Answering Your Fitness Questions (No BS Answers)
In this hour‑long live session, fitness coach Eric Roberts answers a rapid stream of questions from TikTok and YouTube viewers. He starts by addressing body‑image concerns, explaining that a “soft” look is normal outside of the pumped state seen in social‑media videos and that achieving a more defined physique requires two fundamentals: building muscle and lowering body‑fat percentage. He outlines practical training cues (heavy 5‑10 rep work, training close to failure) and a protein guideline of body‑weight × 0.8 g per day. He critiques reliance on DEXA or other body‑fat tests, recommending simple visual comparison with online reference images and progress photos. He strongly advises against using GLP‑1 drugs for the final ten pounds of aesthetic goals, calling it unethical and unnecessary. Roberts discusses optimal training splits, warning against full‑body workouts four times a week due to local and systemic fatigue, insufficient recovery, elevated cortisol, and diminished results. He emphasizes the importance of adequate sleep, calories, and nutrition over excessive cardio for fat loss, and explains the limited contribution of exercise to total daily energy expenditure. He normalizes occasional processed‑food meals, stresses consistency over perfection, and argues against skipping breakfast because it harms hunger control and will‑power. He also covers the need for heavy lifting for bone density, especially in women over 40, and defines “heavy” as the weight that makes the last few reps of a set very challenging. Throughout, he promotes his two coaching offerings – the high‑touch 8‑week Fat Loss Challenge and the budget‑friendly Clubhouse app – and provides guidance on calorie‑deficit pitfalls, metabolic adaptation, and how to transition to maintenance after reaching a goal weight.
Chapters
asks a question and says, my body looks soft. How can I fix it? I have 2 answers for you. Number one, to a degree, that is going to be normal. So I'm going to show you both on TikTok and I'm going to show you on YouTube. Right now, my body looks— I don't know, I guess maybe it looks kind of hard. Pause. But I'm not flexing. But if I flex, then you can really tell there's muscles. But like, you're not going to be flexed 24/7. So your body isn't going to look like You're flexed 24/7. I think a lot of people compare themselves to videos and images they see on social media. But remember, that is a very, very, like a 0.1% of somebody's entire day. When they're doing their workout, you have all the blood flow, you have the carbs running into your muscles, you're in like mid-pump, mid-workout, or after a workout gets done, somebody posts a picture of their glutes and it's like, Yeah, of course they're going to look like that. But throughout the day, most people just look like a normal human being. And so I would say number one, don't beat yourself up and don't compare yourself to that. But then number two, how do you get a more, let's call it tone-defined look? You're going to have to build muscle and drop body fat percentage. Those are really the two only ways you're going to get more defined. And like right now, I don't know, again, whether you're on TikTok or YouTube, like I don't, I'm not flexing, but you can kind of tell I have muscles and there's people who have way more muscles than me and look way better than me. So that's not what I'm I'm saying, but because my body fat percentage is a certain amount and my muscle mass is a certain amount, you can tell I work out. If I have like, if I have my shirt on or like a regular shirt, you probably won't be able to tell, to be honest with you. But if I don't, then you can tell I have some muscle. So it really just comes down to lifting heavy in the 5 to 10 rep range, pushing yourself close to failure, eating enough protein. What is enough protein? Take your goal body weight, Multiply that by 0.8, and that's how many grams of protein you should be eating per day. So if you want to weigh 150 pounds, you would eat a minimum 120 grams of protein per day. All right. Hope that helped, Abdul. All right, let's go. We got some people on YouTube Live as well. So we got TikTok Live here. We got people on YouTube Live. Let's go. Let's go, guys. Happy Saturday. I hope you are getting off to a great start. We got Cloud. I just did a Dex. This is a question from YouTube. I just did a question, or I'm sorry, DEXA scan. I'm 40%. My coach did mine with a Caliber and I'm 23%. Yeah, I don't, none of those are really accurate, to be honest with you. Just Google whether you're a male or a female, male body fat percentage, female body fat percentage. Look at the, actually, I can't pull it up right now, but if you just Google male body fat percentage, it will show you what 30% looks like, 25% looks like, 20% looks like, and just take your progress pictures, put them next to that picture, and it'll give you a rough guesstimate for where you're at. So that's the best way we like to approach getting body fat percentage. But really, your body fat percentage really is just like one data point that like, what is it really going to change? If you don't like the way you look, regardless, you're going to have to build some more muscle and lose some more fat. So I wouldn't put too much into it. All right, let's go into the questions from TikTok Live here. So on TikTok Live, a DEXA scan is 100% accurate. That is not true at all. What's— that's, that's not— the only 100% accurate for body fat percentage is an autopsy, which I don't think you want to do that because that means you will have died. So no, it is not 100% accurate. All right, cool. If I'm trying to lose the last 10 pounds and have been stuck at the same weight, is a GLP-1 a good option? I'm gonna say this with love. Fuck no, it is not a good option. That is the number one thing I would advise against using a GLP-1 for, for the last 10 pounds of an aesthetic goal you're trying to achieve. Like, you're not unhealthy by trying to lose the last 10 pounds. Maybe you want to, but you're not unhealthy. So me personally, and everybody's different, you can go listen to other people as well. I think that is an unethical way to use a GLP-1. That being said, the second part of this is you most likely do not need to lose 10 more pounds. When people get down to the last 10 pounds, they're like, oh, I need to hit my goal weight. If I'm 140, I'm going to get to 130 and I'm going to like how I look. The answer is no, you are not going to like how you look because a number on the scale only tells a small part of your journey. Going back to the previous question about body fat percentage, you don't want to weigh a number on the scale. You want to have a certain body fat