Jim Labadie: Hey, Prograde VIPs! This is Jim Labadie, Co-­‐Founder of Prograde Nutrition with our very own Jayson Hunter, Director of Research and Development for Prograde who you know so well from the newsletters and all the great content that you’ve seen on the site. How are you doing today Jayson? Jayson Hunter: I’m doing wonderful! Jim Labadie: That’s good. As you know, we’re doing our first tele-­‐coaching call for the Prograde VIPs. We’re going to be answering a lot of questions that people have. Today we are going to focus on the ones we’ve got the most of and it’s not too surprising that it’s about weight loss, fat loss, eating clean, and maintaining weight. We picked a few of the ones that were most frequently asked, and we’re going to cover those at great length. There’s a lot to absorb. If you’re reading this you might want to look at this and see exactly how it’s going to play into your fitness, nutrition, and weight loss program. There’s going to be a ton of great information here. If you’re listening you might want to take notes. So, without further ado, let’s get started. The first question is about plateaus. This is a great question because no matter where you are you may have a plateau, whether you’re getting started, or you’ve been working out for years. That might seem odd but if you’re not training and eating the right way, then there’s a very good change you’re going to have a plateau. So here it is. I like that. So, Jayson, this is a case where somebody has got that last 10 pounds, probably, to lose. How do we get rid of that last 10 pounds? What’s the plateau buster? Jayson Hunter: First you need to make sure that you are documenting and recording what you’re currently doing or what you’ve done. That way you know what has been working, what’s not been working, so that you’re not going to make decisions and choices that keep going around in a circle. You will want to write down or record, however you want to, but document what you’re currently doing and then from there, you want to analyze that and think and look at how can I change this up? For some people, it’s as simple as “Wow, I’ve been doing the same workout (or the same 15 reps) for the last 12 weeks.” Choose completely new exercises for each of the body parts and maybe only do 6-­‐8 reps with heavier weights. Sometimes it’s as Q: How do I get past the plateau that I’ve reached? I’ve not been able to get rid of the last layer of fat that is hiding my 6-­‐pack abs that I can feel but not reveal. simple as shocking your body into something new. Your body’s only going to adapt as far as it has to go to make something easy. It’s not going to voluntarily keep progressing and say, “Here, I’ve got some extra credit for you.” It’s only going to create and adapt with what it needs to do to get the job done, which means you have to keep challenging it one way or another. These plateaus hit when your body becomes used to what you are doing, generally exercise-­‐wise, so then it’s time to change it up, change the intensity, change the exercises, change the reps and give your body something it has not seen before so that it’s forced to adapt again and forced to burn calories to adapt. Then change it up again, every 4-­‐6 weeks keep changing that up, don’t let your body get used to what it’s currently doing because that’s when you stop progressing. Jim Labadie: The exercises is the one piece, what about nutrition and things such as eating grains, or gluten in the diet, specific foods that maybe keeping that stubborn belly fat on? What about the nutritional changes that can be made? Jayson Hunter: That’s going to be harder and it’s not going to be as easy to see results. If you have an allergy to something then most likely you didn’t lose much weight anyway if you were eating that allergen nutrient or food this entire time. Obviously you need to be documenting what you’re eating and analyzing it to make sure, “Am I skipping meals?” “Do I think I’m eating healthy at dinner, but I’m really not?” Those types of things but if you’re going to get into elimination type diets in regard to eliminating certain nutrients it’s going to take a lot longer to see results and generally people get comfortable with what they are doing exercise-­‐wise and so does their body. If you want to see the quickest results, the quickest way to break out of a plateau, the most common way is your exercise. It’s generally not the minute details of nutrition. If you’re going to make nutrition improvements it’s usually, “I’m eating way too many carbs at dinner and I’m not eating any protein.” Or “I’m not eating any vegetables after 1:00 pm. It’s those types of basic nutrition principles that we should be following anyway which is why you should document that stuff and analyze it just to see; are you doing the basic principles of nutrition that you should be doing. Jim Labadie: I agree with you, it would be the exercise, but with nutrition, what about the people who technically not getting enough – they’re not putting in a cheat day or maybe they’re restricting their calories too much. How can somebody be aware of that? Jayson Hunter: That’s where I go back to the documentation, looking at what you’re currently doing. Analyze your food