Episode 95. Your technique is stopping you from seeing results, how protein prevents insulin spikes, never eat lunch at your desk again & more.

Episode 95. Your technique is stopping you from seeing results, how protein prevents insulin spikes, never eat lunch at your desk again & more.

This week we discuss how learning the correct technique in the gym from the get-go can help you see better results.

We explain how eating the protein on your plate first can help you avoid that afternoon energy crash.

Lastly, we cover how eating lunch at your desk can severely impact your long-term health and ability to lose weight.

Listener question #1: How to find the right calorie deficit.

Listener question #2: How to maintain energy while in a calorie deficit.

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Episode 95. Your technique is stopping you from seeing results, how protein prevents insulin spikes, never eating lunch at your desk again & more.

What is up everybody? Welcome back to the sticks. Alternative Health Podcast as rated by Apple, but we like to think of ourselves as the number one health, fitness and entertainment podcasts. My name is Jack Graham and I'm macaracas. On today's show, we cover. How important is your technique to your results? Does it really matter? Protein spiking your insulin? What the Hell's going on there? Do you skip lunch and is it damaging your health? And then we finish the show off with a really good listener question, which is how to find your calorie deficit and how you can maintain energy when you are in a deficit. Great question. I can't wait to unpack that one and everybody will get something out of that. So make sure you hang around to the end for that question. Let's get into the show.

01:12

I wanted to start today, show off with some financial gossip or reporting. Now don't get scared everybody, I'm going to bring it straight back into our first topic and I feel like this is tied into each other. So F-45 has lost a **** load of money in the stock market. So if you didn't know, F-45 went public in the US probably a year or two ago and they had big names like Mark Wahlberg. And a few other actors jump in and obviously get a **** load of stock and money for saying we do F-45, this is how we get ripped and they don't use F-45. But that's another story. But all the celebrities are starting to sell all their shares and F45IS tanking on the stock market, stock market. So I don't really know anything about the stock market. What happens if they, the less shares that people own, the less they are worth, right? OK, so they're highly overvalued. I think they might have even been into the billions when they first hit the stock market, but now they're worth. 1/2 that quarter even, really. Yeah. And but they first entered the stock market mid pandemic. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right. Just as, as just as it was ending in the US so I was sort of starting to ramp back up here, but it's starting to end in the US so obviously they just haven't grown as big as they thought. And this sort of brings me into the first topic I wanted to talk about like how important is technique to your results, right, because when you do. 45 really care about techniques. There's no technique. And again, this is just from what I've seen, I've never actually done an F-45 class and I'm sure there's good ones out there.

03:00

And there's bad, just like there is CrossFit and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, and trying PTS. There's good PTS and there's bad PTS. So The thing is a lot of people start this 45 go into doing this hit styled 45 workout. And yeah, it doesn't really matter on technique. You're going to get results because you're going to be moving more than what you did before you started. So people get all these results, but then it's so hard to sustain. Pretty much everybody else I have spoken to that has done F-45 ended up injured or had some sort of injury and that's how they end up end up with me. So I'm not, I'm sure and it's not everybody but. From my point of view, most people get injuries. I think a lot of. I've come across a lot of people who also, that's how they just started exercising in general. Yeah. And because it's not sustainable. Like it's a good entry point, I guess. If you're scared and you just want to be at the back of a class and start to move, I guess. But yeah, then after a while, I suppose the novelty of it wears off. Yeah. So you either burn out, you end up injured, or you plateau very quickly with your. Results. So people tend to move on, and this is where technique does come into it. So I guess there's two ways of thinking. Yes, you can just get into exercise. Just start moving weights around, move more than what you were previously, and you're going to get results. It doesn't really matter what you do, but it's some sort of at some point you have to bring in technique. I'm going to use a back squat, for example. A full depth back squat, all the way down, all the way up, whether 20 kilos or 120. Knows he's going to burn more calories than 1/4 squat, even if a goblet squat like F-45 assuming, does a lot of goblet or variations of squats. A full depth squat taking your time to go through the whole squat, even if it takes longer and it's not as intense, it's still going to get

