The Smartest Way To Lose Fat In 2026

Question, do I need to intermittent fast in order to lose fat along with strength training and cardio? So the short answer is no, you do not have to intermittent fast because the whole reason that people would intermittent fast to lose weight is because for some people it helps them control their overall calorie intake for the day because if you're only eating lunch and dinner, then for some people, there's less calories you would eat throughout the day. So that's why you would do it. A calorie deficit is how you lose the fat. In terms of fat loss, there is no extra benefit to intermittent fasting versus eating 20 meals a day, but keeping in the same calories. Now, for some people, this would also backfire though, because we work with a lot of clients who They intermittent fast, like they don't eat during the day and they end up overeating at night because of it, because they're so hungry and they get a lot of cravings and they just can't get full. So they just keep eating, keep eating. So it really just depends on who you are. For some people it works really well and for other people it doesn't work really well. So maybe just try some things and see what works best for you, but by no means is it necessary. Do you think HMB really helps build muscle? Funny, I have HMB right here. Do I think it helps build muscle? No, not really. When we talk about building muscle, the most important components of that would be pushing close to failure, getting enough volume in your workouts, you know, having the correct form and working the right muscle, eating the right amount of protein, getting the right amount of sleep. Any sort of supplement is really that. Like, you guys see the supplements behind me. Any sort of supplements is just to maybe give that extra 2%, 3%, 4% boost in increase on top of what you already should be doing, right? Taking HMB or even taking creatine. If you take creatine, but you don't have a proper workout program and you're not getting at least 6 to 7 hours of sleep and you're not hitting your protein, You're not going to build muscle. So think of any supplements that you guys are looking into taking, which by the way, I do think there are definitely some supplements that are worth taking and you should be taking them, like protein powder, very good. Creatine, very good. Vitamin D, magnesium. But remember, this is on top of already having all of our ducks in a row. So that's what I would say for HMB and building muscle. And by the way, if you need or want some supplements, again, this is the brand I work with. You can see it behind find me here. It's just Legion Athletics. So you can check them out if you would like. There'll be a link in the description of this, uh, of this video. We're actually having— I'm recording this on November 24th, so we have some Black Friday deals that are currently going on. So whether it's our coaching, whether it's supplements, we have like very low-cost workout programs you could download. Click the link, and I might even be able to put it in this chat as well. Um, you can click this link and check out some of the Black Friday deals. if you would like. All right, awesome. What are your top 2 books you'd recommend to others? Well, it probably depends on what you're trying to learn, but I think one of the books that everybody should read is The Magic of Thinking Big. So many people are there, they think small or they don't believe in themselves. So The Magic of Thinking Big, I think is really good. And then number 2 would be Relentless. by Tim Grover. Those are the 2 books just as a general. Which magnesium do you recommend? I don't have it with me, but the company that I work with, Legion Athletics, they have a really good magnesium. So I typically recommend theirs, but usually any sort of magnesium glycinate or magnesium citrate. Those are usually the 2 best ones. Now, you're going to get some people that say, oh, don't use magnesium citrate. You're going to Shit your brains out. And for some people it does cause you to use the restroom. Yes. For some people it doesn't. Like for me, it's totally fine. So either magnesium citrate or magnesium glycinate, or again, the brand that I work with, they have their own magnesium and it's a very absorbable form of magnesium. So I would use theirs. But yeah, any one of those 3 and typically taking it 30 to 60 minutes before you go to bed because it can help improve sleep quality as well. So Hopefully that helped, Lori. Hi, Eric. I've used your calculator. Thank you so much. By the way, I will also link my free calorie calculator in the description of this video as well. So I'm going to go ahead and link that here in a second. But thank you so much. I have some questions. It's really tall questions. So I sent it via email. I would just ask it right now. We're here live right now. So as best as you can, feel free to ask in the chat. If someone ate within a calorie deficit, but only drank a bit of water, would that affect their progress? So I guess it would depend on what you mean by affect your progress. So as an example, if you're trying to eat in a calorie deficit, but you're not drinking a lot of water, that would mean that you are typically going to be hungrier. You're going to have more cravings. You're going to have less energy. You're going to have less workout performance. You'll probably have less sleep. So it would make sticking to your calorie deficit harder and more difficult. Whether you drink 10 ounces of water or 1,000 ounces of water, as long as you're in a calorie deficit, you're going to lose fat. It's just how easy or how hard is that going to be for you? And I think we can all agree sticking to a calorie deficit is hard enough as it is. So we try to do things that make it easier so that we can stick with it more consistently and see better progress. So this is why you may have heard this before, but trying to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water per day, that's typically a good range to be in. But the first thing I would really say is just start tracking your water. Like as an example, I have my own fitness app that I built, which has a Black Friday deal. So you can check it out if you click the link. But in my fitness app, you can see we track our water intake, right? I haven't done anything yet today, but we track water intake. So I would just start tracking your water intake and seeing where you're at. And then if you're at 40 ounces a day, try to get to 60 ounces a day. If you're at 60 ounces, try to get to 80 ounces, right? So it would just make it