Healthy Is Presents: Oh Health Yeah

How to Lose 10% Body Fat (The Healthy Is Wellness Way)

Healthy is Wellness

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0:00 | 26:17

Are you ready to shed 10% body fat and feel your best as we roll into summer? In this episode of the Oh Health Yeah Podcast, we are breaking down the three foundational "cards" we pull from our arsenal to help clients achieve sustainable fat loss.  
Whether you are looking to improve your health markers or simply want to look and feel better for the warmer Montana weather, these habits are designed to empower you without the stress of traditional "dieting."  
What We Cover:
Time Restricted Feeding (TRF): Learn about our version of intermittent fasting. We discuss the "12-hour break" rule, the science of autophagy (cellular clean-out), and how to fluctuate your fasting window based on your unique goals and how you feel.  
The Movement Lever: Why "moving more than you did yesterday" is the ultimate sustainable strategy for increasing caloric expenditure without the burnout of a rigid exercise schedule.  
The Power of Protein: Why protein is the most important macronutrient for satiety and muscle preservation. We share three simple rules for hitting your protein goals, including the "Protein First" method and front-loading your day with 20 to 30 grams.  
Key Highlights:
The Fasting Debate: Does diet soda or black coffee actually break a fast? We dive into the "40-calorie rule" and how different substances affect your body's metabolic state.  
Mental Acuity: Why fasting in the morning can lead to a "crisp" brain and better focus throughout the day.  
The Laws of Thermodynamics: How our "Healthy Is Wellness" challenges,like eating your water or cutting sugar,coincide with the science of weight loss without forcing you to obsess over numbers.  
Are you up for the challenge? Pick one of these three habits to play with this week and watch how your body responds.  
Follow Us & Stay Connected:
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review and follow us on social media! Let us know what health topics you want us to tackle next.  

SPEAKER_02

Welcome into the Oh Health Yeah podcast brought to you by Healthy is Wellness. As you all know, our mission is to empower you to take control of your health and elicit a little bit of curiosity in your life when it comes to the world of wellness. Thank you so much for tuning in today. And if you have loved ones or friends that you think would benefit from this, share it with them. Let's get this thing going. If so, you've come to the right episode of the Oh Health Yeah Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about little habits that we like to talk to our clients about when they're focused on fat loss. Specifically this time of year, the weather's starting to get nice. If you're in Montana, the snow around us is probably melted. And we're getting ready to roll into spring and summertime. And a lot of people at this time are focused on body fat loss and getting as fit as possible for summer. Whether that's to do the things you love or look a certain way. What we want to talk about today is what little habits do we have in our arsenal that we'll incorporate in our own lives to help people drop 10% body fat. And this is actually a goal that I'm taking on in my own life right now. I'm going to see if I can get to 10% body fat this year. We'll see if that happens. Stay tuned. But we're going to talk about three of our steps that help people take back control when it comes to dropping body fat. First one is going to be in the nutrition category. We're going to talk about our concept of healthiest TRF or time restricted feeding. This is one of our foundational concepts. It's a card that we pull often. And obviously, with all of these cards, it's based around the person's goals. But what this card talks about is this idea of time restricted feeding. It's our form of intermittent fasting. What it looks at is can you get a 12-hour break from food? So let's say you are done eating dinner or snack, or your last beer is at 8 o'clock at night. Can you wait 12 hours until you have the first calorie of the following day? The reason behind that, your body goes through a process called autophagy, which is a cellular clean out to where your body will get rid of broken down cells and generate brand spanking new ones at a cellular level. This is extremely beneficial for weight loss, diabetes prevention, blood pressure regulation. I don't care what your goal is, that phase of autophagy is going to be extremely helpful. And what's extremely interesting about the time-restricted feeding concept is you can actually fluctuate that and extend it if you want to based off of the way that you feel. So, for instance, in my own life, I fast for 16 hours every single day. I try to be done eating at least by eight o'clock at night. And I usually don't eat breakfast or my first meal of the day until 11 a.m. or later. What that allows the body to do is metabolize fat for a little bit longer. And within that fasted window, you can have water, black coffee, and tea. So step number one to this 10% body fat reduction, can you play with some form of time restricted feeding? What do you got on it, Zach? What are your thoughts on time restricted feeding?

