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Your Fear of Gaining Fat Is Keeping Your Glutes Small · The Embodiment Lab

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Embodiment Lab.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Addy.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: And today we are talking about how to build muscle, how to grow your glutes without gaining an excess of body fat.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that I've had multiple conversations in the DMs about.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I need to do an entire breakdown on my thoughts on this, how to do it, and everything in between.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: So just a little backstory in case you are not familiar with my journey.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would say probably about 2021, 2022 was not when my fitness journey started, but when I really started to get more serious about actually building muscle.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Up until this point, I was a competitive dancer.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And my main goal was just staying fit, was keeping my endurance high, was staying flexible, staying strong, all of these things.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: But then as I got older and moved a little bit away from that, it became more about looking feminine, building shape, building curves, looking strong and aesthetic, I guess, is not necessarily the word I want to use, but just to paint a picture.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I was afraid of the scale.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was afraid of food.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I was spamming the crap out of hip thrust, thinking that if I just strength trained and I did enough reps, if I was in enough pain, if I trained enough that muscles would just magically grow.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I did that for a very long time and became very frustrated because my body wasn't changing.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't growing.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't see anything happening in my physique.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I was working so hard.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So this felt very confusing to me.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Until one day I put it together in my head.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I also started tracking my food, found that I was eating 1100 calories and did the math, realized that my body actually needed upwards of 2,000 calories and went, oh, got it.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Energy is not just magically created.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You have to eat.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: You have to give your body energy.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I started eating more.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: On my journey to 2,000 calories, I also saw that I did not gain a bunch of body fat, which was really cool.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: My training intensity stayed about the same.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was training really hard.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was, I think, working out at this time five days a week.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I also was in a place with cardio where I was like, I don't need cardio.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Strength training is cardio enough.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, like I still kind of think that, but I do have a step goal.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I do like to do a brisk, inclined walk after my workouts in the mornings, you know.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's my view on cardio.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: So like training intensity was pretty high.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Food was approaching my maintenance calories for the first time, probably ever.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think back to this time because I think about trying to help people get over that fear.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't have a deeper answer beyond just a switch flipped in my head.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of chasing the smallest number on the scale, I think I was 125 at this point.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I want to challenge myself to see if I can be 130.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I pushed for a higher number and I hit 130.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't hate how I looked in the mirror.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: I actually was loving how I was looking in the mirror because I was finally seeing muscle in my shoulders, in my back, in my legs, in my glutes.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was seeing this muscle actually build before my eyeballs, and it was so crazy to me.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then one day I was like, hmm, my body's never weighed 140.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can I do that?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I kept eating more and kept training.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Same kind of approach-ish, sort of with training, and I eventually reached 140.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then in February of this year, so eight months ago, I was like, ooh, let me set a scary goal.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Can I hit 150?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: 150 sounds like a scary number to me.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Never weighed that before in my life.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually pushed in my growth phase, I got up to 146, which is still pretty crazy to me.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in a deficit right now, so I'm not currently pushing up to 150.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: But net, definitely next growth phase, I will hit it for sure, which is pretty crazy.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, like a switch flipped in my head, and I went from wanting to shrink and wanting to stay as small as possible to, you know what, Addy, you want to build glutes.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get that number up.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see how much muscle I can add to my frame.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: What you have to understand is muscle's going to have weight.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can't expect to add mass to your body without it also taking up weight.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there is such a thing as body reconp where the scale is going to stay exactly the same, where you are building muscle and losing fat at the same time.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are somebody who is already at a pretty decent spot with leanness and your sole goal is to add tissue to your body, add shape, add muscle, add glutes, the scale will likely go up.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be okay with that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: You have to look at like what are you okay with?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are you okay with staying the same just because a number is going to increase, or you might see some lines soften and not be as lean?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you willing to get a little bit uncomfortable, see that number go up, see those lines disappear to grow, to build muscle.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: You have to look at that and decide what's worth it to you.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because to me, I didn't care.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I went from caring so much to all of a sudden not caring.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish I could walk you through that process a little bit more in depth, but it was just a swish that flipped.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was also proving to myself, hey, I can eat and I can train, and I'm not going to hate the way that I look.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people think that if they eat more to build muscle, that they're going to just have this gut and they're going to be fat and they're going to hate their bodies.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you do it correctly, that will not happen.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is a way to do it to where you don't gain unnecessary body fat.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: When I was still training in person, I was working with this trainer, and of course, we talked about all kinds of things, but there was one thing that he said that stuck with me, and I won't ever forget it because it's so true.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he said that you cannot gain muscle without also gaining body fat.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just like you can't lose body fat without also losing muscle.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: But how you go about it, how fast or slow you go about it, how your macros are made up, and how your training looks, are all factors that will contribute to how much fat you gain in a growth phase and how much muscle you lose in a deficit.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's all dependent on that.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: The thing about any kind of fitness journey is there is going to be a level of sacrifice that you're going to have to make always.