intake, analyze the calories, are you doing the things you’re supposed to be doing and eating enough calories is one of those basic nutrition principles, obviously because people can get way to strict with what they’re trying to do, and then they end up eating like 800 calories a day and wonder why they’re not losing any weight. It’s utilizing those basic nutritional foundation principles. Jim Labadie: How does one analyze it? Let’s say this person says, “I’m changing all my workouts.” You know, you’re right, I’ve heard that story too. I once had a woman who asked me, “I’m going to the gym 3x a week. This is my routine…” and she was telling me what the routine was, and she said that she’d been doing this for like six months and she couldn’t understand why she wasn’t getting anywhere. I said, “Let me get this right. You’re doing the same exact thing for six months over and over and not getting any different results, and you’re asking me this question, why?” In other words, if you’re doing the exact same thing over and over and over you’re going to get the exact same results. She wasn’t challenging herself. That’s pretty basic, change sets, reps, different exercises, working out harder but again, in regard to nutrition let’s say I’m documenting everything, and I’m looking at my calories, what guidelines should I be looking at? You’re saying I need to look at what I’m doing but for somebody who’s a novice, who’s not a registered dietitian, what do I need to look at in regard to my calorie ranges? How do I know if I’m eating too little? How do I know if I’m eating too much? Are there some basic guidelines that they can follow? Jayson Hunter: There are some basic general principles, but again it comes down to each individual person. I could line up five females, and they could all have 5 drastically different calorie needs, and you don’t know that until you start looking at calorie equations, how much they are doing for exercise, and what they do for a job every day. It’s kind of hard to give a blanket answer, but there are online calorie equations that you can do. Most females are going to fall between 1300 – 1800 calories and most men are going to be 1800 – 2400 calories. Your proteins should probably 30%, somewhere in that area of your total calories; your carbs should probably be around 40-­‐45%, you should be eating 5-­‐10 fruits and vegetables a day, try to eat a lean protein at every main meal if not also with some snacks. Those are pretty much your basics, but it’s hard to say, “Hey. You need this many calories” and assume that everyone needs that many calories because it’s not as simple as that unfortunately. Jim Labadie: Okay, what about the cheat day? How can that help people who may be on a plateau because a lot of times I find people hit a plateau because they are just too strict? Can you explain a little about why having a cheat day might be a good idea? Jayson Hunter: I would only do a cheat day after you look at what you’re currently doing. Some people think, “Oh, I need a cheat day” but really they’ve been cheating five days out of the 7 anyway. Every other day’s been a cheat day for them, but they think they’re eating healthy. So yes, you need to first look at what you’re doing and make sure you’re not cheating every day or every other day, and that you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, and then a cheat day may be helpful. Really, it’s not recording what you’re eating. It’s not pigging out, it’s not going crazy, and it’s enjoying some of those desserts or higher fat, higher calorie foods that you normally have not been eating. The challenge to that is you have to get back your program the very next day and a lot of people tend to fall off so I don’t always say, yes, you need a cheat day because it’s risky. To a lot of people, they don’t have enough self discipline, self control to get back on to their program the very next day. They end up starting to string multiple cheat days together because they don’t have the discipline to get back. So, yes you can do cheat days, I think they are risky to the majority of the people and the majority of people who think they need a cheat day really do not, they just need to tighten up what they are currently doing at the moment. They need to measure what they are doing. If you ask someone, “What did you eat yesterday and how much of it did you eat?” Very few people will be able to recite exactly what they ate and how much of it because they don’t know. Some people can’t even recall what they ate for breakfast, the items, let alone the quantities. Where most people fail with nutrition is, they need to be conscious of it. People are easily conscious of what they do exercise-­‐wise; very rarely do they want to devote that same amount of dedication to their nutrition. Jim Labadie: Okay so it’s pretty clear cut. The biggest step is documenting every single thing that you put in your mouth. That’s what it is. Jayson Hunter: And the quantities. Jim Labadie: And the quantities. Is there any way to determine quantities like if I ate a couple of chips? Jayson Hunter: Just serving size, half cups, five chips, just basic size things so that you can then look at a food label or go online and look at some of