Ep 134 – How Important Is Meal Timing?

TRANSCRIPT:

Dani

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Vegan Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Dani.

Giacomo

And I’m Giacomo.

Dani

And this is episode 134. So Giacomo’s in Florida because this is precisely 15 minutes after we filmed the last one where he was in Florida. We usually record two podcasts in a day. Normally there would be no way for you guys to know that, but right now you can clearly see that that is the case.

So there you have it. still in Florida. I am still at home. This goes live at the end of August, and I am so excited because that means, like, two weeks after this podcast comes out, we are going to London on an actual, actual vacation.

Giacomo

We’ll see about that. We’ll see how much work we do while we are vacationing. Because at this point, I don’t know if I could stop either. We got so many exciting things in the works, like Plant Build is right around the corner in October, and we’ve had our July and August trips with our FIT Expo that we go to and the lead Expo, it just never ends.

There’s just so many cool things that we have that require our attention. But I do hope that we treat this like a vacation and we just get to chill. And I’m really curious to see how true it is that London is that vegan friendly.

Dani

I am so excited. I have lists upon lists upon things that I want us to do. I’ve never been across the world. I’ve never left, like, this area. I mean, we travel on the cruise, which is like the Caribbean, and I went to Canada once when I was younger, but like, that’s it, that’s the end of the list for me. So I. This was on my bucket list for the year and I’m making it happen and I could not be more excited about it.

So very happy. And I know it’s not actually the end of August when we’re recording it, but it does just show, like it’s coming up much faster than we realize. So anyway. All right, Giacomo, what’s the topic today?

Giacomo

Meal timing and how important it is. It’s one of those things where I’ll go right to the conversation and be like, oh, yeah, just, you know, your pre workout meal and your post workout meal, the most important thing, and yada, yada, yada, get in Protein X amount of times a day and have a feeding window that’s like this.

Speaker 3

Okay.

Giacomo

There’s nothing left to talk about, right? Wrong. Obviously we can more than unpack those things and how they affect Your lifestyle and your choices. Just because you have that piece of context doesn’t mean that this is not a subject that we can dive into. Because there’s so much nuance when it comes to meal timing and how it affects people’s behaviors and lifestyle and their thoughts about it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But that being said, why don’t we start with those basics and talk, touch upon each one of those and talk about them. Because in my opinion, as far as what’s on paper, on the surface, those things are in fact really important and they’re not to be. You’re making a face. Tell me, well, how do you feel about them, Danny? The ones that I just mentioned, the tried and true?

Dani

Well, I think they have importance, but I think that if you are not getting in the right amount of calories, protein, every single day, like consistently, if you’re not weight training consistently, then the pre and post workout meal timing does not matter. So here’s the thing. If you consider like a pyramid of hierarchy of what is important for physique change, the number one most important thing anywhere, period is adherence.

So if you can’t adhere to the basics first, there is zero point in focusing on the stuff at the top of the pyramid. Like, adherence is the bottom of the pyramid, right? Like of everything. And up at the top, in the like top third, I guess I would say of a pyramid are things like meal timing. And then above that I would say like supplementation. So this is kind of like people that are like kind of not doing anything that they ought to be doing and worried about getting the right supplements.

And it’s like, buddy, you are wasting your time. Doing that is like polishing a turd, basically. So meal timing is important if you’re already doing a lot of things correctly. So I just, I guess I just want to like put that caveat out there right from the start.

So everything we’re going to talk about from here on out is assuming that you are already eating

proper amount of calories, protein, working out consistently, have a good sound training program, et cetera. Okay, now we can talk about those things.

Giacomo

Gotcha. Preface with all that stuff beforehand, eat the right amount of calories in a day no matter what, and go out and exercise regularly multiple times a week, no matter what, then you can start to get into the finer details. Is that what you’re saying?

Dani

More or less, yeah. Give you an example. I’ll give you an example. Let’s say somebody has a weight loss goal and they know they have to eat 2000 calories a day to achieve that goal. But today they had a workout, at night, they already ate their 2,000 calories. Should they have a post workout meal just to have a post workout meal?

No, because that’s just going to put them over their calories. They probably should have planned that day out a little bit better. So that’s what I mean. Like, yes, it’s important, but only if the other things are already in place.

Giacomo

That’s a very good example, actually. Thank you for pulling that one out of your head. I like that a lot. Because you can get so caught up in doing things and having a list and checking off the list that you forget that it doesn’t matter if you should eat something before, after you train, if you’ve already eaten for the day in that specific scenario.

