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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Hello, everyone. So today's episode's all about You might have heard about it. You've been using the beta testing, or you're confused. What the hell are you going on about LeanShield? Now I wanna explain why we built LeanShield, why it's super, super important for you, and how it could potentially save your health.
Speaker 1:Right? But the first question to answer is, what does LeanShield help us do? LeanShield basically tells us from a score of zero to 100 how well we're protecting our muscle whilst we're losing fat. Right? So, traditionally we think of weight loss as, Oh my God, I've lost 50 pounds.
Speaker 1:Amazing! That's brilliant. Nick Wareham of the University of Cambridge, one of the top sighted scientists in the world who is a Parapal advisor, kept us on the system, said, Scott, we don't really care about weight loss in our sense because it doesn't tell us if they've lost fat or muscle, or we call it lean tissue, lean body mass, which compromises of muscle, organ tissue, connective tissue, stuff like that. So, it's not necessarily a win just because someone says they've lost weight. Right?
Speaker 1:So, I was thinking, okay, well, how do we solve this problem? You can't solve the problem easily because it's very, very hard to actually measure our body fat percentage in a way that is as easy as stepping on a scale. You know, the some scales will claim they do it, they're just too far off to be reliable. There are ways to measure body fat percentage, but it's too expensive. So, we can't scan the population.
Speaker 1:It's impossible. So, if we can't scan the population to see if they're losing muscle or fat, we have to go from the other side. Have to reverse engineer all the research we have on weight loss, fat loss, muscle loss, and see what we have to do to protect muscle. Does that make sense? So, for you, it's a simplified score.
Speaker 1:It basically says, Hey, listen, Scott, if you carry on like this, every 10 pounds you lose, about three pounds is going to be muscle. This is not great. Here's exactly what to do next. Right? And it works like, if you think about it, like Experian credit score.
Speaker 1:By the way, I'm going to throw a lot of analogies at you until one sticks. Experian, Equifax credit score, they give you a credit score and they basically then say, Okay, here's your score. Here are things that impact the score negatively. Here are things that are impacting it positively. Here's what you've got to do next to improve your score.
Speaker 1:And this is a prediction of how your score is going to improve over time. Very similar to LeanShield. We give you a LeanShield score, maybe it's 52 out of 100. We say, Look, this is the factors making it come down. These are the factors you can do to improve it.
Speaker 1:And here's exactly what to do next inside the app, whether it's giving you the exact workout you need to do based on your equipment needs, whether it's telling you the exact amount of protein you need to do, whether it's telling you calorie deficit is too high, you need to eat a bit more, it'll tell you exactly what to do. So that's what the system is. The main question is, why does this matter? Why does it matter if you lose muscle? Like, are we talking about muscle as in Al Schwarzenegger, big bodybuilders, or are we talking about muscle, the part of our bodies that makes us move?
Speaker 1:That's the thing we're thinking about here. We're not talking about huge biceps and huge muscles. We're talking about functional muscle that makes us live healthy, happy, strong lives. Right? So, are the dangers of muscle loss.
Speaker 1:It's called sarcopenia as you age. So over the age of 60 is a real big problem. Frailty is a huge problem. Frailty is actually going to cost the NHS more money than obesity or the cost of the obesity drugs such as Ozempic because people are going to be falling, breaking their hips, breaking their bones, and it's very, very expensive. So if we fix the weight loss problem without protecting muscle, we're basically giving ourselves another problem, which is a problem that is likely well, it is more damaging in a sense because there's even studies that show your muscle mass is a better predictor of how long you live than your BMI, right?
Speaker 1:And this was a landmark study published by the American Journal of Cardiology. So people in the top 25% of muscle mass had significantly lower rates of death from heart disease and all other causes. So, yes, weight loss, reducing fat is important, but we have to do it by protecting something even more important, which is muscle, Right? That's the key thing. So sarcopenia is the phrase 60, you might have heard of it, you might not have heard of it, but in general, you'll see a lot of articles now saying Ozempic causes muscle loss.
Speaker 1:Ozempic doesn't cause muscle loss. Ozempic leads to people eating too little calories, too little protein, likely not training, likely not doing any activity or just thinking that they can just inject and that's job done, and a lot of people will take this route. And then you see this skinny fast, skinny fast, skinny fat issue where, yes, they've lost a lot of fat, lost a lot of strength, lost a lot of muscle at the same time and they look different, you know. So it's not always a good thing to jump on those things if you don't know how to protect your muscle. But here are the hidden dangers of muscle loss as well.
