Transcript 0:00 You're listening to the Iron Sights podcast. In this episode, we discuss eating through the holidays without gaining too much fat. This episode is sponsored by Red Dot Fitness. 0:11 If you're interested in virtual nutrition coaching or working with a nutrition coach one-on-one to lose weight and improve your health, visit rdftrainonline.com to get started. That's rdftrainonline.com. 0:23 [rock music] Welcome to Iron Sights. 0:30 This podcast candidly seeks to create opportunities and deliver impact by sharing the experiences and wisdom of successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders who unapologetically aim to win in health, fitness, business, and life. 0:44 I'm your host, Scott Howell. Welcome to old school meets new school, tradition meets innovation, and imperfection meets excellence. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the show. Oh, can I tell you? 0:56 So there's this dish, okay, my, uh, family makes, and talk about sticks of butter. So you take corn, frozen corn, and you put it in whatever, the stock pot. 1:07 And however much corn you put in, then you cover it with whole milk just so, until it, um, covers the, the corn. Mm. And then I think you put in a pound of butter. It, we call it Christmas corn. That's corn au gratin. 1:19 And, and then you cook it all day. [laughs] All day. I grew up on that stuff. Is it like a slow simmer? Yes. Oh, okay. I love that. So, so does it come out like a casserole where you have to cut it out of there? 1:31 'Cause it's so- It comes out pretty thick. Yeah, and it's a little bit chewy. Do you eat it cold or do you eat it hot? Well, depends. Like, when it's fresh, you eat it warm. 1:39 But I like cold food, so I'll eat it the next day cold. Okay, so I just wanna be clear about this. One of the most non-nutritive- Oh, corn... knowingly the non- We know... 1:48 most non-nutritive vegetable on the planet right now- Yeah... coupled with whole milk, which, again, there could be arguments there depending on where that milk was sourced and wherever else- And butter... 1:57 it came from, and then a pound of butter. Yeah. But I think back in the day, it might have been Parkay. Margin. Back in the day, but now it might be f- might be butter. Crocker. Uh- They're using the big old Crocker Pot. 2:08 Mm-hmm. You remember that? Dude, I, my family, huge Crocker tub. Like, you'd go out, and they would just be like... Like, my grandfather, when he came to visit, he'd be like, "When's dinner?" at, like, 1:30. 2:18 You know what I mean? He'd be asking my grand, "When are we dinner? What are we having for dinner?" And he'd be coming in the kitchen like, "Oh, that gravy's too thin." 2:23 You know, he'd be trying to fucking thicken it up, and then him and my aunt are ar- Stepping in the way. Yeah... eh, arguing about shit. Yeah. It's like, "Ah, put some more butter in." 2:29 I was like, "Dude, these guys, whole different ballgame out there." Dude. [laughs] CC. Wait, out there? Missouri. Oh, yeah. Oklahoma. Mm-hmm. Tulsa. Plains. Holidays are a wacky time. 2:38 I will tell you, I never had what you just described, CC. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit listening to you. Oh. Oh. That was, that was disgusting. 2:45 [laughs] Uh, but I do, I do get, like, the, the dishes that come up at the holidays and the, the stuff. Like, I, I was really fortunate. Like, my mom's an, an amazing cook, and she's, she's b- she's the matriarch, right? 2:57 And so at the holidays, like, we all go over there, whether it's Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, whatever. There's always something going on over there during the wintertime. 3:05 Like, and she's a m- she's a diehard football fan, so Sundays there's always something happening or whatever. Uh, but when we get to, like, Thanksgiving is only my most favorite holiday of the year. 3:15 [laughs] And, uh, there's just food from one end of that house to the other. From morning till night. Oh, just, it starts early. The football comes on. The drinking starts early. Like, I love it. [laughs] I love it. 3:26 I love it more 'cause I'm with the family, and it's just- Mm... like there's some nostalgia there, and obviously the, the getting together is really important for me. 3:33 Uh, but [laughs] the food just, the food just is, it's nuts. And, and then I literally eat myself sick, uh, on, on that day, and I, I tell myself I'm not eating for three days. [laughs] Yeah. 3:45 Then what happens the next day? I take the leftovers home. Stomped. [laughs] I'm doing, I'm doing it all over again. Yeah. 3:50 And it goes through the weekend, and then by Sunday we're adding other stuff on, and nobody wants to cook anymore or clean. Oh, yeah. So you're ordering takeout, right? 3:57 And, and basically through, like, a four or five-day period, you've consumed, like, you feel like a python every day that's just eaten a f- like a fucking full-sized deer. [laughs] And you just k- seem to keep doing it. 4:09 Now, I think people can relate to that. Mm-hmm. 4:11 I, I, I, I know there are 'cause I've had conversations with people, but that's kinda what the, how the holidays kinda start and finish for me a, a lot of the time, um, in the past. 4:21 And what I always end up doing is I always end up trying to overcompensate. Like, my workouts, like, "Oh my God, I gotta go run," you know? Or, "I gotta go..." [laughs] And I hate running. 4:31 [laughs] So if I'm running- [laughs]... like, that means I'm feeling really guilty or really motivated, right? I hate running, so, like, I gotta go run, or I gotta in- increase my, my, my workouts at the gym. 4:40 Also, the weather changes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's cold outside, so, or it's, it g- it does rain here in California occasionally, so it's a little wetter or whatever. But you know what else is happening during that time? 4:49 Everybody fucking else is outside because they're doing the same thing. Like, "Oh, I gotta get outside, and I gotta exercise, uh, because I'm, m- my activity level has slowed down. Like, uh, uh, the days are shorter." 5:00 You're not doing the Turkey Trot? Hell no. [laughs] What? No, I've done those, and- [laughs] S- so have I... we, so we hosted- Oh... we ho- every Thanksgiving, we actually host a workout here at the gym. 5:10 Like, it's the morning. Mm. Yeah. Everybody gets together as a community. It's a huge group workout or whatever. And I remember a few people were leaving that workout to go to the Turkey Trot after. 