Boys and girls, welcome back to The Inspirations place. We have an absolute belter of a episode for you today. But before you listen and do to favor head over to your podcast provider, whether it be Spotify Stitcher the podcast app on an iPhone, whatever it may be and just give the show a five star rating. In review if we do that for me guys means I can carry on getting fantastic guests on the show because the more people get to listen to this epic story. So that would be fantastic. I would appreciate it today. I spoke to Matt nivelle, which was really really epic for me the England 2003 World Cup rugby winning team will always be heroes in my mind. I've been obsessed with Robbie's since I was eight years old and it became even more intense when we won the World Cup 16 years ago. Wow. Australia Matt LaBelle was the sports nutritionist to that team. So when I got the chance to speak with him, I completely jumped all over it when Matt came down to the gym. We really got stuck into a few topics based around nutrition. It was really obvious when I was speaking with him that I was talking to somebody he was at the top of their field that's really really cool and something that really really happens to people Matt has and still does work with a lot of top level sports teams are he's been a nutritionist on a one-on-one basis for a very long time to his passion for his field has led him. Him to bring out his own brand Amino man, which is a supplementation brand that can Aid both males and females to perform at the top of their abilities. You know, whatever your goal is. I mean, oh man has the solution to provide the support for it, you know, whether it be muscle gain recovery improves sleep reduced inflammation increase energy, you know, whatever it may be these products are top grade and can be of some serious use depending on where you are in your fitness. Journey. If you go to www.sceeto.com me know man. Home and type in SFL 25 into your basket, you'll get 25% off your first order listening guys. This one is extremely extremely interesting as a very very knowledgeable man, and he's a great guy. So enjoy thank you. I want to say thank you very much for coming down. I mean, I know you're busy busy busy, man, and we're going to tell us about what you're up to in a minute, but just want to say thank you and I think probably the best place mat. We're just to be starting with bit of background in yourself kind of how you got on into the field of nutrition. Ian and health and fitness, I think that'll be the best place to probably start. Okay. Well, yeah, first of all, thank you for having me on the show Roberts. Yes good honest good to be on. Yeah, and I guess were thinking about the like in a nutshell type of historic story. Then the first bit of sort of exercise exposure was this free karate classes that were put on our school. So that was age 12 and first day, you know, People in there and then it whittled down to maybe seven or eight of us and every two weeks. Yeah, and I was one of the surviving members and that and that kind of carried on for years afterwards and and then you know as is the way with these things these things you get a passion for things. So you want to find out more about it was pre-internet. So the only places you could go with like bookstores Library stuff like that. So one of the things we did was watch loads of Bruce Lee films, then we went down to Chinatown there. Loads of little martial art shops back then so you can pick up with chequebooks on Shaolin Monks and Bruce Lee had a series of books and I pick those up and one of the things he was good at and probably one of the early developers was this sort of integrated, you know, he was using weights. He was doing nutrition and then combining that all with his martial arts training so curiosity took off then curiosity took off then and then I joined the wait Jim twelve-and-a-half waste resistant. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, so and then and then just carry I'm doing that so only realized maybe 12 years later that you could actually do a job out of a hobby. So I retrained as a personal trainer there was a there's a copy of time out and it was one of those moments where the sun sort of shown through the window and and lit up the magazine these his personal trainers money by beast in people and that was and that was it. Yes. It was that the age of I was 24 25. Yeah interesting interesting. You're a PT for x amount of years good a good five years. I still still do a little bit with select clients now, but really I mean, what was the was there a lot of trial and error obviously in those days. Did you kind of you picked up a lot in those early days and thus kind of sculpted your methodology or anything like that. Do you know what you go through over like 20 years of going in and out of fads and being told one thing and another Yuri, you live through what works and what doesn't I mean I remember doing an early new. Christian course and it was all about carbs because that was Sports Nutrition was just carbs because all the early research was on, you know endurance based athleisure and they were talking about multi-level carbohydrate loading. So if you have toast you need a bit of jam with it and you know be good idea to have a little bit of orange juice with that and and if you run out of energy have an energy bar and a lucozade and so you see like well this these people must know what they're talking about and six months later you put on you know, 6% body fat and you feel Aurelia third, you can terrible show and he's scratching your head. Wondering you know, what's going on with all this. Yeah. Yeah last name intro so from there, so you did eventually go to university. I understand you went to Bristol that correct? Yes. Oh did I did but doing something completely different insane. Yeah until it's completely unrelated political for us. We degree at Bristol. This part is to do that interesting. Well, it was it was honestly one of the easiest courses to get it get accepted in on I done a year at Glasgow psychology and then dropped out right so I was like, well, what do I do now? And then I