The Best Tip for Sustainable Fat Loss

When it comes to the fitness industry, there are a lot of opinions out there about the best way to lose fat.

Unfortunately, most of those opinions tend to hover over well-intentioned people like money-hungry vultures eager to snatch a quick buck out of your back pocket at a moment’s notice.

What do I mean?

Most fitness propaganda will lead you to believe that fat loss is best achieved through one of these four methods:

1. Fat Loss Supplements

2. Specific Training Programs

3. Specific Workout Equipment

4. A Strategic Manipulation of Energy Balance

The problem?

Three out of four of those options are driven directly by money.

And in my experience, money tends to distort any notion of pure altruism.

Because as much as the people in the fitness industry want you to lose fat, build muscle, and live a healthier life, they also want you to buy their fat loss supplements, training programs, and workout equipment.

Fortunately, most of us are aware of this.

As much as any good dentist wants his patients to come into his office with vibrantly healthy gums and teeth, he also probably wouldn’t mind if you needed a few cavities filled, a wisdom tooth pulled, and a lifetime prescription of name brand mouthwash.

Business is business and we all have to make a living somehow.

The question is…

What’s the truth?

Are fat loss supplements, high-profile training programs, and specific workout equipment truly really necessary for sustainable fat loss?

Or is there a simpler, more affordable way?

As you may have guessed by now, the goal of this article is to provide you with an alternative approach to losing body fat sustainably that skips over the fat-burning teas, Movie Star Body training plans, and waist trainers.

I just have one simple tip.

Are you ready for it? 

Keep your “cardio” as fun and varied as possible.

In the past, I was awkwardly prideful about how little “cardio” I could do while still burning up fat. 

And this comes from a long history of bodybuilders being "against cardio at all costs." I'm exaggerating a little bit, but if you know you know. 

The idea is that anything you demand of your body that isn't stimulating for muscle growth while in a caloric deficit puts you at risk for muscle loss, which is why bodybuilders don't really do anything but walk while cutting fat. 

And it works like a charm if you have the time.

Plus, people like to be able to show off their lean physiques on Instagram with cheeky captions like, “Guess how much cardio I did to get this physique? None.”

And that’s great.

Eating like a bird is always an option for getting exotically lean if that’s your cup of tea.

But I'm going to be real with you, I think that's unrealistic and unsustainable for most people.

I think most people would be better off resistance training 3-5 times per week while sprinkling in as much "fun cardio" as possible.

Here are some examples:

• playing basketball before work with friends 

• playing soccer with your college buddies after work 

• hiking a new trail with your significant other

• take a long bike ride

• dropping into an OrangeTheory class

• hitting up a community yoga class

• trying out CrossFit for a few months 

• walking on the treadmill while binging your favorite new TV show

The key is to think about which ways you enjoy moving your body most and then implement them creatively into your lifestyle.

My own application of this concept is that I do CrossFit classes 5-6 times per week.

Why?

1. I love it, which makes it sustainable for me.

2. CrossFit burns a ton of calories and incorporates resistance training.

3. I don’t do it because I’ve been falsely promised it’s going to lead to automatic fat loss outcomes.

4. I do it in context of an entire lifestyle pattern that supports my fitness goals.

The result?

A great physique in context of a well-designed and implemented dietary pattern.

So ask yourself…

“What do I actually enjoy doing for exercise?”

And then do that as often as your lifestyle allows.

Why is fun “cardio” effective?

Keeping your “cardio” fun is effective for sustainable fat loss simply because movement burns calories.

Remember, fat loss is almost always a basic equation of calories in versus calories out.

If you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight.

Therefore, adding a few more fitness-based activities to your weekly routine while keeping your caloric consumption the same tips this equation in favor of weight loss.

I also think fat loss becomes much less mentally demanding when you keep things fun. So it’s not that you’re burning more calories simply because you’re having fun - it’s that you’re not thinking of your exercise as some obligatorily hellish experience that “must be done.”

Keeping things fun creates positive associations around exercise instead of negative associations, which can be helpful for people who may have a strained relationship with working out.

Bonus Things to Consider

• You still have to make sure that you’re not out-eating your exercise.

  • No one here is suggesting that playing sand volleyball once a week with friends will give you the license to eat in excess while slowly transforming into a Greek statue.

  • The point is that if you were to add more exercise into your life while keeping all other lifestyle variables constant, you would likely lose fat over time.

• Resistance training is still king for obtaining a muscle-bound physique.

  • Going on a weekly hike and playing an extra game of basketball on Wednesdays isn’t going to make your glutes look like two newly discovered planets that rival the size of Jupiter.

  • You’ll want to be training effectively with weights several times per week to ensure muscle growth.

  • My recommendation in this article is to sprinkle in additional movement-based activity once you already have your resistance training regimen in place.

    • Also, my critique of high-dollar resistance training programs in the introduction is a critique of their unqualified promises to help people lose fat without consideration of other lifestyle factors like diet, sleep, and activity. It’s not a critique of resistance training programs overall. Training programs absolutely necessary for obtaining the lean, hard-body physique many people desire.

• It’s not all about calories.

  • What I mean here is that fat loss is best achieved through a combination of eating an appropriate number of calories, eating enough protein, resistance training, and implementing “cardio” as needed.

  • The point of this article is not to oversimplify the entire process. The point is to single out one particularly helpful tip for losing fat sustainably.

• Living a more active lifestyle will be much easier if you surround yourself with like-minded people.

  • In other words, you might have to get plugged into a new community!

  • Fortunately, there are lots of options like rock-climbing gyms, cycling clubs, CrossFit gyms, OrangeTheory gyms, yoga studios, and many others.

Summary

• You don’t need to spend your money on fat loss supplements, overpriced training programs, and fancy workout equipment to lose fat sustainably.

• My best fat loss tip is to keep your “cardio” fun so you can burn calories in an enjoyable manner.

  • If you were to think of your fat loss effort as a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles of effective, enjoyable, and adherable, you’d want your approach to be in that innermost circle.

• It creates positive associations around a lean body rather than negative ones. 

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I sincerely hope you found this article helpful or illuminating in some way!

If you feel like it brought you value, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be missing that “fun factor” when it comes to finding an exercise routine that works sustainably for them.

Later, friends.

-Andrew

How to Set Yourself Up for Success Pre-Workout

A lot of attention in the fitness industry is spent on how to optimize your performance during the training session itself.

And this is good considering the implementation of effective training principles is what leads to better muscle growth, better fat loss results, and better overall body compositions.

But little to no attention has been given to what you can do before your workout to make sure your training session is of the highest quality possible.

In some sense, this is kind of like giving people a ton of advice on how to behave during a job interview without giving them any advice on how to prepare for a job interview.

And for that reason, I think a lot of people are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to a lack of pre-workout preparation.

Why is this happening?

Most times, I think we're just not planning well-enough, so I've done my best to come up with four practical tips for how to set yourself up for success pre-workout.

How to Set Yourself Up for Success Pre-Workout

1. Make sure you know which specific days and times you are working out across any given week.

If you're running a push-pull-legs split, that probably means you're either on a 6-day split or a 3-day split.

Plan accordingly by putting all 3-6 of those workouts in your calendar.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a similar routine on a daily basis, you might be able to workout at 12PM every day.

But if not, you’ll need to set aside time each week to play Tetris with your workout schedule.

If you don't, those workouts simply won’t get done.

So the first step in optimizing your pre-workout gym flow is to schedule your workouts in advance and honor them on your calendar as you would a work meeting, a lunch with a friend, or anything else important to you.

Bonus Tip: To help remind you of the value of exercise in your life, pencil your workouts into your calendar with creative titles like “Prioritize My Health,” “Get Stronger,” or even “Live a Longer Life for My Kids.”

Doing this will help keep your primary motivations top of mind so you don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.

2. Make sure you know and understand the movements you're doing that day before you ever get to the gym.

For those of you who are doing pre-written training programs or working with an online body recomposition coach, there's no greater waste of time than showing up to the gym, pulling up your workout, and realizing you have no idea what a Seal Row is.

Now you're fumbling around on YouTube all frazzled trying to figure out what you're supposed to be doing, and the vibe is all off.

You wind up frustrated and stressed.

Set yourself up for success by peeking at your workout several hours before you need to execute so there are no surprises once you show up.

3. Make sure you are properly fueled.

This may feel like a no-brainer, but it's a very common thing for people to show up to the gym without enough energy in their system.

Don't do that.

Quality training is what ultimately drives the muscle growth you need to change the shape of your body, which means you need an adequate amount of fuel to support that training.

Need an analogy?

It's like setting out on a road trip from New York to Los Angeles without putting enough gas in your tank to get you across the New York border into Pennsylvania.

In this case, finally making it to Los Angeles represents the achievement of your body recomposition goal. It’s the moment when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and say, “I freaking did it. I’m strong, jacked, and lean, and it feels good.”

But here’s the problem.

How are you ever going to make it to Los Angeles someday if you haven’t even put enough fuel in the tank to get out of New York?

As it pertains to this analogy, those smaller traveling stints are the individual workouts you complete that eventually accumulate until you arrive at your destination.

The point?

Every workout needs to be high-quality, and high-quality training is predicated on high-quality fuel.

So be sure to eat a protein-rich meal with an appropriate number of carbohydrates in the hours leading up to your workout for optimal training performance.

Although I don’t think it’s worth overcomplicating the specific numbers of carbohydrates you should consume, I think it’s a good to aim to ingest around 20-30% of your total daily carbohydrates in your pre-workout meal.

For me, this is usually a bowl of oatmeal with berries and a banana.

Need a caffeine buzz? Consider sipping on some black coffee or your favorite pre-workout blend.

4. Make sure you have the gear you need to execute the workout optimally.

This probably isn't going to be super relevant for casual lifters, but if you need to be on the Smith Machine today for deep squats, make sure you have your squatting shoes.

If it's leg day, don't be wearing Crocs.

If it's chest day, definitely be wearing Crocs. It's that simple.

And, of course, this includes bringing a gym bag that contains all of the non-negotiables like a workout outfit, a water bottle, and any towels, shampoo, or body wash you might need if you need to shower post-workout.

Secondly, make sure you are wearing an outfit that makes you feel confident!

As Steve Cook once said, "Look good. Feel good. Play good," and I think there's a lot of truth in that.

Guys, if it’s arm day, wear a shirt or cut-off that makes your arms look big!

Ladies, if it’s leg day, wear bottoms that make you feel strong and fit!

Set yourself up for success by showing up in an outfit that makes you feel confident and ready to perform at your best.

In my opinion, checking these four boxes consistently is going to put you in a state of patterned and predictable success.

To illustrate just how powerfully I think your pre-workout decisions can impact your workout experience, I’ve decided to outline two real-life situations.

Scenario A: You Didn't Check the Pre-Workout Boxes and Got Wrecked By Life

You're packing up for work at 5PM and you suddenly realize you were "supposed to" workout today.

Discouraged at your lack of planning, you decide that you can probably stop by the gym on the way home for a quick workout if traffic is light. Traffic is decent, so you show up the gym at 5:20PM.

You pop open your Google Sheets app because you're my client and start looking over the workout when you realize the first move is a flexion row.

The stress hits you in the chest like Mike Tyson in his prime.

You have no clue what a flexion row is.

So you start flipping through the internet looking for a flexion row, but you find six different varieties and now it's 5:35PM and you were supposed to leave at 5:50PM to be home for dinner by 6PM and everything is falling apart so you say "screw it" and just starting running on the treadmill.

Except two minutes into the run you start feeling awful and it dawns on you. "I didn't have lunch today because I worked through the lunch hour." Woof.

Now you're running on a treadmill with no fuel in your body with a cold sweat. You get off, trudge to your car discouraged, and pick up a pizza on the way home for emotional therapy.

Scenario B: You Checked the Pre-Workout Boxes and Kicked Butt

You're packing up for work at 5PM feeling like a million bucks because about an hour ago you had some dried fruit with a protein shake.

You show up to the gym at 5:20PM ready to be lifting hard from 5:30-6:30PM because you cleared it with your significant other on Sunday that you'd be working out today because you're passionate about achieving your goals and they support you in that.

You complete your warm-up wearing all the right gear that makes you feel confident and then move over to the first movement of the day, which is a heel-elevated Smith Machine squat.

You weren't sure what heel elevation was a few days ago, but this morning while you were looking over the expectations for the day, you took note of that question and sent me (your coach) a question about it.

"Andrew, what's the best way to achieve this heel elevation thing? I looked online and it looks like some people use 2.5 pound plates and some people have wedges."

You decided the 2.5 plates will work great for you, so you set it up no problem and get a great quad workout in the rack.

Each subsequent movement goes just as smoothly and you waltz out of the gym at 6:30PM as planned feeling like a responsible adult for having planned well and executed the plan.

Hopefully this illustrates my point.

Whether you decide to be the person from Scenario A or Scenario B is entirely up to you.

But if you want to experience the highest level of success in the gym, you have to set yourself to succeed before you ever show up.

Summary

• Put your workouts on your calendar just like you would a work meeting or a lunch date. Avoid saying things like, “I’m going to try to workout on Thursday if I have time.” Make time if your goals are important to you.

• Make sure you know which movements you’re doing before you show up the gym. Being unfamiliar with your training for the day can lead to wasted time and frustration.

• Eat a high-carb, high-protein meal within a few hours of your workout to maximize training quality.

• Be sure to pack all of the equipment you need for your training session, and wear an outfit that makes you feel confident and fit.

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I sincerely hope you found this article helpful or illuminating in some way!

If you feel like it brought you value, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be failing to understand the importance of planning for success before they ever even show up to the gym.

Later, friends.

-Andrew

How Does Online Fitness Coaching Work?

If you’ve stumbled onto this article because you’re in the research phase of hiring a “fitness” coach to help you with your goal of losing fat and building muscle, you’re in the right place.

In fact, I actually much prefer to call it online body recomposition coaching since it’s more specific to what most people want.

Let me explain.

Most people want to live a lean, muscular life.

In fact, you could put it even more bluntly and say that most people want to “look better naked” (as the expression goes).

And, although being fit can certainly overlap with an impressive physique, there’s no guarantee that getting fitter will make you look “better” in a swimsuit by the pool next summer.

Fitness and physique are not one in the same.

So keep that in mind as you continue reading.

As of now, I’ll officially be abandoning the term “fitness coaching” in favor of “body recomposition coaching” since I’m willing to bet you’re more interested in looking like a Greek god or goddess than you are improving your mile time.

I’m also willing to bet that you have a lot of questions about how this whole online body recomposition coaching thing works (as you should).

For example, you might be asking yourself…

• How can you even do personal training without being there with someone in-person? Isn’t that the whole point?

• Or is this somehow different than personal training? This “body recomposition” lingo is new to me.

• How do we communicate? Is it all through email or Zoom or what?

And you’re definitely wondering how much it costs.

Am I right?

Fortunately, I plan to answer all of those questions and more in this write-up.

What You Can Expect from This Article

My goal is for you to be thinking one of two things once you finish reading this article:

• “Wow. That was really helpful. Online body recomposition coaching sounds like exactly what I need in my life right now.” Or…

• “Wow. That was really helpful. I’m not sure online coaching is a good fit for me right now, but now I feel educated and empowered to make the right decision for myself.”

If you can say either of those things, I’m going to give myself a jovial slap on the back and treat myself to a bar of dark chocolate tonight.

So without further ado…

How does online body recomposition coaching work?

That’s a great question that deserves a great answer, but first I’m going to describe how traditional, in-person personal training works for the sake of comparison.

Let’s get right into it.

How does traditional, in-person personal training work?

With traditional personal training, you sign up for an initial consultation at your local gym and then typically book one to three sessions a week with a personal trainer that guides you through about an hour of stretching, resistance training, and cardio that they’ve programmed for you beforehand (hopefully) according to your goals.

They walk around the gym with you, lead you to each specific exercise, and offer corrective feedback on your technique.

They also program the number of sets and reps you will perform for each given movement and coach you through that accordingly.

There also seems to be a big social component to a lot of traditional personal training. In many cases, your coach becomes a sort of friend, and you wind up shooting the breeze with them for three hours a week.

In terms of rates, one week of discounted personal training at the local gym I attended for most of my twenties costed $99 for three 60-minute introductory sessions. If you add that price to the next three weeks of non-discounted sessions at $129 per week, that accumulates to over $500 for your first month of personal training, and it only goes up from there once the discounts no longer apply.

And this can be a great fit for a lot of people.

That’s in-person personal training.

So how does online body recomposition coaching work?

How does online body recomposition coaching work?

Online body recomposition coaching is much different and quite a bit more comprehensive (unless you choose to work with a reputable coach or company). Although I no longer run my own body recomposition company, I’m going to outline the experience as it was when I did.

So here we go.

Your initial consultation is done online from the convenience of your computer, which means you can Zoom in from anywhere in the world.

So the immediate advantage of opting for online body recomposition coaching is that you now have access to coaches and trainers on a global scale, which means you’re not limited to working with local trainers that may not align with your goals, values, or personality.

This is also a major advantage for online trainers because their pool of potential clients is now a splash shy of eight billion.

Not bad for business, right?

But back to consultations…

Your initial consultation is usually an opportunity for you to talk with your potential coach about whether or not working together seems like a mutually beneficial idea.

For example, your coach might ask you…

• What are your specific goals? Are you looking to lose body fat? Gain muscle?

• What are your motivations?

• What’s your diet history?

• What’s your training history?

• Do you have any prior injuries or medical conditions that I should know about?

• Are you taking any medications with side effects that are known to hinder weight loss efforts?

And, of course, you’ll (hopefully) have the opportunity to ask anything you might be curious about too.

• Will I have to run?

• Do I have to count macros?

• I’m vegan. Is that going to be a problem?

• Going to a public gym is overwhelming for me. Can I workout from home?

You get the point.

By the end of the call, the coach will either extend an offer to you or politely decline your interest in a coaching relationship if they feel they are genuinely unable to help you achieve your goals.

Assuming it’s a good fit and you decide to join the roster, you sign contracts and get to work.

On a second or third call with your coach, they might pitch you some kind of a lifestyle change proposal, which would essentially outline their big-picture plan for how they’d like to go about achieving your goals given everything you’ve told them in your consultation and all subsequent questionnaires. Essentially, this is a list of all the lifestyle habits and routines they’d like you to implement for optimal results.

For example, they might say:

• This is how many calories I’d like you to consume for these first two weeks.

• This is how I’d like to structure your training split.

• This is how much I’d like you to walk this week.

And much more, of course.

Here’s a quicker breakdown of the pros and cons as we see it:

PROS OF ONLINE COACHING

• It’s suited really well for busy people.

  • We live in a fast-paced world, and online coaching is designed for the digitally savvy.

  • You do the workouts on your own time, report your activities on your phone or on your laptop, and check in digitally for feedback.

• It benefits those who can take responsibility for what needs to be done.

  • If you’re an independent person, online coaching is a dream come true. You set a goal, surrender the strategy to your coach, and you implement what needs to be implemented. The guesswork is completely offloaded, and you have the freedom to execute without thought fatigue.

  • It’s also clear from day one that no one is going to do the work for you.

    • With in-person personal training, it can be easy to become convinced that you’ll see results “automatically” each week simply because you’re showing up. After all, you’ve got a personal trainer now, right?!

    • With online body recomposition coaching, you understand from the get-go that there are distinct coaching and client responsibilities in this process. The coach is responsible for designing a program that generates results according to your goals, and you are responsible for executing that plan.

  • Online coaching works particularly well for people who already feel comfortable in a gym environment.

    • Although we’re happy to send instructional videos on how to use the Hack Squat machine, progress tends to occur more quickly for individuals who have past gym-going experience. That being said, don’t let this deter you if you are new to the gym! Just be prepared for a steeper learning curve and more initial communication with your coach.

• It’s flexible and requires less scheduling and calendar management.

  • With traditional personal training, you have to align each workout session with your coach’s calendar. For most people, that means working out at a set time each week. For example, let’s say Mondays at 7 AM. But let’s say you’re a mom and a businesswoman and Little Johnny has been sick all night. You have to navigate an early morning doctor appointment, and the only time slot available is one that conflicts with your workout slot. You have to cancel last minute, and there’s no reimbursement. You didn’t workout, your money is gone, and you’re mentally discouraged.

  • With online coaching, let’s say you were still planning on working out on Monday at 7 AM. Little Johnny gets sick like he did in the first example, but now you’re able to make a simple and easy adjustment. You simply go to the gym after work on Monday, or maybe you even move your workout to Tuesday and take the day completely off while adjusting the rest of your week. You wind up getting a great workout, you don’t lose a dime, and mentally you’re actually better off than you were before because you’re feeling confident about your ability to navigate adversity while still pursuing your physique goals.

• It can be more affordable (but not always).

• It’s modern and effective.

  • We’re living in the 2020s, which means a lot of cool stuff is happening in formerly unthought-of ways. And for those who don’t know, thousands of people are obtaining healthier body shapes through online coaching. There’s no sense in thinking online coaching is “a bit edgy” or “risky.” At the company I currently work for, we don’t take your money and then surrender you to robots and automated messages. All of our one-on-one communications are 100% authentic and automation-free.

