Episode 1 - Fat Loss 101

This is the first episode of the Dayfall Fitness Podcast. The host explains that the podcast will be raw and unedited, and that the key to weight loss is being in a calorie deficit. They discuss the components of total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), including basal metabolic rate (BMR), non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), thermic effect of food (TEF), and exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT). NEAT is emphasized as the most impactful factor for creating a calorie deficit. Tracking calories is recommended to ensure a deficit, and an online calculator can help determine TDEE and calorie goals. The host also offers assistance with calculating calorie goals. Hello and welcome to episode 1 of the Dayfall Fitness Podcast. So as I briefly touched on in my intro episode, this is the first time I'm doing anything like this. It's my first solo podcast. It's not going to be perfect. I'm not going to claim to be perfect, but you know we'll hopefully have some fun along the way. So I said that I'm going to be raw-dogging it. Do not look up the Urban Dictionary definition for that, but basically what it will mean in terms of this podcast will be this is a one-take show. It's literally me speaking into a microphone. There's going to be no fancy edits, no fancy theme tune or anything like that. It's just going to... let's just see how we go. I'm going to mess up. I'm going to stumble over my words, but if I don't do it in a one-take, then it's just not going to get done. And as we all know, consistency is key. That's what I say to my clients. So I'm going to actually take my own advice for once. There you are. Not even a minute into the podcast and I've already stumbled over my own words. So yeah, expect a lot more on that. Hopefully it will improve as we go on. And don't judge me on my first one. Judge me on my hundredth one. Okay, so what we're going to cover in today's podcast, this is everything that you need to know about fat loss. It's going to be Fat Loss 101. Okay, and let's just get stuck in shall we? So the one thing, well anybody in the history of humans, if that's even a term, anyone who's ever lost weight has done it by one way and one way only. That is being in a calorie deficit. Now there are many, many ways to create a calorie deficit, but unless you are in a calorie deficit, you will not lose weight. Nobody is above the law of thermodynamics. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. So anybody who's trying to argue with if you're not in a calorie deficit, they're basically wrong. So calories are king. So whether you want to lose weight, as we know now, calorie deficit. If you don't know this by now, you must be living under a rock because every man and his dogs says it. But anyway, taking it from the top or bottom, however you like to look at things. And if you want to maintain your weight, maintain its calories. So eating the same amount as you are burning on a day-to-day basis. And if you want to gain weight, you're eating in a calorie surplus. So no matter whether you want to lose, maintain or gain, calories are king and they're going to determine this. So in order to create a calorie deficit, it's important for us to understand the calories in versus calories out or CECO equation. So calories in, it's nice and simple. It's nice and simple for you. So this is all the food and drink that you consume on a daily or weekly basis, depending on how you like to look at things. And then the calories out side of things. So this is your TDEE or your total daily energy expenditure. And this is built up of four components. And I'm going to take you through in size order, how these components affect your TDEE. So the first one is your BMR or your basal metabolic rate. Now this is basically all the functions that your body needs in order to keep you alive. So keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, replenishing your hair and nails, managing hormones, basically everything that your body needs. This is your BMR. And as you know, your body does this automatically. Whether you think you are doing it or not, your body is going to keep you breathing. How handy is that, eh? And this is why. So if anybody fell into a coma and the hospital was giving them as many calories as the BMR, they would maintain their weight basically. And if you were to actually reduce, you would actually see someone in a coma lose weight if their calorie intake is lower than their TDEE, which will obviously mostly be comprised of their BMR. Next up, we have our NEET, which is our non-exercise activity thermogenesis. And basically what this means is this is all the activity that you do that is unplanned exercise. So waking up in the morning, yawning, going up, walking up and down the stairs, typing away on your keyboard, brushing your teeth, all the unplanned movement that you do throughout the day. And this comprises about 15% of your TDEE. And what is a good indicator for this is step count. Because basically, other than that, it's really hard to track and manage what our NEET would be without that. But steps are a good indicator. And it's super important, as you can tell. So it's the second highest factor other than your BMR, which is determined by your age, weight and height. So your NEET is actually a huge part of the calories burnt and calories outside of the equation. So this bit should be your main focus in terms of the actual calories out and in terms of creating that calorie deficit. Creating a NEET