Well with Arielle Lorre - 478: How to Get Leaner Without Eating Less: The Truth About Metabolism, Protein, and Training

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Dr. Joey Munoz is a nutrition and fitness expert with a PhD in nutritional sciences who helps people cut through the noise around weight loss, metabolism, and training to build healthier, stronger bodies without extreme diets or unsustainable routines.In this episode, Joey joins me to break down the biggest mistakes women make when trying to lose weight and why doing “everything right” can sometimes leave you feeling more frustrated with your body. We talk about why you can actually become more critical of your appearance as you get closer to your goals, the concept of perception drift, and how to get leaner and change your body composition without necessarily losing more weight. He shares the order of operations he recommends for anyone who wants to change their body, what to prioritize in the gym as we age, and the habits people who effortlessly maintain a lean physique tend to have in common.We also get into the truth about calories and metabolism, whether yo-yo dieting really damages your metabolism, why low-carb diets often backfire, how to use macros without becoming obsessive, and why breakfast may matter more than you think. Joey shares practical ways to actually hit your protein goals, the supplements that are worth your money, the diet and fitness trends he thinks are completely overrated, and his prescription for what to do when you feel like you’re doing everything right but still aren’t seeing results.Thanks to my sponsors:Go to boncharge.com and use coupon code BLONDE to save 15%Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you visit Nutrafol.com and enter promo code BLONDEHead to paleovalley.com/well or use code well at checkout for 15% off your first purchaseGo to Quince.com/BLONDE. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to Quo.com/blondeHead to ladder.fit/WELL and take a quiz to find your perfect ladder plan. Use my link and get a free 7-day trial with NO credit card, and $10 off your first month if you join.Head to DrinkNello.com/WELL and use code WELL at checkout for 20% off which stacks on top of subscriptions for up to 40% off.This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The following podcast is a dear media production. This is Well, a podcast about wellness in all its forms. I'm Ariel Lorry, and each week I'm sharing unfiltered conversations with people shaping how we feel, live, and look. Come for the substance, stay for the honesty, and leave with the tools to be well, inside and out. I don't know about you, but now that summer is sadly coming to a close, summer travel, all of the things that we do during the season are winding down.

I am really craving a reset and just getting back to my routines. And today's episode is all about how to do the fundamentals really well. So I'm talking to Dr. Joey Munoz. He's a nutrition and fitness expert. He has a PhD in nutritional sciences. And he helps people cut through the noise around things like weight loss, metabolism, and training to build healthier, stronger bodies without extreme diets or unsustainable routines. we are breaking all of that down in today's episode, including things like the biggest mistakes

that women make when trying to lose weight. Why doing everything right can sometimes just leave you feeling more frustrated with your body. We talk about how you can actually become more critical of your appearance as you get closer to your goals, the concept of perception drift, how to get leaner and change your body composition without necessarily losing more weight. He shares the order of operations that he recommends for anyone who wants to change their body composition, what to prioritize in the gym and the habits that people who effortlessly maintain a lean physique tend to have in common. We also get into the truth about calories and metabolism, yo-yo dieting, low-carb diets, and so much more. I had such a great time with Joey. I know you guys are going to absolutely

love him. He's just so warm. He is so knowledgeable and he really is an advocate for anybody who is feeling frustrated and wanting to make sustainable change. So please enjoy this conversation with Dr. Joey Munoz. Welcome. Thank you for having me. So excited to talk to you. Same. And thank you to Harley. Shout out Harley. He's just a matchmaker in all areas of my life now. So excited to talk to you. And I know my audience is going to be really excited. So I want to start with finish the sentence. Okay. Okay. The biggest mistake women make trying to lose weight is focusing on weight loss. We're going to circle back to that.

We can't. I said that intentionally. We will definitely circle back to that. All of these. Okay, great. If you want to change your body composition, stop chronically dieting. That was another thing that I wanted to talk to you about. The fitness advice I wish would disappear forever is. God, there is so much that I could bring up there. The fitness advice that I wish would disappear forever. We need the jeopardy sound. Maybe the biggest thing would be around setting a particular standard for what people should look like. I think that's a loaded one. We could dive into that.

But we're all different. We're all unique and everybody has different bodies. And being healthy and fit doesn't look any particular way. I think that would probably be the main one because you can market. And what you see on social media isn't even real in the first place. Yes. Like a lot of the people, I'm sure you know this, a lot of the people that look a certain way, you meet them in person. It's like, yeah.

Yeah. So I think, you know, trying to sell a particular look and I get. marketing and business and all that stuff. So I get it. But I think it does a lot of harm. Would you say that sometimes how you want to look and how your body looks when it's healthiest are completely different? For sure. Okay. Somebody said that to me years ago when I was really stuck in like the counting macros, the high intensity, plyometric, six days a week, like crazy, just beating my body into the shape that I thought was healthy. Yeah. And they said that. and I had such a lightball moment because I felt horrible.

Yeah. I was getting the body, but I felt horrible. And oftentimes what people chase, I think it depends on the person too, right? Because I'm not sure what your particular demographic is, but I'm assuming that a lot of the people that listen to a show like this probably want to have a particular physique that is maybe, I wouldn't even say out of reach, but unsustainable for the vast majority of people. And so to have a physique that is unsustainable, you have to do unsustainable things. I mean, I've dealt with this. I've shared my story a million times, but like I would say the shape I'm in right now is my healthiest and I feel my best. But I've been in quote, unquote, better physical shape, whatever that means.

But yeah, it requires being way more physically active, which I don't have the time for right now because I have two little kids and being way more focused on my diet, which who cares if you're five or ten pounds lighter? Does it really make that big of a difference? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I look back to when I was like the lowest percent body fat and all of that. And I was not happy. Yeah. And I feel like there's a time and a place for everything.

Sometimes it does feel good to track things and to be really locked in and all of that. And then other times you can loosen the reins a little bit. And I think you learn a lot from it as well. Yeah. Of like whether it's what you want or you don't want. Mm-hmm. Definitely. The fastest way to sabotage your fat loss is going on a diet.

I'm noticing a trend here. The most overrated weight loss strategy is low carb. I thought you were going to say going on a diet. No, low carb for sure. Okay. And we can dive into that one here or after the questions. Yeah, let's do it. Let's just get into it.

