Q&A... Energy gels, protein coffee before training & "eating more to lose weight"!

Today, we're answering 5 questions submitted from the Q&A box we put on Insta (@eat_like_ruby 😉), including...

🥙 How many calories is "too many" over our calorie target?

☕️ My thoughts on a "pre-training protein coffee/latte"...

🏃🏼‍♀️ Are Pure Energy gels good?!

🤔 Why do some coaches say "eat more to lose weight"... ?!

😜 What pisses me off most on the internet?

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DISCLAIMER
The Eat Like Ruby podcast is not a substitute for professional medical or dietary advice.
The advice given in this episode is general in nature and should not be used to treat any medical conditions, health conditions, illnesses, injuries and/or any nutrition related conditions, deficiencies or similar.
This podcast is not to be used as, or in place of, medical advice or dietary advice.
Please consult your health care professional before implementing any of the advice, information or protocols discussed in this episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

G'day fam, welcome back to the pod. I'm back today doing a QA episode. So we chucked the QA box up on Insta. Got some awesome questions. I think we're gonna answer five today because we know I like to give nice long answers. So I think five's a good amount. We are looking at predominantly nutrition questions today. That's just the way the cookie crumbled. That's pretty much what came in. And I just found five good ones that I thought are things we haven't touched on too much. Some of them we kind of have, but some of them we've never spoken about before, which is cool. And we've got a bit of a combo of like fat loss, track and cows, pre-training, gels, like energy gels for fueling events. Um yeah, we're gonna get into it. The last question, the last question is a funny one, but I thought I'd chuck it in there. Someone asked, what pisses you off most on the internet? So I thought we'd finish with that one. So stay tuned, that'll be the final question, but we're gonna get into the others before that. Very first question we got is somebody said, How many calories over is quote, too many? So pretty much asking, like, obviously, if we're tracking our food and or aiming for a certain calorie intake, essentially like how many is too many to go over that intake, I guess, on a daily basis. So I feel like this is quite an individual answer. Like it's gonna differ from person to person, depending on the goal and depending on what your actual intake is. And the reason I say that is because if you're a regular listener, you'll know that over the last few weeks, especially, we've spoken about people having a bit more flexibility with their intake at times and giving themselves almost like a calorie range instead of just one calorie amount. I am a huge fan of this. I love this for most people. And I'll get into kind of who it suits and who it doesn't in a second, but I'm definitely a big fan of having more of a calorie range instead of just feeling like we have to hit an exact calorie number. Because, first of all, we know we don't have to hit an exact calorie number. It's not that the body is dependent on hitting an exact amount of calories every day. Depending on what our goal is, whether it's fat loss, maintenance, fueling, muscle gain, whatever it is, we know that there's a certain amount we need to consistently come in close to to fall in the range that we need to to move towards the goal that we have. So even thinking about that wording right there, we want to fall in that range consistently. The body's not like, I needed you to hit 1917, you hit 1923, you don't get a result today, right? Like the body just doesn't work like that. We've spoken about that before, and we've also spoken about the fact that obviously when we're looking at tracking our calories or monitoring our calories, that is essentially like calories in. And usually we're also mindful of quote, calories out, because we're trying to either create a deficit, create maintenance, something like that. So that is why we aim for a calorie target in the first place, is to make sure it works alongside the calories that our body's using or burning. And we know that the amount of calories the body uses every day is gonna be a little bit different as well. So again, that's just another reason that we don't really have to aim for an exact number because the number that's going out is never gonna be the exact same every day. So if you don't understand that, I would go back and listen to like the last, I'd say three months of the pod. You got a bit of homework to do. But there's a lot more to that. That was kind of like a brief summary, but just a cool thing to remember if we then come back to the question of like how many calories is too many to go over, if we're looking at someone who, let's say they want to eat at maintenance and or they're like fueling their gym training or an event, a sporting goal or something like that, then we are just essentially looking to hit that maintenance intake and just make sure the body gets the energy that it needs every day. Come back to what I just said. The body's gonna have a bit of a little variation on how much energy it needs every day. So we can have a bit of a variation on how much comes in. And really, we just want to have an idea of like overall where does our maintenance intake sit, and then consistently come in close to that amount, giving ourselves that bit of a range. So if we knew that our body was using on average 2,500 calories a day, I think it's cool to just say, well, I'm gonna give myself a range between like two, three and two seven, and I'm just gonna let myself come into that range. So if we look at that in relation to the question of like how many calories is too many to go over, if the person in this example was aiming for that 2500, I wouldn't say that it's like bad to quote, go over it if you've just given yourself that bit of a range and bit of a buffer. And I don't even think, like looking at that question of how many is too many, I don't even think we