went back into being a builder's labourer for a year. She will then realize that that kind of wasn't there, you know long-term career nutrition was always there kind of in the balls in the background. Yes. I would have been the kid in whatever an early Holland and Barrett would have been called back then reading the backs of labels. Yeah and wondering, you know, what What vitamin C did and just picking up information like that. That must've been so much hard about then to kind of generate your knowledge base. I mean, we was it constantly going through books Nate's like Google this you can get 15 different extracts on whatever you're researching. I mean was it was it much harder in the early days to try and build that knowledge base. It was it was much harder because you were you were limited by whatever existing texts were available and some of them were really really old and then you you you did pick up what's currently called like the On stuff. So you talked you talked to the Big Sky and the gym and said what do you do and you'd get Snippets of information which some of which actually transpired later to be actually really good bits of advice. Yeah, and some of them not so much absolutely trying to pull pull the pieces together must be more all the pieces together and you know that that would have been that n equals one year early self-experimentation. So then you find you know, you are basically working out what works for you is so true. I mean I even I was training from a young age the amount of terrible tips. I picked up and then the different sources of knowledge. I was getting from probably guys in the gym the didn't make any sense because they weren't they weren't relevant to me. I mean context was a big one because I was very sort of Robbie orientation. These guys are come up to me and tell me to you know, like you said bass mashkov smash cars my scars and that's probably why I wasn't as I probably why so many injuries in my early days because I was far too heavy and yeah just that is must that so common. I find I find with people just generally Any bad habits and finding out what works for them. And so I mean politics a university then I mean what then what brought you back? Was it just that Jen that Curiosity was just digging at you and you just had to get back into it. Well, it was coming out and then thinking what am I going to do as a job and then just running around thinking just doing different things, you know, and I did photography fashion photography. I did more kind of building stuff and various. Jobs, that will just weren't going to be the one for me. And then that was that timeout moment and then and then I went into PT so that that took care of that. So that was you know, that kept me busy for a good five years random company in the city and then Pizza Company. Yeah, and then about halfway through that realized there was a lot more to making changes for people that was all about what they did when they weren't with you. So that was that was and I was always obsessed with nutrition so I thought right Formalize this knowledge and then and then I went off and did a three-year course of the optimum Institute. Yeah, I was that was that enjoyable experience really good actually, really really? I found it very challenging because I was working on doing at the same time, but also re re thinking, you know, turning your mind from a sort of politics and philosophy into More of a science-based approach, right? So the transition was quite difficult and just a tan at the back end of that course. My shooter was they were looking for a male nutritionist to work in a clinic on Harley Street. And that was one of the early places where you know, there were functional medicine existed then it was mainly in America, but it was one of the Pioneers in terms of functional and integrated medicine and nutrition so there's doctors and nutritionists dietitians all Under One Roof. There was a pharmacist so I spent nutrition didn't stand alone. Then I didn't stand alone. So there was We There were you know with the everyone was had blood tests. They had a doctor looking after them. They had a lot of Nutritional Lifestyle programming. So all the food the diets and then and then the supplementation as well. So that would probably sharpen my saw then as much as any time in my career because it was it was four years of you know, eight clients a day. A multiple different problems. So that must have gone through every single case around pretty yeah, if you think of something that can go wrong with someone someone probably did come into the clinic during that time with one of those things. Was it here that you really start to understand the power of nutrition. Yes, because the the thing then was you could you could test you could follow up and then you could retest and then you could just see people getting you know over a period of weeks and months you could see people transitioning. And getting better and just getting over the these disorders and then you could you know, always believed in the power of nutrition, but then it became really tangible actually what you could do and what you could fix. It's absolutely fascinating. I've see if I see a very enjoyable period in Harley Street, you know, you have something time. Yeah the doctors I work with then Adam and Fred. I'm still working with now so great great mentors great tutors and great friends. Yeah, fantastic and this kind of LED you on I'm assuming To your work in sports and we what was the transition between Harley Street and kind of getting into the sort of split in the sporting organizations. Yeah, that is so this was a direct route in because at that time some some of the England players who were at saracens were coming to the clinic for Sports Nutrition and it was around about the time there was a book called Optimum Sports Nutrition written by Michael Colburn. It's a really old book That's a classic one. So we were kind of taking elements from that. And then improving on that type of a system she'll and then apply in the athletic Arena and then the saracens players liked it so much that the in the days of P&R and seem panicked