these calorie websites where you can estimate and figure out how much you’re eating calorie-­‐wise, or protein-­‐wise, or carb-­‐wise. Most of them are all the common half cups, quarter cups, 10 chips, four chips, 12 grapes, things like that, one piece of fruit, half a piece of fruit. Jim Labadie: Okay. So document every single little thing. That also goes for one of the things that people weren’t really aware of if they unconsciously is, when you are preparing meals, if you are preparing a meal, all those little pieces of food that you’re putting in your mouth as you’re slicing, dicing, chopping, etc… all that food counts too, all of it. Jayson Hunter: Absolutely. Jim Labadie: Everything you drink as well. It sounds obvious but if you’re drinking something, unless it’s water, you’re ingesting calories as well. So, get your food journal going and the extremely strict with it. So let’s talk about plateaus and if somebody’s on a plateau, they are being pretty strict, how does Prograde Metabolism help with somebody who’s on a plateau? We don’t recommend everybody take Prograde Metabolism, you don’t have to take it for the rest of your life, so how does Prograde Metabolism assist somebody? Jayson Hunter: If you are doing the right things regarding your nutrition and exercise, Prograde Metabolism is going to help bump up the amount of calories burned per day. So again, if you are doing those things that you should be doing, this may help get you over a plateau or blast through the plateau or never even reach that plateau because it’s bumping up the amount of calories burned per day so you essentially end up losing more weight. Jim Labadie: If you’re thinking about using Prograde Metabolism, again as we’ve always said, it’s not for everybody in the sense that you have to check what medications you’re taking, obviously if you’re blood pressure then Prograde Metabolism is not for you but if you’re eating clean, exercising intensely, you’re working out hard, then you should definitely look into Prograde Metabolism as an aid to your efforts. Here’s the next question, Jayson. I’m reading these exactly as they were written to us so if I stutter a bit, please forgive me. Here we go. Q: I know the goal is to lose only fat and keep all the lean muscle in the body, but people still want the scale to move super fast. Is it possible to lose two pounds of pure fat a week and keep all your muscle or is a half pound more realistic when it comes to “fat only” loss? When it comes to only losing fat, basically. Does that make sense Jayson? Jayson Hunter: Yes. In regard to being able to lose that much pure fat every week and keeping all your muscle, probably not likely because you have to be in a calorie deficit – you have to burn essentially 7,000 extra calories in a week to lose those two pounds of fat. Unfortunately, that usually means that you’re also burning some of the amino acids for energy that are in your muscle, which means you’re breaking down that muscle, to some extent. The goal really, if you’re trying to lose the maximum amount of fat is to minimize the muscle loss. You can do that through consuming branch amino acids because those can actually be used as energy instead of your body pulling those branch amino acids from the muscle which is essentially breaking down the muscle, it can use those BCAAs for that same energy need. That’s your goal in regard to trying to lose as much fat as possible. You’re really just trying to minimize the muscle loss and obviously continuous strength training is going to help do that as well. To be in that much of a calorie deficient, if you are truly trying to lose that much fat in a week, your body is naturally going to also pull nutrient needs from the muscle which means you essentially lose some muscle. So, you do things to try to minimize that like strength training, by taking Prograde BCAAs, things that are going to allow your body to use those for nutrient rather than what’s in the muscle. Jim Labadie: Okay. Very good. I’m kind of reading this question over myself and wondering. So, let me ask you this. Maybe it’s just a statement because having trained people for years myself one of the things, for anybody listening, what would always drive me crazy, and I’m sure it used to drive you crazy, Jayson, is people getting incredible results in regard to their clothes fit better, they can fit into their skinny jeans again, their body feels better, their stronger, their leaner, but the scale hasn’t moved and that’s all people can think about. I’m a big believer of do not obsess with what the scale says. You want to think about how your clothes fit and what you look like. It’s astonishing psychologically how people will look better, feel better, be better, clothes fit better yet the scale hasn’t moved, and they are an emotional wreck because the scale hasn’t moved. Jayson Hunter: Or they haven’t reached the number that they thought they wanted to reach in their head yet their body looks completely different. Jim Labadie: In reality, if that’s you, and you’re reading or listening to this, don’t be one of those people because, in all seriousness, you’re going to drive yourself crazy, and it’s not what’s important. Your body composition is what’s