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We're addressing common misconceptions in the fitness world regarding muscle gain, metabolism, and food intake. Stop comparing your diet and fitness routines to others. I'll talk about the impact of reversing diet restrictions to increase maintenance calorie levels, and the belief that muscle gain allows for significantly higher food intake.
Topics:
0:00 Muscle Massively Increases Your Metabolism?
00:11 Can fitness influencers eat more food?
01:37 We have to stop comparing
05:43 If you put on more muscle, can you eat more?
08:06 What science says is going on
20:13 What is the point of maintenance?
20:41 Daily Energy Expenditure
21:44 What's included in your BMR?
29:19 How sedentary are you?
Topics:
0:00 Muscle Massively Increases Your Metabolism?
00:11 Can fitness influencers eat more food?
01:37 We have to stop comparing
05:43 If you put on more muscle, can you eat more?
08:06 What science says is going on
20:13 What is the point of maintenance?
20:41 Daily Energy Expenditure
21:44 What's included in your BMR?
29:19 How sedentary are you?
Creators & Guests
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.
Lindsay: Welcome to the
Lifting Lindsay podcast.
I'm excited to chat with you guys today.
I was sent a real recently,,
by a fitness influencer.
Really cute girl.
Um, but people had some definite
questions about this one.
They're like, whoa, wait.
She's saying that.
All of my favorite fitness influencers
can eat more food because of two reasons.
One, they have reversed their reversed
up after their diet and that has pushed
their maintenance numbers higher so now
they can just eat more food because they
did that slow drip reverse kind of thing.
The other thing was, um, and I
actually think the main focus of
that was kind of an afterthought.
It seemed like from her reel,
the main thought was, um, that
if you put on a ti, if you put
on muscle, then you can eat more.
So let's break both of these down.
Um, I was actually surprised by
how many people sent me this reel.
Nobody's ever sent me a, a, a reel
by this, uh, influencer before.
And, um, so I'm like, well, if enough
people are sending, asking me, some even
coaches were, were asking me about it.
So I decided that, okay, well let's
just do a little deep dive into this.
First I think that it's really important
to begin the conversation with this.
We gotta stop comparing.
We gotta stop comparing what Sally down
the street posts that she eats in a
day does not have any bearing on you.
It doesn't mean anything for you.
Now, I'm actually not anti those.
Um, what I eat in a day posts,
I'm not anti them when it is, um,
an educated individual looking
at them through the right lens.
And that's what I'm trying to do here
is I'm trying to help, you know, let's
get the right lens to view these things.
Some people view them and
they get really upset, like.
They really like, really get
upset, about how dare somebody
post what they're eating in a day
that doesn't mean anything for you.
And I'm like, well, why aren't
you getting as upset about them
posting their exercise for the day?
Like, I feel it's the same exact thing.
Like, this is what I do,
this is what it looks like.
Now, did it get them to
where they look today?
Maybe, maybe not.
Probably not.
Once again, things are multifactorial.
They're not just like this one
thing, this one thing changed.
And unless you're gonna say Jesus
after that, like it, it didn't.
It didn't.
I'm sorry.
Just kidding.
Oh my gosh.
You guys know I'm Christian though, but
seriously, I see this all over Instagram.
This one AB exercise snatched my waist in.
No, it didn't.
BS it's called you lost body fat and
you have nice genetics and also you
do work out and you do have muscle.
It is multifactorial.
There's a lot of things going on there.
So it does kind of drive me nuts a little
bit when people are saying This one
thing, this one thing built my delts.
No, it didn't.
There's a million things that contributed
and the fact that you think that just
one thing gave you that, that is a really
good like indicator that this individual
doesn't know what they're talking about.
Okay.
That is a, you know, I get
questions all the time.
How do I know?
Who to follow, who not to.
I can't make that call for you,
but I can tell you one thing.
If they say one thing, if they say, I got
this by doing one thing when I changed
this one thing, I'm gonna call BS on that
one, because it really is never one thing.
