If Calories Matter Then Why Can’t Some People Lose Weight

Stuck trying to lose the last 10 pounds while doing “all the right things”? We get why that feels maddening, and we also know it’s not always a willpower problem. We break down fasting without the hype and clear up the confusion between time-restricted eating (TRE) and intermittent fasting (IF), two approaches people lump together even though they work differently in real life.

We walk through the simplest way to think about fat loss: your body is either in storage mode or in usage mode. When you’re eating all day, your system keeps storing fuel. When you create a real break from food, your body finally has room to switch into using stored energy. From there, we dig into the hormone that shapes the whole process: insulin. We explain insulin like a switch that can block access to fat stores when it’s high and make fat burning easier when it’s low, which matters even more if you’re dealing with insulin resistance or diabetes.

Then we get practical. TRE often wins on consistency because it’s a routine you can repeat, while IF can push deeper into a fat-burning state but may be tougher to stick with. We share simple ways to set an eating window, reduce constant snacking, and keep the plan easy enough to follow for weeks, not days. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s stuck, and leave a review. What eating window would you realistically commit to this week?

We’re a father-son coaching team behind Time Under Tension PT, and this podcast is built for men 30+ who used to be in great shape but now struggle with low energy, weight gain, and inconsistent habits due to work and life demands.

Resources:

Book a call // Book a call for more info about our 1-on-1 fat loss coaching.

4-Step Fat Loss Starter Guide // A simple starter guide.

Transcript

Fasting And The Last 10 Pounds

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Alright, so today we're talking about something that a lot of people hear about, and that's uh fasting. So if you are trying to drop like those last 10 pounds and you're stuck, this is something maybe you might want to consider. So, but I there's things when you hear fasting, there's sometimes some confusion about this.

Time-Restricted Eating Vs Fasting

SPEAKER_01 0:21

And so when people hear intermittent fasting and like time-restricted eating, they think they're the same thing. But uh the reality is they're not, and they both can be effective, but I think one might be a little bit easier than the other. So today we're going to break it down super, super simple, and explain both and just how they can help with fat loss. So I'm gonna kind of turn this over to Vin real quick. And so if you would, Vin just talk about like what is the difference between we'll call it TRE, time restricted eating, or intermittent fasting, just so people understand that there's a difference.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Sure. Yeah, so basically, time restricted eating is just you eat at the same time every single day. So there's a it's a it's a window. So let's say, for example, you eat between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. And outside of that you just don't eat. That's it. That's time restricted. So more like just a routine, right? Okay, cool. Intermittent fasting is a little bit different. So it means that you have longer periods where you don't eat. So that means maybe skipping a meal or even going a full day without eating at all. So it's a little bit different in the sense that one's just a routine and one's like an active period of denying yourself food. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Mm-hmm. So I think and just for me, like I think people when they hear fasting, they think more of intermittent fasting and it scares the hell out of them. And I get that. I understand because this whole idea, first of all, it's foreign to a lot of people, and they think, well, what do you mean don't eat for an you know an entire day or or day and a half, 36 hours seems insane. And so I I get that. That's why I wanted to talk about the difference between the two of them because both both are effective in in fat loss. And you know, I actually, me personally, I I always kind of go back to the time restricted eating if I wanted to drop a couple pounds because it just helps me stay in that routine.

Storage Mode Vs Burn Mode

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Well, when you fast, some things actually happen at the cellular level as well. And so when you when you look at it, you can think of your body that it's kind of like it's in two separate modes, right, at any given time. So there's storage mode, where it takes the food that you eat and it's gonna store it for later. And then there's usage mode, right, which is when it's going to use the energy that you already have stored primarily as body fat, I think, in in a lot of cases, right? So this is kind of like you can you can think of it like as opposed to going to the grocery store and buying new food, you put a meal together from the leftovers that you have, things like that, right? So if you zoom in even more, inside of your body, you have these tiny parts, obviously called cells, and cells are like your little workers that help your body move move along, right? So their job is to take in the energy and to actually use it. But when you work all day long, those workers are always busy storing the food. But when you stop eating for a while, the cells are gonna switch jobs, they're gonna start burning stored energy instead, and that stored energy again is your body fat.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Okay, so that that makes actually a ton of sense.