Okay, so the issue with a low carb diet, first off, super popular, right, to this day, it's like, what are you doing, not eating carbs? Funny enough, when people say they're not eating carbs and you ask them, what are you cutting out? They'll say things like. ice cream and cake. Those things have more fat than carbs. They're not even like high carb foods. But people synonymize weight loss with losing body fat and they're not the same thing. So when you go on a low carb diet, you initially lose a ton of weight really quickly because not to get

super in depth, maybe you give me feedback. How much does your audience like? We like it. We like the science. So when we consume carbohydrates carbs, we can store them in our muscle. as glycogen. And glycogen also holds on to water. So every one gram of glycogen, you're holding on to like four grams of water. So when you don't eat carbs, you store way less glycogen, which is actually not good because it hydrates your muscle. And so you lose a ton of water weight. That's why people go on a low carb diet and they'll lose 10 pounds in a week. Like, yeah, I lost 10 pounds. Like you just lost a ton of water weight. But then fat loss or weight loss in general will plateau because you can only lose so much water. And then people think they're doing

something wrong because they're not seeing continuous weight loss. In fact, they are. It's just slower. Like fat loss is supposed to be slow. But then also, since the only strategy they're using to lose body fat is just cut out carbohydrates, when that stops working, they don't know what to do from there. It's like, well, I'm not, I'm already not eating carbs. What do I do from here eat less carbs? And that's where, you know, you go somewhere and there's like, I say cake because it's like the first example that always comes to mind, but you tell yourself you can't be eating certain foods. And that causes some weird mindset and relationship with food and it's just not healthy long term. I don't know if there's any validity to this. You can tell me, but do you feel that some people are

more carb efficient versus fat efficient versus protein efficient? Or is that a myth? Not really. So our bodies will adapt to our dietary patterns. So if you eat more carbohydrates, your body will be more efficient at using carbohydrates for fuel. If you eat more fats, the same thing will happen. But one is it better or worse for being healthier in shape? And you aren't like inherently more efficient at burning carbs. And like if you are that type of person, if you have a high fat diet, like that's not bad or anything like that. So with all these things, Ariel, there's like a little bit of truth to it.

And then people like pull it and extrapolate and say all sorts of things that aren't true. Yeah. Okay, so I want to rewind a little bit. Sure. You have experienced this in your own life as well, right, when you were younger and you were stuck in a cycle of chronic dieting. And that affected your relationship with not just food, but with your body. And I would imagine that that's kind of informed the work that you do today.

And it's given you the ability to speak to both men and women about this because you don't just talk the talk. You've walked through it before. So can you tell us a little bit about that time and how that changed your perspective on everything? Yeah. So I have probably done like every diet under the sun. So I was, first and foremost, fitness has always been part of my life. Exercise. Because I grew up in the gym. My mom would go to the gym. She had a trainer. My dad would come home from work, do pushups, all that good stuff. But I was really overweight as a young kid because my parents, my mom specifically showed love through food. So I'm a first generation Cuban American. And my parents migrated. from Cuba where they had nothing. And then coming to the States, they have pretty much a limited access to food.

Right. So if I was sad, food. If I did something good, food. So when I was about 11, I was pretty overweight. And I remember going to the doctor with my mom and the doctor telling my mom that I was about 2% body fat away from being obese and that I had to lose weight. And so my mom obviously meant no malice, but she started putting me on diets since then. And it was like low carb, fasting.

I've done all this stuff. I also have a pretty addictive personality. So when I started learning about nutrition and fitness, probably through my early teenage years, I became really obsessed with it. And then it kind of like grew into its own thing where I was just watching YouTube videos nonstop around different nutritional protocols and training. And then I really started liking like the bodybuilding space. But regardless, the whole point was that throughout that entire stage of my life,

which was probably a little bit over a decade, no more than a decade. Because even though it wasn't as bad in my 20s, it was still there. It wasn't just like people talk about a bad relationship with food, but it's a bad relationship like your body image overall, right? Silly little things like you don't like the way you look or you avoid food in certain social situations or it's something that's in the back of your mind constantly. That's just not helpful. Thankfully, I have been able to work through that and eliminate it all together, but I definitely struggled with that a ton. How did you get through it yourself? What were some of the first steps? You know, it's funny. I was just talking to somebody else about

this, for me, what has really changed two things. From the food noise and confusion and all the diet stuff, it really has been education. I'm the type of person that when I understand why something should be a certain way or why you should do something instead of another thing, it really clicks for me. And prior to not just my undergrad, but master's PhD, all that stuff, a lot of the jumping back and forth between diets was because I would watch a video and it said this diet is good because of X, Y, Z reason. I'm like, that makes sense. Let's do that, right?

So there's just a lot of just misinformation, not really knowing what I was doing. I would say having a healthier relationship with, like, body image overall has really just been a byproduct of my priorities shifting as an adult. I think even in my early 20s, there was just too much emphasis and focus on, like, the way it looked and, like, putting a lot of value on that. And I think like getting married, my wife doesn't care, having kids, having a business. Like those are my priorities. And I see my body more as like a vehicle to be able to succeed in those areas of life now to where, I don't know.

I think it hasn't even been intentional work. Just been slowly over time. It's completely gone away. I feel like some of that probably comes with age as well, right? Like your priorities change. And I've heard you talk about this on your own podcast. It becomes less about how you look and more about longevity. And I would imagine I don't have kids, but when you have kids, like, you want to be around.

You want to be healthy for your kids, for your grandkids, for your partner. Like, it's so much more all-encompassing than when you're in your 20s. And it's like the glamour muscles and you're just wanting to. But we can also tie it back. It still is like you still want to look good. Yeah. We were talking about this before. Yeah.

It's just we have an unrealistic idea of what good looks like. Yeah. Because it's like, people will tell you you're in great shape and you look and you're like, no, but this little thing. It's like so ridiculous. I mean, do you feel like the better shape you get in or the closer to that ideal, whatever the ideal is, the further the goalpost moves? Yeah, for sure. I talk about this with my friend all the time who's a plastic surgeon. And it's like the same thing.

It's like the closer you get, the more you find that you can fix, if that makes sense. Sure. And I feel like plastic surgery, completely different topic, but you can kind of get addicted as well. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you see so many people go down that road. it's a slippery slope and you kind of get, I think they call it like perception drift where,

you know, your perception changes and you aren't seeing things as they are. Oh, yeah. But I just remember when I was in that shape and this is what launched my whole platform and everything. I was counting macros and I was packing my lunches and I was packing my dinners going out to dinner with people. I was weighing my food. I was doing these crazy exercises.

I was not recovering. Like so many things. I ran myself into the ground and I look back on pictures from that time and I was like, God, you know, I was like ripped and tiny, but I didn't see it that way at that time. I just saw what I could improve, moron. My wife and I were just talking about this literally yesterday. We have two kids now. Our youngest is about to be two.

And I feel like it's definitely more difficult as a woman than a man with a lot of this stuff with social pressure and all that. And we were just going through old pictures when my son was a baby or even before we even had kids. And she was like, she was in great shape. And she's in great shape now. And she would look at herself before. And she was like, I remember feeling like I wasn't in shape. Yeah.

It's like it's always a constant comparison. Yeah. And the goalposts like you mentioned just continues moving. So I think one of the most important things is to really learn to, I think self-improvement, there's nothing wrong with self-improvement and wanting to continue to get better. But when you do it out of self-hate or just wanting to look like a certain person or comparing yourselves to other people, it's just, it's just not healthy. So you work with a lot of clients, right?

Yeah. What are the commonalities that you see either when it comes to what their goals are or what the roadblocks are in achieving those goals? That's a really good question. So most of the people that we work with are in midlife. So 40s to about 60s, we have some clients that are mid-60s and even their 70s. Quick aside, I think one of the coolest things in the world is when somebody in their 70s reaches out to us and they're like, I want to be strong. I want to lift weights. I've never done it, but I know that I need to.

