Fat Loss vs. Extreme Leanness

Yeah. So we have to, we have to separate this between fat loss versus Dick's skin, lean fat loss, because those are two different things. If you, if you're significantly overweight, you've got a lot of stored energy to lose you can eat real low calorie as long as you're taking some essential fatty acids probably a good multivitamin multimineral maybe a little bit extra magnesium zinc some other things you you you've got plenty of food you got plenty of energy availability in your body so i hate i'm going to say something that's really unbelievably correct fat people don't get relative energy deficiency syndrome no they don't as long as they can tap into the energy that's available in their body. So if they have nutrient deficiencies and they can't tap into stored body fat, yeah, you might see some of that. You may see some fat loss stalls and things like that. But for the most part, if you're say 35% body fat, you have a ton of food on your body that you've eaten in the past. You don't really need to eat a lot of exogenous food right now. So there's not really a lower limit. That's why you see doctors put the fast 500 and like the hcg diet and you see trainers losing their fucking minds it's like that shit that works like i used to lose my mind at that i used to get mad at clients when do like 800 calorie hcg diet now i know better and i'm like okay you've got a significant amount of weight to lose you're you're going to get that from exogenous food you're eating now or endogenous food you ate in the past as long as you have all of the co-factors you need to run your biochemistry you're not in any danger of starving to death eating 800 calories just understand that yeah you're going to be tired your training is going to suffer but at least you can lose weight real fast and if if the goal is to lose it really fast and hammer it when you're fat like go hard when you're fat slow it down when you start getting to a normal body fat percentage now now if we go from a normal body fat percentage to getting like unhealthy lean so looking at girls that want to get you know below 15 body fat even probably for a lot of women below 16 17 you starting to get to that, that level, like getting to 20% pretty easy, starting to get towards 16 becomes a bit harder. Now getting stage ready from 16 to say 10 to 11%. That's real fucking hard. And a lot of these guidelines that I teach publicly, they have to be changed because you have to understand that your body does not want to be there if that is your desire or you're doing it for show or shoot or something like that just understand that some of these your metrics are going to go to shit you're going to get insomnia your hair may start falling out you may lose your period you want to try to delay it that as much as possible but no one's going to get the nine ten eleven percent as a female without dealing with that no guy is going to get to you know three to six percent body fat without losing his libido losing the ability to get a strong heart erection and having his testosterone go to shit, it's not going to happen. So I would say that if you are going to that level that you want to get super lean, you don't want to rush that for sure, because you're getting at a position where you are going to be susceptible to losing a lot of fat free mass. And that's what you're trying not to do. It's inevitable that you will, which is why we had the conversation of the day where you were like, I want to push it to get freaky lean like i want to get real fucking go to unhealthy levels i'm like that's cool just understand that we have to start with a bit more body weight because you're going to have to sacrifice some lean tissue there's no other way around it unless you're willing to take you know a grocery list of gear and that stuff is it's amazing if people want to take you know guys want to get on like a gram of fucking test and they want to get on trend they want to get on winter they're going to growth they want to get on pebbles they want to get all the shit that stuff will help and it'll it'll help keep you from losing all that tissue but you're still going to lose some there's no other way you know if you want to peel that last little bit off and have veins on your ass cheeks okay you got to understand that yeah that you're going to have some consequences of that so it's a completely it's the same process but a different ball game and going from fat to unfat and going from unfat to no fat. Yeah. And, and I, I did say that and I do want to go there and I've been on a TRT for almost a year, which I think has helped with my recovery and ability to train as hard as I do. And you and I have very similar viewpoints on using PEDs or steroids and stuff because we both coach people who have used it and stuff. And I mean, I don't judge anybody who wants to use it. I do think that they can be very helpful and all that, but when it comes to like getting freaky lean, so I've experienced some of the insomnia, lost my period, stuff like that. It all came back. And what, like going into this next step, we're going to gain weight. Cause I've, I've said on social, like our plan now put on a little bit of size, do another photo shoot, which is a reason why I like photo shoots because you have to go slow. So there's no hard date. I'm not like, Hey Luke, I want to do a show in July. And then we only have X amount of months to get ready. You sacrifice more lean tissue. So at least people made fun of me for moving the shoot so many times, but listen, you, you want to do it when you're ready and when you're in a good place. So I guess if you can kind of talk about what, what can I expect now trying to go to this next level over the next however many months we're going to, you know, spend? Because I don't care, like, if we do this for six months, if we do it for another year, like, however long it takes. So now the thing now is to gain weight, stabilize the weight, and basically bring that maintenance level of total daily energy expenditure up. And so the big thing is you do a photo shoot, you start to eat, you gain two and a half kilos. It's like, oh, shit. It's like, okay, well, that's normal because you got more poo in your body now, you know, you're storing more glycogen, your stress hormones are down. This is all totally normal stuff. Now it's like, okay, when that levels off, okay, how much