The Protein Guilt
TT + ESE = The Perfect Fat Burning Combo. In part 2 Brad explained the proper way to use his program to make intermittent fasting it work for you.
Today we he share his thoughts on how we should look at consuming protein.
Click here to listen to the call.
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Craig: Right. So going back to how you got into all this, you did a lot of experiments. Are you doing any experiments right now?
Brad: Two actually at the same time. I have just about completed six weeks off from both fasting and exercising. If you know me, this is something that I haven’t done since I was 14 years old, barring being forced to do it by injury. So this was an elective. I’m just taking some time off to just sort of recoup.
I can tell you it’s not an enjoyable process. So it’s always good to assess your relationship with your fitness program and what I’ve found was that I was getting a little too obsessive about it and then I needed to kind of step back. I also wanted to make sure, and this is kind of weird, but off and online I get accused of just having really good genetics and if you know me you know that’s not the case because then you do pre-fasting—
Craig: Well, I’ve seen your face, I know your—
Brad: Yeah, I can tell you that after six weeks off—
Craig: Because your parents are both very good-looking.
Brad: I don’t know what happened to me. I hide it with a beard. But I can tell you that after six weeks off, the waistline is less visually appealing so there’s no good genetics there. It was my commitment to once or twice a week fasting, to my eating normally, and it’s now in the workout program, that made me look the way I do.
So now I’m even more eager than ever to kind of get back into but getting into it, make sure I have a good sense of balance while I do it.
So an odd experiment to do but a good one for people who’ve been in this industry for a long time or into fitness for a long time. Every once in a while, I’ll be like I’m going to take some time off. Especially I’m in Prince Edward Island right now with the family so I’m on vacation so I thought it would be sort of a good way to slide that in, just a complete total reset.
Craig: So what’s the bottom line here? How do you feel?
Brad: I’m itching to get back in the gym, my friend. I want some weight in my hands. It got to the point where the workouts were a little monotonous and now I’m just craving it, which is a good feeling. And then I’m also ready to go back into dieting, not extremely, because I’ve enjoyed this but I know now what maintenance calories is for me again.
Not that I’ve forgotten but it’s always good to reassess. So I’m maintaining my weight currently so I know for sure at this level of eating, which is quite a pleasant level, that I will add in one or two fasts a week and I will get right back down to the look I normally have.
Craig: So how much do you think you changed your body?
Brad: I’m not, and if you know me, I’m normally about 175 pounds, maybe 172 in my photo shoots, 173, I’m not above 180. I’m probably about 177, 178 right now. So it reassured me that I was not feasting or binging after my fast and was just using the fast to kind of regulate. But at the same time, it made me realize that I wasn’t too far off so I’m eating pretty much exactly the amount I should be eating if I were also fasting, to maintain my weight.
So a couple of fasts thrown in and then I’ll loosen up on the fast, maybe do one every five or six days at this level of eating, and I’ll be right back to where I’d like to be. So it’s just a good kind of reset to make sure that I’m not using the fasting as a crutch.
Craig: Okay. Great. One thing you mentioned before about the person who just eats lunch with their colleagues and then goes home and doesn’t have dinner, you mentioned yeah, you get in the car, you go home. One of the things you mentioned way back in one of our diet versus exercise videos is a lot of people eat in their car and that’s one of the rules that you have, it’s just that you don’t eat in the car and I thought that was a great rule.
I think another thing you talked about that nobody else has ever talked about before is protein guilt. So first of all, explain protein guilt. Second of all, explain how not eating in your car can be a big benefit. Then also tell us if you have any other of these kinds of unique little rules and tips for people.
Brad: Yes, absolutely. So protein guilt is something very unique to people in the fitness industry. I’m sure as everybody on this call is aware every once in a while, you’re going to want to eat a bit more, obviously. So that internal battle goes on where you try to justify the extra calories and for guys and girls that justification always comes in the form of, “You know what? I’m going to feed the muscle. I’m going to go just fuel up. I need a giant recovery meal.”
You usually base it around proteins, right? You feel that you haven’t had proteins or even though you’re fairly confident the research showing that a little bit of extra protein is definitely good for building muscle, massive amounts of quantities don’t speed that up. You tend to kind of forget and go, “No, maybe an extra 200 grams of protein combined with some sweet potato combined with a dessert, I need this. I need to build muscle.
I need to get that protein in. Even if that protein comes with a lot of extra calories I didn’t really need, I need it.”
So the protein, the guilt of not eating enough tends to drive overeating in a lot of people. So to be comfortable with the amount of protein, to realize it’s a range. Muscle grows very slowly so I know I’m aiming for 120 grams a day or whatever this case maybe, and if I make it 100, it doesn’t mean you should overshoot it by 80. It just means that on a rolling average, are you still getting roughly 120 grams?