I think that's really rewarding. I saw your Instagram, not to interject, but it was of the thigh, thigh, I think, right? The muscle and the density and everything. I think it was a 70-year-old, right, who worked out and they were the same as like a 40-year-old. Yeah. That was crazy to me. Yeah. It's like we all age.

Yeah. But we have so much control over how we age. And we often think of muscle as just like looking. good or being strong, right? And that's, I mean, that's part of it. But that's just scratching the surface from a health perspective. Because when you have more muscle, it's good for preventing diabetes. It's good for preventing cardiovascular disease. It's good for bone health. Like one of the leading causes of death in old people if they fall and break a hip is complications from the hip fracture. It's so preventable by lifting weights. So yeah, it's like you could be in your 70s. It's never too late to

start and it's never too late to improve either. I think oftentimes we just use age as a reason as to why we can't do things and it's just not true. Are we going to neglect the reality that your body's aging? Of course not. And your body doesn't respond the same way compared to your 20s or 30s, but you can still make incredible progress. If you're in your 40s, 50s, 60s, it really doesn't matter. Your question before was commonalities in terms of goals. So most of the people that we work with want to get a better shape for sure. But it's really cool. And I think, you know, it's selection bias. I'm attracting people that are listening to my particular message on social media.

But a lot of the, like, nobody tells us that their goal is to be ripped and have a six-pack, which to me means that like the message that at least the message I'm sharing is resonating with people. It's really wanting to be in better shape so they can be a better role model for their kids. That one's one that really resonates with me or being able to play around with their grandkids. A lot of the clients that we work with have experienced skills. situations, whether it's with their partners or parents going through a heart attack or whatever,

it may be cancer. And so they want to avoid that. A lot of them say they just want to be able to enjoy their life to the fullest. A lot of people like going hiking. They like going to the beach. They like being able to do things physically and not be limited by their fitness. It's like, if you go hiking for 10 minutes and you're out of breath, you're not going to enjoy it that much. So it's really, like my whole message is that fitness is a conduit to live. your highest quality life, both from like feeling confident in your skin to being a good role model for your family, to being able to go hiking and not be out of breath and like actually enjoy what you can do physically.

So that's kind of like who we work with and what they want. In terms of commonalities from challenges, Ariel, I think it's it's a couple of things. There are people that definitely just don't know what to do. A lot of the info that I post online is debunking content, right? Because there is so much misinformation in the health and fitness. We're going to do some today. Okay, cool. It's my favorite because I am a lazy content creator.

I can just sit in my office and react to something. And I have the knowledge to explain why it's wrong. So that's just the majority of what I do. But a lot of the people that we work with are genuinely very confused. They're trying. They're doing a bunch of stuff, but it's not working. It might be the low carb stuff. One of my favorite stories to tell one of our clients, Axel, this story gives me

chills every time. So he, busy professional, has a family, has a son, and he was like, my buddy told me to do keto. He was doing this keto thing. And then his doctor told him to do fasting. And he was doing this fasting thing. And he was looking up on YouTube, like fat burning workouts, which doesn't exist, by the way. Like, it's not a thing. And just not seeing any changes. So that's a perfect example of like feeling confused, not knowing what to do. And then when you have clarity or what to do, it's really simple. I mentioned that his story is one of the most touching for me because what we often don't see when we're starting our fitness journey is the ripple effect of like not just how it impacts us, but those around this. So Axel did not like exercise. Perfect example. It was like, I know I need

to do it. I don't like it. Anyways, he was working out in his basement, had a home gym, about six months in his son who was a teenager, started asking him to work out with him. And he's like, dude, now I get to bond with my son over exercise, I would have never expected that. So, like, to me, that's really touching because I think it's what you experience as a byproduct of focusing on your fitness that you would have never anticipated initially. So a big challenge would be clarity. Another challenge might be like people know what to do in theory. Hey, eat a little less, exercise a little more. But they don't know how to do it practically or cohesively in a way that helps them move the needle for their particular goals. And then a big piece of it,

Ariel, I think it's just lack of accountability and support. I always say like coaching or training when you're working with somebody, it's not really about information. I share all the information for free online. It's really implementation and working on people's mindset and perspective and helping them develop habits. A lot of people have never had somebody who has actually supported them with their health and fitness.

I think that's a big part of it. So if you had somebody come to you, say a woman, and she said, I don't care about the scale. I just want to look and feel amazing. to your point, a lot of people know the fundamentals, right? But they don't know how to implement them and they don't know what that looks like for them. And it's different for everybody. I would imagine depending on lifestyle, activity level, body composition, genetics, right?

I mean, genetics play a role. Of course. And how we're going to look. And I feel like that's kind of a glossed over part of all of us, especially with like the online trainers, you know, who have a very specific body type and everybody wants to get that body type. and they don't have that body type. Like, that's something that people don't talk about a lot. But where would you start?

I would start with implementing structure with strength training specifically, especially if the person is not strength training at all. And so common misconception, because you mentioned, people know the fundamentals. Sometimes knowing a little bit is bad because you feel like you know what to do. It's the classic like Dunning Krueger effect. Yeah. Like I know I should be lifting weights. I go to the gym and I lift weights.

So I'm already doing that. It's like, how many people do you see go to the gym for years and they don't see changes in their muscle mass or body composition? It's because like following a workout program or just lifting weights does not guarantee improvements in muscle mass. You need to train in a way that's specific to build muscle, right? And so anyways, I'm going off on a right here. Basic fundamental would be to focus on strength training primarily.

All forms of exercise are great for health, cardio, mobility, yoga. It's all great. But if we're trying to improve body composition, we need to strength. train and we need to strength train in a way that actually prioritizes muscle mass first. Because when we have more muscle, first and foremost, it's easier to maintain a leaner body because muscle is important for our metabolism. And not to mention all the health benefits we talked about, right? So fundamentals of strength training first and foremost, maybe have a baseline around physical

activity outside of the gym. I think just tracking your daily steps is a great way to just make sure you're moving throughout the day, not setting for 23 hours and go to the gym for one hour. And then when it comes to nutrition, it's really the basic boring fundamentals done consistently that really move the needle. Whole foods, we can talk about this too because oftentimes people will say things like, well, dairy is bad or wheat is bad. Don't eat oats or whatever like the newest trend is. But in general, all whole foods are great for health unless you have a sensitivity or an allergy to a specific food. What I typically say is that all food groups have unique health benefits.

and specific nutrients that you don't really get in ample quantities from other foods, right? The classic example is when people ask a stupid question, like, what's healthier, a steak or a salad? It's like, it depends. If like you only eat steak, well, then adding in some salad is going to be helpful and vice versa, right? So focusing on whole foods, first and foremost, if you eat primarily whole foods, that's going to help with hunger and satiety regulation as well, which people really struggle with overeating. And then beyond that, focusing on protein and fiber. We can go into specific recommendations if you want, but strength rating steps, all foods, protein and fiber, kind of like the baseline.

