Ep 140 – Navigating Information Overload

Dani:

Hello, everybody. 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 140. Hello, everybody. Well, welcome back. My favorite month of the year is in full swing. Plantbuilt is behind us. So, Giacomo, what are we gonna do this year in my favorite season, because you’re not prepping, and maybe you’ll even be pleasant to be around this year, and maybe you’ll hang out with me. What are we going to do?

Giacomo:

First of all, I take personal offense to that. So no to the things that you just said. I’m going to start another prep run, plant built, and pretty much hightail it out of here. Beeline the opposite direction. Now, I kid, is the correct answer do fall like stuff?

Dani:

Perhaps? Yes. In fact, the correct answer specifically was haunted houses, and lots of them. I actually have a. I have full lists, guys, of things that I want to do, like traditions that I want to do every season, every year. And the fall one is pretty extensive. I assume by the time this goes live, many of them will have already been done, but the haunted house ones likely will not have. And the downside to haunted houses, which I don’t know if you non haunted house aficionados know,

but they are generally only open on Friday and Saturday nights, sometimes Thursday, but they’re usually, like, not open during the week. And if they do happen to be open during the week, they have very limited actors, so they’re not as good during the week. So because of that, you only have, like, eight precious days in October to possibly visit haunted houses. So if you want to see all of them, you’re gonna have to make a choice, and these choices matter.

Giacomo:

The choice is to move to New England, where everyone is way cooler, and haunted houses exist for every season, all year long.

Dani:

That’s true.

Giacomo:

And every holiday, I should say, which we are finding out.

Dani:

That’s true. I’m pumped to take the kids, and you’re coming this year. I don’t care.

Giacomo:

I didn’t consent to this.

Dani:

Last year, I took the kids to this. They’re not old enough to go into an actual haunted house with actors. They think they are, right? Like all kids think they are. But no, they would never sleep again, and it would be really terrible. But I found this one that was like, haunted house. You could come visit, but there were no actors. And I think the lights were up, which, you know, so they could see the scenes and stuff like that and be spooky and foggy, but no actors.

So I bought the tickets which were not cheap. And we went to go see it, and it was not that they had all of the, like, spooky props, had, like, little minion masks on or Mickey Mouse masks. So it would be, like, zombie body with Mickey Mouse face, which, quite frankly, might have been scarier than what it looked like on its own.

Giacomo:

Yeah, that’s really creepy, Dani.

Dani:

I’m gonna find a better one this year where the kids can do the non actor haunts, and I think they’ll really like it.

Giacomo:

If anyone knows any haunts that we can travel to, I’m all ears.

Dani:

That we can drive to.

Giacomo:

Yeah, within reason.

Dani:

Anywhere from New England, even though we have the best ones.

Giacomo:

Do we?

Dani:

Yeah, no question.

Giacomo:

Okay.

Dani:

We live 30 minutes from Salem, Mass.

Giacomo:

Fair enough.

Dani:

Which, granted, anybody who lives here does not go to Salem in October because it’s a nightmare. But Salem’s there all year, guys. Anyway, that is not what we’re talking about. But I could talk about that

sort of thing all day. What are we talking about? Information overload, or information overlord, as I accidentally called it.

Giacomo:

What is an overlord?

Dani:

The Lord who oversees everything. An overlord.

Giacomo:

Oh, yeah. I want to be an overlord, but.

Dani:

That’S not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about information overload, which I think is a big issue in all health spaces, fitness spaces, health spaces, nutrition spaces, all of it. The amount of information that is out there is enough to make anybody’s head spin. And if you don’t know how to deal with it or, like, process it, I think that it can actually really derail somebody.

Giacomo:

I don’t even know where to begin. I’m trying to think of the before times when you actually had to find information, and it didn’t attack you all day long without your consent. And in ways that are arguably completely out of your control. You have to almost rely on the way you learn information beforehand that you know well and figure out ways to learn it better and access more information.

