012 What Worked for Me: Mike's Balanced Weight Cut for an Ideal Physique

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.921 --> 00:00:03.830
Mike, good morning, good morning, Good to see you again.

00:00:03.830 --> 00:00:06.684
Happy Sunday morning, likewise as always.

00:00:06.684 --> 00:00:19.147
As always, and today I'm kind of interested because we're going to be talking about you and we're going to be talking about your experiences on a recent weight cut that you did and, if I recall your posts well, you lost.

00:00:19.147 --> 00:00:19.989
What was it about?

00:00:19.989 --> 00:00:20.591
Nine?

00:00:20.631 --> 00:00:22.554
pounds-ish Seven, seven pounds.

00:00:22.554 --> 00:00:24.167
Yeah, just a little bit over seven pounds.

00:00:25.339 --> 00:00:25.760
Which you're also.

00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:28.207
You know you're coming in pretty lean, so that was cool to see.

00:00:28.207 --> 00:00:29.972
And how much body fat, was it one?

00:00:30.884 --> 00:00:38.698
it was about two percent and I appreciate you using the word lean and not skinny, because for an ex-football player, skinny is like the biggest insult you could give us.

00:00:38.698 --> 00:00:41.143
Yeah, unless you're in an old offensive tackle.

00:00:41.143 --> 00:00:45.514
They lost, you know, 100 pounds, but yeah, so lean is the way to go with this to keep my ego intact.

00:00:45.740 --> 00:00:56.447
So seven pounds, which might not sound like a lot to people who haven't really tried to lose weight, but that's huge, especially again for someone that is muscular build coming in and 2% body fat.

00:00:56.447 --> 00:00:59.250
I mean that's more important to see that drop in the percent body fat.

00:00:59.250 --> 00:01:00.442
So that's really cool to see.

00:01:00.442 --> 00:01:01.042
And how long was it?

00:01:01.624 --> 00:01:02.645
It was a nine week cut.

00:01:02.825 --> 00:01:03.265
Nine weeks.

00:01:03.265 --> 00:01:05.088
So that's where I was getting the nine from.

00:01:05.088 --> 00:01:09.174
So basically it was almost a pound a week, you know, rounded up to a pound a week.

00:01:09.174 --> 00:01:14.460
So that's, that's.

00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:15.021
That's pretty cool.

00:01:15.021 --> 00:01:17.864
Like that's right in range with what exercise physiology says is a good target.

00:01:17.864 --> 00:01:21.489
So that's cool to see what motivated you to start this.

00:01:21.509 --> 00:01:24.091
So I like to apply the things to my clients that I do myself.

00:01:24.091 --> 00:01:27.775
Also, I wanted to see how lean I could get for our summer break, right?

00:01:27.775 --> 00:01:38.209
So everybody goes into the summer with the agenda of hitting a beach, hitting somewhere where they're going to be lightly clothed.

00:01:38.209 --> 00:01:43.512
So I tried to figure out mimic that protocol for my clients.

00:01:43.512 --> 00:01:47.888
And hey, I'm going to put you guys on a cut, those of you that are trying to lean down, I'm going to lean down with you.

00:01:47.888 --> 00:01:50.468
So we kind of went through that journey together.

00:01:50.468 --> 00:02:00.150
Touching on one of the points that you said, it is very difficult when you're already lean, already thin, to continue to lose body fat while maintaining muscle mass.

00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:09.948
And that's the most important thing to me is, especially at my age I just turned 49, to keep as much muscle mass as possible because, as we know, it's incredibly difficult to build it at this age.

00:02:09.948 --> 00:02:14.611
So the motivation was Siesta Key I wanted to be super lean for.

00:02:14.652 --> 00:02:18.415
Siesta Key, which I have a little story to go later on I'll share it.

00:02:18.415 --> 00:02:45.622
It's about my wife and my cut, but that was the ultimate goal.

00:02:45.622 --> 00:02:48.753
Also, I knew I was going to be with a bunch of people and from there you know when you're a fitness instructor, influencer and what they've done in the field.

00:02:48.753 --> 00:02:52.846
But when you're somebody of my caliber, when you're walking around and coaching people in person, you have an online presence.

00:02:52.846 --> 00:02:55.300
You kind of want to look your best.

00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:57.947
So, going there was a little bit of ulterior motive.

00:02:57.947 --> 00:03:00.412
Going into that vacation.

00:03:00.412 --> 00:03:06.383
I knew that we were going to be with a bunch of people and I knew that hopefully my physique would sell.

00:03:06.383 --> 00:03:09.129
And sure enough, I came out with two clients out of that experience.

00:03:09.129 --> 00:03:11.824
So, um, a bunch of little motivations.

00:03:11.824 --> 00:03:12.887
Also, I'm kind of just a freak.

00:03:12.887 --> 00:03:13.568
I want to just.

00:03:13.568 --> 00:03:14.700
You know I get bored.

00:03:14.700 --> 00:03:19.132
So I gamified my nutrition and my training protocol just to see what the outcome would be.

00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:19.560
Nice.

00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:32.906
That reminds me I mean the, the reminds me of of something I believe it was Louie Simmons said, or at least I heard it from him first was almost all great coaches have been injured and it's that recovery from injury that's really motivated them to do better, because they walk the walk with it.

00:03:32.906 --> 00:03:46.201
Now, obviously, the idea is not to get injured, but when you've been doing this as long as you and I have, as Louie Simmons did before he died, you get hurt and learning how to do those steps yourself makes you a better coach, and that's true.

00:03:46.241 --> 00:03:47.664
Like, every time I got hurt, it sucked.

00:03:47.664 --> 00:03:57.245
I learned what I did to get hurt and to avoid that, but then also, really importantly, I learned how to I get, how do I get back to my, you know, prime condition from this injury.

00:03:57.245 --> 00:04:07.128
And those lessons are good and that's what you did in terms of I need to learn how to do this weight cut, because it's going to help me more with my clients let alone the aesthetic side of things.

00:04:07.169 --> 00:04:08.817
Yeah, and you could empathize for them.

00:04:08.817 --> 00:04:18.880
And when they give you their anecdotal experience, you could understand oh yeah, this is when I started getting hungry and this is when I started having difficulty sleeping and this is when my performance lacked.

00:04:18.880 --> 00:04:25.593
I've done cuts before, but never as data driven as this one, and it does allow me to.

