The Nick Bare Podcast - 065: How To Lose Body Fat And Get Shredded

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Today's episode is all about losing fat and getting shredded. It is crucial to understand that the goal should not be merely about losing weight but about losing body fat. I will discuss some interesting concepts that might be new to you, such as the gut-brain axis, how cortisol levels can affect your body, and how simple blood work can help you determine where to focus your efforts. I address hot topics like the impact of seed oils and processed foods and the most effective training methods for fat loss. This episode aims to help you set realistic goals and sustain your progress through healthy and safe methods. Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 0:00 Intro 0:28 Welcome 1:42 What is the goal? 6:41 Calories in vs. calories out 12:00 What I would recommend anyone to do 17:47 Cortisol management 22:57 Weight loss vs. fat loss 27:04 Prioritizing protein 32:40 Fiber intake 37:26 Unprocessed, processed and ultra-processed foods 44:24 Seed oils 50:07 Food substitutions for less calories 55:59 Training to facilitate fat loss 1:02:53 Diet tribes

In today's episode of the podcast, I'm talking about how to lose weight, specifically, how to lose body fat and how to get shredded, how to get bone shredded. Some principles, some ideas, some thoughts that I want to share with you that you can implement starting today to get leaner tomorrow. Today we are talking about how to lose body fat and get shredded. there have been multiple times throughout the last couple years, last decade, where I've done diets for bodybuilding preps. I have done diets for extended weeks and months just to get leaner, to get shredded, to lose body fat. And I wanted to share some of the things that I've learned along the way that I've tried, that I've tested, that I've tested, that I've work that hasn't worked because I get a lot of questions around losing weight.

And when people ask the question about losing weight, what I think they're actually asking is how to lose body fat, not necessarily just weight because there's a difference. You can lose weight fairly quickly. But for most people, the goal is actually to lose body fat, maintain muscle, get leaner and look more shredded. So that's what we're going to talk about. How do you get shredded? How do you lose body fat?

And the first question I think we have to ask ourselves or address before talking about anything is what is the goal? Because there are levels to this. There are levels to getting leaner. There are levels and reasons to want to lose weight, want to lose body fat. And what I mean by levels, the goal is the goal to step on a bodybuilding stage because that requires a very structured approach to losing body fat and it requires you to get very, very lean, single digit body fat percentages. So that approach, that reason is very different from, say, disease intervention. are you trying or wanting to lose weight, lose body fat, because you are at risk for diabetes

or hypertension, cardiovascular disease, a series of different complicated diseases that are often associated and accompanied by being overweight, being out of shape, being overall unhealthy. And that approach to losing body fat, getting leaner, losing weight overall is different from the approach of getting stage, lean, and shredded. If you're just trying to prevent or cure or reverse some sort of disease, you're not trying to get striated glutes to step on a bodybuilding stage at 6% body fat. That's just the reality of it. And then there's like the middle ground of maybe you just want to lose body fat and get leaner to look better. Maybe you're preparing for the summer or you spent the last couple of months and years

balking up and putting on size. Potentially maybe you let yourself go a little bit and, you know, you started a new job, you moved, you had a kid and started a family and things fell off track and you realized over these last couple years, you've gained unwanted weight and body fat. And now there's the point in time where you want to look better naked. And that's why you want to get leaner and you want to lose body fat. Again, maybe it's not to get bone shredded, but it's to get leaner. So the first thing we have to ask ourselves is why do we want to lose body fat?

why do we want to get leaner? Why do we potentially want to get shredded? Is it the extreme of stepping on stage? Is it the extreme of saving your life and disease prevention intervention? Or is it just to feel better, look better? There are, like I said, levels to this. When I was dieting for my last bodybuilding competition, which was last March, that was a whole other level of leanness. I mean, that required my calories to get down to 1600 at the lowest body fat down to 6%. Calories and energy was so low that I couldn't sleep throughout the night. I had brain fog all the time.

I was forgetful. I couldn't function. It was an unhealthy level of leanness, but it served a very clear intent and purpose. that was short term. And that was to step on a stage as lean as possible to expose all the muscle that I had built for the years leading up to that moment.

That is the extreme. And I've done that multiple times. I've also done diets just because I wanted to get a little leaner, a little faster. And that diet and exercise protocol and intervention is much different than stepping on stage. It's more flexible.

It's more sustainable. You can still live your life like you normally would, and you're not all consumed by food and training in the scale and body fat percentages. So as I address the question, what is your goal? What level are you aiming to achieve? Keep that in mind as we move throughout this episode, some things we're going to talk about. all in regards to how to lose body fat and my caveat it with and get shredded. Because all the things that we're talking about today, you can use one to lose body fat, yes, but you can also use it to get bone shredded and step on stage.

