You Can't Afford Me
You Can't Afford Me
Fusing Fitness with Entrepreneurial Fervor: David Ambrose on Boosting Business and Well-being
Embark on a transformative exploration where the worlds of entrepreneurship and well-being collide, bringing forth an invigorating blend of business savvy and health consciousness. David Ambrose from MetaFitRx joins the conversation, shedding light on the often-overlooked yet critical intersection of maintaining peak health and entrepreneurial success. Together, we unpack how understanding one's metabolic profile can revolutionize personal fitness and, ultimately, sharpen mental acuity for life's varied challenges.
As your host, I get candid about my own fitness journey; how the discipline of physical training has refined my patience and stress response, crucially enhancing my problem-solving skills as an entrepreneur. Memory lane beckons with tales of our early hustles and steadfast support for the Pittsburgh Steelers, serving as a backdrop to the vital lesson of forging your unique path and the impact of chasing your passions. The dialogue evolves, delving into the concept of body composition, the importance of DEXA scans, and the debate on BMI's validity, laying bare the journey to improved health metrics and a sustained, healthier life.
Rounding out our episode, we consider the cultivation of growth and discipline, stressing the importance of surrounding ourselves with individuals who inspire betterment. Relatable anecdotes from my golfing improvements to the revelation of my experiences with intermittent fasting underscore the multi-layered benefits of perseverance and dedication. We conclude with insights into the tailored digital marketing strategies at Enzo Media Firm, showcasing how a personalized approach can create an indelible online presence for businesses. Join us for a journey through the landscapes of entrepreneurial grit and personal health, where each step forward is a leap towards a balanced, successful life.
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Sam:All right, guys, I think 2024 is really going to be the year of health for most people. I know every single year, people make New Year's resolutions this, that and the other. Number one I don't make resolutions, I set goals. We don't play that here. And I got the guy for you today. Today, we got in in the studio, david Ambrose. How you doing today, buddy.
David:Good, how are you sir?
Sam:Awesome man. So first just give us a 60-second rundown who you are and what you do.
David:So I'm David Ambrose. I'm co-founder and health behavior specialist with MetaFitRx F-I-T-R-X Metabolic Fitness Prescriptions. We're here in town. My wife and I own a lab and what we do there is we focus on longevity, on weight loss and performance. So we have some pretty cool technology you got to experience.
Sam:Yep, we're going to talk about that.
David:We can help you find out what the best way going about achieving your health and fitness goals would be. For you and your unique body is really the main focus. So we have a line where we talk about your personal metabolic profile formula because it's not cookie cutter, not estimates. We measure the data as accurate with gold standard assessments Perfect.
Sam:So big reason why I wanted you on the podcast today. I think for many entrepreneurs we are in the audience here is mainly entrepreneurs. We mainly focus on just building our business, building our brand, and health just kind of gets pushed to the side. For someone who I don't want to say former athlete, because I feel like once you've been an athlete, you're an athlete for life. So I'm going to say, as an athlete, I've let my health and fitness go. Really, it didn't start for me until COVID, and then, right at COVID, nothing else to do so me and my wife started having babies, and nobody told me that when the wife gets pregnant, that the husband ends up gaining weight too, because it's like she wants a late-night run to Dairy Queen. Well, I can't have her eating that blizzard by herself.
Sam:Man, I'm looking like a jackass, so I got to eat it too, and over the last few months I've really kicked up my health and I can tell you personally this is the first time restarting at this age for me, like I'm 39 now about to turn 40 this year and it was a lot harder to get things started back up, but I can honestly say that I feel I have more energy, I have more clarity, I'm thinking a lot better.
Sam:It's. I want to hear your comment on this. I've literally heard people say before exercise is medicine. How do you feel about that statement?
David:Unequivocally. I mean there's a hundred benefits to why we exercise.
David:Weight loss is often a byproduct of it but, there's a hundred other reasons why you should exercise and you already said a couple of them the energy and the mental clarity, mental health, I would say. If you're on a prescription med as a supplement to help you get past a rough spot depression, anxiety, whatever it may be I've taken them myself for focus. For those other issues also, to me they've always been temporary, helped me get through something. But the place where I've always find the most relief and the most mental relief is either getting hit, hitting someone, or hitting the weights right, moving my body right.
David:So, whether it's through martial arts or through weightlifting or running or conditioning, whatever type of training I'm doing, my tolerance for everything Someone cut me off in traffic with your kids, with your wife, your patients, when you have.
Sam:Wait. So you're telling me I'm going to stop cussing people out in traffic when they cut me off if I'm in better shape, you care less about it, because that's a big problem for me. I got road rage.
David:You need to go. Ethan was on here before. Yep, let's go back to Ethan and beat each other up a little bit, and the way you feel after that when someone cuts you off, you're like, okay, he's in a bigger hurry than I am yeah.
David:And what do I have to lose if I stop at this time and I flip him off or whatever it may be? Is it worth it? Yeah, you have too much to lose. The answer is unequivocally no. It's a no-brainer. Your pride and your ego might say otherwise, but if your body says I'm good, right now my mind says I'm good, I've had all these feel-good hormones come out.
David:Adrenaline was pumping, oxytocin is flowing, endorphins are going. You really react much more calmly in a hostile situation and you avoid it a lot. So, yeah, everything you said, a hundred percent. The energy boosting, the clarity, the mental health is really the unspoken part. I think that when it comes to physical wellbeing, you can't disentangle the two.