SPEAKER_00

I love it. I think this is already a bit of a debate in the world. And I know this is not a this or that episode, but my challenge to you, my question to you is why wouldn't you be able to do something like diet soda or or something with stevia? If it's low to no calorie, you're not. I mean, the law of thermodynamics says if it doesn't have calories, just like coffee doesn't, yeah, you're not expending energy to digest it. So can you explain to me how diet soda would actually break a fast? Or do you not know for a fact that it would?

SPEAKER_02

Well, it depends on the form of fast. So, like autophagy, for instance, say the clean out side of things, the minute that your body starts to break down something, it's going to turn that off. But is it so it doesn't black coffee does not shut that down. You can look it up. It's crazy. How is that possible? Look it up, but there's different phases too. There's the autophagy phase of the fast, there's the digestive phase, and there's one other phase. There's kind of three main phases of the fast itself. I know it's based off a caloric intake. I think 40 calories was the number that I've heard in the past messed around with where if you exceed 40 calories, you are then breaking the fast. Okay. And turn your body is starting to digest, the pancreas is starting to work.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I could I could see that in a little bit with coffee, but it just I feel like the logic falls apart when you're talking about tea. Because coffee I'm probably sound stupid, but as far as I know, coffee doesn't have a ton of antioxidants in minerals and different types of thing uh of you know things like L-tericene, different supplements in it, like tea does. Lots of teas have tons of different natural, naturally occurring antioxidants and stuff like you get what I'm saying? Like, like for example, um chamomile tea, right? Historically helps people get to sleep because it has things like I believe like Lcheptophan and maybe melatonin naturally occurring. I don't think so though, but stuff like that. So how does your body processing the the micronutrients and minerals and tea not break your because you're because that's right, right? Like they say that coffee and tea doesn't break a lot of fat tea and water.

SPEAKER_02

And so when you're looking at that, it's dependent on the fast. So like you when you're thinking fasting, if you're gonna get into the nitty gritty molecules of fasting, if you're gonna go that deep, what you're gonna have to look into is like what is the caloric amount that technically breaks a fast, which would be 40 if you're going that hard. From my understanding, you can Google that yourself. Okay, there's people that fast for religious reasons. Yeah, like fasting for a religious reason, that's just fasting. Yeah. But when it comes to fasting for losing 10% body fat, what we're trying to get after is how do you allow the body to metabolize fat? In my mind, that caloric amount is 40 calories, from my understanding. People can Google that if they want to and look that up. But from what I've read, 40 calories is when you technically break a fast, your body starts to digest things that are not body fat.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so if a 12-ounce diet does five calories, then from my understanding, it doesn't break a fast.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, is there artificial sweet what what's hidden in there?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, definitely at least ace K and sucralose.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Because it would depend on how that artificial sweetener hits, too.

SPEAKER_00

How your body metabolizes it?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's the thing with LMTs, too, is they mark, but they don't break a fast. And they're five to ten calories per serving. So I don't know if the artificial sweetener that's hidden in that would or how your body reacts to it. Yeah. Because what we're after here, if you're trying to lose 10% body fat, is just allowing the body to continue to metabolize fat.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So I guess we'd have to look into that. Do you want to wanna Gemini that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll look into that later on. Because what I've read on black coffee is that black coffee helps to reset the liver, which actually helps to continue to burn fat on a positive note. It allows the body to continue to maximize fat burning. So it'd be interesting to see if you look that up.

SPEAKER_00

Well, would that what about the caffeine in black coffee?

SPEAKER_02

Do you think that I mean that's gotta increase heart rate?

SPEAKER_00

For sure. Increases anxiety over time. Caffeine's great, don't get me wrong. I love caffeine. I know you do too. But I also know that you don't drink it after 12 o'clock in the afternoon. No, I don't.

SPEAKER_03

And the way that I fast, I include black coffee on my fast window.

