Episode #308: Stop All the Cardio & Low-Cal Eating: Eat MORE, Lift Weights, & Lose Weight

Intro:

Welcome to The Healthy Catholic Moms Podcast where we make moving and nourishing our bodies the priority so that we not only fulfill our vocations, but excel in our callings. I’m Brittany Pearson, a Catholic wife, mom, personal trainer, and I’m here to help you build healthy habits that actually fit your life. I am here to teach you how to get the results that you want and maintain the results that you want without spending hours at the gym, or meal prepping all weekend long. I understand I am right here with you getting my workouts done in the nooks and crannies of time, looking up recipes, while nursing babies and trying to prioritize my own health amidst everything else going on. But I have really good news for you, you can get the results you want. In less time without doing hours of cardio and restrictive dieting. I’m going to teach you how to use strength training and eating in a macro balanced way to get you feeling so good and your skin full of energy, and strong to carry out your life. Okay, on this podcast, we’ll delve into how to lose fat in a simple, sustainable way. What your workouts and nutrition should look like during different seasons of life, like during pregnancy and postpartum times. We’ll also discuss healthy quick meals and how to get them on the table make food that kids will actually want to eat. Mom hacks for making your day run more smoothly and so much more. All the while with continuous encouragement to stay the course and live with discipline. This is a place where we’re striving to steward our bodies well in order to joyfully serve. I am so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in.

Main Episode:
Hello, friends, welcome to today’s episode, I’m so happy you’re here and I can’t wait to dive in. I’m always really truly grateful and happy to be here with you. And I love having this spot to communicate. I know a lot of times it’s me sharing my thoughts. A lot of times I get to have guests on and that’s fun too. But I’m also communicating a lot of the thoughts that I’m hearing from you or, you know, we’re tackling your questions and I love getting the feedback from all of you in the reviews and emails and messages. So I truly appreciate that and I truly appreciate it becoming a two way street conversations don’t just feel like I’m pontificating all the time. So I’m just happy you’re here I’m happy we have this time together. I also want to say first right off the bat that my audio might be a little funky today I you know sat down to Record I’m sitting down to record before the kids wake up you know you’re excited you’re like designated time let’s go you woke up to the alarm like everything is going until I went to record and the app or system that I usually recorded the sound is just not working today I fiddled with it for a good half hour and we’re going an alternate route. So I’m using zoom which I usually only use for interviews I don’t love the sound quality but figured it was better than nothing you gotta do to get to do sometimes it’s like not gonna do this or we’re gonna you know don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. So here we are today we’re talking about how eating more and lifting versus low calorie and cardio works. Now if you’ve been around with me a while or you’ve worked with me I’ve probably already converted you to this way of thinking or maybe it’s a process a lot of times it’s a process a lot of my one on one clients are like you know would be like six weeks in of three months of working with me and still say you know this is just really hard to wrap my head around like now I’m starting to see it work at around six weeks by the time your body gets used to it but this just does not make sense with everything else I’ve thought been taught seen in magazines just like picked up and diet culture. And I totally get it that is where I started out to was okay it just makes sense like we are bombarded with the message that low calorie is superior when we look I mean I think I still naturally when you look at a menu and they have to have the calorie options listed. Your first reaction is usually the lowest calories the healthiest I know which is just not true. It could be I’m just gonna make up something that would never be on a menu but say like you’re looking at breakfast and there’s Special K cereal and then there’s like a breakfast sandwich with made with all real ingredients like I’m talking real eggs bacon or sausage like even whole grain let’s say it’s whole grain toast whatever like really high level higher quality ingredients. And Special K our eyes are gonna go to that Special K 110 calories. I’m making this up and that breakfast sandwich 350 calories and think oh special case healthier where that is just not the case in that scenario. So the Special K is first of all a manufactured food. Right? It’s highly processed secondly, it’s I don’t know the exact I did not look up special case here before recording this but I would venture to guess it’s low protein and fat and high carb but like Not a lot to anything 110 calories is nothing, I would never be full, I wouldn’t be full for five minutes. 110 calories. So it’s hard.

