175: Setting Up Your Diet To Lean Out & Lose Fat

I’m breaking down the exact nutrition principles I use to lose fat, get leaner, and stay consistent without going all-or-nothing. This episode covers calories, protein, meal timing, cravings, late-night snacking, and the small adjustments that compound into long-term results. Build the plan. Execute daily. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Intro 01:24 Goal of This Conversation 08:18 The Truth About Calories In, Calories Out 15:29 Start by Finding Maintenance 19:06 Adjust Calories With Patience 24:28 Avoid the All-or-Nothing Trap 27:26 Meal Timing, Fasting, and What Matters Most 36:54 Build Consistent Meals You Can Repeat 40:22 Using Calorie Undulation With Intention 46:28 How to Set Macros for a Cut 47:05 Protein First for Fullness and Retention 54:30 Fat Intake, Digestion, and Gut Health 59:11 Use Carbs to Support Performance 01:01:11 How to Stop Late-Night Snacking 01:07:57 Go-To Meals That Make Dieting Easier 01:10:53 How to Eat Out Without Losing Progress 01:14:51 Small Changes That Drive Real Results ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠ https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutrition IG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠ YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitness This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice. This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Nick Bare?

  Before we dive into today's episode, I want to talk to you guys about one of the most recent products we launched here at BPN, and that is our grass-fed whey protein isolate. Now, this powder comes from small family farms in Ireland, and it is certified truly grass-fed. And what makes a whey protein isolate different from a whey protein concentrate is that a lot of the lactose has been removed from the product. So if you are someone who has traditionally struggled with whey protein concentrates, it hurts your stomach, you get and experience gas, bloating, or just GI distress, a whey protein isolate might be

• 0:45Nick Bare?

  the solution for you. I can tell you, our whey protein isolate, our grass-fed whey protein isolate, it tastes absolutely amazing. I will fully stand behind it. We have it in a fudge, chocolate, and vanilla flavor, and it digests so well. So if you're looking for a leaner protein source that is grass-fed and has reduced lactose, BPN's whey protein isolate is the one for you. So check it out.

• 1:24Nick Bare?

  All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. This one is all about how to set up your diet to lean out and lose fat. And a lot of what I'm going to share is what I have personally done in the past, over the years, I do today when I'm trying to lean out. And I've had a lot of experience with this for 14 years now.

• 1:56Nick Bare?

  One of the ways that I started, you know, learning about manipulating body composition and building muscle and losing fat was when I was in college. And this is before I knew really anything about diet and I knew a little bit about training. I was falling in love with the lifestyle. But when I first launched BPN in 2012, you know, we had a very small marketing budget. I call it a marketing budget. There was like pennies, like rubbing pennies together, literally. There wasn't much of a budget at all. And we had to get really resourceful.

• 2:36Nick Bare?

  When I say we, my brother and I, and creative. So one of the things I decided to do alongside my brother is that we signed up for a bodybuilding competition. We were both in college. And we submerged ourself in the information and learning about tracking macronutrients and calories and flexible dieting. And through a 16 week diet, we lost, you know, we each lost about 20 to 25 pounds, primarily fat, learned how to get lean, stage ready. And that really kickstarted a lot of my passion, my love, my interest for nutrition and performance

• 3:19Nick Bare?

  and bodybuilding and strength training, but learning how to manipulate calories and even more specifically, certain macronutrients to achieve a certain look, a certain leanness, a certain desired outcome. So a lot of what I'm talking about today has been through trial and error and experiences. I've done multiple cuts in diets throughout the years. I was just talking to someone the other day. Over the last couple of years, my body weight has actually fluctuated pretty significantly based off what I'm training for.

• 4:03Nick Bare?

  I was bulking in 2023, trying to put on a lot of size. I got to 230 pounds. And then during my Ironman prep this past year, I got down to 179 pounds. That's a 50-pound difference. That's, that's crazy when you say that out loud. 50-pound difference. Based off of how I've been eating and approaching nutrition and training for a very specific goal. A performance outcome.

• 4:38Nick Bare?

  And a lot of that's just been making changes to my diet. How much I'm consuming, how frequently, what I'm consuming. So what I'm sharing today is what I have done, what I do when it comes to wanting to achieve a certain level of leanness and target body fat loss. Okay, so I want to share that before diving into it. And a lot of what I'm going to be focusing on today is around diet and nutrition, not specifically the training incorporated within a cut or a leaning out phase. I prompted a question on Instagram this past week asking people, what do you want to know about how to get lean and lose body fat?

• 5:22Nick Bare?

  And a lot of the questions were about nutrition, but

• 5:28Nick Bare?

  simultaneously and similarly, a lot of questions were about how to incorporate running in a dieting phase or strength training in a dieting phase. And

• 5:41Nick Bare?

  there's a lot of nuance to that. And I want to reserve that for a future episode. But this one today is mainly focused around the food nutrition specifically, as opposed to layering on training, being resistance training or cardiovascular conditioning. And I want to say one more thing before we dive in.

• 6:06Nick Bare?

  You can't have your cake and eat it too.

• 6:10Nick Bare?

  I'm sure you've heard this in the context of a lot of different analogies and situations and explanations.

• 6:19Nick Bare?

  But you have to be honest with yourself.

• 6:22Nick Bare?

  Do you want to lose fat? Do you want to get leaner? Do you want to lose weight?

• 6:30Nick Bare?

  If so, then you have to do what it takes.

• 6:35Nick Bare?

  You can't say you want to get lean. You want to lose body fat. You want to lose weight.

• 6:43Nick Bare?

  But at the same time, eat all the other foods you've been consuming at those amounts

• 6:51Nick Bare?

  that have kept you heavier, carrying more body fat, maybe out of shape. So you have to decide, what do you want? Do you want to be lean? Do you want to be healthier? Do you want to lose body fat? Or do you want to eat all the foods that have been contributing to potentially the way you look and feel right now?

• 7:15Nick Bare?

  You can still consume those foods in moderation, but not at the same amounts you might be right now that is holding you back from getting to where you want to be. So you gotta be honest with yourself. You have to be transparent, to be self-aware, and you have to be able to hold yourself accountable. And if you can't hold yourself accountable, you gotta find someone who can. And this is where coaches are very valuable, or a group of friends who are working towards a similar goal, or just a buddy, a family member who can hold you accountable in this process

• 7:59Nick Bare?

  that you can go to when you mess up, when you fail, when you make a mistake.

• 8:04Nick Bare?

  That can be there to be the honest truth alongside of you. So that's all I wanted to share before we dive into some of these.

• 8:14Nick Bare?

  These.

• 8:16Nick Bare?

