 Our first caller is Thomas from Virginia. Hey, what's up Thomas? How can we help you? Hi, good afternoon guys. Thanks for having me. Yeah, no problem Quick summary of a little background bottom line. I have a feel like I have a I'm a poster child of a what you guys talk about often having a very slow to almost no metabolism Basically the last year partly do the COVID et cetera just gained a lot of weight gained a lot of unwanted body fat and I've just been Really trying to cut that down. I've done a couple other workout programs Until I discovered y'all's podcast and I Have gone through anabolic and it's definitely working I want to say that for sure, but I am basically at a point where I'm trying to increase my calories the bottom line my my metabolism is just really slow and really starting to Get under my skin Thomas have you have you ever done like a a bulk where you were trying to actually gain Muscle for an extended period of time or have you been kind of doing the I see you've done hit And you've done the whole 30 and you've ran it looks like you're eating 1200 to 1500 calories But have you ever tried to actually? Build and put on weight for an extended period of time Or have you pretty much been trying to run a deficit whenever you've been focused on getting in shape? I've definitely always done the deficit thing. I am currently trying to to increase my calories And I mean honestly, it's our like my wife and I are both counting macros right now And I thought I was doing great even yesterday and I look at my old counter and I literally was at 1500 and just stuff to the brim But no I have not Specifically done a bulk. Okay, you said stuff to the brim So you're finding that eating 1500 calories and you can't eat more because you get too full eating them Yes Pretty much. Yes You know partly Again closer child here Earlier this year did the whole 30 tried keto last year Intermittent fasting I was doing I think earlier this year. I was I could go without eating until honestly dinner I'd do like a smaller meal at lunch, but no breakfast And skip so you know since I've been doing anabolic really focused on trying to do three meals a day and fit in the snacks but So yes, I've had some days where I'm over 2,000 calories because of the days where I do feel I do feel stuff Okay, well, I mean I want to be clear there's nothing necessarily wrong with a metabolism that runs off of lower calories now No, we have we have to look into more detail Is this due to certain factors or the health issues? but if you're otherwise healthy and You're eating lowest calories and you feel okay and your strength is going up There isn't really Necessarily a need to try to push it as high as you possibly can unless You're finding that it's hard for you to get leaner at those low calories And you don't want to go any lower in other words if you're eating 1500 to 2000 calories Like you know that satisfies me But I do want to get leaner, but I also if I eat more than that it just feels like too much food That's a bit of a different Strategy if that's the case is now is that the case with you Thomas? Or are you like look 15 to 200 to 2000 too low? I'm hungry and that's the challenge. What's the issue here? No, I'm definitely satisfied and you know pretty full Okay, like specifically the last two weeks Okay, because my wife started doing it As well, I was I've been trying to get on the above, you know, 2,800 calories And so far at that like one. Yeah, no, no take take take your time Especially since your goal is to has been to get leaner take your time and allow the workouts to stimulate your appetite unless you're feeling Challenged by eating only 1500 to 2000 calories I wouldn't worry so much about pushing the calories as much as I would by sending the right signal to your body to build muscle Get stronger that will start to typically get your appetite to go up as well just to Fuel your body the other thing I would do is is if you have any symptoms or signs of Hormone imbalances or testosterone imbalances get that checked and see where your testosterone levels are Sometimes low testosterone can cause that now that being said strength training them properly Pretty much reliably will raise testosterone as well So and you've been going through anabolic phase one and you haven't really noticed much of an appetite increase Well, so yeah, let me dive in there a little bit I have noticed an appetite increase and one of the best gains That I've had is like actually feeling hungry in the morning So here's where I'm a little mystified and I didn't put this on my question, but I did I'm actually starting anabolic again, but I did, you know, not all nine weeks I did the three days a week program And I gained 12 pounds I didn't I wasn't trying to weigh myself, but I weigh myself before and after and shot right up. So Again, I was I'm slightly mystified how I could get that How you how you gain 12 pounds? Well, I