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Sal DeStefano
Mind Pump. Mind Pump.
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With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews, you just found the.
Sal DeStefano
Most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast in the world. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode is how to start losing weight for the summer. Now, if you start now and do it the right way, it'll happen. It'll be. It'll be sustainable. It'll be effective. By the way, we have a free fat loss guide. How to lose fat in three steps. You can get@mpfatloss.com now. This episode is brought to you by a sponsor. Vuori Vuori makes Athleisure wear that looks amazing. It lasts a long time. You know who they are because they're super big now. Very comfortable. Lasts a long time.
Adam Schafer
Looks good.
Sal DeStefano
Biggest discount you'll find anywhere is on our link, you go to voriclothing.com mind pump. That'll give you a 20% off. We also have four maps workout programs on sale. Maps Starter maps transform Maps Anabolic and Maps Performance. 50% off right now. Go to maps january.com use the code New Year 50 for the discount. All right, real quick.
Adam Schafer
If you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking.
Sal DeStefano
One of our shirts, hats, mugs, or.
Adam Schafer
Training gear over@mypumpstore.com I'm talking right now. Hit pause, head on over to my pumpstore.com. that's it. Enjoy the rest of the show.
Sal DeStefano
All right, look, I know it's cold, I know it's winter, but summer is going to come at some point and you're going to want to get lean. Now's the time to set yourself up. I'm excited to talk to you right now about how to start losing weight for summer. Right now. Let's go.
Adam Schafer
I actually, I'm glad we're having this conversation.
Sal DeStefano
Yes.
Adam Schafer
Now, because we, we typically do it when it's springtime and everybody kind of a month away. The hype is around minute kind of efforts. And when I think about how I get myself ready for summer or how I get a client ready for summer, it starts right now.
Sal DeStefano
Yes.
Adam Schafer
Right now is when we. We build the metabolism. It's very similar to, I mean, even though we're not taking it to a stage level, but it's just like I would talk to my bikini competitors or men's physique athletes. It's like the real work is in the off season before prep.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Adam Schafer
And so consider this as, like, if you want to have a great body come summertime, the real work is done right now in the winter of laying the foundation. The. The time as we get closer into spring, heading into the summer, is the revealing of the hard work into the cut. Yes.
Sal DeStefano
Yes. So what's really cool is that we have a training staff now, coaches and trainers, both in person and virtual, and they're now contributing to these topics. And I mean, truth be told, we typically don't think about a summer topic until we're close to summer. We got a lot of stuff going on. We're doing lots of episodes. And the truth is this is the best time to do this episode because there's a setup. There's a setup to the fat loss that needs to occur if you want this to be effective fat loss and if you want it to be sustainable fat loss, what you don't want to do is get caught like, oh, it's in a month or 45 days, it's going to be summertime, typically 30 days away. When people think about this, I'm going to get lean. And then because the time is so short and they haven't set themselves up properly, their metabolism is in a good place, it ends up failing. Either A, they do lose some weight, they lose some muscle along with it, or B, they fail, or C, they get there and then they gain it all back, which is what happens to a lot of people. So the way you set things up is so important. So if you want to look lean for the summer, right now is when you start with the reverse diet and the building of the metabolism. This is the most important part, everybody, and here's why. If you want to lose body fat, you have to eat in what's known as a calorie deficit. In other words, you have to take in less calories than your body is burning. And if your body is burning, by the way, the calories your body burns both comes from activity, but it also comes from your resting metabolic rate. It's how many calories your body burns on its own. If that's high, then the amount of calories I can eat to cause weight loss can be higher. If that's low, the amount of calories they need to eat to cause weight loss is much lower. So to paint this in a very stark picture, if my metabolism is burning 1900 calories a day and I want to get lean, I got to eat 15 or 1400 or 1200 calories to get there. That sucks first off, that's not enough calories to maintain any decent amount of muscles. You're going to get some muscle loss and you're not going to be able to sustain it. So if you're starting this process now, what it looks like right now is called a reverse diet and a focus on building that metabolic machinery to make this much more effective. When you start getting closer to summertime.
Adam Schafer
It makes this so much easier. Yes, it makes it so much easier when you spend the time building that extra muscle, building the metabolism up, getting to a place where you're eating, eating more calories than you're used to, than they can come back the other direction and then you land somewhere. What's so great is that you can, you can cut calories and land in a place that is comfortable. And that doesn't mean you'll never be hungry in a cut in on a diet. That's, that's a normal feeling, but you Won't feel like you're starving. And most importantly, you won't have to deprive your body of so much of the macro micronutrients that it needs to maintain the lean body mass you're working so hard.
Sal DeStefano
Tell the story of when you coached Melissa. I love that story because it's such a great example of if you do this right, where you can end up tell that story yourself.
