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If you love this podcast, Please Subscribe review and read it on iTunes and tigers in your service on Instagram. Send this to your friends, please please please just tell everyone about it. We are determined to have the biggest and the most inclusive community of women sitting at the picnic table together. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Decades of strength podcast. This is Marcy. I will be hosting this week with me. I have the Lovely Sam all Terri Serra Duff and Kim schlag. And today we are going to be talking all about calorie deficits more specifically how you can set up a calorie deficit if you are in a fat loss space and I actually came up with the Here for this podcast because I was thinking that over the course of the past six to eight months or so all four of us have been in a fat loss phase at some point. And since we talked pretty frequently I realized that we have all gone about it a little bit differently. So if your goal is Fat Loss, the number one key is you must be in a calorie deficit but there are plenty of different ways that you can set that. That up to reach your goal. So that is what we are going to dive into today. So Kim let's start with you because you just started a fat loss phase and I am curious how your coach has set that up for you. Wow. Yes. I have I just started a fat loss phase like two weeks before Christmas, which had a lot of people questioning what on Earth I was doing. Maybe one of them let me just like cut it in really quick one that you were that it was around the holidays and to aren't you trying to hit your 300 pound deadlift like that doesn't really seem like it would drive to well. I'm over here. Oh good questions. Here's the reality right now. No, I'm not trying to get so I was in a strength block working towards my 300 pounds. Which I totally did not hit did not I made a little bit of progress didn't get him get close to it coming off that block. I know I'm not going to be doing that again anytime soon. I'm going to hit. I'm going to shoot for 285 soon, but I have it. I know I have it. It just wasn't an optimal day for me to head it, but I'm not in a strength-based. I'm always in strength, but I'm not a dedicated. Hey going for a one rep max anytime soon. That's going to be a little later in the year, but my reasoning behind doing a cut. But right now is that I decided I wanted to head into a muscle building phase. That's my real goal the idea of heading into a muscle building phase when you're up a few pounds from where you're really comfortable. It's in a good one. That's not a good not a good mental state to do something that you know, you're going to see the scale go in a different direction. So I talked to my coach about it. I'm just a couple of pounds above where I really feel my best and I don't even know that I would have gone I certainly would have done it at Christmas time. I would have waited a while. But my real goal is to get into a calorie Surplus build some muscle. So we were talking and it just happened to be the beginning of December and you know, I said, you know, what do you think should I wait till January? He's like look you could do it now take the days off that you're going to take off for the holiday. He still have most of the month available which is totally true, you know, even if you only lose a pound and so that's what I did and I'm still in the middle of doing it. I will say it's one of the things you can't control factors. I got very sick. Over Christmas my whole family got very sick over Christmas things kind of all went poof in my face. So I had a few more days at maintenance or in a surplus than I had planned, but I still think by the end of this month. I will have lost a little over a pound. I only have realistically for five more to lose. So that's the why I did it then do I recommend people like necessarily start a fat loss phase right around the holidays probably not but you know, there's something to be said for if you're ready in a good mental space. Whether it's right before vacation or right before a holiday, it's not like every month of December day of December had to be in a surplus right or even had to be a maintenance so you could but you could also use that time to take a mate. So that's kind of the why and the did you want me to talk about how I was doing it now or what. Did you want me? Where do you want to head? Um, let's wait a little bit because I just wanted to echo on something that you said, you know, I think there's something to be said for picking. Choosing to do it when it's hard and that really build confidence. It builds resiliency. And yeah, you know, it might be easier to do it at the beginning of the new year when you're feeling all raw and you're motivated. You know, you're those Lucian everybody else around you might be trying to clean up their habits and lose weight, you know, whatever the case but it's really put yourself in that uncomfortable. Jen and do it when maybe other people are just stuffing their faces Christmas cookies, you know that teaches you if you can do it then like you can do it anytime so maybe if you're brand new to Fat Loss that might not be the best time but if you are a more seasoned veteran like we are and you've done this before, you know, what to expect, you know how to kind of like manipulate the day is like you've been doing we're okay on Christmas Day if I wasn't sick with the stomach flu I would be you know, I would be able to go into maintenance and it would be okay. So I think again it comes back to know thyself. And yes, if you are a beginner choosing to do it at the most difficult time of year possibly not the best time but for someone who's done this a couple of times already then yeah, why not? Yeah. I think it can really help with the not having an all-or-nothing mentality. It is so common for people who yo-yo diet, right? We're either all in or all out choosing to start a fat loss phase when there was literally no way for me to be all in or all out and enjoy myself. You know, it helps you strike that balance, right? And the other thing I don't know people follow you on Instagram, they watch her stories every day, but you have been better. If you guys aren't following all four of us get your head out of your butt and follow up. Hey, sorry, but you have been showing your daily weigh-ins, which I think is very very important because it is bringing attention to the fact that the scale will fluctuate and we talked about this on one of the last episodes that we did I discussed how I've been in a fat loss phase. My weight was going down consistently, you know week after week and then all of a sudden it shot up five pounds and Again, this past week not 5 pounds, but you know around like three or four and now it's back down again. So that's really important too is just have me that mindset that the scale is going to go up and down kind of like regardless of what you do regardless, if you're perfectly on track and it's just so important to keep in mind. Yeah, I will say those daily weigh-ins that I show every day. I consistently get more dams about that than about anything else I talked about because people just can't believe that that's what the scale really does and I've had several people because I did this this time last year. I did the same thing I did for three months and I've had several