important, how you’re feeling, your strength, and the metabolically active tissue on your body, that is what is important. Jayson Hunter: Here’s a perfect example. You can take two different women, same height, and same weight. Let’s say they both feel, for whatever reason, they have to weigh 115 pounds. The one woman can be lean, have a very low body fat, have some definition on her abs, your arms, her legs, her butt, and be 115. The other woman can be 115, and her clothes are tight. She's got a protruding midsection. She's got fat on her thighs, yet the scale says the exact same, so does their height. They’re the exact same height. You can have two completely different physiological makeup right there, and they can look completely different from each other yet the scale says it’s the same. So what’s right? That’s why you can’t count on the scale because the clothes don’t lie, looking in the mirror doesn’t lie, the number of notches on your belt doesn’t lie, and those are the things you want to look at in regard to meeting your goals. The scales just a number and that example right there shows you that number can be completely distorted and skewed. Jim Labadie: Absolutely. So, getting back to the Prograde BCAAs real quick, when is the best time for people to take those, before a workout? Jayson Hunter: Again, there are lots of variables with this because other people take protein drinks before workouts, which contain BCAAs and again, it’s hard to say this is what you have to do with this; it’s a blanket statement program because it’s not true. Generally, most people, the best time to take it is between meals if you want some type of general statement because that’s when your body may require some nutrients or some energy, and you’re providing it with those BCAAs at that time. Other than that, if you’re not taking a protein shake before a workout, then yes, BCAAs would be fine and helpful before a workout. If you’re taking a protein shake then you don’t need to also take the BCAAs. I could come up with a dozen different variables for people but the general one is, take it in between meals, take it before bed. If you want a general statement, that’s what I would give you. Other than that, every variable under the sun is possible based off of what else you’re eating during the day. Jim Labadie: Sure. I’ll give you just one example. Prograde Workout, if somebody is using Prograde Workout as a pre workout drink would they still consume Prograde BCAAs? Jayson Hunter: Not before a workout because you’re getting the BCAAs with the Prograde Workout. You’re getting the protein that’s in that. Jim Labadie: There you go. We have those pages, Jayson, on how to use Prograde Products. We will put those links on this page so that everybody who’s reading or listening to this will have links to these. We have charts on how to use the products depending on what time of day you workout. They give you some great guidelines, so we will make sure that those are up there for you. Okay, so we’re going to skip around just a tiny bit, Jayson, because I brought up a question. We mentioned taking BCAAs at night. What is your rule of thumb? Do I stop eating at 5:00? Do I eat my dinner then I’m done? What if I’m famished because I had a workout, and I’m starving? What are the guidelines? Jayson Hunter: I think you should eat before you go to bed. How’s that for an answer? Jim Labadie: Sounds good to me. Q: How many hours should you stop eating prior to going to sleep at night? Jayson Hunter: Your body doesn’t shut down just because you went to sleep. That’s when your body’s, in regard to recovery, most active. That’s when it needs nutrients. You’re going to be fasting for, some people, 12-­‐16 hours. Yes, you’re not as active as you may be during the day, but internally your body’s still working while you sleep. It’s what you eat before you go to sleep that makes the difference. I like to do some type of yogurt mixed with a protein powder because you’re getting a blend of proteins; you’re getting some calories, some nutrients that are going to be able to digest slowly while you sleep. I’m not talking about eating it and then going right to bed but an hour before bed, forty-­‐five minutes before bed, something like that and you can eat lean proteins because again, you’re going to wait those nutrients so that your body can utilize them while it’s repairing itself when you’re sleeping. Some of these people are active after dinner. They go workout or they go outside, they are just active so then all of a sudden you’re going too fast for another nine hours after that before you eat breakfast again? Where do you think your body’s getting these nutrients from? It’s going to be from your muscle really so you do want to eat something. Again, it varies. Some people eat really late dinners, some eat early dinners so it’s going to be based on an individual basis but don’t think you have to not eat something four hours before you go to bed because that’s just not true. Jim Labadie: You can always have a Prograde Protein shake. Jayson Hunter: There you go. Jim Labadie: Absolutely. Okay, next one. It kind of gets back to the first one a little bit. We’ll go through this one next, Jayson. Now, obviously we kind of need