Food Noise, Creatine, and the Weight-Regain Trap: Men Over 40 Q&A - 33

0:00 Welcome to my podcast. I'm actually going to stream this live. We have episode 33. If you aren't aware, I've been secretly recording podcasts since September 23rd. My podcast called driven for health for targeted toward men over 40 that are struggling with their weight, their health. Blood panels are coming back and not so good doctor starting to ask them put them on meds. They just don't feel look like they used to and they don't like it. That's what I'm here for to help empower men and ultimately humans.

0:40 Listening in to this live stream, then we want to make sure that you live your best healthiest lifestyle. Episode 33 my followers asked the hard questions. Some of the topics that we're going to cover today are food, noise, it's creatine, and 20 LB loop. Let's get into it. I'm getting DMS like crazy, my Instagram, my Facebook comments on the YouTube videos of the podcast recordings that are going up. And I wanted to to get some answers to these guys. I figured what better way to do it than just a broadcast, a live session. And I think as long as this goes well and the next couple that I test out go well, I'm going to keep doing it like this. So you'll be able to catch me in a live format like this. Today I'm wearing my Santa hat because it's December and Santa's on his way.

1:36 We've got the help on the shelf here, live at our house quite a bit, and we've got all of the presents are getting handled. All those fun things happening at the Piranha household for our four kids. Now, the questions that were asked we're we're not softballs. These are questions guys think about at night. They stress about at 3:00 AM and they're juggling a jar of peanut butter. I think that's the number one treat thing that most guys end up falling into is a jar of peanut butter. If you wanted to know, that is the most common challenge in the middle of night. And guys, we shouldn't be eating when it's dark out. It's not helpful.

2:16 We're stressed at work and you're trying to Google how to figure out what to do, why to do it. My goal is to bring value based science backed information to you and bring it into you being actually applied into your everyday life. That is so important to me in this whole process that you understand what you're doing while you're doing it. Let's start off with the first one. Is restarting fat loss without the yo-yo the original question here, how do I restart my fat loss journey? I've lost 60 lbs but can't sustain it. I also have ran into so many people that have lost 20 lbs, regained it, lost 50 lbs, regained it, lost 6080 lbs, and regained it.

3:02 That's a big problem because whatever you did in the 1st point is not the truth. Not the best way to go about it. And or you got down there super excited and then you completely just never change lifestyles. Or you blew it and just let one small Pebble turn into an avalanche down the mountain. And it's just not what we want to do. You don't want to lose 120 lbs to get to the goal of what you want to look and feel like now brother, this is the most silent struggle that a lot of guys are dealing with. It's not about being confused or being exhausted. It's not about even being tired. But once you figure out that you can't stick to the protocol once real life gets back in, then This is why are the problem is. Think of the example of the 75 heart that is sure, that's a program.

3:57 And I always tell people we're doing our own version of 75 hard. We don't necessarily have to do 2 workout today. We don't have to drink a gallon of water. But all those things and merits are here's a very strong outline that you should follow for the next 75 days without breaking for 75 days. And then off we go to the the whole goal of that whole thing is to create a longer term lifestyle, but people don't appreciate what that whole process is about. They just follow the checklist, but they don't create it into life and rhetoric and all. And and that's something that we want to definitely do. All right, have to do it now you've tried keto, you've tried just literally cutting out carbs. You just have bastard.

4:45 Just those don't actually work and even most guys are programmed to think that the working out is what gets it done. Yes, that is one way to burn calories, but isn't the overall arching goal that exercise helps and assists in the process? But if you go out and run an hour and then you eat more calories than you burned, what was the point? Sure, your fitness is better, but your overall health of losing the weight and keeping it off is not there. All right. And So what we do is we have to find a sustainable approach. A simple phrase I use all the time with people and you can write this down, is what we do in two weeks, we do in two months, in two years. And even think of it, the five year rule, This is a really good, just a overarching idea here. If you can't see yourself doing whatever you're doing in five years from now, you're doing the wrong plan, let alone trying to grind through six weeks of cutting out all carbs and avoiding family and social situations around food. That's horrible in and of itself, but when we go to the big picture of having to keep this is your new life, that is not it.