people message and say like this was the thing that changed how they looked at the scale and they were finally able to make progress because they always thought they were messing up because the scale would go up and they didn't realize like that's literally just what it does. It doesn't go down in a nice steady need line. It goes up and down as its Coming down and that's why I do those daily weigh-ins. Hmm, you know, it's interesting because I do daily way and stood not on my Instagram stories, but I do step on the scale every day. It's something that my coach requires and I like to see the data that's just kind of how my brain works, but it's really interesting how sometimes it will get into this about when we were when we discuss how to set up a calorie deficit, but currently I have higher carb days. I have lower carb days and you would Think logically that a day after my low carb day and you know, I've been really active or whatever that my weight would be down and often times my weight is actually higher after a low carb day, which does not make sense to me. So it really goes to show how you can't always trust it, you know, you can't trust that scale and you may think I was perfectly on point and have this expectation that it's going to You know that your weight will react in a certain way based on your behaviors the previous day and it just is not always the case so solutely and I really like to impress that when I'm showing the weight and I do talk people through like hey, this is why it might be up or it might be down. But I love to talk to people about the fact that like sometimes I have no freaking clue why it just dropped or why it just spiked and that in daily life. We really should not spend that much time if you're going to weigh you shouldn't spend that much time thinking about like, why does it say that? Interesting to note certain trends that can happen. Like hey, like if I eat Asian food the next day the scales up like three pounds and if you notice like that's how my body works. That's like I see that now it's interesting. But trying to get to a point where you can just not think about. Why does it say that write it down? It's your data point move on. That's where I want people to go. Yeah funny. You mentioned that about Asian food because Sarah and I had Thai food on New Year's Eve it was Delicious and that day I was completely off from the gym. I didn't do any cardio, you know, my step count was like I probably got around 11,000 which is normal for me. But we ate two things we ate Thai food, which was high in sodium something that I never eat, even though it is my favorite food and we also ate fairly late at night. So it closer to around 8 o'clock because we had to wait an hour to get her. Food and we watch their so, you know eating a little bit later eating something that was really high in sodium. I expected the weight to be or my weight could be up a couple pounds and it was actually down from the day before. So anyway, I think we're kind of beating a dead horse at this point. Hopefully people get the point. But yes, if you are weighing yourself daily, just don't let that number get to you look at the fluctuations, but what you want to focus more on. Is the downward Trend over time and making sure that from week to week. It's the daily average that is going down. So that being said, let's talk a little bit Kim about what your fat loss phase looks like and how you are setting up those calories. Okay. So for me the way I do it and I do have a coach who sets my numbers for me. So we have calorie counting and protein counting. That's it. I don't count carbs. I don't count fats. I do count my protein and I count my calories. I calorie cycle which means I have certain days of the week that are higher calories in certain days of the week that are lower calories all of those days our deficit calories. There's No maintenance calories. They're their calorie ranges. So they'll have two numbers. So I don't have to hit an exact target and my goal every day is to hit my calorie Target and to hit my protein Target. It's pretty straightforward, but it's not always easy to do. Yeah, that's that's similar to how Sarah and I when we were in a fat loss phase that we kind of tackled it. Although we didn't go directly towards tracking right at first both of us focused more on the ranges. And I think that's the biggest thing is like not getting to cut off in the Perfection of like hitting, you know, say your calories or 1800 not worrying about getting like 1,800 calories. He's on the dot because at the end of the day as long as you're hitting the range, you know, like it's okay. You don't have to worry about hitting 1800 as long as you're getting between 17 and 19 hundred. That's way better than like randomly hitting 1800 and then saying oh my God, I hate eighteen hundred and ten calories. I fucked up now. I'm going to go binge eat like it's like no just stay consistent within the range. So that's awesome to hear that your percent. Yeah, and I said, I went from years ago. I was when I was competing you had to hit. calories bang on the nose and it was obsessive the point of removing like, you know, and it was to do like grams of carbs and everything dirt, but it got obsessive to the point of removing like literally like five grains of rice from my play and my God, hi tiny little like Slither of chicken from the plate to get it like bang on because in my head in that moment those five grains of rice and that slither of chicken if they went inside my body I I was going to implode all my results were going to go and that was just going to be life was lifers of which, you know, obviously that's just not the case, but it's kind of it was one of the ways that I kind of screwed up my relationship with food because I was just getting that in obsessed by all and why now, like even when Sam and I did our fat loss. There's I opted not to count calories. Like I didn't even try I haven't tracked calories in well for you. so don't think Because I just I just it's just not something that works particularly well for me and I think it's good to certain note that you did track calories for a while. But yeah, please yeah, you guys listening like you can't just not track calories and expect to know what the hell you're eating Sarah has done this for like years like as a competitor so she knows exactly what works what doesn't and also like a rough a pretty good estimate of calories per serving and portions so she can be honest with herself. Yeah, and that's that's the reason why we encourage tracking at least at the start of the fellows phases. If you don't know what you're eating if you don't know what's actually going inside your body in the food sense. Not in a sexual sense and how can you manage it? Was anybody confused her down that road? I think they were I think they work as I was saying and I'm like, oh this is you don't measure you can't manage. You know, that's absolutely yeah, you need to have the foundation of knowledge. Like you wouldn't go into school and expect to actually, you know passed the exam Jeremy's right? You'd have to start with basic vocabulary right basic vocabulary and fat loss is a calorie deficit so becoming friends with what Actually taking in and being honest with yourself for sure. Yeah. Yeah, and it's sorry. So I feel are so far out of touch with what a actual serving is. Hmm because they maybe