Now, the first thing I want to address and talk about is calories in versus calories how. As I was doing some research for this podcast, and a lot of my research that I do for podcast is either reading articles, especially on a topic like this, reading articles, research studies, reading books, listening to other podcasts. One of the things that I really realized around this whole topic of losing weight, losing body fat, getting shredded, is that there's so many different approaches, there are so many different opinions, and they are very polarizing. There is the one group of people who will say calories in, calories out is the only thing

that matters. Ignore everything else. And then there's the other side of the coin or the spectrum of groups of people saying calories in, calories in, calories out, doesn't matter. It is the quality and type of food. It is when you eat it. It's how you eat it. It's your gut. It's all of these other things, hormones, metabolic function. And I fall somewhere right in the middle. Or I truly believe that calories in versus calories out is king. And it always will be king. But there's some other considerations that we have to talk about that we can't ignore.

And I think it would be ignorant and naive and irresponsible just to say that calories in first calories out is the only thing that matters. Now we know, and maybe you don't know, but I know that in order to lose weight for someone who is healthy with healthy hormone levels and metabolic functions, in a healthy nervous system, in order to lose weight, we need to be consuming less calories than we expend on a daily basis.

So if you want to lose weight, you want to lose body fat, if at baseline, you're consuming 3,000 calories, and to consume 3,000 calories a day with your training, that will maintain your current weight. Well, that means that we need to consume less than 3,000 calories.

we have to be in a chloric deficit in order to lose weight. That's tried, true, shown in science. It is scientifically validated. And if we want to maintain our current weight, we need to consume our maintenance calories. If we find that 3,000 calories is our maintenance calories with a consistent routine training protocol and energy expenditure,

if we keep consuming 3,000 calories, we will maintain our current weight. And if we want to gain weight, we want to gain body fat, we want to put on muscle, we have to be in a chloric surplus. We need to be consuming

more than we're expending. So if 3,000 is our baseline to maintain and we start consuming 3,500 calories a day in a 500 calorie surplus daily, we know that we're going to gain weight over the time. over time. We know that. Calories in first calories out. It's tried and true. Like I said,

it's validated. It works. That should be the foundation of our approach to maintaining, gaining, or losing. So if we want to lose body fat, we have to be in a caloric deficit. There are some considerations because I've seen people, I've met people, I've heard from others and groups of individuals. Calories in versus calories out, it's king. Yes, we know that. But that's considering that you have, like I said, a healthy hormone function and hormone levels. You have strong, healthy metabolism. You have a healthy nervous system that can manage stress and cortisol pretty well. And we have to identify and realize that there's this thing called the gut brain access.

So the brain is actually connected to the gut through the vagus nerve. And the gut is connected to the brain. So if we're having gut issues, sometimes it comes from our brain, our mind. And sometimes if we're having brain mind issues, it comes from the gut. It goes both ways. It is a feedback loop. It is an actual thing, the gut, brain access. And that can also cause a lot of disruptions and issues as we're trying to either lose, maintain, or gain weight.

Now, one of the first things I would recommend anyone to, do if you're trying to lose body fat, you're trying to lose weight, and you're struggling, I would get some basic blood work done. Go to your doctor. There's a lot of different telehealth clinics or businesses now that are online. You don't even have to go into the doctor's office any longer, and they will do the blood work for you. It's actually sometimes harder to go to your primary care physician and ask for a couple of. complete blood work panel. I've done it before. I've gone to my primary care physician that I would go to every couple months and just get checked up and checked in with.

And I would ask for a full blood panel just because I was curious, how are my hormones, how is my electrolyte levels, what does my metabolism look like, all of these different things, what my blood markers look like? I'm just curious. Am I healthy? from an objective lens. And when I've asked my primary care physician in the past, a lot of them question it. They're like, why do you need to do that? Now, you're fine.

You don't need that. Well, no, I'm curious. I want to know. Now, I've actually found with my primary care physicians that they won't do it. Go push back a lot. One of the things that I encouraged my dad to do a few months ago was just to go get blood work done. I was like, hey, go get a full blood panel.

Ask your PCP. Send me the results. I'm really curious. I'd love to just see what your blood levels look like. Like what objectively is the data saying, are you healthy? Are you at risk for anything? Should we be concerned as you're getting older? And he went to his primary care physician and asked for a full blood panel and they refused it.

The doctor was like, no, you don't need this. Don't worry. So it's unfortunate that the medical system actually pushes back and rejects that request often. So now we have all of these telehealth clinics, online practices that have popped up, which feels like overnight over the last couple years. You can find one of them. You can get started. They will send you a slip to go get a full blood panel done.

I think sometimes it might be covered by insurance. Sometimes it might not. But they'll send you to go to one of the lab cores or Quest Labs, which they often have like in a CVS or a Walgreens or even a hospital. I mean, it doesn't matter where you're at. You have access to a Quest Lab or a Lab Corps where you can go get blood work done. And you can go to one of these services online. They'll send you a slip.

you go to get blood work done, the full panel, they'll receive the results from the lab that took all your blood, and they'll review your blood work with you and potentially make recommendations for what you need to do, what you need to stop doing, what you could change, all these different things. And I recommend people do that at least once a year.

if not once a quarter because you might feel great. You might look great. But it's best to look under the hood. Now you're not going to go buy a vehicle and not look under the hood. Oh, this vehicle looks amazing. The salesman said it all works well. The engine's strong.

Well, if it's a used vehicle, you're often going to get a second opinion or at least pop the hood and look inside. And that's what blood work does. It's popping the hood to look inside to try to identify exactly what's going on. Where can we optimize? What are we missing? What can we change?

