Want to Look Better & Not Just Weigh Less? Follow This 4-Step Process

In today's episode of Transformation Talks, you’ll learn the four-step process my client Sarah used to lose almost 19 pounds of pure body fat.

Note: I misspoke when discussing Step #1, capping your rate of weight loss.

One percent of your bodyweight is "1%" OR "0.001"—not "0.001%," like I said on the episode. The same goes for half a percent.

The rest of the numerical examples for pace of progress still stand.

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Learn more about coaching here if you want to make progress like Sarah: https://samforget.com/coaching/

Here's the free nutrition guide you'll hear me mention: https://freenutritionguide.com

The free training template: https://hercules-performance.ck.page/9e5865d1c3

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of Transformation Talks. I'm your host, Sam Forger, and today we're going to be going over a four-step process for not just weighing less, not just making the scale go down, but actually looking noticeably better, maximizing your visual results during a dieting phase. And per usual, this episode was inspired by a conversation that I was having with a client, Sarah, who has lost 19 pounds, which is obviously very exciting. But what makes this even more exciting, and what I told her, was hey, the way you've gone about things in a very specific way has ensured that the vast majority of this 19-pound loss has been fat specifically. Almost all of it has been fat. And that is the secret sauce when it comes to maximizing visual changes, ensuring that you are losing fat while hanging on to as much muscle as possible. Weight loss, fat loss, two very different outcomes, or at least moderately different outcomes with different processes, if you're looking to maximize them. So I understand that a lot of people assume that, well, if I do get the scale to go down, I'm going to see a different look. I am going to be more toned, defined, I'm going to look leaner. And that may be true, but funny enough, if you primarily prioritize making the scale go down, the things you'll end up doing, whether it's super low calories, whether it's cutting carbs, whether it's a ton of cardio, et cetera, can be at odds with the goal of actually looking noticeably better. So in today's episode, we'll go over exactly how to do that, how to maintain muscle while losing body fat, which is the key to maximizing visual results. And I thought Sarah's feedback was pretty great. She said, I don't spend a ton of time on Facebook, but I've been watching a few videos about fat loss versus weight loss before this latest stretch. I never cared as long as the scale went down. Interjecting here, I think that's very relatable for a lot of people. Continuing, I feel like I'm finally doing this the right way, and it's not a quick fix to get the scale to an arbitrary number. As a coach, this, I mean, I'm just so excited to read something like this because when you do make that shift from a weight loss focus to a body composition focus, everything changes from the enjoyability to the effectiveness to the sustainability. So without further ado, let's actually get into these four steps that today's episode will be about starting with step number one, uh capping your weight loss at 1% of your body weight per week. But please notice that I'm saying cap. I'm not actually saying I recommend trying to lose 1% of your body weight every week. I'm only mentioning it, and I'll get to what I recommend in a second. I'm only mentioning it because this tends to be the most commonly cited cap for what you can get away with without losing excessive muscle during a dieting phase. Also, quite frankly, with the rise of GLP1 use, it has just become increasingly common where we are hearing about people losing massive amounts of weight in a very short period of time. But frankly, if somebody's pace beyond, say the first week or two, where a lot of the loss that anybody will see is water, which is water weight. But beyond the first, say, week or two, if somebody continues to lose much more than 1% of their body weight per week, inevitably a lot of that is going to be muscle, which is very much at odds with their goals here of maximizing visual changes. It also presents a host of other issues, but that is a topic in itself. So step number one, yes, cap your weight loss at 1% of your body weight per week, but that's just a hard cap. What do I actually recommend? I would say closer to half a percent per week. The reason for that is, and I skipped ahead a little bit there. Let me backtrack. The reason why I don't recommend 1% for most people is because of the deficit size required to do that. And to use myself as an example, I'm 190 pounds. So obviously 1% of my body weight per week would be 1.9 pounds per week. Since a pound is equal to roughly 3,500 calories, I would have to be in a 6,650 calorie deficit each week, which means I have to be in a 950 calorie deficit on a daily basis. That would be miserable. And even if your deficit