2982: Stop Trying to Lose Weight: Build Muscle First

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MindPump. MindPump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded health, fitness, and entertainment podcast in history. This is MindPump. Today's episode, five signs you need to build muscle and not lose weight. By the way, on Instagram, MindPump Media, on Thursday at 4 p.m., we are going to give away to a lucky winner a box of Crisp Power Protein Pretzels. Also, right now, every MAPS program, every bundle, every workout program, guide, mod, everything, across the board, 60% off. It's the biggest sale of the year. We do it once a year. It's our Black Friday sale. MAPS programs are workout programs typically two to three months long. Bundles are where you get multiple programs put together for a specific goal. You go to MAPS Fitness Podcast. Pick your program or your bundle. Use the code BLACKFRIDAY. It's 60% off. 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If you do not lose weight, that the better goal will be to build muscle. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Here's the five signs that you need to build and not lose. Let's go. I know you're going to go over the five signs, but I just want to put it out there that it's almost always the case. I know. That's usually how we refer people. Which sounds a bit counterintuitive when you think about somebody like, because obviously there's, well, what if, I remember every time we say this, I always get messages. They're like, you know, I hear you guys say that, but you guys are talking about like, you know, someone who probably just needs to lose 10 or 15 or 20 pounds. But, you know, what about someone like me who needs to lose 50 or a hundred? Yeah. You know, it's like, yeah, no, I still, I still would focus on building muscle first because it makes the cut easier than to cut first. Yeah. It's just, it's a much better strategy. And along the way, what ends up happening is you end up losing body fat too anyways on that, in that pursuit. So I'd argue that even though you're going to make five points to know this, almost always it's the case, wouldn't you say? Yeah. You could, you could leverage muscle for fat loss, but starting off with fat loss, I mean, you could try building afterwards, but it's actually a more difficult pursuit and building muscle improves health, metabolic health. In fact, when you look at studies on things like insulin sensitivity, they've actually done studies on obese individuals, had them lose no weight, all they did was get stronger, build some muscle. And you see these really fast improvements in insulin sensitivity because muscle, muscle's so metabolically active. It's so sensitive to things like insulin and sugar. It's a storage vessel for blood sugar. So building muscle is always a good idea, especially when you first get started. But of course, there's going to be people like, look, I just want to lose weight. Yeah. And there are some pretty loud signs that, you know, it's, you're better off trying to build right now. And I'll start, I'll start with the first one. And this is more of an aesthetic thing, but it does point to what we're talking about, which is you might have that skinny fat look. And this is where your body weight isn't really that high, but you feel flabby. You feel loose. And so your idea is you need to lose body fat. So I see people like this all the time. When I used to manage gyms, these people would come to me and their body weight wasn't actually that bad, but they'd say things like, I need to lose body fat from my belly or from this part of my leg or from this, you know, my love handles or whatever. And it's like your body weight's actually okay, but you're under muscled. And this is a big issue. Like being under muscled is not good. In fact, being weak is a better predictor of all cause mortality than being overweight is. Well, I was going to say, that's probably one of the biggest, you know, things to point out is the frailty there. Where, you know, what a detriment that is, you know, long-term. However, I do get it too. It's like, I've had clients that they'll, you know, reasonable, reasonable body weight and they can fit in clothes nicely, but like they do have that kind of fluffy, like, yeah. It's squishy sort of, I mean, they want to, they want to address that. And it's like to address that we have to build muscle. That's what we solve. I mean, I, I, this is really common with people that think they need to lose about 10 to 20 pounds. Yes. So I used to get this all the time where somebody comes in both male and female that I see this a lot that just want to lose weight, right? The ones that want to lose weight and they come in there. I just need to, I need to get like 10 or 15 or 20 pounds off. And many times we get on the scale and I look at the scale for their height, you know, their sex. I'm like, that's not a lot. You don't weigh a lot. Your weight is fine. And I'll be like, but what about this? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh. My stomach is this, or my arms are flabby. It's just like, yeah, we just, we need to build muscle. In fact, I don't really think your weight should change much at all. Your weight is fine. In fact, we could probably even go up a few pounds. I don't really care, but we need to build muscle. If we build muscle, you will look radically different and you won't have to lose any weight on the scale. Real common, I think, in the 10 to 20 pound range. 