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I think it's a useful learning tool. Yeah. Yeah. I forget, I was listening to one of your episodes with a dietitian on the way here. I forget her name. But I think your question was tracking or intuitive eating. Mm-hmm. I think the ultimate goal is intuitive eating.

Mm-hmm. I think tracking is a step in that direction. Yeah. Because how do you eat intuitively if you've never developed healthy habits? Yeah. And to be able to change your behaviors, you need to first create awareness around your behaviors. And if you track your food, you're going to create a lot of awareness. Can it create a little bit of food anxiety and obsession?

Sure. I think this might be a little bit of a polarizing statement as well, but I don't think that's all bad either. I think you have to go through some of those experiences to learn the pros and cons of them. It's like exposing ourselves to certain stressors or difficult situations can be very good and positive, depending on how you perceive it and what you learn from it. I think it's the same thing as budgeting. Like if you spend too much money and you're like, well, I'm not going to track where I spend because that causes stress. Yeah. Well, you're going to be more stressed if you don't, right?

That's like create awareness around your spending behaviors, track how much is coming in, track how much is going out, change your habits. And then you don't need to track every single dollar anymore. But if you never go through that practice, how do you create the awareness? Yeah. How do you know what eating behaviors are serving you? and which aren't. How do you know how much flexibility you can have in your diet? Because one of the things that I really preach, it's like,

yes, we should have healthy dietary habits. Yes, we should be eating in a way that aligns with our goals, but we should still be able to be flexible and enjoy the way we eat. And if we go to a birthday party, have a slice of cake and not stress about it, right? But if you don't create awareness around your eating habits by spending a period of time tracking meticulously, you're always going to stress out in those situations. Because you never know what's too much or what's too little. So that's why I'm a fan of tracking.

I think it just creates awareness. I think it's a means to an end, essentially. Yeah. It is useful because also one of the big challenges that people experience is, they'll say things like, I eat healthy, but I'm not losing weight. Yeah. It's like because eating healthy is part of the equation, but it's not the whole thing. Yeah.

Right. What I was going to mention earlier is that I think sometimes people overrely on calorie tracking. Like if it's the only thing you're doing, that's not good. Yeah. Because then you try to stop tracking, but you didn't change any sort of habits or behaviors. My general approach and perspective is if I'm working with somebody who's starting from scratch, we first go through a foundational phase where we focus on foundational habits and behaviors, simple things, like the ones I mentioned, plus a handful of other ones, to make sure that the habits are in place. I call it the foundation because it's the same thing as like building a house, right? you wouldn't build a house without building a solid foundation first.

And then after we build that foundation, then we can focus on things like tracking and expedite a fat loss goal, for example. And then the goal is that when you get to where you want to get to and you feel good there, then you learn how to slowly wean off of tracking. Because another issue, Ariel, is people go from tracking everything. Like, I'm done. Tomorrow I'm not tracking anything. It's like, well, hold on, right?

You need to do it in a methodical way as well so that the behaviors actually last. I mean, I'm going to say something controversial. But I think that a lot of women relate to this because when I talk about these things on social, I get so many DMs of people, you know, saying that it resonates with them or whatever. I like my body better when I don't work out because I'm leaner and my appetite is normal. And I love the feeling of working out and I want to be healthy. Okay. And I love the endorphins. I love the mental clarity.

all of all of the benefits but I don't like what it does to my body. Do you ever see that with people? I honestly have never heard that before. But it's interesting. Okay, I think part of it is the puffiness and people are like enough with the puffiness. But something that so many women experience too is like getting puffy when we work out. I think that's part of it. How much of it do you think is in your head genuinely? Genuinely, okay, two weeks ago before I went on vacation, I had been working out however many days a week and eating very healthy and not eating all the turkey and everything. And like these genes were like tight on. Okay.

Okay. And I come back from vacation two weeks later, not having worked out, having been eating all carbs to your point. And I'm like 10 pounds lighter. Okay. So maybe that's just like a unique thing to me and we can talk about that. Why does being 10 pounds lighter feel better for you specifically? It just feels more natural to me. Like when I work out, I feel, I think it's just water retention for whatever reason.

Maybe it's my own body. But when I talk about this, everyone is like, oh, my God, the same thing happens to me. What is happening? What's going on? And I know it's not like muscle bulking. Sure, sure. It's like a water thing. So.

That's interesting. Do you like feeling strong? Yes. I love. So it's like I feel like I kind of know what you're getting at. I mean, I work out because I like the health benefits of it. But it's kind of this like delicate thing where I'm like, huh, like, how do I find the middle ground here? Is it when you're training like really intensely?

No, I mean, I've tried to scale back to like three days a week. I'm trying to find the sweet spot, basically. What are some of the biggest things that are sabotaging people's progress? Is it just what we've been talking about? Like, not really understanding how to implement things, not understanding where they're at with food. Yeah, sabotaging progress is interesting because it implies that, like, people are trying really hard and what they're doing is like backfiring. There's an aspect of that.

I think sometimes people are also just not prioritizing their health and fitness. But I think a big thing really sabotaging people is the diet mentality of I am going on a diet. Because when you say I am going on a diet, you are inherently saying that at a certain point you're going to go off of a diet. And the truth is that whatever you do to achieve a particular goal, you need to keep doing it for the rest of your life to maintain. those particular results, maybe with a little bit less intensity, we need to keep doing the same things. And so often what happens is when we want to make a change, we feel really disciplined, we feel really motivated.

And so we can endure something that feels very difficult or restrictive for a period of time, but not forever. So people find themselves on this cycle, for lack of a better term, of going on a diet, falling off, and then feeling like it's their fault, like they're not disciplined, like they're not motivated. Is there an aspect of discipline that's important, of course. But more often than not, it's, we're just trying to, we're creating too much friction between what we're doing and the lifestyle we want to live. It just, it's too hard.

Again, the low carb diet is the perfect example because everybody relates to it. But can you like never eat carbs for the rest of your life? No. Right. So learning how to achieve a particular goal with the habits that you know you can keep long term is what's really necessary. And posting a video next week where it's like, I think that the first line is something around like fit people don't diet. It's so true. You talk to somebody who's in shape. They're not like, oh, I'm on a diet. It's just the way you live. It's your lifestyle. It's the habits that you've created. That is really the ultimate goal. And I think when people just go on diets, it is self-sabotage. And most people don't think of it that way. Yeah. So if you see people and they're like,

I'm doing everything right and it's just not working, is it usually because they're doing one of those things? I would say it's most likely consistency. People just like overestimate how consistent they actually are. But I'm doing everything right, but I'm not seeing any changes. Well, what are actually doing? It's like, well, I eat pretty healthy. It's like, okay, you're focusing on one thing eating healthy. Sometimes there's missing gaps in what people are doing. And sometimes it's, I'm doing everything right, but on the weekends, I like to go and have fun, right? Or when I'm stressed from work, or it's all these different situations that derail your progress. And I think that's That's really a big one.