SPEAKER_00

Do you drink it at night?

SPEAKER_03

No. But like in the mornings.

SPEAKER_00

You have no sex at night. Nothing.

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_00

Really?

SPEAKER_02

If I'm gonna do like a dessert last night, we do jello jello with protein powder. And everything is always before eight o'clock for sure. But the reason behind that, not only for the fat burning side of things, but I sleep like crap when I get close to dinner. Or when I sorry, when I eat close to bed. When I eat close to dinner, I sleep like crap when I eat close to bed. Yeah. So but the thing with this fast, and the other thing that you and I have had this conversation about, is a lot of companies, when you go to somebody and you talk to them about weight loss, they give you a caloric number. They say, Gus, if you eat 2,500 calories, you're gonna lose weight. The other thing that fasting does is it builds in a natural caloric restriction of it. Not that it does it for every single person, but it's our way of like, okay, can you focus on this 12-hour thing? Like, can you put this emphasis on, okay, I'm gonna be done eating at 8 p.m. I'm gonna start eating at 8 a.m. Rather than being like, okay, I have to eat 2,500 calories. In turn, I can't have the whatever. Like we're big believers in putting things in people's lives that actually allow them to feel empowered versus limiting them. Thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_03

I know we've talked about it a little bit off air.

SPEAKER_00

I think it can help a lot of people, but I 100 million percent don't think it's for everybody.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. I agree.

SPEAKER_00

People with binge eating disorder doesn't help. Fasting doesn't help at all.

SPEAKER_03

Do you think calorie counting does?

SPEAKER_00

I think it's so dependent on so dependent on a person. For me, it does. I don't think I've technically been diagnosed with a binge eating disorder, but like I'd be binge eating. And if you just tell me you don't need to catch calories, you just eat between I'm gonna I'm gonna get them calories in.

SPEAKER_02

You know, too, you gotta figure out as a coach what lever to pull. Yeah, like we talk about this time restrictive feeding concept as a foundation, but also there was a time in Unhealthy Is where we were given time restrictive feeding to everybody, and we've changed that completely because we realize they can have negative implications.

SPEAKER_00

People with disorder types of eating, it's not a good lever to pull. I will say, but on the other hand of that, like I don't necessarily think that uh time restrictive feeding is great for people with um binge eating disorders, but I do a rendition of TRF myself, but for a different reason. I found the most success by stopping eating it after dinner. It's it's weird. I think on the back end, maybe it has something to do with autophagy, but to me, it's that's not why I'm doing it. I the I found the absolute most success stopping eating at dinner and then eating at breakfast time, and it's a side effect. Having that fast is a side effect for me, right? And what the reason I say that is like I'm just I'm not it it lowers your caloric intake. If you stop uh I would being someone that binge eats when I went ever all the lights were out and no one was looking, I was shoveling food in my mouth, and if I it just forced me to be intentional about not doing that, and that's when the weight just started to fall off of me because I didn't even realize how many calories I was eating between dinner and breakfast. Yeah, it's crazy. I do the same thing, but I do it for a different side effect.

SPEAKER_02

I like fasting for a long, prolonged time into the morning because of the mental acuity that I get. I feel crisp when I'm my body's not digesting things or my body's not like I almost think of it like a car. Like if your car has issues somewhere, whether it's in the I don't know enough about cars, Zach knows this, but like you got issues with the fuel pump, or you got issues with the head gasket, whatever. Like if your car is not running optimally because of issues within it, I think of the body the same. Like if your body is digesting food and focused on digesting that, I feel like it pulls from the brain. And that might just be my brain saying that. But one of the things that I love about fasting is the mental acuity that at least I feel in the mall. Not that every single person's gonna feel that, but I love that feeling.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna grab a challenge here. Because I remember learning it.

SPEAKER_03

What's that?

SPEAKER_00

You're gonna know exactly where it is, aren't you? Uh Genius Foods.

