Why I’m Changing My Fitness Goals — and Adding Fasting to the Mix
In this solo YouTube episode, Daniel Clough provides a candid update on his foundational health habits and outlines a new fitness direction centered on muscle building. He reviews his habit tracking for August, acknowledges inconsistencies due to summer travel, and sets a three‑month push (Sept‑Nov) to improve eight core habits: no alcohol, 7 hours sleep, ≥150 g protein, limited caffeine, 3 L water, ≥80% whole‑food intake, 10 k steps daily, and intermittent fasting. He explains why he is re‑introducing an 8‑hour eating window (12 pm–8 pm) after hearing an Andrew Huberman podcast, citing metabolic, appetite‑control, and sleep benefits. He details his fasting implementation (three meals, no grazing). Clough then argues that solid foundational habits are the prerequisite for any sustainable training or nutrition plan, using anecdotes of people who fail because of weak basics. He announces a shift from a cutting phase (76 kg, visible abs) to a muscle‑building phase, describing a new program: four weight‑training sessions per week (split routine, higher weekly volume), two 45‑minute Zone 2 cardio sessions, daily 10 k steps, and occasional conditioning circuits every 3‑4 weeks. His nutrition plan starts at ~2,200 kcal (maintenance) with a possible modest surplus (2,400‑2,500 kcal) after 4‑6 weeks, emphasizing high protein (150‑200 g) and whole‑food sources. He ties the fasting habit to better calorie adherence, reduced binging, and improved sleep, reinforcing the habit‑pyramid concept. Finally, he commits to monthly habit‑tracking updates and encourages viewers to prioritize foundational habits and consider fasting for health and muscle‑building goals.
Chapters
All right, today's episode is going to be a little bit different. I'm going to share an honest update with where I am with my own foundational health habits and also my fitness goals and my training. But look, I want you to stick with me. This is not just going to be a boring update just about me. Along the way, I'm going to show you why I'm adding fasting to my foundational health habits, the big change I'm making to my fitness goals, how I'm going to achieve those fitness goals, and also how you might apply the same ideas to your own health. And I really think everything that I'm going to cover could be really useful and practical for your own fitness journey. So let's jump right in, and I want to talk habits to start with. So my habits for August were a bit all over the place, and they usually are. August is usually full of, well, it's summer holidays, kids are off school, routine usually goes out the window, there's a lot of travel, there's a lot of holidays. So I tend to just focus on tracking a few key habits whilst I'm away, and then outside of that, it's usually pretty spotty and hard be consistent. If I go back to the 3 months before August, so May, June, and July, I would say that they were also kind of so-so months where I've seen a few habits slip and I just think I could have done better. Um, so for September onwards, I'm kind of regrouping. I am making some changes to my habits. I'm going to bring fasting in, which we'll talk about in a minute, but also I'm just regrouping a little bit across all of my habits. I'm going to really push for September, October, and November. December's always a bit crazy, but basically September and October, November, I'm looking for a big 3-month push and I want to see a lot of green across the board. I really want to make a big improvement, um, to my habits. So let's just cover them one by one. We'll flip through them pretty quickly and I'll just give you a sense of where I'm at and where I'm going to be focusing. So the first one, no alcohol, super easy, 4 years sober, that'll just stay the same. The second one is sleep and I'm focusing on, uh, 7 hours and This should be pretty easy. My sleep in August, and I would say the few months before, it started to slip a little bit, um, hitting on below 80% here or there. So big effort for me to kind of really focus on my sleep. And the number one thing to improve there is to make sure that I'm in bed at a good time. That's the key to it all. I'm a pretty early riser, always have been. That's how I like to live my life. So if I am not in bed By 10 o'clock, I am not getting my 7 hours sleep. The end. So that's really where I'm gonna focus for my sleep. A better evening kind of routine into bed for half 9, 10 o'clock. Protein, you know, 150 grams is, is what I aim for upwards. Um, for a lot of the year I found that extremely easy. For the last couple of months it's been, I've been missing it just because I've been dieting and I've been on reduced calories. And it also always makes protein a little harder to hit. And in truth, protein becomes a second priority to hit eating my calories. That changes a little bit now with my new fitness goals. I have to get my protein 150+ every day, and often probably closer to the 200-gram level. So I'm going to be making a big effort to do that, um, going forward. I think we'll notice a big jump September onwards. Caffeine, 2 before, uh, 2 cups max, always before midday. Again, super loose in August because I've been on holiday, I've been doing whatever, I've been drinking