And sometimes when you're not making the results you want and you're following a calories in versus calories out approach, again, like I said, it's king. If you're not losing weight and you're still tracking, your calories, you're tracking your food, you know you're in a cork deficit, you'll get blood work done. See what your hormone health looks like. If your hormones are all out of whack, you're really going to struggle to lose body fat and lose weight. It can prevent you from making progress. Look in and check out your metabolic health. Are you metabolically healthy? If you're metabolically unhealthy, which for a lot of people puts them at risk for pre-diabetes or diabetes

in the future, there are changes we can make to our diet to reduce the risk and intervene before it gets out of hand. So hormone health, metabolic health, our nervous system, cortisol management, stress has a big impact on our body, our ability to lose weight, lose body fat. And understanding that there is a gut brain access where our stress, the things we experience on a daily basis, we will impact our digestion, our stomach discomfort, our gut health, all of those things. The microbes in our gut are affected through that brain gut access.

On the topic of the nervous system and cortisol management, I want to share this story because I think it's really relevant to all of this. When I was dieting for my last bodybuilding competition, I got down to 195 pounds. And my calories were at 1,600. And I hit a wall for two to three weeks. I cannot get past 195 pounds on the scale. And at the time, I was still running a lot. So I was strength training six days a week.

I was running about six days a week, anywhere from five to eight miles at a time, and my calories were very low. So I wasn't doing a really good job at fatigue management and stress management. I was actually overstressing the body. I was probably overtraining my body, especially based off the amount of calories

that I was consuming to fuel. that performance in hopes to lose more body fat, lose more weight. And I was stuck at 195 pounds. And in my head, I was thinking there's no way I can pull more calories away. 1,600 calories is low. And I should be losing significant body fat. And I started working with Brady Oak, who was my coach at that time. For the majority of that bodybuilding prep, I did most of the work

the planning diet wise training wise posing wise on my own and then brady came in towards those last couple weeks and really helped me refine my posing and my diet strategy and my carb-up approach and as i was working with him one of the things he noticed was like i said my my weight was stuck as at 195 pounds and he knew i was running about six days a week a lot of stress in the body So he encouraged me, initially I pushed back, he encouraged me to stop running until after the bodybuilding show was over. And he said that running on that low of calories in that deep of prep at that low of body fat was just raising stress in the body and cortisol levels too much.

And cortisol can wreck you. It can wreck your cortisol is, is, is, released is a byproduct from stress, anxiety, being overtrained, overworked, lack of sleep. High cortisol levels will affect your metabolic function, hormone function, your sleep, your gut health, everything. Cortisol levels that are elevated for extended periods of time will wreak havoc on the body. So Brady identified that I was probably overtrained and that my cortisol levels were probably

extremely elevated for long periods of time. And like I said, he encouraged me to stop running and switch my cardio source to something lower impact, being just walking on an inclined treadmill. And at first I pushed back because I wanted to keep running. And in my mind, I'm thinking, well, I'm burning more calories while running, while running because I'm putting out a bigger effort.

And I know I'm not going to be putting out as much of an effort on an inclined treadmill and I won't be burning as many calories. But once we made that switch, I mean, literally within 48 hours of making that switch where I stopped running for those last maybe two weeks of that bodybuilding prep. And I moved to something that was lower impact, lower stress on the body, reduced cortisol within 48 hours, my weight dropped. And I saw that scale go down to like 189 in seven days. And that showed me and clearly demonstrated the impact of elevated cortisol levels

and stress and being overtrained on the body. And what happens when we substitute and reduce that level of stress and cortisol? So the key takeaways that I want to reinforce up until this point in this episode. One, we have to identify why you want to get shredded. What is the goal? What is the purpose? What is the extreme? What is the level of it?

And then two, we know that calories in versus calories out is king. But with a caveat, there are considerations. Those considerations are healthy, hormones. levels, healthy functioning metabolism, the nervous system, cortisol, and stress management, and realizing that there's a gut, brain access. So keep that in mind as we move forward. Now, there's a difference between weight loss and fat loss, and I mentioned this briefly at the beginning of this episode. When we think about weight loss, and when people talk about weight loss.

The reality is that they're talking about fat loss for majority of people. I personally could lose five plus pounds this week. I mean, we see it with these professional UFC MMA fighters all the time. They will cut weight for a weigh in. They'll cut 20, 25, maybe even 30 pounds for a way in. And then as soon as that weigh in is done, which is, I guess, like one to two days before the fight, they'll go back to the room, they'll drink a bunch of water, they'll get electrolytes in, they'll rehydrate, they'll go get a bunch of food, eat a bunch of carbs.

And from weigh in until the fight, they can be 20 to 25 plus pounds heavier within 24 to 48 hours. So anyone can lose weight, and you can lose weight really quickly. but what I think we should be addressing is how do we lose fat? Fat is body fat is the culprit to a lot of these diseases that we're trying to prevent and cure. Body fat is what's hanging on us that is preventing us from seeing the muscle that we work so hard to build and expose. But what we don't want to do is just try to lose weight. we should be focused on losing fat because we want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible.