size, like what would be required for you to lose 1% per week, isn't 950 specifically, it's all relative. So again, what's required for the vast majority of people to hit this 1% mark? It's just it's excessive. So a much better pace for most people is half a percent. So take your body weight in pounds and multiply it by 0.005. That is a much better pace for most people when factoring in three things lifestyle. We don't want you to be miserable on a daily basis. Biofeedback, which is basically how your body's responding to your protocol, things like hunger, things like energy levels, performance, recovery, et cetera. And this is and try that again. And then the sustainability factor. Uh, you know, if you're in a massive deficit, you might see some temporary success on the scale, but the likelihood of you rebounding is very, very high. So when factoring in lifestyle, just your day-to-day, when factoring in uh biofeedback, how your body's responding, when factoring in sustainability, I do much prefer half a percent. So your body weight times and pounds times 0.005. And just for reference, and so you don't have to do too much math as you're listening to this, I did calculate a couple of reference points for a variety of body weights so you could see what 0.005 looks like. So if you are 230 pounds, 0.005 would be 1.15 pounds per week. At 200 pounds, it's about a pound per week at 170 pounds, 0.85 pounds per week, 140 pounds, that would be 0.7 pounds per week. Obviously, these are not hard rules when I'm working with a client. We adjust pace protocol expectations based on a variety of factors, but um, these give you good general ideas for what might be a good pace when factoring in the goal of maximal muscle retention, but also lifestyle, biofeedback, sustainability. Uh, and actually, I calculated this beforehand too. Sarah is losing an average of 0.006% of her body weight per week. So, right in that sweet spot that I'm talking about. Last thing I'll say in this topic is that the two exceptions to this 1% hard cap and the half a percent that I actually recommend would be people on either ends of the spectrum. So individuals who are on the smaller side, or people who are already very lean that just don't have a whole lot to lose, in which case less than half a percent per week could be fine, or people who are looking to lose a lot of weight. You can at least temporarily get away with more than 1% of your body weight per week. Eventually, to maintain that, the deficit size would have to be too much relative to your new maintenance. But vast majority of people, 1% is a very hard cap, but I would actually recommend half a percent. Step number two of this four-step process, eat enough protein. Okay. How much is enough protein? Obviously, you see so many conflicting answers online. You know, is it, you know, 0.6, 0.7 grams per pound of body weight? Is it at least a uh a gram per pound of body weight? Is it current body weight? Is it goal weight? You see this stuff that's all over the place. I just like to simplify and say 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. That is a good spot for most people to be in. Like anything I'll say here today or on any podcast, there are exceptions. For example, if I'm working with vegan or vegetarian clients, I often drop their minimum target a little bit to make things more realistic. If I'm working with somebody who's you know trying to get really lean toward the tail end of a dieting phase, I might push things a bit closer to one gram per pound of body weight. But for most people to get some decent muscle retention benefits, 0.8 grams per pound of body weight is a good minimum. So for me at 190 pounds, that is a minimum of 150 grams of protein per day. More than this wouldn't necessarily be additionally beneficial from a muscle retention standpoint, but for hunger management, it can be beneficial. So a good range for many, not all people, would be something like 0.8 grams per pound of body weight, all the way up to one gram per pound of body weight. One gram per pound of body weight is not necessary for the vast majority of people from a muscle retention standpoint. But for hunger management, because protein is the most silly macronutrient, something to consider while in a dieting phase. You can obviously experiment with that and see what seems to make the most sense for you. Uh a follow-up question here is always all right, how do I eat this much protein? Most people, understandably, when I initially assign them a protein minimum, feel like, wow, I've never had this much protein before, or maybe I've tried, but it's always been hard for me. It's just so difficult. And this is where I always push back with love, just because I want the best for you, and challenge people who say that it's difficult to get enough protein because the vast majority of people that say that, if I look at your food logs from the last 30 days, most of those days were not planned in full in advance. If I look at your calendar for the last month, I don't know why I switched from 30 