and being more generally active in everything you do. One way that you might like to do this is taking the lift instead of the elevators. No, other way around. Taking the stairs instead of the lift slash elevators. Parking further away when you go to the shopping. And just being more generally active in everything you do. Okay, so the next factor is your TEF or thermic effect of food. So basically, when you consume food and drink, your body actually burns calories in order to digest and process that food. And just to put in the context of why a lot of fitness influencers, personal trainers and bodybuilders, everyone obsesses over protein, is because basically in terms of the thermic effect of food. So when you eat fats, you actually burn 0 to 3% of all the fats that you consume. When it's carbs, it's about 5 to 10%. And when it's protein, it's 20 to 30%. So you can just see there, just from those stats, just how much of a high impact protein is going to have. So actually eating a more mild protein, that's going to increase your thermic effect of food, thus increasing the amount of calories that you burn and potentially contributing to that calorie deficit amount. So protein, really good. But yeah, so we've covered BMR, basal metabolic rate, which is determined by your age, weight, height, etc. Your NEAT, which is the next, and that's 15%. Next, thermic effect of food. So this roughly makes up about 10%. And then finally, you've got your EAT, which is your exercise activity thermogenesis. So this is a planned exercise that you do for the day. So a lot of people, when they first hear this, are actually quite surprised, is that this only builds up about 5%. That is, of course, unless you're like an elite athlete and you're doing like a triathlete on the day, then obviously that will be impacted by that. Yeah, so the average Joe comprises of about 5%. And then if you actually only exercise three times a week, then it reduces to down to actually less than 2.5%. So we'll come to it later in this podcast, but what I wanted to focus on and understand is, actually everything that you've just heard about that, so in terms of like your actual movement, what you should be focusing on is your NEAT, and you might have heard the term NEAT up 24-7, hashtag NEAT up 24-7, which is a really good term, during cartel, shout out. So you should be focused on getting your NEAT up as much as you can, because actually, in terms of the calories outside of the equation, that is going to have a much more of a higher impact than your planned exercise. But we'll come to that more later. Okay, so how do you know whether you're actually in a calorie deficit? Well, the one way that I would recommend to everybody, if you've never ever done this before, is through tracking calories. Now you can do this through MyFitnessPal, that's the one that I personally use, but there's apps like NutriCheck, CalorieCounter, or you can be old-fashioned and go classic pen and paper. However you track them, if you've never tracked before, I would 100% recommend it. And that's one way to actually know that you're in a calorie deficit. What we're covering in a later episode is how you can create a calorie deficit without tracking calories. But for now, that was the 100% one, that is the one that I would 100% recommend to anybody, tracking calories, that's how you know you're in a calorie deficit. And then how do you know what your calorie target is? So basically, you can use an online calculator. So I use one called TD E-Calculator. Type in your age, weight, your height, and your activity level. And then this will basically give you an estimation of your TD E-E, again, total daily energy expenditure. And then you can take this amount, and then you can basically, depending on how aggressive that you want to be with your fat loss, that determines how much of a deficit amount. So I tend to go for about 15% for my clients, which seems to be manageable, but also a good rate of weight loss. Or you can take 500, and then if you take that 500 off your daily amount, then across the week, that's 3,500 calories, and that is roughly 1 pound of fat loss a week, which is a very good and sustainable rate of fat loss. So, online calculator, go in, and that's how you know your total daily energy expenditure. And then you can either take off 15% or 500 off that amount. That will give you calorie deficit amount. Bingo or bango, you track your calories into that amount, you will start losing weight. If anybody needs any help with actually working out their calorie goal, feel free to message me on Insta, any social, whatever it is, and I'll be more than happy to help you with that. Anyway, back to it. So yeah, I'm just going very briefly back on to tracking calories. So what I tell most of my clients is, and what I want you to understand is that, when you track calories, this is like using stabilizers on your bike as a child. It's not about using them forever, but it's about building habits to actually learn how to ride a bike, or how to eat on a daily and weekly basis to actually hit your calorie goal. Because once you get into a habit with it, you're like, okay, so if I eat X for breakfast, Y for lunch, Z for dinner, and then I know I have these protein snacks, or whatever it is, then you can start regularly seeing how you can hit your calorie deficit amount. And then once you're relatively happy, or once you've been tracking for a certain amount of time, you can then stop tracking and then go back to then just, excuse me, sorry, another fuck up there for you. Then