  Methods, if you will. So at this point, it should be no surprise to many people that energy balance matters. This is calories in versus calories out. Now, I'm going to broad stroke over this because we can't talk about anything else without talking about energy balance. And that is the concept. The concept is that in order to lose weight, in order to lose body fat, you must be in a caloric deficit. But there are many different methods that you can incorporate to help you get there. And I want to focus on the methods today. But the concept is that calories are king.

• 9:01Nick Bare?

  At the end of the day,

• 9:04Nick Bare?

  if you can maintain your current body weight on 2,500 calories a day, as long as you consume 2,500 calories a day and nothing else changes, meaning you don't increase your training, you don't increase your daily steps, you don't increase your cardiovascular conditioning, if nothing else changes and you keep eating 2,500 calories a day, you will most likely maintain a pretty consistent weight day in and day out. If you consume less than 2,500 calories a day, you are technically in a caloric deficit. You will lose weight and you can create this caloric deficit through training, through movement,

• 9:48Nick Bare?

  through caloric expenditure, or by just consuming less. And then on the flip side, if you want to gain weight, you want to put on size, you want to get bigger, you want to get stronger potentially, being in a caloric surplus will help. So anything above, in this case, 2,500 calories, and I'm just using 2,500 calories as an example, being in a caloric surplus will facilitate weight gain, potentially muscle gain, based off the way that you're training.

• 10:24Nick Bare?

  So you have a caloric surplus, which is anything more than your maintenance calories. You have a caloric deficit, which is anything less than your daily maintenance calories. But in order to lose weight, to lean out, to burn body fat, we have to be in a caloric deficit. We know this. At the end of the day, calories are king. How do you know if you're in a caloric deficit? Well, the question is, do you have to track your nutrition to know? Yes and no. It's helpful for a lot of people who are new to dieting and nutrition

• 11:05Nick Bare?

  and having a level of awareness around what they're consuming and how much of what they're consuming. It helps to track your nutrition. And there's a million different food and diet tracking apps out there online. Some are free, some are paid for, some are more robust and complex and AI-driven, and some are pretty simple. I have just historically used MyFitnessPal over the years because I don't track that much. I'll track every once in a while based off of changes to my training or my body composition goals, just to have an understanding of how much I'm consuming. But I haven't tracked consistently for over 10 years now.

• 11:50Nick Bare?

  Now, I used to track everything, every meal, every piece of food that I put into my mouth every day for weeks and months and even years. I did this for a long time, but you get to a point where you intuitively know and understand how much of what you're consuming, what you're consuming. And I think for a lot of people, myself included, most of my meals from day to day don't change much. But with that being said, if you are newer to this whole journey and process, I recommend, for at least a short period of time, tracking your nutrition. Purchasing a food scale and weighing out your food. I still use a food scale every single day.

• 12:35Nick Bare?

  And not necessarily to track my food, but for portion control. And I use a food scale like I use a measuring cup or a spoon at this point. It is just, it's both for me and my wife, Steph. We have three food scales at the house. We travel with a food scale. And again, it's not to log our food into a food tracking app. It's just for portion control. So I know for my lunches every day, when I'm doing my meal prep, I weigh out 300 grams of rice, cooked rice, which is about a cup and a half. And when I add my, my protein source or my meat, whether that's chicken or beef

• 13:16Nick Bare?

  or turkey or bison or elk or whatever protein source I'm consuming is typically eight ounces, which is about 50 grams of protein.

• 13:27Nick Bare?

  And in the morning, when I make my protein shake, I add 40 grams of oats. I weigh on the oats.

• 13:34Nick Bare?

  I just use a scale and, and me and Steph both, we use a scale for portion control. And I will do this probably for the rest of my life. I get enjoyment out of it. It allows me to not overeat, overconsume, but also not undereat, underconsume. And I'm primarily focused about protein in that case.

• 14:01Nick Bare?

  But how do you know if you're in a caloric deficit? One, are you tracking your nutrition? And are you tracking your nutrition accurately? You know, there's, there's a lot of times when people will track bits and pieces of their nutrition, but not include the extra sauces or condiments and oils that are added. So if you're going to track and you want to track accurately, you gotta track everything to get a good picture of where you're at. And if you're actually in a caloric deficit. And then another way to know if you're in a deficit, are you losing weight? Are you losing body fat? You know, you can use a scale and weigh yourself every couple of days

• 14:45Nick Bare?

  to see if you're making progress over time. You can go get a DEXA scan, which you know, you can find a DEXA scan facility in your local area. It's fairly inexpensive. We have a spot here in Austin, Texas, where you can get a DEXA scan and it costs, I think $60. And you get an analysis of your bone mineral content. You get an analysis of your total body fat percentage. You get an analysis of where you're holding body fat and your lean muscle tissue. And you can watch trends over time. So those are some of the ways to, to know if you're in a deficit or not.

• 15:29Nick Bare?

  And I've shared this story before, but I think this is super helpful. When I was in college, so I studied nutrition at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

• 15:40Nick Bare?

  I had a bunch of classes on nutrition for disease intervention, cardiovascular disease, diabetes. But then we also had

• 15:53Nick Bare?

  food intervention labs and classes where we would work with individuals to help them build out a meal plan. And one of the things we would do with them that we had to do for ourselves and you can do for yourself as well, or family members and friends that are trying to lose weight, body fat, get leaner, so on and so forth, is do a food journal with them. So what I would have people do is write down as accurately as possible, what they eat every day for seven days. And I would ask them to just eat as normal. Don't do anything crazy, anything different.

• 16:36Nick Bare?

  Don't try to under eat because now you're, you're having to write everything down. And just don't do anything out of what you would normally do. Have a normal, average, seven day eating window, but write down everything.

• 16:52Nick Bare?

  Time you eat, what you ate.

• 16:57Nick Bare?

  Estimated serving sizes, and I won't ask these people to weigh their food, but how big was the chicken breast you had? Was it the size of your fist? Okay, maybe I can estimate that was probably like a five to six ounce chicken breast.

• 17:13Nick Bare?

  Was that chicken breast covered in any sauces or oils, if you know of? Was it 85, 15 ground beef, or was it 93, 7 ground beef? And I have them write down as accurately as possible what they consume for seven days. And I would take that information, I'd plug it into, back then I used MyFitnessPal, MyFitnessPal, and I would get their daily caloric average of calories and macronutrients. And I would look at that seven day window, and I would add up all those calories, divide it by seven, and I'd get on average what they were consuming per day.

• 17:55Nick Bare?

  And then we would weigh them at the beginning of those seven days and after those seven days. And if their weight generally stayed the same,

• 18:03Nick Bare?

  we could ballpark or estimate their maintenance calories. Now, if they gained significant weight in those seven days, or lost significant weight in those seven days, we might have to do that experiment all over again for another seven days, and just ask them to eat as normal. There's some calculations and calculators you can use online to try to find your estimated maintenance calories. But I prefer having people consume food, find the average, reflect it based off of weight, loss, maintenance, or gain, and then try to find your maintenance calories that way.