Insulin As The Fat-Loss Switch

SPEAKER_01 3:16

So, and now that we've talked about the the the difference between the two, for me, I want to talk about what I think is the single most important hormone when it comes to fat loss, because you know, a lot of a lot of people you hear all the time of a calorie deficit, calorie deficit, but you also hear those stories, Vin, right? Of the person who says, you know, I'm eating a ton less, and uh no matter what I do, I still can't lose the weight. Like, they're not lying. A lot of times I think this gets misconstrued because people they kind of blame the oh, well, you're really not tracking your food. You're that that that is not necessarily true because there's another component, and this is really important. Like, everyone talks about the first law of thermodynamics, you know, energy can't be created nor destroyed, but just transferred from one place to another, right? And this is the whole principle behind this idea of you know uh calories in, calories out, right? And that's all you need to do to lose weight. But here's the problem the human body is not a physics experiment, it is actually a biology experiment. So they're so although that law does apply to weight loss, the reality is there are other components that can have an effect and and actually do. So, you know, again, insulin has a big play in this. And so I want you to think about insulin simply as a switch, right? When insulin is high, your body stores fat. And when insulin is low, your body burns fat. And it is, it's almost like you know those barricades on the road, you see them like they're there to stop you to go to one later or another. That's exactly the way it is. When insulin is present in the bloodstream, it's like having that barrier up. It will not, it will not go to your fat stores for energy. And until that bar that barrier is removed, you you're not gonna you're gonna, I don't care what your calorie deficit is. It's like so, well, the deficit, what that does is it removes basically the insulin because there's no more food, right? There's it's empty. So that's where that's kind of occurring. So if you're somebody who has insulin resistance or like diabetes, that's why it's so hard sometimes to lose weight because there's too much insulin still stuck there. So, so basically, you know, keep keep it in mind like this. When you're when your insulin, like for example, is high all day, and because you know, maybe you're you're doing a lot, you're eating constantly, right? So this is where this window thing comes in because it gives your it gives yourself a break, your body stays in that storage mode. And you know, this is another thing that I I want to talk about for just a second because I think it's really, really important. And I say this all all the time, is your body does not share your enthusiasm for weight loss. I mean, so it's like if your body could talk to you, and so you know, you're walking down the street and somebody's hey man, you look great, you know, like you lost some weight, and you're saying, Yeah, yeah, I lost a few pounds. I'm trying, I'm trying, you know, you're feeling pretty good about the fact that you're on a diet, you're losing some weight. And if you were to ask your body inside what they think about what's going on, they're in a panic. They're like, this is not good. What the hell's going on? I'm not so excited about this idea of using this fat. Because what happens if there's a famine? What are we gonna do? This this poor bastard's gonna die if we don't do something, right? So, so keep that in mind. So that's what I mean by this is more of a biology experiment because there are there are systems in place to make sure that that doesn't happen, that you don't die. So it's really, really, really important. All right, so and and again, so when you think about that, when you're you know, you when you have that excess insulin, your your body is in that you know storage mode, and this is where you know people they kind of get stuck. So, you know, here's something to think about. Like this is here here's how this really helps. So if you're gonna talk about the time restricted eating, what that does essentially is you got let's say just make it nine to five, just to make it simple, right? And if all you do is eat from nine to five, three meals, whatever it may be, and then you stop. That gives your body time to switch. Now it goes into that that burning mode, and it's got hours and hours to do it, right? And so insulin drops, and now all of a sudden now your body is free to actually do what it is intended to do, is grab energy from where else it can. So, anyway, so that that makes the I think the insulin piece of it hopefully easy to understand.

Choosing The Plan You’ll Follow

SPEAKER_01 7:45

And so, and for anybody out there who's actually, you know, wondering about this or is kind of nervous about this whole idea of fasting, you could just go right to the page where you're listening to the podcast and go ahead and drop, you know, a comment in our fan mail. You can actually text us too in some cases. So, you know, we'll be happy to answer any questions along the way. So, having said that, let's talk about then, let's kind of talk about how the each method actually helps fat loss.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Yeah, so basically, kind of to piggyback off of what he was just saying, right? So your time restricted eating is gonna help because of these few things, right? So you're one, gonna stop snacking all day, right? You're gonna give your body a break from insulin, which is what he was just talking about, right? And you're gonna create a simple routine that I think a lot of people find that it's easier to stick to a time-restricted eating routine, you know, in comparison to the intermittent fasting. Not that intermittent fasting doesn't have its place, right? Intermittent fasting is gonna give you a longer break from food, it's gonna drop your insulin even lower than it is, right? And it's gonna push your body deeper into that fat-burning phase because I think most people they treat intermittent fasting. Typically, there's there's a longer, clearer window that they're going to abstain from eating food altogether. So, you know, it I think with that it comes with a price of, I think for a lot of people, it's easier to it's I'm sorry, it's harder to follow an intermittent fasting routine rather than just kind of picking a window to eat. But yeah, I I that's definitely the trade-off. They're both effective, but I think that more people, wouldn't you say more people can benefit more, I think, from time restricted eating, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, that's why I do it. I mean, I've done the other thing too, where I've I've actually done a 36-hour fast, and it's it's it's a little daunting, but it's funny enough because once you get to a certain point after a certain amount of hours, i it the feeling of like, oh man, I'm really hungry, it just kind of goes away. And then it's like, okay, well, that was simple enough. And the thing uh the last thing I kind of want to say about the time restricted eating is like most people right now are pretty much doing it, it's just a matter of tightening up a little bit, and so it's it's not complicated to do it. You know, you just you just think about it like, okay, so whatever time you go to work in the morning, if you get up and you normally have breakfast, let's say at eight o'clock, there you go. You start at eight and you pick your window. Like in other words, I'm gonna do 10 hours. So I'm gonna do 10 hours of eating, 14 hours of rest. Okay, cool. So then you just go ahead and you go through your day, and then when you get to that point, hopefully somewhere's around time you're getting ready to leave for work, or either you're gonna eat on the way home, or you've brought something, it doesn't matter, or when you get home. So it's just about being a little bit more diligent and strict because the body does respond to the routine part of it. So that's something to actually, you know, consider. So this is something again, you don't want to really overcomplicate. You just really need

Questions, Fan Mail, And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_01 10:45

to pick the one that works best for you that you will stick with. And we talk about that all the time. So, you know, again, if you're someone who, you know, feels like you're always thinking about food, this is another thing that actually can really help. And this can be, you know, a great place to start. The most important part is that keeping this simple, you know, developing a routine if you're gonna do the time restricted eating, and you know, don't make it overly complicated. And so if uh if this kind of helped today and resonated with you, then you know, don't be afraid again, follow us on uh on all socials, really, at Time Under Tension PT. And also, you know, if again you got any questions, we'll be more than happy to answer. And uh go ahead and leave us a note in the fan mail section or again or a text. It's up to you. And we really do appreciate you listening. And so thanks, and we'll see you on the flip side in about a week.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Sounds good, guys. Thanks for listening.