Submind YouTube summaries
Thumbnail for How Women Over 30 Can Lose Fat and Build the Body They Actually Want | Mind Pump 2920

How Women Over 30 Can Lose Fat and Build the Body They Actually Want | Mind Pump 2920

Watch on YouTube

Video summary

Women over thirty often face the frustrating reality that fitness strategies which once worked effortlessly in their twenties suddenly seem ineffective, leading many to believe that age itself is an insurmountable barrier. However, experts argue that this struggle stems less from chronological aging and more from a shift in lifestyle factors such as increased stress, complex responsibilities like childcare or mortgages, and reduced sleep quality. These elements compound the physical stress placed on the body during exercise, pushing it beyond its capacity to adapt and recover effectively. Consequently, what feels like a plateau is often simply the body surviving rather than thriving under excessive cumulative load, making old methods of high-volume cardio and extreme calorie restriction unsustainable for maintaining long-term results. To overcome these hurdles, the most effective strategy shifts focus from burning calories to building muscle through strength training with compound movements like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and overhead presses. This approach leverages testosterone's natural presence in women by increasing androgen receptor density, which enhances metabolic rate, improves insulin sensitivity, and promotes a favorable hormone profile without requiring hours of grueling gym time or intense cardio sessions that add unnecessary stress. By prioritizing strength gains over the arbitrary goal of hitting a specific weight on the scale, individuals can achieve significant body composition changes where they look leaner and feel stronger even if their total body weight remains stable or increases slightly due to new muscle mass. Nutrition plays an equally critical role in this transformation by requiring women to "feed the gains" rather than restrict calories further when trying to lose fat. This involves consuming adequate protein based on target body weight while sticking to whole, natural foods that provide satiety and support recovery without triggering overeating behaviors common with processed junk food. A practical example illustrates how reducing high-stress activities like excessive running in favor of walking or hiking, combined with increased caloric intake focused on nutrient-dense meals, can dramatically lower body fat percentages within months. This method not only accelerates visible results but also improves overall health markers such as skin quality and energy levels by allowing the body to recover properly from strength training stimuli. Ultimately, adopting this holistic approach sets women up for longevity and sustained success well into their later years, preventing issues like osteoporosis while fostering a sustainable lifestyle that feels manageable rather than depleting. The key takeaway is to abandon the cycle of yo-yo dieting and high-intensity cardio in favor of consistent strength training paired with proper nutrition and moderate daily movement like walking eight thousand steps or more. By trusting this process, women can build the resilient, sculpted bodies they desire while managing life's inevitable stresses, proving that phenomenal fitness results are entirely achievable at any age when the right strategies are applied correctly.
Read the full video transcript
You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast in history. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, we talk about how women over 30 can lose fat and build the body they actually want. Look, we also have a buy one get one free happening with MAPS programs. The top 10 most popular MAPS programs. MAPS anabolic aesthetic performance 15 minutes anywhere. Symmetry, Starter, Muscle Mommy, Powerlift, and 40 Plus. Buy one, get one free at mapsbogo.com. Now, this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors, Row Nutrition. So, check this out. NAD naturally declines with age. This is slower recovery, brain fog, you get less drive. Rose liquid NAD isn't a stimulant spike. It raises your baseline, so you just operate better. Then they have glutathione. This is your master antioxidant. Most people are depleted from hard training, stress, poor sleep, and travel. So, here's the difference with row nutrition. It's liposomeal delivery. So these compounds are encapsulated in liposomes that deliver them to the target tissues of the body. Oftent times when you take a supplement or a compound, let's say NAD or glutathione, you don't actually get it. You don't actually absorb it. Well, liposomaal technology is a pharmaceutical grade technology that takes these compounds and brings them to where they need to go. So when you take the glutathione, your body absorbs it. When you take the NAD, it actually works. Go try it out. Experience the difference. Go to ronutrition.com/disount/mindpump. That's rhom nutrition.com/disount/mindpump. Use the code mindpump for 20% off. Here comes the show. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mypumpstore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to myposttore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. [music] It's commonly noted by clients we've trained in the past that when they get over 30, it's harder to lose fat, and build the body they actually want. This was most echoed by our female clients. So, that's what we're going to talk about today. How women over 30 can lose fat, build the body they actually want. We're going to give you the steps today. Let's go. >> There. This is always a tough one to communicate because there uh >> there's a lot of truth to you know as you get over 30 over 40 like the challenges that are >> but it has less to do with the age and I think it has more to do with the the time at which >> we didn't do certain things or >> patterns you've established. >> Yeah. Patterns or how many times I have yo-yo dieted or at this point in my life uh I I I'm less resilient than I was in my 20s. Hormone uh issues. is there's so many other things and it's less to do with it's an it's an age but it's communicated like it's a it's an age thing. It's like oh when you get to a certain age all these things are exponentially more difficult. It's like well there's some truth to that but then it's less to do with the number and more to do with all these other things right. >> Yeah. Yeah. And just to encourage people um you get you can get phenomenal results uh in your 30s when it comes to fitness if you do it right. So if you do it right everything comes together everything works. uh your body moves the way you want it to. You build muscle and a metabolism. You burn body fat. It all works. But here's the challenge. The challenge is this is what we've heard. How many times have you guys heard this? Right. It used to feel a lot easier. >> Yeah. >> Right. The the the old ways that I used to get in shape aren't working anymore. What is going on? >> Yeah. And that can be really frustrating and confusing, especially if you have, you know, quote unquote gotten into shape many times in your 20s and suddenly the formula that you have applied maybe two times or three times in the past that works so well for you, suddenly it feels like it's doing nothing. >> And so, uh, this is very frustrating. It's very, very difficult, um, and confusing. But once you understand what's going on, it's not so confusing. Uh and that's I think it's important that we kind of demystify uh what's happening. And so does age play a role? Of course it does, but it's not the main player um in what's going on. Now, yes, hormone changes can start to happen in the 30s, especially as we get towards the later 30s. >> But here's uh what's what's really contributing most to this this struggle. Number one, uh life is different often times, right? uh you have uh more stress, more responsibilities, and time is more precious now than it was when you were in your 20s. Uh a woman in her 30s probably has a job, she's out of school, maybe she has a kid or two, uh a mortgage, she's in a long-term relationship or married. Whereas in her 20s, the responsibilities were basically about herself. >> Um maybe went to school, but that was kind of it. uh if I wanted to sleep in, I could. I didn't have a kid that I was responsible for. Um I didn't have all these other responsibilities. And although time was still uh precious, it wasn't as precious as it is now because I didn't have to divide my time so much between all these other responsibilities. >> Yeah. And you got to factor that in all those new stresses, responsibilities because even, you know, making it a bit more challenging to even consistently go to the gym, but also to get sleep, which sleep in itself is really where, you know, you're going to get all the results. you're going to get, you know, the hormone balance. You're going to get a lot of these benefits. Uh, and that's just one of those big factors that really shrinks as you as you >> of all the things you just listed, do you think there's a a bigger culprit of all like which one's the greatest culprit of all of them? >> I mean, generally stress more specifically, um, >> yeah, because all of them >> responsibilities, >> all of them feed into that, right? Like all the extra responsibilities causes higher stress, right? And so the poor sleep, higher like all those things. I think I think that >> so I think that's literally [clears throat] the the first because even though time uh as we get older with more responsibilities, we have families, jobs, careers, all these things. Uh you are limited to time >> the amount of time required to build a healthy fit physique isn't that much. No. >> And so I don't if you do it wrong. Oh yeah, of course. So I don't think that's was the even though [clears throat] that's a challenge, I don't think that was like number one challenge. Right. Well, no, but let me let me be let me be more clear. Um, the ways that you got in shape in your 20s, although they may have quote unquote worked, although I would challenge that, uh, because the way I define if something works is it sticks. >> Yeah. Sustainable. >> Yeah. So, like as a trainer, as a coach, >> um, you know, success, part of success is getting to your goal or getting results. That's part of it, but that's not the full thing. The full thing includes maintaining. Okay? So, if somebody ever comes to me, and again, this I'm coming from a trainer uh, perspective. as someone comes to me and says, "Oh my god, I used to do this. I do there's this method that I use. It works every time. I get in great shape. What happened? Why did it stop? Why did you stop doing it?" So, it didn't work. It didn't work because you weren't able to maintain it. And and then people will say, "Well, it's me that wasn't able to maintain it." It doesn't matter. Um it didn't work. So, I'll challenge that. The other part I'll challenge is that the method was was still ineffective. The difference was you didn't have so much stress uh compiling on your body, so you got away with it. And the second part was you could devote a lot of time to wasted energy working out. I could throw more stress on myself and do more workouts and sleep in when I need to when I go to bed late because uh my time isn't as as divided. That's why that plays >> uh so much of a bigger role. Yeah. Is you know in my 20s if I go to bed late uh well you know Saturday guess what I can sleep in as long as I want. I can take naps if I want to. you know, when you have responsibilities, especially if you have kids, you know, here's the thing about having kids, you can go to bed as late as you want. They'll wake up at the same time every morning. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And so, you don't get to sleep in your kids wake up and and you got to be up. Um, and the old ways that you were you were you were using before, they were working in part, maybe they got you the results, but you weren't able to maintain them, but they got you some results, not because it was effective, but in spite of the fact that they weren't effective. >> Uh, why? because you could add a bunch of stress on your body with the wrong. Here's the deal with exercise. Exercise is a stress on the body. That's what gets your body to change from the exercise. Your body's trying to adapt and become more resilient. Um, but there's a limited capacity your body has to to deal with stretch. Once you overcome that capacity, you're screwed. Like there's no adaptation. You're just surviving. And this is what it probably feels like right now. What it probably feels like right now is you're doing the old stuff and it just feels like you're surviving. I'm getting sore. I'm sweating. But why isn't my body responding? Your body's not responding because it doesn't have the capacity to adapt to that stress like it used to because you have so much other stress uh on your body. >> I don't think you can stress enough the that it wasn't effective because how many times have you heard um you know that one summer I followed that Atkins diet and I lost 30 pounds or when I was when I was training for that marathon back in you know ' 05 I was in the best shape of my life. It's like they they will connect uh the the best shape or the most weight they lost as as a success even though it only lasted a small semester of their life. >> And so it's like it wasn't effective in because it wasn't sustainable. Like you weren't going to be running marathons every other month or for the rest of your life. You weren't going to be following Atkins forever. And so even though it gave you a temporary result in the positive direction, it wasn't effective. I think that doesn't register for a lot of clients at first at because they still hearken back to that >> Yep. >> that feeling or that moment in time. And so in their head it was like, "Oh, that worked." >> Association. >> It's like, "No, it didn't work. >> You were you were you lost, you know, 30 or 50 lbs during that one time and then you put it all back on and some, so it wasn't effective." And and so getting them to understand that like we don't want to go back that way and it wasn't effective is sometimes really difficult. There is a far more effective way that is also far more likely to be sustainable by you. And this is what we got really good at doing with our clients. Cuz here's the deal. The vast majority of clients that we trained uh who were women were over 30. Okay? So, a majority of our experience >> Oh, yeah. >> in training women was in training women who were over the age of 30 for for a couple reasons. One of them being this is when when people typically have expendable income and can actually afford to hire a trainer. you're in your 20s, you know, you might be you might be strapped for cash and paying $100 a session to work with a trainer. That's not going to happen. But now you're 35, you've got a family, you've got a job, you're like, "Man, this isn't working anymore. Let me hire a professional. See what happens." I'm going to tell you right now, we solved uh this problem. And I'm going to tell you the one thing that made the biggest difference. The one thing that made the biggest difference was getting my female clients to focus on getting stronger and build muscle. >> Yeah. >> This was the big difference. Now, this was a big difference because, and you might hear now, and this more common now to hear why this is an effective strategy, but a lot of my clients when they were in their 20s, the strategy had nothing to do with getting stronger and building muscle. It had everything to do with trying to burn as many calories and move as much as possible. >> It was just let me sweat and move like crazy. >> Yeah. >> And the goal was to get skinny. >> To get skinny. >> I mean, that was like a that was a a common thing you would hear. >> That's right. And often times, this is uh what a young woman's goal is. It's like just shrink, just shrink, shrink, shrink. And this strategy uh is a very difficult strategy. Building muscle and getting stronger leverages your body to be able to uh do a lot of the work for you. Okay, that's that's why this is so effective because if I have a female client who's 35 years old who gained, you know, 8 pounds of muscle, okay, first off, she looks better. Uh her her butts rounder, her arms are more sculpted, her legs feel tighter, her core feels tighter. She's heavier on the scale, but everything feels tighter and actually looks better. But that 8 pounds of muscle has now