need to put an exact number on that. I think we just have to kind of have common sense and more so good understanding of nutrition and more so the nutrition that is required for our current goal and then just kind of work out where the line is from there. So if you are in that position of just trying to hang at maintenance, fuel everything that you're doing, you can have that wiggle room. If we come over to someone who's in a deficit trying to pursue fat loss, we know that we need to kind of tighten things up a little bit because the more wiggle room we have in a deficit, the more chance we have of coming out of that deficit and coming up closer to the maintenance intake. So again, we'll use an example. Maybe someone's deficit is 1900 calories. Meaning if this person was to consistently come in around 1900 calories every day, it's gonna put them personally in a calorie deficit and gonna move them towards a fat loss goal. Obviously, if this person starts to eat up in the 1900s towards 2000, they're still gonna be nice and close to that range and it's probably gonna leave them in the deficit. If they start to come up a little bit more, closer to like 2100, you're obviously just going to create a bit of a smaller deficit. If you start to come up towards 2200, you're gonna create an even smaller deficit. And eventually you're gonna move out of a deficit and move more into your maintenance range. And so coming back to my point of just thinking about what nutrition is actually required for the goal that you have at the time, and then kind of looking at that from the angle of how much wiggle room does it make sense for me to have with the current goal that I have. If I'm happy to just chill at my maintenance slash fueling intake, have that bit of wiggle room, know that some days I might be like a tiny bit lower than ideal, some days I might be a tiny bit higher than ideal, but it's all gonna average out nicely. That's awesome. And we've spoken about that so much lately. So if that interests you, I would definitely go back and even just listen to the last month on the pod because we've really honed in on that convo. If we then come down to someone in a deficit, again, the more wiggle room you give yourself on that deficit, the more you risk edging out of the deficit and then therefore not moving towards the goal that you have. And so I'll put like some loose numbers on this as a little bit of a guide, but just know that when I work this out with clients, I really look at this on an individual level. I just look at so many things. Like, what does this client actually personally respond really well to? Like, are they a rigid structure person? Do they like really specific things? Are they the opposite of that? Do they like to have a bit more flexibility? How adamant are they on like really charging towards this goal or are they happy to have a bit more of a chilled approach and like gradually chip away at it? What actual intake do we have them on? Obviously, like I said, if we have someone up on a higher intake, we can have a bit more wiggle room on that. Whereas if we've got someone who's down on a lower intake, they really want to gun it towards a fat loss goal. We don't want to give them too much of a buffer or too much wiggle room because, like I keep saying, that's essentially going to move them away from that goal at some point. So we want to reduce the risk of that happening. So it is honestly something that I really just look at for every individual when I talk to them. It's like, how much wiggle room should I tell you to have? How much of a buffer should I tell you to have? How much do we think it's quote, okay for you to go over your cows? At what point do we think it would be, quote, too many, like this question says, for the goal that this particular person has? So usually if I've got someone in a deficit and it's quite low for them, like it's quite strict at this point, it's not just a cruising amount, like you gotta work pretty hard to stick to this deficit. Usually I'll tell them to have maybe a hundred-ish calorie buffer either side of it, or maybe sometimes even just a hundred calorie buffer in total. So what I mean by that is sometimes people might be on like, let's say, 1700 calz. And I'll say to them individually, I think it'd be sweet for you to kind of fall between 1600 and 1800. So if some days are down in the 16s, that's sweet. If some are up in the 17s, that's sweet. And we know you're basically 100 calz either side of that 1700. Again, when we step back and look at that consistently over time, that's really gonna average out well. It's gonna leave you with a nice average intake that we think is gonna be really good for the goal that you have. Sometimes I'll even just say to people, like, just fall in these numbers, like just fall in the 1600s, just fall in the 1700s, in the 1800s, in the 2800s, whatever this person's goal is, like whatever intake we need them on. But I'll essentially just say to them, like, just fall in that hundred calorie range. And then if we come over to people with a different goal, especially when a client has been through a few phases of maybe like fat loss maintenance, they've done the strict thing, and now they're at a point where they just want to be consistent enough, but they want it to be quite flexible and quite chill. This is where I'll usually give that bit of a bigger buffer. Like I said before, if we know that a person wants to come in around 2,500 calors on average, giving them that like 230 to 2700 range and just saying, like, if you have a slow day, a sedentary day, you don't train, maybe you're busy and you just miss a snack or something, you can come in in those low 23s. On the flip side, if you just have a day where there's more hunger or training's a bit harder and you feel a bit hungry after it or whatever it is, maybe someone just brings snacks into work and you're like, hell yeah, I'm having an extra 200 calories today, right? But that makes more sense for that goal. When someone is just happy to chill at maintenance, those extra little snacks here or there, within reason, don't