36 - [Q&A] Finding Balance, Counting Calories To Lean Out, Workout Supplements, and more..

Johan Vesters: 0:32

What is up Welcome back to Talking Nutrition episode 36 Today, today we're actually going to do q&a. Let's first we we have something to celebrate, we just pass 5000 downloads Kristine,

Kristine Andali: 0:44

nice

Johan Vesters: 0:46

onto the 10k. That's next. Also, by the way, so for people listening, we are also on YouTube where we do have videos as well. So if you would like to see us as well, look us up on YouTube talking to creative podcasts, we are currently growing by just about one to two subscribers a day, which is really cool. So if you use YouTube, check it out, subscribe there. And of course, feel free to drop us a like say what's up and just comment on any of the videos, you know, like we're getting questions there too. And anything you guys ask like, we'll just take it in consideration for your, you know, upcoming episodes. Because right now like, other than, like the interview I did with my client, like we've just been doing q&a stuff just to kind of catch up, you know, I will probably do a few more coming up. So either way. So if you are new here to the channel. This episode is brought to you by K training and nutrition and Odyssey Coaching Systems and your phone's going off. But if you are ever looking for more personalized help with training with your nutrition, feel free to hit us up. And we will always make sure that everything is linked in the show notes. So it goes from my company as well as Christine's. So wanted to get into a few questions today. But first, do you have any updates for seeing?

Kristine Andali: 2:07

I really saying, Oh, I got I was able to go to Canada, which is really nice. So I haven't been able to get over there. Between my green card. Like I didn't have my travel permit. And so that took longer than expected. It's usually supposed to take like six months and it took almost a year and then add COVID crap on top of that. And so it was basically like two years that I wasn't able to get over to Canada. So I finally went spent like Thursday to Sunday night. And it was great.

Johan Vesters: 2:44

Cool. Got a new logo up as well. Pretty much

Kristine Andali: 2:47

it. Oh yeah. We got this made. And then Eric added. There's like wood on the back. And then there's lights. So he added the lights. It's really, really moody in here in the morning. I come on I like just put my light on it. So just love it.

Johan Vesters: 3:08

I love that. Cool. So last last episode, I was complaining about the weather. But it actually cleared up. We got some really good ski trips in so I went on Sunday as well as yesterday on that. As far as cold though. It was I'm terrible with Fahrenheit. I have no idea. But it was 90 or minus 19 Celsius. It was a little frosty. Let me see what that is. I'm curious.

Kristine Andali: 3:39

Yeah, that's freezing.

Johan Vesters: 3:44

That's minus 2.2 Fahrenheit. It was rough. Yeah, that's cool. But then once you get moving, it's fine again. Get used to it. You know now it was super cool. Yeah. So right now we're back in the snow storm. So we'll see how long it's gonna last. But definitely feel good about the ski season being being back on now. You know? So, couple questions for today. Want to kick off? Kristine?

Kristine Andali: 4:14

Yeah, so question from Andy. I would love to hear your thoughts on nutrition slash meal prep, and work our structure for people who typically who work and typical nine to five, I am single and live alone and have recently been through some mental health struggles. I am thankfully starting to feel better and getting back to things I love but finding a balance of meal prep and timing of workout is proving to be tricky. I'd love to hear any thoughts or guidance you guys have for how best to approach finding that balance both nutrition and activity contributes so much to mental health but but it can feel a bit daunting, especially if you're currently struggling with mental health. For sure that this definitely can be tough. So something that I like to do with clients is have them like look at their schedule right now. Okay, and they like literally write their schedule down on a piece of paper of what they're doing. So this is kind of like real self verse ideal self but it's almost like scheduling wise. So they have the their schedule written out, right? You know what it looks like right now. And then they basically make another version of that schedule, which is like an ideal schedule that you could see yourself doing. But it has to make sense where you're not, like overdoing it right? So again, with the mental health stuff, it can, it can be a struggle, right? So how can we kind of plug and play here, where it's doable for you, but it's not overwhelming. And it's good to get a visual down on like paper, or you could do it on like your calendar, on your phone, or whatever. But I really think that's a good start. Just like where you have some time, in allowing yourself a little bit of flexibility there. So like, not just saying, Alright, I'm going to do meal prep on Sunday, at five o'clock, maybe we have some flexibility there, okay, Sunday at five o'clock, if that doesn't go, you know, we have a plan B type situation, and then see how that goes. So put it into play. And then if you need to adjust, adjust from there. So there, there might be a little bit of trial and error in there. But you're basically creating some structure, but also allowing yourself flexibility in that structure in that in that structure to do to essentially deal with the amount of health stuff if that's popping up. So that's something that I like, I like to do just structure with flexibility in there. We also talked a little bit about this, a couple podcasts ago, we had a question about someone who had just had a baby, right? And how things are probably going to look a lot different there than that they're oh my gosh, going to look a lot different than compared to what it looked like when they didn't have a baby, right? And so expectations and what does that really look like for you when going through, you know, something like this. Because maybe it really isn't realistic to be meal prepping two or three times a week or once a week and spending hours on it. Maybe it's alright, we're cutting that time down a little bit. We're only you know, prepping protein and you're meeting yourself in the middle there.