some more information on that but what would your general response be? Jayson Hunter: Well, if the questions accurate in regard them saying that’s all they eat during the day? They’re starving themselves to death. That’s why they’re not losing any weight. Their body is going into starvation mode and trying to protect itself. It’s shedding ever piece of muscle it can shed so that it can lower that metabolism and not be required to use so many calories. Again, if it is accurate that they’re just Q: I joined a gym in July and have been going six days a week; I ever work with a trainer. This is a lot more exercise then I was getting before I started the gym. Why is the weight not going away? I drink workout before my gym time and a protein drink after and a salad later in the day, sometimes with a chicken breast in it, sometimes with two hard boiled eggs in it and that’s all I eat during the day so why isn’t the weight going away? eating a salad with sometimes a chicken breast and a protein shake and Prograde Workout shake, they’re eating what, maybe 700 calories, 600 calories for the entire day? You can’t consistently keep losing weight like that. Your body will go into its protective starvation mode which means it start shedding muscle so that it doesn’t have as much metabolically active tissue in it so it can lower that metabolism, lower the requirement for calories it needs every day. In this instance, they need to start increasing their calories, really. Jim Labadie: As soon as I saw it I knew they weren’t getting enough calories in. If this is your situation, if you ask this question or if you’re having the same issue, you became a Prograde VIP so you have access to Jayson’s 90 Day Meal Plan, dig into that right now. It’s in your VIP section. Take a good long look at that. I’m not sure if this person eats breakfast or not, if you don’t like eating breakfast, there’s Prograde Lean chocolate meal replacement drink. That would be a great solution for that. You have to make sure you get the calories in. I know it’s counter intuitive to many people that eating more is going to help you shed body fat and lose weight but it is true. Now, that being said as Jayson just alluded to previously, it has to be the right calories, the right foods, and it’s not you go to McDonalds and eat whatever the heck you want and you’re going to lose weight, it’s making sure you’re getting quality calories and this person is obviously not eating enough of them. Check out Prograde Lean if you’re not eating breakfast or really if you’re having trouble eating during the day, a lot of people don’t like to get up and eat breakfast but you need to eat it. It starts your day off by getting the proper calories and nutrition from the get go so make sure you dig into that 90 Day Meal Plan right away. Speaking of the 90 Day Meal Plan, Jayson, here’s the next one. Q: When using the 90 Day Meal Plan or any other meal plan, how do I know how much food, or the size of the food I should have. For example, if I need to eat 22 grams of protein per meal how do I figure out how many ounces that would be since not all meat/beans etc, have the same size value? I’m not sure where the 22 grams per meal comes from. That’s the questions. Jayson Hunter: Well, in the 90 Day Meal Plan there is an equation to determine how much protein they should be having per meal in grams. That’s where that comes from. There are some general guidelines that someone could follow in regard to, if its meat, one ounce of protein equals roughly seven grams of protein. So, three ounces of fish/chicken/beef, whatever it may be is about the size of a deck of cards or like the palm of most people’s hands. So if you can envision a deck of cards, that’s roughly three ounces of meat multiple that by seven, because one ounce is seven grams. (3 oz X 7 g = 21 grams of protein) That would be about 21 grams of protein or for example, 22 grams that works out fine. If you’re one gram off or something like that, it’s a four calorie difference. It’s not going to make or break you. If they’re eating a piece of chicken it would be about the size of a deck of cards in this instance. If it’s beans and things like that, generally you go by half cups, quarter cups, things like that and again, you’re looking at a half a cup as a general rule in regard to beans that’s going to equal 10-­‐15 grams of protein, somewhere in there. So generally if you use those two as a guideline you’re going to be pretty close to what you need to be taking in to at least determine your protein needs and things like that. It’s the same for carbohydrates. Most half cup servings of any type of starches or things like that, will be about 15 grams of carbohydrates. One slice of most breads, 15 grams of carbohydrates. Those are your two big ones there for carbohydrates. Jim Labadie: Okay, pretty straight forward. Alright, here’s one that’s interesting. Jayson Hunter: Well, they’ve answered their own question. They’re losing fat; their losing inches, that’s fat, that’s not just miraculous weight that just came on. If you’re losing inches you’re losing fat especially when they say losing inches, I’m assuming they mean their waist, their thighs, things like that, so their losing weight. It’s