percentage. How do you do that? You not only lose more fat, But you build more muscle. And what most people don't understand is increasing, well, improving and decreasing your body fat percentage. One of the ways you do it is losing body fat, but the other way you do it is building muscle. You could lose all of the body fat in the world, but if you don't have enough lean muscle on your body, you'll never look the way you want to look. And most people, out of all the people I have coached in the last 10 years of me being a coach, when we get down to the last 10 pounds, it's not actually about the scale anymore. It's usually you have to stop cutting your calories, increase your calories back to maintenance, focus more on building muscle, and that's going to allow you to then look the way you want to look. So I would encourage you to stop over-obsessing on a number on the scale because it's just one small part Of this. And do not fucking use a GLP-1 for the last 10 pounds. Absolutely not. All right. TikTok Live, what is going on? Hope you guys are doing well. YouTube Live, we got some people on YouTube Live as well. Let's go. Let's go. All right. Going to do a question from YouTube Live here. Maybe 1 or 2 questions. I like to lose some fat, but I will not have time to go to the gym. I have some dumbbells at home. Yeah. And then, yeah, so you can definitely lose fat by doing dumbbell at-home workouts. In fact, I would say about 50% of my clients that we coach in my online coaching program work out from home. And if you guys have seen any of my clients' results, they get some pretty good progress. And so as long as you have a good, proper workout program, you can absolutely work out from home with just dumbbells and see some really good progress. I always recommend either a 3-day-a-week or a 4-day-a-week split. 3 days a week would be lower body, upper body, full body. 4 days a week would be lower, upper, lower, upper. So that's what I'd recommend. And somebody else asked me on YouTube Live, what equipment do I need to do the Clubhouse program at home? So the Clubhouse is my app that I built. So if you're watching on YouTube, there's a link below. If you're on TikTok, there's a link in my bio, but that is my app that I built. And we have all kinds of workout programs in there. So for example, I have a dumbbell at-home workout program that's 3 or 4 times a week. So all you would need is dumbbells to do that program. But even if you, let's say, do a different program, I already have alternatives worked in. So let's say, for example, there's a barbell back squat. There's already going to be modifications worked in for, let's say, if you're working out at home. So literally all you'll have to do is just Look at your phone, do the workouts that are specifically right there. It has all the videos. It tells you exactly what reps to do. You just follow it and you're done. That's all you have to do. So both those questions hopefully go hand in hand. And again, if you're interested, my app, it's called ERF Clubhouse. You can click the link down below if you're on YouTube, or you can click the link in my bio if you are on TikTok. Good questions, guys. Let's go. I'm going to continue to get some questions here. Going to TikTok Live now. We got a lot of questions. And for those of you guys who are on TikTok Live, I apologize. There's a lot of questions, but I am trying to get to as many as I possibly can. So let me get to some more questions. Shawnee asked me, what about full body 4 times a week? I would not recommend full body 4 times a week. For a couple of reasons. Number one, hitting your muscle groups 4 times per week, that is a lot for your body to both— I'm going to go in depth here, but there's 2 kinds of fatigue and stress that you put on your body. The first one is something called local fatigue. And this means like if I do bicep curls locally in my bicep, it is going to be fatigued and sore. And then there is systemic fatigue. This means working out in general is a full-body stress. You don't just only stress your biceps. Your central nervous system gets stressed when you do a workout because you're pushing yourself and so on and so forth. So doing that 4 times per week, unless you're sleeping 9 hours a night, getting 2 hours of deep sleep, Unless you're in a calorie surplus, you have all your hydration, all your nutrients, all your nutrition, carbs, protein, unless everything is dialed in, I would almost recommend nobody do a 4 times a week full body split because you're just not going to be able to recover from it. And you might be thinking, well, more is better. No, more is not better because there's 3— the way your body changes is a cycle. You put a stress on your body, your body recovers from that stress, and then it adapts to that stress. So there's 3 parts of this wheel you kind of have to go through. If you just put a stress on your body and you don't recover from it, your body will never adapt. And that's how you change. That's how you build more muscle. That's how you get more strength. That's how you change your physique. So you'll just be— Putting a lot of stress on your body, never recovering from it, you'll actually probably look worse. You'll actually be more bloated, more inflamed, higher cortisol. Your body won't ever change even though you're working out really hard. Has anybody ever had that happen to them? Either if you're on YouTube Live, drop it in the chat below. If you're on TikTok here, drop it in the chat below. You ever felt like you're working out 4, 5, 6 days a week, but like your body just never changes? This is usually why, because people are often trying to also be in a calorie deficit, for example. And now you already can't recover from 4 times a week for the majority of people. And now you're even doing less energy, less calories for your body to recover from. And it all just goes downhill. So no, I would not recommend a 4 times a week full body split. And we have a lot of people on TikTok Live feeling like that. Yep. Yeah, I hear you guys. And also, this is good for both. Another reason why you might be working out really hard, but not seeing any progress is because when you do a lot of exercise, as I mentioned, your cortisol and your stress increase. When your cortisol and your stress are chronically elevated, it's harder to recover from workouts. And so what happens is you have more hunger, you have less willpower, you have more cravings, especially for sugary foods, junk food, processed food. On top of the fact that you're going to look bloated, you're going to look inflamed because your body's not recovering. So I can't tell you how many times we have coached somebody in our online coaching program who they come to us doing 