Ep. #410: How Laura Lost 8.5 Pounds and 6.5% Body Fat in Just 90 Days

Mike: Hello. This is the muscle for life podcast. I am Mike Matthews and welcome. Welcome. In this episode, I interview Laura who recently completed my 90 day coaching service. And in those 90 days dropped about eight and a half pounds of fat and about 6. 5 percent of her body fat percentage. Absolute not while also getting stronger on all of her key lifts and She did it at 49 years old.

Now that is significant because I often hear from people in their 40s, 50s and beyond who think that it is too late. They are not in good shape now and they think that they have missed the opportunity. The window has closed and they are doomed to being fat. Weak and unhealthy for the rest of their lives.

And that is simply not true. It is never too late to get into great shape, regardless of your current age, regardless of whatever condition you’re in right now, regardless of your training experience or lack thereof, you absolutely can lose fat. You can gain muscle. You can get healthy. You can enjoy the process and you can stay fit for the rest of your life.

It can become a lifestyle. Full stop. Now, you may not be able to get as jacked as you were or could have been when you were younger, but does that really matter? Especially if you love the way that you look and feel right now. And that’s what this episode is really about. Now, as with everything, nothing ever goes exactly as planned and learning to adjust and adapt to conditions is an important part of the fitness game, especially the long term fitness game.

And that’s something that Laura. experienced firsthand along the way. She ran into a number of roadblocks that most of us can relate to, including issues with balancing work and her workouts, getting her meal planning right and dealing with hunger and cravings, dietary temptations, peer pressure, and more.

And in our little chat, she shares what helped her navigate these barriers skillfully. And prevent them from derailing her. So if you like to hear motivational stories about how other people have changed their bodies and lives for the better, and if you want to pick up a few tips along the way that might help you in your journey, this episode’s for you.

This is where I would normally plug a sponsor to pay the bills, but I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in, so Instead, I’m just going to quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my one on one coaching service. So the long story short here is this is the personal coaching service that I wish I had when I started in the gym many years ago.

Every diet and training program that we create for clients is 100 percent custom. We provide daily workout logs and do weekly accountability calls. Our clients get priority email service and discounts on supplements. And the list goes on and on. Furthermore, my team and I have also worked with hundreds of people of all ages, circumstances, and needs and goals.

So no matter how tricky you might think your situation is, I promise you we can figure out how to get you results. If I have piqued your interest and you want to learn more, then head on over to www. muscleforlife. com forward slash. Coaching and schedule your free consultation call now, I’ll tell you, there’s usually a wait list and new slots fill up very quickly.

So if you’re interested at all, don’t wait, go schedule your call now. All righty. That is enough shameless plugging for now. At least let’s get to the show. Hey, Laura, thanks for taking the time to talk with me on a podcast. 

Laura: Yeah. Thanks for having me. 

Mike: Yeah. So as these types of interviews generally go, the idea here is I would just like to hear your story.

I’d like to hear, probably just start maybe with a snapshot of before and after. So before you found me, where were you at in terms of your body and your health? And then fast forwarding now to where you’re at today, just to get something to grab attention. And then. Let’s rewind to where you were at before you found me and what was working, what was not working, what were you struggling with?

And then we can just move forward to where you are today and how things have changed. 

Laura: Okay. I teach group fitness classes I have for about 20 years and I’m a slim person. So it was always difficult for me to maintain or build any kind of muscle. But I think part of it was that I was doing a lot of cardio.

About a year ago, a year and a half ago, my husband and my son and I, we all decided to go and sell our house and travel. And I wasn’t able to work out the way I was used to. I wasn’t able to eat the way I was used to. And I ended up gaining 15 pounds. So when we came back, I couldn’t go back to what I was doing.

Mike: How long were you traveling for? 

Laura: About a year. That’s 

Mike: not too bad for a year of good eating. That’s not too bad. 

Laura: And a lot of sitting. 

Mike: Yeah. 

Laura: Which I was not used to. I was always a very active person. So when we came back, I tried to do what I would normally do, which is just work out a lot. It came down a little bit, but.

It was the heaviest I’ve ever been, and I was at a loss for what to do. What I would normally do wasn’t working. I had been following you since 2012. I read Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. I always had the mind that workouts that were geared toward women was not going to help me. I tended to follow things that were meant for men, because I felt like Figured that I was going to have a hard time gaining muscle.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. I guess the thinner and thinner, leaner, stronger is not for you. I actually, I remember debating with myself back when I was trying to decide on the title. The reason why I wrote the book for women is a lot of women were reading bigger, leaner, stronger, but then reaching out to me saying, Hey, Can I do this?

This sounds like something like, at least all the diet stuff sounds like it’s something I could do the workouts. I don’t know if I want to train my upper body that much. What should I do? And so that’s why I created the book for women, but at the time I was debating, should it be fitter, leaner, stronger, or thinner, leaner, stronger.