more than 2 cups, plenty in the afternoon. That's the kind of stop I don't want it to interfere with my sleep. So I just got to get into a better routine that. So that should be fine as we get into September and routine starts to kick in. 3 liters of water, totally fine. Like, I've been sticking to my water in and around holidays. It's pretty easy to do, no problem. I don't see an issue with that. Whole foods is where I need to make a big effort. Again, I'm aiming for 80% of my foods to come from whole foods per day. It's my— it's one of the most recent habits out of all of my habits I've been trying to build. So I'm still kind of flowing around that 50% area, and it's something that I always struggle with. I've got sweet tooth and I'm prone to binging and it destroys my whole foods consistency when I do that. So nothing more than I think the fasting is gonna help a hell of a lot with this, which we'll talk about in a minute. But yeah, a big effort to make sure that I'm sticking to whole foods and I'm keeping binging and sweet tooth kind of actions to a minimum. I feel pretty good about being able to make a big dent on that September onwards. And then the last one is steps. Well, not the last one outside of fasting, but you know, steps, 10,000 a day. I need to make a better effort. Um, August and a few months before that, not great. Um, plenty of days slipping below 10,000. Again, it always comes into just thinking about it too late in the day. I've got to get my steps in earlier throughout the day, and I've got to look for more opportunities to get steps in when I can. And I, I just think steps are so flipping important, which we'll talk about when it comes to my fitness goals, and the steps are a big part of my action plan to hit my fitness goals. And I'll be pushing really, really hard to better about steps, getting more in early in the day and hitting my 10,000, uh, goal every day. All right, and the last habit. So first of all, let's talk meditation, because a month or so ago I added meditation to my foundational health habits. I'm going to pull that out. I think on reflection, meditation is absolutely a habit that I want to build. I'm not sure it really fits into foundational health habits. Maybe it does. I think I just made the mistake of pulling it into foundational health habits because I wanted to create a habit., and it was the easiest way to do it because I track my health habits and my whole system for tracking and adhering to my health habits, um, is a very good one. So I brought meditation in to try and kind of keep it in the mix, but I don't think at this point it is a foundational health habit. And I'm going to think slightly outside of my health habits as a way of being able to build a meditation practice, which I still think is incredibly important for my mental health. And maybe once I've built it and I realize the power of it, I'll bring it in. Um, but for now I'm going to pull it out. I just don't think it should really sit there for the time being. Fasting though, I'm bringing back in. And by the way, when I say bring it back in, I used to have fasting as a foundational health habit and I removed it because I didn't believe it was foundational enough. I felt like it was more tactic that I would use from time to time, and it just didn't feel as foundational as say whole foods or steps or, uh, water or sleep and all of these things. And I've completely changed my mind on that. So why have I changed my mind? Well, I actually listened to a new Andrew Huberman podcast a couple of days ago, which I'll share in the show notes, and it's only 45 minutes and it's just the best, um, overview of why fasting is so important and how to actually do it. And the big thing for me is I've always neglected the metabolic health benefits of intermittent fasting. I thought you only really got them from multiple-day fasts, but it turns out that even Sorry. It turns out that even intermittent fasting, a way where you have something like an 8-hour eating window per day, there's a lot of scientific evidence around improved liver health, improved longevity, better weight loss, and, and a bunch of other metabolic health benefits that come from having a shorter eating window. And the other re— but even if you put that one aside, fasting is just, it makes it so much easier to stick to the amount of calories that I should be eating. When I do not fast, for example, when I have an early breakfast, it's so, so hard for me to stick to my calories because my appetite just starts to go into overdrive from the first time I take a bite of food. Now, if I delay that and have a smaller eating window, it's like night and day in terms of how I'm able to stick to my calorie limit and, or my calorie target. And being able to stick to my calorie target is really important, which you'll find out in, in a second when I talk about my fitness goals. It's really important for me to be able to achieve what I want with my fitness goals. Um, so yeah, like I, I have to bring fasting in because of the influence that it has and being able to stick to a calorie target. But then also, uh, fasting has an influence on how some of my other habits go. So for example, when I fast, I'm less prone to binging, less prone to eating desserts. Um, So it's