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you better results. It's going to build more muscle, it's going to burn more fat, and it's going to get you better looking better and feeling better. So. And then obviously the second school thought is work on your technique straight away and then you're not going to really plateau. So I would rather see people taking their time as soon as they come into the gym working on their technique. Going through the squat pattern, making sure they're getting full depth and width control. So a lot of people out there can probably squat, but just haven't got control over the movement, which is a whole nother issue. So if you can take the time to perfect your movement, make sure your technique is right from the very start. Yes, you might not get those initial results as same as what somebody else in 45 did, and again, that's probably why a lot of people won't take the time to work on their technique. But if you do, you're not going to plateau. You can constantly keep variation. Either adding weight or varying the movement so you can continuously progressively get results. So take the time to. You know, learn the movements you know. I also think that it's a lot easier for you to learn the movement correctly the first time then to learn a bad form. Pattern and have to try and relearn it because that like I've been through that and it's much harder to have to try and relearn something when this is how you've done it for the last two years or whatever. That is a great point. And that's and again that's why I'm a lot of people won't do it because they've got all these results say they did for two months they got some great results but they were doing quarter squats. Yeah. And then and instead of squatting they're more hinging at the hips rather than the knees which is more of a deadlift movement which is very common which doesn't work your legs at all really. To then learn how to back squat, it's going to

07:00

take you a couple of months to learn how to back squat properly, yeah, because your body's so used to those other movement patterns, so that means you've already plateaued and then it's going to take you another couple of months to get results. But The thing is, once you've learnt that. You're going to, like I said, it's more sustainable. Your knees are going to be healthy, your hips are going to be healthy, you're going to move better, feel better, and you're gonna have better looking legs. Also, wouldn't you just avoid injuries in general, ideally if you had a property, if you have proper, proper technique. Yeah. And generally, and this is the thing, we do it all backwards, you should take say nine months. First three months should be focusing on your technique and moving. Through perfection throughout all the movements next three months, build strength in those movements and then the three months after that add an intensity like an class. Yeah do it that way and your result will be 10 times better than just jumping straight into the last section of that. It also from a non personal trainer perspective, having good technique like I feel better, like I can literally feel more muscles working. I get. More sore after a workout using proper technique and I think focusing on my technique like coming from CrossFit where it's like just flop your body around and it doesn't matter as long as you get in the workout in yeah to just I guess bodybuilding style exercise. It is a lot more satisfying to have good technique. I think you I feel a lot more confident in the gym when I know I have good technique because other people look at you regardless. So you might as well do it properly because I know you can influence other people as well and. Yeah, I forgot my last point. But yeah, and that come that brings up another subject. I know we're getting off topic, but what is functional fitness like CrossFit and 45 and all those sort of style

09:01

workouts. They same claim to be functional workouts. But it's not really functional if you're not doing the movements properly. Yeah. Functional essentially means just doing everything right. Like, they're doing whatever. Like putting your body through every movement. Yeah. And, but more like it's gonna help you in day-to-day life as well. What so like? Being able to squat properly, as soon as you start adding intensity and competition into that, you form turns a **** just because you're trying to get it done as quickly as possible. And is that really functional? Like when in life are you going to be competing, picking up boxes or something like that? Yeah, never. Or squatting down to pick something up? Yeah. So yeah. Technique is very important. It's worth taking your time and getting it right because over time your body is going to be stronger, feel better? You can, and at the end of the day, you can look better as well. So how can people like, I guess, judge their own technique or revise their technique? Yeah, good point. Jump on the coaches corner on our new health and fitness app. Where I'm going, I've got a heap of demonstrations and how TOS and all that sort of stuff. But basically what I go over in those videos is body awareness. That was my other point, yeah. So you're going to get a lot more body awareness and that sort of stuff doing taking your time and working on your technique, which. Everybody should have, but a lot of people don't. Yeah. And what that means, what I mean is when you're going through a squat, how it looks in your head is how it should look, exactly when you're doing it. Sometimes people think they're squatting the full depth, but I record them. Or they look in a mirror and they're like, I'm not even getting down that far. I'm like, yeah, I know, but they thought they were. So get a mirror. I know a lot of people don't like mirrors in gyms and they are misused for, yeah,

