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Lindsay recaps a six-week 25% calorie-deficit fat loss phase she documented for her Be Strong community, emphasizing focusing on calories and protein, minimums for fats and fiber, and avoiding obsessive tracking. She explains why vacations don’t erase real fat-loss progress, detailing how water, sodium, carbs, alcohol, reduced training volume, and digestion can temporarily raise scale weight and change muscle fullness. She shares her untracked, intentional approach at an all-inclusive resort, a small weight increase, and how weight normalized slowly. Finally, she outlines plans for post-diet recovery and maintenance, adjusting steps and calories strategically while prioritizing sustainable lifestyle and body composition over scale numbers.
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What is LiftingLindsay's More Than Fitness?
Dive into the joy of fitness with Lindsay and other guests exploring how it goes well and beyond the gym floor, the number on the scale, the size of your waist or the calories you're counting.
Speaker: Welcome, welcome to
the Lifting Lindsay podcast.
Guys.
I'm back from Mexico.
Okay.
So it's been like a week and
a half, but still I'm back.
it was, it was an adventure.
It was fun.
It's hard with an 18 month year old
who is so curious about the water
and I was just trying to keep her
from not drowning the whole time.
So that was great.
It was so funny.
One night Alex said, if something
happened, would we even know like
where a hospital is or what are
we supposed to do just in case,
you know, an emergency happens?
And I'm like, I don't know.
I was wondering that too.
No joke.
No fricking joke.
Guys.
The next day Link is just strolling
along and hits his baby toe.
His pinky toe on.
A curb and it rips his entire toenail off.
Plus like not just the toenail
but the skin underneath it.
It was awful.
It was awful.
And he is just hanging on.
Anyways, it was so horrible.
So Alex drives to this hospital.
They're trying to convince him.
To, uh, put link under to do a full on
surgery where they need to sedate him.
And Alex is like, uh, no.
Nope.
Nope.
Not feel enough.
One, he's like, I really think we can
just, you know, wrap it up really well.
We'll take care of it when we get to Utah.
And they're like, no, I really suggest.
And he's like, no, my feelings are telling
me that I should not trust him with you.
So, anyways, he told him.
He is like, no, no, no, no.
We're, we're not gonna do that.
I'm not gonna spend $3,000.
To have my son get a surgery
in Mexico on his pinky toe.
we're, we have two more days here.
Let's just, you know, wrap it up nicely.
So, and link was such
a great sport about it.
So anyways, we got back
to Utah and a day later.
His toenail just fell off.
No pain, nothing.
Everything looks amazing.
So glad we did not do that.
Uh, he was texting me
like, what should we do?
I'm like, I'm no, no, no, no.
I do not feel good about
full on surgery in Mexico.
Nope, nope, not happening.
So we both had those same
feelings, so glad we went with 'em.
Anyway, so it was an adventure.
It was an adventure, okay.
But I do want to go over a little
bit of my approach in Mexico.
I actually, I have been, um, keeping my
be strong community, every single week.
So the past before Mexico for six
weeks, I did a dedicated 25% calorie
deficit, this fat loss phase.
And it was like I was.
on point, like a hundred
percent for five of those weeks.
Um, I would say I was like 99.9% another
one of those weeks, or, you know, we've
talked about it in a past podcast,
just depending on how you measure that.
But, but I was still really,
really consistent to the plan.
I saw some great fat loss
and, um, I was averaging.
At the beginning, 130 pounds.
By the time we, uh, that six weeks
of that pretty, you know, 25% for me.
Especially being like so on point, I
mean, that's kind of like on the, like
in between moderate and aggressive, like
that's right on the verge of aggressive.
Usually they say, you know,
26% to 30 or something.
Uh, that's kind of
leaning into aggressive.
But anyways, so I saw some
great, uh, results from that.
It was really fun.
You know, being on point and
feeling so good about working so
hard and then, and just being a,
you know, near a hundred percent.
And then also to start
seeing that in the gym.
Like my whole thought was, I, I really
wanna lean down for this vacation.
And a lot of times people are asking
me, well, so what's your goal?
Body weight is your goal.
And I was like, I don't have
a, a body weight goal here.
I, I just, 'cause I can't really
control that if I'm being honest.
But what I can control is get into
an aggressive or semi aggressive cut
and be a hundred percent and find
joy in the progress that I earn.