It's when you look at what people are doing specifically, they're not actually doing everything right. Because if you are doing everything right, you are going to see progress. So you mentioned strength training, eating whole foods. We didn't get into specifics with protein. But if you could write a prescription of what is doing everything right. Sure. How many days are we strength training? How many days are we doing cardio?

What kind of cardio are we incorporating? How much protein are we eating? How much fiber? Okay. We'll go into it. So first and foremost, if somebody can train four days a week, I think that's amazing. Okay. In general, what we want to do from a muscle building perspective is make sure that we train each muscle group at least twice a week.

So for me, I like doing two upper body days, two lower body days because it's pretty well balanced. For a lot of women who want to work on their lower body more, we might add a little bit more lower body in the upper body days as well. Okay. So first is how many days are we training four days per week, two upper body days, two lower body days. In terms of the exercises that we're going to be doing, I think focusing on big compound movements is like the biggest bang for your buck. These would be things like squats, deadlifts, presses, poles, right? Should I explain like compound versus isolation a little bit? Yeah.

Okay. So isolation-based movements are exercises that just work across one joint and like one muscle, like a bicep curl, just works your bicep. A compound movement, you're doing like multiple muscles at once and you're moving multiple joints. So like if you're doing a pull up or a row, that's a compound movement that's going to work your bicep and it's also going to work your back. I like compound movements because you get a better bang for your buck. Like you get more in less time. So in general, four days per week, train each muscle twice weekly, focus on compound movements. In terms of the actual movements we should be doing, it really does not matter if you do a barbell, a dumbbell, a machine,

cables, it doesn't matter. What matters most are the actual movement patterns. So for the upper body, we want to do pushing movements in both the horizontal and the vertical plane. Horizontal plane would be bench press, right? Vertical plane would be a shoulder press. Same thing for pulling. We want to pull in the horizontal plane and pull in the vertical plane because that way we're just targeting all the different angles. And then for your lower body, something like a squat, something like a hip hinge, which would be some sort of deadlift or good morning, and then hamstring curls because we want to target the hamstrings for a number of reasons. Those would be the main movements that we want to really focus on.

And then you can kind of pick and choose whatever exercises you like to do, but what you don't want to do is choose different exercise every single week. Like today I do a squat with a barbell and tomorrow I do it like press and next week I do because you can't standardize anything. It's not inherently bad, but you can't measure progress if you do that. So picking a selection of exercise that you enjoy and staying consistent with them. is going to be super helpful so you can track progress. And then, so we've covered exercises, we've covered how many days we're training,

we're covering frequency, right, doing everything twice a week. The next thing we would focus on is like volume, which just means how many sets you're doing. For muscle growth, we want to do at least 10 hard sets per muscle per week. More is better. 10 is decent. So that would mean, let's say for your legs, for your quads, like doing four sets of squats, three sets of leg press, three sets of leg extensions. That's 10 sets for your quads.

Now I know what most people are thinking. They're going to say, I do that in a workout. It's 10 hard sets. Most people do like maybe one hard set. So case and point, anytime I start working with a client, let's say they're going to squat, they might do like 50 pounds for 10 reps, and then their second set, they do 60 pounds for 10 reps,

and then their third set, they do 70 pounds for third reps, pounds for third reps and their fourth set, they do 80 pounds for 10 reps. And that one was really hard. The first three do not count. Those are just warmups. The easiest way to tell whether your sets are hard enough is if you do multiple sets, if the number of repetitions that you do goes down every set unintentionally. Like if you do 50 pounds for 10 reps and then your next set, you do 50 pounds and you were only able to do eight or nine. And the third set you can only do seven or eight. That's a clear indication that you're pushing yourself hard enough because you are fatigued. for everybody listening, if you do 50 pounds for 10 reps, 10 reps, 10 reps, 10 reps, you're not training hard enough. Like your reps should naturally go down from set to set. And if you do that, like 10 hard sets is pretty hard, right? So that would be kind of like the main framework for training. You could do it in four days. You could do it in three days. I think four days is kind of a sweet spot. And the main thing we want to focus on training is what we call progressive overload, which means that you are intentionally pushing your workouts every week and actually

progressing on paper. What do I mean by progressing on paper? If you do 50 pounds for 10 reps this week, next week you do 50 pounds for 11 reps or you do 55 pounds for 9 or 10 reps, but you are objectively either adding weight or repetitions from week to week. That's the only way you make progress. That covers the strength training piece. Any questions there before we move on? Should we be writing it down, tracking that as well if we're not working with the trainer? We should be tracking our workouts because if not, you just don't know whether you're progress or not. And training hard is really hard. Yeah. Like, it's really difficult. Yeah. And if you're not tracking your workouts, you're just, it's, it's hard to actually push yourself to the extent to, like,

stimulate progress. I can't do it without a trainer. You can't? I can't push myself to that level. Although a lot of people, they sponsor my podcast, but this is also legitimate, the latter app. Okay. I love. Yeah. Are you familiar with that? I know the latter app. Because it's progressive overload. They, you know, they tailor your trainer and your program. depending on what you like. So I put in that I like low intensity. I like strength training. I like Pilates type movement.

So it's like they incorporate all of that. And I feel like it's easy because it tracks everything for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard really good things about it. I haven't used it personally, but I've heard really good things. Yeah. They have a ton of different awesome trainers. Yeah.

Yeah. They have amazing trainers. Yeah. And I've like jumped between two. I found one that I liked, but it was not quite and then I moved to a different one. Okay. But yeah. I just need, I need the accountability piece.

Yeah. I need somebody pushing me. Otherwise, there's a social aspect to it too. That makes it fun. Yeah. For me, working out is like my alone time. So I like putting my headphones on. Excuse me.

I'm just working up to myself. You listen to music? Yeah. Okay. Performance enhancer. What's your music of choice? Okay. Like a bad bunny salsa.

Uh-huh. Or I will listen to like Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey. Okay. Anything that puts me in a good mood. Yeah. I don't like music that's way too hardcore for lifting. Yeah. Yeah.

I used to go to a powerlifting gym when I was in college and everybody was just listening to heavy metal. I can't do it. Do you know Joe Holder? No. He's amazing. You guys should meet. He's a Nike master trainer. He's in New York.

But we were talking once and he was saying that he likes to work out in silence. And I was like, what? And I said, oh, no, I need music. I have like one album. My trainer knows. She puts it on always. We straight through no skips. And he was like, well, that's because it's a performance enhancer.

And I was like, oh, yeah. Yeah. So true. It's funny how like certain music that you can find your music, whatever it is, and it can like help you push yourself. I was going to say if I don't listen to anything, I feel like, I don't know, I get in my head. I could never. Never.

Maybe it's meditative for some people, but. No. Yeah, not me. Okay, so aside from the strength training piece, if we continue with exercise, I like having a daily step goal before adding cardio. Okay. Because it's such a low barrier to entry. and I don't like doing like a prescriptive number saying like everybody should do 10,000 steps. I think what's important is that you measure your baseline and improve upon it.

