 Question is from Catherine B. Fitt. What is the minimum macro calorie intake you would like to see an individual at before they enter a cutting phase? What would you consider ideal? Ah, this is different from person to person. I mean, we can go general, I guess. Yeah, I mean, I think I picked this question when we were going through them because I think it'll create a good discussion, but the truth is, this is very individual, right? But there are some general rules. Like, it'd be very common that I would get a female client that was coming to me that is only, you know, 10 to 20 pounds overweight, and they come to lose weight, and then when I look at their diet, because what happens when they hire a trainer, or they seek someone like me out? They've already been trying lots of things on their own, and they've been frustrated, and now they're coming to me as like, okay, I'm finally gonna pony up the money to invest in a professional to help me. And the unfortunate part is I've got them after they've already fucking yo-yo diet a bunch of time, they've already been restricting calories, and they come to me and they're like, hey, I'm only eating 1,300 calories a day, and I can't lose this last 15 to 20 pounds I'm trying to lose, you know, what do I need to do? And that person, I don't want to cut from there. I like to get most my female clients above 2,000 calories, at least. And that's a very gray, generic answer, but I feel that that falls in the category of anybody from about 130 pounds all the way up to 200 plus pounds. I want them above 2,000. As a female, I want to get them to where they could eat 2,000 calories, not put on body fat, even if we're just staying the same, we're not losing any weight, but we're strength training, we're able to consume 2,000 calories and not put body fat on. That's where I want you to be before I start to pull you back, at least that before I pull you back to the other direction. I mean, in an ideal world, I'll use Melissa Wolf as an example, since she was the last real competitor that I coached, and she's only about 120 pounds, I moved her all the way up to 2,700 calories before I brought her back down. So the truth is, the higher I can get somebody's caloric and maintenance calorie intake up before we cut, it just gives us lots more room to work with on the way down. And it hopefully ends up happening, and like in her case, getting on stage to compete, ripped as shit, and only having to cut down to 1,800 calories, which is a very happy place for a lot of people to be at. So you got to keep that in mind that wherever you are currently right now, that if you're at a place where you already feel like you're not really eating a ton and you want to start cutting, you're gonna land in a place that you're gonna feel like you're always restricting and you don't want to be there. Yeah, the individual aspect of this is really how comfortable are you at the calories that you're gonna settle at eventually? So how comfortable would you be maintaining your body weight at 1,500 calories or 1,300 calories or 2,000 calories? That's an important question to ask yourself because some people are okay. Some people don't have big appetites and they're like, yeah, I'd be fine, living off of 1,400 calories. So the amount of calories that you're consuming basically will keep you at the same weight. That's what maintenance calories means. So when you're dropping your calories to lose weight, eventually when you get to your ideal body weight or body fat percentage, now you're consuming your maintenance, but you've had to cut to get there. So what you don't want to do is start at 1,500 calories, get down to 1,000 calories, now you're where you want to be. Now you got to live at 1,000 calories all the time. It's a very, very difficult thing to do. And very, very common. This is what happens a lot. It is, but for some people it's okay, but usually not, usually isn't okay. So I typically, I'm right along with Adam, I'd say for women, I like to get them above 2,000 calories. It's awesome if I can get them at like 2,400 calories. For a man, I'm trying to get them above 2,500 calories, usually around 3,000 calories is where I'm happy. For a man, I'm looking for north of three. Yeah, and when I get to that point, then I can start to cut the calories and get them to get their bodies to burn bodies. And keep in mind, I know there's some tool that's listening right now that's fucking, oh my God, that's so, this is generic advice. No doubt, there's many variables. How much that person is moving, how much lean body mass they have, their training routine. I'm talking about regular activity. You exercise a few days a week. You have a normal desk job. And we're trying to give you an idea. So this person, I mean, we're doing our best to answer this question without knowing all those things. So if you know that you're somebody who's probably in that extreme, it's like, if you're a female, it's probably good to be somewhere north of 2,000 before you start cutting, especially if you know that you have, you know, and that's another thing that matters too. Like, are we cutting for to lose five pounds? Or are we cutting to lose 30 to 40 pounds? Yeah, because then you got a long way to go. Right, so the bigger the number that you need to cut and restrict, the higher you're gonna want your calories at currently to before you come back the other direction because, you know, it's only gonna take a few weeks before the body gets adapted to that new caloric maintenance. And so you gotta keep that in mind that you may have to restrict multiple times. It's not like, you know, a lot of times people, they have a goal and they're like, okay, well, if I restrict calories from, you know, 2,000 to 1,500, I'm gonna, and I just be consistent with that, I'm gonna lose weight. Well, yeah, you're gonna lose weight, but eventually, and this doesn't take but a few weeks, maybe a month or two tops, the body then adapts to that, and then. Then where do you go? Yeah, then where do you go from there? And if your goal is something beyond 10, 15 pounds, you have to know that that's going to take you a longer amount of time. So this is a hard one to answer and be specific, but give you some general things or things that we think about before we decide. Now the best way to help this is lift weights. Lift weights, get stronger, build muscle that tends to promote a hotter, faster metabolism. It also reduces the metabolic slowdown that can happen when you're reducing calories like Adam's talking about. Lifting weights is one of the best insurance policies you have against those things. And it's also one of the best insurance policies to ensure that you have a fast metabolism, which in today's day and age is a massive advantage.