4 or 5, 6 times a week workouts. And we say, hey, you're going to work out 3 times a week. And at first they're like, that doesn't make any sense. How would I make more progress by doing less? Well, because what happens is now your body can actually recover. You stick to your diet better. You have less stress, inflammation, cortisol, bloating, water weight. So your body looks better. You get stronger. You build more muscle and all these great things happen. So a lot of people think I'm going to push harder. Most people work hard. Like, I will give people credit. They work hard. They're just not working smart and they're not working hard on the right things. So hopefully that makes sense as well. All right, I'm going to take a swig of some caffeine and then I'm also going to go back over to our YouTube Live and answer some questions as well. All right, let's go. Somebody, Manny, asks, Eric, I know processed foods are the worst, but what about protein plates from places like Panda or Chipotle? All right, a couple things here. Number one, processed foods aren't the worst. Okay? Like, are they less optimal and less ideal than like growing all of your food at your house and raising your own cattle? And like, sure, they're less optimal, but like at the end of the day, it's about 80/20. 80% of the time you're gonna do healthy shit. And then 20% of the time you might do some unhealthy shit. And it's funny, if you guys know who the rapper Wiz Khalifa is, go to Wiz Khalifa's Instagram. He made a video 2 days ago about cheat days. And I commented, I think I'm the top comment. So you can go check that out after you're done. But processed foods aren't the worst. And unless you are literally growing and harvesting and having your own food in your house, in your backyard, To a degree, everything's going to be processed. Now, of course, you're trying to prioritize majority nutrient-dense whole foods. That being said, he asked specifically, what about protein plates from like Panda or Chipotle? Chipotle, for example, you know, I just had that 2 days ago. They have real— I think they actually say this in their marketing and their advertising. They have real food. I think it's like real ingredients, real food. So I wouldn't say that's bad at all, nor would I say that's processed at all. And then Panda Express, I don't know the extent of their ingredients, but like you're getting chicken, you're getting steak. Like even if it is frozen and they heat it up, like I don't know how the process works, but it's still a protein source. And most people can't ever stick with their diet because they think they have to be so perfect with everything. They have to cook everything from home, everything from scratch. Who here, whether on YouTube Live, whether you're on TikTok Live, Do me a favor. If you have the time of day every day, 7 days a week, to cook all of your food, to prep all of your food from scratch, if you have that time, drop a 1 in the chat below. If you do not have time to cook and prep every single meal every single day, drop a 2 in the chat below. And I'm curious to see people's results from this because I'm going to drop a 2 in the chat right now. I do not have time. to cook my food every single meal, every single time. And I'm the fitness guy. I'm the guy who works— like, I work from home. This is my office. You're seeing me right now. My entire life is dedicated around fitness, and I don't even have the time for that. So sometimes you're not going to be perfect with your diet, and that is okay. All right. We got some people on TikTok Live here. Cam says a 1. Okay, Cam. Good for you. Everyone else, uh, seriously, good for you, Cam. Everyone else is saying 2, 2. Got a lot of 2s. Somebody said 2 and I'm unemployed. They don't have shit to do all day and they still have a fucking 2. Uh, we got people— Caroline says a 2, Kathleen 2. Um, yeah, I mean, listen, it's, it's just not realistic, you guys. So to answer your question there, Manny, it's okay to have a fucking protein bowl from Chipotle, or it— By the way, You're gonna— people are gonna freak out when I say this. It's okay to have a McDonald's every now and then. It's okay to have a Taco Bell every now and then. It's okay to have a Chick-fil-A every now and then. Again, should that be the majority of your diet? No. But if you have to do it sometimes because you have it maybe on the weekends, you're running errands, but like if you skip— and here's what I want you to think about as well. If you skip a meal because you're like, oh, I can't eat out, I can't eat Chipotle, and then you go 7 hours without eating, And then you go out to eat and you're fucking starving and you just way overeat. You way blow over your calories. What good is that gonna do? If you just would have ate the fucking Chipotle earlier, you would have gone into dinner more satisfied. You wouldn't have overate. You would have stuck to your calorie deficit and lost fat. A lot of times people miss the forest for the trees. All right. So I hope that helped. All right. Going into some questions here on TikTok Live. Somebody said two and unemployed. It's funny. All right, let's go, guys. Happy, uh, happy Saturday to everybody here. Um, thank you guys for joining the live. Really appreciate it. Probably could be doing a ton of other stuff, but, um, let's go, let's go, let's go. Happy Saturday. I'm gonna get some questions here from TikTok Live. Uh, Pinner says just hire a chef. Must be nice. Pinner's got the funds available to hire a chef. All right, let's go, let's go, let's go. Happy Saturday. Let me get a good question here. I answered that question already. Here you go. It's a funny name. Four Leaf Clover asked, is losing 1 kg per week considered rapid fat loss. So 1 kg for us people in the US is roughly 2.2 pounds. So this would depend on your current body weight. How much weight should you be losing per week if you're trying to be in a calorie deficit depends on your current body weight. You shouldn't just go by, I lost 1 pound per week, 2 pounds, 5 pounds per week. Because if somebody weighs 250 pounds and loses 2 pounds per week, and then if somebody weighs 125 pounds and they lose 2 pounds per week, those are 2 completely different things. The person who only weighs 125 pounds losing 2 pounds a week, that would be rapid weight loss. But the person who weighs 250 pounds, that would be pretty normal weight loss. So as opposed to looking for an exact number you should be losing per week, a good range to go by is 0.5 to 2% of your total body weight per week. So if you weigh 200 pounds, you might lose 1 to 3, maybe 4 pounds per week. This is also dependent on how long you've been in a calorie deficit, How much muscle mass versus fat do you actually have? But