take that and run with it, you little maintenance rascals. But within reason, you know that that's gonna still leave you in a nice position overall with that nice average. So I think if we just sum up that question of like how many calories over is quote, too many, I wouldn't so much ask that question. I would more so make sure you have a good understanding of everything I just said. If you don't go back and binge the podcast, you'll learn everything you need to learn. And then just understand how that relates to you and your goal at the time. And just know that there's times where it can be a bit more flexible and you can go a bit higher. And then there's times where it wouldn't really make sense to do that too often. Okay, our next question. I think this could actually be a common one with a, I was gonna say a lot of our listeners, a particular niche of our listeners. I think when I bring this up, there will be some people that are like, yeah, I've actually wondered this as well. Somebody asked, they pretty much said, what are my thoughts on a protein latte pre-training? Because I know, like they said, because I know you're a big fan of pre-training carbs and post-training protein. So that's them saying they know that I eat like Ruby. I'm a fan of pre-training carbs, post-training protein. Yes, I am. And then coming back to that question on what are my thoughts on the protein latte? The reason I say I think this will be a common question with a little niche part of our audience is because there are some popular female coaches online who be advocates of the protein latte. If you know you know. And I just want to say, if you do know who I'm talking about, big fan of their work, definitely not here to rag on this at all. I think, again, if you know you know. I'm not gonna name anyone or anything here, but the people who know will know. But there are some popular online female coaches. They specialize a little bit more in like the menopause space. So they speak heavily about women going through like 40s, 50s, and beyond, and they're big advocates of the protein training. If you know who I'm talking about, you'll also know that like a lot of their messaging is very similar to mine. We're all big fans of women fueling, of women understanding nutrition, of women lifting. So there's a lot that we agree on. And I don't even necessarily disagree on the protein latte. I just feel like it's a cool thing to explain a little bit more because I do think, even if you don't know who I'm talking about, I feel like you might have just seen this on the internet in different places. And really what we're looking at is people having a protein latte or a protein coffee as their pre-training meal, snack, food, whatever we want to call it. I don't think we can really call it a meal, but they're having that before training. And then if we come back to the other comment here, and again, like any regular listeners will know, obviously I'm a big fan of pre-training carbohydrates and post-training protein. So I thought it'd be cool to kind of break down why I'm an advocate of that and how that pre-training protein latte can fit in and everything. So the very first thing I want to point out is like I keep saying, I'm a big fan of post-training protein, but I think it is very important to understand we do not need to have our protein post-training. There's just kind of a few factors that I like to think about that just ends up leaving post-training protein as the best scenario, in my opinion. So, what I mean by this is the reason that we want to have protein after training is because we want to make sure there's protein available in the body to optimize muscle protein synthesis. And I'll explain this really quickly, but if you don't know what this means, I think we did big episodes on this probably about 12 months ago. So again, just go back and binge the pod. But in very simple terms, when we train, we go through what we call muscle protein breakdown. So we break down the muscles. This can sound like a bad thing, but it is a good thing. It is like the point of training. So we have muscle protein breakdown, and then when we've gone through that, the muscles want to go through muscle protein synthesis, which is where they essentially repair, regrow, bigger, better, stronger. That is the point of training. Like we break them down, they go through the recovery process and they come out the other side better. And then we do it again, and then we do it again, and then we do it again. So when we've trained, we've done that muscle protein breakdown. If we've trained hard and we've trained well, and then the body wants to go through muscle protein synthesis, and the body is gonna go through muscle protein synthesis, which we're gonna call MPS because it's a mouthful. But MPS is optimized when there's sufficient protein available in the body. And we know that when we consume protein, the excess doesn't store in the body or like doesn't hang around to use at a later date, essentially, or a later time. So whenever we consume protein, the body essentially uses what it needs to and then just flushes out the rest. So this is why, a little bit of a separate note, but worth mentioning. This is why we talk about consuming protein at regular intervals throughout the day, like having regular feedings of protein consistently throughout the day, instead of just having it all in one big meal in the morning or night or whatever. Because we want the body to have that consistent supply of protein coming in. It can use what it needs to, it goes through its process, a few hours later, it gets a bit more, and it can just keep optimizing and using that protein instead of, like I said, getting it all at once and potentially not being able to use it. So bit of a separate topic, but cool to know. Coming back to the pre and post-training protein, whatever's getting at there is we do not need to have protein post-training. We want to have protein available in the body around training. So we could have protein before training, right? Let's say if we look at it timeline-wise, let's say we're gonna