How To Get Lean For Your Summer Holiday

1. 0:00 – 3:27

   Why crash-dieting for holiday backfires (and the baguette problem)

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      (wind blowing) So, hi. Hi, everybody.

   2. YUYusef0:08

      Hello.

   3. CWChris Williamson0:09

      Um, you may notice that there is about 105 kilos of missing Aryan perfection over the far side just there. And if you're just listening, you will notice that there is not the sound of a massive arse moving around.

   4. YUYusef0:22

      Just squeaking all over the leather sofa.

   5. CWChris Williamson0:24

      Yeah. That is because Johnny is away on holiday, so it's just me and Youssef today. And we are gonna be talking about how to get lean for your summer holidays.

   6. YUYusef0:34

      This is actually take two.

   7. CWChris Williamson0:35

      This is technically take two. We had a technical problem, but this time it's gonna-

   8. YUYusef0:39

      10 minutes in of pure gold. Pure-

   9. CWChris Williamson0:41

      Yeah.

   10. YUYusef0:41

       ... How To Get Shredded for Summer gold.

   11. CWChris Williamson0:43

       S- so if this is, if this is not as good, then it's not our fault. We already gave up our best. So-

   12. YUYusef0:50

       Sorry, guys.

   13. CWChris Williamson0:52

       ... how to get lean for your summer holidays. I did a little Instagram post about this yesterday and had an awful lot of messages coming back, not least of all because it's June and a lot of people will have realized, "Shit (claps hands) , I'm going away on holiday within the next eight weeks and I'm maybe not as lean or as muscular as I want to be, and I'm gonna have to take my top off on the beach (laughs) or I'm gonna wear a bikini," or whatever it might be. The point that I think struck a chord with a lot of people was what I said about the typical approach for getting lean for holidays. And if you have a look online, a lot of the resources that you will find about how to get lean will focus on potentially fitness competitions or long term slow deficit fat loss approaches. The crucial difference between stepping on stage and going on holiday to Ibiza or Marbella is that when you step on stage, all that you're going to do is flex and tense. When you go out (laughs) to Marbella or Ibiza, you're gonna be drinking Corona and having baguette all day, every day, for s-

   14. YUYusef2:00

       Forget.

   15. CWChris Williamson2:00

       Baguette.

   16. YUYusef2:01

       As in?

   17. CWChris Williamson2:01

       One baguette.

   18. YUYusef2:02

       (laughs)

   19. CWChris Williamson2:02

       One huge fuck off baguette, yeah.

   20. YUYusef2:05

       (laughs)

   21. CWChris Williamson2:05

       You take a baguette out, you're never taking a baguette out with you on holiday.

   22. YUYusef2:07

       (laughs)

   23. CWChris Williamson2:08

       Just a long baguette, and then-

   24. YUYusef2:09

       I think this is where the, the alcohol reference goes over. Is, th- there's some kind of drink called-

   25. CWChris Williamson2:13

       Baguette? No.

   26. YUYusef2:14

       No?

   27. CWChris Williamson2:15

       No.

   28. YUYusef2:15

       You, you do mean baguette?

   29. CWChris Williamson2:17

       Baguette, yeah, just-

   30. YUYusef2:17

       Le baguette.
2. 3:27 – 5:09

   The realistic timeline: what you can (and can’t) change in 4–10 weeks

   1. CWChris Williamson3:27

      So what I wanted to do was try and put together a little bit of a structure and some principles that you can take away if you've got between four and 10 weeks, something like that, until your holiday. So are we right in saying that if you've got less than four weeks until you go on holiday, it's gonna be very difficult to make a, a, a profound change?

   2. YUYusef3:50

      Honestly, if you've got less than four weeks, don't bother. Just-

   3. CWChris Williamson3:53

      (laughs)

   4. YUYusef3:54

      ... c- carry on as normal.

   5. CWChris Williamson3:55

      So don't train at all?

   6. YUYusef3:56

      'Cause you're just gonna be making yourself suffer f- needlessly. Like, you're not gonna elicit any change in your body visibly in four weeks' time. And I think th- what you said is, is interesting 'cause at right now, it's the 2nd of June, it's a common question that, that we get in terms of inquiries, I'm sure you've got some messages about this stuff as well, and it's endemic of the, the mindset that we have towards fitness which is, "Shit, I've got 28 days, I've got to drastically undo the last 35 years of my bad sedentary habits-"

   7. CWChris Williamson4:30

      Mm-hmm.

   8. YUYusef4:30

      "... and make a change in my body from now ad-" And it's like what's the rush? Like, people often, um, you know, th- there's no, there's no thought given to it until suddenly, "Oh, I've booked my flight. Shit, I need to make a change."

   9. CWChris Williamson4:43

      Yeah.

   10. YUYusef4:43

       And, you know, 2nd of June, it's cutting it fine, to be honest.

   11. CWChris Williamson4:47

       Mm-hmm.

   12. YUYusef4:47

       I'm not g- I'm, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna sugarcoat that. As you said, four to 10 weeks, so if you have, say, eight weeks-

   13. CWChris Williamson4:53

       Mm-hmm. So if you're going away on holiday after sort of the start of July, start to mid-July, up until the end of the summer, you're sweet.

   14. YUYusef5:01

       Well, y- yeah. You're not sweet, but you're-

   15. CWChris Williamson5:03

       (laughs)

   16. YUYusef5:04

       (laughs)

   17. CWChris Williamson5:04

       You're salvageable.

   18. YUYusef5:05

       You're definitely sal- salvageable by that point. And I think there's a lot of key principles here-

   19. CWChris Williamson5:09

       Mm-hmm.