in the early professional days. Yeah, just it just changed professional round about 96 99. It was it was a bit later than that. Also 9899 shot was when it was really coming into its own sure and then the Dave reddening and fitness coach was was like, okay, this is gonna Good, we need it with the England players. So it all went into the England Camp the clinic for one reason or another was a bit top-heavy. So, you know too many chiefs not enough Indians kind of thing. Yeah, and that actually dissolved and went under and at that time then it was 18 months two years before the 2003 Rugby World Cup. So the rfu said look we need you we need we need Adam and Matt to come in and just look after the boys. And and that was that. He says on his I've seen your name whenever cause I'm 2003 in the rugby team for me is like like any guy my age. He loves rugby. It's just something we're all obsessed with and I've seen your name in context with the in rugby team and it's one of the main reasons. I was desperate to get you and speak to you because I mean those guys were heroes in Martin Johnson. I was Jonny Wilkinson Neil back Richard Hill all these Lawrence dallaglio. The list goes on legend Legends Legends of the game and what I'm Fascinated about I mean I'm fascinated about in terms of sport across the board. So maybe that's a good point to start on when you kind of first came in to these sporting organizations. Say you started in sport in the in the late 90s that correct pretty much where what was it because it's funny I usually like well Nick little house who does a lot of sleep lately. Yeah, and he said the perception of sleep, obviously, you know how important sleep is in terms of the marginal gains and Sport quality. He said it was so, you know people just didn't think of it as an important thing. You know, they just didn't address it. I mean surely nutrition must have been they must have been more aware of that time. What was the situation when you went into the sport in organizations where they were there they simply just throwing them grabbed a burger and chips across the table or did they have a vague idea and and how did you go on to sort of change that philosophy and mindset towards nutrition? So so in in in those early days It would be rare for a rugby club to provide food for the players and mental and then and then also there wouldn't have been any there wouldn't be any sort of what you might call recovery drink / protein shakes. That was also a relatively novel concept. So the first thing was to say, right? Okay. What what is your what is the protein balance of a rugby player because obviously lean mass is so important. So if you fix protein balance, and we did that through diet and also provision of shakes. And training sessions so that had a dramatic effect. Obviously lean mass went up fat Mass when down but more importantly the players felt Fresher a small Lively and the recovery went up we sleep is always been key for us. So we would take time to provide the right kind of nutrients to put people into a deep restful sleep so we would be you would be using I suppose it was as LM a formula, but it was yet be zinc magnesium We Believe would be putting it together with different pots of of minerals and they were all there all the minerals which were amino acid chelate. So they were you know, the highly absorbable forms of the particular mineral or enzyme activated vitamins as well. Sure. So it just makes it a bit little bit easier for the body to absorb and you know, you don't have to be super clever, too. Serotonin pathway and then look at the cofactors and just say, okay. Well if you need think you need B6 you need you need tryptophan. You just put all those things into thing. You're going to get more melatonin. They're going to go into deeper more restful sleep. So we had a two page letter and we put people on what we called a natural anabolic growth program. So it was all the nutrients which are known to accelerate protein synthesis and known to induce deep restful sleep. And and it was on the back of an organic Whole Foods clean eating type diet. So that was that up that the cleanup and the diet was always before the supplementation, but we use that formula pre bed. And then also in the Rugby World Cup training camp, they get up very early do weights than they do rugby then they'd have lunch and then they had a they had a big gap where we encourage them to get another deep restful sleep. So we were inducing to It's of deep restful sleep one sort of a hours and one between one and two hours interesting and we were using the amino acid Blends before each sleep. So then we then you're getting a double, you know natural set of growth hormone release. So you getting all those effects and the you know that I've still got the stats on the body cam changes from that camp and they were dramatic. Really? Yeah the camp Just Around the World Cup and in 2003. Yeah. I mean, I've got all the steps from all the world. Cups, but that one was you know, it was the first one I was involved with so it's his sticks in my mind. That is insane. Wow. I mean, it must be very powerful to see those sorts of stats on professional athletes and really rewarding to see the performance level of shaming the performance never went up in due time in due course with these results is that yeah. I mean when they won the World Cup, so I think I think we got we got the jump on a lot of other teams because we were one of the early adopters in terms of What's now called performance nutrition? Obviously the training carried out by Dave reading and Calvin Morris was cutting edge as well. And you know, you had a unique group of players who were just each one of them could have been it was a captain in their own team from you know, so was a phenomenal team. I mean, I'm really fascinated as to know how it was working alongside sort of Clive Woodward and in that organization because I've watched, you know building Jerusalem and I've read books about what it was like back then and he said I've so he said it was like anyone who's a kind of decent salesmen that had an idea on how to make the team better eunuch Li