Speaker 1:So the metabolic engine shuts down, which is your muscle. It is very expensive. Muscle is very expensive. It burns a lot of calories. So if you lose muscle, your base metabolic rate will drop, right, over the years.
Speaker 1:So it might be 50 calories, then it goes 100 calories, then it's 300 calories, before you know it, you're 400, 500 calories less per day and that's easy to over consume with food and you're going to gain fat quicker and easier, right? That's kind of like what's happening here. It's a dangerous condition called sarcopenic obesity where you have low muscle and high body fat. This happens a lot. It happens a lot with people who do a lot of diets because when people do diets, and we did a study on this, we did 2,000 people that went to slimming clubs, the more diets they did through slimming clubs, the more times they dieted, the longer they were trying to diet for.
Speaker 1:And it sounds like, what do you mean? Why would they be dieting more if they diet, they're going on trying to lose weight? Because they're putting all the weight back on and they're going back into it. And they were not only just putting the weight back on, they were putting more weight back on. And not only were they putting more weight back on, they've actually lost muscle in that process.
Speaker 1:So they're a higher body fat percentage now than they were when they started the diet that thought they were to help them. Guys, they're super serious. Come on, got to wake up here. Next thing, insulin resistance and diabetes. Your muscles are the primary sink for the sugar glucose in your blood, right?
Speaker 1:So high quality randomized controlled trials have shown that people with less muscle mass have a higher risk of type two diabetes because there's nowhere for that sugar to go, causing it to stay in the bloodstream and all that type of stuff. So another factor to think about. Mortality risk, I've just mentioned that your muscle is a better predictor of how long you will live than your BMI. Now, doesn't mean a bodybuilder is going to outlive you. That's not what we're saying here.
Speaker 1:I go, There's confusion. We're not saying you've got to be bodybuilders. No, just hold on to the muscle you've had in your 20s and maybe 30s and keep it active. That's the goal. Keeping active muscle we already have naturally active and here.
Speaker 1:That's what we're trying to say. And maybe make it stronger, maybe add a bit of muscle over time as opposed to losing muscle over time. Right? And there's a link between muscle and the brain. So the Alzheimer's connection, And it's quite an exciting area of research.
Speaker 1:And here are some of the studies. So, brain basically going in the bin basically, right? A 2025 study followed older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Those who did resistance training twice a week for six months showed less shrinking in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for mammary in the first area hit by Alzheimer's, right? And when you lift weights, your muscles release chemicals.
Speaker 1:And one of these tricks is the production of BDNF, brain derived neurotrophic factor, which acts like a fertilizer for your brain cells, helping them grow and stay connected. So the cause and effect here is like there's a high quality study, fifty year trial, BMGA medical journal, 450,000 people, and there is a link between higher lean muscle mass and a lower risk of Alzheimer's. This is early, it's 2025 when the big studies were published. Like, it makes sense, right? When we speak in the fitness world, we always talk when lifting weights about the mind body connection.
Speaker 1:Think about the muscle working through the mind. Don't rush through the exercise. Don't use the muscles that are not trying to be focused on. Use your mind to focus in on the muscle that's working and really feel that connection. Right?
Speaker 1:That's one of the main tips in training. Bodybuilders do it very well. And when you think about it, of course it makes sense. If my brain is trying to tell my body to move, and it's moving, and then it's moving against resistance, and it's able to move against stronger forces, and my mind is able to tell it to move left, right, up, down, and it's getting stronger, that link between those is strengthened. If you don't use your muscle, and we say the phrase use it or lose it, you know, that's got a bit of truth to it as well.
Speaker 1:If I'm not using any of my muscles to a degree of like putting some strain behind it to tell my body, Hey, let's keep this connection tight and strong, the connection gets lost, the connections get weakened, and that's really what happens, right? And the thing here is it's never too late to start strength training, right? Muscle loss is reversible at any age. There's people in their 80s and 90s still training and getting on there. I know a guy in Brazil, he's in his 80s and he became a black belt in his 80s, and jiu jitsu is a very tough sport.
Speaker 1:You'd think you'd be like snapping a piece of bread. No. He's there training, looking amazing, submitting people younger. Right? So there's research on 90 year olds in nursing homes, and they could double their leg strength in just eight weeks of training.
Speaker 1:Think of it crazy. 90 year olds in nursing homes are doubling their leg strength in eight weeks of training. You might be listening. Might be 52 years old, 64 years old, 34 years old. You're miles behind 90 years old.