We’re programmed to think that but our body needs nutrients, it needs calories overall. Okay, I think another thing that has not helped with you giving us realistic calorie targets are and macro targets, is the fact that on the back of foods, speaking of food and calories, whatnot, it shows two different denominations in that set. This is you know what percent this would be for a 1200 calorie diet. This is what percent this would be for a 2000 calorie diet, it’s assuming that all women fall into the 1200 calories and all men fall into 2000 calories. The last time I ate 1200 calories was probably when I was 12. I’m not kidding, maybe eight, I don’t know when the last time I ate 1200 calories is. But most nutritionists and especially people in the health and fitness world who are training athletes or athletic people, people who are lifting weights, which is the other practice that I preach, here they go hand in hand, I don’t think anybody would be prescribing 1200 calories for really any adult unless you were very sedentary. And like the complete other parts of your day, I think most people’s basal metabolic rate, just even your burning rate when your your body’s just at rest is probably higher than 1200 calories a day. So wipe that out, try to give it a clean slate. I know it’s really hard. I know it’s a process. Again, if you’ve been around with me a while you’ve probably heard this a bunch of you do get how it works. But it’s nice to have that refresher. And if you’re newer here, and a newer listener, I know it’s gonna be hard to take in at first. So consider this just kind of your intro and your overview. Even if some people sometimes ladies come into the challenge. And I think that this is still and we have I’m referencing our eight week fat loss program. It starts June 5. If a lot of people still come in, because they just hear me on the podcast or seen on my website like oh, great eight week fat loss shields perfect. But then I still get emails, week one, week two saying Brittany, I think this is going to be too many calories. I don’t know about this, once I’ve set the macro targets like this seems like more than I mean before etc. And this episode clarifies things. So I’m kind of glad I’m just recording this now. Because probably when I get those emails like June 12. The next week, I can just reference back to this podcast of why it works. I’m giving a lot of the while give you like some tips and things today too. But this is a lot of I think it’s important to know and then it can help you explain it to other people too. Because I know a lot of times, we will try to chat with our friends about something that’s new to us or something we’re understanding or going through. And it’s nice to be able to articulate it and to have the tools not to say like I don’t know, Brittany said that it works because it works. So the idea of low calorie and cardio which usually are paired together, a lot of times we’ll see like Oh, to lose weight, you wanted to eat low calorie, because you want to burn more than you’re taking in and you want to do a lot of cardio because again, it’s kind of all the emphasis is on burning calories. A lot of the emphasis is what you’re about how much you burned during your actual session and all that now, like there is a time and place for this and the only time in place is things that I don’t agree with anyways. But say like when people need to make weight for something, when men need to make weight for a wrestling match, or women need to make weight for powerlifting or bodybuilding. I don’t think you have to make weight for bodybuilding. powerlifting those kinds of things. And you need to like, you know, do it at a certain class that kind of like you need last minute to lose some like five pounds of water weight or whatever. And you’ll put on like garbage bags and run around and sweat and sit in the sauna, or be on a bike for hours. And I have friends who have done this stuff. My husband used to wrestle so I I’m speaking from their experience, not my own. I’ve never done this for anything, but I get it like that. So I the idea does work. You could argue yes, you you can lose weight by doing this. Okay, now stepping back from that.