But for a lot of us, protein seems to be a driving factor. So constantly, “It’s good for you. It’s good for you. It builds the muscle. It builds the muscle.” We kind of forget hey it also contains calories. You’re never going to eat a straight protein source unless it’s a supplement so it tends to lead to a little bit of overeating. You feel guilty for not having enough protein and then you have some protein and all of a sudden you’re overeating by about 500 or 600 calories. So it’s something to watch for, when that guilt of not getting enough protein leaks into the justification for overeating.
Another one that is very common, especially in the fitness circles, is the inability to enjoy the food you like. What happens here is something called disinhibited eating where you’ve been trying to be really, really good with your diet and then you get one of your breaks and you say, “Okay, I’m going to take a break here.” You get there and you’re planning on just watching your kids at play and then all of a sudden you don’t know what happened but aliens took over your body. They ordered a double scoop of mint chocolate and you’re eating it.
For a lot of people, just having that one ice cream is like the “Oh, I blew it. I messed up so bad. I’m just going to go. Let’s go. We’re going to across the street to the grocery store. We’re going to get some brownies.
We’re going to get some doughnuts, get some ice cream because daddy blew it.” You get into that mentality of for some reason just having an extra 200 calories of ice cream, maybe something off your plan, leads to the effectively the end of your diet. It takes two or three days to recover from that before you kind of gear up and get right and start dieting again when really what you should have done is gone like, “Oh, I had ice cream today. So tomorrow I’m going to probably not going to have it.”
But there’s this weird thing called disinhibited eating that tends to drive people to overeat. Something to watch for there is if you have something off your plan, just accept that you had something off your plan. It doesn’t mean that you have to sell the farm. It’s not like everything’s over. You just move on with yourself but a lot of people have problems doing that so it’s something important to watch for.
In terms of tips—
Craig: What was that word you called it? Dis-what eating?
Brad: Disinhibited eating. So it’s something to really watch for and it’s something that will happen to a lot of people in the certain stage when they start labelling certain foods as bad. “I’m not having ice cream over the next 12 weeks.” Then you have some ice cream and you’re like, “I blew it. Now I’m going to have a tub of ice cream and some pizza, etc.” So it’s something to watch for, that feeling of because you messed up a little bit therefore it’s over and you should binge for a day or two then get back at it. We have our ways where it’s sabotaging the life, they will do it themselves.
Craig: Hey, do you remember that time when we went to get ice cream and my dog broke off the leash and went into the hamburger place?
Brad: And got an actual bowl full of hamburger, yeah. He knew where he was going. There was not a moment of doubt. He smelled it; he was gone. That was fantastic and yet he still has abs. Go figure.
Craig: He still does have abs. He’s eight years old. So you were going to mention, I think, was there one more thing you were going to mention or was that it for the sneaky healthy ways that people sabotage their results?
Brad: That’s the main one. I mean in terms of that, it’s just what you have to watch for is that if you do break your diet plan, the worst sabotage comes right after that point when you have a choice to make. You’re like, “Okay, I stopped for gas and for some reason I got peanut butter cups. All right, that’s the end of it, then back on.”
You have to think like that as opposed to, “Oh, I’m so weak. I had peanut butter cups. I’ve been horrible at dieting. I’m just going to go home. It’s over.” “I had some ice cream. I blew it.”
That’s that weird thinking people had and that’s the number one thing. If you can avoid that, if you can simply let it be, you had some peanut butter cups, you’re going to be a lot better off at controlling and staying on your diet.
Craig: Okay, that’s great advice, Brad. I appreciate that. All right, I think it’s a really great call and we could talk about this forever but we both have things to get to. You have holidays to get back on to. I have a dog here to walk, not near any hamburger shops, but somewhere safe. So thanks for being on the call, man. I’m really looking forward to this.
Brad: No worries.
Craig:Where can people get the newest version of Eat. Stop. Eat.?
Brad: Newest version replaces the old version July 17th, that week, and the minute that switches over it’ll be up on the website. It will be the new expanded edition and you’ll be good to go.
Craig: At EatStopEat.com?
Brad: EatStopEat.com, absolutely.
Craig: Perfect. Thanks so much, Brad. And anybody who has an old version will get the updated version, right?
Brad: It’s been that way since the beginning.
Craig: All right, dude. That is fantastic. So thanks so much. Say hi to the family for me and we will talk to you soon. Again, thank you everybody for listening. This is Craig Ballantyne from TurbulenceTraining.com. Goodbye everyone.
Looking forward to your success,
Craig Ballantyne, CTT
Certified Turbulence Trainer