And I’m not sure, I don’t know if I chose correctly. I think there are arguments to be made. It was a tough decision. The thinner would turn off maybe somebody like you or a woman who is already. Fit. Let’s say, it sounds like you already fit, but even maybe a bit more of a woman who is into training her muscles already, but wants to take it to the next level.

But there are a lot of women out there who want to lose weight. And that’s like top of mind. So I think that’s why I chose it. Where I was like, I feel like it’s not the best title, honestly, for it’s not the ultimate goal. Whereas bigger leaner, stronger for guys, like every guy can never in their minds, never get big enough, never get lean enough, never get strong enough.

And so it’s the perfect title. Whereas with women, of course, there’s a point where with thin it’s really just. And optimal body fat percentage. Anyways, I’m rambling, but he just made me think of that where I’m like, ah, should I went with fitter without have been the smarter one, 

Laura: fitter, leaner, stronger, probably would have been a good catch all.

You would have gotten both. I know it’s true. 

Mike: That’s true. I think I made a mistake. Oh 

Laura: Thinner, leaner, stronger. Is going to appeal to a lot of women. I deal with women every day. Most of the people in my classes are women and they are afraid of building muscle.

So I think. 

Mike: Inner 

Laura: leaner, stronger is probably a good title for them. 

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. That’s true. That’s true. Although fit now is Oh, fit is the new skinny, 

Laura: yes. 

Mike: Which I agree with, but anyway. All right. So you’re traveling for a bit. Do you travel around the U S what did you do? 

Laura: Yeah, we had we bought an Airstream trailer and we lived in the Airstream and worked remotely.

I would personal train over FaceTime, but even though we were hiking, it just wasn’t the kind of workouts that I was used to doing. It wasn’t enough. 

Mike: Yeah. And you were already used to eating a certain amount of food. So you’re just naturally going to maintain that calorie intake, even if your expenditure goes down.

Laura: Yeah. And I’ve always eaten pretty healthy, although I do have a sweet tooth, but I didn’t cut my calories back with the, with less activity. And I think that’s what got to me. Yeah. 

Mike: Yeah. Okay. So a year goes by you’re 15 pounds heavier and you’re just trying to work out harder and it’s not working.

Laura: Yes. And I went plant based 

Mike: for the purpose of trying to lose the weight or health or both. 

Laura: No, just health. I do these little things and it’s a quirk of mine that I like to do challenges where I’m going to try this for a month and just see if I can do it. Silly things like I’m going to drive my car in the summer without an AC for a month and see how it’s 

Mike: That’s how my cold shower routine started.

I wrote about that where I was like, in the end, especially after doing some research on it, I was like, all right, there’s really no health benefit to this. It’s not going to boost my immune system or make my skin or hair prettier or anything, but it does wake me up. And so I just stuck with 

Laura: it.

Yeah. So you understand that sometimes you just want to have a little personal challenge just to see if you can do something. 

Mike: I cut out caffeine just recently, even though I wasn’t having much. That’s my, I’m going to see if it impacts my sleep at all. Even though I was having my normal day was three shots of espresso at 9.

00 AM and that’s it. And I was like, eh. 

Laura: No espresso. 

Mike: Yeah. No. Now actually I’m just doing, I just a cappuccino. That’s what I really like. I like cappuccino dry. It’s like a little bit of milk, more foam, and I like it strong coffee. So now I’m just doing decaf because I actually don’t care about the caffeine.

I don’t even feel it to be honest because I’m not very, I have a fast metabolizer of not just caffeine, but also it would include any sort of toxin like alcohol and so forth. So I could have a couple hundred milligrams of caffeine and I’ll feel a little bit. for an hour and then it’s gone. So it’s not, I don’t really get much of a buzz from the espresso.

I just like how it tastes. So I’m like, eh, if I’m just going for the taste, I’ll just get rid of the caffeine. Cause who cares? 

Laura: Yeah. I’m like that too. I love the taste of coffee. I don’t really care about the caffeine. 

Mike: Yeah. I understand. So it was all right. So you start the vegan challenge basically.

Laura: Yes. My husband was vegan for many years and he was always trying to convince me. So I did go vegetarian for a while, but I was still doing dairy and eggs and all of that. And he just kept trying to convince me that I should do it. And I was like, you know what? I’ll do it for a month and I’ll see how I feel.

So I decided to go totally plant based and to be honest, when I gave up the dairy, I didn’t realize I was having an issue with dairy until I gave up dairy and I never felt bad, but it was instantly like after two days of no dairy, I didn’t have the stomach bloating anymore. So I decided, okay, maybe I’ll just keep doing this.

So I just gave it up and it’s been a year in August that I haven’t had any animal products. 

Mike: Are there any other notable benefits that you’ve noticed? 

Laura: I actually feel better. It was a challenge at first because I didn’t know how to structure my meals. 

Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve written about that. Yeah, you have to pay closer attention to what you’re eating.

And there’s also I’m sure I’m sure you’ve educated yourself on you want to watch out for a couple micronutrient deficiencies. But if you just account for those things, it’s perfectly workable. 