Somebody who only walks 3,000 steps telling them to do 8 to 10,000 is going to be really difficult. But going from 3 to 4 is really doable. So just making small improvements and finding a sweet spot where you are active enough to make progress towards your goals, I think is what really matters. Because for some people, that's going to be way higher than others. Like for me, I rather be more physically active than eat less. So I will move more intentionally. Yeah. Right?

Because I like food. Yeah. Especially if I'm traveling. Like one of the things that I always tell people when you travel is don't restrict your food. You're in a new place. Like just move. Yeah. Enjoy the place and you'll be active will counteract the at least to an extent.

Yeah. And most places you do. I mean, it depends where you're going. But like I always walk way more. Yeah. When I'm traveling. Yeah, exactly. And eat way more.

Exactly. And way less. Yeah. And it's way more enjoyable. So having a daily step goal. And then on top of that, from a health perspective, cardio is obviously really helpful. But I think until we have the baseline of strength training and a daily step goal, adding intentional cardio is unnecessary.

For a lot of the people that we work with, we don't really add a ton of cardio because there are also ways to strength train and stimulate that cardiovascular benefit too. If you do things like supersets or higher reps, like your heart is going to be racing, right? So you could get a great cardio benefit there too. So that kind of covers the exercise piece. Running a business means you're always reachable until you're not. And the moment that you missed that call, that text or that follow up, a competitor is the one who picks it up. And I'm sure we've all experienced the other side of this. You call a business. You get passed around from person to person. Someone says they'll call you back. And then nothing. As a customer, it's annoying. But as a

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So what's been really cool for me is that I'm progressing week over week even while I'm traveling. I'm away so much. And normally that would make it really easy to lose momentum, which does happen. But my plan is right there and easy to pick back up, even if I do fall off. Each week builds on the last. The app tracks my weights and reps and the in-ear coaching tells me exactly what I'm doing for every set. It basically feels like I am traveling with my personal trainer and my trainer's in my headphones wherever I am. What I also really love is you can choose a training style that actually fits how you like to work out. They have everything from Pilates and hybrid strength to traditional strength training, and it costs less than a dollar a day. For my training style, I chose kind of a hybrid between Pilates and weights. So it's kind of a low impact, slow but progressive, like I said, strength training program. So remove the guesswork with ladder and get a real coach in your ear telling you exactly what to do for every workout. no thinking, everything planned for you. If you have an iPhone, head to ladder.fit slash well and take a

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for up to 40% off. That's D-R-I-N-K-N-E-L-O.com slash well, code well, for 20% off your first order. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Let's talk about nutrition. The first couple of things that I think are really important if we talk about practicality is I always like to think about behaviors that give you the biggest return on investment. Because one thing you can do that's going to have a big benefit.

One thing that we can really do that has a huge benefit from a nutritional perspective is having a well-balanced breakfast. As much as that's like super cliche, right? But the research shows that when you have a well-balanced breakfast, it does two things. It helps regulate your hunger. So you actually have less cravings throughout the day. Funny enough, whenever I work with somebody and tell me that they just have a lot of cravings at night and they stress eat and all this stuff, Like sometimes it's just behavioral, right? Like we're watching Netflix eating some snacks.

But oftentimes it's because people just don't eat enough earlier in the day. So they feel really hungry by the time night comes. And just focusing on that breakfast will help a ton with nighttime habits. So a well-balanced breakfast, what does that mean? At least I would say 30% of your daily protein. So let's say you're targeting, and I'll give specific protein recommendations in a second. Let's say you're targeting 150 grams of protein for the day. Having a good 30 to 45 grams of protein with your breakfast is going to be super

helpful. For me, like my breakfast is the same thing every single day. I have four eggs, Greek yogurt, and a banana. So that's about 50 grams of protein and I like fruit in the morning. But having a good amount of protein, having at least a serving or two of roots or veggies, and having a decently sized meal, that's different for everybody, right? But having a decently sized meal will be super helpful. So well-balanced breakfast, protein aimed for at least 0.8 grams per pound of ideal body weight. So let's say you weigh 200 pounds, or to make the math easy, let's say you weigh 220 pounds, you want to weigh 200 pounds, multiply that by 0.8. That's 160 grams of protein. Spread that out evenly throughout the day. It literally, I will rapid fire these,

because these are the common questions. Doesn't matter what type of protein doesn't matter. When you have, it doesn't matter. If you have it in one meal, five meals, it doesn't matter. Get the amount of protein you need. That's literally all you need to focus on. Fiber, super important. I actually really like how much people are talking about fiber nowadays. Fiber maxing. Everyone's maxing. Poutine maxing. Now it's fiber maxing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I only started learning about these things recently because I don't really use TikTok at all. I only use Instagram, but I realize that all the maxing trends are over on TikTok. You would be great on TikTok. You think so? Yeah. I only cross post everything and it does not take off on TikTok because I never open the app. You got to do it the other way around. Yeah. Create for TikTok

and then post on Instagram. You'll blow up. You think so? Yeah. So create on TikTok. Or in Caput or whatever you want or whatever editing program but post on TikTok first. I'm convinced that, and this is what I've been told in the industry, is that the algorithms have technology or whatever they can flag if something is like duplicate content. I don't think Instagram is as like. Advanced. Hypervigilant when it comes to that. Yeah, advanced.

I always find that if I, my habit is to. to open up Instagram and that's where I go to first and that's where I talk to friends and the DMs and that's where I create and that's where I do my stories, everything. For years, I've noticed that if I can get in the habit of opening TikTok and creating for that specifically and then I use that content repurposed it for Instagram, I grow so much faster on TikTok and I grow so much faster on Instagram. That's interesting. Yeah.

I just try it. I will have to try it. I just use a scheduling tool. Okay. I post everything everywhere at the same time. Okay. I honestly only use Instagram and everything else I just post everywhere else. But nothing takes off. I think for discoverability, you can't be TikTok.

I mean, the algorithm has definitely changed. This is such a tangent aside. But like ever since they changed ownership and everything, like it's been a little bit weird. But I just think that because of the way the feed is and everything, like you're mostly scrolling through people's content that you don't follow them. You're not really scrolling through people who you follow, whereas Instagram is the opposite. And I feel like they just push content a lot better. And I feel like your type of content specifically, too, like would do so well there.

You know, that's what I thought too. Yeah. I also think that the platforms reward you if you use them. For sure. And I don't use any platform. I know. It's tricky. So it's like, I got to open this thing up and comment.

TikTok I've always said is like the bane of my existence. But I do find that like if you can get in the habit of it and in the routine of regularly posting there, like you can grow pretty easily. It's just I always fall off. There's too many things. I was saying it's so easy to also become so obsessive about social. And I get it. Like we obviously do this for business and we want to grow our stuff. But it's like focusing on Instagram and podcasting has been working well.

Yeah. And every time I try to do another platform like, God, I hate doing this. I know. Yeah. I know. But I'll try posting on TikTok first. I mean, I don't want to give you bad advice. I have a team member who posts all my stuff.

I just separate it by a couple minutes. Just TikTok first and then Instagram. We'll see. Yeah. I would do it by like a day. A day? Okay. I would do TikTok a day ahead and then, yeah.