5:59 And I will certainly attest, every single person I've ever worked with eats carbohydrates, OK? We're just eating the appropriate amount of carbs that go along with the amount of activity that you are doing in the day to either be it a calorie maintenance or a calorie deficit. It's very rare that anyone that I've ever worked with is, is trying to get the, the muscles the bulk in a sense. And yes, some people might be set for that, but ideally, if you're in your 40s, we need to make sure that you're in the healthiest, most fit version of yourself. And once you're there, then then we can really focus on doing the muscle building phase because you're already checked the box on the everyday habits that you need to be successful. And then you can just focus on stronger lifts, better conditioning and using the gym for that purpose rather than trying to burn more calories.

6:59 And your confidence will go up quite a bit with your shirt off. We're going to skip out on some of those afternoon crashes. There's 3:00 PM things, so we don't need to just rush more caffeine or energy drinks at the time. And that's really what the five year rule is about. And also, guys, we don't need to leave live in a deficit, all right? The living in a deficit is it's just a tool to get fat off. But then we need to get into a normal maintenance calorie range. And now that's something that's important a lot of people often overlook is that they just get low and the calories they stay low and that becomes there's a metabolic adaptation.

7:43 And that's what happens when the rate game comes back. If you spent months and months at a lower def calorie deficit amount of of food, then that's where you're going to struggle because say we're in the holidays and, and that the Thanksgiving, you just fall off the rails and you're used to eating, say 1500 calories. It's a pretty low amount for a guy. But then you eat 2500 calories or 3000. That's a pretty typical Thanksgiving. Now you've put an extra 1500 calories more in your body than it's used to. And that's where things start to fall off track. And if you've been avoiding the foods, you're going to have even more of a struggle there. Now there's a bit of a, a rhythm to dieting as well. The guys in my Call to Rise program, the 100 Day at Loss challenge where I get guys to lose 20 plus pounds, actually just recorded yesterday.

8:38 Luke is he lost 30 lbs. You're going to see that in episode 34, which is the next one from here. You'll be able to hear him go through that and that experience. Now we do need to have a maintenance phase and you be cycle in and out of fat loss phase. You do not have to lose 60 lbs straight away. We need to just lose enough of a large chunk, say 20 or 30 lbs in a 345 month time frame and then we need a diet break. You need a time it up maintenance level calories to refresh your metabolism and your body and get you to just breathe around.

9:21 When it comes to actually say tracking food calories and being in. I'll focus on your nutrition so much because you're juggling a lot of things. I'm juggling for kids, my lovely wife Amber, self-employment for the last 15 plus years. Life is busy even squeezing this in today. I'm purposely taking time out of my day to schedule in this call to knock it out for you. Next up is the food noise, the emotional battle that is inside your head and probably not even inside your stomach, but more it's in your head. The original question was how to handle food noise around the holidays.

10:05 Food noise is always going to be chattering in your head. That's what food noise is. Is this constant? I need to eat, I need food. I'm hungry. I want distraction, I want stress relief, I want joy and happiness. I want the sugar that the sugar roller coaster that I'm on. I need more sugar in this this time now that is food noise, this constant distraction of it calling your name. And let's be honest, even now in our society, it's more fast, convenient and accessible. Calories, fast calories, high calorie calories that are available. Think of this for a moment.

10:48 You can go to your gas station that's probably within a mile or to your house and buy 100,000 calories at a relatively pretty cheap price. Now those all are going to taste amazing, but are they actually going to serve you? And they have flashy, colorful, well marketed, branded designed food products and packaging that gets you to want to buy them. And the constant added sugar in is really calling your name. This sits home with so many people and I hear a story of this a version of the story all the time.

11:30 Guy coach just call him Dan. He told me that really, like I've I've heard this before, but it's still nonetheless, it's shocking when it comes out. And he said, Brian, every night at 9:30 after the kids go to bed, I, I walk to the pantry, put a bag of whatever is there and eat a handful and I close it. OK, well, that's not the worst thing. A handful of something, say a handful of chips, say snack pack size worth of chips is 100 and fiftyish calories. That's just an FYI. A chip is about 10 calories and that's something to pay attention to. Is that one, most people don't eat just one or five chips. They eat two dozen chips pretty quick and it multiplies calories.