mean, well Yeah, it's not fat. I know it's not fat. Oh, well, that's that's freaking great. Yeah kicking ass as far as I'm concerned Yeah, if your strength did your strength go up a lot Yeah, it's insane. Yeah, okay. You're dude. You're actually doing probably really fucking good, bro You're on the right track. I would I would stay on that track Follow your appetite What we don't want to do the reason why we encourage people to eat more and speed up their metabolism Is is usually because the person struggles With the calories that they're eating to maintain their body weight like my gosh, it's so hard for me to Stay at this, you know x amount of calories. I'm always hungry in that particular scenario We want to try and get your metabolism faster because it makes it a lot easier But if you feel good And you feel satisfied and you're getting stronger and you're building muscle Let that be your guide. That's your sweet spot right there Yeah, I would just keep doing that you're kicking ass and and this is your second round now going through maps on a ball Like after doing that I'd go maps performance or maps aesthetic Which is kind of taking you up to even another level I do I do think though that your your head is in the right place of of wanting to I know Sal's saying that you don't necessarily need to increase calories But you're a 40 year old male at 200 over 200 pounds Nutritionally, I think you it would be advantageous to get your caloric intake up So your body is getting all the micro macronutrients pretty hard to get The macro and micronutrients that the body needs with only 1500 calories for a 230 pound man Especially if he's got a good amount of lean body mass So your your idea of wanting to increase I think is a smart strategy But to Sal's point You don't need to stress about it so much that you need to push calories and allow the world like you you you get You hit a good workout. Let's say you do a phase one maps anabolic workout and the next day you wake up and you're hungry That's an awesome sign feed that feed it feed it give it the calories it wants And then maybe you have a next day is a trigger day And you just your appetite's not roaring and you only eat about 1500 calories That's okay. Don't stress about that when it tells you that you're you're hungry and you need calories Feed it just make good choices feed it and it sounds like oh, well, I don't know if I got some speculating But uh, did you typically skip breakfast before was that like part of your day? Yeah, absolutely Yeah Like I said, I've had to I've had to change my lifestyle pretty drastically Which is I know that's part of the process. But yeah, I was never eating breakfast Oh, yeah, you start making that a priority and you start feeding yourself because your body is obviously, you know Like giving you those signals like feed me So, you know, you start making that a priority and just you know, watch how that sort of snowball is from there Yeah, I just just really if you send the right signals If you're comfortable right now with your calories in the sense that you don't feel like you're oh my gosh I need to eat more Feed your body what it needs eat good, right? So pick good Make good choices eat the adequate amount of protein Send this signal to build muscle as you get stronger You you should see your appetite start to increase along the way Now I do I do want to address something that It does put you at a disadvantage when you're at this low of calories So although it's okay and what everyone's saying is right Here's where it can get really frustrating for someone like you who has an ultimate goal of losing more body fat and you're Everything's going pretty well right now You have less room for air and what I mean by that is You know, let's say Justin who eats closer to 3,500 calories a day decides. Hey, it's saturday I'm going to have two beers and a slice of pizza because it's saturday I want to enjoy some football or whatever right so already so he so he eats an additional You know 400 calories that you know aren't really that beneficial for him that he normally wouldn't well That percentage of his maintenance of 3,500 is is a fraction compared to what? 400 bad calories say you know quote unquote bad calories are for you So you do have and that's probably you know why I think it's a good idea that you're trying to Increase calories over time and build them and tablets up so that you can have some balance in your life Have days like that occasionally and it doesn't feel like it all sticks on you and you gain body fat So it is important to know that That is one of the disadvantages of having the calories so low even if you're satisfied you're fine It gives you less room for air if you eat outside your meal plan Yeah, but you but you're on the right track and just give it some time Yeah, you're doing good, bro Slowly you're gonna see you'll probably see it start to increase Over time strength gains are