00:04:25.593 --> 00:04:26.014
Oh.

00:04:26.014 --> 00:04:31.262
When they get to the fifth week, oh yeah, I understand where you are now, because this is when I started getting hunger pains around 3 pm.

00:04:31.262 --> 00:04:39.310
And not to say that, you know, I'm generalizing here, but you could empathize through either injury and recovery or through dieting down or cutting down, I should say.

00:04:39.310 --> 00:04:45.584
So they feel a little bit more at ease knowing that, okay, you've put yourself through this or you've done this yourself.

00:04:45.584 --> 00:04:47.086
Here are the results you know.

00:04:47.086 --> 00:04:49.247
Hopefully the results could, you know, come over to me as well.

00:04:49.708 --> 00:04:50.367
Now, was there any?

00:04:50.367 --> 00:04:53.750
Were there any health related motivations for this or this was strictly?

00:04:53.951 --> 00:04:58.233
aesthetics, strictly just shallow aesthetics, if you will.

00:04:58.233 --> 00:04:59.035
Nothing wrong with that.

00:04:59.035 --> 00:05:00.956
I mean, that's motivation is motivation.

00:05:00.956 --> 00:05:02.517
It makes you healthier, makes you better.

00:05:02.517 --> 00:05:03.560
Good with that.

00:05:04.141 --> 00:05:07.911
What were you doing nutrition-wise before and maybe training-wise?

00:05:07.951 --> 00:05:08.552
as well before.

00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:10.627
And then, how did you manipulate that?

00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:12.384
Yeah, so for.

00:05:12.485 --> 00:05:13.187
Not just calories.

00:05:13.187 --> 00:05:21.353
We'll talk about the calories in, calories out, but were there specific nutritional strategies that you were doing before and after, related to foods and nutrient timing?

00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:39.091
So when it comes to I cycle on and off of macro nutrient, when I say kind of macros, I'm just let's just use it as a catch-all phrase for counting macros, weighing and measuring food and inputting it into my fitness power, into the app that I use in order to either maintain gain or lose which macros?

00:05:39.413 --> 00:05:45.632
most people know that, but that's protein, carbohydrates and fat correct macronutrients those where you get the three sources of calories besides alcohol.

00:05:46.000 --> 00:06:00.175
And I'm using it in a fashion where I'm actually weighing and measuring my food, so I'm getting an accurate amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats that is recommended in order to gain weight or gain muscle, maintain or lose weight.

00:06:00.175 --> 00:06:02.387
So that's when I use the term macros.

00:06:02.387 --> 00:06:04.749
It's like using the word paleo diet or keto diet weight right.

00:06:04.749 --> 00:06:05.550
So that's when I use the term macros.

00:06:05.550 --> 00:06:06.690
It's like using the word paleo diet or keto diet, right.

00:06:06.690 --> 00:06:17.915
So I cycle on and off of my macros because not to sound cliche here, but that which is measured is managed, so I'm able to really dive deep into.

00:06:17.915 --> 00:06:26.149
I want to gain five pounds, and then I could write out a timeline and say these are the amount of calories that I need to eat and this is the amount of protein that I need to eat in order to gain that weight.

00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:30.911
Yeah, when you say cycle on and off your macros, can you just kind of big picture what you mean?

00:06:30.939 --> 00:06:35.307
by that Does that mean on a daily basis, or are you saying oh, on a weekly, monthly basis?

00:06:35.307 --> 00:06:36.922
Okay, based on your overall goal.

00:06:36.961 --> 00:06:44.233
So your goal for this period was to lose weight, so you're going to adjust your macros for this period and that's what you mean now is if your goal is to gain weight, you're going to say so.

00:06:44.233 --> 00:06:45.995
You're not talking about like on a daily basis.

00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:48.625
Right, no, no, no, no, yeah, that's a very good point.

00:06:48.625 --> 00:06:50.932
So, on a uh, on a goal basis, right?

00:06:50.932 --> 00:06:57.403
So, um, there's times that I just let's call it freelancing, that I'm just going to eat intuitively.

00:06:57.403 --> 00:07:07.305
Now stick, intuitively, sticking to the principles that I understand nutritionally are needed in order to keep muscle on and lose fat, and I could dive deep into that here for a second.

00:07:07.305 --> 00:07:16.716
So I understand that with every meal I need to have minimum 25 grams of protein in order to induce MPS, muscle protein synthesis.

00:07:17.459 --> 00:07:27.961
But I typically have 50, close to 50 grams of protein in order to meet my overall daily goal, which is roughly one gram of protein per body weight.

00:07:27.961 --> 00:07:31.870
My goal is to maintain so it would be around 210, 215.

00:07:31.870 --> 00:07:35.225
That means that I got to have a handful of protein for each meal.

00:07:35.225 --> 00:07:37.810
Typically I eat four meals, around 50 grams.

00:07:37.810 --> 00:07:39.583
Boom, at the end of the day I'm at 50 grams.

00:07:39.583 --> 00:07:42.850
So when I intuitively eat, I intuitively eat with intention.

00:07:42.850 --> 00:07:49.492
It's not just I just wake up and eat whatever I feel like it because intuitively I'm craving a cookie or I'm craving a protein shake or a steak.

00:07:49.492 --> 00:07:56.293
It's with intention to meet my what would be macros general ballpark.

00:07:56.293 --> 00:08:08.767
I've counted macros way to measure food so often that I could look at a plate of food and typically we have, and Eric is the one that teaches us and Eric's not here with us today.

00:08:08.848 --> 00:08:09.309
We should know.

00:08:10.230 --> 00:08:11.233
Eric is the one that teaches us.

00:08:11.233 --> 00:08:15.987
You know that, that you want to be able to.

00:08:15.987 --> 00:08:21.285
You're going to eat about 10 to 12 of the same meals Most of the time.

00:08:21.285 --> 00:08:31.939
You know there's exceptions birthday parties, go, taking your wife out to dinner and whatnot but most of the time you're going to eat 10 to 12 meals so you'll be able to recognize this is enough chicken, this is enough rice, this is enough avocado.

00:08:31.939 --> 00:08:34.250
Right, if you do it enough, you know that you're in a range.

00:08:34.269 --> 00:08:44.331
So I intuitively on that note, we did talk about on our other podcast on weighing and measuring your food, the importance of it and doing being strict for a certain period of time so you can learn this skill.