SPEAKER_03

It's on the bottom, I believe. It should be right in there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

TRF. We eat your water. No. One of the stats I want to pull from it is gold in this exact There it is. I remember when I was learning this with Grace, I just thought it was so fascinating. And that is That is The Brain is a powerhouse when it comes to energy use. Although it only weighs around two to three pounds, on average, it usualized utilizes around what how long has it been since you read this card? How what percent of your total calories every day? Your brain uses X percent of your total calories in a day. What's your guess?

SPEAKER_02

Put you on the spot. I think it's dependent on the person.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe it's on average 60. 20%. But still, 20% of your total calories just for your brain? That's huge. That's huge. So it makes sense that the mental acuity thing.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I totally feel that. Yeah, I feel that.

SPEAKER_02

And I like to talk about too, like the I've heard people talk about this, and I don't know, it's hard to validate this. But people talk about how our ancestors, when they needed to harvest food, whether they needed to go out and shoot like a beer, like on my shirt, or they needed to go out and get nuts and seeds, or need to go get berries, they were in a fasted state because they needed food, and our brain awakens to where like they needed their brain to awaken to be able to harvest. Like people were out there killing buffalo with spears. That's freaking tough. You need your brain, you need some energy to be able to do something like that, or to be able to find like nuts and seeds when the snow's down and like the eye stuff. So in my mind, it's like, okay, I feel that mental acuity. Does that tie back to a little bit of that? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Speaking of, are you gonna do any spring archery?

SPEAKER_02

Well, not spraying stuff.

SPEAKER_00

There is a spring archery. Is that just for bear?

SPEAKER_02

Turkey, too, I think.

SPEAKER_00

I don't show you turkey. You get turkey on your property up there, don't you? Yeah. Don't like wild turkey. No, it's too easy.

SPEAKER_02

Turkey hunting's pretty easy with a bow, but yeah, I'll get outside and do something.

SPEAKER_00

Fair enough. Uh how old does Ashra have to be for a youth hunt? Does he get to hunt this year? 10. Two years?

SPEAKER_02

10 with an apprentice.

SPEAKER_03

He's eight, right? Yeah. Yeah. Two years. Catcher. Two years he'll be out there with us. That'll be sick. That will be sick. You got no side tangent now.

SPEAKER_00

Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Come back to the high.

SPEAKER_02

You can't wear that shirt and not expect me to talk about hunting a little bit. Come back to the 10% time restrictive feeding concept. Multiple ways to frame it, like Zach and I just shared. There's multiple reasons to play with the time restrictive feeding concept. If you're looking to lose 10% body fat, not only does it build in habits that help you to sleep better, it also helps with caloric restriction. It allows the body to reset. But know that if it's not for you, it's not for you. But if you're somebody that thinks that this could work for you, try it out. We have clients that utilize it in their daily lives. I use it in my daily life. It's something that's been successful for me. And that 12 hours is where we like to start. Females specifically, start with 12, see how you feel. Hormones can fluctuate quite a bit. Males, we have a little bit better luck going longer. 16-hour fast due to the fact that we secrete growth at a higher rate. So play with the fasting if you'd like to, if nutrition's a focus and you want to lose 10% body fat. Second one that I have is more generic. And when I'm thinking lose 10% body fat, Zach and I both know this. We talked about this. To lose weight, you have to be in some form of caloric deficits. Now, there's signs out about what kind of deficit that has to be based off of how much weight you want to lose, you can quantify that deficit however you'd like. But in order to increase caloric expenditure, one of the number one things you need to do is increase movement. So the second thing that I thought of here, when you're thinking, okay, I want to lose 10% body fat, what do I need to do? Move more than you did yesterday. Or move more than you do now. And I'm not putting a, hey, you need to exercise three days a week, or hey, you need to exercise five days a week, or hey, you even need to exercise. It's can you incorporate movement in your life that you enjoy that's sustainable? Because if you want to lose weight, you have to be in some form of caloric deficit. And that's kind of what we're after with this second bullet point. Zach, anything on move a little bit more than you did the previous week or day?

SPEAKER_00

Are you okay if I go off on a tiny little tangent?

SPEAKER_01

Go for it.