do we need to gain? How long is this going to take? Right. And how much is too much? Right. So we bring that up and then we start chipping it down again. And the process this time should actually be easier for you to get from the new high body weight to where you are, the body fat percentage that you want to that you just got to should be a lot easier. And you shouldn't have a lot of those effects. But then going lower now, it's like, OK, I know what happened last time when I got down to that level. Now, to get another couple of percent of body fat off, we're going to have to go a little bit longer. So, you know, if I dealt with that for three or four weeks where I was completely fucked, okay now this you may have to do this for like 10 to 12 weeks but that the only real difference is it just the time span Um and then if it gets starts to get too bad it like okay now we need to let diet break go back up a little bit and then jump back down into it Give you a mental break for a couple of weeks and then, okay, we got to hammer it again. But a lot of it too, is this is where cardio now becomes a really good tool because before you got the leveliness you're on with very little cardio, at least, at least the last, say four to six weeks. Now, when we go down to say, let's say we go down to 1300, maybe we have to go down a thousand calories, whatever, you know, at that point, okay, now we have to create another caloric funnel somewhere. So we're going to leverage some cardiovascular activity. So at this point, we're going to do what, you know, if you're doing 20,000 steps, you can't do more steps, walk all day, but now we're starting to add in slowly add in a bit more, walking faster, walking much faster, or, you know, getting on a bike and going a little bit harder. And that's where like heart rate training comes into play is, well, how, how high do we need to get the heart rate to maximize that oxidation without causing too much fatigue? So there's a balance there as well, but this time should be a lot easier. The more muscle you have going into it, the lot easier it's going to be. That, yeah. And that, that I I'm like, okay, that's part of like this whole build process because I did freak out this week because I was like, dude, like we didn't really increase the calories that much, but then you, you explain, you know, my training volumes also a lot lower. And this also happened right after the wedding. Like what, why would I not expect coming out of something where I was extremely depleted to not gain a few kilos? Like what would I tell a client? Oh yeah. Just the same thing. And I actually started enjoying like the, the walking faster. Like I'm like, okay, I'm going on little jogs. And I actually really, cause in Florida, it's like amazing during the winter. So I was enjoying doing those jogs. I just don't recommend like building a course and releasing it at the same time going through this. It got a little hairy during a week. And I like maybe forgot to tell you that little minor detail. I found that out a couple of weeks after it was going on. I was like, what is happening here? tell me what's going on oh my god oh my my business mentors they're just cracking the whip i gotta get these modules out i'm like oh i should have known that but yeah you know encourage you guys to like communicate with your coach and stuff but i was like i can do everything i can do this i swear like i'm not gonna succumb to you know not be and i'm like fuck i can't get up any earlier than five o'clock but um i think it's important like for people to realize what exactly goes into it and the time commitment and everything, because they'll say, Hey, I want to get lean or, you know, maybe they want to get as lean as you, you and I have gotten. But when you learn what it takes to actually get there, it's a whole different story. Cause it is a big commitment because there were times where I had to go to seminars or whatever and go out to dinner and you're at a steakhouse. And I'm like, uh, can I have the ahi tuna on lettuce with no dressing? you know like you really have to be anal about food yeah and i think that's one of the things i've had this conversation a lot in the last few weeks of people like the biggest the biggest thing you're gonna have to learn if you really want to get to your goals is how to say no not just no to other people but also no to yourself because saying yes too much is what got you in the position you were before you have to learn that it's okay to go out with your friends and order the ahi tuna and lettuce and a club soda and not get a couple of glasses of wine and get a burger. You just, that's the thing. Like if you're not willing to do that, then you either don't really want to get to your goal of getting epically lean, um, or you just don't need to go out, just become a social hermit. I, back when, back in the day, when we got ready for bodybuilding shows, you just, you knew that your friend was getting ready because you wouldn't hear from him for four months. Right. Like, yeah. So you'd be like, bro, where have you been? It's like, oh, I competed this weekend. Oh, that's why I haven't seen you in three or four months. Okay. You were, you didn't, you just didn't leave your house. I'm like, that's smart. That's a good strategy for that because then you remove all temptation. Yeah. Cause that's the hardest thing. And like, I don't know, I guess giving zero fucks helps, but like when you're out with people, I did a post about this the other day because I, I have to put myself in some client's shoes who have a circle of friends that have never really gone to the gym and I have to warn them, listen, when you decide you want to commit to weight training and changing your diet, you're going to be made fun of. You're going to be ridiculed. You're going to be shamed. People are going to be like, come on, you can have one drink. And truth is, yes, you can have whatever you want, but it's not that one drink won't fuck up everything It one drink will mind fuck you and then send you in a spiral and make you feel like you failed and can set you up for that to mess everything up Yeah And a lot of people look a lot of people cannot they have very little willpower over hedonistic impulse desires. It's like when I'm January 1st, I said, okay, by my birthday, and I, you can confirm this. I'm not full of shit. I told everybody I'm going to