It's not one thing to build your glutes.
It's not one exercise.
When I started doing this one
exercise, my glutes blew up.
No, even then, that's not
true because there's a lot of
things that come into play.
Uh, how is your recovery?
Because no matter how hard you work
in the gym, if your recovery's not on
point, you're not building anything.
How is your nutrition a key part
of recovery and, um, about, uh.
And allowing your body to build.
Um, then also like what was the intensity?
What was the volume over the week that
you were putting towards your glutes?
It's not this one exercise that you did
three sets of, that's not it, because
three sets not even enough volume to
actually get hypertrophy over the week.
So.
Like I said, it's multifactoral.
And going back to what I started
with, when people will say, you
know, this is just, just put on more
muscle, then you can eat a lot more.
Can you eat more at maintenance?
Yes.
How much though?
That's the important question.
How much you know?
I remember when I very first got into
fitness and, and, and bodybuilding and
hypertrophy and putting on muscle, and,
and I got, so it was so fun and I, I
had my favorite influencers and, um.
I didn't know much.
I didn't know how to navigate all of
this, but I had my favorite influencers
and you know, they would often
say like, one more pound of muscle
that's anywhere between 30 to 40.
Some of them were saying to 50 more
calories that you can then consume.
And so, you know, do everything
you can to get on that to build
that one more pound of muscle.
It's not though.
It's one pound of muscle is not
20, it's not 30, it's not 40, it's
not 50, it's not even near that.
We're talking about one pound is
closer to you get to eat 10 more
calories a day, like that's it.
Now I'm not poo-pooing on building muscle.
You guys know me.
You know there are.
So many benefits to building
muscle, um, that, that I've
discussed numerous times before.
Uh, we can utilize nutrition
better, we can utilize carbs better.
Um, we are dealing with an
obesity epidemic and I truly,
truly believe that most people.
Um, if they were to put on
more muscle, they would be
able to utilize carbs better.
Uh, insulin resistance wouldn't be so
high because when you put on more muscle,
the body can use, uh, glucose really
drive it into those muscles when we build
and are using them and we're active.
But it is fascinating.
So actually what science is saying
about if I put on one pound of muscle.
Which is actually pretty hard, and let's
do a little review on this quickly, but
if you, if you put on one pound and you
are relatively sedentary, so maybe you
go to the gym three times a week, but
other than that, you're kind of, you
know, steps are around four or 5,000.
Um, I think three or 4,000 is
what they can consider sedentary.
You sit at work, uh, at work a lot.
Not up and moving.
And then you go home and you sit on, sit
and watch Netflix or sit and, you know,
go through reels or TikTok or whatnot.
You're s that's a sedentary
individual right there.
And so they're going to be using
more like seven calories so that that
one pound will give them about seven
calories, but one, but somebody who
uses the muscle that they put on more.
They're more active.
They're going to the gym, um, you know,
three, four, maybe five times a week
in doing, um, training and lifting
and, um, walking or, you know, cardio.
These individuals can actually, per pound,
we're looking at anywhere from nine to 12.
More calories that they can eat
because of that one pound of muscle.
Now we're just gonna kind of round
it to 10, um, because uh, a lot
of researchers are saying it.
Even for active people it probably
falls between nine to 10 more.
So if you put on 10 pounds of muscle,
which is a lot, and let's just do,
like I said, a little recap here.
So your first year.
Lifting, like really lifting, not going
in and doing lifting classes, but your
first year going in and doing like
a, uh, a lifting hypertrophy program.
So that is going to bring higher
outcomes of muscle because
we're not doing metabolic work.
Aerobic work.
We're actually stimulating
more for hypertrophy.
So for a woman.
Her first year going in training
four or five times a week, she
can put on 10 pounds of muscle.
That's not necessarily unheard of.
So that woman then in that year of going
from being like a sedentary individual,
not working out, not lifting weights, she
goes in, well, and maybe she was, maybe
she was doing all the cardio classes.