leveraged the metabolic rate in a direction where her body now burns more calories on its own. >> She actually has a faster metabolism. She also has a a body that has a more it's more likely to have a favorable hormone profile. you have better insulin sensitivity, which does play a role in things like estrogen, progesterone, and muscle. When you build muscle or strengthen muscle, you increase androgen receptor density. So testosterone is a hormone that women have just just like men. They just have a lower amount, but it's just as important for women is as it is for men. In fact, low testosterone in women, same symptoms that low testosterone men produces. low motivation, low muscle, more fat gain, low libido, low energy. Right? So when we build muscle, we increase androgen receptor density. These are the receptors that testosterone attaches to. So now whatever testosterone I have is more effective. It's got more places to attach to and become active uh at. And so what I've done by building muscle is I've shifted my body in a way that makes it easier to get lean, easier to maintain. And it's a it, by the way, here's the best part about building muscle doesn't require days and hours in the gym like trying to burn calories does. Like trying to burn calories means I got to do stuff all the time. Building muscle is I got to do a workout, send the signal, let my body build. >> And so that's the biggest that was the one thing that made the biggest difference. The difficulty was convincing my clients initially to trust me through this process, but once they did and they saw the results, >> the hamster wheel. Yeah. >> It was over. Well, part of the part of that challenge um is is getting them away from using the scale as the metric to to define their success or not. >> And what's cool today, it's I feel like it's a lot easier today than it was 20 years ago. Um because today I can tell a client easily on their phone, they can get on it and I can go um okay, let's not change your weight at all. So you don't you don't like that you're at 175 or 18 whatever your weight is. I want you to type in show me a body at 19 a female body at 19% at 180 pounds and then show me one at 35%. And look at both at 185 lbs and put those pictures next to >> so different. >> Crazy different. >> Yes. >> And and so you can illustrate really quickly how irrelevant the scale is. And it's like we don't want to just lose weight on the scale. Like we need to get that out of our heads that you need to be a certain weight on the scale. I can show you radically different body types and or bodies the way they look at literally every weight number 120, 130, 140, like all the way up. Like I can show you radically different bodies based off of how much lean body mass they have. And the pursuit of that is through building muscle and strength. Yes. >> And so that's why that needs to be the north star and not this arbitrary number on the scale that you've attached to this is what I like the look is. It's like, no, let me tell you, you can not even move on the scale and look radically different. >> So, to put it differently or to put it plainly, um, if you're listening right now and you're trying to build the body you want, you're trying to get leaner, you want to look fit, here's your goal. Build muscle and get stronger. That's your goal. It will leverage things in a direction that makes it a lot easier. It will boost your metabolic rate. It'll make getting leaner easier, meaning you can eat more food and maintain a leaner body. And you look great. And here's the best part. You feel great. Ladies, muscle feels really good on your body. You move better. Your joints feel better. You've got more energy. The testosterone that you currently have becomes more potent because of the androgen receptor density. So, your libido goes up. You've got more drive. This is the strategy. And I'm going to tell you right now, if you're listening, you're like, I'm kind of scared. What you're doing isn't working. >> Why not try something uh totally different? >> Yeah. And I mean, you're setting yourself up for sustainability, for the longevity through this whole process. I think too, of course, you know, not everybody's going to think really long term about, you know, fitness and training that uh you know, into their 80s. But what this is setting you you up for is, you know, you're you're avoiding osteoporosis. You're you're setting yourself up for abilities uh later on in life that you're going to benefit from. >> Oh gosh. The the I'll tell you what. Listen, we managed gyms for years. I'm going to say something and I know you guys know exactly what I'm talking about. The women in the gyms that I managed in their 60s that were cardio fanatics versus the women in their 60s that were strength training fanatics. >> Completely different. >> The the the difference the way in the way they looked was radical. >> Radical. I mean, the the lifting fanatics looked younger, had better skin. You can look this up. Strength training stimulates muscle protein synthesis, but it also stimulates whole body protein synthesis. >> They look different. They felt different. They had better hormones. >> Um, I mean, both groups were better than no people who did nothing. >> But the strength training, oh boy, did it make a big difference. >> Okay, so you're you're listening. Uh, you've completely sold me on this is the path. what are the the actionable steps that I take and in in the most simple basic way like what what do I do? >> Number one, you got to feed the gains. And