be 10% by my birthday and I'm going to be 90 kilos because on paper, that's what I'd actually written out to do. And I ended up at, I ended up at 95 kilos at, uh, at 10%. But the whole thing was, I know that I can't, I don't, because of my ADD, I don't, I have a real problem with impulse stuff. So I, I, the whole process, I was like, I'm not drinking until then. No booze in the house, no candy in the house, nothing, but what I'm, what I'm letting myself eat. and I stuck to that. And in 50 something days or whatever it was, 60 days, that's what hit the goal. But that's what's going to have to happen. Like if you want it that bad enough, you're going to have to say, okay, this is temporary. Okay. I've got a beginning and an end to this phase of what I'm doing. And then I'm going to save up all the celebration for after that. But you either all in or you're all out, but that's the way I am. So I can't be the person that can go out with friends because I'm going to order a hamburger and fries. Like I'm going to do it. I can't, I can't not do it. I don't have the willpower. Um, so it's like, I'd just rather not go out or I'd rather not keep things in the house that are going to tempt me. Like they have the last three weeks and I've been eating all kinds of shit. I'm not supposed to be. Um, but it's, it's like, do you have to do that to lose fat? No, you can use a lot of flexibility. if you can control your impulses you can have stuff in the house because you know if you just want to lose a little fat you can do whatever you want if you have specific goals and you have a time frame and you want to get to a point that's super physiologically not what your body wants to do you need precision accuracy and you're going to have to have some discipline say no and you you're gonna have to be really fucking hard on yourself to get there but that's why so few people can do photo shoots and so few people can get on stage they just don't they don't want it bad enough they don't have an intrinsic motivator that's going to drive them to this so then when there's an extrinsic derailment because your friends are going to sabotage you or an environment's going to sabotage you if that's the case then don't put yourself in those positions um i used to have people uh i was training people morbidly obese people like i would have i had a guy that was 660 pounds um his mom was a massive enabler so he lost i think the first three months i had him down like 575 580 christmas hit blew back up to 660 i'm like what happened well i had to have a talk with his mom like you if you want your son that my whole job was to get him small enough to get bariatric surgery because I didn't feel comfortable putting someone that big under general anesthesia. And I said, if you really want to save your son's life, you want that, you have to not keep this stuff in the house. Oh, but he likes it. I'm like, I know he also likes living, you know, and he wants to get it. So stop enabling him and, and, and help him get through this. It's temporary. All we need to do is get a couple hundred pounds off. Then he gets, gets lap band and was sweet. And I ended up just firing him because he wasn't in a great environment for it and he didn't want it bad enough he wanted to play world of warcraft all day and drink you know liters of red faction mountain dew and and eat ding dongs and twinkies and shit but you know that's the thing people if you want it bad enough and if it's that important to you you'll understand that two or three months will go by so fast and then you'll be so glad that you did it um all your friends will be jealous as fuck because you'll look amazing and then maintaining that is so much easier getting there's the hard part maintaining it is super easy oh my god yeah getting through like the period where you raised my calories four years ago getting through all that bullshit it's like damn if i never went through that i'd still be in that vicious cycle, spinning my wheels. And now again, it's like all about, you know, okay. Yeah. I want bad enough to look a certain way, which maybe someone doesn't understand. That's fine. It's not for them to understand. Like, this is what I want to do. And I'm with you with keeping shit in the house. Like Charlie's like, so just cause you can't trust yourself around it. I can't have it. I'm like, no, we can't have in the house. Sorry. You're going to have to go without having certain things. Or I've told people wrap it in tinfoil and then like put it away somewhere. I had to do that with our wedding cake. Cause our wedding cake is made of that proto protein cookie dough fake.

stuff that I love. I wrapped it in 10 sheets of tinfoil, put it in the back of the freezer. I was like, I need to make this bulletproof. So I don't claw and poke open the hole and try to pick at it. And I tell people, I tell clients this, I'm like, you're not the only one who will go off the deep end if you're exposed to certain food. And I think the hardest is people with kids. Like if you have kids that like certain things and that's around you all the time, like, I don't know how they do that. But that's the biggest thing you get with parents. They're like, I promise I'm following the program. And then you find out from the other parent, well, when the kids don't finish all the chicken nuggets, they eat the rest of the chicken nuggets. I'm like, okay, that wasn't in your tracking. Oh, I didn't, I was just a couple of bites and they ended up eating like six chicken fingers. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. You just ate like 400 calories that we're not. So they're like, I'm only eating 1300 calories. I don't know. I'm not losing weight. No, no, no. You're eating 1800 calories and you're not training that hard. You're training three hours a week and you've got like 5,000 steps a day. Like this is not this energy. We got to talk about energy balance and the reality of, you know, the mathematics of all this stuff. Yeah. So it's, and hopefully like it's eyeopening that you guys, if, if you want to drop body fat, there are steps you have to take to look in the mirror and say, do you want it bad enough? Or would you rather celebrate wine Wednesday, you know, pizza Friday, taco Tuesday, like all that stuff, you can give it up for a little bit and then it can come back into your life and it's a lot easier to maintain. You can have all that stuff. So