just jumping in here quickly to let you guys know that I have recently created a facebook group for listeners of the lift train performed podcast. So this private forum is the place to connect with other podcast listeners and guests as well as to interact with myself and other coaches who have provided content for the coach's corner episodes. So in this forum you can ask questions which I can then answer in the group or I can use them for episodes, former Q and A sessions, post relevant articles you can share memes. The goal is to create a network of like minded people um so that everyone can interact with each other. Um you guys are listeners, the audience members can interact with the network of professionals in the fitness industry that have provided good quality content for the podcast. To gain access to this private group. All you need to do is leave me a rating and review what this does is allows me to bump up the ratings, draw bigger names and bigger guest to the podcast for your listening pleasure. Um once you've left a rating and review, take a screenshot of that, send that through to my instagram at coach underscore codes ko bes once you've done that, go onto facebook type in live train perform that group will come up request access, answer the three questions and I will grant you access, I am in the process of building out my online business.

One of the income streams is going to be from the facebook forum, so I'm going to be allowing 50 people into that forum for free after that it will be paid access only. So get in early, be one of the O. G. S. Thanks guys. Much appreciated. Yo, what is up guys, welcome back to the live transform podcast. I'm your host, Sean Cobra. Now over the last weekend I went through a Q and a session on my instagram stories and I do this every couple of weeks, maybe once a month where I put up a story. People ask me questions. I normally get 2030 sometimes 40 questions come through and sometimes it's very difficult to give the time, energy and effort into answering all of those questions because some of those questions are super fucking loaded. Um now one of the questions that I did get that I didn't answer was do you have a special diet? Uh in short, no, I Don't. Um I did cover this on my Instagram stories a couple of days ago. I'm recording this on Wednesday two February.

Okay, And my answer was I don't have a special diet because I move so much I'm so active throughout the day that if anything, I actually struggled to get enough calories throughout the day to be able to sustain my weight. So if you have been following me for a while on social media, you will notice that I'll go through these natural ebbs and flows of, you know, being really fucking lean, But then you know, two months later, three months later, I'm a little bit heavier. Um I'm not quite as lean, I'm a little bit more muscular, I'm a little bit bigger. Okay, now this is not done intentionally. This is just how my life flows. Okay. There's gonna be times where I'm gonna be super active and there's gonna be times when I'm not as active now to give you an example of this, and we're gonna dive into this in a little bit more detail in this episode. But um basically, today is Wednesday. I've done recording this at four 30 in the afternoon. I've done 17,000 steps today. Okay, Yesterday Tuesday, I did 23 1008 100 steps.

Okay, That was wearing my Fitbit. What it doesn't measure is when I didn't have my Fitbit on, when I did jiu jitsu last night. So At the end of the day, I was up at roughly 30,000 steps. So for me to be able to get enough energy to be able to provide the energy for my daily activity. Okay, it's very difficult, It becomes a full time job. So, so many people think it's a blessing to um, you know, be able to lose weight easy. But in saying that it's almost the same as someone who um, you know, struggles to it. Like I struggle to put on weight. And that's the same as someone who struggles to lose weight. It's just in the opposite direction for many, many years, I've been training for 20 years. And for the first, you know, 10 years, my training career was always about getting bigger. It was always about getting stronger and my genetics naturally have me as a smaller skinnier guy. So, you know, it's taken a long time to build muscle and if I'm not eating correctly, um then I'm automatically going to start losing weight.

It's just my natural tendency to start losing weight. Okay, now, something to think about here is energy balance. Okay, and this is the base of the nutritional pyramid of importance. I have done a seven part mini series, 3.5 hours of content on the nutritional pyramid of importance. One of the first mini series I did when I first launched this podcast. Okay, so I'm not going to touch on it too deep in this episode because, you know, we go through all of those different elements in those in that seven part mini series. However, I will give a brief overview of um that pyramid in today's episode, so that we can understand how to start setting up our diet. Okay, so the first thing we need to understand is energy balance. Okay, what is energy balance? Okay, this is where we look at calories, calories in calories out. You can also use killer jewels. It depends where you are in the world I personally like using calories as a measure because it's a little bit more universal. Okay, so what is a calorie? A calorie is simply a measure of energy.