Sam:Yeah, Especially because, as an entrepreneur, if you're leading an organization yeah, especially because, as an entrepreneur, if you're leading an organization, you have, because I can remember the days where, like I'm stuffing donuts in my face in between meetings and like I'm not eating the right stuff and I'm not taking care of my body, and it's like when a problem arises, I had a much more difficult time coming up with the solution versus when I had all these things in check. But let's rewind for a second, because I want to get to the point. What were you doing before you became an entrepreneur?
David:I mean, since I was a kid, I was a little hustler, so it didn't matter Like back. I mean, you're old enough to remember, you are old enough to remember BMG and Columbia House, so I used to, back in the day, order CDs and be selling them, have a paper route, when I was a kid. So since I was a kid, I've always let's put it gently not been a groupthink person, not been one. To everyone's going this way. I'm like, well, why is everyone going that way? What's over here? This? Might be a better path.
David:So I've always been in that sort of anarchist mindset and approach to things as far as my own idealistic sort of world right. And sort of chaos. In a way, my wife calls me chaos.
Sam:Did you have any regular jobs, Brad?
David:I did so. It didn't work.
Sam:So what was your first real job?
David:Bagging groceries at Giant Eagle Dude, same here it wasn't Giant Eagle.
Sam:I was a bag boy at Kroger.
David:Yeah, so Kroger's was, I think it was out of Ohio. I grew up, born in Pittsburgh, raised in the suburbs, and Giant Eagle I was like 14 or 15. I can't remember, I think I was maybe 15.
Sam:Oh yeah, Big reason you're on the podcast today too is because we're both Pittsburgh. Steelers yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're trying to get a spot on my podcast, if you rock a Steelers jersey, you have a better chance.
David:Yeah, so it's back, and this is back in the 90s, when they weren't very good. This was like Cordell, you know the Neil O'Donnell Cordell era. But hey, I loved Cordell, he should have. He should have, but it was just always sort of. I think a lot of people want to be entrepreneurs and they don't really have the spirit and they think oh, it's so easy it's not realizing. You work way more, put in way more time, effort. You reap all the reward and you get all the risk and all the downside.
David:So I think a lot of people see that and they do it and like this isn't for me, but it's just always been me as far as not being a groupthink person and seeing what's most pragmatic and what works for me. So ever since I was young, but out of undergrad, I have long hair. I cut that I was in a.
Sam:I need to see a photo of this man. Since the day I've met you, there has been a speck of hair up there.
David:Yeah, it did exist. I do have photos to prove it and I was in a uh we'll say a uh it was a grindcore, like a death metal grindcore band back in the day gotcha.
Sam:And oh man, yeah, those are locks, curly locks right there and it's real, it was.
Speaker 3:That's not a wig oh, man, yeah so, but then I got a job and and worked for a.
David:It was like a kinkos for lawyers. I don't know if they're, it's a company called. Icon, i-k-o-n. I don't think they're in business anymore. I went to business school Robert Morris Undergrad in Pittsburgh Okay, accounting. I lasted one semester, moved to marketing. I somehow made it through the four years and then Worked at. I made it through the four years and then worked at icon for less than a year, went into civil rights because I'd gotten into civil rights big time and volunteering with housing discrimination in particular okay that's.
David:That was my big uh move into the non-profit world, so you're part of culture. All right, you get the invite to the barbecue I've hosted some barbecues, so the, the, the civil rights, was the catalyst as far as my ideals and what I was trying to see in a world with positive impact. In our time, in the 90s, it was consciousness, black consciousness in particular. Growing up with hip-hop, it was a different. They call it woke now, but it's very different.
Sam:That was when NWA was giving us the rundown.
David:If you remember, nwa and so hip-hop and metal have always been right here, and you saw anthrax and public enemy do a song together. Run dmc aerosmith was the first hip-hop and rock collaboration. But yep, if you remember, right against machine, right so it's always been that political or social appeal, yeah, of metal and hip-hop, and they've been on the same side this is where I've always talked to people like I don't like rap, I don't like metal, I'm like.
David:Look at the similarities between the people that generally gravitate towards these things, and culturally and politically particularly, there's always a story of struggle, of the economic part that always united us. Yep, I think it was Fred Hampton that talked about it. And when you unite people economically, I know we're getting way off topic. But you bring people in together period, because that's where unity really can occur, because it's something everyone can relate to right.
Sam:So how long were you involved in civil rights?
David:About 10 years I started volunteering in undergrad and I worked at the Fair Housing Partnership in Pittsburgh, the National Fair Housing Alliance in DC when I moved there, and Equal Rights Center in DC, before I went back to grad school at American in 2010 to do my health promotion degree.
Sam:So you were like probably 30, 31, 32.
David:They called me Old man Ambrose. Yeah. I had a stint in Namibia, too, in 2003. I moved out of the country for a little bit and stayed in Southern Africa for about three months.
Sam:So why that huge switch from civil rights to health and nutrition?
David:I was always into fitness. So for me growing up it was sports, every sport you can imagine out there running around. Got into music in high school and then after college got my senior year, got into weightlifting and then got back and made the the athletic part of me and it was always there. It just wasn't in an organized system anymore, but got back into that a lot and then I just just found myself. You know, when I couldn't save the world, I found out I'm like oh, I can't.
David:I guess I can't say I can't save the world and my my, my option was either going to become an attorney or become a director of an, of an agency, and I was like it's not really the bureaucracy. Still, that's a whole other story. I always, always. I started doing personal training part-time in martial arts in about 2005, so I was working full-time doing martial arts pretty much every day and then started personal training and then starting party promotions in 2008 in dc and so I was like three jobs basically you're trying to do anything instead of working for somebody right and so it was always that.
