My #1 Question about Fast, Lasting Fat Loss

Hey JJ Here. Every year around this time, I get the urge to make my home feel a little extra special. A space that feels just like the holidays. And Wayfair is my go to for that. Think cozy textures, twinkly decor, warm lighting, and all those little touches that make you want to curl up with a good book and a blanket. You'll usually find my books stacked on a great little end table I got from Wayfair, proof that function and style give can coexist. Now, whether you're adding last minute hosting essentials, picking out gifts for loved ones, or refreshing your decor for the season, Wayfair makes it easy with beautiful finds, great prices and fast delivery. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Plus, with free shipping for any order over $35, don't that's fast delivery and a total peace of mind. It's the perfect mix of joy and order, bringing the holiday spirit in, then storing it all with ease. If you're ready to make your home feel as good as it looks, get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair Every style Every home that's W A Y F A I R.com hey, it's JJ here. You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything, they just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order. This episode is brought to you by Pacifico. Here's a story you've probably never heard. Legend has it, decades ago, a couple surfers went down to Mexico in search of epic swells. But they found something unexpected instead. It was still crisp, lively and smooth. But it had nothing to do with waves. It was Pacifico, a delicious Mexican lager. It's like it was brewed to be discovered. Pacifico. Find your own way 21 Discover responsibly Pacifico Clara beer imported by Crown Import, Chicago, Illinois. Welcome to the Virgin Diet lifestyle show with your host, celebrity nutrition and fitness expert and New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin.

The number one question I get asked is what should I eat? You know, there seems to be so much focus on what we shouldn't be eating that you end up not knowing what to choose. In this show, I'm going to give you what you should pile on your plate to help you have great steady, sustained energy burn fat, slow down the aging process and drop the inflammation. First, let's start with protein. So protein is really your building blocks for muscles, bones, hair, skin and nails. You can't make it. So if you don't eat it, you're going to have to break down muscle to get it. And you do not want to do that. There are certain times where we need more of it. That's when you're stressed, you're healing, you're injured, you're having surgery. But in General, I recommend 1/2 to 1 gram of protein per pound of fat free mass. And you're probably going, whoa, hold on, jj. So the deal is you've got your body. I want you to do a body composition scale that tells you how much your body is fat and how much your body is everything else. Everything else is fat free mass. So what you're going to do is step on a body fat scale and find out how much your body is fat free mass. And then that amount you're going to say, let's say that you find out that you've got. I've been doing easy math, 120 pounds of fat free mass. That means you're going to do somewhere between 60 and 120 grams of protein. And in general, I'm doing more around 3, 4 to 1 gram of protein. 