And this can refer to the energy that we consume through food and drink. Or it can refer to the energy that we burn through the body's metabolic processes, daily movement or activity levels. Exercise. And what's called neat non exercise activity thermogenesis. Okay, so the law of energy balance is or the law of thermodynamics states that to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. This puts you into a calorie deficit. Okay. To gain weight, you must burn less calories than you consume, which puts you into a calorie surplus. Ok, To maintain your weight, your calories in must equal your calories out, which is calorie balance or Maintenance levels. Okay. A couple of points here, too much of anything will get stored as fat, even healthy foods. So even if you're eating, you know, 3000 calories of salad throughout the day. And I've done a post on my instagram um many, many years ago, maybe I'll post this again in the coming weeks of a salad that I used to make. That was pushing like 1000 1100 calories.

Okay, because it was very high in fat and this is something we'll talk about macronutrients in a moment, but it was very high in calories because of the fat content. It had salmon, it had feta cheese, It had olive oil, it had nuts and seeds. It had avocado, it had eggs, etcetera. So yes, most people think salad is healthy and yes, it is healthy. However, if I'm eating three of those salads a day and I'm pushing three 1000 calories and my maintenance Levels at 2400 calories, for example, I'm now in a 600 calories surplus. That means that that extra energy is going to be stored. Okay, so second point, small amounts of anything will probably not get stored as fat as long as you are in a calorie deficit. So there was a study that was done many years ago, which is now known as the Twinkie diet. And basically, ah this was 2010, there was a professor Mark Horton who was a professor of human nutrition nutrition, excuse me, at Kansas State University, he lost 12 kg in 10 weeks, eating a diet consisting of junk food, which has now become known as the Twinkie diet.

So how did he do this? He reduced his daily caloric intake from 2400 calories to down between 16 100 to 18 100 calories and didn't change his exercise habits. Okay, now that proved the law of thermodynamics. Okay, it showed that you could eat junk food as long as you're in a caloric deficit, you're still going to lose lose weight? Okay, what actually happened was he actually improved a lot of his health markers at the same time now, was that from eating junk food or was that because he lost weight likely because he lost the weight. Now this was a short term study. Okay. Over 10 weeks. What it doesn't show is you know long term implications of this. Now if you eat shipped for long periods of time, you're going to feel that you're gonna be missing out on certain macro nutrients which will dive into in a moment and certain micro nutrients. Okay. Which are your vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients etcetera. Okay so um again we'll dive into those in a little bit more detail in a moment.

Okay next thing calorie quality counts. So If you eat 100 calories from an apple and 100 calories from a mars bar. Which one do you think is going to be more easily processed by the body and provide the most nutrients required for normal bodily functions. Okay. Pretty simple. Really. You can eat 2400 calories. If that's your maintenance Level, you can eat 2400 calories of good high quality nutritious food that have multiple colors, colors of the rainbow. Um You know uh uh Don't have a barcode. Don't have an ingredients list or nutrition label that's sucking full of 20 ingredients that you can't read. You can't understand. All right. Real food is real food. It doesn't have an ingredients list. It doesn't have a barcode? Alright. So if it swam it walked, it flew, it grew in the earth. That's going to provide you a lot more micro nutrients, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients than eating highly processed foods. Okay so there's actually been studies done showing that Uh people uh not tracking their food but just eating until they're full in quotation marks or 80% full.

Alright. People that we're eating highly processed foods. On Average 8 5-6 100 calories more per day than the people that were eating non processed foods or minimally processed foods. Alright, so food for thought. Alright, now the next thing, there's a number of things that influence your daily caloric needs. Okay. First one being basal metabolic rate. This is everything that all the energy that our body requires for normal functions. This includes digestion, circulation, respiration, temperature regulation self construction, and every other metabolic process that occurs within the body. Okay, this is what keeps your heart beating, your lungs breathing your endocrine system, doing its thing, um digestive system, doing its thing blah blah blah blah blah. Okay, your body requires energy to fuel its cells. Okay, and this takes up the majority of our energy requirements. Next up comes out and that's this is influenced by many, many things again, go back to the nutritional pyramid of importance which I'll have linked in the show notes. To dive into this in a lot more detail.