CONS OF ONLINE COACHING

• Your trainer obviously isn’t there with you in-person, and there might be a greater chance that you perform a few exercises with improper technique.

  • This is a fair critique, but we do ask for form videos from most clients in the early weeks of a program to ensure safety and movement quality.

• Some feel as though accountability is lessened when your coach doesn’t meet with you in person, but we mostly disagree, and here’s why:

  • Obviously, when you’re doing a set of decline weighted sit-ups and clearly slacking off, having an in-person trainer benefits you in that they are there to motivate you and encourage you to “push through the pain.” But what happens during the other 23 hours of your day? Keep in mind that most commercial personal trainers help you workout and that’s it. They consider nothing beyond what you do in the gym. So what happens when you go home and eat four slices of Papa John’s pizza and dig on a little Ben and Jerry’s for dessert? Where’s the accountability there?

• You workout alone.

  • For people who value the social element, this can certainly be a con of online coaching, but we honestly find that most people enjoy the time spent alone moving toward their goals without distraction and unnecessary noise. After all, there are plenty of other ways to get your social fix. Or, better yet, consider applying for our coaching with a friend! That’s a great way to make physique development more socially healthy for anyone who’d rather not be alone in the gym. And we’d likely cut you a slight discount for the creative thought and the addition to our client roster.

And those are the main pros and cons of online body recomposition coaching.

Summary

• Unless true fitness is your goal, you’re probably better off hiring a body recomposition coach than you are a fitness coach. Unfortunately, however, these terms are often used synonymously in the fitness space.

• And, although improved fitness is a fantastic goal for overall health and wellness, most people would rather pay someone to help them regain confidence in their physical appearance than be able to do 75 sit-ups in a minute.

• Traditional, in-person personal training can be a good fit for people who need in-person accountability, but I personally find its overall effectiveness to be limited.

• Online coaching favors those who are independent and digitally savvy. It makes good use of modern technology and allows for deeper and more intentional coach-to-client relationships.

• Online coaching also tends to be more affordable and grants you the opportunity to work with your favorite trainers across the globe.

• In some rare cases, online coaching may not be a good fit for people who don’t have any prior gym experience.

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As always, I hope you found this article helpful!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at @weswh1te on Instagram. Although I admittedly avoid social media like the plague, so be patient if it takes me a bit to get back to you.

Until next time,

-Andrew

How to Eat More Food and Look Leaner in the Long-Run

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately on what most people really want when it comes to the relationship between their body composition and their lifestyle.

And I think I've made one big realization.

It has to do with our metabolisms.

Are you ready for it?

Most people who want to improve their body composition also want to be able to eat enough food to enjoy their lives.

In other words, being super lean and "hot-looking" probably isn't worth it if you have to eat like a bird, never go out for pizza with friends, and punt your favorite alcoholic beverages to the curb for a lifetime.

In this case, I think a picture is worth a thousand words.

Have you seen a photo like this at some point on social media?

My guess is that you have.

After all, what could possibly be more jealousy-inducing than a picture of a super fit guy or gal in a luxurious resort setting enjoying what seems to be a plethora of delicious foods and drinks?

They're lean, muscular, and aesthetically pleasing in a way that would make nine out of ten people whisper, “I want that,” under their breath.

My point?

I think this is what nearly all of us are secretly longing for in quiet desperation.

But before we get too far, I want to be clear about what you can expect from this article:

• Firstly, I’m going to continue to make the case that living a lean lifestyle is more enjoyable when you can eat plenty of food.

• I’m going to remind you and encourage you that your metabolism is adaptable.

• I’m going to offer you my two best tips for how to improve your metabolism for the sake of eating more while keeping your lean look long-term.

• I’m going to highlight a few specific lifestyle examples of how to take actionable steps today.

In short, if you’re interested in how to eat more food while looking lean and feeling confident in your own skin, you’re in the right place.

Your metabolism can change.

Most of you reading this article won't know me personally, but I think it’s relevant here to mention that I have an insane appetite, which means I couldn't be less interested in looking super peeled if it means I have to be on something like 1,800 calories for an extended period of time.

Pass!

I'd rather be fatter and happier.

But here's the silver lining.

Your metabolism can be improved over time, which seems to be somewhat classified information in the fitness industry.

And as much as I hate to admit this, even I wasn’t aware of this until I entered the pre-planning phase of my own body recomposition effort in 2018.

I remember it distinctly: I was watching a Paul Revelia video on YouTube, and he kept talking about adaptive metabolisms.

I was shocked.

Up until then, I had assumed our metabolisms were kind of like femurs or noses in the sense that they were fixed and unchangeable. I assumed we were just born with them and that they were completely out of our control.

But in that moment I learned that that’s not the case:

You can, in fact, up-regulate and down-regulate your metabolism based on how you live your life.

Ever since then I've been fascinated with the idea of improving my own metabolism for the sake of eating as much food as possible while looking lean and muscular.

Is anyone with me?

Assuming you are, I want to throw two big tips at you today for how to improve your metabolism for the long haul.

1. Building Muscle Is Probably the Best Way to Improve Your Metabolism

I've mentioned this before in content I've put out, but muscle tissue is roughly three times as metabolically active as fat tissue, which means your body requires more energy to maintain muscle than it does fat.

This is great news for jacked people because it means you need approximately three times as many calories to support your muscle tissue than your fat tissue.

The implication? Arguably the best thing you can do for the sake of improving your metabolism is to add as much muscle mass to your frame as possible.

More muscle means more food.

And this is true for you as well, ladies! Adding muscle can be done strategically to maintain whichever curves you currently love about your body.

In other words, building muscle doesn’t mean you have to “get bulky.” Like many female physique competitors these days, you can focus heavily on certain areas of your body like the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and back to help you emphasize that stereotypically feminine appearance.

I might even argue that it’s more important for women to try to build muscle since they tend to be smaller than men by nature. Smaller people require less food than bigger people, so as much as you can muscle-up your frame while maintaining a physical appearance that supports your confidence, the better.

So again, more muscle means more food.

Are we tracking?

To illustrate this point further, I want to offer you quick, personal anecdote.

How I Improved My Own Metabolism

In my mid-to-late twenties, I started trying to figure out the whole “macros” thing because I was unhappy with how I had “let go” of my formerly athletic and trim physique.

At the time, I was eating a decent amount of protein, but my calories were generally still pretty low.

But they weren't low enough to have me in a meaningful caloric deficit, which landed me in a state of perma-chubbiness with a "bad" metabolism while making little to no progress in terms of improving my body composition.

In my opinion, that's one of the worst places to be: chubby with a sluggish metabolism.

For for those who are curious, I was eating around 2,300 calories per day (when I wasn’t overeating on the weekends) with plenty of belly pudge and no definition. I was hovering between 200-205 pounds at six feet tall.

Now I'm eating between 3,500-4,000 calories per day at 190 pounds with way more muscle and way less chub while gaining weight slowly at a rate of around 0.25% per week (on purpose).

That's a 1,200-1,700-calorie increase in my metabolic performance, which is the equivalent of four to five large pieces of pepperoni pizza from Papa John's or 20 Double Stuf Oreos per day.

Oh, and I’ve lost between 10-15 pounds since then.

So the question is…

What the heck did I do?

And the answer is simple.

I tried to build as much muscle as possible.

• I resistance trained intelligently and systematically within evidence-based training guidelines and best practices from leading industry experts.

  • More specifically, I sought to hit between 10-20 sets per muscle group within a few reps of technical failure per week.

  • I chose exercises with an optimal stimulus to fatigue ratio.

  • I made minor technique adjustments on those exercises to favor hypertrophy as much as possible.

  • I overloaded my sessions properly over time.

  • I manipulated my session to session volume strategically to allow for optimal recovery.

• I ate enough protein to support my muscle growth goals.

• And most importantly, I trained this way consistently for four years.

And now I’m a real life example of what it can look like to juice up your metabolism simply by putting in the work toward training for muscle growth, eating a high-protein diet, and implementing those habits consistently over time.

Pretty cool, yeah?

The somewhat unspoken implications here, however, are the following:

• You might have to sacrifice a lean look now for the sake of a lean look later.

  • What I mean by this is that muscle is built best when we eat in a slight surplus or at least match our total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) calorie-for-calorie with our caloric intake.

  • Unless you’re brand new to training, this probably means you are going to have to gain weight slowly.

    • Although I think this is best accomplished in the context of a one-on-one coaching relationship, the general rule of thumb is to aim to gain weight at a rate of 0.25-0.5% of your body weight per week.

  • Fortunately, I can proudly say that I’ve led by example here. I forfeited my 173-pound photo shoot bod to multiple cycles of surplus eating to favor muscle growth instead of being tight-fisted with my six-pack and shoulder veins.

• Your training needs to be your greatest focus.

  • As much as activities like hiking, group cardio classes, boxing, yoga, and pure barre can be wonderful for overall fitness, I’m not aware of any powerful scientific literature that suggests they have any exciting metabolism-boosting benefits.

  • Stick to hypertrophy training or another form of high-volume resistance training like CrossFit for optimal metabolic improvements.

• You are going to have to be patient.

  • In fact, “Play the long game,” is one of the most common phrases I use with my clients.

  • In a society driven by everything but delayed gratification, I find that a combined lack of patience and perspective are what prove to be most self-inhibiting for people who want to eat in abundance while sporting an increasingly lean and physique look long-term.

And really it’s that simple in most cases.

Having said all of this, I can guide you down this same path if you’re willing to adjust your lifestyle and put in the work.

Just keep in mind that I'm not a metabolic wizard with a fancy wand that unleashes its magical powers at the subtle swipe of a credit card.

You will still have to train hard and manipulate your dietary habits strategically (and sometimes even counterintuitively) for months and years, which transitions me smoothly to my next point.

2. You Might Have to Reverse Diet and Be Willing to Get Chubbier Before You Get Leaner

Honestly, I think this is one of the most valuable strategies any coach could ever bring to the table.

Why? Because it's super counterintuitive and terrifying for most people who have struggled to lose weight for years.

Eat more and actually gain weight temporarily? Yes!

It's called metabolic building and/or reverse dieting, and the point is to set you up for better body recomposition success in the long-term by up-regulating your metabolism and enhancing your training quality.

Unfortunately, this article would be way too long if I got into the exact details of how to reverse diet, but just know that increasing your calories systematically in controlled increments is an extremely effective way to improve your metabolism over time while training hard and eating a well-balanced diet designed for physique improvement.

The only downside to this tip is that most people won’t be able to implement a well-designed reverse diet protocol on their own, which means the best way to reverse properly is to hire a reputable coach.

But if a one-on-one coaching relationship isn’t something you can afford right now, don’t fret.

There are still things you can start doing right now.

How to Get Started Right Away

If you’ve been sold on the idea of “playing the long game” in favor of eating more over time while keeping your physique intact, here are a very quick ideas that may or may not help you get started:

• Quit hopping from plan to plan and settle into something consistent and sustainable for the long-term.

  • In other words, quit experimenting with new dietary patterns and training plans in search of the one “perfect” plan for you. Consistency is the name of the game.

• Similar to that first point, make sure the main focus of your exercise regimen is resistance training.

  • I’m feel like I’m feeding a fed horse with this point since I seem to mention it in nearly all of my articles, but it really is that important.

  • If you aren’t training with weights, you aren’t going to build an appreciable amount of muscle that will allow you to eat more in the long-run.

• You could consider joining a CrossFit gym.

  • But before you drive to my house and toss a Molotov cocktail through my living room window because you hate CrossFit with all of your mind, body, and soul, know that I have to mention it here due to the potential metabolic and lifestyle benefits it can offer.

    • Without belaboring the point, CrossFit is unique in that it incorporates resistance training while challenging the cardiovascular system at the same time. So as it pertains to living that lean lifestyle while eating in abundance, CrossFit can be a quicker road to Rome because you can reap the metabolic benefits of adding muscle mass while cashing in on an increased energy expenditure from demanding workouts that allow you to eat more on a daily basis.

    • In a lot of ways, I think CrossFit allows people to recomp more effectively than any other training strategy, but I realize it won’t be for everyone.

Summary

• Most people don’t just want to look good. They want to look good and be able to eat plenty of food while enjoying life to the fullest.

• The best way to do this is to focus on building as much muscle as your lifestyle allows. This is because muscle tissue is approximately three times more metabolically active than fat tissue. In other words, the more muscle you have, the more you get to eat without gaining weight.

• The best way to build muscle is to focus primarily on hypertrophy training or something that incorporates resistance training like CrossFit.

• You’ll also want to spend as much time eating at maintenance or in a small caloric surplus as possible.

• And in some unique cases, some people will need to reverse diet and “risk” weight gain in favor of improving their metabolism before attempting a focused fat loss phase.

• Lastly, remember that nothing about this process will be quick and effortless.

  • Most people with impressive metabolic “transformations” will have accumulated years of strategic training and dieting. In my case, it took me about four years to be able to eat 3,500 calories per day while staying relatively lean.

  • Be willing to play the long game as you think about whether or not metabolic building is something you want to attempt. Although the rewards can be truly life-changing, the path to success will require discipline, diligence, consistency, and patience.

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As always, I really enjoyed writing this article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to a friend who would rather be smashing the all-you-can-eat buffet as a lean machine than smashing their face into a wall from metabolic frustration.

Until next time,

-Andrew

5 Tips for Getting Back to Basics When You've Overcomplicated Your Body Recomposition Journey

To be honest with you, this article originally began as a personal note to myself I cyber-scribbled into my iPhone one day on a flight from Denver to St. Louis.

For quite some time, I had been making my body recomposition journey way too complicated, and I had become the poster child of self-inflicted paralysis by analysis.

And although ultimately my desire to understand every known detail about evidence-based body recomposition had fueled a lot of personal growth for me, I was starting to realize that it had also prevented me from taking my best strides at times.

I remember rewriting my own training programs over and over again thinking, “Finally! This is the perfect mesocycle for muscle growth,” just to rewrite it once more in a few days.

I remember thinking tirelessly about the “perfect” number of sets I should be doing each week and wondering fruitlessly if I should be counting drop sets as full sets or a half sets.

And I remember being hyper-focused on getting six “hits” of muscle protein synthesis per day to the extent that I was setting 150-minute timers on my phone so I’d know when to guzzle down my next serving of shredded chicken and half of a plain bagel.

I once even bought raw, cartoned egg whites and drank them in the car during a road tip because I was unwilling to miss an opportunity to “stimulate muscle growth.”

As the saying goes, I was missing the forest for the trees.

I had become so entrenched in the details that I had failed to look up and remember the grander narrative of what it meant to improve my body composition sustainably over time.

Does any of this sound relatable?

If so, I want to share with you what I wrote in that small note on my phone that day with the hope of helping you refocus on what matters most for a successful body recomposition endeavor.

5 Tips for Getting Back to Basics for an Improved Body Recomposition

1. remember that Calories matter most for fat loss, but your health and livelihood probably matter too.

It's so easy to overcomplicate this, but it really is true that you can get shredded to the bone while paying attention to calories and nothing else.

Just take a look at anyone who’s ever been stranded at sea on a handcrafted life raft like Chuck Noland and his spherical confidant Wilson circa 2000.

And in some sense, this is both good news and bad news.

It’s good news in that weight loss has now become very simple. If you consume fewer calories than you expend, you’ll lose weight.

But it’s bad news in that it becomes increasingly tempting to think of foods exclusively in terms of their caloric density and nothing else.

So now there’s really no good argument for ever eating an avocado or a handful of almonds over a Rice Krispies Treat because avocados have nearly three times as many calories than their marshmallow friends.

And yet most of us understand that avocados are probably the healthier option when pitted against an ultra-processed dessert made by a curious clan of animated elves.

Are you seeing how this can quickly become complicated?

At some point, the question we all have to ask ourselves is this:

To what extent will we nuance our understanding of calorie balance for a fat loss effort with our best understanding of how to eat for optimal health?

And so even though you could consume brownie batter flavored whey protein, Rice Krispie Treats, and peanut butter toward a leaner and meaner physique, it begs a few questions.

Would that be good for your health? Would you lose muscle mass? Would you be performing at your best on a diet of ultra-processed foods and somewhat “empty” calories?

Would your skin look the same? Would your hair be healthy? Would you be thriving sexually?

Would your sleep quality be high? Would you have energy throughout the day to invest in the relationships that matter most to you?

As I alluded to before, I ignored nearly all of those questions for a very long time in the name of caloric over-obsession and nothing else.

Did I get lean? Absolutely. But did I do so at the expense of my overall health? I believe so.

So to mitigate the risk of overcomplicating my first point in an article written to encourage people not to overcomplicate things, the main takeaway here is this:

Being in a calorie deficit is king for fat loss, but you’ll want to make sure you’ve thought through the health and wellness ramifications of your dietary pattern as well.

In fact, I think it’s similar to playing a game of chess.

In some undeniable sense, the king is the most important piece on the board. You cannot win without protecting him. Your own king, in this case, is your application of calorie balance.

But there are other important pieces on the board as well: the queen, your rooks, the bishops and the knights, and even the seemingly insignificant pawns that can become queens if you shepherd them well and guide safely beyond enemy lines.

We might consider these your overall health, your energy levels, your sleep quality, and your sex drive (among many others).

The key to becoming a great chess player is being able to command all of your pieces toward a unified goal while considering the greater context of the ultimate task at hand.

Will you be able to consider all of the pieces and how they can help you achieve your goal?

Or will you fail to see the bigger picture and miss the forest for the trees?

2. Don’t forget that training quality is the most important thing for building muscle.

I screwed this up for a long time too because I was searching for the “perfect” dietary pattern like it was the lost city of Atlantis.

In other words, I was placing a disproportionate amount of attention on my diet to give me the look I wanted instead of the quality of my training. I was incessantly tweaking something with the hopes of optimizing my physique just that much more.

And in doing so, I neglected my training quality.

In some sense, this this is the overcompensation for my first point in this article, and it’s a great example of how you can make a good thing a bad thing.

If you focus too much on the quality of your diet, you might forget that you actually have to train intelligently and intensely in the gym to build the muscle you want.

The point here is to settle into a dietary pattern that is supported by evidence for positive physique improvements and then eat habitually while you train with purpose.

The less time you can spend overthinking your diet the better.

For example, don’t waste time and energy wondering if eating 20 extra grams of carbohydrates from bananas versus berries during your pre-workout meal is going to yield you an extra 1% of muscle gain over the next five years.

Just get in the gym and train hard!

In summary, if a major component of your body recomposition goal is to grow bigger muscles, be sure to focus on high-quality training above all else.

3. Don’t overcomplicate your protein intake at the expense of other macronutrients.

This is another mistake I was making.

I had gotten overly focused on consuming excessive amounts of protein at the expense of food quality and overall food diversity.

As I mentioned before, there was a time when I would estimate that nearly 80% of my calories were coming from Fresh toast doused in sugar-free maple syrup and bowls upon bowls of teriyaki chicken.

Why?

Because they allowed me to “hit my macros” with convenience and ease.

Not only this, but I was convinced that five protein feeds per day must be better than four, and six must be even better than five. In doing so, I manipulated myself psychologically to believe that I “didn’t want my goals badly enough” when I only made time to eat three times per day.

Do I regret it? Absolutely.

Unfortunately, that season of eating was characterized by low energy levels and overall lethargy, digestive discomfort, and delayed post-workout recovery.

And even more unfortunately, I see now that choosing to eat that way had actually suppressed some of my greater values of health and vitality in favor of a “protein at all costs” mindset.

In short, my encouragement to you here is not to become protein-obsessed at the expense of a more well-rounded nutritional profile.

Instead, focus on eating an adequate amount of daily protein that supports your goal, and then maximize your intake of colorful plant foods as you approach your daily caloric target.

In an attempt to lead by example, I’ve now adopted a completely plant-based diet that is rich in lean protein sources, fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

I feel better than ever, I eat much less protein than I used to (while eating way more carbohydrates and fats), and I’ve only continued to see steady muscle and strength gains since making that change in May 2021.

4. don’t stress about meals you can’t track perfectly.

As much as I enjoy the systematic fat loss outcomes of tracking food, I had come to realize that there were many times in life when tracking a meal just wasn’t worth the cost.

For example, one of my really good friends made me a delicious curry the other night.

If you've been around the macro-tracking block a few times, you know that curry isn't very tracker-friendly.

It's nearly impossible to know exactly how much of this vegetable or that vegetable was in your particular serving, and the sauce is always a caloric mystery.

This can make eating out with a friends a nightmare for people with orthorexic tendencies.

And this can be the case with many homemade meals like pastas, casseroles, and slow cooker meals.

Rather than stressing about it (like I would have in the past), I embraced the meal and simply kept my portion size reasonable and limited myself to one plate.

And I couldn't have been happier about it.

I didn't strain the relationship by being a high-maintenance guest, we were able to enjoy a delicious meal together without distraction, and I left feeling completely in control of my diet and physique.

So remember that not every meal in life will be trackable.

