Coach Ted talks about how your body uses the fuel you give it and why it’s important to customize your nutrition to your body composition and training plan.
Processing Fuel to Build Muscle
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Processing Fuel to Build Muscle
Season 6/Episode 36
January 15, 2023
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
This is the Ted O'Neill program. There's so much information in science and philosophy, physical training, performance optimization, nutrition, human experience with Ted O'Neill and Jon Leon Guerrero.
0:23 Jon
Welcome to the Ted O'Neill program. It's Monday, and I saw something interesting that perked my ears up because it had to do with muscle growth for people in their 50s. (Okay) And then it went specifically to testosterone production. And one of the observations that this guy made was that you need for your healthy fat content to be between 20 and 25%.
0:47 Ted
So, hold on for one second. So, we're just going to jump right into this.
0:50 Jon
yeah, we're just jumping right into this.
0:52 Ted
So, I say that because we've been on an unintentional hiatus for a couple of weeks now. It's true. And in the meantime, you know, the entire coast of California has been ravaged by this crazy weather that's sweeping the country. We've had technical difficulties. (That's true) We've had all manner of things that would appear to be a state of distraction yet here we are. Picking the pieces back up. (Yeah) On a very busy Lifted Academy day. We just finished an episode module, right? (Right) Now we're podcasting. And then we're launching a new body recomposition round that starts tonight (Yeah) with a call.
1:31 Jon
Well, that's one of the reasons that this thing caught my attention was because the purpose of this person's comment, okay, I clicked on a YouTube video that said, tips for building muscle, if you're in your 50s or 60s, and I thought, I don't know this guy, but I know people in their 50s and 60s who are actively in the process of building muscle, (you know several) so if what he has to say is validated by real world experience, and thankfully it was and one of the things that he talked about without going into specific plans. Tip number one, by the way, was to have a plan. And then some tip down the line was to get a coach. And his point about that was if you're trying to do an endeavor like this without a coach, it's like trying to win a football game without a coach. (Yeah, and there's levels to it) There's been, yes, again, without going into a specific plan. He said have one and then one of them included that fact about the fat percentage, and then I thought about my macros that you've assigned me and I thought, Oh, yeah. That would be 20%.
2:38 Ted
What was the fat percentage he gave?
2:42 Jon
Yeah, he said between 20 and 25%.
2:45 Ted
Okay. So, an interesting thing, because whenever we have a discussion like this, or we could highlight any one macronutrient. For the uninitiated, there are three macronutrients: proteins, carbs, and fats. In other words, every time you eat your meal is comprised of some percentage of each of those proteins, carbs or fats. You could almost because that’s your saying this to me prior to us putting the mics on and rolling with this. I almost said You know, I think that an argument could be made that fat could be the most important macronutrient both for muscle gain and for fat loss. (Interesting) Now, there's circumstances where you can say the exact same thing about protein and carbohydrates coming at it from a different angle. (Okay) So, what this speaks to then is there is a timing element involved. There is a measure of specificity that's involved. We could call that for our purpose the macronutrient ratio. (Yeah) So there's, there's requirements to achieve any particular outcome in this case, he was talking about building muscle mass. So from a biological perspective, you're going to need a certain amount of fat. Now, I don't necessarily disagree with the statement. Of saying you need 20 to 25%. I would say that it varies per individual. But if you begin to dip below that number, the majority of people are then going to have a less effective result. And if you go too high, there's going to be the majority. So, that sweet spot is somewhere in that middle ground. (Okay) This is what we try to identify when we do the body recomposition rounds is through an evolving process, someone's ratio of what their percentage of any and all the macronutrients are becomes fluid and dynamic. So, we initially stick to what's called a static macronutrient profile. Because let's say for example, using that one data point that he gave that again, I have no problem with that data point, but (it's a very broad stroke) It's a very broad stroke and this is where all of the well-intentioned advice ultimately falls into the pool of dabbling, or non-specificity. So, I'm not picking on this guy because he also said in relation to that, do this and also do this (yeah) so he fleshed out a pretty good blueprint but 20 to 25% Fat from your macros is one piece, so then where did the carbs and protein fit into that? Because if the rest of you say you have 60% protein, 20% fat and 20% carbs, is that going to yield a different result than 20%, Fat 60%, carbs 20% protein? And of course, it would be a wildly different biological effect that you're having moment by moment. (Yeah) So I wanted to throw that out there for a little more context. For those who don't have that, to where we can't just take one data point and then run with it because we could, we could try this fellow's recommendation, and then come back and say that that as it turns out wasn't true. And whether it's true or not for you, you're not going to know unless you have other parts of your plan, lined up with a similar amount of intention and experience. Hopefully, that experience would have come from the right mapping or the right instructions. Does that make sense?
6:24 Jon
Yeah, it does it. The other thing that that broad stroke doesn't address is the specificity that you attach to the timing and, and volume of training.