3. 5:09 – 6:51

   Setting expectations: stop comparing to the one shredded friend

   1. YUYusef5:09

      ... but the first thing is that muscle gain is a very slow process. And so all we can expect at this point is to lose fat.

   2. CWChris Williamson5:17

      Okay.

   3. YUYusef5:17

      And we were saying this, this on the first take-

   4. CWChris Williamson5:20

      (laughs) Mm-hmm.

   5. YUYusef5:22

      ... that, uh, my favorite thing when you're looking at a Facebook photo of someone's, like, summer holiday and it's like six lads, all 18, uh, five of them 18% body fat, one of them's, like, 6% body fat and huge and just shredded-

   6. CWChris Williamson5:34

      (laughs)

   7. YUYusef5:34

      And there's, like, odd one out there.

   8. CWChris Williamson5:36

      Yeah. That's the guy who has it-

   9. YUYusef5:37

      (laughs)

   10. CWChris Williamson5:37

       ... as part of his lifestyle as opposed to a crash diet-

   11. YUYusef5:40

       Exactly. Like that-

   12. CWChris Williamson5:41

       ... four weeks before you go away.

   13. YUYusef5:41

       ... that is the result of the 10 years of the previous training. So there's no point that if you're worried about how you're gonna look relative to your swole mate, that you're gonna be comparable.

   14. CWChris Williamson5:50

       Mm-hmm.

   15. YUYusef5:50

       So don't set that as your reference point. Like, realize that if you are ... And so the, the nu- numbers wise, eight weeks away, 80 kilo man, 18% body fat-You, diet-

   16. CWChris Williamson6:04

       Just to, just to interject there, am I right in saying that the principles are the same for men and women-

   17. YUYusef6:08

       Yeah.

   18. CWChris Williamson6:09

       ... that we're gonna be talking about here?

   19. YUYusef6:09

       For this time period, it's, it's the same, for sure.

   20. CWChris Williamson6:12

       Okay.

   21. YUYusef6:12

       Um-

   22. CWChris Williamson6:12

       So both, both genders can broadly take the same approach that we apply here?

   23. YUYusef6:18

       Yeah, exactly. So for, for women, 18% body fat will actually look quite lean.

   24. CWChris Williamson6:21

       18% body fat will be fucking beautiful. (laughs)

   25. YUYusef6:24

       (Laughs) . I mean, you're, yeah, you, as a woman you pretty much start to get abs at 15% body fat. So if you're not sure about these ranges, don't get hung up on the percentage. Uh, I, I use this as kind of a anchor point, but, um, don't try and get calipered or anything. Basically, if you're carrying a bit of extra fat and your abs are not visible, you've got no deltoid triceps separation-

   26. CWChris Williamson6:45

       Mm-hmm.

   27. YUYusef6:46

       ... you're probably around 18% body fat, and then, you know, linearly fatter as that goes up.

   28. CWChris Williamson6:51

       (laughs)

4. 6:51 – 8:29

   Aggressive-but-smart fat loss math: 0.5–1% bodyweight per week

   1. YUYusef6:51

      So, um, (laughs) so if you're around that, let's say 80 kilo man, eight weeks time, aggressive diet would mean 1% of your body weight lost per week, assuming you hit your average calories without fail for that time.

   2. CWChris Williamson7:06

      Mm-hmm.

   3. YUYusef7:06

      And we have to hit the ground running. There's no time for fucking around when you've got eight weeks to go. You can't ease yourself into this program. This is like-

   4. CWChris Williamson7:13

      Yeah.

   5. YUYusef7:13

      ... you, the time is already constrained.

   6. CWChris Williamson7:15

      Well, that's, that's, that's definitely one of the things that I think people need to realize, that if you have left it as late, as you've only got eight weeks. And so y- the, one of the things that we need to state from the beginning is, eight weeks sounds like ages.

   7. YUYusef7:28

      Mm-hmm.

   8. CWChris Williamson7:29

      But physiologically-

   9. YUYusef7:30

      Oh. (laughs)

   10. CWChris Williamson7:30

       ... in terms of fat loss, eight, eight weeks is a couple of seconds.

   11. YUYusef7:34

       (Laughs) .

   12. CWChris Williamson7:34

       Like, it's not a tremendously long amount of time.

   13. YUYusef7:37

       Exactly, so you-

   14. CWChris Williamson7:37

       And you have, you have less time than you think.

   15. YUYusef7:39

       You can't take liberties at this point, yeah.

   16. CWChris Williamson7:41

       No. So if you've got, if you're planning to go away this winter, beginning your cut now, six months in advance-

   17. YUYusef7:47

       It's le- it's too long, even, six months.

   18. CWChris Williamson7:49

       (Laughs) .

   19. YUYusef7:49

       Unless, well, it depends on how fat you are, I suppose.

   20. CWChris Williamson7:51

       Yeah.

   21. YUYusef7:51

       But-

   22. CWChris Williamson7:52

       Okay, so beginning-

   23. YUYusef7:53

       But if you-

   24. CWChris Williamson7:53

       ... beginning a fitness regime that works towards that.

   25. YUYusef7:55

       Eh, but i- if you've got six months, you've got time to even gain a bit of muscle and then cut.

   26. CWChris Williamson7:58

       And then cut from there.

   27. YUYusef7:59

       And then cut, and then re- even reverse back up.

   28. CWChris Williamson8:00

       Yeah.

   29. YUYusef8:00

       But eight weeks, yeah, not long enough. And so 1% of your body weight per week for eight weeks, at 80 kilos body weight, is 800 grams of weight loss per week.

