Measure What Matters: Protein, Movement, And Weekly Trends

Ready to make your numbers work for you instead of against you? We break down a practical system for eating better, training smarter, and losing weight without obsession by focusing on Total Energy Expenditure, protein-first meals, and simple tracking habits that fit real life. From weekly wins to a listener shoutout for Robert in Chester, South Carolina, this conversation blends relatable stories with tactics you can use today.

We start by demystifying TEE—your baseline burn plus daily movement plus workouts—and show how to pressure test an online estimate over 10 to 14 days. You’ll learn how to read weekly weight trends, ignore single-day spikes, and pivot when energy or performance tanks. Then we lock in the single most important macro: protein. Aim for about one gram per pound of goal body weight, especially on training days, and use reliable anchors like Greek yogurt, eggs, chicken or fish, and ready-to-drink shakes that pass the lean-source test.

Tracking should be lightweight. Use minimum viable tracking on busy weeks, spot-check protein and plants, and watch the sneaky extras—sauces, dressings, syrups, and fancy coffee drinks—that quietly erase your deficit. We share road-friendly meal combos and a car kit strategy so the grocery store beats the drive-thru. You’ll also get a clear reset plan for “cheat” moments: hydrate, hit protein at the next meal, add plants, take a walk, and get back to normal the same day. To keep things simple, we end with two weekly targets: daily protein grams and 150 minutes of activity from walks and lifting. When those are steady, everything else falls in line.

If you’re ready to trade food guilt for progress you can measure, hit play, set your protein goal, and join us for the weekly challenge. Subscribe, rate, and share the show, and tell us: what’s your protein target this week?

Transcript

Framing The Nutrition Approach

Don 0:00

Real quick, neither one of us is a nutritionist.

John 0:04

Yeah, this is just what's worked for us and our clients. If you've got medical stuff, talk to a pro.

Don 0:15

Ever say it's just two Oreos, and then wonder why your progress has stalled?

John 0:20

Today we're using numbers to teach, not punish, so your protein first plant actually moves the needle.

Don 0:26

Hi, I'm Don. Numbers curious, not numbers controlled. I go hard with the app and tracking when I'm cutting and you know, glider the rest of the time.

Weekly Wins And Listener Shoutouts

John 0:35

And I'm John, and this is Nutrition Part 2. Simple numbers, protein first, zero obsession.

Don 0:44

John, let's talk about our weekly wins. I'll let you lead this time.

John 0:49

Okay. So I actually got this from one of my clients that I've been doing personal training with. I've been doing a lot of lighter weights with reps and trying to just make myself stronger. So this guy was like, hey, I need, I want to build up. And I was like, well, the way to build up is we've talked about this before, Donovan, because you were one of my training clients. When we're trying to build, what do we do? We increase the weights. And and decrease the reps. Correct. So I before I was trying to become stronger and not so bulky. So I was doing lighter weight and lots of reps. And now I'm trying to get a little bit stronger. So I've increased my weight and doing three sets, but like eight, six, four with heavier weights. And let me tell you, I'm a little sore.

Don 1:42

Well, that's good. I guess soreness is good. It sometimes it is in the in the right proportion, right? Let me tell you about my my weekly win. I actually started running again. I kind of have kind of backed off with that because my arm's been in the splint and was kind of afraid of it. But now I've I I ran a half mile. Good for you. Yeah. I'm excited.

John 2:05

And you're you're you're back on the wagon. Back on the wagon, as as they say. But you're polling the wagon this time. That's great. I am. Hey, Don, because we talked about romper room in last nutrition segment when the girl Judy got on there and said hi to all of her followers. I'd like to do a shout out to Robert, who comes from us from Chester, South Carolina. Last episode, we talked about Frank and Jill in Lincoln, Nebraska. I want people to find Chester on a map. Okay. It's kind of like where's Waldo? That's what we're going to start doing now in this wins of the week when we're talking about members who are following us.

Don 2:42

We're offering free geography lessons.

John 2:44

Yeah, find Chester, South Carolina on a map, and then you'll find Robert there.

Don 2:49

So so I got a question for you, John. Yes. Have you found Kilimanjaro on the map yet?

John 2:53

It's in Tito. Tito. Tito? Toto? Toto. Toto. Right? Toto sang the song. It's in Africa.

Don 3:03

It's in Africa. I knew that. Yes. Yeah.