6:35 Ted
Yeah, there's a whole, there's a whole bunch of things, but let's talk about why it is true. (Okay) Fat and carbohydrates are your two predominant fuel sources that your body will use to fuel you in any various endeavor. In other words, it's in large part where your energy comes from. You don't want protein being the manufacture of energy, because protein only is as such if it's broken down into glucose, or blood sugar or carbohydrates through a process called gluconeogenesis, which then essentially renders protein ineffective for repair and restoration and rebuilding, which is proteins primary purpose.
7:20 Jon
Right. So, that's why you never drop off the carbs and fat. I mean, the thing that I've learned from you was how imbalanced my prior diet that had no specificity and no real direction really was and how out of whack in general my ratios were but then also how not deliberate? (Yeah) All of those things were and then the use of protein within my body. I could say that I lacked the consumption of protein that I gained after I've learned to be more deliberate about it. But I wasn't prior to training using that protein properly anyway.
7:59 Ted
Most people aren’t proteins of all the macronutrients that have a finite value. In other words, if someone is doing an endurance activity, they're going to want their muscles to have as much glycogen as their liver's glycogen. They want a large amount of available blood sugar for the right kind of thing. And so that could be a pretty wide variance for someone who's an endurance athlete, like a highly qualified endurance athlete might be able to eat a couple 100 grams of carbohydrates during an event to sustain them. Whereas protein, you know, the number that's frequently cited which comes from the Dark Ages and sports nutrition is like 28 grams of protein is what the human body can assimilate in any one per meal sitting, which is absolute nonsense. If you were to use that as the template for the species of human, which is what this study would suggest. (Wow) So obviously someone who weighs 100 pounds and they're sedentary with a low testosterone level and a low output is going to have a completely different need than someone who's 250 pounds very lean and doing very strenuous high-level high intensity training. However, that variance isn't as why it is as it would be probably for carbs and fat utilization. In my experience that and I don't have any way of really quantifying this, like we're not using instrumentation. This is just my subjective experience. We can say empirical data from working with high level athletes for many, many different sports. And some of them being very large people, you know, 350 plus pounds where they're not obese at 350. (Yeah) So they have a massive amount of musculature. I think like 50 (to support and to fuel), like 50, maybe 60 grams is the top end of what you can assimilate, really, almost no matter who you are, even if you're using performance enhancing drugs, which one of the reasons performance enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids works is it helps with protein synthesis and your body's ability to utilize dietary protein but it doesn't bump it like 1,000%,so there's, (You can only move the needle so much) a little bit yeah, it's and that's not the only mechanism by which that compound works. But that's one of the reasons why it does work.
0:23 Jon
Welcome to the Ted O'Neill program. It's Monday, and I saw something interesting that perked my ears up because it had to do with muscle growth for people in their 50s. (Okay) And then it went specifically to testosterone production. And one of the observations that this guy made was that you need for your healthy fat content to be between 20 and 25%.
0:47 Ted
So, hold on for one second. So, we're just going to jump right into this.
0:50 Jon
yeah, we're just jumping right into this.
0:52 Ted
So, I say that because we've been on an unintentional hiatus for a couple of weeks now. It's true. And in the meantime, you know, the entire coast of California has been ravaged by this crazy weather that's sweeping the country. We've had technical difficulties. (That's true) We've had all manner of things that would appear to be a state of distraction yet here we are. Picking the pieces back up. (Yeah) On a very busy Lifted Academy day. We just finished an episode module, right? (Right) Now we're podcasting. And then we're launching a new body recomposition round that starts tonight (Yeah) with a call.
1:31 Jon
Well, that's one of the reasons that this thing caught my attention was because the purpose of this person's comment, okay, I clicked on a YouTube video that said, tips for building muscle, if you're in your 50s or 60s, and I thought, I don't know this guy, but I know people in their 50s and 60s who are actively in the process of building muscle, (you know several) so if what he has to say is validated by real world experience, and thankfully it was and one of the things that he talked about without going into specific plans. Tip number one, by the way, was to have a plan. And then some tip down the line was to get a coach. And his point about that was if you're trying to do an endeavor like this without a coach, it's like trying to win a football game without a coach. (Yeah, and there's levels to it) There's been, yes, again, without going into a specific plan. He said have one and then one of them included that fact about the fat percentage, and then I thought about my macros that you've assigned me and I thought, Oh, yeah. That would be 20%.
2:38 Ted
What was the fat percentage he gave?
2:42 Jon
Yeah, he said between 20 and 25%.