much easier to stick to your calorie deficit. Cool. Hopefully that makes sense. I really screwed up and went off my BMR instead of TDEE, and now I've plateaued. I've lost 51 pounds with a calorie deficit without lifting. What should I do? Okay, so a couple of things here. Number one, you didn't screw up your metabolism, and this is really important for you to understand, but also everybody else listening. Whenever you hear somebody talk about you damaged your metabolism, you ruined your metabolism, You didn't. You can't damage your metabolism. Your metabolism is adaptive. So what this means is when you eat less calories, you will burn less calories. Your body adapts. When you eat more calories, then you will burn more calories. Your body adapts. When you have less muscle, you will burn less calories. When you have more muscle, You will burn more calories, right? So your metabolism is adaptive. You have not ruined your metabolism. Now, a couple of things. You've lost 51 pounds without lifting. Unfortunately, this means you've probably lost muscle along the way. Congratulations on losing 50 pounds. It's an incredible accomplishment. But that being said, because you haven't lifted, you have lost some muscle mass along the way. Good news. You can build more muscle if you start lifting. So when you start lifting, you're going to be able to, especially because you haven't been doing it, you're going to be able to build a pretty significant amount of muscle in the next 3, 6, 9, 12 months. And when you do that, your metabolism will increase. So from that alone, not only will your metabolism increase, but what most people also don't understand when we talk about body fat percentage, right? This is how you will look more lean. When you have a lower body fat percentage, most people just think, well, I'm going to lose fat and that's how I will lower my body fat percentage. That is one part of the equation. The second part of the equation is building more muscle because if more of your total body mass is muscle, then your body fat percentage will go down. So when you start building more muscle, Bush Girl, when you start building more muscle, you're going to look more defined. You're going to look more lean. You're going to look more toned and muscular like you want to look. So I would strongly recommend just start lifting weights. If you start lifting weights, you're going to start seeing changes in your body. You may not even have to lose more weight. You need to build more muscle. So lift weights, make sure you're eating enough protein. And as mentioned, you know, I have some Black Friday deals going on right now. There's a link in the chat here. I think it's pinned to the chat. And also it'll be in the show notes. It'll be in the description of the video afterwards as well. So we have very low-cost workout programs that are on sale. We have, again, I just showed you my app. We have our app that has some deals with it. So if you want some extra help and you don't feel like searching YouTube for more and more answers, take advantage of those deals. And if not, no worries. I'm always here to help as a friend. What type of stretches do you recommend for tight hips? I'm 45 and starting to feel stiff. So I don't really recommend stretches, to be honest with you. I recommend strength training in a full range of motion. Because what most people do with stretches is you stretch for the short term, you feel better in the short term, but you don't actually create any change. So then the next— that night or the next day or the next couple days, you feel stiff again. Why? Because it's just a short-term fix. So typically speaking, I would just encourage you, get on a proper strength training program. You're doing squats, you're doing lunges, you're doing step-ups, you're doing Romanian deadlifts. Do those in a proper range of motion, slow and controlled. Make sure your form is good, but you're going to actually strengthen those muscles around your hips versus just stretching for the short term and then not really creating any long-term change. And this is also why when it comes to lifting weights, I think there's a lot more science involved in it than people really understand. It's not just like, oh, go into the gym and do some squats. Like, for example, One of the best things you can do if you have tight hips is get really strong glutes because the stronger of glutes you have, the more mobility and range of motion you'll typically have in your hip area. So I wouldn't really recommend stretches. I would recommend proper strength training. And the only other thing I would say here is when you do your strength training, just do like 1 to 2 warmup sets. Like if you're going to go do squats before you get to like your heaviest weight, just do a set of 5 reps with a full range of motion. Could be body weight, could be very lightweight. And then maybe do another set of just 3 to 5 reps to warm up and then get into your workout. So hopefully that helps. Recommendation for intuitive eating structure to have a balanced meal to stay full in food freedom. Well, I think a couple of things here. Number one, intuitive eating is earned through tracking calories, in my opinion. So right now I actually am starting to track my calories again. So you can see in my Clubhouse app, and this is the app that I built that I own, we track our calories, right? That being said, I haven't been tracking my calories for the past 2-ish months. Why? Because I tracked calories every day for the first 3 years of my fitness journey. So I know where I need to be. I know how many calories I'm consuming. I know what portion sizes look like. So now I'm able to intuitively eat because upfront I was able to track my calories. That makes sense. So I believe first off, we have to go through a period of tracking your calories, getting to a comfortable weight, changing your habits to then allow yourself to intuitively eat later. So that's part number 1. Part number 2, If you're like, well, what should I do? Usually the thing I would recommend is every meal has to have a protein and then every meal has to have some sort of fiber. So fiber and protein-rich meals typically allow you to be full and satisfied and not tend to overeat on your calorie intake because counting calories is simply a tool to make sure you're within the right calorie limit. But protein and fiber-rich meals typically will help you stay within that calorie limit. So protein, fiber, water, like we talked about earlier. And those are the couple of main things I would say. But we really tell our clients and try to