2520: The Best Diet for 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: Mind Pump Episode 2520 - "The Best Diet for 2025"

Release Date: January 27, 2025

Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews
Producer: Doug Egge
Podcast: Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth

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Introduction

In Episode 2520 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth, hosts Adam Schafer and Justin Andrews delve into the pressing question: What is the best diet for 2025? Drawing upon their combined experience of over four decades in the fitness industry, they evaluate the top five most popular diets of the year, ranking them based on four critical criteria: fat loss, muscle gain, longevity, and sustainability.

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Methodology: Ranking the Top Five Diets

To determine the best diet for 2025, the hosts selected the five most searched and popular diets of the year:

1. Mediterranean Diet
2. Ketogenic (Keto) Diet
3. Paleo Diet
4. Plant-Based Diet
5. Intermittent Fasting

Each diet was assessed on a scale of 1 to 10 in the following categories:

• Fat Loss
• Muscle Gain
• Longevity
• Sustainability

Adam Schafer explains the rationale behind the ranking system:

"We went to rank each of them on fat loss, muscle gain, longevity, and then sustainability. Each category gets a score of one to ten, one being terrible, and four being the best."

---

In-Depth Analysis of Each Diet

1. Mediterranean Diet

Overview: The Mediterranean Diet emphasizes vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and olive oil, with moderate intake of chicken, eggs, cheese, yogurt, and red wine. It advises limiting red and processed meats and sugars.

Pros:

• Longevity: Recognized for its cardiovascular and brain health benefits.
• Sustainability: Flexible as it doesn't eliminate entire food groups.

Cons:

• Fat Loss: Moderate effectiveness due to its balanced nature.
• Muscle Gain: Limited protein intake can hinder muscle development.

Ratings:

• Fat Loss: 2.5/10
• Muscle Gain: 2/10
• Longevity: 3.5/10
• Sustainability: 3.5/10

Adam Schafer shares a personal insight:

"My family's from the Mediterranean. But honestly, they consume a lot of processed meats and pasta, which doesn't fully align with the diet's principles."

Justin Andrews adds:

"I gave it a three because it's sustainable. You're not eliminating entire food groups, which makes adherence easier."

2. Ketogenic (Keto) Diet

Overview: The Keto Diet is characterized by high fat, moderate protein, and extremely low carbohydrate intake, typically limiting carbs to under 50 grams per day. It aims to induce ketosis, where the body burns fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates.

Pros:

• Fat Loss: Highly effective due to satiety from high-fat intake.
• Longevity: Potential anti-inflammatory benefits when adhered strictly.

Cons:

• Muscle Gain: Challenging due to limited protein and carbohydrate intake.
• Sustainability: Difficult to maintain long-term with strict restrictions on carb consumption.

Ratings:

• Fat Loss: 4/10
• Muscle Gain: 2/10
• Longevity: 2.5/10
• Sustainability: 2/10

Adam Schafer remarks:

"It's hard to gain muscle on keto. You struggle to hit your protein and calorie targets, especially without breaking ketosis."

Justin Andrews concurs:

"Intermittent fasting isn't as sustainable as keto, but keto gets a four for fat loss because it's so effective in that realm."

3. Paleo Diet

Overview: The Paleo Diet focuses on eating foods presumed to be available to Paleolithic humans, including meat, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. It excludes grains, dairy, and processed foods.

Pros:

• Muscle Gain: High protein intake supports muscle development.
• Sustainability: Flexible enough to include various whole foods like rice and quinoa, enhancing adherence.

Cons:

• Longevity: While it promotes whole foods, the exclusion of certain food groups can lead to nutrient deficiencies.
• Fat Loss: Moderate effectiveness; not as targeted as keto for fat loss.

Ratings:

• Fat Loss: 3/10
• Muscle Gain: 4/10
• Longevity: 3/10
• Sustainability: 3/10

Justin Andrews shares his experience:

"I've had many successful clients on the Paleo diet. Including foods like rice and quinoa makes it more realistic and sustainable."

Adam Schafer notes:

"Including starchy carbohydrates like potatoes helps in energy availability, making the diet more effective for active individuals."

4. Plant-Based Diet

Overview: The Plant-Based Diet centers around consuming 80-90% plant-derived foods, allowing occasional dairy products like cheese. It ranges from veganism to more flexible plant-centric eating patterns.

Pros:

• Sustainability: Increased availability of vegan options makes it easier to adhere to.
• Longevity: Potential health benefits when nutrient needs are adequately met.

Cons:

• Fat Loss: Often ineffective due to potential reliance on processed plant-based foods.
• Muscle Gain: Low protein intake from plant sources can impede muscle development.
• Longevity: High risk of nutrient deficiencies (e.g., Vitamin D, B12, iron) which can adversely affect health and lifespan.

Ratings:

• Fat Loss: 2/10
• Muscle Gain: 1/10
• Longevity: 1/10
• Sustainability: 2/10

Adam Schafer expresses concerns:

"Plant-based diets often lead to increased consumption of processed foods, exacerbating nutrient deficiencies and hindering longevity."

Justin Andrews emphasizes:

"While plant-based options are more available today, sustaining such a diet is challenging due to potential nutrient gaps and reliance on processed alternatives."

5. Intermittent Fasting

Overview: Intermittent Fasting involves cycling between periods of eating and fasting, typically restricting food intake to a 4-8 hour window each day. Common methods include the One Meal a Day (OMAD) approach and the Warrior Diet.

Pros:

• Fat Loss: Effective due to inherent calorie restriction.
• Sustainability: Simple rules make it easier to follow for some individuals.

Cons:

• Muscle Gain: Difficult to consume sufficient protein and calories within a limited eating window.
• Longevity: Potential for nutrient deficiencies if meal planning is poor.

Ratings:

• Fat Loss: 4/10
• Muscle Gain: 2/10
• Longevity: 3/10
• Sustainability: 3/10

Justin Andrews highlights:

"Intermittent fasting is straightforward, but packing enough nutrients and protein into a narrow eating window is challenging for muscle building."