gonna have a big influence on that whole foods habit. But then the other thing as well is that when I don't fast, I, I usually eat incredibly late and often I'll, you know, I will eat at 10:00 PM and then just go straight to bed. So an earlier cutoff, which will come with a smaller eating window, is gonna have a big influence on how well I sleep as well. It's just well known that if you eat very, very late, your body is still trying to digest its food multiple hours and it was interrupting how quickly you can get to sleep. So yeah, that's really why I'm bringing it in— for the health benefits, for the ability to be able to stick to my calorie target more consistently, and the influence it's going to have on other habits like whole foods and, uh, my sleep. How am I going to fast? Well, just again, in a nutshell, I'm going to stick to an 8-hour fasting window. The earliest that I'm going to eat is 12 PM, and the latest I'm going to eat is 8 PM. So a 12 to 8 fasting window. Often I will probably eat a little later than 12, so it might end up being a or a 6-hour fasting window, I will never eat later than 8:00, 'cause I want to give myself a couple of hours before I go to sleep. Now, if you listen to the Andrew Huberman episode, some really, really great advice on why that's the best way to fast, and even perhaps more optimal ways of fasting if you can fit it into your lifestyle and if it's practical for you. But what I got from it was that 8 hours, 12 to 8, is really the way to do it. And what I'm also going to try and do is not graze within that period. Um, I'm just gonna have 3 eating times. So it will be a lunch around 12 or 1 PM, an afternoon snack probably around 3 or 4 PM, and just a good solid dinner probably somewhere around kind of 6 to 7 PM. And I'm going to try not eat in between those times. Again, I don't want to be spiking my glucose, blood glucose levels, like 7, 8, 9, 10 times a day. And also, when I do get into kind of eating lots of smaller bits, I get into that kind of binging, grazing mentality, and I don't want to do that. I just want stick to 3 eating times between that 12 to 8 PM window. So yeah, that's the— that's how I'm going to be implementing fasting. So look, that's it in terms of my habits. Expect to see a gigantic effort in September, October, November. And at the end of the month, I'm going to be talking about how well I've stuck to my habits, and I'll be talking about how the fasting is going as well. So, um, yeah, you know, my habits still sit at 8 foundational health habits: alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water, whole foods, steps, and fasting. And as I even look at those now, they just feel like 8 super foundational health habits that make just a, just such a fundamental difference to how I feel and how I'm able to stick to my training. And actually, before we jump into, um, my fitness goals, I just kind of want to labor that point. I've spoken to a few people recently who just historically and even now are struggling to stick to a fitness regime. They're struggling to, to want to train. They kind of know they should, but they're struggling to want to train. They're struggling to have the energy and the motivation to train. Even when they train once or twice in a week, they then go multiple weeks without training. They want to eat better, but they can't seem to kind of either get the motivation or just have the ability or the discipline to be consistent with it. And I have conversations with these people and they, they, they do want to make a change. One could argue that they might not want it enough, but they, there is something inside of them that's like, I want to get onto a healthier track in life. And they know they should be training and they should be eating whole foods and these. So they kind of know what they're trying to do. They just can't do it. They just don't have, don't have the discipline, just don't have the, the character to get it done. And when I start talking to them about what their lifestyle looks like, drinking alcohol shows up, sleeping 5 to 6 hours a night shows up, eating small amounts of protein shows up, drinking caffeine whenever the hell they feel like it shows up, virtually drinking hardly any water shows up. Of course, like, eating mostly processed food shows up, mostly an inactive lifestyle, a low amount of steps. And it's just, it's so obvious for me to see, to the point where I'm like I— it's not even worth having a conversation about training, and it's not worth having a conversation about eating, because no matter what type of training or eating you do, you will not stick to it no matter how bad you want it. Because if you are somebody that is not well slept, eats low amount of protein, is dehydrated a lot of the time, eats processed foods, is inactive, you're just not going to get it done. So it always comes back down to a conversation about boring fundamentals, the foundational health habits. Because once you are someone that doesn't drink alcohol or limits it significantly, that's well slept, that eats lots of protein, that manages their caffeine well, that drinks a lot of water and stays hydrated, that eats lots of whole foods and takes a lot of steps, you turn into just a completely different person. And you have