Dani:

Well, there’s pros and cons, right? There’s pros and cons. Because I think about when I was my initial, like, weight loss journey, I didn’t know anything. All I knew, all that I knew for sure was that I had to eat fewer calories and move my body more. I did not consider protein. I didn’t consider weightlifting. I didn’t consider the fact that, yes, you can undereat too much.

So I ate very little because I just was just like, oh, I have to eat less. So even less than that is better. I didn’t really have a lot of information because this was, oh, my God, almost 20 years ago now. The Internet existed, but it wasn’t awesome. I did Jillian Michaels workouts in my living room, and the pro to that was I didn’t have to overthink everything.

I was just doing those things I just said, and like nothing else, the con to that is I could have done it way smarter. I just didn’t know how. And there were downsides to that eventually. But now I feel like there’s so much information out there. And here’s the thing. The truth, the stuff that is real and effective, it is out there. Like, you can find this information for free anywhere on the Internet.

You can find it on YouTube. You can find it on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, podcasts. You can find it anywhere nowadays. But there’s going to be so much other stuff around it that is complete bullshit. It’s like a decoy to confuse you there that you’re gonna have a hard time finding the real thing. And that’s tough.

Giacomo:

I don’t know how to even respond to that because it’s all. It’s a worry, quite. To be quite frank and perfectly honest, what do you even do with all that? At some point, you have to draw the line with what you’re looking to get from the information that is around you and figure out if the sources you’re going after are actually helpful. And now, these days, and I hate to just keep going down this rabbit.

Dani:

Hole of back in my day, no, not that.

Giacomo:

Just the fact that still describing just how much information overload there is, as opposed to how to avoid it. But, like, look at what AI and machine learning and all that is doing to information now. It’s packaging it all up. And in some ways, it’s easier to gain access to and to simplify, but in other ways, it’s yet another way to have access to the information of which there is too much, which is crazy.

Dani:

I mean, AI, I think, is pretty cool for the most part. Like, I think there are things about it that are really cool and can be helpful. Like, as a business owner, it can be helpful for a few things, but I’ve also noticed that it’s wrong. A lot of the time. It’s just wrong. Like, it just, you ask it a question, test it, ask it a question that you know the answer to.

Sometimes that’s just wrong. But the other thing I’ve noticed is it’s also really watered down boring. Like, it’s very easy to spot when something was written by AI, in my opinion. I can spot it a mile away. I won’t get into it, but certainly it can be sniffed out, I think, pretty easily. So I do think there’s a few things to consider. And the first thing is, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

We hear that all the time in all walks of life, it’s also going to be true. It probably is. But definitely when it comes to fitness, health, nutrition, I think that if something sounds amazing, like, oh, just do this one weird trick to lose all your belly fat in two weeks. Like, no, that’s not real. But it’s really popular. And

when it comes to the Internet, the algorithms, for those who don’t like, work on the Internet like we do.

The algorithms are these like, secret things on the Internet. Every single large platform has it. Like, Google has one, Facebook has one. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. I don’t think podcasts do, actually, although maybe they do within certain podcast platforms. But when something is popular, right, if a lot of people are clicking on a particular link or button or thumbnail or whatever, that keeps people on those platforms longer.

So the platforms go, ooh, we like this post. We like this type of content. This type of content keeps people on our platform longer. Push it. Push it out to people. Whereas if somebody is saying something, you know, kind of traditionally boring, like, guys, a lot of it comes down to just calories in, calories out. Like, no one wants to freaking hear that. Everybody’s heard it already. Nobody clicks it, nobody likes it, nobody thumbs up it, and Instagram goes, oh, this is junk.

And just won’t push it out to anybody at all. And the same thing goes for YouTube. That’s why you see such outrageous titles on things and outrageous claims so often, because that, that is the only thing that gets attention. And that’s why. So again, if something sounds too good to be true, or if something sounds really, really wild, it’s probably not true. It’s just popular on that platform.

Giacomo:

There really is no way to avoid information overload.