00:08:44.331 --> 00:08:45.253
This is a learned skill.

00:08:45.253 --> 00:08:51.490
I know a lot of people listening like there's no way I'm going to ever be able to look at a meal and know the macro components of it.

00:08:51.490 --> 00:09:01.486
Now if you go back and listen to that other episode where we talk about weighing and measuring food and eric does a really good job laying it out for you if you do that strict for a month or two, what mike's talking about will be second nature to you, yeah, 100, a hundred percent.

00:09:01.506 --> 00:09:06.273
And the first month I usually, you know, call it the shit show because there's a learning curve.

00:09:06.273 --> 00:09:13.582
There's a huge learning curve, um, instructionally on how to weigh and measure your food and then how to input it, and there's some variables that could go wrong along the process there.

00:09:13.582 --> 00:09:21.085
But a month or two, you know, four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, you're going to be able to look at a plate and say, wow, I've been under eating protein.

00:09:21.085 --> 00:09:29.667
You know, instead of one egg in the morning with a piece of toast, I should be having four eggs in the morning with, you know, a piece of toast and maybe some blueberries, because I've also been under eating carbohydrates.

00:09:30.288 --> 00:09:50.832
So when you've been doing it for so long and that's what I mean by cycling on and off is when I cycle on I could really really nail down as closely as possible my macronutrients in order to hit my goal and see the progress, the way that I wanted to progress, when I, intuitively, I pretty much sit around the same weight with the same body fat, which doesn't change much.

00:09:51.019 --> 00:09:57.192
You know, when I get into the numbers here in a second, my in-body goes back to 2021.

00:09:57.192 --> 00:10:02.621
There's when you look at all the times that I did an in-body and I would say it's probably about 12 recordings.

00:10:02.621 --> 00:10:04.543
There's not much deviation there.

00:10:04.543 --> 00:10:12.416
There are minor deviations but aesthetically you could see the difference just in these last nine weeks.

00:10:12.416 --> 00:10:19.594
So when it comes to macronutrients and to get back to your question, I cycle on and off of it depending on what my goal is.

00:10:19.594 --> 00:10:21.981
So if my goal now is to bulk up, I want to be 220 by December.

00:10:21.981 --> 00:10:24.323
If my goal, like my goal now, is to bulk up, I want to be 220 by December.

00:10:24.323 --> 00:10:37.495
So I need to now reverse diet and I need to focus on these new macronutrients that I'm implementing for myself in order to get to 220 with the least amount of body fat, which we could talk about that here in a little bit closer to December and hopefully hit that goal.

00:10:38.154 --> 00:10:38.696
Awesome, yeah.

00:10:38.696 --> 00:10:40.956
So the main thing is you have a lot of experience.

00:10:40.956 --> 00:10:54.131
You didn't just go into this cut as your first nutritional experience, which I think is important to know is that you, you you have a big background of of understanding what works for you before you're going into something as strict as as this weight cut.

00:10:54.131 --> 00:10:56.647
So you know people who are looking to get healthier.

00:10:56.647 --> 00:11:00.344
This would be a step down the road, probably not your first adventure in.

00:11:00.524 --> 00:11:02.931
Yeah, and I think you made a good point there.

00:11:02.931 --> 00:11:08.929
Um, it's what works for you, and everybody has a different little bit of a protocol there and I think the protocol ranges right.

00:11:08.950 --> 00:11:13.851
And you know what works for you better than 99.9% of people.

00:11:13.851 --> 00:11:15.475
That's it yeah.

00:11:15.616 --> 00:11:17.620
And there's also the practical portion of it.

00:11:17.620 --> 00:11:30.431
If I'm just not a big carb guy because I don't enjoy that food, then I know that I could replace a lot of those calories with fats, and if the goal is weight loss, it really doesn't matter with those two macronutrients.

00:11:30.431 --> 00:11:38.322
So once you've done it for so many times, you've been successful and you failed, that you recognize okay, this is what I can't do.

00:11:38.322 --> 00:11:41.261
This is what I can do in order for my body to respond the way that I want it to respond.

00:11:41.282 --> 00:11:45.211
Awesome, nice so then, what changes did you make once you started?

00:11:46.101 --> 00:11:48.509
so I started off with a baseline.

00:11:48.509 --> 00:12:13.605
So I wanted to figure out when I did my metabolic cart which, for those of you that are knowing you, probably have a little bit more background on this Rob metabolic cart you're basically just sitting there, there's a machine attached to you, you're breathing into a tube and it's going to give you a very accurate BMR basal metabolic rate, resting metabolic rate and that's basically the which we have another podcast explaining all of these I was going to say we need to put links for all this stuff here so we don't have to like just talk about it over again.

00:12:13.625 --> 00:12:19.004
But basically it's, it's uh, the energy used to keep the lights on right and your total daily energy expenditure.

00:12:19.004 --> 00:12:22.450
That formula comes from three other components that you tie into you.

00:12:22.450 --> 00:12:25.735
You do, uh, you, you sum it all up and then you get a number.

00:12:25.735 --> 00:12:29.607
So my number through my metabolic cart was in the 4,000s.

00:12:29.607 --> 00:12:36.150
So it was a range of if I remember correct I'll have to look it up it was between like 4,200 to 4,400 calories a day.

00:12:36.150 --> 00:12:38.206
Just to stay at the weight that I was at.

00:12:38.206 --> 00:12:38.889
That's a lot.

00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:48.784
Yeah, practically speaking, it is a crap ton of food, especially if you're eating whole foods and I know that that's just a general term.

00:12:48.784 --> 00:12:53.940
But when I say whole foods, I mean more like nutrient-dense, low-calorie foods.

00:12:53.940 --> 00:13:04.816
So you're thinking like vegetables, broccoli I'm just throwing some examples out there, blueberries, your pieces of steak, your pieces of tuna.

00:13:04.816 --> 00:13:10.085
Out there, blueberries, um, your pieces of steak, your pieces of, uh, tuna.

00:13:10.085 --> 00:13:19.450
So when you, as opposed to mcdonald's and pizza and chicken wings, which are very high calorie, low nutrient foods, right, so when you're trying to hit 4 000 calories with nutrient dense foods.

00:13:19.450 --> 00:13:20.692
It's incredibly difficult.