12:16 But the problem, not that one time, but he does it again and again and again. He just doesn't even know why he's not hungry. It's like he's trying to fill something that the food can't. And that's food noise. It's not, it's not snacking, it's not just munching, it's not just being hungry. It's just it's ends up being some sort of a filler of a void that's going on. Often times stress, there's overwhelm, boredom, you're distracted. How many people eat at night with another screen in their face? Then you don't realize you just put an extra 200 calories in your mouth. That's how it goes, all right.

12:57 And sometimes it's just the loneliness that even guys with a full family life just don't even talk about. And that's some of the reason why I'm doing this as well. I see a lot of 40 year old men just lonely for like a better term. They're so caught up in the busyness of providing and taking care of everyone else that they're not taking a great job of themselves. And they, they, they're alone in this journey in a sense, even if they have a loving family. And oftentimes they don't want to talk about it. Where I've had guys where they actually stop to decompress. They stop at McDonald's or whatever on the way home from work and then eat that and then go home and eat dinner afterwards. Well, there's your daily calories for for the day, right?

13:41 In that two meal combo in under 3 hours. So what are some basic things that we can do? First is drink water first, right? If you can drink 20 ounces of water, wait 10 minutes and just delay the time of putting food in your mouth often you're met with some level of satisfaction. I've hardly drank water all day and I'm actually thirsty, not hungry. Yep, that's pretty much it. You're dehydrated, your body is craving some liquid water to the body is like oil to a car and you need some water. The second test, I love this one. I always call people out, but would you eat some chicken or have a piece of celery or an apple right now? And if yes, then you're hungry.

14:35 If no, you're looking for something else, then you're just craving something. It's not hunger. I have this so often with my kids, Maxwell especially. Levi just is a bottomless pit. He's a swimmer. He's been running. He's the one who ran a marathon in September, pretty wild. And he swim, he and Everett swim two to three hours a day. They just constantly need to eat. But my third one, he is in middle school and he's not as active and he'll come up right before bed and want some food. And he just falls into the basic trap of everyone else, oh, I'm hungry, I should eat right before I go to bed. And for him, it's just not a good idea as it is for most people just not to eat.

15:18 And I always say, hey, if you are hungry, then you can have fruit or vegetables. Well, he declines those and he still wants something. And therefore he's not actually hungry as he would say. He says hungry, I hungry. And he's being playful, so there if you aren't going to eat chicken, a piece of celery, maybe a little bit of peanut butter or an apple, then you're actually not hungry. You're just looking for something. And and lastly, as we're always looking for alternatives, you need to find something alternative. One of my favorite alternatives is cottage cheese, high protein, low fat, some chocolate protein powder, high protein, low fat.

16:01 Powdered peanut butter, high protein, low fat. Mix that together and I have a chocolate peanut butter protein bomb and it's amazing. I actually top it with some Cool Whip. Yes, I constantly buy Cool Whip. It's one of my guilty unknown pleasures that I don't share too much, but only with the select few in my group. But now I'm sharing it to you. I put Cool Whip on a lot of things actually because it really heightens the flavor and I'm only adding maybe 75 to 100 calories of Cool Whip, which is makes it delicious and so enjoyable. And then also we just have the the grit side of things. It's OK to be hungry when you're going to bed if you're in a fat loss space. It's just part of being in a calorie deficit and losing weight.

16:47 My next question would be, did you eat enough fibrous foods, fruits, vegetables to help keep you full? And did you eat earlier in the day to make sure that you stayed full long enough? All right, there's that one. Now topic 3 was creatine. Should you take it? And that's what the original question was, is it safe? Does it work? And I get this one so much. And there's, there's unfortunately, there is some confusion. It's not a steroid or a peptide or something like this. Creatine is in your body muscles need it and your body produces it, but not at the level and you'll get it from You'll get it from food, but not at the level that you need. And so that we can then supplement with. Generally 5 grams is a good amount and a 2022 systematic review published in a journal Strength and Conditioning Research analyzed 35 controlled traits and found that creatine supplementation improved significantly improved muscle strength, muscle size, power output, and overall training performance.