Few reasons. One, it looks good. When you have more muscle mass, you look stronger. You look leaner because you are. We know that body fat weighs more, or sorry, we know that muscle weighs more than body fat does. It's more dense. We also know that muscle has a positive impact and influence on metabolism and hormones and longevity,

lifespan, health span, having more body fat is extremely, sorry, having more skeletal muscle is extremely more beneficial. So the more muscle you have, naturally, the more muscle you have, naturally, the more muscle. the better. I could lose a bunch of weight overnight, but the goal is to lose body fat. Now, I think there is something to mention there. If someone is extremely overweight and obese, weight loss in general should be the primary focus. Typically, someone who is extremely overweight and obese isn't going to have a lot of quality muscle mass. because they're probably not eating a quality diet,

and they're probably not training and exercising. So the skeletal muscle that they do have is just a byproduct of daily movement and carrying around all that weight. And for a lot of people who are extremely overweight and obese, just weight loss should be the goal. Just get leaner, get healthier, get your metabolism, your hormones, your heart, healthier,

because if you are extremely overweight and obese, you're putting yourself at risk for diseases that might not be curable and death. You're killing yourself by being extremely overweight. It puts so much stress on the body, physically, emotionally, immensely. So we want to target fat loss for most people, not necessarily weight loss. I want to talk about diet. I want to talk about training. Now, diet-wise, again, calories are king.

We know calories in and of calories, calories out is the foundation of losing, maintaining, and gaining. But there's a few things to keep in mind here. Protein intake. If we're trying to lose body fat, we want to keep protein intake high. And for me, the rule of thumb is one gram per pound of body weight. So if I weigh 200 pounds, which right now I weigh about anywhere from 200 to 205 pounds, I should be aiming for 200 grams of protein a day. Now, I typically get a little bit more than that.

I'm probably consuming about 225 grams of protein a day, sometimes more. You know, if I'm eating a really big steak for dinner, or if I decide to have an extra serving of cottage cheese or weight protein or bone broth at night, my protein intake might get to 250 grams a day, which I'm not concerned about, but at a minimum I'm trying to get at least 200 grams of protein a day, one gram per pound of body weight for a few reasons. One, protein is going to help us build lean muscle tissue. And lean muscle tissue, like I said, has a positive impact on metabolism, hormones,

being leaner, being stronger, performing better in the gym. Having a higher protein intake is going to help with muscle protein synthesis. So actually building the muscle that we want to build from the training that we're doing. Protein has a thermic effect. There's a thermic effect of food. And consuming protein has a high thermic effect of food. So your body requires a lot of energy. to break down and assimilate protein that we're consuming,

breaking it down into amino acids that our body can use for all different functions in our bodies. Protein is also very satiating. So if we eat a lot of protein, it's going to make us feel full. And if we feel full, we can consume a lot of the other things that we're often tempted in craving, like high sugar or fat foods, snacking. So with every meal that I consume, and right now, for example, I consume four to five meals a day.

I'm trying to get 40 to 50 grams of protein in each one of those meals. I personally like to space my protein intake out throughout the day in 40 to 50 gram boluses or amounts at a time spaced out from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep. So we should prioritize protein intake all the time, regardless of our goals, but especially in a fat loss phase. Because as we're dieting as well, and we're trying to lose body fat, if we keep our protein intake high, it's also going to be muscle sparing. So it's going to help and ensure that we're not breaking down muscle, becoming catabolic in the process of losing weight because we want to maintain its muscle. much muscle mass as possible. So shoot for one gram of protein per pound of body weight every day, space it out throughout

multiple meals, and try to get those protein sources from high quality foods or supplements. I mean, my primary protein sources come from eggs, egg whites, chicken, beef, fish. If I'm eating fish, it's typically shrimp or salmon. No other reason than that's just what I prefer and it's always pretty accessible to us. Bone broth, you can get about 20 grams of protein in a serving of bone broth. And then protein powders, weight protein powders, plant-based protein powders. Here at BPN, we have weight protein that is a blend of weight protein concentrate. and casein protein.

We have a plant-based protein, which is pea protein, watermelon seed protein, and pumpkin seed protein. And we also have a weight protein that is unflavored and unsweetened. So we have a weight protein that we sell. It's just weight protein concentrate

and casein protein with no sweeteners, no flavors. You can add it to your baking, your smoothies, your oatmeal, however you want to do it. It's unflavored.

So that's like for me personally, my primary protein sources. We can also get protein from cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, a minimally processed beef jerky, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds. There's a bunch of different options, but I like to have protein sources readily available all the time so that I can ensure. sure I'm hitting my protein goals daily. Like I said, one gram per pound of body weight. The second thing I want to address is fiber intake. And fiber intake is it's extremely beneficial, especially while dieting in a fat loss phase because fiber is going to, again, like protein,

make you feel more satiated, more full. You can get fiber from oats. and beans and vegetables, broccoli, some fruits are denser in fiber like berries. I consume berries daily for the antioxidants, polyphenols, and fiber. Lots of different options to get fiber in your diet. Fiber has many benefits, not just to help you feel fuller or satiated, but it has great. benefits for the gut. So as you consume fiber and that fiber breaks down in the gut, it is going to be the food for the microbes in your intestines, in your gut.