5:18 Like, I don't know what the fuck they were thinking. They're leaving. You remember that, remember that year it was, like, 14 degrees? Ugh. 5:24 Now, that doesn't, that, that, for a lot of people in the country- There's been a couple years like that, yeah... they're like, "14 degrees?" It's happened... they're like, "It's typical winter we- weather." 5:30 But in California- [laughs]... and Nor- and Bay Area- Dude, that's cold... at, at sea level- Mm-hmm... it is, that is really cold. People were doing that. But the, my point is, is the, the weather changes. 5:39 The, the, the, the days are shorter. So, like, if you're a cyclist or a runner, uh, you may not be getting out there as often because you're, you're, you've lost daylight. 5:49 You don't wanna be out after dark or whatever the case. These are all the things that sort of happen during the holidays. 5:54 And w- inevitably, what happens with that is workout progress stalls a little bit And weight gain happens. 6:04 And, I mean, what I wanted to talk about today is, 'cause I think this is, you know, seasonally it sort of makes sense, is to talk about, 6:11 hey, how do you continue to maintain, you know, your fitness and your gains through the holidays as, but at the same time not get into the weight gain trap to, to the extent where you come out the other side with the, you know, where they say average person gains five to 10 pounds through the holidays. 6:25 And what, that's over, that's over, like, a two-month period. Mm-hmm. That's, that is an immense amount of weight in two months. I mean, you literally have to work at doing that. 6:34 [laughs] And I just described what, like, what my Thanksgiving weekend looks like, uh, a lot of times. So th- y- I'm putting in work. Yeah. Like, I'm literally s- [laughs] Yeah... 6:42 I'm just pushing the calories in, and I'm not getting a lot of activity. I'm sitting there staring at a, a screen watching football or, or, or sitting on a couch visiting with family or whatever else. 6:52 But I think there's things, there's a lot of strategy that you can use, and that's not w- that's not me every time. That happens to be that weekend. I really look forward to it in a sick kind of way. 7:00 [laughs] Uh, but there are ways to get through the holidays and still continue to get, uh, you know, obtain your fitness goals and not gain a ton of weight coming outside or coming off the back end of it. 7:11 Um, so I wanna talk about kinda some strategies to do that for people that are going, "Yeah, man, I am either... My, my, my fitness either stalls and I can't... 7:20 Then I feel like I'm way behind coming out the other side, or I just kinda give it up altogether," which we see happen. Yeah. Now, ironically, here in the gym, what we see is, like, a real uptake in people's frequency. 7:31 Like, our personal training clients, our group training clients seem to be coming more, likely because of what we were talking about with shorter days, colder weather. 7:38 Uh, and I think people have more of a rigid schedule. Like, they kinda know what they're doing for the, for the days and months closing out the year. Not a lot of vacations happening until Christmas or whatever. 7:51 But so strategies to, to not get fat [laughs] And, and, uh, or not to ga- gain too much fat, let's just say, and, uh, and still maintain your goals. 8:00 And even, I think there's probably a way to, there's, there's definitely ways to stay lean here- Mm... during this time if you're, if you're setting yourself up for success. 8:07 So, Jeff, in terms of setting yourself up for success, what's, uh, step number one? Well, 8:13 if you're somebody that is aware of what you're doing, you're already on a workout program, you're on a nutrition program, it's very easy to program this in as a positive. 8:21 If you're someone that doesn't know what's going on, maybe you need to be aware of your food choices and kinda titrating back. Also, maybe not. Maybe this is good for you. You have a good time. 8:32 Yeah, it wrecks the body a little bit. Guess what? You get back to work on the next weeks and get back to business. Right. Kinda pull the emotional side away from it and kinda think of it logically. 8:41 And I'll, I kinda wanna s- hit this from a side where people kind of know what they're doing or ways to get into it, right? So when we're talking about, like, cuts and bulks- Yeah... right, one is over my maintenance. 8:52 That's a bulk. Cut is underneath my maintenance, and my maintenance calories are movement and RMR just to keep alive. So my daily activity, what I'm, like, metabolic function, that's it. 9:04 Baseline, if I hit those calories, I don't go plus or minus, right? I stay at my base weight. So- And, and the workouts and the activity- So, yeah... that you do throughout the day. 9:12 So if you're somebody that is literally like, "Oh, I'm trying to lose weight," let's say six or seven months before this, you're in a huge deficit. You're doing a lot of cardio. You're working out a lot. 9:20 And all of a sudden you come into this and now you're 3,000, 4,000 over your maintenance. Well, yeah. For the week or whatever, yeah. You're, you're gonna gain weight, right? You're going to gain weight. 9:30 Now, if you program this differently, you thought about this differently, or, "Hey, I've been cutting for three months and I haven't, I kind of start to see a stall," well, guess what? 9:38 Which, which would be appropriate- Right?... about that time, right. You start to see, well, now I can come into this holiday and bulk a little bit. Use it as a bulk. 9:45 Use it as a time period where now I'm gonna get my met- metabolism back up to where when I come out of it, I come to a cut at a higher level. I'm not down at 1,200 or 1,000 calories, right? 9:55 I'm back up closer to my maintenance, so I'm healthier, and now I can lose weight from that higher threshold instead of being down at 1,000 calories. Yeah. Can we define bulk? 10:05 Yeah, so- Because, 'cause I think that's gets misconstrued, right? It's... So a bulk, right, is, again, let's say 250 calories over my maintenance. That is not a lot. That would be considered a bulk. 10:14 I would be in an excess of calories. I could find that many calories in, like, a bar- Easy... a quote, unquote- Yep... protein bar at the front c- front desk here. Yep. Yep. 10:21 And if you were at your maintenance and you had a protein bar or, like, an amino acid shake, 'cause they say there's zero calories in it, but, like, if you know science- Right... there has to be. 10:29 Like, it, the aminos have to have... Like, you can go over and build fat from that, right? It's just anything that is over my maintenance I am going to store, right? 