I'm going to try this. Okay. Report back to me. And if it works, I will definitely credit you. Okay, great. Back to nutrition? Yeah. Where were we?

Breakfast. We talked about that. Protein. It doesn't matter what kind, when, if you do it all at once. Yeah. If you spread it out, just 0.8 grams per ideal weight, which I think a lot of people miss that ideal weight part. Is there a point where if you go over a certain amount, it's not helping? Yeah.

I guess it depends on how we're defining helping from a like muscle building perspective, just having more is not helpful. I think protein is so overhyped and overmarketed right now. It's like just eat a cookie without protein. It's okay. Yeah. Like everything has protein. But it can be helpful from a hunger regulation standpoint because protein is really satiating. Satiety is just the opposite of hunger.

But so is fiber. Like I think when people struggle with hunger, focusing on volume and focusing on fiber is more helpful than protein. So like up to a point, yeah, eat enough protein and then don't go away overboard unless you just like naturally like eating more protein. I tend to naturally eat a little bit of a higher protein diet. but if I don't get like an ample amount of protein on a given day, I don't stress it because it's not that big of a deal. Fiber, I think, is way more important from a health perspective, from a hunger management perspective.

I think most people should aim for at least 25 to 30 grams per day. And I'll say that with like a caveat that some people who have digestive issues can't have a ton of fiber, but that's not everybody, right? Fiber rich foods, raspberries, berries are great, avocados are great, whole grain foods are great. a lot of people really struggle to get enough fiber, but there's also a ton of high fiber foods. Like, do you know, do you have Dave Killers bread? Yeah, it's like five grams of fiber per slice, right? So two of those, 10 grams, it's pretty easy to get the 30 grams if you focus on the right sorts of foods.

I would say those are really the basic fundamentals. And then if you're talking about somebody who has a particular body composition goal, when we get the whole foods, the meal schedule, the protein and fiber, when we cover our bases there, then I would layer on top of that tracking, at least for a period of time to object. effectively work on the weight loss school. And it really depends on the person because a lot of people who don't have those habits in place will lose a significant amount of body fat, just focusing on those things. But at a certain point, Ariel, weight loss stalls or fat loss stalls and being more diligent about your food intake and focusing on your calories is helpful on top of that for sure.

If somebody can only start with one thing. Lift weights. Okay. Yeah, 100%. And then the rest will follow, right? Yeah, 100%. I made a post once that got a lot of reach and I didn't think it would. And the first statement I made was it hurts me to say this because I have a PhD in nutrition. The exercise is way more important than your diet. And so I see a lot of people like focus on their diet and they don't want to move their bodies. It's like you have to move your body first and foremost. So even before way training, I would say just move your body and pick something you enjoy doing. Because when you enjoy doing it, you're going to do it consistently and that's what matters most. Yeah. And I feel like once you start moving your body, you naturally want to

be making healthier choices in other areas. of your life. I mean, I'm sure that there are people who are like, they just want to work out so that they can eat garbage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I feel like for the majority of people, you know, you get into that habit and then it has a like trickle down effect to every other aspect of your life. The worst, like, diet trend that I did personally. Take a guess. That you do? Yeah, I did. That you did. And it was specifically to like put on weight and put on muscle. I was probably like 20, 21. Oh, I don't know. Have you ever heard of GOMAD? No. Gallon of milk a day. No. I did that for...

GOMAD? Yep, that's the acronym. I didn't know that one. I did that for like a week. Okay. Horrible experience. Yes. Horrible experience. I was like super gassy and bloated. Yeah, I was going to say, how was that on? Not good. Which also impacted my workouts because I was like going to the gym with so uncomfortable. Yeah. And then I did half a gallon of my mouth. milk a day for a couple of months. Also not good. Okay. Just gained so much weight. And I had like maybe TMI, but like acne on my back and stuff.

Oh my God. And it was all in the name of like dirty bulking back in the day. I don't know if you, how much you know about like the bodybuilding terms. But not familiar with those. No. No. This is probably like 2012, 2013 and when like fitness YouTube stuff was really popular. And it was this idea that like the most.

more you ate, the more muscle you would build. Oh. Which is just not true at all. I think it was an excuse for guys to just like eat as much as you can. Yeah. I gained so much weight. That was when I would literally gain and drop like 40 pounds multiple times a year. Oh my God. Because I was just dirty bulking and eating everything I could. Dirty ballpark. Does that affect your metabolism? Not really. That's a man. That's a man. That's a It's a really good topic to talk about. Does yo-yo dieting affect your metabolism? Not at all.

It can if you lose substantial amounts of muscle mass. But the truth is that, like, yo-yo dieting doesn't break your metabolism or cause any sort of permanent damage. There's really good research on that, which is a good thing. Yeah. Because it shows that people's challenges have to do with the particular strategies they're using not with something like inherently wrong with you. Here's the thing where it's like where nuance matters when we talk about. calories. And yes, calories matter. It's not just also how much we consume, but how much we burn. And we also burn calories digesting food. And all of these diet foods that are highly

processed are actually fairly easy to digest. So we actually burn more calories metabolizing and digesting whole foods compared to a lot of processed foods. That's why, like, if you have eggs, a sweet potato, a piece of lean protein, and some veggies, you feel really full because it's in your intestines for a long time because it takes time to digest and break down. It's literally whole complex foods, right? So those are the little things that people don't think about. It's like food quality versus hormones versus calories. Like, does this one matter? Does that one not matter? It's like it all matters. And it all influences like one another, right? I think food quality is incredibly important and eating healthy is really important.

calories are also really important, but in many ways, when you focus on food quality, you naturally reduce your caloric intake. Whereas if you just eat diet foods that are highly processed foods, it's still very easy to overeat. Yeah. Would you say that it's hard to overeat protein too? No. Oh. Depending on the protein source. Well, think of it this way. I can definitely overeat some ground turkey. Yeah, exactly. Like steak is delicious if you like steak. Ground beef. Yeah. And it's also really, it can be. It can be. really fatty if you get a really fatty source. It's not easy to, it's not hard to overeat at all. It's pretty easy. That's why I said like, I think it's better to focus on fiber. Yeah.

Because it's pretty hard to overeat fiber. Yeah. I think I could do it. Yeah. What are your fiber sources? I love to eat like I can. Me too. Anything. I can overeat anything. Yeah. But protein is pretty easy to overeat. Yeah. I don't know. Protein foods are delicious in my opinion. So they're easy to do. But they're more satiating. I guess that's maybe where that has, that myth has kind of form. No, it's funny because, like, yes, it's satiating, but it's not more satiating than, like, potatoes or fruit. Baked potato I'm talking about here, not french fries, right? Yeah. But try to eat a bunch of potatoes, beans, and fruit.

Yeah. That's really hard to overeat. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. Okay. I want to do some true or false. Let's go.

Okay. Eating after 8 p.m. makes you gain fat. False. But eating before bed can impact your sleep. And if you have bad sleep, it can impact your hunger the following day. Okay. Carbs at night are bad. Not bad. Breakfast is the most important meal. I would agree. And I would also say it depends on when you train. I would say making sure you're properly fueled before you work out. I think it's the most important. Okay. I'm going to go back to some fill in the blank also because these are fun. Everything in moderation is.