Like that's really.
All I can control.
And so that's, that's the goal.
That's the goal.
The goal is the day-to-day grind
and feeling leaner because of it,
with really no other expectations.
And I feel, to be completely
honest, that that's a really healthy
place mentally and emotionally
to, push into a fat loss phase.
Because when we get these weird ideas
of, well, my body is some, math equation,
and so if I, you know, go down 500
calories, then I should be seeing one
pound off the scale every single week.
And we come up with these weird
ideas when the truth is our
body is not a math equation.
It's not this perfect robot.
It is a, a very intricate system of
adaptations and we really can't control
what the scale is gonna say especially,
and, and I've loved showing that, uh, in
my Be Strong community every single week
during those six weeks, every, I think one
week I compiled two into one article, but.
I, I compiled five articles of this
is how I set up my fat loss phase.
Then the next one was, okay,
this is weak, like one and two.
This is like, or one, this is
the, the fat loss that I saw.
This is the, the movement
that I saw on the scale.
This was the plan.
This is how I feel.
And then I even went as far to
say, and now these are the systems
that I'm putting in place that
I actually always have in place.
But now we're tweaking it so
that now I'm in a calorie deficit
and these are all of my meals.
Even like I went into super duper detail.
You know what, that was
really fun doing that.
And every week I would return
and report to them saying, this
is, this was my compliance.
I was a hundred percent, I consider,
you know, around 50 calories
of my goal calorie, whether
higher or lower, above or below.
Um.
That's a, that's a hundred percent.
And hitting, you know, a minimum
of this amount of protein, that's a
hundred percent for me getting around,
you know, five to 10 grams of that.
That's a hundred percent.
So, that was really, really
fun taking my community along.
Now, there were two things
that happened from that.
One, A lot of women wrote into me telling
me like, this makes me realize that.
I'm actually not as compliant as I've
always thought I was and, and some even
went as far to say something along the
lines of, you know, I kind of just thought
I. Put these numbers in my macro tracker.
That's kind of what I'm aiming for.
And every day I just
kind of try to get there.
And because I was trying and it felt
hard, then I was following the plan.
But after watching how you set
things up and are so intentional, I'm
realizing I'm missing that piece and it.
So much harder because of that,
and I'm actually not nearly
as compliant because of that.
That was really cool.
Another thing that I, that I
heard is this was really fun.
Some women were just like, I'm
just gonna do what Lindsay's doing.
I'm gonna do exactly what she's doing.
I'm even gonna do her meals.
Because I put in there,
this is my pre-workout.
This is my post, this is my lunch, this
is my dinner, and this is my nightly
snack, and with links to my exact
recipes in the Be Strong community.
And so it was really fun having
some women write into me saying, I
am literally following your plan.
Fat loss has never been so easy.
And I'm like, yes.
See, that's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying.
Now, believe me, it is hard in that
you feel the tension, you feel the
the daily kind of buzz of hunger.
I'm not saying that that's not there.
But it is so nice when you go into it so
intentional and have a real plan where you
enjoy the food, where you're sitting down
and enjoying the meal with your family
and your kids aren't just seeing you, you
know, eat like a rabbit and just salads.
Uh, if you enjoy salad, sure, whatever.
But I really love that I sit
down at dinner and eat the
exact same meal as my kids.
My salad might be bigger, you know,
my, my chicken serving or whatever
actually is bigger than theirs usually,
but, but we're eating the same meal.
We're having lasagna, we're eating
the same lasagna because my lasagna
is protein packed and literally nobody
knows how fricking healthy it is.
And I'm enjoying my homemade
rule and so are my kids.
Now I'm enjoying one
homemade rule, not three.
and when I'm in maintenance, I'll
enjoy two homemade roles, right?
I love the systems that I've set up.
So be strong community if you have
not gone through those articles
that I've written every single week.
Another thing that I love
is I've shown you this week,
the scale didn't move at all.
Am I changing anything because of it?
No.
Because I'm feeling a difference
and this is how I'm also measuring.
So I measure by how I feel,
how I look in the gym.
Am I looking, leaner or my
muscles showing a little bit more?
Okay, that's progress then.
And if I'm seeing that, then I'm not gonna
change anything with my foods, right?
Or even my energy out.
There was very, uh, minimal cardio.
I think.