Now she goes in and that
first year she switches.
She can still keep her cardio.
People always think I'm anti cardio, which
I think is so weird because what health
and fitness coach would be anti cardio?
I mean, it is a great form of
exercise to bring out specific
outcomes for cardiovascular health.
Like why wouldn't we want to work
on and increase our aerobic system?
Just because I don't do it very often
doesn't mean that I'm anti it, but
maybe this person really loves cardio.
They love running.
Great.
Let's just include some
muscle building in there.
Right?
So, so let's say this person,
whomever they are, they go in and
that first year they put on 10 pounds.
Awesome.
Okay.
So they can eat now.
An extra a hundred calories.
That's not nothing, but it's also not what
I feel like is being promised to people.
You want to eat so much more.
Like, um, something I heard like
when your favorite influencer goes
to Disney and eats all of the treats,
and it doesn't really affect them,
it's because they put on muscle,
they've put on 10 pounds of muscle.
I mean they could what?
Eat one eighth of a treat at Disney
and they've hit that 100 calories.
Just to put this into perspective,
guys, that 10 pounds of muscle,
and don't worry, we are gonna talk
about how this is multifactorial.
We're not gonna just fixate on this
muscle thing, but it is interesting
and I really wanna drive it home.
If you put on 10 pounds of muscle
that first year, which is totally
doable, um, and, and you can now eat
an additional a hundred calories, that
is like a heaping cup of blueberries.
That is a, an additional
half a cup of oats that is.
Almost a half of a Snickers, just
that I feel like the Snickers
one really drives it home.
So it's like, oh, okay, well
then that doesn't make sense.
She put on 10 pounds of muscle.
She's going and eating all these
treats at Disney, but she can really
only, like, it's only putting,
giving her an extra a hundred.
Those treats at Disney are
like an extra 5, 6, 7, 8,000
calories, not just a hundred.
Okay.
So this is, this is why I think it's
really important to drive this point home.
Let's just say me and my husband, we
figured out over the past eight years
how much muscle I've put on, and I
wish you were here to correct me.
I know it was, um.
Around and a little over 20 pounds.
But he had it really figured out.
It was easier to figure out before
I was, I was pregnant obviously, and
we were comparing different body fat
percentages at different points in
time, like when I first started to
now, and my weight and everything.
And it was really shocking.
So I've been lifting weights,
guys for seven, eight years.
Um, and I've put on, you know.
20, I think it was, I can't
remember exactly guys.
I'm gonna guess, and I'm probably gonna
guess wrong because I also have pregnancy
brain, and, um, I know some of you have
been watching my Instagram stories and
I'll, I'll say things to my husband like,
like, I just, I have, I'm so scared.
I have this feeling that something
is wrong with the baby, that
the baby's not growing well.
And, and I didn't have this
feeling with the other kids.
And he just like.
Turns and looks at me eyes wide open.
He goes, wait, what?
You have literally had the same exact
fears with every single one, and they're
usually expressed in the second trimester.
Like exactly where you are right now
is when it really comes out strong.
It was the funniest things.
I really do have pregnancy
brain, so I'm sorry.
Um.
But I do know it was a little
above 20 pounds, and that's
eight years of hard work.
You know, keep in mind everybody's
rate and ability to put on muscle
does come down to genetics.
Um, that can include some hormonal health.
I've struggled with some, uh,
hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's and
some hormonal, issues that, that.
I really do think affected the
rate because as soon as we got my
T three levels on point and even
my progesterone and estrogen,
uh, were looking a lot better.
I noticed that I, I started seeing
an increase in muscle and this
was, you know, five years, six
years of lifting weights too.
So there's a lot of factors that
go into how fast or how slow
somebody will put on weight.
Excuse me.
Put on muscle.
Well, and also body fat, but we're
not talking about that right now.
Anyways, I'm trying to bring this down
'cause I'm, I can get lost in the weeds.