Okay, next up influences our energy output is our physical activity level. Okay think about this. If I have a stone mason and I have an accountant. Both very different jobs, one's physical one. Sedentary, Okay, the person who's working a physical job is automatically going to be burning a lot more calories throughout the day. This means that they're going to require a lot more energy slash food slash drink um to intake to make sure that they're not losing too much weight. This is an issue that I've had come up again and again when I'm working with guys especially that are trying to put on weight, they're trying to build muscle most of the time they're trade ease their working outdoors, they're getting to the gym, they're training hard and they're like man, I'm a fucking hard game and I can't figure out why I'm not putting on weight. And we assess their diet and I work out there eating 2002 and a half 1000 calories and I'm like man, you know, you're probably moving 10 15 20,000 steps every single day. You're output. The amount you're burning is way more than the amount that you're putting in.

So of course it's going to be difficult for you to put on muscle and to gain size. Alright, so something else to think about. Um Next up let's go into macronutrients. Alright macro nutrients and fiber, what are macronutrients? These are the big nutrients that our body requires in large quantities. All right, so we have carbohydrates, which is our primary and preferred fuel source. Now, this is the only macro nutrient that we can live without in saying that it's not going to be a good existence. This macronutrients, carbohydrates is easily converted into usable energy in the form of glucose. Okay, so when you eat carbohydrates, that's going to be broken down, digested, absorbed, converted into glucose, which then goes into the bloodstream to be used as energy. Now, if you're not using that energy straight away, your body's going to or your pancreas, your brain is going to send a signal to the pancreas and say, hey we're not using this right now. We might need this for later. Let's uh produce and secrete insulin.

Let's push that out. So then that insulin can then shuttle that glucose into the liver and the muscles to be stored as glycogen. Okay, now, what happens here is water actually binds to the glucose. When it's stored as glycogen. Water bind, store for every gram of glucose that you have. There's 3 to 4 mL of water that binds to it. So, if you have a big 505 100 g carbohydrate meal and a couple of beers or some wine or something on a sunday, maybe the next day you might be one and a half to two kg heavier simply because that glycogen that has been stored has now collected water on the way to being stored in the liver and the muscles. Alright, so you maybe 1.5 to 2 kg heavier. Give it a couple of days that will naturally automatically come back down. Okay? Most people make these massive swings, They see the scales go up, they make these massive adjustments okay? And they overcorrect and then they go through this um this kind of fasting cycle which then potentially creates other issues.

Again, I won't go into that in too much details. Alright, next macro nutrient protein responsible for recovery, preservation and reparation. Okay. It's also excellent for improving satiety, meaning that it keeps us fuller for longer. It takes a lot longer to break down in the body. Okay, So if you're dieting and you're trying to put yourself into a caloric deficit so that you can lose weight, having higher protein throughout the day, spread evenly throughout the day, is going to keep you fuller for longer. So you're not getting those cravings to go back to carbohydrates. Okay, what happens here is broken down, digested absorbed, converted very quickly into glucose. If you're not using it, it's going to be stored All right now, That energy burns off very quickly as well. And especially if you're thinking a lot throughout the day, you're working okay, your brain turns through like 25% of our daily glucose. Alright, if you're doing high intensity training sessions and you're working really hard, that's going to be our primary fuel source. Okay, If you're an athlete and you're training numerous times per day. Okay? You can be burning through so many carbohydrates so it's essential that we start replenishing those carbohydrates.

Okay, now, okay, going back to protein. Alright, keeps you fuller for longer and also responsible for um recovery preservation reparations. So it makes sense to ensure that we get our protein spread throughout the day. All right, next up, let's move on to fats. Fats responsible primarily for hormone regulation, amongst other things. Okay, now hormones affect everything from our mood to our sex drive. Okay, Low fats also equals low testosterone, which equals low libido. Okay, so as an example of why fats are important cholesterol is it provides a number of things for the body. Okay, now our body uses cholesterol to produce testosterone. It also uses cholesterol to produce estrogen. It also uses cholesterol to produce cortisol. So, if I'm in a highly stressed state all the time and I've only got so much cholesterol. Okay, my body's going to prioritize cortisol production. Okay, because this is one of those um hormones that gets me up, gets me moving, gets me doing shit essential for survival.