10:38 Yeah, and I think, so you, you just went back to, like, specific calories and a good place to start being 250 over. The, the point of this is the really, the, the key takeaways is, one, you're in a surplus. Mm-hmm. 10:47 So you're above your, your- Yep... you're beginning to be- move above your maintenance, so that's important, uh, to understand. Mm-hmm. 10:51 Secondly, whenever you move above your maintenance, especially if you've been coming through a cut, it's likely you're gonna- Mm-hmm... put on a little body fat. Yeah. So, so there's a, there's a, 11:01 there's a mindset piece you have to be ready for, and I think that's what you were talking about, about putting the emotional- Yeah... piece- Yeah... aside. So you have to be prepared for this. Like, you're- Mm... 11:08 gonna be putting on some body fat. Maintain... 11:10 If you're trying to stay, you know, sub 8% body fat and you're not, th- that's, you don't typically hold that 'cause the, you know, there are the typical ectomorphs that can do that, you know, or whatever. 11:22 But, but, uh, y- y- if you're, if you're trying, if you're trying to maintain that, well, this is gonna be a rough, probably a rough time. 11:29 Uh, and there's all kinds of things that go into managing around social gatherings and food and workouts and things like that, uh, through the holidays over a period of time. 11:38 But to your point, you, the very specific po- uh, piece that you put together was generally speaking, people are coming off the summer, the warmer months, they've been in a little bit of a deficit, and they've been sort of in a regular routine. 11:49 Mm-hmm. Right? And we just articulated that it's the wintertime where people generally, generally speaking, they get a little bit outside their routine, and it's not well-planned- Mm... 11:58 which is another point I think you were making there, which is, like, you have to think about what's about to happen. Yeah. Right? And part of that is the mindset, take the emotional out of it. Yeah. 12:07 Be aware of where you currently stand. Mm-hmm. So how many calories are you onboarding now? Like, what is your new maintenance, whatever that is. 12:16 Um, uh, or excuse me, yeah, your new intake now, where it should your maintenance be? Mm-hmm. How do we get there? And then maybe even be prepared to move into a little bit more of a surplus. 12:25 'Cause I know for a lot of people that's kind of like a, wow, like my- that's too much for me, right? Like what... They're talking about cuts, bulks, being at your maintenance, all of these things. 12:33 The body wants to be at a set point. So if I'm eating low calories, my body's gonna down regulate my metabolism to that number, right? 12:40 So, uh, what we're trying to do, for me, when I look at these kind of situations, is I'm gonna have an excess of food. 12:47 It's a way to now get my metabolism back up to a higher point where I can lose more weight, and it's just a way that I can, for my clients, can effectively put them into a better position to not gain as much weight, to build their metabolism back up, so when we come off of this, you know, holiday extravaganza- Yeah. 13:04 [laughs]... uh, dude, coming back to regular is not hard. It's like 250 under, now they're starting to lose weight with just a little bit of decrease- Right... and just slowly go back down the ladder, right? Right. 13:14 And so that's just me thinking of programming for, for my, from a lot of my clients. I love that you brought that up, man. 'Cause th- but that... So what I, 13:23 what I take away from that or what I think about when you talk about the programming is that this didn't, just didn't happen, right? You, you were thinking about this months and months and months in advance. 13:33 In fact, if we just kind of broke out the year and we talked about training, which I think most people can wrap their head around with regard to periodization. Mm-hmm. We periodize our training. 13:42 We go through weeks and months, meso, micro, macro cycles of, uh, of training periods in order to obtain certain goals or certain results- Yeah... whether that's strength- Mm-hmm... 13:53 whether that's hypertrophy, whether that's power, whether that's going through that cut- Yep... that bulk or whatever, and that undulates through the year. 14:00 And if I took my year, let's just say we started in January, right, and we looked at it, I could plan out my entire year of kind of where I wanna be. Like, oh, I've got this vacation that's happening- Mm-hmm... 14:10 or, or I have, you know, I like to s- to ski and snowboard in the wintertime, and I know February through, you know, mid-March is, like, gonna be my real, uh... That's where I want to my peak performance to be. 14:21 So I'm gonna manage my training program through the winter in order to get me ready for ski and snowboard season, right? 14:27 And as I come out of that, then I know the w- the months are getting warmer, and I have this, this spring vacation I'm taking or whatever, and I wanna cut a little bit. 14:35 I like to take a little body fat off, feel a little leaner, so forth. And so I'm gonna adjust my, my, uh, my workouts accordingly, maybe get into a little bit heavier lifting, increase the intensity. 14:45 'Cause I wasn't really doing that during snowboard and ski season- Yep... 'cause it would've kind of taken away- Mm-hmm... or I didn't have the time to really put in. 14:51 So my frequency of workouts was different, so on and so forth. Then I come out the end of that, I get into the summer. Everybody wants to look good naked or, you know, half-naked or whatever. 15:00 And so I adjust my workouts accordingly for that. If you're not also... That's called periodization, by the way. If you're not also periodizing your nutrition to meet the demands- Mm-hmm... or the needs- Yep... 15:12 of those different workouts, those different activities, um, and what have you, you're missing out on all the results. Like y- or the majority of the results. 15:24 So to, to circle it all the way back, what you're talking about is, like, now you've come off the summer and you are in a deficit, and that just brings us back to what we're saying. 