I use the word gains on purpose because that's a scary word, but you need to feed the muscle. We're trying to add active calorie burning tissue to the body. And you can't do that if you're eating too little. Okay? So, this isn't going to work if you're eating almost nothing every single day. You need to eat your target body weight in protein in grams of protein. Make sure you eat whole natural foods and feed yourself in a way to what it looks like essentially is this. I'm going to eat when I'm hungry, not overeat. I'm sticking to whole natural foods. I'm not trying to undereat and I'm going to feed the gains. I'm going to feed the muscle gains. And and this is I said this is number one because this is the hardest part because >> hard one. I can convince uh people in this category. I can convince women in this category to lift weights far easier than I can to get them to feed. >> Yeah. >> Uh the the harder part it sounds counterproductive when I'm hung up on I need to go down. >> That's right. >> When when when I've come to you and I've hired you and I said s I'm uncomfortable where I'm at. I don't like this weight. I want to lose 30 or 40 pounds, whatever the number is. Um, and and then you you did your spiel you just did for the last 10 minutes to me. And I'm like, okay, I'm bought in. I need to get strong. I need to build muscle. What's step one? And you're like, feed the gains. [laughter] And I'm like, okay, you lost me again. No [clears throat] way. Like, I told you how you heard me. I want to go down again. And then I feel like this is the part where we're having to circle that way. >> If you feed the gains with garbage food, heavily processed food, junk food, yes, you're going to gain tons of body fat. If you feed the gains with whole natural foods and you hit your target body weight and grams of protein, not only will you be fine, but you will get body composition change through this process. Meaning, you'll get leaner as you build muscle. >> And and this is a necessary evil because we can lift all the weights we want, but if we live in a caloric uh deficit and we don't feed the body what it needs to build muscle, you won't build muscle. So you can you can have the best strength training program, have the best trainer in the world taking you through it, but if you don't fuel the body properly, you don't give it enough calories and you're always under on calories, you're not going to build muscle. >> Some of the best results I ever got with my female clients were the female clients that they hired me, I train them, we're doing the strength training, they're really resistant when it comes to the diet, really resistant with nutrition, really resistant, restricting. God, I don't want to eat more. Finally, I convince them, "Go up 500 calories. Go up 500 calories and watch what happens." And within weeks, they're blown away by how they feel. Within months, they look in the mirror and they're like, "This is wild. I'm eating more food and I'm leaner." I'm like, "Yeah, you built muscle." So, you need to feed the gains. But again, you will not eat so much food that you gain a bunch of body fat so long as you stick to whole natural foods. Whole natural foods produce a natural satiety that will match what your body generally needs. When you eat a lot of heavily processed foods, junk food, fast food, candy, then yes, you will totally overeat and gain a bunch of body fat. But that's because those foods are designed to make you overeat. So your your body's systems of society are totally thrown off with those things. But if it's whole natural foods, feed the gains. The next thing is this. Your goal is strength. Your [snorts] goal is strength. Your goal is not to look different in the mirror. Your goal is not to get leaner. Your goal isn't anything else. It's to get stronger. Now, here's what's crazy about what I'm saying. If you get stronger, you're sticking to whole natural foods and you consistently get stronger, all the stuff that you're looking for, the changes in the way you look, body composition, shape, sculpt follows. It all follows >> more efficiently as well. >> That's right. It follows it consistently. >> Now, would you say um to to even simplify that to focus on a handful of lifts to that you want to get stronger in? Yes. >> Versus just kind of like trying to do all the things and say, >> "Yes." And here's why. So, it's okay. It's great. Okay. It's great to get stronger at, you know, hip abduction or a lateral raise or a tricep press down. Nothing wrong with that. Getting stronger is always awesome, but getting stronger at certain exercises just means a lot more. It means a lot more in terms of metabolic rate, muscle gain, return on investment. Okay? So, getting stronger, for example, at a barbell squat means a lot more than getting stronger at a leg extension. Uh, for example, both work the legs. One of them is working a lot more than just the quads, the hamstrings, the glutes, >> more muscles involved, more of a loud signal. >> Yes. And so the typical exercises that really mean the most, and there's there's quite a there's a few of these, but the ones that really mean a lot that you get stronger at are things like deadlifts, bench press, squats, overhead presses, rows, like you get stronger at those lifts. It means a lot in terms of the visible results uh that you're looking for, right? Here's a here's the last one, and this is where it gets crazy. I don't want you to do any cardio. All right? I don't want you to do any cardio. Now, look, >> this is where we get we