00:13:20.692 --> 00:13:21.214
You're you.

00:13:21.802 --> 00:13:36.369
It's basically becomes a job and in a and a boring, excruciating job because you just got to eat so much, so you'd have to supplement with some protein powders which, going back in history, is one of the reasons why paleo that kind of fell out of favor with the top CrossFit athletes is because it was too tough.

00:13:36.369 --> 00:13:37.091
Is it healthy?

00:13:37.091 --> 00:13:38.523
Yes, could it be the healthiest way to eat?

00:13:38.523 --> 00:13:40.649
Potentially, is it good for performance?

00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:41.532
That's very hard.

00:13:41.532 --> 00:13:45.542
It's very hard.

00:13:45.542 --> 00:13:49.096
It's very hard for those you know, individuals myself included back then to get in five, six thousand calories a day when you're eating.

00:13:49.116 --> 00:13:56.525
Yeah, paleo foods, absolutely rich froning eating a jar of peanut butter and jelly mixed together every single day for his calories yeah, exactly everyone's like what, yeah that?

00:13:56.525 --> 00:13:56.746
Sugar.

00:13:56.767 --> 00:13:59.241
It's like no right, he needs it because he's burning it off.

00:13:59.241 --> 00:14:05.299
Yeah, so I I figured that 4 000 calories was too much, so I started off around 3,000 calories.

00:14:05.299 --> 00:14:07.226
I said let me try to find a baseline here.

00:14:07.226 --> 00:14:09.807
I think it's been two years since I did the metabolic card.

00:14:09.807 --> 00:14:16.311
I'm at a different station so I don't run as many calls right, because activity level is one of the variables in that formulation.

00:14:16.311 --> 00:14:26.149
So I decided to start off roughly around 3,000 calories and let's do this for two weeks and let's see how my body responds to 3,000 calories.

00:14:26.149 --> 00:14:31.094
If I jump on 3,000 calories and I start to lose weight, then I know that I'm already putting myself in a hypocaloric state.

00:14:31.094 --> 00:14:34.236
Gain weight, then I know that I'm in a hyper, so I'm eating more calories than I'm expending.

00:14:34.236 --> 00:14:43.288
And if I maintain that, I know that I'm within the range again, again, a lot of variables that could go wrong here, but I'm within the range of okay, this is the right amount of calories.

00:14:43.288 --> 00:14:44.188
And that's what played out.

00:14:44.229 --> 00:15:00.561
I ended up eating, roughly to be specific, uh, 3,088 calories for two weeks and I maintained a 214 pounds of body weight which another thing here is is notice how Mike consistently put himself into and I'm going to try this and I'm going to get feedback from myself.

00:15:00.561 --> 00:15:01.643
Right, Mike did not.

00:15:01.643 --> 00:15:04.489
Mike knows his body better than most people know their body.

00:15:04.489 --> 00:15:09.682
He's a seasoned exercise professional on top of being a firefighter, right Top of playing football.

00:15:09.682 --> 00:15:14.442
He's been doing fitness and nutrition for a long time and he still does not know exactly what he needs.

00:15:14.662 --> 00:15:18.471
So he was doing a one or two week experiment and sourcing feedback.

00:15:18.471 --> 00:15:29.402
When you know, when we have new clients, starting with you, starting with me and they want nutritional goals met, there needs to be feedback and we're not going to know right away we're going to have guidelines to feed you, not to feed you.

00:15:29.402 --> 00:15:39.283
We're going to have guidelines to give you and we're going to, you know, to have you reach your goals, you're going to need to provide feedback based on, based on how that works, for us to really fine tune it.

00:15:39.283 --> 00:15:47.115
So this stuff's not going to work right away and you're a prime example of, hey, there needs to be some, you know, a tune-up period before you can really start to go in.

00:15:47.864 --> 00:15:53.746
Yeah, there's a formula going back to the activity level when you look at the Mifflin-Singh-Jor and Eric says it better than I do.

00:15:53.746 --> 00:15:57.693
But the equation, the activity level, is a multiplier.

00:15:57.693 --> 00:16:17.089
Estimate your activity level, which I don't know the studies of this I'd have to ask Eric, but I'm assuming that some people do, because they don't want to seem lazy, or the description of moderately active kind of plays into their activity level.

00:16:17.089 --> 00:16:18.371
Then they choose that.

00:16:18.371 --> 00:16:21.817
What, what they might not understand that they're choosing is an actual variable.

00:16:21.817 --> 00:16:24.052
So it could be 1.55 or 1.75.

00:16:24.052 --> 00:16:32.721
So this is multiplied into your, into your BMR, which could raise your calories to three, four, 500 calories, and now you're overeating.

00:16:33.504 --> 00:16:39.644
So answering that question alone is very, very important to try to find your maintenance calories.

00:16:39.644 --> 00:16:52.551
So this is why I tried and I and I push people to do this is Try to find your maintenance first, to find out if that is truly your maintenance, meaning you're going to eat at those calories roughly one to two weeks.

00:16:52.551 --> 00:16:56.408
Some people get a little impatient so you could do one week, but let's just use two weeks like I used.

00:16:56.408 --> 00:17:05.449
I set it at that for two weeks and then I recognized okay, I haven't budged from 214, plus or minus a couple pounds, but let's just say 214, because that's exactly what I was at for two weeks.

00:17:05.449 --> 00:17:16.163
Then I could say, okay, this is roughly my maintenance.

00:17:16.163 --> 00:17:23.147
Now I'm going to start my cut, because the cutting part is you know where the magic happens and um, and then going through the nine weeks of not rushing the process because, again, I don't want to lose muscle mass or lose as little as muscle mass as possible.

00:17:23.147 --> 00:17:25.742
That's what's important when it comes to the component and the variables.

00:17:25.843 --> 00:17:28.169
Yeah, so that's a really you mentioned earlier.

00:17:28.169 --> 00:17:29.332
You don't want to lose muscle mass.

00:17:29.332 --> 00:17:35.048
It's very tough to gain muscle mass the older you get, especially without any supplementation, whatever supplementation.

00:17:35.048 --> 00:17:40.794
How did you ensure that your health was not impacted during this weight cut Right Cause you were healthy coming in that.

00:17:40.794 --> 00:17:43.885
You know it's aesthetic purposes, whether it's muscle mass or otherwise.

