Why 99% of People Fail at Calorie Deficits | ⁨@trainbloom⁩

Tracking calories is so insane to me in the first place because it's not a very exact science. 99.9% of the time people are eating more calories than they think. You should not exercise for the purpose of burning calories. No you should not work out to burn calories. I don't think people realize that you could burn one to two thousand extra calories a day just based on your non-exercise movement alone. I think so look at this freaking button. Look at that that's our that's front facing camera. Isn't that sick? So you can take like YouTube style videos. The quality is insane. It blows my mind. I used to do a bunch of photography back in the day like weddings, families and all this portrait stuff landscape stuff and like the volume of work that I had to do to like take a picture of somebody when it's like dark outside or something is insane. It's stupid. And now your phone is just like. Even though like photography and videography such a crazy hard skill that people don't think about. Everyone just thinks oh just buy a nice camera expensive camera. That makes it harder like that I shot on my phone for like the first three years. That's my other piece to finish off the content piece or go in that direction whatever you want. I can't tell you how many times I get asked like what camera do you use on a daily freaking basis and I think it was two years ago I finally actually paid for it and it was like an entry level Sony 700 which is expensive for me at the time to camera. I'm like if you can't make a good video on your phone no one's going to listen to you. That's the least important thing when it comes to creating content. But that's what everyone wants to jump to first is how can I spend money because it makes it feel like I'm doing something. It's the same with podcasting. It's always like you know people I remember this one girl one time it was back when I was selling podcast courses this was like 2017 2018. And this potential customer prospect was balking at the price of the course that we had set up and talking about how they can't afford it. And then they went into the extent of what their setup was going to be for the podcast. It was like four thousand dollars. It was way more expensive than a course and I was like your priorities are way off. You need to learn how to do this and you can do that with a fifty dollar microphone that you can plug into your computer. That's all you need. Literally all you need. Because going from that gets you to like 80 percent of the quality you're going to get. Right. Fifty dollar mic in your computer 80 maybe 90 percent. I don't know. You're the expert on that side of things. Those extra thousand dollars it might get you a little bit backwards. Only person I recommend it for is somebody who's just like an audiophile. You know somebody who geeks out about it. If you geek out on it like this is part of your artistic expression to explore. Exactly. The extent of what you can do with your microphone setup. You know what I mean. Yeah too many people get lost doing that. Oh totally. Well for those tuning in for those who are listening or watching so we just had Michael Smoke in studio. We recorded one with him and then new Tony was coming in at the back half of that. So I was like why don't you just pop in and we do a little bit of content about content before Smoke takes off. So Smoke just took off. Now for those that are just tuning into this episode alone this is Tony Coffey at Train Bloom over on Instagram and social media. How you doing? Wellness influencer built a massive health brand. I just came across a bunch of his content recently and started sharing it a bunch to friends of mine and was like I think I just DM'd you. I was like hey man let's just do a podcast. Yeah that's exactly how that's always how it happens. Yeah. Which crazy just side topic that I've thought about recently is because how weird is it that we just connected like that? Like from across because how far away are you? Where do you live? Vegas. In Vegas. When else in like 10 years ago would we have ever crossed paths? Literally never. Never. Like in a million years. I hate networking but I know it's also like arguably the most important thing in your entire life. I always struggle with the idea because I hated networking but I think that's also because my idea of it initially when I was like 18 you listen to every self-help. Exactly. It's like the networking event where you pay 10 bucks for a drink and everyone's there where like the sole point of being there is like who are you? What do you do? Oh my god. And I was like is this what everyone keeps talking about? Every rich person interview I see because I'm like maybe this… I don't want to be that successful because if it takes that I do not want it. Because this sucks. And then I started to realize I'm like oh it's just a fancy word for like just building relationships. And online if you put value out and you do like I think try to do the networking piece just everything comes to you. It's crazy. Like you know what I'm saying? Like things come to you. Yeah, it's ridiculous. And that was a scary thought when I was younger because I'm like man maybe I'm not cut out for this because that's awful. You just described the arc of my podcasting experience. It was like I started a show. It was called Build Your Network. It was all about networking, professional networking. And then along the way I sort of realized there was an aversion to some of the people that I wanted to get on my show because they didn't like the word networking. And then some of them it made sense because they were like comedians or whatever. They're like what am I going to do on a networking podcast? But I wanted to talk to more people in a broader context. And so the realization I had along the way was basically like after having like 800 conversations around networking was just like oh this is just making friends. You know what I mean? It's just it's the same activity. They're just one of them's a personal context and one of them's professional context. But the thing that you do should still be the same. It should not be this weird cookie cutter 80s version of like name tag, business cards. You know what I mean? Like you don't have to be that. And then content is sort of the hack. You know what I mean? In my opinion like the new best form of networking. Yeah that was the thought I had. I'm like if you're ever struggling with networking just get a million followers. I was like that's such a stupid thing to say. But I was like that's my favorite thing about growing an audience which has been cool. It makes connecting to different people really easy. Well it's funny because you were just talking with Smoke about how long you've been creating content and how long he's been creating content. I met him two years after he started creating content. But I just started seeing your stuff served my algorithm. Even though we have a bunch of random mutual connections and stuff and you've been doing it for like two or three years longer than he's been doing it. Even though it's like similar style and even though we have mutual contact. Weird that it never pops up. Yeah yeah it was strange. And I think actually the first time I saw it was it was somebody who was reacting to one of your