you can go back to just eating as normal, and then going from there. But then once you understand this, then you can do that for life. If you're making progress, great, don't need to change anything. However, after periods such as Christmas, which I know is a particularly heavy one for me, or holidays, or festivals, whatever it is, you might have found you've put on a few pounds. So then what you might do, you might go back to tracking calories for a certain amount of period, making progress, get to a point where you're happy with, don't need to track anymore. So calorie tracking should never be a long-term thing. However, it is extremely important if you've never done it before. Because things like peanut butter, cereal, oils, if you've never tracked, you'll just be astounded about how many calories that you can make. And when you like think you're eyeballing a teaspoon of peanut butter, it's quite easy to actually go over double of what you think it is. And if you add that up over the course of a week, it could be enough to take you out of your calorie deficit. Yes, calorie tracking can be time-consuming at times, but think of it as, again, that process of learning the habits, so then you can continue it for life. Okay, so the next thing I'm going to cover is priorities for fat loss. So number one priority, as you know, if you haven't figured that out already, is being in a calorie deficit. Yes, if you are not in a calorie deficit, you will not lose weight. That's it, black and white. Okay, so number one priority, making sure that you're in a calorie deficit. Going online, working out your calorie amount, and then taking 500 or 50% of that. Start tracking calories to ensure that you're in a calorie deficit. Number two is making sure that you've eaten a high-protein diet alongside this. So as I've briefly touched on before, so protein actually has the highest thermic effect of food, so when you eat it, you actually burn the most amount of calories out of all the other macronutrients, carbs and fats, when you eat it. Not only this, it's the most satiating macronutrient, so when you eat it, it actually keeps you fuller for longer. So what a lot of people start when they start tracking them, when they start hitting a protein goal, is that they actually find the meals a lot more full, and even though they're eating less calories, they're actually feeling a bit more full because they've upped their protein amount, and with that, they're feeling more satiated after each meal, which is really important for long-term adherence to your diet. So having a high-protein diet is going to keep you full after your meals. Again, it will mean that you're snacking everything like that less, so that's really obviously good for adherence to the diet. Highest thermic effect of food, so you burn the most amount of calories when you actually eat it. Finally, when we make sure we have a high-protein diet, we're keeping our body in a positive muscle protein synthesis state, and that's going to make sure that we're actually losing fat and not muscle, because muscle is a metabolically active tissue, whereas fat is not. So even at rest, the more muscle that you have, although it's not as significant as some people would have you believe, it still will make an impact over the long-term, and having a high-protein diet is going to make sure that we're losing fat, not muscle, which is also really good. So number one, calorie deficit. Number two, in conjunction with that, a high-protein diet. Number three is going to be having a high step count, and this also kind of relates to your non-exercise activity thermogenesis, just tracking back slightly to the TDE, but a high step count is going to be a really key indicator of this. And what people kind of have in their head is this high 10K step count. Now, I'm not sure how true this is. I think I saw this on the internet somewhere, so obviously take it with a pinch of salt, but I've actually heard that it was actually a cereal company that kind of came up with this magic 10K step target, and literally since then, everybody has just been kind of conditioned to think that this is what they should be aiming for, when in reality, what you should be aiming for is just a little bit more than what you're currently at. So if you don't already, is there anything that you can start using to track your steps? It doesn't have to be a Fitbit, an Apple Watch, anything like that. It can just be your phone. Obviously, you will have to start carrying your phone around you in order to accurately track your steps, but what I want you to do is do that and take an average for a week, and then if you are currently at 4,000 steps today, I want you to try and aim for 2,000-3,000 than what you're currently doing. Let me say that again, because I really fucked that one up. I want you to aim for 2,000-3,000 more than what you're currently doing. So if you're on 4,000, aim for 6,000-7,000. If you're on 7,000, aim for 9,000-10,000. If you're on 10,000, aim for 12,000-13,000. So there's not a one-size-fits-all approach to this. It's where are you currently at and what steps can you take to improve that? Obviously, I couldn't recommend this enough in terms of actually getting out and doing a daily walk, not just for your physical health, but also for your mental health as well. So I remember a time during COVID where obviously everybody was in lockdown, and for me, this is where I really saw the benefit of getting out for a daily walk. Even though it was cold and it was snowing, this was in lockdown