You need to eat LESS PROTEIN and MORE CARBS to lose fat

You should be eating less protein and more carbs if you want to lose fat and build muscle. I've coached over 25,000 clients with their fat loss transformations, and one of the biggest mistakes I see people make is eating too much protein. I'm going to explain why it backfires on your goals, what to do instead, and how to structure your day of eating to maximize fat loss And muscle building. And the problem with a high protein diet isn't that protein's bad for you. In fact, it's great, and most people should be eating more of it. But there's an upper limit to how much you should eat before it starts to backfire. Think of it like filling up your gas tank in your car. If you fill it up until it's full, that's good. You got a full tank of gas. But if you just sat there and kept trying to fill it up, it's going to start to spill everywhere. It's going to get into other parts of your car, cause problems. Filling it up past full doesn't get you any extra benefits. And the same thing happens with protein. Once you eat enough, you're not going to get extra benefits from eating more, and you're missing out on eating other foods that could get you a better benefit. And you've probably heard before, you need to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. And there's a couple of flaws with this goal. Number one, it's not true. Research shows eating 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight is enough. That means if you weigh 180 pounds, theoretically you could eat 130 grams of protein per day and still get most of, if not all, of the muscle-building Second, eating so much protein for most people makes their diet unsustainable. If you feel like it's a full-time job trying to choke down chicken breast— pause— and you can't enjoy some of your other favorite foods, you're less likely to stick to your diet as a whole, leading to less long-term sustainable progress. And number 3, it makes you have less energy. Of one key nutrient that is actually a bigger driver for muscle growth, and that is carbs. And you may have heard before, carbs are bad, you shouldn't eat them. Well, here's the role that protein and carbs play in your body when it comes to building muscle and why carbs might be more important than protein. Protein is used to build and repair your muscles after a hard workout. No doubt this is important and you can't build muscle without it, but we just realized you don't need as much protein as you think. And protein repairing and rebuilding your muscle after a hard workout is dependent on one thing, which is you actually pushing hard enough in your workout to then be able to build and repair it. And so what do you need push hard, lift heavier, go close to failure, have progressive overload? Well, you need energy, and if you don't have the energy, you're not going to be able to perform your best. It's like most people with their morning cup of coffee or energy drink. You're probably like, don't talk to me until I have my coffee or my Monster. But then once you do, you're ready to rock and roll. And so what gives energy to your muscles to have a good hard workout? Well, something called glycogen. Where does glycogen come from? Carbs. If you don't have this energy, you're not going to be able to lift heavier, push yourself close to failure, have progressive overload. And if you don't do that, it doesn't matter how much protein you eat, you're never going to build muscle because unlike fat loss, Where all you have to do is eat in a calorie deficit and you will lose fat. For muscle building, if you don't give your body a training stimulus that is hard and great enough to elicit muscle growth, it doesn't matter how much protein you eat, you're not gonna build muscle. And so that brings me into the next question of, well, Eric, how much protein should I really eat? How many carbs should I eat? How many calories should I eat? Well, I'm glad you asked. I have built a totally free calorie macro calculator that you can use. If you click the link in the description of this video below, you'll enter your information and it will give you your numbers. This is the same calorie and macro calculator I use with our online coaching clients, so I'm giving it to you for free. I'm holding nothing back. Use it to get your exact numbers. But what's even more important than knowing how much protein to eat, how many calories to eat, is how you actually split up your protein and carbs throughout the day to maximize fat loss and muscle building. Because if you eat them at the wrong times, they're not going to do what you want them to do. And the problem is most people with their nutrition, they kind of eat whenever they have time, they eat whatever they can grab. There's no structure, there's no routine, there's no schedule. And that's like if you were to throw darts blindfolded. Sure, you might hit the bullseye one or two times, but it's certainly not the best way to throw darts. Instead, if we take the blindfold off and set up your day of eating in the correct way, you will maximize fat loss and muscle building. So how do we do that? First, let's start with protein. There's something called muscle protein synthesis, Which is just the function inside of your body that actually repairs and builds muscle. Research has shown to maximize muscle protein synthesis, you should eat at least 20 grams of protein every 3 to 5 hours. So this could look something like 8:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM, and 7:00 PM. If you eat protein at all 4 of those times, you will be maximizing your muscle protein synthesis And it's gonna make it easier to hit your overall protein goal as opposed to only eating protein 1 or 2 times throughout the day. And preferably, you would eat protein within 1 or 2 hours of finishing your workout. Now, for all the science nerds out there, no, this is not necessary and you can still build muscle without it, but it will help you start to recover from your workout quicker, Which if you're working out multiple times a week is beneficial for you because you'll go into the next workout less sore and more ready to work out. And so if you do that, you'll be maximizing your muscle building, but you'll also be maximizing your fat loss because protein is the most satiating nutrient, which just means it keeps you full for a long period of time. So if you're having protein all spread out throughout the day, you're going to be more full, which is going to make it easier to stick to your calorie deficit and lose fat. And then for carbs, there's 3 main times of the day you should be eating your carbohydrates. The first is pre-workout. We learned that carbs are the main source of energy for the workout you're about to do. So if you have carbs beforehand, you will immediately notice a difference in in your strength, endurance, and overall energy levels. You'll be able to push harder, I promise. And foods like rice cakes, bananas, honey, Rice Krispies cereal, potatoes, bread will give you some quick energy you'll be able to use for the workout. And yes, even if you work out super early in the morning, still try to have something small like half a banana. That's what she said. The second best time to have them is post-workout. We just learned That when you do a workout, your body uses carbs and glycogen for energy. So when you get done a workout, you have now less carbs and less glycogen in your muscles. So eating carbs post-workout can refill the glycogen, which can give you more energy in your muscles, which can help recovery. But also, when your glycogen and carbs are depleted over the course of a day, your body is going to want to replenish. Them quickly. What is a great way to quickly replenish your carbs? Sugar cravings. So if you don't eat carbs post-workout, you're more likely to have sugar cravings throughout the day, which can make it harder to stick to your calorie deficit. So from both a muscle building and a fat loss perspective, eating carbs and protein post-workout— good. And the third is dinner. Carbs are also your brain's main source of energy, plus They help you get into a parasympathetic nervous system state, and all that means is your rest and digest nervous system state. This means your brain will have energy overnight to use, so you don't wake up at 2 or 3 AM because your brain has ran out of glycogen. I bet you didn't know that's why that happened. And second, if you have carbs at dinner, your body will go into sleep mode easier and faster, Which can help you get to sleep easier, stay asleep longer, and improve your sleep quality. Which if you're improving your sleep quality, specifically deep sleep and REM sleep, you're going to recover from workouts better, build muscle faster, and balance your hunger hormones so you're less hungry the next day, making it easier to stick to your calorie deficit to lose fat. And if you're watching this video and you're like, man, Eric, this is great and all, but can you just Take out the guesswork, tell me exactly what to do, set up a plan for me? Well, yes, I can. That's exactly what we do in my 8-week fat loss challenge. You can click the link in the description below to learn more. My team will build you a personalized workout and nutrition plan so there's no guesswork, and you get a dedicated one-on-one coach to check in all week, answer any questions, and hold you accountable so you actually stick with it and know you're doing the right things. And if you're also like, okay, Eric, this taught me some stuff about the diet, which is cool, but what about the workout side of things? Well, I made an entire video on how to lose fat and build muscle at the same time based on where you are currently at in your fitness journey. You can click this link here to watch that video coming up next.