Learn to know when to relax and rely on mindful eating habits like portion sizes and eating to fullness without excess.

5. never forget that Sustainability wins in the end.

I mostly hate the phrase "do what works for you" because it always seems wildly unhelpful and conversationally lazy.

But this is one scenario where I think it works really well as long as we offer a brief explanation of exactly what we mean.

As it pertains to feeling more confident in your birthday suit, you’re still going to have to do all of the evidence-based things I’m always teasing out in all of my IVRY articles, but there are going to be small ways here and there that you can tweak your own lifestyle in unique ways for long-term body recomposition success.

For example, when dieting for fat loss, I used to eat a big breakfast and skip lunch in favor of a small snack in the afternoon and a bigger dinner while other people might prefer to fast until 1PM and then have their first large meal.

We're both generally still playing by all of the same rules of calorie balance, but we're manipulating those rules to our advantage based on our own preferences.

Does that make sense?

In my observations, this is a hallmark feature of all successful dieters - the ability to modify and nuance minor lifestyle behaviors in way that is rhythmic, repeatably, and sustainable for them.

Can I take it a bit further?

To be super frank, I'm not a proponent of transformations that people can't maintain long-term.

After having done this for awhile, I know how to sniff out a transformation photo of someone who crash dieted and destroyed their health to win an online “transformation challenge.”

Most people can starve themselves for eight weeks and "look hot" for a wedding. Most people can do super keto for three months and lose 30 pounds. Most people can suffer through P90X once to reveal a blurry six-pack and a plump, worm-like vein in their left bicep.

But what most people can't do is keep the weight off.

My point? Sustainability wins in the end.

Do yourself a favor and remind yourself to play the long game.

Summary

• When you’re passionate about improving your body composition, overcomplicating things can be an easy trap to fall into.

• Remember that calorie balance is most important for weight loss, but it’s probably a good idea to consider your health and wellness as well. The key is to find a balance.

• Never forget that training quality matters most for building muscle. Try not to let other aspects of the process distract you from executing a well-designed training plan with a high level of focus and intensity.

• Avoid overcomplicating your protein intake. Once you’ve identified an adequate amount of protein to eat on a daily basis, maximize your consumption of healthy carbohydrates and fats within your caloric target.

• Come to terms with the fact that you won’t be able to track every meal to the gram. In those unavoidable situations, eat mindfully and do your best to enjoy the moment stress free. You don’t have to keep a food scale in your back pocket at all times to be lean and muscular.

• Lastly, remember that sustainability is the name of the game. If overcomplicating any aspect of your body recomposition journey is preventing you from getting the results you want, you’d be smart to reconsider your plan in favor of something more sustainable.

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As always, I really enjoyed writing this article.

If you found it helpful, consider sending it to a friend!

Until next time,

-Andrew

CrossFit vs. Bodybuilding: Which is Better for Living a Lean Life?

To be honest with you, I never thought I would be writing this article.

For those of you who don't know, I was one of those classic “CrossFit-haters” before I woke up to the fitness, mobility, strength, and other positive health benefits of the CrossFit methodology, which means I would have given bodybuilding the award for “best training methodology for staying lean” over CrossFit in a heartbeat.

But after having dabbled in CrossFit for awhile now myself, I’m not so sure.

So it's time to discuss the battle of the training styles: Bodybuilding vs. CrossFit.

Which is better for getting that lean, hard-body look?

In this article, I am going to:

• Tell you what it means to train like a bodybuilder.

• Tell you what it means to train like a CrossFitter.

• Consider the general benefits of bodybuilding and CrossFit respectively.

• Tell you which one I think is “best” for living a lean, muscular life.

• Reveal how I personally train and eat based on my own goals and values.

You're busy, so let's define some terms and then jump right into it.

What does it mean to train like a bodybuilder?

Just know that the term "bodybuilding" here just means training with mostly straight sets of 6-20 reps with the primary goal of building muscle for aesthetic purposes above all else.

If you’re familiar with the term hypertrophy, you know that this is the name of the game for every serious bodybuilder - size and shreds at all costs.

But first, I want to make it clear that I don’t think you have to identify as a bodybuilder to train like a bodybuilder, and you certainly don’t have to be a competitive bodybuilder to train like a bodybuilder.

I wouldn't even have identified as a bodybuilder when I trained exclusively for hypertrophy from May 2019 through August 2021 because it simply wasn’t something I embraced as a part of my identity.

So when you see bodybuilding language being used in this article, remember that it just refers to that style of training, which is honestly what most normal people seem to do when they go to the gym to lift weights.

For example, they hit three sets of barbell bench press and then three sets of machine incline bench. Then they move on to a shoulder press and a few tricep movements to finish off their session with a skin-splitting pump and a quick flex in the mirror on their way back to the locker room.

Does this sound familiar?

In other words, most bodybuilders train with a particular training split in mind, which means they target specific muscle groups on specific days of the week (in most cases).

This is one of the main differences between bodybuilding and CrossFit.

Some of the most common training splits are:

• Push, Pull, Legs, Push, Pull, Legs, Rest

• Legs, Push, Pull, Rest, Legs, Rest, Arms

• Upper, Lower, Rest, Upper, Lower, Rest, Rest

• Full Body, Full Body, Rest, Full Body, Full Body, Rest, Rest

Mike Thurston, bodybuilder

To represent the bodybuilding side of the “argument” in this article, I’ve chosen to feature Mike Thurston, who has been one of my favorite fitness influencers for years.

And although Mike Thurston has often been accused of using performance enhancing drugs, he claims to be a drug-free bodybuilder (and I choose to believe him despite the rising intensity of the “natty witch hunt” movement).

For that reason, I think he's a great example of just about "as good as it can get" when it comes to training purely for physique outcomes.

So maybe consider his build as you continue reading about the bodybuilding side of things.

What does it mean to train like a CrossFitter?

CrossFit, for the purposes of this conversation, probably means that you actually go to a CrossFit gym and do their daily workouts usually called WODs or metcons.

You could maybe loop a more general circuit-like training style into this, but I'd rather not. It's just not the same, and I think we should keep CrossFit distinct from other training systems that might seem similar like Orangetheory or F45.

So for the purposes of this article, let’s assume that training like a serious CrossFitter is the dedicated equivalent of training like a serious bodybuilder.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with CrossFit, I think CrossFit is unique from bodybuilding in two distinct ways:

Noah Ohlsen, CrossFitter

1. True fitness is the goal of CrossFit - not aesthetics. And what’s important to remember here is that fitness refers to one’s ability to perform as much work as possible as efficiently as possible. What I mean here is that it’s not just about looking fit, which is a huge misconception in the fitness industry. While most people might agree that bodybuilders look fit, the truth is that most of them would struggle to post a respectable mile run time or even sprint 100 meters without straining a hamstring. And this isn’t meant to be an unfair dig at bodybuilders. Running in any capacity isn’t a primary component of what it means to be a bodybuilder.

2. CrossFitters don’t have training splits. In fact, one of the fundamental principles of CrossFit is known as The Hopper Model, which states that all-around fitness can be tested by pulling random fitness activities out of a bingo-like machine. For example, if you had 10 athletes looking to compete for the title of fittest of them all, you could pull out 10 random bingo balls with workouts on them and see who had the most impressive average performance. These workouts, however, would encompass a wide range of physical tasks: a max deadlift, a mile run, a couplet of pull-ups and overhead barbell presses for time, etc. The winner, in this case, would be the athlete who could perform the greatest variety of fitness exercises as well as possible. Because of this, CrossFit programming is about training in a way that best prepares you for the unknown. In other words, you won’t see CrossFitters doing bodybuilding splits. Instead, most of their training combines physical tasks in the categories of strength, gymnastics, and aerobic or anaerobic output (usually in the form of running, biking, rowing, or swimming).

Pictured above is Noah Ohlsen - one of my favorite physiques in the CrossFit space. Maybe think about him as you read about CrossFit and its perks.

He has finished in the top ten of the CrossFit Games seven times since 2014 and is frequently mentioned in conversations surrounding the “nastiest CrossFit physiques.”

Katrin Davidsdottir, CrossFitter

In both cases, I’ve tried to pick athletes who represent the cream of the crop for each of their respective sports.

And then obviously there are female representations as well, but I've decided not to go browsing the internet too intensely for women in minimal clothing, so you might have to do some of your own research for female physiques.

But for guidance you could Google "Gymshark chicks" "or “bikini competitors” for the bodybuildling/physique piece and then maybe Tia Toomey, Brook Wells, or Danielle Brandon for the CrossFit piece.

Pictured here is Katrin Davidsdottir, who won the CrossFit games in 2015 and 2016.

GENERAL BENEFITS OF BODYBUILDING

Keep in mind that the focus of this article is on which training modality is better for living a lean life - not necessarily which one is better all around.

But I've decided to start with a broader list of benefits of bodybuilding when compared to CrossFit to help people understand the bigger picture:

1. You can sculpt your physique more intentionally. So if aesthetics, symmetry, and shape are the most important things for you, this training methodology probably wins out. The most common example of this is probably women who want bigger glutes or men who want a bigger chest or bigger arms. CrossFit could certainly help with that, but a bodybuilding training style would be much more appropriate for a specific goal like bringing up a specific body part.

2. You're probably less likely to get injured, but it's no guarantee. I would just personally say it's less likely because the movements are generally less explosive, but some might disagree. You can hyperextend your knee on a leg press and fold in half like a piece of cheese just like you can tweak your back at CrossFit doing a heavy deadlift. And the only sense in which this injury piece has anything to do with getting and staying lean is that it’s hard to maintain an impressive physique as a wounded soldier.

3. Your workouts will be significantly easier in a "cardio sense" if you train like a bodybuilder. In other words, you never really get out of breath or feel like your lungs are going to explode. Some people really hate that feeling, so I think this is a notable perk for the bodybuilding camp.

4. You don't have to be athletic to train like a bodybuilder. While CrossFit might have you jumping onto boxes, running, and doing ring muscle-ups, bodybuilding is mostly about staying in fixed positions and focusing on a maximal mind-muscle connection.

GENERAL Benefits of CrossFit

On the other hand, I think the general benefits of CrossFit when compared to bodybuilding are:

1. Getting leaner and stronger happens fairly thoughtlessly if you show up consistently and continue to challenge yourself. That elimination of thought-fatigue is enormously important in my opinion. Most people already have enough to think about. Do you really want to have to design your own optimal diet and training program for glute hypertrophy?

2. You get to eat more food than bodybuilders and physique-minded people, which can have major lifestyle implications for people who don’t have the time or energy to be obsessing over food scales and precise macronutrient targets. Why? Bodybuilding doesn’t burn very many calories when compared to CrossFit workouts.

3. You actually get to take home a bit of fitness with your vanity. As amazing as some bodybuilders look externally, their aesthetic appearance is the extent of their “fitness.” CrossFit focuses on physical fitness above all else, which allows physique improvements to be byproduct of the greater goal. I think this has powerful psychological implications for people who want to be leaner and more muscular but are tired of being told to focus on “being in caloric deficit.”

Now that we’ve discussed the broader benefits of bodybuilding and CrossFit, which is better for living a lean, muscular life?

which one is better for a lean, muscular life?

Steve Cook, bodybuilder and fitness model

If your sole goal is to live lean life while looking like a Greek god or goddess, bodybuilding is going to better because it’s a more appropriate training methodology for your specific goal.

But a major caveat here is that it requires a level of discipline in the gym and the kitchen that most people are incapable of embracing.

For example, are you really going to make time to train 5-6 times per week for 60-90 minutes? Are you really going to hit 20 sets of quads taken within a few reps of mechanical failure? Are you really going to periodize seasons of cutting and bulking with specific macros and calories targets to accompany your goal?

Maybe! But maybe not.

For a lot of people, that level of self-responsibility and ownership just isn't realistic. They don't have the drive or the ambition or the time or the energy.

For that reason, I think CrossFit is better in terms of living that lean, muscular life that so many people seem to desire.

But let me be clear here about what I’m saying so you can understand the nuance.

In a vacuum, I think bodybuilding is better for overall aesthetics. But in real life, I think CrossFit is a better training system for longterm body recomposition.

In other words, if I had it my way, I would encourage everyone with a fat loss goal to start doing CrossFit over bodybuilding with the supervision of a weight loss specialist like me.

Why?

Firstly, bodybuilding just can't hold a candle to the time-effectiveness of CrossFit.

Christian Harris, CrossFitter

With CrossFit, you show up, get your bum kicked and lungs torched in less than an hour, and you go home having gotten a great stimulus for muscle growth and having burned a ton of calories in most cases.

This also leaves more grace for imperfect eating habits that bodybuilding folks don't get. In other words, you might be able to "get away with" training hard 4-5 times per week at your CrossFit gym while pretty much eating what you want within reason.

Does this mean you get to eat pizza and ice cream every night and be shredded?

No. It just means you can probably eat mostly whole foods to satiety and enjoy occasional (or even frequent treats) while staying respectably lean and in good health.

Secondly, most people are clueless when it comes to structuring a muscle-building workout (much less an entire cycle of evidence-based hypertrophy training) and lack the discipline required to execute that workout plan consistently.

In this case, the insurmountable benefits of CrossFit (in my opinion) are:

• The reduced thought fatigue of knowing the workout is already written for you.

  • All you have to do is show up and give your best effort.

• The accountability of a coach and other athletes in the class.

So, at the end of the day, I think it’s less of a question of which is “better” in an absolute sense and more of a question of which is “better” for you and your life.

Both bodybuilding and CrossFit can lead people toward leaner body compositions that boost health and confidence.

Ask yourself the following:

Which one do you enjoy more and which one can you see yourself doing sustainably?

If that’s bodybuilding, train like a bodybuilder.

If that’s CrossFit, train like a CrossFitter.

It just might be that simple.

What am I currently doing?

Right now, I'm blending both bodybuilding and CrossFit training concepts, but the majority of my training is centered around 5-6 CrossFit workouts per week.

Before or after those days, I do strength work primarily in the front squat, squat, and overhead press because improving my strength is a personal goal of mine.

Beyond that, I'm hitting extra bicep and side delt volume to help boost areas of my physique that I enjoy being more pronounced for aesthetic purposes.

In terms of how much I weigh, how lean I am, and how much I’m eating, I tend to hover around 190 pounds while eating about between 3,500-4,000 calories per day at somewhere between 12-15% body fat (according to the best body fat scan technology I have access to).

Why am I doing this?

This unique blend of training modalities is what most accurately reflects my personal values at this point in my life.

Personally, I value my overall physical fitness over my aesthetic appearance (which wasn’t always the case), and CrossFit is a much better lifestyle fit for me than bodybuilding.

It allows me to “eat in abundance” and “train like a freak,” which is personal motto of mine. I eat more than twice I used to eat as a bodybuilder, and I frequently enjoy 21-inch pizzas, toddler-sized burritos, Oreos, and red wine.

For me, nothing could be better, but I encourage everyone to make that choice for themselves.

Summary

• Bodybuilding will probably be better for anyone whose goal of being lean is driven by aesthetics above all else. While CrossFit will help you lose fat and build muscle, bodybuilding principles (when applied properly) will yield better aesthetic outcomes over time in most cases.

• CrossFit might be better for people who don’t have the time, energy, or ambition to write their own workouts and show up the gym consistently on their own accord.

• CrossFit might also be better for anyone who isn’t interested in looking like a Greek sculpture. There are plenty of people who just want to lose some weight, gain some muscle, and look and feel more confident in their clothes.

• I personally think CrossFit is a more practical approach for most people, but you can certainly live a lean, muscular life training like a bodybuilder as well.

• I am currently doing 5-6 CrossFit workouts per week while supplementing with some strength and hypertrophy work because it reflects my goals and values.

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As always, I really enjoyed writing this article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to a friend.

Until next time,

-Andrew

6 Fat Loss Tips for People Who Work Sedentary Jobs

For many of us, quarantine dramatically reduced the amount of physical activity we were able to perform on a daily basis.

At one point we were literally restricted to confines of our homes, and many of us shifted from working in a traditional office setting to working from our spare bedrooms.

And none of this was our fault.

Unfortunately, our bodies didn't care that it wasn't our fault, and a lot of us put on unwanted body fat due to the reduced amount of daily walking and increased amount of couch-sitting we all did while surfing through every streaming platform known to mankind instead of doing literally anything that would have required us to take an active step out the front door.

But there’s a silver lining.

Now that the evil forces of the “it-who-must-not-be-named” virus of 2020 have mostly been subdued, our freedoms to go here and there and anywhere seem to be reinstated, which means…

Everyone who got pudgy during the pandemic now has the resources they need to improve their body composition.

The only problem?

Some of us are still working highly sedentary remote jobs, which can absolutely be a legitimate obstacle for anyone looking to lose body fat and reveal a harder, leaner physique.

And, of course, this applies to anyone who works a sedentary job whether it’s in-person or remote.

So here are my personal tips for losing body fat if you work from home or sit on your butt elsewhere all day at work.

6 Fat Loss Tips for People Who Work Sedentary Jobs

1. Acknowledge that you're at a BIT OF A disadvantage.

As much as it may stink, the person who walks 15,000 steps per day due to their naturally active lifestyle or vocation (like a construction worker or a landscaper) is going to have an easier time staying lean than the office job guys and gals.

Okay, it stinks.

Now let's move on and quit lamenting an unchanging reality.

If you've got a desk job, you're at a contextual disadvantage, but...

Remember that energy balance always matters most for fat loss.

If that term is new to you, don’t worry.

Energy balance just refers to the laws of thermodynamics that state that you lose weight when you consume fewer calories than you expend. This is the classic “calories in versus calories out” discussion.

So what’s the implication?

You can still lose fat while working a sedentary job, but you’re going to have to be more cautious with your caloric intake than someone whose lifestyle allows them to be more active.

Once you embrace that small disadvantage, you’ll be able to start implementing new habits that fit the specificity of your own unique situation.

2. Get creative about squeezing walks into your day.

Even though plenty of us are working from home now, it’s always an option to be more creative and disciplined when it comes to finding ways to be active.

For example, could you get up early each morning and take a lap or two around the block while listening to a podcast before you settle into your home office?

Is there a Zoom call you need to be "on for" but not visible? Maybe you could walk outside with ear buds while on mute.

Are you a stay-at-home mom? Try to implement family walks and neighborhood adventures to the park a part of the daily routine.

The key is to be creative and solution-oriented when it comes to minimizing the negative effects of a primarily sedentary lifestyle.

3. Come to terms with the reality that your caloric deficit might need to come MOSTLY through a reduction in caloric intake.

Unless you’re able to carve out a ton of time during your day for exercise, it's highly likely that you're going to have to get into a caloric deficit primarily through a reduction in caloric intake instead of an increase in activity.

If you love food, that might not be the most fun in the world, but it might be an unavoidable conclusion if you’re serious about pawning off your spare tire for a slimmer waistline.

On the brighter side, bodybuilders and other physique competitors have been doing this for decades, so can know at the very least that you’re in good (and lean) company.

But what if you really don’t want to reduce your caloric intake?

Firstly, I hear you. I absolutely love eating, so I’ve opted to be the “do more eat more” guy instead of the “do less eat less” guy.

And to this point, remember that you always have the option of adding in more activity in order to eat a bit more food throughout the day.

However, the reality for most people working sedentary jobs is that there just might not be enough time in your day to walk, jog, bike, or row for 45-60 minutes.

Nonetheless, keep in mind that you always have three options when it comes to kickstarting a fat loss effort:

1. Eat fewer calories,

2. Exercise more,

3. Or implement a sneaky combination of both.

In terms of eating fewer calories, you’d probably be best-suited to prioritize lean proteins, voluminous "health foods" like leafy greens, an assortment of unique vegetables and fruits, whole grains, beans, and healthier fats like avocados, nuts, and seeds.

In terms of exercising more, I always encourage people to walk more because it can be done anywhere, it’s free, and it’s easy.

If you wanted to incorporate a bit of both, you could make one of the following example adjustments to get your fat loss journey started:

• Idea 1: “I’m going to set a timer for 20 minutes each morning and walk through my neighborhood during that time. And I’m going to institute a one-plate-and-done rule at dinner. No seconds! Just one well-portioned plate.”

• Idea 2: “I’m going to set an alarm for 11 AM, 1 PM, and 3PM. Each time the alarm goes off, I’m going to walk to the end of the street and back to move my body. And I’m going to swap my two daily sodas for sparkling waters.”

Lastly, this is great time to mention that intermittent fasting can be a powerful strategy for at-home workers.

4. Ditch (or redefine) your snack life.

Arguably the worst temptation of working from home is that your pantry is taunting you from a scalable distance of 20 feet at all times.

So firstly, don't even have that stuff in the house if you really want to set yourself up for success.

Because let’s be honest. It’s unlikely that any of your favorite high-calorie snacks like cheese puffs and Oreos have your top-notch pool bod in mind.

But if you can muster the discipline required to enjoy snacks in moderation, you might consider setting some basic parameters on your snacking habits.

For example, “I don’t snack until 7 PM, but then I allow myself one serving of my snack of choice as a small dessert.”