That’s the perfect example, actually. Cool. So now we get into the more interesting things when it comes to eating habits. Meal timing specifically. And there’s all sorts of. You have the grazer, you have the one meal a day person, you have the person you just mentioned that needs to do all the things that are written on paper, even if it doesn’t make sense. Like, okay, I’m supposed to eat before and after I train, if I eat my thing.

So what do you do when, when all those, when you reach those different kinds of approaches with meal timing and you want to stick to what works? I know that the answer is it depends, but I guess I just want to dive a little deeper into the topic of meal timing. And what, what do you look at when you’re assessing, like how you space out your meals in a way that makes sense for your lifestyle and for your body?

Dani

Well, I like to always start with what I consider to be best practices. Like if I’m writing a program for somebody that’s brand new, I’m going to start with best practices. I’m going to, you know, depends on

what they say in their questionnaire. But what are best meal timing practices? Right. I think that’s really important to talk about. One, to space out your protein pretty evenly throughout the day from anywhere from three to six meals.

And whether it’s three or whether it’s six is going to depend on the person and their schedule, blah, blah, blah. But somewhere in there. So if someone has to eat 120 grams of protein and they’re going to have four meals per day, we’re going to try to get roughly 30 grams of protein at each of those four meals. Spacing out the protein evenly is going to allow Us to get enough protein at a particular protein feeding to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

It’s going to give us enough time in between those meals to have those muscle protein synthesis markers come back down so we can spike them again. Right. This is why grazing straight through, it’s not ideal. You want space in between the meals so you can appropriately stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

Um, so that, that would be like the first thing that I would do. Determine how many meals somebody’s gonna have somewhere between three and six and then space their protein out roughly evenly through those meals.

Giacomo

You can go into the second thing. I have a thought that I’ll hold if you want to keep going, but if you don’t, what’s the second thing?

Dani

The second thing is their pre and post workout meals. So I like to have about 20% of their carbs before their workout. So if this can be a full blown meal with protein also even better. But you know, 20% of their carbs before their workout. I like to have 20% of their carbs after their workout. It could be more, but I don’t like it when it’s less than that. And I like to keep that post workout meal low fat because fat slows digestion and you know, sooner the better. Right. Post workout meal.

So that is the second thing. That again is best practice. Is everybody going to do that? No, but I like to start there and then tweak it from that. So when I’m working with somebody, I’m always thinking like what is optimal for this person? And then thinking now, okay, great, we got that. Now what is possible for this person? Like what can they actually do? So we kind of back up to that point because most people can’t operate at an optimal level across all metrics.

Giacomo

Every day of their life, nor should they. What is scientifically sound and looks best on paper is a piss poor approach for any person all the time. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what your mindset is and I don’t care what your lifestyle looks like. It’s going to change and you need to be adaptable. You take that information and you make your own.

And there will be times when those ideals are in place. But again, we don’t fit into boxes. People have all kinds of different challenges that they face, different times in their life, whatever mood they’re in, as far as like how they’ve been eating and this and that. And if you don’t find ways to make it work for you, it can be problematic. Alternatively, there are also certain, like Eating habits, if you will, that can cause people to get into what I would argue are, dare I say, bad

habits. Like, so you take for example, like, I’ll take an extreme example right here from, from the first point, right? So let’s say you need to get in. Preferably like, I don’t know, we’ll take a person who needs to get in 100 grams of protein and we’re like, all right, try to get in like 25 grams of protein three times a day.

I don’t care how you eat the rest of the day. Try to do that and try to get in. I don’t know, let’s just say they need 300 grams of carbs. Try to get in like 40 grams of carbs before you work on an FD workout. And try to get in and try to get in less fat.

Dani

60. 60 would be 20 of 300.

Giacomo

I. I know, but I like to go a little lower, right? Because I personally, Danny, what I find when I program for my clients is that when I give them what’s ideal, they shoot for it. And if they, and if they’re having a bad day and they shoot for it, they shoot themselves in the foot for the rest of the day. I like to be a little flexible with people.

Dani

And again, that, that’s, I totally agree. That’s why I think of what is optimal and then back up to what is possible for somebody. You know, if they’re nailing it, cool, I’m not touching that at all. They’re nailing it. But if, if something like that is popping up or they’re like, hey, I am starving to death by like 4:00 in the afternoon, then maybe we got to space it differently and

it might not be optimal anymore. But remember, the most important thing is adherence. The most important thing. So we have to make the plan something that is adherable to.

Giacomo

It just makes sense. When you’re not trying to hit targets with laser like focus, people are going to wind up wanting to move a little past their target and they should be in line. And the same thing with the low fat. I’m like, well, if there’s a difference between you enjoying something or not, like that’s protein based or convenient on the flyer, just eat the thing.