   30. CWChris Williamson8:10

       Mm-hmm.
5. 8:29 – 10:23

   Why lifting matters (especially for women): shape comes from muscle retention

   1. YUYusef8:29

      So obviously, the faster you lose fat, the higher the cost at the end. And, uh, so this is something we have to bear in mind. Anyway, the principles are the same, that we want to be lifting weights to retain as much muscle as possible, even if you're a woman. Something that the, the, the most common and the most heartbreaking fitness mistake I see with women, and I'm glad you said, "Are the principles the same for men and women?" Is that the woman who's like, "Oh, I want to drop a couple of dress sizes, I'm gonna pound the cardio and eat just a bit of cabbage every day."

   2. CWChris Williamson8:59

      Mm-hmm.

   3. YUYusef8:59

      Or some celery. And it's like, "You are only going to look like a smaller version of yourself, but just as shapeless." And yeah, your dress might be a smaller size, but you're not actually gonna have any, any shape.

   4. CWChris Williamson9:13

      Yeah.

   5. YUYusef9:13

      You're not gonna look any better than-

   6. CWChris Williamson9:14

      100%. And the other thing as well is that now, especially since Instagram fitness chicks-

   7. YUYusef9:19

      Mm-hmm.

   8. CWChris Williamson9:19

      ... and stuff are a lot more prevalent, having a good set of legs as a woman, like a sort of a, you know, a shapely set of legs, is kind of cool now.

   9. YUYusef9:29

      Mm-hmm.

   10. CWChris Williamson9:29

       Right? Like it's not, it's not obscene for CrossFitted, CrossFit girls to go out wearing dresses and stuff like that. Like it's, it's actually almost desirable.

   11. YUYusef9:37

       Definitely.

   12. CWChris Williamson9:38

       I think probably if you asked girls what-

   13. YUYusef9:39

       And people look more muscular on Instagram because the a- you know, you can't tell scale.

   14. CWChris Williamson9:44

       Yeah.

   15. YUYusef9:44

       But when you see some of these CrossFit girls in real life, they're absolute babes.

   16. CWChris Williamson9:47

       Yeah.

   17. YUYusef9:47

       And it's not, you know, you see them on a photo and you think, "Oh, she's a bit big." But actually, they've got small frames and-

   18. CWChris Williamson9:52

       Yeah.

   19. YUYusef9:52

       ... they just fit.

   20. CWChris Williamson9:53

       They're still very, very womanly. Um-

   21. YUYusef9:55

       Definitely. If you put them in a dress, then (imitates explosion) .

   22. CWChris Williamson9:58

       So yeah, y- what you're saying is that we need to hit the ground running. We don't have any time to lose. That lifting weights rather than pounding cardio is a good start. So for me, I'll, I'll put forward what my, um, proposal would be-

   23. YUYusef10:17

       Mm-hmm.

   24. CWChris Williamson10:18

       ... for a pre-holiday routine and why. And then I'll let you critique it, and I'll let you put yours forward.

   25. YUYusef10:23

       Cool.

6. 10:23 – 15:27

   Chris’s practical daily routine: walks, meal prep, carb-cycling, hunger control

   1. CWChris Williamson10:23

      So I am the sort of person who is inherently very lazy, and I need to stack the deck in my favor. You may have noticed, due to the fact that we do endless episodes of life hacks, that shortcuts to an effective outcome is something that I value quite highly. For me, I need to try and make all of the right decisions as easy as possible. What that means is, I would get up on a morning, I would have a black coffee, I would go for a walk on a morning. Reason for that is, firstly, it allows me to clear my head. Secondly, it allows me to get a little bit of low intensity steady state cardio in. Now, the LISS versus high intensity debate I'm not really that bothered about. For me personally, I do CrossFit a lot. So my high-end, uh, power endurance output gets looked after by my training methodology.

   2. YUYusef11:15

      Should probably clarify that you do CrossFit not to burn calories. You do CrossFit because you enjoy CrossFit.

   3. CWChris Williamson11:20

      Yes. Yeah, it's not, it's not a, a, a goal-

   4. YUYusef11:23

      A strategy.

   5. CWChris Williamson11:23

      Yeah.

   6. YUYusef11:24

      It's fat loss.

   7. CWChris Williamson11:24

      It's, it just happens to be the methodology that I'm following. But on a morning, if you get up and you go for a walk, you've got some fresh air in you, you've had your coffee, you're set for the day. So that's a few, a few different-

   8. YUYusef11:38

      Big wins just in your bag.

   9. CWChris Williamson11:39

      Yeah, exactly, that you've put in the bag. And the, the low intensity steady state stuff's nice. Get back, prep your food for the day. Either pay someone to s- to, a meal prepping company. There's loads, especially in Newcastle, Aurora Kitchen, Spoonhead Nutrition. There's a load of different guys that do awesome food prepping in Newcastle, so check them out or look in your local area. If not, prep your food yourself on a morning.Get yourself out for the day. For me, personally, I would train around about midday or a little bit earlier. It means that my training is done for the day and I don't have to worry about it. Going on the diet and going onto my calories, I would tend to have between 200 and 300 grams on a training day, around about 200 grams on a recovery day, and about 100 grams on a rest day.

   10. YUYusef12:29

       Of what?

   11. CWChris Williamson12:30

       Carbs.

   12. YUYusef12:30

       Okay.

   13. CWChris Williamson12:31

       Sorry. Did I not say carbs?

   14. YUYusef12:33

       (laughs)

   15. CWChris Williamson12:33

       Did I just say grams? Did I just assume that everyone knew what I was talking about?

   16. YUYusef12:36

       You might've said carbs. I might've, but yeah.

