tenth of normal. And Instagram confirmed that, by the way, as well. They told me, yes, we did that. So I will be resuming my normal Instagram activity in a couple of weeks when my visibility goes back to normal.

Starting point is 00:00:53 And then when that happens, I will get back to posting every Monday or Tuesday a story where I ask people to ask me questions and I let it sit there for 24 hours and then I go over all of the questions and I find ones that are interesting to me or are funny or are things that I have not already answered a million times before and I answer them in my stories there on Instagram and then bring everything over here onto the podcast and also expand a bit on those answers. Obviously, I have to keep the answers very short on Instagram. And I do try to be short here as well. So I can get through a number of questions, but it gives me a little bit more of an opportunity to explain each thing. And so again, if you want me to answer your questions, just

Starting point is 00:01:47 follow me on Instagram at muscle for life fitness and watch for the story that goes up every week. And in the meantime, I am going to be doing Q and A's same format over on legions Instagram account. And I'm going to be careful to not get Legion shadow banned. And Legion's handle, username, whatever, is just at Legion. And for the next couple of weeks, I will be doing the Q&As over there. And so this week's Q&A is going to feature some answers from me on stuff like cheat meals and recalculating calories when you are cutting based on fiber and sugar alcohol intake. Should you do that? How much time it takes to get to 10% body fat? Of course, that's more applicable to men than women. Whether I'm a whore. Yep, that's a question. My thoughts on butt winking when you squat,

Starting point is 00:02:48 giving kids multivitamins, and more. Before we sink our teeth into it, you definitely don't need supplements to lose fat, and no fat loss supplements are going to make a major difference in your bottom line results. how you eat, how you train, how you sleep. Those are the primary factors that determine how quickly you lose fat. But if you have the budget and you have the inclination, supplementation can help you lose fat a little bit faster. And that's why I created Phoenix. It is a 100% natural and stimulant-free fat burner that speeds up your metabolism, enhances fat burning, and reduces hunger and cravings. And in terms of bottom line, real world results, when you combine Phoenix with proper diet

Starting point is 00:03:39 and proper exercise, it can help you lose up to an additional one to two pounds of fat per month. And the reason Phoenix is so effective is simple. Every ingredient is backed by peer-reviewed scientific research and is included at clinically effective levels, which are the exact doses used in the studies that found benefits. And all that is why I have sold over 200,000 bottles of Phoenix and why it has over 1,904 and five-star reviews on Amazon and my website. So if you want to lose fat faster, and if you want to experience less hunger and cravings when you're cutting without having to pump yourself full of harsh chemicals or stimulants, you want to try Phoenix today. Go to buylegion.com,

Starting point is 00:04:26 B-U-Y legion.com slash Phoenix, P-H-O-E-N-I-X, and use the coupon code muscle at checkout, and you will save 20% on your first order. And if it is not your first order, you will get double reward points. That is 10% cash back. And if you don't absolutely love Phoenix, just let us know and we will give you a full refund on the spot. No form and no return is even necessary. So you really can't lose. Go to buylegion.com slash Phoenix. Use the coupon code muscle when you check out and you will save 20% or get 10% cash back and try Phoenix risk-free and see what you think. and try Phoenix risk-free and see what you think. Benjamin Green asks, should you avoid cheat meals if you can handle it or are they actually an advantage for cutting? The advantage is mostly psychological. Having one big meal or two big meals, basically being in a bit of a surplus

Starting point is 00:05:21 one day out of the week, for example, isn't going to change much physiologically. But psychologically, it can be quite nice to know that something special is coming every five, seven, whatever days, especially as you get deeper into a cut and you are feeling it more and more. Now, if you want to improve your physiology when you are cutting with food not just your psychology then you need to take a diet break meaning you need to raise your calories to maintenance for five to seven days for most people at minimum to actually change anything in your body that will improve how you feel and how you train and how you sleep and so on. B. Kimey asks, when diet foods don't count calories from fiber, sugar, alcohol, should I recalculate the calories? Well, what they are asking is if you should subtract the calories from foods that your body actually

