Q&A - FINAL

Tue, May 23, 2023 11:58AM • 29:20

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

beginner, weight, eat, focus, fat burners, sleep, progress, goals, losing, hydration, calories, muscle, episode, coach, fruits, weight training, liquid, diet, weight loss, week

SPEAKERS

Bridget Moroney

Bridget Moroney  00:00

One of my favorite ways to interact with all of you, you have questions I have answers. Let's go Welcome to the performance arcs podcast the ultimate destination for anyone who wants to perform better in the gym and live a better life outside it. Whether you're just starting your journey or you're a seasoned pro. This show covers a wide range of topics to help you reach your potential and live your best life. Each week on this podcast, I'll be bringing you expert interviews, personal stories, and actionable advice to inspire, educate and empower you to reach your goals. So hit follow, grab your headphones and get ready to take your health and performance to the next level. Hey, really quick, I want to let you all know about something that I've been using for my own hydration and health and wellness routine. And that is liquid IV. So liquid IV is a category winning hydration brand that fuels your well being. 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That's 20% off anything you order when you shop for better hydration today using promo code performance RX at liquid iv.com. So check it out, get some hydration going. Now back to the conversation. Hey everyone. Welcome to today's episode of the performance RX podcast powered by aspire to coaching. I'm your host, Bridget Moroney. Today we're going to do a little q&a and today's episode goes out to my beginners. There are a lot of people who are just beginning their health and fitness journey. And y'all have questions and rightfully so because first of all, as a beginner, you're totally brand new, or at least new ish to the whole process. And let's be real, there is a lot of confusing, conflicting and straight up Miss information on the internet when it comes to weight loss, muscle gain overall health and fitness. So I often get a lot of questions asked in the comments on social media and email and in my direct messages. And so I thought I would use this episode as an opportunity to help some of you all out and if you're not a beginner, just keep in mind that some of the stuff I'm talking about applies to you as well meaning beginners should start with the foundations and the basics. But just because you're no longer a beginner doesn't mean that you don't that you completely forget about the foundations and the basics there. Just because someone's advanced doesn't mean that they are neglecting the foundations and the basics. So whether you're a beginner or you're a seasoned pro, consider this just as a jumpstart or a reminder of what you should be focusing on for the majority of the time to make the best gains or progress in your journey. Alright, let's get started. First question, what is the best advice for a beginner on the way to losing weight. So first of all, shout out for starting your journey. And again, most beginners are looking to do something like this right? The reason why you're getting started on a health and fitness journey is you're probably either trying to lose weight and or gain muscle. So shout out to you for starting your journey. So here's what I would say the biggest thing bottom line, my best advice for beginner on the way to losing weight is start with small and sustainable changes in your diet and your exercise routine, the easier, the better. That doesn't sound very exciting, it might even sound boring, but you need to start small. So here's a few tips to get started. First things first, keep a food diary. This is just a way for you to track what you're already eating. So basically, I want you to take a piece of paper, you can even take your phone, take pictures, but write down everything you eat and drink for a few days just to get a sense of how many calories you're consuming. Again, the fact that you're looking to lose weight, I'm assuming that you may not know how much you're actually eating, and be as honest as you can like, especially if you're doing this by yourself, you have no one to hide, or feel ashamed from by yourself. So be honest, be brutally honest, because in the end, this is going to help you or your coach, if you are working with one make the best assessment to help you move forward. So that's it. So at least two to three days, up to two weeks is a good amount of time to really get a good idea of what you're actually eating. And again, how much then after that you can make decisions based on how many calories and the types of foods you're already eating, and then what your goals are. So that's the first step then, especially because we're talking about losing weight. I always recommend choosing whole, minimally processed foods. So fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, that should be the foundation of your diet automatically. This is going to help you feel fuller. This is usually where people be like, Oh my gosh, I'm eating more food than I ever have. And I'm losing weight. Well, these foods are nutrient dense versus being calorie dense, especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables. And again, recognizing the beginner mindset here and the fact that you may or may not be terribly confused or misinformed about what's on the internet, do not worry about fruit. Please just eat fruits, eat whole fruits, eat a whole apple eat a whole banana. It's that's not what is causing your weight gain, I promise. Speaking of eating whole fruits, the next thing that I would recommend is to avoid sugary drinks. So definitely fruit juices. This is why I advocate for a whole fruit because with the fruit you're getting sugar, yes, but you're also getting the nutrients the vitamins, you're getting fiber versus if you're drinking fruit juice, you're just getting pure sugar. So eat whole fruits don't eat or limit drinking fruit juice. And then on top of that, of course, soda alcohol is completely terribly calorie dense. Basically anything that's loaded with calories. Yes, you can have coffee, black coffee has zero calories. Black tea has zero calories. If you want to add in a teaspoon of sugar, couple tablespoons of heavy cream or milk, that's fine. In my opinion. What gets people into into trouble is when they go to Starbucks, or dunkin donuts or any of