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for social media. But mirrors. And I've said this to a lot of people. Mirrors are the best coaching tool PT can have because if you can get somebody to look in the mirror at the same time as they're doing the exercise, they're visually seeing and learning at the same time. Where you can record yourself on a phone or get somebody record you, and then you can watch it back and improve there. But it's not as effective as doing it in real time. Yeah, because you can make the adjustments as you see them, right? I like the focusing on technique rather than weight or speed or whatever. Also because. I think it actually helps my I'm pretty sure it's scientifically proven to actually help your muscles grow. If you're thinking about the weight you're moving and your muscles actually getting bigger than it does accelerate the whole process, right? Yeah, that's a great point. So mind muscle connection is an actual thing. It is proven in a lot of different studies. You can go to Google Scholar and type that in and you can find endless studies. So that means basically if you're doing a bicep curl. And you're just sort of wandering around, looking around the room, thinking about what you had for lunch while you're doing those bicep curls. It's not as effective as if you're concentrating and imagine that bicep actually contracting to lift your arm up as you lift the weights and really think about yourself being inside that muscle and all the muscle fibers working and all that sort of stuff. It's far more effective and it sends a stronger muscle building signal or fat building, burning signal, whatever. However you want to look at it to your body rather than not mindlessly lifting, yeah? Interesting.

12:52

Move well, look good. Easier said than done well until now I have designed a 12 week program broken up into four different phases so you can continuously get results, but at the same time work on your mobility, your flexibility and perfect your movements so you can move better than you ever have before and look good at the same time if that sounds good to you. Hit the move well, look good tableau and get started today.

13:28

I come across a pretty interesting study the other day, how protein can blunt your insulin spike. Insulin spikes when you eat food. So basically this study was done when you eat protein first. So if you've got a plate of food and you eat the protein 1st and then you go through your carbs and fats and all that sort of stuff next, whether it's veggies or rice and that sort of stuff, your insulin doesn't spike as high. So it's more sustainable. Meaning. General population words, meaning your energy doesn't spike and then disappear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you're somebody that has had lunch, say, and then you're finding that you're crashing at. 3:00 o'clock and you're going for those chocolatey treats and all that sort of stuff. At lunch you eat your protein 1st and make sure it's obviously a good source of protein, but not dog. Before you go into your carbohydrates in the meal and that sort of stuff, it's sort of more sustainable. So you won't be getting that big spike and then crash and then craving that chocolate bar and that sort of stuff. So was it? Did the studies show that having the protein exclusively before the other macros? Or can you have them all at the same help? Like just having a decent serve of protein with the other macros? Does it have the same effect? No. So eating protein and like letting it digest before the others

15:00

is more beneficial. Hmm. So if you've got a steak on your plate. I know, I know. I've met a few people that will save their state to last no longer. Is that what you should be doing? Eat your steak 1st and then eat all your vegetables. Realistically, your protein tastes the best anyway in the beginning, right? Of your meal, that's when it's the hottest and everything. Yeah. And we've talked about this before on other shows where studies have actually shown when you eat protein it fills you up, so you're going to be eating less as well. So. If your goal is weight loss or fat loss, then this is a good tip to add in. Yeah, like very easy change to make. We strongly recommend this to everybody and. Aiding protein first in the morning is far more beneficial. There's a lot of reasons for that. Your body absorbs and uses protein more efficiently in the morning than it does in the afternoon, generally speaking. Generally, any. Yeah. Generally anything that you ate for like there's a saying breakfast is the most important meal of the day for a reason. Yeah. And that is true. Yeah. So if you can have protein in that first meal. As the first thing you eat, that is going to be the most beneficial. Yeah. Now a lot of people out there, I can't. I haven't got time to cook breakfast, all that sort of stuff. And look, yeah, we agree cooking breakfast is quite hard. So just go for something that is high in protein to start with.