Johan Vesters: 8:11

Yeah, it's, it's going back to that all or nothing to feel like, we're still kind of wired to think we're either doing everything right. Or, I can't do anything, you know. And especially if we're dealing with stress or mental issues, those kinds of things like, same kind of thing, like you said already, like, it is a process that you have to go through and you have to kind of figure out and that flexibility and structure like you need to find that. And maybe try not to not to expect too much of yourself right off the bat, at least you know. Because I do see people with that. Good.

Kristine Andali: 8:55

Yeah, you know, what I had talked about in that last podcast is like, you know, say with meals right? Maybe you get some pre made meals that are still on the like healthier side that are easier for you like, what is it that grocery store like here are like Trader Joe's or those type of places have these pre made foods like they have pre made chicken or like rotisserie chicken, they've got, you know, some good vegetable dishes or you go with like frozen. You know, just to make things easier on on you for right now, you know, when you're going through something like this. And again, it's not that all or nothing or meeting yourself in the middle there and you're making it easy on yourself doesn't mean that that's you're off track by doing that, right? Or like with training or our, you know, workouts. Again, I just had this conversation with a client. You know, maybe that day, it's like, Okay, today I'm mentally struggling. But I want to work out but I don't have the capacity to work out for like 60 minutes, okay, maybe we just do like Part A and Part B. And we call it a day or so okay, like I'm struggling a lot right now. Could I go for a walk? Right instead of just staying inside because we know that's going to help mental health, right? It's very, very helpful in that regard. So maybe it isn't always okay, I need to train this 60 minutes and it needs to be like four or five days a week. Maybe it's okay, like, I'm going to again have some flexibility within that. Maybe it's just a walk one day, it's it's getting out in nature. Or maybe it's just doing part A and B, and maybe it's doing 20 to 30 minutes instead of 60. So you're meeting yourself in the middle there.

Johan Vesters: 10:51

Yeah. And what I like to do as well, is just trying to remove stressors and things that take time and energy, which goes back to planning, right. So if you have some stuff that you can plan ahead, personally, for me, and it's not for everyone, but personally, I like to just have everything pre logged in my day, if I know I have a busy day coming up. So in that day, when I know, little extra stress, I'm very busy. I kind of don't want to spend like mental energy and time and stuff like there, you know? And of course, you don't have to do it that way. But like, try to beforehand, just kind of know, how can I save time? What can help me save some, maybe some mental energy somewhere? How can I make it as easy as possible for myself to follow? You know? Quick example, if you're like, Hey, I'm usually super rushed in the morning. Make breakfast in the evening, you know, those little things? And if you find those little tips and tricks there, you know, like, I do think that can help. But trying to think, hey, what can I do now? To make it easier for myself? Maybe tomorrow or later in the week?

Kristine Andali: 12:07

Yeah, all right. Or say someone is say someone is tracking macros, okay? You can even simplify it there too, as well. So maybe instead of focusing on like all the numbers, you just focus on protein and vegetables, right? Or maybe not even or maybe if it's overwhelming you that week, and you're dealing with a lot, okay, maybe we just focus on like, four servings of protein a day and one serving or two servings of vegetables a day. Like really, you can really dial it back without completely being off.