like 0.5 to 1% of your total body weight, 0.5 to 1.5% of your total body weight. Judge your fat loss by where you're currently at, not just some arbitrary number. And along with your total body weight being taken into consideration, you also want to make sure you're taking your waist measurement. And you're taking your progress pictures. I can't tell you how many clients we have coached in my online coaching program that maybe their scale— actually, this just happened recently to one of our clients. Their scale only went down like 2 pounds in like an 8-week period of time. And at first, they were kind of discouraged by that. But we looked at their waist measurement. They were down like 4 inches off of their waist, which is a lot of inches off your waist in 2 months. And when we put their progress pictures side by side, their body looked completely different. Like their love handles were gone. Their stomach was so much closer into their body. Their clothes were fitting better. So although they had only lost 2 pounds, they were seeing great body recomp progress, lose fat, build muscle at the same time. So along with the total body fat percentage, the total body weight percentage per week. Take your measurements, take your progress pictures. Most people aren't doing that, and that's stalling your progress. I can assure you of that. All right. All right. Next question. What's up, guys? Happy Saturday. Happy Saturday. Thank you guys so much for joining. Going back and forth here between TikTok Live and YouTube Live. So thank you guys both for being here. I really appreciate it. Going a couple questions here from YouTube Live. Thanks to you, I've lost 24 pounds. Congratulations. Taco Bell. Let's go Taco Bell Carnita Bowl. Yep. What's up, Annalise? How are you? Somebody says hi from Malaysia. Enjoy your content. May I know if you've met people who are sensitive to high load? I feel I'm easily burnt out from training compared to others. This is a good question. Oh, thank you for the heart on TikTok, whoever just sent that. I think your ability to recover from workouts is very dependent person to person. So I'll use this as an example. A lot of clients that we personally coach in my online coaching program are busy professionals. Maybe they're parents, they have kids, they have a busy schedule, they're traveling. So a mom who who works full-time, has 3 kids, travels for work, likes to do some vacations and go out on the weekends and whatnot, that person's ability to recover from their workouts because of their stress levels might be incredibly different than myself. For example, I don't have kids. I don't have a family. My entire life is built around fitness, my business here, working out. So like, I can probably recover from a lot more than what that mom may be able to recover from. So if we did the same program, that's not going to make any sense because she's not going to be able to recover from it and vice versa. If I did that same program, I probably wouldn't get as good of results because I can handle more. So this is where I think it's just so person-dependent on what you're able to recover from, which is why I have something called my 8-week fat loss challenge. It's my one-on-one coaching where you'll get paired up with a coach on my team and we fully personalize your plan. If you want more information on that, if you're on TikTok, you can click the link. If you're on YouTube Live, you can click the link below. It's my 8-week fat loss challenge. But that's why in that we truly take a personalized approach because everybody's going to be a bit different. If I— beyond the personalization aspect, if you want personalized help, I have an option for that. But beyond that, I would just say, There's a couple of key factors you can tweak. So if you're not recovering from your workouts, I would decrease your training volume. So if you're working out 4 times per week, we'd probably drop to 3 times per week. If you're doing 3 to 4 really hard working sets, I would drop to 2 hard working sets. If you're doing 8 exercises per workout, I would do 4 to 5 exercises per workout because you're going to automatically be able to recover from more. Number 2 would be increasing your calories because more calories means more recovery. The more energy, because calories are just a unit of measurement of energy for your body. So the more energy your body has, the better you're going to be able to recover from workouts. And this is why if, let's say your main goal is fat loss, you should not be doing a very high intensity, high volume workout program Because those are 2 conflicting goals that you have, which is again why I feel like a lot of people will work very hard but never get the body they want because they're not on the right plan. So those would be the 2 biggest things. And the 3rd one would be sleep because sleep is the ultimate, like all these peptides and all these things that are out there, it's like sleep is the best steroid you could ever give to yourself because it's the best way to recover. So If you want some general advice, that's what I would say, but it very is personalized. All right. Hi from London, England. Let's go. What's up, Rachel? And then yeah, DJ Louie. So somebody asked me on YouTube Live here and I'm going to go over to TikTok Live next and answer some questions for you guys. So if you're on TikTok Live, feel free to drop those questions down. Somebody asked me, how does your program work? What is the cost? So we have 2 options for my program. The first one is like our highest touch, highest accountability, highest personalization, 8-week fat loss challenge. There's a link below if you want to check it out. There is an application process because I just quite simply can't take on everybody as a client. And we just truly want to make sure that we're actually a good fit to help you. So that's the first option. And the second option I built is more of my budget option, which is my app. So those are the 2 options. Both are linked if you are on TikTok Live in bio, if you're on YouTube Live down below. So the Clubhouse or my 8-week fat loss challenge, those are my 2 options. All right, let's go. Going back over to TikTok for a question here. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Somebody says, I used to work out. Oh, Nicole, I used to work out 6 days a week until I met Eric. Yep. Let's go, man. Uh, somebody says it's so hard working out when you start to actually see results, but you're right. I know I'm right. No, I, I agree. Um, let's go. Um, hi from Czechoslovakia. Wow, let's go. Um, somebody says I still don't understand how you split squat 405. I was holding on to the rack, man. Like, go back and watch that video. It's still— the weight is still there, but Okay, let's go. Somebody says, I lost 100 pounds. Congratulations. That's incredible. Now I need to be at maintenance, but I keep losing weight. I'm scared to gain any. Really interesting. You had mentioned this question. If you have lost a lot of weight, it's very normal to be scared to gain the weight back for a couple of reasons. Number one, most people who lose weight, they gain it back. That's just the reality of it. Why do most people gain the weight back that they lose? It's typically because the way they are losing weight is not sustainable. So you're cutting out your carbs, you're eating 1,200 calories, you're only eating clean. If what you're doing to lose the weight isn't sustainable, your weight loss isn't going to be sustained as well. And then number 2, it's just human nature. It's much like For example, when I wanted to build my business and I wanted to go on social media, do all these things, to this day, even though I have, you know, whatever it is, millions of followers and we have a business that helps thousands of people every month, I'm still scared to lose it all. Every single day I wake up, I'm scared to lose it all, but I don't— it's never going to go away. I don't think it should go away because that means You're mindful of knowing you need to keep doing this stuff if you want to stay consistent and keep what you have built. So I would kind of reframe. I don't think it's a bad thing. Now, it is a bad thing, excuse me, if you let it impact your actions. So if you're so scared to gain your weight back that you're not properly increasing and reverse dieting and working back to maintenance, that's a bad thing. You're letting fear stop you. And again, this is something that we have helped a lot of our online coaching clients with where they lose the weight and we help them work their calories back up to maintenance because it's scary, but it's also the right thing to do. Just because something is scary doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. In fact, in most circumstances, if it's scary, that means you should do it. So I would just encourage you, like, you have to work your calories back up. And think about it logically. You're not going to gain fat unless you're in a calorie surplus for an extended period of time, much like you're not going to lose weight unless you're in a calorie deficit for an extended period of time. So you know it, you've already done it. You've lost 100 pounds. You know the math and the science and the reality. It's like you just have to ground yourself in that. And this is also why We help our clients not only with calories and protein and workouts, but like the mindset stuff. Because I think as we can all agree here, actually, I'm curious to hear if you're watching right now, what is the hardest part for you? Is it like knowing what to do or is it actually doing it? Is it actually getting your mind to consistently do it time over time again? Like drop below which one is the hardest part for you. I'm curious to hear. what people's answers are. But again, congratulations on your progress. Make sure you are doing what is right, not what is scary. People are saying the mental, staying consistent. Yep, I agree. Let's go. I love it. Cool. Okay, we got some questions over here as well on YouTube Live. Wow, we got a lot of good questions, guys. Thank you so much. I'm trying to answer as many as I possibly can here. Let's go, let's go, let's go. All right, um, let's go. Uh, As a member and current client of Eric's, I can promise you won't regret signing up for Eric's program. Thank you, Annalise, I appreciate that. Your content's awesome, brother. Thanks for what you do. Let's go. Uh, Joby 2 mentioned you in his stream last night and I subbed. I don't know what Joby 2 is, but I'm gonna go look that up after this. Uh, You guys got to remember, I am unk status. I'm an old guy. I turned 30. So I don't know what Joby 2 is, but thanks, Joby 2. I appreciate that. And I will make sure to send him or her some love. I don't know who it is or what it is. I have no clue, but I will make sure to try to send some love afterwards. Eric, I've lost 40 pounds using your advice. Thank you. Should I lower my deficit in increments or should I just focus on the goal weight? Will my body adapt before reaching the goal? So Congratulations, Leanna. This is for everybody here. You don't need to adjust your calories unless something stops you. So if you're continuously making progress, why would you change anything? You're just going to lower your calories and slow down your metabolism more than what it needs to be. So you don't change anything. The only time that you adjust your calories is when You've stopped losing weight for at least 3 weeks. Your measurements haven't changed or your progress pictures haven't changed, all while you're being at least 90% consistent. If those things haven't happened, you need to change anything. You're fucking fine. Just keep going. You're probably just being inconsistent or impatient. So no need to change anything. Okay. All right. There's a lot of There's a lot of questions here. I, I appreciate all the questions, guys. I can't get to every single one, but I do appreciate it. Let me hit on a couple more on YouTube Live, and then I'm going to come back to TikTok Live here, um, to be able to rock and roll. So, uh, somebody asked, food intolerance and thyroid issues make it difficult to lose fat. Any suggestions? I can't lift very heavy loads. All right, so I'm not Not sure how those two go together, so I'm going to separate those. I'm going to focus on losing fat. We've helped a lot of clients, whether it's with hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's, PCOS, perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause. Does it make it harder? Yes. Does it make it impossible? No. Does it defy the laws of physics, of thermodynamics? You have to eat less calories than what you burn. No, all of that still remains true. Do you have to be more dialed in? Yes. Do you have to be more on point with your calorie tracking? Yes. Do you have to make sure you're getting your daily steps? Yes. Like, it's going to be harder for you, but you can either say, well, it's harder for me and I quit, which I guess is an option, or you can say it's harder for me. I'm just going to work harder to get what I want. Like, it really is that simple. So myself, for example, I didn't come from money. I didn't come from like a privileged background. I wasn't dirt poor by any means, but I didn't grow up with money. Like, my parents were lower middle class. From the age I was 16, I've had to work full-time. I've had to pay for my groceries since I was 16. My phone bill, my car, my