Your microbes are going to live off of and feed off of the fiber you're consuming. And there's been many studies that have shown that there's an increased longevity, there's increased health span and lifespan for people who consume regular fiber intake on a daily basis for extended periods of time. Now, what I want to say about fiber is, yes, it's super beneficial, not only for fat loss, but your body is just daily function of health span and lifespan. But after listening to this episode, what I don't want you to do is look at your diet and realize you consume five grams of fiber a day and tomorrow start consuming 50 grams of fiber a day because that will

wreck your stomach. That will wreck your gut. You'll be gassy. You'll be bloated. You might be constipated. You might have IBS because you went from five grams, 50 grams. You want to slowly ramp that up. So maybe you're at five grams right now. Try getting 15 grams for the next couple of weeks. 15 grams feels good on your stomach and your gut and you feel good. Go to 20 grams and then 25 grams and 30 grams. I think 30 grams of fiber daily is a good baseline for most people. But don't ramp that up too fast because you will have issues.

and you might say, oh, I just don't respond to fiber. Well, no, it's because you ramped it up too fast. It's got to be a, it's like a dimmer switch. It's not a light switch. It's a dimmer switch. Slowly dim that fiber intake up slowly. And there might be certain foods or fiber sources that you can manage and deal with better than others.

Maybe broccoli wrecks you. And it makes you super gassy, very bloated, very uncomfortable, but you can do oats and you can do quinoa, you can do beans, and you can do berries, and your stomach feels fine on that. Well, then move towards those options. There has to be a common sense approach applied to all of this where introduce new foods, see how your body responds. If it responds well, keep it, write it down. If it doesn't respond well, well, there's a few things you can do. One, eliminate it, throw it away, or slowly ramp up that dose that you're consuming. You know, if broccoli hurts your stomach, but it's because you ate three cups of broccoli,

maybe start with half a cup of broccoli. If you can manage half a cup of broccoli, go to a cup of broccoli, then a cup and a half of broccoli. Again, dimmer switch. Not a light switch, dimmer switch. A lot of people think that they are food intolerant to a lot of things, and they might be, I'm not saying you're not food intolerant, but it might be a few different reasons. It might be that you just introduce that food into your diet, so there needs to be an acclimation period, or you introduce too much, too fast. You need to dim that up. So protein, let's prioritize, fiber, let's prioritize, but slowly ramp it up.

Next thing I want to talk about is the difference between unprocessed, processed, processed and ultra-processed foods, especially when it comes to fat loss. Unprocessed foods would be an egg. It would be meat. It would be fish. It would be fruit, vegetables, natural unprocessed foods. majority of our diet should come from these natural, unprocessed foods. You're going to get a lot of vitamins, minerals, essential nutrients out of these natural unprocessed foods. Then we have processed foods. And a lot of foods are actually minimally processed.

Sometimes you think just because it comes in a package or a can that it is, heavily processed. But it might be minimally processed. Like if you look at beans that come in a can or even pistachios, for example, those are minimally processed.

They have to be deshelled. They have to be cooked. They have to be boiled. They have to be in cans so that you can take them out of the can and consume them. There is processing that is applied to a lot of our foods. And just because it is processed does not mean that it is bad for you.

a lot of foods that we consume on a daily basis that we actually don't think are minimally processed or minimally processed. Protein powder, for example, is a minimally processed food. We have to do some sort of process to it through the milk and cheese, cultivation, and curation to have the byproduct of weight protein. It's minimally processed. But then the other extreme is ultra-processed foods. Ultra-processed foods is what we should stay away from. Majority of our diet should be natural, unprocessed foods.

And then a lot of minimally or processed foods are okay to have in our diet. And we're going to have them in our diet on a daily basis. Milk is a minimally processed food, for example. we want to stay away or minimize ultra-process foods. Ultra-processed foods really aren't foods at all. And I was listening to a podcast of the day where they mentioned that companies and brands shouldn't be able to even market or label or talk about ultra-processed foods as foods. It should be called a food-like substance.

Sometimes certain cheeses actually can't be called cheese. because they're not cheese at all. It's like cheese-like product. Ultra-processed foods are typically, as it states, ultra-processed. You're not going to find them in any natural, minimally processed state in the world, in the environment. They're often modified, injected, made with hydrogenated oils, sugar, high fructose corn syrups, and they will wreak havoc on the body. And some of these ultra-processed foods that are high in hydrogenated oils and sugar,

the more you eat them, the more you crave them. Your body, the more it consumes these ultra-processed foods, doesn't understand hunger cues anymore. You don't know when you're full or not. You don't know what is satiating because they're not. satiating. It makes you want more sugar, makes you want more fat, makes you want more of the ultra-processed foods. So if you're going to consume ultra-processed foods, let's use Oreos, for example. If you're going to consume some Oreos, and I'm not here to say never eat an Oreo,

you might go have an Oreo. You might have dessert or cake or something from time to time. I would encourage you to eat it or consume it after you've already had a meal that is based around a quality protein source, healthy carbs that has a higher fiber intake, and then some healthy fats. Because when you consume the protein, you consume the fiber, you have that foundation of quality nutrition, and then you have something that's ultraprison. processed after, you're not going to want to keep eating that ultra-processed food. You might be able to have one Oreo and be satisfied instead of eating the entire sleeve. For me, for example, when me and Steph go for dinner, we like to order dessert at the end. We don't always eat the entire dessert. When I'm out at dinner, I'm usually ordering something, like 99.9% of the time that is,

is protein forward. I prioritize protein. That's how I order my meals, so I make my meals. I'll either get like a chicken dish or a steak dish or something that's based around fish. But when I look at a menu,