Adam Schafer adds:

"While intermittent fasting can lead to health benefits through calorie restriction, long-term adherence is tough, and muscle gains are minimal."

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Discussion: The Importance of Individualization

Throughout the episode, the hosts emphasize that the best diet is highly individualized. Factors such as personal preferences, lifestyle, physiological responses, and specific health goals play a crucial role in determining which diet is most effective for an individual.

Adam Schafer asserts:

"The best diet is typically individualized. There's a wide variance in how people react and respond to different foods and eating patterns."

Justin Andrews echoes this sentiment:

"Most people struggle with diets that restrict entire food groups. Building a diet around individual needs and preferences leads to better sustainability and results."

They advocate for moving away from rigid diet structures and towards more personalized nutrition plans that prioritize whole, unprocessed foods and adequate protein intake.

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Key Takeaways: One Actionable Tip

When asked for a single actionable dietary change that can significantly impact overall health and weight management, both hosts converge on the fundamental principle of minimizing processed food consumption.

Adam Schafer advises:

"Avoid heavily processed foods. Stick to whole, natural foods. This alone can lead to a loss of 10 to 15 pounds of body fat."

Justin Andrews complements:

"Focus on high protein intake or eliminating processed foods. These two strategies can handle 80 to 90% of your results."

By reducing reliance on ultra-processed foods, individuals naturally decrease calorie intake and enhance nutrient density, fostering both weight loss and improved health outcomes.

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Conclusion

In Episode 2520: The Best Diet for 2025, Mind Pump provides a comprehensive analysis of the most popular diets, evaluating their effectiveness across key health and fitness metrics. The consensus among the hosts underscores the necessity of personalized nutrition strategies over one-size-fits-all diets. Prioritizing whole, unprocessed foods and ensuring adequate protein intake emerge as foundational pillars for achieving sustainable health and fitness goals.

For listeners seeking tailored dietary advice, the hosts recommend adopting flexible, individualized approaches that align with personal preferences and lifestyle, thereby enhancing adherence and long-term success.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• [03:18] Adam Schafer:
  "Today we talk about the best diet for 2025. We took the top five most popular diets of the year and we ranked them and broke them down."

• [09:32] Justin Andrews:
  "I’d give it a two or three at least for fat loss."

• [16:23] Justin Andrews:
  "It is very hard to overeat when you're hitting high protein food."

• [22:43] Justin Andrews:
  "So, so you know, that's. And we, what do we deal with mostly? Most the people that we help are, are in pursuit of building muscle or in pursuit of losing body fat."

• [35:56] Justin Andrews:
  "Vegan's the hardest."

• [37:03] Adam Schafer:
  "You don't need to be on a diet. Just make small changes over time."

• [40:17] Justin Andrews:
  "I would give it a three on that."

---

Note: The timestamps correspond to the original podcast transcript provided.

Transcript

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[Sal Destefano]

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump Mind Pump with your hosts Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews.

[Adam Schaefer]

You just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is mind pump. Today's episode we talk about the best diet for 2025. We took the top five most popular diets of the year and we ranked them and broke them down. So now you know which one to pick. Now this episode is brought to you by Mind Pump Fitness Coaching. We have a coaching course if you're a trainer or a coach or an online coach or you want to become one. Our course will teach you how to be more successful, make more money, build a better business and be more effective with your clients. And it just got approved by the way for CEUs both by NASM and AFAA. In other words, you do our course, you you get 1.9 CEUs for NASM. That means all you do is get your CPR cert and your national certification from NASM remains valid. Okay, so it's an approved provider. Go check, check it out. Go to mindpump fitnesscoaching.com by the way, we also have workout program bundles available this month. So these are where we take multiple programs and put them together. Each one of the bundles I'm about to go through are $300 off or more. Here they are, we have the New to Weightlifting bundle, the Body Transformation Bundle, the New Year Extreme Intensity bundle, and the body transformation bundle 2.0. All of them $300 off or more. And you can find them [e-mail]. alright, here comes the show. It's 2025. We took the five most popular diets and we ranked them. We actually picked our favorite, broke them all down. So today's episode, we're going to pick the best diet out of the top five most popular diets of 2025.

[Justin Andrews]

I like this. What is the, what's the criteria? So what's the thought process on like how we're going to score this? Because there's a lot of different ways that we can look at all these different diets.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Totally has to include sustainability.

[Adam Schaefer]

Totally. So what I picked was we're going to rank each of them on and of course we're going to break them down right what they are, but we're going to rank each of them on fat loss, muscle gain, longevity, and then sustainability. Sustainability meaning how easily or well that we estimate somebody could stick to one of these diets and they're each gonna get each of those categories will get a score of one to ten. One being obviously terrible, four being best.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And at the end we're all gonna pick our favorite out of, out of one of the five.

[Unnamed Speaker]

So for us personally or for people in general?

[Adam Schaefer]

Just for people in general.

[Justin Andrews]

In general. This should come from our, our coaching perspective, not our personal totally total.

[Adam Schaefer]

For people who aren't familiar, like we trained people and coached people for well over two decades. So we have a lot of experience with different kinds of diets, different kinds of people. And I do want to preface this by saying that the best diet is typically individualized. Okay. There's such a wide variance in how people react and respond to different foods, different ways of eating and what you're, what you're really, what you're dealing with here isn't just the food, isn't just your physiology, isn't just your psychology and your emotional health around these things. It's all of those things combined which can make this very individual. So when you're considering how to change your diet, you can't just look at, you know, which one's going to be the best for my goal, but also how am I going to stick to this? Is this what I'm going to enjoy? Does this work with, you know, my, my personality, that kind of stuff. But based off of our experience, and most of our experience was in training lots of everyday people, we, we, the vast majority of our clients, I'd say probably 95 plus of our clients were just everyday average people. The most common goal being fat loss, the second most common goal being muscle gain and longevity. So that's kind of where we're basing all of this.