they've never tracked or were used to going out to eat and restaurants serving us these ginormous proportions that we just kind of take it face value like, okay. Well this one I mean serves so I'm gonna need it all and there that's a servant because it's what I was served. Portion Distortion don't get me wrong. I can freaking clean my plate any day but have in the past many times. But yeah, if you don't have that awareness, it's really easy to overeat and then and then have no idea as to what a proper serving actually is. So the tracking can be very helpful in that regard but going along with that, you know, Sam and Sarah when you guys were doing Or fat loss phase together and I think it was part of your like fit and free launch or challenge something like that. Neither of you were actually counting calories in the sense that you were putting your food on the scale and logging it in my fitness pal, like maybe Kim or myself are currently doing so talk us through how that look especially if there is someone listening who is like I am not going to break out a food scale for whatever reason I don't have time for that. I don't have the mental energy for that. Like just not going to happen. How can somebody aim to eat for fat loss without actually Wayne their food because that's what you guys did. Yeah. Well, sir, I'll let you take it away. But I think the first thing I just want to say for both of us is the only reason why we chose to not The tracking calories route is because we had both done it for many years. We are very familiar with calories and how many calories are in things. So I think for both of us at least to my knowledge we kind of did some mental calculating, you know, it's like you kind of just are aware of what you're eating and we have created rules and structure which you know, that's kind of what we promote in the fit and free membership anyways, but I think creating the rules and structure outside of tracking the calories was the godsend for us, but I want to go first and then I can finish up no hundred a hundred percent. So we kept it really simple. We kind of had a only going to eat three meals a day and then work to a basic template and I think definitely for me it was more of a case. My meals didn't really change from what I always eat. So all I needed to do was really just tightened. And then a little bit so stop adding, you know switching from using oil to zero calorie spray for cooking and being really more mindful about like how much salad dressing I was putting on, you know, the nut Butters, you know actually being very very conscious because you know, when when I'm just living my everyday life, I'm kind of a little bit more just like that - I'm not like completely outrageous, you know have of olive oil. But it's just like you just don't pay as much attention and I will be completely honest. I am somebody that will always just put a little bit extra on my yeah, you are me too. Yeah, and I will always I'm always I'm the Nibbler while I'm while I'm cooking. So girl. You should see her what we cook. She's like eating spinach like like chips me me too, but maybe even just putting this food into the pan and it's like to taste a little bit of this and actually what I've done is taken Half an hour like our meal is like half of size of the meal because using it as it's being called which is so common. By the way, I always talk about ski sources of calories and that is one of them eating as you cook. Yeah sure a hundred percent and also the other thing so being just been more conscious about that and just do it going right while I'm cooking. I'm not eating but also for me again being completely honest, I am a Hubbard picker, so when I walk into my kitchen, I do have a bit of a thing where I'll go to the cupboard and I'll just you know, I will have a dip in the peanut butter and put it in my mouth or I will take a few raisins out for packet and put them in my mouth and actual play before we did the fact that long spit is in the space of specify think about a week. I had demolished a full big bag of raisins just purely to be walking into the kitchen and just having little mouse. Him and then no actually consciously eating them. So that's another thing for if you don't want to like count calories and stuff during a fat loss or just in general if you're trying to maintain your weight. It's just been really aware of your own Tendencies to just pick it things because it's so easy to consume that that bag of raisins over a week was an extra 1,500 calorie that we yeah. I called those the the BLTs the bytes licks in. It tastes and you're not careful man that can add up to hundreds of extra calories a day. So, yes, it can stick in your hand in the bag and we can licking the extra peanut butter off the spoon eating the scraps from your kids plates all that stuff. And you know, one of my favorite quotes is you don't have to count calories, but all calories still count. So just because it's not part of your meal. That mean that the calories don't add up at the end of the day one of my favorite examples of this Everyone by now. Hopefully knows my Affinity for Trader Joe's and that I'm pretty much every day Trader Joe's can we can you please sponsor this podcast and Marcia? Did anyone see my story the other day when I tried to cancel my credit card and the customer service lady try to upsell me on a new one, which was Cash Back Rewards. And so she's going through my accomplices. Well MS. Even I see that you shot very frequently at Trader Joe's cash back where all those purchases like when Netflix tells you like. Have you been are you still watching and they're sampling and people just go along they pick it up and they eat it and I don't think any of those people. Remember, you know that eight hours ago when they were sampling the pumpkin bread at Trader Joe's at 10 in the morning that they had eaten it, you know, so food Amnesia is very real if you are going through out your day and not writing things down not tracking it. So you've got to be very very mindful of yeah ball the BLTs hundred percent and and that just to finish off kind of join our fat loss phase. Yes, and I know we basically I think we birth without men meals. We knew that they were in the range of about five between 450 and I think 550 or 600 calories per meal. So we kind of that's what we were focusing on. So it wasn't that we weren't paying attention to like the amount of calories in a meal. We were just being very like we just didn't need to actually do the calculations because we have enough experience to be able to just look it up. And use like the ten player of majority of the play is like protein and vegetables and then there's a little bit of carbs and you just take it easy on the easy on the fat because obviously it has the highest highest level of calories and is the easiest to overeat and that was basically how that was. Basically how we did it. So just being more mindful over to you Sam. What do you want? Yeah, why thing for me? I chose not to Track because I had the past experience with getting really obsessive with numbers and I think in a previous phase of my life. I was I mean, I still am working through my perfectionist Tendencies, but I found that if I didn't make if I didn't hit my calories, then I would just say fuck it and and just kind of like see the day as a wash and just kind of go overboard now. Think about attract