I'm looking for an item that has at least I'm hoping six to eight ounces of protein coming from meat. And I'll try to get a quality carb source that hopefully has at least five to ten grams of fiber in it. And then we will get dessert at the end. Steph and I will.

But I'm never tempted to eat the entire thing. I can have one bite, two bites, maybe three bites, and I'm good. That's just me personally. I don't have a massive sweet tooth. But if I was to show up to this dinner and I was starving and you put the dessert in front of me right away and I take one bite and that sugar hits me, those hydrogenated oils hit me, I might try to consume that whole thing.

That's what those processes or those foods are made to do. These ultra-processed foods are made for us to want more and not leave feeling full or satiated. So if you're trying to lose body fat, you should minimize or potentially even eliminate ultra-processed foods, but if you're going to consume them, consume them after you've had a meal that is protein forward and has a decent amount of fiber in it.

The next thing I want to talk about is definitely controversial. It's seed oils. And I've definitely changed my mind about seed oils over these last two years. Because when the whole seed oil information came out, I mean, it's always been around, I believe, but it got really popular on social media about two years ago. It's like anti-seed oil, everything. Seed oils are these omega-6,

inflammatory oils, like canola oil, palm oil, palm oil, oils that you would fry things in, typically. These oils got a bad rap really quickly, especially on social media. And one thing that I did initially when I heard all this information is I went into our fridge that next day

and I threw everything away that had a seed oil in it. One of these omega-6 high inflammatory oils. Canola oil is a highly or vegetable oil. These oils are used in a lot of stuff.

Salad dressings. They're added to just about everything, truly, everything. And I went home after hearing about all this seed oil talk, and I read some books and listened to the podcast, and I threw everything away, which I'm not saying is wrong. And I was almost afraid of seed oils. I think a lot of people now are afraid of seed oils. I was at dinner with someone a few months ago,

and they asked the server how the food is cooked, what kind of oils were used. And they responded with, you know, we used canola oil in the back. And the person that I went to dinner with refused to eat anything at this restaurant because there was canola oil that was used to cook the foods, which to each their own, but I think that is extreme, and that's just a fear of food. It's a fear of food.

Where I've learned over time since then, and I changed my mind, I'm not necessarily anti-seed oil anymore with a caveat, but it's all about the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids that you consume on daily basis. Omega-3 fatty acids are amazing for the body, powerful. You know, olive oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids. Some nuts and seeds are really high in omega-3 fatty acids. you have fish oil that is very high in omega-3 fatty acids. We sell a fish oil supplement called Strong Omega

that is omega-3 fatty acids high in EPA and DHA from 100% wild-caught fish in the triglyceride form. Omega-3 fatty acids are... like it says in the name, essential for your body, for your heart, for your brain, metabolic function, hormone function. The thing about seed oils is we want to reduce the amount of omega-6 fatty acids or these seed oils that we're consuming and increase the amount of omega-3 fatty acids that we're consuming. So it's all about the ratio.

It's not necessarily that we have to be afraid of seed oils. or completely eliminate, but we need to minimize. So I think it is smart that as you're doing your shopping and you're bringing food into your home and your meal prepping and you're buying these condiments or whatever it is you're buying, look at the back of the food labels and opt for food options, food sources that don't have these industrial seed oils like canola oil, vegetable oil, palm oil, and try to move towards options that one don't have any oils at all

because a lot of times these foods don't need oils in them. But if we're going to have oils in them, maybe it's an extra virgin olive oil or an avocado oil. That's why I love primal kitchens, dressings and sauces and maraudes and condiments. It's primal kitchens. All their stuff is avocado oil based. and the reason that I like to remove, eliminate, minimize all that in our home is because I know that when we're going out to dinner, whether it's a restaurant or it's one of these places that just makes healthy to go custom bowls for you. I assume that I'm going to be consuming seed oils or these am mega six fatty acids when I go to dinner.