the energy, the motivation, and you find that you have the discipline to be able to actually stick to a training and eating program, no matter what type of training and eating program it is. And it really is that base of the pyramid that I talk about. You have to have it there. And that's why I just kind of have conversations around those things rather than what types of training, what types of nutrition. Um, so yeah, it's just, just my way of being able to like actually just, you know, it makes me realize how important these things are. And again, I've seen this in my own life, right? I go back 2 or 3 or 4 years, I just couldn't put my training training and nutrition together, and I look like someone that didn't train. Uh, fast forward to today, I'm nailing all of those habits as the base of my pyramid. Okay, look, there's a bit of iffy stuff going on here or there, but I'm nailing them for the most part, and I'm able to be someone that can train and eat consistently well. And I look— and I'm objectively in the best health of my life. And it's only because I've built that base of the pyramid through the foundational health habits. So this is my kind of calling, really, to say, if you're struggling with your nutrition, you're struggling with your training, Don't, don't try and search for the new training program. Don't try and search for the new type of diet that can fix it. Don't just try again when you've failed 10 times in the past. Look to the foundational health habits and almost build those, and sometimes forget about the training and nutrition because they're going to take care of themselves if you build yourself into a person that's capable of sticking to a training plan and a nutrition plan. All right, that's enough about that. Went on for far longer than I thought I was going to go on for that. So my own fitness goals. So the last 2 or 3 months I have been dieting, and I've been getting down to a level of leanness that made me feel like, uh, confident and cool to go on holiday for a week in the sun with my shirt off most of the time. And I achieved that. I got down to 76 kilograms. I could see 4 abs. Just felt very, very good about being— it's probably my leanest ever, actually. Um, and it worked great. But we now shift into a completely different zone, and I'm super excited for it. I don't like dieting. I don't like cutting. I don't like getting lean. Like, I don't— like, it's just hard work. You feel tired all the time. You can't eat that much. It's what you have to do, and I'm lucky that I only really have to do it for kind of a 6 to 8, maybe even a maximum 10-week period now, because year-round I stay lean enough to be able to then just push for that long to get quite lean. But, um, yeah, I don't like it at all. I prefer the new um, mode that I'm going to be going into. And again, the number one goal is build muscle. I don't want to get fat. I'm still going to stay kind of lean-ish, but the goal is to build muscle. And with that comes a change in the way that I train and eat to achieve that. So my new program is 4 weight training sessions a week. This one's going to be interesting. Um, you know, I've only been used to weight training twice a week for the last kind of 6 to 7 months, and that's because any more than that, my body would feel like like it was going to get injured, or I would feel creaky, and it just didn't feel good. But that was when I was doing 3 full-body sessions, um, intense full-body weight training sessions a week. My body felt like it couldn't quite cope with that. And since we dropped it back down to 2, my body has felt great. What we're going to shift to is full weight training sessions which aren't full body, so probably something more like a split, and probably lower in volume each session, but overall is going to give me more volume probably than I've ever done on a weight training perspective. So we'll see how that 4-way training sessions a week, 2 45-minute Zone 2s. I'm a massive advocate of Zone 2. I think the huge amount of Zone 2 I've been doing for the last 12 to 18 months is one of the reasons why my, um, health stats in Whoop and my just actual, um, ability in the gym— I just, I know I'm the fittest I've ever been. Um, and you know I know that that is down to the huge amount of zone 2 I've been doing, so I don't wanna let go of that. But also the reality is if my train— if my focus is just build muscle, the priority has to be weight training and I need to bring my zone 2 down to a minimum really. Otherwise it's gonna get all too catabolic. So, um, 2 45-minute zone 2s, uh, a week, which puts me at an hour and a half. So that gives me 6 sessions across the week, 4 weight training, 2 zone 2, and then 10K steps every day to kind of make sure that there's a nice baseline of activity. And I'll throw in a conditioning circuit whenever I feel like it, just for a bit of fun. My coach Jamie just said, look, let's not program it in every 3 weeks or 4 weeks. You just let me know when you're itching to get one done, and I'll program you one in, and we'll just do one for fun. Again, I don't want to be doing one every week. Probably every 2 or 3 weeks is still a bit too much because it's going to maybe pull a little bit from the goal of building muscle, particularly when I'm