15:31 Now it's time to add those calories back in so I come up above maintenance so that I can eventually go back into my cut or my performance training program and be in a position to do that most effectively and, and have optimal amount of calories coming in to support the demand- Yep... 15:50 of the activity that I'm putting out. Mm-hmm. So again, like, if, if people's minds are blown a little bit right here, it's really a matter of awareness and understanding of how I'm gonna manage myself down the road. Mm. 16:03 I don't know a single person that doesn't already do that at some level. The pr- uh, the, the problem is, is, like, they don't think about it until it's like they walk in there- The day of. [laughs] Yeah. 16:13 They fucking walk in. They're just like- Two weeks to go. Yeah. "So sister's getting mar- Yeah. "... sister's getting married in, in two months. I need to lose 25 pounds." Oh, damn. Okay. 16:20 We could, we could try and do that, but you have to understand what that's gonna do to you. Yeah. Right? 16:25 If you haven't been working out at all or if you're already severely undereating, this is gonna be fucking miserable- Mm... and unhealthy. Mm-hmm. So that's a whole other, whole other topic, right? 16:34 Uh, that's not, that's not a client I even wanna take on. 'Cause what I think Jason Phillips was talking about the girl that had the wedding, and she was like, "No, I, I drink and I eat on the weekends- Mm-hmm. "... 16:42 and this is what I do." And he's like, "Oh, all right. Well, if you wanna do that, like we're gonna do all these things during the week." Guess what? She lost weight and she made it to the wedding. 16:48 So there, there's so many ways to play and plug here. You have to plan, though, right? Mm-hmm. Oh, absolutely. So you, you, you plan to succeed, and if you fail to plan, um, you plan to fail. 16:58 [laughs] So as we're looking at the holidays coming all the way back, like if you're thinking about it now and you've never thought about it before, and you're just listening to us going, "Oh, shit, this makes a lot of sense," then here's, here's some things you, you could do. 17:08 Now, Jeff's already mentioned, like, if you're coming off, um, uh, like a deficit, then we need to get you back to maintenance, and we need to do that slowly. 17:16 So the faster you try to return to maintenance, the more, uh, potential there is to put on a little bit more body weight. You wanna... Or excuse me, body fat. 17:24 You wanna try to do that a little bit, little bit more slowly, a little bit more controlled. Now, if you're ready, go for it. Go ahead, right? You could put in even more calories. Just understand that might... 17:33 The, the consequence, in air quotes, of that might be putting on a little bit more body fat 'cause you're not titrating it as tightly, and you, you, so your adjustment is, is more on a macro- For sure... you know, level. 17:46 And I think also, like, what you're talking about is, like, scale weight. A lot of people use the scale. And when we're talking to people like, "Oh, dude, I gained three pounds yesterday." 17:53 [laughs] It's like, "Dude, no you didn't. You didn't gain three pounds of fat yesterday." Yeah. Can we talk about that? Yeah. No. Yeah. Like, let's... Okay, one pound of fat is 3,500 calories over your maintenance. 18:01 So, like me, I'm eating 4,000 calories a day. That number's gotta be 7,500- Right... for me to gain one pound of fat. Mm-hmm. That is a lot of fucking calories. That's a lot of food. I can't eat that. 18:09 That's a, that's a lot of calories. Would make you... That's my, that's my, uh- [laughs]... you know, Thanksgiving Day- Exactly... 18:14 and Friday being, eating like a- Fucking fried butter dish that she's talking about- Yeah, exactly... and all that shit. Like, and I, and it takes work, and you feel that. It does. Right? Yeah, absolutely. 18:21 You feel that if you're doing that. But, and, and there's other things that contribute to that gain, to that, to that fat gain. 18:27 My, you know, aside from the 3,500 calories, it's hormonal responses and how those calories are being- For sure... utilized and where they're going and, and, and what's happening. 18:36 But yes, to your point, it's, it's managing it in, in a sense that makes the most, or in a way that makes the most sense for you- Mm-hmm... and what you're trying to do. 18:45 So, uh, again, adding back in calories, you have to be aware. Like, so I need to know where are my calories now. Mm-hmm. So, so taking stock of where that is, you need to track a little bit, right? 18:56 Uh, get, track your food for five to seven days and see where your averages are. Yep. 19:01 Knowing that coming down the pipe here, what you're gonna be exposed to is likely going to, or put you in a, in a position to go way over that 250 or whatever the calories, um, are, are going to be in terms of what you're adding in in addition to your- Yep... 19:17 your current state. So there's probably some strategies that we could talk about in order to, how to deal with those. 19:24 Uh, and then how, what are some things that we can maybe program in from a exercise perspective to work alongside and maybe even counteract some of the things that might happen along the way. 19:37 So first thing is, you gotta know where you're at. You have to take an assessment. So track your calories, right? All right, this is where I am, this is where I need to get to. 19:44 This is the plan on how I'm going to get there. You already articulated that, right? Now, this isn't... [laughs] This is all fine and dandy, right? We have a nice little plan. Mm-hmm. 19:54 Uh, and it looks great on paper, and I feel really committed to it, and I've been pretty consistent, you know, up until this point, and then [laughs] the party comes. Then the events come. 20:05 Then the alcohol shows up, and then the desserts are there, and then all the, these calories are there. So how do you... What are some tips that we can, we can provide people in order to go through, uh, to, 20:17 to manage the caloric intake as well as the outputs? So I'm gonna start this with the mindset piece- Mm-hmm... on both ends. So first off, understand, you're gonna be going to, you're gonna be faced with decisions. 