get so much push back. >> Now, now, here's the deal. There's nothing wrong with cardio, per se. If you want endurance and stamina, this is the way you should exercise. >> But here's the deal. >> Uh, when we're dealing with adding stress to the body, uh, and we're also dealing with a lifestyle where I've already got lots of compounding stress, I'm going to leave the stress when it comes to exercise to the thing that's moving the needle the most. If we're going to add stress to the body, I'm going to focus on the thing that's going to change the way I look. Yeah. The fastest, which is the strength training. So, I don't want to add additional stress from cardio. Now, again, if you're if your goals are athletic, you want stamina, you want endurance, nothing wrong with it. But you got to understand when you add more stress from intense cardio, you got to take away from the strength train. You can't just throw stuff on top of stuff because then nothing happens. >> Well, this is a best uses case. It's it's the the the best use for cardio. It's a tool at the end of the day is to increase endurance and stamina capacity. And so in that regard, like cardio is amazing for that. Uh and I know people enjoy doing it. So there's nothing wrong with that. However, if we're talking about fat loss and body composition changes, there's a another tool that's way better than that and that's strength training. That's right. >> And then we we also like eventually like a if I had a client that's telling me like I want to do it or I love to do it, I like to do it which first of all it I would always challenge that too. like do you really love doing it or is it because again you've attached that to some sort of like result that you've had before? >> We can use that as a tool later on. Like it's like okay don't worry that's that's a it can be something that we use in the future but initially right now when we're trying to build the metabolism scul the body build muscle in the manage stress. >> Yeah. And manage stress and all like right now this is not the ideal tool for this situation. Let's use the ideal tool for this situation. Let's build that metabolism. Let's drop some body fat. Let's get to a place where we have some consistency. We've built some strength. And then maybe later on, we can start to add that into your routine. And you've got this beautiful balance. >> Yeah. And so, again, a lot of this has to do with managing stress on the body. And so, if when we're adding stress with exercise, I want to be judicious with what exercise I pick. And if the goal is body composition change, uh, then I'm going to place that uh in the strength training bucket. Um, and I'm not going to use cardio. Now, here's the deal. Does that mean we want you to be seditary? Does that mean you lift weights, you know, three days a week and then the rest of the week you do nothing? No. Daily activity is very good for you. It's going to enhance uh and accelerate these results. We just don't want daily activity that adds to stress. In fact, I want I would love you to move in a way that's recuperative and rejuvenating. And you know what the best form of of movement for that is? Walking. >> Yep. >> Walking. >> So, here's what you're going to do on the on every other day. uh you know, you you lift weights and then in terms of daily activity, try to hit 8 to 10,000 steps a day, which which is really no small fee. If you have a desk job, it actually requires you to kind of get up and move quite a bit, but 8 8 to 10,000 steps day in and day out is a great way to get that extra activity. Combine that with the strength training >> and you're totally crushing. Uh this makes this reminds me, there's so many client examples I have of this, but my favorite client examples are not women who hired me. I love training all the people that I trained, but the ones that stand out were the ones that were already working out, were already doing everything they thought they were doing right, and then they hired me, >> and they came to me because they were frustrated. There was one woman I can I remember uh specifically who was running like crazy and strength training. So, she was lifting weights >> four or five days a week, plus she was running about 25 miles a week. Okay, so those two things, plus her calories were in the sub 2000s. the the fact that she was able to survive on that is pretty remarkable. But that's what she did. And I remember she hired me because her body fat percentage was stuck in the mid20s. And she's like, I you know, I'm running like crazy. I lift weights all the time. How is it that I'm like at 24 or 25%? Shouldn't I be like 19% body fat? She's like, what what do I need to do? Do I need to do more working out? Do I need to cut my calories even more? I'm like, listen, if you cut your calories more, you're going to lose weight, but it's going to be muscle. Your body fat percentage will go up. And if you try to work out more, you're going to overtrain yourself more and at some point you're going to hit a wall and your hormones are going to crash and it's going to be terrible. And she was already telling me, "I'm feeling fatigued. I'm already feeling fatigued. I'm feeling burned out. What do I got to do?" So we cut her running way down. Initially, I went from was 20 20 to 25 miles a week all the way down to five because I couldn't cut it all the way out. She was attached to it. So I cut it down to five. Cut her strength train down to two days a week and I took her calories up by 400 calories. Anyway, over the course of eight