coach our clients on intuitive eating with tracking calories first, if that makes sense. Cool. Hey, Eric, how are you? I'm from Brazil. Regarding the 80/20 plan, how to divide calories to eat things outside of the diet? Well, let's just do some math. So if your calorie intake is 2,000 per day, 2,000 times 0.2 is 400 calories. So just eat 400 calories of whatever the fuck you want. It really is that simple. Can you share how you make your protein ice cream? Yeah. I mean, it's very, again, very simple. I'm not a chef. I'm not Gordon Ramsay. I just take almond milk. I make a protein shake with my Legion Legion protein powder, and I just put it in my Ninja Creami. I freeze it overnight, and I just use the Ninja Creami, and that's really all I do. So almond milk, protein powder, freeze it overnight. I use the Ninja Creami. If you're someone who likes ice cream and you do not have a Ninja Creami, could not recommend it more. Maybe there's some sort of Black Friday deal for that as well. But yeah, so that's really all I do. It's actually, it's quite simple. Finally caught a live session. Well, this is my first time going live on YouTube ever, so yeah, I'm glad you're here. I'm 24 years old, 5'11, 120 kg. I train 5 times a week. In-body scans for the information based on that. I've been doing this for 8 years, gain losing. Seek knowledge from professionals like you. Pay for food membership. I don't know what the question is. I apologize. I'm not sure what the question is. If you could maybe just ask the question, try to get it to like one thing, that will really help me. Hey Eric, if my friend only does normal daily activities, kind of sedentary, and they eat 2,500 per day, they're 6'4, 6'5, and weigh 180, what would happen to their weight? Yeah, they would have to do it and find out. The thing about this is everybody's metabolism is a little bit different. So some people have a faster metabolism, some people have a slower metabolism. I know you said they're kind of sedentary, but what does kind of sedentary mean? Do they walk 10,000 steps or 3,000 steps? Do they stand up at work all day? Are they a teacher or do they sit at a desk all day? So it really just depends. But again, if you want a free Calorie calculator. I— and you can use it, they can use it, whoever can use it. I will link it here in the chat right now, and I'll also put it in the description of this video below. But that's how many calories they should eat depending on their goal. Cool. Cool. Currently, I don't have balance enough to even do one lunge bodyweight, but I want to work up to it. I can do squats because it's even with my legs, but not lunges. Tips? Yeah. So first and foremost, I love the fact that you wanted to work up to this. So congratulations. Now remember, what you can do to help your balance is a couple of things. You can simply hold on to something. So if you're like at the gym or at your house, hold on to the back of your couch, hold on to your island in your kitchen. If you're at the gym, you can hold on to a bench, you can hold on to a squat rack. It's okay to hold on to something in the beginning. Okay? So that's first and foremost. The second thing I would say is if you do have a TRX, system, I strongly recommend using the TRX system for lunges because when you hold the TRX, you can offset some of your weight. So you won't have to use all of your weight to do the lunge. You can use half of your weight or however much you're holding on. So that way it can teach your body the movement pattern of doing a lunge without needing to support all of your body weight at one time. And then slowly you can work up to being able to do all of your body weight. So That's number 2. And really, I think those are a couple of things and just know that over time you will get better at it, but you need to go through those first couple of months of being a little bit unstable to work your way up because it's not just like your balance, but also your hip joints, your hip stabilizers, your core stabilizers. All of those need to get a little bit stronger to be able to do lunges and any sort of single leg movement. So that, and the only last thing I would say is When you're doing lunges, don't have your feet so close together. So like, if your front foot is here and your back foot is here, move your back foot farther out to the side because the wider of a base you have, the better balance you'll have. Finally leaving the DMV area, heading to Arizona. You still in the area? I am still in the area, my friend, for now. We will see how long that lasts. Is it possible to build muscle in a calorie deficit? Yes, it is possible to build muscle in a calorie deficit, especially if you are a beginner to following a real structured strength training program. So let me try to be as clear on this as I can. A lot of people work out and they exercise, but they don't really follow a program. So maybe you go into the gym and just do random machines, or maybe you do stuff you see on social media. Maybe you do Beachbody, Orange Theory, boot camps, Nothing inherently against these things. They're just not a real strength training program. So once you get on a real strength training program and you properly progressively overload and you properly have the right amount of volume and you're doing the right exercises in the right order, the right sequence, all of these things will allow you to absolutely build muscle. And I say this because even if you've been working out for years, but you've never really followed program, you are still somebody who can build a significant amount of muscle mass in a calorie deficit. And by the way, I have some Black Friday deals going on. If you want to check out our, my programs that you can get and download and those sort of things, or if you want to join my app, whatever, just click the link in the pinned chat here or in the description below if somebody's watching this after. And there'll be some Black Friday deals there you can check out. I have We have low-cost workout programs. We have our app. We have premium high-tier one-on-one coaching, whatever you need. It's all there. So that's that. Now, the second part of it is even if you are somebody who is more advanced like myself, I've been following a program lifting weights for— I'm 29. I started lifting when I was 16. So 13 years, I can still build muscle in a calorie deficit. It would just be much slower. So don't think of it as like a switch that you turn on and off. Think of it as like a dial you turn up and down. So if you're in a calorie deficit, you would just turn down the muscle building