train at 6 a.m. So we might have something with protein in it at 5 or 5:30 in the morning. We go and train, that protein is going to hang around in the body for a while. It's gonna be available. So when we come out of training 45 minutes or an hour later, however long you're training for, and your body starts going through that muscle protein synthesis, that protein that you've had earlier is gonna be available to an extent, like depending on the exact times and all of that shit. But if we sort of think about a typical window, I've eaten it at five, I've trained at six, I've finished training around seven, that protein is gonna be available in the body to use. And the reason I really want to point that out is because, like I said, in that sense, like for that argument alone, it doesn't really matter if we've had the protein before or after training. So long as when the body wants to go through muscle protein synthesis, which is what it will want to do after the session, we want to make sure there's protein available. The reason that I personally like to advise to have it after the session is nothing to do with what I just said. Because whether we have it before or after, so long as it's around when we finish the session, that's the main thing, right? But if we then look at a separate factor that's gonna come into play, if we think about actually fueling the session itself, we know that carbs are the body's preferred energy source. So if we think about that scenario again of someone eating at 5 or 5:30, training at six, finishing training at seven, in my opinion, it makes a lot more sense to give the body the energy to do the session. We know, like I said, carbs are the body's preferred energy source. And we know that quick digesting carbs are gonna come in quickly, because that's the point of them, come in quickly and therefore become readily available energy in the body to use really easily to fuel that session. And then we come out the other side of that session, we get the protein hit, and that's gonna optimize the muscle protein synthesis. So, in my opinion, it just makes sense to look at each individual step of that process and go, if I want to optimize everything as a whole here, meaning I want to get the most out of my session, if I'm training for strength or muscle gain or shape or performance or all of the above, I want to be able to do the best session possible, right? And then I want to recover as best I can from that session. So having protein available at some point in this training window is gonna optimize that recovery. So we can tick that off. Whether that protein comes in before or after the session doesn't really matter so long as it comes in in those hours around the session. But if we then look at the separate factor of I want to do the best session I can to train as hard as I can to optimize, like I said, performance, muscle gain, shape, strength, all of these things, what's gonna help me go in and do that better session? Energy. What's the body's preferred energy source? Carbohydrates. So to me, it just makes sense to step back and look at it as almost like a step-by-step process. Like if I'm gonna wake up and like side note, just apply this to whatever time of day you train. But essentially, like if I'm gonna think about eating, training, eating again, it makes sense to go, well, I'm gonna choose to have something before the session that's going to give me the best energy possible to fuel the session itself, to deliver the best session I can. If I then deliver the best session I can, I want to get the best recovery I can, which is where the protein comes in. So, again, in my opinion, it just makes sense to go carbs to fuel it, nail the sesh, smash the sesh, have a weaker sesh, come out the other side of it, get that protein in, happy days. Coming back to someone just having that protein latte before training, again, it's not necessarily bad, it's not wrong. But we know that protein's not the best energy source for fueling the body and for fueling performance. We know that it's a bit slower digesting. So even looking at that short window of essentially having like something for pre-training, going in and doing a session, protein is a slower digesting nutrient. So we could even argue, you know, depending on timing-wise, is that even gonna be available in the body? And then coming back to that last point, even if it is available in the body, is it the best energy source? Is the body really gonna utilize it to optimize performance in the session? In my opinion, no, it's not. So again, there's nothing wrong with having a protein latte or a protein coffee. Like if you have that and you go into a sesh and you're happy enough with that sesh, and then you leave the gym and you know that that protein is floating around available in the body to help that muscle protein synthesis. Happy days. But I would personally look at that and go, could the session have been better if the energy provided before the session was better and then knowing that the protein can come in after to really do its job and to do the thing that we want it to do in the body really well at that time. And then we can go through the rest of the day and continue to have regular protein feedings throughout the day. We did an episode, I'd say it's probably about three months ago now, about like how to set up your morning if you're thinking about pre-training, post-training, breakfast, the timing of all of these things. We did that episode, I reckon, yeah, two to three months ago. Pretty much said what I just said there. But then just coming back to that question here about the protein latte, just want to make it really clear. I definitely don't think it's bad or it's wrong or it's like something we quote shouldn't be doing. I just think there's potentially a smarter way to do things if we want to think about fueling a session, training as hard as we can, and then recovering. Wow. I just personally think there's a bit of a better timeline to follow. All right, for our next question, such a niche question, but I still think a lot of people are gonna benefit