Johan Vesters: 12:48

Which is also why I like with clients, like planning times where we don't track just so they get that practice to, because hey, I want you to track I want you to get the results that way. But I also want you to learn how to do without also want you to kind of see, hey, I can actually do without tracking. Let me just go with a paid method, or just focus on food quality, or just by water and steps, those kind of things. So again, making it just easy in the moment. And yeah, I think that also comes with, you know, with the awareness of hey, knowing what you can stick to, and knowing like what's doable for yourself, but also what's not doable? Because, hey, if we are working through mental health issues, and you know, we're struggling to find balance, those kinds of things. We're busy, etcetera. Okay, cool. Well, maybe we shouldn't be doing an aggressive cut, for example, or chase performance or have like a very specific goal, you know, like, let's be a little bit more flexible. And I really chase your goal during a time where you feel more ready for it. Yeah, again, going back to planning once again, I feel like everything just comes down to just being a grown up and planning ahead with a lot of things. And sticking to our schedule, too, but okay. All right. This question from David, we actually had a chat a couple days ago. So I currently count calories on my fitness Bell, and I'm set at 2500 calories per day, I weighed 200 pounds, and I am 510. I would like to stay this way, but lean out. If I work out and I use up 500 calories during a workout, how do I factor that in when eating throughout the day? I hope this makes sense. I have asked others I get completely different responses. So my question will be measuring calorie intake for the work that I do throughout the day. Yeah, a lot of things to unpack here. I like this question. Okay, cool. So first of all, my fitness pal 2500 calories per day. You are currently 510 200 pounds. You want to lean out, but you also want to stay this way equals. So just a number and this is because I did talk to him like just a number of 2500. He was told just hit that. No other context. Nothing about food quality, nothing about macros, no adjustments, whatever. Like that was just the thing to do. So that's that's already an issue. Because there are people who recommend this stuff and just saying hey, Jesse 2500 calories per day. That's not helpful. Yeah, first of all, definitely want to dial in protein as well. So those two for sure even get into macros, because I know he does train as well. But okay, please note that your your macros or your your calories are never a like what, like I said number goes up and down. Okay, so you mentioned, I do want to lean out, but then I also kind of want to stay this way, we were just talking about this off air, which I do think you know, could be a dude thing. Because I've seen this a couple times, where sometimes we don't want to get under the 200 pound mark, you know, it's like this is mental thing to that. But okay. If we want to lean out, and you actually want to see results and progress fast enough, so that you don't fall off and get impatient, because that is with a lot of people, you know, if we're speaking of like body composition, most people are not going to be able to stick to that long term, because it's too fucking slow. You know, if we want to lean out, you're gonna have to lose weight, doesn't mean you can't go back to the 200 pounds, if you really want to go back to the 200 pounds, that's cool. But let's then do that afterwards, by going into a lean gaining phase. Okay. Long story short, I do think that if you actually want to lean out and you want to see results, and you want to do this effectively, that you do need to go in a diet calorie deficit stick to that formula a long time. Sorry, a little while, I should say that. And also adjust your categories on the way down when you you know, slow down in terms of weight loss. Next thing to unpack is the 500 calories burned during a workout? Yeah, not the case. That's my short answer. I don't think you're gonna be burning 500 calories in a workout. That will be a lot. We know like, and we did a whole episode on this. But fitness trackers are highly inaccurate, like even the newer ones. Right. I think that was the 2022 study that we talked about. Even with the newer models, it was up to 50% off. In terms of calories burned, they're not useless. But looking at calories burned, we cannot rely on fitness trackers. So that's one. Which means we're just not going to know how many calories we are burning at the gym, from working out, like already, like 500 calories. Okay, that is a lot that I I very much doubt that almost anyone would be burning that much, you know. But we're also just missing the point here, because we're working out to build muscle we're working out to improve our health of fitness, you know, we're not training for fat loss. Does it help? Yeah, of course it does. But it's not going to be the main thing that drives your fat loss. So in terms of factoring that in and you know, kind of like measuring calorie intake for the work that you do throughout the day, we don't know how many calories you burn throughout the day, we can get a good estimate. And we can put you into a calculator and kind of figure out, hey, you know, this is what we expect it to be. But we're never going to know, never, ever, unless we're in the lab setting, and we don't live in labs. So that being said, let's look at your metrics, as well as your food intake. So if you were my client, what I would do is start off with a maintenance phase where we actually calculate your maintenance calories, we look at where you're currently at. And then we're then going to work towards that we're going to bring you up, possibly are down if you're over that. But we want to make sure like, hey, that expected maintenance is that roughly rights like are you maintaining there is that higher or lower? And that's going to be important if we don't want to go into a deficit, because we need to calculate that based off your actual intake to where you know your weight is staying stable. Then we can adjust based on your average body weight things like measurements, photos, etc. But that's where you want to start because 2500 calories, okay? Yeah, like maybe that works, you know, maybe, but at some point is not going to be enough to really stimulate fat loss because you will have to go down, calories burned, we're not going to know. So I would say set as a stop count, right? 10k, whatever, nine, preferably 10 Because that's actually a good way to make sure that you are moving throughout the day and you are burning those calories, you know, because that's kind of like a different factor of your metabolism, that you can influence more, and that actually burns way more calories three times as much as exercise. So I would actually focus on steps for that. But again, like calories burned and we're not going to know we're actually never going to know and I just got a question like half an hour ago on Facebook as well. From you know, someone else who asked me that Hey, you know, like, so I'm reading a lot of, you know, conflicting information here. And I was wondering, so I see people talk about, like, the best exercise for fat loss and stuff, you know, and best way to burn fat. It's like, well, fuck, okay, we're like, we're still trying that, you know, we all know people, or if you go to the gym, at least, we all know, people who go to the gym for years, who get on that same fucking treadmill every single time, or the bike, or whatever, or the step thing, whatever it was called stepper 100. You know what I mean? And they look the exact same, and all they're trying to do is exercise for fat loss, and it never fucking works. Like show me one person who actually loses the Fed, and keeps it off and as a healthy relationship with food and exercise, and has success long term. Like it's not a thing. Right. And I do feel bad, because I used to think that's the way you know, to lose fat. I know. Yeah, it's like, a lack of normally. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like knowledge and, you know, family, friends, like, so many people think like, that's the way to go. But in reality, like, no, if we don't address the nutrition side, like exercise, not gonna do it, if there was a fat loss. Okay. Did you have anything else?