You guys know that.
So I'm trying to bring it back.
Let's just round, make it really
easy and say I've put on about
20 pounds of muscle and my body
composition has completely changed.
It's been really exciting.
Really, really cool.
So that gave me what, an extra
200 calories, which actually
does line up pretty well.
Um, I would say two 50
is what I've noticed.
My maintenance was when I first
started after my first cut and I
went up back up to maintenance.
My maintenance was closer to 2000
and my maintenance, now I can land
anywhere between, you know, 22.
2250 to 2300 and maintain really well.
But we're gonna talk about what
influences that too, because I can
hit 2300 and maintain really well.
My activity level usually is a
little bit higher though, because
it's not just putting on muscle.
It is, like I said, these other
factors that come into play.
So even if we just zone in
though and say, okay, well.
I've been doing this for eight years,
I've put on 20 some pounds of muscle
that gave me an additional 200 calories.
Yeah, that's, that is a lot.
But once again, that's over a
really long time period too.
That wasn't after six
months or after 12 months.
Right.
So, and even then, let's take
a step back and say, so what
does that give me more a day?
200 calories?
What is that?
Now I can, I'm just shy.
I think a Snickers bar is 220
calories, so now I can almost
finish a Snickers every day.
That's the additional amount, right?
So it's not this crazy high excessive
amount that some people think.
Another thing too that's often
told to us is, well, if you.
Do kind of what, uh, what I call a
slow drip reverse, you know, adding
30, 10, 20 calories in a week after
your diet to find maintenance.
Then some people have preached while you
can just keep pushing up your maintenance
higher and higher and higher and
higher, and that's not necessarily true.
Anybody who's done a reverse.
Will tell you, you are going to, at one
point or another hit your cap and anything
above that, you start putting on body fat.
So that's, you can't tell everybody,
well, if you did a reverse, then
you can eat way more than you
could before because that's not.
That's not true.
There's a lot of things that have changed.
What if they lost, you know, 50 pounds?
Well then they're gonna be eating a
lot less, even if they did a reverse
than what their maintenance was before.
But they will be eating more than
they were when they were dieting.
That's true.
That's a fact.
But the point of maintenance is to, um.
This kind of how I explain it.
'cause people will say, well, you
can raise your maintenance a lot
higher if you do this slow drip.
And I'm like, no, you are eating more
because you're reversing, because
you're just increasing your calories.
You're eating more to
find your maintenance.
So let's talk about all the
different factors that go into this.
Okay, let's actually discuss
your daily energy expenditure.
That is your daily energy expenditure.
Um, your TDEE.
If we balance food coming in with
your TDEE, your total daily energy
expenditure, if we balance the the
energy coming in and the energy
going out, then you hit maintenance.
Right?
So what are the biggest
contributors, or all of the
contributors that go into that TDEE?
The biggest contributor is on the bottom.
It is your basal metabolic rate, your
BMR, or some people refer to it as RMR.
There's slight changes,
uh, resting metabolic rate.
There.
There are slight differences, but a
lot of times in these conversations
we can use them interchangeably.
It's fine.
So your BMR is about 60%.
Well, what's included in your BMR,
your BMR, um, includes genetics.
Sex, age, body composition, like how much
fat you have, how much muscle, because
fat also is an organ, it pulls in.
And to maintain the amount of body fat you
have, uh, it requires energy too, right?
So, uh, like I said, we have genetic sex,
age, body composition, like body fat.
Um.
And muscle and just keeping
systems running in your body.
Another thing that you can
include in this is hormones.
So this is why, um, when people are
having hormonal issues or going through
perimenopause and we are seeing some, some
imbalances in hormones or, or if somebody
has been trying to live in a diet.
We see a reduction in the, in,
uh, conversion rates of T three
to T or T four to T three.
So we see reductions in
metabolic rate in your BMR due
to, um, a lower active thyroid.
So if you are trying to live all
the time in a calorie deficit.