In most cases, you’ll be able to make room in your diet for one small treat per day like two Oreos or a small bag of Goldfish.

Or you could completely redefine what it means to snack altogether by reaching for apples instead of cookies.

All in all, the key is not to snack mindlessly during the day simply because you’re bored or you happened to walk by the pantry in a moment of weakness.

Snack strategically, and remember that portion control is always important.

5. Push for active hangouts with your friends.

For physique-minded people, it can be discouraging that our most common hangouts in life revolve around foods and drinks that tend to promote caloric overconsumption.

The classic combination?

Pizza and beer.

In an attempt to redirect the narrative a bit, try catching your friends on the front end of a social idea by suggesting an active hangout like walking downtown or going on a hike.

Or maybe you could even invest in a relationship one-on-one simply by having walking dates at a park or anywhere nearby that allows you to get moving.

Better yet? Make it a weekly or biweekly thing.

“On Mondays at 3 PM, I walk with my co-worker Mary around the parking lot for 30 minutes, and every other Friday I walk with an old friend from high school around a nearby lake in the morning before work.”

I've had several clients find both fat loss success and relational meaning in this methodology.

Again, it comes down to being intentional, creative, and disciplined.

6. Experiment with traditional cardio on the incline treadmill or the StairMaster.

I couldn't write an article about this without saying it, but there's no shame in using a machine to help you reach your goals!

If the weather is terrible, don't be Mr. or Mrs. Well It's Raining.

Stop being silly.

Go to the gym and hop on the machine that forces you to walk lest you fall on your face and become a raging, viral TikTok at the expense of your all-but-hardly-remaining dignity.

And if you're really sick and tired of being tubby? Get on the StairMaster.

I actually made an entire video about the StairMaster and how you could leverage it for your fat loss goals, and - spoiler alert - it works if you can survive.

BONUS TIP: CONSIDER HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING OR SOMETHING SIMILAR like crossfit.

Truthfully, I think the best way to combat the negative side effects of working a sedentary job is to start doing CrossFit (or something similar).

But before you write me and my ideas off forever because “CrossFit'“ is a death cult for ego-driven masochists who promote improper technique, let me explain myself.

The beautiful thing about CrossFit is that it forces you to burn a lot of calories in a very short amount of time.

As wonderful as walking is, it takes much longer to burn the same number of calories from walking as it does training in a CrossFit-like manner.

In short, CrossFit is a quick and effective way to burn a lot of calories while placing your body under the stress of heavy loads and unique planes of resistance, which over time leads to increased muscle growth and a more muscular looking physique overall assuming proper overload, diet, and recovery.

More specifically, I think this is particularly good idea for busy people who work sedentary jobs because it ticks both the “lift weights” and “improve your heart health” boxes all in one workout experience.

Plus, most CrossFitters wind up looking pretty jacked over time despite the sport’s focus on fitness over pure aesthetics.

But keep in mind too that you don’t have to do CrossFit to reap these same benefits.

You could adopt a CrossFit-like training style in your own garage with minimal equipment if you’re put off by the price of joining a local CrossFit gym, or you could join a gym with a similar fitness model like Orangetheory.

I just personally think CrossFit (when done well) is superior due to the more advanced weight lifting components than many other gyms fail to incorporate.

Summary

• Working a sedentary job for 40 hours a week does put you at a slight disadvantage when compared to fat loss friends with more active jobs simply due to a lack of caloric expenditure, but…

• Fat loss can always be achieved through a strategic reduction in caloric intake, which means there’s hope for all sedentary workers regardless of how much time you have (or don’t have) to exercise.

• Intermittent fasting can be an excellent dietary strategy for sedentary workers.

• It’s a good idea to eliminate or heavily monitor your snacking habits if you’re looking to lose body fat. Or, start making healthy snacking swaps like trading in your Doritos for clementines.

• When it’s time to hangout with your friends, try to direct your crew toward an active hangout like walking or hiking.

• For those who have the time, don’t be afraid to hit the gym after work just to crank out 15-45 minutes on the incline treadmill or the StairMaster.

• If you’re really looking to combat the negative aspects of a sedentary job, consider joining a CrossFit gym or trying Orangetheory as a time effective way to slash a ton of calories and build strength all at once.

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As always, I really enjoyed writing this article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to someone in your life who might be living the desk job life and struggling to keep their weight under control.

Until next time,

-Andrew

4 Big Mistakes to Avoid for Improving Your Body Composition

If you’re committed to improving your body composition by losing body fat and gaining muscle, there are a few big mistakes you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

In this article, I’ve chosen to highlight four of them.

1 - You’re Being Inconsistent with Your Caloric Intake

Being inconsistent with your caloric intake tops the list because calories are king for fat loss, which means…

You don't have to lift weights to lose fat.

You don't have to run to lose fat.

You don't have to go to group fitness classes to lose fat.

You don't even have to walk to lose fat.

You also don’t have to give up pizza or beer.

But you do have to be in a calorie deficit, which means you can always look to a calorie-controlled diet for fat loss. That one is non-negotiable.

So if you're screwing around with your caloric intake due to a lack of discipline by eating 2,000 calories on Monday, a random 1,400 calories on Thursday because "life got busy," and then 4,000+ on Friday through Sunday because #theweekend, there's a very small chance you're going to be able to make any systematic or sustainable progress toward that lean, hard-body look.

I know a lot of "fitness people" like me like to shy away from saying the hard truths sometimes, but I really think you're wasting your time if you can't find a way to get consistent with your calories.

Do you have to be perfect? Of course not.

In fact, the “perfect” diet doesn’t exist.

But there should be some semblance of consistency when it comes to your dietary pattern if you want reliable results.

Side note: Don’t be the guy or gal who says, “Oh, my diet is consistent alright! I have three Cokes every day and three beers every night like clockwork!”

I’m encouraging you to consistently eat mostly whole foods in modest portions - not excessive amounts of ultra-processed junk foods.

In my opinion, one good way of gauging how consistent your caloric consumption is on a daily basis is to see how well you can answer the question, “So what’s a normal day of eating look like for you?”

If your answer is something like, “I almost always have oatmeal or a smoothie for breakfast. Lunch is usually a tofu salad or a tofu sandwich. And then I usually have some kind of pasta dish for dinner with vegetables. And if I need a snack I tend to grab a piece of fruit or enjoy some peanut butter toast,” then you’re probably doing great.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that you have to be eating those exact foods, I’m just making the point that it’s probably a good sign if you can speak to that question with specificity and rhythm.

In other words, if you eat similar foods or genres of foods in similar daily patterns, there’s a good chance that you’re being adequately consistent with your caloric consumption.

But if you stumble through that question awkwardly because it depends on the leftovers selection in the office refrigerator and whether your significant other bought Twinkies or Nutty Bars that particular week, your dietary pattern might be worthy of reconsideration if you’re really trying to hone in on that lean, hard-body look.

More specifically, f your goal is lose body fat right away, you’ll need to consistently eat a bit less than your current metabolic needs. If your goal is to gain muscle right away, in most cases you’d be best to consistently eat a bit more than your current metabolic needs.

In either case, consistency in context of your caloric consumption when applied strategically to your specific goal is paramount for successful and sustainable fat loss and muscle gain.

So what’s the main takeaway here?

Make sure you’ve tailored your caloric consumption toward a specific goal and then actually consume that number of calories consistently (even if you’re not tracking them meticulously).

2 - You're Not Eating Enough Protein

The path to improving your body shape in a noticeable way is littered with unexpected difficulties, unwanted plateaus, and lots of demanding training sessions, muscle soreness, and a high level of discipline in both the gym and the kitchen.

Why make it any harder by skimping on your protein intake?

That's always the question I bounce around in my noggin when people push back on the amount of protein I recommend that they consume on a daily basis.

Firstly, know that my protein recommendations aren’t unique or unreasonable.

If anything, they’re much lower than the recommendations of popular experts in the fields of bodybuilding and physique enhancement in that I commonly encourage people to aim for 0.7g of protein per pound of lean body mass.

High-protein black bean pasta

For many, this will seem very low compared to the ultra high-protein diets touted by many, but it’s a position I’m happy to stand by.

In fact, I’ve even updated the original content of this very article to better convey my current opinion on protein consumption, which is…

That you need an adequate amount for muscle growth and nothing more.

I used to be of the opinion that protein was the “most important” macronutrient for a body recomposition goal because it:

• Maintains and builds new muscle tissue

• Tends to satiate us more than other foods, which can lead to improved diet adherence

• Has the highest thermic effect of food which means it requires more energy for your body to burn

But now I find that position to be narrow-minded and a bit heedless in context of a bigger body recomposition picture that includes that importance of carbohydrates and fats.

I might compare it to being asked what is the “most important” feature of a car: the engine, the wheels, or the steering mechanisms.

It doesn’t take most people too long to realize that the question is nearly impossible to answer because…

All of those features provide essential value to the overall function of the vehicle.

In this particular example, I think most people would be tempted to think of protein as the engine because it seems to come first in the chain events.

In other words, being able to turn on the engine seems like the “most important” thing because the car can’t go anywhere without the ignition.

At the same time, it won’t do you much good to have the engine running if your car is sitting on cement blocks without wheels or tires.

And, of course, something similar could be said of sliding into the driver’s seat to find yourself without a steering wheel (even though you’re smuggling 500 HP under the hood with a fresh set of tires that would make even the Michelin man blush).

In some sense, everything works synergistically toward the same goal of moving from Point A to Point B, which I how I feel about the relationship between protein, carbohydrates, and fats when it comes to trading in unwanted body fat for lean tissue.

So what’s my point?

Protein is important in the sense that you need an adequate amount to support muscle growth, but healthy carbohydrates and fats are important too (not to mention fiber).

That being said, the focus of this segment of the article is to make sure you’re eating at least 0.7g of protein per pound of lean body mass.

Once you have that in place, you can focus intensely on the quality of your training.

3 - Your Training Style Isn’t Conducive for Muscle Growth

This is a big one for obvious reasons.

If your goal is to lose body fat and build muscle but you aren’t training in a way that supports fat loss or muscle growth, what are you doing?

To be fair, I sincerely believe that most people don’t know any better.

They assume that all kinds of training methods can build muscle, but this is a classic point of confusion between general health, fitness, and “looking hot.”

To spare you the nuance, this is what you need to know in two brief points:

• Lots of training methods are good for building some muscle, but some are much better than others.

  • I think the lowest hanging piece of fruit here is the infamous group cardio class.

    • Need a mental picture? Picture 15-20 men and women in a room with a bunch of mirrors doing half-burpees, half-lunges, and shoulder presses with pink dumbbells. And I’ll admit I feel a bit dirty for positioning it so poorly, but group cardio classes strike a sensitive nerve in my body recomposition brain because they just don’t work very well if your goal is to look lean and muscular, (which is an extremely important caveat).

    • If your goal is improved general health and fitness, knock yourself out! I couldn’t be more supportive of group cardio classes for people with non-aesthetic goals. You’re just very unlikely to see meaningful improvements in your physique by going to “gen pop” group cardio classes.

  • Other examples could be boxing, yoga, or spin classes.

    • All by themselves, they just aren’t going to build you any impressive amount of muscle. Will they help you lose fat, build a small amount of muscle, improve your mobility, and boost your heart health? Yes! But you probably won’t be looking markedly jacked and lean at the pool.

      • Side note: If you’re currently reading this an enthusiast of one of these training methods or fitness activities, please don’t be offended! I love and appreciate exercise of all kinds, but the focus of this article is on how to avoid mistakes for drastically improving your body composition through added muscle mass and decreased body fat.

    • Lastly, if you love boxing or yoga but you want to be more jacked too, just added resistance training into your routine, which brings me to my second point.

• You grow muscle best by weight training within a few reps of technical failure mostly in the 6-20 rep range.

  • Really, this is the advice you need to take to the bank and cash-in on.

  • Lift heavy with as many sets as you can recover from as often as possible while getting modestly stronger over time.

So what’s the point here?

Make sure your training methodology is known for producing the physique you’re personally looking to achieve.

4 - You Let Small Obstacles Get In Your Way

One of my favorite mottos with regard to losing body fat is not to let perfection become the enemy of progress, and I mean that sincerely.

Perfection when it comes to dieting for any body recomposition goal is largely a fallacy, but I also think it's important not to give yourself too much grace.

And here I go putting myself at risk of being canceled…

Stick with me for a moment.

In my personal opinion, grace is really good thing to give freely in life. Your spouse needs grace, your friends need grace, and you need grace.

I need grace.

But, there's a difference between giving ourselves grace in moments of true need and making excuses for not doing what needs to be done.

For example, if you're a mother of three and one of your workouts has to be moved because your youngest comes down with a fever and needs some motherly attention, that seems like a legitimate reason to give yourself grace to miss that workout, love and care for your child well, and make plans to do that workout tomorrow instead.

But here is a quick list of three excuses I could see people making.

Are you ready for a series of hot takes?

"All I had on me was a protein bar, so I had to get fast food for lunch."

• First of all, a protein bar is a great option in a pinch! What's wrong with eating a protein bar?

• Secondly, the language here says a lot. You "had" to get fast food for lunch. No, you didn't. You were not the victim of the universe here - you just made a decision that valued your immediate comfort and preference over your body recomposition goal.

• I’m not trying to rip this person’s head off, but this is classic example of an “excuses mentality.”

"I'm having a hard time meeting my step goal on Mondays because The Bachelor comes on at 7PM."

• Girl, I watch the Bachelor too! You just need to plan accordingly. As far as I know, the Bachelor comes on at 7PM every week without surprise. Get up early. Stay up late. Snag 2,000 steps over your lunch hour. Get it done, you know? That's much more of an excuse to me than a legitimate reason to be set back.

"I didn't get groceries this week so my protein has been way off."

• Dude, go to the store! There is such a simple solution here. At the same time, I know what it's like to run out of groceries and be in a pinch when it comes to needing a high-protein meal.

• Me personally? I consider it self-imposed “punishment” for poor planning and laziness, so I'll make myself go buy a nice, protein-dense meal. For me, this usually means hopping over to Chipotle.

Long story short, I find that the people who are constantly eager to let relatively insignificant obstacles knock them off track are the ones who have a hard time achieving their body recomposition goals.

Does it mean you're wasting your time? Not necessarily. But I think it's worth a look in the mirror and asking yourself, "What are we doing here? Are we doing this or not?"

Summary

Firstly, please do your best not to be offended by this article. My intention is purely to help and never to harm, but I’ve been known to have a direct tone at times.

I'm just speaking to trends I’ve seen anecdotally among unsuccessful people: the people who lose 20 pounds and then gain back 30, the people who bounce from fad diet to fad diet, or even the people who mean well but just can't get their habits and behavior in check for long enough to see a difference.

The solution to avoiding all of these things?

Do your best to take extreme ownership of yourself, your lifestyle, your journey, and your results.

In summary, here are the four big mistakes I referenced in this article:

• Avoid being wildly inconsistent with your calories. The key to both losing fat and gaining muscle is eating a strategic amount of food tailored toward a specific goal.

• Avoid eating an inadequate amount of protein. In most cases, it will be more the sufficient to consume 0.7g of protein per pound of lean body mass.

• Don’t make the mistake of picking a primary training methodology that doesn’t support your goal of losing fat and building muscle. Resistance training usually produces the “best” and “most attractive” physical results.

• Don’t make unnecessary excuses for not doing the things you need to do to achieve your goal.

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I really enjoyed writing this article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to someone in your life who finds body recomposition banter just as entertaining as you do.

Until next time,

-Andrew

How to Use Single-Day Fasting to Lose Fat and Build Muscle

You guys remember when Zoolander dropped in 2001 and Will Ferrell’s Mugatu character couldn’t stop obsessing over Hansel’s hotness?

That’s how I feel about fasting right now in the fitness industry.

Some people think it’s an amazing dietary strategy to help with fat loss (and sometimes even muscle gain) while others believe it’s suboptimal to having more consistent protein feedings across the day in order to maximize muscle protein synthesis.

Some people will tell you it improves insulin sensitivity and boosts natural testosterone levels while others would lead you to believe that it’s putting you at risk of muscle loss.

So which is it?

And why does it always feel like the fitness industry is exploding with conflicting claims?

These are good questions, which I hope to address (in part) in this article.

Here’s what you can expect:

• I’m going to avoid speaking about any health benefits of fasting outside of weight loss in order to respect my scope of practice. In other words, I’m not going to be taking a position on whether fasting can help us live longer lives or improve our hormone profiles.

  • So as for all of that insulin sensitivity and testosterone talk, you won’t see me addressing those claims (even though I find them fascinating and worthy of your own independent exploration).

• Instead, I’m going to tell you how to use fasting simply as a form of caloric restriction to help you improve your body composition primarily through fat loss.

• I’m going to provide practical examples of how I’ve used single-day fasting in my own body recomposition effort.

• I’m going to outline the advantages of single-day fasting when compared to other more traditional forms of caloric restriction.

How to Use Single-Day “Semi-Fasting” to Improve Your Body Composition

Although there are several ways to use fasting to improve your body composition, I’m going to focus the attention of this particular article on one specific strategy, which is…

Single-day fasting.

In other words, I think a lot of people would benefit from fasting for one entire day a week.

Sound crazy?

Maybe in context of our modern dietary patterns, but keep in mind that our modern dietary patterns have led 42% of people into a life of obesity, which is why I think a creative reconsideration of our eating habits surrounding the idea of sustainable body composition improvement is a very good idea.

So what’s up with not eating for an entire day? How is that supposed to help anyone with a body recomposition goal?

Simply put, it’s a very basic way of reducing your weekly caloric consumption.

In short, it helps you get into a caloric deficit to help you lose body fat.

We really don’t need to make it any more complicated than that, but we’ll dive into a bit more nuance in the following section.

That being said, if fasting for an entire day seems daunting and overwhelming, you could easily modify your strategy by fasting through the majority of the day and then enjoying one large, nutritionally-dense meal for dinner.

This is what I personally refer to as “semi-fasting” but only in the sense that you’re fasting for most of the day instead of complete 24-hour period. I understand that you can’t technically “semi-fast,” so take that terminology with a grain of salt.

Ultimately, it would be better described as a very low-calorie day relative to one’s normal intake.

When I do this myself, I usually have an 800-1,000-calorie smoothie packed with greens, plant-based protein powder, berries, bananas, nuts, and seeds around 5PM.

Or I might opt for an enormous tofu salad with a plethora of leafy greens drizzled in tahini and sprinkled with hemp hearts and walnuts.

The objective (for me) is simply to eat one nutritionally-dense meal with plenty of protein, which makes smoothies and salads great options given how easy it can be to pack them full of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and lean proteins like protein powders or soy products.

What I like about this modified idea is that I never have to go to bed hungry, but I can still reap the benefits of a restricted eating window.

And, of course, eating once per day tends to be much easier to adhere to (for most people) than an overnight fast.

In fact, this modified “semi-fasting” approach is what you will see illustrated in the upcoming examples as I have applied it to my own lifestyle (as opposed to a full day of fasting).

Why might a SINGLE-day weekly “SEMI-fast” help with fat loss?

As I mentioned briefly above, there doesn’t seem to be anything “magical” about fasting when it comes to losing body fat other than that it serves as a very simple way of reducing your overall intake.

But I think another underrated benefit of single-day “semi-fasting” is that it helps you start thinking of your caloric deficit in the context of one week instead of a single day.

In fact, this is what I do with all of my fat loss clients and it's why things like carb cycling and high/low approaches work for bodybuilders.

As long as the caloric math makes sense at the end of the week, the fat loss is always systematic and exciting.

For example, you may have heard that 3,500 calories equal roughly one pound of body fat.

So, if you can get yourself into a 500-calorie daily deficit, you'll be cruising toward about one pound of fat loss per week because 500 calories multiplied by 7 days equals 3,500 calories.

Boom. Math, right?

But sometimes people get too caught up in the "24-hour-ness" of it all.

In other words, people focus too much on that 500-calorie daily deficit when they could be acting more strategically on a behalf of a 3,500-calorie weekly deficit.

I’ll use myself as an example here.

If my maintenance calories are around 3,300 calories right now, we could say that a daily intake of 2,800 calories might lead to approximately one pound of fat loss per week based on the math we just discussed.

Because of that, I could structure my weekly (non-fasting) eating pattern like this:

Standard static Weekly Calorie Example

The standard static example would look like this:

• Monday: 2,800 calories

• Tuesday: 2,800 calories

• Wednesday: 2,800 calories

• Thursday: 2,800 calories

• Friday: 2,800 calories

• Saturday: 2,800 calories

• Sunday: 2,800 calories

As you can see, this is simply the “eat the same number of calories everyday” approach that many people ascribe to for the sake of consistency and routine.

But a one-day “semi-fasting” example could allow you to eat more during the week while eating much less just once per weekend.

This is cool because you could choose to eat more carbohydrates to bolster your weekday workouts knowing you can rest up and eat less (or nothing) on Sunday.