• 18:49Nick Bare?

  It's going to be trial and error, or trial and effort, and there's going to be experimentation throughout this process. But as you start to go on a caloric deficit, and if you start losing weight, you know you're in a deficit.

• 19:06Nick Bare?

  There's something I want to talk about and it's called titrating your nutrition. Now, what is titration? Titration is the process of gradually adjusting the dose of a substrate, in this case, food, up or down to achieve the desired result. So if you're working with a doctor, for example, and they put you on a medicine, and they start you on a dose, and you have negative side effects, they might titrate that medicine down to still ensure that it's helping you, but to reducing the risk of the consequences or the negative side effects you're experiencing.

• 19:49Nick Bare?

  If a doctor puts you on a medicine and it's not helping to achieve the desired result, they might titrate that medicine up very gradually. That's the key behind titration, the process of gradually adjusting the dose.

• 20:09Nick Bare?

  When it comes to your nutrition and your diet, this is how we want to approach it. It is titrating up or down your calories gradually to achieve the desired result.

• 20:23Nick Bare?

  The minimum effective adjustment.

• 20:29Nick Bare?

  The reason I share that is I've seen people

• 20:34Nick Bare?

  want to achieve certain results way too fast, and there's consequences of getting too lean too fast or making too big of jumps or adjustments too quickly. So if you find that your maintenance calories are at 2,500, and you go, "Okay, I want to lose a lot of weight really fast. I'm going to start consuming 1,500 calories." That's a 1,000 calorie deficit. That's massive. I would probably start out at a 250 calorie deficit.

• 21:07Nick Bare?

  And if you're not losing weight there, you know, titrate that adjustment and be go to 350 calories. And if no changes, 450 calories. And if no adjustment, 500 calories.

• 21:22Nick Bare?

  But we want to make this a...

• 21:25Nick Bare?

  A sustainable,

• 21:28Nick Bare?

  effective and healthy titration to your calories. So you can maintain these results long term. But if you go into a thousand calorie deficit right out of the gate. First off, yes, you're going to lose weight. You will. But there are consequences to getting too lean too fast. Some of those consequences are you're probably incorporating unsustainable lifestyle interventions.

• 21:58Nick Bare?

  You most likely are going to experience decreases in performance. While training and while not training. Your energy is going to plummet.

• 22:09Nick Bare?

  You're going to have metabolic damage. You're going to have probably some sort of hormonal endocrine system damage. Your central nervous system is probably going to be fried. It might affect your sleep, in your mood, and your overall energy. So my approach to getting lean and losing body fat. Is to make it a sustainable process. This might mean that it's going to take longer to achieve the desired result. But it's done in a way that leaves you feeling better, healthier, and it's more sustainable. But you'll see people all the time where they go into this huge caloric deficit right out of the gate.

• 22:54Nick Bare?

  Thousand plus calorie deficit.

• 22:57Nick Bare?

  And they lose weight pretty quickly. In a matter of weeks, they're looking leaner. They've lost a lot of weight based off the scale. You might get a DEXA scan and see some positive results. But those people typically. Burn out. They give up. They rebound back to where they first started pretty quickly. Because it is an unsustainable approach. You get to a point where like, man, I have no energy to get out of bed in the morning. Because I'm so fatigued and exhausted. Those first couple of weeks, you might feel great. Dude, I have more energy than I've ever had before in my life. Yes. But give it a few more weeks or a few more months.

• 23:40Nick Bare?

  And I can guarantee that energy is not going to last. It is going to plummet.

• 23:47Nick Bare?

  So we know we need to be in a caloric deficit.

• 23:52Nick Bare?

  But the key is titrating those calories down over time. And we only make changes to our caloric intake or macronutrient ratios. When weight loss or fat loss plateaus, it stops. That's when you make an adjustment. And we titrate those calories. We gradually adjust the dose of the substrate, calories and/or macronutrients, up or down to achieve the desired result. The flip side of not being deliberate in taking a sustainable, slow approach to this.

• 24:36Nick Bare?

  I see it all the time. It's the all or nothing approach that leads people to failure. You know, it's like someone decides they want to lose weight. They want to lose body fat. And it's all or nothing. They change their lifestyle overnight. No more cheat meals. I have to do 10,000 steps a day. I have to drink a gallon of water. I have to hit my macronutrient spot on. I have to do two workouts. I'm not consuming any alcohol. I'm not having any cheat meals. I'm not going to any social events. I'm locked in, I'm dialed in. Again, this might work for a period of time.

• 25:17Nick Bare?

  But the all or nothing approach leads, it's almost guaranteed to lead you to failure and rebound because it's unsustainable. So the goal with this is building healthy relationships with food, fitness, and just movement overall, healthier lifestyle interventions that are sustainable. They are healthy. They are going to drive results. And it requires sacrifice. Any big goal, any ambition requires some level of sacrifice.

• 26:00Nick Bare?

  But we get to decide how monumental those sacrifices are.

• 26:08Nick Bare?

  And like, what are those sacrifices? If the sacrifices, this is just the way that I see it. If those sacrifices are that I don't get to eat whatever I want, whenever I want, that's probably a pretty good sacrifice. That's going to reinforce discipline and learning how to eat healthier, not just for myself, but potentially for my family. And teaching them how to eat healthier, that's sustainable and should be viewed as a good thing, fuel for the body, fuel for the mind.

• 26:43Nick Bare?

  So yeah, you're gonna have to make some sort of sacrifice, but sacrifices aren't bad.

• 26:49Nick Bare?

  Things sometimes we think of sacrifices as this negative, bad thing.

• 26:55Nick Bare?

  The sacrifice doesn't have to be massive, unless you make it that. And that's typically the all or nothing approach.

• 27:03Nick Bare?

  The bigger the sacrifice, generally, the harder it is to sustain.

• 27:10Nick Bare?

  So

• 27:13Nick Bare?

  take it low, take it slow, make it sustainable, make it enjoyable.

• 27:20Nick Bare?

  But we gotta focus on energy balance. And there are consequences to getting too lean, too fast. So here's some of the things that I do. Again, these are our methods that I incorporate that help me make adjustments to my, my diet to be in a core deficit. And talk about nutrition timing for starters. Now, when I'm trying to maintain my weight or even put on size and gain weight, it sometimes feels like I'm force-feeding food. And this is just based off my metabolism. Generally, a lot of the foods that I consume are cleaner foods.

• 28:02Nick Bare?

  I thoroughly enjoy lean meats and well-cooked vegetables and big salads and lots of fruits.

• 28:14Nick Bare?