Laura: So yeah, exactly. So when I decided to do a diet coaching, Matt, he actually told me you had a coach that specializes with vegan and vegetarian clients.

And I was like, that’s perfect. He said he, she knows how to structure meals and she knows how vegans and vegetarians like to eat. And I was like, that’s great. What’s funny is I had bought meal plans in the past. This was when, before you even had the coaching and there was lots of protein shakes, a lot of protein shakes, but 

Mike: A lot of rice protein people.

Yes. 

Laura: So working with Rachel, she was awesome. She immediately asked me how I like to eat, what I like to eat. And if I had an issue or I wanted to change something, she did it for me immediately. The accountability was big for me because I had never actually, I know I’m not going to win any sympathy here, but I had never had to diet before in my life.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. No I understand that. Actually. My wife is similar. She’s always been small, petite, so whenever she wants to lose a little bit of weight, which is purely random, like she, her body, she doesn’t need to from it from more than anything than just the way, we’re all our, yeah we’re all our worst critics where she’ll look great to me, look the exact same as maybe a month ago to me, but I’m going to lose three pounds.

But. Because she’s never really had to diet before. It’s actually tricky for her to, because she’s so used to just eating the foods that she likes and they’re just nutritious foods and the portions. And I understand that not firsthand, but at least directly secondhand. 

Laura: Yeah. It was a, it was an interesting experience to go through it.

A part of me was like, I should do this also for, to understand what. The people in my classes and my personal training clients go through when I suggest to them to make dietary changes. Cause I had never had to worry about it before. And I definitely got a different perspective than what I expected to get.

Mike: And how did that play out? 

Laura: I realized that when you take something away, like she did give me chocolate. Cause I love dark chocolate, but I didn’t realize that I would graze on things all day long without even, yeah. And it’s every time I walk by, I’m like, Oh, I’m going to have an M and M. Oh, I’m going to have this.

And being very aware of everything that I was eating, I was like, wow, I was really eating a lot of sweets. 

Mike: Yeah. And it’s easy. Even if it’s not sweets, it’s easy to rack up calories when you snack. And that’s one of the, 

Laura: yeah, 

Mike: it’s like a simple tip for people who want to lose weight without necessarily going all in on meal planning or tracking or calorie counting is one of the tips is to eliminate snacks, limit yourself to two or three bigger meals per day.

And it really helps with calories, especially when people are eating nutritious foods like nuts. For example, if they snack on nuts, a lot of people don’t realize how calorie dense nuts are seeds. 

Laura: Oh yeah. The trail mix all the way. Exactly. 

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. Dried fruits. 

Laura: Yeah. Dried fruit, nuts, nut butters, things like that.

It all adds up very quickly. 

Mike: Yeah. How did that turn out then? So in how long were you working with Rachel for? And then what were the results? 

Laura: I did a three months with Rachel and I went from right before I started, I think I was a hundred and I got up to 148 pounds right before I started. I think it was one 45 and I got down to one 27.

Wow. That’s great. Maybe one 26 and a half. Yeah. I hadn’t been that slim since I was in my late twenties. So I, it surpassed my expectations. 

Mike: That’s awesome. And what were you doing for, 

Laura: I love weight training, but I started making more time for weight training instead of just focusing on, I’m going to get my workout in my classes.

I, cause I have a home gym, so I just decided I’m going to use my home gym. And I made sure I did weights Monday through Friday, if I could. Cause I was working multiple jobs and all over the place, but adding in the weight training and upping my protein, that’s another thing I’m sure, being plant based, it’s a little bit more tricky to get all the protein in.

Mike: Yeah. I was going to ask that. What did you do for your protein? 

Laura: I use the thrive protein. I did things like tofu, tempeh lentils, quinoa. I just had to plan it a little more carefully. 

Mike: Yep. 

Laura: But yeah, once I upped my protein, that made a huge difference. 

Mike: What kind of difference did it make?

How did you notice what were the changes? 

Laura: The, like my body started looking different. I started looking more defined. I think I was doing too high a carb because, when you’re told that you do a lot of endurance stuff, then you’re like, you need to eat more carbs. And I think I was doing too much carbohydrate, not enough protein.

Which I see in women a lot, they don’t do enough protein 

Mike: and 

Laura: I was doing the same thing. 

Mike: Yeah. And I’ve heard from many women who experienced the same thing where they didn’t change anything other than just eating more protein. And they were surprised at how much tighter their muscles felt and how much, because I’ve heard from women who were actually doing.

A lot of things, right? They were training their muscles. They were doing a bit of extra exercise as well and eating nutritious foods, but their protein intake was way too low. I just didn’t realize it. And then correcting that quickly improved muscle tone, muscle definition, strength in the gym, of course, muscle gain, although you’re not going to necessarily notice that in, in just a month.

And it’s not surprising if you understand. The role that protein plays, but they were pretty surprised that simple of a change could make that big of a visual difference and a big of a difference in how their muscles felt to them. 