So those are two ways to be flexible and intuitive and mindful as opposed to someone who’s exact and trying to have accountability and just trying to get the best results and also accountability to their coach. Like when you program like that scientifically for somebody, in my opinion, behaviorally, you Set them up for failure. The other thing is when you have a person who’s just trying to put everything together. And again, this is an extreme odd example. I don’t know if I’ve

come across it, but I hypothesized is, say you take someone and you’re like, that’s the same scenario working with Danny. Okay, so you’re getting in 25 grams of protein three times a day or more. You’re getting in a considerable amount of carbs before and after you train. You’re not like starving yourself before you train and you look at that person and you’re like, all of a sudden they’re eating 10 meals in a day. Little tiny snacks throughout the day. You know what I mean?

Dani

Oh, that’s. For me, like, that’s a no for a lot of reasons. Actually, I don’t think eating tons of meals is a good idea. Mostly because you’re not going to be able to get enough protein if you have, let’s say, 100. Just because it’s a round number. If you have 100 grams of protein and you’re eating 10 little meals per day and each of those is somewhere in the vicinity of 10 grams of protein.

10 grams of protein is not enough to spike muscle protein synthesis. So you can hit your protein by the end of the day and. And not actually spike muscle protein synthesis at all.

Giacomo

No, what I mean to say is say that somebody gets in their protein three times and the rest of the meals are like, whatever foods that don’t have any protein in them. Like that example I’m talking about, like a disordered eating pattern. For example, someone who’s just like grazing all day long because they can. Like, that’s an example of how you can take balance and still, if you’re not focusing on meal timing, isn’t having healthy habits.

You can go. You can go off to a bad place. Whether it’s like, I’m only gonna have three square meals, or I’m gonna graze all day long, or I’m going to live life on a meal plan as opposed to eating in a way that is conducive towards wherever I’m at during that day, whether I’m spending some of my day with family, whether I.

It’s a workday, whether it’s a weekend. Like, you don’t have to follow something on paper in order to have meal timing that is healthy for your lifestyle. And you can still get good results with those. Tried and true.

Dani

Do you see?

Giacomo

You see where I’m going with this? Like, it’s very easy to. Yeah, I mean, I think about, as a coach, I think about all the people I’ve worked with over the years. And I think to myself, and I suppose I’ll just call it out like the type A in somebody that needs to do things routinely and in a certain way and needs to be in. And let’s just say that they’re. They need accountability.

So they’re following a plan on paper because scientifically it makes sense or whatever. But what they’re not looking at is how to eat in a way that is conducive towards wherever they’re at in life. And to me, that’s where the magic happens. Not the intermittent fasting or the eating perfectly pre and post workout kind of thing. You know what I mean?

Dani

Am I losing you? You’re kind of, you’re kind of losing me a little bit here. Because for me, I would personally, I would not say, hey, get 25 grams of protein and three meals and I don’t care how you eat the rest of the day. Like, those words would never leave my mouth. To a client personally, I would say, hey, how many meals a day makes the most sense for you?

Between three and six. And then we start there because certainly, yeah, days happen where we weird. Everybody has weird days where like your schedule gets thrown off and you got to do what you got to do. I actually just posted a what I Eat in a day video. Well, I guess when this comes out, it’ll be like two months ago. So two months ago I posted a what I Eat in a day video that was totally like a bizarro day.

So it was a real look at what a weird day of eating looks like for me and how I try to make it work. I think that’s worth checking out. Where was I going with that? Oh, but outside of that, I like people to try to create some sort of regularity to their meals, some kind of meal schedule schedule that works for them. There’s actually a name for people who do not eat on a schedule at all.

And it’s called chaotic eating. And when you go in for any kind of like. Well, there’s a lot of. You don’t have to have disordered eating to do this. But most of the time, if someone does have some kind of disordered eating, one of the first things they’re going to do is put you on a food schedule. And it’s tough because at first, you know, meal time comes and you’re not hungry at all, but you gotta force it down and Then you know, the next day you’re a little less not hungry.

And then, you know, several days into it, a week into it, you’re actually hungry for that meal. Your body has come to expect food at that time. And I think that’s a really good place for your body to be. Now the actual hours of the day, that doesn’t matter so much. That’s got to work within your schedule. And yours could look totally different than somebody else’s.

I don’t eat breakfast until 11am usually. And that’s not because I’m intermittent fasting, because I don’t care for intermittent fasting. It’s just because that’s how my body works. I also eat my last meal like close to 10 at night. So there you have it.

