Episode 416: Ebenezer Samuel Shares No-Nonsense Advice on Building Muscle, Burning Fat, and Healthy Eating for Life

17 Jan 2025 · 17 min

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In short

Podcast Notes: Habits and Hustle - Episode 416

Episode Summary In this episode of Habits and Hustle, host Jennifer Cohen interviews Ebenezer Samuel, the Fitness Director of Men’s Health and Head of Training Innovation at FlexIt Fitness. The discussion focuses on common misconceptions about fitness, particularly regarding muscle building, fat loss, and healthy eating practices.

Key Themes and Concepts

  1. Misconceptions About Fitness
  2. Toning vs. Muscle Building:
  3. The concept of "toning" is discussed as a marketing term rather than a scientifically valid goal.
  4. Toning is often portrayed in women's fitness magazines, but Samuel argues that it doesn't represent a real physical state.
  1. Understanding Calories
  2. Calories In vs. Calories Out:
  3. This principle is simplified to the idea of managing food intake versus energy expenditure. Samuel critiques it as reductive and overly simplified, suggesting that the conversation should be more nuanced.
  4. Intermittent fasting is also tied into this discussion, and Samuel notes that how and when you eat can complicate this concept.
  1. Nutritional Advice
  2. Recommended Meal Structure:
  3. Four meals a day with approximately 20 grams of protein per meal.
  4. Each meal should include a source of protein, a green vegetable, and a carbohydrate (e.g., 3-4 ounces).
  5. Importance of hydration is emphasized, including specific mention of BLK water.
  • Fiber Intake:
  • Samuel stresses that modern society lacks adequate fiber in diets, advocating for higher fiber consumption.
  • White Rice vs. Brown Rice:
  • A brief discussion reveals that the nutritional differences are minimal, suggesting that white rice is not as inferior as commonly believed.
  1. Aging and Muscle Maintenance
  2. The Importance of Lifting Weights:
  3. Samuel asserts that as people age, especially men over 40, muscle preservation becomes crucial due to sarcopenia (muscle loss with aging).
  4. Encouragement to lift heavier weights safely:
  5. Aim for weights that are 50 pounds above body weight.
  6. Emphasis on correct form, possibly through the assistance of a trainer.
  1. The Role of Marketing in Fitness
  2. Impact of Fitness Marketing:
  3. There's a critique of fitness marketing that often leaves individuals confused, leading to "analysis paralysis."
  4. The episode emphasizes the need for credible sources of fitness information, as many influencers may not provide accurate advice.

Key Takeaways

  • Building Muscle: For effective muscle building and fat loss, focus on a well-rounded diet and a structured workout regimen that includes heavier weights and proper form.
  • Simplicity in Nutrition: Don't overcomplicate dietary choices; prioritize natural sources of protein and sufficient fiber.
  • Challenge Not Fear: As one ages, challenging the body with heavier weights is not only safe but beneficial.
  • Skepticism Towards Trends: Be cautious of widely accepted fitness trends or terminologies that may not be rooted in scientific evidence.

Sponsors

  • AquaTru: 20% off purifiers with code HUSTLE.
  • Therasage: 15% off with code BEBOLD.
  • TruNiagen: $20 off with code HUSTLE20.
  • Magic Mind: Discount available at checkout with code Jen.
  • Air Doctor: Up to $300 off air purifiers with promo code HUSTLE.

Additional Resources

  • Ebenezer Samuel:
  • [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ebenezersamuel23/)
  • [Men's Health Articles](https://www.menshealth.com/author/217286/ebenezer-samuel/)
  • Jennifer Cohen:
  • [Website](https://www.jennifercohen.com/)
  • [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/therealjencohen)
  • [Books](https://www.jennifercohen.com/books)
  • [Speaking Engagements](https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements)

This episode emphasizes evidence-based practices in fitness and nutrition while debunking common myths perpetuated by marketing and societal norms.

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Transcript

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0:01Hi, guys. It's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits & Hustle. Crush it. Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up.

0:29before we dive into today's episode i first want to thank our sponsor therasage their tri-light panel has become my favorite biohacking thing for healing my body it's a portable red light panel that i simply cannot live without i literally bring it with me everywhere i go and i personally use their red light therapy to help reduce inflammations in places in my body where honestly I have pain. You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle. Red light therapy is my go-to. Plus it also has amazing anti-aging benefits including reducing signs of fine lines and wrinkles on your face which I also use it for.

