The Shintaro Higashi Show - Will Judo Help Me Lose Weight?

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

Many people participate in sports to lose weight and get in better shape, and Judo is no exception. As a result, it's worth taking a close and honest look at the question "Will Judo Help Me Lose Weight?" Intuitively, the answer is a resounding yes given how physically demanding Judo is, but is it really the case? What other factors might be at play here? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter go on a deep dive on the benefits, and drawbacks, of Judo in terms of weight loss. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

hello everyone welcome back to the shintaro higashi show with peter yu today we're going to answer the question will judo help me lose weight yeah that's uh a lot of people may have this question i mean a lot of people start at physical activities to lose weight yes very true so in particular yeah so how does judo you know fare well compared to other sports or will it really help judo can help you lose weight so the answer always is yes and no because judo by itself will help you burn calories that's for certain right but you can't outrun a bad diet they always say so it's a multi-factor thing sleep diet and exercise those are the three pillars of health right if you're not eating healthy, then you're taking in too many calories,

then you are burning a Cheeto, then you're going to gain weight. If you're not sleeping well, you're not recovering, and you're not feeling good, therefore you're going to crave more carbohydrates. You're going to eat a little bit more now, right? Same thing, right?

Calorie surplus equals gaining weight. And now also, if you want to look at it from like a sort of energy standpoint of like high intensity interval training versus low intensity steady state those are two completely different energy systems right and then it's like what's better for weight loss you know going for a really long walk or doing 10 sprints you know and people talk about sort of like this afterburn effect but yeah that's the thing you know you burn more calories later on through the day, but because you've exerted yourself so hard,

your body naturally becomes a little bit more sedentary in order to make up for that. You know what I mean? It also triggers a hunger response. Yeah. Can you come to judo? I always get hungry. Yeah, so can you come to judo 7 to 9 p.m.,

like work out crazy hard, super high intensity, burn a ton of calories and then not eat for the rest of the evening can people do that some people do that some people are like i'm nauseous after judo he is a good example he's like after judo i'm so nauseous like i'll have a protein shake and i'll call it you know what i mean so if you're that kind of a person yes but like if i do hard judo i get home and i chill out for a little while i'm gonna eat like till the cows come home you know what i mean i'll eat so much i'm like that too yeah and then next morning i'll feel guilty i'll go to the gym i'll lift weights lifting weights naturally don't doesn't

burn that much calories you know what i mean oh it doesn't no you could lift weights like cardio you could do like super setting, like lighter weight, like one thing to another circuit type weightlifting. But the way I lift weights for hypertrophy, you're not burning that many calories. Ah, you're trying. Yeah, I see.

Right. Yeah. So now I'll lift weights. Now I'm even hungrier. I'll eat, you know, to replenish. I'll go to judo again,

you know, and I'll even justify like, Oh, I'm going to go judo tonight. So I'm going to eat a big meal. What's a big meal. So then, you know what I mean? justify like oh i'm gonna go judo tonight so i'm gonna eat a big meal what's a big meal then you know what i mean yeah volume like quality like i could eat 2 000 calories in pasta easily but 2 000 calories in salad is too much volume that's super right i can't eat all that nor will i enjoy it so generally it's oh man, I did judo last night. I feel good. You know, my hunger is up.

I lifted weights. I've replenished. I'm going to get ready for judo. You know, what am I craving right now? Like going into that kind of a workout, it's going to be carbs, right? So this would be a carby pasta dish. Too many calories. And am I going to be able to burn off all that at judo?

Probably not, right? So like if you kind of have that sort of pattern slash mentality slash response to high intensity training then it's probably not going to help you lose weight you know that's a that's a very real answer yeah you're not like yeah well so what if okay let's play uh this hypothetical game um what what would you how would you approach judo if you were to just maximize it to lose weight would you even do judo yeah you can 100 yeah like so how would you do it do you even do you even need to do a randori or just a lot of uchikomis? Or, yeah, what would be the best way to, you know, use up all your calories in judo?

Very good question. Very good question. If you do hard rindori, you need to recover between rounds. Okay? Right. Risk of injury is high. If you tweak your knee, now you can't train for the rest of the night.