Laura: Yeah. You had mentioned one time that you told a guy at the gym just to watch your calories and get your protein in and not worry about the carbs and fat.

I told one of the ladies in class that because I, I was told, I told they were asking me what I was doing cause I was looking different. And I said, just do this. And I told her that I said, just keep your calories under this and just hit your protein goal. And it was after about three or four weeks cause she was already slim.

And the other women were asking. Asking her what she was doing because her arms looked more defined, her legs looked more defined, and all she did was up her protein. 

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, of course, it’s, again, it’s not surprising when you understand a bit more of what protein is comprised of and what your body does with it.

But it is one of those like very easy kind of magic bullet quick fixes for many women who are into working out. They, I’d say the vast majority that I’ve come across both. Online and offline are not eating enough protein. And yeah, that’s the simplest tip to give is if they’re not eating somewhere around a gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, assuming that their body weight is in a normal range, it could be a bit less.

It doesn’t have to be necessarily that I could be like 0. 8 grams to one gram per pound per day. If they just do that and watch their calories they’re going to be, Surprised with their workouts. 

Laura: It definitely helped me and learning how to do flexible dieting. I know it’s kind of cliche, but it did change my life as far as eating is concerned.

Mike: And when did you learn about that through me or through the coaching service? Did you already know about it previously? 

Laura: I knew about it in theory from you. I had never practiced it, but when Rachel started giving me the meal plans, and then after a while I was like, I’m gonna see if I can just follow these macros and these calories and then try to eat some things on my own.

And I started tracking everything myself and just I was tracking everything in a in an app. And just trying to keep my calories a certain place and my macros. And I was like, wow, this is, it’s empowering really. Because then you’re like, I don’t have to just eat this every day. 

Mike: Yeah, exactly. And that’s really what I want people to walk away from the coaching, whether it’s diet coaching or the all in transformation coaching is it’s also about teaching.

people to be self sufficient. And that’s, of course, on the dietary side of things, one of the big lessons is you don’t need if you just understand these principles, these basic principles, you don’t need us to continue making meal plans for you or tweaking meal plans. You will, we’ll happily do it if you want us to, but that’s, within a few months.

That’s of course, everybody who goes through the program knows what to do going forward. And many people do continue because they just like the accountability. They like their coach. They just like the service. As I say in the sales letter that I wrote, I do intend for people to fire us after 90 days, basically say, okay, great.

Now I know everything that I need to know, and I can just do it myself. 

Laura: It actually helped me a lot because then I saw that I can eat The chocolate that I want, as long as I account for it in my macros and calories. So I didn’t have to feel like I had to deprive myself, which I think that a lot of women think that when they start a diet, that they’re going to have to restrict things or take things out that they enjoy eating.

And that’s the only way that they’re going to be able to lose weight. But then that restriction causes some kind of emotional. I had it at first. I was like, I can’t just eat whatever I want. It was emotionally, it was harder than I expected it to be because I never had to think about it before.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. And the psychological effect of being able to eat what you like, even though, you have to regulate how much you can’t just eat. If you’re a hundred and 50 pound woman, and you wanted to eat an entire bar of chocolate every day. And still lose weight. You could do that, but you’re going to have a tough time.

You’re going to be very hungry. You’re not going to be able to eat very much else other than, whatever that would be probably 800 to a thousand calories of chocolate, plus maybe another couple hundred calories, right? So it’s not very feasible, but if you had let’s say a hundred calories or 150 calories of chocolate per day.

Yeah. Now that’s very workable. And I don’t know about you, but what I found is I also like dark chocolate. I eat a little bit every day, usually a, I don’t know, square or two or something. I like chocolate in particular because it doesn’t take much for me to be satisfied for whatever reason, as far as like I can eat a hundred calories of chocolate and be satisfied, but just eating.

A small amount of something that is whatever it is that you like, it makes a big difference than not eating it at all. It makes, I think, a bigger difference than people realize going into it, where if they normally, let’s say, they would eat quite a bit more of something sugary and tasty. And now when they’re cutting, they’re eating quite a bit less.

But the fact that they do get to eat it every day makes things a lot easier. Then they think going into it, they think, Oh, it’s just a hundred calories of chocolate. I don’t think that’s going to be satisfying. But then women in particular, I found many women far surprised at how nice it is just to be able to have a little bit of something every day.

Laura: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Because, I like peanut butter, but as soon as I saw that my fat was a certain amount, I started like just dreaming of peanut butter. I don’t know why. But then I found a way to get just a little bit of peanut butter into my plan. And then that was enough to satisfy me.

And it the dreams went away. It was a really strange thing. 

Mike: That’s funny.

Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it.

It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say Thank you. You can find me on Instagram at muscle for life fitness, Twitter at muscle for life and Facebook at muscle for life fitness. Were there any challenges, any obstacles that you ran into along the way that you had to overcome?

