2675: The Fastest Way to Get Lean if Money Wasn't an Issue

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0:37That's Thrive Cosmetics, C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S.com slash shine26. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.

0:56Adam Schafer:You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Okay, what if money was no object? What if you had all the money in the world? What would be the fastest way to get in shape? The fastest way to lose weight, to get in shape, to get ripped? That's what we talked about in today's episode. Now, this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, Element. This is an electrolyte powder that goes in your water. No artificial sweeteners, no sugar. The right amount of sodium to actually make a difference. Get better pumps, more energy. It tastes amazing. Go to drinklmnt.com forward slash mind pump.

1:29Adam Schafer:On that link, you'll get a free sample pack of their most popular drink mix flavors. Also, it's the last hours of our August special. MAPS 15 minutes is half off. Head over to maps15minutes.com. Use the code MUSCLE50 for the discount. Here we go. Everybody knows getting lean, getting ripped, getting shredded, it's super, super challenging. It's super hard. Everybody knows this, but what if money was no issue? What if you had all the money in the world? Could you make this happen for sure? Could you almost guarantee success? That's what we're talking about in today's episode. I like this. What's the fastest way you could get lean if money wasn't an issue?

2:08Adam Schafer:What should you do? Let's go. So we're Kim Kardashian. Yeah, no.

2:13Sal Di Stefano:I mean, number one has to be, right? Has to be hiring a trainer or coach. Of course. Of course.

2:19Adam Schafer:Now, I want to back up first and kind of break this down because the truth is, here's what the data shows on weight loss. Over 90 % of people who lose weight or get in shape end up getting the weight back or getting out of shape again within the first year. This is a very consistent statistic across the board. It's very difficult to do. It's even harder to maintain. So what we did with this list is we included things that actually made a difference, not just in the short term, but could potentially help with the long term success. And the reason why I'm saying this is, let's say you did accomplish this on your own, but you became like one of the 90 % of people that gained it back.

3:00Adam Schafer:And you repeated the cycle like many people do throughout their lives three or four times. the time that you waste going through this process and the health problems that are associated with getting back out of shape or being unhealthy or gaining weight back. If you were to add that up, that time and that money and the loss of productivity, it's actually very expensive. It's extremely expensive to be unhealthy. It's extremely expensive to be obese when you look at your entire life. So the reason why I'm saying that is a lot of the things that we're going to are expensive but when you consider what they can do for you um and how much better they make the odds the value is is is tremendous it just keeps proving that it's more beneficial to really think about the long-term strategy of this that's right and like if you could yeah put those pit those against each other and really look at the financial commitment of it it's interesting how similar it

3:53Sal Di Stefano:probably oh i wish i this would be such a cool like study to do to see like because i remember just to the first point of having a coach and a trainer we used to have this statistic on our customers at 24 fitness and and we knew this at the uh front of sales we would we would present personal training and we were so aggressive about it and the selling point was the average person that gets started with a gym membership without a personal trainer falls off by the third month the average person that actually gets personal training continues on for two plus years huge Huge difference. Huge. And so that doesn't mean that they got to their goal per se or necessarily, but the fact that they continued going for that much more time said a lot about probably less likely to get hurt, probably did see more results, like at least knew what they were doing.

4:41Sal Di Stefano:And so that just that stat alone to me is what makes this number one. Number one has to be. It's for sure.

4:48Adam Schafer:Number one. It's also one of the most expensive, right? You hire a trainer three days a week. You're looking at investing about, for a good trainer, and of course, this is, you can go up or down depending on your area, but it'll cost you about$300 a week. A good trainer typically costs around, again, some are less, some are more, but$100 a session. Now, by the way, we listed these in order of value, not in order of cost, okay? The most valuable thing that we're going to talk about today is the trainer, and here's why. A trainer, a good, effective trainer can, number one, you see them in person.

5:23Adam Schafer:They train you, so you get a good workout. That's a duh. But really what it is is a good trainer helps foster that relationship with fitness and diet and health that lasts a lifetime. This is what good trainers do. Well, and the education.

5:36Sal Di Stefano:The education that you get along the way too is just like, so, okay, if we were to put a minimum, like bare minimum, remember, money is not an issue, right? So I come to you. I have an endless budget. Okay, you tell me - How long should I work with someone for? Yeah, how long should I, the minimum I should work with a trainer. I say at least three months.

5:53Adam Schafer:Yeah. Oh, I would say way more than that. Three months would be the absolute least. That's it. Three months to a year.

5:59Sal Di Stefano:Minimal commitment, I'd say.

6:00Adam Schafer:Three months to a year with a coach or a trainer. If you gave me someone for a year, the odds that I will be able to help them develop their relationship with exercise that will last them a long time, if not forever, is high if I worked with them for a year. It would take about a year of doing that. Three months, I could go far and I could do well. But you guys know this. When you train someone, like the first three-month period is great and it's fun. It's like month six, seven, eight when you start to run into those challenges where they have to kind of work through certain things. The motivation fades and now we're working on discipline.