  And clean carbs and a lot of the foods that I am drawn towards and attracted to are lower in calories. I personally don't crave and we'll get to this, um, this point because I know a lot of people do crave highly satisfying, highly processed foods, especially in the evenings. But I, I don't really have those cravings that I'm fighting. So when I'm trying to maintain or put on size based off the foods that I'm drawn towards in my metabolism and just the amount of training that I'm doing, whether I'm trying to get leaner or I'm, I'm maintaining

• 28:58Nick Bare?

  or I'm building, I'm always incorporating resistance training and cardiovascular conditioning.

• 29:08Nick Bare?

  If I'm in a big marathon or endurance training block, I'm, I'm running more. I'd be cycling and swimming if I'm in a triathlon. But right now I'm just trying to maintain. I'm actually trying to get a little leaner right now going into the summer and I'm running 20 to 25 miles a week. I'm strength training about five days out of the week. And one of the things that I will do, because in order to maintain and gain size, I have to eat a lot of food. It feels like I'm, I'm force feeding sometimes. So going into a, a leaning out phase, I actually enjoy

• 29:48Nick Bare?

  because I feel like it, it does my digestive system good. But when I'm maintaining or bulking and building, I will consume four big meals a day in one snack.

• 30:05Nick Bare?

  And when I'm leaning out, or trying to lean out like right now, I'll have three meals per day and one snack.

• 30:13Nick Bare?

  So when I'm, you know, eating four meals a day and one snack, I have to make sure that that first meal is consumed pretty early. As soon as I'm done with my morning run, I'm getting a meal in me

• 30:28Nick Bare?

  that is comprised of foods and calories and macronutrients that looks different from when I'm trying to lean out.

• 30:37Nick Bare?

  And the reason I try to consume that first meal as early as possible when I'm maintaining or building is because I know a few hours later, I'm gonna have to have another big meal. A few hours later, I'm gonna have another big meal. A few hours later, we're gonna have dinner, which is another big meal. And then before I go to bed, I'll have my snack. That's where I always have my snack is about an hour before bed. But four meals and a snack, five meals per day, or five eating times on the day, it's a lot.

• 31:11Nick Bare?

  You know, I personally don't like these big bowls of meals

• 31:16Nick Bare?

  at once. I would prefer smaller meals spread out down the day. It just makes me feel better energy-wise and digestive system-wise. But when I'm leaning out, I will pull one meal away.

• 31:29Nick Bare?

  So three meals per day and one snack, that's what I'm consuming right now.

• 31:35Nick Bare?

  And what I have found helps is time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting. Now, you can take intermittent fasting to different extremes. You can do the eight-hour feeding window. You can do the four-hour feeding window. And if you do a four-hour feeding window and you're fasting for 20 hours, if you're doing an eight-hour feeding window, then you're fasting for 16 hours. If you're doing an eight-hour feeding window, you know, just to put some context behind it, your first meal might be at 10:00 a.m. And then your last meal would be at 6:00 p.m.,

• 32:21Nick Bare?

  which isn't actually that crazy. But that is technically considered time-restricted eating and/or intermittent fasting. You have these different feeding windows. You can even do a 12 and 12. First meal at 6:00 a.m., your last meal is at 6:00 p.m. That is a form of time-restricted eating. The question is, how restricted do you want to get within that window of feeding? So I share that to say that if you are going into a leaning out phase, a fat loss phase, this is something I'll do. I will incorporate, not every day, but some days,

• 33:06Nick Bare?

  time-restricted feeding or intermittent fasting, where I'll push back that first meal

• 33:15Nick Bare?

  as late as possible. And I'll wait till I'm really hungry. When I'm maintaining or bulking, I rarely eat when I'm hungry. I eat based off time and when I know I have to get calories in. That's why it feels like I'm force-feeding. But when I'm in a dieting phase and I'm leaning out and trying to lose body fat, I will push back that first meal until I am truly hungry and ready for it. That might be 9:00 a.m. That might be 11:00 a.m. in some cases.

• 33:50Nick Bare?

  I would rather go the morning without food and feeding as opposed to having to wrap up my diet at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. and go throughout the back half of the evening or the night hungry.

• 34:11Nick Bare?

  And the reason is, if I try to fall asleep hungry,

• 34:17Nick Bare?

  I will wake up in the middle of the night. I will have trouble falling asleep. I won't sleep as good.

• 34:24Nick Bare?

  Now, this is definitely a

• 34:27Nick Bare?

  personal decision.

• 34:30Nick Bare?

  Like, some people sleep better on an empty stomach. But not me. I know that if I'm laying in bed and I have the slightest ounce of hunger, I will not sleep good that night. I just know that about myself. I've tried it before. I've tried it many times. I'll wake up at 2:00 a.m. I'll wake up at 3:00 a.m. I'll wake up at 4:00 a.m. There's been times where I've fallen asleep a little hungry. I'll wake up in the middle of the night. And I'm like, I know I'm not gonna be able to fall asleep until I go eat. And I'll go in the kitchen. And I'll eat a go bar. Or I'll cut a piece of Steph's freshly baked sourdough. And I'll throw some Carigold butter and sea salt in there. And I'll sit on the couch in our living room and just eat this snack to go to bed.

• 35:15Nick Bare?

  So I know I can fall back to sleep. So that's just my personal preference. I would rather go the morning, wait till I'm truly hungry to eat,

• 35:27Nick Bare?

  as opposed to being hungry in the evening and that affecting my sleep. I've also found that you know, with time restricted eating or intermittent fasting, it just makes it easier to stay within a caloric deficit when that feeding window is smaller. When that feeding window is very spread out, you have more time in between meals, it's easier to get hungry. And you find yourself waiting for the next meal as soon as you finish the previous meal, depending on how big of a caloric deficit you're in.

• 36:04Nick Bare?

  I've also found with time restricted feeding or intermittent fasting, it just helps with digestion. You know, when you have a smaller feeding window and you have more time when you're fasting,

• 36:18Nick Bare?

  I have found that my stomach feels better. Digestion is more optimized and better. My bowel movements are even better. My energy in the morning is improved. When I fast in the morning and I push back that first meal even by a few hours. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, a few hours. I'll still consume my coffee in the morning and my water and my electrolytes.

• 36:46Nick Bare?

  But my mental clarity is very strong. My energy is very strong in the mornings where I do that.

• 36:54Nick Bare?

  And when it comes to nutrition timing, I do think it's important to create predictable and consistent meal timing, patterns and behaviors.

• 37:06Nick Bare?

  If you are someone who just eats based off of feel, hunger, what's convenient,

• 37:17Nick Bare?

  this isn't applicable to everyone, but generally, people who follow random eating patterns often have increased cravings and they experience impulsive eating.

• 37:32Nick Bare?