Giacomo

Yeah, the answer, as usual. And I know you love to say this, but I feel like you got to say at least one more time it’s true. The answer is always, it depends and you have to think about. And although the rules are there in terms of like what you said, chaotic eating versus a food schedule and you got to learn the food schedule before you can find your happy place, there is something to be said about giving yourself a little bit of flexibility.

At least that’s my personal approach with clients and with people in general. Because how do I say this? When you’re working with adults, adults want to be told what to do from a professional and they also don’t want to be told what to do. And when you lay out guidelines too much and there’s that fear of trying to figure it out on your own, I find like from like a psychology based standpoint that people actually falter or they fear learning how to be more autonomous and figured on their

own. So sometimes I do throw out stuff like that. When I find someone who will do or die, follow everything to the letter, I’m like, listen, yeah, carry your basics. I know you’re going to do what you’re supposed to do. Take this, this little nugget, this little idea, you know, what you should do on top of it, you don’t need to hear me say it and get, and get a little more balance.

Dani

So that’s, I hear what you’re saying and sometimes I do give people who are very, very, very rigid around their rules sort of exercises that are specifically meant to increase their flexibility around these things. I agree. I just probably wouldn’t word it exactly the same way. But you know, that’s why we have our good, better, best system.

You know, we build in to our clients protocols here’s what you’re going to do when your day is like, awesome. Here’s what you’re going to do when your day is like, meh. Here’s what you’re going to do when your day is sucky. Here are your new targets for your sucky day, your mediocre day, and your rock star day. And I won’t go into all of that because it’s really specific, but it is outlined in the book if anybody’s interested in that. But yeah, the good, better, best, perfect system has

been really helpful for a lot of people who want to check off all the boxes. And then if they can’t check off all the boxes, they have another option that isn’t failing, it’s doing, you know, they’re not gonna have a perfect day, they’re gonna have a best day or they’re not gonna have a best day, they’re gonna have a better day. And that’s fine. That’s still all money in the bank, all moving forward.

Giacomo

Yeah, exactly. And that’s kind of like this, that’s the in between place where meal timing is open to interpretation as far as like the individual and like what their whatever it is, their needs are at any given point in time. And it could be really tough. It could be really, really tough when you have go achieve. And there are certain specifics, like the ones that, Emily, let’s reiterate here, the food schedule of three to six meals and having that and also X amount of protein

throughout the day and X amount of carbs, like those things can really stress you out. When life, when life hands you something that is uncontrolled chaos, for example, or you have to react or you have to pivot and you haven’t adapted to whatever you got going on. And let’s face it, like, that’s what life is. So

if you can’t get there while still getting back to those things that should be scheduled and that work on paper, well, you’re gonna have a really hard time not only mentally,

but also execute, executing. And if you do, how’s it gonna feel like what’s going to be your quality of life? You know what I mean? How’s that going to affect people around you? How’s it going to affect your environment? How’s it going to affect other things you do and are. Will you really be getting the best results possible? You may not be.

You know, that’s the kind of stuff that, that it’s like, it’s not as simple as, oh, okay, everybody knows the couple of things that you should be doing. So just do it. That’s why we have these kinds of let’s put these kinds of episodes out there like this one on the importance of meal timing because these things matter.

Speaker 3

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Dani

Do you want to talk a little bit about pre workout and post workout meal timing? Because that’s actually where I find pre workout meal timing specifically is where there is the most variability from client to client. I just told you my best practices 20% of your carbs, hopefully a protein dose as well prior to working out. I would say maybe I stick the landing on this one with a client maybe like 40% of the time it almost always has to change. But I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

Giacomo

Well I like meals to be a little more easily digestible, specifically pre workout meals. I think post workout you could overdo it a little bit on fiber and it might hurt as far as nutrient absorption goes and just being able to get food to your body quicker. But I Also feel like it’s less important post workout because you’re not moving around like crazy and maybe you want a little bit of vegetables just to feel satiated after you’re working out.

I find that people, after they train, they’re ravenous and I think one of the reasons are because they’re feeling good, they’re excited, their body’s in recovery mode, they gotta rush to do the next thing. They just took time out for their workout and for all of those and they want to reward themselves. So the idea of a non starchy carb or something that’s easier to digest or like, you know what I mean? As opposed to a big bowl of vegetables or a lot of vegetables in your plate, that’s

not, it’s not exactly appealing to everybody, you know what I mean? Like just having something that’s not as easy to metabolize essentially, regardless of how quickly it’ll get to your system. Pre workout though, again, I, I try a little lightly when it comes to pre workout. I, I don’t want something sitting in my stomach like a ball of lead before, before I train. I typically don’t suggest that others do that. Right.