Right. You know what I mean? So, like, if your primary goal is to lose weight, and this is the beauty of the night right you know what i mean so like if your primary goal is to lose weight and this is a beauty judo you go in for a practice sometimes it's two hours long yeah you know what i mean so like you could design this training sessions for you to lose weight in the most ideal way that your body gonna have the most response to so for me if i wanted to like all right fat burn you know i'm a consumer i'm a you know going to judo and as a client right as a student and my goal is to lose weight get there

at 6 30 this is like within the infrastructure of my dojo yeah class starts at 7 get there at 6 30 do my warm-ups you know x stretch whatever feel good And then once practice starts, it's constant movement. Uchikomi, constant movement. Uchikomi, constant movement. Movement drills, constant movement. Nagakomi, constant movement. And then during the time when there's sort of downtime in between rounds, you're sort of not pacing but walking back and forth and doing like movements on the wall, right?

Because those little movements add up, okay? Like foot sweeps and little foot sweeps in there. Yeah, foot sweeps. Even they could do bodyweight squats and go nuts but like yeah you don't want to really like tax the muscle because you're not trying to get muscle growth right you're trying to create right it's the equivalent to like you could walk for two hours straight and burn a thousand calories you could do that can you do sprinting for two hours straight no no yeah can you burn a thousand calories and sprinting yes but you know how hard that is to do and that's really hard on the joints

right yeah so you can't do the same workout the next day right you need you could do 20 sprints yeah you need to recover but if you walk for two hours today can you walk for two hours tomorrow yes you can walk two hours on wednesday yes You can walk two hours on Wednesday. Yes, you can. Same thing with judo, right? If you're coming in here with a purpose, just be at judo as much as possible, right? With minimum impact on your body. So like lower intensity, constant movement, even Rundori, right? You want to sort of reduce the intensity so you could do more rounds. Do more rounds, right?

Safely. So you want to be out there Do more rounds, right? Safely. So you want to be out there as much as possible, lots of movement, lots of drills, right? Minimize the risk, and then you want to be able to come back and do it the next day and the day after that and the day after that. And a lot of the times, like, a lot of schools don't have judo five, six nights a week.

We don't because we have other martial arts being taught in the same space. So Monday night, you do judo. Two nights a week we don't right because we have other martial arts being taught in the in the same space so monday night you do judo two hour workouts pretty good you know you come early 30 minutes and you do some push-ups then you could put yourself through a two hour plus workout two and a half hour workout right you know right not going hard the whole time because you need to be recovered for tomorrow right so you could do a monday night judo for two and a half hours so you could burn a ton of calories that way don't replenish don't replenish if you're not going too hard it won't trigger a hunger response like this you know what i mean keep the intensity and then you eat recover whatever it is tuesday you could do a weight lifting workout you could

do like a long steady state cardio workout yeah By the time Wednesday rolls around for practice, you could do it again. The judo practice, same judo practice. Thursday, same as Tuesday, Friday, and then you kind of have weekends to do whatever you want. You want to stay active, obviously. And then you have to watch your diet. You have to count your calories

and stay under a certain calorie sort of range. You know what I mean? That's how you use judo for weight loss. Episode over. you know what i mean that's how you use judo for weight loss episode over so that um it's it's just the theme is just being consistent and then uh you know taking care of your body enough that it's got you you can keep doing it like sustained activity and then you basically that it comes down to that like calorie in calorie out like you just want to keep the number going out higher than number coming in

yeah yeah some people have this trigger like this hunger response that gets triggered man with hard exercise yeah i'm like that right i'm like that man i could you know work out really hard in a day like i could lift hard in the morning, do tons of Judo. And then at night, like eat 5,000 calories. I could do that. How do you, obviously you don't do that all often.

Dude, you remember when, in like 2016, like I, you know, I would go to dance class in the morning. I would go to ballet for 90 minutes. Then I would go to the gym.

I would lift weights. And then I would do like, you know, I was hanging out and do Judo, hard Judo at night. And then in the morning i'll go to ballet for 90 minutes then i would go to the gym i would lift weights and then i would do like you know i was hanging out and do judo hard judo night and then in the evening i would eat anything i wanted in the dinner time and then right before i went to bed i would do a pint of ice cream pint i remember those days that was a norm for me you know and sometimes like if i you know sometimes i'll get chubby from that and sometimes I could sort of, you know, be lean from that too, depending on how much I was working out. Right. The older I got, you know, I can't really work out like that anymore, you know? Right.

Yeah. Oh, three sessions a day. That's a lot. Yeah. I mean, I can still do it, but it's just too much time. How do you combat your hunger response? If you get it. I mean, so eating like low-calorie, high-volume foods is important.