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I was going to say we just have a protein smoothie. It's essentially fruit protein yogurt, Greek yogurt. Otherwise there's so many easy options now. Like you can get those yo pro yogurts, which are 15 to 21 grams of protein per serving, which is pretty big. You can so many protein bars. Just add a protein shake to like the side of your I don't know if you have cereal or toast, what are regular people have for breakfast? Yeah, what I was gonna say that eggs on toast seems to be a go to. And when people think of protein in the morning, it's eggs. Yeah, eggs are good and a very good source of protein, but they're very low in protein. Yeah. So one egg is roughly about four grams, grams, 3 to 4 grams of protein. Maybe 5 for a bigger one, yeah. So you want about 30 grams, so you're going to need. 5 to 8 eggs, a lot of eggs to get that amount of protein in. So don't just rely on eggs for your protein in the morning. Also, I can't remember if we brought it up on the podcast A while ago, but. Trying to have a higher protein ratio to carbs or fats for breakfast actually helps you avoid the energy crash, avoid that crushing hunger that you get before lunch because like for all the reasons that we just mentioned before, it fills you up for longer, but. And because coffee is common to have in the morning, if you have that protein in your diet first, then it's going to help control all of your glucose levels and hence your energy for the rest of the day. So

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you probably don't need as much coffee, so you probably won't have as many energy crashes. It's just the answer to everything really project. And again as we always say, better quality, the better the protein, so the better it's gonna your body is going to use it. On the same topic of. Meals and the importance of meals. Twice this week I've spoken to people about. Skipping lunch. I guess I just didn't realize how common it is for people to skip lunch. I guess for us, because we work for ourselves, we work from home, so. Jack cooks lunch every day. And it's like a big pot, I guess. It's a big part of that day. Like we have a good lunch usually like a salad and chicken and we sit down for probably an hour and then we go for a walk sometimes after or do cleaning and stuff. So it's like it's a solid hour out of our day. Fully focused around lunch. So I guess I just forgot that a lot of people choose not to or can't. I don't like to use word can't take a lunch break. Because it's just either it's too hard to fit in their work day or it's not really a priority. And. I just want to say that it is a priority. Like I can't stress enough how important it is. To have lunch and to take time to stop working. To have lunch. Like I understand if you have a job that is very demanding, but you I don't think that it is an excuse good enough to skip lunch. Yeah, I remember those days back when I was a tradie and you're too busy and you can't stop for lunch so. You work for. All right. 8-9 hours straight without food, without food, which literally and minimal water blows

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my mind, and then you can't figure out why you can't function properly by the end of the week. Yeah, well, you're literally depriving your brain, like at the least of energy. So how you supposed to function? Probably at work, let alone if you intend to go to the gym after work or do any extracurricular things on the weekend. Like yeah, and definitely taking that. Or whether you're doing a laborist job or, you know, a highly technical job where you need to think properly, taking that time and stop stopping the think and refilling your body is far more beneficial. I know a lot of people go, Nah, I just haven't got the time. But you'd actually get more done taking that break. Yeah, absolutely. It helps you focus better. It helps you regulate your emotions better. It helps you make decisions more efficiently. Like, it doesn't have to be like 60 minutes. It can be 20 minutes, half an hour, I don't know. I just. It's just a lot of the stuff we see and read is all elsewhere. We're Australia. We've just got a weird mentality out of work as hard as possible and work yourself into the ground. Yeah. If you're not doing that, you're not succeeding or you're not working hard enough. Yeah. Where? We were literally talking this morning about how good it would be to siesta and stuff, which in Europe a lot of countries still do siestas because they know how effective they are. Like, if they weren't that effective in like, just the whole population being productive, people wouldn't do it anymore. Yeah, like CS have been around forever in some of these European countries and they're still doing it. So obviously they're still affecting and they've still got a functioning country. Everybody still does stuff like so. Yeah, it's just like they still like, they still get stuff done and they still live lives, but it's just hard turning even for me. Going from building into health and fitness, it was completely different and it took me. I reckon it