days to month, let's say the last month, how many times am I going to see ingredient prep where you are bulking proteins in bulk in advance on your actual calendar? For most people, the answer is virtually never. If I look at what you typically order when you're getting takeout or when you're out to eat, are you choosing the most protein-dent stuff on the menu? The answer to that question for most people is sporadically at best. So if you're not prepping anything in advance, you're not really planning and you're not choosing high protein options when you have the opportunity to, is it really fair to say that it's difficult to get a lot of protein? Maybe it's fair to say that it is more difficult than getting fat and carbs, which require virtually no preparation or thought. But I don't necessarily think it's fair to say that this is super difficult, which again, I mean with love, just because I want to see you do your best. And it's not actually that hard to get enough protein if you follow the system that I'll very quickly break down right here. Take your protein minimum and divide it by how many meals per day that you're having. So let's say your protein minimum is 120 grams per day. You typically have three meals per day, maybe three meals plus one snack, which can be a good template for some people. You would say, All right, I'm gonna shoot for about 40 grams per meal. That way, I'm not starting the day with 12 grams of protein from a yogurt, and now I have to eat 100 something grams at lunch and dinner. Don't give yourself it uphill battle. Spread things out throughout the day. So, in this example, about 40 grams per meal. And then when you are planning your meals, which you absolutely should be doing if you have weight loss goals, or I should say if you have fat loss goals, either way, you need to be planning your meals in advance. Or I guess you don't necessarily have to, but why give yourself the uphill battle? So when you're planning ahead and you plug in your breakfast, your lunch, and your dinner, do not settle for less than 40 grams. Obviously, if you're at 36 grams, it doesn't matter, but you get what I'm saying. Don't have this big nosedive at one meal, and now you're having to play makeup elsewhere. And getting 30 to 40, even 50 grams in a meal is not that hard if you choose the right sources of protein to base these meals around. Combination of eggs and egg whites, chicken, lean ground beef, lean ground turkey, steak, tuna, salmon, um, other kind of more secondary sources of protein that can be really helpful, like yogurt, cottage cheese. And when I say secondary, I just mean they have more calories from fat and carbs. It doesn't mean they're bad sources of protein. So if you take very protein-dense stuff like this, often you'll only need, it's a general reference point, about a palm, excuse me, about a fist-sized portion of whatever that protein is. So picture a fist-sized portion of a chicken breast. Almost always is getting you 30 to 45 plus grams of protein, and it's not that much food. It's not that hard. So uh, like I said, everybody always says, oh, it's so hard to get enough protein, but they're giving themselves an unnecessarily difficult path there with very little prepping in advance, not a whole lot of next day planning, and not actually choosing the foods that have a lot of protein when they're out. But if you do one to two times per week, prep your proteins in bulk on a nightly basis, plan the next day's meals, and then choose the right sources of protein when you're doing that to base your meals around, you're gonna find that it's not actually that hard. Step number three of this four-step process, and this is by far, by far, by far the most important when it comes to muscle retention. Quite honestly, you could you could be a bit off with step number one, which is capping your weight loss at a reasonable rate. Step number two, getting enough protein, skipping ahead to step four, getting the the um is try that again. Skipping ahead to step four, getting as much good sleep as you possibly can. You could be super off with steps one, two, and four. But if you nail this step, step number three, you'll still be in an alright spot. And that is training properly. What does training properly actually mean? For muscle retention, I want to be clear about this. For muscle retention, I'm not talking about for other goals. If you I'm saying if you come to me and say, hey, Sam, I just want to maximize visual changes during this dieting phase, then training properly means prioritizing two things proximity to failure, which I'll explain in a moment, and progressive overload. Proximity to failure is when you take your sets to the point or almost to the point where you couldn't possibly do any more. So if I'm doing a dumbbell shoulder press and I get to the very end, I'm pressing over my head, I'm pressing over my head. And if you ask me at the end of the set, hey, how many more reps could you do if you absolutely had to? The answer shouldn't be more than one to two. And that's gonna be