[Justin Andrews]

Do it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, absolutely. So what I did is I went online and I looked up the most searched for and popular diets of the year. At the beginning of the year, the most common thing is that somebody has a, I think 80%, last time I checked, 80% of people surveyed have a New Year's resolution. And of those people, the vast majority of their of the most popular news resolutions revolved around health and fitness. Weight loss being the most popular one. So by far the most common New Year's resolution that is affecting 80% of people has to do with getting in better. Yeah, getting in better shape essentially. So this is something that a lot of people are thinking about. So I think it's a, you know, timely.

[Justin Andrews]

Do you want to, do you want to list the diets first and then we'll go into each one.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, that's, let's do that. So Mediterranean diet is the first one. The keto diet would be the second one. The Paleo diet would be the third one. Fourth we have the plant based diet and then intermittent fasting. So did I say paleo? I did say Paleo, yeah. So intermittent fasting, paleo, plant based, keto and Mediterranean. So we'll start with Mediterranean diet. Now that one's gotten quite a lot of media and attention, medical attention, for being very healthy. You're seeing studies around it, data around it. Now I just. Little side note. Well, let's break down what that, what they say it is and then I'll give a little bit of my opinion on what an actual Mediterranean diet looks like because my family's from the Mediterranean. But the Mediterranean diet, if you were to read up on it, the focus is on vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, lots of olive oil. Then they tell you to moderately intake chicken, eggs, cheese, yogurt, red wine of course is included. And then they tell you to limit red meat, processed meats, processed sugar. You know, that's kind of like, let's avoid this or limit those types of things.

[Justin Andrews]

What's the, the origin of that? Was it based like. Oh, let's. These are the most popular foods in the Mediterranean. And so therefore we're gonna make a D. Like, how did, how did it get the name the Mediterranean diet part.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Of the blue zone?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, that's a good question. Because like I said, my family's from Sicily. And the truth is they eat a lot of processed meats. In particular, they eat a lot of pork. They eat red meat, so. And they don't eat all whole grains. I mean, pasta is quite common and so is white rice in certain areas. So I think that this might be what people believe Mediterranean diet is supposed to be.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Like, just because it has olive oil as an emphasis. Yeah, that's the only thing.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, no, I was under the impression that it was like they. More fish based a little bit on poultry and a little bit on red meat. It's not, doesn't say no red meat. It's just minimal red meat, minimal poultry and then mostly fish. That's what I was under the impression Mediterranean kind of looked like.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, fish will be in there, right.

[Justin Andrews]

As the primary source. So I thought primary source was, Was fish for protein. And then came kind of poultry and then red meat.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's actually mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, olive oil. And then moderate would be fish. I forgot to put that in there. Chicken, fish, eggs, you know, some cheeses and red wines. Oh, now this was based off, remember Ancel Keys came up with this like, low fat hypothesis. And he, you know, he said, oh, people in the, in the Mediterranean live a long time.

[Justin Andrews]

That's where this is coming from. This is mostly low fat, except for your, your nuts and seeds are probably.

[Adam Schaefer]

And olive oil and stuff.

[Justin Andrews]

That's your only thing.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean. And again, I think that this, this Mediterranean diet was more of like a, a diet creation nonetheless. There's been studies that have been done on this type of eating, and it gets a lot of points in the medical community for things like heart health, cardiovascular health, in particular, brain health, and that kind of stuff, you know. Now let's go through the list of things, right? Like what, what we like about it, what we don't like about it. And then that kind of criteria that we broke down.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So for fat loss. Let's talk a little bit about fat loss. I would give this an okay rating. You know, I would say it's probably.

[Justin Andrews]

I'D give it a two or three at least.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. That's where I would say. Right. Like maybe we could do like a 2.5 maybe.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay.

[Adam Schaefer]

Kind of, you know, put it in the middle.

[Justin Andrews]

But it's Doug.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

What do you think, Justin? Same.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Same. Yeah. I would give it about two and a half.

[Adam Schaefer]

What did I have next on there? Was it muscle gain? Muscle gain, Muscle gain.

[Justin Andrews]

It's gonna be low on me. Here's low being two because. Or less. Because any diet that tells you to limit meat, in my opinion, has to be low scoring for building muscle.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes. Because the protein is not gonna be high on this.

[Justin Andrews]

Right. Because it's, that's already a challenge for the average person. And so if you put my, my client in a diet that tells you you should even limit that more than what they probably already naturally do, that tells me right away as a coach, like it's going to be a huge challenge for us to hit our protein targets. And so any diet that's going to call for or limit you on your choices of protein dense foods automatically is going to get scored a low number for me. So it's two for me.

[Adam Schaefer]

I agree. And we're also going to rank. You know, this is also ranked in the context of each other. Right. Compared to the other diets. And I can think of one of the ones that's lower than this in muscle building. But I agree with you. Two is probably about right. Because when you read up on what the Mediterranean diet's supposed to be, even other sources of protein besides red meat, like chicken and eggs and fish, they say moderate.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So I agree with you. I would say it's, it's a two. So two and a half for fat loss, two for muscle gain, longevity. All right, what do we think about longevity?

[Justin Andrews]

Three?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, it's high.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I would say it's the three or four. You know, limiting processed foods. Now, why wouldn't I. Why am I not pretty balanced too?

[Unnamed Speaker]

For the most part it is.

[Adam Schaefer]

Now why am I saying that?

[Unnamed Speaker]

A 4 or 5.

[Adam Schaefer]

Why am I saying 3 or 4 instead of 4 or 5? The whole red wine part of it, that they're, you know, that's oversold like crazy. It's, it's, yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

For the resveratrol and all.

[Adam Schaefer]

No, it's, it's what they're, what they're having trouble doing with these red wine, you know, health benefits or whatever is parsing out the community around red wine because there's health benefits to that. They're parsing out other healthy habits that these people are engaging in. So I think if you just were to isolate alcohol, regardless of where it.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Comes from, take out the community aspect of it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Totally.