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probably took me a good a year or two to get out of that mentality of I've just got to be doing something all day. Don't worry about food, just get stuff done. It's just sometimes it's so hard for me to fathom that people would prioritize their job over their health and their longevity. You know, like it's at the end of the day, it's just a job. Like, is it really worth, like, starving yourself? What, 300 days of the year to try and get that extra hour or extra 20 minutes of working? Yeah. I just can't comprehend like how it's so important to some people. And if you're trying to lose weight, I think it's a common thing to skip lunch because just skipping your meal, you know? So it's like fasting, fasting I guess, but it just messes with you. And if you're doing work, probably even worse while you're eating. It just messes with your hunger and fullness cues. Like you actually have no idea when you're full because you occupied, you're just shoveling food into your mouth and you just stop eating when the plates empty. And then that's just going to carry out into all your other meals of you not paying attention to the food you're eating. So you're never going to be able to feel the cues that you're full, and then you're never going to actually have real hunger cues either, because the whole system is out of whack. And I think also like by skipping lunch or just not even focusing when you're eating lunch, then at night time when you don't have much to focus on or much to distract you, that's a lot of the time when people will consume double the amount of calories, probably a dinner that then what they need and snack heaps and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, and like Max said, you don't have to. Do a full siesta. Like just start of 20 minutes, 25 minutes for yourself. Take take a lunch break. Sit down and relax and you'll see how much more productive like might you're not. You might not be productive in the first couple of days, but overtime your body

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will be refuelled and get used to it so it can relax a little bit more and you'll have more energy. Yeah, definitely.

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24:46

Alright, lastly, let's get into our listener question. Good question. Today it is a great question. So how to find a calorie deficit and how to maintain energy while in a deficit?

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Where is? Where does one start? So how to find a calorie deficit? Let's start there, OK? The there is obviously a massive abundance of calorie calculators on the worldwide web that you can have a look at. It's just they're all a guess. Honestly, everything is a guess really, when it comes to calories in and calories out. But I think the most accurate way you could probably define your find your deficit would be to just start tracking food to begin with. And at least for four weeks, don't change anything. Just put everything into my fitness pal and see where you're at while you weigh yourself. Every day. So the label for this would be finding your maintenance calories. So I would suggest for the first month. To try to find calories that don't change your weight. So you want to keep your weight the same and keep eating roughly the same calories. And then once you have your maintenance then you know if you want to be in a surplus you can add a little bit or you can. If you want to be in a deficit you can take a little bit away at a time. But it's really hard to find a deficit that isn't going to mess you up if you don't know what your maintenance calories are. Yeah, just having a guess, I should just be eating 1000. Salaries. Yeah, definitely. I would add one more into that. So I would definitely say track every day for four weeks, see how many calories are going in, not just per day, but per week and then per month. Yeah, so you've got those 3 numbers. But then with a fitness tracker, I would actually measure how many calories you're burning each day. So again, this is the best fitness tracker out there we talk about all the time is a whoop. And even if it is, I think it's up to about 55%.

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Accuracy at the moment. So it's not it's the best and it's not even 100%. It's not even it's just over 50%. So it will tell you how many calories you burn. So what I would do is see how many calories you're taking in for a day and then see how many calories you're burning for that day and then see the difference. But then track it over your calories, how many calories over a week so you can go back through, add them all up and then divide the number by 7 so you get an average nut calories for the week. See how that differs from how many calories rating per week and then do for that for the month as well. So that will give you a pretty close to what maintenance is. And then I'd say probably go, what, 2 to 400 under that at the most. Yeah, you don't want to cut it in half or anything crazy like that. I would just say, yeah, 2 to 400 and then keep that deficit, that 200 deficit say for a month at least as well because. Doing it for a week and expecting massive weight loss is just silly. Yeah, it takes a while for you to actually see any change and I would say continually track your weight so you can see if it is working for you and if your weight is trending down or averaging downwards and. Just another thing. What was it gonna say with that is? Umm. Not almost. It was gonna say something.