the case on basically all of your sets. You should almost never have more than one to two reps left in the tank when the goal is muscle retention and maximizing visual changes. I want to be clear about that because there are other types of training that are beneficial for other goals. We're just talking about one specific thing here. And the other thing that I mentioned that is crucial to prioritize is progressive overload. So doing more reps or weight over time. So let's say this dumbbell shoulder press, right now with a 10-pound dumbbell, I can do a set of 10. My second set I fatigue, I do a set of nine, my third set I fatigue a bit more, and I do seven. Which, by the way, if you see that slight uh rep drop off, that's a good thing. That means you are pushing close to failure. If you're able to duplicate all your sets, you do three by 10 at the same exact weight, and the last set doesn't feel meaningfully harder than the first one. That just means you need to go up in weight. So if you do see that rep drop-off that I'm describing, that's fine. But what progressive overload would look like from there is the next week trying to get maybe 11 reps, 10 reps, and maybe that last one you can get up to nine. So with increased reps there. And then obviously we don't want reps to just go on till infinity and beyond. So at a certain point, you would say, all right, I'm gonna increase the weight, even if it brings my reps back down a little bit. And then you basically rinse and repeat that pattern forever. So it's proximity to failure and progressive overload. All right, why those two things? Because those are what allow you to produce a very high degree of force during your sets, maximal force production, which is the secret sauce with training when it comes to giving your muscles a reason to stick around. We need to be looking to produce as much force as possible. And this may ruffle some feathers here, but this is where the vast majority of group exercise falls short. Whether we're talking Peloton, quote unquote strength classes, whether we're talking orange theory, berries, F45, I could go on and on. And again, this is worth repeating a hundred times. I'm not saying these are bad workout classes. I'm not saying they're not beneficial. I'm not saying like none of those things, which I'm clarifying because so many people will talk to me about this and say, hey, I know you don't like X, Y, and Z. I'm not saying I don't like these things. These are great options for a lot of people, as long as you know exactly what you're getting out of them, which might be a little bit of strength if you're beginner intermediate, endurance, fun, variety, community, cardio, a bunch of great stuff. I'm fine with it. I'm a fan. But if your goal is maximizing muscle retention and visual changes during a dieting phase, they're not great because they fall short. And those areas that I was talking about, proximity to failure and consistent progressive overload. And you might be thinking, hey, when I do these classes, like I am going until I can't go anymore. Isn't that proximity to failure? It may be in some cases, but it's super inconsistent because you might be going for uh a specific very high rep range, which makes it very or a high rep target, which makes it very difficult to gauge proximity to failure. It's a lot easier to gauge, oh, do I have one to two reps left in the tank when you're doing a lot of sets between six to 12 reps? When you're getting up to 15 to 20, it's all pretty fatiguing. It's tough to tell how close you are. Rest periods are also very short, which hinders force production on the next set. Maybe you're stopping because you hit a timer and not because you were actually close to failure. And then if we look at the progressive overload component, sure, you might be picking up heavier weights in these classes over time, but it is far less structured. There's a lot of guessing. A lot of it is, well, I was I was using these dumbbells for the last two weeks and I just picked up these heavier ones. And that's great, but compared to something more structured where you can look at your logbook and try to beat as many sets as possible, you're just leaving results on the table from a body composition perspective. So I know I bounced around a little bit there. So to recap, you need to be training properly for muscle retention, which involves prioritizing two things proximity to failure. So getting to the point where maybe you have one to two reps left in the tank, and progressive overload. So beating those sets as often as possible over time. And obviously, I snuck in there uh resting enough as well, because a lot of people do not rest enough between sets, which also hinders force production, the main thing we're after on the next set. I did write down just a quick checklist for what makes something a good muscle retention workout. First thing, well-chosen exercises and not too many. So when I say well-chosen exercises, I'm gonna stop adding the caveat of for muscle retention specifically. I think you got that by