Good. You say good? Yeah, great. But I think people, like moderation doesn't mean you have an eating. equal amount of everything. Because that's pushback I've gotten and I understand that perspective. Like if you say everything in moderation means like just as much junk food as healthy food, no, right? Like moderation means something different for everybody. I think it's finding how you can incorporate the foods that you like while still staying in alignment with your overall goals. And that's going to depend on a million different things. The internet has completely confused people about. Everything. No, genuinely, you know. So I see how much confusion there is in my space. And then when I

I listen to content around topics that I have no expertise around, my immediate thought now is like, is this real or not? Yeah. Because like, how do you know? You really don't. Yeah. It's like information overload, saturation, slop. Like, it's just too much.

The biggest waste of money in fitness is supplements. Ooh. Yeah. What supplements, if any, are worth it? Which ones are worth it? That's a much smaller list. Okay. which ones were not worth it. So creatine without a doubt, specifically creatine monohydrate,

which is the cheapest, most effective form of creatine. There's a million different forms of creatine. Creatine monohydrate is what you want. Momentus? I just learned about the brand earlier today. I don't know if Momentus is creatine and monohydrate. I think it is, yeah. Then yes, Momentus. Okay, shout out. Are they a sponsor? Okay, great, great. So yes, Momentus. We'll fact check that. Otherwise, we'll cut it. Creatine's great for muscle, but it's also really helpful.

It seems to have cardiovascular benefits and it seems to have cognitive benefits too. I forget the amount. I think it's like 15 or 20 grams of creatine can kind of like undo a bad night of sleep in terms of cognitive performance. So really good supplement to take. People have a million questions about it. Just like protein, just take it every day. Literally the other stuff doesn't matter. Most amino acid supplements are a waste.

because they're not more effective than just eating protein. So BCAA is pretty much putting your money down the drain. Just to explain a little bit, so proteins are made out of amino acids. There's 20 amino acids, nine of them are essential, meaning we need to get them from our diet. And so there are different amino acid supplements that just have different formulations. It's a little bit more of this, a little bit less of that. But it's never the complete thing. And when you eat protein, you get the complete thing.

It just always has a more positive impact on muscle and health than amino acid supplements. So my issue with supplements, Ariel, is every supplement has some impact. Many are just way overmarketed. Right? It's like greens powders are really popular and they're helpful. Like they are objectively, you're taking vegetables, you're taking plant-based foods, you're turning them into a powder like you're getting the health benefits. But sometimes the marketing is just really excessive.

That's the part that bothers me. It's the messaging and the marketing, not the supplements themselves. Yeah. Oh, you were asking me what works. not what doesn't work. That's okay. I'm sorry. We can go back to what works. So we said creatine. Yeah. A multivitamin, I think, is a great way to make sure you cover all your bases. A lot of people are deficient in a lot of stuff. And getting a multivitamin just make sure you're not deficient in anything. So, and it's super cheap too. Magnesium. Most people are deficient in

magnesium. Magnesium is really important for a lot of stuff. Bone health, muscle function, cognitive function. It's really, really important. And it's also helpful for sleep. So magnesium is a great one. A high quality like fish oil, fish oil or omega-3, most people don't eat enough seafood is another really good one. Protein powder is a really good one. I would say those are the main ones that I would feel comfortable saying everybody should take this. And then anything else is really on a per person basis based off what they need. Okay. If someone wants to look leaner, not just weigh less, they should. Lift the weight to eat enough protein and be in a slight calorie deficit. Pretty much everything we've been talking about.

The women who effortlessly stay lean all have blank in common. Healthy habits. That's all encompassing, right? But I think women, men, anybody who stays lean and healthy year around year after year, it's because they have a healthy lifestyle. It's never about a fad diet. It's never about a new workout program. It's never about a new supplement.

It really is about having a healthy lifestyle. And I emphasize that because until people, people realize that you're just going to stay stuck in the same cycle you've been stuck in. I feel like I beat a dead horse about this stuff, but it really is because it's that important. You're driving the point home and it's a good point. Sure. And I feel like that was kind of the theme of the whole conversation. It's not, what is that saying?

Like, it's not complicated, but it's. It's not, it's simple, but it's not easy. It's simple and not easy. Thank you. You're trying to complicate it. I was way over complicating as usual. Well, tell everybody where they can find you and listen to your podcast and all of that. First and foremost, thank you for having me on.

Thank you for coming. Where can people find me? So Dr. Joey Munoz on all social media platforms, primarily Instagram. That's where I'm active. TikTok coming soon. Yeah. And if people resonated with what I was sharing and they are inclined to want to work with us, you can head over to strongstandard.com and see if we're a good fit.

You just submit an application and someone on my team will reach out. and see if we can help you. For me, like, a lot of what we talked about is objectively what people need to be doing. But what I really want people to understand is that I think we were touching on it initially that, yes, looking better, being healthier is really cool. But I think the most beneficial part of focusing on your fitness is the person you become as a byproduct of the journey you go through. Because it really is a journey.

Like, you go through so many ups and downs, right? And the name of our company's strong standard, the slogan behind it is that strength isn't the goal. It's the standard. And what we're trying to do is help people become the strongest version of themselves, not just physically, but in every area of their life. Right. Like being a stronger parent, being a better leader, being a better role model. And I really do think fitness is a conduit for all of those things. Yes.

And I've heard you talk about how for you, like you learned discipline. You learned delayed gratification. And I was like, ooh, that's a great one that you don't hear people talk about that we'll get into in part two. Yeah. And I don't think fitness is the only way to develop those things, but I think it's such a straightforward way to develop those things. For sure. You really did your homework. I like to do my homework, yes. Thank you. You did your homework for me too as well. So I did a combo. But thank you so much for coming on. It's so fun and hopefully talk to you soon. Yeah.

I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked the episode and if you liked the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes such a long way. in supporting the show. Follow the show over on Instagram at well.pod. You can also follow my personal Instagram at Ariel Lurie. I'm always sharing great clips from the episodes. And we also have full episodes on YouTube as well if you want to watch in entirety. Thanks for listening. Hey y'all. I'm Mary Hollin Nader. You may know me from my family's reality TV show, Love by Nader. But what you didn't see was the five years I spent on Wall Street, managing money for the I've spent the last few years bouncing between Hollywood and Wall Street meeting some of the most fascinating people from finance and AI to fashion and entertainment. And as you can imagine,

I've been collecting questions faster than I can answer them. As I build a company centered around financial wellness, I become fascinated by the money stories, habits, and emotions that shape our relationship with money. Each week on my new podcast, Growing Interest, I'll sit down with fascinating people and experts to translate complex ideas across money, and psychology into a language we actually understand. We'll ask the questions everyone else is too afraid to ask, and we'll explore the workshops, coaching methods, and mindset shifts that people spend years and sometimes thousands of dollars discovering.

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