the best gauge That is the best gauge if you're stronger and you're getting you're you're doing a lot of things right It's hard to get consistently stronger and do a lot of things wrong That's a very very hard to do that and something might help too Mentally for you if you haven't done this already is to you know pick and get one of those You know digital scales that do the body fat test or go to if you have a local like Supplement place that normally has them or a gym and use that and again Don't get hung up on whatever the initial number is but use that as a good gauge of You know test your body fat and then you know follow the program take the advice We're talking about nutritionally and then you know four to eight weeks later retest again because you know you may hover Around that same kind of body weight and not see a huge dip right away But you're having this nice exchange where you know you've lost five pounds of fat But you also gain five pounds of muscle so the scales stayed the same But you are dramatically changing your body composition and you are in a very nice place where I would love to see my clients Okay, all right. Perfect. That's awesome. Now. Now. Tom Thomas. You're doing maps at a ball Like I think the best program to follow up with that is maps performance. If you don't have that we'll send that over to you Okay Okay, thank you guys so much. I did want to say just one one one. Uh, thank you I'm in the I'm in the military applied for the Air Force Um and You know, I am my wife makes fun of me because I'm not in social media channels. I don't talk about a lot of the whatever trends on the instas or the facebook's but She makes fun of me because I love y'all's podcast so much and when I drive to work That's the one I'm listening to and uh, you guys are authentic and genuine and uh, I don't know. I love it. You guys are changing lives out there specifically mine So doing what you're doing. Thank you, Thomas. And thank you for keeping us safe. Thanks for that. I appreciate what you do. Oh, thank you Absolutely. Thank you guys. Take it easy Yeah, I mean, you know this this conversation is it was good because it shows the nuances of of calories, you know I remember when we talked to um Pekolsky ben Pekolsky, right? So he was a pro bodybuilder big IFBB bodybuilder Later on, you know, he now he's a podcast host and he's kind of a health and wellness guy very very smart guy One of the smartest bodybuilders I've ever met love him. Yep. And I remember talking to him and I had this Misconception around pro bodybuilder. I remember this and I said, you know Pro bodybuilders have just the the rarest muscle building genetics. That's very true, right? They're like 0.01 of the population can build muscle like that Among other things and I said and you guys probably also have This incredible digestive system to be able to eat 10,000 calories a day to build all that muscle and he goes No, not at all He goes we have bodies that can build a tremendous amount of muscle on 3000 calories a day And I blew my mind. Of course. Of course. So Calorie efficiency is a real thing and this guy, you know, he's eating 2000 calories a big guy But he's like I feel good like should I stuff myself because it's it's too much food. It's like if you feel good You're healthy and you're getting stronger You're okay, and it'll probably go up as you get stronger. So don't stress over it No, I think that was great advice, but I did think it's very important to address what I brought up because That's the thing you got to be careful with someone like this because you tell them all that and they're like, oh, cool Great. I'm doing so good. They go on vacation. Yeah, then he has and he doesn't it doesn't even have to do it that much When you're that low a calorie, you know, that's why I use the analogy Maybe we're you know, Justin that 3500 calories They both eat the exact same thing and it's going to affect Justin's body He's in a wiggle room. Yeah, absolutely Significantly different than that So even though you're in a comfortable place and you're happy the the the drawbacks of not, you know Trying to push the calories up there is that hey, you're human. You're probably going to have some birthday cake You're probably going to have a night out with pizza or popcorn every now and then and when you do It's you know, having a faster metabolism is insurance that you don't Put all that on body fat, but hey 500 calories to somebody, you know Which is we all know 500 calories when you're eating junk food is like I can breathe that in right probably A thousand of 1500s more realistic so he could literally Eat his his his whole entire day double it. Yeah double it real quick and That's the that's the drawback of that situation is he could be doing so good for like two weeks straight And then he has one little hiccup and that little hiccup affects him Yeah, way more than it would affect Justin having that same hiccup