[Unnamed Speaker]

In the social.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, totally. So that's why I'm not like a strong like four or five, but I'd say it's probably three or four. Maybe three and a half for me is where I put it.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at the last two, longevity and sustainability. And this is a three. Three for me. So three on three online. Just because it. I think if you did eat this way, you may not have the most optimal amount of muscle for, you know, building a physique or metabolically or whatever that. But overall health, I think you're gonna have pretty solid healthy. So good for longevity here. Especially since it's limit. It tells you to limit processed foods and you know how we feel about stuff like that. That's also why I give it about a 3. Sustainability. I think it's sustainable. You're not. They're not eliminating entire food groups. Which diets that. That are. It eliminate entire food groups. All will always get a low score for me. Sustainability. So at least you can still have chicken and fish and stuff like that. So I would put it up there with like a three. Sustainable living off.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, they could make it work. I would definitely go a little higher in sustainability. Maybe three, five and then three on longevity.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. I'm with you, Justin, because, you know, you can also, you know, based off of this, like, there's some really tasty, enjoyable dishes you could.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

That you can make, you know, with these. You know, with these foods here.

[Justin Andrews]

I had. I had decent success with clients that ran this diet. So I've ran this diet with many. This was more popular when I first started than it was today, even. So I find it interesting that this popped up as the top five because.

[Adam Schaefer]

How diets are they.

[Justin Andrews]

I know, right? I've heard less of it recently, but maybe it's. It's. It's getting popular again. It was really popular my early years as a trainer. And so I had clients that ran this. And I remember the first time learning about it and like kind of looking over and I'm like, okay, this is. I'm. I'm okay with this. Like when they would. And I could work with this. You give me all those food. I could put it together.

[Adam Schaefer]

I personally don't have a big problem with this diet, but I do have challenges with the low protein intake.

[Unnamed Speaker]

The red meat part.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, you're not going to be so low a protein. That's a problem. But you're not gonna be optimizing protein for things like muscle gain performance or fat loss. So that's always. That's really my challenge. But aside from that, it's not too bad. All right, next is the ketogenic diet. This was when we started the podcast 10 years ago. This was the diet all the rage.

[Unnamed Speaker]

This was devoted gist of this.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes. And it's still one of the top diets. It's still quite popular. Now. I remember when ketogenic style diets became mainstream popular. This was back, and I want to say the late 90s when Atkins came out with his book and he essentially was advocating for a ketogenic style diet. And it was really popular in the late 90s because it was so opposite.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Counter to the low fat movement completely.

[Adam Schaefer]

In the 80s, I mean, you know, late 70s, 80s especially, you know, most of the 90s, what was preached was low fat, low fat, low fat, low fat. And out comes this book that says, eat is much fat as you want. Just don't eat carbs and you'll do well. And. And it was so opposite and people, you know, got results from it because it's, at the end of the day, a lower calorie diet. It exploded in popularity.

[Justin Andrews]

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't. Isn't the ketogenic diet almost exactly the same as the Atkins diet? Except for the Atkins diet would advocate for high protein. The ketogenic diet is moderate protein, high fat. Both are high fat. Atkins was also high protein.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, depends on who you ask. The original ketogenic diet was low protein.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

That's a very low profile.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, even. Even low. In fact, the original ketogenic diet, which was used for epilepsy and other neurological issues, actually advocated for minimal protein.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Very little.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes. Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Almost none.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because they wanted like just enough essential protein. Now, today, nobody does it that way. Right. People who do a ketogenic diet, it looks like the Atkins diet.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Where it's like moderate protein.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's high fat quite a bit.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's very high fat. You're eating high, you know, fatty cuts of meat, fish, whole eggs, dairy, cheese, avocados, macadamia nuts, oils, butter. It's very high fat, moderate protein, extremely low carbohydrate. Like people are limited to under 50 grams of carbs. In fact, it's. They would advocate for zero if you possibly could.

[Justin Andrews]

So the irony of this is that this gets a four for fat loss. For me.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I think this diet is.

[Adam Schaefer]

I agree. In comparison to all the ones we're.

[Unnamed Speaker]

About to talk about, very effective in that realm.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. Not. Not just what I've experienced with clients myself personally. I mean, if you. When you eat, it seems to the average person counterintuitive because you're allowed to eat these high fat, high calorie type of foods. But it's amazing how satiating this diet is.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's hard to eat too many calories.

[Justin Andrews]

It is. It is very hard.

[Adam Schaefer]

Kills your appetite.

[Justin Andrews]

So I'm gonna score it a four on the fat loss, but a one or a two on the muscle gain.

[Adam Schaefer]

I agree with you. I think for muscle gain, I. You know, based on the rest of the diets that we see here, I'll say a two. It's hard for muscle gain. Now, I know people are gonna bring up studies, you can gain just as much muscle on a ketogenic diet, et cetera, et cetera. Look, here's the deal. In my experience with people that I've worked with, good luck. It is hard. The pumps are. You don't get great pumps at the gym. It's hard to get, you know, to really hit the calories that you need. Especially hard.

[Justin Andrews]

Hit your protein targets with that much fat.

[Adam Schaefer]

With that much fat, you know, it'll throw you out of ketosis. Remember, a ketogenic diet is named ketogenic because you're supposed to be in ketosis eating too much protein with your head of ketosis as well. And so it's. It's again, high fat, moderate protein at best.

[Unnamed Speaker]

So easy to not eat enough calories.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You know, and so it's just. Yeah, it's tough to.

[Adam Schaefer]

To.

[Unnamed Speaker]

To stick with that and gain muscle.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. So I'm with you, Adam. I'd say a two. I did keto for a long time, and. And it was really for gut health issues.

[Justin Andrews]

You also used to love for the cognitive benefits. I remember.

[Adam Schaefer]

I still do. I still do. When I get. When I am able to get my. My blood ketones up by being on a ketogenic diet.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's great for inflammation for me.