20:31 These are all choices. What am I putting in my face, right? That is a choice. I, I, no doubt about it, there are challenges with that. 20:39 Like, you, are you gonna be that guy who goes and drinks water while everybody else is drinking alcohol and eating sweets? You need to make that decision. 20:47 Are you gonna be that girl who goes out to, you know, for girls' night out or for the holiday party or whatever, and you're not going to be eating the foods that are being put on the table, um, and not drinking the wine that's being served and whatever else. 20:59 Is, is that where you're gonna go? If, if that's realistic for you, more power to you. For most people it isn't. No. And, and it doesn't have to be that way, right? 21:06 Just depends on how rigid you wanna run your, you wanna run your, your program here. Like, I don't eat sugar. Gotcha. Like, I'd also don't make it weird at Thanksgiving. 21:13 Like, someone offers me a pie, like, hey, like, I just, it doesn't make me feel good. And when I tell people that, they're like, "Oh, like, no worries." 21:18 Not like, "Oh, I don't eat sweets," and they're like, "Well, why don't you..." You know, like, oh, like I'm boohooing them, you know? It's like, "No, no, no, I just, it makes me feel like shit." 21:24 And they're like, "Okay, cool." Yeah. It's just, that's a really good point. CeCe could tell you, like, when was the last time you saw me eat dessert at Thanksgiving? It's been a while. I don't. Yeah. I, I don't. 21:33 Long time. Because by the time I get to there- Too full... I'm already over full. Too full. And I know by putting that in there, like, it's really setting... I, I made a joke about eating myself sick. 21:42 If I eat that, I will literally get sick. Um, because that, that sugar rush, that sugar impact on top of everything that I've already done throughout the day. Again, we already talked about alcohol. I definitely- Mm... 21:52 have more than my share of alcohol on that day. Just- You have your dessert in the morning. Just- You have your mom's Bundt cake. [laughs] [laughs] That's, that's true. You leave the Bundt cake out. 22:00 And there's always some coffee cake. [laughs] There's always some shit going on here and there. But I don't- You promote it. [laughs] I don't do it at night 'cause it makes me feel like shit. Mm-hmm. I don't sleep. 22:06 Like, I'm a mess. Anyway, to that, to that point, you have to be in the mindset of, like, I'm gonna be faced with these decisions. Mm-hmm. How am I gonna handle those decisions? Yeah. 22:14 On the flip side, on the workout side, what are some things that you could be doing ahead of time, or how could you be programming your, your, your program? 22:19 So you talked about bulking, like this is a great place to bulk. Mm-hmm. Bulking to me is, you talked about the caloric, uh, impact there and how to increase your calories so that you can increase muscle mass. Mm-hmm. 22:32 With the increase in muscle mass, the increase in calories, as we mentioned, could, could onboard a little bit of additional body fat. That, again, your decision-making and how you're programmed- Yeah... 22:41 has everything to do with that. 22:42 But as I, as I look at my workouts, well, if I'm going into a bulk and I'm gonna be adding in these extra calories, I'm gonna be in a surplus, great time to start to increase the intensity- Mm-hmm... 22:52 of the workouts that I'm performing. So if I've been going to the same workout class or l- you know, whatever that happens to be for the last three, four months or whatever it is, this is a great time to change it up. 23:04 Yeah. Right? Maybe the frequency of your workouts actually goes down, right? 23:09 Because you are busier through the holidays and there are all these things going on, and my sh- you know, the shortening of the days changes things for your schedule for you and your kids and whatever else. 23:17 They're not going to practice it, you know, later. It, it, it just fucks up the schedule, right? So maybe what I do now is I add in more intensity to my resistance training workouts, right? 23:28 I start to work on muscle hypertrophy- Yep... uh, and/or strength, depending where I am- Mm-hmm... in my, the phases of my training. And I really start to up that. 23:37 So I'm, I'm, I'm leaving more on the floor, if you will, uh, which would, which would equate to a higher caloric expenditure. So that is one way to think about it. 23:46 Uh, the other way to think about this is this might be a great time to implement some cardio into your program if, as you start to get beyond your maintenance and into the surplus. 23:55 Because as I'm going through and I know the average of calories that I'm gonna have by the end of the week is gonna be pr- could be above, 'cause I'm going to get-togethers, parties, whatever else, could be above where I need it to be. 24:07 Maybe I start to program in or implement some cardio. Now- Don't go back, going back to what I said, don't start a running program- [laughs]... in November, right? Yeah. That's not what- Especially if it's icy outside. 24:17 Yeah. [laughs] Like you don't run. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, is maybe we start to program in some, some daily walks or some nightly walks, right? Some low intensity things. 24:24 Some low intensity additional calorie burning. I don't think that can be, uh, overstated in terms of the benefit that that can have in terms of caloric expenditure. 24:36 Uh, at the end, particularly at the end of the day, like if you're doing a walk at the end of the day after dinner, there's something to be said about down-regulating the system. Mm-hmm. 24:44 You know, everybody needs, everybody should be doing this, in, in my opinion. It's one of the best parts of my day. So they did a study, right? If you came in and you did, like, 30 minutes of running. 24:52 They're like, "No, no, no." Like, you could break up, like, five 10-minute bouts of movement, which would negate sedentary lifestyle more than going to the gym for an hour and working out hard. 25:02 Right, 'cause you're just getting that heart rate just above threshold. Yeah. You're sending signals- Mm-hmm... to get into that caloric burn state without going catabolic. Mm-hmm. Right? 25:10 So that being the breaking down of tissue. It's just increasing that heart rate- Yep... respiratory rate enough, which r- which releases a certain amount of hormones, right, that, that tell the body to, 25:21 to basically start to calm down a little bit. So there's a down-regulation of the parasympathetic systems that are g- that can happen there, as long as you're not walking in a fucking demilitarized zone. [laughs] Right? 