Here is an example of what that could look like (and what I often do):

One-Day “Semi-Fast” Weekly Calorie Example

• Monday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Tuesday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Wednesday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Thursday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Friday, 3,100 calories (+300)

• Saturday: 3,100 calories (+300)

• Sunday: 1,000 calories (-1,800)

In this example, limiting myself to just 1,000 calories on Sunday allows me to eat an extra 300 calories on each of those other six days per week. Keep in mind too that those +300 calories in parentheses are relative to the deficit, which means this entire week of eating is still designed for fat loss.

Three hundred calories may not seem like much, but that's an extra PB&J and a glass of almond milk that you could apply to a important pre or post-workout meal.

But again, this is just one way to do it.

If you really want to be a Level 1000 Fat Loss Ninja, you could nuance your daily caloric intake even further by biasing your calories toward your most intense workouts or even planned, higher-calorie social occasions while utilizing single-day fasting over the weekend.

Check out what I mean in the following example:

Level 1000 Fat Loss Ninja Weekly Calorie Example featuring a One-Day Semi-Fast

• Monday: 3,400 calories for a nasty leg day because you want that peach (+600)

• Tuesday: 3,100 calories for an upper body day (+300)

• Wednesday: 2,800 calories for a rest day (0)

• Thursday: 3,100 calories for a normal leg day (+300)

• Friday: 3,400 calories because pizza with the boys (+600)

• Saturday: 2,800 calories because math (0)

• Sunday: 1,000 calories (-1,800)

Do you have to make it this complicated? Of course not.

I just want to illustrate that you have the freedom to do so if you like the idea of heavily nuancing your caloric consumption based on fluctuations in your training routine and lifestyle overall.

All three of these options add up to 19,600 calories per week, which means the fat loss in each situation would be almost identical while all other factors remain equal.

Pretty cool, yeah?

You could easily do similar math with your own numbers.

Just remember that these numbers were calculated for someone with a maintenance calorie intake of 3,300.

I also have a few opinions on why I think this can work really well for people.

Advantages of “Semi-Fasting” Once Per Week

• It's easy to fast for one day when you know you get plenty of food the very next day.

  • I like to think of this as the "light at the end of the tunnel" effect. For those of you who have never fasted before, this may still seem extreme, but it's really quite doable once you commit.

  • Plus, if you've ever dieted before, you know that the worst part of dieting comes from being randomly hungry on a Monday and knowing it ain't getting any better for the next six weeks. This dieting pattern fights against that drudgery.

• You're unlikely to downregulate your metabolism by fasting just once per week.

  • I don't pretend to be an expert on metabolic downregulation outside of plenty of anecdotal experience from working with my own clients, but to me it just makes good sense that it might be better for keeping your metabolism churning along to duck your calories hard once per week versus committing to a peasant's 1200-calorie diet for weeks and months on end. It's almost like your body senses that there is no need to process energy more efficiently when it knows more food is coming soon. Anecdotally, I have seen this work time and time again. And, although I wouldn’t call it “biohacking,” I do think it’s a creative way to manipulate your caloric consumption.

• It gives your digestive system a break, which I personally think may have some exciting health benefits.

  • In my own experience, it can also create a refreshing feeling of emptiness as the fast goes on, which leaves me feeling acutely lighter.

• It exercises your discipline muscle.

  • In a modern gimme-gimme culture where we tend to complain about anything we can’t have instantaneously, I find it grounding to limit my food consumption once per week.

  • I also personally think this translates well into other areas of life.

• For me personally, my stomach starts feeling noticeably tighter around 1-2PM, but this is of course just my own experience and a small psychological benefit I enjoy.

Disadvantages of “Semi-Fasting” Once Per Week

• Some people will never be able to handle the acute hunger of even a half-day fast, and that’s fine.

  • I’m not here to try to convince anyone to be hungry if you’re not bought into the benefits beyond the hunger (and I mean that sincerely).

• It might be difficult to navigate certain social situations like dining out with friends if you and your significant other are social people on the weekends.

  • For my own lifestyle, Sundays tend to be very relaxed, so this isn’t an issue for me personally in most cases, but I think it’s worth mentioning in case it applies to others.

• Your Monday workouts might feel a bit lethargic if you don’t prioritize a massive, carb-heavy breakfast to replenish yourself from the low-calorie day prior.

  • And again, you obviously don’t have to choose Sundays for your “semi-fast.” This was just the example used consistently throughout this article (and what I do personally).

Summary

• I think single-day fasting is an underrated form of caloric restriction that could help a lot of people lose body fat sustainably.

• Single-day fasting can be a helpful strategy to help people think of their caloric deficits on a weekly basis instead of a daily basis.

• “Semi-fasting” once per week can allow you to eat more food during the week to fuel your most intense training sessions.

• Practically speaking, I personally like to fast through the first half of the day and then eat one large, nutritionally dense meal around 5PM.

  • This is usually a large smoothie or a big tofu salad.

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I really enjoyed writing this short article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to someone in your life who finds body recomposition banter just as entertaining as you do.

Until next time,

-Andrew

What Should I Eat to Lose Weight?

What should you eat to lose weight?

It’s the trillion dollar question everyone is asking because…

If we just knew what to eat to lose weight, we would eat it, right?

I’m actually not so sure.

But before we get too far, I want to let you know what you can expect from this article.

1. I’m going to tell you that losing weight is mostly about calories - not the specific foods you eat, which makes the question, “What should I eat to lose weight?” quite complex.

2. I’m going to help you think through that reality by using a financial analogy that relates calories consumed to dollars spent.

3. I’m going to tell you which foods I think are “best” for fat loss for those who appreciate practical suggestions.

4. I’m going to tell you which foods make up the majority of my own diet when I aim to lose weight on purpose.

MOST PEOPLE ALREADY UNDERSTAND BASIC NUTRITION

In my opinion, most people have a basic understanding of which foods tend to be best for fat loss.

For example, if we gave the entire planet a questionnaire about basic nutrition, I think we’d see that…

• Most people know that oatmeal with berries and a few tablespoons of chia seeds is a fat loss-friendly breakfast.

• Most people know that salads with lean proteins and modest portions of healthy fats are helpful, fat loss-friendly lunch options.

• Most people know that tofu, broccoli, and rice can be a fat loss-friendly dinner combination.

• And most people know that snacking on apples is probably more fat loss-friendly than eating Nutella straight out of the jar.

So where’s the disconnect?

Why are people still typing “what to eat to lose weight” into Google?

I could be wrong, but I think I know why.

In fact, it’s the reason I wrote an entire article called The Single Biggest Mistake You’re Making in How You Think About Fat Loss, but I’m committed to bringing you an updated perspective on the topic of food selection for weight loss.

Are you ready for it?

The problem with focusing exclusively on what you should eat is that there's little to no consideration of how much you should eat.

So the implication is that you can eat all of the “right foods” and yet never lose weight if you eat them in the “wrong amounts.”

This is why thinking of your caloric allotment for the day as a monetary budget can be a very helpful analogy for fat loss.

THINK OF YOUR CALORIC INTAKE AS A MONETARY BUDGET

We’re going to start thinking about calories like dollars.

To start, let’s use an example of someone with a maintenance calorie intake of 2,500 calories, and let’s say their goal is to lose weight.

We’ll also use a direct conversion of calories to dollars for the sake of making this analogy as easy to understand as possible.

So now, instead of eating 2,500 calories per day, we’re going to think of our example person as spending $2,500 per day.

Sound fun?

Just pretend our example person is Warren Buffet for a moment.

The first thing we need to do is tailor their new budget to their goal.

In this analogy, think of saving money as losing fat.

So, if we want to lose fat by 10%, all we need to do is reduce their daily spending by 10%, which would shift their current budget of $2,500 per day to a more prudent $2,250 per day.

Over the course of a week, they would save about $1,750. And, over the course of a month, they would save about $7,000, which is about two pounds of fat once we abandon our analogy.

And this is essentially exactly how weight loss works.

It’s like you’re a little kid being given an allowance of $2,250 per day and you can spend it however you want, but…

Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

To further the analogy, that means that spending more than your allotted $2,250 per day means you’ve put yourself in debt, and debt (in this particular analogy) negates any weight loss attempt and could even lead to weight gain depending on the magnitude of that debt.

The more debt you accrue, the more unwanted body fat you accumulate.

Interestingly enough, buying things on credit is a thing when it comes to dieting for fat loss, but credit (in this analogy) is stored body fat.

And finally, perhaps one of the most important implications of this analogy is that it really doesn’t matter how you spend your money as long as you stay within the budget.

Hear me out.

Some might be tempted to think it’s “better” to spend your budgeted money on things like your mortgage, utilities, food for your family, and clothes to put on their backs, but you technically could go spend it on strippers and cocaine as long as you can afford it.

Stick with me.

But it’s only “better” in the sense that it’s better for your overall wellbeing. Most people would probably agree that the way to flourish in life probably isn’t to spend your evenings frequenting seedy nightclubs and “doing lines” off of Tiffany’s lower back.

But it’s technically not “better” if the goal is simply to stay within your budget (at least in the short-term).

That being said, if you have a goal of staying within your budget and living a responsible life, then you would be smart to consider your purchases as more than “just pennies.”

So I’ll say it again.

It really doesn’t matter (much) how your spend your money if your only goal is to stay within the budget.

And this is the essence of flexible dieting, which is a popular dietary pattern that communicates this very same idea within the context of food.

WHAT’S FLEXIBLE DIETING?

Flexible dieting or the “If It Fits Your Macros” (IIFYM) movement says that…

If your caloric budget for the day is 2,250 calories, you really are free to consume those calories from whichever food sources you please if weight loss is all you care about (which is an important caveat).

Jelly-filled donuts? Yep.

Pizza? Yep.

Burgers and fries? If you must.

Cake and ice cream? Yes!

However, if you want that lean, hard-body look that we help people achieve here at IVRY, you’ll need to make sure you’re ticking a few more important boxes within your flexible dieting routine.

After all, there’s a big difference between weight loss and body recomposition.

It’s probably good to mention too that a flexible dieting approach doesn’t take your health into consideration either, which is why I prefer to encourage people to eat a whole food, plant-based diet as much as possible.

So what’s the takeaway from this section of the article?

Calories matter most for weight loss. Consume them however you please within your caloric allotment.

The Truth about Which Foods Are “Best” for Weight Loss

Once you understand that weight loss is mostly about the manipulation of your overall caloric intake, you’ll slowly realize that the only intelligent answer to the question regarding which foods are “best” for weight loss is…

That there are no specific foods that you should eat to lose weight.

I hope this is powerful and illuminating!

But, there are, of course, foods that tend to make weight loss much easier and more sustainable due to a few reasons:

• They're naturally lower in calories.

• They're voluminous.

• They're satiating, which means they leave you feeling full for longer.

• They’re usually plants.

• They work really well for your own personal preferences and lifestyle.

In my opinion, the following list of foods fit most of these categories I’ve just mentioned.

Do you have to eat them? No.

Should you feel limited to only eat these foods? Not at all.

If anything, I’m just giving you a brief peek into my own life and the foods I personally choose to consume on a regular basis in order to maintain my lean, hard-body physique.

And, if you didn’t already know, I do eat a 100% plant-based diet, which means you won’t see any animal products in the list below (although you certainly can use them to lose weight).

FOODS I EAT MOST often FOR FAT LOSS AND MUSCLE GAIN

• Oats

• Berries like strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries

• Other fruits like bananas, mangos, and cherries

• Plant “milks” like soy “milk” and almond “milk”

• Nuts like walnuts, pecans, and pistachios

• Nut butters like peanut butter and almond butter

• Seeds like hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, and pumpkin seeds

• Enormous salads made primarily with a spring mix or spinach

• Tahini

• Tofu and tempeh

• Sweet potatoes

• Vegetables of all kinds

• Rice (or quinoa) and bean combinations

• Burritos

• Chickpea and lentil-based pastas

• Nutritional yeast

• Chilis

• Plant-based protein powders

• Plant-based protein bars

And there are certainly many more, but this is just a list of the major players.

Remember, the reason it's good to focus on foods that are low-calorie, voluminous, and filling is because being in a caloric deficit is what drives weight loss, and foods with these qualities make it easier to maintain being in a caloric deficit for as long as it takes for you to get rid of your unwanted fat.

That being said, you can totally enjoy less “traditional” dieting foods like pizza or ice cream or brownies as long as you stay within your caloric budget.

At the end of the day, calories matter most for weight loss.

You don't need to make it any more complicated than that unless you’re interested in optimizing your weight loss effort and your health.

Summary

• There are no foods you should consume for weight loss since calories matter most for weight loss. It’s primarily a discussion of “how much” versus “which foods.”

  • That being said, I personally think everyone would benefit from a health perspective from eating most of their calories from whole or minimally-processed plant foods.

  • It’s important to remember that weight loss and improved health are not always synonymous.

• It can be helpful to think of weight loss in terms of a monetary budget.

• It’s probably easiest to lose weight when you consume the majority of your calories from plant foods that are naturally low in calories, voluminous, and satiating.

  • This also probably leads to better health outcomes, but this is outside of the scope of this particular article and beyond my expertise.

• Certain foods like pizza, burgers, fries, and ice creams can be difficult to incorporate into a weight loss effort due to their caloric density, but it’s still doable when your overall caloric intake is kept in check.

  • This is commonly referred to as flexible dieting, and can be a very useful strategy for many people.

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I really enjoyed writing this short article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to that person in your life who seems eternally perplexed about why they can’t ditch their muffin top for a trimmer midline.

Until next time,

-Andrew

How to Lose Weight By Eating More

I have good news!

The fitness industry just called you on your old school yellow phone to report that the solution to your seemingly incessant struggle to lose body fat is…

That you need to eat more?

But wait, is that really true? At best that sounds a bit counterintuitive, right? And at worst, downright ridiculous?

Well, let’s talk about this peculiar claim that "you need to eat more to lose weight."

I don’t mean to spoil the contents of the article too quickly, but I actually hate this phrase with a passion because it's one of those things that can technically be true but is mostly just extremely misleading.

It also annoys me because people usually use it to catch peoples' attention because let's be honest...

Who doesn't want to eat more and lose weight? Of course we'd all love to be able to eat the moon and look shredded 365 days a year.

In fact, it’s probably exactly why you clicked on this article in the first place.

The question is…

Is it possible? And is this buzzphrase legit? Or is it just a load of horse manure?

The 2 Technical Ways This Can Be True

JUNK FOOD VERSUS NUTRIENT-DENSE FOOD (THE VOLUME TRICK)

If you're eating a diet that's full of high-calorie junk food, people sometimes use this phrase to communicate the idea that you could eat "more food" in a volume sense (which is true) while consuming fewer overall calories. And to be clear, that's definitely true!

In fact, it's one of the biggest perks of committing to a whole food, plant-predominant diet in that you get to smash a ton of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, and lean proteins without eating in excess of your metabolic needs.

And this doesn’t mean you have to be vegetarian or vegan. It just means biasing more of your calories toward higher-volume, lower-calorie plant foods instead of consuming lower-volume, higher-calorie animal products like fatty beef and cheese.

In short, most people could lose weight without thinking too much about it just by picking more nutritionally dense foods over the pizzas, burgers, nachos, and beers they use to pick.

No brainer? For some people it is, but lots of well-intentioned people just don't understand this and plenty more simply aren’t willing to give up some of their favorite foods.

In fact, I wrote an entire article about the “one thing” a ton of people are getting wrong about the way they think about fat loss.

For example, if you're been snagging a McDonald's breakfast sandwich and a 600-calorie drink from Starbucks on your way into work each day for years, you can technically "eat more and lose weight" by choosing an enormous bowl of oatmeal and a protein shake instead.

See what I mean? The oatmeal is technically "more food" volume-wise than a tiny sandwich and a drink, but it's still fewer calories despite the increased volume.

You could literally eat enough oatmeal to poop your pants three times before noon for fewer calories than a McDonald’s breakfast platter or a classic burger and fries combo because you’re “in a hurry.”

But the trickiness here is that this isn't what people hear when you say "eat more and lose weight."

They think they need to get a second portion at the family BBQ to "boost their metabolism."

And that's why this is usually a harmful thing to tell people if you don't plan on explaining yourself.

You cannot eat more calories and lose weight acutely. That's very important.

Energy balance is absolutely the most important thing for fat loss. It’s not the only important thing, but it’s the most important thing.

YOUR METABOLISM SUCKS AND YOU might NEED TO REVERSE DIET strategically

This second one is a super stretch, but it's nonetheless a very real thing yet rarely explained.

Sometimes peoples' metabolisms are in such a bad place that you actually have to encourage them to eat more calories in the short-term in order to lose more fat in the long-term.

But rarely to never have I seen someone just start eating more calories and losing actual fat tissue at the same time.

That's a violation of the laws of thermodynamics and I can sense Layne Norton scrambling to make an angry YouTube video as I write this.

So to be clear, say some lady is eating 1200 calories and not losing weight even though she clearly has more fat to lose. Well, you can't just starve these people into oblivion.

So what happens is that you encourage them to eat more calories (in strategic increases) to help nurture their metabolism back to a better place.

But the reality is that they will most likely gain a bit of weight and body fat, which is the small price to be paid for having tossed your metabolism into the dumpster like a bag of potatoes you found leaking in your pantry.

But, once your metabolism is improved through a slow and strategic increase in calories matched with exercise and resistance training, you can then go back into a caloric deficit relative to your new metabolic needs and lose the fat you couldn't lose before.

In the fitness space, this is called reverse dieting and although it feels like wizardry, it's very much a thing. The problem is that it takes quite a bit of discipline to pull off, and a lot of people get too discouraged along the way and fail.

So in some long-term sense, it may be necessary to eat more to lose weight, but if you're trying to look cool at the pool in a month, you most certainly don't need to "eat more to lose weight."

Tricky, isn't it?

And that's all I've got for you. Just blasting confusing fitness lingo with the truth no one's telling you.

Summary

1. Eating more to lose weight is mostly hogwash, but it can be done in two technical senses.

2. The first is to eat more by maximizing food volume while still eating fewer calories than you baseline diet.

3. The second is to reverse diet strategically in order to potentially lose more fat later on due to an improved metabolic state.

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I really enjoyed writing this short article, so if you found it helpful, do me a favor and send it to that person in your life who’s sipping that fitness tabloid tea like an outdated Kermit meme.

Until next time,

-Andrew

How to Tone Your Arms and Flatten Your Stomach

If you know me personally, you know there's one word fitness buzzword that drives me crazier than most, which is...

This idea of "toning."

In this article, I’m going to walk through four things:

1. Why “toning” isn’t really a thing

2. The solution to the “toning” problem

3. How to adjust your efforts accordingly

4. A really helpful summary with practical takeaways

The Awkward Truth about "Toning"

I have bad news.

As far as I am concerned, "toning" isn't really a thing.

But, why?

I think it's because the culturally defined definition of "toning" is something like this - making one or two choice body parts look a little bit leaner without a full-body shift in fat loss reduction.

For example, I will hear a lot of women tell me they want to "tone" their arms.

So what people are really saying when they say they want to "tone" is that they want to spot reduce fat from specific locations on their body. And I will admit, that would be amazing! My goal with this article is not to shame or make fun of anyone who uses the term "toning."

Unfortunately, there really isn't any promising literature that I know of to suggest that “toning” in this sense is possible.

And in my own experience with my own body and as a coach to others, I've never seen anyone successfully spot reduce fat in any meaningful way.

Examples of “Toning” Efforts

Just to be clear about what I mean by that, here are a few examples of how people attempt to "tone":

• Doing lots of crunches because they want more visible abs

• Doing lots of side crunches because they want to ditch their love handles

• Doing lots of arm curls and pushups because they want tighter-looking arms

And I know what you're wondering.

"How does it work then? If I'm insecure about my flabby arms or my love handles, what should I do? Help!"

We'll get to those questions in a second, but I want to briefly address why "toning" as you've likely understood it until this point isn't an effective strategy.

Why "Toning" Isn't Really a Thing

Simply put, the way we all lose and gain body fat is mostly genetically predispositioned, which means we all carry and distribute our total body fat in different ways.

You don't get to choose how your body fat comes off and in what order.

For example, when I am bulked, I am a “love handles and leg fat” guy, but my back and arms tend to stay pretty lean even when overall I'm sitting at a higher body fat percentage.

I definitely didn't choose that!

And what this means in context of "toning" is that no amount of side crunches is going to convince my love handles to go away without being in a caloric deficit.

Without a caloric deficit, it's just not possible to lose meaningful amounts of body fat.

In short, you can't defy the laws of thermodynamics and energy balance through cheat codes like side crunches and bicep curls.

That’s really the punchline of this write-up.

So, if that’s the case, what can we do about it?

The Solution to the “Toning” Problem

Since I don't like to be the guy who just points out problems without providing solutions, I'm happy to tell you that there is a better way!

The way to "tone" is to get leaner overall through getting into a caloric deficit for long enough to allow your body to burn through the excess fat storage that led you to want to "tone" in the first place.

In addition to that, training your muscles for hypertrophy will cause them to grow and thus "push out" on your skin more, which will create that leaner look.