[Adam Schaefer]

Inflammation.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh, my God. I love this diet when I'm, like, feeling super achy and like, I need a change.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, 100% now for longevity, it's still not a. It's not a great score, depending on who you're talking about. But on. On average, I would say it's a two and a half. And here's why. What you find when people go Strict keto for too long. Over time you actually start to develop, no joke, insulin sensitivity issues. It's very, very strange. In fact, the, the, the most ardent, you know, the past. In the past. Some of the most ardent ketogenic diet advocates will now say it's a good idea to throw in some carbs at least once a week because it's a very strange effect that happens in the body. We're about almost doesn't know how to react to carbohydrates and insulin sensitivity actually gets worse. I remember when, I think it was your wife was really, really low carb for a while and she tested like her blood sugar was high while she was pregnant. And they had to. That's why.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because she had gone for too long.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. I'll give it two and a half for longevity. It's only a two for sustainability for me. Oh God. Yeah. I'll take two. Two and a half on longevity and sustainability is, is a one or a two.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Anything again on this list. I don't care what diet it is. If it limits an entire food group, it cannot possibly cover over, over a two.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. I don't, I don't, I don't know anybody who's going to stay keto forever unless there's a real medical or health.

[Justin Andrews]

And what a terrible way to live. Understandable. If it's something medically you have to. And, and I've had clients where we've had to do that. That makes sense, of course. And, and, and not being massively inflamed. And we have, we had people like Michaela Peterson who's been on there who has to eat diets like this. Hers is even more strict. It's carnivore only. But for the rest of the world, people that are doing. Most people that sign up to do this are doing it to get in shape. And so that's the perspective I'm thinking of when I score this. And I just think that's something that limits you to that there's too many great foods that, that are, that are carbohydrate based that you eliminate.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's crazy enough to eat healthy and eat, you know, different foods.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You're gonna make it even harder.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's really hard to select foods in this category.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, when I was keto and I did, I was keto for. Again, this was for gut health issues. This is. I was having a lot of trouble with gut health and this seemed to be the only thing that controlled symptoms until later I was able to treat sibo and stuff like that. But I remember I tried to go out to dinner or to lunch and it was, it's, it sucked. It sucks to go out and eat when you're keto. What are we gonna go eat? Oh, let's go get steak. That's it. We're gonna go get steak. It's like nothing else I can eat. Like, is there a place that has meat and vegetables? Because that's all I can eat. Just olive oil and everything totally sucks. You know, back to longevity. Also, one other thing I want to comment on. There are polymorphisms. It's not the majority. There's a small minority, but there is a small minority of people, when they eat a high fat diet like this, it throws their blood lipids all over the place and they don't get great readings at all. Now this is, most people are not like this. If you're on a low calorie ketogenic diet, you tend to see improvements in blood lipids. But some people, their cholesterol numbers, their LDL goes all over the place and it just, it just isn't good. So that again contributes to that, that two and a half that we gave it for longevity. All right, next up is a plant based diet. Now this runs the gamut from vegan to almost always vegan. But you allow the occasional cheese in there. Yeah. Combo, something like that. It's plant based. Means that, you know, like 80 to 90% of your diet is plant. All right, let's, let's talk about where we go with fat loss with this. I think for fat loss, this is terrible. I think weight loss 2. But you're gonna lose muscle on it. Yeah, yeah. This is gonna be maybe a two for me. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And even, and even. So like the, the clients that I had that would, that would do this. It, maybe initially they see the weight, the weight loss and then we would rebound and kind of see how much.

[Adam Schaefer]

Muscle they lost or something like that. Yeah, the protein is low. You're not getting the nutrients from animal sources that you need. Animal, you know, sources of food will give you nutrients you don't typically find or sometimes never find in, in plant based. Right. So you'll tend to see vitamin D levels will be too low. Iron, certain B vitamins. You get zero creatine in your diet. So when you look at the studies on creatine supplementation and improvements in cognition and health, most people will see a little bit of an improvement. Creatine is just an amazing supplement. Vegans, they get like a measurable massive boost. Boost in their IQ because they're deficient. Plant based and vegan type diets are higher. Higher than other diets, definitely higher than the ones in this category for nutrient deficiencies. So not great.

[Justin Andrews]

Well to me talking about, in the manner that we're talking about these diets where we're scoring them, I think this really highlights why we've sat. We've sounded like, yeah, we're so doubt on it. Yeah. Because to me both fat loss and muscle gain are under it too. There's just, it's a, it's a muscle.

[Adam Schaefer]

Gain is a one.

[Unnamed Speaker]

There's no benefit there.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, it's the one. Yeah, it's the worst diet.

[Justin Andrews]

So, so you know, that's. And we, what do we deal with mostly? Most the people that we help are, are in pursuit of building muscle or in pursuit of losing body fat. And I, I just think overall for those two main reasons, this is one of the worst diets in both those categories. And so yeah, it's going to score muscle.

[Adam Schaefer]

And by far of the ones that we have up here, if I had clients on all of these, the plant based would be the worst one to work with for sure. Longevity, it's also very low. Now I know that's not going to sound like it's not what it's been sold but popular media.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

But I'm going to tell you something right now. Having worked with many, many, many people who've gone down this path, when they go plant based, what goes up is their processed food consumption.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

They go from eating deficiencies get worse.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, you, you start the average person, when you look at the average person's diet's already processed food dominant, but the few foods that are whole foods are like milk, eggs, meat, and then they're like I'm going plant based now. They're 100% processed foods. So. And now I also nutrient deficiencies. And the data on this is clear. People who are vegan typically have higher rates of nutrient deficiencies and a nutrient deficiency will screw your longevity up faster than almost anything. You lack a vitamin or a mineral, you have increased depression, anxiety, cognitive function disorders, you name it, because your body literally can't function properly.

[Justin Andrews]

So two.

[Adam Schaefer]

On longevity, I would give it a one.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, a one even.

[Adam Schaefer]

I would give it a one.