from hearing this. And even if it doesn't really like personally apply to you, still kind of cool to, I don't know, to learn about if you're a bit of a nutrition nerd, which I feel like these days, if you're still here like four years in, you're probably a bit of a nutrition nerd. So someone asks, what are my thoughts on Pure energy gels? If you don't know what we're talking about here, we're talking about energy gels that people use for intra training and to consume during events like runs, triathlons, sporting events, games, things like that. And Pure is, I would say, like one of the most popular, if not the most popular, like very easy to buy, very common. We see them around a lot. So someone just said, like, what are your thoughts on the Pua Gels? Do have some interesting thoughts on these, and that's why I think it'd be cool because I think a lot of people that are into running or getting into running probably have used these, maybe are using these at some point, and just cool to kind of know a few little things about them. So, first of all, like I said, they're a very common gel, good gel, nothing major wrong with them. But there's just some things that are worth thinking about, especially if you are looking at marathon, triathlon, like anything over that, say, three-hour mark. And the reason I say this is this is we're gonna get into the weeds a little bit here, guys. If you're a runner, this will be really interesting. If you're not a runner, like I said, maybe you can just nerd out on some of this stuff. If you don't care, just know we'll probably spend about 10 minutes here and then we'll move on. But some cool things that we want to think about with gels, I feel like we might have spoken about this a little bit in the running episodes, like we did Nutrition for Running earlier in the year. When we're looking at gels, gels can either be like the two most common types of gels that we can get are predominantly glucose-based, or we can get gels that are a combo of glucose and fructose. And there's pros and cons. And I think this is what's really important to understand, especially when you're looking at, like I said, distances above the half marrow, even potentially a half marrow, depending on how long it takes you. Because the reason I say that is when we look at something like a two hour event, around that two, maybe two and a half hour mark, we look at fueling that with about 40 to 90 grams of carbs per hour. So that's a very big range. That's a very individual thing. We're not going to get into that today. Please don't take that as advice. Go back and listen to those nutrition for running episodes. Work with the sports nutritionist. Actually, learn what exact amount that should be for you. But if we look at the half marrow, like I said, we're normally looking around that 40 to 90. And honestly, people tend to land around like 40 to 60 grams of carbs per hour while you're doing the event. So say you're doing a two-hour run, you might be looking at like 40 to 60 grams of carbs per hour. If we come over to something bigger, like three hours, four hours, and then going up into like half Iron Man, full Iron Man, ultra runs, etc., obviously these go for a lot longer. And this is where we start to look at 60 to 90, if not more, like up towards that 120 grams of carbs per hour. Definitely do not take that as advice. Do not just go out and start pounding 120 grams of carbs per hour into training, or you're not gonna have a good time. This is stuff that you want to work on over time. But the reason I'm saying all this right now is because if we come back to that comment I said before about some gels are predominantly glucose and some are glucose and fructose. And then I said there's pros and cons to both. The pro to a gel being predominantly glucose is that glucose tends to be better tolerated, more easily tolerated in most people. The con to a gel being predominantly glucose is that the body can only utilize and absorb about 60 grams of glucose per hour. And the reason for this, this is really nerding out for a second, but this is because this becomes limited by the intestinal glucose transporter, or we might have heard it referred to as the SGLT1. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's fine, you don't really need to know. But essentially what we're looking at here is glucose getting through the wall of the small intestine. So we know that only about 60 grams of carbs per hour or 60 grams of glucose can do that. And so then if we come back to some of those numbers we said before, where if someone is doing a bigger event and we want to start to move up towards those like 90 grams of carbs per hour, give or take, if we come back to the question here about pure gels, pure are predominantly glucose. Whereas, like I said before, some other gels will be a combo of glucose and fructose. And this is why. This is why we see gels that will, they'll literally advertise. Like we have a good ratio of glucose to fructose for this exact reason. Because if somebody wants to take in more than 60 grams of carbs per hour, you want to make sure that's coming from multiple carbohydrate sources like glucose and fructose. So there are gels out there that factor this in. The gel itself is a combo of both. So if we then start to piece all this together, pure gels are predominantly glucose. So if we think about the fact that the body can only really take in 60 grams of that per hour, if you wanted to do something like a marathon and you thought it was gonna take you around four hours, you'd want to start to look at coming up over that 60 grams of carbs per hour. And if we were gonna rely purely on pure gels, no pun intended there, but if you were gonna do that, you're gonna hit an issue there. Because if you essentially said, I'm gonna run a marathon, I'm gonna aim for 80 grams of carbs per hour, and I'm gonna get it all from pure gels, we'll come back to the fact that they are predominantly glucose. The body can only take in 60 grams of glucose per hour. You're gonna try and take in 80, and then this is where we can start to hit issues with