Starting point is 00:06:28 doesn't digest, that your body doesn't process, that just go through your body like fiber, at least insoluble fiber, because soluble fiber does have calories. It just has fewer calories than carbs. If I remember correctly, it's around two calories per gram of soluble fiber versus four calories per gram of carbohydrate. And so anyway, my answer is no, don't do any adjustments for fiber or sugar alcohols or anything else. It's not worth the work and it will probably just increase the likelihood of accidentally overeating. So just keep it simple. Brown Richard 1093 asks, I'm about 24% body fat. How much time should I realistically take to be about 10 percentage? So this is a guy,

Starting point is 00:07:15 obviously, and healthy weight loss is around 0.5 to 1% of your body weight per week. So for this guy, I would say 18 to 22 weeks. And that would be for most guys to go from mid twenties body fat percentage to about 10. And of course that range is just based on how you go about it and your compliance. And if you want to learn more about that, how long does it take to get to a certain body fat percentage? If you are a guy or a gal, head over to legionathletics.com and search for how long six pack and you'll find an article I wrote on how long it takes to get a six pack. And there is a nice image that makes it real easy for you to estimate based on where you are currently at, how long it will take to get to where you want to be. Okay, C Bonzi UK6 asks, is it true beta alanine has to be taken every day to be effective like creatine? Yes.

Starting point is 00:08:20 I mean, maybe not every day, but it needs to be taken regularly because you need to keep your intramuscular carnosine levels high. That's really what beta alanine is doing. And that requires regular supplementation. And yes, daily supplementation is best. COA 14 poo asks, are you a whore? Well, picture this. I'm having missionary sex with my monogamous wife, who actually is the only woman I've had sex with. And then she's like, oh yeah, you like that. You absolute whore. Daniel Mufti one, which sounds familiar. I think I've taken questions from Daniel before, asks, what's your go-to late night snack? Sleep. That is definitely my favorite late night snack. And if you have a problem with late night snacking, I recommend you try some sleep. No, seriously though, I did used to eat some oatmeal at night, although now I'm eating some

Starting point is 00:09:24 oatmeal in the morning, but there was a time when around 10 p.m. or so I would make oatmeal with nuts and banana and protein powder. It was pretty good. All right. Daniel Cycling SB asks, how many hours a day or week do you work out? How long is each session? So I do five 60 to 70 minute strength training workouts every week. And then I do six to seven 30 minute cardio workouts per week. I have an upright bike here in the house and I pedal at probably like a five out of 10 intensity. So to put that in other terms, if I were recording this podcast while doing it, you would hear

Starting point is 00:10:03 me breathing. My breathing would be a little bit labored, but I would be able to record the podcast. I can have a conversation at that intensity. And that is often what I'm doing. I'm either reading, I read on my phone on the Kindle app. So I'll either read while I'm on the bike or I'll make a call. I actually just did this before recording this podcast. I hopped on the bike and I did a work call with Legion's COO. We do a weekly coordination call and that's something you need to do anyway. And so I might as well do it on the bike. All right. Ethan Joel 21 asks thoughts on butt wink while squatting bad or no big deal. Well, that is going to happen. Naturally, you can't avoid it. If you are squatting very deeply, if you are squatting well below

Starting point is 00:10:52 parallel, as you reach the ground, basically your butt is going to wink, so to speak, but that should not happen with parallel squats. And if it is check your form, check your mobility. A lack of hip and ankle mobility are common causes of butt wink in a parallel squat. So if it is occurring in a parallel squat, yes, I do recommend that you sort it out. Heimbaum asks, do you recommend giving young children multivitamins? If so, which ones? I do think it's smart. I would not trust many products on the market, but theoretically, I do think it's smart to give kids a good multivitamin that contains nutrients they probably don't get much of like vitamin D, K, B12, omega-3s and so on. And so I give my kids a multivitamin from Smarty Pants. It's their green bottle one. I forget the name of it. They