00:17:43.885 --> 00:17:45.810
What were you doing to maintain health?

00:17:52.339 --> 00:17:52.942
So you know I didn't take any.

00:17:52.942 --> 00:17:57.686
Uh, it's just so happens that I did do my annual physical in May, during the actual cut, but that wasn't part of the procedure where I'm going to do blood work prior and blood work after.

00:17:57.686 --> 00:18:02.099
I was not going to put myself in a deficit where I would jeopardize my health, if you would Right.

00:18:02.099 --> 00:18:18.993
So I'm not trying to um, I mean not to tuck in the house side, because I'm more of a, I'm a weight guy, you know, supplementing with all the multivitamins that I take and although we're not sponsored by AG1, the dropping AG1 once a day, and just I mean I'll put it out there.

00:18:18.993 --> 00:18:27.570
I use Thorne products for all my supplementations on the actual pill forms, but then I do use AG1 just in case that I'm not getting enough vitamins and minerals.

00:18:27.570 --> 00:18:34.340
I use AG1 plus then.

00:18:34.340 --> 00:18:43.028
Or eating, trying to eat whole foods, so single ingredient foods, you know, the proteins, the steaks, the fish, the chicken, that type of stuff, and then shopping on the outside of market the whole night.

00:18:43.028 --> 00:18:48.732
So the health didn't come into play really, because I don't have any conditions, if you will.

00:18:48.732 --> 00:19:05.106
So there was nothing that was really concerning me, but also it was going to be a shortcut and I wasn't going to put myself in that much of a deficit only because and I'll tell you the you know what I alluded to earlier about my wife is at six three, 207 pounds.

00:19:05.106 --> 00:19:06.148
You're skinny, like.

00:19:06.148 --> 00:19:23.931
You look thin and at my age maybe it's the white hair or whatnot, but my wife, when I got down to like the 208s, 209s, she told me, listen, you just, yeah, great, so you have a vein in your abs, that's fantastic, but you look old, you look skinny.

00:19:23.931 --> 00:19:26.983
You know it's very difficult to spot, reduce.

00:19:27.223 --> 00:19:38.632
So when you lose body fat from your abs and from your arms or from your legs or from your glutes, you're going to lose fat from your face and it's that fat from your face that makes you look thin and old and frail.

00:19:38.632 --> 00:19:48.055
I mean, you could see it with a lot and not to call out a demographic of people here, but you could see it a lot with very, very thin runners that don't weight train to have very low body fat.

00:19:48.055 --> 00:19:52.126
They just look older than what they actually are because they don't weight train.

00:19:52.126 --> 00:19:52.709
That have very low body fat.

00:19:52.709 --> 00:19:54.936
They just look older than what they actually are because they don't have a lot of fat on their face.

00:19:54.936 --> 00:19:59.048
So they're the skull, the, the bones stick out more, the cheekbones, the eye sockets.

00:19:59.048 --> 00:20:00.210
They look a little bit sunk in.

00:20:00.250 --> 00:20:08.247
So I think you could understand the type of person that we're we're discussing here is, if you don't have a lot of body fat on you, you're not going to have in your face, so you're to look old.

00:20:08.247 --> 00:20:14.059
So to my point is I wasn't going to put myself in a huge deficit because I wasn't going to step on stage.

00:20:14.059 --> 00:20:34.269
This was just me being me, that I wanted to keep a little bit of fat on me and I wanted to make sure that I was keeping as much muscle mass on me so that I didn't look aesthetically unpleasing to my wife, if that makes sense, the unpleasing to my wife, if that makes sense, the mental toughness required to have a happy wife Of course, happy marriage.

00:20:34.328 --> 00:20:38.192
And I want my wife to look at me and think, oh, he's sexy, not.

00:20:38.192 --> 00:20:40.193
Oh, he's 204 pounds.

00:20:40.193 --> 00:20:44.557
Everybody thinks he's shredded, but God, he looks old and skinny and it's just the nature of the beast.

00:20:44.557 --> 00:20:46.824
I'm turning 50 soon.

00:20:46.824 --> 00:20:48.429
So I got to make sure that I check that box as well.

00:20:48.660 --> 00:20:49.202
Yeah, all right.

00:20:49.202 --> 00:20:50.702
Next, what is it Seis de Mayo.

00:20:50.702 --> 00:20:52.765
Next year, it's the 50th birthday.

00:20:52.865 --> 00:20:56.890
Yeah, seis de Mayo, so Cinco de Mayo, and followed by Seis de Mayo, nice, nice.

00:20:56.890 --> 00:21:00.190
A friend of mine, christy, dubbed that, which is fucking fantastic, it's great.

00:21:03.652 --> 00:21:06.012
Every year, I hear it mentally challenging, was it?

00:21:06.012 --> 00:21:16.136
Did you need to, you know, put yourself back in that old football player mindset of you know, nose to the grindstone and and, and you know, focus on my goals and stick to it, or did it come naturally for you?

00:21:17.577 --> 00:21:18.738
It came more naturally for me.

00:21:18.738 --> 00:21:20.662
You know, this is, this is our livelihood, rob.

00:21:20.662 --> 00:21:22.644
This is what we do for a living put food on the plate.

00:21:22.644 --> 00:21:24.747
You know, no pun intended.

00:21:24.747 --> 00:21:28.132
So there's not like an on and off switch.

00:21:28.132 --> 00:21:38.752
I don't need motivation or inspiration or some sort of like overarching goal in order for me to be able to switch on and off.

00:21:38.752 --> 00:21:42.143
Um, it's, it just comes so natural.

00:21:42.143 --> 00:21:49.766
And then with modern technology, my fitness pal recognizes the foods that I eat you know the 10 to 12 foods that I eat.

00:21:49.766 --> 00:22:02.634
So it makes it so easy just for me to grab my food, throw it on a plate, hit the clear button, weigh it, throw the other ingredient on it, clear it and then punch it into the app that it makes that process easy.

00:22:02.634 --> 00:22:03.556
So it's not like a grind.

00:22:03.556 --> 00:22:11.226
I could see how somebody new coming into macros, counting macros, flexible dieting, whatever you want to call it, weighing and measuring food.

00:22:11.226 --> 00:22:13.256
Like I said, the learning curve.

00:22:13.256 --> 00:22:15.544
They just have to understand that that learning curve is going to subside.