David:It was never. What can I do? What can I do that I can make a passion into a business? Because I was big on not doing something I didn't care about and I wasn't really passionate about. So even now, when it comes to housing issues and civil rights issues, I'll follow it yeah.
Sam:But I'm not active in it in the same way where I was running testing programs where we were seeing if discrimination was occurring. So that's a big piece. There is that, roughly, it probably took you 20 to 25 years to find what you were ultimately passionate about and what you wanted to do for the rest of your life. And I think a lot of people get, I want to say I'll probably say discouraged, where, like you're 21 and you don't know what you want to do for the rest of your life, like it's going to be OK and you did. What I recommend to a lot of people is try a bunch of different things Like this is what life is about is experiences and trying different things, and I think in doing things that you don't enjoy, will push you towards your passion and they'll help you find what it is that you really want to do, push you towards your passion and they'll help you find what it is that you really want to do.
Sam:So when you made that transition, you're here in Richmond, virginia. What was it about this model? Because you don't probably like you're not doing private coaching and things like that, like explain to people your business model, exactly, the service you guys offer.
David:Well, you know, like you said, about trying different things with civil rights, doing party promotions, personal training, being in health and fitness, doing a master's degree. So I started doing some consulting with businesses, workplace consulting. And then, you know, after a while personal training got old. We had our second baby left. Dc came down here to my in-laws and COVID hit Right and I was like what are we going to do about fitness? It's dead right now. I got, became sort of got my life, health and annuities license, was working for mass mutual for a while too, and that space. So I was like, do I do financial advising now, cause that's a compliment to physical and mental, emotional wellbeing?
David:And then, but my wife did all this in her grad program at James Madison and whenever you, her and I fought working together for the longest and we I fought it for the longest and, end of the day, I found the best partner I have, not just in life but for business was right next to me, so let's divulge into that because I have said numerous times on this podcast, there is no way my marriage would survive if me and my wife work together.
Sam:How does that work for you guys? It just does.
David:It's just. I think there's one of two ways Either work really well or be utterly there is no in between. Either you're going to work really well together because she has a skill set you don't and you have one that she doesn't, and that's why we call her the facts, call me the feelings, if we were both facts or both feelings it wouldn't work If we were both extroverted.
David:It wouldn't work. If we were both introverted, it wouldn't work. So she's very analytical, very organized. Be there at 12 o'clock. I'll be there at 1130. I'll be there at 1205. It's a different.
Sam:So you broke that down in a way, in the same manner in which I break down looking for a business partner.
Sam:Yeah, so to me, finding a business partner is a lot like a marriage, in that I'll openly say this right now. This may piss some people off who are formerly in business with me, but to this date the best business partner I've had is a guy has Butler. We currently own Legacy Vending together. Partner I've had is a guy his butler, we currently own a legacy vending together. And the reason that has worked out so well is because the things I love he hates, the things I hate he loves, and it's been a perfect compliment where, like, he doesn't want to be the guy in front of the camera, he doesn't want to deal with marketing. He really doesn't want to deal with the sales sides as much. Those are all the things I love to do. He loves the backend spreadsheets, following up all that stuff. I don't want to do any of that stuff.
Sam:So the two of us coming together has been a perfect mesh and I haven't heard a husband and wife team really break it down in that same manner in which I have for a business partner.
David:Yeah, it's exactly that same way. She's that exact all those things wants to be. You know, the analyst, the data person, the junkie, the scientist in the lab. And that model works really well because, with us providing this data to people about their body, about their metabolism, about their cardiopulmonary fitness and about their body composition, that's black and white, the data is zeros and ones, it's binary. I put you on the DEXA, it scans you. We get back a bunch of data. What does this mean? Here's what it clinically means the VO2 max, testing your cardiopulmonary fitness, resting metabolic rate, testing your metabolism. Again, just a bunch of numbers. So that's the facts. The nuance and the art comes in the feelings. Because how do we apply this to you and your goals? Right, and Melissa says it really well. My wife and partner. She says it's not that what you're doing is wrong, it's wrong for your goals or not right for your goals, right. So if you're doing the wrong, if you think your weight loss, but your recomposition, you know mass loss is not a goal or shouldn't be a goal.
David:You see people, under fueling they end up underperforming, holding onto more body fat than they want to Yep. So understanding the nuance and then also your needs and abilities are very relative, because what you want to see when you look in the mirror and what I want to see for you, it doesn't matter, it's what, it's what you, how do you feel, look and perform.
David:I can't dictate how you feel, how you perform and what you want to see when you look in the mirror. We had a client that his goal was to look good with his shirt off. What does that mean? Yeah, what does that mean? He got to the point where he did it for the first time since being a teenager. He took his shirt off in public in his thirties because his body looked where he felt comfortable to do it, and he went from weight loss to now recomposition. He got some of the excess body fat off down to a weight that he felt good performing at and liked what he saw, and now it just becomes a more recomp where he's going to continue to lose more body fat and gain more muscle but his weight doesn't matter.
David:He doesn't care about the weight anymore. He felt too heavy before, yeah, and now he feels better at his current weight.
Sam:So and we talked about you and I talked about this off off when you uh, scanned me was, as it relates to business, a buddy of mine just sent me actually Javon. He sent me this video on Instagram the other day. He's this big sales guy he's also a big health guy, but like he's more business than anything and he has this sales guy next to him standing on stage and he says hey, man, take your shirt off. The guy looks at him crazy, like what he's like, yeah, yeah, man, take your shirt off, pop it off. Um.