Check out this photo of Matt Morsia.

He's very jacked and very lean and yet I can guarantee you there were no deliberate "toning" efforts going on here.

He simply built a lot of muscle through resistance training and then tailored his caloric intake and activity level to reduce his body fat while maintaining the muscle he had already built.

So ultimately, "toning" is about losing fat while building or maintaining muscle along the way.

Now that we know that, I want to focus on how you can apply this for yourself.

How you would “Tone” if “toning” were a thing

Let's consider a very specific example.

Your arms are flabby and you want them to be leaner. The way to make this happen would be to:

• Firstly, start eating in a modest caloric deficit while prioritizing a diet adequately high in protein.

  • The deficit is what will drive the fat loss that will eventually result in your leaner looking arms.

    • This emphasizes the importance of the “calories in, calories out” (CICO) formula when it comes to body recomposition.

  • And, if you need help figuring out how to calculate your protein intake, check out this article I wrote once upon a time.

• Secondly, walk more. Although it’s impossible to issue a one-size-fits-all recommendation for walking, the idea is to remember that walking can be an extremely powerful fat loss tool.

• Thirdly, in this particular example, you would start training your arms in the 6-20 rep range for probably 10-20 sets as a part of an intelligent training program.

  • Even though you're in a deficit, the stimulus from this kind of exercise might even allow you to build a bit of muscle size to help emphasize your newly "toned" arms.

  • What would be even better?

    • An even better approach would be to train your entire body in the 6-20 rep range to see full body improvements while simply biasing more sets toward your arms because you’d like to see specialized improvement in that area.

      • This is an important distinction because you might be thinking, “Wait, I thought you said you can’t target improvements in specific areas?” I said you can’t target fat reduction in specific areas, but you can send more muscle growth signals to certain body parts than others by training them more.

    • So if you want to grow your arms, train them with more sets than the rest of your body.

  • Note too that this works particularly well for people who have never trained meaningfully with weights before.

    • People in this category are eligible for what we call “noobie gains” in the fitness industry, which means your body is likely to grow new muscle very quickly since you’ve never trained before.

And, for anyone reading this who might want to “lift their butt” or something similar, you would imitate this same strategy by training your glutes, hamstrings, and quads (probably in that order of importance).

Additional Thoughts on “Toning”

FAT LOSS DISTRIBUTION CAN BE FRUSTRATING

One very real and frustrating reality of losing body fat is that the body fat doesn't always come off the way we might want it to.

For example, if you're a woman that is overweight, you might find that you start losing body fat from your feminine attributes like your breasts or even your butt before you start losing body fat from your midsection.

That’s frustrating.

The reality is that there isn't much to be done about that aside from resistance training over many years to help grow your underlying muscle bellies to help emphasize whichever look you might personally find most appealing.

Does that suck? Totally!

Like I mentioned, I myself fall into this category.

But the only way to overcome that is to get your calories in check, train hard, and let your body transform until you’re as lean all over as you need to be to feel aesthetically pleasing.

BUild muscle in the right areas for optimal aesthetics

Sometimes building muscle in the right areas can help make a physique that used to carry fat in the wrong areas appear much “better” aesthetically.

For example, if you're a dude with a big belly at the moment, you might benefit from growing your chest and shoulders because that will make you look less like a pear and more like a strong guy who just needs to cut back on the pizza.

And then you can cut back on the pizza and shift your pear-ness toward a hint of that V-taper most women historically find attractive in men - broad shoulders that "V" downward to a relatively trim waistline.

Or for the ladies, building a strong and shapely foundation of glutes, quads, and hamstrings can create the illusion of a smaller waist.

As polarizing as Greg O’Gallagher (pictured here) can be for some people in the fitness industry, I think he has done one of the best jobs at identifying optimal male physique proportions when it comes to peak aesthetics.

THERE ARE NO SPECIFIC EXERCISES THAT “TONE” YOU

In my opinion, there are no specific forms of exercise that will "tone" you.

This is probably going to offend some people, but pure barre is not going to “tone” you.

That being said, it's totally fine to enjoy a pure barre class for the fitness benefits it offers you!

You'll probably develop a lot of core stability, full body control, and you might even build a tiny bit of muscle if you're transitioning into some form of exercise from a formerly sedentary lifestyle. I just think it would be silly to consider that “toning.”

You still have to control your overall caloric intake in order to lose body fat and reveal your lean tissue even if the extra calorie burn from group fitness efforts help you drop a few quick pounds at the beginning.

SOME PEOPLE LOOK HOT FOR NO REASON

That's called having favorable genetics for body composition, and I say that because it's too easy to see a girl featured in a hot new TikTok or Reel about how to “get toned for summer” and think, "She looks amazing! I should buy her programs so I can look exactly like her."

It's actually very possible that she was already “hot” by twenty-first century standards before she ever wrote her “toning” program, so try not to be naive about situations like that.

In other words, she didn’t use the program she’s advertising herself to get her current physique. And even if she did, there’s no guarantee that your body would respond the same way.

Secondly, have you ever had that one friend or co-worker who just kind of ate whatever they wanted, didn't exercise much, and still looked great? Me too. They exist, and let's not forget that.

Some people look hot for no reason, which means you can’t look to their programs for non-negotiable “toning” success.

How Much "Toning" Did I Do to Achieve the Physique at the Bottom of This Article?

None.

I achieved the physique you see below through a modest caloric surplus for about six months to move from around 200 pounds to 173 pounds.

I supplemented with lots of walking.

I trained mostly in the 6-20 rep range 5-6 times per week for as many sets as I could recover from.

No toning. No pure barre. No hot yoga. No group classes.

Summary

• “Toning” isn’t really a thing in the sense that you can’t spot-reduce fat, but there’s no reason to feel hopeless because…

• You can still achieve what people think of as “toning” by losing fat across your entire body while building muscle through resistance training.

• The ”calories in, calories out” (CICO) equation is still king for fat loss, which means a calorie-controlled diet will be optimal for “toning.”

• Walking is a great way to supplement your “toning” effort.

• Training with 10-20 sets per muscle group primarily in the 6-20 rep range tends to be best for muscle growth, which will help you appear more “toned.”

• It might be a good idea to strategically train certain body parts more than others to create a more aesthetic overall appearance.

  • Men would typically be smart to train their chests, shoulders, and arms.

  • Women would typically be smart to train their glutes, quads, and hamstrings.

• If you need help doing all of this, hiring a body recomposition coach would be a great next step.

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Thanks for reading! I genuinely hope you were able to take something meaningful away from this article.

If you feel like it brought you any value at all, consider sending it to your friend at work who has been doing 100 crunches before bed in preparation for hot girl summer.

See you in another article, friends.

-Andrew

How to Fix Your Squishiness

Let’s talk about the squishy fix.

As silly as it may sound, nearly everyone I talk to about training or dieting is interested in mitigating their squishiness in favor of a harder-looking physique.

Some people call this the "skinny-fat dilemma," but to me it's more of a squishiness dilemma.

So what do you do if you're squishy and you don't like it?

Firstly, I think it's important to understand how we all get squishy in the first place because not everyone is in the same squishiness boat.

How do we get squishy in the first place?

Scenario 1: you were lean but let go.

Probably the most common route to squishy is what I would call the person who grew up thin or lean by nature and then let go at some point in life.

Some of you are probably nodding your heads and thinking, "Yep. That's me." You never really had to think about food as a young person because "your metabolism was awesome!" And now it's apparently less awesome because you're squishy?

Or maybe your food and exercise habits changed a bit along the way as well.

A lot of these people were athletes in high school or college and then lost their way in their twenties.

scenario 2: the long-time chubster

But there are also people who have never known life without their squishiness. This would be anyone who feels like they grew up as a "fat kid" or thinks of themselves as genetically cursed.

You've never really felt confident at the pool or on the beach. You've never loved your picture being taken and you've probably always been insecure about a t-shirt that's just a little too tight. Maybe you were even made fun of for your weight when you were younger.

For those who know me well, you know that I actually fall into this camp.

Scenario 3: The Freestyle Friday Protein-Deficient Cardio Crowd

This third camp is probably the one that gives me the most grief because it represents a group of people who are trying really hard in all of the wrong ways.

And usually, pervasive ignorance is a common denominator among these people.

I know that sounds terrible, but I plan to defend what I mean by that as gently as possible. I call this group the Freestyle Friday Protein-Deficient Cardio Crowd.

Let me break that one down for you.

• Freestyle Friday is a term my high school basketball coach used to talk about anything that wasn't designed for a specific goal in mind. In short, it's something random and it implies little to no consideration of the future. With these people, I find that there's usually no method to their madness. They just "do" a bunch of stuff, and it's never systematic enough to warrant any meaningful or predictable returns.

• Protein-Deficient is pretty self-explanatory. Even though I've shifted my focus away from ultra-high-protein diets in recent years, you still have to consume an adequate amount of protein for any semi-serious physique endeavor.

  • If you want a deeper dive on calculating your own protein needs, check out this article I personally wrote on the topic.

  • You can also check this article out for practical tips on how to eat more protein if you don't know where to start.

• Cardio Crowd simply refers to the fact that these people generally spend way more time doing cardio than they do getting stronger and lifting weights.

When these three forces combine, you're bound to find some degree of squishiness. You might be fit in the cardio sense! But you might be squishy too.

For a surprising example, check out this photo of David Beckham I found the other day.

I'm not saying the guy looks "bad," but it's definitely a softer look for an elite soccer player in a photoshoot setting.

In my experience, most people want to be both more muscular and leaner than his physique in this particular photo.

Why Most People Don’t Love Their Squishiness

This is simple. Squishiness usually implies the combination of two unappealing factors: little to no muscle mass and unwanted fat.

This is a problem because most people would rather be the opposite of at least one but ideally both of those factors!

In other words, having little no muscle while carrying extra body fat is kind of the worst case scenario for most people.

You'd probably prefer having the combination of muscle and fat or the combination of no muscle and no fat than being all around squishy.

For example, powerlifters can sometimes be a decent example of what it means to have plenty of muscle but also plenty of fat, but, as you can see here, this lifter has a ton of muscle and a very healthy and aesthetic amount of body fat.

On the other hand, long distance runners tend to be a decent example of what it means to have little to no muscle or fat.

It's kind of like preferring to have your favorite team be 1-1 instead of 0-2 going into the third week of the football season.

Why would you want anything other than everything?

So in short, people don't love their squishiness because it's a double-opposite of what most people want.

Although each of those camps would benefit from slightly different strategies, the baseline principles are going to be the same.

5 Steps to Fixing Squishy

Be warned, these fixes are not sexy, and you won’t see any mention of lemon juice solutions.

Step 1: set a specific goal.

Firstly, you need to decide if you're going to lose fat first or build muscle first.

You can always try for a nice, slow, and steady recomp, but I think most people would be smart to pick one road or the other and get going.

This decision is important because it dictates how many calories you will be consuming as you start your new program.

Step 2: REMEMBER THAT calories matter most.

Once you have a clear direction and a specific goal, you've got to take extreme ownership of your caloric intake.

Remember that there are only ever three ways to eat:

• In a caloric deficit for a primary goal of fat loss

• In a caloric surplus for a primary goal of muscle gain

• At maintenance calories for a body recomposition effort

In any of these cases, I personally believe a modest approach will work best for most people.

In other words, I would recommend against any aggressive caloric deficit or caloric surplus, and I will tell you why.

Keep in mind that squishy or “skinny fat” people are typically visually softer and less muscular than they need to be for a hard-body look, which means…

• Eating in an aggressive deficit is going to severely limit the muscle you can gain.

• Eating in an aggressive surplus is going to cause excess weight gain and create an ever softer appearance.

As you can see, those are both unwanted outcomes.

So for some general advice, I think a 0-10% deficit or surplus depending on your goal is a very conservative place to start.

This means if your maintenance calories are 2,000 per day, you’d switch to an 1,800-calorie or 2,200-calorie diet depending on the goal (if you were to use the 10% figure).

STEp 3: make sure your protein intake is adequate.

You've got to get your protein in check.

Since so many people struggle to optimize their protein, I’m willing to throw out a few general recommendations.

I really think most females would benefit from targeting a minimum of 80g of protein per day while most males would benefit from targeting a minimum of 120g per day.

Obviously, you can eat much more than that if you personally feel you need to. That choice is yours. I'm just one guy yelling in a noisy room.

For a much more nuanced discussion on this, click here.

STEP 4: prioritize resistance training and progressive overload.

Train consistently with weights while minimizing unnecessary cardio.

You're just never going to develop succulent, balloon-like muscles that look impressive in your best outfits if you never train with weights.

I also realize it may sound a bit counterintuitive to minimize cardio, but you have to remember that building muscle is much more difficult than losing fat.

For that reason alone, I try to encourage people to commit to longer phases of muscle gain knowing in the back of their mind that cutting the fat later is always an option.

So if you're on the fence about training for muscle gain or dieting for fat loss, I might encourage you to train for muscle gain.

Some might argue it’s the less satisfying short-term move, but I firmly believe it’s the more gratifying long-term move.

You’re also going to want to make sure that your program is designed to allow for progressive overload, which means you’ll gradually be increasing the load, reps, or sets performed over time.

If you’re new to the idea of progressive overload, click here.

Step 5: diet in phases.

Diet phasically. I don't have the space to get into that here, but it's worth saying.

If you're squishy, you're probably not going to be able to do a single dieting phase and wake up lean and muscle-puffy someday.

In other words, you might start with an 6-week body recomposition effort at maintenance calories while optimizing your training quality and then deload for a week before jumping into a small surplus to start burning away some of the unwanted fat that’s preventing you from looking trimmer.

It might even take multiple phases of manipulating your strategy, which is where I personally think having a body recomposition coach can be extremely helpful.

Special Considerations

If you used to be lean but you've let go, there's a good chance you can "get your old self back" simply by getting back to old habits.

It's also most likely that you can go straight to cutting body fat since you might have some lingering muscle from your leaner days as a high school athlete or something similar.

If that’s you, it would certainly be my recommendation to start eating in a small deficit of around 10%.

For anyone who feels like they're bigger by nature, you might have to make a more dramatic shift than our leaner friends. But in my opinion, it's better to face the facts and get to work than it is to mope over the unfairness of genetic predispositions.

And I'm allowed to say that since I grew up "husky."

If your metabolism seems to be in a decent place, you're probably best to start chipping away at body fat and then building muscle once you get to a leaner base. Also, don't expect it to be easy. You might have to be more meticulous with your diet than the naturally thin girl at your office you secretly despise.

For these people, I would also recommend a small deficit of around 10%.

For the FFPDCC, you're in a bit of a pickle but it's not void of all hope. It's a hopeful pickle.

But you probably need to decide if you care more about being a cardio monster or a Greek statue. They just really don't go hand in hand in any optimal sense.

If you're more about cardio, then a lower-protein life makes good sense. You're not actually trying to build muscle and that's fine!

But if you're sick of squishy more than anything, get on a structured weight training program, bump your protein intake, and snooze the cardio for a few months to give yourself a chance to build some lean tissue.

For these people, I would actually recommend maintenance eating or a small surplus of around 10%.

And that's that!

Just some thoughts on being squishy and how to rewrite your story if you're in pursuit of leaner and more muscular body composition.

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Thanks for reading! I genuinely hope you were able to take something meaningful away from this article.

If you feel like it brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be tired of having their love handles melt over the sides of their favorite jeans.

Later, guys.

-Andrew

How to Improve Your Body Composition Without Tracking Calories

Once upon a time, I wrote an article about why caloric deficits are overhyped, and the summary was generally this:

Most of us want to have leaner and more muscular bodies, and yet a disproportionate amount of enthusiasm and marketing in the fitness space go toward calorie deficits instead of modest caloric surpluses or eating at maintenance.

And I'm really no one to talk. I find myself tooting the caloric deficit horn much more than the surplus horn.

Why?

Because most people are chubby and like the idea of losing some fat immediately as a boost of confidence that they're moving in the right direction.

Right! That makes a lot of sense, and that approach is still going to work really well for most people.

But there's another way for another crowd that you just might fall into, and it’s likely why this article piqued your interest in the first place.

You want to know how to improve your body composition without tracking calories.

Personally, I think that’s wonderful.

In fact, if I had it my way, everyone would be working toward how to eat an abundance of nutrient-dense foods while pursuing a healthy bodyweight and body composition.

Why do I say this?

Although tracking calories meticulously for fat loss can be extremely effective, it’s not all rose petals and bubblebaths.

In fact, it can be quite the opposite when done poorly.

To illustrate that point, let's start by briefly addressing a frustrating yet very common reality for a lot of people who plunge headfirst into the “deficit or die” mentality when it comes to tracking calories.

WHY TRACKING CALORIES FOR improved body composition can be frustrating

Tracking calories works, but...

• The problem with tracking calories is that you start to think about food as just calories.

• And being in a calorie deficit usually implies eating fewer calories than you might like.

• So to maximize food volume, you start doing weird things to eat fewer calories like making Frankenstein French toast with low calorie bread, sugar-free syrup, and egg whites.

• And then your energy starts to decrease because you're depriving yourself of energy on purpose (and eating weird foods that might be void of any real nutritional value).

• You become afraid of bananas because they're the "highest calorie fruit!" Gah!

• And peanut butter is the devil because fat! Gah!

• And then all of sudden you’re the weird guy or gal who eats weird things in the name of “fitness.”

• And then going to the gym becomes a real pain in the bum because "you just don't feel like it."

• And then your training starts to suck. You're not getting stronger. You’re actually getting weaker. And you've maybe lost a few pounds, but you're still soft, chubby, and unhappy.

• And then you order 47 Papa John's pizzas and a birthday cake to yourself on a Friday night and never see the gym again.

That last bullet point is a bit of a joke, obviously, but hopefully you see the truth in the comedy.

Let me just pause briefly and remind you that doing the above absolutely works if all you care about is losing fat.

And that's not me trying to passively shame you into being "that person.” It’s totally fine to care about losing the fat above all else.

In fact, that above list is exactly what I did to lose 31 pounds and land myself the physique you see here.

So it definitely works. And I'm not taking a dig at it at all. I'm just being objective about the pros and cons while trying to make a specific point.

But again, we’re here to talk about how to avoid tracking calories while still making meaningful progress in improving our body compositions.

Are you ready for it?

Here it is:

Start training really hard while eating an abundance of whole foods without tracking a single calorie.

Some of you may be thinking, "That sounds reckless! All of this banter about how calories matter most for looking like Ken and Barbie and now you're telling me to eat in abundance. Lies!"

Let me explain.

Why not tracking calories for improved body composition might be better for some people

• From day one there is no notion of unnecessary restriction. In fact, the only restriction in this game is that you're bound only to whole, minimally processed foods. In other words, this is "clean eating" for lack of a better term. Vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and lean proteins.

• That's cool because being restricted is annoying. But I've found that being restricted to certain categories of food is more fun than being restricted to certain quantities of food. You might be different, and that would be totally fine. I'm just making that point.

• It's also cool because now you get to focus on your health instead of math. You're only eating whole foods, so there's a really good chance the nutrient density of your diet goes way up! That's great.

• You're also probably eating much more fiber now because you may have traded in a microwavable Lean Pocket for a bowl of oats with berries and soy milk.

• You're also probably not binging anymore because you can't really binge on "healthy food," you know? Seriously, grab yourself a bowl of brown rice, steamed veggies, and tofu and see how wild things get. I doubt they get very wild.

• So now you just have to train hard and effectively! If you need some direction on what that means, click here.

• Training hard is more fun now because you actually have energy to push around big weights. Yes, I am suggesting that a diet of oats and berries for breakfast might make you feel better and more energetic than frosted donuts and a whey shake.

• In fact, maybe you really start to enjoy training because you're seeing the numbers go up. Good vibes!

• And you're catching pumps in the gym. Ladies, the legs and the glutes are growing! Fellas, you just noticed a juicy new bicep vein in your right arm.

• And then you move from 3x per week in the gym to 4x to week in the gym because it feels like medicine and you're actually learning to love the process.

• And then all of a sudden you've been crushing your gym sessions for a month without having tracked a single calorie.

• Maybe you weigh the exact same, but you've built muscle underneath!

• Or maybe you weigh less "on accident" because you started fueling your body with pure goodness instead of occasional junk, and the sum effect of it all was a reduction in scale weight.

• Or maybe you weigh more because you're building muscle while eating like a beast.

• And slowly but surely you get leaner and more muscular through the simple practices of eating exclusively nutritious foods and then using that energy to fuel your increasingly productive training sessions.

That's what a life without calorie-tracking could look like.

CONS OF NOT TRACKING YOUR CALORIES

The obvious cons to this strategy might be:

• That you're not guaranteed any systematic fat loss results. I want to make this very clear. You can absolutely eat more than you need to even while eating a whole food diet, but it's just less likely to happen than in the context of a diet littered with pizza, burgers, ice creams, and donuts. This could be frustrating to some people with a very specific goal, but my guess is that some people would actually enjoy the freedom of the motto, "Eat in abundance. Train like a freak." I know I sure do.