like digestion, bloating, cramping, etc. Because essentially, like in very simple terms, you've got that additional glucose sitting there that's like, I can't get through. So it's like I'm struggling, and then therefore that's gonna become uncomfortable in the system. So I might have lost some people here, but I think the runners or the people who are into this, you'll be eating it up. So then if we continue to piece all this together, if you were gonna aim for above that 60 grams of carbs per hour, I personally wouldn't or I wouldn't recommend doing it from pure gels alone because you can't really come up over that 60. So you're just gonna hit an issue where it's not gonna be absorbed. So you're actually not gonna consume more than 60, even though you might think you are, and then you're potentially gonna hit issues with digestion and everything. If we were aiming to come up into that 60 gram plus, that's where I would start to look at gels that are a combo of the two, fructose and glucose, or pairing something with your pure gels. So if the pure gels are gonna give you that big hit of glucose, you could pair it with another food source or chews or like different sports nutrition things like that that have a decent amount of fructose in them. So then again, you've got those two carbohydrate types coming in and you can utilize all of it. But then the pros or the times where those pure gels can be really good. Obviously, if we think about coming back to shorter events where, like I said, people might aim for that 40 to 60 grams of carbs per hour, you're probably gonna be sweet because you're not gonna hit an issue with like trying to take in too much because you're taking in a smaller volume, it's gonna come in quite easily. For most people, again, this is not advice, but like for most people, and then like I said before, glucose is typically better tolerated in most people in those smaller doses. So it is a bit of a trade-off where it's like glucose on its own in a smaller dose is usually better tolerated in most people. But then as we start to look at bringing it in in a higher amount, it is gonna get capped out at around that 60 grams per hour mark. So pairing it with something like fructose is gonna mean we can get more carbohydrates in. The downside to the fructose, and the reason that some gels like pure and other gels will stick with just that glucose formula is because more people tend to be sensitive to fructose and have like a lower tolerance to fructose. So it's definitely not the case for everybody, but like I said before, glucose is typically very well tolerated when it's in the right amount compared to fructose, like more people can be sensitive to fructose regardless of the amount, like just in general, and then especially when it starts to become higher amounts and excessive fructose. So it can be a bit of a catch-22, I guess. Like there are just trade-offs where if we kind of step back for a second and look at all the points here, glucose is typically better tolerated than fructose, but can only be absorbed up to that 60 grams per hour mark. So then if people want to go over that, they've got to start to bring in the fructose. But for some people, bringing in fructose can cause stomach upset as well. So you've kind of got to work with somebody, like I always say. This is why we want to trial all this stuff and find the best plants and everything for you. It is quite a trial and error process of just learning what you personally respond to and then also looking at what amounts we want to aim for for you and working out what we're gonna need to combo together, what we're gonna use, what we're not gonna use to hit those amounts. So if I actually come back to the question, I feel like we went in so many directions here. Thoughts on pure gels. I think they're great, but I think it's important to understand that if you are gonna come up over that 60 grams of carbs per hour, you're most likely gonna hit some issues, or you are gonna hit some issues if you're relying solely on pure gels to do that. But then just understanding the pros and cons and the trade-offs to using glucose-based gels like Pure versus a combination gel of glucose and fructose. And if you've got more questions about that or you want me to help you trial and error, this is literally what I do with my running clients. So you can become one of them. Moving on to the next question. Someone said, I actually love this question. Got a bit to say about this one. Someone said, Why do coaches say, quote, you need to eat more to lose weight if we know that a calorie deficit is the answer to fat loss? Great question. So I feel like we all would have seen this in some way on the internet. And to be honest with you, it actually pisses me off if we come down to that next question. Like I said, the final question is what pisses you off most on the internet? This probably doesn't piss me off most, but it definitely does piss me off. Because I think some coaches say this in really short form content, like a literally a 10-second reel or an Instagram caption or something, and they don't really explain it. And if we think about that wording of like, you need to eat more to lose weight, again, I feel like we all would have seen this in some way. And what most coaches would be getting at here, there's a few factors going on. If we think about somebody, quote, eating more to lose weight, usually what we see play out here is, for example, if somebody's aiming for a really low calorie intake and they find it hard to stick to, so then they end up just eating extra things every day, coming up well above that initial intake they were aiming for. And then we can look and go, well, if you had of just aimed to eat a little bit more, you could have potentially avoided that whole scenario playing out because you might have been able to stick to your plan better. So to explain that just quickly with some numbers, let's say somebody like aims for 1,500 calories and it's just super low for them. It's very restrictive, it's very intense, and they can't stick to it, they end up snacking a lot and