 should your calories be higher on the days you train or on the days you don't train? Watch this. Our first caller is Alex from North Carolina. What's up, Alex? How can we help you? Hey, guys. Hope everything's going well. Thanks for having me on and doing this podcast. It's been a great source of information. So one of the questions I wrote is I've been lifting five times a week on kind of a pull push leg split. My main goal is to lose body fat. Macros are currently at 200 grams of protein and carbs and 40 to 50 grams of fat. How should I be differentiating kind of how I should be eating on my rest days and training days? Oh, yeah. This question comes up a lot with my calories and macros. Do I eat more or less on training days? Okay, so I'm going to talk generally and then I'll get a little specific, okay, Alex? Okay. Generally speaking, it doesn't really make a difference. You really want to look at it more from a like a week perspective than just the day itself. So it's not going to make a huge difference if the calories are a little lower or higher on a training or a rest day from that perspective. Now to be more specific, if you really want to start to kind of like, you know, split hairs, and this can be different from person to person. But generally speaking, people tend to have better performance. This is based on studies when they eat a little bit more on the days that they train when they eat more, especially the two, you know, two hours before their workout with a carbohydrate protein rich meal. Now I say that generally speaking, because, you know, or should I say not for everybody because for me, I actually do a little better when I eat a little less on my training days, a little more on my rest days, I just feel better that way. And so I listen to my body in that particular case. But again, for most people, you're probably going to do better eating more on the days that you train a little less on the days that you don't train from a performance standpoint. And well, the research supports that it's more beneficial to undulate, right? So not having the exact same thing. But what Trump's all the advice we're giving right now is whatever you're going to do consistently. Yeah, what works best for you? So, you know, the one thing that I'm always careful about with giving advice around something like this, if I say, Oh, you know, because I'm actually the opposite of Sal, I prefer higher calorie days on days I lift and then I try and restrict calories on my days off just because it works better for my lifestyle. So I hate to put that on somebody else not knowing what they're going to be most consistent with. So I think probably the best answer is to kind of play with all of those, right? Maybe do higher calorie on lifting one time, then try lower calorie, then try being, you know, kind of consistent across the board. And there's an argument for it all of those ways. But the I think the best answer is whichever one is most conducive for your lifestyle, whichever one you're going to be better at staying consistent with, I think that's the right answer. Yeah. And Alex, to give you an example, like, you know, I would rather, the reason why a couple of reasons why I tend to eat a little less on training days is because I'm busier training and I'm just busier in general. And I do like to save the calories for when I'm not training and I'm more likely to be eating out or hanging out with family. So don't just base your decision off of performance. Also basis, base it off your lifestyle, your behaviors, how you feel. And we make the argument all the time that your behaviors is probably the most important thing to look at because even if you notice a percent difference in performance, it's the behaviors that ultimately drive long term success or failure. That's the most important thing to look at whenever you're considering, you know, what to do, especially in a situation like this. Well, for that exact point, that's the reason why I'm the opposite. I know that I'm more likely, if I allow myself more calories on my off days, I make worse choices. Yeah. So, and I just seem to be, so I allow myself, I say, okay, if I'm going to eat more calories, I'm going to do it on training days because because I've lifted during the week and I have a routine, I just tend to be stricter on my diet. Two different people, two different approaches. Right, right. They're both good. There's really no one better than the other. So does that, so if your protein consumption is different, you know, say it's a little bit less on your training days, that won't hinder muscle recovery or anything like that. No, no, not really. How does it balance us out? Not really. I mean, if it's like zero, maybe. Yeah. But no, it's not. I mean, 200 grams, how much do you weigh? That's 235. Yeah, you're fine. 200 grams a day, you're good. You can go to 150, you can go up as high as 220, 230. And I feel better that way to be honest with you. I feel better with higher and lower protein days rather than the same all the time. And, you know, I know people will bring up studies showing that, oh, there might be higher protein synthesis if it's consistent, whatever. I don't buy it. I feel better doing it that way from a digestive standpoint. Energy feels better. Gives me a little bit of variety in my diet, you know, on my lower protein days. Well, I got more room for carbs and fats, as long as I don't go too low, right? But you're at 200 grams a day at your body weight. I think you're totally fine. Cool. One of the other questions I asked was, so right now on my compound lifts, I'm doing a rep scheme of three sets of eight, six and four with a three minute rest. And then on my accessory lifts, I'm doing more, I guess you could say more hypertrophy focus where it's like three sets of 12, 10 and eight with a one minute rest. And my thought is with those compound lifts and under tension for a longer time, my CNS is under more exertion. But I guess I've just been wondering the past, you know, month or two, I mean, am I working against myself, you know, just to my overall goals? If I'm, if I'm doing different rep schemes, what would you guys suggest and how do you differentiate your rep schemes for each exercise? No, I think you're totally fine. I think it's a good idea to go through all kinds of different rep ranges. Now some exercises tend to lend themselves better to lower reps and others tend to like, like I'm not going to do laterals for four reps typically, because it's harder for me to control the technique and form and not turn it into a, you know, a clean or yeah shrug, right? So some exercises are better low reps and others are better than high reps. But generally speaking, all the rep ranges between one to 25 will all build muscle. They're all beneficial and your body tends to get used to a rep range if you're staying it too long. Now we, if you ever look at our maps programs, we tend to put people in three to four week phases of a particular rep range and then move them into another one. And we prefer it