  So whether I'm trying to lose body fat, maintain, or build in bulk, I have predictable and consistent meal timing. And I generally know going into a day what I'm going to consume. Dinner is the one meal where we incorporate a lot of variation. But when you create predictable and consistent meal timing from day to day, it reduces inconsistent food cravings and impulsive eating. And it just allows you to like, okay, I'm gonna sit down and have this meal. And then the next meal, I'm gonna sit down and have this meal. And the next meal, I'm gonna sit down and have this meal. As opposed to, I'm gonna grab like a protein shake here and then

• 38:14Nick Bare?

  10 minutes later, I'm a little bit hungry, I'm gonna grab, you know, some fruit. And then, you know, 10 minutes later after that, I'm gonna grab a sandwich and I'm gonna put some extra stuff on it and maybe grab a bag of chips. And before you know it, your lunch has turned into 1,500 calories. I'm gonna grab some trail mix here, that trail mix give in 500 calories.

• 38:36Nick Bare?

  So creating predictable and consistent meal timing in options is really important

• 38:43Nick Bare?

  alongside nutrition timing to maintain appropriate results when you're in a leaning phase. You know, for years I talked about auto-regulating your training, but you can also auto-regulate your calories.

• 39:01Nick Bare?

  So when I talk about auto regulation when it comes to working out,

• 39:06Nick Bare?

  say for example, I wake up and it's a Tuesday morning and I have a five mile run that I planned on doing in the morning and then training lower body in the afternoon. But if I wake up Tuesday morning and the previous day was a really stressful day, I didn't sleep well. The kids were up, the kids were sick. You wake up Tuesday morning and you just do a quick assessment of your body.

• 39:32Nick Bare?

  Okay, I didn't sleep good. My body feels like trash. I under consumed food yesterday, but I know I have a five mile run this morning and I'm training lower body legs this afternoon. Yikes.

• 39:45Nick Bare?

  That's where auto regulation comes into play. You make a smart decision. Okay, I'm not going to do that run this morning and maybe I'll do

• 39:55Nick Bare?

  a 60 minute high rocks circuit in the gym this afternoon, just to get the body moving, a little bit of cardiovascular conditioning, a little bit of strength. You make adjustments based off a self assessment and analysis of how you're feeling. To be able to perform at the level that your body is prepared to. You can do the same thing with calories. And I was listening to a podcast, it was a Mind Pump Media podcast, I love those guys over there. And they use a term that I'm going to give them credit for. It's called undulating your calories. And this is essentially

• 40:40Nick Bare?

  being able to adjust your caloric intake based off of your life, your lifestyle, events, anything really. So some examples. If you're gonna undulate your calories, let's say you're in a caloric deficit and your caloric deficit

• 41:02Nick Bare?

  Calorie goal daily is 2,000, 2,000 calories. Yes, you could consume 2,000 calories seven days a week and be very consistent with that. Or if you wanted to, you could undulate your calories. Some methods. If you struggle with the weekends and you know that on weekends, you and your family always go out for dinner. You always overeat a little bit. You want some more freedom on the weekend. Well, what you could do is lower your calories even more during the week to allow for you to eat at maintenance or maybe even a slight surplus on the weekends based off of more flexibility.

• 41:48Nick Bare?

  So maybe during the week, if your maintenance or your goal calories for your deficit are 2,000, like I said, maybe during the week, Monday through Friday, you consume 1,800 calories a day. So then on the weekends, you have some more flexibility and room to consume more calories. That's one method you could approach. Or we even get more granular with this.

• 42:15Nick Bare?

  If you know like me, you get hunger in the evenings and you're not as hungry in the morning or throughout the day, you can keep your calories intentionally lower, make different food choice options in the morning and the early afternoon and save most of your calories for the evening. That's one approach. If you know you are someone who is tempted by food late at night, get ready to go to bed. You have a sweet tooth, you have cravings, you just want to munch on something. Set yourself up for success. Do lower calories throughout the morning and throughout the early afternoon. Set the bulk of your calories are at dinner and then after dinner.

• 42:59Nick Bare?

  That way you're still within your caloric goal for the day, but you are not struggling and starving yourself in the evening or afternoon. And then this is something that the guys at Mind Pump brought up that I thought was a really

• 43:18Nick Bare?

  valuable drive home reminder.

• 43:24Nick Bare?

  Myself included, I find myself eating base off of the clock a lot of the times as opposed to when I'm hungry. I think it's important to listen to your body.

• 43:39Nick Bare?

  If your body is telling you, "I am hungry," eat.

• 43:45Nick Bare?

  But if your body is telling, not telling you, "You're hungry," and you're just eating based off of patterns and routine and structure, feel the openness, the ability to just eat when you are hungry. I know that sounds like common sense, but for me, I know a lot of people in the fitness industry who live this lifestyle, we eat based off of routine. We eat based off structure. We eat based off of the clock. I know my first meal I have at 7:00 a.m. My second meal I have at 11:00 a.m. And then I have dinner at 5:00 p.m. And then I have my late night snack at 8:30 p.m.

• 44:29Nick Bare?

  That's how I typically eat. But it can be powerful. Just allow your appetite to regulate when you consume that food. So another way to undulate your calories, if there's a day where you're really hungry,

• 44:49Nick Bare?

  eat more. And the example these guys used in the podcast I was listening to, after a big lower body strength day, typically for a lot of people, the following day, appetite is increased. Your body is trying to recover from the big effort you did. You probably broke down some muscle.

• 45:11Nick Bare?

  Your appetite is stimulated. It's trying to recover. Well, allow yourself to eat more on those days. But maybe, you know, a random Wednesday where you're not running, you have an easy biceps and triceps workout, just for example. You're not putting forth massive energy or effort, you're not burning a lot of calories. There might not be a lot of movement that day. Your appetite might not be as stimulated. It's okay to eat less on those days and reserve those calories for a day that's

• 45:51Nick Bare?

  much more needed. So we can auto-regulate, or in mind pump, media's terms, un-gulate your calories day to day, based off your appetite, based off the effort, based off when you know you have cravings, or you're hungry, or even within a day. That is a powerful option and method to incorporate, to make sure that this journey, these results, this process is sustainable. Okay, let's talk about how I like to make changes to my macronutrients when I'm in a dieting phase.

• 46:37Nick Bare?

  We've already said calories are king. Calories in, first calories out, and being in a caloric deficit is what is going to facilitate weight loss, fat loss, getting leaner. But some of the nuances of that, how do we approach the specific macronutrients? Being proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

• 47:03Nick Bare?

  This is the way that I approach it. So protein, I always prioritize protein. Whether I'm dieting, whether I'm maintaining, whether I'm bulking and building. At a minimum, for me, one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Right now, I weigh 200 pounds. I'm consuming at least 200 grams of protein per day.