calories. It wouldn't that wouldn't be the case, which I've actually thought about trying it out just to see and kind of also keep like just to show a different way of tracking and a different mindset, but I think that I wanted to go into a fat loss phase feeling healthy and good about it and not having the fat loss phase cause me more stress, but in fact just having it help me feel better and like have my looks start to match where I thought I wanted to be So like Sarah said I think we created the structure that helped us stay on track. And so for me, I mean if you guys watch my stories then you know, I eat oatmeal literally every morning so that stayed the same. The only thing that changed is I switched from peanut butter like whole regular peanut butter to pb2. So like powdered peanut butter, so that saved me like a hundred 250 calories and then I had one big ass salad. That's like my go-to lunch that stayed the same I think and then dinner. Typically I would just be a little bit more mindful of my fat and carbs portion. Like I would prioritize my protein try to get more veggies and then a little bit of carbs or a little bit of fat rather than like, you know going a little bit overboard and if I felt like I needed a snack throughout the day then what I would do is I would borrow quote-unquote the snack from my meal. So rather than saying like I can only Only have three meals because sometimes that can feel restrictive like oh my God, I can only three times, you know, like if you're in the if the day just ends up that you need a little snack or something or you need you want something pre-workout then I'd be like, okay, I'm gonna have an apple before I work out and then I would just be like, okay. I'm going to take away those 80 calories or some of those carbs for my dinner and it just ends up working out that way for me. So that was kind of how I approached it and if I did eat a Bit more than I had planned or you know, maybe our meals were a little bit bigger or I went out to eat with friends. I just accepted it and didn't chalk it up as a loss. I just was like, you know what? Okay, that's fine. Like there's maybe I had a day of Maintenance amongst my fat loss phase that's not going to be an issue. You know, it's like it's way better than me saying like fuck it and going overboard which would be the past Sam and kind of sabotaging myself. So I think that's that was a huge thing for me and knowing what things were my My Temptations or my trigger foods and just like I don't I didn't need to have them in the house. You know, like I used to keep a just like jars of peanut butter in the house. Just you know, just to have them just in case right and I think one thing case, yeah, it's like I never know what I'm gonna need but like really, you know, like it's it's like you now I buy it when I want it and need an ER it's like and so I've realized that peanut butter is one of those foods that No matter if I'm the most disciplined person ever if I've worked through all my sabotage if I don't need to binge eat anymore. It's still a food. That's so easy to overeat. Does it matter how amazing you are at Fat Loss or amazing. Your relationship is with food. It's still a food that's hard to eat in moderation. So knowing that about myself I was like, why do I keep making it harder on myself? So when I finish the last jar of peanut butter, I just stopped buying it and instead I bought the single serving. Impacts and that has been how I've operated and even if Alice pays now, I just do that. It's like I don't need to have this jar of peanut butter sitting there as Temptation because it's easy to eat it and I don't typically like I don't need it. It's more like the wanting it and I'm like it makes me second-guess like do I actually want this right now? Like well, I need it. And yeah, and I kind of a more mindful so that was one of the big things for me is just getting the shit out of the house that was you know, it's just easy to overeat or like, you know, more tempting and then Be more mindful around like okay if I want something more fun or indulgent planning for it and feeling like I was in control of that decision and not like whatever food that I've had a hard time with in the past kind of took me over and I think that was a huge win for me in realizing that I was in control of the food, you know, and like I chose to be in a fat loss phase and I could get out of it at any time and I think knowing that freedom like it's just a temporary thing. Thing, you know, like you're not supposed to be in a fat loss phase forever that reminder. I told myself that every morning like I don't have to do this. I'm choosing to do this and I can stop it at any time and knowing like okay, it's all good. If I mess up I literally have the next meal to get back on it. So I think for me it was a lot more of the mindset going into it and creating the structure and just having less decisions to make that was the huge huge win for me like having go to breakfast having a go to One or two lunches and a few go to one or two dinners and just staying within that and you know, if I happen to have like a venture stuff planned cool. That's my exception but having the rules so they don't have to think about it. Absolutely. I love having that structure. I do the same thing to I pretty much eat the same thing over and over again. I never get sick of it, but it makes things way easier for sure and I think to you eat Marcy, what's your go-to? I love protein smoothies. Like I could seriously have a protein smoothie for every meal of the day. So that's usually what I eat post-workout and for dinner. I do some sort of protein. Usually it's ground turkey and a carbs like starchy carbs Source. I like my carbs after my workout and in the evening right now, they are on the lower end because I'm at the end of the spout. Space so I have to be a little bit more choosy with when I have them. So yeah, something like sweet potatoes. My favorite right now is good Bojo squash because that's the season lots of vegetables and I have this other concoction which I love and it's a spin-off of what Sam eats every day and it's kind of what I call it like note meal. So instead of oatmeal I use the Frozen. Cauliflower rice and I let it defrost for about an hour and a bowl add berries to it. And then I add my vegan protein mix it all up and it's like this. It's kind of like this like sludgy almost mashed potatoes. Yeah. I don't know about that. Very sweet. No sweet like porridge or like, you know, it's delicious. It's low calorie its billing. I probably like 40 grams of protein from that meal and a lot of fiber. So yeah, that's one of my goat cheese as well and I pretty much just have those meals on repeat over and over again. Yeah, I am one. I do better with about four meals a day. So I have a hard time I get hungry pretty easily. And so three meals a day is challenging for me. I used to do three meals a day when I was doing intermittent fasting. So my first meal would be around. 