Okay, if I'm highly stressed then my body is producing cortisol from that cholesterol, That means that I'm not getting as much of a boost of testosterone or estrogen. Okay, that can have um some short term effects, but it's going to have long term effects if not dealt with. Alright, again, it won't go too deep into that. Ah Now with the macronutrients are carbohydrates, four calories per gram. All right Proteins, four calories per gram fats, nine calories per gram. So fats are very energy dense. People will be trying to diet and they will snack On nuts and seeds throughout the day. All right, these are primarily fats. So, if you have a handful of nuts in between meals, you might be adding an extra, you know, 3, 400 calories every time you have a handful of nuts that you're not Even considering. Right? So, simply cutting out or reducing your fat levels or monitoring your fat levels can also put you into a calorie deficit.

Also think about olive oil. This is a fat. If I have a tablespoon of olive oil, there's 120 g 120 calories. Alright. In that tablespoon. So if I'm adding olive oil to three of my salads that I'm having throughout the day, There's potentially 360 calories extra. Now, most people don't actually measure a proper tablespoon of olive oil or peanut butter for that matter. Okay, a tablespoon is not a tablespoon if you have a heaped tablespoon of peanut butter instead of getting 120 calories, Maybe you're actually having two heap tablespoons or 2.5 heaped tablespoons. So now you're bumping your calories up, you might be getting an extra 240 300 calories. Just from that one scoop of peanut butter. Alright, next up, let's move on to micro nutrients. What are our micro nutrients? These are vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. They are essential for the proper functioning of every system in the body and are vital for good health. Now, each vitamin and mineral has a specific role in bodily function.

Again, I'm not going to go into too much detail on this because this is in the the micro nutrients and water episode of the nutritional pyramid of importance. Okay, water. That's a good one. Let's discuss this for a moment. Okay, your body uses water in all of its cells, organs and tissues to help regulate its temperature and maintain other bodily functions including metabolism and digestion, lubrication of joints and insulation of brain and organs as well as removal of toxins and other metabolic waste and byproducts through urination now, because your body loses water through breathing, sweating and digestion, it's important to rehydrate by drinking fluids and eating foods that contain water. Now, I live in Thailand it's humor. If I'm training even once a day, maybe I'm losing a liter and a half to two liters of water through every single training session. What I want to do is replenish that water as fast as possible. How do I do that? I'm going to make sure that I get some electrolytes in. Now, most people, they'll get an electrolyte satchel and they'll pour that into a one liter bottle or 1.5 liter bottle.

Okay, what I recommend doing is concentrating that. Okay, 250 mils of water satchel of electrolytes. Boom, smash that down. If I've lost two kg through another way of measuring your your hydration levels, or how much water you've lost is to jump on the scales before you train and then jump on the scales again after you train the majority of that. Yes, you're gonna burn off some glycogen, which will then be reconverted into glucose. Okay, Which is then, you know, getting rid of some of that water as well, right? But if I'm losing two kg from the start of my session to the end of my session, I'm roughly Lost two L of water. So Now I need to make sure to replenish that. And this is where I'm going to get my electrolytes in, I'm going to get 250 mils of water electrolytes, Boom, slam That down, concentrate that. And then I'm going to be sipping on water for the next 30 minutes or so. Okay, and then I'm going to do another satchel of electrolytes roughly for every liter of water that I lose. I'm going to get a satchel of electrolytes and replenish that. Okay, because if I don't do that, what will happen I've seen this time and time again is people will drink a heap of water after training, okay, And then they're up throughout the night, pissing, basically, what's happening here is your body's flushing out this excess water, because now you've got so much water in your body.

You sweated out all of your electrolytes which are important for other processes in the body. But your basically your balance, your fluid balances out of whack, okay and your your brain goes hey there's not enough electrolytes, I'm too saturated in water, I need to start getting this out so it makes you get up and it makes you piss 345 times a night. Okay so again if you want to, if you're doing that, if this is you I recommend getting some electrolytes, maybe you drink some coconut water or something like that or get some electrolyte powders and have that prior to going to bed. Okay. The reason I recommend concentrating that is because if you go to the bar and someone pours you ah whiskey um and then pours in a heap of coke, it just dilutes it. Okay and the same thing happens with electrolytes so make sure you concentrate that alright going back to the micro nutrients, our bodies cannot make all of these micro nutrients so they must be supplied through the diet. Alright as an example, vitamin A. Is important for healthy eyesight and gums, vitamin C. Is essential for a healthy functioning immune system.