So I'm going to try to minimize them as much as possible in my home. knowing and assuming that I'm going to consume them unintentionally when I'm out. So it's not necessarily that we need to eliminate or be afraid of seed oils, but we need to minimize and it needs to be an appropriate ratio where they should be reduced and omega-3 fatty acid should be increased. And some things that we can think about as we're approaching our diet to lose body fat. there's really easy food substitutions that we can make that will facilitate less calories. So when we think about consuming less calories, going back to the king of calories in versus calories out,

a lot of times people think that they need to reduce their portion sizes, which might be part of it. But instead of reducing portion sizes, maybe we start with just some food substitutions. So for lunch, if you're typically consuming ground beef and rice, and that ground beef is 80, 20, being 80% lean, 20% fat, well, maybe we switch that to 937, which is a leaner ground beef. Or maybe we switch to a chicken breast, which is even leaner. I mean, if you do eight ounces of 80, 20 ground beef, you're probably getting something like 34 grams of fat, which is a lot of fat in one sitting, as opposed to you could do eight ounces of chicken breast, which might have six grams of fat in it.

So just that food substitution alone, which doesn't change your portion size at all, but it's much less chlorically dense choosing a leaner option. So if you want to lose body fat, that's one way that you can start making changes. Maybe you do egg whites and some whole eggs as opposed to all whole eggs. You know, if you have six eggs in the morning, for example, that's going to give you about 48 grams of protein, about 40 to 45 grams of fat. So maybe you do two whole eggs and a cup of egg whites,

where you're getting 40 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat. So where can you make food substitutions that are less chlorically dense options or just leaner, especially coming from meats? Can we reduce, minimize or eliminate nut butter that we're consuming? Peanut butter, for example, a lot of people don't realize that peanut butter has about 16 grams of fat per serving. And I can guarantee you, if you're not measuring or weighing out your peanut butter, you might

be consuming two to three servings. You can easily get 45 grams of fat from some peanut butter that you threw on a peanut butter and jelly or you put in your oatmeal in the morning. And just by removing that, you can save a lot of calories. We can minimize, eliminate, remove oils, condiments, dressings, or maybe we just substitute those dressings for something else. Instead of using, you know, a ranch dressing or a sweet baby raised barbecue sauce, which Sweet Baby Raised barbecue sauce, the main ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. Instead of putting that on our lunch every day, which might add up to 100 to 200 extra calories, maybe we do some hot sauce and coconut aminos, which is like five to 10 calories.

So what can we substitute? We don't have to, again, reduce our portion sizes significantly. We don't have to eliminate certain foods, but we can substitute. smarter, more effective, less chlorically dense food options. And it can make the biggest difference. I mean, I've seen a lot of people just lose body fat and lose weight by removing soda from their diet. Some people don't realize they're consuming 500 extra calories a day, maybe even more, because they consume soda and not diet soda, but like the full sugar soda.

I don't know why people still buy full sugar soda. I mean, if you're going to drink soda, if you need soda, get a diet soda. Get a diet soda. And you can save 250 to 500 plus calories a day. And you can probably lose significant body fat just by doing that. And you're not getting this sugar rush and sugar crash and these empty calories that aren't satiating at all. When I'm trying to lose body fat, what I want to do is make food choice. and decisions that are going to make me feel full.

So one of my hacks is a big salad while I'm dieting. That's very high in volume. It's going to make me feel full. And it's lower on calories. So I might do like a big bowl and the base will be arugula, spinach, remain lettuce. I'll put some rice on there. I'll do some chicken. I might do some pickled onions, some olive, some cut up cucumber, tomato.

maybe a little bit of hummus and a little bit of like a primal kitchen's dressing or just balsamic vinegar like just balsamic vinegar maybe five or ten calories in there and this is a high volume meal i'm going to feel so full for so long it's dense in maybe there's some beans in there too it stands in protein it stands in fiber it's high volume it's lower calorie and it's going to make you feel full for a long period of time eat too. of those a day. And you will have no problem losing weight or body fat. So let's talk about training.

The most effective way to train. The goal with training to facilitate fat loss is to maintain muscle, build muscle, expend calories, improve our VO2 max, maintain and improve hormone and metabolic adaptations. And this is why my go-to is always going to be strength training, even before cardio. If my goal is fat loss, I'm going to choose strength over cardio. Now, I like to have approach. I like to have a plan that incorporates both strength and cardio, but if you're going have to choose one. What is the best training you can do to facilitate fat loss? Strength training. For multiple reasons that we already talked about. Building lean muscle mass

is thermogenic. When you have more muscle mass, it requires more calories to maintain. It's going to burn. It's going to expend more calories. You're going to have a better functioning, healthier metabolism, hormone health. You'll feel stronger. You'll look stronger. that is the number one thing that you can do for fat loss. And on top of that, adding in some cardiovascular conditioning, it doesn't have to be running, can be running, can be low, steady state cardio. And this helps expend more calories,

improve VO2 max. It's going to help with heart health. It's going to help with mental clarity, circulation, and just moving more. So training-wise, there's a bunch of different methods that you can use. Or I should say, there's few concepts, many methods to approach training to facilitate weight loss or fat loss. But I would prioritize your strength training and then supplementing. with cardiovascular conditioning.

Something else I want to mention is, you know, training, whether that's strength or cardiovascular conditioning for fat loss, we oftentimes think of it being just for energy expenditure. It's not. It's the build muscle like we already talked about. But energy expenditure is a factor to consider when we're talking about calories in first calories out. If we know we need to be, say, in a 500 calorie deficit from our maintenance calories to lose weight.