just a matter of, again, if they think they’ve maybe reached a plateau maybe their down to that last 10 pounds, like they said, shedding some of the fat they still want to lose, maybe they can’t get past that so you go back to recording everything you eat and drink, look at it, are there any things you can improve on with that? I assume in the boot camp class their getting some variety in there. Are you only going to boot camp class one time a week, is it three times a week, what are you doing the other four days? Things like that. Where can you maybe burn some extra calories or change up the workout a little so that the body has to adapt again? If you’re only going to boot camp twice a week and you’re not doing anything else the rest of the week well, add in another high intensity cardio session, maybe go out and run some sprint intervals or something like that, or strength train and shock that body a little because it’s going to be like where the heck did this come from? Q: I’m involved in a boot camp class at my local gym, I’ve been losing inches, but my weight has not changed. I’ve been trying to make sure I eat enough but I find it hard to get enough protein for my diet. I’ve been using the Prograde Protein powder. Can the extra calories from the powder be preventing me from shedding the fat I still want to lose? The last seven weeks all I’ve been doing is work out twice a week. It’s going to have to adapt to those new changes that you’re forcing it to make which means it’s burning more calories. Jim Labadie: I think you answered on the beginning. Look, if you’re losing inches, you’re losing those love handles; you’re losing that body fat. Knowing the business the way we do, in a boot camp setting it’s possible, I don’t know your specific situation but you’re probably not getting personal attention like you do from a one-­‐on-­‐one personal trainer so it’s possible you haven’t had your body fat composition taken. If I was the person who asked this question, or anybody in a similar situation, ask your fitness professional to take your body composition and really make sure you keep track of that because again, the scale has nothing to do with it whatsoever, its how your clothes are fitting and those inches coming off. That’s much, much, much, much, much more important because what weights more, five pounds of fat or five pounds of muscle? They weigh the same. Muscle is not going to take up the volume – what are the words I’m looking for here, Jayson? Jayson Hunter: Well, physiological they’re not the same size. Jim Labadie: Yeah. Jayson Hunter: Five pounds of muscle takes up less space than five pounds of fat. Jim Labadie: It’s more dense then fat. The fat’s going to take up more volume. That’s the difference. That’s a great way to really look at it? Fat is going to take up more space than muscle tissue. That lean muscle tissue which your Prograde Protein powder is helping you gain is what’s causing you to spend more calories and it’s why those inches are coming off. Jayson Hunter: When you take in protein your body has to burn more calories to digest it then if does if you were to just consume carbs or fat. You’re actually getting less net calories when you consume protein then if you were to just consume carbs or just consume fat. Jim Labadie: There you go. The thermic effect of food, correct? Jayson Hunter: Correct. Jim Labadie: Okay, we’ve got just two more and then that’s it. Let’s see, here’s a good one. Q: How can I determine the best mix of supplements that I should take to maintain my weight and how can I be sure that they don’t create any additional conflicts with each other or the allergy medications I take? I’ll answer that first and foremost, Jayson. First and foremost, you absolutely, positively, do not use any Prograde Products or any other supplement company products without checking with your doctor to see if there’s any conflict with your medication. End of discussion. So Jayson, you can answer the rest. Jayson Hunter: Okay. To elaborate on Jim’s statement there, the reason is because there are so many drugs out there; they’re always changing the formulas of these prescription drugs and only your health care practitioner’s going to really know what is going to conflict with these or if they’ve changed and your personal medical conditions. Don’t assume anyone knows that or even that you know it because that stuff can always change and you don’t even know it all the time. A prescription formula can change and the drug company changes it and careless if they tell you or not. They just know that they’re getting money from you because they have a prescription for it. Always check with your doctor if you are taking prescriptions medication. Jim Labadie: Now, Jayson, I’m going to talk real quick so we don’t talk over one so the transcription is easy to transcribe. You and I have had conversations with people lately, including a physician, where it was in a newsletter the other day that the physician’s can gobble up from the media everything else that is put out there which is often times misleading. For instance, a physician that says supplement companies don’t know where their ingredients are coming from and who the heck knows what’s in the bottle. That