Your thyroid is going to
be negatively impacted.
This is why we encourage people all the
time to spend more time in maintenance.
You cannot live in a calorie deficit.
You cannot get the body fat
percentage that you want to.
Usually in one round of dieting.
Usually you have to do a few.
And when you go into a diet, there's just
some natural adaptations that happen and
one of them is with the thyroid and that
can have a direct link to your metabolism.
So you, we can see a
lowering in that rate.
And I just, I love having a, this podcast
because then I can, I can talk about
slight nuances that go into BMR when I'm.
Sharing, you know, a 92nd clip.
Um, and, and that's why even with this,
this girl, this cute girl that people
were sending over to me, I'm like,
look, I know what it's like to have 90
seconds to try to deliver a message.
It is fricking hard.
It is so hard.
So, you know, I wonder if we sat
down and talked if maybe that message
would look very, very different.
I don't know, right?
I mean, yeah, you just don't know.
But.
That's actually why I try to stay
away from certain topics on social
media because we can't go into this.
So like I said, that BMR,
that's about 60% of your total
energy expenditure for the day.
Now, what can we control with that BMR?
You know, we can't control our age.
We can't control our genetics.
We can, to a degree,
control hormones in that.
Like I said, if we're trying to constantly
live in a calorie deficit 24 7, that
is going to negatively impact that.
So it is really important that
we do increase and spend more
time at maintenance to make sure
thyroid as well as other hormones.
Like estradiol and testosterone and
stuff are, are still in a good place.
Um, or at least, you know, after we
go into a cut, we need to make sure we
reverse back so that they can go back to
that normal, um, place they are going to.
Like I said, we are gonna see a
reduction of them in a calorie deficit.
This is totally and completely normal.
It's just we don't want
to chronically live there.
So if you go down for, for a time, a
good time, you know, like 12 weeks,
24 weeks, you know, depending on the
person, uh, the higher the body fat
percentage, they can spend a little
bit longer in, um, a fat loss phase.
And the lower their body fat
percentage, they should be doing, uh,
probably shorter duration of cuts.
So.
Three months may be ample for
somebody who's already lower,
like let's say below 25%.
I'm just throwing that out there.
There could be people who after
12 weeks are still feeling really
good and you know, they're just
getting under 25 and they feel like
they can push a little bit more.
And that's, that's fine in, in my opinion.
So we can, to a degree, make sure
that our hormones are doing well by
not being crazy about, uh, constantly
restricting ourselves and constantly
doing massive amounts of just like cardio
and hit and not eating enough, right?
Because for, I feel like it
was the generation before me,
that's, that's all they would do.
Just don't eat.
Do as much cardio and hit as possible.
And it's, it's, we are seeing
them go through menopause and, and
perimenopause and being hit really hard.
Those that, uh, came around
quickly and realize, oh, I've
gotta put on muscle tissue as I
go through this phase in my life.
They are not, uh, experiencing.
As many symptoms.
Not to say that there
aren't any but as many.
So they're going into it in a healthier,
better place to handle the changes that
are just naturally occurring for women.
So beyond hormones,
what else can we change?
What we can change?
The body composition, we can
increase muscle, but like what was
shown, this isn't going to be the
difference between, you know, a woman.
Who can't enjoy her Disneyland tree and
a woman who enjoys all of them, right?
It, it's, you put on 10 pounds of muscle,
you can eat a hundred more calories.
But the first year newbie gains, like
I said, that's, that's pretty, that's
pretty likely the second year that gets
cut in half and becomes a lot harder.
And if a woman is.
Constantly trying to stay in a diet and
constantly trying to stay her skinny as
smallest self, then it's gonna be cut
down even further and you'd be look lucky
that second year to put on any muscle if
you're constantly under eating, right?
So there's all of these factors that
play into it, but we can increase
that BMR just a little, but we're
not talking about massive amounts.
So yay.
Now we're up to like 61% or 62%.
Over 60.