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have to sacrifice some time.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Go to the gym.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to take an hour, hour and a half of your dime of your day.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have to sacrifice maybe not having the ice cream sometimes.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have to sacrifice not fully loving and enjoying what you eat.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: There are sacrifices you're going to have to make.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The overarching sacrifice is comfort.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have to sacrifice your comfort.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: When you are building muscle, there's a couple things that you're going to have to sacrifice.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: One is going to be your comfort with how full you feel.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because, especially in the beginning of a growth phase, you're going to feel pretty full because you're pushing food and you're it's going to feel a little bit uncomfortable.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to feel a little full.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're going to feel a little bloated as your body adjusts to the new amount.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're going to have to eat past feeling full.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's very normal.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: But another area where you're going to have to sacrifice comfort is in your appearance.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: In my growth phase, starting in February, I was pretty lean.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like my abs were, they were there.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I had some lines in my arms, in my back, in my legs.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And as I grew, the lines softened.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: My arms did not look as defined as they used to.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: They are starting to now as I'm getting into the deficit.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: But in like peak bulk, peak growth phase, they were not there.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: My back still looked strong, but it was not as defined as it used to be.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And my back is pretty nuts.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like lines disappear as you grow, but that's necessary if you're wanting to build muscle.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to be aware of the sacrifice and you have to be willing to make the sacrifice if you are wanting muscle that bad.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: But what I don't want you to get wrapped up in, and this frustrates me, is I hear people say, like, I want to build muscle, I want to grow my glutes, but I don't want to gain fat.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, I hear that and I'm like, yep, fair.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Completely understandable.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course you don't want to gain fat.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody does.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are so stuck on, I don't want to gain fat, I don't want to gain fat, that it never pushes you to actually push yourself in the growth phase, you are going to hold yourself back from so much muscle growth.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So much.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: That fear will keep you stuck because it will keep you in a place where you're not eating enough to actually grow.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're eating enough to stay exactly where you're where you're at.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're in a place where you're working so hard and you feel like you're doing all the things and you're not making the progress that you want.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to be willing to get a little uncomfortable.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: But you also have to realize that it's just for a season and seasons pass.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just like I was in a growth phase for about six months.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: That six months passed.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm going into a deficit and I'm seeing my shoulders pop.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing my abs come back.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing my back get a little more defined.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, this is fun.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to remember that.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be willing to get uncomfortable for a season and trust and remember that it's not going to be that way forever.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to get a little uncomfortable for a little period of time before you get to the roll fun part of getting shredded.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: How you avoid putting on an excess of body fat is you have to go slow, slow and steady.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, if especially if you're a newbie, you can get away with growing at maintenance.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can get away with building muscle at maintenance.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been doing this for a while, maintenance is going to be just a place where you are just maintaining, coasting, not growing.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been doing this for a few years, you're going to have to go into a into a surplus, which can look anywhere between, I would say 200 to 500.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't, I wouldn't go too crazy in a surplus.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I would prefer to see you hang out in a surplus for longer rather than pushing the surplus higher for a shorter period of time.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to minimize fat gain.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I always do about a 500 calorie surplus.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Before this growth phase, my maintenance was 2,500, which meant that my surplus was 3,000, which was a lot of food.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: But the longer that I stayed in it, it didn't feel like that much food.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like it, it felt like a decent, it felt normal, you know, you get used to it, you adapt to it.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: But as I started lowering my calories out of the surplus, I got stuck on a scale around like 2,700.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it is absolutely possible that my maintenance calories have increased because I have more muscle.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be something that we kind of figure out as I'm returning back to maintenance after this deficit.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's also a perk of going through a growth phase is you raise your maintenance calories because you're raising your muscle on your body, and your muscle is highly metabolically active tissue.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: But, anyways, slow and steady, you want to slowly increase your calories.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: I usually hold calories anywhere between like two and three weeks, depending on how my body's responding.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say hold calories, I mean like eat the same amount every single day.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Eat the same foods every single day, the same meals, the same time, the same structure every single day.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're having days where you're at, let's say, for example, your surplus is 2,500, your maintenance is 2,000, and you're working your way up to 2,500.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And let's say you're at 22.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say you are supposed to be consistently consuming 2,200 calories, and some days you hit it, other days you're at like 18, 2000.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have a very hard time seeing growth.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned this the hard way in my last growth phase because for me, rest days are very hard to get in that much food.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I found myself two, even three times a week, I was not hitting 3,000 calories.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed the scale would stall a couple times and I'd be like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm doing everything.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're not, Addy.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're not.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because three days out of the seven, you're not hitting your calories.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: That will hold you back.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: That held me back.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be really diligent about making sure you're eating the same amount of calories every single day.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's a little bit of wiggle room.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I would give myself grace on Sundays, but I would make myself hit it on Thursdays and Fridays and every other day of the week.