And then there are some people who are then we can maybe call them to mind like well, I know a friend who is skinny and she runs six miles every day. And she only eats her boiled eggs and grilled chicken salads and it’s very low calorie if you added up her whole day so it works for her. Okay, we’re gonna step back from that. It could work there’s the big asterik if you want to get stuck on that hamster wheel for the rest of your life, of needing to maintain that level of activity and needing to eat that low calorie, it could work that you would stay at whatever 150 pounds 120 pounds 140 pounds. This is where most people who are doing this if you think about their body composition even if I just said like your thin friend or skinny friend. This is usually where you get that skinny fat body composition because there’s an No strength training in the program. So their body does not look lean and toned. It just looks thin. But there’s not much like shape to it speaking as theoretically, first of all, then secondly, and more importantly, and what I really try to focus on here, aesthetics are fine. But on longevity and injury prevention and everything, you need muscle on your body for injury prevention, to help as we age, you know, we’re losing bone density, we’re losing muscle mass. So the more like we can go into aging with a little bit, it’s like having that extra cushion, but a muscle not of fat, so that if we know we’re going to lose some, it’s like, yeah, why wouldn’t you head into if you knew that there was going to be like food scarcity, you would try to go into it with a little bit of a surplus, right? You’d like go look back at Joseph in the story of the Bible, like get stored up, or when it’s going to be a scarce time, right. So there’s really like no upside to following this system, you have to continue to eat low calorie, you’re worried if you ever eat, quote unquote, off your plan, or a little excess kale or calorie, these are the people who get nervous about having ice cream out with their family, or whatever, anything that’s author usual. And your body isn’t burning much at rest, if you don’t have much muscle on your body. So
basically, what you burn during your workouts is what you burn. And yes, all of our bodies burn calories, even at rest, to some degree just by digestion, just by normal functions that keep us alive. But the rate is much lower in somebody that does not have a lot of muscle on their body. And a lot is totally subjective. This is something where it’s like you can control this by your own strength training and whether you’re doing one of my programs or doing it on your own, or whatever, you can control this because some of us do. I know a lot of people will say like women can’t get bulky. You women shouldn’t get bulky, like men, if they are not eating in a calorie surplus. If they’re not purposely trying to bulk to try to ball you have to eat more than you’re, you know, burning, and you have to lift really heavy. So sometimes people fall into that just naturally by just overeating a little bit accidentally and then they enjoy lifting heavy. I am one of those people that I can put on muscle easily so I get that I don’t like when people say again, like all women really Kimball I have had times where I’m like breakfast a little too much muscle for you. Like I’m just going to back off pushing my heaviest weights, I’m going to go a little bit under that. And and we’re not talking like then I dropped from just so you know, because I don’t want you to think See, I know I have to use my five pound dumbbells only. I’m talking like this was when I was at the gym, you know, rowing 150 pounds or 50 pounds but 110 pounds, and lat pulling 130 pounds and like that kind of thing. Then I backed off to like 80 It wasn’t like I went to pink five pound dumbbells, okay, but nothing gets pink I’m just saying that is the stereotype is that most of us think to be lean and toned. We need the little pink Squeezy dumbbells. Not true to actually change your body while we’re talking about it and change your body composition need to be lifting at a heavy weight for you, which is usually I this is a little a side note for those of you who are newer, I consider that to be within two to three reps of your max. Meaning at the end of your set, you feel like you can only do two or three more reps and not like you could do 27 more reps, or even 10 more reps or even five more reps. So that’s where like when I did feel myself getting bulky, I was pushing it to the max, I was lifting my max weight because it was fun. And I liked seeing the numbers go up and I liked the challenge. But then I realized the effects were I was getting a little bulky for my liking. And I didn’t think it was very feminine. But again, we’re all subjective here and everybody has different lines of that some people really like to see very visible, biceps, very visible, whatever I you know, don’t want to have man arms, the end of the day, and I was going that route, so I had to back it off. Okay, so I think I’ve explained hopefully pretty well, about the hamster wheel of low calorie and cardio, it could work but you’re going to be skinny fat, you’re not going to have muscle that’s going to burn calories for your rest, you’re stuck in that you have to do that all the time, or you are gonna gain weight. And we’re and also, if you were to take a body fat test of that person who is on that hamster wheel who is thin, but you take the body fat test, it’s probably still not great because they don’t have muscle on their body, they still probably have a high body fat percentage, because there’s no muscle in there to counteract that. Now, conversely, what I teach and preach and promote and have used for over 10 years with hundreds of women literally and myself and my sisters and my family and pretty much anyone I end up talking to is if you eat what your body needs, okay, not living in low calorie state, you actually feed yourself the right foods, the right balance of foods and you You prioritize strength training you prioritize lifting weight, it’s a total opposite approach and it works for fat loss. So not just weight loss specifically fat loss. So going into that a little bit number one, when you add a little muscle you now are burning more calories at rest than the person who does not have muscle or than you did before when you do not have muscle muscle at rest burns three times as many calories as fat does. So think about that beautiful it’s not beautiful, it’s disgusting that little like demo that you probably saw in health class I didn’t even go to school but I saw this somewhere along the lines I think that somebody brought it in for a health class actually when I was teaching middle school, but that like smooth muscle versus that bulky fat think about what it looks like it’s not pound for pound you cannot think 150 pounds on one person looks the same as 150 pounds on another person and it’s kind of ridiculous that we think that sometimes we get so into the weight part. But if I pose that to in any other way like okay think of a think we’ll go with men for this so that Sorry, man, I don’t think any men listen to this podcast and then no women are gonna be hopefully offended by this. But think of like the typical Dad Bod beer drinker beer belly, okay. Say that guy weighs 200 pounds is whatever tall, weighs 200 pounds, but you’re thinking DadBod beerbelly. Okay, then think 200 pounds bodybuilder. Okay? Very different physiques, it does not matter how much the weight was, it is all about the body fat content and the muscle content. So stepping back from that, because that was the only illustration wanted to, you know, use there so that you get the weight thing out of your head, it’s not about losing weight, it’s about having a proper muscle to fat ratio. Okay, that bodybuilder is going to have a much easier time maintaining that fuzzy because now the muscle that he has built, or if it was a girl she has built, but I’m using metaphor, this illustration. They’re burning fat, she’s had rice, like you’re building the machine to just work for you. It’s like, it’s like setting up a passive income stream. You buy an investment property or something, and then it just runs itself essentially. And you have to do very little to maintain it. Not saying you have to do nothing to maintain a healthy physique. And I do promote, you know, movement, because it’s just our bodies were made to move, it’s good for us. But it’s a lot easier to maintain the weight and body fat percentage that you want once the system’s already built. And that’s something you really tried to convey in my programs, too, is like this is doing the foundation. This is doing the legwork, it’s gonna take time, usually it takes about a year for somebody to totally transform their physique to the way that they want it to look. That’s probably how long it took for me back when I’ve shared way back when I was teaching group fitness, I was working out I wasn’t paying attention to Macros, I didn’t know anything about macros. So I was eating quote unquote, healthy ish, I was feeling like I needed to tend lower calorie and I try things like SlimFast or special Okay, and things I’ve named and mentioned, my body still looked the same. But once I got into lifting to this heavier degree two to three reps short of my max, and I focused in on the right balance of carbs, fat and protein, your macros, my body just changed, but that from then on, it probably took about six months. I did not this was not like a well documented thing, because I didn’t really realize it was even happening until later I look back and I was like, Oh, well, my body’s really changed. Because again, I was doing I was working out just as much I just wasn’t doing it the quote unquote, effective way or right way. So you’re our bodies become very efficient. And that can be a good thing or a bad thing. Like if it knows, okay, I’m going to do this five miles of cardio every day, it just waits to do that. And it knows it needs to bring that. But if instead you take this time to set the foundation, and literally change your body into a fat burning machine, you’re just setting it up to do this for you. When you’re at rest to you know, you’re just feeding your muscle really when you are having a you know, you can’t eat an excess all the time. But if you have a little bit extra, it’s not going to be as big of a deal than if you have zero muscle on your body. Now the other really good thing is if you’re keeping your calories consistent, you’re you know, typically every day around 1800 or 2000, or whatever your calories are set to or your ballparking if reading intuitively, your body knows what’s coming calories, it doesn’t store up food as fat, panicking that no more food is coming. So that yo yo or that low calorie, that’s what happens a lot when we’re stuck in low calories like low calorie, low calorie, we can’t maintain it anymore. So when we eat access, our body immediately stores it as fat because it does not know what’s coming next. So I cannot overstate how much easier it is on you in the long run to just switch to this system that is switch to lifting and eating more now. Maintenance is really only I also drive that point home maintenance is really only possible with the second option I laid out the the strength training and eating Have enough for your body because you will be stuck on the hamster wheel, the first route. But the second route maintenance is just a cinch. So it does take a long time to set up. You know, like I’m saying to you now probably six months to a year to really see, have you seen results from like Brittany, I’ve seen results. So from your eight week challenge ladies and stuff. Yeah. So you, you usually see some visible progress and movement, you know, a month to month, definitely even more so three months in. However, you have to keep working on the plan, and then your body gets used to it. And it really, I think just, you would be happy with where you are, I know everyone’s in a different starting point, and might have more weight to lose or whatever. But for most people like six months to a year is just like, Wow, you look back and you’re like totally different, totally different body type. So if you need some help and tools and getting started, first of all, I always say that there’s so much you can glean just from this podcast. And I do that purposely so that those who cannot invest in maybe one of my programs, or it’s not a good fit for you because you prefer to do group classes, or whatever your style is, I hope that you can glean enough from the podcast from my free YouTube workout videos, that kind of stuff. I also. So I want to let you know that I added another freebie. Just recently, if you go to my Instagram link tree, that’s easiest way to find if you’re on Instagram.