Sam:And the guy you know, I got a dad bod. That guy had a similar body, um, and he's breaking down like the benefits of looking healthy and disciplined. Because people are thinking, if, if you're taking this much care of yourself and you're paying that much attention to detail, you're going to do the same thing for me when it comes as a client. But if I'm dealing with somebody that may be obese and I'm trying to close the deal with them, they're looking at them and thinking you know, this is all subconscious stuff. Nobody's going to say this to your face but it's.
Sam:You don't realize how much it can affect your business. Not, let's take all the other stuff out with feeling good and everything else, just from a superficial point of view. More people will spend money with you if you look better. Yeah, um, and I think that's something. That's probably what. Honestly, there are only two things that really got me back on my fitness journey. One was realizing I'm a sole breadwinner of my house and I got three mouths in that home that depend on me.
Sam:If I'm out of the mix, they're hurting. So taking care of my family. And then number two, realizing as you're building a business, you're always looking for these little things to say what is it that can give me the extra edge? And I found those things in different areas and I felt for years like I haven't hit the peak of where I think I should have been. At this point I've done okay for myself, but I know other people look from the outside like man, you're killing it. Well, still, it's my personal goals. I haven't met yet.
Sam:And when I start looking at things like this, it's like, oh, maybe this is the last piece for me, that when I get this part together, things will kind of fall in the place for me. I want to do a little exercise with you. Are you able to pull up my scans on your phone? Yeah, let's be super open and honest. We're going to go through my numbers, so first explain to people what this machine does to you. I want to make sure everybody's super clear on what this machine is.
David:Yeah, so the DEXA scan is. It's a radiology bed that whenever generally women who are at higher risk of osteopenia, osteoporosis as they get older, will get a scan, hopefully annually from 65 on. So if there's a genetic component there, a genetic marker, any woman over 65 should be getting a yearly scan at a medical facility. We're not providing those similar bone scans. That's a script from a doc or Medicare at that point kicking in.
David:We're looking at body composition with the DEXA so whenever we look at the body comp we're focused on. We do get a bone marker, a number there, right, but our main focus is the body fat where it's located, and lean mass, or muscle mass as we call it, and that's the main. When you look at main markers of longevity, how much muscle mass we have will directly correlate to our lifespan, Yep and our quality of life. Muscle mass cardiopulmonary fitness. When you look at one of the main causes of death for people over 65, it's falls. So if you have weak bones, the other part.
David:weak bones is the other part. So if you have weak bones, poor muscle mass, poor balance, poor core strength, poor proprioception, your ability to just move in space, to put it very layman's terms you're more likely to fall, break that hip. And you hear about grandma oh, she's 80, broke her hip in the hospital. Six months later she's no longer with us. Yeah, I ain't trying to have that happen in my life.
Sam:So let's go through these numbers. So first off, let me give this caveat guys, these are my numbers. We are being super honest. I don't want no dumb ass comments like calling me a fat ass or anything like that. All right, in six months, and let's go ahead and do this. I'm gonna say in six months, uh, because we've already scheduled the date for me to come back. Um, I'm going to bring a videographer with me. We'll rip the audio from that and turn it into a podcast.
Sam:You guys are going to get an inside take on my second scan here in six months. So let's run through the highlights like go through the main numbers that we need to talk about.
David:One thing I do want to say, like you mentioned a little bit earlier about looking good on stage right, we really emphasize to people it's relative to your goals. I want to just sort of reiterate that, because if you're a power lifter, or if you're a long distance runner, or if you're a middle-aged mom of three who works full time, or a dad, our goals are very different stages of life right.
David:So that's why, when we look at body fat ranges, there's a pretty big range. Ideally we're in that healthy area, particularly with visceral fat under the abdominal wall, and we have good amounts of muscle mass. So it's all very nuanced in that way. For sure.
David:And we really, really emphasize to people your goals are your goals. A big error we see when I speak to people who come to me is that, oh, my trainer, my dietitian, my physician, they're all saying I should this, this and this and I'm like well, what do you, what do you want? Yep, it's amazing how many people don't simply find out what the client wants absolutely, and they absolutely impose their own. It doesn't make any sense to me, so I just want to emphasize yeah re-emphasize everybody these are my numbers, these are my goals.
Sam:But you guys know who I am 39 years old, business owner, father, husband. You got the picture. All right. So let's start with this so real quick.
David:We can look at BMI, because BMI is always a very fun thing that people don't understand. Bmi is simply a large-scale population risk assessment. It is not detailed or catered to you. It's simply your height divided by your weight and meters squared. Kilograms divided by meters squared. That's it, and all it does is put you in a category of normal of underweight, normal overweight, obese, and there's different classifications of obesity.
David:It doesn't really tell you anything. Yeah, and that's why I'm teetering right on that line. But at the end of the day, we don't care what we care what is. Now we have a DEXA. We can see your actual body comp. Right, you're no longer normative data, you're not looking at a large scale risk. We can actually cater something to you. Yep, right. So your body fat on here, that was the higher one, if you recall, the real one was down here. You want me to say the number? Yeah, so your total body fat percentage was 34.1.
Sam:And let me say this again I'm being a complete open book because I want you guys I'm putting this out there for the world to hear. So, you guys should be comfortable coming to David or another professional in your area and getting these numbers privately.
David:Yes, so 34.1 is where you are, and we have healthy ranges for men at 18 to 24%, so ideally we'd want to see you around 24% or between 18 and 24. But again, that's relative. If you're a power lifter, you're going to carry more, but you're also lifting a brick house over your head right. So a different goal, right? But yeah, 18 to 24 is ideally where we see it.