3, 4 is average. But again, 1 gram if someone's healing, recovering from surgery, hugely stressed. Now remember that a lot of these sources that I'm going to share with you, grass fed Beef and wild fish and seafood and pastured pork and chicken and lamb. These are not all pure protein. They also come with some fat. So the more fat it has, the more that you'll eat of it to get to the protein. And if you're a vegan, the sources you're eating are going to either come with fat like nuts and nut butter or they're going to come with carbs like legumes and quinoa. So you've got to take that into account. This is critical. So why do we want to eat protein besides them being the building blocks and our body can't make it and you need it, is the big thing that protein is going to also do for you is it's going to improve satiety. When you eat protein, it suppresses ghrelin. This is the hormone produced by the stomach. When your stomach is empty to say, hey, eat. It also boosts metabolism because it takes longer. Your body has to do more work for you to digest it. So I like to see that you say that you are what you eat ate, you are what you eat ate, meaning what you're eating, what they ate is going to impact you. Which is why we do grass fed beef, not corn fed. And we're looking at things like wild and sustainable seafood and lamb and pastured chicken and pork. And then for protein powders, defatted beef protein. So eggs, I love eggs. If you aren't intolerant to them, if you've gone through the virgin diet and you're not reacting dairy, I'm not a big fan of, if you can find that you can tolerate dairy, then goat's milk or sheep's dairy that's been fermented. And remember, it's not just you are what you eat, it's also you are what you digest. And I find with a lot of people that they have challenges digesting protein. Remember, if you're over the age of 30 or if you're under stress, probably your hydrochloric acid that's in your stomach to help you digest protein has gone down. I like to put everyone on a trial of digestive enzymes because if you go on a trial of them, you're going to see if you feel better, if you're feeling bloated, more bloated after you eat. If you feel like I ate and I'm just like full for hours, try a trial of digestive enzymes. And I use a product that's got enzymes to help digest protein and fat, but also not digest carbohydrates in Fact block carbohydrate and slow down carbohydrate digestion because we don't need to speed that up. So for vegans, some of the protein sources are legumes, lentils, quinoa, nuts and seeds, and plant based protein powders. For non vegans, I like to use defatted beef protein powder. I don't use whey because whey can raise insulin, and you don't want to raise insulin because that will then make you store fat. All right, let's talk about fat. I recommend two to four servings of fat per meal. And here's the deal. If you pig out on fat, you're going to be full for hours. You probably never do it again. One of the most therapeutic things that you can do is make an oil change, because when you eat the right fat fats, you reduce inflammation. Besides, fat is great for your mood, it's great for your brain, and it protects your brain. Omega 3s, specifically. Omega 3s are also good for bone remodeling. So flax seed meal, chia seeds, hemp fish are also great for bone remodeling and for your brain. Fish oil specifically is great for your brain and neuroprotective for all of these. When you're eating the right types of fats, they are helping reduce inflammation, but also they're helping you stay satiated because they trigger the release of some chemicals in the small intestine to tell your brain that you're full. So let's talk about the types of fats you should be eating. One of the fats that's in coconut oil is something called medium chain triglycerides. I love these because they're energizing. In fact, when I take them, I start to sweat, which means, great, my energy's up, they're being thermic, I'm burning fat. Omega 3s are fantastic too, especially omega 3s from fish, because you're going to get DHA and EPA from them. So good sources of omega 3s, chia, hemp, flax, are sources of something called ALA. It takes a lot to get ALA to move all the way down the pathway to elongate to EPA and dha. So I really recommend eating fish and taking fish oil. And if you are a vegan or a vegetarian, using an algae source.

