 Our first caller is Tony from New Orleans. Hey, Tony, how can we help you? Hey guys, thank you so much for taking my call. Just discovered you guys a few months ago, and I've been binging ever since. No pun intended. I have a question on nutrition. I am a former long course endurance athlete, and I got COVID, and after that, I really suffered. I could not run anymore. Adam, I know you're kind of dealing with this right now too. I went from running 20 miles one week to getting Serona next week. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even make it to the end of the block, and it was months like that. So I just kind of gave it up. I started walking, and I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it, and I didn't miss all that time. I'd spend running, biking, but my weight stopped dropping. And so I was like, let me try macros. I've been at 1500 macros. I mean, calories for about six months, and I'm not really seeing any change on the scale. I can see my body changing, but the scale isn't moving. So I didn't know if maybe I should try something else, and maybe add some more calories. Maybe try to go back to intuitive eating. I did lose 25 times doing that. Just kind of need some guidance with that. Tony, real quick, I know this is normally, nobody likes to hear or be asked this, but I'm curious for this question, because you said 1500 calories. Well, how tall are you, and how much do you weigh? I'm 5'6", and I'm probably sitting at about 140 after all my hurricane snacks. We had to evacuate last week from the hurricane item, so I'm probably sitting about 140, 5'6", and 43. And I think I read that you're also doing 10,000 plus steps a day. Is that right? Yes. Yeah, it sounds like we need more calories. Yeah, are you? Something we need to go on a little bit of a bulk for a little bit. And you're doing maps anabolic or follow-up of our programs? Yes, and I love it. It's bringing me back to the one thing I miss about doing Ironman is having a plan and being able to check things off and being able to record stats. I love that stuff, so I'm loving it. Excellent. Well, okay, so you said something interesting to me. You said you can see that your body is changing, but the scale isn't moving. Right. So usually with this, and it sounded like it was a positive change. It didn't sound like you meant your body's changing in a negative way. Am I correct? Right, right, right. Okay, so here's what's probably happening. You're probably building muscle and burning body fat. That's the reason why the scale isn't moving. And remember, muscle is much more dense than body fat. So if you were to gain eight pounds of lean body mass and lose eight pounds of body fat, you'd still be smaller. Muscle takes up about roughly two-thirds of the space that body fat would take. So you would lose something like 25% size in terms of volume. But of course, you have more muscle. You have a faster metabolism. Things are tighter, more sculpted. 140 pounds of 5.6 is not bad at all. And by the way, I know you can't see us because we turned off your camera. But I can see you. Did you really say you're 43 years old? Yes. Yeah, you look really good. Yeah, thank you very much. I would get you 10 years younger. So all right, so here's the deal. I think what you should do, I think you're on the right track. I think you should stop weighing yourself. I think that's messing with your head a little bit. Totally. To continue focusing on maps and Ebola, building strength, that's a great sign. Your calories are 1500, which is low. Now, it makes sense considering your past. Because of all the endurance training that you did, you've probably developed a very efficient metabolism. So this isn't a good or bad thing. It just means that your body got really good at utilizing calories in an efficient way. That's probably one of the reasons why you got really good at your endurance sports. But now the goal is to reduce efficiency or state it differently, speed up your metabolism. So what I think you should do is continue the resistance training, focusing on strength. And I want you to bump your calories up very slowly. I mean, you could go up 100 calories a day, stick to that for a couple of weeks, see how things are, bump up another 100 calories, and you should see your strength go up. Now, as far as weight on the scale is concerned, I don't think we should check that for at least a couple of months. So for eight weeks, don't worry about that. Just worry about strength. Worry about how you feel in your body, posture. You know, when you put your hands on yourself like, wow, I feel more sculpted here. I feel tighter here. Is there anybody in your life that is honest and objective? Somebody that really cares about your health and would give you an honest opinion about how you're doing? Like, for example, my wife would do that for me. She would tell me, wow, you're looking really healthy or very good. Do you have someone like that? Yeah, I think my husband would do that. They're just kind of over it. My whole family is kind of over me measuring everything to the gram. You know, they're really thick of it. But he would be honest with me. Okay, good. So do what I'm saying and then don't ask any questions. I'm sure they're going to be happy to see you not so probably in their words obsessed with all the measuring and stuff. And then I'm pretty sure you'll get the occasional, like, huh, honey, your butt looks really good or wow, you look tighter or I notice your energy is really good. Those are all really, really good signs. But for yourself, take the scale. And literally, this is going to be your discipline. Don't weigh yourself. Just stop weighing, just eight weeks. Time it for eight weeks because I know you're going to need a time because you're probably going to drive yourself crazy. And then bump the calories a little bit and focus on strength. The fact that your body is changing visibly, but the scale isn't moving, that's a great sign and your body weight isn't high. This would be different if you were like 180 pounds. 