Sam:So I'm at what? 31% now.
David:At 34.
Sam:So about 34. So I need to knock like 10 off that.
David:About 10 off that, and for you, weight loss may be a byproduct of what you're doing. But looking at where you are and how you feel now, that's your decision. Because if you say I feel really good at 187 pounds and you just want to recomposition and lose fat and gain muscle, then that's, I'm not worried about BMI.
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David:Yeah, Right, If you say you know I feel better at 175.
Sam:Yeah, and the 170s is generally where I'm going to feel the best.
David:That's where, if you feel light or you feel good moving like you don't feel real heavy. You, you like what you see in the mirror and you're performing well. You're, you're stronger, you're faster, you're quicker. That's all very relative. So that number, again, we let you dictate. So yeah, 34.1 is where we had you come in there, y'all listen again.
Sam:The sexiness level is coming up in six months. Y'all be ready for it.
David:So the ab here's what I'll say. Abs typically come out under 20, closer to 15. And that's where you get more into fitness level and athlete level of body fat percentages right, people who do fitness for a living or they're athletes for a living.
Sam:I remember Bell running back for Pittsburgh Steelers. He was at like 2%, 3%, like dumb man.
David:You can see those guys get down to essential levels for men, which is 2% to 5% Crazy. They're basically just enough to survive. Yeah Right, and we don't recommend that.
Sam:No no, no, you can't maintain that I'm actually filming with a friend of mine who's in a bodybuilding competition this is her second year and the education I've gotten on this, like I'm in the crowd with her husband and he's just like talking me through this.
Sam:He's like, dude, this is like killing your body, like you can only do this for a brief period of time throughout the year because you're starving yourself, you're having to do all this other stuff. So, like when you see these people on stage in peak physical condition, there's a reason they have an off season, because you can't maintain this healthily and do this throughout the year. Yeah, that's an aesthetic.
David:Yeah, there's no, it's actually going to be, especially for women, a negative health impact at that point, because they're at the point to where their body is not doing what it's supposed to do and they're actually going to have negative returns, basically. Yeah. But we've seen women as low as the mid-teens. If you're below that, it's a little bit of help. Yeah. Right, but again, for women, healthy levels are much higher. They're anywhere from 25% to 31%.
Sam:And what specifically number are we talking about for this, for body fat still? Okay, yeah.
David:This is not visceral, right? Yeah, what you overwhelmingly see with men and women. The big difference is the android and gynoid shape. So android is apple.
David:So, we carry more body fat in our stomach, less in our hips. Men have smaller bone structure so our hips aren't as wide. Hormonally we don't have the same reproductive organ so we don't have a need for as much body fat. So women have wider hips, more body fat, particularly in the gyno or the hip area. They make more of the pair. Smaller in the waist, wider in the hips, less body fat in the stomach. So they will have oftentimes it's been really amazing to see way lower levels of visceral fat, even in women.
David:that would be a hundred pounds heavier than you, they could have lower levels of visceral fat. It's really been interesting to see and my big point of that is you can't tell. Looking at somebody. You don't know what's under the abdomen wall, looking at somebody when they walk by you. So you really don't know until you get them onto the Dexa and you see what they're carrying under the abdomen wall.
David:We had a woman one time that was 5'8" one, five, two, close to 200 pounds, had less than a pound of visceral fat. We've had men, six foot, 200 pounds, 240 pounds, with over nine pounds of visceral fat. So you just don't know where they carry. But she carried mostly in her hips and it just wasn't. There was a lot of subcutaneous fat you could pinch around her stomach but under the abdominal wall.
Sam:So what's my number and where should I be at?
David:So you for visceral, that's the big one we look at, and here's where's this bad boy. And we are at 2.09. So you're very close 2.09 pounds, 61.39 cubic inches. We look at optimal or healthy ranges for visceral fat under the abdominal wall at 52 cubic inches or less, typically at two pounds. You're right there. So that's a really good marker for you and looking at this, I would assume no metabolic issues, no heart disease, blood pressure, everything's good right. No medications, I would assume.
David:Nope, when we see this up over five, we can almost always they're on something. Yeah, they're on many different medicines to control the blood pressure, the cholesterol, whatever it may be. So you're right there. You're literally at 2.09 pounds or 61 cubic inches. You're less than 10 cubic inches away from being in the optimal or healthy range. Perfect, and the least we've ever seen there is zero. Jeez, yeah, we've seen zero in some people and again, you can do it. Less is more, but zero is possible there. The less is more there as far as health risk and health outcomes, and give me one more main area that we need to focus on.
Sam:So muscle mass. Y'all ain't getting all the info. I'm being open but you ain't getting everything.
David:Lean mass. Let's see your lean mass in pounds is 116, 117. Because that's going to be. Oh, let's look at sarcopenia, so that's muscle. Yeah, so sarcopenia, so 7.94. So what I would suggest, based on this, is that we hit the weights and we hit them hard.
Sam:Because you're talking about I went up in the weights this morning. I'm going hard.
David:You want to push yourself right and work in a progressive overload manner where you're pushing it to at failure or near failure most sets and if you're doing 15 reps and you're still talking to somebody, probably not enough stress on you to force an adaptation or a response.
Sam:So yeah, since our conversation, I've switched over. I'm typically doing about four sets, eight reps. All right, heavier weights yeah and keep increasing the weight. Yep.