those places that put in gobs and gobs of syrup. Don't do that. If you want to have coffee, drink it black. If you want to add a little bit of sugar or milk in my opinion, that's fine. But again, like that can be a slippery slope, whatever you do, avoid going to Starbucks or any of those places that are just going to be putting tons and tons of sugar and syrup in your coffee and then again, sodas, fruit juices, alcohol, anything that has calories if you want to drink unsweetened tea, unsweetened coffee and Seltzer waters, totally fine seltzer waters that have flavoring but zero sugar and everything added those are fine. And if you're sitting here as a beginner or as someone who's been on their fitness and performance journey for a while and it's just looking for a way to get back on track. I've got you covered, you need to go ahead and download my 21 Day nutrition reset. It's absolutely free. And in that guide, I take you through the complete process of how to figure out how many calories you need to support your goals how to divide that into your macronutrients, fat, protein, carbohydrates, and then what sort of foods are going to be the best choices for you to achieve those goals. You're also going to Get a three week outline of how to put this into place so that you can actually create the results and habits and behavior change that you want. This is my gift to you, as a listener of the performance RX podcast, go on over to www dot aspire to coaching.com backslash episode 23. And there you can grab your free guide of my 21 Day nutrition reset again, that's aspire to coaching.com backslash Episode 23, get that 21 Day reset there, get started on your nutrition habits get ready to crush your goals, the next thing that I would recommend, as a beginner trying to lose weight is to start moving. So this doesn't even mean that you have to go on some sort of formal exercise or training program, although that's great if you do but it doesn't have to be intense or complicated just move more throughout the day more than likely, you have been sitting around a little bit too much. So a lot of people aim for 10,000 steps as the holy grail for movement. A lot of studies show that even moving 6000 steps 8000 steps have the same or have some benefits towards your health and overall weight loss and lowering all cause mortality. So if you are not moving at all at the moment, I would just aim for moving more. So whether that's 4000 steps a day, six, eight, and then eventually you can get up to 10. If you're already moving around 6000 ish or so then you can kind of challenge yourself to get to that 10,000. But again, less sitting more moving throughout the day, and you will see a big difference in your weight. And also just overall health. The last thing that I would say, as a very simple starting point for a beginner who wants to lose weight. And if you listen to this podcast for any amount of time, you already know what I'm gonna say is get enough sleep. So sleep is so important, again, for your overall health. But it's also for muscle recovery. And yes, also weight loss and weight gain. So Lack of sleep can disrupt your hormones and metabolism. And it can make it much harder for you to lose weight. Also, just the sheer fact that if you're tired, you're going to be wanting to eat more because your body needs that energy. So I would recommend going back to Episode 12 of the performance RX podcast on hacking your sleep. And there, you'll get the full overview of ways you can improve your sleep. And again, I go into a lot of the sleep studies and everything else like that about why it's important, including losing weight and body fat there. So check that out. But bottom line is you want to make sure you're getting enough quality sleep, losing weight is going to be a journey. This is not anything, all these things that I just said are not quick fixes. But they make for an incredibly powerful foundation to set you up for success. So again, be patient, be kind to yourself along the way, start with these small changes, because these are going to be your quick wins and your foundation on which you build the more complex things. And then from there, you can always consult with a coach if you need more help if you want a more specific nutrition and diet program. Next question also on the topic of beginners losing fat. So here's the question, What's your thoughts on fat burners for a beginner to help jump start weight loss? Well, if you just listen to the last segment, you already know what I'm going to say. But here's the answer. Anyway, I generally don't recommend fat burners for beginners as a way to jumpstart their weight loss. And here's why. So first of all, straight up, they are not a magic solution. I again talking about social media and the diet and fitness industry. There's lots of people, there's lots of companies out there that like to make these claims that fat burners can help you burn fat faster. But the reality is, it's just not true. And the other thing is, again, even if they did work as effectively as they claim, it's still not going to help you if you're not already following a healthy diet exercise routine. So again, I would go back to the five steps that I recommended in the beginning of this episode of just building that foundation and then you won't even need the fat burner because again, Fat Burner is not going to really add that much to these things that are going to move the needle much further. The other thing about fat burners is the only truly effective ingredient they have in there is caffeine and lots of it. And again, if you've listened to this podcast long enough, you already know my stance on high dosages of caffeine, but basically it's not good. It's going to disrupters sleep, which already talked to you about how sleep is important. You know, on top of that, it's going to give you jitters, anxiety, other side effects. High Dose caffeine really is a problem, it can cause a lot of health issues, both physical health and mental health, you know, again, with like, exacerbating any sort of anxieties. So I would just stay away from them. I mean, again, if you need energy, if you kind of want to drink something, or take something that might, you know, kind of calm down your hunger, have a cup of coffee, yes, that has caffeine in it, but it has much less than these fat burners, their bottom line is this, instead of relying on fat burners, I would just say, focus on building the healthy habits, the