too. Basically, I was super stressed at work, so I used to work in supply chain. It was an operational role, and literally, I was getting absolutely bummed left, right, and centre. I was working on some pet food orders, and as you know, people are going crazy in the UK buying pets left, right, and centre. As such, pet food and everything like that just took a massive spike. I was doing basically work for three people, but just by myself. When I say doing, I mean I wasn't really doing. I literally was like, we get to a certain point, so I'm just like, yeah, fuck it, these orders are going, whether the business likes it or not. Anyway, my point to this is that I was literally getting so beasted at work. I was feeling so stressed, but what I made sure that I did, even no matter how busy I was, was I made sure that I got out for a half an hour walk. For me, that was my lifesaver of my mental health, just getting out and knowing that I've got a half hour walk to just reset. I'd turn my phone off of all notifications. I wouldn't take any work calls. I would get out, do my music, and what I find, I'm so much more productive and actually a nicer person to be around and to communicate with just by taking that time and getting out. There's actually a thing to say, humans love being in nature, particularly around water and stuff like that. If you can go walk in the river or anything, even if it's just subconscious, your mental health will take such a rapid improvement just from doing that. People, honestly, walking is the most underrated form of exercise. It's so low impact. You could do it absolutely anywhere. You can fit it into your routine. Even if you get the bus to work or the train or whatever it is, if you can get off a stop earlier and get in another 20 minutes of walking and tie that into your routine, that's going to be such a beneficial way for you to increase the amount of activity you're doing without actually putting any stress on you. You're not going to arrive super sweaty unless it's a really hot day. It's just an amazing form of exercise for our physical and mental health. High step count, and I went off on a bit of a tangent there with walking, but also what you've got to consider is being more generally active in everything that you do. Again, it doesn't have to be some miraculous form of exercise. You don't have to beat yourself with HIITs, whatever it is. What can you do to be more generally active and get out a bit more? Have a think about that. That's number three. We've gone one, calorie deficit, two, high protein diet in conjunction with that. Three is a high step count, but again, not just the magic 10K. Take where you're at and aim to increase that. Then we come on to number four, which is sleep. Again, no mention of exercise yet. The next one is sleep. This is going to be absolutely crucial for a few main reasons. Number one is your sleep actually controls your hunger hormones, ghrelin and leptin. The way I like to remember these is ghrelin, that increases the amount of hunger that you're feeling. The way I remember that is G for ghrelin, go get some more food, you are hungry. Leptin, that decreases your hunger. I say, leave that plate alone, Dave, you fat bastard. You do not need any more food. These are the two main hormones. When you get a lack of sleep, your imbalance of these hormones actually decreases. You're not just leaving it up to chance. You're actually telling your body the following day, the amount of ghrelin that you have is going to be increased. Therefore, your hunger is going to be increased. Alongside, obviously, that physiological cue, you're also going to be less tired. You're going to be less willing to prep and do stuff like that. You're probably going to have less willpower to make conscious choices in your food as well. Not only will you have physiological cue of having increased hunger, but you're also going to be more tired and less willing, I reckon, to actually make better choices. You're probably, as you know, when you're hungover, you're going to go to just the app, get on the nearest McDonald's, inhibitions are gone, and then next thing you know, you're free, Big Mac's in, a wrap of the day, a chocolate milkshake, and yeah, definitely have been there before. That's one way sleep affects you. If you get a lack of sleep, your hunger hormones are not going to be in control. You're going to have more cues for not only more unhealthy food, but also more of it. When you come to sleep, the majority of your growth hormone is actually produced in your sleep. If you're not sleeping effectively and getting the maximum amount of sleep that you have, then you can. You're actually impairing your body's growth hormone production. That is going to mean, particularly if you're really trying to focus on growing muscle, that's going to hamper the amount of muscle that you can build. Again, one or two nights is not going to affect you too badly, but if this is a chronic sleep issue, then over time, then you are not in anywhere near optimal state for growing muscle. Again, it's going to affect your fat loss as well, so you should really be prioritizing your sleep. As well as these physiological changes, as well as the hunger hormones that are going to be affected, and your growth hormone, you're also going to feel more tired the next day. This is kind of an experience-based kind of thing. You're going to be more tired, which is going to result in less movement. You're going to be less likely to go to the gym, less likely to get your walking, and also alongside