[Justin Andrews]

Wow. A one even. Okay. I'm gonna give it a high score though for sustainability, I'm gonna give it a three. And here's my argument. Because we cater, because we've catered so much to, to vegans, so many restaurants, so many Packaged foods. So. So there's so much marketed to and that are in options that are processed foods for the vegan that I think that for the person who just, oh, I just got to choose a vegan food that is something that makes it more sustainable. Although I don't think it's ideal.

[Adam Schaefer]

I feel like you're just trying to be nice because I think. Yeah, I think the average person right now, I know who gone vegan, their fail rate is 100 for me.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, that's. Yeah, but that's everybody. That's every diet, right?

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, it was a little higher. There was only one person I trained ever my entire career that was, that went plant based and vegan stayed that way, but it was for moral reasons.

[Unnamed Speaker]

So I mean, the, the biggest value of it for me is in a temporary window. You know, I could make some arguments there in terms of like being introduced to, you know, higher dense, you know, vegetable options and like fiber. And those aren't on the category. So I don't really know where to.

[Justin Andrews]

So. So it doesn't seem like we're just hammering this diet. I'm with Justin. Exactly.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I'm trying to find.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, no, there is, there. And by the way, there's times where I actually recommended this for a client for a short period of time. Many times it was clients that just neglected to eat a lot of vegetables and so switching them over and then allowing them to see how they felt and then, then teaching them that it wasn't because we eliminated these foods, it's because we introduced these foods that your body also wants and needs. I could see value in doing that, but I. The sustainability. What I think about sustainability is like their ability to keep doing it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, right.

[Justin Andrews]

Like I, I think the ketogenic diet is really hard to do because you're so. There's so minimal choices.

[Adam Schaefer]

Sure.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. But there's a lot of vegan choices today. Yeah. You go down the frozen food aisle.

[Sal Destefano]

There are.

[Adam Schaefer]

But. And you're gonna see you throw a nutrient deficiency.

[Justin Andrews]

That's longevity argument. That's. That's the longevity argument. That's health argument. That's muscle.

[Adam Schaefer]

That means people have to draw, but.

[Justin Andrews]

The ability for people to, to keep doing it. And, and you're getting so much positive reinforcement from television. I think sustainability, it scores higher than a lot of these diets.

[Adam Schaefer]

I would give.

[Justin Andrews]

That's my argument.

[Adam Schaefer]

I would give it a 2 at best is what I would give.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay.

[Adam Schaefer]

For sure. All right. Last is the paleo diet. Now, Paleo is short for Paleolithic and so this diet, Sorry, it's not last, it's the second to last. The Paleo diet is basically based on. And again, this is not really based on real science, but this is just what the diet said.

[Justin Andrews]

Right. Because you'd be eating bugs, would be.

[Adam Schaefer]

In there, whatever we could get our hands on. But essentially the theory was you're gonna eat what cave people ate, which meant minimally processed, what they, they really didn't cook or process anything. And so it was, it was relegated to meat, fruit, nuts, seeds, vegetables, potatoes. Maybe some hardcore Paleo people, not even potatoes. But now I think they all agree potatoes. Okay. But there's no grains, no dairy, no processed anything. So it's. So it's meat, eggs again, you know, fish, fruit, nuts, seeds.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Seeds, vegetables.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, potatoes, birds, that kind of anything that runs, swims or walks. Fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables. This is a potatoes.

[Justin Andrews]

This is a solid diet.

[Adam Schaefer]

It is.

[Justin Andrews]

This is a solid overall diet. I don't think it is ideal or optimal for any one of these categories, but like right away to me, and I don't want to get way ahead because we can make, we can go through each one, but it's like, it's like a three across the board for me. Yeah, it's like a three across the board. It's decent for fat loss, it's decent for building muscle, it's decent for longevity. It's decent, but it's not the best or great at any of these one things. But I also don't, I don't have a lot of problems. I had a lot of clients I had on the Paleo diet that were successful.

[Adam Schaefer]

If you took potatoes out of this, I would give it a lower score, but because potatoes, like, like the old school, original Paleo was like no potatoes.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It was just seeds and nuts.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I can't be getting my energy there.

[Justin Andrews]

No, I mean I, the, my bodybuilder esque diet looks very exact.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean like rice.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. The rice is the only. I ate a lot of sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes, red potatoes, yams. And then I also use, I almost.

[Adam Schaefer]

Eat like with the potatoes, except for the.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I'm on board.

[Adam Schaefer]

Except for rice.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

I would give this a higher score for muscle gain. Paleo diets tend to be pretty high in protein. Yeah, Paleo people tend to eat.

[Justin Andrews]

I can give it a four.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's not good for endurance, but, you know. No, but you found that on CrossFit.

[Adam Schaefer]

But the potato helps.

[Unnamed Speaker]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

This is why they changed it. So the original Paleo diet didn't Include potatoes, because the argument was you have to boil them and really cook them. And cave people didn't do that. Which again, I don't know where they get their science from and what they found in CrossFit athletes and other athletes, like, fruit doesn't do it for me. I need some starches. So they started throwing in potato and sweet potato. And those are great sources.

[Justin Andrews]

Great sources. I mean, since we're on this diet, because I think of all the diets we're going to go through today, this is probably going to win with me as far as the, the better of scores. This is also such an example of, like, good coaches and trainers here. Like, if I have a client that wants to have some sort of structure, I could. I would build them a diet like this and include things like rice and quinoa.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Why?

[Justin Andrews]

And then I have like a beautiful. Because I've never met anybody who's had a problem with white rice. I don't think I've ever had a client that couldn't. Couldn't digest white rice. Super rare. So good. Such a great, starchy carbohydrate, expensive, inexpensive, easy to make, like, goes with everything. And it's like. And now you've got this incredible diet and it's customized to you and it's like more realistic and more sustainable. So, I mean, this is where all diets go wrong, is they. They try, they limit something and it's like, dude, most people. I mean, how many people have you guys trained that are problem with white rice?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, no. Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I haven't met one.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I don't think I had anybody.