Speaker 1:It's never too late, but start now, and two days per week is enough, right? There's a study of meta analysis done showing lifting weights twice a week provides the majority of the health and brain benefits, and that's what LeanShield is all about, right? LeanShield has given you workouts for you to do. It makes sure you work most of your body. You can't just go and do bench press.
Speaker 1:As a guy, you can't just go and get massive chest and biceps and think, My muscles are being used. No, you're just using your chest and biceps, mate. You look good in the t shirt, but inside, silly Billy. So, you have to think, am I working my entire body? And that's why the workouts are designed to give you exercises that do work your body based on your limitations, based on the equipment you have.
Speaker 1:You can do body weight. Even if you can't do a squat right now, if you can't do a squat, it's fine. We will get you from there to being able to do a body weight squat, from a body weight squat to being able to sit down on a chair knob, which is a bit deeper, and then you'll be able to do it with dumbbells. This is a progression. It's exciting.
Speaker 1:You can start from the easiest exercise possible. Can start from just walking up and down the stairs, but you'll eventually get to a place where you double, triple, quadruple your strength by doing it properly, slowly, consistently. Does that make sense? And it's all about then progressive overload. Like I just mentioned, you can start by walking up the stairs and it's tough, but then you walk up the stairs twice, then you walk up the stairs three times, then you were able to walk up the stairs four times.
Speaker 1:And then you're like, you know, walking up the stairs is mainly a cardio thing for me now. I'm getting out of breath, but my legs are stronger. Okay, now let's do some squats. Let's bend down and up. Let's do 12 reps.
Speaker 1:I can do 12 reps easy. Okay, now we're going to use some weight. You don't have any dumbbells? Hold a bottle of water. One liter of water is one kilo of weight, basically.
Speaker 1:So get a two liter bottle of water. You've now got two kilograms in your hand. Squatting up. Yeah. 10 reps is easy.
Speaker 1:Okay, four kilos. Okay, that was hard. Perfect. Now you do that with four kilos until 10 reps is too easy. Unless it's too easy, you increase the resistance, but LeanShield has already got this all built in.
Speaker 1:You don't need to think about it. You just do it and it says, hey, next time you do a bit more, right? And this is the thing. The training, it doesn't matter where you are in your training, as long as the training is hard for you, right? If the last three reps are too easy, it's basically not given the stimulus you need.
Speaker 1:You need to push it though, where the last three reps are like, you know what, that was quite hard. Perfect. That's where you want to be. So you want to be training and it's kind of like your biological retirement fund in a sense, like You don't have to be thinking about yourself as a weightlifter, as a CrossFit person and stuff like that. You've got to be thinking to yourself, do I want to be sharp and strong and be able to walk up steps, walk up the stairs, play with my kids, play with my grandchildren, be able to walk five ten thousand steps a day easily, be able to do things without thinking, I wish I could just get off chair.
Speaker 1:I wish I could do that. And you think, well, what type of people do that? It's just the type of person that does a few key things a few times a day over time. So that's kind of like where we're at with LeanShield, right? So that's the training element of LeanShield.
Speaker 1:There's three elements to LeanShield. Your LeanShield score is compromised. And I hope this isn't confusing, but trying to get all the information to you guys in the most natural way possible in plain English. LeanShield is compromised of three things: training, like I just mentioned, how important the training is. You can do training in class, you can do training in the gym you're already doing, you can tell LeanShield, I'm doing this.
Speaker 1:Let me know how good it is. And LeanShield will track your volume, or you can go with a built in LeanShield workout that's designed for you. So, it doesn't matter which way you go. Preferably, you go into the LeanShield workout because you can track them in LeanShield and it tells you what to do. So you've got a training score.
Speaker 1:The next score is your protein score. Now, Parapal gives you your protein score, and this is kind of like your base protein score. Like if you can get around that score on average, you're 80% there most of the time, nearly all the time, right? But LeanShield is a bit deeper. LeanShield will say, okay, like your target score protein is this, but your calorie deficit size is large, which means you're going to have to consume more protein to protect muscle.
Speaker 1:So if you are one of those people, which there are many of you, that look at your power of calorie targets and say, That's too high for me. It's okay, you can go lower, you can change your target, you can go lower. And then when LeanShield looks at your calorie intake, it will be able to say like, Okay, so you've gone lower on calories, fine, but your calorie deficit size is now bigger than what Parapal recommends. Because your calorie deficit size, so your energy deficit is larger, but this puts more strain on your body, right? You're basically when you think about it, you're not giving your body the energy it needs from food because you wanted to use fat as energy, right?