videos. It wasn't even a video from you. Oh that's kind of funny. Who's this guy? He sounds like he knows what he's talking about. I never see the reaction. No it was a good one. It was some like doctor or something that was basically like oh let's see if he's right. You know I'm a whatever whatever certified doctor with this thing and Tony makes a great point or whatever. I passed. Okay cool. Really? He's like I like a lot of his videos. I was like oh apparently this guy makes more videos. Wait I think I know what you're talking about because there's this guy who wears a lab coat. Okay. I don't pay attention to a lot of reaction videos but I paid attention to his because there was a few. Yeah. At first I started to get worried because I started seeing him so much on with me and in my heart would skip a beat every time. Because there's that moment when you get someone reacting to you too. Right. Where you don't know if it's going to be good or bad. Like this person's a piece of crap or like oh this person did pretty good. So there's that limbo moment especially when someone like Elaine Norton or someone who's notoriously like just science brutal. I'm gonna beat you to a pulp if you are saying anything wrong and you're just sitting there like oh is this the end of my entire career? That's funny dude. But it's weird how everything connects. I heard this interesting quote. I'm not even going to try to re-say it because I'm going to butcher it. But it was at this thing for YouTube. They put on a press publish event in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago with Colin and Samir the YouTube guys. Freaking fantastic. And she said something along the lines that reminded me of this which is how now it's never been easier to connect with like a million people across the globe or on the other side of the world than it is to connect with your neighbor. And for some reason when she said that it was at the end of the night. I was a little tired. I drove in late. And I'm like trying to think. I'm like I don't know any of my neighbors names right now. Today. I couldn't tell you that. And it's weird because I feel like I have a lot of friends who I've never met. Like I've met online or I'd call them like internet friends. Things like that. But I'm like wait a second. Until we meet in person. I don't know. It's just a little bit different. But it's a weird thing to think about. I don't know if it actually meant anything. Yeah. Or anything came from it. But that hit me a little bit because it's so true. It feels like a different category of friend. You know what I mean? But it's like. Yeah. Doesn't feel any less real to some degree. To me it's always better in person. Which is why I try to travel and go like meet people for the show. So much better. But I still have you know my other show. I do daily episodes on that one. Daily interviews on that one. You do daily on which one? Travis Makes Money. It's my business show. Okay. I know you had that. I saw that. Yeah. It was a daily show. Yeah. We do daily on that. But those ones are all online. So I still have a ton of those people who are just internet friends. You know what I mean? But like you still have some sort of connection. I think interviewing is different than just messaging or reacting. Things like that it still builds. But totally. My favorite part is when you meet someone in real life and they're just. I'm trying to think of like not a bad way to put this. Like people when they meet me in real life they're like, oh I thought you were like way shorter. Oh really? I was like what do you mean by that? But it's funny because like sometimes I've known someone like on a company Zoom for years ago when I had a job pre-COVID. And I met someone in real life and I'm like oh my it was weird. Like they were two feet short. I thought they were like a giant. And I was like looking. I'm like oh this is interesting. I don't know it was a weird thing. But it's real life it makes it so much better and more real. But that is a funny aspect of it. Well yeah dude I appreciate you doing this. I wanted to talk a little bit about just some of the takes that you had. The thing is I've been on my own health and fitness journey over the last call it decade now. I grew up playing a ton of sports. I was always athletic and never had to worry about gaining weight. And then had ankle reconstruction surgery my junior year of college. And I got married my senior year of college. And then I stopped working out and playing basketball. And then my wife was cooking all this bomb ass food. And she didn't know how to cook for two because we just got married. The wife with the food. Yeah it was just like you have the leftovers. And you go in for seconds and thirds. And you know what I mean? So I think I gained close to 60 pounds in about a year. Oh dang. Okay it was laying on. Yeah so I was 250. I'm about 6'1". So I was 250 pounds back actually about a decade ago now. And then from there it was like the first time I ever realized I had to take ownership of my health. That it was like oh I don't just burn unlimited calories from playing basketball all day. You know what I mean? Like I have to actually think about this now. And led to let's try CrossFit. And let's try keto. And let's try anything that you can imagine. I tried it. Like the camp six week transformation challenge. And Nutrisystem. And T25. And Insanity. I remember oh my god Insanity is a throwback. I forgot Insanity existed. That was funny. I used to do that stuff. P90X I did that too. So I just tried everything. And then I didn't really find a good routine until a couple of years ago when I finally just embraced the idea of something that was sustainable for my health. And stop worrying about the swallow. Yeah it is. Yeah yeah. Stop worrying about the fads. Stop doing the challenges. Because I identified myself as like a hyper disciplined person. So I'd be like oh I can do 75 hard. I can do 30 whole this. And 21 this. And you know what I mean? And then it was just like inevitably as soon as I was done with it I'd be like right back to where I was. I was just yo-yoing back and forth. And so I say all that to say the people that I follow online in the health and fitness space tend to be the people who actually give the best information that they can. Without preaching one line or one category of thing as though it is the gospel. Because everybody's body is different. Everybody reacts a little bit differently. But there's a few core things that if you do these things well you're probably going to be okay. And then there's a bunch of other nonsense where it's like we're focusing on the 5% here. And you're stepping over the 95% to focus on the 5%. So I want to just go through a list of just ---- that's said in the health space. And I want you just to kind of like give me the good, the bad, the ugly, and your take on it. So first. We going rapid fire or like context? Yeah. Let's do like maybe one to three minutes. Something like that. Like nothing. Okay. Not like one line. One word answers. Okay. Just yeah. Whatever whatever comes to mind for this thing. Okay. Seed oils. Okay. This is gonna be a fun couple lists starting off hot. I feel like the theme I'm going to guess. I don't know what you have on your list. But I'm going to guess that the root of a lot of these are actually going to