would have thrown money at they had the the eye doctor which was Infamous which obviously did pay dividends because they kind of they train the smaller balls and it helped their coordination. So when the Big Balls came along into the game, they wouldn't make as many mistakes but the amount of things that I mean, what was it like just kind of in that environment where everyone was just so thirsty to get better. Well, he he Clive would have been probably one of the first people to coin that phrase small percenters. Yeah, perhaps even before British cycling interesting. And yeah, so if you had someone that could potentially give an edge then they were in there and that's one of the reasons we you know, we were in there but funny you should say that because one of the little Bruce Lee books that I got back in the day he was talking about periphery vision and just putting something slightly out the edge of the corner of your eye and then just moving it a little bit. Further away and then always practicing and periphery Vision when you're walking if you know, you're not going to walk into Lamppost, but if you can kind of open things up and see everything's going side to side and then and then I've forgotten her name but the lady with the computers and small balls and all that sort of thing, you know that stuff clearly made a little bit of a difference and In the Heat of a battle went if you've got that tiny little bit more awareness of where the ball is and how to catch it then. Yes, so amazing and you know, he drew on all different. Types of experts and you know, one of the one of the all-time greats was Vince Lombardi, so we were on were all you know, cherry-pick bits and pieces from that sort of era that work for him as well. So Lombardi time, you know, if you were if you weren't 10 minutes early for a meeting then yeah, then you were late. Yeah interesting as it regards to, you know, whether UK is and nutrition and everything you've done for it. Did you ever feel like you were playing sort of catch up with? You know over in the US or in the southern hemisphere, which tend to be slightly ahead of kind of where we are. Do you have you felt that in your career? You know when Michael Cogan's book came out and then you were thinking what are they all up to in America, but then quite quickly every time you ask what was going on in America or Russia or wherever wherever it might be, you know, God knows what's going on in China because they're not as free as with information stuff, but after a few years you realize that Gee what we were doing in the UK was just as as Cutting Edge as anywhere else interesting. Yeah, and actually although the America the American functional medicine institution is one of the world leaders in that sort of Integrative Medicine and you could argue that Britain is catching up and probably following that model in terms of you know doctors and now on BBC Two and they're showing that Lifestyles better for diabetes than the standards of medical route that has been as you know, Historically followed course so rugby and we spoke about Road briefly. I know you've worked in football you have worked in cycling as well. I believe is that correct? If you ever worked in cycling not to not to any large degree. Now how has it been sort of transitioning across Sports. Have you had to change your protocols and methodology obviously due to whatever sport you're working with. Do you know it's a common question if there's a rugby specific. Yeah rule or a football. Sure. Oh I've worked. I've worked in track and field as a Olympic cycle with track and field athletes. That's probably one of the most diverse group of people because you've got everything from a shop for 200 meter Runner, right? Okay, so you got all different shapes and sizes. But then again the rugby team has got lot of people have different shapes and sizes. Yes. Sure. Okay. My my Approach is always to treat the individual and then find out what that individual specific. Requirements for their sport are so I sort of turn it around. So I wouldn't necessarily have a tennis specific protocol or although obviously there are there are Universal demands associated with each sport that you have to know about. I'd be more like okay, who are you what's your physiology like, you know all the DNA or Bloods all that sort of stuff. So you build up from that and then and then he'd be like, what do you need to do with your vessel with your body? What's the demands of your tennis match your Hundred meter race was specific to you too. So it's a sort of its dealing with the individual first and then apply it into the sporting Arena. That's crazy. I mean that is great is that there's no you deal with each individual on a personal basis. I mean, that's that's fine. I must be time-consuming loads of two plates work with a whole Squad of rugby players and had to kind of deal with a different individual demands. It must be a process. I mean if you're doing it properly then Then that's that's a full-time job. Yeah. Yeah, like one one nutritionist probably with some support hurting. Now what happens normally happens is as as of as things have progressed. I'll be more in a consultancy capacity. So there'd be some you know, I made I think I made over 2,000 shakes by hand for the 2007 Rugby World Cup while about every other the little bag with a mixer in a mineral powders or so. So I think I've done my time in terms of making smoothies. Yeah, please so the Beat the Beast some full-time very capable highly highly trained staff who will be with the team every day making sure that they've got free intra post-shuttle workout nutrition all of the clubs now, we'll be providing Breakfast Brunch lunch and then often they'll cook things for players to take home as well. Right? So really the only meal that team a lot of team-based athletes need to worry about is their evening meal. Yeah and eat and even then they can they can flash free stuff and then the plate and take it home. But you've also done I'm assuming like performance and athletes isn't your only sort of nutritional scenario. Let's say you've done a lot of sort of body cam sort of stuff as well. Yeah. So we what what do you prefer? Do you have a preference of area of nutrition that you really enjoy? Well, I love it all be honest, and I think it's important to to have Like in any area you have to diversify risk specially when you work for yourself. So you wouldn't want to look put y'all, you know to kind of raise put all your eggs in one basket necessary. Especially as sport is quite a Fickle game, you know, it's football particularly new manager new set of mates. Thank you very much and then, you know two weeks later you can be out. So it's quite an an unsettling environment sometimes in that sort of sense. So, So special especially the turnover of manager rate turnover manager training in football is an absolute joke. I know so I've lost my train of thought slowly what in terms of just body composition. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so there will be an element of body composition change. Yeah with pretty much every client so it could be the head of a law firm whose, you know, drifted the wrong side of a hundred kilos and and needs to get back in, you know, maybe developing early stages of metabolic syndrome so poor blood sugar control pre-diabetes or that sort of stuff then stimulating muscle and reducing fat just corrects loads of underlying physiological problems and the diet that goes along with that so you can you can almost have as aesthetically driven goal which would just transpire to reduce your disease risk factors 25 30 years later and but I've been fortunate enough, you know to be friends with some You know professional bodybuilders and you know, I did I did start out just you know, doing karate and going down a sweat and sawdust or the gym in the old days. So I do I do like old-school like body building type and physique athlete actually I do like whatever work with the body in that sort of that kind of feel in terms of like wff Pro or invite someone on their nutrition to go onstage. Yeah a little bit. So there's a guy called Neil Crown. Well who I actually It with back on in Harley Street back in the day and he's got people that help more time. But I've given him a little bits of information along along the way as well. And then yeah Dan two loads of different recreational sort of physique E-Type type dudes as well. Fasten. It is interesting. Yeah. I mean, like one thing I want to talk to you about briefly is is your fault is for weak fat loss program. I mean, this is something you've had for. How long is it? Wow - well that Ram was developed with Gavin Allison her think you've had. Yeah, so he rang me up and he said what you doing and I said getting ready for holiday, and I need to get a need to lose some fat. Yeah. He said how you doing it and I said blahblahblah. What's this? It's a hybrid of this early Hollywood Diet that was out ages ago. And and basically what you do is you train in the morning fasted you eat four meals in Al wins? And then you train at night and then you take a Minos to protect your muscle mass. So what it was was intermittent fasting with with AMPM sure and it is it's super fast as it has we all know it would be because you training to us today and you're eating low carb high protein and you're doing intermittent fasting sure but it was way it was their calories counting involved is they carry any money yet? Okay you have that's that's one of the things like you always have to pee. A Jews to the governor, which is energy balance. Nothing's going to work unless you address the fundamentals. Yeah, 100% is like the it must be difficult for you to see certain people now, obviously with this or Instagram kind of world. We live in you know, don't worry about your calories just you know high-fat, you know, just make sure you're eating healthy for healthy food, but that's the end of the day everything comes down to and that's what I try to tell people every day when they come in the gym. I'm like guys like have you ever you know, we've got some A tweet challenging if we 5? No, I didn't. Yeah. So anyway, so basically gone eight week challenge is it's basically it's a body transformation program. They give you a nutrition and you training here which is the trainings are standing is very very high. You know, it's very very effective training you're burning a lot of calories. So energy balance is heavily in your favor on this a be challenged and it's just something that I try and say to everyone the in you just try and tell them that look if you're moving more and you're eating less. Going to be going the direction that you want to do and as much as people, I tell people that you know, they seem to just forget it and is very frustrating because it's just the be all and end all it's a fabulous. Absolutely. I think if what I have as little thing where I kind of its answers on the back of a postcard, please so if you can't explain it on the back of a postcard then it's probably you probably don't understand you sir. But yeah for fat loss. I think the two major Things Are Create deficit eat enough protein because if you don't eat the protein, you lose the muscle mass your metabolism to clients. But if you do those two things actually you can apply those rules to pretty much any other diets that are out there and there are hundreds of thousands of different ways of doing that. But if you do yet doing those two things and then consistently so find the way that you can then apply that and keep doing it through whatever food you make it sound so lovely beautifully simple, but it is the way you phrase it is, isn't it? But on why isn't everyone doing it then and it's an it's an amazing challenging thing and I think almost daily about the Obesity epidemic diabetes fat kids and all that. You know, we are in a bit of a mess. And if you look at America with were closely following them seventy percent of people in America are either overweight or obese 50% of them have metabolic syndrome, which is basically going to accelerate aging and death and we're following quite fast in their footsteps and we have Have a curious situation where we're programmed to eat. So we you know, it is survival Factor. Number one is basically