Laura: Yeah. Going out to eat like date night, my husband is very supportive, but he’d go just have a cheat meal. And I’m the kind of person that I’m all or nothing, a cheat meal. And then I just want it all the time. So I was like, I’d rather not do the cheat meal and just, have a few extra carbs that day or something, but not have a dessert because then I just want the dessert every day.

Mike: And so what did you do then? 

Laura: So basically I would just have a few extra carbs that day just to feel better. Like the refeed and it did make me feel better. And then I would reward myself every two weeks or every three weeks instead of once a week. And get something small and really savor it.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good strategy. Was there anything else that you had to shift gears to overcome? 

Laura: I think the planning at first, I really had to think about it, especially when I started to transition away from following a meal plan and actually doing flexible dieting my own. At first I was like, wow, you really have to think about everything.

But tracking everything every day, I got used to what I was going to eat because I found that I eat the same breakfast every day. 

Mike: That’s the funny thing that’s very common where people 

Laura: eating the same food 

Mike: exactly where you come full circle, right? So a lot of people that first, let’s say they, they read one of my books or come across an article or podcast or video or something.

I’m talking about meal planning. And they go, okay. And my pitch for meal planning is that It’s you get to eat the foods that you like, but if you just do this and say, yeah, it’s a little bit annoying. You got to open up Excel and poke around the internet and then you have to weigh your foods at least for the first little bit.

So you get an idea of portion sizes, but it guarantees results. It absolutely guarantees results, or at least it takes out the biggest stumbling block. It takes out the biggest variable that causes people to fail in their dieting. And then, so they do that for a bit and they go, okay, fine. And then it works.

And they’re like, oh shit. So that’s exciting. And then they just stick with that for a while to get to their goal. And then okay, now they come to the same point where it’s I could, I don’t need to eat exactly this. I understand now the numbers I’ll just start plugging and playing and then eventually come back to where they’re basically back onto a meal plan.

Cause they go, 

Laura: it’s just easier. Yeah. I don’t need all this 

Mike: variety in my diet. I eat I speak for myself. It takes so long for me to finally hit that point of like food fatigue where I just don’t want to eat my dinner anymore. And I think I’m actually there. I’ve been having this chicken and vegetable stir fry for, it probably is like seven months now.

Wow. Basically, I don’t know, five, six days a week for that’s my dinner and I’m finally coming to the end of it. I’m like, all right, 

Laura: I don’t really look forward to this 

Mike: anymore. I think it’s time to get a new recipe basically. And that’s, I think I’m maybe an outlier in that regard, but still where people will find.

I can, Hey, I can eat the same stuff every day for weeks on end and be totally satisfied. And I don’t even want to change anything. And so it’s coming back to eh, it’s on a, maybe a loose meal plan, 

Laura: yeah. And if I did get tired of eating like Brussels sprouts, I would have, like asparagus, just something.

With a slightly different flavor, but it’s still a vegetable. And that was enough to keep me motivated to keep doing it. 

Mike: That’s great. And where are you, what are your goals now? What are you doing now? And what’s next for you? 

Laura: Right now I’m maintaining, I was going to do a little bit of a cut, but I think I’m just going to maintain for a little while.

I’m enjoying eating more food. That’s for sure. And I do allow myself to have a cheat meal once a week, but it’s not a big deal now because I’m in maintenance. So I don’t feel like, Oh, I really need a cheat meal. I do savor. It has taught me to slow down and really savor the things that I, the treats that I have.

Mike: And that’s a good tip for just eating in general, actually eating quickly is fine. If you just have a portion of food and that’s all you’re going to be eating period. And if you want to just slam it down, okay, fine. But one, if you more slowly, you’re going to enjoy it more, but then you’re also going to be fuller sooner.

So because it takes a bit of time, you drink some water also with the food that you eat, you’ll probably get, be more satisfied and feel fuller. And those are just good tips, especially with sweets to eat them slow, enjoy them when you’re maintaining because you’re not necessarily weighing out every meal.

You have an idea of how much you’re eating, but you could also fairly easily overeat if you’re not really paying attention, 

Laura: oh, for sure. It got me in the habit of weighing myself because before I didn’t really weigh myself, weighing myself every day. I was always afraid to weigh myself every day because I would see the women in my classes and there’d be like, I gained a pound a day.

Oh, I lost a pound a day. And they would live and die by that number. And I’m like, I don’t want to be like that. But realizing that there’s going to be fluctuations, like I would go out to eat, even if I got something healthy at a restaurant and that I’d weigh myself and I’m like, wow, went up two and a half pounds and I knew it wasn’t fat.

So it really taught me that there’s going to be fluctuations up and down and that’s just normal. And. It’s helped me educate the women in my classes too. Cause we’ll joke about it. Like we, I had a cookie yesterday and my weight went up a pound, just things like that. And I’m like, it’s not fat though.

Yeah. 

Mike: Yeah, no, it’s, that’s a lesson. That’s one of the first lessons that. Many women that they need to learn just because so many women have been indoctrinated to live and die by the scale and have been trained to think that if their weight ever goes up, that’s bad and you always want it to be going down and they should be sad when it goes up and happy when it goes down period and of course, that’s not true and of course, there are multiple reasons why weight can go up and down.