00:22:15.544 --> 00:22:18.922
They just need to get used to the habit and the pattern in order to do it.

00:22:20.105 --> 00:22:23.780
You know Eric talks a lot about eating disorders and getting some people obsessed.

00:22:23.780 --> 00:22:32.894
That is a very real situation that somebody needs to find, where you kind of take the approach of gamifying it.

00:22:32.894 --> 00:22:36.089
You know, all you're trying to do is here's a number, here's a target number.

00:22:36.089 --> 00:22:40.829
Try to get as close to that number as possible and don't get too hung up on the outcome.

00:22:40.829 --> 00:22:43.229
If you go over calories or under calories, don't worry about it.

00:22:43.229 --> 00:22:44.621
Tomorrow's the next day, type of thing.

00:22:44.621 --> 00:22:55.736
And that psychology is something that we, you know, got to instill in folks is, if you're trying to do a month or two of macronutrients, just to understand whether you're overeating or not eating, that's the reason for your weight gain or weight loss.

00:22:55.736 --> 00:23:10.730
If you'd follow this for about eight weeks and just take it as a game more than anything else, then you'll be able to reach your goals and then adjust your nutrition, your diet, the way that you see fit.

00:23:10.750 --> 00:23:18.210
So, in order for me to get prepared for this, all I did was you know, I'll upload all the tools again that I needed, that I hadn't been using in a while, which is the, the, my fitness pal, and and bring my scale with me.

00:23:18.210 --> 00:23:25.188
I have a scale at the firehouse, I have a scale at the house, and then I don't get overly complicated with it If Jess and I go out to dinner.

00:23:25.188 --> 00:23:39.769
Um, I'll either, in advance that we discussed the restaurant that we're going to use I'll either jump onto the menu and say, okay, I'm going to have the eight ounce, you know, ribeye with a sweet potato and some broccolini and I'll punch it into the app.

00:23:39.769 --> 00:23:41.782
I could do it, you know, post dinner.

00:23:41.782 --> 00:23:43.748
I get to dinner there, I don't sweat it.

00:23:43.748 --> 00:23:44.611
I look at the menu.

00:23:44.611 --> 00:23:52.054
I guesstimate what it is, literally justesstimate, like it doesn't even matter if it's the same restaurant, because I know I'm going to be within range.

00:23:52.721 --> 00:23:55.207
Again, this is more recreational, if anything.

00:23:55.207 --> 00:23:56.329
I'm not a physique model.

00:23:56.329 --> 00:24:00.710
I'm not looking to do a photo shoot, this is just hey, let me do a little cut, see how lean I could get.

00:24:00.710 --> 00:24:04.590
So I don't try to split hairs and I don't make it an obsession with my life.

00:24:04.590 --> 00:24:09.705
So, um, naturally it just comes second nature, because I've done it so often.

00:24:10.586 --> 00:24:17.076
The motivation is there after the second or third week I would say more the third week when I started the cut.

00:24:17.076 --> 00:24:25.028
That's when I started seeing the results and typically, if you could get that locomotive moving once it gets full speed.

00:24:25.028 --> 00:24:35.589
Now, the motivation continues to be there because myself, the client keeps seeing the results on a weekly, bi-weekly basis, and that within itself is motivation.

00:24:35.589 --> 00:24:48.269
People that jump onto a diet and don't see results quickly and I think that people are they jump off the bandwagon a little bit too soon when they don't see those results quickly.

00:24:48.269 --> 00:24:52.690
They get impatient and they think, oh, this isn't going to work for me, so I'm quitting this or I'm trying something else.

00:24:52.690 --> 00:24:54.746
So it takes a little bit in order to see results.

00:24:54.766 --> 00:24:57.223
But once you see the results, that within itself is motivation.

00:24:57.223 --> 00:25:10.711
So, you know, in the mornings I wake up, I don't sleep with a shirt on, so I look in the mirror and I'm like, okay, here we go into months and then, by you know, month number two okay, I can see my obliques here.

00:25:10.711 --> 00:25:22.744
So once you start seeing here's a couple more veins Once you start seeing that, now you're really vested into it and like, oh shit, I, if I this is working, if I continue this process, I'm going to get even leaner type of thing.

00:25:22.744 --> 00:25:25.750
So, um, I don't think it's that that challenging.

00:25:25.750 --> 00:25:28.595
But I'm only speaking for myself, because this is the world that I live in.

00:25:28.835 --> 00:25:29.717
Yeah, and I mean you.

00:25:29.717 --> 00:25:34.548
Even before you were in this world, you, you know, were a high school athlete, a college athlete and a semi.

00:25:34.548 --> 00:25:39.489
I guess professional athlete to to that extent where you know it was you.

00:25:39.489 --> 00:25:42.082
You've always been surrounded by that high performance mindset.

00:25:42.082 --> 00:25:49.357
You know it wasn't, you know it's not a a wall street executive, but you were similarly a high performance individual in your craft.

00:25:49.397 --> 00:26:04.250
And it's easy to apply that from your craft to something such as this, and I think a lot of people that aren't fitness professionals or have been engrossed in fitness, like we have, take that same passion that you have for something else and you can apply it to this and you'll be a lot more successful.

00:26:06.163 --> 00:26:10.172
Yeah, that mindset and, as you tell me, you throw me back to my college days.

00:26:10.172 --> 00:26:24.548
I took a health class and this is when I first got introduced and we're talking 30 years ago this is when I first got introduced to macronutrients, counting calories, and at that time I was a college football player and I was calculated.

00:26:24.548 --> 00:26:28.465
This could be right or wrong, but I was eating around 7,000 calories a day.

00:26:28.465 --> 00:26:29.810
We know we did a three-day food audit.

00:26:29.810 --> 00:26:41.488
We were this business back then, a pencil and paper type deal where you, you know, you write down everything that you eat, you weigh, you measure it and then you get a food log and it tells you you know, this is the correlating numbers that go along with it.

00:26:41.488 --> 00:26:43.688
And you figure it out and boom, I'm roughly around 7,000 calories.

00:26:52.039 --> 00:26:54.182
At 7,000 calories, I could not budge from 235.

00:26:54.182 --> 00:26:56.869
I was sitting at 235 pounds, coaches wanted me to get up to 245, I was playing defensive end and I couldn't budge from it.