Dani:

I don’t think so. But I definitely think there are ways to kind of bulletproof yourself against the majority of bfs when it comes to fitness and nutrition.

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Giacomo:

I like the idea of algorithms. When it comes to creating structure around the way that you program macros out for yourself with the calculator this or that, or the way that you program out training to constantly make sure that your variety is there in the right kind of way for exercises and program theory is blah, blah, blah.

Like, I think there’s benefit to algorithms. Algorithmic, is that a word? Yeah, yeah, programming for macros and for training. But I also think that it’s missing a human element. And I see a lot of people looking for that simple answer being like, I could just do this forever. I can just, and I have this approach.

Dani:

Right, so you’re not talking about algorithms on platforms, you’re talking just about math equations to write programs in nutrition, well.

Giacomo:

That were created by people based on their training theory and what they believe people need to do to get results. They’re out there and you see a lot of people go for them because they think, well, this is simple, this is genius.

Dani:

I’m not worried about those things in particular. I’m worried about people spouting off like, hey, just don’t eat this kind of rice or else you’re going to get a gut. Which is like, that’s an actual thing I’ve seen that had like thousands and thousands of likes. Or, you know, I can see the trickle down effect of some of these things. And generally speaking, our clients are pretty, like, they’re pretty bulletproof against this stuff when it comes to, you know, training, when it

comes to nutrition. But recently with all of the quote unquote hormone experts that have come out of nowhere, which, by the way, unless they are an endocrinologist, no, they’re not. A hormone expert. No, they’re not.

Giacomo:

And pause. Even if you don’t have access to an endocrinologist, that doesn’t mean that you throw caution to the wind and just have conversations about your hormones because you want to better understand them. Like there’s an in between place where you can actually not think that you can get the answer from someone because they’re in touch with knowing how hormones work. Like, you still need some data to go off.

Dani:

You can understand how, I mean, you can understand the basics, the very basics of hormones, and certainly you could learn more than that. But if you’re not like a doctor, you can’t be diagnosing other people with various hormone imbalances and you certainly can’t be treating them. And it’s just, it’s one of those things that really, really, really upsets me.

And side rant here, somebody on steroids claiming to be a hormone expert. Get out of my face. Get absolutely out of my face. You’re not going to tell me you can treat this person’s quote unquote hormone imbalance with diet when it’s like you are literally taking exogenous hormones yourself. Zip it. Zipity doo dah. Your mouth. I don’t want to hear it anymore.

Giacomo:

Or just imagine an athlete who uses steroids to enhance, who has a team of professionals, like actual doctors who give them the right stuff. Now they have the experience. So they tell others who don’t have access to doctors what they’re actually experiencing because they know what it feels like. That’s ridiculous. And I wish it happens.

Dani:

I found some, like neat endocrinologists on YouTube that like, have good, you know, they’re not diagnosing, they’re not treating or anything, but, you know, you can learn something from them. And everybody says, well, endocrinologists are just taught how to give drugs. They don’t actually taught about nutrition and this and that. I don’t disagree. Like, I understand doctors do not, they’re not very well. Medical doctors are not well schooled in nutrition, but I, personal

trainers are not schooled at all in hormones, period, full stop, end of story. No, they’re not. And, you know, even wellness coaches, we understand the very basics of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, etcetera. We know that they need to be imbalanced because of this or that, but that’s not something that people can treat. Wow, that was quite the side rantin. I won’t stop with that right now.

Giacomo:

I don’t know, it’s a lot here to talk about and social media being the cesspool that it is and people just

regurgitating little snippets of information everywhere on like three to 15 2nd videos for the views that information being becoming more and more popular and then everyone just following that as gospel, as if it’s truth. Cause it’s what’s in front of their face or being affected by it. Cause that’s pretty sure that’s where we’re at right now.

Dani:

Here’s the thing. There’s these super, super flashy people, and I’m not. I’m not thinking about anybody in particular when I’m saying this, so don’t try to guess who I’m talking about because I’m not talking about anyone in particular. There’s a super. There’s like a ton of super flashy people who don’t know their butt from their elbow, but they’re really flashy.