That's not massive.
But if you look at the other two
areas, the next one up is about 30%,
and that's physical activity, and
that includes NEAT and exercise.
So we're talking about
non-exercise, activity and exercise.
It's just how much do you move?
Um, how are you sedentary?
Are you sitting all day or are you
up and looking for opportunities
to move around and be active?
This doesn't mean you have to do cardio
all day long, just staying active
and moving around and finding ways.
Maybe you don't sit at your desk,
maybe you get a standing desk.
Uh, I, I loved having conversations
with my clients and encouraging
them to talk to their boss about
getting standing desks or getting, um, a
walking pad under their desk so that they
can just stay a little bit more active.
It doesn't mean that you have to do
two hours of cardio every day, but
that NEAT is about 20% of that 30%.
A lot of times people think, oh, exercise
is the next, that's gonna be 30%.
It's not.
It's your non-exercise activity.
I mean, I am.
I'm a hands talker.
I am a fidgeter.
Um, I, I seldom sit still.
Even right now, I'm using
my hands, my legs bouncing.
I'm just a, a fidgeter.
So naturally, my NEAT is actually pretty
high when I go into a calorie deficit.
That's actually one of the first signs
I know I'm in a calorie deficit because,
I stopped using my hands as much
and I stopped fidgeting as much.
Even my husband told me my feet, like
he was telling me that my feet shake in
bed at night, like before I go to bed.
He's like, you, your feet kind of bounce.
I'm like, that's weird.
That's annoying.
I'm sorry, but I am, I'm
just, I'm just a fidgeter.
So that's 30%.
So now we're at 90%.
Right?
We can't do much about BMR, the 60%.
We can increase it a tiny tad bit.
The 30% though physical activity, we
can increase that, we can control,
that we can move around more, park
further away from the grocery store.
Uh, when you take your kids to
the park instead of sitting there,
walk around, uh, move, look for
opportunities to stand versus sit.
All of those things
really, really do add up.
The last 10% is actually
thermic effect of food.
A lot of people don't realize that
when we eat, it actually requires
energy to burn and process our food.
Now different types of food
have different thermic effects.
So, uh, protein is going to
have the highest thermic effect.
So if somebody, if you're looking
around and you're like, why can
that person eat way more than me?
Like almost always on Instagram, when I
see when somebody messages me or when I
see somebody and somebody else is saying,
well, how come you can eat more than
me, the person that they're talking to?
Usually has minimum of one gram
protein per ideal body weight.
That's usually minimum
of where they're sitting.
They usually love high protein meals,
which will increase that thermic effect.
We can control this.
Another thing too is we can
actually, by choosing Whole Foods.
We can increase the thermic effect
of food even more by up to 20%
by choosing more Whole Foods.
The study that I'm quoting, I remember
thinking it was really funny 'cause I'm
like, oh, what whole Foods were they?
Were they talking about.
When I read through the study, it
was the difference between a sandwich
on white bread versus a sandwich
on wheat bread, and they saw 20%
higher thermic rate with the wheat
bread than they did the white bread.
So even just swapping out and choosing
more whole grains, whole foods, you can.
Eat a little bit more as well.
So does this make sense now?
It's not just somebody put on a
little bit of muscle 'cause that's
not having huge, massive impacts.
What we're usually seeing is somebody went
from becoming a sedentary individual to
changing their life, to focusing more on.
Muscle And, and just so you know,
like I said with the BMR, it's
affected by hormones, genetic sex,
age, body composition, like muscle,
all that muscle does impact hormones.
So if we want to regulate hormones,
if we want to, uh, have healthier
hormones, we do want to increase muscle.
So muscle has a lot of
ties to thyroid hormones.
To, to, to act to insulin.
We've already talked about that.
There's, there's a lot of positive results
with building muscle, not just, well, I
can eat an extra half of Snickers today
because I spent the past year working so
hard to put on 10 pounds right of muscle.
So it's, it's way more than that.