Speaker 1:That's kind of the basics of weight loss. You give it a bit less than it needs, and then it uses fat, great, it's not too stressful, it's fine. But if you'd give it way less than it needs, and your protein is low, your body's starting to go, We need energy, we need different fats, but like, don't mind if we have to take muscle, no problem. So, if you are going to go larger than your calorie deficit, LeanShield is just going to give you the feedback as a score. So it's up to you.
Speaker 1:You can carry on as you are with low calories, or you can make the adjustment of thinking, Okay, if I am going to go low calories, Lean Sheet says, I now have to eat this many grams of protein a day. And I would say, you can go lower as long as you're doing the protein higher and the training, because if you do the training on protein, your deficit can be bigger in a safe way. You can have a larger calorie deficit, It's safe to be larger as long as your protein hits a certain target and your training is on point. But the reality is how many of you, how many of us have those things dialed in all the time? My resistance training is not dialed in all the time.
Speaker 1:I do jujitsu. I log it in LeanShield. It's not very good for protecting my muscle because it's not the same as lifting weights. It's like more cardio muscular endurance, but it's not the same, right? So I have to be like, I need to do my full body workout in the gym and then I'll do one at home.
Speaker 1:And if I don't do that, right, and my protein isn't where it needs to be, I am training, I'm doing well, but the chances are like if I'm in a deficit and I'm trying to cut weight for a competition, I'm likely going to be using some of my muscle mass and I don't want that, Right? So I say, Okay, I have to make sure I train. And it's really helped my training. It's really kicked me up my ass. I mean, like, yeah, get to the gym, do some resistance.
Speaker 1:Know, it's just once a week and a few exercises at home. All you've got to do extra to protect that muscle you've built for many years. Does that make sense? So that's what LeanShield does. So here's how it works.
Speaker 1:Your first three days of the app, you won't get a LeanShield score. On day four, you'll get a base score, but it won't be your full score because LeanShield is based on your last seven days rolling average. So, it's always looking back at your last seven days and it's giving you a score based on that. So, when it comes to tomorrow, the day seven days ago drops off, right? And then it's a new day.
Speaker 1:Does that make sense? So, it requires consistency within seven day blocks. You can't just train today and hit the higher protein today and then not do anything for four days. And Then when it gets to like the next week, you've only got one day there, you've done anything, like it's not going to work for you. So you need to think, Okay, I've got seven day rolling average.
Speaker 1:I need to make sure my proteins hit. I need to make sure I get my exercise in, whether it's the first two days and you have three days off, whether it's seven days ago, four days ago, or you try and split it equally is fine, but it's always looking back at your last seven days and giving you feedback. And then you can see over time how long you've been in a high score for. Ideally, you want be in a score of 70 plus for as long as possible. That means you're likely losing mostly fat, protecting lean tissue, your habits are in a good place.
Speaker 1:Is it possible to lose fat and not lose any muscle at all? Yes, it is possible. Is it difficult to do? Yes, it's difficult in a sense if you've been training for a few years and you haven't got the newbie kind of boost you get from a start, it's a bit harder, your protein needs to be dialled in more, you need to train. But it's for sure possible.
Speaker 1:A score of 90 plus on LeanShield tells you, hey, if you're in this zone and you're in deficit, you're likely losing fat and keeping all of your muscle. Maybe you're even gaining muscle. That's how good it's going for you. Right? And it's just feedback daily.
Speaker 1:Like I don't want you to think you have to do loads of things at once. I want you first to track your calories and your protein and your steps. Like get that in order. Check LeanShield, see where your scores are. You can speak to the coach in LeanShield.
Speaker 1:Hey, LeanShield. You can pick from the no mercy, Gordon Ramsay style coach, or you can pick the nice coach. I personally prefer pick the the abusive coach, to be honest. Say, hey, look. What's my score?
Speaker 1:How can I improve it? And you say, listen, buddy. You haven't trained in four days. Your protein yesterday was 80 grams. Are you trying to lose muscle?
Speaker 1:You know? So today, go and train. It's one of the biggest things you can do. When you train, guys, it's one of the biggest boosts your LeanShield score you can make a train. A train.