In addition to fat gain and fat loss, and especially when you’re talking about, yeah, having a little bit of extra carbs one day. Yeah, don’t be surprised if you weigh an extra pound or two the next day, but it’s not because of fat. It’s because of additional water retention, for example, and. Glycogen in your muscles and stuff.

And especially in the, in this new third edition of thinner, leaner, stronger, which I’m just in the process of releasing. I make even more of a point on this, that weight is good and weight is important. And it makes sense to pay attention to your weight, but don’t make that the only metric and don’t make that.

It’s not even the most important metric. I think for women, especially women who are starting out with resistance training. because of course that adds weight. It adds any muscle that they gain is going to weigh something. And the muscle that they already have is going to hold more water and more glycogen, which for anyone listening doesn’t know, it’s just a form of carbohydrate.

So that means weight’s going to go up. And so what often happens, and I hear from these women is, They’ll be doing my program for usually like four to six weeks and they’ll email me because they’re confused that their weight hasn’t really changed, but their pants are fitting better and they’re looking better in the mirror and there’s not sure is that a they’re happy with that?

But is it a bad sign that weight hasn’t changed yet? It hasn’t gone down yet. And of course the answer is no. You can expect that weight gain in the beginning from the resistance training. Which is then offset by the fat loss. So their weight maybe didn’t change yet, which depending on where they’re starting, it will change eventually, but it’s just a good lesson for women to learn.

Laura: Yeah, exactly. And same thing with the weight training, because I hear it a lot that I don’t want to do heavier weights and we’re talking. I say, grab a heavy weight and they grab a five instead of a three. They’re like, this is my heavy weight for lat rows. Something like that. 

Mike: So we’re doing like a thousand reps here, right?

Laura: Yeah, exactly. How many reps you’re going to have to do to fatigue that muscle. But I’ll hear Oh, I tend to build too easily. Which are like, that’s you not burning off the body fat as fast as you’re putting on the muscle. Yeah. 

Mike: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Sure. There are, of course, our genetic outliers in both men and women, but even women who tend to gain muscle and strength faster than most still a slow process because your average woman, if she does everything right, can gain, let’s say 10 to 15 pounds of muscle in her first year of weightlifting.

Whereas with men it’s about double that. So 

Laura: Yeah. And they seem to think that they’re just going to wake up this yeah, I wish, but I’m like, it’s a very gradual process. And then when you get to where you want to be, you just, you can maintain that you’re not going to wake up a Hulk. 

Mike: Yeah, exactly. And then even when you’re maintaining, then you have the flexibility to, to overeat for a few days if you want to, if you have a good reason to, and then you can under eat for a few days and just be right back to where you were.

So it’s nice. It’s enjoyable. 

Laura: It is. Yeah. It’s definitely an empowering thing. You don’t feel like you’re at the mercy of, I don’t know, your hormones or something. Cause I hear that a lot too. It’s my hormones or I’m just older. Cause I’ll be 49 this year and I have one more year in my forties and I’ll tell younger women all the time.

I’m like, I’m almost 50 and you’re never too old to start weight training. It’s going to make a huge difference in your physique. 

Mike: Very true. Have you noticed any. Major differences, major physiological differences between now and let’s say your twenties and as far as fitness goes are there new challenges?

Laura: Yes. Like I have to give myself more recovery, definitely a mobility. I struggled a little bit for a while when I was on the program with doing squats because I had really tight hips. 

Mike: Okay. What did you do to fix that? 

Laura: I would do some yoga mobility routine. 

Mike: Nice. 

Laura: Pigeon pose, foam rolling, although I don’t know how much foam rolling helped me, but it felt good.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. It probably doesn’t do that much. The yoga though. I’ve been doing the same thing now for I’ve been shit. It’s probably been a year at least about 10 minutes a day. So I do pigeon pose. I do. Let’s see frog pose or I don’t know the name. Anyways, I run through a routine, actually put an article up at most for life, just showing people, Hey, here are the things that I do for lower body and our body.

Cause I also had tight hips. I had also my external rotation on my right side was not very good and my left side, it was better. And then my internal rotation was reversed. So on my right side, it was good on my left side. It was not so good. And that just made for uncomfortable squatting. It made for uncomfortable dead lifting, but it took a while to get things balanced.

But now I would say the internal rotation is still slightly an issue on my left, but it’s definitely gotten better. And the external rotation has gotten a lot better. Are you able to squat now comfortably? 

Laura: Yes. I’m still not doing a heavy weight cause I also have a hamstring issue. Yeah. I had a hamstring injury like 10 years ago and I didn’t go see anyone about it.

So there’s probably some scar tissue there. I’m better than I was because I think the yoga made a big difference. 

Mike: Yeah. 

Laura: I went to see someone and after a while when I couldn’t, I would bend over to touch my toes and I couldn’t even reach my knee. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I was like, okay, I need to go see somebody.