17:57 So this is totally something you should be using. There are a lot more studies that are coming out that there's a lot of cognitive benefits to it as well that you will think and be more productive and focused as as we go there too. All right, So that's important to note. How do we use it? Well, three to 5 grams either daily. You can even take maybe 5:00 to 8:00 depending on what your goals are using it and you would do it every day. You don't have to necessarily preload either. That's not important if you're consistently taking it and you don't have to cycle off of it. I've been taking it quite a while. It's actually over there and I'm, I'm just going to leave it over there and show you, but I buy bulk supplements on Amazon.

18:42 That's what it's called. It's on Amazon. It comes in a 5 LB bag. It's about $23. I buy the unflavored and I scoop it and I put it right in my mouth. So I get every little ass bit of it. It's unflavored and I just rinse it down and it's really not that big of a deal. Now they do have sour apple and a lemon that I've actually experimented with the sour apple and it really actually flavors the water. So I've mixed it in water sometimes to get that extra enjoyable amount there from the flavored creatine as well. It does cost a little bit more, but it tastes so much better. Topic four we have cut, maintain or build. A question is how do I know if I should bulk or cut? A huge question for guys, right At any age, especially when you're in your 20s, right?

19:33 I need to bulk off so I get bigger muscles. Well, what I find through talking to thousands of people are 95% of men need to cut fat first. We need to go through a fat loss phase because it's not because muscle is important. It obviously is in the more lean muscle mass you have on your body, the more alive you'll be, which is super important. But because you, you. If you have excess body fat, we just need to go through that cycle first. There is a thing called recomposition, and it's where you burn fat and build muscle at the same time. But this is going to greatly expand your timeline. Now, if you're patient and you're going to spend a good year or two on recomposition, then cool. But if you're 20 lbs overweight, let's just lose the 20 lbs, get to a really good look and feel and then work on your strength or conditioning your overall muscle the rest of your life because then you won't have to deal with the extra body fat, which will be super duper important. So we have 3 phases that you have to work through and understand.

20:47 We have a fat loss phase, which is a calorie deficit. You have to eat less than your body burns. Number 2 is maintenance. This is where you are stabilized. You eat the same amount of calories that you burn. Think of it like playing tug of war with your appetite, your energy, your hormones, your pulling and it's pulling and you're pulling and you're and there's a balance you this whole thing. We don't need to just cut carbs or do something from 1990 a dieting strategy. I don't eat breads bosses. Well, I guess I eat this all time, but I just see them in a controlled manner because I understand what they are. And that's the undertone is if you don't understand nutrition, then you don't actually have control over the food that you're putting in your mouth and understanding what is in the food you're eating and how to combine it is how to time.

21:39 It is pivotal to me being able to create a lot of success there for you as well. Phase 3 is the build and if you are well established with your body weight and your overall lifestyle, then it then we can work on building. We can have some bulk phases. Right now is a perfect time. Last year I went through a bulk phase November, December, January, February, March, going into April and then May, June I started to cut. I need to put in about 10 lbs of weight on that wasn't 10 lbs of muscle at best. A guy my age 42, a significant amount of exercise history.

22:20 I work out most days everyday. It waits at least four or five days most weeks and I'm running and I've been doing it forever. It's just part of my lifestyle. But I'm fighting over maybe half a pound a month and even gaining 1 LB a month is actually pretty big for you. Now we have to understand where you're at with your body. If you're overweight, let's get to a fat loss phase. If you're at a healthy weight, then make sure that you understand your calorie level so that you can easily maintain within a 5 LB weight range. And then if you are stabilized and you have a big picture goal of building muscles and great, you can have some controlled bulking phase in a sense. But you only want to add 2 to 300 extra calories, not just eat to your belly's fool because you will just get fat. Then you have to lose the fat after you're done and it's just, it's a pain.

23:15 You just don't want to do that now. You shouldn't try to build your muscle before you're ready. In a sense, if you aren't losing, if you're not at a good body weight, then don't do that. You should be in and should not be in a fat loss phase for more than six months at a time. In a sense, we want to cycle off of that and we do need to don't want to bounce from one to the next because I call that waffling. You don't want to be cutting and then recomping and you just end up going nowhere and you end up frustrating. So inside my coaching program, the call arise. I'm constantly assessing where people are. The majority of people need to lose weight. Occasionally I'll get someone that actually is in a muscle building face and we'll put them on the proper calorie amount, the proper protein, carbs and fats and a proper exercise routine to help them build and gain gain muscle and all. All right, so let's shift now.