be fairly similar. Seed oils is an interesting one. It's new. And I say it's interesting because this one really just kind of got started based on nothing. And it got caught because of how it was put out there. Seed oils, at least just to build context for people who maybe not, you know, we weren't familiar with that. Seed oils have been an overblown negative thing when it comes to your health. My take when it comes to any single ingredient, anything is, I think you actually mentioned it on either the conversation we just had with Michael, or it was in passing. The poison makes the dose or the dose makes the poison. There's no such thing as a single unhealthy or healthy ingredient or food. It's all in context, right? There's a healthy or unhealthy diet, but there's not a single healthy or unhealthy food. You can have a healthy life, healthy diet with seed oils. You can have an unhealthy life and health without seed oils. So it goes both directions. Seed oils is just interesting because there's been quite a bit of data out there testing on real humans, not in mice, not in vitro, not in a petri dish, in a lab, like in real humans where they will substitute normal saturated fats with high density seed oil fats in their diets to test this out and say, if seed oils are truly bad, if we replace 90% of these individuals saturated fat with seed oils, their health should decline. We should see some smoke, if not a massive fire. And every single time, nothing happens. The health outcomes are either the same, and actually the funny part to me is oftentimes better. You see health improvements by adding seed oils. So that's why this is such an interesting conversation to me is because I'm like, not only is the idea just false and provably false, it's sometimes the opposite. You're seeing positive health impacts when people substitute saturated fats for seed oils. I think that one comes down to a common theme, which is why I think something like the keto diet was very popular and exploded. And it's this idea that people trust a mechanism instead of the outcome. And I think instead of talking about just fatty acids and how we metabolize those, an easier one that most people can latch onto and hear, and not to steer out of the seed oil thing because it'll come back, is when it comes to, did you say you tried keto? Yeah, yeah. Keto, right? Low carb. I think the entire base, and correct me if I'm wrong of why you started it, the thought process behind it is carbohydrates spike something called insulin. I'm a type one diabetic. I know a lot about insulin, right? Carbs spike insulin. That's true. That's the mechanism, right? It spikes insulin in your body. Now, something about insulin is when it's present, your body temporarily, not shuts down, but really limits burning fat. Because insulin is like a storage hormone, is what you can think of it as. And it stops burning fat. So that's just the mechanism that takes place in your body. And that's a true mechanism. But where people go wrong is they take that mechanism and they jump over these massive, I don't even know what you want to call them, gaps, these assumptive gaps. And they say, okay, well, if that's true, I'm going to jump over here and then also assume, well, that should mean if insulin makes me burn less fat, the less insulin I have, the more fat I'll lose, the more fat I'll burn, right? And that's something that you can't jump over because that's just not true, right? That comes down to calorie intake versus what you're burning. So seed oil, same thing. It's like, there's some mechanisms that I have heard talked about with seed oils that might pertain to the inflammatory pathway or something like that, that are true, right? Like these mechanisms are true, but people will extrapolate the small little details and say, this is how it acts in real life. And a lot of the times that's just not true. And why you see in this research, and this is why I think research is so cool, I wish more people could talk about it and were interested in it, is because like, I don't know why, like when I was a kid, I just loved being right and I hated being wrong. Like to a fault where I'm like, I would have been the biggest piece of crap kid to deal with. I would have hated myself today. Like today, I think humility and being wrong is the coolest thing. But like back in the day, I just hated it. I think maybe that's where I got my start as I'm like, okay, that's a cool mechanism, like let's test it out and prove it. And in a design where you can control all of the cofactors, the things that are coming in that might throw you off or that might interfere with the data otherwise, like you're in a controlled setting to prove an outcome. And if it just doesn't exist, like it doesn't exist, that's cool. We found that out. But a lot of the times, like with the seed oil conversation, people will ignore the outcome in real life and choose to pick on these mechanisms that might exist in like a Petri dish or in something like a rat or something small. And that's where the seed oil conversation really just starts and ends. Yeah, you're stepping over $100 bills to pick up pennies type of thing. Exactly, exactly. Eating the fast food French fries that are fried in beef tallow is not going to be any better for your diet. Yes, the whole In-N-Out thing that just... Is it In-N-Out or what company just announced it? I feel like that's an antithesis to In-N-Out, but maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. I do remember seeing somebody announced it. Some company announced it and everyone was celebrating. It's like, no, that massive 2000 calorie burger fried milkshake is not going to be good for you because it's cooked in beef tallow anymore. It's hilarious to think about, but yeah, that's the seed oil conversation. All right, this one is admittedly sort of silly, but humor me. Calorie deficit for weight loss. See, this one I like a lot actually because this is where people go and practice... Let me try and think of the best place to start this. Yes, that's true, like a calorie deficit. That's not a way you lose weight, that's the way you lose weight. And I think it's more just because I think a lot of the problem in this industry when people talk about health and fitness is just a lack of understanding it, like the basic definition of the words that we're using. If you understood the definition of a calorie, you don't have to think about that statement because that's the most ridiculous thing to ever think that the opposite could be true. Like that's insane to think about. It's a scientific law. Yeah, it's like no one's going to go against... No one's special enough to go against gravity, like another physical law. It's like, this is energy. This is literally just talking about energy transfer. And that's where I think people go wrong. And I'm very particular in the words that I choose to use. And why I also like to take a different route than like Michael was talking about, where I like to really think and choose my words carefully because I think your word matters a lot. My word and people I'm talking to, their word, very seriously. And I don't think it's something that you should lazily throw around. And so many times, I think that calorie deficit conversation just comes from people talking completely past each other. They're not using the same