Hey, J.J. virgin here. Okay, real talk. So often the holidays sneak up on me, travel, gifts, hosting, you know, all the things, and suddenly it's like, wait, who spent what and where? And I know I'm not the only one who's looked at a bill in January and thought, wow, that escalated quickly. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface. On your laptop or on your phone. Monarch lets you link everything and gives you real time visibility so you're not shocked later. Right now I've been checking the holiday spending category so I don't accidentally start the new year with that dreaded debt hangover. And honestly, just seeing everything laid out is already helping me stay more aware this season. Monarch does the heavy lifting. It links your accounts in minutes, gives you smart categorization and super clear visuals. Yes, that end of year reset could be a real goal this time. Don't let financial opportunities slip through the cracks. Use the code virginonarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with the code Virgin.

The holidays are almost here, but there's still time to score great gifts at Dick's Sporting Goods Find everyone's must have gifts from Nike, FP movement, Adidas and more. Need your gifts fast? Stop by your local Dick's or shop Dick's.com for fast shipping, curbside pickup or same day delivery. Every holiday starts at Dick's now. Other great sources Avocado, coconut, olive oil and olives. Great sources of monounsaturated fats and some saturated fats in the coconut, lemon, low roasted or dehydrated nuts. I like to soak nuts. This is going to help with their digestibilities and reduce their lectins and phytates. Some of the antinutrients Another oil that you rarely hear about that's amazing is red palm fruit oil. Now you want to make sure you're getting a sustainable red palm fruit oil because otherwise they could be deforesting to get it. Turns out red palm fruit oil is our richest source of this beautiful vitamin E called tocotrienols and it it resists high heat. So things that you can use for high heat Coconut oil, red palm fruit oil and macadamia nut oil. One of the most amazing oils of all time. This is actually how I cook my fish and what I use for my salad dressing. Nut butters are another great one. Coconut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, walnut butter, ghee, pecan butter and then grass fed butter and ghee and grass Fed beef, remember, you're going to get some fat from that. And wild fish, remember, you get some fat for that as well. I talked about digestive enzymes earlier, but the enzymes that really help here, lipase is hugely important to help you break down your fats. And again, I see as people get older or under stress, they tend to struggle with protein and fat digestion. Carbohydrates. Oh my gosh. Probably the most misunderstood. Well, it depends what year we're in. Some years carbohydrates are the most important thing to eat. Some years we shouldn't eat them at all. And here's the deal. It's not about eating no carbohydrates. It's about eating low sugar impact, high fiber carbohydrates. The big thing you're getting from carbohydrates is fiber. And fiber is key because it slows down stomach emptying, keeps ghrelin suppressed so you feel fuller, longer. Of course, that fiber helps give you poops you can be proud of. Increases the size of your stool and keeps them moving along. You don't want things sitting in you for long periods of time. I want you to just consider if you, if you pooped and left it sitting there all day long, what would it do? It would stink. Think about it, sitting all day long with you, you should be pooping one or two times a day. And so fiber is very detoxifying, can help lower your cholesterol. It helps with blood sugar control because it helps release sugar slowly and it feeds the good bacteria in your gut. So critical. Do you know if you have too much bad bacteria, they actually extract more calories from the food you eat and they store them as fat. All right, and then so carbs, things that are carbs here, quinoa, lentils, legumes, low sugar impact, fruits like berries and grapefruit. Squash. Squash is some of the most amazing food that we never talk about. Pumpkin, kabocha, butternut. These are some of my favorite. Slow, low carbohydrates. And then of course, non starchy vegetables. Please eat at least a pound of these a day. Five to ten servings a day. One of the things that I teach people to do is to use my product Green Balance, which is a green drink, because then I know that you finally got some greens in. Of course I want you eating your greens too. That's kind of your green health assurance. Big thing you want to do with your non starchy vegetables is eat from the rainbow. So get a broad variety of colors here so you get a load of antioxidants and also tons of fiber. The cool thing about non starchy vegetables is you're getting tons of plant nutrients, phytonutrients, a lot of antioxidants, a lot of fiber, a lot of nutrients with very little calories. So you can get the bulk up in your diet. So if you're someone who wants to eat like a big bowl, make a big bowl of arugula and spinach and peppers and onions and cucumbers and radishes. I'm thinking of what I had for lunch. Throw that all in there, all those great vegetables, because again, five to ten servings a day. And I want you to think of for your non starchy vegetables, that's half a cup cooked or a cup of raw. For slow, low carbs, again, the quinoa, the lentils, the squash, one or two per meal. And with fruit, I only want you having one or two pieces of fruit a day. And for legumes, that's a half a cup serving. For grains like quinoa or wild rice, it's a half a cup serving. For root vegetables, that's a half a cup servings. For squash, they kind of straddle the non starchy starchy, that's a cup serving there. Now, one thing I want to shout out about here is resistant starch, which is really cool for curbing your appetite for fast, fast loss and improving your insulin sensitivity and in lowering blood sugar levels and improving your gut health. Now, reason resistant starch is called, that is it resists digestion and it remains intact until it arrives in your colon where it breaks down that resistant starch to short chain fatty acids that the colon cells then use for energy. So it really helps build your healthy gut. It also works like a prebiotic like inulin and feeds your healthy gut flavor flora. And it reduces inflammation, reducing your risk for a lot of different conditions like Crohn's disease and constipation and diarrhea. The deal is when you eat by the plate with those clean, lean proteins, healthy fats, low impact carbs, including resistant starch and non starchy vegetables, you should be able to go four to six hours before you need to eat again. And a great reinforcement strategy for this is to journal so that if you're hungrier than four to six hours, you can look back and go, where did I fall short? So for a picture of the perfect plate and how much of each of the four food groups you should be eating and what's in those four groups, text 58885 and enter JJplate1. That's the number one space, your first name space, and your email address. Again, you text to 58885 and enter JJplate 1 space, your first name space and your email address. In the Sugar Impact Diet, I help you clear up the confusion around sugar and take back the control that sugar has over your life. In just two weeks, you'll lose your sweet tooth and shrink your waistline, so why wait? Start those two weeks today.

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