   17. CWChris Williamson12:38

       Straight over. Um, yeah, of carbs. Protein and fat would generally stay the same. Uh, a little bit more fat on my r- on my rest days. Some of the strategies that I use for curbing hunger would be natural set yogurt on a nighttime, which is without a doubt the single best (laughs) approach for stopping yourself from trying to cheat on your diet. Firstly, if you don't want to cheat on your diet, do not have junk in the house. If you, like me, have got a sweet tooth and you do not have chocolate bars in the house, you will not eat them. You can't eat what isn't in your cupboard. And going to the shop, getting yourself up at ten o'clock at night because you've got a craving for a chocolate and walking all the way to the shop-

   18. YUYusef13:20

       At least you built up some steps that way.

   19. CWChris Williamson13:22

       Yeah, you've got, you've got, you've got some more low intensity cardio in. But, i- it's just, it's probably not gonna ... like, it's not gonna happen.

   20. YUYusef13:29

       Mm-hmm.

   21. CWChris Williamson13:29

       You're gonna protect yourself. Um, so yeah, for me, I would ... natural set yogurt, scoop of protein powder, some mixed blueberries, and unless you're an absolute animal, that will satiate pretty much anyone's craving for something sweet. The macros on it are unbelievable. Like, it, it'll fit. You can probably add it on top of any diet, I think, and it'll ... in total, it'll be like, what, 120 calories? Something like that.

   22. YUYusef13:58

       Mm-hmm.

   23. CWChris Williamson13:58

       For a big tub, bowl of protein-y, fruity niceness and then you sweet from there. So-

   24. YUYusef14:07

       Berries are like wizardry as well, like considering how low calorie density they are for what you get.

   25. CWChris Williamson14:13

       Yeah. The, there's a lot of volume, and, and they taste pretty good. So yes, my few little tips would be get up on a morning. If you want to do the high intensity stuff, then go and do some hill sprints, um, something like between 10 to 20 rounds with 30 seconds rest, run up a hill, then walk back down, wait for 30 seconds at the bottom and then go again. If you can do that 10 times up a moderately steep hill that it has output for about 30 seconds, something like that, so you're getting like two to one work to rest, something like that. Uh, sorry, two to one rest to work. Um, that's a good way to get some cardio in on a morning. Then if you can train later on in the evening or the afternoon, make sure that you're lifting weights. Don't get stuck or hung up on the toning from going to super high rep ranges. Still focus on the moneymaker sets, which are between sort of six to 14 reps at a weight which is moderately heavy, um, and still testing. It's unlikely that you're going, unless you're new to training, that you're going to PR during this particular period. But yeah, that's ... that would be broadly my approach. What are your thoughts?

7. 15:27 – 18:51

   Environment design & willpower: decision fatigue, turnips vs cookies

   1. YUYusef15:27

      So I like that you split it out into a, a, a day, a day-

   2. CWChris Williamson15:30

      Mm-hmm.

   3. YUYusef15:30

      ... daily schedule and also the principle of make the good decisions as easy as possible and make the bad decisions as hard as possible is definitely the way to set up your environment for success 'cause if you have to consciously make the good decision and it's, you know, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops each time-

   4. CWChris Williamson15:47

      Yeah.

   5. YUYusef15:48

      ... then by 5:00 PM you've, you've ... the decision fatigue sets in, which is a real thing. Like, you, you're tired. You think, "Well, I'm just gonna," but yeah.

   6. CWChris Williamson15:55

      I'll miss training. I'll-

   7. YUYusef15:56

      Miss training, chocolate bars in the cupboard, any of that, definitely. The yogurt thing, there's, there's some evidence behind this as well, which is interesting.

   8. CWChris Williamson16:03

      Okay. (laughs)

   9. YUYusef16:03

      People have done studies looking at if you feed someone yogurt, the, with a little spoon, and then see how mu- how many calories they eat subsequently in the rest of the day, it's lower than if they were to eat other types of food and they-

   10. CWChris Williamson16:16

       That was an equivalent amount of calories.

   11. YUYusef16:17

       Yeah, so they, they compare calorie matched amounts of tuna, uh, carbs, crackers, milk, uh, whey, all those kind of things and whey-

   12. CWChris Williamson16:27

       And yogurt.

   13. YUYusef16:27

       Whey and yogurt were the, the highest satiating

   14. NANarrator16:29

       (coughs)

   15. CWChris Williamson16:29

       So in terms of s- satiety, you're gonna, you're gonna feel better from that. On a, uh, on a side point on the making sure that it's easy for you to, to, um, stack the deck in your favor, that includes prepping your food. So roll back the clock from the morning that you need to prep your food. If you've got chicken in the freezer and you haven't defrosted it, when you wake up the next morning, you can't cook the chicken that's still frozen.

   16. YUYusef16:52

       So you default to cocoa pops.

   17. CWChris Williamson16:53

       Exactly.

   18. YUYusef16:54

       Yeah.

   19. CWChris Williamson16:54

       So you think, "Oh, well fuck it, the diet's gone for today so I'll just order in some takeaway or I'll do whatever, I go to Gregg's, I get a pastry." Like-

   20. YUYusef17:00

       Mm-hmm.

   21. CWChris Williamson17:01

       ... you know, it, it is all about making the good decisions as easy as possible and the bad decisions as hard as possible. Remembering that you are going to have a lower ... y- you're already using up an awful lot of willpower here. Dr. Roy Baumeister is, um, study that he did with turnips where he had two groups of people in a room. One group had cookies and turnips, and another group just had cookies. The group that just had cookies were allowed to eat them or not if they wanted. The group that had cookies and turnips were told they couldn't eat the cookies and could only eat the turnips. So they were then given-

   22. YUYusef17:36

       (laughs)

   23. CWChris Williamson17:36

       They were then given a cognitively demanding task to do afterwards. And the group that wasn't allowed to eat the cookies gave up 50% faster than the other one.

   24. YUYusef17:43

       Wow, so it's, it's a finite resource willpower.

   25. CWChris Williamson17:46

       Yes.