[Justin Andrews]

Right. It's, it's, it's. It's such a. It's like a. It's a staple food that there's no other than you're trying to fit in this Paleo thing.

[Adam Schaefer]

This plus rice is my diet. Yeah. Generally how I eat. So, yeah. Great scores across the board. Again, muscle gain of the diets we're going to talk about is wins there. Yeah, definitely. All right, Last is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting really has one hard rule, which is you eat in a window of four to eight hours. Okay. Now, there's lots of different ways to do intermittent fasting. There's the one meal a day diet.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

You don't eat all day. You have one big meal. Then there's. You can only eat between, you know, noon and four or whatever. But so generally speaking, it essentially means you eat within a eating window and then there's really no other rules. Essentially, with this and, and people lose weight on this typically because they eat less calories, because they're limited on when, when they can eat.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I still feel like it should be slowest or slower instead of fast, dude. I mean, the whole time you're watching the clock and I mean it's, it's one of those things. It's great for awareness too, about your own behaviors. So I mean, I would definitely score that, you know, and to. Again, so if this is something that's like an intermittent thing as it's named, and then you're, you're bringing it in and you're doing a regular diet that you have a little bit more flexibility with, like, I'm on board. But again, if it's something I'd probably low on the sustainability, for me, I'm.

[Justin Andrews]

Gonna give it a, A four for fat loss, a two for muscle gain.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I, I mean, you could sell me on that. I was gonna go three and two.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

But you could sell me on that.

[Justin Andrews]

Because almost everybody initially loses weight. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

It just cuts their calories right away. So black and white.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, it's so black and white. It's so, so easy to follow. It's like, I don't have a lot of rules. I just have a window that literally reducing people to a window is mind blowing. How much that restricts calories, I would.

[Adam Schaefer]

I agree with you. Even longevity, I'd give it a pretty good score of a three and a half. Because if you, when you give the average person one rule, they tend to be able to stick to it better. Several rules. And, and here's the deal. Now I know people are like, well, what if they eat garbage? What if they. Yeah, of course that's bad. But when you look at the data, when your calories are low, what you eat within that calorie amount, a lot of the damage is taken care of because the calories are low. So this is why people on intermittent fast. Like I remember the one meal a day version of this. They just call it the warrior diet or one meal a day diet. People would eat the worst food. They'd be like, oh my God, I'm gonna eat a giant pizza plus a bowl of cereal.

[Justin Andrews]

Muscle gain is one.

[Adam Schaefer]

And they would have all these great benefits with their blood, lipids and all that stuff. Muscle gains got to be low.

[Justin Andrews]

1.

[Adam Schaefer]

Good. Good luck trying to build muscle in a four hour.

[Justin Andrews]

It's hard all day. It's hard when you have all day.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You're not gonna. Yeah. Squeeze all the protein in.

[Justin Andrews]

And, and so sustainability. So I'M flip flopped on the way you're. You're describing longevity. Because I think sustainability is for all the reasons you said, because it's simple. They can just follow a rule. Longevity to me is like health.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, that's what I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say is when your calories are low as fasting, one rule makes you just fat. Just eat low calories, then you tend to see health positives. Like you can eat a crappy amount of like, like crappy food, but eat low calorie and you'll see benefits across the board.

[Justin Andrews]

Generally.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, generally.

[Justin Andrews]

But then you start to see deficiencies after a while.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And so I can't give it a three and a half. Maybe a three.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, maybe a three on that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

For.

[Adam Schaefer]

For the longevity and then sustainability. You know, this is a tough one because it's one rule and so people like it as a result and it's more flexible in terms of what you can eat. So that kind of makes me want to give it like a three for sustainability.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. No, I would have done two on longevity, three on sustainability. But you can, you can push me to that.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I'm kind of with you on that. I think it has like a shelf life in terms of like, you know, the longevity of it.

[Adam Schaefer]

If we had.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's easy to do.

[Adam Schaefer]

If we had a category for spiritual health, which most people look at diets that way. Fasting is the best because there is a. That's what it's made for.

[Justin Andrews]

It's made for that now.

[Adam Schaefer]

Of the diets of the five that we went through, I think we're probably all in agreement that Paleo.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

As described was the best one looks the best. If I had to give a diet, which I never did with my clients, I did in the early days when I was dumb. But really the diets became very individualized.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Well, even if you said you can modify it, I think that makes a lot of sense to use as your scaffolding.

[Justin Andrews]

I think it's the close. All of us are the closest to that. Even personally.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes. Throw rice in there.

[Justin Andrews]

It's not only this is what we probably recommended or utilize with our own clients. It's what we, how we personally eat is something now. I think it is important to discuss this since we're here with this. It's just I don't think any of us agree on any diets. No, I think that what you should for longevity.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I almost, I give them all low scores.

[Justin Andrews]

So what I used to like to do with clients is I used to like to take them through all of these things.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Use a lot of information.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. And I used to love to teach them. And then I would. And then I would get feedback from them, what they felt, what they noticed, what they liked, what they didn't like. And then. And then from that, we would. We would create what I thought was the best diet for them. Right. It's like they would tell me, oh, man, Adam. When I was on vegan, I just. My energy felt better. This felt better, though. My digestion. Okay, well, it's probably the fiber and the greens we were getting, so let's make sure we make. We go after stuff like that, man. But when we were doing Paleo, I felt like I was just putting on muscle and I was building. Oh, cool. That was because of all that high protein. We got to make sure we do that. I was like, yeah. But then when I was running the. That one, I felt like I had the Mediterranean. I had more energy. Well, yeah, it's because we're getting way more carbohydrates and stuff that were. So it's like teaching the client what they're noticing and feeling from each diet and why those. Why they've worked or why they have so much, you know, popularity. And then learning how to build that around the individual is really what's going to be sustainable otherwise. Almost all diets fail.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right. Almost all diets fall in that category of 80% of people fall off after a few months.