I think I did three cardio sessions,
the entire fat loss phase, and it
was such a successful fat loss phase.
Uh, in fact, I really do wish I could
show you guys pictures because I also
do videos where I do kind of a skinfold
like test is I, I see like how much
I can grab on my stomach and I just
do it as a way of measuring movement.
And, and it was really fun seeing
how much my stomach tightened up.
Um, it got to a point where people
in the gym are coming up to me being
like, wow, you're really leaning down.
Like, wow, you're putting
on so much muscle.
I'm like, well, I'm not
really, but it looks like that.
Because I'm leaning down
so now I can see it, right?
But during a fat loss phase, at 25%
deficit, we're not gonna be seeing
massive amounts of, you know, muscle gain.
Um, another thing that was really
fun for me is I continued to progress
during this time in my strength.
And a lot of times people assume
that when we move into a fat
loss phase that immediately.
We won't have energy for life.
We won't have energy for our lifts,
and that's actually not true.
If we continue to prioritize the
basics, um, nutrient dense foods, uh,
prioritize sleep, I will die on that hill.
That because I prioritize sleep so much
during this fat loss phase, not only did
I see a little bit more success than I
would have if I didn't for two reasons.
One, uh, when you have low
sleep, you have higher hunger.
Just a fact.
It raises, uh, those hunger
signals in your body.
And so that makes it way more
difficult to be consistent.
So it has this indirect impact on
your ability to stay consistent.
But not only that, we have seen, uh,
studies that show that two groups in
the same calorie deficit, but one got at
like, I think it was more than seven hours
of sleep, the other got less than six.
The one, the group that got more
sleep actually saw more fat loss.
So there are things going on in
the body that we like to pretend
we know exactly how the body
works and all these mechanisms.
But the truth is, right now we're
still, there's a lot we know and
there's a lot we don't know, and we're
still kind of guessing on some things.
And so.
That's important to say.
Like, look, I really do believe
there's something to sleep that we
don't know and fully understand.
Besides this indirect impact on,
um, you know, consistency, I do
believe that there's something else
going on that allows for slightly.
more, I can't say how much, um,
but slightly an edge and a little
bit more potential fat loss.
So this was a really successful
cut looking back, you know, six
weeks, putting my head down, getting
it done, working really hard.
Uh, another thing that I wanna talk
about, well, there's two other things.
One, some people were very shocked that
I. Wasn't going for specific carb and fat.
I was kind of letting carbs
and fat fall where they may.
And I was strictly just looking
at calories and protein, and I had
people tell me, how in the world do
you think that you're, like, before
when I was stating like on Instagram
that I'm se this is how I'm setting
up my fat loss phase, I literally had
women be like, how in the world do you
think that you're gonna hit fat loss
if you're not tracking your macros?
And I'm like, wait, what do you mean?
This, this girl was very adamant, like,
if you don't know exactly, like if you
don't have this plan of carbs and fats,
then you're not going to see fat loss.
And I was like, Ooh, I am so excited
to show you that you're obsessing
about the wrong things right now.
I do think that there, depending
on the level of in, uh, volume
that your workouts are, we may
want to include more or less carbs.
Right, but these things
really should be a minimum.
So in my opinion, minimums are kind
of what we should be looking at.
So minimum of protein, minimum of uh,
fats, and then kind of letting things
fall where naturally your appetite or
the things that you lean towards as
far as food choices, where they land.
A lot of times That's more of a lifestyle.
You can let them fall
where they, they may.
Now the minimum for fats
is usually 0.4 grams.
Lean body mass, lean body mass.
I'm not talking about overall weight,
I'm talking about lean body mass.
So, I, I just feel like that's, that's the
minimum of fats, but most women are gonna
land naturally a little bit higher than
that, and so I just don't believe it's
something that we have to obsess about.
And I've talked about this
to great lengths, so I won't
give that any more time.
But truly focusing on fiber.
Um, min once again, minimums work
really well for lifestyle clients,
so minimum of 25 grams, but hoping
that we're gonna be hitting closer
to like 30 grams possibly and higher.
Another thing too, though, that
often shocks people is, uh, I
will have salads and I'll have
like two or three cups of lettuce.
I never track my lettuce.
Never.
And one another woman was just like,
I just don't see how you can say
that you're being compliant when
you're not tracking lettuce leaves.