100%. I've had quite a few examples of people. They're just like what you said, Adam, 15 pounds, what they want to lose. I establish actually you're under muscled. We don't, not only do we not lose weight, we actually gain weight. So I've had them gain weight on the scale, 8 to 10 pounds of lean body mass, no gain in body fat. But because they gain lean body mass, their body fat percentage goes down, right? Because your body fat percentage is a percentage of your overall body weight, right? So if you were to gain 10 pounds of muscle right now, you're leaner because now less of your total body weight is body fat since you've built some muscle. And they look better. They actually look like they lost weight. So even though they gained 7 or 8 pounds on the scale, people are commenting and saying things like, you look like you lost a bunch of weight. And they'll come to me and tell me that. Like, it's so weird. So I'll have, my coworkers are asking me how I lost weight and I tell them I'm heavier than I was before. It's because they were skinny fat. It's a definition now. And they tend to identify with a period of time in their life where they weighed a certain amount, where they felt the most confident about their body. So an example of that would be like, so I've got like this 5'5 girl. And she comes in and she remembers when she was in college, she felt the best, looked the best. And she weighed like 125. And she comes in and she's weighing 140. And she's like, I need to lose 15, 20 pounds. And I'm like, no, you don't. And she's like, yes, the best I've ever looked. And I'm explaining like, listen, 140 pounds at a 5'5 girl is not a lot of weight. If you're strong and lean, that's a phenomenal body weight. Great. It's a great body weight. It's probably where you'll end up if you have. If we build some really good muscle. And so this is not a weight thing, but yet it's hard to get that across because she can see herself, you know, a decade or two or however long ago it was when she looked and felt that way. And she remembers the weight. And so you identify with this like scale number that I was like, oh, no, I know what I need a way to look really good. The crazy part is if you can get that person bought in, not only will they be happy, they'll be happier at the new weight because they pull up muscle. Because it looks even better on them. So that that girl who thought she wanted to be 125, because that's how she thought was the best she ever looked when she was, you know, X amount of years younger, ends up being more muscle on her body at 140. And that, which is always one of my favorite clients to train because they are like mind blown. Like, oh, my God, I weigh more than I've ever weighed. Yet I feel better than I've ever felt before. And once you kind of once you can show somebody that and this is why on the show, I've been saying this so often. So like to live callers of like, stop trying to cut into the body you think you want and try and build into that body and stop letting the scale this arbitrary number dictate whether you're being successful or not. Like, go get strong. Go build muscle. Right now, you know, Justin earlier mentioned frailty. Sometimes you'll get people whose body weight is actually low and they still think they need to get leaner because they feel flabby, not realizing that they need to build muscle when it comes to longevity. Right. So when you look at like chronic health issues. Mortality under body weight, under muscled, understrength is actually one of the worst categories. So they should have the one of the highest rates, more time. In fact, you're better off being overweight and strong, much better. Super vulnerable. Yes, 100 percent for injury, for breaks and for not fighting the weather, the storm if you get sick. Exactly. So here's another one. You notice that you just need more strength, like you're you struggle to lift things, struggle to put your luggage in. The overhead compartment or to move boxes or fundamental stuff, move the couch or your legs get really tired going up the stairs or you're pushing a stroller and you're like, I need to lose weight. No, you need to increase your strength. You know, strength. A lot of people don't know this, but strength is the base foundational physical pursuit. So that doesn't mean it's the only physical pursuit. But what I mean by by saying it's the base one is that strength has to be good for all the other physical pursuits. to be okay. In other words, if you're weak, your endurance doesn't mean much. Can't really build off. weak no if you're weak you don't have good uh mobility your flexibility actually creates instability uh if you're weak uh if you're weak stamina doesn't mean much strength contributes to all physical pursuits uh and if you feel weak if you find yourself not feeling uh strong or like you need to be stronger definitely go train your body to build some muscle there's also a momentum builder there too it's like this is what we used to teach our trainers is like you you get a client like that that has this like look in their head again or some arbitrary number on the scale but also is weak in everyday life you know i might not be able to lose you 30 or 40 pounds of fat in the first month or like that but i can show this improvement in strength and and when you can see that carry over into the thing that like oh my god like in fact i was just watching this video of a personal trainer in fact the video was like targeting like will ai replace a personal trainer and a personal trainer's training this this old guy and it's like he challenges him to get up off the floor with you know with no