dial and you would turn up the fat loss dial. If you're in a calorie surplus, you would turn up the muscle building dial and you would turn all the way down the fat loss dial. So you can think of it as that. I know I need to be wearing my Clubhouse merch. I'm waiting for it to come. I know I need to get it. Lori says, I've seen that 1,200 calories is not enough, but I'm 5'1. Wouldn't that be okay for me if I'm trying to lose weight? It potentially could, Lori. It potentially could not. That question is a little bit tough for me to answer without knowing a little bit more about what's our steps, what's our previous dieting history, what's our current lean muscle mass, what's our training program. Do we do any extra cardio? How much sleep are you getting per night? How much stress do you have in your life? There's a lot of things that go into factor there. It could be okay, but I've had people who are 5'1, 5'4, 4'11 eat 1,500, 1,600 calories per day and lose weight. I've also had some people who are 5'3 or 5'4 and they've had to eat 1,200 to 1,300 calories per day to lose weight. So it really just depends on a lot of different lifestyle factors that come into play, but As opposed to, and this goes for everybody here who's going to watch this. So again, I linked my calorie calculator in the chat here and you can use the calorie calculator, sure, but that's just a starting point. At some point you are going to have to implement the calories and eat the calories and then just get the feedback. So if you eat 1,200 calories and you feel great and you feel fine and you're not restricted and you have great energy and your workouts are great, That might be okay for you. But if you do it and you feel like shit and you feel super restricted and you're not having good energy and you can't sleep well and you're really high stress, then it might not be okay for you. But as opposed to trying to find, let's say, the perfect calorie number, get a start, do it for 2 to 3 weeks with 90% consistency. And then once you do that, you won't have to wonder if it's going to work or not. You'll have the data to show whether it's working or not, if that makes sense. If I want to build muscle, should I do cardio first? No. If you want to build muscle, you should do cardio after. So either after your workout or on rest days. Because if you do cardio before, number one, you'll use up muscle glycogen, which should be used for the workout. And number two, you'll just fatigue yourself, which then going into the strength training weightlifting workout, you won't be able to have your best performance. performance, which would then mean you won't be able to lift as heavy, push yourself as close to failure, and that will negatively impact muscle building results. So that's why you would do cardio after your workout or on rest days. Do carbs matter at all? Carbs matter a lot. I'm not sure specifically what you're asking if they matter for, but I'll go through a couple of things. They absolutely matter. For workout performance, as I just mentioned, when you work out, your muscles use something called muscle glycogen. And this muscle glycogen is like the energy for your muscles. You get that muscle glycogen from carbohydrates. And so this is why if you've ever done or anybody know anybody who's ever done like a keto, like zero carb diet, they go try to lift weights and like, good fucking luck. They feel like shit. I probably shouldn't cuss as much on this live, but they don't feel good. Their workouts are not good. They can't lift as heavy. They don't have a lot of endurance. So from a workout performance perspective, it's absolutely impactful. Number 2, overall energy as well. Your carbs give you energy. So during the day, if you have carbs, you will have a little bit more energy. Number 3, from a food freedom and food non-restriction standpoint, when you try to not eat any carbs, you're cutting out an entire food group which makes it harder to sustain any sort of diet protocol that you're doing. And if you're like, well, I don't even like carbs. Okay, well, what if you go out to eat? What if you go eat with your friends and family? What if on Thanksgiving you want some stuff, but you're not allowed to have it because you can't have carbs? So yeah, the carbs matter for many reasons. Your brain also uses glycogen. So, you know, that's kind of important, I would say, as well. So many reasons, but Yeah. Yep. Cool. Adriana asks, all of your coaches seem to be amazing. How do you match a client with a coach? It just kind of depends. It depends on somebody's preferences. It depends on somebody's personality. It depends on your background. Depends on my coach's background. Again, for example, right now we have a little Black Friday deal where you can get $160 off our premium one-on-one coaching. The link will be in the description or it's pinned to the chat right here. But we'll get some information from if somebody signs up and then we'll match them with the coach. And so maybe somebody is a bit more outgoing versus introverted. Maybe somebody wants to lose 100 pounds and I have a coach who's gone through losing 100 pounds. Maybe I have a coach who they want to— the client wants to build muscle and I have a coach who is a professional powerlifter, for example. So a lot of things go into the play, but yeah, we have the best coaches in the world. I'm super blessed and super grateful to have the coaches on my team that work with me. And it's funny, all of my coaches were previous clients of mine for at least 12 months. And so it's really cool. They kind of went through their own journey. They're super bought into how I do things and we're able to help thousands of people every single month. And so yeah, just super grateful. And again, if you're interested in any sort of stuff that we do, our coaching, our programs, whatever, We got some Black Friday deals. You can click the link in the chat or in the description below. I just want to say that your approach to fitness and delivery reminds me so much of Syed. Well, Lori, Jordan Syed is one of my best friends, actually. I visited him this past March and we actually did a podcast together. You guys should look up that podcast, the Jordan Syed Podcast. And I was on the podcast back in March, maybe April. I forgot exactly when it came out, but yeah, check out the podcast. And Jordan is one of the best human beings I've ever met in my Hi, Eric. Should I drink a protein shake before or after working out? Either one. Just think of a protein shake as protein shake. I'm like, what you guys see is reversed for me. So