They look fantastic. They make wild claims super, super popular. Then on the other side, you have the people that like, know a whole lot, but they’re much more like reserved, calm. Their videos aren’t like as interesting. Nobody pays attention to them, even though what they’re saying is the truth. But, but, but there is a group of people in the middle.

I think that not only do they know their stuff, but they’ve found a way to be entertaining enough to capture people’s attention. They call it edutainment, education, entertainment. I mean, you could say that this podcast is kind of like that. I don’t think we’re that entertaining. But you guys keep coming back, so thank you for that. But there are people out there that I’ve found that both are interesting, fun to watch, fun to listen to, and also are telling the truth, or at least

the truth right now. Right. Because the science does change and we need to acknowledge that what was quote unquote the truth 20 years ago might not be quote unquote the truth today. And what is true today may be different in 20 years based on new research. But I would say, like, if you can find those people in the middle that you enjoy listening to, that also are being honest in the things that they’re saying like, that’s the jackpot.

I talked about Greg Doucett on the last podcast. This guy is, again, you’re gonna love him or you’re gonna hate him because he’s got a really obnoxious, sort of, like, character that he plays that I think is funny. A lot of people just think he’s annoying, but people keep tuning in to see this crazy guy go nuts on screen and do these really big rants and blah, blah, blah. But if you actually peel that back, the stuff that this guy is saying, largely, very, very true, very accurate, like,

advice that’s applicable to a lot of people, he nailed it. He nailed it. And that’s why his channel grew from to, like, I don’t know how many followers he has now. Well over a million. And that’s why. But, okay, now, how do you find these people? How can you tell if someone’s just talking out of their ear or not? That’s, that’s the hardest part.

Giacomo:

Right? Because if you’re that interested in entertainment, you may be the type of person that is not able to seek out a edutainment, for example. You can fall victim to that, unfortunately.

Dani:

Or you just like watching, like, funny, interesting people. Like, there are some people that I watch that sometimes. I just watch them kind of because they don’t know what they’re talking about. And I’m just like, this is fascinating that this person has got so many people on the hook with this particular idea. Waist trainers. Like, that’s a great one. Like, what? How, how did that become such a thing?

Detox teas. Like, are you really making a vlog about how much you pooped today? And people are watching it, and I’m watching it, like, what is wrong with society? I don’t know. Anyway, so I’m gonna ask you because. Because how would you find. How would you be able to tell which people are mostly, mostly speaking the truth, in which people are just making wild, outlandish claims?

Giacomo:

This is gonna be out of my.

Dani:

Yeah, because jackbo doesn’t consume any content at all.

Giacomo:

I’m gonna be the first one to admit that one. You’re wrong. I. If something is too entertaining, I immediately don’t trust it. Believe it or not, I go for the boring stuff, but not the stuff that’s so research heavy that I feel like I’m in academia land. I go for something that’s a little boring, but I know it’s more trustworthy.

Dani:

Such as?

Giacomo:

Well, like, look at three DMJ, for example. Right? I’m sorry to say it guys like, I love you. They’ve been coaching me for three, four, five years now, something like that. But their stuff is a little on the drier side.

Dani:

See, I think they’re entertaining.

Giacomo:

Really?

Dani:

Yeah, I think they’re entertaining. I think Eric Helms is one of the funniest. Right guys out there.

Giacomo:

You and I do. But you think everyone thinks they’re entertaining?

Dani:

I mean, enough people, apparently. Well, maybe, but I do encourage them.

Giacomo:

Comparing them to someone like, say, a straight up cartoon character like Dom Mazzetti or Greg Doucet. Like, when you. You’re not comparing apples to apples here, Dani. You’re talking about a larger than life.

Dani:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Giacomo:

You know what I’m saying? So I’m not saying they’re boring, but I’m saying they’re boring in contrast to someone like one of those two dudes, for example.