David:And depending on what your goals are. I mean some people do one rep, two rep, three rep. It seems to be more about what is the effort you're putting out. Time under tension is another way to measure it. But you know, if you're doing it with relative ease, it's just not enough. Yeah, yeah yeah, right, and I had a woman who's almost 60. The other day I had her with the 35-pound dumbbells, whereas when she goes to work out by herself, she's one of our behavioral clients that we were doing a check-in with.
Sam:She's 10, 15.
David:Yeah, yeah, and whenever someone believes they can do it and has the support of someone to help them do it, because I made sure that the barbell and the dumbbells didn't fall on her. Yep, it's amazing when you have that little bit and this is why you see, in all areas of the world when you have support oh yeah, and what you're trying to do my favorite thing with working out is way more successful having someone there with me.
Sam:Like I'm the type like when I got coached, you know, in my earlier years I didn't need a coach pat me on the back like saying, great job, oh, I need somebody telling me I'm a piece of shit and I need to pick it up, like that's what motivates me when somebody's like dude, you're better than this. Like get this up. Like don't don't. No, you're not a failure. Like get this thing up. Like when somebody's yelling at me in my face like that, oh, I thrive off that yeah, I love it.
David:Yeah, that's, that's me too. I'm, that's a gen x that's the you know the older millennial, the gen xers, that are going to be motivated by that and everyone's motivated differently oh yeah. So you, when you have that support in that way not someone saying how great you are, yep, but supporting your effort I'm gonna say right now some of y'all too soft.
Sam:Some of y'all need some tough love where somebody's like pushing right because to be better yeah, right, and that's not just to tear you down, oh, absolutely but I think, as as entrepreneurs we're, I'm, I don't need, yes, men around me, I don't need cheerleaders.
David:That's a horrible person, yeah.
Sam:I need people telling me hey, yeah, you did well on this, but here are the areas that we need to improve. So if you don't have someone pushing you in every area of your life and that's what kind of gets me excited any time I try something new, like picking up golf over the last year, You're supposed to suck when you start. Know, picking up golf over the last year, like you're supposed to suck when you start. So it's like taking the time doing your homework, putting in the effort, like managing your routines, like, and to see that progression over time, like. To me, that's one of the most exciting things to experience in life is when you're seeing that progression. Um and I think he was being nice on this, like because you didn't hit the number. It sounded like you was. You were trying to be nice and then want to put it out no, no, no, no, we're good, so hit me with the number and where we want it to be uh no.
David:So for muscle mass it's going to be relative right. So if we, because we look at with body fat also. So when we look at the sarcopenia measure, I think seven, uh, seven, two, six is where we want to be above, and you're at seven, nine, four. So that's where I would see that come up around eight, come up over nine, and kilograms per meter squared. So basically, looking at, we don't have any muscle wasting. That's occurred, we have a good amount of lean mass is again another predictor of longevity.
David:You know, you got people dependent on you. You've already said it your cue to action, as we call it in health behavior, it's family. And you mentioned business Right, but number one is family Right, but how do you support the family? Is with number two, your second family, which is your business. So those are all those correlate. You mentioned golf and the first day you did it versus now.
Sam:How much better have you gotten. Oh, 100% better, 100% better. Have you gotten no 100 better, percent better?
David:my first score going out that I actually recorded, I was probably 138, 140, which is terrible there's no golfers hit like 72 the pro yeah the pro and the pros are two for one.
Sam:Two for one um, but the average golfer so 50 of the people in the world that play golf will never break 100. I broke 100 after four months playing because, like, I'm that hardcore when I put my mind to something, it's's like okay, we're getting these done. So my assumption is that the numbers that we've talked about, that we want to see in this, I have six months to accomplish this.
Sam:I'm going to get it done in four because I'm just that hardcore about like if I've got a goal in front of me and something I need to accomplish.
David:I'm going hard at it Right and accomplish. I'm going hard at it Right and end of the day.
Sam:It's sort of that, goggins approach right, the discipline, the consistency. There's days you don't want to do it, but you just get up and do it, oh yeah. So anybody who is not familiar with David Goggins and you are feeling lazy in the lead listen to it. I love his last audio book. Because his audio book he kind of did the. The guy who's reading his audio book would stop and David would actually be in the studio with him. It was like a podcast interview in between the chapters. So I definitely recommend that. But that dude is a maniac. And then I was probably halfway through the book before I looked him up on Google and saw what he looked like before his fitness journey Huge guy. And to see where he's at now like insane.
David:He's a different type of human.
Sam:Oh yeah, I mean, he openly, openly says don't do what I did he's, he's less, he's one percent of one percent yeah, he's a robot, yeah he's on a different level. I mean that's it's, it's, it's insane, yeah, he's running with like broken legs and stuff and like 60 mile, runs like on broken leg like yeah, he's, he's insane I think he's one of. He's the only human to go through like Navy. Seal training like the most hardcore military training you could possibly go through. He's done it with like every branch of the military.
David:People can't pass one. He's passed out all of them yeah. And your goal is like improving with golf, like a lot of times when it comes to health and fitness goals. You see, people after four months are like I'm done, I can't do it anymore. It's like it's been four months.
Sam:Yeah, four months isn't enough for everything.
David:Give it four years. Yeah, give it 40 years. You're not doing this for the short term, it is the long-term investment. No one that starts investing in their 50s versus in their 20s is going to have the same result as that person Like, oh, you've been thin your whole life. It's like, no, you haven't seen the work that's gone into the last 40 years. Yeah, and when I'm investing.
Sam:I'm looking at 10 years down the road.