words. They're basically speaking another language. That's not being hyperbolic. They're using different definitions for words that they're using. They think they're saying the same thing, but they're not. And with a calorie deficit, I think it's frustrating for people to hear that. And I don't blame the people for believing that, honestly. It's so easy to believe that the calorie deficits are just a sham and BS because anybody who's tried it, the way that they are taught to do it and the way that they're taught and shaped these expectations through, if it's marketing from the supplement industry or from these challenges or the 75 hards, it's that progress comes fast. And then when you hear a calorie deficit is the only thing that causes weight loss and you eat less food for a week, let's say maybe two weeks, but the scale is going up and down, unknowingly, just because of water fluctuations that just happen, like that's your body. It's mostly water. It's going to happen. You're going to be super frustrated because a calorie deficit sucks. It's hard. It sucks. There's no way around it. And if it doesn't suck, you're probably not doing it right or Geronimo's epic or like a GLP one. That's a way to make it not suck. But when you put in this effort and it sucks and you have to give up sacrifices in your life, you can't go out to eat with your spouse. You can't go out with your friends. You can't stay out drinkingly. It sucks. And then to see the scale not move when you're told that this is the only way to make it move, it is so easy to be like, yeah, I wouldn't freaking believe that either if that's the way I was taught. It's easy to chalk it up to hormones or genetics or this is my body type type of thing. Exactly. And there's a million things to fall back on. And just the idea of tracking calories is so insane to me in the first place because it's one, not a very exact science. Even the foods that we track in MyFitnessPal, they're up to 10 to 20% off in either direction. Just because of that's how the law is. And also just because it's very hard to get things that consistent. But tracking it doesn't also mean that that's what you ate. I'll be honest with most of the people who I work with who come to me with that complaint of, I'm eating X amount of calories, putting myself in a deficit. I'm not losing weight. What's going on? You're 99.9% of the time, people are eating more calories than they think. Yeah, they're underreporting. I saw a study one time, and I did not go read the study, so I don't know how true it is. But I saw something that said they did this randomized control group of people that are on a calorie deficit, and they found that on average, they underreported their calorie intake by 50%. On average. 50%. Yeah, I'm familiar. I've actually talked about that study quite a bit. It was people who I think, it was people who reported eating between 800 and 1,200 calories a day that could not lose weight. The cool interesting part when you dig past just like the results of the study too, a lot of those individuals had then self-diagnosed themselves with a metabolic disorder. PCOS. Hashimoto's, PCOS. Things that they didn't have. Self-diagnosed because they were that certain that that's what they were doing. And in reality, they were intaking over 2,400, sometimes 3,000 calories on average while they thought they were eating around 1,000. That's insane. They weren't being completely naive either. They weren't knowingly lying. They were trying. They were trying to be accurate. That's just how hard it is. That was honestly one of the biggest things that changed it for me. I forget if it was 30 days or 60 days, but it was some extended period of time where I was just like, the only thing I'm going to change right now is just tracking the calories. I'm not going to worry about changing up the diet or vilifying myself for a higher calorie, lower calorie day. Nothing. I'm just going to track what I'm putting in my mouth. But it's totally understandable. And perfectly reasonable that people would under-report the number of calories that they're consuming because it's so easy to consume calories. Everything you drink, you have to switch to zero-calorie beverages. Can't have sugar and cream in your coffee. There go the macchiatos and the caramel lattes and everything. That's gone. I can't spend any of my calories on drinks unless it's an alcoholic drink. It pisses you off when you first start tracking. I don't know if you had those moments when you first start tracking, when you learn certain things, like how many calories are in them. It's the sauces and stuff. Oh my God. Your soul just takes a step backwards and just falls off a cliff eventually. Because when you think of doing this, it's like, oh, I've got grilled chicken. And then you're like, but I'm not going to have plain grilled chicken. Let me just get some barbecue sauce. Like, oh, that doubled the amount of calories in this meal. And then you use a food scale and you're like, oh, I've been eating seven servings of something I thought was only one. It's absurd how much it sneaks up on you. And then you take a little handful of fries from your wife's dinner plate or whatever, and then you dip it in the ranch. It's like the BLTs, Bites, Licks, and Tastes, man. Dude. Those will screw you over big time. You know what I mean? And tracking calories, like I empathize with people too, because it's annoying. It is, totally. It shouldn't be. Like on paper, it takes maybe an extra five to 10 minutes a day. That's it. But I think anybody who does both, they work out and they track calories, will tell you that they would go rather do a grueling one hour workout than track their food. Easy. And on paper, it makes no sense, but it's annoying. I feel like it's the added friction of something that you, like the part of your day that you're trying to enjoy. You know what I mean? You almost subconsciously want to turn a blind eye to the potential extra calories that you're eating. You know what I mean? Because you're just like, I've said no to all the things I really wanted all day, and now I'm finally going to sit down and have this steak or have this burger or whatever. And it's like, I just want to enjoy this time. You just want to think about it sometimes. Yeah, exactly. You don't want to be like, okay, let me see how bad I'm about to be. You know what I mean? You're like in a bad mood about what you're about to eat. You're like, this sucks. Exactly. But yeah, dude, that was one of the biggest things for me was, it was sort of an unlock because I started realizing like, okay, if I just get, if I just try to stay under this calorie, this like calorie count and give myself room to breathe on whether or not I'm in a surplus or a deficit so that I'm not riding that line, because if you're riding that line, you're probably going to be in a surplus. You know what I mean? Just to be honest about it. Yeah, always tack on a little bit extra because you just, you never know. So give myself a little breathing room. But then it was like, I had prioritized protein and started just making sure that the majority of the food that I ate was in an effort to get to my protein goal. And it was like, oh, I have like 500 calories that I can like spend however I want. Get a little ice cream. But that was what made it sustainable. I was