like when I do this, it's where the— nonetheless, either way, drinking a protein shake is just like eating eggs or a chicken breast or Greek yogurt. So when you think about like, when should I have it? Whatever. Like if you want to have it before, awesome. You want to have it after, awesome. Either one of those 2 times are totally fine. It's just getting in a bit more protein during the day. That's all. If you want like maybe the most optimal, it depends on when you're working out during the day. If you've already had some protein earlier in the day, then maybe I would have it after. If you're working out like maybe later in the day, I would have it after. But, you know, if maybe you haven't had any sort of food that day yet and you want to get some protein in, you could do it before. But either way is totally fine. Excuse me. Your videos have changed my life, brother. Thank you. I've lost 90 pounds since April. That's incredible, man. Congratulations. Let's go. Hey, Eric, I'm feeling a bit stuck in my weight loss journey, slipping on sweets, missing step goals, and skipping the gym, but I want to get back on track. What to do, Eric? Well, Iman, I'm going to say this with love, my friend, but You know exactly what to do. You fucking go back and get doing the shit that you were doing before. That's it. What I'm gonna tell you in this live right now is not anything you don't already know. You know what to do. Put your fucking shoes on, go drive to the gym, get back into your workout. That's it. You've been skipping steps. You're watching this live. What are you doing? Put your shoes on and go get some steps. Walk around the house for all I care. You know exactly what to do. I think a lot of times people get stuck and they overthink things because you're like, well, should I go back to doing 10,000 steps or 8,000 steps? Or should I go do my regular workout or a different workout? Just go start. You're overthinking it. 1,000 extra steps than what you were doing is more than what you were doing. That is a win. Going to the gym and just doing the treadmill, Or just doing a couple of sets of squats, or you're slipping out on sweets. Like, okay, cool. Start eating more protein. So many people, well, you think, well, that's not good enough. I got to go back to what I was doing. No, because you're not doing anything right now. So doing something is always better than doing nothing. So for all of you who are watching this now, we're going to watch this back. You need to stop overthinking it. Just go. Just take an action. You're doing nothing right now. Something is always better than nothing. So that's how you get back to it. And also the barrier to entry is so much lower. You don't need to go be perfect. That's why you're not doing anything, because you think you need to not eat any sweets and work out 6 days a week and hit 10,000 steps. How about you still eat sweets, but just hit your calorie goal? How about you start walking 5,000 steps a day? How about you go back to the gym once or twice a week? This is more than what you were doing, which is nothing. Okay, cool. I'm very low energy. However, I'm not eating little. What do you think would be the reason? Could be many reasons. Could be your thyroid, could be your hormones, could be not getting enough sleep, could be everything. There's a lot of reasons why your energy may be very low. I think it's very hard for me to answer that question and potentially something to look into with either your doctor, your blood work, or if you know you're not fucking sleeping, get sleep as an example. What's up, Annalise? How are you, my friend? Hey, I'm starting from nothing. I'm overweight and very little muscle based on DEXA, 35% body fat, chronic pain. Any tips? Yeah. I mean, first and foremost, congratulations on even wanting to take some positive steps to change your life. So kudos to you. Number 2, my tip would really just be what I just mentioned is you need to just start, like start by walking. I don't know how many steps you're getting per day, but you said starting from nothing. So I don't know exactly what that means, but if you're walking 1,000 steps per day, let's get 3,000 steps per day. If you're currently drinking 7 sodas per week, let's drink 4 regular sodas and 3 diet sodas. If you're not eating any protein during the day, let's start with just having a protein shake per day. Where people go wrong is they try to just flip everything on its head. You try to go from 0 to 100. I don't need you to go from 0 to 100. I need you to just start. Because most people think you get motivated, you take action, and then you see results. That's not how this works. You need to take an action. Then from there, you will see some results. And then from there, you will be motivated to keep doing it and then do more. So when you start, when you go from walking 1,000 steps per day to 3,000 steps per day, the scale's probably gonna go down slightly. You're probably going to have a bit more energy. You're probably going to have a bit less pain. All of those things will then motivate you to say, well, shit, if I went from 1,000 to 3,000, what if I went from 3,000 to 6,000 steps per day? Scale goes down, less pain, more energy, better sleep. Then you might say, damn, I'm feeling really good. All right, I'm going to try to start eating more protein. I'm going to try to incorporate a bit more fruits and vegetables. Now you're walking 6,000 steps per day, eating more protein, more fruits, more veggies, Losing more weight, having more energy, seeing clothes fit different. Now you say, well, shit, I'm feeling a little bit better about myself. What if I did one workout a week, even just bodyweight? Now you have a bodyweight workout plus 6,000 steps plus more protein. Do you see how this works? You don't have to go from nothing to doing everything. That is how you fail because you can't sustain that. So just start doing something, build on top of that. And like I said, right now we have some really good Black Friday deals going on for our online programs. So if you want to learn more and you want some help and you like the way I approach things, click the link in the chat here or click the link in the description of the video and check some of those out. Hopefully we can help. Sam wants to stay fat. I mean, if you want to stay fat, that is On you. If someone eats 10,000— 1,000, I think you meant 10,000. If someone eats 10,000 calories in a day, will that ruin their progress? You probably won't lose fat that week, if I'm just being honest with you. So yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say