So when I went to see him, he actually gave me some stretches, dude. I’m like, this looks like yoga. So I just started doing yoga. 

Mike: Yeah. That’s, I just started doing yoga cause I was like, I’m just tighter now. That’s the thing I noticed as I was getting older, more tightness just in my hips and also on the right side of my upper body.

And so I started doing yoga and I would do like one Maybe two, one hour class a week, and that wasn’t enough to really move the needle. So I was just like, I did enough where I had gone through a bunch of poses and I just. Took the poses that seem to feel not necessarily good because in some cases, I wouldn’t say it’s painful, but it was uncomfortable because if you lack mobility and you’re trying to force slowly, really, you’re trying to ease your body and force it into a better just getting into those positions.

It’s not comfortable, but it’s not painful. It’s just uncomfortable. So I just took the ones where I was like, yeah, I think these are the ones I need to do. And it actually worked fairly well. 

Laura: You could apply that to pretty much anything that’s challenging to you. That means you need to do more of it.

Mike: Yeah. That’s applicable to many areas of life. That’s for sure. So that’s your experience as a coaching client. And then now you’re on the team. So how did that come about? 

Laura: After I went through the program, I was like telling everybody about it. I was telling the women in my classes, I was telling my training clients, I was talking about it online.

And then you mentioned that you were looking for coaches. So I was like, Oh, what’s it going to hurt? I’m just going to try. And so I sent in my application and Matt contacted me and he said that it really helped that I had gone through the program because I had a perspective from the other side and I knew what clients would be going through.

And it’s really awesome because whenever I’m working with the clients and they’ll have a day where they ate a little too much and their weight went up on the scale. And I’m like, I’ve been where you are. I know what it feels like. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s one day and just get right back to it.

And I think that helps a lot because before I wasn’t, I could sympathize with them, but I couldn’t empathize with them. 

Mike: Yeah, no, I totally understand. I’ve joked sometimes that. I feel like in some ways I’m not the best role model because there are some things that for whatever reason, I’ve just never had problems with.

I’ve had my problems, but there are just certain things, not necessarily. There’s some fitness things like diets, for example. I’ve never really had any issues cutting in some cases, maybe it wasn’t like all that enjoyable. And I was like, Oh, I wish I could eat more food, that’s about the extent of it.

And then in other areas where people ask me questions on, Hey, how do I overcome this obstacle? And I feel bad sometimes cause I was like, I don’t, I feel like I don’t have any great advice. I could parrot some stuff that I’ve read and I’m happy to do that, but I wish I. Could say I totally know what you’re going through and here’s what got me through it.

Because that tends to be the most valuable advice that you can get and give. 

Laura: Yeah. The emotional aspect of dieting, I think I didn’t realize how much there was to it. There’s a lot of emotional issues. It’s I find this more with women, but I work more with women. Men may go through it as well, but.

It’s like you have a slip up and you just want to beat yourself up about it. Like I’m a failure and I should just give this up. It’s not for me. And it’s just a bump in the road. You just have to keep going, but it helps to have that person tell you, look. It happens to all of us, or at least some of us, and you just get right back into it and it’s not a big deal.

Mike: Totally. Yeah. Maybe I haven’t dealt with much of that type of thing because I’d always go to that. If I happen to eat a bit too much on a, let’s say a cheat meal, it’s Oh yeah, that’s a little bit over the top. My. Instinctual response was more along the lines of let’s look in the bigger picture.

How much does it really matter? You know what I mean? I’ve been in a deficit, let’s say a 4000 calorie deficit so far. And maybe I erased a little bit of that. Okay, big deal. What does it really matter? But I totally understand where if you don’t have that information. I guess I can relate to that.

I can relate that in that There was a guy who introduced me to flexible dieting many years ago, powerlifter guy. And he just, he didn’t tell me how it worked. He just said, Hey, so eat. I think he had me on I don’t know, 2000, maybe 2200 calories a day or something. I wanted to get lean. And he’s here it is.

Protein, carbs, and fat. I don’t care what you eat. Just meet those numbers. And I was like, what I can eat. It literally anything. Not that I was into eating junk food, but I was like, what about complex carbs, simple carbs? What about sugar? What about different types of fat saturated fat? And he’s I don’t care about any of that.

Just hit these numbers and let’s see what happens. And so I remember I had a cheat meal went and ate sushi. I remember texting him after so I just ate free spicy tuna rolls and emoji and like some edamame. Is that okay? Or did I over, did I overdo that? And then he’d be like, Dan, just don’t worry about it, dude.

It doesn’t matter. So I do understand where if you don’t have all the information, then that’s where the emotions can easily take over because we all tend to catastrophize when we don’t have information or missing information, for whatever reason. And our brains want to. Often fill in with the worst case scenario.

So I can’t empathize with that for sure. 

Laura: And it helps if you have that longterm vision, if you’re just caught up in the day to day in the present moment and any little issue or problem that comes up and you, yeah, it becomes very dramatic. But you have to look at it as this is a journey and you’re going to have a little bumps in the road and you just get right back on the path and keep going.