can be true of lousy supplement companies but it’s not true of this one. All the ingredients go into quarantine, all of the ingredients are checked micro biologically, and all the products are given quality control checks before they are shipped out the door to fulfillment. What we say is in the bottle is in the bottle. Just because somebody’s a physician doesn’t mean he knows about supplements. He’s going to know about contraindications and whether or not you should be using certain products with your medicines, but we were both a little bit appalled that a physician would think that all supplement companies are the same. Jayson Hunter: Exactly. They will know the contraindications to nutrients and things like that but yeah, they cannot make that same true statement regarding a product because unless they know the internal workings of the company they’re no different than the media at that point. Just because they have the M.D. behind their name doesn’t mean much when it comes to things like that sometimes. Jim Labadie: So, for all intent and purposes for this question for the person who wrote this, anybody who’s listen, we’re going to go under the assumption right now, check with your doctor, number one; number two, if you’re a perfectly healthy person and you don’t have any conflicts, what are we looking at Jayson in regards to maintaining weight. I was thinking before the call, maintaining weight can be very misleading because as we’ve been talking at nauseam in regard to weight, it’s not your weight per say, it’s your body composition so you could be 120 pounds and then you stop your workouts and three months from now, “Hey look, I’m still 120 pounds” but jeans don’t fit, cloths don’t fit, got a little bulge in the belly, and got a little jiggle under the arms, how did this happen? The scale says I weigh exactly the same. So, maintaining weight can be very deceiving in regard to exercise and eating. It’s making sure that your body composition is remaining the same so things that help you out, we’re talking about things like Prograde Lean to help you get those calories that you need, Prograde Protein if you like smoothies made with fruit, there’s Prograde Metabolism. We’ll talk a little bit more in regard to how long people should actually use it. Anyway, enough of me ranting, Jayson, what do you think in regard to maintaining weight with supplements? Jayson Hunter: You mentioned the big one there’s like Lean and Workout. Lean it comes in handy if you’re not consistent with your breakfast, maybe you don’t like breakfast, things like that. That’s where a supplement, a meal replacement supplement can help you maintain that weight because you’re getting in that very important meal, being breakfast, consistently. That’s the big one. Prograde Workout or Prograde Protein consumed around workouts is going to help you want to achieve a better workout, help recover faster for that next workout which ultimately means you make more progress, you get success faster in regards to what you’re doing in the gym. So that’s where those types of supplements come in handy in regards to making sure that you’re maximizing your workouts, maximizing your meals, so that your body percentage, the layout, the makeup of your body compared to muscle to fat stays where it needs to stay which is a lower body fat and more lean muscle. Then there’s always the health aspect of things in regard to making sure you take a VGF 25 whole food vitamin to where you’re getting in the vitamins and minerals so that your body can carry out the reactions that it needs to carry out so that it can do what it needs to do so that you can live a healthier life. Same goes for fish oil, we’ve talked endlessly on things like that, and krill oil because there’s research coming out every day in regard to the benefits of that and what it can do to help you life a healthier life. One of them being, maintaining that healthy weight, maintaining that healthy body composition in regard to your muscle, inflammation in the body, and potentially helping you to burn calories. There are a lot of things it can do and maintaining a healthy body is the biggest one, really. It’s allowing your body to function as it should rather than your body needing to always try to protect itself or repair something because it’s not getting the nutrients it needs. So, I’m not saying that supplements are the way you have to go every time because obviously you can defeat a lot of great supplements by eating Burger King every day and sitting on the couch. Regardless of what you take you can negate the benefits of almost anything so you still need to have that good foundation of nutrition and exercise and then the supplementation comes in to complete that foundation, to improve upon that foundation, make it a little more sturdy or a little more solid so that you can get better results consistently. Jim Labadie: That’s a great point because the three components are exercising, eating clean, and then supplementation fills in those gaps. That’s really what it’s about. There are no miracles; it’s all about good hard science really. It’s about filling in the gaps of your nutrition where your body needs it. Jayson Hunter: And you hear me talk about all