   26. YUYusef17:46

       And yeah, th- so that's, that's such an interesting (laughs) study, like do, do not trust the future version of yourself-

   27. CWChris Williamson17:53

       (laughs)

   28. YUYusef17:54

       ... to make the right decision. Treat yourself like a little child because-

   29. CWChris Williamson17:57

       You are.

   30. YUYusef17:58

       Well, that's it, like the, um, you know, another thing on decision fatigue, we know that juries and even judges, like fucking professionally trained senior people in the legal sector, industry, sector-
8. 18:51 – 23:06

   Diet drives fat loss; training drives muscle retention (and the limits of G-Flux)

   1. YUYusef18:51

      So yeah. The other thing you said about cardio, I love a good morning walk as well.

   2. CWChris Williamson18:55

      Mm-hmm.

   3. YUYusef18:56

      I agree it's not done to try and burn calories. And I, the getting into this chasing your tail of trying to do cardio so that you can earn the right to eat more calories and eat them back and all this, don't get into that cycle at all. Remember that the reason you are losing fat is 100% from your calorie intake. And just leave it there. So let the fat loss be driven by your diet.

   4. CWChris Williamson19:21

      So the, so-

   5. YUYusef19:22

      Let the muscle retention be driven by your training.

   6. CWChris Williamson19:24

      Okay. So you wouldn't say G flux theory, which-

   7. YUYusef19:27

      So to answer that, the, the, yeah, G, sorry.

   8. CWChris Williamson19:31

      Can you briefly explain what G flux theory is?

   9. YUYusef19:32

      Yeah. So, so G flux theory is that the effect on your body in terms of cellular turnover and body composition of eating a calorie deficit of 1,000 calories is different if that deficit is created from eating 2,000 and burning 3,000 compared to eating 4,000 and burning 5,000.

   10. CWChris Williamson19:53

       Mm-hmm.

   11. YUYusef19:54

       So there's still, the net deficit is the same at the end, but actually, the body's had to go through a lot more processing to-

   12. CWChris Williamson19:59

       Yeah.

   13. YUYusef19:59

       ... to achieve the same deficit, and that it would have a more favorable com- effect on your body composition to do the set, the latter rather than the former.

   14. CWChris Williamson20:05

       Mm-hmm.

   15. YUYusef20:06

       That is true, but again, telling someone to do that when they want the minimum effective dose, the risk is that they end up chasing their tail, and people always underestimate the number of calori- uh, sorry, they underestimate the number of calories that they eat back-

   16. CWChris Williamson20:19

       Yeah.

   17. YUYusef20:20

       ... from ca- from cardio, and they overestimate the number of calories that they think that they've burned from cardio.

   18. CWChris Williamson20:25

       Okay.

   19. YUYusef20:25

       I knew a guy who gained 20 kilos in two months, I think, and he just got really fat, and it was because on MyFitnessPal, he played basketball, and he was like, "Oh, well, I, I entered 90 minutes of basketball on here, and it says that it burns 5,000 calories, so I've been eating 6,600." I'm like-

   20. CWChris Williamson20:42

       Look at the scales. Look in the mirror.

   21. YUYusef20:43

       Yeah, exactly.

   22. CWChris Williamson20:44

       Obviously not burning that many calories.

   23. YUYusef20:46

       And it's, it, I don't know whoever entered that bit into the... 'Cause MyFitnessPal is just user-generated database.

   24. CWChris Williamson20:50

       It's a Wikipedia for-

   25. YUYusef20:51

       Ah, yeah. So anyone can-

   26. CWChris Williamson20:53

       ... exercise, isn't it?

   27. YUYusef20:54

       So maybe someone like Michael Jordan came along and was like, "Oh, well, you know."

   28. CWChris Williamson20:57

       5,000 calories, yeah.

   29. YUYusef20:58

       Just somebody who's like, okay, NBA-level-

   30. CWChris Williamson20:59

       So 19-
9. 23:06 – 24:52

   Training frequency in a deficit: 3–4 lifts/week, cardio if you have extra days

   1. CWChris Williamson23:06

      Like, it's really quite hard. So okay, so we're, we're talking about when we get to training, someone's gonna go in. They're gonna be training how many days a week? Seven?

   2. YUYusef23:17

      So, so i- i- in a, in a deficit, three times a week is a- is all you need-

   3. CWChris Williamson23:21

      Okay.

   4. YUYusef23:21

      ... because all you're trying to do is hold onto the muscle that you already have.

   5. CWChris Williamson23:25

      Okay.

   6. YUYusef23:25

      When you're trying to gain muscle, yeah, you want to be training four or five days a week if you can.

   7. CWChris Williamson23:30

      Mm-hmm.

   8. YUYusef23:31

      Schedule permitting.

   9. CWChris Williamson23:32

      Is there a potential here? So uh, uh, your, um, criticism ab- about G flux theory aside, is there a potential here that if someone was to train, if they enjoy their training schedule-

   10. YUYusef23:43

       Mm-hmm.

   11. CWChris Williamson23:44

       ... and they're able to train between sort of three to six times a week, if they're able to, to up that frequency-

   12. YUYusef23:51

       Mm-hmm.

   13. CWChris Williamson23:51

       ... that that may afford them a little bit more on the calorie side?

   14. YUYusef23:55

       Sure, if, if they have the time and the freedom to do that, then why not? Like-

   15. CWChris Williamson23:59

       Okay.

   16. YUYusef23:59

       ... as long as you-

   17. CWChris Williamson24:00

       But again, if we're saying, I think personally, a lot of the people that'll be listening that have got the holiday that's coming up, I think especially for eight weeks, you can probably bin yourself. Like, you can put, you can go balls to the wall and go, right, okay, well, I, I can train for-... five, five days a week. And I-

   18. YUYusef24:18

       And for this time period, it would be helpful because yeah, as you said, you, you haven't got much time, so you may as well just do as much as you can.