• 47:32Nick Bare?

  Protein is four calories per gram of protein. Fat is the most chlorically dense, nine calories per gram of fat. Carbohydrates, the same as protein, four calories per gram of carbohydrate. Protein is the most satiating macronutrient, meaning that it is going to keep you fuller. It's gonna fill you up the fastest and keep you full for the longest. Here's an example, you give someone a bag of chips, they will eat the entire bag. And then they might go open up a second bag and finish that one off. For me,

• 48:16Nick Bare?

  my like one struggle food, I'd say is purely Elizabeth granola. There aren't many foods that do this to me. But purely Elizabeth granola, especially the cookie granola. Oh my gosh, that stuff is addicting. There's not many things I can say are addicting for me food wise. Purely Elizabeth cookie granola is dangerous. And if you ever weighed out a serving of granola, it's pathetic. It's like truly depressing. You look at the bag, there's seven servings of, I know, I know all of this, trust me. Seven servings of granola in these bags.

• 49:01Nick Bare?

  And I could easily eat two bags in one sitting. That's not an exaggeration. That's the one food where I don't even keep in the house anymore because of this, but we used to, Steph and I did. I make a bowl at night, I put some pure Elizabeth granola in a bowl with some milk and I eat it like cereal. And it was so good and when it was over, I was so sad. So I'd go back and I'd make a second bowl. And sometimes a third bowl. That is the one food that I can't stop with. It is so addicting and so good. For some people, it's chips. You know, it's the, the combination of savory and sweet and it's processed and.

• 49:47Nick Bare?

  It's dangerous. But you give someone a boatload of chicken breasts. They're gonna eat until they're full, in content, and then they're gonna be done. Like, there are times when someone puts a massive steak in front of me, and I'll eat it till I'm full. I'm like, God, I just don't want any more steak. I'm like, I'm stuffed. I'm satiated. You ever go for barbecue? We have barbecue joint down here in Texas. Our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs. I'll take half a pound of brisket. I'll take half a pound of pulled pork. I'll take

• 50:28Nick Bare?

  four of those ribs. I'll take a few of the jalapeno cheddar sausages. I'll get a few sides. You sit down, you take a few bites. You don't even put a dent in that barbecue sometimes. That's how it is whenever we go for barbecue. We order way too much, we eat way too little. Protein is satiating. It's the most satiating macronutrient.

• 50:53Nick Bare?

  Protein is also muscle sparing. So when you're in a dieting phase or a caloric deficit, making sure you consume enough protein is going to

• 51:04Nick Bare?

  help reduce the risk of muscle being catabolic, breaking down and burning up. So we want increased protein, or at least prioritize protein more in a leaning out phase. And I

• 51:25Nick Bare?

  tend to prefer leaner protein sources when I'm dieting. When I'm not dieting, I might go for the ribeye and the 80/20 ground beef, and just fattier options.

• 51:41Nick Bare?

  They taste better, I'm not gonna lie, than these leaner protein sources. But when we're prioritizing protein, we don't necessarily want all the extra fat that comes along with it. Yes, fat is essential for our body, but there's a point of diminishing return. More fat does not necessarily mean more health or better. It means more calories.

• 52:05Nick Bare?

  So some of my go-to lean protein sources that I'm consuming at this moment, and when I'm trying to lean out a little bit, at night before bed, like my go-to snack incorporates Greek yogurt and cottage cheese.

• 52:22Nick Bare?

  And it's even full-fat cottage cheese. But if you like full-fat cottage cheese, per serving, it's about four grams of fat. It's not significant. And full-fat cottage cheese is so much better than reduced-fat cottage cheese. So Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, chicken, chicken breast, but also chicken thighs. Instead of like some fattier ground beef, I'll do leaner ground beef. 93.7 as opposed to 80.20. I'll do more bison, elk, turkey. A lot of the ground meat that I'll buy is from Force of Nature. And Force of Nature has a great selection of leaner options.

• 53:03Nick Bare?

  Elk, bison, like I said, they have a ground chicken, which is good. I'll do egg whites, more egg whites and whole eggs.

• 53:13Nick Bare?

  Certain fish, you know, we still incorporate salmon to our diet weekly, which is a fattier fish. I'll do sardines. Sardines are, let's say mildly lean. You can do a can of sardines and it's about 18 grams of protein and maybe eight grams of fat, but you're getting really good omega-3 fatty acids there. But there's some really lean fish out there, whiter fish is lean. And protein powder. Now, protein powder is not the most satiating, but it's a great way to get more protein in your diet. I do two scoops of protein every single day. It's part of my breakfast right now, which I'll share here in a little bit, what my diet looks like, or at least some of the meals that I'm consuming.

• 53:57Nick Bare?

  But protein powder is lean. You can get 25 grams of protein with a few grams of fat. With our isolate, you know, it's about one gram of fat. So it's a lean option of protein. So I'm always prioritizing protein. Whether I'm dieting, maintaining, or building and bulking, but especially when I'm dieting. Prioritizing protein is so important and I'll opt for leaner options.

• 54:30Nick Bare?

  When I'm dieting, I will reduce dietary fat. Like I said, fat is the most chlorically dense macronutrient, nine calories per gram of fat.

• 54:44Nick Bare?

  I like to pull back on fat just because it saves a lot of calories. Now, like I mentioned, fat is essential for hormone optimization, for brain function, for just a lot of bodily processes. Healthy fat, you know, I get a good mixture of saturated fats and monopolyunsaturated fats, omega-3 fatty acids I'm always prioritizing.

• 55:20Nick Bare?

  When you're bulking or building or even maintaining, having a more fat-dense diet helps because you don't have to eat a lot of volume in.

• 55:33Nick Bare?

  It's easy to add some oils and butter.

• 55:39Nick Bare?

  Or peanut butter to your meals when you're maintaining or building and bulking to get some more fat in. But I like to reduce my dietary fat pretty significantly when I'm in a dieting phase. It saves a lot of calories. Something else that I've recently learned, so by working with my doctor, we did a GI map test. Which is a stool sample test.

• 56:06Nick Bare?

  You essentially um put this basket over your toilet and you go to the bathroom in this basket.

• 56:16Nick Bare?

  And then you have these tools and you, you know, it's, it's, if you're up close and personal, you're kind of taking this tool and putting your stool in this tube. And then you shake it up and you put it in this bag and you ship it back to this testing facility. It's a wild process. I've done this multiple times in my life. And if you haven't done a GI map or stool test before, I recommend it because you get some really good data back from it. And recently I did one, this was after Ironman prep. And got the results back a few weeks later and went over the results to my doctor. And what we found is, you know, you can identify

• 57:02Nick Bare?

  how much of what bacteria, good and bad, you have in, within your, your gut, your intestines.