the time, you have to develop that solid base, that solid nutritional foundation through food first because if the holes are so big in that foundation, supplements are not going to do enough to fill those holes and fills those gaps. You need to develop the base first with food so that those holes, those gaps aren’t quite so big and that’s where supplementation then helps to fill those in. No one’s going to eat perfect 7 days a week 365 days a year whether they think they do or they say they can do it, the reality is they can’t do it. I’d like to see you eat a wide variety of vegetables, colorful vegetables, every single day, 365 days a year so that you get all the vitamins and minerals that come from all these different colorful vegetables. It’s just not going to happen. You do what you can, you eat as many as you can, you try to get as much variety as you can but then that’s where the whole food vitamin comes in to fill in those missing pieces day in and day out because you’re not going to sit there and eat 12 vegetables all a different color every single day. Jim Labadie: Very good. So, last question, speaking of getting that foundation. Let’s see how good you are with this, Jayson. It’s very interesting. Got any tips? Jayson Hunter: Buy bulk. Most places, stores, you can buy family packs of meats and fish, things like that, you portion it out, you freeze, you can do the same with vegetables, and actually vegetables in regard to, if you’re having to eat on a budget and you’re feeding a large family is, buy frozen. They flash freeze that from a fresh standpoint so it’s not like something in a can that’s filled with sodium and things like that to keep it preserved. You can buy these jumbo bags of stuff where you’re getting a cheaper price per pound and you only take out as much as you need for those meals. Q: How can I eat as clean as possible on a budget with a family of five? I do that now and I only have a family of three and really that third one doesn’t each much because she’s only three. We buy in bulk to save money and get more value for my dollar, really, and portion it out and that way when we want something for dinner, we go to the freezer and we pull out pre-­‐bagged chicken breast to where it’s only two per bag or four per bag and I’m not having to pull out 12 chicken breasts and then try to eat all of them before they go bad, or rot, or spoil, I can just pull out what I need to pull out, we have our meals, and maybe I pull out fish the next night or something like that. Shopping for value, buying larger bulked items like frozen vegetables, frozen fruits, large family packs of meats and then portion them out when you get home and freezing what you don’t need so that you pull out the portion when you need them. That would be my easiest tip in regard to that. Jim Labadie: Makes sense. So, last question I have for you. I’ll throw in a bonus question here. I forgot to remind you to get an answer about the Prograde Metabolism and maintaining weight. We’ve gotten asked quite a bit where does Prograde Metabolism fit in? Say I reach my goal weight and part of the reason I reached my goal plan, I feel, is because Prograde Metabolism helped me get there. Do I stop using it? What do you think? Jayson Hunter: If you’re pretty consistent with your workouts and consistent with what you should be eating calorie-­‐wise, you’re not fluctuating all over the place in regard to what type of nutrition and the quantities, then I say you don’t necessarily need to take it unless you see the weight start coming back on. If you’re a person that tends to fluctuate, once you’ve reached your goals, kind of like that success, you relax a little, you know you’re going to relax a little then I would maybe still take half a dose to provide that little extra bump in calories and to help protect those days or those weeks where you tend to splurge a little because you’ve met that goal mentally and you’ve kind of relaxed on what you really should be doing exercise and nutrition-­‐
wise. It comes down to long term changes and that means long term exercise habits and long term healthy eating habits. It’s not, “I’m just eating this weight until I lose the weight and then I’m going back to my old habits”, because the weight’s just going to come back on which most people know that already and that’s why they do the yo-­‐
yo dieting and their weight cycles for years. They’ve never adapted that mental aspect of, “I need to change the way that I live my life for the rest of my life, not just for these next six weeks.” Jim Labadie: And there you have it. So, that wraps up this first series of questions, our first VIP tele-­‐coaching. Thank you for listening and/or reading and thank you very, very much for being a Prograde VIP. If you’re listening to this in the month of September, 2010, our new chocolate flavor and orange flavor Prograde Proteins will be coming out very, very soon and then we’ve got some other cool stuff that will be coming out, we’re expecting, later this fall so stay tuned for that. Jayson, thank you very much for all your knowledge. We appreciate it. Jayson Hunter: You’re very welcome. Jim Labadie: Prograde VIPs, we’ll be in touch real soon with more great stuff for you. Take care!