00:26:56.869 --> 00:26:58.595
So at that time I decided, okay, I need extra calories.

00:26:58.595 --> 00:27:05.250
However, I could get in, and I'm not recommending this to anybody this is just what I did and I would set my alarm for 3 o'clock in the morning.

00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:12.823
Sometimes in college you're still awake at 3 o'clock in the morning, but I'll set my alarm for 3 o'clock in the morning.

00:27:12.823 --> 00:27:14.876
Sometimes in college you're still awake at 3 o'clock in the morning, but I'll set my alarm for 3 o'clock in the morning.

00:27:14.876 --> 00:27:15.138
I would wake up.

00:27:15.138 --> 00:27:21.483
I had a cup of Flanagan's the big, large green cups full of whole milk sitting in the refrigerator for me, and then a whole strip of Oreo cookies and I would wake up in the middle of night.

00:27:21.565 --> 00:27:27.223
I would have that, use the bathroom, go to sleep and that's how would it put additional calories into my diet?

00:27:27.223 --> 00:27:31.471
Because I could not figure out where do I squeeze in more calories throughout the day?

00:27:31.471 --> 00:27:32.432
Because we were such.

00:27:32.432 --> 00:27:35.021
You know, you're playing college ball, you're always active.

00:27:35.021 --> 00:27:42.220
You know weight room stuff, field stuff, multiple field stuff, and then all the other activities that you're doing that I just couldn't pack on weight.

00:27:42.220 --> 00:27:47.787
So that mindset of like I have a job to do, this is what it takes in order for it to get done.

00:27:47.787 --> 00:27:50.567
Just deploy it and make it happen.

00:27:50.567 --> 00:27:53.486
So I guess that you carry that along with you for the rest of your life, you know.

00:27:53.727 --> 00:28:00.972
Yeah, no, definitely You're able to figure out what solutions there were for you, right.

00:28:13.079 --> 00:28:17.251
You know, in that case it is a definitely out of left field solution in terms of waking up in the middle of the night and having oreos and whole milk, but it got the job.

00:28:17.251 --> 00:28:17.393
Got the job done.

00:28:17.393 --> 00:28:21.826
Let me just say this, and and I've posted this picture before, and just she gives me the look when I because now it's the opposite of skinny mike, I was my body composition was horrendous.

00:28:21.826 --> 00:28:27.221
I got up to 245 pounds, but I was full belly, love handles.

00:28:27.221 --> 00:28:28.627
I didn't even care.

00:28:28.627 --> 00:28:33.046
I walked around without a t-shirt with as much pride because I was squatting 500 pounds.

00:28:33.046 --> 00:28:35.525
I could run through a wall Like I was functional.

00:28:35.525 --> 00:28:38.086
I was a football player, I was in a fitness model.

00:28:38.086 --> 00:28:46.269
So, no, it didn't bode well aesthetically to have all those calories, because I was starting to put on predominantly more fat than I was muscle.

00:28:46.269 --> 00:28:47.662
But again, it got the job done.

00:28:47.662 --> 00:28:51.546
I needed to be heavier so I don't get blown off the ball, and that's what I had to do in order to get there.

00:28:51.866 --> 00:28:54.750
Yeah, no that's a fun story.

00:28:54.750 --> 00:28:59.375
Similar stories from wrestling weight, cutting the stuff that you do to cut weight Right.

00:29:13.559 --> 00:29:14.570
And you learn those tricks that stay with you for a long time.

00:29:14.570 --> 00:29:16.487
I always know how I can cut a few pounds, a few pounds in a day or two, or get really lean just because of those lessons learned from is like hey, I have this job I have to do.

00:29:16.487 --> 00:29:19.742
I have to lose five pounds by the end of the week, which I was never the biggest weight cutter but you still learn exactly how your body responds and what you need to do.

00:29:19.742 --> 00:29:26.028
You know how to get an extra workout in, how to sweat out an extra eight ounces, how to you know how to spit more so that you can lose weight.

00:29:26.048 --> 00:29:28.755
Yeah, how much weight's in in in your spitting?

00:29:28.755 --> 00:29:29.938
Yeah?

00:29:30.278 --> 00:29:31.501
you pee, it's always going to be heavy.

00:29:31.501 --> 00:29:33.288
It's going to be more weight loss than when you take a crap.

00:29:33.288 --> 00:29:42.049
That's for sure you know people think that a crap was heavier, nah it's the water weighs more, for sure um, but besides that, that stuff, my last question for you before we go through, go through the numbers.

00:29:42.089 --> 00:29:46.970
Yeah, you are active, very active on social media.

00:29:46.970 --> 00:29:48.232
Instagram, you have a pretty, you know, a familial following.

00:29:48.232 --> 00:29:53.465
You're following are people you, you have a pretty, you know, a familial following you're following are people you've known for a long time.

00:29:53.465 --> 00:30:04.277
You know people that I've known for a long time and you're close and you talk to a lot of them and you interact with them both in person and on Instagram and you post about this both ahead of time, during it and after did.

00:30:04.277 --> 00:30:09.810
What level of accountability did you feel to go through with this because of that?

00:30:10.092 --> 00:30:16.571
Yeah, so there's a great book by the author James Clear.

00:30:16.571 --> 00:30:22.009
It's called Atomic Habits and I read it a couple years ago and sometimes I throw the audio book just to refresh my memory.

00:30:22.009 --> 00:30:28.073
But one of the things that he talks about is I'm going to butcher it here, but having an accountability partner.

00:30:28.073 --> 00:30:39.621
I'm gonna butcher it here, but having an accountability partner and when you tell people and there's there's a little, there's a counter argument to this is when you tell people your goal, you have a dopamine dump, so then you don't pursue your goal.

00:30:39.621 --> 00:30:41.045
But that's neither here nor there.

00:30:41.085 --> 00:31:00.163
But in James clears, basically saying you grab an accountability partner, which could be social media, and you say this is what I'm gonna do, because I could tell myself and this happens all the time right, I could tell myself internally oh, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to work out five times this week, but then if I miss one or two days, it's not a big deal, because I only tell myself.

00:31:00.163 --> 00:31:13.229
But if I tell my wife and the last person I want to disappoint or make her think that I'm a failure is my wife so if I tell my wife I'm working out five times this week, it's just extra motivation in order for me to work out five times.