now. I'm not saying that other types of exercise aren't beneficial for other reasons. So, yeah, for the sake of not being uh any more redundant than I've already been, I'm gonna stop saying all of these are with the caveat of for muscle retention specifically. So, well-chosen exercises. What do I mean by that? Choosing exercises that allow for a high degree of overload over time, things that you can add reps or weight to for a very, very long period of time. That's gonna be a great option. Not too many exercises. Honestly, if I look at somebody's program and I see more than five to six exercises in one workout, you know, that can start to be a little bit suspect if the goal is maximizing force production. Because if you're doing seven, eight, nine exercises in a workout, you're kind of just getting through that workout. If you're training close to failure and you've made a habit of that, you look down at a program that has nine exercises and you're like, what the hell? Like, there's no way I could get through that. So not only well-chosen exercises, but not too many. I would say the vast majority of workouts that I program, four to five, maybe six kind of main lifts, and then maybe one or two lighter things after that for different goals. But anything that's in the seven to eight, definitely nine plus exercise range, I would say uh too much relative to this goal. And here I am adding the caveats again. Uh, as I already mentioned, most of your sets taken close to failure, where at the very end of the set, if I asked you how many more reps could you do, the answer should never be more or almost never be more than one to two. All of these sets tracked. So you're writing down, okay, dumbo shoulder press. I did 10 pounds for 10, 9, 7. Resting long enough between sets on lighter, relatively speaking, isolation exercises like curls or um tricep pushdowns, things like that, a minute or two is fine. On compounds of multi joint stuff like presses and rows and deadlift and squat variations, split squats, lunges, stuff like that. I mean, two to three minutes. And if you're listening to that and you're like, that feels like a long time to rest, I promise you you can and should be going heavier. Because if you're pushing hard, truly hard, on something like a Bulgarian split squat, you would be pissed if your rest period. Period was under one minute. So making sure you are resting long enough between sets to allow for maximal force production on the next set. And last thing, beat the logbook. That needs to be your motto every time you walk in the gym. You are looking at what you did the previous week and you are doing everything possible to either even add one rep, two reps. Like it doesn't have to be these crazy jumps. One rep, two reps. It could be adding two and a half pounds, it could be adding five pounds, which may not seem like much in isolation. But I mean, if you added a few pounds and a few reps to each exercise every week for a year or two, you'd be one of the strongest people in the world. And that sounds ridiculous. But if you break down the math, it's true. You'd be heaving the hundred-pound dumbbells around like it's nothing, like they're nothing, I should say. So um, so yes, that is number three. That's four-step process, training properly. And one last, last thing I'll add here. You could do this two days, three days per week. This does not have to mean your whole life revolves around these types of workouts. I would say two is a minimum. Three is great for a lot of people who are looking to really maximize their body composition changes. Um, but what you could do is something a lot of my clients do, which is say two, maybe three workouts per week that revolve around these focal points that I mentioned. And then another one to two sessions per week that are a group exercise class if you really enjoy it. Maybe it's yoga, you know, maybe it's some running stuff, other types of activity if you don't want your whole life to revolve around this, which is fine. And also these workouts that I'm describing, like what I actually recommend checklist-wise, this can be 30 to 40 minutes. I'm not saying these have to be marathon sessions. It's a quality thing. Let's recap actually before I move to step number four. Step number one, cap your weight loss at 1% of your body weight per week, but that is a hard cap. I actually recommend closer to half a percent per week. Number two, eat enough protein, 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Number three, train properly, which means uh training with a close proximity to failure and prioritizing progressive overload over time. That way you are producing maximal force during your sets and giving your muscles a reason to stick around. Now, finally, last thing for today's episode, get as much good sleep as you can. And this is for two reasons. A variety of, excuse me, a variety of research has shown that sleep-restricted individuals, and this has varied a bit how they define this depending on the research you're looking at, but sleep-restricted individuals