Once again, this is where the obsessive
nature works against people because
three cups of lettuce leaves is not
preventing anybody from losing body fat.
In fact, it could be the very thing
that helps people stay a little bit
more consistent is they don't have
to worry about one more thing, right?
I'm sorry, but I never want my daughter to
see me weighing a fricking lettuce leaf.
It's just not gonna happen.
Just like how I'm not gonna unwrap a
protein bar and weigh that on either.
I'm just gonna say, look at
the nutrition and it says.
One protein bar equals this amount
of calories and macros and et cetera.
I'm just gonna take it as face value
because, so many people obsess about these
things and it's unnecessary obsession.
We need to focus on the big rocks.
Can we land and, and try to be
accurate in where we're landing, but.
15 calories from lettuce leaves.
Yeah, my, my body's gonna burn that much.
Just chewing on them.
So there, there gets to a point where
I feel like, uh, tracking macros is an
amazing tool and it can also be a tool
that just drives people insane because.
Their mind becomes so fixated on just,
oh, I need to weigh a tomato slice.
No, actually I did not weigh one
tomato slice during my entire time.
When I would have my sandwiches or my
wraps, I would slice up a tomato and
put two slices on it, and I would grab a
handful of lettuce and I would throw that
on there, and I never once tracked those.
Okay.
But the consistency to the plan.
Still allowed me to be really successful.
So now I wanna talk about
how did I handle Mexico?
What did, What does that look like?
You know, going from a, a fat loss phase,
all the, I was in this cut all the way
up till Mexico and then I took this
week off at an all inclusive resort.
Now, just me saying that some women are
just like filled with fear and anxiety
about how could you even do that?
I know this because I hear
from these women, and one thing
that I often will hear is.
Women will say, well, I
work so hard to lose weight.
And then I go on vacation
and I ruin everything.
Well, let's clear something up
here, and I'm saying this in the
nicest, most loving way possible.
No, you didn't.
Okay.
No you didn't.
If you've been in a real consistent
fat loss phase for six to 12 weeks.
I'm sorry.
It is not possible to erase all
of that progress in a few days.
It's just not.
If you did, then you never made
real progress to begin with.
I know that stings.
That stings, but it's true.
Okay, so.
It's just, and there's two,
so let's kind of go over.
There's, I feel like
two scenarios with this.
There are situations where this feels
true, no, this, it's true for me.
I go and I just ruin all of my progress.
Okay, so, so let's talk about
why we may feel this way.
Scenario number one, it usually,
this usually happens to women who
crash diet for two to three weeks.
So they crash diet, they do extreme
like, I'm going to eat like a bird.
I'm just going to eat lettuce leaves,
uh, with a little bit of protein, maybe
throw back some protein shakes and
protein bars because protein, protein,
protein, and we have to eat protein.
And they do this extreme diet.
And guess what?
If, if you go really, really low carb
for a week, and on top of that, if you
cut out al alcohol for a week, you may
see a drop in 10 pounds in one week.
I've, I've seen women experience that.
They go super, super aggressive and
the first week or two they drop five
to 10 pounds and they think, oh my
gosh, I've lost so much body fat.
No, you haven't.
You've lost a little, but you've lost
mostly water weight and food volume in
your digestive system and some glycogen,
but not significant amount of body fat.
Okay, because.
Body fat really works on, I think
about the compound effect, right?
It builds one week of an
aggressive crash diet.
I'm sorry, but majority
of that is water weight.
It really is.
Compound effect is chipping away
from week to week body fat, okay?
You don't undo that in a few days.
You also don't create
it in a few days either.
Right.
And then so, so what happens is these
women, they, like I said, they'll do these
crash diets and in fact they'll, they'll
write to me on Instagram and be like, I
have a vacation in two to three weeks.
Can you get me ready?
My son's getting married
in two to three weeks.
What can I do?
Yeah, you should have been contacting
me three to six months ago.
Okay.
Not, not in two to three weeks.
What can you do?
Well, you can do a crash diet, which, so
you're gonna drop a bunch of water weight.
Now during a crash diet, you may also
feel leaner in your midsection because
the food volume in your digestive system
is down and it, it's pretty much nothing.
So it's kind of like the same as
if maybe you were sick for a few
weeks and you were throwing up.
Or I that happened, uh, last week.
I lost like four pounds overnight
because I was throwing up.