25:32 But, but, but, but you're doing that as well as increasing caloric expenditure. 25:37 So that could be very helpful in your balance of onboarding calories, uh, that are outside of your plan or that you're, you know, these decisions you're faced with, "Oh, I had..." 25:48 You know, "I'm gonna have an, a couple, couple of drinks tonight," or, or whatever else. It's a good way to ke- to tip the scale- Mm... i- if, if you will. Intensity in your resistance training. 25:58 Maybe it's increased volume, depending on, again, where you are in your phase- phases. Change up your program is what I'm saying, and maybe start to add a little bit of, uh, cardiovascular exercise in there. 26:09 And when I, when we say cardio, again, it's, this is not high-intensity cardio training where, you know, our heart rate's up at 65, 75, 85% of our heart, of our max heart rate or however you wanna calculate the thing. 26:22 This is low intensity shit. Very low. Should not be taking away. Could even be helping with your recovery. Dude, like, yeah, cupboards, taking things in and out, just basic movement. Just moving around. 26:30 Yeah, just basic movement. So, so also a good strategy. Um, so that might be some of the less obvious stuff. 26:37 But some of the more obvious stuff to, to, to keep you moving in the right direction in terms of building muscle, staying or maintaining a certain body fat level or maybe even losing that. 26:48 Again, getting around mindset is... There's probably a couple of other tips. You know, maybe you've heard these before, maybe you haven't. 26:55 But I think as you're going into the winter, mindset being the biggest one, knowing that you're gonna get into these situations, 27:01 preloading your, your, your brain and preloading anybody you might be with about what's gonna happen. Have a plan- Mm-hmm... you know, when you go. 27:09 Uh, and one of the plans that I would, I would always have there, or would, should be in anybody's program, but speci- specifically going into these types of events, is prioritize your macros. Big one. Yeah. 27:20 Prioritize your macros. 'Cause there's often all kinds of choices, right? It's no different than any other time except that there's usually more. [laughs] Uh, so things shouldn't change that much. 27:30 There's more, but then the other thing is, too, I mean, you're not cooking it, right? So you're not preparing it. So you don't necessarily know what's in the stuff that you're going to be consuming. 27:41 So, um, I think prioritizing your macros and getting in your protein- Yeah... you know- Big one... before you consume the other things. Um, and, and try to stick to those grilled lean- Mm-hmm... 27:54 meats, or proteins I should say, 'cause it could be fish, too. Yeah, I think one of the ways to do that is, is oftentimes these are, these are group gatherings, right? 28:02 And so everybody's asked to contribute something or you can ask, "Can I contribute something?" [laughs] Well- [laughs]... I'm gonna be selfish as hell. Like, "Okay, yeah, sure, I'd love... Can you bring a dish?" 28:11 "Yep, I'll bring a dish, and it's gonna be a protein-forward dish." Yep. Whatever it is. 28:16 And that way I know, I don't know what else is gonna be there, but I know at least I'm gonna meet my protein macro needs, and I'm preparing it. Mm-hmm. And I'm taking, you know, the, the responsibility of this. 28:27 And, uh, I'll be first in li- [laughs] first in line to make sure I make that, you know, get my, get my set of tongs into the protein dish first before anybody else's so I get my, [laughs] you know, my 7 to 10 ounces of protein for the day, or for that particular meal or whatever it is. 28:40 So it's- For Scott, that's light. 28:41 [laughs] That's a good way, that's a good way to, um, again, preplan and kinda get your- get- put yourself in a position to win when you're in these situations, 'cause there's never gonna be any shortage of carbohydrate or fat on the table. 28:53 No. Right? There's, that's not gonna be the case. So prioritizing your macros- Yeah... um, is, is one way. 29:01 I, o- one of the other way, things to obviously be careful of are the, the amount of alcohol that you're consuming. Mm-hmm. 29:07 And I think it might be worth talking about sort of kinda the effects of alcohol, uh, beyond actually the additional ca- caloric onboarding that you're doing. Yeah. 29:15 Uh, because I don't know that people really understand the impacts of... and we can keep this high level, but the impact that alcohol has on, uh, protein metabolism, right? What's going on from a hormonal perspective. 29:28 Yeah. How it impacts things. So- So, like, you work out and you wanna go and then you have a couple beers afterwards. Don't worry, I do it sometimes, too. So it's not a, a crazy thing. 29:36 But if you are drinking every time after you work out, like you're stimulating protein synthesis and then you're down-regulating it through alcohol. You're spiking your blood sugar higher than anything that you know. 29:46 It is one of the things that just spikes the shit out of blood sugar. It's a spike for a long time, takes away from sleep. Mm-hmm. You're not able to get into deep REM sleep. Um, and you just don't recover. 29:55 From protein synthesis perspective, what, what we know is when you onboard that alcohol, here's what happens. Like, your body sees that as foreign. Mm. Right? 30:02 And it's going to try to metabolize whatever is in there that it's not supposed to be in there, and alcohol is kind of one of those things, or is one of those things. So it's gonna go after that first. So-... 30:12 you're ta- you're onboarding your protein shake or whatever, your concoction. [laughs] And then, you know, an hour later you're, you know, you're chasing that with cocktails or beers. 30:21 Effectively, your body is going to kinda shut down the processes that it's using in order to, um, assimilate that protein, and it's gonna move to metabolizing the alcohol. So that, that's a thing. Mm-hmm. Right? 30:32 The second thing is, is there's a lot of calories in that. If your body is, when your body's ultimately gonna break that down, it's gonna probably turn that into a sugar. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. 