John 3:05

Okay. I put it all together. And if you don't know what we're talking about, go back and listen to every episode up to this one and you'll you'll understand. But Robert in Chester, South Carolina, wanted to say how much he's getting listening to these podcasts, talking about going into the gym for the first time, feeling that awkward moment, worried about people looking at him. So, and he's actually starting to really increase his workouts. And he wants to thank you and I for helping him do that. So, Robert, we appreciate you. We appreciate your feedback. And I've never been to Chester, South Carolina, but I need to go there.

Why TEE Matters And How To Test It

Don 3:46

Yeah. Robert, we really appreciate it. Good luck to you. And we're we're uh rooting for you here. Absolutely. And if you have a comment or a question that you'd like to put forward to us, if you'll look in our show show notes, there's a get in touch with us. You can send us a quick note. We'd love to hear from you. And any suggestion that you make on a future episode or something that you'd like to hear about, we'd love to hear that. And also don't forget to rate us on the your podcatcher of choice. That's how other people can help. That's how you can help other people find us and help grow this audience and make this a real community of like-minded individual individuals moving the needle forward one step at a time. John, let's get back to our nutrition episode part two. Remember, in part one, we talked about being protein forward. In this episode, we're going to talk about using numbers that make sense. Let's talk about TEE. We teased it in the last episode. TEE stands for total energy expenditure. But what does that really mean, John? So a quick refresher.

John 4:56

You total burn, TEE is your base burn or your BMR, plus your daily movement, plus your workouts.

Don 5:04

You can find a great TEE estimator online, and it's a great place to start. It's real simple. It takes you just a couple of minutes. You're entering your age, your gender, your starting weight, and your activity level. And it's going to give you a great base number to start. Start with that number, pressure test it for 10 to 14 days.

John 5:27

How to test it, right? Track a weekly average on the scale. Ignore the single-day spikes. Amen. Donovan. Do we need to talk about that? Nope. Do we need to just keep move on? Let's move on. Move on. I ignore them. All right. Note your energy and your appetite and how the training is making you feel. If weight trends up and you don't want that, you're probably above your TEE. If energy tanks fast, you're likely too far below.

Protein Targets And High-Quality Sources

Don 5:55

And you'll know very quickly. Going back to those protein targets, what's our fast rule of thumb there, John?

John 6:02

So keep it simple and protein forward. Aim for about one gram per pound of goal body weight. Does that make sense, Donovan?

Don 6:12

It does. So I'm looking for a gram per pound of goal body weight. So if I want to be 200 pounds, I'm looking for about 200 grams of protein.

John 6:24

On your training day. Yeah. Yeah. On your days that you're training.

Don 6:28

So here's the translation. Hit that protein at two to three meals. On training days, go ahead and add a protein forward snack. Some easy anchors that we've already talked about, and you know, Greek yogurt, 170 to 200 grams. And it'll give you about 17 to 20 grams of protein. Two eggs, you're getting about 13 grams of protein there. Chicken or fish, 33 to 55 grams of protein. A ready-to-drink protein shake, check that label, but they're typically anywhere from 20 to 30 grams of protein. And remember, John, if we have a 20 gram protein shake, in order for that to be a good source of protein for us, how many calories do we need that to stay under?

John 7:14

You ready? I'm ready. I hope my math teacher and my algebra teacher back in Waverly is listening. You add a zero, 200.

Don 7:23

That's right, John. For that protein shake that's 20 grams of protein, we need that protein shake to be less than 200 total calories. Otherwise, it's not a good source of protein for us. We're also wanting you to be in a healthy calorie deficit. What works for me and what works for a lot of people is being three to 500 calories per day below your TEE. That's usually, you know, about a half to one pound a week for most folks. You're looking, if you're doing 500 calorie deficit seven days a week, that's 3,500 calories. And 3,500 calories is roughly about a pound.

John 8:02

You know, I think that's really good information because I have a lot of people that we we do their check-ins two or three times a week before we go into our workouts. And they and they say, like, what? I want to lose five pounds this week. And you just said you just said half a pound.

Healthy Deficits And Realistic Fat Loss

Don 8:18

Yeah, it's not it's not healthy. A healthy weight loss is about one and a half to two pounds.

John 8:26

Right. And people people freak out. I don't want, I don't want our listeners to go, well, wait a minute. I want to, I want to lose all this. I want to lose 10 pounds a month. I'm like, it's not good for you. It's not good.