[Sal Destefano]

Our first question is, what is the worst diet you have ever heard of?

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, okay, the worst.

[Justin Andrews]

There's a lot of bad ones.

[Adam Schaefer]

There's a lot of bad ones.

[Justin Andrews]

There's a cabbage diet. There's the pizza diet. Celery diet. Is there a cookie diet? Oh, my God.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay, now let me ask you guys this. So let's rephrase this. What's the worst diet you've actually ever had to try to work with where a client brought. Because I've never had a client with a cabbage diet like that.

[Justin Andrews]

Vegan.

[Adam Schaefer]

Vegan was.

[Justin Andrews]

Vegan's the hardest.

[Adam Schaefer]

I. I always been the hardest. You know what I used to hate? I hate this because we all manage the same gym at different times. Over there, the 24 Fitness in South San Jose. And, you know, across the streets, the hospital.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh, and I would know what you're saying. The liquid only.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

People.

[Adam Schaefer]

I would get people coming in who need to lose weight and the doctor. And they weren't even good shakes. You'd look at the ingredients. They were terrible. I had better sucralose everything in there. Yeah, it was garbage. And it was literally the doctor's like, oh, I just drink this all day long. This time I lose weight. And I had to work with these clients and my trainers had to work with these people.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And I, it was just. And I now and I'm battling their doctors. You never want to do as a trainer. That was the worst I ever had to work with. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I could get, I get behind that. I still think, I think the reason why that I did that doesn't beat vegan for me still is because that those people were told what to do. Their doctors telling them they had the shakes and the bars.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

It's what we had to work with. It was like I had my job then at that point was they're going to follow what the doctor saying, nutrition wise, I gotta go. When I used to get clients that would tell me, hey, I'm vegan, I will only eat. And then I gotta figure it out. And then, you know, what about this? No, don't eat that. What about, no, won't eat that. Oh, don't like that. Oh my God. It's just that that was so difficult for me and that, that's by choice. Right. Those people are choosing that diet. What you're being told by your doctor, like, yeah, that presents its own challenges and, and suck. So to me, vegan diet is the worst to work with.

[Sal Destefano]

Do I even need to be on a diet to lose weight?

[Adam Schaefer]

No, but you, you do need to reduce calories, change your diet. Typically.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

But you don't need to be on a diet. I mean, we just talked about a bunch of popular diets. But the, the truth is if you, if you start to make small changes and move towards better health, eating more protein, avoiding heavily processed foods, you know, paying attention to how food affects your digestion, not eating because you're stressed or because you're anxious or because whatever, but rather just because you're actually hungry. If you start to make small changes over time, then you'll have a sustainable, individualized style diet. Also consider this, whatever works for you now may not work for you all the time because your body changes, your lifestyle changes and circumstances change. So learning these things about yourself, super important.

[Justin Andrews]

I want to write, I want to create a diet called the Eat More Diet. And the way it works is that, and it's like I started to teach my clients later on, which is I would track their food and see what they were doing on normal not being good. Show me your Snickers bars and ice cream and McDonald, all the above. And then from there, the way I would coach them is I would add to their diet. I would go after food. So I would love to write a diet that's called, like the Eat More diet. And it's based off of assessing where you're at and then seeing, oh, you undereat fiber, go eat more of this. Oh, you don't get enough protein, go eat more of this. And teaching people to go after the foods that their body needs nutritionally or to support whatever their goal is, whether it's performance or building muscle, and teach them how to go after nutritious foods that are supporting their goals versus diets that are all which are traditionally centered around restricting and taking away.

[Sal Destefano]

Next question. What's just one thing I can do with my diet that will have a really big impact?

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay, so historically, yeah, historically, this just the one thing that I could have my clients do that had the most benefit. The biggest impact would be just avoid heavily processed foods, avoid ultra processed foods, foods that are in boxes and wrappers, lots of ingredients. Stick to whole natural foods. And let's just start there. And on average, okay, on average, my clients would lose between 10 to 15 pounds of body fat from that alone. Literally, just that alone. And then we would do other things afterwards, but just doing that alone, it worked. And they would always come to me and say, I don't know why I'm losing weight. I feel like I'm eating so much food. And that's because those ultra processed foods that make you overeat, when you cut them out, you automatically cut your calories, you automatically increase things like protein intake just from doing that alone.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I would. I would either say that or high protein.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Because people going after high protein, it's really hard to overeat when you. When you're hitting high protein food. So. But the processed foods, I think we're all on the same page. Eliminating that is like the biggest factor. And it gives them still lots of flexibility on what they can choose to eat and everything. Just eliminating the processed foods. But that or go after high protein, those two things tend to be number one, number two tips for me. In fact, those two tips by themselves.

[Adam Schaefer]

And no other handle most of everything.

[Justin Andrews]

Will handle, like 80 to 90% of your results.

[Adam Schaefer]

For most people, 100%. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at mindpump, Distephano, and Adam's at Mind Pump Out.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes maps and applies maps, performance and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos. The RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

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[Adam Schaefer]

With.

[Dr. Dennis Black]

New Year's resolutions, many of us will make a vow to eat healthier and that's a good thing. But what about our beloved pup and their nutrition? Greetings, I'm naturopathic doctor Dennis Black and at Ruff Greens, we're on a mission to provide better nutrition for dogs. Because truthfully, all dog food is dead food, which is why we created Ruff Greens in the first place. We bring their dead food back to life with live vitamins, minerals, probiotics, enzymes, omega oils, antioxidants and so much more. All with our tasty formula that dogs love. You can improve your dog's coat, digestion and energy and have less vet bills in 2025. Bring in a new year and a new pet. Get a Jump Start trial bag Normally $20 get 100 discount with promo code Ruff you just cover the shipping. Bring your dog's food back to life. Get your free jumpstart trial bag. Go to ruffgreens.com use promo code R U F F. So good your dog will ask for it by name.

[Adam Schaefer]

Rough greens.