  • The key here is not to make obvious mistakes like sitting down to watch a TV show with a jar of peanut butter or a back of pistachios. We all know nuts and nut butters are healthful food choices, but they are also very calorically-dense, which means you need to be careful to consume them in moderation.

• You also have to actually train hard and intelligently. The caveat here is that you might gain some unwanted fat if you only adopt the eating portion of this framework. Or you might not! I still think it would be a great step in the right direction regarding your overall health, but if you think that's a con, this approach might not be for you.

PROS OF NOT TRACKING YOUR CALORIES

The pros (in my opinion) are:

• You're free to eat foods without looking at them like numbers! That can be so freeing for a lot of people.

• You then start to see your dietary freedom as a motivator for training hard! Speaking personally, I’ve gone through phases when I was eating 4,000 calories per day (which I never thought would be the case), which means I was able to show up to the gym with purpose every day. It's like, "Okay, 4,000 calories per day? I literally have no excuse not to wreck this workout. Game on." What a fun way to train!

• You have an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset.

• Your health and fitness get top priority instead of the mirror and/or the comments from friends and co-workers.

• It's suited well for people who are willing to embrace habits-based change and long-term improvements.

The question then becomes, “How do you want to live?”

If you decide you would prefer the systematic results of a tracking approach, that’s great! Seriously, it’s amazing approach for a lot of people (including me in certain seasons of training).

On the other hand, if you decide you like the idea of focusing purely on the consumption of nutrient-dense whole foods while training with purpose, that’s also great!

I have done both and will continue to utilize both as needed depending on my specific goals.

Similarly, the point is to make an educated decision about what is most likely to work best for you.

How to Take Action If You Don’t Want to Track Calories

• Commit yourself to eating only (or mostly) whole foods.

  • This means getting nearly all of your calories from vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, avocados, and lean proteins.

• If you like to snack aimlessly, try to snack mostly on vegetables and fruits instead of fats like nuts and seeds.

  • Nuts and seeds have amazing health benefits, but you’ll always want to consume them in moderation to help minimize the risk of caloric overconsumption.

  • Some good options would be carrots and celery or apples and oranges.

• Drink mostly if not exclusively water with maybe black coffee or tea.

• Make sure you have a great training program. If you don’t know where to start, click here.

• Try to sleep and reduce stress as much as you can.

  • We didn’t discuss these in this article, but these two in tandem seem to be the mostly commonly neglected step-children in the context of successful body recomposition efforts.

Summary

Remember that you don't have to put yourself in a specifically-calculated calorie deficit from day one.

You can keep it very simple by eating lots of nutritious whole foods and training effectively and with purpose.

I can almost guarantee that the results in due time will come and that you’ll be happier than ever.

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Thanks for reading! I really hope you were able to take something meaningful away from this article.

If you feel like it brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone whose lifestyle just simply doesn’t allow for a life of food scales and perfectly-tailored macro splits.

Later, guys.

-Andrew

The One Thing All Jacked People Have In Common

Every jacked person has one thing in common.

And I'm willing to bet you're going to be very disappointed when I tell you.

It's not some secret behavioral hack that you might pick off of a motivational Instagram account, and it's not some superfood or supplement.

And, to be clear, I’m also not saying it’s the only thing that matters.

I’m just saying that it’s the one common denominator among everyone who has built a very muscular physique.

Are you ready for it?

Every person with a well-built physique trains hard.

Truthfully, I wish I could modify that adjective to say something like "intelligently" or "strategically" or "in a periodized fashion with a well-planned diet," but that's just simply not the case in my experience.

Jacked people train hard...

• Even if the training program was wack.

• Even if their diet was suboptimal.

• Even if their recovery could have been better.

And when I use the term hard, I mean some combination of heavy lifting (usually in the 6-20 rep range), lots of sets (usually 10-20 per muscle group per week), and plenty of intensity.

And this is actually really annoying to me.

Why?

Because training hard (for whatever reason) was pretty much the last thing I tried over the years in my efforts to gain muscle.

I know that sounds stupid.

You're probably wondering what exactly I was doing if I wasn't training hard, but for whatever reason I just had this notion that I could outsmart the discomfort of training.

I would think things like…

• "Maybe if I do the perfect number of sets and time my perfectly macro-calculated meal post-workout to ignite maximum anabolism, I'll get jacked."

• "Maybe if I train 7 days a week, I'll get jacked."

• "Maybe if I sleep 9 hours per night and eat 200g of protein a day, I'll get jacked."

It just doesn't work like that because...

The training stimulus is what ignites the adaptation.

That is by far the most important thing for you to take away from this article today.

The training stimulus is what ignites the adaptation.
The training stimulus is what ignites the adaptation.
The training stimulus is what ignites the adaptation.

Get it?

So as much as I want to encourage you to optimize as many things as you possibly can in order to get the most out of your body recomposition endeavor, none of that stuff really matters meaningfully unless you introduce an incredible training stimulus.

A good analogy might be to think of it like a general and his army.

The General and his army analogy

You could have an infantry of 100,000 of the most skilled soldiers in the world, but if they don't have a general to tell them what to do, they'll never be as effective as they could have been with good direction.

Does that make sense? You need both a clear signal and an effective response to that signal for optimal outcomes..

In this case, the general represents the training stimulus - the thing that communicates the mission to everything else down the line.

And the army represents your caloric intake, your protein intake, your overall diet quality, your hydration, your recovery, your sleep, etc.

If the general says, "Grow muscle," then your army of food, water, and recovery will know exactly what to do.

And if you have an incredible army to support an incredible general, you'll get amazing results - arguably the best results you could possibly get!

But let's consider the other combinations:

• A great general with a terrible army

  • This basically means you're training really hard but you're not optimizing the rest of your lifestyle for muscle growth. It's slightly better than the second option, but it's still sub-optimal.

• A terrible general with a great army

  • This is the mistake I made for years. I had everything dialed in except for my training quality and intensity. Because of it, I still got decent results because my training wasn't a complete disaster. But it wasn't as good as it could have been is the point I want to make here. Again, it was sub-optimal.

• A terrible general with a terrible army

  • Hopefully you aren't this person! This would mean your training is wack and you're literally not taking care of your diet, hydration, or recovery in any meaningful sense. But if you do find yourself thinking, "Yeah, that's me," don't fret! Just make the necessary changes and redefine your narrative. That choice is always available.

So to make the best of your situation, be sure to:

1. Maximize your training quality. This includes exercise selection and execution/technique.

2. Optimize your training volume. This usually refers to how many sets you do per week.

3. Optimize your training intensity. This means performing most of your sets within 0-3 reps of technical failure.

4. Eat well.

5. Drink well.

6. Rest well.

7. Repeat until jacked.

Is this true for women too? Or just guys who want to get huge?

This absolutely goes for you all well, ladies! The same muscle-building principles apply.

This is not some exclusive tip for dudes who want shoulders that no longer properly fit through a doorway.

This is for any woman who wants strong and aesthetically pleasing legs and glutes (or a strong, attractive back) as well.

In fact, unless you came out of the oven with satisfactorily enormous buns (to your own standards and desires), you're going to have to squat, lunge, hinge, and thrust your way to glory just like every gym bro had to curl his way to making his biceps look like mutant chickpeas.

Summary

Every jacked person trains hard.

It’s not the only thing that matters, but it’s what matters most if building an impressive amount of muscle mass is the goal, and it’s the one common denominator among all well-built physiques.

However, if you’re less interested in building muscle and more interested in losing body fat while maintaining your muscle mass, energy balance will be the most important factor in achieving that goal. But that’s for another article.

If you’re here to get jacked, be sure to dial in your training quality, workload, and intensity first. Then eat well and rest well consistently until you reach your goal.

Not sure where to start? Check out this article about How to Build Muscle Effectively Using the Rule of 7’s and 11’s.

You’ll be on your way to sporting the best body composition you’ve had in years (or ever).

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I sincerely hope you found this article helpful or illuminating in some way!

If you feel like it brought you value, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be failing to optimize a few important aspects of their body recomposition journey.

Later, friends.

-Andrew

How to Build Muscle Effectively Using the Rule of 7's and 11's

I want to share something with you that I've been meaning to immortalize somewhere on the internet as an extremely simple way of thinking about how to string together a muscle-building workout.

Until I have a better name for it, I'm going to call it The Rule of 7's and 11's.

It’s best-suited for a few specific kinds of people and scenarios:

1. People who are brand new to the gym and feel clueless about how much weight to use, how many reps to perform, and how many sets to complete

2. Seasoned gym-goers who are lifting in a new gym with new machines due to vacation or travel for work

3. Anyone who is looking to incorporate a new piece of equipment into their routine

The common themes here are newness and ambiguity.

The Rule of 7’s and 11’s is most appropriately applied when we are forced to learn something new either as inexperienced lifters or long-time gym-goers being exposed to new equipment or new exercises.

Tracking so far?

Good! Let’s get into the details.

The Rule of 7's and 11's

Step 1

For every movement you choose to do in the gym, pick an initial weight that seems very doable for an easy set of 7. When you get to 7 reps, stop - even if you could have done way more (which you certainly could have because that’s exactly the point).

To keep this easily understandable, let’s use an example of a brand new machine bench press in my local gym.

• Remember, the machine is brand new, which means I have no idea how much weight I should be using to elicit an optimal muscle-growth response.

• As a complete shot in the dark, I pin the 120-pound mark and do an easy set of 7. Mission accomplished.

• So my first set was 120x7.

Step 2

The idea from here is to continue doing sets of 7 while adding 10-20 pounds per set until you can no longer do 7 reps (or in some cases 11, which I will explain later).

• In this case I would probably move to 140 and complete another 7 reps.

• So my second set was 140x7.

• My third set might be 160x7. It’s getting more difficult, but I’m still able to get all 7 reps, so I rest and continue on.

• My fourth set might be 180x7, which feels plenty challenging, but I’m still able to get all 7 reps. So what I do? I rest and increase the weight for a fifth set.

• My fifth set might be 200x6.

Great! I found the point at which I could no longer lift a weight for 7 full reps. Now what?

Step 3

Once you've identified that roughly-7-rep weight, hang out there for 2-3 additional sets of roughly 7 reps. These are what we call working sets: the ones that actually “count” toward your total weekly volume. And always count that “failure set” where you were unable to do the full 7 reps.

I also recommend resting around 90-120 seconds in between each of your working sets. I personally do 60-90 seconds on my feeder sets and 120 seconds on my working sets, but I encourage you to experiment with your own recovery ability.

So in this case, I would have done 4 feeder sets before finding my working weight. These may be new terms to you, but simply think of your feeder sets as the sets that lead you to your true working weight.

All in all, my logbook would look like this.

Feeder Sets for Machine Bench

• 120x7 (90 seconds rest)

• 140x7 (90 seconds rest)

• 160x7 (90 seconds rest)

• 180x7 (90 seconds rest)

Working Sets for Machine Bench

1. 200x6 (120 seconds rest)

2. 200x6 (120 seconds rest)

3. 200x5 (120 seconds rest)

Step 4

And then you repeat that for each movement of the entire workout.

Boom. That's it. Seriously.

4 Reasons Why It’s a Very Good Idea

ReaSon 1: IT DEMANDS TRAINING CLOSE TO FAILURE.

Well, firstly and most importantly, it forces you to train within a few reps of a failure in a rep range that most experts in the muscle-building space agree is extremely effective.

I seriously doubt there's a single jacked person on the planet who would tell you that lifting within a few reps of failure between 7 and 11 reps is a bad idea.

So, if it's not a bad idea (and probably a great idea), why not do it?

Reason 2: IT INCLUDES A PROPER WARM-UP BY DEFAULT.

The next most important thing is that it forces you to warm-up for each movement properly. When you start with very doable weights and move up until you can no longer achieve a baseline rep range, you can know for sure that you've prepared your muscles properly to exert maximum force on those sets of 7 that "count."

Reason 3: IT CHALLENGES PEOPLE TO lift heavy.

Thirdly, it doesn't allow you to fall short of your potential because you have to increase the weight if you got your 7 reps the last time.

For example, if we were doing this on the squat, you might have gotten 225 for 7 last time and wanted to just hang out there even though you probably could have gotten 9-10.

The Rule of 7’s and 11’s would have you jump to 230 or 235 and force you to get 6 reps before calling it a day.

In my opinion, that's a great way to chase your true potential in each movement. It's like built-in wimp protection.

I also find that some movements hurt no matter what.

For me, these would be weighted dips and Bulgarian split squats. Bodyweight dips hurt just about as badly as weight dips with a 45 hanging from your belt.

The trap here is that you could easily misinterpret your discomfort for maximal effort. But this rule forces you to continue adding weight.

Reason 4: IT ENCOURAGES DISCOMFORT.

Fourthly, training like this forces you to enter into the suck zone when you don't want to.

Think about it. Squatting for sets of 6-7? Gross.

Deadlifting for 6-7? Gross.

Barbell reverse lunging for 6-7? Gross.

But this is how you grow muscle!

When should you use 11's instead?

If you've been lifting for awhile, you know which moves to use 11's on instead.

These are typically going to be isolation movements like exercises for your biceps or triceps or higher-rep stuff for your legs like leg extensions or hack squats.

Similar, I wouldn’t use 7's on super tiny muscles like your rear delts or calves in most cases. For those muscle groups, you’d probably even be smart to add a third tier rep range of 20-30.

But for the sake of keeping things as simple as possible, I encourage most people to think in terms of 7’s and 11’s.

Remember that training this way is particularly helpful when you're in a new gym or on vacation or on a business trip.

Why? Because you've got brand new machines to work with, so you can't really look to your logbook to help you much.

This allows you to keep adding weight to the random machine bench in your hotel in Dallas until you identify the weight you should be training with rather than "going by feel" and subjecting yourself to a suboptimal workout.

How do you know which sequence of exercises to do?

Unfortunately, the Rule of 7’s and 11’s won't help you figure out which moves to actually do. Fortunately, I've decided to help you out with a few structures below.

There's nothing magical about these sequences other than that they make good sense for achieving a full upper body, lower body, and full body workout.

If you want an upper body workout...

• Some kind of vertical pull like an assisted pull-up or lat pulldown (7's)

• Some kind of horizontal press like a bench press (7's)

• Some kind of row like a seated cable row (11's)

• Some kind of vertical press like a DB shoulder press (7's)

• Some kind of bicep move like a DB curl (11's)

• Some kind of tricep move like a rope extension (11's)

If you want a lower body workout...

• Some kind of squat like a barbell squat (7's)

• Some kind of hinge like a deadlift or a good morning (7's)

• Some kind of lunge like a reverse barbell lunge (7 or 11's)

• Some kind of stabilized squat like a hack squat (11's)

If you want a full body workout...

• Pick a few superstars from each of the above categories and get to work.

For specifics, here's a sick 7-move upper body blast I like to toss in every once in awhile when my training schedule gets a little weird and I need a one-off pump:

Andrew’s Favorite One-Off Pump Session

1. Deficit Bent Over Rows for 7's

2. Incline Machine Bench for 7's

3. Assisted Pull-Ups for 7's

4. Seated DB Overhead Press for 7's

5. Seated Incline DB Curls for 11's

6. Straight-Bar Tricep Cable Pushdowns for 11's

7. Superman Curls for 11's

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I really hope you found this article instructive.

If you feel like it brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be using the classic “I travel a lot for work” excuse when it comes to neglecting their muscle gains.

Later, guys.

-Andrew

Why Caloric Deficits Are Overhyped

I think caloric deficits are overhyped.

No, this is not clickbait, and I'm prepared to explain why through a series of observations.

Why Caloric Deficits Are Overhyped

Observation 1: We All Want to Look Better Naked.

Most people in the fitness industry share a very similar goal in that they want to look better naked and feel more confident in their own skin.

Usually this means building muscle in certain areas and losing fat in other areas.

Most women want strong legs, plump glutes, and a flat tummy while most guys want broad shoulders, big arms, and six-pack abs.

I say this because these are by far the most commonly referenced physical attributes when I ask people about their goals.

Simply put, people want to look “hot.”

So we could summarize this point by saying that most people, by their own admission, believe that their bodies would appear the most attractive with the following characteristics:

• An appreciable amount of muscle mass

• Relatively low body fat

Observation 2: We All Want to Eat Plenty of Food.

My second observation is that most people also want to eat a good amount of food and enjoy life abundantly.

Consider how often we find ourselves in social situations centered on food and drink.

Fellas, have you ever had a jacked friend who seemed to be able to show up to a night out, crush a pizza, down a few beers, and stay as lean and muscular as ever?

Ladies, have you ever been jealous of “that one girl” whose body always seems to be perfect even though she can eat seemingly whatever she wants?

Most of us have, and I would argue that it’s a wildly enticing state of being.

It’s the desire to be able to eat without restriction while looking as amazing as possible, and it’s essentially the crux of my second point.

So, combined with that first observation, you're left with someone who wants to build muscle, lose fat, and eat in abundance.

I actually refer to this as the “golden zone” with my clients.

The “golden zone” is when you’ve trained and eaten strategically for long enough to be confidently lean while eating plenty of food on a day to day basis.

It’s the combination of being lean and have a high maintenance-calorie intake.

Now let’s move onto my third observation.

Observation 3: We’re All Being Told to Eat Less.

Most people in the fitness industry are obsessed with getting shredded or unsustainably lean, which has lead to a disproportionate level of attention given to caloric deficits.

Maybe you see where I'm going with this.

The problem here is that building muscle optimally actually requires most people to be eating in a slight surplus - not a deficit.

But the confusion comes from a very understandable place.

Most people are overweight or even obese when they begin, which means a caloric deficit is absolutely an appropriate first step (usually) in terms of burning some fat.

Let me make that very clear. I’m not saying that caloric deficits are overhyped because they don’t work. They definitely work when understood and applied properly and consistently.

The problem is that too many people never properly transition out of a caloric deficit into other phases of dieting (like maintenance periods and strategic weight gain periods).

In fact, I would argue that most of your body recomposition journey should be spent eating slightly above maintenance if you want to get increasingly muscular over time.

Why?

Because aside from very early beginnings in fitness, you don't really build a meaningful amount of muscle while eating beneath your body's needs.

Plus, it’s well known that the quality of your training dictates the quality of your fitness and physique outcomes.

Low quality training? Less exciting physical adaptations.

Extremely high quality training? Maximally exciting physical adaptations.

You can only grow your chest so much as a man who eats 1,500 calories per day just like you can only grow your glutes so much as a woman who eats 1,000 calories per day.

Long-term, the fuel simply will not be there to support the quality of training required to produce the quality of outcomes you desire.

This leads me to my next thought.

The “Chasing Two Rabbits” Analogy

It's much like the analogy of chasing two rabbits and catching none.

Let’s say you have two adorable rabbits in an open meadow. You set them both down to run freely and enjoy themselves, but then you realize you miss cuddling them and want to pick them up again.

In the beginning, you can actually clone yourself and chase both rabbits and catch both of them. It's super cool!

But after a while, you lose your superpower to clone yourself and you have to pick one or the other.

You can chase the fat loss and muscle retention rabbit or you can chase the fat gain and muscle gain rabbit.

To be fair, you can still choose to chase the recomposition bunny once you’ve lost your cloning superpowers, but it’s a far slower pursuit that many find discouraging.

The idea here is that you can’t eat in a caloric deficit indefinitely and while continuing to build more and more muscle mass.

At some point, you will probably have to choose between eating more and gaining more muscle or eating less and severely limiting your muscle gain.

What’s the Takeaway Here?

Here's the point.

Caloric deficits are overhyped in the sense that the fitness industry spends too much time talking about how to get into them and not enough time talking about how to get out of them and onto more glorious and healthful muscle-building endeavors.

If you're overweight right now but someday you want to be jacked and lean, think of your initial fat loss phase as a bank robbery. Get in and get out.

Once you've lost an appropriate amount of initial body fat, start eating more food, training harder, chasing performance improvements and strength gains, and improving your metabolism.

I fear that too many people are under the impression that eating in a caloric deficit is a permanent endeavor rather than a means to an end.

Let me say that again. Eating in a caloric deficit should always be a means to an end.

In other words, get into your caloric deficit, lose the fat, and then move on to strategic phases of maintenance eating and even eating in a modest surplus.

In time, you'll be eating way more, sporting a thriving metabolism, flourishing in the gym, and looking leaner and more built than you ever have before.

And that's a really good feeling.

Fortunately, I know this is possible because I've done it myself.

In 2019 I was a very unflattering 200 pounds and eating 2,300 calories per day.

Now, I can maintain a much leaner and muscle-bound 190-pound physique while consuming upwards of 3,000 calories per day.

Which would you prefer?

It's safe to say I prefer the latter, but the choice is yours.

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As always I hope you found this article helpful!

If you feel like this brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be struggling with the despair of living life in a perma-deficit.

Later, guys.

-Andrew

How to Get Huge Legs: 6 Tips for Building a Great Leg Workout

Let's talk about how to build a leg workout that actually grows muscle. 

Now obviously training and nutrition always go hand in hand, so keep in mind here that we are only talking about the training portion in this article.