Kristine Andali: 21:54

Yeah, I'll add something. So like, a lot. What I, what I usually mentioned too, is, when we're looking at Fat Loss, majority of that's going to come from nutrition, when we're looking at muscle building, majority of that is going to come from training. They're both are important for each, but one over usually overtakes the other. When we're when we're trying to build muscle. Yes, nutrition does come into play in terms of like, you need to be eating enough. But the actual muscle building is going to come from the training. Whereas like fat loss, yes, you can definitely work out and like, add in some cardio that's going to supplement that. But majority of that fat loss is going to come from nutrition, because if you're just doing cardio, and like he said, and your your food is staying the same, a lot of times we won't we won't see change there.

Johan Vesters: 23:21

Yeah, and going back to you know, going back to the 200 pounds, like it's cool. If you want to go back there, that's fine. With that I would cut and I would do a slow Riverside and just keep adding slowly. Get into a slow, like lean gaining phase, keep training. And once you get there, dial it back maintain.

Kristine Andali: 23:41

Yeah, I would get curious about this 200 pounds because like, I definitely talk a lot with this with my clients. I see it a lot with women. I do see it with men. I know you're mentioning like heat, it met with men, usually it's like, oh, I don't want to be under 200 pounds. But it's like, Alright, so what if you're 195 and you're lean, and you you've got a good amount of muscle and you really like the way you look? Although what if you're 190? Right. So, like, why is that number so important to you when feeling good? And being happy with how you look? Be more important, regardless of the number?

Johan Vesters: 24:21

Yeah, but I think that's a realization you get when you're at that spot. Right? Because, because we still kind of think, like this number in our heads, you know, it's like, oh, I kind of want to be this weight. But hey, like maybe your ideal weight is going to be less or more. Who knows. It's really not about weight, especially when looking at muscle and stuff. Okay, okay, I think that covers it. So next one about supplements.

Kristine Andali: 24:53

Yeah, I'll try and keep this pretty quick. What kind of supplements do you recommend using when going to the gym regularly? Um, well, food. Eating Enough food eating enough protein, sleeping? Well, those are all going to be here was a good supplement. Yeah, the best supplements you can take. But in terms of what she's actually asking is, I would say okay, creatine is a good one. tons of benefits there. So creatine monohydrate is usually going to be our best bet. I mean, you can take a protein powder, whey protein powder, whatever one you really want to take, you know, having it like post workout. What else here? Beta Alanine is one that I used to take, I would say More. So for those doing like CrossFit type workouts, that's going to be helpful like anaerobic. It helps with that. What else do I mean? I like magnesium. Mainly magnesium has so many benefits. We've talked about it so many times on here, but it can magnesium glycinate is you gotta really, that's the one because there's a lot of different magnesium. Magnesium glycinate is the one that's going to like help with relaxation, you know, relaxing muscles, recovery, things like that. I feel like that's it off the top of my head.

Johan Vesters: 26:50

Do you ever do interact carbs?