like, I can have a chocolate chip cookie and not hate myself after I finish eating it. I can actually enjoy it with a little bit of milk and stay in my calorie deficit and still lose weight. And still be, I think, be healthy. The biggest piece of that is where people think it's like a trade-off where it's like, oh, but I can still fit that bad thing in my diet. And I challenge people who say that. I'm like, bad in what definition? One of my favorite experiments that my friend Jordan Seid, I don't know if you know who he is. Jordan Seid, he's- Oh yeah, that was the podcast I listened to you on. Oh, dope. Yeah, like long, long, he's been in the fitness game for like 15 years. Like crazy long-term OG. He did a crazy cool experiment. I think anyone listening or even you, if you haven't seen it, should go home. He, I forget what it was called, the Big Mac Every Day for 30 Day Challenge, whatever it was. And he's like, I'm going to eat in a calorie deficit. I'm going to get my steps. I'm not going to change anything else about my workout routine. And I'm going to force myself to eat a Big Mac every single day and fit that into my calories. And not only did he lose weight along the way, but all of his health markers improved because that's what happens when you lose body fat. Right? Like it's wild. So in what definition is eating that Big Mac unhealthy? Point to what data, what marker, anything that moved in the wrong direction. There isn't one. So how are you going to say that's bad? That's my challenge to people who, and I think a lot of times will guilt themselves into still feeling bad about like some cookies, even if it fits in their calories. It's like, what are you talking about? Like if you nailed everything else, you're getting mostly whole foods, that's not bad in any definition of the word. Yeah. That's a good way to look at it. I'm going to have to start reframing that when I say it. Every time I eat all cookies. Bad Travis. As long as it fits in my calories. So breakdown TDEE. Because this is something again that I, it's so easy to say just being a calorie deficit. But if you've never studied any of this stuff at all, it makes you do silly things that are perfectly reasonable silly things. Like it makes you just be like, oh, I'm just going to go outrun my diet. Or I'm going to do CrossFit or like I have to be barfing on the gym floor if I'm going to be able to lose weight. So like explain, how do you actually get some form of an accurate representation of calories in and calories out? Getting an accurate form of it is tricky, but it's not impossible. The thing that you got to give up is this perfection number because what your body's burning on a daily basis is a moving target. Today's going to be different than yesterday, than tomorrow, than any probably day that you've lived. It's just there's so many things that influence it. But that's the probably next biggest problem I see that second layer deep is that when you can finally accept that you need a calorie deficit to lose weight. What does that mean? Calories coming in, calories going out. Calories going in, that's easy, food, drink, what goes in my mouth. Calories going out, no one usually thinks about or spends time thinking about other than exercise. What did my Apple watch say I burned during that workout? Whatever it is. And it's funny from this point of view once you know it because exercise is the smallest piece of what you burn in a day, by a long shot. That was probably my favorite part of that interview, that conversation, was the way that you guys both talked about how you should not exercise for the purpose of burning calories. No, you should not work out to burn calories. That is a, you're going to be on a hamster wheel forever. That's not the point or shouldn't be the point of working out. And it's because it adds up to so few calories when you look at your day-to-day, your week-to-week. And there's four big pieces of TDE or like where you burn calories in a day. Exercise, that little cherry on top, like five to 10%. If you're crazy, it's close to 10%. But the most malleable that people always forget is something called NEAT or non-exercise movement, which is all of the movement you do, like talking with your hands, walking in steps through the day. The other 23 hours you're not in the gym, all of the movement that your body does, which might not be a lot if you tried to add it up, like in this conversation, how many calories did I burn moving my hands? Not many, like nothing that I would really count on. But that constant flow, something that's just always on the gas, even if it's a little bit, is going to get you further than just slamming on it for one hour a day. And it's absurd. I don't think people realize that you could burn, and this has been documented countless times, one to 2,000 extra calories a day just based on your non-exercise movement alone. Someone who has a very inactive desk job, who gets maybe 2,000 or 3,000 steps outside of that per day and just sits, compared to that same exact person, that same exact body, with their same hormones or whatever you want to put in there, who now stands at work, who takes little micro five-minute walk breaks on the hour, who gets their steps in the morning, maybe after work, whatever it is, and just lives a more active lifestyle could be burning over 1,000 extra calories. You know tracking calories, that makes a difference. That's the difference between going to bed starving in a calorie deficit and having a freaking cheeseburger for dinner. That's a big difference. And honestly, what's probably going to dictate how long someone's able to last in a weight loss phase or something like that, for sure. It's something that people should pay more attention to. Yeah, that was 100% something that made a big, big difference. Because again, I was always trying to kill myself in my workouts. It was like, that was my metric. How close to death did I get on the gym floor today? It was like an almost crappy realization to be like, oh, if I just walked extra. It would have been more. Lifted some weights at the gym, you know what I mean? That's probably going to be better. Well, and it's weird because I used to do the same thing. And I don't know about you or if you ever realized it, when I would do that in the gym, I think without knowing it, I was shooting myself in the foot. A lot of people are because they're exhausted the rest of the day. The rest of the day is still crappy. They're sunken in their chairs. They don't want to get up. It's just like they can barely keep their eyes open. That makes a way bigger difference for the next 20 hours that you're just lounging back than if you had a maybe less intense workout. You gave it like a six or a seven instead of a nine or a 10 or 11. But you're able to actually move and you have a pep in your step and you're moving around. It can't be understated enough how much that goes towards your success. You're just discounting it too much for most people. The neat is the gold. Neat is the gold. Creatine. It's a fun one. I got asked recently if it was overrated or underrated and I think my answer shocked the person who asked it because I think it's a little overrated. It belongs in everybody's medicine cabinet. Don't get me wrong. I think the hype right now is just a little too much. People are starting to