So, so it, it's no different.
And guess what?
As soon as I started eating what happened,
the weight went back up because I didn't
drop four pounds of body fat overnight.
Okay?
then these women will crash diet.
They'll feel a little bit tighter.
They'll lose a bunch of water, water,
weight, and then they go on vacation.
What do they do?
Well, I earned all, like I lost
all this weight, so now I can
just binge and eat whatever.
And then on top of it, so they're,
they're eating a ton of carbs
when before they were restricting.
So now all of a sudden they're
going to see, um, water,
large water, weight increases.
They're.
Eating a ton of sodium because
on vacation, eating out a ton,
vacation food tends to be really
high sodium and even travel.
Okay, flying on an airplane can
increase water weight, right?
So they're experiencing all of that.
And then on top of it,
if you drink alcohol.
Ooh, there's a, there's the, that's
another tricky one that you are
now, you know, if you're drinking
alcohol all day long laying by
the beach, that's your choice.
But just let me make it
very clear, what happens.
So alcohol is a toxin and the body,
think about it this way, when you drink
alcohol, the body kind of pauses what it's
doing as far as, What it's metabolizing
and it focuses on metabolizing alcohol.
It focuses on that, and what then
happens is you're drinking a lot and
you're eating a lot, so the carbs
and fats that you're eating the
likelihood of them just being shuttled
to to fat storage is a lot higher.
So it's kind of this, uh, this perfect
storm, if you will, of what you did
before where you're crash dieting, and
then what you're doing during vacation.
And, um, then when you get home and
you step up on the scale, you've,
you see an increase of the scale and
are like, oh, I lost all my progress.
I'm just gonna be.
Very honest, you never really
made progress to begin with.
You didn't make real progress.
Okay?
So that shouldn't be something that's sad
to you, that sh that bit of information
should be like, oh, okay, awesome.
So I'm not gonna do that anymore.
I wanna make real progress.
Okay.
So now let's talk about the person who
did make real progress and why they may
feel even being really consistent in and,
and chipping away at body fat and, and
feeling leaner and then going on vacation.
Why they may come home and see the
scale up three to five pounds and also
maybe not feel as tight or maybe feel
like maybe they've even lost muscle.
Right.
So once again, here's
a few things going on.
Higher carbs equals more
water retention, right?
Because carbs are going to bind with
water and, uh, be stored as glycogen.
Higher sodium, you know, you, you,
you're still gonna experience that
is more water retention and then
the less structured chain training.
Even during a week, you can see some
temporary changes in muscle fullness.
This isn't muscle loss though, so
we should not be confused by that.
And then on top of that, you
are going to have more food
overall in your digestive track.
So that's it.
You didn't suddenly gain
five pounds of body fat.
You're just seeing some
shifts in water weight.
So that it may feel like, oh,
I lost some of that progress.
You may feel a little flat because
your muscles aren't as full 'cause
you haven't been, you know, going
to the gym and doing as much volume.
Even if you were still active and
walking around a ton and hiking, you may
still lose some of the muscle fullness
because you're not doing the same
amount of volume that you were doing.
Prior in the gym.
So once again, not muscle loss, it's just
a temporary change in glycogen and water.
And once you get back to into your
routine, everything comes back to normal.
so let me walk through what
I personally did in Mexico.
Um, I don't drink alcohol.
But I absolutely enjoyed myself.
So breakfast was simple.
Uh, there was a buffet.
I wasn't a huge fan of a lot
of the options at the buffet.
I made that very clear
in my Instagram stories.
And so, because I didn't feel like
the buffet was very good, I just kind
of, to me it was like, well, I'm just
gonna stick to then like a good really
big filling, like egg white omelet.
So I would.
Get in the egg white or the omelet line
and ask for like six to eight egg whites.
And I would fill it with a bunch of
ham and spinach and bell peppers and
mushrooms and cheese and just kind
of make that really big and filling.
And then I also would always
grab one of the Mexican pastries.
I love those.
It kind of, I served a mission for my,
uh, church and it was, it was Spanish
speaking with a lot of Mexicans.
And so that kind of brought me, I don't
know, it was a little nostalgic for me
to enjoy one of their Mexican pastries.
but honestly, the fil ones, which
weren't necessarily purely like.
Traditional, I, those
are probably my favorite.
lunch was another fun part of the day.