Dani

Which is what most people say. They say, oh, how do you want me to eat, you know, 50 grams of carbs before I train? Like, I get up at 4 in the morning to train Danny. Like it’s not happening. And those are the instances where it’s like, okay, we’re going to need to make some modifications here. I’m like, well, can you do 25? Like, can you have a banana in your stomach before you train?

No, I can’t have a banana in my stomach before I train. I’ll feel sick. Okay, we’re going to walk it back further. Can you mix orange juice into your water bottle and drink that while you train? Yeah, I guess I could do that. Okay, maybe we can get 40 grams of carbs in during the training. It’s still something, you know. Is it what I would consider to be best practice?

No. But is it best practice if someone ralphs while they’re training? No, it’s not. So, you know, ideally people would have enough time to digest some of their pre workout meal before they started lifting, so that, that wouldn’t be a problem. But a lot of people are moving heaven and earth to get their workouts in in the first place. Getting up at four in the morning or five in the morning to get this done, I’m not going to force food down their throat so they feel nauseous for the next

Several hours if we can get it in in some way. Awesome. Sometimes it just takes people some getting used to. They’re just not used to having food in their stomach before they train. And sometimes people get used to it and it’s fine. Some people never do get used to it.

And then we have to find different methodologies of getting something, something, anything flowing through the system before we start training. Yeah, sometimes that’s even just a large meal the night before. So yeah, timing matters in that regard.

Giacomo

Yeah, definitely.

Dani

I forgot about, let’s talk about this. This is still, this is still a huge, huge like topic for a lot of people. They’re like, well, why can’t I just train fasted? I have made like countless videos, YouTubes, Instagram Reels, et cetera about this. Why don’t you explain why it is not ideal to train fasted?

Giacomo

Rather than get into a debate, why don’t we just stick to one simple sentence here? Because then we can get into a debate if needed. If you eat before you train, you’ll have more energy to train. Well, there’s no gray area here. Yeah, I mean, well, how quickly you’re going to tap into your body’s energy storage before you train, regardless of how many, how like much of your energy stores want to be utilized to exercise.

If you have some fuel that’s ready to be used because you just ate a little something and more energy for your workout. This again, like, that’s not, there’s no mystery there. And if you have a better workout, well, you’re gonna lift more weight, you’re gonna burn more calories, you’re gonna, or let’s, let’s go to non diet route.

We always have constantly going the diet route with our narrative. We’re, we’re going to lift more weights, we’re going to have better cardiovascular endurance, we’re going to be less likely to get injured, you’re going to make more.

Dani

Gains if you have a better workout period, End of story. But for a lot of people, that is actually not compelling enough. They’re like, no, I have fine workouts. When I’m fasted, I’ll just keep doing it fasted. Okay, well here’s another little tidbit for you. If you have nothing flowing in your body, a lot of people say, well, fasted, fasted.

Exercise burns a higher percentage of fat. Well, la di da told you so. And they use that as a reason to keep training fasted. That is technically correct that the body does burn a higher percentage of fat when you train fasted. However, that doesn’t actually equate to more body fat lost by the end of the day. That is very, very important. It’s just using fat for energy while you train.

But at the end of the day, the checkbook balances, you know what I mean? Whether you’re fasted or not. But here’s the real kicker. When you don’t have any substrate energy, calories, sugar flowing through your veins, your body’s going to find a place to get energy. And yes, we all hope it taps into our fat stores. Isn’t that lovely when that happens?

But bodies don’t care. I know we mentioned this maybe earlier in this episode or the last episode we just recorded, Bodies Don’t Care. It will absolutely go into your muscle tissue and break it down if it needs to. If it needs to use your muscle tissue as energy, your body doesn’t care. Like that’s what it’s going to use then. So when you have juice, for example, or a banana or any carbohydrate flowing through your veins, your body’s going to use that for energy and leave your goddamn

muscle alone. As long as you do, you know, all the other things for the rest of the day. So the percentage of fat you burn during your workout doesn’t matter. What matters is the calories burned, period, the end. And what matters is your calorie balance by the end of the day.

So, you know, if you can’t eat the 20% of carbs in a protein serving like we’re talking about here before your workout, that’s. That’s fine, that’s okay. You know, try to get something in, even if it’s just putting some juice in your water bottle, just something.