become one of those things that people are making claims about that just aren't true. They're just like it's curing everything. It's fantastic. Everybody should be taking it. I get it from my grandmother who's like 85 years old for Christmas every year. My mom, I send her creatine gummies every two months. Creatine should be in everybody's routine. Like five to 10 milligrams a day, something like that? Five to 10, but honestly a hack that I've been on for the last three, four months came after reading a paper where they intentionally sleep deprived this group of people and gave them 25 grams on sleep deprivation. Not every day, but just after a night of sleep deprivation. And it was interesting because in the study the sleep deprived individuals outperformed their test scores when they were fully rested without creatine. So they didn't just perform as good, they outperformed when they were well rested without it. And I started trying that because it was a little iffy at once. You're like that's a ton of powder that you're putting in a cup. It kind of is hard to swallow. And it actually makes a crazy difference. Next time you get a crappy night's sleep, 25 grams of creatine in the morning, wait a few hours and you'll just notice it where you're normally hitting a dip, tired. You feel clear focus. It's weird, yeah. It's a crazy nootropic effect because of how much is actually stored in the brain, which people forget. It's stored in mostly muscle tissue, but the brain. Which is why there's some exciting research around Alzheimer's and dementia and things like that, right? Which is crazy because I don't know, I have this weird fear for dementia in my life. I've seen it a couple times in my family. It's not like a common thing, but that's to me a bigger fear than just dying or anything else. It's like losing your mind. It just is terrifying. What's the difference? Yeah. What's the difference between death and losing your mind? Do you know what I'm saying? What are we? Exactly. It's scary to think about. And it is interesting how that's there. It helps even on people who have major depressive disorder, it helps speed up their improvement of SSRIs rapidly when taking it. It just helps things work a little bit better, which makes sense because your brain runs close to 20% of your energy through the day. Like it's an energy dominant organ in your body. It requires a lot. So something that's going to give you that extra boost obviously that's going to help a little bit. Your heart, cardiovascular health, is also another newer area that they're studying, parts of muscle. It kind of makes sense why those things connect. So it's one of those things that will just slightly improve virtually everything you do, your energy, your thinking, your recovery, potentially your cardiovascular health, your mood. The reason I don't say it's underrated still is because if you don't get enough, I think the downsides that you're going to notice from certain things like magnesium deficiency or vitamin D, your life will suck when you're deficient in those. Like you will notice it and you'll be miserable. Without creatine, it doesn't have as big of a negative swing to it, is the only reason why. So what are those like, this has to be, this is in your medicine cabinet 100%, this is what everybody has to have, the essential supplements. Not to be annoying because it does matter, like context matters, and there's not a one-size-fits-all for anybody. The only supplements that belong in your cabinet are to make up a gap that exists in your diet. That's it. So it's different for everybody. There's some that definitely are more common that virtually everybody probably should be taking. Like fiber. That need more of. Magnesium. Fiber, magnesium, 75% of the world doesn't get enough. Potassium, actually one that's a little tricky, 98% of the world does not hit the RDA. Not deficient, like clinically deficient's very different than just not hitting your RDA, but not hitting your RDA and making up for that gap makes a massive difference in your health. Vitamin D, huge one. It's a literal hormone. Like your body produces it. I don't know why we call it a vitamin. I mean, technically I do, but it's the only vitamin that we say the word vitamin for that is a literal hormone that your body produces, right? Like your skin and organ produces vitamin D when it comes in contact with UV. It's a hormone. So being deficient in that, I mean, people know hormones are a little bit more serious. If you're deficient in any hormone, it's going to impact your life negatively. That's one that I think people would notice the biggest difference of getting their numbers up on that side of things. Which is why there's a correlation of depression in Seattle. Massive. You look at any like dark or cloudy or sunless city, and that's how it is. It's weird. And I think too many people, I read the numbers and it was, I think, close to 50% of people, at least in research, were clinically insufficient or deficient in vitamin D and blood work, like when they got their blood test. And I'll be dead honest with you. I don't know if I even trust those numbers. I live in San Diego, one of the sunniest places in the world. My vitamin D levels were 19, at a 19 when I got them checked. The clinically deficient is under 30. You should be between 50 and 100 to be like feeling your best. 19. And I live in one of the sunnier cities in the world. And I'm like, well, dang. I go outside. I go on walks. I do this. I know a lot of people who are getting a whole lot less sunshine. And I think all but one of my clients in the history of me taking clients who has gotten a blood test has not come back below that marker. Below that marker. That's pretty crazy. One out of, I can't tell you how many dozens have gotten tested. Okay. So vitamin D would be a huge one that I think obviously get tested first. If you are in range, you don't need to be supplementing. But I think most people would be surprised. And the difference it will make in your energy or sleep, your mood, your libido is insane. Like it's night and day. The difference you'll notice on vitamin D. So as we cover all of them, then you think D, vitamin D. D, magnesium. Creatine, I think for most people, just because to get even five grams, which is like the minimally effective dose, you would need five pounds of ground beef a day. I'm not going to say nobody, but I don't think anyone's getting in their diets. And then protein is another big one, just because most people aren't getting enough protein in general. You don't need it. You can substitute it for food. But I think that's just one of those things that shakes high quality. People think it's less quality for some reason. It's like when you actually test it, the highest quality protein you could consume over whole eggs, over milk, over anything else. Yeah. Cause it's extracted weight, like the highest quality protein source. So as long as it's third party tested. Yeah. As long as like, that's actually what you're taking. Yes. I don't think it should be something that's scoffed at. The only note I'll add on that, cause I know some people argue against it, is like it's still processed. It's one of the most processed foods you can have, right? It's like literally extracted powder from milk. And people will argue against the quality of it. And that