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1:52It's not about what quote unquote diet you're following. It's about, again, what I said, and that's why if I were sitting where you were and you were interviewing me, I would say that it does make a difference about the amount you eat. And what you eat is what I would say. not exactly not not necessarily the time you're eating it and all that other stuff that goes with it yeah like all of the the time you're eating it has like i think bodybuilders do bodybuilders do multiple meals right what i'm saying the time like if you don't eat until noon oh yeah or whatever i'm saying that i think the more that that those are also based on your body can't break down food like we overeat and therefore we're stuck with all this food in us because we're not we're not digesting it because we're eating so much of it so like having enough time to digest your food is really good for your system yeah it's interesting because to bring the conversation um full circle that's like intermittent fasting is part of where you get the whole calories and calories that idea because it's like oh i'm gonna take my calorie i'm gonna take all my calories in like two to in like two meals spaced in whatever it is four hours right yeah four i think eight is the beginning i think eight for beginners yeah or most people yeah i i think i believe it i believe it's eight but but but that and so that gets reduced to calories in i think i think calories in calories out was in very meat it's like a well-meaning idea and it was basically the way people are telling you to eat is so complicated so it's like let's just reduce it to this but then but then we get so reductive with it that it kind of it becomes counterproductive in its own way how about like what's the best how about not about this what's the best way to eat if we want to build muscle and lose fat and just you know uh feel better and look better What would be in your opinion?

3:54Um, how I would say, I would say you want to have like, like four meals a day, right? And each meal you want to aim for 20 grams of protein. Okay. Which is, and try to get this from a natural source, make sure you get something green on your plate, right? And then get, you know, three to four ounces of a carb. And if you do that, right, and then you want to ideally have some kind of water on the side. And if you do that... Not some kind of water. I have this one. BLK water. BLK water. And BLK water is actually perfect, right? So I think if you do that, it checks a lot of boxes. And again, there's a variety in there, right?

4:42Because your 20-gons of protein can be eggs or chicken or fish, right? um and your green vegetable can be something different every time you're checking a lot of boxes in terms of getting fiber in your system which is really good um you're checking a lot of boxes with um with the protein which your body needs we're not eating enough fiber though as a society as a so and how do we i mean we should up that for sure yeah i think it's interesting because i think we've come i think we've come a long way in the fiber conversation just and it's funny because i love white rice um which is i i can't i know i've seen you've had you've had it like five times since we've been here i mean to be fair i don't know if they have brown they probably have brown rice i probably could ask for it i've kind of enjoyed just getting white and brown rice but um i think by the way white rice supposed to be better than brown rice did you know that i haven't heard this oh this is it's a new it's um you should google it yeah you should do a story on it i have heard that uh that there's a whole myth about brown rice versus white rice.

5:43I don't remember what the myth exactly is. I can Google it right now and talk to you. But I had someone on here recently who told me about this. And it's pretty amazing, actually. I'm going to Google it. White rice versus brown rice. I was a brown rice person too. I've heard the thing that brown rice is overrated compared to white rice. like it's not marketably better it's not marketably better it's not yeah white rice tastes so much better too i'm also asian so i'm kind of like i know well i was gonna say i mean you're you're naturally gonna probably live to 177 because of just all the rice you're eating but hold on brown rice versus uh white rice okay if you look at the if you look at the breakdown it's actually the fiber content in bright brown rice is like minusculely higher but yeah it's basically a little bit higher um like between one gram and two grams more fiber um and then i'm not finding it properly right now i'm gonna i'm gonna look it up and then get back to you on that but from what i heard it's not that much different white rice is see again there's another I think what happens is something gets traction and then everyone just follows the, you know, follows that.

7:13And this can be happening right now. I heard something about white rights and now I'm following that whole thing. So don't take my word for it. I think I could have sworn I heard someone mention that to me and I, and they were like a doctor, they were a leading nutritionist. So I was trying to find that information. But that's, again, why I'm big into, like, it's like if you kind of loosely follow, if everybody loosely followed what I'm saying, right, they're covered. But choose your own carb. Don't let the internet choose it for you, right? Yeah. Choose your own mixed vegetable. Like a sweet potato versus a white potato.

7:49It's like, yeah. Like a russet potato. yeah it's like at a high level if you're like planning to try out for like you know or like a competition or something exactly but then that matters right so for the average person who wants to like look a little bit more lean and healthy and fit have white rice or brown rice it's not going to make it so nominally different it's not it doesn't make a difference okay let's talk about aging and muscle like keeping how do we do this and do it well because we do break down more muscle as we age so how do we so so and that's interesting because the the older we get the more precise we have to get with all with all this stuff like the healthier we have to eat and yeah i mean so isn't building muscle when we're older like i believe after 40 especially for men um sarcopenia becomes like a major issue i think the the two things the two things we want to do um or there are three things we want to do first off um and this is this is kind of one of those things we're told we're told by kind of modern fitness right is you've got to do the um the kind of big exercises right you have to lift heavy okay and older people should definitely try to lift heavy i think every human on the planet should work up to being able to deadlift like their body weight plus at least 50 pounds um and that's not unattainable right and you have to take your time to work up there so i think older older people shouldn't be afraid to lift heavy they should do that um at least twice a week well you say heavy though right like the others the fear is that especially as you get older like you're gonna put your put your back out or you're gonna hurt you're gonna injure yourself for like injury injury prevention yeah um so you're saying that shouldn't be something that we focus on yeah i i think um i think two things one i think for a lot of or do challenging stuff yeah yeah exactly it's mainly like challenge yourself like getting working up to that heavy part working working up to say your your body weight plus 50 pounds you might want a trainer for that right um you want somebody around who can kind of help you um master your form or you want to like watch like a clinic i'll give on the deadlift online to do in like three weeks right um but um i just i just think don't be afraid of of heavier weights right and you and the key is like is the rep scheme right is um like it's it's like you learn you learn with legger weights how to how to kind of get your form down but then you you've got like at some point you want to um challenge yourself right um and you're going to keep the reps low you're going to do like one or two reps and that's fine i think a lot of people get caught up in again more work right so it's like oh i'm in these sets of like 12 and 15 reps i'm gonna tone you know except toning really doesn't it's kind of toning doesn't really exist right and it's like again don't talk about that i think people don't realize you and i may think that but most people don't realize that so why don't you talk about that i don't call toning myth is that that's a myth yeah i honestly don't even i barely even know what the word means right it's not it's not And it's funny because when you read women's magazines, do women's magazines say it?