Okay, vitamin E. Is a powerful antioxidant which helps fight free radical damage in the body, vitamin D. Essential for strong bones immune function as well as other metabolic processes in the body. Okay B vitamins are essential for energy production, nervous system health and proper digestion. Okay, there's also a number of essential minerals that play important roles in the body, such as iron, which is needed for red blood cell production, calcium for strong healthy bones and teeth. Magnesium for nervous system health, zinc for healthy skin, reproductive and immune system function. Alright, selenium is also an important mineral which acts as an antioxidant to help protect the body from chronic diseases and premature aging. All right now, what I recommend doing is eating to ensure that you get your micro nutrients, vitamins, minerals phytonutrients in is eating the colors of the rainbow. So the colors of the rainbow, I'm sure you've heard this before. The colors of the rainbow essentially represent different compounds within these foods that give them these colors.

So red foods for example, like strawberries, apples um and the like okay red fruits and vegetables are colored by natural plant pigment pigment called lycopene. Now like a pin is a powerful antioxidant that can help reduce the risk of cancer and help and keep your heart healthy. Okay, purple and Blue foods um looking at things like eggplant and blueberries and things like that. Okay, this is full of anthocyanins, which is what gives blue and purple fruits and vegetables their distinctive color. Now this also has antioxidant properties that protect cells from damage and can help reduce the risk of cancer stroke and heart disease. Orange and yellow foods contain carotenoids. Um Best known carotenoid is better carotene which is found in sweet potatoes, pumpkins carrots. This is converted into vitamin A which helps maintain healthy mucous membranes and healthy eyes. Another carotenoid called lutein, is stored in the iron has been found to prevent cataracts and age related macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness. Okay, green foods contain a range of photo chemicals including carotenoids, indoors, Saarinen's all which have anti cancer properties.

Okay, so leafy greens such as spinach, broccoli, kale, etcetera, all excellent sources of folate as well. Okay, right, fruits and vegetables contain a range of health promoting phytochemicals such as Allison, which is found in garlic, which is known for its antiviral and antibacterial properties. Okay now some members of the white groups such as bananas, potatoes are also a good source of potassium. All right now that is our micro nutrients and water. Alright then we have our meal timing, our diets, calorie cycling, carb cycling, um etcetera etcetera before we round out the nutritional pyramid of importance with supplements. Okay, so right at the base of the pyramid is our energy balance. Okay we need to make sure that we get our energy balance right first. Okay, as an example um you know I'm I find it difficult to eat enough food throughout the day when my activity levels are high. Okay so you'll see me naturally go through these phases um where I'm super lean and I might be super lean for a couple of months and then um you know I may be back to work off a little bit, I'm not as active throughout the day, maybe I'm not coaching as many clients face to face.

And now I'm doing a lot more work on my own projects on my own business and I'm spending a lot more time seated in a sedentary position behind my laptop. Okay if I'm still eating the same, I'm automatically going to be putting myself into a caloric surplus. Ok, so my body is going to start putting on weight. It's going to start putting on size. I'm going to start building muscle as long as I'm sending the right signal. In regards to my training, the next foundation of the nutritional pyramid of importance is our macro nutrients and fiber. Okay then we go into the micro nutrients and water, all of these are absolutely essential and they all work together. Okay? But most people go straight to supplements, they go straight to diets, um they go straight to fasting, they go through all that stuff and they don't consider their micro nutrients, they don't consider their macronutrients, they don't consider their caloric intake or their energy balance. Okay now we need to make sure that we address our energy balance first because if you're not eating enough. What's going to happen is your metabolism is going to start slowing down. This is called metabolic adaptation, this is an absolutely normal thing.

Okay our body is going to if if we've been diving for a long period of time. Okay, our body is going to try and conserve energy and it's also going to start trying to um cutaway muscle because muscle is metabolically active. It requires energy to move muscle. It requires energy to contract muscles. Okay, so if you're in a diet for extended periods of time, all right, your body will automatically try and slow that process that metabolic process down. Try and conserve energy. Okay, now, what will happen is if you're in a deficit of 500 calories, for Example, that 500 calorie deficit over the course of two months. Now, that's probably not going to be a deficit anymore because your body is gonna slowly start adapting to it. Maybe your non exercise activity thermogenesis or your movement away from training sessions automatically lowers throughout the day. Because your body is like, hey, I'm not getting enough energy in. Let's conserve this energy. Let's not move as much. Let's not talk with our hands as much, let's not be as fidgety. Um you know, maybe we're we're seated a little bit longer.