Dani:

So I’ll give you some ideas. I’m just gonna list some people just. And I don’t have a list in front of me. I’m doing this off the top of my head. People that kind of fall in the middle, in my opinion. Jeff Nippard is a really great example. His videos are very, very evidence based, super evidence based, but they are kind of fun to watch. Like, they’re very well edited.

Sometimes he talks about things in a very nuanced way. There’s a video that he made about obesity.

Is obesity a choice? Wow. Like, talk about a clicky title. I never clicked on a video so fast when I saw Jeff Nippard’s enormous channel post a video called is obesity a choice? And the video was super good and incredibly nuanced and interesting without being just, like, super, super nerdy.

It has his, like, input on it as well. Omar Isaf, I think, is great also. And he’s funny as hell, in my opinion. And he also collaborates with Eric Helms quite a bit. They have their own podcast, which I’m blanking on the name of it right now.

Giacomo:

Something iron.

Dani:

Yeah, I can’t remember. It’s not generation iron, but it might be the iron generation. I can’t remember. It’s something like that. People that kind of fall into that vein in the middle. And here’s the thing to look for. In my opinion, nothing they’re saying is outrageous, guys. It will always come down. At the end of the day, it will all always come down to the basics.

They’re the basics because they work. And if you’re not hearing a particular influencer of some kind talk about how you need to get good sleep, how you need to make sure you are eating in a caloric deficit if you want to lose weight, or eating in a caloric surplus if you want to gain weight. Protein, stress levels, hydration, lifting weights, progressive overload.

Like, if you’re not hearing these words come out of people’s mouths, that’s not a good sign. That doesn’t mean that’s all they talk about. They might talk about other things and, like, their take on something like intermittent fasting. And you might not agree with everything everybody says. There are tons of people in the vegan world that I can get down with, like, 50% of what they say, and then the rest of it, I’m just like, oof, yikes.

So, you know, you have to be choosy about the stuff that you’re willing to listen to. And I do think it’s good to have an open mind to other things, but, you know, really curate the fitness and health and nutrition stuff that you listen to or watch if you can. Because if you just let everything in, the that amount of information is going to stop you from ever doing anything because you’re never going to feel like you’re doing the right thing.

Because this person told you that skipping breakfast is terrible for women’s hormones, but this person told you that intermittent fasting is the best thing you can do for fat loss. And this person told you you got to have 30 grams of protein as soon as you wake up. But this person told you to just eat one meal a day.

If I had all of that coming in my head at once and I didn’t know anything about anything, I’d be super overwhelmed, and I’d just be like, forget it. I don’t want to do this anymore. And I think a lot of people get stuck in that trap.

Giacomo:

So the idea is to make sure that whatever you’re consuming, especially if you don’t know what the tried and true principles are yet, starts to speak on those things, like actual, sound, evidence based information. If you’re not starting with that, you’re set up to fail, essentially, because you can have someone who’s going to throw in evidence based concepts in a nuanced kind of way, who has all the character or whatever, but if they’re not leading with that, then you got to

start somewhere like that. You got to get, you got to get the basics nailed before you start to get super into the fun of it all. When people are just putting information out there, whether they’re doing it cat like, whether they’re doing it super fast, like, super short videos, whether they’re doing it with, like, long form stuff like YouTube or a combination of the two, like, that stuff’s all well and good, but you’re going to start, like, this is the information overload that

we’re talking about here. You’re going to start missing what you need to do and becoming overwhelmed, because all that really good information, assuming that you’re looking into the right places and not the. The stuff that’s just there to catch your attention, only people are just saying things, even if you’re looking at the right information. If you’re. If you don’t understand those concepts, if you don’t have that under your belt, you’re gonna get lost.

Dani:

Yeah. And a lot of this stuff, you’re not even gonna discover what you think or feel about it until you start going, you know what I mean? If you’re not actually already in the gym lifting, what does it matter if one person’s telling you to go to failure all the time, but another person saying, leave two reps in the tank if you’re not going to the gym?