they end up consuming 2,200 calories most days because 1500 was too hard. They quote, give in, eat a bunch of extra food, end up consuming 2,200 cal. If this person was to just aim for like 1800 cal, we could find a sweet spot in the middle where it's like, yes, it's a deficit, but it's not so intense, it's not so restrictive. So now you can actually stick to it, you can reap the benefits of the deficit and you can get fat loss moving. And I think a lot of people can probably relate to that, just aiming for a very unrealistic, restrictive diet, hitting a point where you're like, this is too friggin' much, I'm not doing it anymore. And so therefore it doesn't really work because we don't stick to it long enough to work. If we come up slightly to a higher intake that we can stick to, we can actually get it to work. So if we think about that scenario, it's like, oh, well, I quote, ate more and I lost weight. You didn't eat more, you aimed to eat more, and that was easier to stick to. So then you were able to adhere to a deficit. Obviously, the other scenario we can see play out here, and I think a lot of coaches refer to this when they make this content, is metabolic adaptation. So I feel like we've spoken about this on the podcast before, but let's say, for example, somebody has been dieting for a really long time, we can have that down regulation in metabolism. So when I say dieting for a really long time, I mean in a deficit, on lower calories, underfueling, under consuming for a long time. And yes, you might have achieved fat loss along that way. But at the same time, like I said, we've had that down regulation in metabolism. And that's in simple terms, the body just adjusting to its environment. Like if we put the body in a low calorie state for a long time, it's gonna do the best it can to adapt to that state to survive. The body's number one goal above all else is survival. So again, if we use an example of like putting yourself on 1500 cows and your body's like, Jesus is hard, this is intense, this is a gnarly deficit. Over time, the body's gonna do the best it can to survive in that environment. And to do that, it's gonna adapt. And like I said, it can have that down regulation in metabolism where it essentially just stops spending extra energy on things in the body. So, I mean, this is moving into a whole nother conversation about low energy availability that we've spoken about before. But really just thinking about it as your body doing the best it can to conserve your energy and to not burn extra energy or use extra energy on anything it doesn't have to, because it is realizing that you're not giving it much. So if somebody's been doing that for a long time, it's like, yeah, I don't eat much at all, but also I'm not really achieving much fat loss or anything anymore because everything is adapted to this low intake that I'm on. So then if we come back to that line of quote, eat more to lose weight, if we increase the intake, which side note, this is why I've spent the last four years talking about spend time at maintenance, do diet breaks, make sure you're fueling, understand all this shit, right? But if somebody implements that, if somebody pulls themselves off those lower cows, comes up to a higher intake, we can get that metabolism functioning a little bit better, we can get everything in the body firing a little bit better. And then therefore it's like, yes, I'm quote, eating more, but my body's now burning more because I'm eating more, so we can potentially see further fat loss happen, even though I've come up onto a higher intake. So those are just a couple of the ways that we can see this play out. But if we think about the fact that I just spent five minutes explaining that and I really summarized that, like long-term listeners will know we've done whole episodes on those topics. So that's why I said this pisses me off. Because if we just see a coach make a 10-second reel that's like, quote, you need to eat more to lose weight, I think it's very important for coaches to remember that your audience doesn't know what you know. All they know is the 10-second reel that you've just shown them. And all you've said in that reel is you need to eat more to lose weight. You understand that there's heaps more to that conversation and there's heaps more to explain. But again, your audience doesn't know that. So when we think about the fact that we have women and people out there that are overweight, want to lose weight, they're confused. And then they see something as simple as a 10-second reel that says, quote, you need to eat more to lose weight, it's like, riddle me this dickhead. If we were to take 10 people and put them in an all-you-can-eat buffet for a month and take another 10 people and put them on a deserted island with no food for a month, who do you think's losing more weight? Look me in the eye and tell me you think it's the people at the all-you-can-eat buffet. Because if I see a 10-second reel that just says, you need to eat more to lose weight, well, great, I'll move into the buffet for a month. And you know what? When I don't lose weight, I'm gonna hit you up. And then you're gonna go, oh, well, there's so much more at play. Well, that's exactly right. There is so much more at play. So why did you make a 10-second reel telling people you need to eat more to lose weight? So that's my thoughts on that one. I don't feel like I've gone off like that on the podcast in a long time. So if you are a semi-new listener, I used to do that all the time. Regular listeners, can you guys just acknowledge for a minute that I've actually been on my best behavior for a long time? Because we have not had a Ruby rant like that one in a long time. I think I need to bring them back a little bit, let's be honest. I think we all enjoyed that. But honestly, honestly, if I come back to the question, why do coaches, I actually can't stop laughing now, why do coaches say you need to eat more to lose weight? I think, as much as I just went off, I think they have good intentions. I think, I mean, it's a whole separate conversation, but I think