28:34

I guess what I was going to say is there's a couple of easy things you can do just to lose 200 kilos out of the food. You're eating 200 kilos calories. So let's just say you found that your maintenance is 2000 and you wanna drop down to 1800 to be in a calorie deficit. One of the easiest ways to do that is just to get rid of processed food.

28:58

You could probably stay at 2000 and get rid of processed food and you would lose weight. Yeah, that's how much of an impact it has on your body. That sort of goes into the next part, say 1800, and then your energy does is drop. As we all know, food is energy. When you eat less energy, you're going to have less energy. Obviously your body stores energy as fat on your body, so when you're in a calorie deficit, that's what we're trying to get rid of. That's not to say either that overweight people have more energy in general, no, no. So when you're in that calorie deficit and you want energy, each calorie matters. What you eat matters more when you're in a calorie deficit. So if you're still eating **** and you're in 1800 and you're in a calorie deficit, you're going to feel like ****. But if you're eating the best quality food and you're in a deficit, you're going to feel 10 times better. Yeah, definitely. And on the processed food side of things, like. Because it is processed, there's it's less work for your body to digest it, so it doesn't keep you work for full for as long. It's not as satisfying. It's just like high in calories, but. Low in energy value, I suppose you could say. Also, I think, I don't know, it's hard when you're in a deficit, obviously one of the trade-offs is expecting to have slightly less energy because you are trying to lose weight. But I think that being in a deficit that is too low will give you extremely low energy. That's why it's so important to come down really slowly so that it's not like a shock to your body because if you do go into a massive deficit, it is a stressor on your body, so it can be hard. If not impossible to lose weight, yeah, you might lose weight, but you won't lose body fat. Yeah, your body will hold on to that energy. Fat because it thinks you're starving it. Yeah. So yeah, slowly and surely

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is the best way. Like month at a time. Yeah, it is a slow process, but you get much better results over time. Because if you like Max said, if you cut massively, as soon as you stop, your body is just going to put all that weight back on because it wants to. Keep it there. I think also one more thing to consider is your water intake because. It does play a massive part in your brain's ability to function, so having less calories for your brain even to use is obviously going to make you feel more sluggish. So putting a little bit more focus on your water intake will also help your brain's ability to focus and function. And also, while you're in a deficit, make sure you sleep enough, because if you're trying to lose weight, you need to be sleeping because you can't. Just you won't lose weight if you have shocking sleep. It's just it's science. It's been proven a lot of times that you just can't encourage your body to lose weight when you don't sleep enough. Yeah, so two more things. Which one to touch on that? So if you do all the hard work and you find out your maintenance is 2000 and you don't want to eat less than that. All you need to do is, like we said, cut out processed food and sleep better. Increase your need a little bit and you can and you'll probably lose weight staying at that same amount of calories. Yeah, now just one thing to touch on is workout in a calorie deficit. So it's very important to understand that you are going to have less energy, so you're going to be performing less in the gym, you're going to have less performance in the gym. So this comes down to the. People that can't make calories in workouts and their calorie warrior is in the like, I burnt this many calories in a workout and this is where you've gotta forget all of that because you're gonna be burning less calories in

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your workout because you haven't got as much energy. So you're going to be like, no, I didn't work out hard enough and all this sort of stuff. And it doesn't matter. Your body will equal or all out. So don't stress about your performance in the gym. All you need to do if you feel like you need to do a little bit more exercise is just go for extra walk. Increase you need a little bit. Don't push harder in the gym in these tires because you will do serious damage to your body. So, yeah, that's all I want to say. Great question. Yeah. That's it. That's it. Awesome. Thanks again for tuning in. If you've enjoyed this show, thank you. Please share it with friends, families, family members, anybody else you think would get something out of this episode, even if it's just that last little bit. Lot of people have a lot of questions about calorie deficits, and I feel like we covered a fair bit in that. So go back and listen to it again and we'll talk to you in the next episode. Bye.