tend to see more muscle loss during a dieting phase than people who are getting enough high-quality sleep. And I'd love to be able to define that for you as exactly this amount, but again, depending on the research you look at, it does vary at least a little bit. And that doesn't matter that. I say that kind of loosely, because the action step is the same, no matter what research we're looking at. Try to get more high-quality sleep. So there's that reason you'll lose more muscle over time during a dieting phase. But also, if we just look at like practicalities with dieting, if you are not getting enough good sleep, your hunger hormone, ghrelin, is going to increase the next day. So you will feel hungrier the next day. And honestly, I wouldn't even say that is the biggest problem. I would say it's the fact that when you are sleep deprived, when you feel exhausted, you are more likely to say, screw it with your diet. Willpower tends to diminish. So, yes, there's some physiological stuff that we need to, you know, look after of excessive muscle loss, hunger creeping up. But then there's also the screw it factor that kicks in for a lot of people. Um now, like anything else I talk about, you might listen to this and say, I have a newborn. I work nights, I work multiple shifts, I have all these things that prevent me from getting perfect sleep. That's fine. Anytime I'm giving a recommendation, I'll go over a few sleep recommendations in a minute. If you can't do it for whatever reason, just move down the ladder of the next best thing that you can do. That's actually something I go over with my clients a lot, something I call the ladder method. Or, yeah, maybe the top rung of the ladder is you going to bed at 9 p.m. after having zero caffeine and screen time for hours and hours prior. But I know that's not realistic for most people. So, okay, on this imaginary ladder, what's the next rung down? Maybe it's a um, you know, a six-hour gap of caffeine and when you're going to bed and maybe 20 minutes of screen time. And then we move down a rung on the ladder. We just don't want to get off the ladder altogether. You always want to stay on the highest rung possible of what is within your control. Even if that rump feels a bit low, it's still better than jumping off the ladder altogether just because you can't be at the top one. So let's talk about these sleep recommendations with that mindset, with this ladder method in mind of okay, if Sam says this, but I can't do this, what's the next best thing? What's the next best version of what he's talking about? Some sleep tips. And I actually have a whole checklist that I send my clients. Um, it's like very, very in-depth, but I I pulled, I don't, I mean, that could be an episode in itself. So what I did is pull the six or seven focal points and strategies that tend to be highest yield for people when it comes to getting more high quality sleep, starting with waking up and going to bed at roughly the same times, even on the weekends. And I know nobody wants to hear this on the weekends, and people like to sleep in as much as possible. And I'm not saying that'll kill you once in a while, but as a whole, the more consistent your wake-ups and bedtimes are, the higher quality your sleep will be. It'll be easier to feel a bit sleepier at night. And that sleep again will be higher quality. So uh so do everything possible. And I'm I'm not saying this has to be exactly the same. So if you have no choice but to get up at 5 a.m. for work Monday to Friday, I'm not saying you have to get up at 5 a.m. on the weekends, but try not to, you know, go 8:30, 9 o'clock and have this huge gap between weekdays and weekends. The other thing that I'll add here is the more free midnight hours of sleep you accumulate on a weekly basis, the better from a sleep quality and restfulness standpoint. So I would, you know, if given the option, okay, somebody is sleeping 12 to 8 and they're getting eight hours compared to say 1030 to 6.30, I would push somebody toward that 10:30 to 6.30. Yes, they're both eight hours, but not all hours are created equal. We want to rack up as many pre-midnight hours of sleep as possible. So consistent sleep windows, yes, but the more we can shift this window up pre-midnight, the better. In the morning, when your alarm goes off, don't hit snooze. I know that seems like, okay, not exactly that groundbreaking, uh, but it can absolutely throw you off from an energy standpoint, from a sleep later that night standpoint. Also, it's just, I know it's a cliche thing to mention, but it's a broken promise to start the day. Like the second you hit that button, you set the tone for negotiating the things that you said that you were going to do. And I do find that often spills over into nutrition, step goals, workouts, et cetera. So not hitting snooze, yes, because the sleep upside to that, but I also think um mentality and consistency upside as well. Getting out of bed immediately and getting sun and movement as soon as you can. This is the example I had in mind when I started with