Starting point is 00:11:46 have different variations, but I give them the green one. And I do like the formulation, but I would like to make my own for kids because I could do it better simply because I would be willing to spend more money on the formulation than Smarty Pants does. I am James Neal asks, what's your take slash study on fat freezing after dieting, the good, bad long-term effects? You know, surprisingly cool sculpting as it's called, it does work to some degree. It can remove small amounts of subcutaneous fat and it can help smooth out certain regions on the body, but it cannot help you lose significant amounts of fat. And if you want to learn more about it, you can actually find an article on it over at

Starting point is 00:12:35 legionathletics.com. Just search for cool sculpting and give it a read. Jeff Palm asks, how long would I have to sit outside of Legion headquarters and honk till I got free pulse? So this was probably back when the trucker shenanigans were underway over in Canada. And, you know, Jeff, fuck around and find out. You might get a job, too. Jeff Singer asks, gallon of water every day? Absolutely. Or do it or don't.

Starting point is 00:13:04 No real difference. It's an okay rule of thumb, something around a gallon of water per day. But so long as you keep water at hand and you drink when you are thirsty and stop drinking when you are not thirsty, you will stay hydrated. Drink to thirst is the best water advice that I can give. is the best water advice that I can give. Like M81 asks, fabric versus leather weightlifting belt. Leather all the way for me. You need that rigidity to be able to use the belt properly. You need a rigid fixed belt that you can press your abs out against to increase the intra-abdominal pressure, which then helps you with stability, helps you with strength. A lot of fabric belts, they're just too squishy to allow you to do that effectively. Madan I Muta asks, is cold shower after training good or bad and how long should

Starting point is 00:14:02 it be? It's fine if you like it. It's not going to hurt anything, but there are also going to be no meaningful benefits to it. So do it if you like it. Don't do it if you don't like it. When I was living in Virginia and I actually had access to cold water, now I'm in Florida and the water is lukewarm most of the year and then cold-ish for maybe a month or two. But when I was in Virginia, I actually just liked taking a cold shower first thing in the morning. It just helped wake me up. And I suppose there's maybe a minor psychological benefit of making yourself do something that your body doesn't really want to do no matter how many times you do it. But as I said, I'm in Florida now and the water doesn't really get cold, so I don't bother with it. All right. Anonymous asks recommendations for starting a successful

Starting point is 00:14:55 blog, which domain, et cetera. I would recommend starting with social media. Actually, I would not recommend jumping into blogging because if you can't figure out how to grow an engaged social media following with your writing, you probably will not be able to build a successful blog. And so then by starting with social media, you are testing a hypothesis, so to speak, and you are doing it without investing a large amount of time and money. And that's an important step in making good decisions, not just in business, but in life. There is a decision-making framework that a buddy of mine named Flint McLaughlin, who is a very smart and accomplished marketer, and it goes like this. First, you need to get very clear on what your

Starting point is 00:15:45 real goal is. What is your real objective? And this would apply to anything, any sort of goal or objective, but what are you really trying to achieve here? Get clarity on that. Then you need to think about what would be the most effective way, the most efficient way to accomplish that goal. Then you need to think about what is the most efficient way to test that method that you came up with. And in each of these steps, by the way, you should be coming up with a number of answers to find the one that you are going to move ahead with. Because whatever comes to mind immediately, whatever is top of mind can always be improved. to mind immediately, whatever is top of mind can always be improved. That is a rule that applies to, well, just about everything. But anyway, so you have now come up with an efficient, the most efficient way that you can think of to test this efficient method or way to achieve this

Starting point is 00:16:39 real goal. And then finally, once you have started testing, you have to make adjustments to maybe your goal or your method of achieving the goal or your method of testing that method or all of them. you didn't just have a little epiphany, rewind and re-listen to what I just explained, because it is a very powerful formula, not just for winning, but avoiding catastrophic failures. Because of course, you can afford to fail in many ways and make many mistakes on your way to achieving something big on your way to winning. But there are certain types of failures you can't afford. They are too ruinous and certain types of failures you can't afford. They are too ruinous and certain types of mistakes you can't afford to make because they are too ruinous. And so then if you can get really good at getting very clear on your actual goals, what are you trying to achieve