30:40 Which is then going to be tried to be used- Yep... as a carbohydrate. And once that doesn't need to be utilized anymore- Mm-hmm... it will try and store that where it can. 30:48 Again, when we talk about mu- muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, things like that- Yeah... and whatever's left over will likely be metabolized into fat and stored as fat, right? 30:57 So that's kind of the process it goes through at a very high level. Yeah. Right? So just understand that when you're putting that in your system. So, um, it... But I think the bigger piece is to be... 31:09 So when you're doing your c- when you're, when you're, uh, calculating your calories, sorry, you're tracking your calories, you absolutely 1,000% have to track alcohol. Yes. Yep. You have to track it. And that's hard. 31:17 I don't, I can't even track when I make a mixed drink. I'm like, "It's one, just two shots, man." It's really... Yeah. [laughs] So if you're doing this regularly- Yeah... it's, it, this is going to impact you. For sure. 31:25 It'll impact you, period. But if you're doing it regularly, you need to be tracking it regularly. Mm-hmm. If you're just gonna have one day on occasion or whatever, fuck it. Just- Yeah... 31:34 jump back on the wagon the next day- That's it. Yeah... and start calculating. You, you over consume calories. Some of it was alcohol. Maybe it disrupted your, your protein synthesis. 31:42 But I, you cannot understate what you guys mentioned, those two other things. One is the inflammatory implications that it has. And two, the, uh, the implications that it has on your sleep- Sleep Yeah... 31:53 and your recovery. These are huge. So from an inflammatory perspective, we already know that if the gut is inflamed, like all of the processes- Mm-hmm... 32:02 that are necessary for muscle building, fat loss, uh, energy production, uh, basically getting through the activities of daily living, all- on- onboarding nutrients, all that stuff is going to be compromised. Mm-hmm. 32:15 So alcohol just does that. Obviously, some people are more impacted than others. It's not a one-size-fits-all. Uh, depending on where your gut health is going in, uh, and, you know, 32:28 how you metabolize that alcohol, not everybody does that the same way. Mm-hmm. Um, as you may be familiar, that's gonna have different impacts on different people, but it will impact you. 32:37 There's, there's no doubt about it. Uh, it's not a matter of if, it, it, it's gonna, it's just how, right? Uh, but the second part of that is what it does in terms of your sleep and your recovery. 32:46 So you can have all the calories dialed in- Mm-hmm... all the, all the workout programming dialed in, uh, all of that stuff kind of on lock. 32:55 But if you're not resting and recovering properly, uh, it's going to be problematic, right? For sure. It's going to take away. So just understand when you're onboarding this alcohol, it's not just calories. 33:07 There are implications to that beyond that. Especially if you're a nightly drinker, right? A night capper. Like, someone who's like, "Hey, I get off work. I have dinner," whatever. 33:13 They might have, like, a glass of wine, and then they finish with a couple scotches or something every night. Yep. Right? 33:18 Down the, I mean, down the line and then that night, but you're just building habit, and you're continually not getting the sleep, right? Mm-hmm. So over time, testosterone tanks. Right. All of these things. 33:28 Cortisol is up. Sure. Yep. You know, the, uh, waking and sleep hormones start getting disrupted, right? Your cortisol curve's thrown off. 33:34 All of these things, um, just from a habitual daily thing that doesn't really seem like that big of a deal at the time, right? 33:40 But, um, when we start breaking down and looking at what's going on, it's like, "Oh, this is a r- actually a really big factor in, you know, a limitation that I'm having." 33:47 It's not, yeah, it's, I think the point to be made is, like, it's not that you can't have it, it's just understand the implications of when you do. Exactly. 33:54 So, and also understand that going back to the metabolism of that stuff and what you're trying to do in terms of maybe staying lean- Your goals, yeah... or bulk and n- Mm-hmm... 34:02 and not gain too much body fat, alcohol will not be helpful in any way. It's just not gonna help you. So that being said, choose wisely. I mean, there are lots of different things you could do. I mean, [laughs] 34:15 like some of these IPAs out there that, that people are drinking, that's like a fucking 350-calorie beer. You do a couple of those, boom. Wow. Like, you're way over the top. 34:24 Uh, versus drinking more of the clear type of, you know, liquors. Hard liquors. Like, like vodka or whatever else. Obviously, if you, if you're mixing it with- Sugar... sugar- Tonic water... 34:33 and al- or sugar or whatever else, like, you know- It's gonna add up... it's, it's splitting hairs, right? For sure. Mm-hmm. But there's a caloric load that comes along with this as well. Mm-hmm. 34:40 So you need to be aware of whatever it is that you're drinking. Plan ahead. Plan wisely. Whatever it is- Stay hydrated... whatever it is you need to do. Yeah. Whatever it is you need to do to stay in front of that. 34:50 So, um, the other thing that I think would be important that, that maybe we didn't talk about at the beginning is 34:56 have some litmus or have some idea of how much weight you're gaining versus how much fat you're gaining versus how much, and com- comparatively to muscle. 35:05 And maybe do a body comp at the beginning so that you're measuring like, "What am I act- what's actually happening here?" Mm-hmm. Um, in terms of weight gain or muscle gain. 35:15 That way you can titrate or make, make adjustments through there. That, that's a little bit more of an advanced way- For sure... of looking at it. 35:21 But you might feel fluffy one day, and you look kinda like, do the body comp, it's like, "Oh, dude, I g- I, I gained, like, a little fat, but, like, I gained three pounds of muscle." Mm-hmm. Yeah. 35:27 And it's like you just take the scale weight for, like, I'm fat. Yeah. I'm a fat fuck. Mm-hmm. I just went through, you know? So there's, what you're talking about, body composition is huge. It is. 100%. 