6:30Adam Schafer:It starts to get sticky then. That's right. That's right. So I would say about a year.

6:34Sal Di Stefano:I like that too because in a three-month time, some people can like shut their whole life down for three months, right? Just be like, this is all I'm going to do. And so that's not very realistic. horse blinders to get right when i had somebody for a year it was inevitable we were probably gonna have to you know handle some sort of vacation that's right we're gonna have to handle maybe even an injury or a major setback we would have overcame at least one or two plateaus that's right and so awesome motivation right yeah and exactly the hype of it being new would be worn off and so i do like the year as a as like the ultimate money's not an object type of uh pitch and the minimum because because even at three months you're going to get a ton you're going to get a ton three three months you you still are going to get a lot but if money if if i had the an endless budget here i would go go for a year yeah because what'll happen in three

7:24Adam Schafer:months is you'll be you'll you'll leave with a decent understanding of of what you can do for your body exercise wise you'll have good technique and you would have built a decent enough base to where you can perform the exercises okay basically you build a full routine right but But after that, you're on your own. Yeah. A year, you now have a guide. And that guide has been with you for a year. And they're going to get you through all those processes. And you're going to develop a relationship with exercise, or at least you're more likely to. That's the most important thing. That's the most valuable thing that a trainer can do.

7:54Adam Schafer:Because bare minimum, a trainer needs to know how to exercise to train you. They need to know proper technique and what movements to apply, which ones not to do, correctional exercise. That's bare minimum. The really good ones, you end up showing up. You want to be with them. You want to see them. And they get you through all those different pitfalls. And so that's why that's number one. So you're looking at, what is that,$1 ,200 a month? So over the course of a year? I mean, that's a decent investment. But I'll say this again. If you add up the time and energy, loss of productivity, poor health that comes from the yo-yo, up, down, up, down, eventually giving up, I think it's far less expensive than that.

8:32Sal Di Stefano:Well, think of it like getting a mini degree in your body. That's right. Right? All things related to nutrition and exercise. And how much do you value that? If someone puts you through a mini degree in knowing what you need to do, exercise, nutritionally, like that, I mean, I would think that most people, if you framed it like that, would be like, that's a worthwhile investment. Totally.

8:54Adam Schafer:Number two is to add to the trainer an online coach for diet. Now, why? Most personal trainers are not going to coach you day in and day out with your diet. Some do, but at$100 a session, most trainers train you. When you see them, when you're gone, they'll text you a couple times, but they're not there to coach you through the whole process. They'll probably charge extra for that. An online coach with diet does that. They're going to work with you almost entirely with diet, and they'll work in tandem with your personal trainer. If it's not your trainer that's also doing this, which, again, they'll charge extra, this person's going to work with them on your nutrition.

9:30Adam Schafer:what works for you, what doesn't work for you. Let's look at your macros. We're going to start with macros and calories. We're going to learn how to reverse diet. We're going to learn how to cut your calories appropriately. I'm going to talk you through the frustrating parts when you're like, why am I not losing weight? Or wait, did I gain some weight? No, it's just water weight. What about hunger? What I, you know, I'm having this, I went off my diet. Oh my God, I totally screwed up. And then they talk you off the ledge. This is what a good online coach will do with diet. And you combine that with a personal trainer.

9:57Adam Schafer:By the way, these two alone will have a tremendous impact on your odds of success. An online coach, by the way, will cost a good one about$300 to$500 a month. I know they have some that are a lot less, but the good ones that I've seen typically charge. You might get lucky and find the trainer who's both of these.

10:13Sal Di Stefano:That's right. I mean, you guys would be that. If you train a client, they wouldn't need to go get a nutritionist on top of that. You would be that person. But you would want somebody with, if you're hiring, because you could hire a good trainer that's not necessarily 10, 15 years deep and still get a good trainer. But you're probably going to want somebody that deep if you also want them to also manage the nutrition.

10:33Adam Schafer:And what it looks like is this, is it looks like you're in the beginning, you're tracking your food. So they have a good idea of what you're currently eating. And then they're making minor adjustments. And an online coach, like a personal trainer, meets you where you're at. So you're going to start with changes that you think you can do. And then there's going to be some that you're going to do that you're like, I can't do that yet. And they're going to walk you back. and then they're going to look at, okay, here's what we're going to add to your diet. Here's what it looks like and feels like to eat this much protein and how's your digestion.

11:00Adam Schafer:And okay, it looks like we need to reverse diet you because your calories are too low. We need to lose 30 pounds. But before we do, we need to build you up. And that reverse dieting process is going to be difficult to do on your own because it's going to be scary. But don't worry, I'll talk you through the whole thing. And they're going to monitor things like energy and strength and mobility and sleep. And they're going to walk you through. And then a good online coach will be available through texts. often, not all the time, but often, where you could text them or message them and say, hey, I'm struggling today.

11:30Adam Schafer:Or hey, today after dinner, I ate this, whatever, what should I do? And they'll walk you through that process. And this person right here, their job is to help you develop a relationship with nutrition where you start to enjoy and seek and want to eat in a healthy way, in a healthy balanced way. This is not a bodybuilding online diet coach. That's not what I'm talking about at all. This is somebody that knows how to turn this into a lifestyle, not this crazy.