Starting point is 00:17:37 here in whatever we're talking about, and then working on coming up with effective and efficient ways of achieving that goal and then picking the most effective and most efficient that you can reasonably come up with and then getting really good at coming up with effective and efficient meaning not costing a lot of resources of any kind ways of testing what you came up with in number two, the most effective and efficient ways you can come up with to achieve the actual goal that you formulated in number one. And then if you can finally get good at tinkering with all of that until you find something that really works, that clicks, that can scale, you can accomplish tremendous things. Anyway, I am rambling at this point. So let's move on to the next question from anonymous leg session, first

Starting point is 00:18:31 plyo slash explosive and then weighted stuff all the way around or best in different session. Well, I would separate the strength training and the speed training. And you'll find that in many powerlifting programs, you'll find heavy sessions and speed sessions. But I will also say that that is most relevant to athletes and powerlifters. If you are in the gym lifting weights to get strong and to gain muscle and to be healthy and to enjoy your workouts, you don't have to bother with speed training. Rah Rah Rachel 79 asks, how much of an effect does muscle really have on total daily energy expenditure? I wish I could say a lot, but it is less than many people claim.

Starting point is 00:19:17 Research shows that a pound of muscle burns about six, maybe a little bit more, but about six calories per day. So if you were to gain 20 pounds of muscle, you'd be burning an extra 120 or so calories per day. And just for the sake of comparison, a pound of fat costs, quote unquote, about two calories per day. And of course, muscle is more metabolically active than fat, hence the increase in calorie expenditure that comes with just having muscle. And then something else I should mention is in addition to that, you would have the additional energy expenditure that innate increase in your metabolic, your basal or your resting metabolic rate. And then it also now costs more energy to move your 20 pound heavier body around. So you're going to burn more calories that way as well. Next question comes from Sam Hoffler, 23, and he asks, which of your books are you most proud of? I would say my newest book,

Starting point is 00:20:27 Muscle for Life. I am very happy with how it came together. The content I think is my best content, my best writing, my clearest writing. I think it's my best organized book and also the presentation. It's just a nice book. It's a big, nice hardcover. Simon and Schuster really spent money on making that book just nice to hold and look at. And so I'm really happy with that book. And next, I would say the new fourth editions of Bigger, Leaner, Stronger and Thinner, Leaner, Stronger, which are coming out this year. Bigger, Leaner, Stronger is almost done. The e-book is done. The audio book is done. The hard copy is ordered, but is not going to be available for a few months. So I'm going to be releasing the e-book and the audio book in the next probably 30 days or so. I will shout it out

Starting point is 00:21:20 here on the podcast when it is live. But I'm also very happy with how those books came together really for the same reasons. I actually applied a number of the lessons that I learned creating Muscle for Life now to Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger. And I think that they are much better books than the current third editions, even though the current third editions are quite good, according to many people. In my personal opinion, the fourth editions are a major improvement. Okay, Wilt88 asks, when trying to work out macros, should I use lean body mass or scale weight? I like to stick with body weight because it gets the job done and it minimizes the chances of making a mistake, maybe due to an

Starting point is 00:22:05 incorrect body composition estimate, for example. And if you want to keep it really simple, head over to legionathletics.com slash tools, and then head over to the macronutrient calculator. And you'll see that it will ask for some information about you, your body composition, your activity level, and then your goal. And then it will spit out your macros. It will, of course, also give you your calories. And you can also choose a balanced diet, like balanced macros or low carb, high carb, high protein, keto, or custom if you want to play around with the percentages yourself. Again, that's legionathletics.com slash tools. And there is a macronutrient calculator there in that section of the site, along with like

Starting point is 00:22:47 16 or 17 other tools that you might want to play around with. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don't miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you.

Starting point is 00:23:14 And if you didn't like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.com, and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you'd like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I'm always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope

Starting point is 00:23:43 to hear from you soon.

Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Butt Wink, “Fat Freezing,” Cheat Meals, Starting a Blog, and More

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