make yourself safe and then eat something. Yeah, and if you combine that primitive urge with availability of poor food choices, then you have a recipe for disaster. So it's about constantly educating people around help. You know, it's not all right to go down that aisle and put those things in your trolley because it will you will end up in a dark place if If you're not careful, I mean, what would you be getting in the Grassroots level, you know almost at Primary School. Yes, yes should be correct. It should be taught in schools. And it's not is this something you're pushing for you want to push for you'd like to push for definitely. Yeah. I need to make friends with a couple of politicians. And yeah, but the problem is big food. Hey, you know logging yeah big Lobby. So so your brightening is this frightening. Yeah, and that's that's the problem you got a but the thing is people can vote with their feet and you know to over ER two million people in this country a year or drinking less sugary drinks, you know and Pepsi and Coca-Cola sort of shitting themselves, but that's why they're coming out with all these low-calorie things now low carb and zero, you know zero carb and they can't the prophets else will pick up the profits as well. Yeah. Yeah. It's food label is another killer. I'm sure that you're extremely high irritates you as well. It's terrible and it's teaching the Discerning Shopper to read labels and The stand you know, what was applicable to most most it, you know 80% of the time you need to you need to do things quite. Well, obviously, you can do you can cut corners and have what you might call fun or treats or whatever. You might call it twenty twenty percent time. Perhaps probably only 10% of the time if you're trying to make rapid changes, but once you're in a good place, then you can you know, you can live what you might call a normal life but some of the time but not that I'd I personally just stay out of all of the fast food establishments because I don't believe in them in terms of the ethics of philosophy all that type of thing. So I vote with my feet that way. Yeah and I try and get encourage people to do the same. Yeah. So it's so the full week fat loss. Oh, so let's just return to that. So it's training the morning but train faster than morning trying for us in the morning sometime before you first meal. Let's just say that's nine o'clock sure and this the type of training you do here is the the best type of training for this type of program, but obviously you couldn't do That twice a day every day because you end up overtraining so you have to you have to cycling it. So, you know a brisk walk for an hour for someone who's not fit could you know tick all the boxes the main thing is that you're moving you're getting oxygen into the body and you're enabling the body to tap into its fat stores as a source of fuel what happens with most people is because of the way they've eaten for ages and their their stagnant is they they become sugar burners so they eat sugar they Burnt sugar. They're very in efficient at using the fat as a source of fuel and because their primary source of fuel is sugar. They also get quite good at breaking down muscle tissue to turn into sugar. So they end up in this sort of catabolic blood sugar nasty roller coaster place and then if they try and doing a diet because they're metabolically inefficient, they don't burn enough fat so they find it too difficult and so on and so forth It's just circle it's a vicious circle, but that you know that program You know we can get the PDF. I've just whizzed through it and now I can send that out to anyone that's listening to the show if they want to have a go at it. Absolutely. It's really it's really good and it's particularly good the Intensive phase which I was speaking about is the two days and he do that for you do that for 14 days as like a reset, but after that you can you can just train once a day whenever it's convenient for yourself. And then if you've got a couple of kilos of fat to lose you can just go straight back. Back into the Intensive face again and the focus of the diet is always around lean proteins and and a heap of veg. So like tons and tons of vegetables salads soups all that sort of stuff and then all your all your kind of fish chicken lean meats. If you're vegetarian, you can just substitute all that with with vegetarian sources of protein the people come into this on different calorie different breakdowns of macronutrients. Yes. Oh so it's all it's all it's all lean body. Multiply so they the the secret formula if you would if it is, I don't think I don't know and if there are any secrets anymore in nutrition, but is a 2 1 1 so you basically look at you. Look at your lean mass or your desired lean weight and in you take two grams of protein per kilo one gram of carbs per kilo one gram of fat together, right and that just so happens to work out almost exactly at your basal metabolic rate for calories. So for me like you down free will be As on that's what it re is just so it's the minimum amount of calories you need to function in a 24-hour period so if I do my two-on-one around about eighty six eighty eight kilos are beating about 1,800 calories, so it's low, but it's not so low as going to be it's going to drive my metabolism into the ground and it actually when you eat 1800 calories of salad and chicken you you're eating a lot of food. One of the most common bits of feedback is I've never felt like I've eaten so much. And yet I'm losing fat really but yeah exactly. I mean like here like everyone like when I hear about you know for we plant a tree plans they do get some Flack sometimes I feel like oh, you know, it's just not sustainable. Well, no, obviously it's not sustainable you looking for results quickly in this format. Look we're not asking you to live this way forever, you know in the grand scheme of things if you if you have a wedding in eight weeks sometimes and you want to look in the best shape of your life. You got to do something a little bit drastic, you know agree, we're not we're not saying live your life this way forever. Yeah, but I think look drastic