it ruins progress, but you're not going to lose fat that week. So, but you're not going to lose fat every single week and that's okay. That's also another expectation that you need to have. You're not going to lose fat every single week. Some weeks, You're going to go out and enjoy some drinks and food with your friends and family. Like this week on Thanksgiving, who knows? Maybe you're not going to lose fat on Thanksgiving. But you know what? In 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, you're not going to remember if you lost a pound or 2 of fat this week. You're going to remember the memories you made with the people you love. So God forbid you don't lose fat this week. You'll lose fat the next week and the week after and the week after and the week after. And guess what? Maybe Christmas, you don't lose any fat. God forbid you enjoy some time with your friends and family. Okay. New Year's rolls around, start losing fat again. Like you need to approach this more of a realistic approach. Hey, Eric, thoughts on utilizing long-form fasting for fat loss? Hey, Chris. So I talked about fat loss a little bit earlier in this. I'm sorry, fasting earlier in this live. If that works for you, totally fine. I, you know, personally, I like eating food. And personally, all of the clients that we've coached typically like also eating food. So I don't think there's a need to do fasting unless you love it. Like if you love fasting, knock it out of the park. You do you. That's totally fine. I don't see a reason where it's not better if you fast versus not. If that works for you, mazel tov. And if not, cool. Cool. I'm glad that helped, Cat Daddy. How much high-intensity cardio, for example, spin class, is recommended? It's good exercise, but it makes me hungry, so I want to find balance. Yep. So if we're talking about optimizing fat loss and we're talking about optimizing heart health, so the high-intensity cardio you are talking about is what we call zone 4 or zone 5 cardio. So just as a reference. So typically speaking, 15 to 30 minutes, maybe 45 minutes per week of zone 4 or zone 5 cardio is what's recommended for fat loss and for overall heart health. So if you did one spin session per week, you would easily take care of that. So really what we tell our clients when they join us for coaching, lift weights 3 to 4 times a week, Get your daily steps, 8,000 to 10,000 per day. And then beyond that, if you want to do some sort of spin class or boot camp or running or high-intensity cardio, do it like maybe one time per week. Because that way you can have maybe 4 or 5 days a week where you do higher-intensity exercise and you'll have maybe 2 days a week where it's just more of your walking, lower duration, lower intensity exercise. So that's typically what I would recommend because you're right that that style of cardio does make you hungrier because you use up muscle glycogen. So that's why you get hungrier. Your body's using that muscle glycogen. And so it's also using glycogen, which then your body has to restore. Your body restores that quickly by, you guessed it, sugar. And then on top of that, that style of cardio, because of the high intensity, also adds Stress to your body, which can then increase your appetite as well. So, yep. What do you think about weight loss injections? So yeah, I would strongly recommend go watch my latest YouTube video. I released it last Thursday, if I'm not mistaken. I did a whole video on weight loss injections. So feel free to go check that out. I go through every single thing in there. So I hope that video Helped. How can one prevent having too much skin, loose skin during fat loss? Lose weight at a sustainable rate. So 1 to 2 pounds per week typically. Make sure you eat high protein and make sure you lift weights. Those are the 3 things you can do to kind of prevent some loose skin. But also just be aware, loose skin is going to— if you're losing 50, 75, 100+ pounds, you're probably going to have a little bit of loose skin. But What we always tell our online coaching clients is that's almost like, that's a sign you're doing something great. Like if you even have loose skin, it means you've lost a shit ton of weight. So it's an accomplishment. Hey Eric, I'm in a surplus now trying to gain muscle with the excuse of thicker clothes. Now to cut soon. Is there a mini cut or a deficit? For context, I've lost 50 pounds already. I have 10 to 20 pounds to lose. Don't care if it's 10 or 20. I'm thinking after deficit for 100 days, maybe find or below maintenance. Yeah, Diana, I don't know that I have an exact answer for you. The thing I would say is if you have 10 to 20 pounds to lose, probably what I would, I mean, I don't think there's a big difference in a 10-week or a 12-week deficit versus an 8-week. I think it's more or less the same. So I would just pick a duration of time that you would want to go for. let's just say 10 weeks and then go into a 500-ish calorie deficit and then just reassess. So when you get done 10 weeks, if you want to go longer, sure. And if not and you're done, then sure as well. I don't— either way, as long as you're lifting weights and as long as you're eating high protein, you're going to keep the muscle mass that you have. You're not going to lose muscle and those sort of things. So it just depends. It also just depends on how aggressive you want to go. Like, do you want to go more aggressive or do you want to go less aggressive? I really don't think there's a right or wrong answer. That's more so just a preference, if that makes sense. And it's a preference on you as the individual. Like if you were our client, we would work with you on what do we want to do? Like looking at the next 10, 12 weeks, do we want to be more aggressive or less aggressive? There's Christmas, there's Thanksgiving, there's the holidays. So just kind of depends. I appreciate that, Cat Daddy. How come the people in our program don't get excess skin after weight loss? You know, it really depends on the person. We certainly have some people with loose skin, that's for sure. But again, we build muscle with them. They eat high protein. We're not having them lose 3, 4, 5, 6 pounds per week. We're having them lose weight at a slow and sustainable rate. So we do all of the things that I just mentioned. And that's why our clients see some really good progress. That being said, we certainly have clients who have some loose skin, and that's a normal part. Like I said, if you're going to lose 50 to 100 pounds, that's going to be a normal part of it. Wow, we have a lot of questions on