doesn't necessarily, it doesn't dismiss that the quality is high. It's just with any processed food or anything that's isolated like that, it doesn't come with anything else. That's why it's so good, but it's also a negative thing and why you can't just survive off of protein shakes. There's no vitamins, there's no minerals, like things that your body needs to function that are in whole foods you don't get. So that's the only caveat, but I think protein, creatine, virtually everybody, vitamin D and magnesium, the vast majority of people probably should be taking. And I think that's my, fish oil, Omega-3s, but I think the health benefits are less pronounced there. Okay. And fiber is, cause I heard recently that like fiber supplements are not very bioavailable or something. I think it just depends. That's actually a problem I'm going to New York to solve tomorrow. No, I'm going out to meet, I'm so excited. Peter Raul, the dude who owns David Protein, RX Bars, genius marketer guy. I'm going to go check out the David offices and he's going to help give us, we're trying to actually solve that cause a lot of fiber supplements are not, it's not that they're not bioavailable, it's just a very poor quality form of fiber that's used to make them. Most of them are either chicory root, inulin, or there's a third that I always forget, but on their own there, it's not like they're necessarily bad, but if that's the only form you're getting at that dose, it's not really going to do much. And usually, I don't know if you've ever taken a fiber supplement, like they're usually, those forms are very quick fermentable fibers. So like they ferment very quickly in your gut. Anything that you try, try it and you'll probably feel like there's like a tennis ball or like a baseball just sitting in your gut. 20, 30 minutes later. So it's one of those where, it's not like I don't recommend fiber supplements, it's just that the quality and variety that you get from whole foods is very hard to match. Yeah, yeah. So basically eat some kiwis. Eat some kiwis. Do potassium. Raspberries, blackberries are goated. Really? For fiber in particular? The best source like hands down is beans. I hate beans. I don't know why. Like all types of beans or specific ones? That I'm aware of. I guess I never thought about different forms of beans. I've never questioned if there's different forms of beans. I don't know about. But yeah, black beans, lentils, brown beans. Crazy. It's like you could get your entire day's worth of fiber in one serving of beans. I just don't like them. My fiance loves them. I'm like a little bit jealous of it. And then the next, because you get like 20, 25 grams of fiber in like a serving of beans. The next step down is like raspberries, blackberries. I think you get seven, eight grams for a cup. That's a pretty big jump. Like that's a big gap down. Yeah, that is. So I'm like, that's where I wish I liked beans. But it's hard to come back. Dude, I have so many other things that I want to talk to you about. But I know I'm already way over time and I feel bad and I got to get this guy. But I want to close off talking about peptides and TRT. This is something I hear about nonstop. And I know so many friends of mine that rave about it and are constantly trying to convince me to do it. And I've not done any of them. But I also know I'm making my gains more difficult by not partaking. But I'm just always curious. It feels like anytime something is easier that there's some sort of a downside or something. And I feel like there's so much mixed information and it's mostly from people who are selling the product. So it's hard to decipher. Peptides are one of my least favorite new things in this industry, I think. Not because they're ineffective. It's just how they're talked about sucks. They're awful. I get the question, should I take peptides? What are peptides? There's over 100 to 300 different peptides you could take. Let's start there. Which one? Some, GLP-1s, retitrutide, terzepatide, ozempic. Wildly effective. And if used responsibly, very low risk. If used responsibly is the big caveat because most people are getting these from third-party Chinese research chemical lab sites where you don't really know what you're getting, you're not doing it with guidance. And that's where you see people get like crazy nutrient deficiencies, like push into some severe eating disorders because they're not taking it in like a very controlled way, a responsible way. So those peptides, crazy effective. They do a lot of work. This is an arbitrary number, but it's gotta be somewhere in ballpark between 90 to 95% of other peptides are completely useless. Like don't do anything, no measurable effect. And what pisses me off about this conversation, usually I'm not angry, this made me angry. What upsets me about this, what upsets me about this conversation is people just say anything. They make anything up with zero data, zero proof. I'll see someone new on freaking TikTok or Reels every single day with this new peptide where there's one test done in a Petri dish that showed like no results, no anything. And they're like, this will hit your mitochondria to make you produce more energy and make you lose weight and make you build muscle. Like it's a panacea, like a silver bullet that solves every problem you've ever had. And people buy it because they want a silver bullet, like they want a pill that solves everything. It's so much easier. And especially when it's something like peptides where it's like no one's really sure, like a lot of people aren't sure about what they are. I don't know, it might be true. They sounded confident when saying it. So 90 plus percent of peptides are completely worthless as of now, as of now. There's some like growth hormones, that I think have a use. For most people, I don't really know. For bodybuilders, I think it's a lot more, it makes sense than like taking growth hormone just exogenously like by its own. It's very expensive, comes with a lot of drawbacks, but that's not most people. There's others like melanotan 1 and 2 that help you tan and some that might help your libido. But again, these are very small effects, very untested, like very, very untested on humans. And I think that's the big question mark that most people don't realize, is that when you're doing this, you're putting something in your body that has not been tested, usually period, like that's the end of conversation on a human, let alone long-term. That's the only scary part. And most of these peptides are not legal in America. So you're getting them from a research chem website. Yeah, and it's a downside to private clinics as well. Like there's a lot of great things about those. I'm a fan in general. But the downside is that they have somebody to sell you, ultimately. Like of course they're gonna present you all of the reasons that you should do it. Yeah, I've seen private, and that's the scary part, is I don't think people realize, they're not really being held accountable for a lot of the claims they make for what something can or can't do. Right, or if it is useful for you in particular. Like it's very unregulated in the same way supplements are, where as long as you're not claiming to treat or cure a disease, you can say anything. Have at it. It has zero evidence behind it, you can say it. Legally, you can