Mike: Yeah, exactly. No, I agree. I think that’s, that’s also all the questions that I had for you. Is there anything that you wanted to, anything that’s like still top of mind that you wanted to talk about? 

Laura: If anyone is out there wondering if this is the coaching services for them, I really do think you should consider it.

Even when you have knowledge and you know what to do, sometimes just having that accountability, having to report to somebody every day and having somebody give you a little pep talk when you’re down on yourself. That is probably the number one thing that got me through when there were days that I’m like, I don’t want to do this anymore.

I just having that coach tell you, This is just one day. We’re going to, take another step and another day. And by the end of the three months, you’re like, wow, you realize how much you’re capable. 

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. And Laura’s saying that not just as a coach, but also as a former client.

Laura: Yeah, no it’s 

Mike: pretty cool to see. I love seeing, I do a. Every four to six weeks or so an email and so I get to go through the success stories and it’s just cool. It’s cool to see because at this point, we’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of people of all ages and circumstances. And in some cases, it’s been pretty tricky and it can be people who are very busy, who are traveling a lot.

And they come into it thinking this is probably not my time is so limited and I’m all over the place. You probably can’t do it. And we figure it out. And in other cases, there’s age where you have people that think it’s just too late, my hormones or my metabolism, and then can show them just within a couple months, major results.

But then that’s also, it’s not just the results. It’s what does that say for the future? And then it shows them like, oh, wow, if this is what I can do in three months, imagine what I can do in three years. And that’s cool because that’s really what it’s about. That’s what I try to promote is longevity and lifestyle, not just quick results.

Quick results is great. It’s motivating, but really I want to teach people something that will serve them for the rest of their lives, something that they will be able to enjoy for the rest of their lives, as opposed to. Crash diets or really grueling, 30 day crazy exercise challenges that sure can deliver some results, but are not sustainable.

And then can even almost it’s like a negative halo effect can then make people reluctant to want to even do it. Try something else because of how terrible that that previous thing was, 

Laura: yeah, I’ve seen that in when I’ve talked to clients, they’ll give me this long list of things that they’ve tried and they got results.

And then they went back to what they were doing and they gained all the weight back 

Mike: totally. 

Laura: And. This is definitely something sustainable. Not only does it teach you how to eat for the rest of your life and still enjoy what you’re eating, but it also empowers you in other aspects of your life. You’re like, if I can do this, then I can do pretty much anything.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. Did you experience some of that? 

Laura: Yeah, for sure. There were times when it was difficult and I wanted to give up, but because I just there are days you’re just like, I just don’t want to do this. I just want to eat chips on the couch and watch TV. But then I had to remind myself what my long term goal was.

And after going through it, and I feel so much better. Not only about the way, how I look at how I feel, I just feel better. And I have the skills now to manage how I eat for the rest of my life. I don’t have the metabolism I had in my twenties. I could pretty much eat anything and never have to worry about it.

It wasn’t until I hit about 45. I’m like, wow, I really have to watch what I eat now. But now I can eat foods that I enjoy eating and still maintain my weight. 

Mike: Yep. Yep. And a lot of that metabolic change can be explained by just reduced activity levels. For most people, they were more active when they were younger.

Laura: And muscle loss too. 

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. Muscle loss can be a factor. It depends in your case, you’ve been training your muscles. It’s probably not much of a factor now because unless you were noticeably more muscular in your twenties than you are now. Then sure, it would be a factor, there’s something called non exercise activity thermogenesis NEAT.

And this is just spontaneous activity that we engage in without really realizing it. It could be something as simple as fidgeting or or something as, I would say, inconsequential maybe as fidgeting or something as consequential as Pacing around a lot, like walking around a lot of, maybe when you want to think, or it could be also something that’s in between exercise and need to like, taking the stairs instead of taking the elevator.

And in a lot of people that tends to be quite that neat factor tends to be a lot higher when they’re younger than when they get older, especially with. Most of us sit at a desk to work, and so that alone can be the difference of if you spend a fair amount of time walking around, whatever it is that you were doing versus sitting, that could be a difference of if you stretch that over the course of a day, it could be a difference of hundreds and hundreds of calories, actually.

Laura: Oh yeah. Definitely. It adds up. 

Mike: Totally. Awesome. Laura. I really appreciate you taking the time. I love your story. Yeah. Thank you for doing what you’re doing. Happy to have you on the team as a coach and look forward to seeing what you can do for other people. 

Laura: Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. 

Mike: And if you dear listener want to learn more about my coaching service and how we might be able to help you reach your health and fitness goals faster, just head over to muscle for life.

com slash coaching muscle F O R life. com slash. Coaching, and you can learn all about it and schedule a free consultation call where my director of coaching, Matthew, we’ll get on the phone with you and talk about where you’ve been, where you want to go and how we might be able to help you get there faster and more enjoyably, which counts for something again, muscle for life.

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