doing the zone 2 and the steps as well. I don't want to be, uh, you know, I want it to be focused around weight training and gaining muscle. But I love those conditioning circuits, and I like getting out of breath and working in zone 4 and 5 now and again. It helps give me that edge, um, and it helps me feel like I'm working towards that VO2 max kind of, uh, metric. So, um, I'll chuck one in probably every 3 to 4 weeks just for fun. But really, the crux and the base of the program is weight training. With some zone 2 and a lot of steps, and that's it. Um, in terms of how I'm gonna eat to achieve that, uh, I'm gonna start off on 2,200 calories. And I was— I think that based on that level of activity and what I know about my own body and what I know about being able to establish a maintenance rate in the past, I would say 2,200 calories is probably around a maintenance rate for that type of activity. Um, that type of output. So we're going to start off on 2,200. I pretty much want to stay around maintenance, maybe push into a small surplus. I don't want to be like bulking at all. I think even if I'm just sticking to maintenance and I'm getting stronger, body recomposition is just going to take care of itself, and I'm going to be able to put on muscle and feel better. But I'm pretty happy to get into a small surplus, which I think probably looks like something like around 2,400, maybe 2,500. Um, but look, I've just come back off holiday. I've eaten twice more than I would ever eat every single day on holiday. I'm a huge amount of processed foods. I need to get back to some discipline, and it feels, um, too indulgent to jump straight into a surplus. So for the first probably 4 to 6 weeks at least, I'm going to do 2,200 calories, and I'm going to monitor my weight on a weekly basis, and I'll see where things are at 4 to 6 weeks in. If my weight is obviously going down, I'm definitely going to increase it. If it's staying around the same, then I've got an option to just extend that or increase it, um, and go for a small surplus, just depending on how my body is looking. But yeah, we'll see how all of that goes. But like, that's it. Goal: build muscle, predominantly weight training, keep calories maintenance. And then, as I talked about before, I'm going to be fasting, I'm going to be eating mostly whole foods, my protein is going to be very, very high to achieve that. All of my foundational health habits are all going to come into play in helping me not only be able to stick to a program and a training program and an eating program like that, but they're all going to help me build muscle. So that is the goal. Um, all right, cool. I think that's it. Uh, I think the, the wrap-up and the overview is a massive effort on habits in September, October, and November. I want 3 months of really great work, really great focus, and as much green on the board as possible. I really want to lean into the fasting, the new habit because I know that it's just going to help me achieve my fitness goals and my nutrition plan. And hopefully I get some of the health benefits from that. And yeah, it's build muscle and weight train a lot and try and not— try and stay healthy and avoid injuries, which, you know, there's a little bit of risk that crops up when I'm going to be weight training 4 times a week and pushing to build muscle. Like, the risk is always going to increase there, but but I think we're gonna approach it in a safe manner, and, uh, hopefully I can just avoid that, and at the end of the year I feel pretty happy with where I'm at. Um, so yeah, I will keep you updated on those fitness goals, and I'll get into a better rhythm on a monthly basis of talking how I'm doing on my foundational health habits. Um, so we will talk again at the beginning of October to see how September went. And look, I know that this episode has felt a little self-indulgent, it's just talking about me, um, But look, I think, you know, talking about each of the habits and where I'm at and how I'm achieving them and how important they are is quite useful. I think that, like, you know, hopefully it can give you some food for thought about the habits that you're trying to build and actually just give some incentive and motivation to actually get onto the journey of building habits. If you have struggled to train and eat consistently, or you're not happy with how you look or your weight or your health or anything like that, health habits are the answer. That's where you should start. And I think fasting is super, super interesting. Listen to that Andrew Huberman, um, podcast. And I think there's a— I think most people should probably be fasting. I think it is just the best way to kind of maintain a healthy weight. Um, and yeah, the health benefits you get from it, I think, are solid. And yeah, you know, just if you're in the. If you're in the, you know, if you're trying to build muscle, then I think my approach could be quite useful for you to think about because it's a, it's a pretty solid approach, I think, to be able to build muscle, the training and the nutrition side of things. So yeah, hopefully all of that's helpful. This episode's gone on for a little bit longer than I thought. Um, but I hope it's useful and, uh, I will see you in next week's episode.