if I say something that's not realistic for you, just do the next best thing you can. Because I grew up in New England and I have a lot of my New England clients in mind who at the time of recording this are just coming out of the winter. But a month ago, a lot of my clients are still waking up to, you know, pitch black. Like they're not going outside for a morning walk, depending on where they're living. And this, you know, pitch black. I was gonna say weather, just when it's pitch black out, that's what I'm looking for. So that's fine. Just get sunlight as soon as you can. Same thing for movement. Notice I'm saying movement, I'm not saying vigorous exercise, but you know, when the sun comes up, even if you can break out for a 10, 15 minute walk around the block, around the office building, wherever you are, soak up a little bit of sun that is great for sleep quality. After that, I'd say keep an eye on caffeine, maybe one to two, maybe three cups mid-morning to late afternoon. Caffeine consumed later in the day heavily disrupts your sleep quality. So I would cut things off, I mean, a bare minimum six, but ideally eight hours before bed, just as a little bit of overkill. So if you're going to bed at 10 p.m., last cup of coffee should be finished by 2 p.m. The tricky part is, well, hey Sam, I'm wiped after that. I just need a little bit more coffee to get me through the day. What ends up happening is you disrupt your sleep that night so you feel more exhausted the next day. So you have more caffeine and the cycle continues. So I understand this can be a bit of a shift for some people, but you'll have to temporarily embrace a little bit of suck, reduce caffeine intake to say one to three cups per day. And I'm saying cups as if you're, you know, 100% having coffee, tea, energy drinks, whatever you're having, and then cut things off by early afternoon at the very latest. Last two things I'll say here, and then we'll wrap up the episode. Increase the gap between screen time and your bedtime. Most people listening to this have no gap. There's a TV in the bedroom that they have on while they're scrolling their phone or have their work laptop open on their lap. It's like two to three screens at once, randomly shouting those, or maybe not even shouting those, maybe falling asleep with the TV bedroom on, which crushes your sleep quality. Even a small amount of light being emitted from a screen can crush your sleep quality. I also understand that most people, if I say, Oh, have a two to three hour gap between screen time and bedtime, it's just, you know, that's like me saying, that is like me saying, eat nothing, but you know, chicken and rice cake, like nobody's gonna do it. So what I would recommend is if you have a zero-minute gap at the moment between screen time and bedtime, start with a 15-20 minute gap. Certainly no screens in the bedroom. That is a sleep killer. That is not worth a trade. So screens out of the bedroom, and then at least a 15 to 20 minute gap to start. If we can push that up to 30 minutes, closer to an hour, even better. Then it's like, all right, so what do we do instead? An unplugged activity that helps you relax, whether that is journaling, brain dumping, so similar to journeying, but not necessarily with a prompt, just like a very loose, unstructured getting all your thoughts out on paper. It could be uh meditation, could be yoga, could be breastwork, uh, could be just talking to the people that you live with, maybe hanging out with your dog, your cat, whatever, basically anything that is not a screen, when we look to increase that gap. Um, because if you do increase the gap between screen time and bedtime and then have a consistent alternative routine, like, okay, every night I do a quick brain dump and then I read for a little bit, your sleep quality is gonna go through the roof. Uh, and you'll go to bed earlier. And uh if you just think about what happens when you have a screen in the bedroom specifically, it is so easy to keep doom scrolling or hit next episode or check another work email. So, practically speaking, you're probably not gonna read for as long as you doom scroll. So you'll end up going to bed earlier and get higher quality sleep. Let's recap this four-step process for not just weighing less, not just making the scale go down. To do that, all you need is a big calorie deficit, but to actually change the way you look to maximize visual results the way that my client Sarah has. And by the way, she's lost over 20 inches as well, which is additional confirmation that she has lost almost exclusively fat, along with her photos. It's a bit of a sidebar. You should be looking at weekly body weight averages, measurements, and photos to give you a better idea of body comp changes. But let's recap. This is the exact process that Sarah has used extremely well. Cap your weight loss at 1% of your body weight per week, but probably go for half a percent per week. So take your body weight times 0.005. Sarah is at 0.006. So a sweet spot for lifestyle, biofeedback, sustainability, and