that, poorer food choices. It's really going to hamper just how optimal progress you can make if you're really not prioritizing sleep. A couple of sleep tips that I've got for you. Really try and go to bed and wake up at a certain time. I know it gets harder on the weekends, but the more you can stick to this, the better it's going to be for you. One thing I've invested in recently is a good quality eye mask, and this really helps me. I don't know about you guys, but I always wake up with like half way around my neck, so I don't know if that's my body trying to like strangle itself or whatever, but if that's just me, then yeah, that's weird. Anyway, again, earplugs is a really good one, and making sure your room is slightly cooler than the outside environment. So when you do this, I don't know about you, I really like to snuggle into my blanket, but yeah. So aim to go to bed and wake up at the same times every day. And here is one hack, which I am not going to claim, but my step-sister actually taught, my sister-in-law actually taught me this, and it has revolutionized the way I can get up in the morning, and it's called the no snooze rule. So what you're going to do, you are going to set your alarm for the latest possible time to get up, and then you are going to put your phone on charge at the other side of the room, you're going to put it on the other side of the room. So when you wake up, instead of snoozing for half an hour, five minutes on and off, like I know 90% of you bitches out there are doing, you are going to leave your phone across the other side of the room, and so instead of snoozing from 7am to 7.30, you're going to set your alarm to 7.30. As soon as that alarm wakes up, you are going to get up, you are going to stand up, walk across the room and turn off your alarm. Literally, once you've done that, you will feel more awake just by doing that than all the snoozers in the world could afford you. And honestly, I did not, when I first got told this, I was like nah, surely not. I started doing it and it revolutionised my mornings. I cannot stress this enough. But anyway, if you take one thing from this podcast, make sure it's the no snooze rule. Let me know how it goes on Instagram and my sister-in-law Lisa will be absolutely buzzing. Anyway, I digress. Now we're on to number five, which is then adding exercise into your routine. Ideally, this would be a mixture of resistance training and cardiovascular training. But for fat loss, which is the main topic of this podcast, consistency with your exercise is key. So it doesn't have to be, you know, it doesn't have to be resistance training. It doesn't have to be hit. It doesn't have to be running. It can be anything that you enjoy, which if walking is that, I don't care how you get your walks in, I don't care if it's planned exercise or unplanned, whatever it is, make sure you're walking first and foremost. And then have a think about what other exercise that you can fit into your routine. So it could be dancing, it could be any kind of sports, it could be skipping for 10 minutes. Literally, whatever you enjoy, that's what I encourage you to do. If you would like to build in resistance training, that's going to be really beneficial for you. Particularly as you get older, it's going to be really beneficial to stop your muscles from atrophying, which means basically wasting away. Because there's conditions like sarcopenia, osteoporosis, that if you don't use your muscles and your bones, like they will waste away. And the old term, like use it or lose it, although it's cliche, like particularly as you get older, like this will happen. So yeah. And what you want to think in terms of your exercise, because it's priority number five, this should not be your main thing to focus on fat loss. Number one, make sure you're in a calorie deficit alongside that high protein diet, the high step count in terms of your movement. What you should be focusing on with your exercise is doing what makes you feel good and what makes you feel fitter, stronger and healthier. For me, I really like to do a mixture of resistance training, but at the minute I'm currently training for a marathon. And I haven't really been adding too much running into my routine, probably less than I should have. But I love to do sports, any kind of sports, particularly like I've just fell in love with netball. And I love getting absolutely humbled by the opposite team's goal attack, because they absolutely take me down a peg and I love it. But yeah, so have a think, what exercise can you add into your routine? And again, even if it's resistance training, it doesn't have to be in the gym, doing body weight at home or investing in some weights, that's going to be really beneficial for you in the long term. But yeah, as I've said, do this for enjoyment, do this to make you feel good, do this for the sense of accomplishment, and then everything else will take care of itself. Have a think, is there anybody else that you can get involved in? Is there any sports teams that you could potentially go down? When you do it with other people, again, it's going to be another tactic that you can use in order to keep you long-term and consistent with it. So just to run through, the top five priorities for fat loss is number one, calorie deficit. I'm going to keep hammering that home if it's not deeply embedded right now. Number two, a high protein diet. Number three is a high step count. Number four is your sleep. And then number five, adding in what exercise you can into your routine. Number