JJ Virgin outlines how to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously through protein intake of 0.7–1 g per pound of target body weight, 5+ servings of non-starchy vegetables daily, and tracking metabolic factors like insulin and leptin resistance. She recommends a continuous glucose monitor to identify blood-sugar-affecting foods, creatine monohydrate at 3–5 g daily, and avoiding alcohol and ultra-processed foods.
what we preach here, which is eating 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of target body weight. So remember how we figured out your target body weight and remember how we figured out your resting metabolic rate? Here's what we're gonna do. You are doing something called recomping in the fitness world. Sounds super hip. And what that means is you are gonna be losing fat while putting on muscle. We used to think you couldn't do this. You had to pick one or the other. And if you really, really, really needed to put on muscle, and focus there. It's easier to put muscle on with a little bit of fat and then take the fat off. But we're going to focus on both here, and that means you're going to go up to the higher end on protein. 1 gram of protein per target body weight, super important. For your carbohydrates, I love what, um, Dr. Don Layman says. He says you have to earn your carbs. Basically, you want to eat your carbs for the fiber and the polyphenols to fuel your gut microbiome and heal it. This is super important. So you're going to end up probably around— I call it 0.7 gram to 1 gram of carbs per your body weight. 1 gram if you're active, super active, 0.7 if you're not. Here's the baseline: 5 or more servings of non-starchy vegetables a day. Cup of raw, half a cup cooked is a serving. You can do better than that. I do 10 a day. That's what I'd love to see with you. 2 fruit servings a day— that's like a big apple, a cup of berries— 2 of those a day. Then if you have room to spare because you're using the tracking app, you can get the rest from a little bit of slow low carbs: beets, lentils, wild rice, those types of things, right? The other thing you're gonna get from there is healthy fats. Now here's the thing, you're eating healthy clean lean protein, you're gonna get some fat there. Wild salmon, grass-fed beef, you'll get some fat. You're eating non-starchy vegetables, probably having some salads, you're cooking, so you'll probably get in some ghee or some extra virgin olive oil, so you'll get some healthy fats there. Whatever else, add in whole fats, add in things like, you know, chia, flax, avocado, but you're using that tracking app to help you lose 2 pounds of fat a week. And what we're really watching is to see how your body's doing with this. If it's not going according to plan, then we gotta look at all those things I talked about. What's going on with insulin resistance? What's going on with leptin resistance? What's going on with menopause? Where's your estrogen? What's going on with your thyroid? What's going on with your gut microbiome? Are you toxic, right? So I brought it up first. Sorry to be a buzzkill. But alcohol, when you're trying to drop body fat, does not mix. Why? Because alcohol is metabolized first. So basically, if you go, you know what, I'm going to eat these things and I want to be able to, you know, make my— get my muscles fueled with these amino acids and, you know, burn up my carbs. Well, now you've got alcohol on board, and alcohol shuts down anything else from happening. So you are not going to be now burning fat because you got to burn Alcohol. So if you're trying to lose weight, alcohol is very, very difficult. So what you might want to do is like, if you love your red wine like I do, is I just go, you know what, I only have it when I go out and I don't go out very often anyway. So one night a week I'll have a glass of red wine. That is not going to be the problem. Every night, problem. And I try to stick with— I'll bring Dry Farm wine with me to the restaurant and pay the corkage fee. Of course, obviously we're lowering our sugar impact. If you've got sugar sneaking in and a sweet tooth you haven't been able to handle, stop right now and do the Sugar Impact Diet. Super important. And of course, we're not eating any of those ultra-processed foods that just make you want more and more and more. How do you know if you're eating an ultra-processed food? If you have a little and all you want is more, because they've been designed to do that. The other thing here is we need to make sure we're avoiding any hidden food intolerances because they create inflammation, which blocks muscle protein synthesis and leads to insulin resistance. So I say, you know, if you're not sure, either do a food sensitivity test, an IgG4, or do the Virgin Diet to if you can do things like dairy and eggs. They can be amazing proteins but not amazing for everybody. Um, sadly, my husband's got leaky gut right now, cannot do dairy or eggs at all. Wouldn't listen to me but would listen to the test. So you can do the Virgin Diet, it helps you figure it out. You can do a food sensitivity test. Other thing that needs to happen, you got to stay super hydrated. This helps so much, helps with satiety, helps you stay full, helps with detoxification. And if you're mildly dehydrated, you're going to convert glucose to fructose and store it as fat. You will be in fat storage, not fat-burning mode. So you got to have lots of fluid, super important. Here's a couple hacks too to help you. I really love wearing a CGM. Right now I have a Thea CGM on. I've been testing. I love wearing a CGM because what we really want to see is how your blood sugar is improving and what things are impacting your blood sugar. The things that can help your blood sugar, again, apple cider vinegar, a tablespoon before a meal. I like to put that in green tea. Green tea can help too. Berberine, amazing for your blood sugar. That's another great hack. Lemon juice as well. So wearing a CGM can really help you figure out what's working for you, what's not, what you need to shift in your diet. Again, walking after a meal can lower that blood sugar, or even dancing, push-ups, etc. And then doing the apple cider vinegar, or doing lemon juice, or doing lemon juice and a little chia seeds fiber before a meal can really help as well. Beyond just the berberine, I think that everyone should be taking a good basic multivitamin mineral antioxidant formula. Nutrient deficiency are going to get in the way of you healing. So that's a basic. The other one that you want to do, if you are 40+, creatine for the win. 3 to 5 grams of creatine monohydrate every single day. If you are 120 pounds or below, 3 grams good. More than that, 5 grams. And you need to get to tissue saturation, which takes about a month. Or you can do a 4 times a day loading dose for a week, so for 5 to 7 days. So if you were 3 grams, do 4 times a day for 5 to 7 days, and then you can just into your regular dose. Creatine is going to help you hold on to and build muscle. Super important. Again, protein powder is another one I think is really, really important here because it's going to help ensure that you get that 30 grams or more at each meal. And then the other one that I'm really keen on are enzymes, protein digestive enzymes. The only caveat is if you have ulcers. Other than that, you got to be able to break down and use what you're eating. As you're healing your gut, your gut might not be so great at this, right? You want to make sure that you're really breaking down that— those those foods that you can then break them down and use the different components the way you should. As we age, our stomach acid gets lower. This can lead to things like, um, food intolerance. So let's make sure that we've got that going on. Enzymes are a great one as well.