11 and I would sew it around like 11 3 and 7 and I'm no longer doing intermittent fasting. So these days that I eat about 9:30 to 12:30 or 1 4 and 7 or 7:30. So yeah about four meals a day is kind of my my sweet spot. Yeah. I actually forgot I did intermittent fasting during our last fat loss first. Hmm. Did you were And a fat loss phase for like about two or three years and I built up quite a lot of mental resistance to doing one just because the outcome of the last one was kind of a mindset fuck up. Shall we say so I was a bit like oh God. I don't know. I kind of avoided it while I Was preparing my relationship with food and but when we went back into it this time, I was like, okay I can I had to be mentally ready for it and which I was and then I decided to give give the intermittent fasting thing a girl because I am a fan of bigger meals. I don't like if you give me a small plate of food. I'm like, what is this just make you mad actually now that you say that I think something I've been experimenting to recently is having two big meals. Yeah, and it's kind of crazy because you just think about food loss and you didn't get to have that satisfying feeling of like fullness. Which can be can be nice. If you're used to always like feeling hunger, you know, like sometimes the hunger thing just it kind of clogs your mental space. So if you can hold out eating until like Sarah said like 11 or something and you have your first meal at 11:00 and then you maybe weight or something. You have make a baby snack and then like your second meal that could be an option to so like don't don't feel like you have to be wedded to whatever your meal frequency is right now, like maybe ask. Yourself like is the frequency in which you're eating. Does it actually work for you? Does it make you fucking crazy or like does it you know, could you optimize it even more is for meals better is two meals to snacks like you can set it up any way that you want as long as your total calories are in check. So I think like that when you told me you were doing intermittent fasting I was like, oh shit like, yeah, actually I've done that before and it worked well, and so instead of calling intermittent fasting for me. I just say Kitchen opens at 9:00 and closes at 7 or 8 and I just kind of create those boundaries for myself and that's that was one of the rules. It's like I just don't eat after eight because nothing good happens after Aid and like a lot of a lot of my clients. We just set the rule like kitchen closes at 8:00. No matter what like you don't eat after eight, you know, the only exception to that is if you know like you don't get to eat dinner before and it has to get pushed later or something like that, but it's like no snacking on that crap. Just chop it off you get to eat again in the morning. Morning, just remind yourself that yeah, right, you know something about that that I want to talk about is how your body gets used to the time of day that you eat. Yeah, so when I didn't intermittent fasting for a long time, I probably started it right when it was becoming popular. I would say maybe eight years ago and it was the 16:8 which was gaining popularity and one day. I'm just like, all right. Doing this I'm not going to eat until noon and it was tough. I mean I drank coffee and all that but I remember the first week or so is pretty challenging and then I just got into a rhythm with it and if I was busy enough at work, but I was drinking coffee drinking tea. No, I did not get overly hungry. So my body adapted to that and I did some form of intermittent fasting not really a 16-hour closer to a 14 15 hour where I would eat my last meal around And seven or eight my first meal around 11 and yeah, it was pretty easy. But now that I've gone well before I was in a fat loss phase I was doing more of a meal plan type of thing to fix some of my gut issues. So the meal plan was seven meals a day. Oh my God, I condensed to 6, but it basically workers. Yeah. It was really hard. Luckily. I had a flexible schedule or all I don't know how it was. I would have done that but then I had to start eating a lot earlier in the day. So here I was eating at 11:00 and now I had to start reading at 7:30 or 8:00 and after about a week of that I was waking up in the morning hungry and ready to eat, you know, so if you do feel like you want to experiment with a different meal timing just keep in mind that it may be challenging at first, but your body will adjust and then that's just Going to be your new normal. Yeah usually takes you about like two weeks like we doing it and then you'll notice a shift in when you when your hunger hormones Arts of like kind of kick in so just get through that home and know that that's normal so that when you go into the shift, if you do decide you want to change it's usually about two weeks that it will take Mommy and enough people who are in Fat Loss phase hunger is going to be part of it. It's just the name of the game Hunger is not an emergency. You so you've got to get used to dealing with a little bit of it and I would say that if you're not experiencing a little bit of hunger and a fat loss phase. You probably are not in a true caloric deficit but there are certainly ways to manage it and I think that having a structured mealtime or like meal schedule is a good way to go about that. So it doesn't mean that you're not going to get hungry. But if you have you know, you say, okay. I'm going to eat at 9 1 and 6 then. Your body is kind of going to get hungry around those times and you can plan and prepare for it more than if you were just trying to wing it and like eat randomly throughout the day. Yeah, I think we should talk maybe about how they can calculate their calories and also protein and then like managing hunger to like, I know we are all Advocates of volume eating which if you guys aren't familiar with that it's basically like having the largest Of food possible when you're in a fat loss phase getting more veggies like because veggies are so voluminous that if you think about your stomach if you think about your stomach as a balloon and you just ate four hundred calories worth of olive oil, like it would only fill up just a little baby amount of it. But if you ate 400 calories with a broccoli like that balloon would be big in full so maximizing your calories so that you can achieve some what you know, oh sir to fullness. So you're not like walking around being ravenous and getting you know kind of feeling hungry a little bit. So then white chocolate that since you brought it up, yeah sure. So I think one of the one of my go-to things to bulking Foods is cauliflower, I think Holly is a godsend. I put in everything literally I do especially when I'm in the phallus phase like I add cauliflower rice to my oatmeal. I think we all do that. I don't know Kim if you do. I have to tell you I never had cauliflower rice. Oh my God, bro. You're all I've said about to be changed. Who are you? Yeah, I don't do anything with cauliflower. Not that I don't like it. I just that's not a go to for me. Oh, maybe sometime when we're together girls, you can throw I will take them to cauliflower. I will make you my oatmeal. I'll convert you to the good stuff. All right. All right, but yeah. Adding adding cauliflower rice your oatmeal which like Marcy said all you do is just add it into your oatmeal and it basically bulks up the oatmeal at least twice as much and it's you know for super super minimal calories and it keeps you full it's got fiber in it want to water so it's great also adding cauliflower Frozen cauliflower to smoothies. So doing a one-to-one fruit to Veggie ratio in your smoothies is a great option instead of just all fruit is because it's like lower in sugar low in carbs. I You raced broccoli rice cauliflower rice sweet