Um, I wouldn't eat anything
or snack on anything.
Um, between lunch, I, I did have, I love
Diet Coke, so I drank a ton of Diet Coke.
so I would drink water and
diet Coke, in between meals.
But, um, lunch was really fun.
they had taco stands all over.
This resort they had, the
buffets weren't very good, so
I would not go there for lunch.
They on the beach, they had,
all you could eat like hot
dogs and hamburgers and nachos.
That was really fun.
but typically I would go and get a
couple of nachos because their, their
meat was so good and it was so filling.
So I would do nachos with corn tortillas,
and then just top it off with pico and
avocado, and those were really filling.
And then in the afternoon,
I'd grab some ice cream.
I enjoyed ice cream every
single day when I was there.
And then at dinner we would go to these
restaurants at night and I would always
eat until satisfied, but not stuffed.
And I always made room for dessert.
that's what it was.
No tracking, no stress, just
intentionally enjoying without overdoing
it, but also not feeling restricted.
I got to enjoy what I
wanted to and if I didn't.
If I tried something and I wasn't like,
wow, this is so yummy, I would try
a few bites and be like, huh, okay.
Not for me.
Don't really wanna, I, I look
at it as kind of a money.
I don't wanna waste my money on that.
Like, I don't wanna waste
my calorie money on that.
Um, but I didn't think too
much about that either.
It was just kind of, my nature to be like,
oh, well I'm not gonna eat that if I'm
not like digging it and not loving it.
Right.
Well, what happened?
Well, before leaving, I was
averaging 125.7 pounds, and when I
got back my weight was 128 pounds.
So like about a two pound increase.
here's kind of another part of it too.
I think is really interesting.
So I immediately got back
into the calorie deficit.
Now, the reason for that is
because I want to walk you guys
through a post diet recovery.
What does this look like?
And so I wanted to bring my, uh,
my weight back down to what it
was right before I went to Mexico.
And so I knew I could do that in a
matter of a week or two, just getting
back onto the calorie deficit.
And then once the weight
stabilized, what it was.
Before then I would show you guys, okay,
so this is how you exit a fat loss phase.
Now keep in mind, a fat loss phase
is not over until you are back eating
at maintenance for a few weeks.
That is key.
That is so key because if you think
that the fat loss phase is over
as soon as you hit a number, then
what happens is when we try to.
Move you back into maintenance
and back into eating more.
You mentally think, oh,
you're kind of checked out.
You're like, Hmm, it's over.
So I can BLTA lot more.
I can just, I can, I don't have
to be as like track as strictly.
I can do all of these things
and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Not if you want a really good post diet.
Maintenance and recovery plan.
In fact, this period is as essential
as the fat loss phase itself.
It's still part of the fat loss phase,
and a lot of times people check out
once they hit this certain number.
And then are just like, oh, whatever.
Oh, well, we're raising calories
anyways, so I can start guesstimating
a lot and doing this and that, and I
can mindfully eat and intuitively eat.
It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Those systems are broken right now.
You know that, right?
I should be more careful
about my word choice.
They're not broken.
It's just they've shifted and they
can't be trusted right now because
at the bottom of a fat loss phase.
Is the worst time to try to be like,
oh, I'm just going intuition here.
No, no, no, no.
Your intuition, the hormones that
are signaling being full, being
satisfied, those have shifted.
They cannot be trusted right
now, and so you have to.
Regulate them by actually having
just as much control moving back into
maintenance and making sure you're
not overshooting it because this
is the the easiest time to do that.
your hunger starts rising a lot more.
The more body fat you lose, your
hunger just naturally starts
rising more and more and more.
And so when we move up to maintenance.
That hasn't regulated yet.
Hunger is still on high alert, and
so if you try to go intuition on me
right now, you are going to overshoot
because your hunger is so high.
So even if the plan is okay, Lindsay,
my coach told me maintenance,
these are my maintenance calories.
That's what we're jumping up to.
But I'm gonna go off of
my feelings on this one.
No, don't do it.
Don't do it.
You're feeling suck right now.
Okay.
They do.
They cannot be trusted.
Okay.
So it's like some 16-year-old
who's like, I'm in love.
No, your feelings cannot be trusted.
You don't know.
I love it.
I'm kind of dealing with a
little something like that in my.
Not with me, but with a family member.