Giacomo

Okay, fair enough. Sometimes you could even wind up eating a little bit during your workout instead of the. Well, we’ll say either it’s an excuse or you’re not adapted yet. One or the other. Because the whole, like, it’s hard to fit it in. You can find a way to make a quick shake the night before and have it on your way to work. Like, I don’t. I don’t buy the idea that you don’t have time to make it and make a meal and eat a meal before you train.

I think it’s more a matter of your digestion isn’t adapted to it yet, or there’s some sort of excuse. Or maybe the fear that, like, you’ll be hungry later on in the day, for example, which I can get with, I can get down with. But, like, having something before you train you know what I mean?

Dani

Yeah. I actually don’t think it’s an excuse for a lot of people. A lot of people roll out of bed, walk into their basement and start lifting. That’s it.

Giacomo

But what if you have a little something ready the night before? You just pull it out?

Dani

That doesn’t matter. I mean, it takes 10 seconds to peel a banana. Not even 10 seconds. But if people can’t do it before they train because that’s how much time they have, then that’s how much time they have. And if they eat a banana and then puke during their training, that probably wasn’t ideal. But I think it’s worth finding something that you can tolerate or having something.

Giacomo

In a less than ideal situation or routine where at least you’re having something while you’re training.

Dani

Post workout meal We’ve talked a little bit about the anabolic window and how it is, you know, used to. Everybody used to think that you had 30 minutes after you finished training to get your food in or you shaken or whatever. And if you missed that 30 minutes and your whole workout was for nothing, you guys can probably guess by what I’m saying that that is not true. You know, the sooner after your workout you can eat, the better. Great.

Awesome. But I mean, you can eat up to like 2 hours after your workout and still reap the benefits of it, you know, so that one, I think is more down to your preference than anything else. Like I could get a shake in right after the gym before I even get in my car. Right. But I don’t wanna, I want to wait until I get home to actually make a hot, delicious meal. So it means I wait a little bit longer to eat, but I enjoy it more. So that’s what I do.

Giacomo

Yeah. And thinking back to the science behind, like the more adapted you get, the shorter your. The more. Remember the whole study behind, like you have to eat closer to when you work out. We even talk about it here years ago where like as you become more adapted to training, it becomes more important to honor the post workout window versus someone who’s a little newer. How do you feel about that now?

Dani

I don’t even remember. I don’t even remember that, to be honest. I will. I’m not going to talk about it and pretend like I do remember because I don’t remember. I’m going to have to re look that up because it’s actually not ringing a bell.

Giacomo

I remember Mental Henselman’s talking about it and the whole crew, the whole, the whole, all the Science boys and whatnot. Or the science boy, like narrative, I should say, because the body of work was there across the board and everyone was like talking about, okay, well, the more often you train, the more advanced you are with your training age, the more important it is to hit your feeding window.

I don’t know, I think people were just like trying to figure it out. I’m inclined to agree with you as long as you’re getting in pro again. Isn’t it crazy, Danny, how the answer that is the most simple right in front of you is almost always the right response and people just want to get complicated. Humans want to introduce complexity into everything.

Dani

It’s painful. It’s painful to realize that the answers are actually so easy. If you are someone who is not getting the results that you want, it is painful to hear that the answers are like literally have been in front of you the whole time. You’ve always known it. You have always known a lot of this stuff. You know, that’s a hard pill to swallow.

It’s much easier to think, oh, there’s just a thing out there that I just don’t know. There’s a secret somewhere that I don’t know. I mean, honestly, there is a secret that a lot of people don’t know. But that secret is how to build habits. That secret is how to get yourself to do the thing that you need to do every single day. That’s the secret. And that cannot just be like explained. Although we’re going to try at some point.

We’re going to try. I promise to explain exactly that because that’s the secret sauce. That’s it right there. How do you do it? How do you wake up every day and do it? You know? Okay, rant over. I’m still very exhausted. This is the day Desmond woke me up at quarter or five in the morning and I’m also just like not feeling well. So if I’m a little like bizarro today, I apologize to everybody.

Giacomo

I’m in full on sweat mode. I don’t want to turn in the fan. This non air conditioned room. Well, this is a podcast. I mean, the sound doesn’t have to be like super whatever because we’re working remote, but like podcast, which should sound good. Oh, it is. It is hot in here.

Dani

So, yeah, one more thing I want to talk about one more big meal timing thing that people always ask about eating at night. Is it going to cause you to gain weight? Is it going to prevent you from losing weight? Let’s talk about that.

Giacomo

No, I mean if you’re burning the midnight oil and you feel like having a snack or if you’re in the mood to like have a tiny little snack right before bedtime, or if you’re.

Dani

Danny and you eat a full on meal right before bed every single night, like I eat full on meals and go to bed within a half an.