It is this person has changed their very
nature to become a healthier person,
to lift weights, to move their body a
lot more, and they find joy in this.
They have foods that they love
that are high protein, that
are 80 to 90% whole foods.
They've made.
All of these different choices,
and that is the compound effect.
It's all of these different choices.
Compounding over time does actually
give them more calories they can eat
in a day and stay at maintenance,
and it can actually give them a
little bit more wiggle room when
they do go to Disneyland and.
They have food freedom.
They're like, I'm gonna enjoy this.
I'm gonna have fun with my family.
If they want a churro, I'm gonna
grab a churro if they want.
Whatever else is, I don't know
what people get at Disneyland.
They can get it and not think twice
about it because the next day they
go right back to this lifestyle
that has over time changed them.
Even if, heaven forbid, the scale does
go up a few pounds after Disneyland, it's
coming right back down because they're
going right back to their lifestyle.
So I, I do think it is really important,
um, that we, we talk about all of these
different factors that compile together.
To produce what people are seeing.
And then I'm just gonna end
with kind of how I started.
It is really, really important
that we not get caught up in what
Sally or Susan are eating in a day.
And a lot of times, I've said this to,
to people many times before, how do
you know that they eat more than you?
Do you track.
24 7.
Are you really consistent or do
you kind of track for a few days?
Burnout, you have all these BLTs,
you go out on the weekends, eat
whatever, have some alcohol once in
a while, like there's, are you really
eating, like is that influencer
really eating more than you?
Are you eating more than them?
Even honestly, it might be that the
influencer can eat more than you, or I
should say it might be that it appears
like the influencer can eat more than
you because they are actually just better
at budgeting their foods consistently.
So.
I've shared budgeting money and food.
The budgeting for both
of them is so comparable.
Me and my husband were on this pretty
strict budget, and I remember I had saved
up because I really wanted, we were going
on vacation and I really wanted to get.
New swimsuits and I really wanted
to get new outfits and all these
things and we were on this really,
really tight, tight budget, literally
to the penny budgeting things.
And I went out and because we budgeted, I
allotted this certain amount to go towards
those clothes, and I was so excited.
I honestly think I appreciated them more.
I was even more excited to
get 'em because of our budget.
I think that it's kind of
the same way with food.
Like you end up enjoying food
more when you're not just
eating chocolate all day long.
You actually enjoy it more when you
allot it wisely into your food budget.
But anyway, um, so I
went out and I bought.
The this out, uh, outfit and these,
these swimsuits and all that.
And I remember somebody close
to me when they saw what I
bought, started making comments.
Well, I wish I could just go out and
do a shopping spree and not care.
And I was just, I remember being
like, they didn't really hold back.
I think I even said it a little bit
nicer than them, and they kind of went
on and on about, but, but I'm over here
struggling with this and this and I
can't do that, and dah, dah, dah, dah.
And it was, it's really interesting
because this person, um, also would go out
and get lunch at a restaurant every day.
And they, they had these routines
that they enjoyed and they didn't,
they didn't wanna sacrifice 'em.
Isn't it interesting as I'm sitting
there listening to her and later
when she left, I turned to my mom
and I was like, it's so fascinating
because I worked so hard the past six
months actually budgeting for this.
But people don't see that.
They just see, oh, neighbors
splurging again on another vehicle.
Well, you may be going out every day
and spending 20 $50 nickel and dimming
stuff, and they're not, so they can
actually afford these larger items
because they are budgeting to the penny.
So I hope you can see
where I'm going with this.
Too often we are comparing our pub or
our private lives to other people's
public when really we have no idea and
we're not comparing apples to apples.
So it's really important that we
hold those thoughts and judgment,
but also what good do they do?
Can you learn something
now that I like, huh?
It appears like she can eat more than me.
I want to eat more.
What can I learn from her?
But sometimes it's not expressed that way.