And I'm just like, Ooh, ooh,
feelings cannot be trusted
right now in this situation.
Like, anyways, so that
just came to my mind.
but yeah, we've got to make sure that
we move strategically those calories
up and that you are as consistent
right now as you were at the bottom.
And it can take, depending on
how the duration of the cut.
It can actually take a long, uh, a
few months to get your hunger, and
satiety hormones regulated again.
Being able to trust them more
and more, and then we can slowly
step away from tracking 24 7,
but we keep the same systems in
place, so then you maintain this.
So that's the overall thing that we,
the structure that we, we try to create.
Okay.
So anyways, I dropped my calories
back down and I, I sat there for a
good three days going from, you know.
Eating everything at a, all
inclusive to three days of fat
loss and these fat loss calories.
And my weight did not come down.
It did not budge.
It wasn't until like
the fourth day, it was.
Monday that my weight dropped down to
115 because we got a really, really bad
stomach bug and we were, Ooh, the whole
household was like throwing up and sick
and we couldn't keep anything down.
So then I couldn't keep
anything down for two days.
My weight, I weigh myself
just so I can share all this.
The next day, my weight was
at 15.7 and then I was able to
start eating again and training.
And guess what happened?
It bumped right back up to 118.
So even after a full week of not even
eating, I was still hovering around 1 28.
it wasn't until the second week.
This right now is the second week
of this fat loss phase that I
have now for the past two days.
Seen the dip back down into 1
25 0.8, then 1 25 0.8 again, and
then this morning it was 124.
Point, I can't remember
if it was eight or nine.
I'm finally seeing that that
shift back to where I was.
Before I went to Mexico.
Now that's just as far as weight, though
that's not body composition because
my body composition when I got back
from Mexico was relatively the same.
I I was a little depleted
'cause I didn't train at all.
Um, and then two days in the gym training
again and I, my muscles kind of filled
back up and I looked fuller again and, and
felt a little bit tighter because of that.
But the weight remained the same.
It wasn't until time.
And I like sharing this
because I think you need to see
that these things take time.
And a lot of times we tell ourselves these
stories of, well, I'll get right back into
it and then after a few days it will be
back down to where No, no, it needs time.
Once again, the body is
not some, Math equation.
It is very intricate there's a lot
of noise that can make it hard for us
to try to make it some math equation.
Right.
So that is really important.
So anyways, this week as things
have normalized, I'm going to
continue this fat loss phase until,
um, Saturday will be, my, the end.
And then I am really excited to kind of
show you guys what, post diet recovery
looks like because this is where, where
people really, really struggle with.
A ton is how do I exit this and
maintain what I've achieved?
Well, one, our idea of what
I've achieved needs to change.
A lot of times women are like, oh,
their idea is all about the scale.
I hit my goal because of this scale,
but as soon as you start eating more.
You are going to see
increases in water weight.
You're going to see increases in
glycogen stores, which is awesome.
We want that.
We want more fuel right there
around our muscles for them
to tap into during training.
We want that, and that can
easily manipulate the scale
by three to five pounds, just
depending on how full that is.
Even more depending on if
you're a bigger person.
So we want to see that.
We want, those energy stores, as I said,
we wanna be eating more, so naturally
there's going to be more food in our
digestive tract, which naturally by the
end of the day, our stomach is going to
look fuller because it has food in it.
Right.
But we get so obsessive about this
scale and we don't quite understand
then if you were using the scale
so much during a fat loss phase.
To tell you whether you
are successful or not.
It's really hard.
If that's your one metric you're
using to then see that metric, then
go up in the opposite direction.
people will feel like they've failed.
So I'm really excited to show people
that actually what we're trying
to do is maintain body composition
while finding a. Energy out and
lifestyle that we can also maintain.
Those two things have to line up, right,
because sometimes people do achieve a very
low body fat percentage, but the lifestyle
that they enjoy and can maintain doesn't
maintain that low body fat percent.
So we have to line up our lifestyle
and what we can truly maintain and
enjoy and is healthy for body and
mind with the body composition.
And I wanna show you that through
proper systems, this can be maintained.
I'm gonna show you, I've,
I've leaned out quite a bit.
I'm really excited about my
progress and I wanna show you.
How I measure body composition moving
forward, when the scale is moving up and
how I deal with that mentally, right?