140 at five, six, not bad at all. So your body fat percentage is probably in a very healthy range to begin with. Tony, do you have our intuitive eating guide? I do. I do. Okay, good. Because ultimately, this is where we'd want to get. Now, because we're telling you to add calories, you're probably going to have to weigh and measure to kind of figure out where you're currently at. But I mean, in a perfect world, a client with the goals that you have, I would love to see you get up towards like 2,500 calories. We're totally possible. Totally possible. That would be outstanding. Yeah. And it might sound a little crazy, but you know, Sal hit it right. I mean, you've trained for so long consistently that you've trained your body to be very efficient with calories now that you've switched to something like Maps and a Bog, which by the way is the perfect program, and ideally what you should be doing right now. The goal really should be, can I just keep slowly increasing these calories without... And so long as you feel good, since we're not going to be using the scale at all, stay on that course. And the goal should be, can I add more calories, keep getting stronger, and not see a significant jump on the scale in eight weeks when I hop on there, because ultimately, I would love to see, for your height and weight, to be around 2,500 calories at least, that's a really good place to be. And then that's when we would move into more of an intuitive style of eating, where I would teach you to kind of lay off the pain, attention to the calories and stuff. Are you consistent with the trigger sessions for Maps and a Bog? Yes, I love them. I even, it's like a game to me to squeeze them in while I'm at work, you know, while nobody's looking into my cube. Awesome, perfect. Oh, it's a perfect way to use them. Oh yeah, beautiful. Do you have access to our private forum? I do. Okay, good. So I want you to give us updates. Yeah, check in with us. And you're going to need this because someone like you, eight weeks without weighing yourself, you're going to, it's going to be a little bit torturous. Oh my God, I want to just check. I just want to see where I'm at. Or, okay, I feel a little bit... You're just going to want reassurance constantly through this whole process. Yeah, it's going to be tough. I can see, I can see I'm going to have to put it away somewhere where I can't even see it. Yeah, awesome. By the way, where'd you find us? You said you've only been listening for a couple months. I think I was in a macros group on Facebook and somebody mentioned you guys and I'm listening every day now. I feel like we're kind of around the same ages and just talking back to stuff from the 80s and the y'all are just great. I came for the fitness and I stayed for the memes and the conspiracy theories. Oh, yeah. I love it. Hey, Tony, are you, I see your last... We're big in the macro world. We didn't say your last name on the show, but I'm reading your last name. Are you, you don't happen to be Italian, are you? I am. I'm Italian and my husband is as well. So we are, we are big food people. You know, my whole family has spent my whole life food. I get it. I totally understand. It's just seeing this weekend, we'd made sauce with my family. We do that once a year. And of course my mom is, you know, did she know that she'd known me forever, right? My whole life. What does she do? Well, are you sure you don't want this much pasta? I'm going to put it there. And if you don't want it, you can leave it. But you know, we don't want to throw it away. All right, guilt trip, lady. I'll eat all the pasta. Okay, relax. You look hungry. And I enjoyed it the whole time. I appreciate you calling in, Tony. I think you're on the right track. You're doing a great job, right? Yeah, if you just do what we say, check in on the private form you can tag us if you need that guidance the whole way. But you're on your way. I mean, it's totally going to happen. Thank you. And you guys don't think I need to add back cardio at all? Absolutely not. No, you're fine. The goal would be to, and if walking is fine, so if you've created good habits around walking, but you're already getting 10,000 steps, so I feel good that you're moving around. And if you felt like you wanted to go for longer walks or a hike on the weekend, I wouldn't be against that, especially as we're increasing calories. But the goal really is get stronger, add calories. I mean, that's how we, and that's part of the reason why Sal is saying, get rid of the scale. We don't need that to measure those things. I just want to get your food calories up and then get your strength up and we're winning. Sounds great. All right, thanks, Tony. Thank you guys. You know, I got a DM the other day about the metabolism boosting effects of building muscle. And this reminded me, this question reminded me of it, and basically it was like, this study shows that gaining one pound of muscle doesn't necessarily equate to this many more calories burn and blah, blah, blah. And that's true that the math doesn't work perfectly, but that's not because building muscle doesn't speed up your metabolism, it always does. It's active tissue that your body has to support and it's more expensive to support muscle than it is, for example, to support body fat. But there's also this range within calories that your body will burn or can burn with the same lean body mass. Okay, so essentially, let's say you have 150 pounds of lean body mass. There's a potential of calories within that that you can burn. You know, maybe I'll give you just arbitrary numbers. You could burn as much as, you know, 2,500 calories in as little as, let's say, 1,800 calories with the same lean body mass. There's so many things that happen within the metabolism that can make you more or less efficient, not necessarily needing to build muscle, but sending the signal to build muscle, eating in a particular way, tells your body, we don't need to be so efficient with calories. And this is why a woman like this, you know, she could gain four more pounds of muscle but continue on this pace. And four pounds of lean body mass is a decent amount of muscle to gain for a woman. She'll feel more sculpted and all that stuff. But within that, she could easily add 1,000 calories a day to her metabolism. Well, it's exactly the opposite signal she's been sending her body for a long period of time, which is psychologically challenging. And so that's why it's just, it's going to be a constant, you know, reiteration. You're doing the right thing. And to move that scale into the closet and to really trust, you know, that this new game plan is going to pay off in dividends. You know, that's just something you just need to keep pounding into all these clients' heads. She's actually in a really good place. The fact that she's been able to kick all that cardio and running and move to a three-day a week strength training program and not see significant gain on the scale. Already, yeah, it's already working. Yeah, she's in a great place. And then the next goal would be just slowly increase those calories. But she's probably seeing exactly what Sal was saying, which is the, okay, she's probably losing three pounds of body fat and then she's building three pounds of muscle. And so it's kind of maintaining, especially if she thinks she's feeling good and like her body's changing positively. Yeah.