potato, like all the rice to veggies as an alternative to rice or I'll do like a half a cup of rice and a half a cup of rice veggie so that you still get the best of both worlds and for me that's important. Like I don't want to just eat fucking vegetables. Like I also want cards to so getting bolt The Best of Both Worlds and then things like, you know powdered peanut butter or the zero-calorie spray or making your own salad dressings or adding up. I fuck like eating a big ass salad in a mixing bowl. Like Kim does you know like I do the same thing, especially in the summertime when seasons are a little bit warmer I go to town in that salad. Like I almost if I was to weigh out the bowl, I think it's been over a pound some points, you know, it's like there's a lot of vegetables in there and it's like that's where I get the bulk of my veggies is in that salad. So figuring out you know, what, how can you make veggies? Make an appearance in your day as much as possible so that you don't want to like, you know, the you don't dread them. So finding ways to kind of sneak them into things. I think that's that's been like a way to manage hunger and be in a fat loss phase and not even feel like it and that's ultimately that's the goal. So you don't want to feel like you're starving all the time. That sucks. That was a good list Sam. I'll add a couple of mine to for my volume eating egg whites then amazing. So great an oatmeal. Yeah, I've just recently started trying that I see everybody doing that is a fine. I decided to try it. I do like that but even just straight up like cooking some eggs and adding a bunch of egg whites. If you I personally I can eat egg whites and vegetables like on a little omelette thing. A lot of people like I don't like the flavor of that so, you know do one egg or two eggs and then add egg whites that really can stretch things cooking with egg whites. That's a big one for me plain yogurt instead of having flavored yogurt. Save a lot of calories eating it with berries. You can get a lot of food in there a lot of strawberries or raspberries or a mix of them and blueberries to I just I'm weird. I hate blueberries. I don't know what it is, but do not like blueberries. So berries with your yogurt is a good one. The big salads is amazing like you can get so much food. It's amazing. How much food you can get in? Yeah, and if you just want to chew goodness races, you can thank you sometimes like if you're eating like people who are like trying to eat. Glow calorie, but not switch to high volume Foods you end up with these little tiny portions. Like if I was going to eat the same amount of calories in like Kraft mac and cheese. You know, how much food I would get versus. My salad is like nothing. It's like nothing. Yeah. So yeah, so all the vegetables really really helps. What was the other one? I think I'm having a mind for easier mentalize. Whatever you can. Oh, yeah, let's hear it. I turned you on to what's that the squash? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Wow. I am like the queen of squash. I will eat it year round. So delicata squash super low in calories very high in volume. You can literally eat the whole thing on your own as a small part of your meal guys. I eat that whole thing. No one else in my family. He likes it, which is crazy. It blows my mind more for you. It's so good though. Delicata kabocha is my favorite, but or not all of those are going to be a lot higher voltage than something like a sweet potato, but it's still has that dense carb consistency. So you don't feel like you're just eating fibrous vegetables. So that is one of my go-to is for sure and then for me like the big protein smoothie, so I have one of those ninja blunders which I have right here in Says that it is nine cups and I can get my smoothies to fill up this entire nine cup thing for probably like less than 200 calories. So scoop of protein ice serving of cauliflower rice 1/2 cup to have come varies and yeah, it's so delicious so filling. Yeah, I think I think like what we're all saying is we've had to experiment with things that work for us. And once we find things that work, we just stick to them because it work. Works it's like don't try to reinvent the wheel because chances are like we like we or anyone else out there have figured out like really awesome strategies to like finding meals at work and keep you full and I think like you have to figure you have to probably experiment with the things you like in that feel like will keep you satisfied and they they don't make you feel deprived, you know, because like if you're making Marcy's smoothie, right and at the end of it you're like, yeah, that was fine. But like I still want something more than that's not going to work for you like or maybe you need to adjust it a little bit so that you do feel satisfied and satiated because there's like a difference, you know, like coming from like a physical satisfaction like self-satisfied point and a mental one. It's like if you are full but you still want something then there's something missing. Yeah, if you're full and you feel good in your good then that's good. That's a that's a successful meal in the meal book, you know, yeah. Clever is the other thing but you cannot you've got to experiment with using different flavors and things because there's nothing more upsetting than just a bowl of vegetable. So hot sauce is one of the things that I know yeah do all of the time and and mushrooms was my volume is my high volume thing. You can eat like literally a big proponent of mushrooms coming in and that's going to give me some of that food heaven right now. Yeah, and if you guys like have a hard time with eating the same things like I think we all can eat the same stuff right and smart. If you are a person who's like, oh I need variety like you can still eat the same foods, but just season them differently. So like one day you have Curry flavored fucking potatoes one day like one week you have Rosemary potatoes like one week you have Mexican potatoes. Like it's it's like when you go out to eat, it's the same shit, you know, you just get different seasonings different flavor profiles, so, Have the same base foods and just change up the seasonings. You don't need to go like crazy. Like, oh, I need to find a new Pinterest recipe and recreated. It's like no code just like find the recipe as a base and then you can you can just tweak it on the seasonings and it's really simple you don't add calories with seasoning, you know, as long as it's like a spice or herbs and stuff and that way you don't have to go buy all these crazy ingredients. It's like keep it simple, you know, and you can always rotate things in and out. That's the way I am. I The same thing for a long time I can sometimes go like two months and the same breakfast, but eventually I really do get to a point and it happens kind of fast, and I don't want that anymore. And so then I take that out of the rotation I put in another breakfast I like and I'll go with that until I get bored of that and eventually they all just come back in. It just makes my life easier. Like I don't want to wake up every morning or I plan my food the night before I don't want to have to sit here every night think what's for tomorrow. I typically know like this is what I'm having for breakfast this week. Yeah, and I hope until I get bored and when I'm bored, I totally Get out