Eat Higher Calories & Lose Fat

All right, here's today's fit tip

Look, if you're trying to burn body fat, everybody knows it's a rule

You have to eat less calories than you burn, right? You have to be in a calorie deficit

But here is a tip that'll make it more effective. Rather than having a consistent deficit all week long, try to have an undulating approach

Some days, larger deficit, other days, smaller deficit, and other days yet still, maybe maintenance

or surplus. Studies actually show the undulating approach preserves more muscle tissue, results in a

little bit more fat loss, and maintains a higher metabolic rate. Was that a recent study

That was pretty new, wasn't it? Yeah, what they did was, in the study, is they gave, there were two groups of people

and these were people who worked out and the whole deal, and they said, okay, you guys

over here, 25% calorie reduction, or 25% below maintenance, I think it was

And then they said, okay, now you guys over here, it's 35% Monday through Friday, but

then Saturday and Sunday, you're gonna eat more calories, but at the end of the weeks

the calorie deficits will be the same. And at the end of the study, the people, the group that had the larger deficit during the

week, but then ate the more calories on the weekend, preserved more muscle, and had less

of a metabolic slowdown, and actually burned a little bit more body fat. Doesn't it just seem like more realistic? Yes

Because, I mean, not everything is so perfectly controlled all the time

We've had to kind of really, I mean, this is a new thing we've created, the ability

to have access to food like that, where we can have the consistency of calories to be

met on a daily basis like that. I'm so glad you said that, because, okay, so here's what's funny

Bodybuilding bro science, oftentimes the way they explain things doesn't make sense, but

the reason why they do things is because they've seen it work. And bodybuilders for a long time have advocated for re-feeds or cheat days, right

Essentially doing what we're talking about, where there's a higher calorie deficit, and then they'll have a day or two with higher calories, and they say it works better and

all that stuff. Now, I always recommended undulating, not for the greater fat loss or muscle preservation

because that wasn't necessarily, and there weren't really studies to support that, but

the reason why I did it was for the behavioral effects, like you're saying, because I know

that giving people more calorie seed on weekends, for example, and maybe less during the week

when they're working and they're busy anyway, it was easier for them to stick to it

Now, what do you guys think the pros and cons of the strategy are? Because I think in a controlled environment, this is what the research says, this is what

I think we've been recommending for a long time. In fact, that's why I brought up, was the study kind of new, because I remember we did

a video on YouTube. You and I did a long time ago, and I think later on, the study came out to prove that

that was the better approach of doing it. But I do see some pros and some cons

Do you guys agree, or do you think this is the answer and it's just the better way? Well, I see some cons in that, depending on the client, if the propensity for them to

eat in a higher calorie surplus, if that kind of tips them into a trend, if they tend to

get sort of, I hate to use addicted, but yeah, they get in this binge phase where that's

the only thing they're fixated on is that binge day. Yeah, this is why I never called it a cheat day

The term cheat day alone implies that today it's free for all, and then what would happen

behaviorally speaking, is people would be in a calorie deficit, and then the cheat day

was a go crazy, off the rails, off the wagon day, and it was so bad that it erased the

deficit, and it also encouraged kind of this poor relationship with food

So I never called it that. I always said undulating, or I said higher calorie, lower calorie days

I always noticed a behavioral benefit, because like you said, Justin, it mirrors real life

If I know Friday I'm going to go out to dinner with my wife, well, I'll make that a higher calorie day, right

If I know Saturday I'm going to my kid's game, or if I'm going to enjoy dinner at my mom's

house, or have friends over, higher calorie days. If it's Monday, I'm at work, I'm busy, well, it makes more sense to have a lower calorie day

Some people will adjust it according to their workouts. I think bodybuilders tend to do it this way

It just made more sense, but if it turns into a restrict binge approach, then it's not good

That's the major con that I see, and I agree, Justin. I think it promotes that a lot, actually, because you get this really strict six-day

or five-day-a-week type of dieting, and then you cut loose on Saturday and Sunday, and