   19. CWChris Williamson24:23

       Go for it. So, okay, so what's the split? What's-

   20. YUYusef24:25

       I mean, like the approach, the just meta speaking here, like big picture, the approach that I would prefer is to start six months earlier.

   21. CWChris Williamson24:32

       (laughs)

   22. YUYusef24:32

       Have a much easier time.

   23. CWChris Williamson24:34

       Yeah.

   24. YUYusef24:34

       And also bear in mind that the difference you're gonna make in the next eight weeks compared to if you... Like, yeah, you might look a bit better for this summer holiday, but next year's summer holiday, if you carry on the momentum-

   25. CWChris Williamson24:44

       Yeah.

   26. YUYusef24:45

       ... you're gonna look worlds better. So yeah.

   27. CWChris Williamson24:47

       Yeah, no, for sure. But again-

   28. YUYusef24:48

       Yeah.

   29. CWChris Williamson24:48

       ... we are creatures that like to lea- leave things until the last minute.

   30. YUYusef24:52

       Mm-hmm.

10. 24:52 – 30:54

    Avoiding the holiday rebound: don’t arrive ‘carb-phobic’ and metabolically downregulated

    1. CWChris Williamson24:52

       So let's take into account the fact that as soon as people go away on holiday, they're going to be eating and drinking disproportionately higher than they were-

    2. YUYusef25:03

       Yep.

    3. CWChris Williamson25:03

       ... while they were do- while they were doing this diet to get themselves to look good and away.

    4. YUYusef25:07

       And you said yourself that you, you went on a 1,500-calorie diet and then you rebounded and looked, looked, fl- uh, watery for the rest of the (2:42) ?

    5. CWChris Williamson25:15

       Oh, yeah. You have, you have one day where you look awesome. You have a second day where you look even better. And then as soon as you have the hangover food, you just fill out.

    6. YUYusef25:22

       Mm-hmm.

    7. CWChris Williamson25:22

       And anyone who's listening who's done a crash diet for a holiday knows that this is the case. And you get there on holiday and you're like, "Well, I don't understand. Like I was so lean all the way up until this point and I've got out here and now I'm not lean anymore."

    8. YUYusef25:37

       Mm-hmm.

    9. CWChris Williamson25:37

       No more... You're no longer training. You're eating n- 80% of your diet is coming from alcohol. Uh, uh, 80% of your calories are coming from alcohol and carbohydrates.

    10. YUYusef25:47

        (laughs)

    11. CWChris Williamson25:47

        And you haven't had either of those for eight weeks. So again, for me-

    12. YUYusef25:52

        (laughs) True. Like expenditures suddenly dropped, intake suddenly gone up.

    13. CWChris Williamson25:55

        Yeah.

    14. YUYusef25:55

        Like you-

    15. CWChris Williamson25:55

        And you're wondering why, why you don't look as good as you did in the mirror two days ago.

    16. YUYusef25:59

        Mm-hmm.

    17. CWChris Williamson26:00

        So for me, I think that trying to increase output and not drill calories super, super low, if you can get your calories closer during the prep phase to where they're going to be when you're away, you're going to be less sensitive.

    18. YUYusef26:15

        Mm-hmm.

    19. CWChris Williamson26:15

        Can you explain about why, um, why having low calories in the build-up will make you more sensitive too than once you get out there?

    20. YUYusef26:24

        So I, I mean, I made this mistake myself on the meditation retreat, for example, as well, where I'd lost loads of weight, um, m- from being in hospital actually. I wasn't, I wasn't dieting per se, but-

    21. CWChris Williamson26:34

        (laughs)

    22. YUYusef26:34

        And then suddenly went for i-... And obviously when you're in hospital and you're ill, your expenditure's quite high because you, there's, there's so much stuff going on.

    23. CWChris Williamson26:42

        Immunity takes an awful lot of energy, right?

    24. YUYusef26:45

        And, and so then I went from that to having recovered and sit for twe- for ten days in silence with unlimited vegetarian food. So low protein food, no activity, no training, and I did regain a lot of fat.

    25. CWChris Williamson27:00

        Mm-hmm.

    26. YUYusef27:02

        Um, but yeah, it's, it's simply that there is an abundance of food and alcohol, as you said. Alcohol will stimulate your appetite further. You can create a reactive hypoglycemia, which will make you hungry and get the, the munchies afterwards. Plus, um, the general lack of restraint that you... Or the, the inhibition.

    27. CWChris Williamson27:20

        Yeah.

    28. YUYusef27:20

        The, the, the disinhibition that you get from drinking. So all of that will contribute just to overeating.

    29. CWChris Williamson27:25

        Mm-hmm.

    30. YUYusef27:25

        Plus as you said, you, it's hot weather.
11. 30:54 – 39:12

    Simple holiday strategy: cut the ‘pointless’ meal, restrict the eating window

    1. YUYusef30:54

       So the solution that I would propose to, to the... This is the simplest way as well, meaning that you finished your diet, your aggressive approach that you've had to take because you're an idiot and you've left it until the last minute.

    2. CWChris Williamson31:05

       (laughs)

    3. YUYusef31:05

       Um, rather than trying to track your calories while you're away and stressing out over it, pick the, the shittest, most pointless meal of the day, usually breakfast, especially if you're in-

    4. CWChris Williamson31:15

       (laughs)

    5. YUYusef31:15

       ... Ibiza and you're in a hotel and you're getting boiled eggs and like-

    6. CWChris Williamson31:18

       Mm-hmm.

    7. YUYusef31:18

       ... what, croissant or something.

    8. CWChris Williamson31:19

       You've never been to Ibiza.

    9. YUYusef31:21

       (laughs)

    10. CWChris Williamson31:21

        It's, it's not, it's not boiled eggs and croissants for breakfast.

    11. YUYusef31:25

        Oh, okay.

    12. CWChris Williamson31:25

        No.

    13. YUYusef31:25

        What, so what, what would it be for breakfast?

    14. CWChris Williamson31:26

        Pills probably.

    15. YUYusef31:27

        Oh, okay. For... (laughs)

    16. CWChris Williamson31:29

        (laughs)

    17. YUYusef31:31

        Well, I mean, that's excellent.

    18. CWChris Williamson31:32

        Well, they're thermogenic, aren't they?

    19. YUYusef31:34

        Yeah, so fine.

    20. CWChris Williamson31:34

        If we're talking about caffeine -

    21. YUYusef31:35

        So stay on the, the, well... (laughs) I'm not gonna endorse having pills for breakfast, but yeah, like pick the meal which is the most pointless, doesn't provide a social purpose, doesn't really help with your hunger. Most people find that they just eat breakfast because they feel like they have to or they're-

    22. CWChris Williamson31:49

        Maybe a hangover.

    23. YUYusef31:49

        ... told that they should.

    24. CWChris Williamson31:49

        What about the hangover?

    25. YUYusef31:51

        Okay, if, if breakfast serves you hangover, great.

    26. CWChris Williamson31:53

        Okay, missing it.

    27. YUYusef31:53

        But what I'm saying is like, yeah, pick the meal that doesn't, doesn't really contribute to your day-

    28. CWChris Williamson31:58

        Mm-hmm.

    29. YUYusef31:58

        ... in that sense. Like I know a lot of people that are like, "Oh, well people always tell me breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I eat it anyway, even though I'm never hungry in the morning."

    30. CWChris Williamson32:05

        Mm-hmm.
12. 39:12 – 42:06

    The ‘basic split’ and resources: push/pull/legs, Propane Protocol, 28-Day Shred

    1. CWChris Williamson39:12

       Which will also mitigate this rebound effect once we get out there. So, okay, so we've got the three to four sessions in terms of muscular training, um, are w- for that push, pull, legs, something similar?

    2. YUYusef39:24

       Yeah. So i- the, the, the simplest way, and I, I like... This was from Spencer Nadolsky who, he's a family physician and talks to... This is the kind of standard exercise advice he gives to patients which I think is great 'cause you can't get it wrong, is go to the gym three times a week, do some kind of pushing, some kind of pulling, and some kind of legs in each session for three, four, six sessions.

    3. CWChris Williamson39:45

       Oh, okay, so do that in every session.

    4. YUYusef39:47

       Well that, I mean that, yeah, or, or as you said, you can do a push session, a push session, and a leg session.

    5. CWChris Williamson39:52

       Yeah.

    6. YUYusef39:53

       Did I say push-push?

    7. CWChris Williamson39:54

       You said push-push.

    8. YUYusef39:54

       (laughs) Push.

    9. CWChris Williamson39:55

       Yeah.

    10. YUYusef39:55

        Yeah, push, pull, legs on each of the days.

    11. CWChris Williamson39:58

        Okay. I think for some people that may be a m- a more easy to, to work out split. So have the listeners, have you got any resources on propanefitness.com that the guys can have a little bit of a look at?

    12. YUYusef40:10

        Yeah, we have. So (laughs) who, if you go to propanefitness.com and search for the Propane Protocol infographic, there is a full training program laid out for you. It's four days a week. It covers all of the bases. It's structured in a way that you will avoid injury and maintain structural balance and it's all laid out in there, and there's a diet framework in there as well.

    13. CWChris Williamson40:32

        Yeah, it's just a big-

    14. YUYusef40:33

        So if you follow that for eight weeks.

    15. CWChris Williamson40:33

        ... it's a big long image, right? It's a-

    16. YUYusef40:35

        Yeah.

    17. CWChris Williamson40:36

        ... sort of a big a- not animated, it's like a big, um, illustration.

    18. YUYusef40:39

        Full, yeah, full infographic guide.

    19. CWChris Williamson40:41

        You scroll, you scroll for a little while, but everything's in there.

    20. YUYusef40:43

        Exactly. Everything that... The, the only thing I would change about that is because we're talking about a short timeframe, you're gonna be, need to be more aggressive with the calories.

    21. CWChris Williamson40:51

        Uh-huh.

    22. YUYusef40:51

        And if you want to really take things up a notch and guarantee that you will lose, um... So we, we have a, we have a program called the 28 Day Shred.

    23. CWChris Williamson41:00

        Yeah.

    24. YUYusef41:00

        Which typically people lose five percent of their body weight within 24, 28 days.

    25. CWChris Williamson41:05

        Wow.

    26. YUYusef41:06

        So that is done and it's relatively easy as far as losing five percent of your... The, this, it's the easiest way that we know of-

    27. CWChris Williamson41:12

        Yeah, yeah, it is.

    28. YUYusef41:12

        ... to lose that much of body weight. So, um, yeah, you can get in touch with us.

    29. CWChris Williamson41:15

        So this is, this is push the red panic button-

    30. YUYusef41:17

        Yeah.
13. 42:06 – 48:09

    Tracking and adjustment: starting calories, daily weigh-ins, and weekly averages

    1. CWChris Williamson42:06

       typically for the typical sized man, so 5'11", 80 kilos, you need to be looking at what, about 2000 to sort of 1800 calories, something like that?

    2. YUYusef42:16

       Yeah, I mean, start at, start at 2000. Take your daily body weight every morning.... post-poo, pre-breakfast-

    3. CWChris Williamson42:25

       (laughs)

    4. YUYusef42:25

       ... naked at the same time.