six, seven, and eight, which I don't want you to think about right now, unless you're nailing, particularly one to three, and then once you've got those nails, four to five as well. Six, seven, eight, these are extra things that you can be doing, and this is in terms of your hydration. So that's kind of like, we're going to call that like a 5.2, because hydration is actually really important. But a lot of people are usually okay with this. When they come to me, my clients, it's not something that they struggle with in particular. But again, trying to get at least two liters of water in per day. And I like to count like, for me, sugar-free squash is absolute go-to for this. Orange and mango, two bottles of that every single day. I do love a bit of water, but honestly, you can't go wrong. And for all you like southerners on Thames water or whatever it is, unless you get up to Yorkshire and try the golden elixir that is Yorkshire water, you will probably need to flavor that stuff. Don't even get me started on Manchester water. You might as well be drinking out of a pond. Anywho, I digress. So yeah, next one is hydration. And again, just make, basically, just make sure your pee is clear. I have an old saying, clear pee by 11, you're in heaven. So when you go for your 11 a.m. piss, your piss should be clear. If it's anything lower than a straw color, bitch, drink some water, okay? And next thing, you can use supplements. I'm not even going to go into right now, because unless you're nailing one to five, you do not need to worry about that. And then things like meal timings and frequency, which is also going to help. But again, that's the top 1% of things, well, the bottom 1% of things you need to be worrying about, unless you're nailing all the basics. Okay, so we're coming towards the end now, but I really wanted to get into one tool that I've used that has been absolutely essential for my long-term adherence and kind of allowing myself to really stay at maintenance for a long period of time. So some people claim for it to be magic. It's a pretty well-known term in the fitness industry. I like to just say skipping breakfast. So it's intermittent fasting, basically. And I use this in conjunction with calorie banking, because your calories throughout the day, that is absolutely spot on. But what you need to understand, or if you're a normal person, let me put it like this. I am pretty clean, Monday to Friday. But as soon as that weekend comes around, I am going balls to the wall. Unless I'm going through a period of dieting, like just taking this weekend example, like last night on the way home, I'm walking home from my brother's. I smashed a 14-inch pizza with two swimming chicken wing fillets, whatever. On Friday night, I had a burger and chips. That was Saturday night, sorry. And then on Friday, I had a massive portion of fish and chips. Like when it comes to a weekend for me, like because I've been relatively good Monday to Friday, using this technique, which I'm about to share with you, I like to go fucking all out. I am a huge foodie and I love takeaways and all the rest of it. But I could not have that on a weekend if I was eating the same amount of calories every day. So this is a technique that I use that has really been key to my long-term success. Okay. So intermittent fasting slash calorie banking. So if you look at your calories throughout the week, so we'll go for a relatively normal person, or on average, like 2000 calories a day. So that means over a week, you've got times seven, 14,000 calories. So you can split that up however you like. But if you know you've got a big pie coming up on a Saturday, and then you know you're going to be consuming lots of drinks, lots of food, it's going to be hard for you to track, you might have 4,000 calories on that day. So for the rest of the week, potentially you've only got 10,000. So that does not mean that you can have 2000 per day for the rest of the week. But your calories, you're a big adult, you can split that however you want. So if you do have that 4,000 day on Saturday, then you have to split up your calories for the rest of the week in line with that. It's just like with your finances. If you actually go on an absolute mad spending spree, just after payday, you're going to be living like a pauper for the rest of the month. So you need to understand that your calories are the exact same. So for me personally, my maintenance calories is about 3,200. I'm a big guy, 191 centimeters, just over six foot three, weighing about just under 90 kilos. So my maintenance calories is 3,200. And back in the day, I used to eat breakfast. I used to wake up and I was absolutely starving. But what I used to have, four Weetabix, a banana, and a protein shake. But then I realized, maybe if I can just give this intermittent fasting thing a try, skip my breakfast, make it through to lunch, then potentially, that's Monday to Friday, I'm saving 2,500 calories during that time. And for me, I'd much rather have a takeaway pizza, many beds, and a big bowl of ice cream for that 2,500 calories than four Weetabix and a bit of protein shake in the morning. So when I was adapting to it at first, that first week, oh my days, I was hungry. So hungry in the mornings. But you know what? Caffeine is actually an appetite suppressant. So black coffee was the key for me. And as I say, sugar-free squash, that saw me through until midday. After a week or two, I was like, my body got used to it. I wasn't even hungry till midday. So this is a tool that I've really been able