Kristine Andali: 26:53

Yeah, I've done that. You could, you could totally do car powders if you want. But you have to remember, like, it's never gonna hurt. I think if someone's doing so it's eating a lot of calories. Training a couple of days, or a couple of times a day, like I've done, I've done carved powders. But you got to remember it takes away from your, your actual food. Right. So sometimes I'd rather have like an actual physical food that's going to keep me more full versus like a powder. But you could also do like, I also used to do baby food. I was known for that. I would do like the little packets of sweet potato and Apple packets, and I would have those with me during my training sessions. And I would have them and I would bring them to two, like competitions and stuff.

Johan Vesters: 27:53

Nice. Yeah, it's all just like, easy to digest, like, quick, you know, I do like intro workout carbs. Like I used to use a highly branched cyclic dextran or cluster dextran. I've liked that. Like, there's another one that I have used and actually have some still use it when I went skiing a couple days ago. But when you when you're done, like, go with like 50 grams of carbs, for example. It can be hard on your digestion, which I don't really, you know, like, same kind of thing. If you eat like too close to working out, you know, like, you don't want to mess with us. So I would go with the extra and I do like that I like that with with creatine and then sometimes to do some protein powder. Or I'll do that as a like post workout shake, to kind of shut off cortisol, you know? I like that as well. I just literally does not reintroduce it.

Kristine Andali: 28:55

Oh, did you?

Johan Vesters: 28:57

Yeah, and since I've been back at maintenance, like I'm using more intra workout carbs again, too. That's why I started with 30 grams or 50. I do like that.

Kristine Andali: 29:07

I'm also a big fan of just like a cup of coffee. Like people always ask me what to take for pre workout. And I mean, you're, you're cheap, cheapest pre workout is going to be a cup of coffee. That being said, I don't drink a cup of coffee if I'm working out later in the day. Because that will impact my sleep. And you have to be very careful with that. But I will do it. If I'm working out in the morning or like before noon. I don't I don't have caffeine after noon. Yeah, this is a great pre workout. Straight up just it is. Yeah. Caffeine.

Johan Vesters: 29:51

Yeah. I do think so I think where it goes wrong is people are very much into the energy drinks these days. And, you know, also here we have like a local brands through a local brewery. And you see people like slamming cans. I like eight 9pm You know, 9pm? You

Kristine Andali: 30:12

know, good Sure.

Johan Vesters: 30:14

Lecture might be nice to drink, but it's gonna mess with your sleep recovery. So I'm like, is it really worth it? You know? Like, can you just have like ice or something or just water like?

Kristine Andali: 30:29

No, but the thing is, is people don't really I think they get so used to it and they don't realize how good their sleep can be without it. Actually, Eric was like that. He like when we first started dating. He would drink coffee at like eight at night nine at night. I'm like, This is insane. Like, how are you doing that? And then he like he just it wasn't like I was like you you just stop like I really didn't care. I mean it was up to him. But he just It's like started stop doing it. And I'm like, so how do you feel now? You know, from like, actually drinking the coffee and then not and there's a difference. It's he'll get into deeper sleep. But he didn't realize that because he was doing it so often.

Johan Vesters: 31:21

So this was two years ago, maybe I talked to Aaron Harris trigger, because he had posted his experience with like, not doing any caffeine for like 30 days. So I was like, Yo, I know that I'm currently drinking too much caffeine. How was your experience with that? You know, how did you feel? So you sent me a audiobook. I think it's called caffeine or whatever. But like, it's kind of worth checking out. But it's not anti caffeine, by the way. It's just like, very just objective. But I tried it for 30 days. And the first two weeks. It was terrible. My energy was the worst I was. You It's kind of like a feeling of like, it's a combination of dehydrated, just a general headache. And then like being hungover. That's what it felt like. And then after two weeks, it kind of becomes normal again. But anyway, long story short, after four weeks of not having any coffee. I was like, Okay, let me just have one again. And it was like 2pm and a 2am. I was still like, and but like, Oh, I could not sleep. So like my sleep, like fewer that four week period just got better and better and better. It was amazing. And then once I had coffee again, I swear like 2am I was still up just from the cup like to 2pm you know?

Kristine Andali: 32:52

Yeah, it's, it's having it later. Oh, good.

Johan Vesters: 32:58

But I gotta do that, again, to be honest with you, because I'm drinking too much coffee right now. But we are at the 30 minute mark. Talk to you next week or soon. Thank you for listening. And yeah, you know, we're fine. It's like I said, subscribe to YouTube. Check us out there and I will be back with more q&a next week.