You don’t even know what that means to you. Don’t even know what that feels like. So step one is just to get in the gym and do it. Like, just do something to start. And then I think more things start to make sense. And, you know, I don’t even fault these creators. You know, with a few exceptions, there are a couple people out there that are just, I think, deliberately deceitful.

But I don’t fault these creators because the platforms that we all live and work on, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, Facebook, whatever, they demand it. They demand content from the creators. And a lot of people are making their living creating content. Now, I’m very, very happy that we do not make our living creating content. We make our living coaching people.

Content helps people get eyeballs on what we do. So, you know, there is pressure to create content for Giacomo and myself as well. But it’s not like we’re getting ad revenue from Instagram or we don’t. We don’t take sponsorships from companies, as you may have noticed on this podcast. And it’s not because people don’t offer, it’s because I don’t want.

That’s just. I don’t. It’s a slippery slope. It would have to be a really, really good partnership for that to happen. But the platforms demand it from people. And if that’s how you’re paying your bills and that’s how you’re feeding your family, you have to put out something that’s going to get more eyeballs, more clicks, more likes, more engagement, because that’s the way it is. Now.

The answer, unfortunately, has very little to do with the individual and everything to do with the platforms themselves. They need to be fixed. But as long as they’re putting money into these giant corporations that blast ads out to people and make the ad advertisers happy, they’re not gonna change. It’s not gonna change. So you have to be very, very diligent about what you take in.

Giacomo:

Yeah, well said. It’s those two points, just making sure that you have the concepts nailed first before you start to go down any sort of rabbit holes, no matter how much you enjoyed and them that, and to make sure that you’re doing things, because who cares if you’re having fun and nerding out at the same time with information if you’re not actually running

experiments on yourself and getting into routine with reasonably sound eating habits and training habits? That happens to so many people, they’re just afraid to do anything.

Dani:

Yeah, it’s not cool. Yeah, it happens. And a lot of people, like, get a tiny little dopamine hit every time they watch a video about fitness or about nutrition as if they actually did it, even though they haven’t actually done it yet. That’s tricky. But, you know, I haven’t said this on a podcast in a very long time, so I’ll say it now. Anytime you’re on social media, anytime you’re on a platform that is free, like Facebook or Instagram or YouTube, if it is free, you are the product.

If you are using a service that’s free, you’re the product, guys. So remember that, because every single thing that is put in front of your eyes is put there for a reason. And it is not because they care about you and want to show you the best things on earth. It’s because they want to keep you engaged and on the platform longer so that they can show you more advertisements. So it’s just really, really important to always remember that these platforms were designed by people much,

much smarter than, certainly smarter than us. But at this point, the machine they created is also smarter than them, and they’ve all admitted it as well. Like, you can’t outsmart it. So the best you can do is try to be very careful about who you follow, who you listen to, and curate your feeds as much as you possibly can.

Giacomo:

Right. And you don’t need to be paranoid and disappear off of all of it altogether just to protect yourself and keep yourself safe.

Dani:

Giacomo’s winking at me because if you guys remember, I did that between 2020 and 2021, I was like, I’m done. I don’t want to be a part of this anymore. Goodbye. And then I was like, oh, wait, I have a

business and family to feed, so I guess I have to use social media again. Cool.

Giacomo:

Wasn’t where my head’s at. I will definitely be happy to go there. Why not? This is perfect time to have fun poking at each other. Nah, you just don’t want to let fear dictate your every move.

Dani:

All right, moving on to our questions and answers. So, okay, Giacomo, I’m training to compete next year for my first bodybuilding competition. What are some tips, training and or diet leading up to next year?

Giacomo:

That’s a loaded question, friend. Tips and tricks for what? Dieting? Is that what they said?

Dani:

Not really tips and tricks, but just do you have any tips for what to do leading up to next year?