say it, as long as you're saying it's not preventing or treating a disease. That's it. And that's what most of these claims are. Like, oh, what are your problems? Support gut health or whatever. Yeah, it's ridiculous. This is so vague. So the peptide thing is a big question mark. I do think the more we start to research them and understand them, it'll be a huge part of our future, for sure. They're essentially like broken down proteins or like small chain amino acids. Chains of amino acids just that trigger different things in our body, right? Different responses. Like GLP-1s, I think I'd be ignorant to say that that's not probably gonna be one of the top five medical breakthroughs, let alone just inventions, period, in humankind this century. I'm not gonna lie. I think it's already 10% of the US population is on GLP-1s. I think it's actually more than, or at least I read have tried, I think it's up to 20%. Maybe not are on, but tried up to 20%. That's insane. What else has 20% of America tried? It's actively wrecking the fast food industry. Oh, and it's the first time our obesity number has gone down in maybe a century. I don't know, it's insane. So that's gonna be game-changing. The economic downfall people don't even consider of a country that's just continuing to get fatter and fatter does not end well for anybody. So that's where people who are anti-GLP-1s, it's like if we lived in an ideal world where people would exercise and track, that's great, but we don't live in an ideal world. Life happens, ---- sucks. That's not gonna happen ever, period. So I think it's better to adopt than pretend this fantasy world's gonna happen, because it's not. The TRT conversation probably, honestly, gets lumped in the same camp as peptides, but it's very different, at least the way I see it. Because it can be one of the most, not being hyperbolic when I say this, life-changing things you can do if you are truly in need of it. I think the big tiff I think I would say I'd have with it is in the communication of TRT, which is testosterone replacement therapy, most people who are using it are using it as enhancement therapy. They're not replacing what they had, what their body naturally produced. They're going much, much, much further past that. That's not TRT. Most people will just blast 200, 250, 300 milligrams, sometimes several grams of test a week, and just be like, yeah, I'm on TRT. My levels are in the thousands, but I'm on TRT. That's not TRT. That's enhancement therapy. That's not replacement therapy. True replacement therapy, and this is, I think, luckily now the stigma is coming down behind it. If you are a male, regardless of age, even though after 30 is when it starts to steadily decline for most people, but there's people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, whatever, it is, in virtually everything you could measure, healthier for you to be on TRT, exogenous testosterone, raising your levels up to a healthy normal range, than it is for you to be low testosterone without it. Your health outcomes, your longevity, your lifespan, your risk of disease, your mood, depression, everything is better once you do that. So the question is, if you are somewhat below the normal range, should you try to do it naturally, or does that not really matter? If you start taking exogenous testosterone, will your body eventually just be like, we're good, we don't have to produce this anymore, and then if you try to get off of it, you're going to have to cycle through some other regimen to get your body to produce it again? Yes and no to those. When you take it exogenously, your body is very good at regulating itself, in most cases. You will pretty quickly down-regulate and just stop producing testosterone on your own. It's something that you probably will plan to be on forever. There are other treatments like enclymophene, HCG, things that people who, for example, are younger that need to get on it and still want to have kids later, you can take something like HCG, which still stimulates your own body's production, and then just take less of just straight testosterone. And that works out very well for them. So there's ways to come off of it, there's ways to do it. But in virtually any manner, bringing your levels to a higher normal range, if they are actually clinically lower, and it's hard to also, I want to put this caveat on why it's important to do it with a doctor who does this stuff, your total testosterone number is one of five, six-plus pieces that go into making the decision of whether or not you should be on TRT. There are people or men who have levels in the 300s, 400s who feel fine. Their energy's great, they sleep well, they build muscle okay, everything's good. And that might be because their free testosterone is much, much higher, or because of several other different things. There are men who have levels in the 600s, 700s who feel like ----, who have every single symptom of low testosterone. It could be because they have low circulating free T. It could be a lot of different things. So it's one piece of the puzzle that's I think a little oversimplified is like, oh, if your number's good or bad, that's just how it is. Because I've met a lot of people and had clients even who would go get tested, and their number's like just over the quote-unquote clinical range, which is absurd to me. It's like 300 to 1,100 is the normal range. I'm like, what are you talking about? 305 is not- That's like all of the numbers. Exactly. I'm like, what are you talking about? 305 is not the same as 1,050. That's not going to be the same. But they'll get right over that edge, and the doctor who doesn't really... I also feel bad for doctors because I think they have too many patients to be able to think critically and care for everybody so, so much. But at the same time, if they don't know better, it's like, oh, it's in range. The little green check mark's on my blood test. You don't need TRT. What are you talking about? Let alone, or on the side, can't sleep, zero energy, fatigue through the roof, zero libido, can't build muscle. It's a very complex thing, but TRT, at least, is very legitimate where peptides, it starts to become a little shaky. Yeah. Well, dude, I appreciate you taking the time, man. I know you got a lot of stuff going on. And yeah, anytime you're in Vegas, let's do a part two. We get into- I feel like I'm always going through- So many things. We got to, because I feel like I always go through Vegas or I'm in Vegas. I'm like, everything goes through Vegas. Oh, yeah, totally. That's why I'm there, man. It's always people... Anytime I say I live in Vegas, it's always like, oh, I was just there. Or I'll be there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So yeah, man, we'll make it work. But I appreciate you taking the time. Where can people go to get more from you and everything you're working on? TrainBloom on everything. At TrainBloom. At TrainBloom on all socials. Go check out some of Tony's stuff. This is the person that I've been sharing the most of recently. So, which is why I eventually reached out. I was like, we got to do an episode. I appreciate that, man. Yeah, of course. I appreciate you for taking the time to come on and everybody else tuning in. Remember to leave every relationship when you found it. Catch you in the next episode. Peace.