problems require drastic Solutions. And the the flip side of that is you have this wishy-washy kind of I'll cut down a little bit this and cut down it and little bit that and eat a balanced diet and all that stuff and that's frankly just doesn't work. You need you need you need to get yourself in a place where you're not gaining fat. That's quite important. So clean up the diet. So it's not pushing in the wrong direction. And then once that's sorted and your stable you stabilize. Then you can have these quite aggressive periods two four six eight weeks. Sometimes people do it for three months if it's a if there's a body transformation thing you can do that and then and then all you do when you go back to your normal diet because that normal diet was stable then you don't rebound gain all the way. What often happens is people don't do the initial cleanup. They jump onto something quite drastic. They find it too difficult to sustain they flip back to the normal way of eating which was making the fat anyway, and then because They've lost some muscle mass the metabolisms Louis of the same diet makes them a little bit fatter quicker than it did do in the first place. Absolutely. I mean I did mine. So I used to the January at two years running. I did January cuts for eight. Yes. I did it with a guy called Luke Haslett. I don't know if you ever you ever had a bleep but he was my online coach and he having on I think enemy on about 2,100 calories a day and a very to be honest. I was eating more food. I didn't I knew what to do it. My training intensity was very very high. But because I made that sacrifice to get lean it just balanced out the rest of my life off the back of it because I didn't have to be as concerned with having like the 80/20 living that 80/20 way, you know, like not that I wouldn't sell eat, you know, clean 80% of the time and like going to be boring. I was eating good nutritious food. And then 27th time I go out and you know have ten pints and look at that on the way home, but because I made that initial sacrifice. You know, you means you can live a better quality of life and you know for the next, you know, x amount of time. I think I'm a big strong believer in making the sacrifice to get leaner. Absolutely. I think you're right. I think it's almost that thing where if you have if you're in a good body composition place with a high muscle mass and low fat Mass. It's almost in a way self-perpetuating because when you stimulate that muscle mass through exercise anything you eat goes back into the recovery and regeneration process. You're more insulin sensitive. So if you eat some sugar, it just gets sucked back up into the muscles and similarly when you get metabolically, maybe out of condition low muscle mass high fat Mass. You creating a lot of inflammation in the body your metabolisms lower because the muscle mass isn't stimulated. So if you eat if you overeat slightly, then your insulin resistant so you store a bit more fat and and it's almost like you're spiraling in the wrong direction. Of course, you can get yourself back in but it takes dedication. Like like 100 percent of the programs that you follow and I was an unlikely the a we challenge effort is getting gas got a bad rap as a recently which is interesting mainly because I mean they're in almost there potentially could be arguments that is quite drastic and in certain places. I mean, I think the females go down to about 1,300 calories in per periods, which is a my opinion slightly bit low, but what I suggest them is look if your feelings like you like really deteriorating immune system taking a bit of a hit due to the intensity of the training just a little bit more. Okay. Just keep an eye on The calories the the fact is another of the trainings going to put you in a deficit regardless. Okay, if you have another four five six hundred calories, but what I've noticed the people that follow it and listen to their bodies and maybe increase the calories slightly is that once they've done the eight weeks and they put the dedication in they feel on top of the world and there are people have done finished it here at this gym. They're coasting now. They're they're looking great the feeling great. Their performance has gone up and they just returned to a normal way of Everything they're not worrying. They're not concerned. So brings us back to the point, you know, make the effort to get lean. Why not? It's absolutely yeah. I'd hundred percent back that kind of a program the thing I'd like to use and I don't think 1300 1500 would be too low for a woman. I think if you go below 800,000 then you looking at potential problems the obviously it depends on how much extra exercise someone does how much I'm definitely sure but one of the ways I keep people safe in that sort of regard is to sandwich Cats with aminos / shakes. So which leads me on to your next business that you got going on? Yes. Yeah, these the amino man. So basically running two different businesses one is the performance consultancy nutrition performance nutrition consultancy. And in tandem with that is is a me. No, man. So the story that about the Sleep support that I told you basically what I did was I took all those nutrients and I and I put them Into a powder. So I took everything that we use back with the elites that had this, you know beneficial effect that we measured in terms of Bloods body composition and then I just made it convenient because what was happening before was Will giving them, you know, 16 different pots and a two-page letter and there were you know, teaspoons and loads of powder everywhere. But but but getting it all into one convenient easy to take sort of drink was was the initial beginning of a me. No, man, really and that's that's R5 aminos so yeah, I know you've had a pot for a week or so. Hmm But it is it's a it's a it's an amino acid chelate mineral vitamin and it's got all the new tits call the aminos which you need to build tissue quickly. Sure. So we looked at research going on in Burns victims hospitals in France. They were leading the leading the way back in the 80s and they were doing IV vitamin. So, I mean I