Sam:I'm not looking at what does my portfolio look like in six months, right, and it really is that lifestyle change. So I've taken words like diet and things like that out of my vocabulary because it really is making that mental switch and that lifestyle change. Right, so that it's not like because diet, to me, triggers this is something temporary, versus a lifestyle change where it's like, hey, well, let's just incorporate a little bit more of this into our meals and things like that, and that's the reason why when people come to us in two months, they're not going to lose 50 pounds.
Sam:Yeah, no. It's just not going to happen in four months, you're not going to lose 50 pounds, like, unless you're doing cocaine or something like that, which we don't recommend here.
David:If you're doing a fad of any type and you've gone from zero to anything, you'll see rapid improvement quickly, particularly if you cut out starchy carbohydrates and now you're just absorbing less water weight. People, starchy, carbohydrates and now you're just absorbing less water weight. People like oh, I lost 30 pounds in two months. You lost water weight. Yeah, you lost two actual pounds of fat.
Sam:The other 28 pounds were water weight which is fine if you're like trying to fit into a wedding dress or like something like that, but different term but that's the reason why a lot of people who sell their programs have very restrictive approaches to it. Yeah.
David:Ultimately, they get that before and after at eight or 12 weeks. Yeah, because if they do the before and after at 26 weeks, they're back to where they were before Yep, because the diet failed, the program failed, because it was meant for rapid response, not sustainability.
Sam:Yeah, and that makes sense too, for, like, if you're a boxer, you got to drop weight and do things like that.
Sam:There are certain instances where that makes sense. Let me ask you about, since I just did this so um, your thoughts on fasting and what that does for your body. So, number one probably for about the last two years I've been doing intermittent fasting continuously, and it's gotten to the point where I don't even think about it, where, like, my body's just not hungry after a certain point of the day. So typically I may get a little snack when I come home at like six o'clock. But it used to be like you know, if I'm up watching TV or doing whatever it may be 10, 10, 30 at night I'm going to the fridge. Now my body just doesn't crave it anymore.
Sam:And then when I came and did this game with you, I was actually fasting for 24 hours that day, which, funny enough, the next day I thought I'd be starving. I woke up the next morning and I was. The first thought in my head was, oh, my fast is over, I can eat. But then I was like I'm really not that hungry. So I want you to explain to people what does whether it's fasting for 24 hours or intermittent fasting, where you just have these windows of time that you consume what does fasting do for the body?
David:well, first I would ask you how did it work? How has it worked for you when you first, from when you started doing it until now?
Sam:so when I first started doing intermittent fasting was when I gained all the weight during covid and I was at my heaviest was like 202 and within two to three months I got back down to 185. So it worked for me okay um, and I honestly felt better in terms of like, because after doing something like that, you realize a lot of times you're just consuming food because you're bored, right? It's like, hey, I'm up watching a movie, oh, gotta have some popcorn with that, or whatever it is.
David:So you've already mentioned a couple of the benefits, right, which are that late night eating and the biggest and most successful part of it that you see is that people will cut that window off. Yeah, and that can be tremendously helpful and powerful to people who have those late night cravings, Because typically you're not going to get hard boiled eggs and broccoli and rice or fruits and vegetables and protein shake, you're going for ice cream, cookies, cake, something.
David:If it's even in the house at that point, you're going to kill it. So that, right, there was a massive benefit for you. It told you mentally, I'm going to cut myself off here. So for you that worked. Other people that might be the opposite effect, where now it's really stressing them out and they can't handle it. Time-restricted eating is sort of an adaptation of that that we have found seems to work a little bit better for people. As far as sustainability, if someone wants to fast time-restricted eating, whatever you want to call it we're perfectly fine with it, as long as you can get what we've prescribed somebody for macros and calories.
David:What we overwhelmingly find is people under fuel on fasting and there's other benefits people can achieve through it and with gut health and things like that can achieve through it and with gut health and things like that. But I I focus on are we moving enough? Are we lifting, getting our heart rate up? Are we eating enough, getting enough protein? Then we can look at fasting but.
David:If fasting helps you get there and we give you the macros and you make them fit. We don't care. Yeah Right If you. If it works better for you and you feel better in your gut, you feel lighter, you have less cravings, you're more focused. You're able to just get more water as a result, then that's fine.
Sam:Because our bodies were actually designed to snack throughout the day instead of having these huge meals. Like our bodies weren't built to go to buffets and eat as much as we possibly could, right, eat as much as we possibly could Right.
David:All my meals are typically my meals would be a massive meal for me would be over 700 calories.
Sam:So probably five to seven, 500 or so would be my meal. Five, 600. So just as a comparison for people, that's like a double cheeseburger at McDonald's. That's like 700 to 900 calories or something like that Just just just like yeah, I mean, but that would be like.
David:For lunch I had vegetables, chicken and rice Yep, it was probably. It was less than 500 calories, right, and I stay hydrated. Go back, I'll have probably a Greek yogurt Yep, banana, and I've. That works for me really well that sort of steam engine way of. I always kind of throw some fuel on a fire.
Sam:Yep, but if we're looking at like a 24-hour fast or I even see people fasting for three days what does that do to the body? Is it like a shock to the body where, like it's saying, hey, we're not getting what we need, so we have to start breaking down fat to survive, Like? What does that piece like that fasting actually do to the body?
David:So a lot of people do it for various reasons. What actually would do at that point would be you're not going to be muscle wasting at that point. It's only been 24, 48, 72 hours. Right, it's going to take longer for that to occur. You stay hydrated. People do it for religious reasons, people do it for just a personal can I do this?