11:10I don't read that's all they say is like, you know, tone your, you know, upper body toning your arms. The word tone or toning is like synonymous with, you know, abs. You know what I mean? Like it's a very common word. It's interesting because we literally, I'm actually trying to think back to the last time I used it in men's health. I've been in men's health for four and a half years now. And the answer is never. Because women use the word toning. I don't think men ever use the word toning. yeah i think it it's it's almost like i feel like it got caught up in in in societal kind of because of um because of that whole oh well well we can't say we can't say build muscle to women right and we can't and bulking freaks them out right so here we're gonna get them lifting weights because it's gonna tone them whatever i don't i i honestly don't know what the word means it means like yeah not like kind of like it's like again the opposite of flabby would be toned i guess i don't know these are all like this is exactly my point and that's why i wanted to talk to you and have you on is because i think so much of of everything is all marketing and branding and it not it's not necessarily accurate or true yeah it's just what we've like been conditioned to think because we see it and hear about it all the time and especially with social media and every ding dong now on social media is a fitness expert which is a problem yeah because most people are getting paid for everything that they're doing or um or they have no clue what they're doing so either option's terrible so having someone who's a trusted resource like you who actually takes it super seriously and like learns about this constantly is i think a really important thing to to talk about because yeah you get like you get like analysis paralysis and overwhelmed at all the different information that's out there yeah and i think that is what that is what yeah you're right it's so much kind of like marketing and and spin and it gets it gets confusing for people that's why i'm confused that's what i do for a living practically you know what I mean I don't even know anymore I'm like I'm like I don't know maybe that maybe I'm like the brown rice white rice thing yeah I'm even confused because I'm like okay well I mean this trusted resource told me and then I look and now I can't find it but then I'm sure if I I don't have the time right this second but you if you dig around long enough for anything you can back up that that that uh resource right yeah exactly yeah because the internet the internet is a treasure trove of confirmation bias which is really exactly exactly yeah it's in toning toning is but i think toning is like toning is like the woman way and don't take that the wrong way but it's kind of weird off my podcast i'm just joking it's not it's i mean it sounds like it's in all the women's magazines so it's basically because i feel like we i feel like guys try to like cut rip shred it's basically the equivalent to that it is cut rip okay so for guys it's cut rip shred built yeah women it's tone what else um chisel maybe it's mostly just tone isn't it tone yeah tone or burn yeah burn burn's a big one yeah yeah we like burn fat tone your midsection yeah so they're like it's like yeah yeah the guy terms if you will are just edgier reasons yes yeah but the men's magazines do have way better workouts that are more effective i will say that that's why you know i have you here today because the truth of the matter is i do know enough to know that lift women are kind of like kind of shown and taught to be lifting lightweight very lightweight and they actually or no weight and they believe that's actually going to get them to their goal.

15:13When the truth of the matter is, you do need to lift heavy and heavier and challenge yourself because that's how you get results.

From the publisher

Want to build muscle and lose fat effectively? 

In my Fitness Friday episode, Ebenezer Samuel, the Fitness Director of Men’s Health and Head of Training Innovation at FlexIt Fitness, discusses the myth of toning and getting shredded. We also discuss the concept of "calories in; calories out" and what it gets right and wrong. Tune in for actionable diet and muscle-building tips! 

Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men's Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He's logged training time with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men's Health in 2017, he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News.

What we discuss: 

Intermittent fasting 

Calories in vs calories out 

Society needs more fiber

Brown rice vs white rice

How to build muscle as we age

Toning isn’t a real thing

Thank you to our sponsor:
AquaTru: Get 20% off any purifier at aquatru.com with code HUSTLE
Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off 
TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100.
Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout.
Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. 

To learn more about Ebenezer Samuel: 
Instagram -  https://www.instagram.com/ebenezersamuel23/ 
Articles -https://www.menshealth.com/author/217286/ebenezer-samuel/ 

Find more from Jen:
Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/
Instagram: @therealjencohen
Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books
Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements

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Episode 416: Ebenezer Samuel Shares No-Nonsense Advice on Building Muscle, Burning Fat, and Healthy Eating for Life Habits and Hustle · 17 min
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