Giacomo:

Oh, my gosh. Enjoy your off season. Don’t take it for granted because you got your eyes on the prize and be like, ah, I just want to get started. I’m just ready to do this thing because it’s going to come. And when it comes, you’re going to think back on that time that you spent worrying and being focused on doing it because you look so excited to prep. Enjoy your off season for all it’s worth. Take time to continue to develop your skills and your toolkit during the off season because

that’s important and creating a good starting point. But don’t get so obsessive over it that you don’t give yourself a chance to have a little bit of space and a little bit of slack with yourself to enjoy the time where you don’t have to be on all the time, being a walking, talking checklist of things that you have to do for prep. Like you need, you need a little time to just breathe while you’re preparing for your competition season. I think that’s my number one.

Dani:

I would also say, get a coach now. Get a coach now. So many people come to us and they’re like, in panic mode because they have a show in like ten weeks and they realize they’re behind and they actually don’t know what they’re doing. And at that point, it’s like kind of playing damage control for the next ten weeks. I think that when you want to compete, you should start working with a coach at

least a year out, ideally.

Giacomo:

They hate hearing that.

Dani:

I know, I know.

Giacomo:

Such a hard sell for so many people, and it shouldn’t be because you need to. If you don’t set up your lifestyle and you’re mental the right way before you prep, you’re gonna be in for a world of pain. If you’re lucky enough to get to the stage, which some people can cause. They’re that kind of, I mean, but.

Dani:

A lot of people are learning a hard lesson when they get on that stage for the first time that like, oh, crap, I just got schooled. And, you know, a lot of people think the magic is the prep, and prep is kind of magic because you’re peeling the layer off and seeing what’s underneath. But I cannot stress this enough. If you don’t have a solid plan going into that, you are going to be so freaking disappointed with what’s underneath.

And if it’s your first competition especially, do you even understand what the category you’re competing in? Demands of you little things people don’t think about, like learning how to pose. Oh, my goodness. The number of people I see get up there that don’t know how to pose. Their physique’s amazing, but they can’t show it. If you’re competing in figure, do you actually know what body parts are most important or if you’re competing in bikini?

I know we all know it’s glutes, but it is not just glutes. There’s other things that need to be there or what’s the difference between classic physique and men’s bodybuilding? What’s the difference between men’s physique and classic physique? Those are two completely different categories. There’s just, there’s so much that goes into it, and I really feel like you need to be prepared.

Somebody needs to be standing there prepared to basically catch you when you lose your mind a little bit in prep. Because you’re gonna lose your mind a little bit in prep. I have a client right now. He’s fantastic. He’s just competed in his first show a couple weeks ago. He got first, I gotta say. Yeah, he got first in his first show in the open, also in classic physique, and he was, like, the most diligent.

He didn’t miss not one training session. He did not miss one day’s worth of macros. He had one tiny little free meal on his birthday, but he nailed it just, like, so mentally strong and tough. And guess

what? He also lost his mind a few times during that prep because everybody does thinking you look terrible. Like, I don’t even know if I belong up there. Like, you get, like, a terrible view of yourself. You start wanting to do these crazy things like, everybody does it.

That’s why you need a coach. But it’s much better if you have somebody that you’ve built trust up with in the off season, so that when you go into prep, like, you trust them at that point. So if they say, do x, you’re not going, I don’t know about this. I don’t know about this chick. I don’t know if she knows what she’s talking about. Because you have months of evidence that you can trust this person. I could talk about this all day.

Giacomo:

Same.

Dani:

Sorry, I stole your question.

Giacomo:

Kind of did, but I’m all right with it.

Dani:

All right. Sorry.

Giacomo:

That’s okay. So I’ve always been very lean and fit, but I was diagnosed with cancer a little over a year ago. After a year of recovering from surgery to have a tumor removed, I have gained weight. My doctor doesn’t want me to lose weight and said that it is safer for me to weigh more. He said I can turn all my extra weight into muscle if I prefer. Is it possible to bulk up at home if I only have dumbbells, tens, sevens, fives, and resistance bands? Or do I need to go to Ajim?