You know what I mean? So if you could take a container, like a half a liter of, not half a liter, half a quart, you know, the egg whites, you could empty that whole freaking thing into the pan, and it's only 250 calories, and it's very filling all right oh egg whites yeah so like you could definitely do that you can make it taste good you can mix it in with sausage you can put some cheese on there you know that way at least you get your macros in first right right and then being prepared to do so because this is the worst one you're hungry after judo and you go out to eat for dinner and then you're like all

right look at this list what do i want i'll fucking eat the bread i'll take the appetizer i want that you know yeah and now it's over you know oh i know i know but if you want to lose weight like in judo i honestly think it's like reduce the intensity, do more rounds. Reduce the risk, do more rounds. And during the practice, always be moving. Always be moving. That's actually, I feel like a lot of people don't think that way. A lot of people think, oh, I got to go as hard as I can in judo to lose weight. You're burning more calories in a short burst, but over the stretch time.

It's the difference between sprinting and running a marathon. These marathon runners burn crazy amount of calories. They can run 26 minutes in a sustained pace. I'm not saying go out and run a marathon, because most people's joints can't handle that kind of stuff. You have to train and build your body up for that. And in that process, you're going to develop plantar fasciitis, shin splints, and all this stuff.

But anybody can walk. No, I shouldn shouldn't say anybody but most people can walk if you can't walk you could swim right and if you can't swim you could do some kind of exercise or you're just moving your arms or do something you know you do it for a sustained period of time you're going to burn calories and judo too you have to look at it in that way if your goal is to lose weight right it gets so easy to get wrapped up with your ego way. If your goal is to lose weight, right? It gets so easy to get wrapped up with your ego. Like, no, now my goal is to take Peter down. Now my goal is to go against that guy, you know? And it feels natural to say, the harder I go, the more I'll burn.

And yes, it makes sense, right? Because when your lungs are burning and you're sucking wind, you feel like you're burning tons of calories, right? But you're also setting yourself up, you know, that's sort of conflicting with your goals right right because if you get hurt let me tell you you're not going to work out you just can't physically can't no you're gonna lie there in bed feeling sorry for yourself and you reach for the ice cream i know that's how i get you know hurt my knee it's like oh man i can't freaking grapple today it's like oh i can't really go for a run or work out or live i'm just gonna right you know it took me a long

time to kind of combat that and you know sometimes like you know the chubbiest i've been it's because i got hurt i threw my back out sitting around feeling sorry for myself eating ice cream you know we all kind of have these moments. These moments. Yeah. And it's a little bit of weakness. Yeah. Who doesn't?

You know what I mean? It's like comfort food. When you're a kid, you get sad. Your mom bakes you a cake and everything's better, right? Yeah. Aw. Blame my mama. Making me soft.

She's a great cook. She's a great cook. So, yeah. If your goal is to lose weight, you have to approach judo in a way that is going to help you maximize and get towards that goal you know what i mean so i guess in in so will judo help me lose weight going back to the original question yeah i see now why you said it's it's more But I guess one thing I'll say, though, is I guess not a lot of people, not everyone finds judo fun. But for me, it's fun.

So even if I'm a little hurting or, you know, all that, like I want to see my friends, that it forces me to, like I have more fun going to judo than going to the gym. It's more social i think yeah the unique thing about judo the social aspect is you're always linked up arm to arm where you could kind of see each other and you're close you're always in proximity so when you look at the person's eyeballs and you're talking to them you know you could smell the breath on them you know very intimate you know and if you look at a place like a gym like a dojo majority of people are in shape yeah like 95 of the people in the practice yesterday

like if you look at them with clothes on you know yeah they're all in shape they're fit like yeah yeah you know obviously some people are much more leaner some people are shredded some people are chubby but the vast majority like 95 of the room is in shape by anybody's standards yeah so if you put yourself in that room and now all of a sudden this becomes a norm and you're a little bit chubbier you're naturally going to gravitate towards that because you're going to pick up the habits that these people are doing yeah they're going to tell you about how they eat if you're curious every time i go out and have lunch with george or something he i'm like ashamed ashamed into like every time i go to dinner with him and he's like sitting there he's like let me get two steaks uh two salads mix the

two salads dressing on the side uh you know what i'm not gonna eat the dressing and then he's like shoveling the vegetables and the meat down and then he's like you know i'm like sitting there like once a day right chewing on the bread and he's like why would he put that shit in your body you know and it's like it makes me want to be you know yeah and when when you see his body you're like oh my god yeah probably inspirational like him great god it starts with like i see george takes his shirt off i feel bad about myself and then i'm like all right i gotta get i gotta get there and then like i have dinner with him and it's like all right i gotta eat like that i guess you know

like it's so he puts so much work into it he does yeah you can get you can get inspiration and other thing is that it's because it's more fun to me i'll at least drag myself even if i don't feel like going yeah like i if i don't feel like going to the gym i don't yeah but if i don't feel like going to judo or bjj i still remember oh you know at least i know i'll have fun so i'll like drag my ass out yeah yeah that's another thing and then when you get there and people are working out hard, you want to work out hard too. Exactly.