Don 8:38

It's pushing it. That's really pushing it.

John 8:40

All right. So guard rails so you don't crash. Keep your protein high to protect your muscles. Amen. Okay. Keep lifting and moving, making progress with your reps and your sets. Uh, and if if you're using light weights, remember we talked about that, lightweights, more reps. So make sure you don't crash.

Don 9:00

If your energy performance tanks, you're probably way below your TEE. You need to add in another 100 or 150 calories and then reassess for that week. Big picture the weekly pattern beats one perfect day or one bad day. Look at that pattern for that week.

John 9:20

That's right. What about that banana split?

Don 9:23

That was just a bad, bad decision.

John 9:25

Well, I don't know if it's a bad decision. I'm like, don't beat, we just talked about don't beat yourself up.

Don 9:30

And I I didn't. I I I just made adjustments for Correct.

John 9:34

And we all do that. We all do that.

Don 9:36

So, John, one of the things that I do is, and you you've given me a hard time about this, but I weigh in daily, I weigh every single day. I like seeing that scale and making sure what my average is. But one number doesn't change what I'm doing. I want to be able to look at that seven-day average. Am I trending lower? Am I trending higher? Or am I flat? Depending on what my goal for the week is, then I make that assist that decision for the following week.

Guardrails: Lifting, Energy, And Adjustments

John 10:07

Yeah, I'm I'm I have to kudos to that. We're just, you know, been in a in a funk over here at my house where we've been eating maybe not as healthy as we should be. So I've been seeing my my number go up on the scale. So just like you, I've been starting to one handful of protein, six to eight ounces, right? Two palms. Two palms. And then two, is it two handfuls of lettuce? You're you're looking at two handfuls of lettuce with the and then I'm putting the chip rotisserie chicken that I'm getting, and I'm putting that on there. So we've been I've been trying to cut back. Does that make sense? Yep. Because I've been watching the scale go up, and I I haven't been beating myself up because of the chocolate chip cookies. Yep. So you're over your TEE. Yep. And so now when I go to the gym, I'm like, all right, listen, buddy, you got to go a little bit harder, a little bit further, and a little bit more because you've been eating more.

Don 11:05

That's right.

John 11:06

So I got to adjust. That's right. And this is what you're talking about today is adjusting your diet and your work TEE workout. That's right.

Don 11:13

And there are a lot of great apps out there that you can use to track your daily intake. What's really awesome is most of these apps will let you scan a barcode and it automatically adds all of your calories and your macros in. So it makes it very, very simple. There's even some where you could take a picture of a meal and it'll guesstimate what the total calorie for count for that meal is. I'm loving AI. It's great. It's great. So my app rules is when I'm cutting, I'm logging every single thing that goes into my mouth. The rest of the time, when I'm just kind of maybe on a vacation mode, I'm just doing some spot checks. I'm making sure that I'm hitting my protein at all my meals. I'm looking at my portion sizes, and I'm watching those sneaky extras. Man, those sauces will are a killer when it comes to if you're watching your calories.

John 12:08

You know, and when you're talking about sauces, I don't mean to interrupt you there, but it goes for salad dressings.

Don 12:14

Oh, salad dressings are are are are big type syrups like on pancakes and waffles.

Daily Weigh-Ins, Trends, And Portions

John 12:19

Yeah. All that kind of stuff. I'm not cutting those. Okay. Well, you make choices and then you gotta up your you know, cardio, whatever. That's right. I make that's fine.

Don 12:28

I make I make a choice and then I have to live with that and make the adjustments in the rest of my life. Absolutely. But the the key here is I don't punish log after a treat. You know, I had that banana split, but guess what? I just noted it, moved on, and adjusted and just got back on the wagon for my next meal.

John 12:47

Amen. Keep going, keep going. You're doing great.

Don 12:50

So minimum viable tracking. That's all we're asking here.

John 12:54

If life's busy, keep it to three quick checks, five minute stops. All right. So protein at lunch? Yes or no? Yeah. Did you what how much did you have? A veggie, fruit, handfuls, how many total today? And one discretionary dessert or alcohol or fancy coffee. Just write it down. No judgment, banana split boy.

Don 13:17

That's right. And think about when you're tracking, you're you're putting training wheels on your diet. It's helping you stay on the straight and narrow, but you're still moving forward. So, you know, we talked about in the previous episode about packing a lunch or having those car ready staples because I'm in my car constantly.