SPEAKER_00

When I first started healthy as wellness, I struggled with the avoidance of it it it almost felt like the word calorie was a bad word at healthy as wellness. But the longer I worked here, the more I realized that it's just a roundabout way to get there. It's probably even healthier, in my opinion, now that I know the system, the program so well. You're still putting yourself in a caloric deficit. You're just not focusing on that caloric deficit. A lot of our challenges that ri that are in regards to nutrition, I think the behind the scenes goal of them when it comes to weight loss are to put you in a caloric deficit.

SPEAKER_03

I'm happy that you add it when it comes to weight loss.

SPEAKER_00

When it comes to weight loss. I don't think all of them do. Like eat more protein. But but I mean, like literally, just real quick, names challenges. So, like protein, you eat more protein, you're more satiated, you eat less calories. So hit me with another one.

SPEAKER_02

No sugar, flour for breakfast.

SPEAKER_00

If you eat sugar, no sugar or flour for breakfast, you're more satiated in the morning because you prioritize protein, which means you snacked less, which means you ate less calories. Exactly. What else?

SPEAKER_02

Uh, what do you want? You want less sugar as a same thing, same concept. Explanatory TRX.

SPEAKER_00

Fiber makes you feel more satiated, fills your gut, helps you put. Yep. Eating your water fills your gut. Like in that essence, it helps you not eat so much food. Like, I think it's healthy to not prioritize focusing on a number, but I do think it our challenges coincide with the laws of thermodynamics, which for the mass majority of the population is how you lose weight as a chloride episode. I think we can agree on that. But that doesn't necessarily mean that's what people need to focus on. So I think that's that's one of the things that I love about Healthy Is that I really struggled with from the start, and that I learned that's how I learned that because the way I lost the weight, right? It's just like hiring an athletic trainer we talked about in the past episode. They think their way is the way. And I thought my way was the way, but working with Healthy Is opened my eyes that oh my gosh, you can still make these changes by coming at it from a different road.

SPEAKER_02

So that we're only one way to skin care.

SPEAKER_00

That's right.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And I think the other thing that's super interesting, and this science shows this, but your body on a 24-hour cycle is either anabolic or it's catabolic. Anabolic means building up. So your body is either building or it's breaking down. Breaking down is defined by catabolic. What dictates that? Caloric expenditure versus caloric intake. So, for example, when we see clients on a monthly basis, and if they come in and see me and their muscle went up and their body fat went down, that tells me that they were in anabolic settings or scenarios for certain days and catabolic scenarios for other days. Because it's almost impossible to gain muscle mass and lose body fat in the same day. It's a reason that bodybuilders have bulking and cutting phases.

SPEAKER_00

Recomposition is hard.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. It's very difficult to do at the same time.

SPEAKER_00

It is more common for people that are just come just starting. Yes. So that's important to take advantage of if you haven't done anything with your weight for a long time, and you start hitting the gym and cutting the calories in whatever way you decide to do that, you will oftentimes reach that recomposition phase, but you will reach that ever so spoken of thing called the plateau. So take advantage of that uh recon phase.