Speaker 1:A workout. You can ask LeanShield for a workout and you can say, I don't have equipment like, and they'll say, Look, here's the workout with videos on how to do it, just go and do this. You finish the workout, boom, your score tomorrow will be boosted, you know, and you'll see a boost. Maybe you'll get boosted 20 points, 15 points, you know, that's so big a boost that your training score can do if you follow the LeanShield one. And that's it, guys.
Speaker 1:I think I've covered everything about LeanShield. I don't want you to overly worry about it. See it as your credit score, where if you've got a bad credit score today and you don't do anything about it today, maybe in four or five years time you want to get a mortgage or you want to remortgage or move house and they don't give you the credit you need, you'd think, I should have done it five years ago. Because if I followed those things five years ago, would help me, right? And it's the same with muscle, you know, sarcopenia, 60 year old plus.
Speaker 1:But if you're trying to lose weight in your 30s, 40s, 50s, like a lot of people do, and you are losing muscle at the same time because you're not protecting muscle whilst losing weight, it's going to get to the point where you know what your score was and then it's going to come to the time and it's going go, Ugh, yeah, health issue, problem, frailty. And then you're going to think, Oh, my metabolic rate's dropped. And you think, All I had to do was a few key things back in the day when I knew what my score was. So you're doing this for visibility and you're going to build habits that and you don't have to do too much, guys. This is the beauty of LeanShield.
Speaker 1:This is not a six workouts a day, crazy, stupid plan that loads of stupid programs do to force you to do ridiculous stuff. It's not massive, huge calorie deficit plan and your protein targets are not out of this world. They are based on your lean body mass, so they won't be as high as usually predicted in some people because they go off your total weight. Your protein targets are based on your lean body mass, not including your fat mass. So that's why we ask you to predict your body fat percentage based off an image of you know it because then we can give you a more accurate protein target that's realistic.
Speaker 1:That's it, you know? You're going to kick yourself in ten years' time and you think, Oh my God, like, yeah, I feel weak. This is happening. I've lost loads of weight, but I feel weak, I look weak, whatever. You're going to kick yourself and you realize, If I just did a few bits and followed LeanShield, that's all I had to do.
Speaker 1:You're going to kick it, and it's as simple as that. You can forget about every other plan. If you want to focus on your gut health and inflammation, you can add that on in the future, right? You can think of like, let me get my weight in order and my muscle in order and make sure that's in order. Maybe that order maybe puts order to other things.
Speaker 1:Does that make sense? Maybe me training with resistance, eating more protein, losing some body fat, maybe that's what put things in order for me. And then from then I can focus on other things, but don't try and do everything at once in the nutrition space. There's so many things to do. This is the main thing.
Speaker 1:This is the big boy, the big dog, losing fat protecting muscle, losing fat protecting muscle, losing fat protecting muscle. That's the key, right? Maintaining your muscle is key. People who get ravenous when they come off Ozempic, Mounjaro, whatever it is, or come off a diet, right, and they try and maintain what they've lost, one of the reasons their appetite goes through the roof, one is because obviously the drug suppresses it, but the second is they've lost so much muscle during the process that the body is screaming to gain that muscle back, and it tells you to eat as much as you can. We need that muscle back.
Speaker 1:That's what we know from the research. If you don't lose muscle during that period and you stick to some resistance training, that's one of the research done on maintaining post Ozempic, Mounjaro and the weight loss drugs. One of the only studies that showed people maintained their weight after those drugs came off was if they had some training whilst they were doing the weight loss. Do you know why? Because they protected their muscle during the phase of weight loss.
Speaker 1:They didn't think about muscle as an after effect because they lost muscle. So they protected it, lost their body fat, and they were able to maintain far better than people that lost muscle. Okay, again, we're not about bodybuilders, we're on about the functional muscle we already had we don't want to lose. If you have any questions about LeanShield, do message me. You can email me, scottparapal dot com, comment in the group, you know, watch the how to videos, watch how to use the tool, it's all in there.
Speaker 1:Take your time, make sure you know what's going on. Any suggestions, let me know. We've been building this tool for a while, testing it out, the results are phenomenal for people. And we've got Nick from University of Cambridge, looked at the school, looked at everything, he's happy with it, he's on board, he's going to do some Q and A lives with us, and he's one of the leading experts on obesity, diabetes and stuff, and he advises the World Health Organization and all that. So, if we break through your guys and you guys are getting amazing results, this might be something we roll out in the future and you'd be part of something bigger.
Speaker 1:But have a good day, protect your muscle and lose fat.