• 57:12Nick Bare?

  You know, you want bacteria, you want good bacteria in your gut, you need it. But sometimes you can have an overgrowth of certain bacterias, which can cause constipation or diarrhea or gas and bloating. There's something called SIBO, S I B O, small intestinal bacteria overgrowth. This is when certain bacteria in intestines and the gut grow at a significant rate that, that produces these unwanted effects and just uncomfortable feelings. But with all that being said, one of the things that my doctor and I identified in my most recent GI map test is that

• 57:55Nick Bare?

  my body and my gut doesn't digest high amounts of fat very well. Either in one sitting, one bolus, or throughout the day. So something I experimented with, which made it pretty convenient going into this, you know, leaning out phase that I'm in right now, pulled back on dietary fat a lot.

• 58:21Nick Bare?

  I stopped eating eggs in the morning, actually. Changed my breakfast up, chose leaner protein sources. Stopped eating all of the avocados I was eating at night before going to bed. I was eating a bunch of avocados and nuts before going to bed. And by reducing my dietary fat intake significantly after talking to my doctor, my stomach and my digestive system felt so much better. So much better. I didn't have as much gas or bloating or stomach discomfort. So that was a win that also helped with this lean out phase. But that's one change I'll make to my diet is reducing dietary fat significantly.

• 59:07Nick Bare?

  Not too much, but significantly while in a dieting phase. And when it comes to carbohydrates, I like to incorporate my carbohydrates while in a dieting phase, trying to lose body fat around my training when I'm gonna need it. So instead of consuming 150 grams of carbs for breakfast like I was during Ironman prep, I will do a lower carb approach in the morning sometimes. And then I will put all of my carbs or most of my carbs around my workouts. So if I know I'm training at 2:00 PM and I have my lunch at 11:00 AM, I will do a lot of carbs in that pre-workout meal.

• 59:51Nick Bare?

  I might do some carbs with my pre-workout solution that I mix up. I'll do pre-workout pump enhancer and maybe a scoop of G and M Sport to get 20 grams of carbs to fuel that training session. And then post-workout, I'll incorporate carbs to replenish what was lost and to promote recovery along with protein.

• 1:00:13Nick Bare?

  So you know, if you're dieting, you're in a cork deficit, you're prioritizing protein, you're pulling back fat a little bit, you're pulling back carbs a little bit, I'd rather pull back fat more and keep carbs higher just for the energy that it provides and the performance outcomes you get from just having carbs around training sessions. But I will make sure that those carbohydrates I'm consuming throughout the day or around my training, just to have the best workouts possible. You know, the deeper you get into a cut, the deeper you get into a deficit, you will maybe, depending on the

• 1:00:56Nick Bare?

  person, experience some fatigue, reduced energy. But if you still want to have solid training sessions, keep those carbohydrates around the training session. Okay, so when I prompted the question on Instagram earlier this week, where people struggle with weight loss, fat loss, dieting, one of the most common questions I saw pop up was around late night snacking. And it seems that a lot of people struggle with

• 1:01:34Nick Bare?

  binging in the evening, late night snacking. And it goes back to, you know, I think this is one of the reasons that it's important to have structured, consistent, predictable meals and having a plan throughout the day. If you go into the evening and it's like, I'm just gonna eat a little bit here, eat a little bit there, that's where you end up binging or overeating. You know, where you're passing the pantry, I'm gonna grab a handful of trail mix.

• 1:02:05Nick Bare?

  And then you go do something, you pass the fridge, I'm gonna grab a handful of leftover potatoes from dinner. You go around the house, do some stuff. I'm now gonna open this bag of chips and before you know it, you're 2,000 calories in before you go to bed. Just within that, that late night snack. So what I like to do is have a plan, have a structure. Alright, I'm hungry. I'm now gonna go make what I'm gonna eat. It's all gonna go in this one bowl. And this is what I'm eating. And it's gonna fill me up. And that's it. As opposed to have a little bit here, have a little bit there.

• 1:02:45Nick Bare?

  As I kind of prefaced earlier, my go to late night snack right now is one serving of cottage cheese. One serving of Greek yogurt. Some cacao nibs sprinkled over top. And a bunch of berries. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries. I get my protein. I get some, some quality fiber and antioxidants from the berries. And some good antioxidants from the cacao nibs. And it's tasty, it's a little sweet. And it, it satisfies me. I'm full. That is my go to late night meal and or snack right now.

• 1:03:29Nick Bare?

  But I'll be honest. Some of you guys who struggle with late night snacking and binging.

• 1:03:37Nick Bare?

  You might just need a little bit more discipline. And willpower and self accountability.

• 1:03:44Nick Bare?

  There's some things you can do, methods wise, like I just shared. Not grabbing snacks here and there throughout the night for the last two hours before you lay down and go to sleep. But making that snack, making that meal, putting it all in one bowl. This is what I get to eat. This is what I'm gonna consume. Within my clor, daily clor range. And I'm good. That's it. But you might just need some discipline. Some willpower and accountability. And discipline, willpower and accountability, self accountability, those are muscles. That you have to flex and they become stronger the more that you train them.

• 1:04:24Nick Bare?

  The truth, the reality.

• 1:04:27Nick Bare?

  You know, many people can start off a day strong, but fewer people can finish the day strong. Why? This is the reality. Willpower and decision-making energy is depleted throughout the day. And I believe this is probably why most people struggle with late-night snacking and binging.

• 1:04:46Nick Bare?

  Think about it, you go the whole day making decisions. Some hard decisions, some easier decisions, but a lot of decisions throughout the day. From the time you wake up,

• 1:04:57Nick Bare?

  to the time you go to work, to the time you come home, all of your life and family responsibilities. And by the time you might put the kids down and you have an hour to yourself, willpower and decision-making energy is depleted. That's why a lot of people are tempted by food

• 1:05:21Nick Bare?

  and falling off the plan. And willpower is gone, discipline's gone, self-accountability is gone.

• 1:05:29Nick Bare?

  We gotta build in structure and routine, consistency, and just work really hard

• 1:05:37Nick Bare?

  to maintain that willpower. Going to that decision of what you're going to eat and consume before bed, very intentional. It's a muscle, like I said, that has to be flexed.

• 1:05:51Nick Bare?

  Alongside dieting and training, which we haven't talked much about, but sleep. You know, sleep actually does play a critical role in some of these decisions we make throughout the day and especially at night. Poor sleep increases hunger hormones.

• 1:06:12Nick Bare?

  So if you aren't sleeping well, you're not sleeping a lot, you're continuously getting poor sleep, what happens is ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone, it rises. And leptin, which is the satiety hormone, telling you you're full, you're satisfied, it drops. So poor sleep leads to disruptions in your hunger and satiety hormones, which leads to bad choices, which leads to binging, which leads to weight gain, which leads to and results in little to no progress of losing weight, losing body fat.