insurance. Like, nothing was handed to me. So like, I could have— and by the way, people have it much worse than me, so obviously, but I'm just using this as an example. I could have said, oh well, my parents weren't rich, and like, no, I don't know how to be successful, and I don't know how to run a business, and this. And I could have just said, oh well, it's too hard for me, I can't do this. Or I did what I did, which was like, well, I don't fucking know, I'm gonna find a way to make it work. I'm going to do everything that I humanly possibly can to be successful. And who knows, maybe I will never get there, but I'm going to fucking do everything I can possible to try. So that's really what this comes down to. Are you willing? And by the way, how much pain are you really in? When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see? When you step on the scale, do you like what you see? When you go clothes shopping, do you like that? Or do you dread shopping for clothes? When you're going on vacation with your family, do you hide from pictures? When you're putting your clothes on, do you just wear black sweatpants, black yoga pants because you don't like any of the clothes and you can't fit in them? So if that is the case, is it really that big of a deal to weigh your food on a food scale? Is it really that big of a deal to go get some extra steps or to work out 2 to 3 times a week? It's all about how much pain you're in. Like, if you don't like where you're at, imagine if you were walking— I'm sorry, if you imagine if you were standing on grass. We just end the World Cup. Imagine you're on the World Cup stage, you're on your bare feet, you're just standing in the middle of World Cup. That'd be kind of cool. Then imagine if you're standing on hot steaming stones. Which one would you fucking move from first? The World Cup grass or the hot stones? And that's what your fitness journey comes— that's what life in general comes down to. If you are uncomfortable enough, you will do whatever is necessary to get out of that feeling of uncomfortableness. But you got to be real with yourself. So yeah. All right, cool. Next question. I'm going to take a swig of caffeine and we'll get over to some TikTok Live Thank you guys so much for, um, being live here. I really appreciate it. Someone has a picture of you on their videos to promote steroids. You— they said you were a client. Huh. I have not taken steroids in my life. I've thought about it many times. I've also never worked with a coach, so I don't know who's doing that, but, um, it's interesting. People got to use other people for clout. Somebody asked, does 30 minutes of slow indoor cycling burn the same fat as walking? You should not be using your exercise as a form or way to burn fat. And what I mean by that is to burn fat, you have to be in a calorie deficit. Your total daily calorie burn is broken up into 4 pieces. The first piece is 70% of your daily calorie burn comes from something called your BMR, basal metabolic rate. This just means how many calories your body burns at rest. So if you laid in bed all day, that's how many calories your body would burn because like your body has to keep you alive. So that's 70%. of your daily calorie burn. Next part is something called your NEAT, your non-exercise activity thermogenesis. This just means all the movement you do throughout the day that is not a dedicated workout. So even me, like moving my hands as I talk and talking very fast and talking loud, that is NEAT. So that takes up 15% of your daily calorie burn. Next piece is your TEF, your thermic effect of food. This is how many calories your body burns digesting the food you eat. And the final 5 to 10% is your EAT, your exercise activity thermogenesis, or in layman's terms, how many calories your body burns through exercise. 5 to 10%, that's it. So you're trying, you're focusing on 5 to 10% of your daily calorie burn to try to burn fat. Doesn't make any sense. Your workouts should not be focused on burning calories to burn fat. Your workout should be focused on getting stronger, building muscle, just overall movement and health. Your fat loss should be primarily focused on your nutrition because you'll never be able to out-cardio eating too many calories. That doesn't mean, to go back to the question of 30 minutes of indoor cycling versus walking, to be quite frank with you, it doesn't really matter. Like, if your heart rate is around the same, it's going to produce the same results. You're going to burn roughly the same amount of calories. You'll get roughly the same benefit from a heart health perspective. But again, you shouldn't be doing that to burn fat. Your nutrition should be taking care of the fat loss. Your exercise should be used to build you up. So that is the answer to that question. Hopefully that makes sense. All right, let's go, guys. Happy Saturday. We got some more questions rolling in. I'm going to pull a question from YouTube Live here. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Bro, nothing you've said has helped me more than hearing don't quit. I always felt like it wasn't working, and after 60 days, it finally is. Your analogy game is on point. Cheers from Edmonton. Congratulations, man. That's awesome. It makes me super happy to hear. Um, okay, cool. Wow, there's a lot of questions. I'm apologizing in advance that I'm not getting to all the questions, but I, I really do appreciate all of the questions, man. Um, okay, um, Somebody asked, um, I've lost 43 pounds since last July. Congratulations. I'm stuck at 160 pounds, lifting heavy 4 times a week, 8 to 10 days steps, steps, steps, water, rowing. I eat 1,800 calories. So what is the— what's the question? Um, I'm sorry, I don't know the question. There's no— there's no question there. Sorry about that. Why do people say women over 40 should lift heavy? What is considered heavy? Thank you, Anna, for the heart in TikTok Live here. A couple of things. Everybody should be lifting heavy, not just women over 40. I would say women over 40, it is even more important to lift heavy for a couple of reasons. Number one would be bone Density, especially for women. As you age, your bone density decreases. This is why osteoporosis is very amongst women in their 50s, 60s, 70s, because your bone density decreases. Lifting heavy will force your body to keep a certain level of bone density. It's like The way I try to explain this, think about if you were renting a $3,000 a month apartment versus if you were renting a $30,000 per month apartment. Both of the— like, the $30,000 a month apartment, that's very expensive. So if you were to cut expenses, you'd probably have to downsize your apartment. Much like your body has certain things on its body that are