So going back to the original example, consuming 3,000 calories a day is going to maintain your current weight. If you go down to 2,500 calories, you know we're going to lose weight. That 2,500 calorie deficit does not have to come from all training. It does not have to come from all diet and food. doesn't mean you have to consume 500 calories less a day. Maybe you're consuming 250 calories less a day and you're expending 250 extra calories during your training sessions. Now, I'm not a big fan of tracking, monitoring,

and calculating your energy expenditure from training in trying to factor that in or fit that in or play the math game to find out what kind of deficit you're in. I just, I don't like to do that. I like to just go train, go run, get on a stair master, incline treadmill for extended period of time, and ballpark how many calories and burning. There's different ways we expend energy, one through training, exercise, and then there's neat, N-E-A-T.

Neat is non-exercise, activity, thermogenesis. Neat is all the things we do outside of exercise that's going to expend and burn calories. And some people have a higher neat than others. So this is just the amount of walking around you're doing on a daily basis. If someone is cleaning houses, for example, and they're moving around a lot and they're very active, their neat is going to be higher in the workplace and someone who sits at a front desk and takes calls all day. If you're sitting at a front desk and taking calls all day, you're not moving much, your energy expenditure is very low. But if you're working a job that's not really exercise

focus, but it's active, you will be expending calories through neat. Neat also can happen just through fidgeting. If you see someone who is very lean, you just watch them out and about. They're naturally very lean. They might fidget a lot where you watch them under the table and their leg is constantly tapping. Their fingers are constantly tapping. They're moving, their arms and their body all around. They talk with their hands a lot. That movement is actually non-exercise activity thermogenesis. You're still expending a lot of calories. And those calories you're expending compound and add up on a daily basis. So typically when you see someone who is naturally very lean, they have a high meat. Now I'm not saying that you should go and try and fidget throughout the day

or tap your feet or tap your hand or talk with your hands more. But it's something to be mindful of that you expend calories not just through exercise, but on a daily basis. of what you're doing. I do believe that trying to get more steps in on a daily basis has a huge impact and factors in your ability to lose weight and lose body fat. I know for me I try to at least get 15,000 steps in a day, and that's pretty easy when I'm running. I mean, by 6.15 a.m., I'm already at 11 to 12,000 steps typically because I run in the

morning. So getting an extra 3 to 4,000 steps is, It's not hard by any means. Majority of the days, my steps are well over 20,000. And that has a huge impact on my ability to stay lean year round. So we expend energy through exercise and non-exercise activity thermogenesis. And the last thing I really want to talk about all around fat loss, body fat, how to get treaded. You know, there's a lot of diet tribes online right now.

There's a carnivore tribe. There's an intermittent fasting tribe. There's the vegan tribe. There's in the beginning of the paleo tribe, the anti-seed oil tribe. There's all these tribes on social media who are pushing a certain narrative, a certain diet. And I truly believe the things I shared today are pretty foundational that if you apply and modify slightly to fit your schedule, your preferences, your routine, get your blood work done, find out what works for you, what foods you enjoy, what modifications and substitutions you can incorporate to just make smarter, healthier food choices,

train more effectively, more efficiently. You will make progress. You will lose weight. You will lose body fat. These diet tribes that are trying to push a certain narrative or a one-size-fits-all approach to everyone, in my opinion, is, false, incorrect, and irresponsible. We have to keep in mind that there's a difference between causation and correlation.

Causation indicates that one event is the result of the occurrence of another event. I do this. I do X, Y happens. That's a causation. A correlation is a measure of a degree of relation between two sets of data. So X happened. but just by doing X, we also saw that Y happened, but there wasn't necessarily a cause between X and Y.

Sometimes when people start a new diet and it works, and they share this and these results with other people, they think it's because of a causation, but reality there's a correlation. Example, you take someone who is sedentary, has a poor diet, doesn't exercise, doesn't train at all. And you put them on a ketogenic diet or you put them on a vegan diet or you put them on a

carnivore diet or you put them on any type of diet, they're going to see results. They're going to most likely normally see progress. And they're going to say, I made progress because of X. I made progress because I eliminated meat. I made progress because I eliminate. plants. I made progress because I eliminated carbs and I went all in on fats. But it's a correlation because they went from doing nothing or something very little of and then they added structure and discipline and routine and they made progress. Now, I'm not downplaying any of these diets

because if it works for you, great. The best diet is one that works for you. That is sustainable, flexible and works for you personally. But just because there's a correlation does not mean there's a causation. We know through research that fiber intake, for example, reduces risk of many diseases. We know that reducing body fat and overall weight beyond a certain point will reduce risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, pre-diabetes, diabetes. There's a call between X and Y. But a lot of things that we hear from diet tribes or certain approaches and ways to

lose weight, lose body fat is actually from correlation. I just share that to be mindful that if something worked for someone, it might work for you, but it might not. depends on going back to the beginning of this podcast. What is the level that you're trying to approach us at? What experience are you coming from? What is your background? So I hope this information helps you approach your journey,

your goals of losing weight, primary focus, losing body fat, getting leaner, and potentially getting bone shredded. So thanks for tuning in, guys. And we'll see you in the next episode.