I would not make myself keep eating something that I was bored of. Right? Right. That's such a good point Kim. I think often we don't do a good enough job at checking in with that like do I even want this because I think that's where that lost can become an issue is when you're doing the thing and you're not even aware of what you're doing and you're like you like I fucking hate everything I'm meal prepped and you end up like meal prepping all the shit that you don't even want to eat and then you either throw it out or you end up taking ordering takeout because You're making doesn't even taste that good. It's like you got to check in with yourself, especially when you're going through a more disciplined phase of like, how could I make this like feel good for me? And I know that's something I've started to do more in previous are in like really the difference between being disciplined and feeling deprived right? So I feel very disciplined in what I do, but I don't feel deprived because I like the food I eat. Yeah, you know, absolutely they measurable you Don't have to be miserable, you know, so I want to we've got about 10 minutes left and I feel like we got off on a little bit of a tangent as to what the original intent of the podcast was going to be about which was how we each like structure our fat loss phases. So I'm going to touch really quickly on what I've been doing in terms of I guess calorie cycling if you will because it is important to know yourself and kind of have an idea of You are weak and what is going to work best in terms of setting up your deficit. So there are some people who enjoy eating the same amount of calories throughout the week and that works really well for them. I actually prefer that it's not what I'm doing right now because I'm working with a coach. So I'm just letting him kind of take the wheels and everything so that I don't have to think about it, but I have three different like a rotation that I do three different days, so Lower carbohydrate days. Those are my days that are off from lifting higher carbs in the day that I lift. And then I have one refeed day a week, which is when my calories get pretty much doubled and I actually do like having that one refeed day, but there are many different ways that you can structure your calorie deficit to make it work for you. So like I said it have the just isochoric Monday through Sunday is the same amount. Calories if that is easiest for you, if that's what you enjoy didn't have those lower carb days higher carb days or higher calorie lower-calorie days, and then you can have you know, you know what you might call the weekend warrior approach where if you're someone who is really social on the weekends, you can a lot more calories to the weekend days any a little bit less throughout the week. If you don't feel as hungry if you can, you know, stay on track. Pretty well during the week, but you want to have some more room or some more wiggle room to play with on the weekend when you're going out and having fun. Yeah, I think that's that's a really really good point. I think for so long. I felt like everyday had to be the same hands or I felt like it had to be a certain way and it didn't work with my life. And so when I was like, oh my God every weekend I have these events and like instead of I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna eat a little bit lower calories during the week and have more room for play on the weekends. I kind of didn't make the deficit work for me. And so if you find that like every weekend you have events going on or whatever like build that into your life or plan, you know, just plan make your calories work for you really because it's like only you are going to be able to create that success and that structure so figuring out like what's realistic So that you can feel like you're in control of it, I guess, you know, so being really really really honest with yourself that if you are someone who wants to live the weekend warrior, but it doesn't work out for you because you end up going off track every weekend be honest about that and say, okay that doesn't that doesn't work for me. I need to try something something else. So it's about kind of experimenting and being really honest with the outcome and making changes if it's not working if you don't keep beating. Head against a brick wall if it's you know not working out for you. Yeah, actually sir. I have something to say following that kind of an admission of what I used to do. What I used to do is have really really low calories Monday through Friday. So I could like quote unquote save up for the weekend. But really what that meant was like I know like psycho and myself Monday through Friday afternoon and then it would give me a reason to like go off the rails in the weekends and that I've clients if I clients that kit that it said, you know, if I really want to do this kind of Monday to Friday. I was trying to save myself some calories for the weekend so I can go out and enjoy and I'm like, okay, we will try it but I kind of know I kind of know your history and I feel like this is probably not going to work out but let's let's see and of course they do it and they you know, they've gone into this mindset that you just spoke about where it's like, well, there we go. I've got to I've got to the weekend now it's time for me to just like, you know. Treat myself who willed myself I made it through type thing. So yeah, you just got to be really honest with yourself and not and not kid that you can do it. When actually you can't. Yeah, I think the thing that I don't know where I first heard this or maybe I made it up in my sleep or something. I don't think I made it was like it's like every week has a weekend, right and it's like oh shit, that means I have to get real here. Like I just had to be really radically Honest with myself and I was just lying to myself. Like I just wouldn't track things or I would forget that. I ate something or like, you know, like the weekend mentality. So if right now that's what you're struggling with. I do not recommend that you have higher calories and weekend doing anyways, like start getting into the mindset of okay every day is a day what happens if the calendar just got removed and you didn't even know what day it was and he worked on Monday through Sunday. Like what would that look like? It's like oh shit. I've been screwing myself over. So plan for this shit because if you've been doing the same thing without results, well, you got a change in order to change. Yeah. So let's yeah, I think a part of that overeating on the weekends for some people when they do like, oh, I'm going lower calorie during the week so I can you know, like you were saying Sam save up for the weekend I think for a lot of They genuinely think that they're doing that but it comes back to that piece where people are just not aware of the calorie content of food. And so they don't realize that what they just ate Friday night through Sunday evening was way more than they had an air quotes saved up right and then there's they're stuck thinking like why is this not working? But because you just ate way more food than you then you gave it credit for and so part of it is honesty and part of it is just like understanding portions and serving sizes and all of that, you know, if you would have a wake-up call. Pour yourself a bowl of cereal that you think is a serving. No, duh. It's really a great same Bones on my face. I was like, I know this I know it's just no matter what you think. You're you're serving still too big for the calories that they have listed. It's ridiculous. It's not fair. It's like that's not portions are not fair. Like calories are mean you guys if you had a food that had like no, No calories won't clean. I swear we did this once before because I remember telling you mine. I know. Yeah, and we cookie and ice cream sandwiches. Yeah, we did this before because that's what you said. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it changed Minds change. What is it now? I think my cheese like even though it's not even real cheese vegan cheese - cheese can Add to the safety 80 of a meal for me like it's wicked high in calories, but I don't care like it's worth it for me to eat was to have cheese on a meal. It's just so even vegan cheese. You like vegan cheese. Yes, but only specific kinds like a lot of them are trash, you know, like and I just won't have it. I'm like, I'm not spending $7 in the stupid-ass almond milk cheese. No, it's like the it's like really bougie-ass vegan cheese, but it's so good. I'm a cheese fan, but I've never had Vegan cheese. There you go. Yeah, cauliflower vegan cheese College. You need to have them things. I need to try clearly one remind me. What yours is Kim and Marcy, I can't remember but my cereal. Oh, yeah, of course. Oh, yeah, I think some cereal is my second. Yeah. Yeah cereal cereal would definitely be up there for me and then probably not Butters. No. Yeah. I like I like almond butter. Well, oh no. Okay. I know it. Samantha that about I don't know six months ago. Maybe she sent me this little care package with all of these different chocolate bars that were delicious and then this coconut butter. That was the best thing. I think I've ever put in my mouth because it wasn't like a smooth coconut butter like most are it was almost like a ground up. Macaroon so it was like kind of gritty. Oh my gosh it was to die for that would probably be it my thought about that. You are like salivating talking about it. I felt the cultivating right now. We can't I can't find in California, but that's dangerous. Oh, maybe I'll send you some more. Yeah. Yeah. Quick then we can wrap it up. Well, basically here we go. Here's the calculator takes one of us. Yeah. Take your do you guys do gold body weight or current body weight? I use goal body weight theme. All right. Nobody someone who is like already on the Fairly wiener sighs. Yeah. Yeah. So goal body weight in pounds for if you are in kg go to pounds for a second and multiply that by 10 to 12. That is your range and that's a good place to start and then protein multiply your current body weight in pounds times 0.8 to one gram and that's a good range for your protein and then there's nuances within that if someone wants to kind of explain maybe like if where you are compared to where you need to be or like how to how to get people to kind of ramp up or something. Yeah. I want to talk for just a quick second about the goal body weight part. I'm don't over think that people who are listening to this. It doesn't have to you don't have to like figure out in your mind exactly what weight you want to be and go for that. It just needs to be a weight that's less than you are now think about a weight that might be close to where you are comfortable way. And if you have a big amount of weight to lose you can pick an intermediary goal weight to keep your calories more moderate. So if you're 200 pounds and you want to get to 140, you could set your goal body weight for this equation. In at 170, you know, you don't have to go all the way to 140. I would actually encourage you not to those calories would be quite low. So your goal body weight doesn't have to be your ultimate goal body weight something lower than you're at now. Yeah. Yep. I think just starting somewhere and not worrying about being perfect. Just start with somewhere stick to it for a few weeks and watch the trends like Kim's been showing it with the scale to kind of help. You see the downward Trend how your clothes At all that stuff and then as far as picking your multiplier the 10 to 12, if you are very active as in you train a lot and you're active you have you get over 10,000 steps a day, like picking closer to the 12 multiplier is a good idea. If you have a lot to lose and or are very sedentary going closer to the 10 and starting your range. There is a better way to go. Yeah, for sure. And if you guys have any questions about the calorie deficit send us DMS and we will answer them, you know, most him in the Facebook group as well because it's a good place to ask questions and get feedback from us. I'm actually all right. Ladies great. So, thank you all for tuning in and we shall talk to you next Tuesday. Bye. Bye my girls. Alright that wraps up another episode of the Decades of strength podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening. We know that life is crazy and time is precious, and we really do appreciate you spending your time with us. If you love this podcast, Please Subscribe review and rate it on iTunes Targets in your service on Instagram. Send this to your friends, please please please just tell everyone about it. We are determined to have the biggest and the most inclusive. Unity of women sitting at the picnic table together. We love you. We appreciate you and we can't wait to hear what you think of this week's episode for women One mission. We are the Decades of strength Sam Marcy Sarah and Kim catchy right back here for a next episode.
Things we want but can’t have: ⠀ 👉Teenagers who never eye roll & huff out of the room. 👉Zero calorie cookies. 👉An exact starting number of calories to eat for weight loss. ⠀ It’s all plug and play my friend. You find the number (more a range of numbers) that works through trial. The formula I’ve given here will get you a good starting point for that trial. Relax if it’s a little different than another formula you’ve seen. Remind yourself it’s all just a good estimate. ⠀ Take the number you figure here and use it consistently for 4 weeks. By that I mean hit your target daily including weekends for that period of time, preferably while weighing your food as often as possible and accounting for licks, bites, tastes and sips. ⠀ As you do this weigh yourself daily and keep track of those data points. After 4 weeks look at the trend in your weight. Is it down? Don’t worry about daily fluctuations. Those are 100% normal and expected. Look at the overall trend. A good average rate of progress is half a pound to two pounds per week. So after a month, have you lost 2 pounds? If so you’re on the right track. If not, adjust your numbers down slightly and go again. ⠀ Remember that the scale is only one measure of progress. Use progress pictures, circumference measurements and fit of clothes in combo with your weight to evaluate your progress. ⠀ One note about choosing your goal weight. It doesn’t *have* to be your ultimate goal weight if you have a lot to lose. So if you’re 250 pounds and want to get to 150, you might not want to choose 150 as your goal weight (but you could.) You could choose an intermediary goal, say 200 or 210 pounds. ⠀ So let's wrap up with just a reminder that’s all plug & play and you can’t mess this up if you keep going! Don’t you quit. 