months, this woman went to zero running, just walking, because she realized she didn't really love running as much as she thought she did. I think she was doing it because she thought it was keeping the weight off. So, she cut that out, started hiking and walking. She was still pretty active. Strength training with me uh between two days a week, one day a week on her own. So, three days a week total. Her calories got all the way up to almost 3,000 calories a day, and she was walking around 18% body fat. And she she was just remarkable how easy it felt. She's like, "This is the weirdest thing. I I always thought I had this crazy slow metabolism. I always thought that I I was just destined to never get as lean as I as I thought I should be. She like this feels genuinely easy. It's like we shifted things in a direction to make it easier. >> Well, my I mean my one of my favorite stories to share is Katrina. Um and not just cuz she's my wife, but it's also one of the last people that I really helped like this. I mean I was on my way out. we were already into mind pump and and doing that uh when or building towards this when uh uh we I finally started to help her. We'd already been dating for years at that time. Three, five years we'd been together and she just she had her own thing. She was always an an athlete. So her way of maintaining in shape was she'd allow herself to eb and flow between 10 to 15 pounds. When she started to push up that 15 extra pounds that she didn't like, she kicked up her running like crazy. She would every time she lifted weights, it was plyometric style from the way she trained like as an athlete. And so her approach towards weightlifting was highintensity, low rest period, circuit type training and lots of running. And she'd shed those 15 to 20 pounds, whatever it was. And I watched her do that through, you know, years of being together. Never said anything to her because, well, I'm not going to tell her what to do. You know, it's like if that's how you like getting in and out of shape. and she had watched me enough times, you know, control my my body composition and never do any cardio. And obviously when I started to get ready uh to compete was when she saw it at an extreme level and she finally looked at me. She says, "Okay, throw my hands up. You take control." And I was like, "Okay, sorry. Cut out cardio completely. Reduce the amount of strength training she does. Reduce the intensity she does. Increased rest periods and increase food. And at the end of this, she had the best body she's ever had, doing zero cardio, eating 7 800 more calories than she's ever eaten before. And not only that, she saw we saw all kinds of health. I don't I don't talk this that much on the podcast about this, but you know, she had she had stuff with like acne that always bothered her, that riddled her. She had all kind she saw her her hormones. >> She saw her skin get better. She saw all this other stuff get better. uh her hair, nails, all kinds of things that improved in addition to and I remember her afterwards being like, I can't believe I've gone this long. That's right. And had no idea how much easier it was. And she was the same way too where I love to run. >> You say, I used to love to run, but it's like again attached to the result of that. She used to know that if I trained really hard like this and ran like really crazy, I could shed these 15 pounds. And that had proven to work for her for so many times that she and then she had attached. I liked >> until she tried the right way. >> Until she tried the right way and realized, "Oh my god, this is way more fun to be able to lift weights half as intense as far as the amount of, you know, her circuit type training as she was doing, no running whatsoever, and being able to eat more food and then also be able to say, "I have the best body I've ever had." Like, that was such a cool thing to watch. >> So, here's what we have. So, there's there we're having a buy one get one free with Maps programs right now. And this is the best combo for what we're talking about right now. So, if you're listening to this, you're like, I want to do that. I want to build a muscle. I want to boost my met metabolic rate. I want to do it the right way. Here's the combination. We have a program called Muscle Mommy. You do that first about 3 months long. Then you follow it up with MAP's power lift, which is literally about getting strong with your squat, your deadlift, and your bench, which is another three months. So, this is a six-month course with both programs. It's buy one get one free. By the way, the buy one get one free applies to our top 10 most popular programs which includes maps anabolic aesthetic performance 15 minutes anywhere symmetry starter muscle mommy powerlift and 40 plus. So if you're interested go to maps bogo.com. Also you can find us on Instagram. It's mindpump media. We'll see you there. All right. I know you like that episode. If you did check this one out. One of the keys to fat loss is protein. [music] It's true. If you're not eating a high protein diet, you're not going to burn as much body fat as you can. So, today's episode, we're going to talk about the smartest ways to use protein for fat burn and to build muscle. You got to watch this. [music] >> I wish I understood this earlier in my career. I think it was probably almost 10 years in when I started to just focus [music] on this with clients. >> I knew it was important, but I don't know how important. Yeah, I also did I knew it was important and but I also