to use. And yes, you can do it strictly. But honestly, if you just look at it as skipping breakfast and doing it like that, it's going to be such an effective tool for you to do that. Now, there's going to be some people out here listening to this that like to exercise in the morning and need energy for that. That's absolutely fine. I just like to go for a morning walk. So I don't need a lot of calories for that. But if you're going and training legs for a heavy day, or you've got a run or something like that, then absolutely, I would encourage you to eat breakfast. But that's just one strategy that I use that has really, really helped me in my time. And then also with that, if I know I've got a big Saturday or Friday or whatever it is, then I will just simply skip a meal and bank those extra calories. So calorie banking and intermittent fasting for me has been my number one strategy for being able to do that. So if that's something that you could fit in, then I would absolutely look at doing that because that is what's maybe going to really unlock these next level of results for you. But yeah, so have a look at your calories for the week and then see where you can make those savings. Because in order to adhere to something long term, you're going to have to have those treats and everything about it. That doesn't mean you have to cut it out, but it does mean that you have to make the sacrifice somewhere else. And to me, my breakfast, Monday to Friday, that was an easy swap for me to make. And just take that 500 calorie hit per day, wait a little bit extra to lunch, and then bank it up for a weekend. So that's still how I'm able to be in my maintenance calories or sometimes even in the calorie deficit and pretty much eat what I want at weekend. So yeah, I hope you guys found that useful. Now, we're coming to the end of the episode, which means it is time for my first embarrassing story. Now, I really debated which one to do for this. And when putting it out on socials, I had my friends message me like, which one are you going to do? Is it going to be this one? I was like, fuck, I haven't even added that to the list. God. But I was going to do one, but I've actually just had a last change of heart because this is probably my most embarrassing thing. And it is going to cut me like people are just going to start riffing me for it. But hey, ho, I made the promise. So here we are. So one of my friends, Ryan, every year for his birthday, we go on an annual camping trip. And one week, one year, we're all sat around this big group of between like 12 and 15 of us all sat around and we're just having some drinks around the fire and just chatting shit basically. And then my brother asked to borrow my phone and I'm like thinking off and off it. Sure. Absolutely fine. So I give him my phone. 30 seconds later, I hear him absolutely pissing himself. And I am like a rabbit in headlights at this point. I am like, God, I knew exactly what he'd found. And honestly, I was, I was dreading it. So I go up, I try to like stand up and run over and take my phone off him. But literally like three of my mates start pinning me to the chair. And then my brother is like, he is pissing himself that everyone is very confused at this point. And like, he just, it takes a while for him to compose himself. And eventually, if I'm being pinned down at this point, or if like I eventually can move, everyone's just throwing my phone between them to basically make sure I can't get it. So eventually I like, I realised what's about to happen. I'm about to be absolutely shredded for life and sit back down my chair and there's nothing I can do. I'm just going to have to take this absolute pummeling. So eventually everybody kind of calms down and then we're going to start reading it out. So basically I have a list of everything in my phone, like absolutely everything, like over, must be like hundreds and hundreds of notes, whatever it is, I take a note of it. And basically during my single years, like when I was on Tinder, I had a list of things to bring up on a date. And I would just like to clarify, I never actually used this list. And if my future wife is listening, I have Riz, okay? No, God, this is, I'm just cringing actually saying this. Right. So basically, first one on this list, and I think it's called literally like stuff to say on a date, bearing in mind all of my mates, they are ready to absolutely rip me. I'm sat down, I know what's coming. My brother starts reading it out. First one, how things, oh fucking hell, everyone bursts out laughing. I'm just sat there like, fuck sake. Next one, how's uni? Fuck knows if they don't go to uni, what I say next. And I was like, do you have any brothers and sisters? And then honestly, so after each line, the whole fucking room of my mates just erupts in laughter. And I, this goes on for a good half an hour. It's a pretty long list. And the worst thing about it is I never even got to use the list. I never even needed it, to be honest. So it was just there as a source of embarrassment. And I still do never live it down to this day. So my mates, they're always going, oh, how's things? So guys, please, if you see me out in public, do not, definitely do not just be like, how's things? I'll know exactly what you mean. And I'll give you a big fuck you. But anyway, guys, that's story number one. I hope you've enjoyed the podcast. I'll be aiming to get these out once every week, but we'll see how we go with it. So yeah, thank you very much for your time and I'll see you on episode two. Cheers.