• 1:06:54Nick Bare?

  So as much as you need willpower, as much as you need discipline, as much as you need self accountability,

• 1:07:02Nick Bare?

  it's important to also prioritize sleep.

• 1:07:06Nick Bare?

  So that we're setting ourselves up for success, setting the conditions to be able to succeed.

• 1:07:18Nick Bare?

  One of the things that has helped me with late night snacking, like I talked about earlier,

• 1:07:23Nick Bare?

  the purely Elizabeth granola, that used to be a struggle for me.

• 1:07:28Nick Bare?

  But it was also when I was in a season of heavy endurance training, so I could get away with it. I know that if I have purely Elizabeth granola in the house right now,

• 1:07:40Nick Bare?

  I have enough willpower to not consume it. Cause I know as soon as I pour one bowl, that's probably going to lead to two bowls, which might lead to three bowls. So I don't even pour a bowl of it anymore because I know how good it is and, and what that leads to. So have your go to dieting meals.

• 1:08:01Nick Bare?

  Some of my go to dieting meals, like how my breakfast has changed. My breakfast used to be multiple eggs, some egg whites, sourdough, Kerrygold butter, uh, maybe some dried figs and some berries. It was a chlorically dense and higher fat breakfast. Now as I'm in a leaning out phase, my breakfast is a protein shake. I do one and a half frozen bananas. I do 40 grams, which is one serving of oats. And I weigh those oats out on a scale and I do two scoops of our chocolate whey protein isolate with almond milk. So I'll put it in a blender, I'll blend it up after I get back from my run and then I put it in the freezer until I'm ready to eat it.

• 1:08:46Nick Bare?

  So when I take it out of the freezer, it's a little frosted over, it's very cold. It almost tastes like a milkshake. I don't drink my shakes ever. I make them so thick that I can eat it with a spoon. That's the way that I prefer to drink or eat my shakes. Delicious. I look forward to that every day. It's high in protein. It's moderate carb because it's typically after my morning run, but it's low in fat. So it's lower in calories compared to my maintaining or building breakfast.

• 1:09:18Nick Bare?

  I've already shared how lunches kind of changed. I lean towards or opt for leaner protein sources. Either a 93.7 ground beef, bison, elk, or turkey, or even chicken. As opposed to say, an 80 20 ground beef. Like I'll normally consume a fattier meat. How dinner has changed in a dieting phase for me. I do less carbohydrates, more veggies, along with a leaner protein. So we do a lot of bowls or just big plates. Like Steph will do a bowl, but I'll do a big plate because I want more surface volume of the food that can be on that plate.

• 1:09:59Nick Bare?

  And instead of making the base, say, a carb where it's pasta or rice or quinoa. Um, or potatoes. I will make that base where I'm in a lean out phase. Salad or a bunch of veggies, leaner protein. Still a lot of food. I won't add as much additional fat. But when I'm in a dieting phase, I'm definitely adding in more vegetables. More volume keeps me full. It's great sources of fiber, which is going to help with digestion. Uh, and then fiber is also very satiating.

• 1:10:43Nick Bare?

  You know, hits those, those feelings of keeping you full, not wanting and needing more. And then when we go to dinner, because we still go to dinner often as a family. And when I go into a leaning out phase or a dieting phase, it doesn't take over my life. And I'm not dieting to step on stage and for a body building show. If I'm dieting or leaning out right now at this phase of my life. It's just to be a little less bulky, get a little leaner, feel a little lighter and faster.

• 1:11:21Nick Bare?

  But it's not to be five or six percent body fat. So I'm making these easy changes to my lifestyle without it disrupting my life and my family's lives. So we still go to dinner frequently, out to dinner, and I'll make more intentional choices and decisions. Some examples here.

• 1:11:44Nick Bare?

  We go to Hop Dottie, which is a burger spot here in Austin. They have multiple locations and they've expanded outside of Austin now. So you might have a Hop Dottie close to you, really good burgers, really good shakes, really good fries. Their Parm truffle fries and their sweet potato fries are so good and you get a massive bowl. If you get a massive bowl of the fries, the fries alone are probably 1,200 calories.

• 1:12:10Nick Bare?

  But what we'll do when we go to Hop Dottie now, Steph and I both do this, is we'll make our burgers into a bowl. So they'll take this massive bowl and they'll put the lettuce and tomato and onion and all the veggies in there. And then I get two bison patties, some bacon, and then ketchup, mustard, a little bit of their house mayo. Mix it all up. And it's very filling, it's very delicious, and it's a healthier, leaner option. So I'll turn my burgers into bowls. Where we go? Not all the time, but occasionally.

• 1:12:53Nick Bare?

  If we're going to a restaurant that's not Hop Dottie, I'll typically just opt for a leaner cut of meat, whether that's a steak or chicken. And then maybe I'll get a side plain baked potato. Like in my opinion, when you go to a steakhouse and you just get a plain baked potato, the way they cook it, I'm sure they roll it in oil and they have that big, thick salt crust on the outside, but it's just cooked perfectly, little crisp.

• 1:13:29Nick Bare?

  I'll get a plain baked potato and a lean steak and that's a delicious meal for me. Instead of getting something that's loaded with calories and sauces and

• 1:13:43Nick Bare?

  just something that's a little bit out of, more out of control at restaurants. You can make modifications and substitutions at almost any restaurant you go to to make any meal healthier. So I would encourage you to, yes, there's a time and place to,

• 1:14:01Nick Bare?

  you know, have whatever you want. But we go to dinner frequently with the family and every time we go to dinner, I don't view it as a treat. It is a convenient way for the family to get out of the house and share a meal together. And it doesn't mean I have to have dessert with every meal, doesn't mean I have to have a drink with every meal, doesn't mean I have to have a burger and fries at every meal. Now, every meal we go out for does not have to be viewed as a treat. It is a meal and you can make healthy options,

• 1:14:35Nick Bare?

  substitutions at any restaurant you go to. And I have found that your server and the cooks really don't mind. Uh, it's not a huge burden or it doesn't have to be a big burden.

• 1:14:51Nick Bare?

  So those are some of the things that I do while in a dieting phase.

• 1:14:56Nick Bare?

  To lose body fat, to get leaner, I hope that it is applicable to some of the things that you do or are planning to do if you are trying to lose body fat and get leaner. But it's the small things that add up and make a difference. It doesn't have to be the all or nothing. You don't have to make these massive sacrifices to every aspect of your life. It's the small incremental changes that you incorporate that pay off in big wins in the long term. So, thank you guys for tuning in. I appreciate you. I love you and we'll see you in the next episode.