Giacomo

Hour, you might be the only one.

Dani

No, not true.

Giacomo

Oh my gosh, it’s. And this is where the flexibility comes into play. Like you don’t know. I mean you could be set up with any sort of thing and if you try to stay glued to a specific set of food rules, you’re going to set yourself up for failure and you’re going to wind up snacking the wrong way or spacing out your meals the wrong way.

It matters what you do on average over time. So if you’re up right before bed or if it’s the middle of the night and you’re having a snack here or there, as long as it doesn’t throw off your, your, your meals like how you eat on average.

Dani

You know what I mean? I’m going to, I’m going to reword your answer here, please. You’re welcome. If you’re still eating within your calorie limits and your macronutrient limits, you could eat at 3am and it wouldn’t matter. Eating at night, the time on the clock is not going to cause you to gain weight. It’s not going to prevent you from losing weight.

As long as you’re staying. Remember that thing one, adherence. As long as you’re adhering to your overall calorie protein, macro, etc. Needs, you could eat at any time of day and it won’t cause you to gain weight and it won’t prevent you from losing weight. That is so, so, so, so important. So here is where I think there’s more individuality.

Someone like me. I can’t sleep when I’m hungry. If I try to go to bed and I’m hungry, you know I will get out of bed 30, 40, 50 minutes later and go downstairs and get a snack because I can’t sleep like that. There are other people. So for me it makes perfect sense to have a big meal before I go to bed. It’s fine. I sleep better that way. There are other people that are the opposite.

There are other people that when they eat to. My mother is like this. If she eats like within two and a half hours of going to bed, she’s like, I’m going to have crazy dreams now. And I’m not going to sleep very well. And I’m like, that is so bizarre to me. But for some people, if they eat too close to bed, they might have acid reflux, they might just not sleep well.

They might have bad dreams. Poor quality sleep will affect your results in the long term because sleep is super important, but the actual hour of day that you eat doesn’t impact body composition. Taco just shrugged. Just dead silent shrugged.

Giacomo

At the end of the day, you just got to figure it out. And it’s, it really is calories in versus calories out. And I think we all have our idiosyncratic, like, behavior when it comes to how we eat and also legit, like, digestive stuff that can affect depending on time of day. But I’d like to think that at the end of the day you can adapt to damn near anything if you want it bad enough.

And sometimes it’s just a matter of being flexible with yourself and finding out a way to eat healthfully right and space out food in a way that would make sense for you, even if things change, regardless of how you’re sticking to your guns. I guess that’s my two cents. That’s my two cents. When it comes to meal timing, I’m speaking to myself as well because I, I do it to myself all the time.

You know, I’m like, I got to do it this way or I can’t do it that way. But at the end of the day, you got to figure it out. You gotta, you gotta find a way to not fly off the handle and go back to the three to six meals a day, protein, three to five times a day, eat the amount of food you need to eat and be adaptable, be flexible with your life because sometimes you’ll be looking for something different and sometimes life will be looking something

different out of you. And it is absolutely possible to feel like crap and still do the right thing that, you know, the juice, the sauce, like to find a way to do it no matter what.

Dani

All right, let’s move on to our question and answer segment. Jacob, this one is for you. How to deal with gym bullies. I’m all for hyping each other up and being supportive all the time in the gym, but there are these two girls at my gym that are just non stop loud and outright making fun of me and other people. Honestly, I’m just trying to get my squat form down.

Giacomo

Wow, that’s a tough one because you can’t avoid like you’re there at the gym and whether they mean to bully or not, they’re obvious. They’re obviously impacting you on a personal level in a bullying, like way. And I’m not there. I mean, like, they may very well be aggressive towards you in a way that makes you uncomfortable. And I’m. What are you going to do?

Approach and engage and create conflict like that. Like you’re just trying to get your workout in. You’re not in the mood for any of that. Plus it’s making you feel awful. I like your idea, Danny, where it’s like whether it’s a person or whether it’s a mirror, eventually just start looking back, right? You just start looking back at that person.

Now what? You start looking at yourself in the mirror. Now what I forgot about. Oh, I haven’t, I haven’t. Because it’s very, it’s. It’s easy to just think that, how do I say this? You could sit at home and train by yourself because it’s the safest way to do it, or you could have access to the commercial gym and deal with all the risks that you’re around, whether it’s someone who’s going to talk too much to you or someone who’s going to look at you a certain way, sometimes even with

malicious intent. And at some point you own it and you’re like, look, I’m here, I’m training. And you start looking back and you start looking at the mirror and it’s your space just as much as it is theirs. And eventually they’ll eat their words if you keep showing up and you take the moral high ground as opposed to the thought that you have to create conflict with them and talk them down the way that you’re talk or risk them talking you down further, you know what I mean?