fasting. I don't know. It's interesting. Does fasting permanently damage your metabolism? I'm going to just be— no is the answer. Wherever you heard that, I would just like, you know that Men in Black movie where they press that thing and you forget everything? That's what I would do with that statement you just said. So wherever you learned that, just use the Men in Black thing. Forget whoever told that to you. Block them either on social media or in real life. And yeah. Fasting is just a tool to manage your calorie intake. Some people it works, some people it doesn't. You can't damage your metabolism. It's not like a fucking, it's not like a router. Like people don't even know what their metabolism is, especially people who say these sort of things. So yeah. Should individuals prioritize getting their nutrients, hitting protein goals, fiber goals, and risking hitting maintenance a little over, or does the calorie intake take priority? That would depend on your goal. If your goal is to maintain, then I would say, yeah, then you're totally fine. If your goal is fat loss, then you need to do both. Like, you don't have to pick one or the other. You need to find a way to hit your protein and fiber goals while staying within your calorie limit. That is more than doable to do. So you need to do both. That's the whole point of why we're trying to do this here. You need to set up your day of eating so that you can do both. And it's possible. You just might need to work at it a little bit. Grams of protein per pound of body weight. Typically your goal body weight times 0.7 is the minimum amount of protein we would recommend. I went from 400 pounds to 270. I lift weights, eat plenty of protein. I have loose skin. It's inevitable. Yeah. There you go, Richie. It's 100%. I mean, that's fucking incredible progress, by the way. Good Lord. 130 pounds down. That's— wow, that's insane. Kudos to you. But it's true. It's just a normal part of it. Despite having pre-workout meals, why does it still feel drained? What do you mean by it? You dirty mind. I don't know what the rest of your day of eating looks like. I would have to look at the rest of your day of eating. I would have to look at your hydration. I would have to look at your sleep, your recovery. I would have to look at how much volume you're doing in your workout. This is a side note, but for example, so many people are just doing terrible workout programs. I don't know how else to say this. If you're doing too much volume in your workout, too many sets, too many exercises, too many reps, you're always going to feel exhausted. You're always going to feel drained. You're always going to feel like you just can't get a good workout and you're not recovering properly and you're tired. So it really just depends on what your workout program looks like. It depends on what your overall calories look like. If you're only sleeping 5 hours a night, you're not going to feel very energized. If you're eating way too little calories for what your energy expenditure is, you're always going to feel exhausted and not energized. So pre-workouts or pre-workout meals is not going to mask not getting sleep or not being hydrated or having a shit workout program or all those things I just mentioned. So this is why when we talk about fitness, there's so many things that go into play. And I don't want to— I'm not saying this to discourage you, but I'm more so saying this because there's a lot that goes into this and you can't just look at maybe one thing sometimes. There are other factors. There's other things you have to look at. And I get it. That can be overwhelming, which is why I try to simplify things as much as I can. But with a question like that, there's a million things that could be going on. And again, by the way, if you would like some help with your fitness, there's a link in the chat here, or there'll be a link in the description of the video. We have some pretty good Black Friday deals going on right now. And by the way, I didn't mention this before, but a portion of our Black Friday sales will be donated to the charity Feeding America. So if you want to get some help yourself, but also support a really good cause, we're donating a portion of the sales to charity as well. So yeah. How do you handle body dysmorphia? I was 260. I'm 165 now. I tend to think some days I'm bigger and smaller. That's normal, Kavan. I would say I apologize, but all of us have that, man. I don't know a single person, myself included, who wakes up every single day and is like, oh man, I love how I look. It never happens. You're going to have days where you do, you're going to have days where you don't, and you're going to have days that are in between. So I think you need to have the proper expectations first and foremost, because if you expect to never have body dysmorphia or you expect to always just wake up and love how you look, that's not a realistic expectation. And so when you have those days, it makes it worse. The second thing I would say is whether you feel great or whether you feel not great, your actions don't change. So you're still going to go get your workout. You're still going to go get your steps. You're still going to go eat your protein. You're still going to get your sleep and stay hydrated. I'm not saying your feelings don't matter, but you can have feelings And then just accept you have to do the things you know you need to do anyway. So you're going to have those feelings, but your actions don't change. And then, I don't know, for me, it helps me because when I realize my actions don't change, whether I feel great or I feel bad, or I'm having a really happy day or a really sad day, it's like, well, I don't even really care about the emotions so much. So that's number 2. And then number 3, just, I don't judge myself. as a person solely based on how I look. I get a lot of comments on YouTube, on Instagram, social media in general. They're like, you've never even worked out. You don't look like you lift weights. Why are you giving people advice? And I don't know, that just doesn't bother me because I don't put my sole self-worth into how I look. I've spent 50 minutes on this live Helping people for free. I don't know. I think I'm a pretty good person because of that. We're donating some of our Black Friday sales to charity because we want to give back. I feel like a pretty good person for that. I help thousands of people every day in my business with our online coaching. I feel pretty good about that. I give my coaches a career and a job and something they love doing every single day and put food on their table. I feel pretty good about that. So whether I'm having a great body image day or a not great body image day, there's other stuff in my life that I care about other than just how I look. So I'd say those are the 3 things. Calorie deficit going to work for somebody over 100 pounds? Yes. Yes. Calorie deficit works for everybody as long as you're a human being. All right guys, maybe 1 or 2 more questions here and then I think this stream is going to end. I really appreciate you guys hopping on. And if you like this, I might do it more Consistently. So feel free to let me know whether you're in the chat live or whether you are watching this back. Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this. I, to be fully transparent, this is my favorite form of content that I do. I like going back and forth with people live, answering questions, helping you out. So if you like this, put it in the chat, leave a comment below, share it with somebody, because if I could do this every day for an hour, I would love, like, My life would be made. And so if you do like it, let me know. My energy level goes to zero when I do fasting, so I cut sugar as much as possible. Sugar in coffee, no more sugar in yogurt. I lost 14 pounds. That's incredible. So that would mean you're in a calorie deficit for sure. So kudos to you for being in that calorie deficit. Don't necessarily need to cut sugar. Yeah, just don't need to cut sugar. But in the calorie deficit, you have lost some weight in Kudos to you. I've been trying to lose weight since August, only lost 10 pounds, started to gain some back and lose 70 pounds trying to get pregnant. Yeah, I mean, listen, user S868, I mean, this is a great time to take advantage of our Black Friday deals. If you guys know, like, I don't talk about, well, I talk about my business, but like, I don't sit here and like hard sell my shit all the time, but we have some great Black Friday deals. If you want some help with nutrition, you want some help with fat loss, you want some help with workouts, Click that link in the chat or click the link in the description below. We have some really good Black Friday deals going on right now. So yeah, check it out. You guys want more lives? Awesome. Let's go. Okay, sweet. Awesome. Okay, maybe last question. Do you believe people should take breaks from their diets so their metabolism resets? So, Sven, I'm not sure that's how you say your name or not. So that's not like a real thing. Your metabolism resetting. Again, it's not like your phone. You can't just like, you can reset your phone. You don't just like reset your metabolism. Your metabolism is what keeps you alive. So when people talk about metabolism, most people have no fucking clue what it even means. So you don't just reset your metabolism. That's part number one. Part number 2, the reason you would take a diet break is more so for a mental break than a physical break. Now, if let's say you're dieting, you're in a calorie deficit for like 10 weeks straight. By the way, not many people are in a calorie deficit for 10 weeks straight because maybe you have a day where you go over your calories with your friends. Maybe you take a vacation here and there. Maybe you just didn't track one day. So very few people are in a calorie deficit 10 weeks straight. But let's just say that somebody was. If you have a week or a couple of days where you eat at maintenance calories, you may feel a physical benefit from more calories in, let's say, your workouts, because you might have a little bit more energy to go into your workouts, push harder, so on and so forth. But from a metabolism resetting, no, because when you go back to the deficit, you're just going to be in the same place that you were, if that makes sense. Because when you lose weight, your metabolism slows down. I always say it's like this. Imagine if you were wearing a 20-pound weighted backpack all day long and everything you did, walking upstairs, even just sitting down, standing up, doing everything, You got home and you took that backpack off. When you took the backpack off, it would be easier for you to just do day-to-day things. So when it's easier, you don't have to burn as many calories. So your metabolism would slow down because you're not burning as many calories, but that is a part of losing weight. Okay? So if you want to take a break from your deficit for a mental break from dieting, from tracking calories or being in a calorie deficit or those sort of things. That's why you would take a break is more so for your mental than your physical, right? So that's what I would say. And yeah, cool. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Do you guys work with pregnant women who want to lose weight? Will, comma, you would have to check with your doctor because most— I wouldn't say most, it depends on the pregnancy. Some people's pregnancy, it would be fine if you lose weight, and some people it's not. So we would have to kind of work hand in hand with your doctor on that. My guy Wes, let's go, bro! Coach Irene is the best. 100% right. Sophie is great on the pod. Absolutely, Sophie is the best. Weight loss surgery. Last question. Yeah. I mean, if you would like to do weight loss surgery, that is a decision for you and your doctor. We've coached people who have had weight loss surgeries and some have been successful, some have not. Some have been successful, but then gained their weight back. Some, it just really depends. That is a more personal question for you. What I would say is, If you haven't actually invested real time into trying to change your habits, I would do that. And then I would decide if you would like to do a weight loss surgery. All right, guys. Cool. That is the live for today. I really appreciate you guys popping on. Thank you so much. This was the first live. And like I said, if you guys enjoyed this and I got some good feedback from it, Then I will try to do these more often because like I said, this is my favorite way to kind of interact with you guys. And yeah, just super, super cool. So I love you guys. I appreciate you guys. As I mentioned, if you have not checked out my current Black Friday deals, feel free to click the link in the chat here or there'll be a link in the description below. We have some pretty good deals. And again, a portion of sales are getting donated to charity. So the charity Feeding America. So if you want to invest into yourself and you want to help out a pretty good cause, then, uh, you know, check them out. And, um, I love you guys. I appreciate you guys, and we will chat next time.