Sometimes it's expressed as this
comparison and negativity, and
I'm just gonna sink into this pit
of despair because they're just
genetically blessed and I'm not.
It's like, be cautious about that.
So I like that idea.
Like, oh, I'm going to look it at
what she eats in a day to see, oh,
she's eating a lot of whole Foods.
She's eating a lot of fiber.
She's eating a lot of protein.
How can I, within my nutritional needs,
how can I fill my plate in a way with
my nutritional needs that can pair up?
Well, so how can I get more protein?
How can I get more whole foods?
How can I get more fiber?
How can I not BLT, my way through
the day, you know, bites, licks,
tastes, sips that go unaccounted for,
but then you, you count your main
meals and then you're wondering, huh?
They seem like they can eat more.
Well actually you're probably
eating the same or maybe even
more because of those BLTs, right?
There's so many different factors that
I wanna talk about and hopefully, uh,
this has been a helpful, uh, episode.
And then I'm just gonna end
with one quick reminder.
Um, our maintenance.
We just barely went over all
of the contributing factors to
one's, uh, total daily energy
expenditure and our maintenance.
So if, if our energy in and energy
out our en, let's say we are working
on building muscle, we're working on
increasing energy out, we're working on
whole foods, protein, fiber, all of those
things that I mentioned, that energy out.
And, uh, the energy coming in there is
just going to be a point where we've
hit maintenance and no matter how we
try to slow, drip, add 10, 20, 30, 40
calories a week, we've hit our maintenance
and anything above that is going to.
Push into increasing body fat, or
if you are training really, really
well, potentially get a little
bit of muscle with that body fat.
That's what a build is, right?
We go into a surplus.
The idea that a slow drip
reverse is going to one, prevent
any additional weight gain is.
Not understanding reverses.
Now we want to maintain as much
body composition, and that's
the purpose of the reverse.
But body comp can.
Body comp is our muscle and body fat
ratio, and we wanna try to keep that
the same while reversing, but that
is actually different than weight.
Our weight can fluctuate while
our body composition of fat
and muscle remain the same.
So oftentimes people get confused by that.
But there will get a point where as
you're reversing, you'll notice it's
not, the weights going up, it's my
body comp is changing, and you can't
just keep adding calories to somehow
change your maintenance to be greater.
It doesn't work that way, I feel like
some coaches are teaching if we slow drip.
Then we can raise our total daily
energy expenditure independent of
moving more, building more muscle.
No, it's just, just eat more and we
can slowly raise up so that your body
can maintain the body comes in and
that's not, that's not how it goes.
And sometimes even, they'll even say.
Then when you go into a cut, then you can
eat more, the second cut than you did the
first cut and still see the same results
once again, that's not true either.
Anybody who's done multiple reverses
and multiple cuts knows that
that's not necessarily the same.
Now, somebody may learn a little bit more.
This journey about how we don't
have to start a cut at 1200
calories, we could start at higher
and that's really good to learn.
But you, that thought is independent
from, well, I can, I can start at higher
now because I raised my maintenance.
Unless you put on more muscle and
you're moving more and you are more
active and you're choosing more whole
foods and protein, those are the
things that raise your maintenance.
Okay?
Those are the things.
So those are the things that we
focus on, not this weird, slow, drip
reverse thinking that we can somehow
get it higher and higher and higher.
Higher, right?
Which somehow we can eat 3000 calories.
Instead of two because I
reversed, so now I can eat more.
No, that's a misunderstanding
of energy balance, and of
energy systems in our body.
Anyways, I really, really hope
that this has been helpful.
If you have any questions, um, I'm
always open to receiving messages.
On Instagram at Lifting Lindsey,
you can always join us, um,
on the Be Strong membership.
Go to be strong dot lifting lindsey.com to
sign up where there are courses on this.
You have lives with me every other week.
Um, we have daily discussions about
stuff like this and then we also
have training programs that are, and
food and recipes that are all part.
Of the membership.
We would love to see you there.
You guys have a wonderful week.