Or talk them down the way that they’re talking you down, bullying back or approaching a bully. Unfortunately, it’s. In my personal opinion, it’s a very hard thing when you approach it head on to feel good about it in the moment and on the other side to come out with a win for yourself. You usually wind up getting burnt because that person is not.

They’re behaving that way for a certain reason where people don’t like being held accountable in the moment like that. So I personally, as someone who has experience with this, think that the best thing to do is to stand your ground and to smile and to confidently just look back quietly and to. And to do your thing. And I don’t know if that’s the best piece of advice, but that is what I Think of.

When I think of pulling, like, behavior in a gym, I mean, in a worst case scenario, you could wind up approaching. And this, this can be a thing. We’ve it. I’ve seen, I’ve seen situations like this where you can get the gym privately or even publicly. Like, while you’re training, you can get the gym management involved if it’s that bad.

Dani

That’s what I was gonna say. I would march right over to the desk and be like, go deal with these two knuckleheads.

Giacomo

Absolutely. You know, and because everyone’s got to be comfortable in a gym. And if that person, if you’re. If you’re the person in the gym and you’re making people uncomfortable and that person who you’re making uncomfortable doesn’t want to approach you, they have every right to approach the gym management and be like, listen, like, this is.

This is making me uncomfortable. And you got to figure that out, like, whoever you are, lifter. So that is definitely the. That is definitely a solution and an option. While you also make sure, like, you stand your ground like you belong there just as much as they do.

Dani

All right, next question. It’s just the top one silly question.

Giacomo

But is it good to weigh yourself or should you throw your scales out? They always tell me what I want to hear. They don’t always tell me what I want to hear. Like, the scale lies. Yeah, gotcha.

Dani

So I think if anybody wants to throw their scales out, they should do it. Go for it. I don’t see anything totally wrong with throwing your scales out. That said, in my opinion, throwing the scale out gives it way too much power. I mean, nobody needs to have a scale in their house. But if it’s like, you know, a big sort of personal political statement that I’m throwing my scale away because f America’s beauty standards or whatever like that, I still think you’re giving the scale too

much power. The scale and the weight and the number on the scale is literally just one data point. One data point in one moment in time. And it’s easy for me to be like, it’s not that big of a deal. But, you know, that’s. That’s not always easy for me. My weight goes up and down pretty significantly depending on what my goals at that moment are. And I also fall into the trap of sometimes when it’s higher than I would like it to be, my knee jerk reaction is to be like, oh.

But I have to remind myself like, no, this is just one data point. And I actually think that if someone doesn’t have a great relationship with the scale. This is very controversial. So take this advice with a grain of salt. If someone doesn’t have a great relationship with a scale, I actually think there’s a lot of value in weighing yourself every day.

And that sounds quite backwards. But here’s the thing. If you’ve ever heard of exposure therapy, you know, if you’re afraid of snakes or spiders or dogs or something, or heights, a lot of people would say, like, you work yourself up to exposing yourself to those things more and more until they don’t have so much power over you. This is kind of like that.

But the reason is because when you see your weight every day for, say, a month, right, you see that that number goes up and down all the time. Every day that number goes up and down. So when you can see like, oh, this is just, this is just what weights do, they go up and down all the time, then you’re not so stressed out when you see it go up because now you know it’s just going to come back down the next day.

And you can see that, like the trends are just the trends. Whereas if you throw your scale away and then you go to the doctors in six months and they put you on the scale because they’re going to put you on the scale. And even if you say, I want to turn around so I don’t see the number, it’s still going to be on the printout that they give you. Like you’re going to have to face your weight again at some point.

And if you haven’t seen it in six months, that number may shock you. And then, ta da, now it just has even more power over you than it had before. So I don’t think weighing yourself every day is for everybody. And I think there are some people that just don’t ever want to weigh themselves and more power to you. Go for it. These are just my thoughts about scales in general and how I don’t think stepping on the scale should determine how you feel about yourself that day, good or bad.

All right, everybody, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Vegan Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio. If you’re interested in any kind of coaching whatsoever, go to veganproteins.com we

have group training, we have challenges, and we have four outstanding coaches who do one on one coaching.

You can fill out an application there. You can also find us on all the social media. Shoot us an email coacheganproteins.com one of us will always answer you. Once again, my name is Dani and I’m Giacomo. And we will talk to you soon. Bye.