35:35 Specifically during the holidays, 'cause oftentimes, again, we're introduced to all these different foods. We're, or oftentimes we're introduced to all the alcohol, all the different things. All the confetti, yeah. 35:44 The things that are just outside of our routine. And this comes back to the inflammation talk. Like, the weight that we've gained, what is it really coming from? Mm-hmm. Because, you know, it, 35:55 I know there are certain foods that I can eat or there's, you know, uh, there's a, uh, limitation in terms of alcohol that I can drink. And once I tip that threshold, man, my body- Freaks out... just freaks out. Yeah. 36:07 It goes right into infl- infl- in- inflammatory mode. I retain a lot of fluid, and I feel fat. Mm-hmm. But the reality of it is, is I'm retaining a lot of water. 36:17 I didn't gain, to your point, Jeff- three pounds of fat overnight. I'm retaining a ton of water. And certain things can help with that. Obviously, 36:25 manage your consumption, uh, know what you're putting in your system, but also recognize that that's probably gonna happen to you. You're gonna... And you'll... 36:32 And if you know what that feels like, we had another talk about feeling healthy and knowing what feeling healthy versus feeling unhealthy feels like. You wake up the next day, you go, "Oh, shit. I way overdid it." Yep. 36:41 "And I feel like ass, and it's, I feel lethargic now, and I don't wanna do anything, and I don't wanna work out." 36:46 And, you know, I've got, uh, [laughs] and I take my socks off at the end of the day, and I got these, you know, rings around my, my ankles where the, you know, the fluid's just building up, whatever else. 36:56 That's an indication your body's retaining- Yes... 36:57 a lot of fluid and you're inflamed, and that's likely due to the consumption or whatever you put in your body, and, uh, on the back end, whatever you didn't do from physical, from a physical perspective. 37:08 So, um, im- the, the weight gain could be coming from the inflammation caused by you onboarding these substances, whether it's food or otherwise, uh, that creates that. 37:20 Um, so you, you may have mentioned this out loud, CC, I'm not sure, but one of the things you were saying was staying hydrated. Mm-hmm. Which it's colder, right? The weather's a little bit different. 37:30 Uh, for, I know for me, I'm definitely not as aware of drinking water- Me neither... which actually, uh, makes me in- uh, on the flip side of that, more aware that I'm not drinking the water. 37:40 And what I end up doing by the end of the day is I'm chasing my water intake. Yeah. I mean, you're waking up in the middle of the night, having to go to the bathroom. [laughs] Dude, I was up three times last night alone. 37:48 The weather- Whoa... we were in Florida. It was, like, 85 degrees and humid. Yeah. Uh, so, like, I was, like, killing the water, right? Yeah. There was this, like, LMNT in there. There was- Mm... 37:57 Alpha Brain in there 'cause I was in class. Oh, yeah. Like, it was just, I was downing water, and then when we came back, it was, like, 60 degrees, uh, which isn't by any means cold. 38:06 But at night it's getting down below 40, and I'm just, and I'm out walking. You know- Yeah... I mentioned the walking thing and, and whatever. I'm just, I'm not feeling the urge to drink. 38:15 Uh, so when I'm, I got home last night and I think I probably put down, like, 64 ounces of water over about an hour- Geez... and a half period. Yeah. [laughs] And I was up for fucking three times. Yeah. [laughs] Oh. 38:24 And that's annoying. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. Right? That's annoying. But that, and that's just because I wasn't paying attention. Uh, but that's a great way to push... Water pushes water. 38:33 So if you're bringing in fluid on a regular basis, um, and consistently- Or you're retaining it, right?... throughout the day, yeah, it'll, it'll start to push. It'll help to push or release the water that's in there. 38:41 But again, you throw in some, sometimes you throw in some foods that your body doesn't like. 38:45 Um, it could have things on, you'll be, be onboarding it if you're not preparing it, that has things in it your body doesn't like, you're not aware of, and the next thing you know you're, feel like a bloated fat mess when the reality of it is, is a lot of it's water retention. 38:56 So just understanding that. Um, and taking notes. So we talked about maybe doing a body comp. We talked about understanding where your maintenance level is. Adding in those extra cal- or, uh, adding in, 39:08 you know, maybe 250 calories at a time till you reach maintenance, and then being careful with that. Mm-hmm. 39:13 Keeping the alcohol consumption to a minimum as, you know, we should probably be doing anyway, but also knowing we're gonna go over. We talked about, uh, staying hydrated there at the end. 39:22 We talked about maybe adding in more volume, more intensity to your workouts so that you're counteracting the onboarding of these new calories to work through your bulk. 39:30 And we talked about the cardio piece so that we're, we're increasing our caloric expenditure throughout the week, um, on an average basis so that we can maintain that caloric, or caloric burn. 39:43 I mean, that's a lot of stuff. Mm-hmm. That is a lot of stuff. And the reality of it is, is we're not talking about a long period of time. 'Cause most times people come out the backside of, like, New Year's. 39:53 It's just the way it is. And they're like, "Oh, shit. Yeah, like I gotta get back on my routine." I'm so done. I, I miss my routine. [laughs] But what if this was your routine going into that, right? 40:02 And then coming out in January was just part of it. Mm-hmm. Now you're on the, say, week, I don't know, 10, 12 of your bulking phase. 40:12 You're gonna be working in towards the end of January-ish now, maybe beginning of February-ish, where you move into a different phase of training. 40:19 Uh, and where again, the holiday parties have now, you know, dissipated, and again, we talk about snowboarding and skiing or whatever else, things have changed. 40:28 But things to think about as you're going to the holidays so that you don't get fat, you still can build muscle or maintain the muscle that you have, and feel good- Feel good... 40:35 doing it in a way that sets you up for success through the holiday, but also coming out the backside. [upbeat music] Thank you for tuning into this episode of Iron Sights. 40:45 If you enjoyed our conversation, you can support our mission by hitting the subscribe button, leaving a review, and sharing the podcast with a friend. I'll see you on the next episode. [upbeat music]