Um you know, we're not walking as long, we're sleeping a little bit longer, etcetera, etcetera. These are all natural processes that body's gone through over, you know, many, many, many generations, tens of thousands of years to keep us alive. Okay. Um now let's talk about macro nutrient ratios. Now, I personally recommend using the 40, 30, 30 ratio. So 40% from carbohydrates. 30 Percent from proteins. 30% from fats roughly. That's a good baseline for most people. Okay. And it is adjustable and should be individualized according to your goals and sensitivity to each macro nutrient. However, it is a solid foundation to start with. Now, if I said to you, what's the most important macronutrients, knowing what each one of those do. Okay, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, they're all essential. Right? And one is not more important than the other overall in saying that some are going to be more important than the others at different times throughout the day. If I'm just about to go into a training session then yeah, I need to bump my carbohydrates up. I need to fuel that training session.

Ok? There's obviously caveats to every rule. There's always an exception to the rule. Okay, now protein responsible for reparation recovery. I need to make sure that I get my protein spread throughout the day. Likewise, with fats. Okay, none of those are more important than the others. They are more important at different times of the day. So, a good baseline to start with is roughly 33%. 33% know how what we're having? We need to measure that if you're not measuring you can't manage it. All right. So I recommend downloading an app like my fitness power lose it fat secret or chronometer. I haven't played around with chronometer too much, but from what I've heard it is one of the best apps. However, the database isn't that massive right now, but it is probably the most accurate out of those, Out of those tools. Okay, so um to finish off this episode in conclusion, okay, to really get the most out of your nutrition, you need to put a bit a bit of effort into understanding the food that you eat and how it affects your body.

Okay, What I've spoken about here is a general guideline and doesn't necessarily take into account your specific situation. Okay, However, it is a good idea to spread your macro nutrients out fairly evenly throughout the, throughout the day to allow for optimal digestion and absorption of nutrients as well as to keep your metabolism ticking over throughout the day. Okay, this will also supply a steady flow of energy and you'll minimize energy peaks and troughs that occur through fluctuating blood sugar levels. Okay, again, going back to carbohydrates, you take uh in consume carbohydrates. Okay, That's going to spike the blood sugar levels. Okay? And then afterwards your body is going to swing back the other way produce insulin, start pushing that um the blood sugar in towards the liver and the muscle stores glycogen as as glycogen. Okay, then that's going to crash your blood sugar levels and that's going to leave you craving more. So in conclusion guys, if any of this resonates with you and if you're struggling to really get your nutrition dialed in, you're struggling to understand general principles and you're trying to make things very specific without understanding these general principles.

Okay, go back listen to those seven episodes, 3.5 hours of content. Okay. You probably won't need to ask any other questions of a personal trainer. You'll probably never have to ask me a question again. Alright, that's going to guide you in the right direction. Most people just want the answers I'm telling you right now, those answers are specific to you as an individual. Yes, we need to understand the general principles, Okay. But we also need to tweak and adjust those principles to work with what our individual circumstances are. All right, That's it for me today guys. This episode was brought to you by Swiss eight, which is a proactive mental health program designed by veterans initially for veterans, that has been pushed out to the wider community that allows you to structure in and schedule their eight pillars of health and wellness, including nutrition, sleep time management, discipline, fitness, personal growth, mindfulness and minimalism. This episode was also brought to you by be spunky, which is a male hormone optimization supplement that I've been taking for about a year and a half and I absolutely rate it is a TJ listed nutraceutical meaning that it's made from all organic produce to help you manage and optimize your stress levels, which in turn increases your ability to improve testosterone production levels naturally.

User code codes 10 at checkout for your 10% discount. All of those links will be in the show notes. If you've got some benefit from this episode, please make sure you pass it off to your friends and family. I'd appreciate any shares on social media platforms. If you tag me or if you share it to your stories, make sure you tag me so I can share that as well. Any five star ratings and reviews are much appreciated. Much love guys, Peace.