Dani:

So this is a really hard question because there’s a lot of context missing. We don’t know the age, height, weight, or even sex of this person, so it’s very hard to answer. But I really wanted to touch upon the first part. I mean, can you build muscle with dumbbells and bands at home? You will be able to, up to a point. After that point, you’re going to have to go to a gym or get heavier equipment.

So that’s the short answer to the actual question. But I thought this was really important to talk about because they mentioned that they were lean. It’s always been lean their whole life, but they gained weight, and the doctor doesn’t want them to lose that weight. This is something I found myself talking more about, particularly to elderly people.

Elderly people that want to get, like, down to their fighting weight, their high school weight. They’re already on the smaller side, but they just want to be a little bit leaner. They just want to lose a little bit more weight. And again, I don’t know the age of this person. They could be 25 for all I know, or they could be 65. But if a doctor is telling you not to lose weight, there’s probably a really good reason for that, and you should really heed that.

Advice when somebody is older. I mean, everybody, I feel like most people in their lives have seen somebody get old and pass away at some point in their life. Unfortunately, I feel like everybody’s going to see that. And it is almost always in. They’re almost always very, very frail right at the end. And a lot of times that weight, that weight that older folks are trying to lose, that ten to 20 pounds, that could be the difference between life and death.

At a certain point, if your health takes a sharp turn, you need that weight on your body, because a lot of elderly people are passing because of failure to thrive. Like, they’re just. There’s nothing left of them anymore. So, like, I understand the desire to lose weight, but this actually just very recently happened. At the time of us recording this, there was a vegan woman who passed away, and everybody’s like, oh, it’s her vegan diet.

She was pretty. I don’t know, maybe she was 39 or something, but she was like a raw foodist. I’m probably getting all the details wrong. She was very thin, like, definitely underweight, categorically speaking, very thin. And people said she starved herself to death, but her mother said she actually got an infection that, like, most people would be able to fight off and she couldn’t. And I don’t think it had anything to do with not eating animal products.

I think it had everything to do with the fact that she was already super underweight, and then she got sick and her body couldn’t fight it. It was not strong enough to fight it. So I think about that a lot with much older folks who want to lose weight. Like, you need some sacrificial weight on your body in case you get sick.

Giacomo:

So focus on muscle building more so than losing weight. You might drop a little bit of body fat, too, while you’re focusing on muscle building. But if your priority is weight loss, you ain’t going to build muscle. And like said, age can be a factor, past disease can be a factor, and you could wind up shooting yourself in the foot to look a certain way or feel a certain way.

And then in reality, if your body’s not strong enough to be, I don’t want to say bulletproof, but to have less of a risk of getting sick and it being dangerous or just being.

Dani:

Underweight, like, if being underweight in the first place could be an issue. I mean, many people know somebody in their life who has had cancer, who, while they were battling cancer, lost a tremendous amount of weight, right? If you’re starting at a very low weight, you don’t have anywhere to go. If, God forbid, that were to happen again.

Giacomo:

Right?

Dani:

So I don’t know, I would say, bill muscle and listen to the doctor here.

Giacomo:

Some body fat might put it that way, some body fat. Because again, we’re missing so much context, this person. But. But if the priority is muscle building and you’re in a position where some body fat could be lost, then it’s just going to happen. If you focus on muscle building, more likely than not without you trying to diet or focus on weight loss at all, and you’d be stronger and happier and healthier as a result. I guess. Again, not knowing who you are as far as.

Dani:

Yeah, I thought this was an interesting question to put on the podcast because we’ve talked about how, like, you know, being super lean is not always the healthiest, even if you are a healthy weight, you know, being super lean, still not the healthiest. But if you’re super lean and also underweight, very, like, scary. You’re like a cold away from Death store.

Giacomo:

All right, everybody, thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of vegan proteins muscles by Brussels radio. Stay in touch with us on socials, eganproteins and musclesbybrussels. Hit the contact button on veganproteins.com and you will get a response from one of us every single time. Once again, my name is Giacomo, and.

Dani:

I’m Dani, and we’ll talk to you soon.