five that I mentioned in the beginning of this episode are a great place to start, you know, start working on nutrition, start working on exercise, it's small, it's not that exciting. But by making small sustainable changes to your diet, and getting things like you know, resistance training, more movement in you get enough sleep and recovery. Over time, these habits are going to help you with your weight loss goals in a safe and sustainable way. And you will see that fat burners are a waste of your money at the least and a danger to your health at the worst. Alright, next question. shifting focus a little bit but still focusing on the beginners? When does someone stop being a beginner in weight training? So this question, just like so many questions, the answer depends on so many things. So the point at which someone stops being a beginner in weight training can vary on a few different factors. So your goals, your experience level, and the specific movements, your training. So great example, a beginner working on the snatch, which is one of the movements in Olympic weightlifting, it's going to be a very different type of learning curve than a beginner working on the strict shoulder press make sense? Great. That's kind of it right? Again, it depends on your goals, your experience level, the movements you're training on. But in general, we basically consider people to be a beginner in weight training for the first six to 12 months of consistent training. So again, if you are going to the gym a couple of times a week, and then after a couple months give up, you're not going to make as much progress as someone who is there consistently six to 12 months. But the great thing about being a beginner is the whole concept of newbie gains. So if you're currently a beginner who's weight training, you might be experiencing this or if you're someone who's a seasoned weightlifter, you might remember this, but basically beginners will experience rapid improvements in your strength and muscle mass because your body has never done these movements. And your body is basically adapting to a new stimulus, which is the weight training, it's the weights you're lifting. And you know, because you're a beginner, especially when we're talking about technical lifts, like the snatch, clean and jerk, even the squat dead, I mean, all of them have their own technicalities if you want to get down to it. But basically you are learning and refining the proper technique. And so because you're working on technique, because you're developing strength and stability at a foundational level, you're going to see much more rapid gains and those first six to 12 months, then someone who's been doing it for years and years and years. Eventually, when you get to the advanced level, you will be fighting for an entire year just to put a couple of kilos on your squat or deadlift where beginners can put tons of weight on in the beginning. So what happens after those first six to 12 months and all those rapid gains? Well, after the initial period, you're basically like I said, you're going to start to see a little bit of a slowdown, because your body is now becoming more accustomed to the demand. It's getting stronger, it's built muscle, you've refined your technique. And so now here's where it becomes important for you to start challenging yourself or your coach to be creating challenging programming. So the way we do this very simple, you're going to be increasing the weight, you're going to be increasing the volume. So total sets, total reps, and then again, complexity of exercises. So a great example maybe you start off with a trap bar deadlift, then you progress to the straight bar deadlift, then you progress to the power clean, then you progress to the full or squat clean there. So again, you can kind of see how over time making these weights or these movements, more and more complex basically puts you back in the beginner spotlight their bottom line is this ultimately the point in which someone stops being a true beginner in weightlifting will depend on basically your progress your goals like I said that consistency and you know bottom line again, you know working with a qualified coach or trainer who can actually assess your Progress and adjust your training. So hopefully, you don't plateau that quickly and keep challenging, you will be a great option. Next question on the same line of strength training. So how do I effectively gain muscle mass and strength as a beginner to lifting kind of the same thing, as someone who's trying to lose weight, you want to focus on a few things that are simple and foundational, that will set you up. So first of all, when it comes to actually lifting, I always recommend focusing on compound lifts, things like squats, deadlifts, benchpress rows, it's going to be working multiple muscle groups at once. And again, it's great for overall strength and muscle mass. And as I just mentioned, if you are a true beginner, you're going to be putting on quite a bit of muscle mass and gaining quite a bit of strength just from those basic compound movements from the start there. So start with those. Obviously, if you're a beginner, you're not super strong just yet. So make sure that you're starting with lighter weight and focusing on the proper form, because this is going to one help you avoid injury. And two, it's going to ensure that you're engaging the right muscles, so that you can actually grow them and get them stronger than as I mentioned previously, gradually increase that weight over time as you become more comfortable. And that's where you will be able to put on more strength and more muscle. As I mentioned in the previous one, it's the principle of progressive overload. So again, increasing the weight, increasing the reps, the sets over time, this is going to keep your muscles feeling challenged, and therefore growing. So that's kind of it as far as training, lift heavy weights lifted with good form, start light and eventually increase the weight and reps. As you go. On the diet side, I would say two things, obviously eat enough calories. And in those calories, make sure you're eating enough protein protein is of course, the building blocks for your muscles, I would say get around at least 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, all the way up to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight for optimal muscle growth. If you want something more specific, you can obviously talk