John 13:41

Yeah. So you gotta decide what you're gonna have before you're hungry, right? So don't be starving and then just reach for the lay's potato chips, right? So grab a protein, a veggie, one carb, keep it simple.

App Tracking Rules And Sneaky Extras

Don 13:57

And you made a great point. Oh, wait a minute. I made a good point. You did. Going into that grocery store instead of instead of the 7-Eleven is a huge game win.

John 14:09

Yeah, I had I had to do that because I was getting hooked on French. Well, French fries and the the hamburger and it's just so convenient. And then I just felt yucky. Yep. And I was like, you know what? This is wasted calories and no and no good energy.

Don 14:26

And no good energy. That's exactly right.

John 14:28

No good fuel.

Don 14:29

Let's talk about some road-friendly combos that that just work. You know, that tuna pouch, some crackers, and some baby carrots. These are all stuff, all items that you can keep in your car. Greek yogurt, banana, and some small quarter cup of almonds. Rotisserie chicken. I love that rotisserie chicken, and a bag of salad, a little bit of salad dressing, and you're good to go. Ready to drink protein shake, and piece of fruit.

John 14:59

And and stock a small cooler and dry tote in the car, two proteins, two plants, one carb, and you can eat it cold or microwave.

Don 15:09

That saves me from having that drive-thru made me do it spiral because I have something I can grab and go to right then. Let's talk about a cheat day versus a cheat habit. This is my rule. One cheat day is okay. Three, that's a problem. You want to zoom out to the week, not just the moment. How are you doing on a on that weekly view? Quick reset after you have a more calorie-dense meal. Make sure you're hydrating. Hit protein at your next meal, add plants, go for a walk, increase that cardio a little bit, then get back to normal. Don't wait until the next Monday to start.

John 15:51

Yeah, the Monday blahs. You know, Monday, make every day a win. I want to talk about the hydrate thing again. I really took off of last episode about drinking water when I wake up in the morning.

Don 16:05

Yep. How's that going for you?

John 16:07

What what a winner. What a win. I mean, I was like, well, I I actually wake up. I wake up more with the water than I did with the coffee.

Don 16:18

It's kind of nice. Now now coffee seems to be more of an addiction. Yeah.

Road-Ready Meals And Smarter Choices

John 16:22

Yeah. I feel like this is this is how plants feel when you give them a little drink of water, you know. I felt like a plant. I'm like, I'm drinking this water. I'm like, my my eyes wake up. It's it's a win. It's a win. So one water in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one midday, it's helping curb a lot of different things. So thank you for that, Donovan.

Don 16:45

You're welcome, John. Thank you. John, what's our tip of the week?

John 16:50

Two simple targets for the week: protein grams and activity minutes. Ignore the rest. So, example, protein, 130 grams a day. Activity, 150 minutes a week. Walks plus lifting go hand in hand.

Don 17:06

When those two are steady, everything else seems to fall in line for me. So let's give our listeners a challenge for this week. It's real simple and it's very doable. Two steps this week. Pick a protein target and hit it for five days. Two to three protein forward meals plus one protein snack on your training days. Choose your way in cadence. Is it going to be daily like me? Or are you going to be a lot smarter about it and not obsessive and do it one to three times a week? You only want to make your judgment and make your decisions based on your weekly average. Never that single day.

John 17:44

All right. So next up, recovery that moves you forward. Sleep, stress, soreness, which I talked about today because I'm doing heavier weights. Yes. And how to tweak training when life gets loud.

Don 17:58

I'm really looking forward to this episode because sleep is a big miss for me. We'll hand you a simple checklist so you can keep stacking wins without burning out. Because remember that every ramp counts, and so does every step you take toward a better you.

Cheat Day Versus Cheat Habit

John 18:13

And yes, wipe your bench, even if your bench is the driver's seat. Wow. Do you need a drink? No, I need to stop drinking. We need to start drinking. This coffee we're too caffeine high. I know we're working really hard on this podcast, but we gotta come up with some better outtakes.

Don 18:36

Yeah, I know I know. But we don't want them to be canned.

John 18:41

Right, right. Alright, we gotta come up with maybe start saying dad jokes.

Don 18:46

You know, you're an American when you walk into a bathroom. Do you know what nationality you are while you're in there?

John 18:55

Yes, I do actually. I know this one because I'm a dad.

Don 18:57

Yeah.

John 18:58

You're European! Yeah Jesus.