said infusions to rebuild tissue quickly, obviously with the burns victim. If you don't rebuild the tissue properly quickly, then the they're going to die. So we took the same aminos and actually found that they This research that they were effective orally and then and then also had this effect at speeding up tissue recovery. And that's the that's what you've been taking for them for the last week and then one rifle yeah, hopefully recovery is mostly really yeah. Get that's one of the most common bits feedback about that powder is increased recovery and deeper sleep. Hmm, and that's exactly you know, that's exactly what it's designed to do cool in terms of context to taking that and that's good for everyone, you know in is it specifically for you know athletes or can somebody take it to help fat loss the fat loss journey. I mean it's context an important thing with this. Yes, I'll get us that quite a lot because even though the company's called Amino man. Yeah women can take it right kids nothing. There's nothing hormonal or unnatural. Everything is completely natural, you know, there's nothing weird in its drug screen and all that sort of stuff. So yeah. Yeah a busy mom can take it or 120 kilo, you know prop you would take perhaps titrate the dose so bigger person might need to almost twice as much as a much smaller person sure and but I get I get everybody from busy execs who need to chill out a bit jewelry designers who do 20 minutes on an egg in the morning and just take it after that just to give a little transition before they go and get some breakfast. It's Universal. Yes, but it's really been fantastic to have your not find really fascinating. I'll probably talk to you for hours. I'm just interested what's going on with you in the next 12-18 months. You got any big projects on you working with any teams, you know. Tell us about ya know completely. I'm one of the things I'm really proud to be part of his which started back in 2014 is working with Georgia. Rugby, Georgia. Yeah. Yes. So they yeah, who's that? Fantastic back row, they have I've got some cooked their star players a big Lads. Yeah. Yeah, they're known for their strength and they they you know, they're they're lovely lovely nation and a great a great team to work with. So anyway, I've been on and off helping them and And last few years they they qualified for this Rugby World Cup. That was the goal in 2014. And obviously they're involved in this one coming around. So I'm going out there a bit more often. Okay, so trying to get them the as competitive as we possibly can for that sniff the next competition. I'm still working with Bournemouth football club and Reading Football Club. So, you know, that's roughly a day a week. So what do you see any houses? There's solid manager. He's a little while. Yeah, he's brilliant brilliant. With and then and then actually the what you might call behavioral Wellness is really kicking off. So the corporate corporate work is probably taking up at least 50% of my time. Now that's fascinating and and that's you know, that is the you know, if you look after your employees, they're happier than more productive. They take less days off sick and they might stay with the company more because you're kind of feel like you're looking after them. Is that is that in a nutshell? That's what that's what we're doing. But we're applying the The the athletic model into the corporate Arena. Yes, so that's that's fascinating really taking off. That's a podcast in itself that one hit probably is. Yeah. Wow, that's great. I mean, have you got a g work? You've got client-based you're working with quite a few companies already? Yes. I'm I'm actually working with Fred and Adam the doctors who are startled with on Harley Street, and they've their company's called core performance. So I'm doing some work with them and then I'm doing You some smaller projects with just the smaller firms just on under the performance function by my own company. Yeah, cool. Brilliant. Yeah May. It's been a real pleasure. I really want to thank you so much. It's been fascinating. I hopefully maybe one day we'll get you on again. We could talk a bit more about the the corporate side of things. That would be really fascinating. I'd love to come back and thanks for having me on no problem. Thank you make cheers.
Speaking to Matt Lovell was pretty epic for me. The England 2003 Rugby World Cup winning team will always be heroes in my mind. Being obsessed with rugby from the age of 8 years old was made even more drastic when that trophy was won in Australia 16 years ago! Matt Lovell was the sports nutritionist for that team. So when I got the chance to speak with him I jumped all over it! When Matt came down to the gym we really got stuck in to a few topics based around nutrition, it was very obvious when I was speaking with him that I was talking to somebody who was at the top of their field. Matt has and still is the nutritionist for some top level sorts teams. He has been a nutritionist on a one on one basis for a long time too. His passion for his field has lead him to bring out his own brand Aminoman - a supplementation brand that can aid both males and females to perform at the top of their abilities. Whatever your goal is Aminoman has the solution to provide that support. Whether it be muscle gain, recovery, improved sleep, reduced inflammation, increased energy etc… these products are top grade and can be of some serious use depending on where you are in your fitness journey. If you got to www.aminoman.com and type in SFL25 into your basket you will get 25% off of your first order. He studied ‘Political Philosophy’ at university!?!? * How Matt went from a Personal Trainer to working as a Nutritionist on Harley Street. * Matt tells us how he got into working with professional sports teams. * The 2003 World Cup Winning Rugby team. Matt tells us how he worked with the team and how the impact of more precise nutrition helped their performance and therefore results. * Aminoman. How the brand came about. Listen in guys this one is extremely interesting episode, Matt is a very very knowledgeable man and a great guy. Enjoy. 