24:11 If I just wanted to take a moment, if you've been in your 40s and 50s and you're carrying some extra weight, you know what your truth is? You don't need more motivation. You don't need willpower, discipline. You need a plan that actually fits into your day-to-day lifestyle, something that is a part of the appropriate schedules and the times and the challenges that you have. That's why I built a 30 tips in 30 days sequence. It's 30 straight days. A simple, proven habits that help you drop that control cravings and boost your energy. And finally, get consistent on just building a lifestyle.

24:52 OK, we're not starving ourselves. We're not going to the gym for a marathon session all week long or something. It gives you 30 simple, easy, actual tips to maintain your way to share the healthy weight, lose weight and and start applying those habits, behaviors. And I regularly get guys to lose 2030 lbs in 100 days and be able to keep it off because of the approach of what is inside these tips. So you can download it and on the podcast, it'll be in the show notes. It's the website linkisgo.brianprana.com back slash 30 days. That's three zero days. So one more time, go.brianprana.com back slash 3 zero days.

25:34 I'll have to find you your name on the list soon. Now we're going to transition into the fast 5 is one of my favorite parts. I talk a lot in the first half and then more longer explanations and these are really fast. Go, go, go type Q&A's. And to wrap up today, our first question is what is the first step if you have regained all the weight you've lost? Going back to the first question is if you did that, do not go through the exact same process you did the last time to do it. That's a horrible idea because if it didn't work the first time, why is it going to work the second time unless you actually learned something? But also, if it doesn't jive with your everyday life, then it's not going to work anyways.

26:17 You need to have a plan of action that follows for that five year plan. All right, just highlighting it again. What we do in two weeks, we do in two months, we do in two years or five years without restrictions, without excessive amounts of gym time or any of that question #2 how do I know if my food noise is real hunger or just a craving? And just going to rehash this with you. It's the protein test. What I eat, a chicken breast or a piece of celery or an apple. And if not, then you're not hungry, you're just looking to fill some some mental emotional stress needs.

26:59 Probably question three if I can only change one thing about my sleep this in the next couple weeks. What are what's one thing you can do is cut about 30 minutes earlier, set a screens off timer on your phone alarm to shut things down to give you back some actual quality time that you can lay in bed and sleep better. All right, that's what you can do. That's going to be the best thing for you to do is just shut off. OK, we didn't cover sleep a lot. I'll get that on the next one as I don't want to keep this episode too, too long. Just long enough that you'll listen and enjoy. Question 4 I am in my 40s and lifting again. Is creatine worth it?

27:48 And yes, the simple answer is yes. 5 grams a day every day basically onwards. It's just been proven for decades, like 5-4 or five decades now to be a really good supplement for you to have. Question #5 how often should I be in a fat loss phase? A fat loss phase can should be lasting anywhere from 12:20 to possibly 30 weeks if you're doing it well with some planned refeeds, well timed carbohydrates, calorie cycling off weeks here and there. And then you can stay in a diet phase a little bit longer. Well, I hope that you've enjoyed my first live episode here.

28:32 I hope that you've enjoyed everything else that is to come. I'm going to be doing these a lot more regularly, just recording my podcast live. And if you have any topics that you would love, I would most certainly love to talk and entertain and inform you #2 is listen to the podcast. It's called Driven for Health. It's on Apple, Spotify, this is 2 popular places, but it's on Levi. Help me put it on 30 plus different directories. So it's around. And the goal is to spread high value information like this. And the best way you could support me is leave me a five star review and rate me and leave a written review about things that you learned.

29:15 And I look at those things literally every day when they come in and I greatly appreciate them because if you've ever done this, it takes a little, just a little bit of work to put these on. So I appreciate you. Lastly, we have the 30 tips in 30 days. If you're looking for an easy, actionable thing to put into your day-to-day life here this next month, jump into go.brianprana.com back slash 3 zero days and I'll be more than happy to send you a tip. A day that is easy, implementable, and something that you can stick with. If you even just did half of them, you'd be in such a better place in the next month. This is good, Brian signing off of episode 33 of Driven for Health.

30:03 Appreciate you for listening in. Thank you so much.