I think that's another thing. I know that not everyone finds grappling that way, but at least for me. So maybe if you have a hard time getting out there and trying to be more active, find a sport. Find something that will get you out. Do more rounds is the key, dude. You got to do more rounds.

And they say don't redline. You know the redlining? What does that mean? So it's like when you're running, right? You want to go for long distance and then all of a sudden you get too out of breath and now you have to stop. Now you're not running. So you're not like redlining it. Like if you're looking at it in terms of an engine and you have the different gears. You know, sometimes you shift from second to third gear and then, but if it redlines, it's bad for the engine.

Right, right, right. So same idea with like judo. Let's just say there's 10 rounds of Rondori, right? And if you get too tired on the first one, you need to take the second one off. So same idea with judo. Let's just say there's 10 rounds of Rondori, right? And if you get too tired on the first one, you need to take the second one off. And then maybe on the third round, you're trying to get out there, but it's too full. Now you've taken off two rounds.

Now you're pretty much cold coming in full. You missed two, three rounds of valuable time of just getting a calorie burn, right? But if you do one, you don't redline, I'm capable of going, and then the next guy comes in and you're moving and you're moving. You go for a third, a fourth, a fifth. Now all of a sudden you have momentum and you're just a calorie burning machine.

You know what I mean? Low intensity. I redline a lot. Steady state. Yeah. You know, and yeah, it's good to like burn your lungs out and stuff like that. But let me tell you something. Once you have that hard practice, the next day you're going to be a lot more sedentary.

Yeah. I'm definitely beat. Yeah. Yeah. I know like last week I took like a Thursday off because like Wednesday morning I went to lift weights. And then Brian Glick came and we did jiu-jitsu. We did two hours. And then I filmed some stuff for YouTube for like an hour.

So that alone, it's like a four-hour workout and i did judo at night you know i'm not doing judo the whole time but judo is a two-hour thing you know like i was like active for like five or six hours out of the day you know what i mean and i did harvard dory that night too yeah so thursday i was like you know what i woke up like it's supposed to be leg day but you know what? I woke up and like, it's supposed to be leg day, but you know what? I'm just going to do like cardio. And then I like didn't really work out and, you know, I'm not training for anything. I had a very sedentary day after that. You know, I spent most of the day like sitting around doing nothing. Then I burned, you know, any extra calories.

Not really. I could have gone for a walk. Yeah. But I had a very sedentary. Yeah. Average it out it's like it's lower than if you had just taken it a little easier on wednesday and it worked out on third uh probably but this is the thing too man i was starving on thursday man i was like

i was fighting it every step of the way you know i wanted i think i ate pizza even too like last thursday i was like maybe i'll order a pizza. And I think I did. And I ate like four slices. It was really bad. You know what I mean? So it's like the hunger response is like real. And I was sedentary. Yeah, it was pretty bad.

You kind of got to stay ahead of it. You have to know your body, how you're going to react to exercise. And yeah, I had four slices of pizza. It was like two regular slices and two sausage slices. That was way too much, you know? Sounds good, though. But, you know, it netted to like, it netted up out to like probably zero for the two days. That's okay.

Because I expended so much on Wednesday. But like that, it shouldn't have to be like that, you know? And yes, I could have been a little bit harder on myself on the diet. I think going too hard also backfires, I guess, in both ways. If you're too strict with yourself, there's maybe more chance for you to binge and then break. Anyway. Yeah, so that's my thing about losing weight using judo can judo help you lose weight absolutely but you have to know yourself and you have to manage your diet and then your responses to hunger and training and all the stuff doing more rounds

doing it safe being risk averse in the gym because your goal is to lose weight not if you get hurt i'm telling you you're gonna get fat yeah every time i get hurt i gain a little bit of fat 100 of course of course yeah the longer i could stay in calorie free yeah the more i'm in shape always you know that makes sense that makes sense that's the only thing that works yeah so yeah that wraps it up man thank you guys yeah you know thank you yeah thanks for listening i hope uh hope you guys found found this episode helpful and thanks for listening and stay tuned for the next episode