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sundays gave myself a little bit of grace, but I was still coming pretty close on Sundays.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's a little bit of wiggle room there.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are a little past the halfway mark to about halfway out of the days of the week, I don't think that's English.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you're hitting your calories 50 to 60% of the time, don't expect progress.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's basically maintenance.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: You have to make sure you're hitting it at least 80 to 90%, if not 100% of the time, make sure you're actually seeing growth because muscle is very, very, very hard.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculously hard to grow.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are not on it, you're gonna have a very hard time growing.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So slow and steady, but also consistency.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Food quality is also going to play a really big role.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can hit your calories, you can hit your surplus calories eating super high, calorically dense, unhealthy foods.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like chipotle and canes and Chick-fil-A, you know, fun things like that.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can hit your calories eating that for sure.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: But think about what that's doing to your gut.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the macro makeup of those foods, think about how you're going to feel.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's also going to just affect your composition, right?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because if it's higher in fat, not to say that fat's a bad thing, but if we are consistently eating these kinds of foods, it can absolutely play a role in the quality of the weight that we are gaining.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: You want to hit your calories with whole natural foods.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is where I lean into foods that are not incredibly lean.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds a little counterintuitive, but like I always opt for chicken thighs rather than chicken breast because think about having to eat 3,000 calories and one of your meals is chicken breast, and you have to eat a lot of chicken.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: To hit that, no, this is where I lean on chicken thighs.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of the rest of the foods that I'm eating are pretty lean.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I eat fruits, I eat rice, I eat yogurt, you know, all of these things throughout the day.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm eating whole natural foods, but there are some foods that I'm utilizing, like peanut butter, that's gonna help me get a little bit more calories without having to eat more food volume, if that makes sense.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Paying attention to the quality of the food.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can either hit your calories eating chicken and rice and vegetables and fruit and yogurt and all of that, or you can hit your calories eating ice cream and chips and McDonald's.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Completely up to you how you want that to go.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing I want to go over is training intensity.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Training intensity is gonna play a really big role in how your body composition is going to pan out.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because I see this a lot where you're increasing calories and maybe we have like a week or two, but it happens periodically throughout the course of a couple months, where maybe we're working out less or we take a week or two off of the gym.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: You have to remember that your intake is set for you based off of the amount of activity that you are doing.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if your amount of activity goes down, your surplus increases, which could lead to fat gain.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: You have to think you're eating in a surplus.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that weight go?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Your training tells your body where that weight is going to go.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to make sure you are training hard.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now I don't mean more.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean doing more shit.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean training hard.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I love, I've talked about this before.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I love going to the gym and doing four exercises, but you best believe those four exercises, I'm going all in.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean by training harder.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Not just doing more, making sure that we're utilizing the 8 to 12 rep range.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a pretty, pretty hard rule about every time I hit 12 reps, can I go up and wait?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Every single time.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is how you know that you are progressively overloading, and that is how you know you are getting stronger and actually building muscle.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So training intensity has to be there.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have to make sure that you keep up with that.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing, I think this probably should have gone at the beginning of the episode, but I had another thought that I need to share before we wrap up this episode.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: There are, I've gotten comments from people who are like, I've lost the weight and now I'm wanting to build muscle, but I'm scared of seeing that number go up again.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's completely a fair point because when you were last at that number, you associate that number with being not confident in your body, with being at a higher body fat percentage.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: You have to think that, you know, you lost the weight, your body composition is at a much better place.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so imagine going to whatever weight that may be for you in your head, but being at a better composition in your body, having more muscle, having less body fat.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is a better composition than you were when you were last at that weight.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: You have to remember that.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you weigh a certain number doesn't mean that that number is the problem.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's your composition that plays a role in that.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like the next time that I come up to 145 and I aim for 150, my composition is going to be better next time than it is right now because I'm going to be losing body fat and hanging on to as much muscle as I built in the growth phase.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then I can grow some more, add more muscle, add minimal body fat.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: You keep bumping up the weight with more muscle on your body and less body fat.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: So don't just look at that number and think, oh, that's bad.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the composition of your body because that's more important than a silly little number on a scale that we stand on.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is going to be it for today's episode.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that this was insightful.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this was helpful.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that this challenged you to take a risk, make a sacrifice, challenge yourself, push yourself to grow, see what you can do with your body, see how far you can expand and push yourself.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's scary, but it is one of the most rewarding things that you can do to build and add new muscle tissue to your physique.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Super, super cool.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: It has made my body just insane.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like not only the way that it looks, but the way that it feels and the way that it operates.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have more muscle, which means that I can I have better resilience around food.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like the way that my body can digest and handle and break down food is a lot more efficient because of the amount of muscle that I have.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So think about it from that standpoint as well.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But that is it for today's episode.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed and I will chat with you in next week's episode.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.