that way because it allows you to really get in the groove of a rep range and the mentality and the focus and how it feels. Laws you get good at it first, plus then you can have, you know, tangible metrics that kind of look back and see the progression of that. And if it's been effective for you and if you've, you know, been able to kind of get move forward strength wise and that rep range and then switch it up too. So it's, you know, you can be a little bit more objective with what you're doing. That's the biggest point that I would add is what Justin just said is the one thing that you got to be careful of, because I think what you're doing is great. But if you've been doing that for three months consistently, it's probably time to switch some things up, right? So that's kind of the difference between and probably how we program in comparison to a lot of stuff I see out there. Is that we, you know, we have these training blocks that are only three to four weeks long and then we move you into another phase. So we want you to stay in, you know, a similar way of training like you're doing right now for a period enough for a long enough period of time to where the body adapts, you build some muscle, you build some strength, but then to move you out quick enough that you don't get stuck in there and you hit a plateau. So if you've been doing the, the, if you've been following this routine exactly the way you just listed it for longer than four or five weeks, that would be my one recommendation is to move out of that. And I mean, I would love to send you a program. So have you looked at any of our programs? I've looked at it. I just, I haven't bought any of them. Okay. Well, I mean, you look at how long you've been working out for? Really about a year consistently. I've weight lifted, you know, probably, you know, in high school football and all that, but really this 2021 was my first year, you know, consistently going really not missing hardly any days. Okay. And you said fat loss is your goal? Yeah. All right. Let's do it. I'll send you a map's aesthetic, Alex. Okay. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. If we have time, let me have one more question. And Sal, I've, I've kind of heard what your, your take on supplements is. And I think I'm similar. I really like trying to experiment with a lot. I know that they're not, you know, necessarily necessary, but I guess, you know, all of the crap that's out there, I'm having a hard time differentiating between what's higher on the totem pole. So to you guys, what supplements would you say, okay, this is highly recommended, maybe even close to mandatory, or, you know, what's kind of on the edge of, you know, this is really, isn't necessary to, to what your goals are. Yeah. It's kind of the fish oil. At the top, at the top of the list are supplements to fill any nutrient requirements. So if your protein intake is low, a protein supplement may be a good idea. Deficient in anything. Yeah. If you're deficient in nutrient, then that would be an important thing to take. And then next up, creatine. Creatine is the best supplement all the way around, muscle building, fat loss, health. And then after that, really nothing. Everything else is, I mean, you can have fun with it, but really nothing really moves the needle that much besides the ones I just listed. Don't neglect to look into what the first one sounds like, because I think you just kind of went over it real quick. But if you haven't gone and had your blood work done, and like a full panel and see if you're deficient in something like vitamin D, which is common sometimes, or iron. I think supplementing for what your body needs has tremendous value and is grossly underrated. And I don't think fitness people talk about it enough. And to me, that's the first place I'm going to go first is to look if I have any sort of deficiencies or I'm not getting enough of a nutrient. And then I'm going to supplement with that. And then I agree with Sal, then creatine is the first thing that I'm throwing on top of that. And then the rest of the stuff is this kind of stuff that you can kind of play with and see if you notice a difference. But it is the supplements really are one of the smallest parts of the pie. I appreciate all you guys do. And you guys definitely have helped me out in my my fitness journey. Really appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. Thanks. That's gotta be one of the more common questions. You know, do I eat more or less on my training days? It really doesn't make a big difference. It just depends on your feel like Adam and I are a great example. We're very different. Such individual variants there. Totally. And it, you know, actually, I remember I would base off the studies. Oh, studies say I got a lot more on training day, and I would just not listen to my body. And eventually I said, well, you know, I feel better when a little less on my training days and more on my rest days. I switched to that. And it was so much better for me. This is another example of something that annoys me about our space is that, you know, they will, they'll somebody will make an argument, you know, the, oh, well, technically, this is better based off of this study. But if you're just a normal person who's trying to build muscle, trying to burn body fat, what's most important is what you're going to adhere to. Yeah. So if you have a, if you have a hard time sticking to the, what the study says is the best for protein synthesis or for strength or whatever, it doesn't matter if you're not going to stay consistent with that long term. It makes sense to me when you're at like a high level competitor and you're like, you know, you're already doing everything, right? If you're competing, getting on stage, you're not missing workouts, you're not missing macros, like you're, you're on it. And so tweaking like, Oh, I'm going to try timing my meal or I'm going to try, you know, feeding more on these days. That makes sense to me because you're because you've already done everything. Yeah. So a half percent difference. Okay. Right. But I mean, for the general population that has, you know, normal goals, like everybody has, that's, you know, has good weeks, bad weeks, you know, consistency is everything. And so if I can, if I can find what works best for you, that's where I'm going to, I'm going to push you in that direction, regardless of what the study says. It literally reminds me of like, it's like, if you have a, I've used this car analogy before, you have a car, you want to make it faster. And so, you know, you go to a super advanced NASA facility that measures the airflow over your car and they're able to modify the design of the car so that you get 2% greater airflow over the, you know, and that'll make you maybe a little faster, or you could go, you know, put some headers on there or throw a turbo, you know, like which one is going to be a bigger, a better, you know, time spent, right? So don't waste your time on the small stuff. Look at the big stuff first.