11:56Sal Di Stefano:Well, and again, to the education piece, a lot of clients just didn't know what to do. I remember having clients that would text me like, Hey, I'm in this situation. What should I choose? And it's not just, Oh, choose this food. The reason why I'm pointing you in this direction or telling you to go eat the protein first are for these reasons. So it's like, not only are you getting that guidance, but hopefully also if you get a good one, they're going to coach you through like what the strategy was why why i pointed you how do i make better decisions each time i go shopping right yeah because you know these things you know they're going to be in those situations or they have a late night craving or snack that they want to get and it's just like oh what do i do okay here's a better choice to go this route i think i think that part too just i'll like the training part the education piece of what to do in those situations extremely valuable and probably equally in time i would say as the trainer like six months to a year yeah like intolerances.

12:47Like there's a lot of stuff that you could really communicate and nail down specifically for your personal needs. And I think that the more personal you get with this, the more benefits.

12:56Adam Schafer:Yeah. So I would agree. I would say about a year. You did both for a year. You've got most of your bases covered. Now we're going to get to the more kind of nitty gritty stuff that doesn't make as big of a difference. But again, money's no option here. What else can I do to really start to crank this up? The next thing I put was a meal prepping service.

13:15Sal Di Stefano:So I would argue that this is damn near equally as important. Yeah. Just because if you outsource this part, right? You don't have to think about it. Yeah, because a lot of these companies, you could have your nutrition coach or your trainer who laid out your macros, lay that out to the meal prep place, and they will prep the meals according to your macros. And so you completely outsource that. And then if you just make it a deal, again, if money's not an object, I could eat every single meal from this meal prep service, then I literally just make that commitment of like, Hey, when I'm hungry, I eat one of those huge.

13:49Yeah. I mean, I did this in my own business when I was like helping people, you know, strategy for, they only have this much time for the week and then they travel a lot. And so it's like, here, when I come home, I want to have these meals ready to go that are healthy and like within the macro balance.

14:04Adam Schafer:Yeah. Now the only challenge with this, and the reason why I put this as number three is because a good off-boarding process is important with meal prepping. Cause here's the challenge with meal prepping. Not how you do it yourself. Yeah, like you're on this plan, you're eating what they give you, they'll change it for you and all that stuff. But at some point, you may want to go off and then you're out in the real world. But that's what the good online coach.

14:25Sal Di Stefano:I was going to say, if you also have the, if we assume that the person's purchased the other two things, then a good trainer and a good nutritionist is going to help you, right? That's right. So maybe you're outsourcing at the beginning, but part of that year process, we go, hey, let's this last three months try and not use the meal prep service. Let's see if you can make these meals yourself and then work through that. That would be a good coach, right? That was doing something like that.

14:48Adam Schafer:Exactly. So a good example of what this might look like is in the beginning, you're like, this is real tough. I'm going to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the meal prepping service. I'm going to work with my online coach and this is what I'm going to start. And then it may look like breakfast and lunch. And then it may look like just breakfast as you start to kind of wean yourself off and figure out how to do this on your own. Next up, optimize your hormones with hormone replacement therapy if appropriate. Now, if appropriate, this is a game changer. This is a game changer. It's not as big of a game changer as exercise and diet, but it is a game changer nonetheless.

15:22Adam Schafer:This is the difference between, you know, building an extra 10 pounds of muscle, losing additional four to 5 % body fat. If your hormones are really off, it could be like, well, that's it. It's like, you're trying to run in quicksand. Like I've trained people like this where their hormones were so off that it was like every little inch of progress was so hard. You tried everything to the nth degree. That's right. And this is the one thing that really unlocked that result.

15:47Sal Di Stefano:I mean, again, I know you preface this with it's not diet and exercise, but if you're north of 35, this becomes damn near as important or valuable as the other things we're talking about. I mean, I can't tell you how many clients that before HRT was even a thing that I'd be training that their hormones were just out of whack. and I didn't care how good of a diet we ran. I don't care how good our training was. They just did not move the needle. And that is so discouraging for somebody who's putting all the work in to see that incremental or no change at all and simply getting their hormones balanced made such a significant difference.

16:28Sal Di Stefano:So granted, if you're great, if you're training a Doug who's got incredible hormone profile and doesn't need it, then that's another story. But that's just not been my experience. Most people that are above 35 they could use some sort of hormone balance.

16:44Adam Schafer:Yeah, so if we back up again, the meal prepping would be about$10 to$20 a meal. This hormone therapy would roughly$300 a month could go higher depending on what you're, quote unquote, optimizing. But here's why it's so valuable, okay? Yes, when your hormones are optimized, your body is pointing more towards fat loss and pointing more towards muscle gain. But there's all these other things that happen as well. You have more motivation and energy. You know, if your thyroid is low, you just don't have a lot of energy. When you take thyroid, which is very inexpensive and easy to optimize, suddenly you have more energy, which makes you do what?