So I do want to go through a, a few
things about how I'm setting up my
next, there's two stages, there's
two kind of, uh, stages to this.
So the first thing that we've
got to do is adjust energy out.
So during this fat loss phase, I increased
my steps to help drive the deficit.
Now I'm bringing them back down to
a more sustainable range, right?
I can't be hitting 14,000, 16,000,
17,000 steps for the rest of my life.
That is not maintainable for me.
It might be maintainable
for Susie down the street.
I don't really care.
I'm not her.
I'm me.
It's not like a joy for me.
I want it to be more around 10 to 12.
That's what works for me.
I'm going to continue training,
uh, my five times a week
because that's enjoyable to me.
So the first thing that I actually
adjust is going to be my energy out.
I shifted it to further my fat loss.
Now I'm shifting about down because
I can't maintain that always.
Now, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna
bring up my calories in two bumps.
Okay?
Two phases.
First, I'll move.
Them up to about 1950, a day
while I adjust my output down.
Okay.
So that, those two will kind of
work in tandem to bring me closer,
probably to a bottom of maintenance.
Uh, but like I said, maintenance is range.
So probably just below what
my true maintenance is.
it's interesting I use macro factor, uh.
As far as like my tracking of my
foods, and right now it says that
my, uh, estimated TDEE or maintenance
calories have shifted down to 1900.
I do think that that's a bit low estimate,
but we do tend to see a drop, uh, for
a short period of time in maintenance
calories, during a, a fat loss phase.
So that's normal during cut.
But since overall energy expenditure,
uh, that, that's because overall
expend energy expenditure tends to
shift downwards, often from reduced
movement or subconscious activity.
But I haven't seen a huge drop in that.
So I expect my true
maintenance will be higher.
and also just so you know, when
you only have lost a, a small
amount of weight, your maintenance
really only shifts down like.
50 calories, like I've probably
have, my maintenance has dropped
like 50 calories with this.
if I want it to be 50 calories
more, that's just a little extra
steps during the day, right?
So it didn't really drop dramatically.
but from there I'll make another
adjustment based off of energy
levels, hunger, performance,
and what I feel is sustainable.
So within, so I'll bump it up again
to, uh, my maintenance, depending
on my energy, out can be anywhere
between, you know, 2100 to 2300.
If I were to keep my steps at,
you know, 14, 15 easily, my, uh,
maintenance would be 2300 easily.
So just, uh, lifestyle movement.
And also the more whole foods you
eat, the higher your maintenance
because, it does impact that
because whole foods and more protein
require more energy to digest them.
And so it can actually increase that,
uh, you can get away with eating a little
bit more if you have a more whole foods
based diet and you're eating more protein.
We see that time and time again.
and like I touched on before,
I'm really excited to show you
and like what my meals look like.
What my nutrition looks like, how I've
set this up and day to day, I will
continue every week showing my be strong
community and giving, uh, Instagram, uh,
followers just a little glimpse into this.
I'm gonna be showing how this is
influencing the scale and how I'm
dealing with it and all of that stuff.
So, I am just full on expecting the
scale to move up with more carbs in
my system, more food in my system.
Um, I'm also excited to see my, My
sleep started being impacted towards
the end, uh, right before Mexico.
I, I've felt good since coming back from
Mexico, but I'm excited for the sleep
to continue to, be in a good PO place.
And I'm excited to see my progress
as far as strength continue to go up.
So really, when it comes to
maintenance, we're not necessarily
chasing a number on the scale.
Uh, we're looking at can
I maintain this lifestyle?
Can I maintain this body composition
with this lifestyle and do I feel
good physically and mentally?
And that's success, not
keeping the scale frozen.
That is not it.
So I'm super excited to show you guys.
hopefully, uh, this, uh, recap of
Mexico and also talking about this
idea that people just lose progress.
Hopefully this information has
been really, really helpful.
You guys, I really do love and appreciate
you, especially those in my community.
I'm so grateful for you guys.
You guys are amazing.
I see your hard work.
I see you show up for each
other in the community.
I love it when you guys are posting, um.
Form videos so that we can
just really nail your form.
I love it when you guys are talking
about your fitness phases and,
and what you're going for and just
supporting and being there for you.
In fact, in a half an hour, I'm
helping on a live with all of you
guys, so I'm excited to see your faces.
You guys are amazing.
I will talk to you later.