coaches work with people every day. And like I said, you know all this stuff. If you're a coach, you know all this stuff and it's in your head all day because you're doing this work all day. But you have to remember your clients and your audience don't know what you know. So it's very easy for you to make a really quick short form piece of content like that and just go, oh my God, people just have to understand that, like, oh my god, you just need to eat more. It's like, no, people don't understand. People actually don't understand. So stop being a smart ass and start explaining. Because if you're frustrated or you're making content, I think so many coaches make content based on things they don't have the balls and or the education to say to their clients' faces. I genuinely think I see it all the time. I see it all the time where coaches make content on Instagram and I think to myself, you a client has pissed you off with that thing. You either didn't have the balls to have that conversation with that client, or you don't have enough education or the skill set to have that conversation with that client. All you know how to do is make smart ass content about it and hope that they see it. But again, remember that they don't understand it the way you do, and it's not their job to understand it the way you do. It's your job to explain it. So if you're making 10-second content that says shit like you need to eat more to lose weight, ask yourself if you actually think that's helpful. Because if you haven't realized, I don't think that's helpful. And I know that the person who sent this in wasn't asking for me to do a rant about coaches. They said, Why do coaches say you need to eat more to lose weight if we know that a deficit is the answer to fat loss? If we go back to what I said before my rant, I think that's what coaches are implying is that, you know, we've been on low calories for too long. And if we were to actually come up onto a higher intake, we might be able to create either a better environment for the metabolism and the body to function better and use energy better and therefore burn energy better, and or we can create a better environment for a person to adhere to the intake because the intake they've been aiming for is too hard to stick to. So I hope that answers that question. That final question was what pisses you off most on the internet? Surely I've just answered that. I actually did have a little answer in my mind, and I feel like it's pretty relative to what I just said. The answer that I had in my mind is the thing that pisses me off most on the internet lately is again, just those really short, snippety reels that people make that, first of all, like they don't help anyone. They're not bringing any value to anyone's life. Usually it's just a bunch of videos of you eating food and training in the gym, which is like fine, go off. We could be doing worse shit. But you know, you see those reels that go for 10 seconds and people will just write something on them like, my whole life changed when I stopped restricting myself. Okay, Einstein, thanks for the F and help. That's not helpful. Like, good on you. Like, we're happy for you, that's great. But also like explain it better, help people more. Like, I just I feel like maybe just because I'm in this industry, so I see it all the time, but I just feel like I just constantly see pieces of content like that where it's like, yeah, okay, like it's kind of a cool message, not even really, because sometimes we see them where again, it's just a bunch of videos where someone's like eating in a restaurant and they'll just write something like, Pov, you can enjoy meals out. I mean, I think I've done that rant before. I'm getting deja vu. I think I've done this rant on the podcast before, but very easy for a coach or a fitness professional who has navigated this shit for a long time to say something as simple as, you can just enjoy meals out. Then we have this whole population of people over here going, I'm trying to lose weight. People are telling me the way to lose weight is to count my calories and make sure I'm in a deficit. When I go and eat out, I have no idea how to count my calories or make sure I'm in a deficit. So I'm left sitting here going, well, I want the weight loss. You're telling me that I need to stick to a deficit to get weight loss. You're also telling me, pov, you're allowed to go out and enjoy a meal. So I've got no effing idea how to navigate this. And that is what pisses me off on the internet is that short form shit where people are just like, pov, enjoy the food. Okay, well, I've been enjoying the food for 20 years, now I'm 30 kilos overweight. So riddle me that one as well, dickhead. Where do I go from here? And again, it just comes back to like, in my opinion, this is these are people that are wanting just engagement or to possibly like go viral. They want people to just comment and be like, oh my god, yes, queen, eat the food. Yes, queen, eat the food, have a great time. I'm all about eating the food if you haven't realized. But your real wasn't helpful. We saw you in great shape eating pizza. We're over here wondering, well, how the F do I get in great shape and eat pizza? Help people or stop filling the internet with shit, is my opinion. That is all from me today. I've gotten very fired up in the last 10 minutes, so I'm gonna go and calm down. But I would like to think that you learnt something today. That is always my aim. That is why I always choose the podcast over Instagram. I have phases where I just abort Instagram for a few weeks because of all that shit, but I love the podcast because we can actually deliver helpful content. So I hope that we have done that today. I hope you enjoyed the little Ruby rants. Trying not to spit the dummy too often, but like I said, I think I've been great this year, and I think we were all due for a little sassy Ruby rant. So hope you enjoyed it. Apologies for the D-bombs. I might beep those out or put a warning at the start of the episode. But that is all from me today. I will be back very soon. Thank you so much.