expensive to keep. Muscle and bone density are the 2 most important, most expensive things for your body to keep. So if your body doesn't need it, it is going to get rid of it. But if you lift heavy, it forces your body to keep it. And now what is heavy? Don't think of this as a certain number, like, oh, you have to lift 200 pounds or 100 pounds. Heavy is going to be different for every person and every exercise. But a good rule of thumb that you're going to follow, let's say you're doing a set of 10 reps. The 8th rep, the 9th rep, and the 10th rep, those last 3 reps, should be incredibly difficult, challenging, and you should like wonder if you're going to be able to get those last couple of reps because that means you're lifting heavy enough. Another great way to know this is let's say you're doing a set of shoulder presses. On the first rep, it takes you 1 second to push the weight up. By the time you get to the 8th rep, the 9th rep, the 10th rep, it might take you 2.5 or 3 seconds to fully get that weight up. That means you're going close to failure and you're lifting heavy enough. So those are the 2 main ways to know if you're lifting heavy enough. And that's what you should be doing for at least, I mean, at least 20% to 30% to 40% of the time. when you're lifting weights. So if you have 3 sets of an exercise, if you're really trying to build muscle and build strength, all 3 of those sets should be like that. So that's why it is important for both men and women of all ages to continue to lift heavy. All right, cool. All right, guys, we got a couple more questions. that I'm going to try to dive into. Uh, uh, man, Manuel says, I see you gained weight, brother. Lock in. Well, thanks for noticing. I appreciate that. I intentionally gained some weight, so thank you for being, um, concerned about my body weight. I appreciate that, but it was intentional. There is something called a bulk, and you are Intentionally increasing weight on your body to try to gain more muscle. And that's what I was doing for a period of time. I'm actually in a calorie deficit. I've lost about 7 pounds so far. So Manuel, thank you for your concern, but I am all good, brother. Thank you so much though. Appreciate that. All right, let's go. I'm going to grab another question here. Let me go to YouTube Live. Right here. Let's go. Somebody asked, can I lose fat only while being in a calorie deficit but not reaching my protein goal? You will lose fat, but you won't only lose fat. You'll also lose muscle because again, like the previous question, muscle is very expensive for your body to keep. So if you don't give it a reason to keep it, it is going to get rid of it. So this is why you need to hit your protein goal if you want to lose fat and either keep muscle or build muscle while you're losing fat, because protein is the only macronutrient that is going to either help build or retain lean muscle mass. And so if you're not eating enough, yeah, you'll lose fat, but you'll also lose muscle, which will slow down your metabolism, make you end up as that skinny fat look, lose strength, and just overall like not be the most optimal for you. So how much protein should you really be eating though? Because most people think they need to eat more protein than they probably actually do. And so I always say, take your goal body weight, multiply it by 0.8, and that's how many grams of protein you should be eating per day as a minimum. So if you want to weigh 150 pounds, at a minimum, try to get around 120 grams of protein per day. And if you get 117, like, don't freak the fuck out. Just around that number. If you eat more than that, that's cool, but you don't need to eat 150, 180 grams of protein per day. I can't tell you How many people who have come to us for coaching and like, you know, they're, they're, they're, they're a woman who's 200 pounds and, you know, they're trying to drop some weight and like, oh, well, I'm trying to eat 180 grams of protein. I'm like, fucking why? Why the fuck are you eating that much protein? You don't need to do that. So, um, yeah. All right. A question from TikTok, which I find interesting. Um, somebody asked me, how do you feel about skipping breakfast and saving those calories for later in the day. Hot take, I am not a fan of skipping breakfast and saving calories for later in the day. I'm gonna give you a couple of reasons why. Number one, when is your willpower the lowest? Is it at 10:00 AM in the morning or is it at 8:00 PM at night? I would like to think for most people, it's probably at night. Okay, so we'll store that. Number 2, if you don't eat breakfast and you skip especially protein in the morning, do you think you'll be more hungry or less hungry later in the day? I think we can all agree you'll probably be more hungry later in the day if you don't eat protein, especially earlier in the day. Okay, so now we're heading into the nighttime, which is where our willpower is the lowest and our hunger is the highest because we skipped breakfast. Do you think you're more likely to stick to your calories or less likely to stick to your calories? My opinion, from what I have seen coaching thousands of clients, you're less likely to stick to your calories. So that's why I always say, even if it's just a protein shake, some eggs, some Greek yogurt, don't save your calories for the nighttime because that will often backfire into you overeating at night. Not to mention the third reason beyond just like physiologically you're hungrier and less willpower, I have found a lot of people who skip meals and save calories, you go into this restrict and then binge mindset. So like you're saving all this food. And so now you're like, oh, well, this is the only time I can eat. I got to make sure I get all the foods I want. I got to make sure I get all my calories in. I'm also hungrier because I haven't eaten all day. My stress is really high. My willpower is really low. And all of this just builds up, builds up, builds up, and you end up overeating, which that could be avoided if you just ate more food earlier in the day. And a lot of people say, well, I'm not hungry in the morning. I'm hungry at night. That's when I get hungry. That's why I save my calories. Why do you think you're so hungry at night? You don't fucking eat anything earlier in the day. That's why. So if you ate earlier in the day, you wouldn't be so hungry at night and you will hit your calories better. And no matter what anybody tells you, I don't care what people tell you in the comments here. I don't care what videos you see. The only way you are going to lose fat is by hitting your daily calorie goal. So If skipping meals and fasting helps you hit those calories, do your thing. It's totally fine. But if