to a nutrition coach. But that's usually a good place to start for most people. And again, protein is just one side of the equation, you also want to be making sure that you're eating enough calories to support your weight and daily activity, especially because you are trying to grow muscle being in a calorie deficit or eating fewer calories in your body needs is not going to help you so don't be afraid to eat enough to fuel your body. And then of course, as I always like to mention rest and recovery. So this is where sleep comes in. As I mentioned earlier in this episode, and in so many other episodes, sleep is where your body is going to be doing so many things to repair itself, both physiologically, hormonally even cognitively. So again, make sure that one you're programming is enough where you get enough rest days. But then also for the actual sleep there, make sure that you're prioritizing quality sleep to aid in your recovery. And once again, I just have to say it consistency is key. So whatever it is, whatever you're starting with, you know, make sure that you're sticking to it, you're being consistent focus on that gradual progress, it's not going to happen overnight. But as a beginner, it'll happen a lot quicker. So enjoy those newbie gains, focus on getting strong, focus on eating enough focus on getting enough sleep, and you will see some really great improvements over those first couple of months to a year. And one last beginner question around strength training. So how is the beginner to strength training established? What weight to lift? And when do you know to increase that weight? Great question. So as I mentioned in my previous answers there, you want to start light there. But obviously you don't want to start to light because you're trying to get strong. So here's what I would say, as a beginner to strength training, it's important to start with a weight that allows you to perform whatever exercise you're doing, whether it's bench press, squat deadlift, but make sure that you're doing it with proper form and technique. That's first and foremost. So the weight is going to vary on your individual strength level and fitness goals. So again, just because you're a beginner doesn't mean you're starting at zero. But you know, I would say a good starting point is to choose a weight that you can lift for 10 to 12 reps with proper form and technique there and the first day you step into the gym and you're getting warmed up. It might take you a while to kind of find that but once you get that Number, take out a piece of paper, take out a notebook, take out the notepad on your phone and write that down. That's where I would start. Now, when can you increase that weight? Again, this is where the tracking part comes in. So you want to first of all, like I said, either in your notebook on your phone, whatever, it's important to track your progress over time. Once you figure out your weight, start recording the weight, how many sets you did, how many reps because a weight done for one set at 10 reps is very is going to look and feel very different for weight done for four sets at 12 reps. For example, in general, I would say you can increase your weight by around five to 10%. Each week, again, I would say, the slower the better. That way you don't plateau too quickly. So a great example would be you start off with 100 pounds on your back squat. You do that one week, the next week, you do 105, and so on and so forth. If it felt really easy that week, you could probably bump it up to 110. But again, the faster you increase that weight, the faster it's going to become harder and harder for you. So again, kind of progressing slowly, even though it may not be as exciting is actually going to keep you in the game longer. So again, general rule of thumb, five to 10% each week, and this is going to allow you to progress without risking injury or again, compromising your technique. Like I mentioned with the whole plateauing thing, you also have to remember and this goes true for anything, whether it's weightlifting, whether it's fat loss, whether it's muscle gain, your progress is not going to be linear. So there's going to be times where it's all you can do to maintain the current weight on the bar, or you might have to back it off five or 10% one week and just kind of build back up there. But again, just keep focusing on the form. Keep focusing on the technique. Let that be your guide before increasing your weights. Alright, y'all. That is all I have for your questions today. I hope this helped you. If you are a beginner, or even if you're not a beginner, again, a lot of the things that I talked about are general foundational things that whether you're a beginner, intermediate or advanced you should be focusing on when it comes to your diet, your recovery and your training. The same principles hold true for beginners as they do for more advanced athletes. In fact, I would argue that advanced athletes are at that level, not because they're doing more complex stuff, but because they have really drilled down those fundamental and foundational principles. So I hope this helps you please keep emailing me your questions. Send me some direct messages on social media at Aspire to coaching on Instagram, you can also find me on Tik Tok. I do a lot of q&a videos there. And if you're looking for more questions and answers, check out some previous episodes of the performance RX podcast. You can also go to www dot aspire to coaching.com and you will see on the navigation link q&a with coach asked me anything and there's lots of questions and answers there. So like I said, In the beginning of this episode is one of my favorite ways to engage with all of you. I love helping you all and I love seeing you all crush your goals get stronger, perform better the gym and live better outside of it. I'll see you next time. Hey, really quick before you go, I need you to do one thing for me. If there was something in this episode that you think would be a value to someone else, please share it for me. My goal is to empower as many people as possible on their health and fitness journeys. And one of the best ways to do it is to share awesome information like what you heard in today's episode out with many others. So do me a favor, copy and paste that link, send it to one of your friends, your family or anyone who you think would get some enjoyment and value out of this. I appreciate you for listening. I'll see you next time.