obviously body composition, the main point of this episode. Number two, eat enough protein. For most people, that's 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Easiest way to make this happen is just divide that minimum by how many meals per day you're having. Actually, plan your meals in advance around the best sources of protein. And this will not be hard. And if you're not sure what the best sources of protein are, forgot to mention this earlier. Just go to freenutritionguide.com. You'll be, it's a free nutrition guide. You'll be able to enter your email there and get a compilation of all my best protein-specific resources over the years. So a very simple grocery list that you can get anywhere that is sorted by source of calories. So, okay, this gets you mostly protein. This is protein and fat. This is protein, fat, and carbs, etc. Uh, the top sources of protein ranked, including the ones I recommend the most, my recommended portions to very easily get 100, 120, 150 plus grams of protein per day, the handful of snacks that I recommend that have some protein supplements, et cetera. So again, that's free. Nutritionguide.com. Step number three, and I want to reiterate the most important part of this four-step process is training properly. Where you were taking your sets close to failure, resting, I'm gonna add resting long enough between sets to be able to perform well on your next set and produce a lot of force. That's what we're looking for to give your muscles a reason to stick around. And then progressive overload over time, where every week you're looking back at what you did the previous week and you're trying to beat it. And if you need help with this, if it's like, okay, that makes sense, but where do I start? You know, I understand the checklist, but just go to the show notes. I'm not gonna um list the link here because it's one of those really messy links that like nobody's gonna remember. So just for convenience sake, if you go to the show notes, I'm going to include a link to a completely free two-day training template that'll help you check these boxes that I've talked about from a training perspective. And it's purposefully minimalist. It's just two days. So it's realistic for anybody to do. All it requires is a bench and dumbbell. So you could even do it at home. If you are going to do it at home, just make sure you have heavy enough weights to have this overload over time. And it still gives you plenty of room for other types of activity that you enjoy. And step number four, get as much good sleep as you can, both so you lose less muscle over time, which is inevitable if you're not getting a lot of great sleep to some degree. And also because if you're not sleeping super well, if you're not prioritizing, getting the best sleep that your life and your life responsibilities allow, you could experience excessive hunger and the willpower issues that can come with having a lot of unnecessary fatigue. And that is it. That is it for today's four-step process. Uh, again, so so proud of Sarah for the shift that she has made from prioritizing scale change, like making that the top metric to shifting to, okay, I want to prioritize changes in body composition because that process looks at least somewhat different. It's what we went over today, this four-step process. If you would like help implementing this with yourself, if you'd like some guidance with you know, setting up your calorie deficit, you know, making sure you get enough protein training properly, getting the best sleep your lifestyle allows, I would of course be happy to help. You can go to samforger.com slash coaching. I will include that link in the show notes as well. If you want to talk about the possibility of working together and what this four-step process would look like in practice for you based on your specific goals, lifestyle, challenges, etc. And if you just want to say hi, if you have any feedback, if you have any questions on this episode, you can always email me. And I encourage you to. I love hearing from people at mail at sam4j.com. And the very last thing before I let you go, uh before I forget, because generally I do forget, I'm terrible at this, is if you listen to this episode, you found it valuable. If you listen to the show in general and you feel like you know it's half decent, you get a little something out of it, it would mean an enormous amount to me if you would consider leaving either a review for the show on whatever the platform is that you listen to the show on, or um a rating, like a five-star rating, for example, on Spotify. Uh again, I'm I'm I I remember to bring this up maybe every 10 episodes. I'm supposed to beat people over the head with it, but so be it. So again, if you feel like this show has been helpful, the uh show in general is something that you get something out of. It would mean a lot to me for you to leave that review andor rating because it does help the show reach more people, which is my ultimate goal. Uh, like I said, any questions, any thoughts? Mail at sam4j.com