David:They do it for just a personal. Can I do this? They do to feel better. You know it's. You'll burn, but you'll. You'll lose a lot of water weight in those three days. You'll you know, if your rest of metabolism is 2000 calories a day and you don't eat for three days, that's about a 6,000 calorie deficit. You would burn maybe one pound, two pounds of body fat in those three days.
David:Other than that, as far as long-term, people talk about autophagy and this is, there's different schools of thought, but from all I've seen with the data is there's. If it works well for you, I would say you do it. Yeah, Right, the data. As far as what diet is better, whether it's this or a grazing-style diet.
Sam:It depends on your lifestyle, right, yeah, and because people would have.
David:the other thing with intermittent fasting is they can get a bit dogmatic and it's 11.57, but they can't break their fast till noon and they're starving. Or they have a meeting at 12, 15, so they got to hurry up and eat. So now, is this impact positive anymore? The biggest way I can see the benefit is in weight management. All the other benefits seem to be kind of unclear, I would say. And people say oh no, there's tons of data that say it makes you more focused, increases autophagy, you'll live longer, it kills the bad cells.
Speaker 3:I mean people my whole big thing is are we moving?
David:Are we eating well? Are we eating enough? Are we fueling? And then are we under fueling, because that's what you often see with intermittent fasting, is people end up under fueling and they under eat and ultimately slow their metabolism down and they don't get enough protein to support the muscle growth so I'll have to.
Sam:There are days where I have to force myself right.
David:You shouldn't be forcing yourself. That's. That's where we find out. Is this still the right thing for us? Because, if your body is not giving you the normal hunger cues to say sam, it's time to eat yeah and we have to force ourselves to eat.
Sam:I would be curious and to see what your rest of metabolism would be because part of that well, let me explain that, um, part of that is for me. I'm the type where, like, if I have a packed day where it's back to back, to back to back, which actually the day that I picked to fast was like the perfect day because I was so- busy.
Sam:The last thing I was thinking about was food. So, like the days where I've had to like force myself, it's like, okay, I'm not that hungry now, but if I don't eat now, I'm not going to be able to stop and get something to eat until like 4 o'clock today. So it's like, let me put something in my body so I'm good and I can make it till this evening.
David:Right, and a lot of people are that way. They don't have time because they will have meetings back to back to back. They tend to then overeat sometimes when they do eat, and they may get headaches if they're not hydrated. Excuse me. And your body wants to be as efficient as it can. And you know, when it comes to performance, you're going to be better off. And you know, when it comes to performance, you're going to be better off. Give me a normal, regular diet. Person grazing style versus a fasted athlete. Yeah.
David:The performance is going to be better for the regular athlete, not the fasted one, because they have no quick energy to break down. The body has to break it down to create energy now, because it's not available in a bloodstream. So all I ever say with fast if it works for you, then do it right.
David:If it's not working, then this is where we need to make sure we're doing it properly. But the big areas, I think the gut health. It seems to help people a lot with gut issues, irritable bowels, and it sort of gives the stomach a chance to not be working all the time, where if you're constantly eating, constantly digesting, it seems to help a lot with that. But when it comes to weight management, it doesn't seem to be any better or worse.
David:Gotcha If it works for you. And again, I do fear for people under-fueling for what they're trying to achieve. Yep. And that's where the difference is. If you have enough fat storage, you can fast for a month, right. You can not eat for a month and your body will be fine because you have enough fat to burn through, to fuel it, yep, to stay hydrated, right. So it's all relative to the person and their body composition and what they're trying to get out of it.
Sam:Gotcha. Yeah, biggest thing I took away from this is your personal fitness is just that your personal fitness. You can't run off of what other people are doing. Absolutely you need to get things assessed and determine what's going to be best for you and your lifestyle.
David:If someone is selling you on their, on that on on. Do keto, do paleo do Atkins do intermittent fasting. Whatever you tend to find, there's something, a product behind what they're pushing, and that's all I say is look at what's coming behind it. We don't sell supplements, we don't recommend anything, we don't prescribe anything other than protein. Yeah. And the only reason we even say that is because it's just hard to get the protein levels. If you can do it through real food, absolutely.
Sam:But most of us are too.
David:I use whey and I use plant-based proteins.
Sam:Yeah, my wife makes me a protein shake every morning on the way to work it helps the satiety, and I find them to be.
David:I can barely crack 100 grams without it. Yeah. So that's my thought. But at that I don't care what brand you buy. Buy a well-known brand that doesn't have any lawsuits against it. That's no for creating better quality protein sources, because supplements aren't, are not regulated, but eat real food. Uh, if you need a protein supplement, take it. Cause you. If you can't get enough protein through your, through real food. That's the only time I would say is the only supplement I generally recommend is is that and again we don't sell it so I don't care if you go to.
David:Costco or a vitamin shop or wherever, and get it. Um yeah, then you can help supplement the diet.
Sam:Gotcha. Well, David, this has been awesome, man, I hope. I hope you guys were taking notes on this, really listening, because I'm here to tell you, if you want to grow a big business, if you want to, if you want to flourish in the business world, whatever your capacity is, you got to keep your mental health and your physical health in check. Uh, David, if people want to reach out to you, they want to learn how they can use your services. Where can they find you at?
David:We're online at metafitrxcom, M-E-T-A-F-I-T-R-Xcom, LinkedIn. Same thing at Metafit and Instagram. I don't think we have TikTok or Twitter. You don't need Twitter. Yeah, yeah, Twitter's the way to start All right man, appreciate you being on All right.
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