hands and the guy looks at him like he can't do it then he then he does it he's able to get up out it's like man you take somebody like that who didn't have the strength to even get up off the floor and then that person can get up the floor they might not they might still have 20 pounds of fat they need to lose or like that but boy that radically changed their life and the buy in that you get from that i'm glad you said what you said adam uh here's some signs that you need to build some strength uh not being able to get up off the floor without assistance or without grabbing onto things yes pushing uh yourself up um getting up out of a chair uh when you're in a low chair and it's sunken down and you have trouble getting out that's a sign that you need to build some strength uh going up the stairs if it starts to feel exhausting um it's not stamina you lack it's strength that you lack if you just can't go up your normal stairs uh when you're grabbing things and putting them up high and you feel shaken or unstable um balance issues are strength issues most of the time uh when you have issues with balance when you're feeling like you could fall you definitely need uh to build strength and if you're younger and you're noticing some of these things get in the gym and lift some weights for sure don't try to lose weight here's what'll happen if you're weak and you pursue weight loss you'll get weaker it's not a good place to be those are rapidly declining like you mentioned like sitting down and and standing up but also like lifting overhead and like just the range of motion you lose uh from having your arm directly overhead uh i noticed that immediately with the you know the elder population well you don't use it you lose it it's one of those things they don't even realize they lost it until they you know they haven't taken a flight in a year or two or something and they finally fight then they realize they can't do that thing or they haven't tried to get up off the floor with no hands until something they do they realize oh my god i can't do that i mean this morning i do this all the time uh and it's so funny that you brought that up because i was doing it this morning in front of my red shoes i might put my socks on balancing on one leg as i put one sock on and then i switch to the it's like and it's so silly really but at the same point it's like it's i'm always testing that to make sure i don't lose that ability to do that because it's like this huge red flag same thing with getting up i was sitting on the floor with my son like i'll intentionally get up with no hands to make sure that like i have that skill and that strength always and yes i i do all the lifting and all the things now and so i shouldn't lose that ability but it's also that i do that for myself because there might become a time when maybe i'm not training as consistently but then all of a sudden here's another one like you'll have a mom uh postpartum and she's getting pain from holding the baby uh but her concern is weight loss because she wants to lose the baby weight no get stronger and again like we said at the beginning of the episode uh you leverage muscle for fat loss and it really makes it a lot easier building first makes the weight loss a lot easier uh later on especially if you need to build that muscle here's another one uh you have bone density issues yeah do not try to lose weight if your bone density is too high you're coming back low yep uh because uh you are actually sending a signal to weaken your bones even more by putting yourself on a weight loss journey it's a fact now strength training with adequate calories uh is how you build bone same way you build muscle is how you build bone so if you see your strength go up and you're feeding yourself adequately uh then you'll see your bone density improve somebody with low borderline low bone density or god forbid something like osteopenia and they're like i need to lose 30 pounds or something like that and they're like i need to lose 30 pounds or something by the way bone density issues is very common with people who are quote-unquote overweight uh so there's this myth out there that that's not the case it's just in fact the uh sarcopenia i mean i remember i used to think i used to think that the person who carried 300 pounds around they gotta be pretty strong too right but it's like it's not sarcopenia is even higher uh in that population you know muscle loss um and so if your bones aren't strong you're getting a readout from your doctor and they're like you're borderline and you let's say need to lose 50 pounds do not cut your calories and go on this crazy weight loss journey right you will weaken your bones faster the best thing you could do is eat a high protein diet feed yourself properly i'm not telling you to go overboard but feed yourself properly and go lift some weights and that'll get the bone well the feeding is is i think the the one that a lot of people don't consider because like immediately your doctor's like oh we got to address this and you're like thinking i should probably lift some weights and make that more regular routine or or you've already been doing that i'm trying to stay ahead of it meanwhile i haven't been taking in you know enough calories to to really feed that support that so this is one of the cool benefits of i know you just did your dexter scan recently but that they they show the bone density and where you range on there um and i was going to ask you guys if if you um if you thought this was always the case or uh we've just become more aware of it because of tests like the dexter scan um bone density issues used to be a result of nutrient deficiencies so whenever we would see bone density issues it was like low vitamin d or something like that and and elderly population yes but now you see it in young people you see it now now it's not a nutrient issue now we get adequate nutrients at least way more than we did let's say 100 years ago but now it's because our bones have no reason to be strong um and it's quite common and then on top of it you know this is why you're seeing young people on glp medications uh which glps severely limit your appetite right so they make you lose weight through that process super low calorie but they're not strength training they're not hitting protein targets they're losing weight coming back with osteopenia i've now seen several people where they're like man i lost 30 pounds but now my doctor says i have osteopenia and i'm 35 like what the heck is going on it's alarming so yeah so if your bone density isn't great the last thing you should do is on this is go on this crazy weight loss journey with subcalorie diet best thing you could do is strength train and eat adequately to support and for the people trying to figure that out you can go do that through like a dexter scan you can go get that done and it's it's great to have this you know yellow uh green red right so it's just like if you're if you're in the middle you're going to be yellow and if you're the the younger you are and the less in the green you are the not good it is like if you're young it should be green all the way easy yeah yeah and if you're if you're middle age and you're yellow to green you're doing okay right you definitely don't want to be in the red at any age at any point but it's a huge red flag if you're younger and you're already in that that point because it's definitely dangerous for you to be cutting like that so here's another one uh you're constantly cold you have low energy you have a sluggish metabolism okay so if this is you what i mean by sluggish metabolism is like you know i don't really eat that much and you're being honest some people say that but they wouldn't track you actually eating quite a bit but you really don't eat that much you don't have a lot of energy you're cold all the time and you need to lose 30 pounds do not go on a diet all of the things i just said will get way worse your metabolism is already slow uh you're not burning many calories probably because you don't have a lot of lean body mass you're not you're not active because you have low energy you go on a sub-calorie diet bring it down even lower energy is going to go down even more you're going to have even more of an intolerance to cold uh temperatures and your metabolic rate is going to adapt downward even more putting you in a really precarious situation where yeah i lost 10 pounds got 20 more to go but i'm eating 1200 calories where do i go from here nowhere this person build muscle go on a process of three four five months where the goal is to gain lean body mass and get stronger and watch what happens your body weight your body temperature goes up you feel warmer energy suddenly goes up because you've got a lot of metabolic tissue that you're building metabolism boosts now you can eat more calories than you could before and yet you're still getting leaner you think this is a harder one for people to pick up on reading themselves or did you find this a common one that people can pick up on i think if it resonates with someone then they should look deeper you know because there's people listening right now they're like you know what i didn't lose weight but i really don't eat that much and i just don't get it and i'm really tired all the time yeah like that person listening right now like let's go on a similar one to overtraining a bit on with the cold oh yeah yeah cold you're like intolerance to temperatures oftentimes it can also mean hormone issues uh but when you diet when you cut your calories low you're not consuming a lot of food you're not active yeah your body's trying to conserve energy yeah so it's not even producing much of heat so you just become very intolerant to it yeah and then lastly like you've already been dieting for a while so if you're listening right now and you've been cutting and losing weight and plateaued and you're plateaued you're like man i'm eating very little i've been watching my calories i'm watching my for a while like reverse it go on a build journey go on a three-month build journey do a reverse diet yeah boost that metabolic rate build that muscle watch what happens to how your body looks and feels it'll change your life it'll blow your mind i was looking forward to this last tip that you've been put on there because i had stuff i wanted to talk to you about that just on my you know leaning out journey right now um i'm reminded of and we do this right we've talked ad nauseum on with people like we never put somebody in a bulk for, for six months uninterrupted we always interrupt it with some sort of a bulk to maintenance and then go back and and a lot of that's just from experience and and practice like what we've seen like what happens to people there's behavioral stuff to it i wanted to know what like like what you think is going on like it's it's so fascinating to me right now like i just had this run where even i had i was like oh you know what i've been i've been dieting pretty hard now for about four weeks uninterrupted or whatever and you know felt like i was leaning out pretty good week over week and then i