    5. CWChris Williamson42:27

       Yeah. Um-

    6. YUYusef42:28

       Weigh yourself every morning.

    7. CWChris Williamson42:28

       I'll put a link, I'll put a link to the set of, uh, Sandler scales that I've got, which were six pounds.

    8. YUYusef42:35

       Great.

    9. CWChris Williamson42:36

       And th- they're perfectly accurate. And use MyFitnessPal to track your weight. So MyFitnessPal is also free. Create an account, download the app on your phone, put your weight in every single day and it'll track it over time. It'll make sure that you know-

    10. YUYusef42:47

        It's why it's important to get it every day. And yeah, if you're using th- the, the Sandler digital scales, then that's gonna give you a more accurate reading.

    11. CWChris Williamson42:53

        Yeah.

    12. YUYusef42:53

        Take that daily body weight every morning over the week, calculate the average. So if you... MyFitnessPal might do this. Our-

    13. CWChris Williamson43:00

        It does. It does it week on week.

    14. YUYusef43:01

        Fine. Our, our propane spreadsheets will do this as well. Um, or if you use a Withings or Withings...

    15. CWChris Williamson43:06

        Yeah.

    16. YUYusef43:07

        ... uh, wifi scale.

    17. CWChris Williamson43:08

        Yeah.

    18. YUYusef43:09

        That will...

    19. CWChris Williamson43:09

        That's super fast as well.

    20. YUYusef43:10

        That will like link with your-

    21. CWChris Williamson43:10

        Johnny, Johnny-

    22. YUYusef43:11

        ... wifi and go to the-

    23. CWChris Williamson43:11

        ... would, Johnny would be jizzing in his pants if he was here right now.

    24. YUYusef43:13

        Oh, got it. It goes to the grid and then like some guy comes out with an envelope and-

    25. CWChris Williamson43:16

        Yeah.

    26. YUYusef43:16

        ... and they cut your watermelon for you and it's amazing. But no, I think, um, yeah, once you've got that, then you can start to see whether the 2,000 calories is producing the expected return on weight.

    27. CWChris Williamson43:26

        If someone doesn't know, if someone doesn't know what 2,000 calories is, how can they roughly eat 2,000 calories a day? So we're talking man, 80 kilos, 2,000 calories. Female, maybe 1,600, typically between 50 and 60 kilos, something like that?

    28. YUYusef43:42

        Yeah. Uh, maybe go slightly lower if you've got a short timeframe, maybe 15 or 1,400.

    29. CWChris Williamson43:47

        Okay.

    30. YUYusef43:48

        Um, but it has to... The, the thing is, the starting point is just a starting point to see how your weight's responding.
14. 48:09 – 58:13

    After the holiday: reset baseline, restore training, and ‘get lean once’ long-term

    1. CWChris Williamson48:09

       You said feeling of society there. Feeling society, feeling of satiety. Um, so final thing. Someone's gone away on holiday and they've come back.

    2. YUYusef48:19

       Mm-hmm.

    3. CWChris Williamson48:20

       How do they then slowly-... recomp themselves back up? How do they do this re-diet that you've said so that they can maximize the return on all of the sacrifices they've made in the couple of months leading up to this?

    4. YUYusef48:33

       So someone's come back from holiday.

    5. CWChris Williamson48:35

       Yeah. They've gone away, they've maybe done their thing, they've-

    6. YUYusef48:38

       Have they gained any weight-

    7. CWChris Williamson48:39

       Yeah.

    8. YUYusef48:39

       ... while they're away?

    9. CWChris Williamson48:40

       Yeah, I think it's, I think it's very, very, um, prudent to assume-

    10. YUYusef48:43

        Okay.

    11. CWChris Williamson48:43

        ... that that's gonna happen.

    12. YUYusef48:44

        So rather than get into the self-flagellation, self-punishment cycle straightaway, come home, restore your momentum with training.

    13. CWChris Williamson48:53

        Yeah, I think that's-

    14. YUYusef48:53

        Just get back on the training again.

    15. CWChris Williamson48:54

        ... that's number one.

    16. YUYusef48:55

        Yeah. Just eat normally for a while. Don't, don't try and go into a big crazy cycle. Do that for a couple of weeks, set yourself a baseline.

    17. CWChris Williamson49:03

        Mm-hmm.

    18. YUYusef49:03

        Then decide, has the weight, has the excess weight come off? It may have come off naturally just having returned from, you know, even flying. Traveling somewhere will increase your weight, and I, it might be-

    19. CWChris Williamson49:14

        Why is that?

    20. YUYusef49:15

        Probably 'cause it disrupts your, your blood salts and, and water retention and that kind of thing.

    21. CWChris Williamson49:19

        Is that a significant-

    22. YUYusef49:20

        Yeah. It's a-

    23. CWChris Williamson49:21

        Really?

    24. YUYusef49:21

        ... c- at least with our clients, like, it, I mean, it's, it's not a-

    25. CWChris Williamson49:25

        Huge proportion.

    26. YUYusef49:26

        Well, it, it, it's also the, I mean, it'll affect your scale weight, but it won't, but it doesn't mean that you've got fatter. It just, yeah.

    27. CWChris Williamson49:31

        Yeah, okay.

    28. YUYusef49:31

        It's just that it's, it disrupts the data that you're seeing on the-

    29. CWChris Williamson49:34

        Okay. That's interesting.

    30. YUYusef49:35

        ... on the sheet, yeah. So, um, w- wait till you've established a new baseline, and then you can say, "Look, actually, I'm lean enough, I could go, I could do with gaining some muscle, so I'm gonna spend the next year gaining muscle."

Episode duration: 58:13