Saturday and Sunday, or one of those days, is not controlled at all

It's just literally, this is my quote-unquote cheat day, and what ends up happening a lot

of times is all the calories they were reducing in the week, they end up consuming that over

or beyond that, and you're kind of really going nowhere. I do think there is some value in some people having a very consistent calorie intake that

they try and target. Now, what I like to recommend is something similar to what you were kind of saying, Sal

which is I like to give a client, this is our target, but then I teach them to have

some balance in that, meaning that allowing them some days to have a little bit of overconsuming

and then some days to underconsume or meal skip. That's how I like to do it, is, okay, this is kind of where our target is

We want to be here, but then I also want you to be kind of normal about it

What I mean by that is, hey, if this is a day when you're not very hungry, I'm not going

to force you to hit that calorie intake. Let it be a lower calorie day

You'll probably be hungrier the next day, but just be mindful of where our target is

at and only allow yourself to go up and down that, say, 500 calories, depending on the

size of the person. Yeah, so what I like to do is I would tell somebody, we would figure out their target, right

So, okay, your body's burning 3,000 calories a day. So the goal is, let's say we're doing an aggressive deficit

So the goal is 14,000 calories for the whole week, right? 2,000 calories a day on average, so 1,000 calorie deficit per day

So okay, 14,000 calories for the week. And then what we'll do is we'll have, rather than doing 2,000 calories every single day

some days will be 1,500 calories, some days will be 2,500 calories, some days maybe even

lower or even higher. And I like to give people kind of that undulating approach

And I noticed, again, when people did it that way, it felt they were able to do it longer

It wasn't so monotonous. It worked. They were able to work it within going out and enjoying certain foods

But what's also cool now is there's now a study that shows that not only does it help

some people behaviorally, but physiologically it seems to preserve muscle and prevent that

metabolic adaptation that happens when you diet, which is a nightmare, like one of the

most challenging. And this is why lifting weights or doing resistance training is so important

It's one of the strongest signals you can send your body that'll say, don't slow down your metabolism because we need muscle

We need strength, right? So you do that. But when you cut your calories and it's consistently cut, your body wants to adapt to that

Your body's always trying to meet whatever you're taking in calorically. That's kind of a main feature of adaptation that we got through evolution

So if you eat 1,500 calories, especially if you're not sending a muscle building signal

your body will very quickly figure out a way to only burn 1,500 calories and then you

start to get stuck. But that up and down approach with the calories and adjusting macros, I think, is a great

So you're just basically staying ahead of the propensity to adapt to that type of somewhat

like training in terms of adjusting and having your body still have to, some days be low

some days be high, and then there's more of that. So too, is it anything to do with the sensitivity in terms of being able to shuttle and utilize

nutrients more effectively? So here's where we're going to get back into the bro science

I don't know if there's a lot of studies to support this, but I will say I've experienced

this, and again, bodybuilders have been doing this for years, where they'll carb cycle and

they'll have lower carb days and higher carb days rather than having a consistent number

of carbs. And what they notice is when they do the low carb and higher carb days, they will say

that they feel more sensitive to the carbs, they get better pumps, and then when they go low carb, they notice that it gets them leaner faster versus just being consistent

I've noticed when I go really low carb for a long time and then bump my carbs, even if the calories are the same, I get this really intense effect from it versus just staying

consistent all the time. Did you carb cycle when you competed? I loved dieting this way

When I was training, I don't eat that way normally. Normally, I'm more intuitive and I have a more balanced approach to how I eat with proteins

carbs, and fat, but when I was training and getting ready for shows, carb cycling was

one of my favorite ways to just eat, and it was because I felt exactly what you're saying

I felt like when I was low carb, yes, it affected my workouts, I didn't feel as strong, but

I did feel like I leaned out quicker. And of course, I'm lower calorie when you're doing it, because that's really what's happening

You cycle the carbs, you're getting lower days, you're basically doing what we're talking

about, you're just controlling it through carbohydrates. But I really loved the looking forward to the high carb day

It was part of the mental game too, of just like, I know I'm low calorie, low carb right

now and so I can power through the next two to three days, because I know on day four

I'm going to get to load my body up and I can look forward to that workout. And so I love to do this, and I had a lot of success both with myself training and dieting

this way, and then also with clients that were doing shows this way. I love the feeling

I love it when studies support old bro science. It's just really cool

You know what I mean? Yeah, it is. Like a study comes out and they're like, oh, this actually works