you're skipping meals and you're not hitting your calories, that's not helping you. You're not going to lose fat that way. So in my humble opinion, that is why I do not believe skipping meals, especially breakfast, is going to help you lose fat. All right, a couple more questions, guys, and I do have to pop off. Um, all right, let's go. Uh, Donna says, I used to intermittent fast, but I always ended up binging. That's why I can't control myself at night. Yep, yep, that is so totally it. Somebody asked me, how long do I use my red light? Um, it's not a not a red light. It's actually my name. That's just like a cool little background that I have in my office. So it's— I don't, I don't use a red light. Um, cool. Okay, I'm gonna pop over to YouTube Live here and, uh, and grab a question. Um, let's go, let's go, let's go. Showing you love because you helped me lose 30 pounds. Congratulations. Let's go. All right. Somebody asked, what are the cons of going lower than my calories, which already has an aggressive deficit? How much time do you have, Swagmaster7536? The cons of eating too few calories would be number one, you're going to lose muscle because muscle is expensive. And if you do not give your body enough calories to keep muscle. It will get rid of it. Number 2, you will slow down your metabolism, not only because you lose muscle. The more muscle you have, it requires more calories to maintain. So if you strip away that muscle, there's less maintenance calories your body needs. And your body is like a thermostat. It will adapt to your energy intake. So if it's really hot outside, you want it to be cold inside. If it's hot outside— if it's cold outside, you want it to be hot inside. So if you start eating 1,200 calories, your body is pretty smart. It's kind of kept the human race alive for how many years? Lots of years. So your body is going to say, well, we're only getting 1,200 calories consistently. We better adapt all of our processes. to downregulate to try to keep with that 1,200 calories because your body wants to maintain something called homeostasis. Doesn't want to lose weight, doesn't want to gain weight. It wants to maintain its weight. So your body will adapt. So you're unnecessarily lowering your metabolism, losing muscle because you're trying to aggressively cut, which again, you might lose more weight, But you're not going to look the way you want to look, and you're actually making your metabolic health worse, not better, if you were to just take a more moderate approach. And on top of that, this is the reason most people yo-yo diet. Most people will lose weight, gain weight, lose weight, gain weight. Why do they do it? What they're doing isn't sustainable. So the more calories you cut, the less sustainable it's going to be. Just think about it logically. What would be easier, eating more calories or eating less calories? Eating more calories. I think we can all agree. So when you create these big calorie deficits, it's no shock that you're not going to be able to stick with it. And while you might lose more weight in the beginning, over a long period of time, you'll actually lose less weight or gain weight. Because that's great, you lost 30 pounds in 2 months, but because you couldn't stick with it, you gained all the weight back and then some in a 6-month period of time versus the person who only loses 4 pounds a month. In 6 months, they've lost 24 pounds and you've gained 10. There's just a couple of reasons why you should not cut your calories too low. Okay. All right. We're going to do one more question. All right. Let's go. Once you reach your goal weight, do you automatically go on maintenance calories or do you work your way up? There was actually just a study that came out about this recently, which showed it doesn't matter. You can work your way up or you can just jump straight to maintenance. For our clients, when they get done losing weight, so let's say we've helped our clients lose 30, 40, 50, 100+ pounds. When we get done the calorie deficit phase, we will just bump their calories up to their maintenance calories. Like I said in the previous answer, your body adapts. So if you've been eating a calorie deficit and you go back to your new maintenance calories, Well, guess what will happen? Your body's going to start burning more calories because like, oh, we have more calories now. We can do more things. We can do more bodily functions. We can push harder in our workouts. We have more food to digest. So the new maintenance calories typically isn't even your actual maintenance. You're typically going to bump up higher from that. Most of our online coaching clients who get done losing weight, we will increase their calories usually by 700 to 1,200 without them gaining weight. And that sounds crazy, but like if you were eating 1,500 calories in your deficit, our clients will work their calories back up to like 2,200 and they're still able to maintain their weight within a couple of pounds. You're not going to weigh the same amount every single day, every single time. But the reason being is your metabolism positively Adapts, and so you could wait eight weeks and go from 1,500 to 1,600 to 1,700 to 1,800 week over week, or just jump straight to your maintenance calories. Find out where your new maintenance calories is, and you can eat more food and maintain your weight. Everybody's happy. So that's how we do it for the clients that we work with. And speaking of, this has been an hour-long live. So thank you for everybody who has been here and asked some questions. I apologize I couldn't. get to every single question. But if you're interested, you're like, wow, this guy Eric kind of knows what he's talking about. This is just me just kind of shooting off the hip because I've done this for 10 years. There will be links to my online coaching program. If you're on YouTube Live, you can click the links down below. I have an 8-week fat loss challenge, or you can get access to my app. Likewise on TikTok, there's a link in my bio for my 8-week challenge or access to my app. The 8-week challenge is a fully personalized one-on-one coaching experience where everything will be personalized to you. You'll get weekly check-ins throughout the week. You'll get paired with a one-on-one coach. And so if you're somebody who's like, I need somebody on my ass, I need somebody holding me accountable, I need someone checking in, that would be for you. Or if you're like, hey, maybe budget is an issue or maybe you don't need a ton of accountability, but you just want to plan, my Clubhouse app 90-day kickstart would be for you. So I have both options for you, whatever you need. Hopefully I'll be able to help you out. So you can click the stuff below, check