2:45 Ted
Okay. So, an interesting thing, because whenever we have a discussion like this, or we could highlight any one macronutrient. For the uninitiated, there are three macronutrients: proteins, carbs, and fats. In other words, every time you eat your meal is comprised of some percentage of each of those proteins, carbs or fats. You could almost because that’s your saying this to me prior to us putting the mics on and rolling with this. I almost said You know, I think that an argument could be made that fat could be the most important macronutrient both for muscle gain and for fat loss. (Interesting) Now, there's circumstances where you can say the exact same thing about protein and carbohydrates coming at it from a different angle. (Okay) So, what this speaks to then is there is a timing element involved. There is a measure of specificity that's involved. We could call that for our purpose the macronutrient ratio. (Yeah) So there's, there's requirements to achieve any particular outcome in this case, he was talking about building muscle mass. So from a biological perspective, you're going to need a certain amount of fat. Now, I don't necessarily disagree with the statement. Of saying you need 20 to 25%. I would say that it varies per individual. But if you begin to dip below that number, the majority of people are then going to have a less effective result. And if you go too high, there's going to be the majority. So, that sweet spot is somewhere in that middle ground. (Okay) This is what we try to identify when we do the body recomposition rounds is through an evolving process, someone's ratio of what their percentage of any and all the macronutrients are becomes fluid and dynamic. So, we initially stick to what's called a static macronutrient profile. Because let's say for example, using that one data point that he gave that again, I have no problem with that data point, but (it's a very broad stroke) It's a very broad stroke and this is where all of the well-intentioned advice ultimately falls into the pool of dabbling, or non-specificity. So, I'm not picking on this guy because he also said in relation to that, do this and also do this (yeah) so he fleshed out a pretty good blueprint but 20 to 25% Fat from your macros is one piece, so then where did the carbs and protein fit into that? Because if the rest of you say you have 60% protein, 20% fat and 20% carbs, is that going to yield a different result than 20%, Fat 60%, carbs 20% protein? And of course, it would be a wildly different biological effect that you're having moment by moment. (Yeah) So I wanted to throw that out there for a little more context. For those who don't have that, to where we can't just take one data point and then run with it because we could, we could try this fellow's recommendation, and then come back and say that that as it turns out wasn't true. And whether it's true or not for you, you're not going to know unless you have other parts of your plan, lined up with a similar amount of intention and experience. Hopefully, that experience would have come from the right mapping or the right instructions. Does that make sense?
6:24 Jon
Yeah, it does it. The other thing that that broad stroke doesn't address is the specificity that you attach to the timing and, and volume of training.
6:35 Ted
Yeah, there's a whole, there's a whole bunch of things, but let's talk about why it is true. (Okay) Fat and carbohydrates are your two predominant fuel sources that your body will use to fuel you in any various endeavor. In other words, it's in large part where your energy comes from. You don't want protein being the manufacture of energy, because protein only is as such if it's broken down into glucose, or blood sugar or carbohydrates through a process called gluconeogenesis, which then essentially renders protein ineffective for repair and restoration and rebuilding, which is proteins primary purpose.
7:20 Jon
Right. So, that's why you never drop off the carbs and fat. I mean, the thing that I've learned from you was how imbalanced my prior diet that had no specificity and no real direction really was and how out of whack in general my ratios were but then also how not deliberate? (Yeah) All of those things were and then the use of protein within my body. I could say that I lacked the consumption of protein that I gained after I've learned to be more deliberate about it. But I wasn't prior to training using that protein properly anyway.
7:59 Ted
Most people aren’t proteins of all the macronutrients that have a finite value. In other words, if someone is doing an endurance activity, they're going to want their muscles to have as much glycogen as their liver's glycogen. They want a large amount of available blood sugar for the right kind of thing. And so that could be a pretty wide variance for someone who's an endurance athlete, like a highly qualified endurance athlete might be able to eat a couple 100 grams of carbohydrates during an event to sustain them. Whereas protein, you know, the number that's frequently cited which comes from the Dark Ages and sports nutrition is like 28 grams of protein is what the human body can assimilate in any one per meal sitting, which is absolute nonsense. If you were to use that as the template for the species of human, which is what this study would suggest. (Wow) So obviously someone who weighs 100 pounds and they're sedentary with a low testosterone level and a low output is going to have a completely different need than someone who's 250 pounds very lean and doing very strenuous high-level high intensity training. However, that variance isn't as why it is as it would be probably for carbs and fat utilization. In my experience that and I don't have any way of really quantifying this, like we're not using instrumentation. This is just my subjective experience. We can say empirical data from working with high level athletes for many, many different sports. And some of them being very large people, you know, 350 plus pounds where they're not obese at 350. (Yeah) So they have a massive amount of musculature. I think like 50 (to support and to fuel), like 50, maybe 60 grams is the top end of what you can assimilate, really, almost no matter who you are, even if you're using performance enhancing drugs, which one of the reasons performance enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids works is it helps with protein synthesis and your body's ability to utilize dietary protein but it doesn't bump it like 1,000%,so there's, (You can only move the needle so much) a little bit yeah, it's and that's not the only mechanism by which that compound works. But that's one of the reasons why it does work.
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