00:31:13.229 --> 00:31:25.185
So when I post about, okay, I'm going to do a cut, it keeps me more focused that I can't I mean, just to be frank look like a shit talker on social media.

00:31:25.185 --> 00:31:40.690
I got to make sure that what I'm telling my following and clients and potential clients is I'm going to follow through with this stuff Because if I can't do it and again, this is my industry how do I expect an accountant to do it or a mother of three to do it?

00:31:40.690 --> 00:31:43.123
I have to be able to follow through with this.

00:31:43.655 --> 00:31:47.807
So that accountability aspect of it puts I wouldn't say pressure challenge.

00:31:47.807 --> 00:31:57.434
I can't look like a shit talker, I don't want to look like a fraud on social media, so I'm going to follow through with this aspect of it to make sure.

00:31:57.434 --> 00:32:10.202
So I do recommend that if there is a goal that you're trying to reach and obviously an attainable goal is, tell somebody, tell your spouse, tell somebody that you respect, that you don't want to disappoint.

00:32:10.202 --> 00:32:11.769
Maybe it's your kids.

00:32:11.769 --> 00:32:13.616
Hey, mommy's going to lose 20 pounds.

00:32:13.616 --> 00:32:21.545
This is the mission that I'm on, one that support is imperative when it comes to success, especially if your spouse or your partner is not on that same journey, but two.

00:32:21.545 --> 00:32:24.441
It gives you a little bit more responsibility to follow through.

00:32:24.742 --> 00:32:29.501
Yeah, definitely, and you know it sounds like in your, in your instance, it wasn't necessary, it wasn't.

00:32:29.501 --> 00:32:34.201
You know it didn't need to motivate you to get it done, but it certainly helped, yeah, and it certainly made it.

00:32:34.201 --> 00:32:34.943
So you did not fail.

00:32:34.943 --> 00:32:38.625
Yeah, of course you would have done this either way, but this was, was the added push.

00:32:38.625 --> 00:32:45.868
And yeah, no, having telling someone, having whether it's a group chat, chat, whether it's your spouse, and just telling him what your goal is, writing your goal down.

00:32:45.868 --> 00:32:56.386
I mean that's huge too is having a journal or just having a piece of paper write, write down your goal, and you know, if you're working with a coach, having you know, showing your coach, and having your coach give you, maybe modify, that goal.

00:32:56.386 --> 00:33:00.057
So it's a little bit more obtainable, because a lot of people like to set unobtainable goals for themselves.

00:33:00.057 --> 00:33:05.888
I mean, I get, look at everything that you did in nine weeks and it was seven pounds, right?

00:33:05.888 --> 00:33:09.648
People are gonna be like that's it, like I'm not doing all that work for seven pounds.

00:33:09.669 --> 00:33:11.435
Like I would expect to lose 30 pounds in a week.

00:33:11.435 --> 00:33:17.878
But as I said earlier, like physiology dictates that a one to two pound per week weight loss is ideal.

00:33:17.878 --> 00:33:24.300
Anything more than that and they tend to bounce back and put the weight back on and I say you know, two pounds is a lot, yeah, a lot.

00:33:24.340 --> 00:33:35.227
Like some people might lose that in the beginning because they've been so out of shape, but really, if you're at a pound a week and even a little bit under, that is ideal for a long-term weight loss, because otherwise it's not going to be sustainable.

00:33:35.227 --> 00:33:36.128
For sure, very good point.

00:33:36.128 --> 00:33:38.337
So there's a lot of work for a lot of results.

00:33:38.337 --> 00:33:40.800
That just doesn't seem like it to the lay person.

00:33:40.800 --> 00:33:42.703
So don't you know, don't be put off by that.

00:33:42.703 --> 00:33:51.604
Losing seven pounds in two months, in three months, is a significant goal and if you obtain it, pat yourself on the back because it's awesome and keep going.

00:33:51.604 --> 00:33:52.666
For sure, a hundred percent.

00:33:52.666 --> 00:33:55.785
So walk us through your numbers here.

00:33:55.785 --> 00:34:01.702
That's where I kind of want to finish this off and we'll talk lessons learned afterwards, if there's anything new that you picked up.

00:34:01.835 --> 00:34:04.757
I'll throw my readers on so I can really show my age here.

00:34:04.757 --> 00:34:07.417
So just to reiterate what the goal was.

00:34:07.417 --> 00:34:11.760
The goal was not necessarily weight loss, because I would have loved to stay at 214.

00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:14.822
The goal was to try to get below double digits body fat.

00:34:14.822 --> 00:34:17.603
Now you know full disclosure.

00:34:17.603 --> 00:34:20.686
I'm using the InBody 270, the one that we have here in the office.

00:34:21.766 --> 00:34:29.990
The pre and post in body was taken early on a weekend morning with completely fasted, not a sip of water, nothing.

00:34:29.990 --> 00:34:32.713
So I tried to keep as many variables in my underwears.

00:34:32.713 --> 00:34:37.079
So try to keep those variables as consistent as possible.

00:34:37.079 --> 00:34:38.925
So there's no inaccurate data, if you will.

00:34:38.925 --> 00:34:42.425
But there is a, and this is something that I should have researched.

00:34:42.425 --> 00:34:44.121
I will research and we could post this.

00:34:44.121 --> 00:34:46.077
There's a.

00:34:46.077 --> 00:34:54.347
There's um, what's the word I'm looking for A deviation, if you will, with these devices, meaning they're not dead on accurate.

00:34:54.347 --> 00:34:57.775
There's a range, if you will, and I'll find out what that, what that deviation is when it comes to this particular device.

00:34:57.775 --> 00:35:11.940
But, um, if, even, if you use, even if your device, if it's at an at home scale, uh, that measures your body fat, even if it's an error, if it's calibrated correctly, that error is going to be consistently inconsistent, right.

00:35:12.601 --> 00:35:13.001
Ideally.

00:35:13.221 --> 00:35:13.780
Ideally right.

00:35:13.780 --> 00:35:21.583
It's something that you want to go off of, so this is the tool that I used in order to measure my body fat percentage.

00:35:21.623 --> 00:35:23.344
It's called validity and reliability.

00:35:23.344 --> 00:35:23.963
There you go Right.

00:35:23.963 --> 00:35:31.186

012 What Worked for Me: Mike's Balanced Weight Cut for an Ideal Physique

Listen On

Recent Episodes