I'm like, oh, that's really cool. Well, there's something to be said about, I mean, you've got to understand that this

community of people, and this isn't like, I think all groups, and you have these

Like alchemists. Yeah. Well, there's wisdom. And applying and talking to each other and doing things like that

And it's unfortunate that we're so quick to talk shit or label it as bro science and it

gets this really bad connotation with it. But the reality of it is, these guys, this is who's out there testing it first

If it wasn't for the bros going out there and trying all this stuff like that, nobody

would be doing the studies to try and support it or disprove it. And so, I mean, there's a lot of value in these people that have been doing this for

years and years and years and trying to practice. Well, what happens is they'll say something and they'll say this works, and then they'll

try to explain how it works and they'll get the explanation wrong

Even though they see the result of it. And then what happened, and this is the part that annoys me

It's like Eastern medicine stuff. Totally. And then what really annoys me is that the science people come out and then they try

to disprove the explanation, not the result. To give you an example, pre-exhausting a muscle group or priming, now we'll even call it priming

So let's say I'm going to do an old school bodybuilding pre-exhaust. And let's say I have a tough time feeling my chest when I bench press

So the old school bodybuilders, what they would do is they would have you pre-exhaust

it by doing an isolation movement first, cable flys or something, really squeeze the chest

And then go to the bench press and then you'll feel your chest more. And then the scientists will come out and be like, oh yeah, well, with our MRI testing

or we're testing muscle contraction, actually there's less activation from the chest, therefore

you're wrong. No, because the person who's doing that notices that their chest grows over time

And the reason why it's happening isn't because of some physiological more connection, just

the fact that they can feel it. Now my chest is kind of fatigued, I know how to position my elbows better and do the bench

press in a way to feel it more in my chest. So I'm just pressing more effectively for the goal that I have

So the result at the end of the day is what the bodybuilders had seen

The explanation is often wrong. And we see that with so many, we see this in wellness too with adrenal fatigue and the

way they explain it. Like the adrenals don't get fatigued but there is an imbalance of hormones and all that stuff

So I love it when it gets wrong. It's the unfortunate part about our space is that we all care so much about our own egos

and being more right than the next person that we end up confusing the average person

The average person just, I just want some help. I just want some good information that I can go and apply to my life to better my life

And all of us fitness experts are so caught up in being more right than the next one or

being the authority in the space that we're always looking to disprove each other or prove

that I have more knowledge and information. And it's really unfortunate because the consumer loses

I had such a great, years ago, back when I owned my training studio, I used to have an

acupuncturist in there. So we had offices people would rent and there was an acupuncturist in there and she was

really smart, really sharp, she could communicate really well. And I used to also train a lot of Western medicine doctors, surgeons and anesthesiologists

And my studio was next to a hospital. And I remember one time we were all in, it's a small studio

So oftentimes lots of people will be in there, maybe working with their trainers or people

in the offices would be on break. So they'd be hanging out. We'd have these big conversations, right

And so the conversation came up around acupuncture and insurance companies had started to cover acupuncture

So I asked my Western medicine doctor about that. And he kind of scoffed a little bit and I said, well, why is insurance covering it

They're showing that there's some applications and whatever. And he said, yeah, but where's the evidence for Qi and these energy meridians, right

So the acupuncturist in there, who's an Eastern medicine practitioner, is explaining the Chinese

medicine, whatever the explanations and the Western medicine doctors like there's no evidence

So then the acupuncturist who was very, very smart and also had a little bit of Western medicine training said, okay, maybe the way that you guys understand the human body, we're

not going to find evidence for Qi. But she said, are there cases where we see things like referred pain

For example, I feel pain in my left arm. Sometimes that means what

Heart attack. So the CNS, the central nervous system communicates through this wide web of communications through

the body. What if putting the needles in the body changes the way the body communicates pain, which

then affects movement? It reroutes it. And you should have seen the doctor go, oh, that makes a lot of sense

And then my head's exploding. I'm like, you know what? We get so caught up in the explanation that we forget that

Let's just see, is it working? If it's working, then okay, that's great

And then we'll go back and see if we can figure out ways that it's working. But don't discredit it just because the explanation doesn't fit your context of how you learned things

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