But anyway, in my experience, building a good leg workout comes down to a few simple things that we tend to overcomplicate all the time.

6 TIPS FOR BUILDING A GREAT LEG WORKOUT

1. Determine Your Weekly Sets Target

2. Distribute Those Sets Across Your Sessions Sensibly

3. Pick Mostly Compound Movements

4. Train Relatively Close to Failure

5. Use Full Range of Motion

6. Rest Properly Between Sets

Let's break these down one by one in as few words as possible.

1. Determine Your Weekly Sets Target

Most experts in the body recomposition space recommend training most of your major muscle groups with 10-20 hard sets per week.

Unless you already know your own body better from personal experience, I would recommend starting around 10 hard sets per muscle group per week. Why? Because you can always add sets in future weeks if your recovery is awesome and you're confident you could do more.

This means I would dedicate 10 hard sets to your quads and then maybe 5 hard sets each for your hamstrings and glutes since there is inevitably plenty of overlap in terms of how much your quads, hamstrings, and glutes get worked across certain movements.

If you find that you recover on time from session to session and week to week, you can start adding sets for additional weekly volume.

2. Distribute Those Sets Across Your Sessions Sensibly

This just comes down to simple math.

If you've decided you want to train your legs once per week, you would obviously toss all of your leg sets onto your one leg day. This would be most like the traditional “bro split” approach.

For reference, here’s an example of what a brutal 18-set leg day could look like if you were forced to complete all of your leg work in one day.

• Seated Leg Curl (3 sets)

• Deadlift Pattern of Choice (3 sets)

• BB Back Squat (4 sets)

• Hack Squats (4 sets)

• Leg Extensions (4 sets)

That being said, I personally wouldn’t recommend training your legs only once per week for optimal muscle growth. Can you build a ton of muscle training your legs just once per week? Absolutely. People have been doing it for decades.

I’m just personally biased toward a higher frequency approach, which allows for quicker sessions on fresher legs.

If you're training twice per week, you would probably split them half in half or perhaps have a quad-focused day and a hamstring-focused day.

Or, if you're like me and you want to grow your glutes above all else, feel free to program a glute-focused day for yourself.

And the same concept applies if you are training your legs three times per week as well. You could easily do a quad-focused day, a hamstring-focused day, and a glute-focused day.

When I saw some of my best leg growth, I was doing around 9 sets on Monday, 9 sets on Wednesday, and 9 sets on Friday, but be warned that this was a very high-volume leg program.

You can only run 27 sets of legs per week for short bursts of specialization before you risk injury or overtraining, so be sure to tailor your approach intelligently with your long-term goal in mind.

Let me show you an example I think might be helpful for most people.

One way to spread out your weekly sets on a two-times-per-week training split could look like this:

Two-Times-Per-Week Leg Training Split Example

Monday (Session 1 of 2): Quad-Focused

• 3 sets of barbell back squats for quads

• 2 sets of leg press for quads

• 3 sets of leg curls for hamstrings 

Thursday (Session 2 of 2): Glute/Hamstring-Focused

• 3 sets of barbell step ups for quads and glutes

• 2 sets of Bulgarian split squats for quads and glutes

• 2-3 sets of a deadlift variety 

3. Pick Mostly Compound Movements

Compound movements generally give you a better bang for your muscle growth buck, which means it takes fewer sets to "get the job done."

Isolation movements like leg extensions and hip abduction machines can be a helpful supplement to your leg training, but I think most of us would agree that the strongest and most shapely legs were probably built with heavy compound moves like squat varieties, deadlift varieties, other hip hinge movements, leg pressing, heavy lunging, etc.

• From personal experience, my own legs seem to grow the best in the most favorable proportions (which is important) from lunging, squatting, hamstring curling, and hinging.

4. Train Relatively Close to Failure

Most people in the evidence-based space agree that training within four reps of failure is sufficient for muscle growth.

That's certainly where I tend to "live" in terms of my own proximity to failure (as we like to call it), and it's where I have all of my clients train.

5. Use A Full Range of Motion

Lifting through a full range of motion is going to recruit more muscle fibers than lifting through a partial range of motion, so it makes sense that you might experience better growth while going to full depth. 

That means with your squats and lunges, the key is to get deep.

If body recomposition outcomes are your primary emphasis, you want to be jamming as much tension into those targeted leg muscles as possible, which means the deeper you can get with immaculate technique the better. 

I when I say deep, I mean all the way down.

You can visit this Instagram post of mine to see what I mean.

6. Rest Properly Between Sets

I think I talk about this more than most because it's really personal to my own physique transformation.

Most people in the gym just simply aren't resting long enough between sets to allow for maximally productive sets.

For compound movements, I recommend resting at least two minutes in between sets. For small muscle groups and isolation movements, I'll take it down to 90 seconds. I only ever take rest times to 60 seconds or below when I'm implementing specific intensity techniques.

Bonus Tip: For whatever reason, my hamstrings seem to respond extremely well to working up to a heavy top set of 8-10 reps on the seated leg curl and then dropping the weight by 20 pounds or so for each set after that while only resting 30 seconds each.

To be clear about what I mean, the last time I did this my numbers were:

• 125x9 (then rest 30 seconds)

• 100x12 (then rest 30 seconds)

• 85x18 (then roll off the machine and curl up into a ball like a small child)

The pump and perceived disruption was gnarly and the work load only took about three minutes once I found my working weight for the 8-10 rep range within a few reps of failure.

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Once you've accounted for all six of these tips, the trick is to simply overload these workouts slowly over time through added weight on the bar, more reps, and improved technique!

So there you go - six tips on how to write your own leg workout that actually grows some muscle. Just be sure to eat an adequate amount of protein and to keep your macros in check along the way!

If you’re not sure how to optimize your protein intake, you can read more about that here.

Lastly, just to help anyone out who'd rather just be told what to do, I think the following weekly workout split for getting juicier legs would be a great place for just any beginner to start.

MY SAMPLE WEEKLY LEG ROUTINE FOR MUSCLE GROWTH

Monday (Session 1 of 2)

• Squats or Leg Press for 3 sets of 6-10 reps

• Bulgarian Split Squats for 2 sets of 8-15 reps/leg

• Stiff-Legged Deadlift for 3 sets of 6-10 reps

Thursday (Session 2 of 2)

• Reverse Lunges for 3 sets of 8-12 reps/leg

• Smith Machine Cannonball Squats for 3 sets of 10-20 reps

• Seated Leg Curls for 3 sets of 10-20

You could, of course, do it a million different ways, but I personally like this sequencing.

Enjoy!

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I hope you found this helpful!

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be looking to thicken up their tree trunks.

Later, guys.

-Andrew

Why There Is No Hope for Your Body Recomposition Goal (Unless There Is)

Sadly, the title of this article is not clickbait. 

I really am going to tell you why I think there's absolutely no hope for a lot of people out there with a body recomposition goal. 

And here it is:

Your mindset is self-limiting. 

And frankly, it's time everyone got called out a bit (gently, of course). 

Common Examples of a Self-Limiting Mindset

These are examples of things I hear people say and my non-spoken responses:

• "I really want to lose weight, but I'm not giving up my pizza and beer on the weekends!" 

  • My Response: That's fine, but you're probably never going to lose a meaningful amount of body fat doing that. You might have to limit those foods for some time in order to achieve your goal.

• "I really want bigger glutes and strong-looking legs, but I really don't like lifting weights. I especially hate lunges."

  • My Response: That's fine, but you're literally never going to grow your glutes or your legs. 

• "I want to gain more muscle but I just don't really have a big appetite."

  • My Response: That's fine, but you should probably adjust your goal. Muscle is grown best in a caloric surplus (even if it’s modest).

• "My only slot to workout is in the mornings. I could go to the 6AM cardio class, but I just don't want to get out of bed that early."

  • My Response: That's fine. Just don't expect to lose any fat sleeping in. You might have to make a decision about which is more important to you.

• "I know Andrew recommended getting more steps in, but it's kind of chilly outside."

  • My Response: That's fine. You could always wear a jacket, but the choice is yours. 

• "I really want to see my abs again, but there are always so many treats in the workroom! It's impossible for me to say no." 

  • My Response: That's fine. It's definitely not impossible to say no, it's just not a habit you’ve mastered yet.

Why I’m Not Here to Dispute Your Reasons

Now, just to be super clear, it really is totally fine for anyone to say those things. I really mean that! 

• It's not a problem to like pizza and beer more than being jacked and lean.

• It's not a problem to prefer watching Netflix than growing your glutes. 

• It's not a problem to enjoy workroom treats more than getting systematic fat loss results. 

But you have to be honest with yourself about the progress you will be able to make within the limitations of your own mindset.

If you read those examples carefully, you'll notice that every single one of them reflects an order of priorities in which the body recomposition goal always yields to some other element of preference. 

As cliche as it sounds, it's kind of true that most people who never achieve their goals never wanted them badly enough.

Why?

Because it's the desire within us that demands the implementation of new disciplines - even when those new disciplines are challenging and uncomfortable.

But here's where my hot take gets a little hotter. 

Personally, I think you should start disallowing yourself to exude negative emotions regarding the outcomes of choices you have made.

Read that again if you need to. 

What I'm saying is that at some point it becomes a waste of your own mental and emotional energy to dwell on negative things that you could change if you chose to.

That's a terribly negative cycle that never ends! And yet I think it describes the everyday reality of a lot of people. 

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL

Think about it...

• Step 1: You see yourself in the mirror and you hate what you see.

• Step 2: You feel a negative emotion like shame or guilt or frustration or anger. 

• Step 3: But nothing changes because there are other elements of your lifestyle that you enjoy more than what it would take to improve the way you feel about the image in the mirror. 

• Step 4: And then the cycle repeats the next time you see yourself in the mirror. 

It's a very terrible thing.

Own your self-imposed parameters and move forward confidently.

In short, I think it's a good idea to make a decision about your body composition goals and journey, own that decision, and move forward confidently, even if your decision is not to pursue a dramatic change in your body composition. 

For example, if you wish you had a big booty but you're literally never going to squat, hinge, or lunge because you "just don't like it," I highly recommend learning to love your butt the way it is.

Contrary to what you might be tempted to believe while scrolling through Instagram, the plumpness of your peach is not a matter of life or death.

As it turns out, it's more of a fashion piece given the current cultural climate. 

Own your little butt. Love your little butt. 

Why?

Because you made a conscious choice not to grow your butt, and that was a mature decision. 

Seriously, you might wind up living a sad life if you hate your body despite your unwillingness to do anything about it.

Why put yourself through that? 

Similarly, if you're 30 pounds overweight but you're not willing to change your eating habits and exercise more, own that decision. It's a totally fine decision. 

Do I personally think you'd be healthier and flourish more in all areas of life if you were leaner and more fit? Of course! But I'm not you. Only you can make that decision for yourself. 

So what's my point here?

Do this...

Sit down and be real with yourself.

Go have a long think about what you think you want and the effort you're actually willing to put toward that image in your mind.

If there's a major discrepancy there, make an adjustment so that those two concepts line up with one another.

If you realize you've been dreaming and need to bring it back down to earth, adjust your goal.

If you realize your goal is legitimate but you're going to have to put more effort in, adjust your level of willingness to do what needs to be done.

Just make sure you have consistency between the goal at hand and the willingness to achieve it. 

Lastly, I couldn't help myself but leave you with some bit of positivity.

I lied. There really is hope (if you want there to be).

There really is hope for everyone if you choose to confront yourself and make change. 

Also, if this article offended you a little bit, I think that's good. I like to challenge the way people think - especially the ways they think of themselves and how they make decisions.

My honest opinion is that most people are capable of far more than they ever rise to achieve simply because they fall prey to laziness, self-doubt, and an over-obsession with comfort.

You can absolutely be that person if you want to be that person, but you can also make a powerful decision to rewrite your own story.

You don't have to think of yourself as "fat."

You don't have to think of yourself as "weak."

You don't have to hate your body.

The decision is yours, and there's hope if you want hope.

If you need help getting started, be brave and book a call with me.

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I hope you found this helpful!

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member who might need a loving kick in the pants.

Cheers, friends!

-Andrew

Vegan Bulking: My Most Common Meals for Building Muscle on a Plant-Based Diet

Today I'm coming at you with a quick-hitter about which meals I'm eating most often as a plant-based fitness enthusiast with an emphasis on building muscle.

I'm doing this because I’m realizing that more and more people are getting curious about how to consume more of their calories from plant foods while optimizing their fitness and their ability to build muscle.

The problem is that they just don't know how to do it.

And maybe you’re in that very same situation. You love the idea of getting jacked on plants, but you don’t you know where to start and the entire idea seems overwhelming, unpractical, and unsustainable.

I was the same way.

I was mesmerized by the idea of eating more plants, consuming fewer animal products, and getting more jacked than ever. It seemed like a win for the animals, a win for the planet, and a win for my own health, longevity, and moral compass.

And yet I had no practical knowledge of how to make it happen.

Fortunately, all of that has changed!

At the time of publishing this article, I’ve been flourishing on a 100% plant-based diet for 160 days.

In that time, I’ve noticed the following things:

• Dramatically accelerated recovery from weight training in both bodybuilding and CrossFit

• Increased volume capacity in terms of recoverable sets between 0-3 reps in reserve

• Increased cardio capacity

• Better pumps and improved vascularity

• Improved blood flow

• Increased sex drive

• Better day to day energy levels

• Sustained mental focus

• Heightened ability to resist irritability and be more patient

• Improved sleep quality

• Reduced body pain specifically in my sides and lower back

• No “gut clog,” which is what I call that heavy, sluggish feeling I used to get after eating meat or dairy-heavy meals.

• Better poops

• Being happier and more content overall knowing that my dietary choices are in alignment with my desire to be a more compassionate and selfless person

Not bad, right?

And, because I’ve had such a positive experience in my transition to a plant-based life, I want to pay it forward by giving you some specific ideas from my own dietary pattern about what to eat if you're wanting to eat more plants, excel in the gym, and look more muscular in the mirror. 

Let’s get into it.

My Most Common Plant-Based Meals for Building Muscle and Getting Lean 

1. Smoothies with Plant-Based Protein Powder 

I have a plant-based smoothie almost everyday because it's just too easy to smash 30-50g of protein in a single meal this way.

Back when I was a meat-eater, I remember following a lot of vegans who would say, "It's not hard to find protein on a plant-based diet!" And to be honest, it always confused me. 

“How could that be true?” I thought. “All of the most obvious protein sources seem to come from animal flesh. Are you really suggesting that broccoli can be a substantial protein source?”

Being on the other side now, I realize that they were trying to promote their lifestyle in a practical, winsome light, but...

The reality is that it does require a greater degree of intentionality to accumulate 120-170g of protein per day on a plant-based diet.

Sure, beans have protein, but compared to egg whites? Let's be real. You'd have to smash a lot of beans and poop your pants twice to get enough protein from those beans as you would an effortless 300mL pour of egg whites.

But, in my opinion, this is nothing to worry about.

I hope to touch on this in more depth in a separate article, but I’ve actually been challenging how much protein the body really needs to build an impressive amount of muscle mass. In fact, I’ve even dabbled with intakes as low as 80g per day, which is less than half of what I used to consume as an omnivore.

But enough on that for now. Let’s get back to the utility of smoothies for building muscle on a vegan diet.

Assuming you want to follow current evidence-based recommendations for protein consumption in the context of optimal physique outcomes, I would encourage anyone who is looking to gain muscle mass on a 100% plant-based diet to utilize the convenience of protein protein powders as one of the few protein sources that rival the macronutrient ratios of animal proteins.

To wrap this one up, protein smoothies make the #1 slot for a few reasons:

1. They’re quick and easy to prepare and consume.

2. You can pack them with greens, nuts, and seeds that might be less convenient to eat elsewhere throughout your day.

3. They taste delicious when supplemented creatively with bananas, mangos, papayas, dates, and nut butters.

4. They are a good opportunity to consume plant-based EAAs or BCAAs, which are more scarce in the plant kingdom

   1. Although I’m personally skeptical of the importance of leucine in the context of stimulating muscle-protein synthesis to a meaningfully greater extent than the other amino acids, you might be less suspicious than I am. As a bit of an insurance policy, it might be a good idea to buy a protein powder that contains EAAs or BCAAs. As a vegan, I’ve now purchased and used products from Vivo Life and 1st Phorm. I have no affiliation to either.

2. Plant Protein Pasta Explosions

This is another extremely common meal for me because nearly everyone on the planet loves pasta.

In fact, if you come from a traditional perspective on how to diet for building muscle, you’ll know that pasta is rarely to never a part of the conversation.

Why? Because it’s “too high in carbohydrates.” After all, bodybuilding and the pursuit of a god or goddess-like physique is all about protein, right?

I’m not so convinced.

Even though the protein hit from these pastas does come with plenty of carbohydrates, I still find that it's not that difficult to keep my calories in check - especially while bulking.

For example, if you find a plant protein pasta from chickpeas or lentils or even black beans, you can easily get 20-40g of protein per meal. Just be sure to keep your sauces lower in calories and to minimize oil use if you're looking to lose fat.

As a bit of a bonus, I like to sprinkle around 10g of nutritional yeast on top of my pasta bowls for that cheese-like effect while supplementing with vegan meatballs for an extra 16g of protein from soy.

Once you add all of that up, you can easily get 40g or more of protein in a completely vegan mountain of pasta.

Pretty sick, right?

3. Toddler-Sized Burritos

I have become the king of Panchero's.

You can literally get some of the most delicious plant foods out there for the modest price of $9 and some change.

Just in case Panchero's isn't a chain you have in your area, I'm basically talking about anything in the Chipotle or Qdoba category as well. 

And what's particularly cool about burritos is that there usually isn't one obvious protein source. This is one of those things that really perplexed me when I was a meat-eater. I just didn't understand the concept that all of the foods within the dish could work together to provide the accumulated protein dose I needed to stimulate muscle growth.

I thought I needed chicken or beef or tuna or eggs or something to get more jacked! But I couldn't be happier that I was wrong. 

In this case, the combination of the tortilla, the beans, the rice, and the tofu add up to around 46g of protein.

My specific order?

• Tortilla, rice, black beans, pinto beans, grilled veggies, tofusada with an extra scoop, lettuce, corn salsa, and pico

  • Depressing Update: I recently found out that Panchero’s tortillas are not 100% plant-based, which means I’ve shifted to being a bowl man. But Chipotle’s tortillas are 100% plant-based, which means they’re getting more of my business these days.

I also like mentioning Panchero's because it gives some people hope that you can eat on the fly on a plant-based diet. Although the options are skimpy, this is a super solid one. 

In fact, I actually documented the importance of burritos in my vegan bulking diet by naming every single burrito I ate during my first dedicated, vegan bulking phase.

I also named them hurricane-style, which I thought was pretty cheeky. If you want to check that out, you can sink your teeth in here.

4. Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches 

Believe it or not, the combination of some high-protein wheat bread or Ezekiel bread with nut butter and a banana can get you 20g of protein fairly easily. 

It has also not been uncommon for me to eat 2 plain peanut butter and banana bagels post-workout for a wily 932 calories from 27P, 166C, and 19F.

And if you read that and thought, “What in the flying fork?!”…

Calm down and remember that these are tips for plant-based bulking, which automatically assume a caloric surplus.

You also have to consider the context.

• I’m a 190-pound male that trains fairly intensely 5-6 days per week. Because of that, my maintenance intake at 190 is currently 3,500 calories, which makes a modest surplus around 3,800 calories for me.

In short, I need to eat ultra high-carbohydrate meals like this to get the results I want.

Do you? Maybe not.

I’m just giving you an insider look at my diet.

Always make the decision that makes the most sense for you and your goals.

5. Quinoa, Broccoli, and Tempeh Bowls

I really wish more people knew about tempeh!

If you’re not aware, tempeh is made from fermented soybeans.

I can't encourage you enough to try it for yourself if you’ve never dabbled. It's literally as easy as cubing up the block on a cutting board and tossing the cubes into a stir fry with some soy sauce.

For me personally, tempeh bowls really have become the "chicken, broccoli, and rice" equivalent for me from my omnivorous days.

But now, it's tempeh, broccoli, and quinoa.

I choose quinoa because it's actually a fantastic supplementary source of protein. Believe it or not, there are 45g of protein in the bowl you see above. 

All you need to make this dish a success is:

• Quinoa

• Broccoli

• Tempeh

• Garlic powder, onion power, black pepper, iodized salt or pink salt

• Optional

  • Korean Gochujang sauce

  • Tahini

---

And there you have it, my friends!

These are the most common meals I’m using right now to build muscle on a 100% plant-based diet. For those who love to know exact macros, a fairly normal day for me might look like 150P, 620C, and 85F (although I routinely utilize the freedom to tweak my carbs and fats depending on training volume and fluctuating day-to-day preferences). This winds up being around 3,700-3,800 calories.

I hope you found this helpful.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member! You never know who in your life might be plant curious, and you could be the catalyst for a major change in the way they view the plant, their diet, and their fitness.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew