Simple Habits That Shred Body Fat & Transform Health!

I try to pick what's best for the client, right? Like any diet can work, but what's going to be the most adherable like adherence is always the top priority.

Essentially the certain set point like genetically of like body fat percentage wise where you're performing good, joints feel good, and then hunger signaling is more level on the opposite ends like below it. If you're like a lower body fat percentage, there will be that higher signaling if you go above a certain body fat percentage away from your set point. I noticed that for me, I got to just like keep labs in check in my essentially my insulin and glucose levels and stuff like

that. Just track that a little bit because I'll be having a little more palatable food that's probably going to be higher in sugar naturally, just to get in the amount of calories that I would have to get in because Hunter Stanley starts to go down. And we are live. Austin, how are you, brother? Good. How are we doing? Good man. You still in? You were in Spokane for a while, then you were in. Where you at now? Are you in Arizona? See, I know I'm like a gypsy. I just go all over.

So we were down in Arizona for like 5 years and then we still have our condo down there, but we're up in, if you remember, Coeur d'Alene is right next to Spokane, kind of like right across the border right there. So we're in the Coeur d'Alene Hayden area now, so. Nice. I like that spot, man. My, my wife and I, when we were, because we were right there in Spokane, it's like 20 minutes from Coeur d'Alene. So we would drive over there on

the weekends. We didn't have any money at the time, so we would just go over there and like walk around the boardwalk. Yeah, the boardwalk's pretty. The lake. Yeah, Yeah. It's pretty, pretty spot, man. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I forgot you has some family or your wife has some family up here. Do you guys, did you guys come this summer at all or are you going to come over here this summer? No, well, she's got so she's about to have a baby. We're going to have a baby like

literally any week now dude. Congrats another. One another one another boy. So she's got a bunch of her family coming down in the next several months to kind of help out with that. But then as soon as he gets a little older, we'll probably go back up to Spokane area because she's got family in Pomeroy, she's got family in Spokane. So yeah, we've got a bunch of roots in Washington and I like Washington, so we'll go back up for. Sure. That's where we met. That's. Right.

That's where we met, man. You've been on the podcast. Is this second or third time on the show? I care this might be you're. One of the OG guests that you were, one of my very first guests when I first started the podcast way back in like 2016 I think. And then I had you back on, you know, several years afterwards. And now we're you're right. This this is another third kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. I like it man.

That's funny. That's been, it's so crazy to think back like, 'cause yeah, you won that show. You're, you won the bodybuilding. And then my Tom, if you remember Tom, that's right, It was Tom. Which show was this? It's just. Like I think, I don't even know if that circuit's still going anymore, but it was the NGA or the it's called NGA, the NGO.

There's the GBO. No GBO cause yeah, NGA is the natural federation, but the GBO and that was untested and you're natural and you still want it. So that was. Yeah, the, the guy I won the classic, but the guy that won the bodybuilding, he, he was, he was definitely not natural. He was, he had like you remember that competitor, man, he was huge. He probably had £100 on me and he was like losing his hair in all different spots on his brain, man. And I was like, what?

Look at him. Oh, no, I know which one you're talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like what causes that? Do you know what even causes? Yeah, I don't know with his receptors like if it is from the drugs and it's just like the like downstream of more like rheumatizing and estrogen or if it's more of like a dihydrotestosterone like I don't know if it's just genetic as well. You know, I have I don't know, but I don't I haven't seen that type of it didn't seem like a

male pattern baldness. It seemed like a a condition of some kind. You know what? I. Mean yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, it's funny because like, I don't know hardly anything about all of the performance enhancing drugs side of things because I don't ever, you know, dabble with it. So it's amazing how ignorant I am towards it. But like, I, I see people that are abusing things or whatever the case may be, they're just like not clearly not healthy.

And it's like, man, they may be jacked, they may win this show, but I don't want any part of what they're taking. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a slippery slope for sure. And then you you can usually notice too. And the biggest thing you see at the amateur level, I guess at the pro level 2, but there's a little more dialed in. Obviously I get the national shows, but at the regional level you'll just see people try to mask the lack of getting conditioned with, you know, pushing more drugs.

The problem is, is then you'll see a lot of people have that water bloat. Maybe you're used to like their face gets all puffy or they'll have like their midsection. Cause the body can. I mean, in my experience, like even if you push it super hard with PEDs, like you still need time and the body still needs time for fat loss and you can go quicker. But the amount of stress you put on the body you have to take into account too.

I feel like 'cause you'll have this stressed, like cortisol, just puffy look, you know, rather than a hard grainy like during your peak week especially. I see that all the time. But yeah, it's like a very fine line where more is not always better. And I think I don't know what you've been here and stuff, to

be honest with you. I don't really talk to a lot of, I'm kind of my own lane all the time. But the people I do talk to, it just seems like I think more education is coming out finally to actually get blood work done and to actually try and be healthier with using PEDs, you know? But yeah, it's. I feel like like TRTHRT is just mainstream now.

Like back when you and I knew each other in Washington, like there were people that were taking drugs in the bodybuilding stage to compete at a higher level, but it didn't seem like the general population was that well versed in it. Now it seems like almost everybody in their their cousin

is on some form of TRTHRT. So I feel like just by way of, you know, downstream education, more people are getting educated to, OK, we probably should get lab work drawn on a regular basis, let's do this the right way. But you get with that just a lot more noise in the marketplace too. That's it. Yeah. And this is actually because you asked me about certain topics like this is an interesting one that there's like 2, there's like A2 sided coin here where 1

is great. There's more education and available like quality substance, right? Like, you know, actual testosterone from a pharmacy. And the old school doctors are like maybe going out and retiring or like the more the new people, new, you know, doctors coming in, they're more trying to take this approach of lab work and testosterone is OK versus back then people are like, oh, you take testosterone, you're just taking a bunch of steroids. It's like, it's by identical.

It's like what's in your body? The, the, so the good part is it's like there is more education, but like you just said, when there's more education, there's more attention on it, there's more noise and then becomes more false information as well, right. And so that's kind of the bad part. The other part is, is what scares me is in my experience with my clients, I didn't really have to worry a ton about super skewed lab work. Like 5-10 years ago.

When we first like 5 to 8 years ago, it was kind of like, yeah, you know, we got a guy that's 55-6 years old and maybe he wants to kind of, you know, amp it up his testosterone a little bit. You could start with some like Clomiphene, like NAD, like try to just use that route first. And if that doesn't like hold, then we can go to TRT and you know, they feel a ton better. But now dude, the average levels that I see and I'm talking about, I've seen guys in their

late 20s, early 30s. And for some reason, I don't know why if it's all the the extra estrogens, if it in our just epic environment, if it's in the food, all the probiotics and I mean the antibiotics and all that stuff. But the average levels that I see are significantly lower across the board on all age groups now than it was like 5 years ago. So it's like one of those things where it is a need, but why does it need to be a need? Like what's the actual underlying problem that could

maybe be fixed? And that's US specific, but I don't know other country stuff, you know? No, it's interesting man. Like I've I've seen different stats and like something that I've seen is like the average male testosterone has dropped by like 50% over the last 50 years or something like that. Something easy to rattle, left tip your tongue. And I've never had super high testosterone. I mean like my average numbers, like I just got tested the other day and I think my total was

like 350 or something like that. Really. Yeah, it's never been high. And then my my average windows, like 3 to 600 probably is my average window. And then like when I was 3.9%, it dropped all the way down to 89. So crazy low then. But I've never had super high tests. And I feel like for me, it's because I'm just super stressed and don't get enough sleep with the business. A lot of people will look at my numbers. Oh, it's because you've been keto for 10 years.

But one of my clients that works here, he's been keto for 10 years and his testosterone's 1000 plus, he's, you know, several months into prep and he's still 800 something. So it's not that. I just think mine's lack of sleep honestly. Yeah, I think to be honest, that's a, that's a big culprit too, like whatever, like food selection or manufacturing, all that.

But I think if I was also comparing notes of like the perceived stress versus actual stress, you got to look at that too, like how the user can handle stress. But even then, a lot of guys like subconsciously if they can handle stress, it's still there. And that would it's gut issues. I haven't seen one case that isn't linked to some form of a stress trigger as well as yeah, the hormones get pretty beat up from the stress and the lack of sleep too, for sure.

So I bet you you're probably right, yeah. And there definitely are like a lot of xenoestrogens and environmental toxins that we could certainly mitigate against. And like the, you know, like the, the soaps, the conditioners, the, you know, cleaning products that we use, the clothes that we wear, you know, like most people's clothes are coming from China or some, you know, the country where it's like recycled plastic. So you're getting a lot of, you know, xenoestrogens there.

It's like all that adds up over time. But yeah, the lifestyle factors I think is key. I mean, people that are not getting enough sleep, spending all their time on their phones right before going to bed, they're not getting a deep quality sleep, but they're drinking too much alcohol. I think alcohol is a huge detriment to testosterone. So mitigating against that I think is is key. But but yeah, it's become totally mainstream. The whole TRT thing.

I need to make a video on this too, though. But I feel like a lot of people, they get labs drawn, they don't feel optimal. They see they've got low testosterone by the book, so OK, I need to get some TRT to feel better. And they go to the clinic and there's a clinic on every street corner now, so. And they're like, yeah, let's meet him now, dude. Yeah, you're going to take this, we're going to get you up to this number and you're going to have more vitality, more energy,

better recovery, more libido. And they're going to just list off all these things that it's going to improve in your life. And then I look at all of those things in my life now with, you know, quote UN quote, low testosterone. And I'm like, man, I feel like I've got all kinds of energy. I don't have a dad bod. I'm staying lean. I've got recovery, I've got libido. I got a baby on the way. It's like I've got pretty good vitality for life right now and zeal.

Like I don't think I'm missing on anything. Yeah, no, I I agree. And you probably your lifestyle like obviously you're not drinking a bunch of alcohol and have these bad habits, you know, patterns you have to break, like you're leading by example with doing what you need to do with your nutrition and exercise. I mean everything. So yeah, I think it's it's become mainstream and it is becoming a point. Like I was wild to me when I started seeing like ads, Hey, want to get testosterone had

like a vial and everything. I'm like, we're running ads to this. I'm like, I don't. So that's legal, I guess. I don't know, but but anyways, yeah, I think it's become really mainstream, easily accessible. But it's another thing where the the only difference like with a fad diet or something like that where they give you certain supplements or it cleanses or blah, blah, blah.

It's like, I think there's another level of like riskiness if you want to call it, because it's messing with your endocrine system. And those have like balancing with your hypothalamic acid, you know, everything in your brain like kind of regulating. That's like another level where it's not just take in some, you know, dandelion root or just something that's like flushing you out or a cleanse or just

something simple. It's like they're kind of marketing like almost like a fad though, you know, it's kind of wild. And then the peptides come into play now too. That kind of come, I think intertwined with the HRT is those same health optimal clinics or whatever you want to call them pushing. Yeah, the peptides are interesting, man. And there's been a lot of, you know, a lot of controversy come out around that. And like, I don't really have a

dog in the fight necessarily. Like, I feel like we obviously have an obesity epidemic. So if we can get people to lose weight and be healthier, that's a positive. And I obviously think how we go about that approach is key. But at the end of the day, actually reaching the desired outcome is of paramount importance.

You know, so like, I understand that I sympathize with people that want to go that route to kind of get some, some momentum going, but my hesitation is that it's not really fix the root issue. And if you put people on, you know, the peptides and they're just simply, they're not changing the types of calories they're consumed. They're just eating fewer overall calories. Like I was getting my hair cut the other day and, and the woman cut my hair had lost 20 lbs using the peptides.

If she was all excited and she's like, you know, now I don't need to eat the whole sleeve of Oreo cooked 'cause I can just eat half of it. And I'm like, OK, what are you doing for protein? She's like, I'll get all my protein from peanut butter. And I'm just like, at least a moment. It's like, OK, we we got to fix some of these underlying issues in order to truly reach the desired. Outcome here. You know, that's funny. Yeah, it's always peanut butter.

I don't know why I'm getting all this protein I'm like, but no, you're right. I'm. I think we're on the same page. I've like to be completely transparent, like I haven't done enough research into all of it because I didn't even want to get in the fight kind of thing, you know, like it would probably good for content, you know, to make it combative and all the stuff.

But I'm like, you know, it's going to, it's people going to go through it. And you know, I've had a lot of clients come to me after they've done it and they did it incorrectly. I think it's just like anything where, yeah, you can use it as a tool, as an aid, I think that that you can abuse it. I think that your exercise and protein is what people usually lack. So then a lot of skeletal muscle tissues lost, which is not good.

But yeah, like you're saying, it's just, it's the same thing like just reducing your appetite to consume, you know, lower total calories. Cause at the end of the day, total, I mean, it's total calories, you know.

So I guess that's curious. I'm curious your thoughts of my observations of the last few years because you do keto, but do you have more of a macronutrient approach with keto or do you have more of a rigid more like specific meal selection or food sources that they must get in like for your clients? Or do you have a like what's your flexibility? There's two offsets of the spectrum, you know, where are you kind of at, I guess.

So I, I feel very fortunate because I learned so much when I was in my like bro bodybuilding, flexible dieting days. And I mean, I was able to obviously change my composition effectively with that approach. I don't think it was the optimal approach from like a hormonal or sustainable or metabolic

standpoint. So I feel like keto answered a lot of those issues, but a lot of people in the keto diet that didn't come from that background, which is most of them are very ignorant when it comes to macronutrient partitioning. And you know, calories, like there's a big fear of the calorie word in not all keto people by any means, but like the low carb ketogenic carnivore space, so much so that they like say, OK, calories are totally irrelevant. They don't matter.

It's all about hormones, specifically insulin. And that, to me is just always frustrated me because it's like, look, it all matters. Like, hormones are very important. You know, depending on your hormone manipulation, you can, you know, influence how much caloric expenditure you're actually deriving from the foods you're consuming. But at the end of the day, a calorie is just a unit of measurement. And all foods have a specific calorie count.

They all impact the body metabolically and hormonally differently, but they're that's just a unit of measurement. So swamp out the word calorie for fuel and, you know, and then use that. So that's been a big frustration of mine. So I'm always like, when I'm in a prep, I'm 100% manipulating my calories down. I'm very specific with the distribution of those

macronutrient ratios. But I would never recommend people throw all caution to the wind and never take into account how much total fuel they're consuming or not consuming. Interesting. Yeah. OK, so it seems like you do there's like witness serious dieting like for prep, like there's manipulation with that total chloric intake on purpose. And it's not just like there's some people where they won't track, they won't track anything, right? It's just more like they only

use specific food sources. And then in my opinion, I guess it's like, yeah, you can manipulate hormones to for the caloric expenditure like you said. But at the end of the day, the, the data that you're collecting to manipulate like when you're getting deeper in prep and stuff like that. I'm just curious if like how rigid meaning like you're on the dot with your caloric intake and your certain macronutrient ratios.

Like you say, if you're just like really rigid and you eat the same thing everyday kind of thing, naturally you might eat similar if not the same thing every day. Once you kind of get to low prep numbers because you're like not thinking about having all this crazy flexibility. I don't know how you work. I just, I'm just trying to get my meals. Yeah, so, so I pretty much I'm really rigid with my macronutrient Graham goals. And I tell my clients like, hey, look, because I'm manipulating

their macros every single week. Like I update their macros for the following week, you know, every Friday or Saturday typically. And I'll say, OK, look, your macros are changing every week, pretty incremental changes. You know, 510g adjustments. Try and consistently get within 5 grams of the gold macros every single day. Like if you're doing that, then I'll be getting good data back on how your body's responding, then I can make better adjustments for you going forward.

And if they're hitting those macro goals, then all by definition know what their caloric intake is as well. And like, OK, so I think you and I are very similar in that capacity then well, I bring it up. I was just curious, do you have you had any scent or hint? I know we're in different industries, but the whole like tracking macros as I look at it, at least that you, I don't want to speak for you, but it's like you're accumulating data.

It's just like a, it's just like the scientific method essentially, right at the end of the day, like you're in high school, college, whatever, and you're doing these, you have a control group, you're trying to create a control at least, and you're testing variables and whatever adjustments or ratio or whatever. But and then you get a bunch of feedback, see what the outcome was and then based on the outcome, change the plan kind of thing, right?

You're making the adjustments and you kind of do that every week. That's like a more of a scientific approach. I feel like it's pretty much scientific in that capacity, but I feel like or maybe observe that the whole tracking macros might be perceived to a new user, a new person, and going into fitness as almost like a fad diet. Yeah, it's, it's weird, man. Have you? Does that make sense what I'm saying though? Yeah, no, for sure. Like I'm, I'm a big advocate for tracking macros.

I, I don't think people should be a slave to macro tracking like I've always told people like if you're happy with how you look, then, you know, don't become a slave to tracking

macros. And I think that if you are, you know, regulating your, your blood sugar response, and if you're eating real quality food that is nutrient dense and not hyper palatable, you can be more intuitive with your eating because your body's gonna be giving you better hunger signaling cues and you're not as at high risk of overindulging. But if all those criteria are met and you are still not happy with how you're looking, then you know what can be measured

can be managed. So take a very objective view towards things, get these metrics in place and then figure out what needs to be manipulated to actually reach the goal. So like, I'm totally for it, especially if you're having a very specific goal in mind. And like with the bodybuilding prep, like you can't intuitively get some 5% body fat. Like your body's going to fight you. So like, you got to look at the numbers.

But yeah, there's people that are very opposed to tracking because they look at it as not necessarily a fad, but more of like a disorder, almost like, hey, that's bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's where it's just been interesting, like, oops, sorry about that. Interesting observation. Like at the end of the day, I try to stay away from, I try to pick what's best for the client,

right? Like any diet could work, but what's going to be the most adherable? Like adherence is always the top priority, essentially, and adherence to, like you said, manageable, like actual data that's concrete. But for whatever reason, I don't know if just like everybody, the whole flexible dieting took it extreme, right? And the noise of having Skittles all day and kind of BS like that kind of messed with it. But it just seems to me like, yeah, people, the tediousness

from tracking for one. But also it's almost like, yeah, it just seems like I'm a, you know, it's a food disorder kind of thing. I'm like, well, you know, I try to explain to him, well, do you go to work? Do you, do you get a paycheck, you know, every two weeks or every month? OK. Do you have bills that you have to pay?

So and they're like, yeah, I'm like, so you're telling me that you're going to go spend money based on what you think you are making, you know, every month, regardless if you actually know what you're spending the, you know, how much you're actually making. So that means that at the end of the month, like if you're -1000 bucks 2000 bucks, what do you do then, right? Or just that makes sense.

Like I try to put a real world example where it's like, well, I'm not trying to be, you don't have a disorder by going to work and making money for to pay your bills, do you? Right. It's kind of a similar perspective I try to give, but yeah. Yeah, no, I totally agree with you on all fronts, man. I mean, I feel like, you know, in a very simple time, in a super simple time, you know, rerun the clock 500 years. Like nobody is overweight. We don't have an industry, yeah.

We don't have industry and like you're bartering with your neighbor for like what you need. Like if you need some more eggs, then rather than go on and punch the time clock and getting a paycheck in two weeks, you can just trade them some of your, you know, wool from your sheep for some of their eggs. Like you can just make it work and like man is a beautiful, beautiful setting setting. I would love to go back there at times, you know, but like, that's not our current reality.

Like we have a much more rigid structure and our psychology, biology, DNA, like we are, we've evolved from that primitive root structure, but like we live in a very different time. So like you have to take that reality into consideration and adjust things according. Like it would be a luxury to not have to track any food, to just have enough activity throughout our needs of survival to stay fit and healthy.

But like, the reality is you could literally pay the bills by working in front of your computer on whatever job you're doing and not have any movement. So you wouldn't be checking that box, eating hyper palatable foods that are delivered to you through DoorDash. I mean, like we are so far removed from what we evolutionary have been. You know, coming from that you have to have all these other interventions in place, tracking being one of them.

I agree 100%, Yeah, It's just the adapting over the current society for sure. And I think it's only going to keep going in that direction. Obviously, you know, yeah, like we were talking about with AI and all kinds of stuff where they'll come out with whatever machine stuff and robots. Now he wants, you know, come out, eat robots and then everything, everything will be removed. Where it's, it's it's like very interesting.

But it's also like scary in the sense it might be sad because like you said, I, I wish I'd go back to cause like it's simple because it's simpler life and it's just the people, I guess if you're not afraid of working hard, are actually doing things like it's more simple where it's like, OK, I do this, trade it for this and you'd probably spend a lot more time.

I think in other countries that aren't as advanced are shown like a lot happier, even though we think they're not because they don't have as much technology or something like that. But they spend more time with their family. They have to do things in groups to like, you know, farming and that kind of stuff. But it's a lot simpler of a life that sounds sounds interesting, you know. Oh yeah, it sounds appealing for sure, man, especially that I've got kids.

It's like, like I, I look at what interests them because they don't have any biases placed in the world yet. So like, they don't care what's on my macro tracking and they don't care what the paycheck is the end of two weeks. They don't care about any of this stuff that they care about rolling around in the mud and going to seeing something new, you know, like that. That's what matters. But yeah, it's, it's funny, man. Times change it for sure.

But I do think in light of all that, like it's like this past week I took Saturday and Sunday because I've been tracking pretty consistently and I don't think track is bad. Like I track more often than not because I'm always doing some type of experiment too. But this past Saturday and Sunday, I didn't track at all and just ate intuitively because it's been, you know, significant time since I've done them.

And it's kind of weird because like when you track more often than not, and then you allow yourself time to not track at all, it's almost like you have to relearn what satiety feels like, what fullness feels like. Because like, I mean, I was just listening to my body, but I, I put down probably 5000 calories

each day no problem. And my I should definitely be full, but I could keep eating more if I wanted to, you know A. 100% yeah that because didn't what did you compete like how long has it been since? I did those five shows in 23 and then I'd reversed, I added up from that and then I'd got up like 200 lbs at the peak of my build and I was just too heavy at 200 lbs. So I died it down to like one 77180 and that's pretty much where I'm at right now Got. You. Yeah, no, I agree.

Like usually that just the hunger signaling and stuff, depending on how deep I I see like kind of like a pendulum, the harder you push, the harder that signal is going to be on the back end. It's just like pretty much managing it emotionally and with brain power pretty much. But but yeah, no, the certain body fat percentage, I don't

know if you noticed this. It's just like it the certain set point like genetically of like body fat percentage wise where you're performing good, joints feel good and then hunger signalling is more level. But on the opposite ends, like below it, if you're like a lower body fat percentage, there will be that higher signalling where you might have more.

For me, it would be like fibrous food, vegetables and like not as palatable like you were saying, and have those to kind of try to get a little bit of hunger signaling down. But then like if you go above a certain body fat percentage away from your set point, I noticed that for me, I got to just like keep labs in check in my essentially my insulin and glucose levels and stuff like that.

Just track that a little bit because I'll be having a little more if you want to call it junk food, but just have more palatable food that's probably going to be higher in sugar naturally, just to get in the amount of calories that I would have to get in because hunger Stanley starts to go down. And then, yeah, so I don't know. So that's what's weird for me

man. Like I, I remember when I first was starting to gain weight, like way back in the day, because I was 115 lbs when I started, like I was naturally super skinny and I had to work really hard to bulk. Like it took me significant effort to put on weight. Whereas now, like I don't ever feel like I'm force feeding. I, I vividly remember force feeding back then, whereas now like I don't feel like I'm ever force feeding.

Like I can easily eat 6000 calories a day of the most high quality nutrient dense, you know, steak and eggs and it wouldn't be effortful to do so. Like it would just go down easy, which is kind of weird to me. That's. Cool. Yeah, because I know there's a lot of that's interesting to me because of because all the people that I've talked to or just know that done more of a keto style approach and just insulin is so much more level

stable. And people say like it's easier, let's say like dieting too, if they can get into the lifestyle, like actually get into ketosis and manage with food selection and do a real keto style approach rather than I don't know what your thoughts are, but like a carb refeed, you know, like a modified kind of approach with keto where they're kind of bumping themselves out of ketosis. Or a lot of people will tell me like, yeah, I'm doing keto.

And then it comes to, I asked them like, well, do you feel like crap all the time now? And they're like, yeah, I'm like, I don't think you should probably feel like crap all the time if you're actually in ketosis. That's called a low carb diet, you know, So, but it's interesting that you say that because just with insulin and hunger, like ghrelin, greylin, whatever you want to pronounce it, the spike to help with eating more.

But if you feel like you just keep eating, you know, your insulin's a lot more stable and your glucose too. That's actually that's interesting to me. And I don't necessarily like that because like, I would love to feel more full. Like I don't want to eat 6000 calories and still be hungry, you know? But but it's like, it's weird. And then the same is kind of

true in reverse. Like when I'm dieting down, I'm definitely hungry, but it's like I don't get hangry like I did when I was eating a bunch of carbohydrates. So I mean, I got blood work drawn the other day and my fasting insulin was good. Glucose is always good. You know, I'd be, I've never actually tested leptin Ingrelen, but I'd be curious to see what those numbers are looking like.

Yeah. Yeah, I haven't ever tested that extreme of like hunger hormones stuff and gone through all that I've done like multi point salivary, like cortisol stuff. I kind of look at that in line 2 within different insulin points in the day and glucose level during the day.

But to be honest, with the last year, dude, I've the last year and a half, two years, I haven't even been an athlete, so to say because all my. Testing you, you recovered from your remind me the details on the injury and what all the specifics were on that. For my pituitary tumor, yeah. Yeah, that was back a long time ago. So it's funny, we bring up light TRT like I've been on TRT for, I don't know, 8 probably since I've known you. That's when I got it was when I was 19, I think.

So yeah, at least nine years. So anyways, because that shut it

down. Like we tried clomiphene and ACG and all these things to just try to get it back up naturally. But that tumor, what it was is prolactinoma I guess is what classified the the name of it. So it push up prolactin and that's an antagonist for testosterone. So just like kind of push it down and keep it down. Colburn is, I think it's shrunk, but just being on TRT for so long and just the suppression of your natural production since you already have the exogenous, you know, form.

I'm trying to have a baby, I'm trying to get on your level and it's just been extremely difficult. So all the last year I haven't been on TRT for at least a year and a half now and just blasting high doses. I, I think the research, I think the anecdotal evidence versus the research like push ACGA lot higher when you're trying to, for fertility. I think that you can go a lot higher than what's probably suggested or recommended.

And that's what I've been doing is like a little bit extra that I'm supposed to and. So you're pushing the HCG, but you're off of the. The testosterone the. Exogenous TOT OK. And you're getting your so you're, you've been off of that for how long now? It's been about a year and a half.

So it's a combination at first, usually with like my bodybuilders, like my enhanced guys, like depending on the length of time they're on, but also their usage of like if this is their first cycle versus that, you know, they're been in the industry for 10 years. The amount of like time as well as like pulsing certain things like clomiphene. I like clomiphene better, which is a SERM that's an oral form. And then if they need it, like I'll blast clomiphene.

If they need it, I'll put an ACG as well. But I try to just start with like the minimal amount of things to get them back back up naturally. Because then you get to a point to where like if somebody's been in it for a long time and they're not trying to have kids and like trying to go to the next level.

Then you've heard of maybe like blasting and cruising and stuff like that where they'll have more levels during into prep or certain parts of their offseason and they'll come down to, let's say, you know, additional dose would be 200 milligrams a week of testosterone, no? One's like cycling off and. Yeah, they don't even cycle off. They just like the delta or like the change in how much they take. They try to do less because it'll help resensitize the receptors essentially a little bit.

So if you're just blasting all the time, it's just like anything else in the body, that tolerance kind of concept with like caffeine or anything, right, That'll kind of happen as well with the receptors. But anyways, yeah, so me personally, I've been blasting, I did clomiphene first to see and it just really wasn't enough. And so I've been blasting clomiphene with high doses of ACG and I'm finally back up to, I think my last lab was mid 7

hundreds. So it isn't going to be as high as like on testosterone, but it's more about like the fertility components of like your sperm quality count, motility, all that kind of stuff. So that's what we've been working on and. Well, that's exciting, yeah. So we'll see. We just started, actually. Hopefully Kaylee's OK with it, but we just started. I'm pretty open about everything, but because I think there's a lot of people that have been struggling with this, I didn't even know.

And once I started like bringing it up, people like, Oh yeah, I had a friend that's going through that too. And then they had a friend and everybody's doing like IVF. We haven't gotten there yet, but we're starting with what's called IUI, if you're familiar with that. But that's where we're starting just to see because I think I was the problem. And if they can kind of, you know, we can get it figured out there. If not, and then we'll have to move to to IVF.

But yeah, interesting. Fingers and crossed for man thinking and praying for that's that's exciting for sure. This will be your first one, right? This will. Be the first one, yeah. So we're time, it's all you know, it's not up to us. So we're just praying and, and when it happens, it happens at the right time, you know, so. Yeah, that's awesome, man. Super awesome. Well keep you posted there for sure. Yeah, 'cause you what? So any any day now you're saying with your.

Yeah, so like my my son Roger, he just turned 3 like 2 weeks ago and then we like crystals do end of this month with our second. So like she could literally have a baby. Like I could pause this podcast and be rushed to the hospital right now. I mean like any, any day now and any day in the next 4 weeks is totally up for grabs. So so yeah, it's kind of what we're at right now. I've got my whole calendar blocked down after the next week because it's probably going to

happen soon. Yeah, dude, that is awesome. So happy for you man. And I can't believe your first one's already. Three. Yeah. Are you guys going to have more or is it 2 and done? I don't know, man, I feel like we'll, we'll probably know after we've had the second for a little bit, but like it's, it's interesting because I mean, I'm not, I don't know anything about parenting. I'm learning as I go, you know, there's no rule book for this. I feel like we've got a really respectful kid.

I feel like he's super smart. I feel like he's really healthy. He's like in that definite, you know, devious, you know, mischievous, defiant stage right now, which is trying because it's like I take responsibility for everything. If like I'm failing him in some form or fashion, if he's just crazy right now. But everybody's like, no, he's 3. So just take with a grain of salt. But everybody that I've talked to that's had more kids always says have more kids.

So like, you know, I got to, I got to consider that too. Yeah, well, you guys will. It'll all align how it's supposed to. But yeah, now that's awesome. Dude. I'm really happy for you. Well, I'll have to just be on the lookout. Maybe it'll be a a baby poster, I don't know. Just maybe you'll shoot me text or I'll see it on your Instagram or something like that of what's the what's the what do you know? You guys have a name yet? Yeah. So Rigel is his full name is Robert Rigel Sykes.

So Rigel is the brightest star in the constellation of Orion, which is my middle name. And then the second one, we're like, OK, we got to do something. We can't do another star in the constellation Orion because what else we got to pick from, like Beetlejuice or something? It's like a big start. So we're going. We're going to name him Hazen Wilder Sykes, so. Dude, that's sweet. Yeah. It'll be. Cool.

It's interesting to me, like the unique names coming out now, because that's what Kaylee, she'll just start, rattle him off, all right, Don't even think about it. Yes or no. And she'll just start naming all

these names and I'm like, OK, yeah, yeah, well, that's different. So there's a lot of, like, different names coming out and that's cool. I like that. Appreciate it, man. Yeah, I mean, I called Raj Raj. He's got all kinds of nicknames, so we'll probably call Hayes, Hayes and Hayes or something short like that. But yeah, man, having boys, I wouldn't know the first thing about having girls. But Raj, he's like full blown boy. Like yesterday I came home so my wife could come up here and work

out. And like, first thing he wanted to do when I got home is drive his electric tractor to the yard, take all of his clothes off, and then just dump jump into this big mud hole. And like I spent the next 30 minutes spraying them off the water hose. Like, that's just my day right now, which is awesome. Dude, that's awesome. Do you have, so you have one of those electric like what do you got like a skistor or not a skistor but you have like a tractor or something like that?

Yes. And he's got a little tractor and a trailer and then it broke down. So I got him a little zero turn mower and he had that just like my mower. And then we got the tractor fix and I always get a tractor in a zero turn mower. He just spends hours in the yard just driving around going through puddles and stuff. That's awesome, dude. That's super cool. Oh. Yeah, we love it. That'll be you. 4 did. I'm hoping man. Yeah, cuz I don't know if there's any validity of this. So funny.

Kelly just likes to research a ton of stuff. And then she was, she brought up she's like, you know, it's going to be tough. I'm like, why is that? Cuz I'm only 5-6 on a good day, probably 55 most of the time. And Kaylee's 411 and she's like, oh man, if we have a boy this kids going to get bullied. But but no, she said that with the IUI stuff because of what they do with like there's a

certain process in a machine. They like do all this cleaning I guess, or like they kind of get it prepared. And once they like kind of bypass and they go directly to trying to implant to the egg pretty much. The male, I don't know, there's validity, right? But Kelly was saying that what she was researching is the male sperm swim a little bit faster on the probability of having a male or a boy was like 3 or 3 1/2 to one I think, when doing IUI. So I was like, oh, that's

interesting. So I don't know if that's good or bad, but you know, I thought that was interesting. Just that research, you know. So maybe you're tall Male sperm will get there first. Well, dude, I don't know what happened in my side, my family, I'm the only short 1. So everybody, my dad 62, Noah, my little brother, he's 63, Tyler, he's 6-2. And then Kaylee, her side her, the women in her family are even tall and she's just a little

runt of the family too. So I don't know what happened to us, but maybe we'll get some recessive. Genes we can speak taller than you probably yeah, like, I mean that's that'd. Be funny looking up to your kid, no? No, it'll be exciting, man. I'm excited for you. It's the best thing in the world. I mean, like we got all these stressors of work and business, entrepreneurship.

It's like you come home and like none of that stuff even matters anymore, you know, Like it's just what can I do to make to my to my kid right now? How can I be there for them? That's all that matters. Yeah, no, 100%, yeah. That's like the simple stuff. Yeah, I'm, I'm looking forward

to it for sure. But. Yeah. But yeah, dude, other than that, I think that's kind of all been new with me with family stuff. Do you have your man? You told me a while ago about the whole facility that you got going now, but do you still run in all the keto brick stuff and and do? You have any? Is it? Only the keto brick still or do you have any other SKU's I guess or whatever you want to, you know, products? Yeah, we, we got all kinds of things, more commands.

So we got we got the facility. So I've got my own gym in there. I'm building out my gym with more equipment. We just put a shower in this past week. So I got a legit shower in my gym now, which is nice. Got the podcast studio going to do a lot more in person podcast. We got the keto brick kitchen. And then we got like, you know, an apparel side. So we're totally revamping our apparel. Like I'm getting the website redone now. We're totally changing how we're

doing the apparel. So we're going to roll that out as a relaunch later this year. And then I've also got plans for two other businesses at some point in the future. I'm, I'm, I'm like a serial entrepreneur, but I got to be careful because I need to like get everything that's currently active honed in and down. Yeah, very similar. Yeah, I've got that. And then obviously all the stuff for the content like keto, bodybuilding, the course, the

coaching, all that stuff. But yeah, always something work. I didn't get you out here, man. To Arkansas. Yeah. No, I haven't. I haven't. Think about that because I want to come out and then I want to bring, if you don't mind, bring my brother because you have your media guy, right? But I have my brother is my so we have a media company that we run up here in Idaho. He's more specific in all the real estate videography and photography and stuff.

But and would you like drone work and the whole thing? But he's done a lot of my content because he's he's the smartest dude I know with that. So I don't know anything about it, but he. Loves it. He's your. Brother, yeah, he's my brother. So I was like, yeah, we can get a some content or something like that. I'd love to come out and see the facility, you know? Yeah, for sure, man. Let's make it happen. Let's make it happen.

And once this baby comes, like I'm just going to, what I'd really like to do is I want to because I've got like a separate Realty company as well like that the that I purchased the building through. And I want to start, you know, buying real estate as an investment. And I'd like to get a, a place not far from our facility that I could have as an Airbnb, but that anytime people want to come out for a podcast or just in person, whatever, I just book out that house as an Airbnb for them.

That way I could host people more, you know, efficiently. So yeah. That's awesome. And you've been dipping in more real estate now, but I don't even know the market over where you're at, but like it's crazy over. Here. Well, it's funny, man. Like I actually got my real estate license when I was in Washington. Really. I was, yeah, I was with the railroad. That's what took me to Washington. And then I was trying to start my own business there. So I was going to get into like

rental properties. So I got my license for Coeur d'Alene for Idaho and Washington. And I got, I started working as a, as a, an agent, you know, buying and selling agent and you know, had a few people buy houses through me that were also with the railroad. But the whole goal with this was to just buy rental income properties. But as soon as I quit the railroad, I lost all my financing for the rental

property. So then I went Billy up, got like quarter $1,000,000 in debt and then started the business, you know? Yeah, yeah. No, that's, it's, that's a hard thing. You got to, it's like a kind of have to have the business, the cash producing business before the whole like investment side of things. I think the gurus online saying,

oh, you can make all this money. I'm like, yeah, but it's a little different than what you're saying, you know, and then you got to live through it. I mean, I've tried, I mean, I'm just pretty small fish, but I've just tried to like buy. And then Kaylee and I thing right now is because we like to bounce around. So we'll like buy like this

house. We just took a bunch of content for this house fully furnished and we want to just see what it, what kind of demand or interest for like the area, especially in the summer time now it's pretty touristy now like you if you remember being up here with the lakes, but I was like, well, if we could charge a premium then we can go back and forth or get get another property, you know what I mean?

It's just kind of depends. And we haven't done like the full investor like hardcore full time thing. But I think like over time you accumulate. I think for the average person, even you got like 5 properties, you know, that could be half paid off or at least the it's all the interest is done and like it's primarily principal after 15 years, you know, I think you're sitting pretty good for, you know, afterwards, but that's what you're doing. And to me, yeah. And to me, it's just tangible,

man. Like I, I totally get the whole,

you know, Bitcoin crypto, like I, I totally respect it. I know I need to dive into it. I've had a few podcasts on. I probably should buy into it, but it's like man, like I'm a tangible kind of person. Like I like I real estate because I can go there, I can drive there. I can see it in my own two eyes. Whereas like stock markets and crypto, it's like man, it's just not as tangible for me. A. 100% yeah. I mean there's only so much land or you know what I mean? That is a scarce like there's

only so much land. So those stock markets and all that like it'll go up and down and blah blah and those guys are smart and that's cool. I just, I try to, I'm trying to get past my impulse stage and like, you know where I'm like, oh, and my buddy said this, so maybe I should and more so of like actually understand what I'm doing and I don't understand any of that stuff, you know, Yeah, I try to listen to like real estate stuff to understand like lending stuff and rent all

this and markets and whatever. But Kaylee's going to be the group she was in down in Arizona. That's what she did was it wasn't retail like in a retail agent for a broker. It was more of wasn't a wholesaler, but I would be similar where they did fix and flips with investors because it's a Phoenix metropolitan area is like a huge area for that and she loves that stuff. And it's very interesting how they they do it all too. But there's a lot of moving parts, so.

Yeah, it's, it's cool, man. I feel like, you know, you get a good team. It's all about like having a really good team. Like you get it like we're doing figs and flips, like having a really good group of contractors, subcontractors you trust, you know, have with all that stuff. But like for me, like I feel like as long as you're in a good area and we're like in Northwest Arkansas, this is where the university is, a lot of, you

know, big corporations here. So like this is definitely the spot to be in in Arkansas. So I think it'd be a good spot for it. So. It's just dude, yeah, let me know if you do. If regardless, though, I still want to get out there if you get Airbnb or not or whatever and I'll I'll stay whatever because I want to come check it out. I know we've been saying this. We're I'm terrible. I'm sorry. We've been saying this for I'm the same boat.

Man, this thing, but you know, it's funny though, because like you and I both recognize the matter says like we, we got a we we just get stuck in our own world and their own grind. Just, you know, doing the day. But it's like we both know that relationships at the end of the day is the only thing that matters. And, like, none of the other stuff is going to. They weren't even think about it when we're sitting on our deathbed.

But if we're like, you know, reflecting back on a good conversation or a shared meal or something with people that we respect and admire, like, that's what life's all about. So it's like, got to make that happen, ma'am. Yeah. No, we will. We will. We're going to make it happen. I'm going to I'm going to look right after this. When, when is a good time of the season because you got a baby? So it might be a couple months, but when's a good time of year

to come over there? Man, this, this area is beautiful, like in the fall because like in the fall you've got all the leaves changing colours. You're in the mountains here. So I would recommend, you know, oh, I'm doing my show, like I'm hosting a show in September. You got to come down for that. You got to bring some athletes down for that show. In September I'm going to have my dad cook a BBQ show. Like a competition. Yeah, like I'm, I'm promoting a show this year.

Yeah, yeah. So it's going to be September 27th. It's going to be called the Natural State Savages, but yeah, it's natural show. But yeah, man, like we're going to be like, I've already got the judges, I got the venue, I got a nice venue. It's going to be awesome, man. So you got to come down for that. That's it, Yeah. I have to see not any natural athletes during that time. I got to see it through. The roster for any natural guys are going on September time. I'll take a look.

I know they've got some enhanced guys, but that won't work. Yeah, well, I tried to because like you get like within the WNBF, you get, you know, Worlds in November. So you got a lot of people doing shows, you know, leading up to Worlds to kind of like get qualified and everything for them. And this will be a pro qualifying show. Nice, nice. Yeah. So yeah, it'll be as long as we get enough competitors. So it it should be good man. Good for you, dude. Well, yeah, maybe that.

Maybe that'll be. I should come down in September then. Yeah, that'll be perfect. Because yeah, I'm pretty much, that's right, because I run another business and it's just seasonal June through June through August. So right after that, I might be actually perfect timing just because I'm going to leave and Kim and I'll probably go back down easy in the winter time anyway. So be kind of nice to go somewhere for September. That'd be nice.

Cool. Yeah, let's do it. We'll swing through Arkansas on your way to Arizona, man. Yeah. Yeah. Little little roundabout trip. Little scenic round. There you go. Katie would love it yeah, she she likes doing that stuff and stopping it all the to her like lakes and stuff like that. So. Yeah, yeah. Now her and Crystal needed me. They'd get along good. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, you have to tell Crystal hi for me. And I'm glad everything sounds like she's healthy and kids on

the way and. Yeah, she's she's happy, healthy. She's excited to get her body back though, man, like for, I don't know about Kaylee, but I mean, I'm assuming she's with you. So she's probably like fit and athletic and trains and stuff like it's. It's an interesting. Yeah. No, I guess I'll give her credit. She's been getting back in it, Yeah, but she's, she's got those natural, those genetics. She's like four 1100 lbs, dude. Like she's tiny, but she's hard

for her to gain weight. But yeah, I know she she's working out. She's been starting to bless her heart, dude. She's been trying to run and I'm, I'm not a runner, but she's been trying to like weight train. And then with my sister, she's like they do, running like two or three days a week. So this whole hybrid thing is like really popular. Right now I feel, yeah. Pulling up, run. Clubs and stuff around locally, even to me I'm like Dang, all right, cool. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't

mind running. I'll run every once in a while, like I ran this morning for like a mile, you know, like nothing impressive. But yeah, I'm definitely not a runner. I like my background, believe it or not. I was playing basketball growing up and kind of got into this, I don't know, I got recruited, not recruited, but asked to coach this high school skis kids locally to me. And I was like, oh, this is a great opportunity to maybe just get involved in the community.

And it's been a ton of fun. But I'll like run some games with them. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, yeah, I need to do some more cardio. But that's what I like to do when I'm like, you know, doing more cardio based stuff is try to rather than just run. It could be like something active, you know what I mean? Like a sport. That's where I still like In the summer, I'll try to, on purpose,

go do some manual labor. It's because like when you're behind the desk all day everyday, sometimes I don't know why, but it's like, you know what, it might, it sounds kind of good to go like mow some grass, you know, or go do something that's more labor intensive that most people like what the heck? But and I it's nice. You know, therapy for me, I love it. It's like therapeutic, yeah. No, that's like favorite part of

the week. It's like mowing the grass and you know, being outside and sure with you, you got to watch your kids mess around and stuff like that. So. Yeah, yeah, it's it's the highlight for sure, man. But yeah, you got to, you got to move like I, I don't know about you track your step count like do you put any stock in that at all really? To be honest, you're not really. I do when it's needed.

I guess I would say so. Yeah, I don't track it, act like I don't proactively track it. Like I have a Garmin watch and most days with me in front of a computer, I'm averaging like 5 or 6000 steps a day, which is nothing impressive. So I got to get outside and just like, move my body more, you know? Yeah, I'm the same way.

I think you kind of, I don't know, I do you have that feeling where you get kind of cooped up and even, you know, when you've been sitting a little too long, you're like, OK, I just need to just go outside. Like, it's nice now in the summers here. But but yeah, just like moving. It's, it's wild the way it can do just for the brain and just the just the function to focus for the rest of the day, you know? Well, I feel grateful.

I've got all my employees here and I've been trying to get them all, you know, fit and active and a lot of them are in prep for this show that I'm hosting, which is nice. But one thing I've been doing with them daily is we'll all take a, a break at some point. We'll go rock out some pull ups. We've got the gym here on site too.

So I'll take like, you know, we'll all go do 30 pull ups or something and we'll just cycle through five sets, 6 or whatever as like just a, you know, way to break up the day. And I think that's been super good for. Us No, that's super cool dude, have a team and yeah, no, I'm the same way though yeah, I got to I don't track it because I just I try to reduce as many variables as possible to keep track of and let that intuitive like the natural intuitive kind of approach. How do I put this?

So we're going to track macros and stuff like that I think is important with a margin of error plus or minus something like you said. But I try to reduce other variables until they show themselves as more needed to be focused on. Just for like try not to have the client or myself like worry about a million things right out the gate kind of thing, you know, like sodium sugar for us, fiber and then your steps and then got the timing of yourself.

I mean all these different things. I try to like not do that at 1st and get some momentum and then work your way out with nutrient timing or taken to make sure that you have enough fiber in the day or you're not blasting 100 grams of sugar in a day or something like that, you know so. Yeah, you got it. You can't hit them with everything all at once. I mean, it wouldn't be, wouldn't be worthwhile.

You got. Do you have any like experiments that you're running right now and you think you're trying out that that's new to you? Good question. I who was that with? This was with my assistant coach Mike. I don't know if you've met or seen Mike. I've I coached him for a long time and then I kind of brought him on as assistant coach. He's done really, really well. I'm really proud of him.

But he had a client that was competing and she was her novice like she was her first show and she won novice, which was pretty cool to see Mike, you know, do his thing and, and have her win her class. But it was interesting, I'm finding my peak week strategy because you know, like my background with Cliff and everything, like very dialed, there's certain specific peak weeks and all this stuff.

And I feel like there's been an extension that I've been like trying out and it's more of like a two week peak week. OK, I'm listening. And I noticed this plays more into the maybe I shouldn't say this on camera though, because of my clients are like, oh, is that what he's?

Doing. No, I think I'll, I'll tell you this just and then like we can, we can talk about it whenever, but the two week peak week is different than like a front load, mid load, back load, back load, clean up day, like all the different stuff maybe you've seen in like Cliff's book and

like would I have my background? The two week is because of the psychological adherence that if you have a client that maybe hasn't gotten it done in the last stages and you're just like almost to the stage way that you're trying to get to, but either it's just become very difficult or adherents just

starting to get a little wonky. I find that you can do a lot in two weeks if you have the mindset of the client able to do it. And So what happens is, is when a client usually, especially more first time competitors, when they hear the, their, their coach say, Hey, we're going to start peak week, it creates excitement.

So usually adherence goes up and whatever variance of not hitting macros or the extra food they're sneaking and that kind of stuff will stop like immediately because now they're getting excited. Like, oh, cool, peak week usually means I'm going to get carbs, you know, with people like loading for traditional style peak weeks. But what I noticed is like the level of attention to detail increases dramatically. And you're not like doing anything crazy in terms of the actual peak week.

It's just all in the communication of starting the peak week, if that makes sense. But essentially what you do is just like I'll usually do one if the person's been like really low and messing up, but usually just like 1 little higher mid. Not like a high carb day like a high refeed, like a high high refeed, but more of a moderate refeed to kind of start, start it and then hit him pretty hard with the with the deplete.

And then instead of having let's say like a four or a five day slow linear load with carbohydrates, that's how you know that's the difference between us. But instead of like a linear load, that linear load becomes very, very small over 10 days, 11 days, something like that. And the interesting part is you would think, because when you do a huge def depletion and then you start adding food back in, you're still in a heavy deficit if you're making small additions

to your calories. Because, for example, like, just to give people listening like context, let's say that your maintenance, this is not going to be what it is. So let's say your maintenance is like 2000 calories and you're eating, you know, 1200 calories at the very end or something like that. And you start adding food back in like 100 calories. So 1300 calories, 1400 calories, you're still in that that deficit, even though you're adding calories back in. Does that make sense?

Totally. So you would think that the like the symptoms of just the huge deficit and the hunger and just the the lack of energy and the focus or whatever would be still very dominant. But like I said, it's been interesting because the communication that we're starting peak week two weeks out versus, you know, 7 to 10 days out. It, I think it's a it's an emotional, it's adrenaline, it's whatever the emotional component of them getting excited for the show.

And here it gets a ton better. And then because you're still in the deficit, even though you're adding small amounts of food, you're losing fat like you're losing the more body fat that you needed to lose to to get to where you wanted to be for that stage weight projection. So the difference here is like if we didn't do it, like I haven't tried it, who will know?

I don't have like a control to, to, to kind of compare against for that specific one individual with two different types of peak week, right? I don't have that data yet. But it's more like, you know, if we start a 7 day out kind of peak week, would we have gotten to this conditioning if we did it this way versus if we did that two week peak week and how we communicated it to get us started? And does that make sense of the end result essentially?

Yeah, and the psychology of prep and peak week specifically is a whole nother thing in and of itself. And like it, it goes like human psychology especially goes way beyond just like the macro manipulation, because the hormonal repercussions of their excitement or lack thereof in that finite period of time also changes their caloric expenditure in life. And there's so many freaking

factors that go into play. Experiments on your testosterone levels, thinking that you have low T, you know, lower testosterone and then all of a sudden it drops. Then you have high testosterone during prep. They've had studies on that with people that are lifters and stuff and if they think they have high testosterone, usually it doesn't decrease as much. You know, it's interesting. It's crazy, man. It's great. It's it's, it's totally science, which is why I love it.

Like there's so always, always something to to manipulate and try and tweak and then be able to see the outcome with your clients is super fulfilling. Yeah, man, I love it all. I love it all. Have have you followed along with any of this sugar diet stuff? Has that been making waves in your space at all? I don't know. I don't know about sugar diet. I know, I don't know why I've seen this guy.

Maybe he followed me and I fell him back or something, but it was like a snake diet or something. It's all sugar. Yeah. Because there might be multiple people now doing the whole sugar thing. Multiple people, but he's kind of one of the ringleaders. I don't know much about him. His name is Cole. He was doing, like, hardcore keto and then fasting and then carnivore, and now he's doing,

like, eat nothing but sugar. So he's like all over the board, but he's kind of like he's always just yelling at people, Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he did get my attention. Probably because, you know, he's just yelling. I thought was kind of funny. But yeah, Mark Bell, who I'm good friends with, is doing it and they've had each other on the show before and I'm not

doing the sugar diet. But interestingly enough, the main mechanism of action of the sugar diet is because of a hormone called FGF 21, which is amplified in the context of low protein. So like, basically when you reduce protein, which people are doing by eating predominantly just sugar, that hormone increase in circulation, which supposedly ramps up metabolic rate to the tune of about 500 or 600 calories. So I'm kind of, yeah. And this is all kind of like new.

There's been a few studies done, but you know, I'm not going to be advocating the sugar diet for other reasons beyond the metabolic implications, but like just from a health and longevity and Wellness standpoint, like I don't get behind it. But I'm kind of doing the opposite of that with a super high fat, a minimal protein approach to see what happens. And I'm basically doing like a four to one ketogenic diet. So 4G of fat for every combined gram of protein plus

carbohydrates. So my macros right now are like obnoxious, man. They're like 425 grams of fat and like 115 grams of protein. It's kind of crazy. I don't recommend it, but I'm just trying to do this for an experiment to see what happens and it's it's, it's interesting, man. I'm curious to see how. Yeah, dude, you have to let me know. That's super interesting, especially if there's. Yeah. Anything with like are you testing it in a deficit or in a surplus or a maintenance or do

you have any contacts? There I'm doing it in surplus because I wanted it to be apples for apples. And a lot of people that are doing the sugar diet, they're all doing it to like lose body fat, but they're their main thing is like it's effective because you're able to eat to satiety eating a lot more sugar. So your calories are higher, but you're losing weight. That's what they're all proposing. And I'm OK, well, I want to be able to eat this society and not worry about that.

So I'm at a pretty significant surplus. Like I'm at 4200 calories right now, which is a lot. And it's all coming from fat for the most part. So satiety is there, cognition there, mental clarity is there, ketones are there, glucose is low and my weight's holding stable at that intake whereas my maintenance is like 3000 calories. So interesting to see for sure.

Yeah, Now that you don't have to let me know because that is super interesting of if it if, if there could be understanding if it's their certain enzyme proteins like you were saying or if it's something to do with the adaptation to like just I don't know because you've been in ketosis probably for I don't know how long. But if anything that has to do with it or just because that's a significant increase in caloric

intake to stay maintenance out. You'll have to let me know if you think that it keeps maintaining your body weight even with the higher intake than what you suspect would be your maintenance. Or if it starts the pendulum where it's like it ramps up to offset the increased calories. But then over time it starts to slow down where like you start to see the scale start to come up like after a month or so,

kind of like a post show period. If you've noticed that like just you're starting to feed and you can really like metabolic flexibility is like super high in my opinion, where you can start ramping things up if you do it controlled and then but over time like that, I don't know if you've experienced this like after a show, you get like huge palms. Vascular is crazy. It's like it's just like pushing

us the skin so much harder. The muscle you know get like that shrink crap effect go growing out for the 1st 10. 15 lbs Invincible. Yeah, right. And then all of a sudden you kind of start to get soft, like it gets to a peak and then you're like, okay, level out. And I've noticed with that, I feel like when I'd go to the reverse that like the first two months are like super solid and months three and four and five, it's like you start to deflate,

so to speak. And not that your performance deflates, but like that look that is just so appealing is kind of on the wayside. But for me, I've noticed that I put on more body fat after my reverse period when I'm super aggressive with the protein. So I'm not advocating people taking low protein by any means, but I do think protein and excess could certainly be a contributing factor to, you know, just unnecessary body fat gain.

So I'm curious to see if I can maintain a higher caloric intake but add a more reasonable protein intake with this experiment, if I can keep that, you know, under wrap, so to speak. So you're, that's interesting. So you're saying when you've done prep like deep in the prep, right, like going into your show, you've noticed a difference in like like the rebound component or like just fat accumulation? If you fat accumulation post. Show when your protein was higher.

Yeah, of course, overall calories are higher too. So like obviously that's the main contributing factor. But I feel like even when calories are equated, if I'm at a much higher fat ratio relative than the protein ratio, I tend to put on less body fat. So that's been interesting to find. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for experimenting and controlling the. Yeah, that's super interesting. Yeah, at most more people would do that rather than post show. It's just a all hell breaks

loose, you know what I mean? So no, because I'm the same way. I did case study of myself, but I haven't competed in a long time. But the last time I did it nationals and yeah, it was it's wild when you do controlled and you really mentally you can still hang in there, you know, and just like go through it because I think I added like I want to say, well, it isn't as crazy as probably your numbers with what you're saying with fat intake just bumping up total

calories in general. But I still had shred like shredded glutes. Definitely 8 weeks out, eight weeks post show. And then I know 12 weeks post show is like I was holding some some good light even in my glutes a little bit. But it was like that breaking point where by 16 weeks I was like starting to kind of, you know, deflate as you were saying. But but yeah, if you do a control, man, like I think I

added like 3400 grams of carbs. So at the lowest I was like 100 and I want to say 30 or 50 somewhere in there. And we never really go below 50 for our fat unless it's absolutely necessary. But that's probably 50 grams of fat for normal days. I would have one refeed a week. But but then yeah, I think I added like 3-4 hundred grams of carbs and then like 50 or 60 grams of fat in, in an 8 week period. And it was like just ramping up the metabolic flexibility is just nuts.

But you have to do it like controlled, because if you have the binges, that's what screws it all up, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And see, that's happened to me. Like, I was super controlled for like the first two or three months. And then I was like, looking great and holding steady. And then it's like, all right, screw it. I'm hungry still. I don't have a competition anymore. Like, what am I doing right now? And then, you know, it'll get

you in trouble. So then I'm blewing up to 200 lbs. And then I was like, I'm just too fat at 200 lbs. Write it down. You know, such as life. Listen man, I know you got all kinds of things cooking today. I don't want to keep you too long, but let's definitely get in the books to have you come out here. I'd love to have you come out for my show. Would love to see you in person one way or the other for sure. And just keep the conversation going, man. Yeah, I would love that.

I'm going to take a look at that and then maybe we'll tell me at a time in September. That would be ideal because I know you got baby on the way, which you have to let me know when he's here, but hey, let. Me know when you get 1 coming. Oh, dude, yeah, Kelly said. I have to wait first trimester once it if we get it through it, then she's like you can tell everybody I'm like, OK, cool. OK, OK, it's me. Got to respect the lady's wishes. Exactly. Well, Austin man, super excited

for you there. Congrats again. Where do people go to find out more about you and dive into your world? The plug, I think right now just the old Austin Paulson Fitness, it's I'm terrible at marketing, obviously, so I have to put my name on my shirts, you know, so

Austin Paulson. Fitness.com. I like it. I like it. Well, sweet man, I'll link out. Make it easy people to find you. Keep in touch, brother. And there's everything I do for you, man. You just let me know. Same as you. Thank you.