SPEAKER_02

Smoke them if you got them. That's at the beginning stages of any any form of journey, whether it's not necessarily the beginning, but when you start. And then also the other thing that you can do with movement is novel stimulus. So, like for example, if I love lifting weights and I love lifting heavy, what I can do is I can switch to a performance or a mobility focus. That actually sends a novel stimulus to the body too that can help with the recop side of things. But what I was after with the movement side of things is if you are trying to lose weight, let's say I'm trying to get to 10% body fat and I'm at 20, I have to be in some form of catabolic state to allow my body to burn body fat if I'm trying to burn body fat. Now, if I'm trying to gain muscle, I want to be anabolic. And in that instance, you almost want to be in a caloric surplus. What we're talking about today is losing 10% body fat, specifically losing body fat. You got to be catabolic. So increasing movement allows the body to increase caloric expenditure, which in turn creates a higher deficit based off of what you're taking. So bullet point number two, movement. Bullet point number three, Zach mentioned it a little bit ago. My personal favorite thing in the whole wide world, the thing that's on my shirt. Some people call it protein, other people call it protein. Protein intake is one of the biggest fundamental things that you can do if your goal is to decrease body fat. Zach mentioned it a second ago. Protein is the most satiety-producing macronutrient, meaning protein makes you feel the most full, very similar to fiber. Protein's gonna fill you up and make you feel like you have the food that you need to be able to get through the day. The other thing that protein does is it's the basic building blocks for muscle mass within the body. It tells your body that you are trying to build muscle or maintain muscle, and it's just the basis of the basis of strength production, the basis of recovery, the basis of blood. Sugar regulation, protein is huge. So, bullet point number three, prioritize protein. We have different hacks that we'll talk about here in a second, but know that the way that you prioritize protein, similar to the movement thing, prioritize it more than you did yesterday. Prioritize it more than you did the week before because it's gonna be extremely important for maintaining muscle mass. If you're trying to lose 10% body fat and specifically focused on body fat loss, it's gonna help to maintain that muscle mass and also create that caloric deficit. I'm gonna talk about kind of some simple protein steps, but what do you got on protein? Kind of broad picture.

SPEAKER_00

1% better every day.

SPEAKER_02

Love it. Simple, easy peasy. The three little rules that we like to talk to people about. Can you eat your protein first? When you sit down for any meal, I do not care if it is pizza and breadsticks. Can you eat your protein first? Or maybe it's wings, pizza, and breadsticks. Maybe eat the wings with the pizza and the breadsticks. But eating protein first allows the body to create satiety. It allows you to feel a little bit fuller, and it also gets you that protein so that you know you're getting it. Whereas if you eat all the things together, you might not eat as much of the protein. So one rule that you could play with is can you eat your protein first? Second rule, we talked about this in the past, 20 to 30 grams of protein with your first meal of the day. Can you start your day protein heavy? Front loading protein makes it a little bit easier to get that overall goal for the whole day. And it also causes satiation and fullness to start the day and sends the body a muscle building signal right off the bat. So, goal number two, can you eat 20 to 30 grams of protein with that first meal? And then the third goal, which is the most difficult, by far the most difficult, can you eat one gram of protein per pound of goal body weight? This is a hard one and it's extremely difficult to achieve. I've been trying to do this in my own life, trying to get to 200 grams of protein. And one of the things that I've noticed is that if you actually get there, you almost don't have room for anything else because you're so dang full. So that's that third focus. Can you get one gram per pound of goal body weight? Big thing to keep in mind there is goal. Whatever you're shooting for. What's your goal? Shoot for that in grams. This comes back to that idea and that thing that we talked about with the time restricted feeding concept of whether it's you should track or you shouldn't track. It's dependent on the person. But sometimes just having a number in your head of like, okay, if I'm shooting for 200, I know that this chicken sandwich has 15, these eggs have six, I need to get X amount of this, X amount of that. Just having the goal in your mind can be helpful for some. Other people want to actually track it and see where they're at. But the big thing here, prioritize protein, emphasize it in your life. It's great for maintaining muscle and burning body fat in turn.

SPEAKER_00

Got anything to add on protein or I think the only thing I want to add to this is uh whole foods first, but don't be afraid of protein shakes and supplements. Yeah. I think if if you that's your goal, like we're talking about, and you need to drink a premier protein or a fair life, and do what you gotta do. For a lot of people, 200 grams of protein is a lot.

SPEAKER_03

It is a lot, man. It's a ton.

SPEAKER_02

I even eat a lot of wild game and all that good stuff, and it's still a lot to get. So key, three key things. If you're looking to lose 10% body fat, play with these three. Number one, time restrictive feeding concepts. Number two, move more than you did previously. Whatever you like to do. You have a no basis and no, you can do whatever you'd like to. And number three, prioritize protein, whether that's breakfast, quantity, eating it first, try to get your protein in, take on those three habits, and I almost guarantee you that your body fat percent will start to drop over time. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We appreciate you so much. Give us likes, follow us on social media, and feel free to leave reviews and let us know what you'd like to see from us. Thanks so much for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_02

Give us lights.