kind of felt like i just stalled out you guys shared this with you off air like i was like man i've been pinned right at this weight and not only was i pinned this weight but i'm pretty good about seeing if i see notice changes because i track a lot of stuff and i photos and all that stuff and i'm like i'm definitely kind of holding and i know i'm low and i'm really low calorie and i'm like i need i think i'm going to interrupt it with uh you know a couple like high calorie days and then go back and it's so wild because i do the two high calorie days weight shoots up initially on the scale i mean you see yeah oh yeah you see it go up six eight pounds you know and so i and i can only imagine somebody who's like really obsessed with the scale weight would freak out in that and i'm like nope gotta do another day so two days in a row i'm gonna i'm gonna really refuel and it's a trip day three came back down day four came back down i think it was day five new low like what like it doesn't make logical sense at all it doesn't if you don't consider that your metabolic your metabolism uh that's a very general term right it's like a complex system of the body but it doesn't make sense if you think metabolism is fixed it makes plenty of sense if you uh understand that your metabolism adapts that's what people don't realize your metabolic rate adapts what what does it adapt to oh all kinds of things it adapts to hormones and sleep and activity lean body mass uh the way you eat your metabolic rate is not constant and so by bumping your calories your metabolism uh and this is i'm just gonna explain it uh like an idiot essentially because it's way more complex than this but your metabolism is like cool we can speed up we can burn more energy as heat yeah he's giving me more fuel yeah i don't need to hold on uh and that's what happens and i see this happen all the time like you go you bump your calories go back down suddenly the the plateau is gone uh i ate more yeah how's that yeah like if you were to average because we always they always hear people who who tout law thermodynamics calories in versus calories out we'll go like you know it's the total calories in the week what your average is yours is still higher right and so it's like i did two huge calorie bumps i mean huge which would take my average say up uh you know five to seven hundred more calories in the previous week where i was stuck but yet i went and saw a new low like that just i mean based off of that that doesn't science it doesn't make sense entire career and yet even on myself i was like in that point i'm like okay i i probably need to do that and then just fascinated with watching it happen and feeling it and seeing that and and then and then also knowing too like man how many people do we probably because we've talked about this on the show before do we talk to about this and then they probably try it and they freak out because you got to know that like that day that day i'm pushing like so just so you didn't know what was going to happen or anticipate was going to happen that's scary yeah yeah like i'm getting all this weight on the scale what's going on oh yeah and it's i mean my because you're bumping carbs everything went up carbs fat proteins every total calories just went up significantly for me for those two days and so you got all that extra food in you got all that extra water you're probably holding from you uh i don't i definitely don't feel like i look better in that moment because when everything's all lean i look so it's like it's a real mind flop for somebody and then all of a sudden you see the days come back back back back and then all of a sudden new low it's just so fast like clockwork yeah like clockwork yeah i mean if you're listening right now and you're you're convinced uh following a good strength training program is invaluable here so programming makes a big difference when it comes to strength training we have over we have 38 strength training programs each one uh for a different goal different type of person right now every single one of them is 60 off it's our black friday sale starting uh right now so if you go to mapsfitnessproducts.com pick the right program or a bundle of programs if you want use the code black friday and you get it for 60 off you can also find us on instagram if you like the show it's mind pump media we'll see you there can you do that last part over and make it uh like hype up how this is the biggest sale of the year that we always do like make a big deal be like and right now this is the biggest we ever do just for people that don't know that yeah yeah yeah look if you're if you're convinced right now talk about building muscle you need a good strength training program we have 38 of them each one designed for a different person different goal and right now is the biggest sale of the year we only do this once a year it's 60 off across the board so all of our workout programs all of our bundles of programs are 60 off so if you're interested you go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code black friday for the 60 off also if you like the show and you want more you can find us on instagram it's mind pump media we'll see you there thank you for listening to mind pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance check out our discounted rgb super bundle at mindpumpmedia.com the rgb super bundle includes maps anabolic maps performance and maps aesthetic nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by sal adam and justin 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