It’s right at the top, currently. And it’s a free how to set your macro target document. So if you’re like, I don’t know how much I should be eating, how do I find that out. But I don’t want to work with you, or can’t work with you right now. That will get you started. And you might be able to do the whole thing with that I do hear from ladies who are like I listen your podcast for the whole almost three years or whatever it’s been. And I’ve been able to implement so much of this on my own. And that’s fantastic. Because I know I can’t work with everybody and everybody can’t work with me. So it’s it is what it is. I’m glad that you’re able to do that. And then secondly, if you do want a little more guidance in this and you’re like, Okay, this does make sense. I don’t know how to do it though I don’t know what the strength training should look like. The macro piece is is a little tough on your own. So I have that document to get you started but you might find you need a professional to or would like a professionals input to review your food logs and make tweaks with you and kind of make sure you’re doing it right. I am doing the next round of that eight week beginner. It’s all about macros and strength training. It’s exactly we’re talking about kicking off June 5, so you can sign up for that at healthy capital mom’s DICOM again, also in my link tree in my Instagram bio, you can access it there, you can email me if you can’t find it anywhere. I’ll send you the link, Brittany and healthy Catholic moms.com And I hope this encouraged you and inspired you to at least start eating more eating enough and stop doing so much cardio. Alright ladies, next episode we’re talking about how to get more sleep as a mom. And yes, I’m right there with you. And yes, it is possible to try to get a little more and make it go a little farther. So we’re gonna chat about that next week. Our next episode. I hope you have a great rest your day and I will talk to you next time.

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