Adam Schafer
Yeah, well, it's exciting too because I'm, I'm about to do it again with, with Corinne. Right. I, I haven't done this for. I think I looked back. I think Melissa was almost six, seven. Yeah, six, seven years ago. So it was a long time since I took a competitor on and a very similar situation. Right. So she, she weighed around, I want to say around 119, weight wise. She was eating around 1800-2000 calories. In good shape. Like, you're already in like really good shape. Not.
Sal DeStefano
She wants to get a stage.
Adam Schafer
Yeah, yeah. So she was in good shape. I just want to make that clear already. She wasn't. She couldn't go compete and win a trophy. But this is a good example of like, you have somebody who's already in pretty good shape, healthy eating, eating 21002000 calories or whatever, and then comes to me and says, hey, I want to compete and go on a show. And I go, okay, well. And she's like, I want to do a show with this time. And I said, well, we won't do that until I build your metabolism first, because I know I'm going to have to cut calories to really lean you out for stage presence. And you're already only at 2,000 calories. And so I'm, I'm going to put you in an unhealthy place. So let's build first. And I, what was so awesome was that we went through probably a good three months or so of reverse dieting and it's, you know, it was just a few hundred calories at a time and really focused on strength and building muscle. Got her all the way up to the high 2000. I think we even peaked at like 2900 calories where I got her up to. And we really didn't put on that much weight. We put a couple pounds of muscle on her body, maybe even a little bit of body fat, but not very much at all, but really ramped that metabolism up and she actually hit stage one. We won, she won her class, she took overall and she won another for a first time trophy or whatever. So she walked away with three trophies and she was eating 2200 calories in her final prep week.
Sal DeStefano
And this is stage leanness.
Adam Schafer
Yes.
Sal DeStefano
Not even healthy leanness.
Adam Schafer
Yeah, yeah.
Sal DeStefano
So she ate more on stage than she came to.
Adam Schafer
That just shows you how radical of a difference that you can make with somebody metabolic. Which is why if you've listened to the show for very long, you may have heard us. We get really feisty about the coaches and trainers that try and make this argument that muscle doesn't really burn that many more calories per day. And, and it's so misleading because if you, if you take muscle tissue and you take fat tissue out and you measure it just its, its rate of calories, it util energy it uses in.
Sal DeStefano
A day, it's more, but it's not this huge number.
Adam Schafer
Yeah, it's exactly. So. So in the studies, somebody might try and say, oh, it's not that big of a difference. But it's like what you're not realizing is that person who built that muscle now moves more and differently throughout the day, moves a. A bigger, stronger body throughout the day.
Sal DeStefano
There's also, it's also really complex.
Adam Schafer
It is. Yeah, exactly. This is what, this is just what I know. This is not even to the last part where I'd go. And that's what I don't. There's other things. I don't know what I know to maintain that muscle. This, the amount of volume and training is required is increased. The, the strength of that person is increased. There's their activity level because now they're stronger and healthier is increased. And so it doesn't tell the whole story of somebody who adds five or ten pounds of muscle, what exactly it does to their metabolic rate. When we just look at the studies, it's not good enough. What, what we have found in our personal experience, all of us in here training clients, is a radical difference. I, I've taken female clients like that and been able to feed them 900 more calories and, and them not put on body fat. I mean, that, that is, that does not align with what the studies say about muscle, because I didn't put 40.
Sal DeStefano
Pounds of muscle on her.
Adam Schafer
You know, we put 5 to 10 pounds maybe of muscle at most on her body.
Sal DeStefano
Right. So. So it starts with the reverse diet. This is a slow increase in calories. You're adding 100 calories every other week, 200 calories every other week. And you're also eating high protein. So you're hitting your target body weight in grams of protein, and the focus is strength and muscle. So this period right here, I'm just trying to build muscle. I'm just trying to get stronger. Now the next step is when you start to look at cutting your calories. And so the question is always, okay, well, when? When do I know? When do we do that? When do I cut calories? Here's when you start. When you're eating a lot of food. When you're at the point where, like, I'm eating a lot of food, I think if I start cutting some fruit from food from here, I'm going to feel okay because there's so much I'm eating. So much. Like in the case of Melissa small girl eating 2800 calories, she was probably like, I can't eat any more food. Well, now we know we're at a good place where we could start.
Adam Schafer
So that was just. So you guys know, that was when I said, okay, it's time to book a show. Yeah, I was trying. I kept trying. I kept pushing her the calorie wise until she looked back at me and she goes, Adam, it is like a full time job eating this much food. I don't know if I could go any higher than this. I'm like, perfect.
Sal DeStefano
Yep. So now the countdown begins.
Adam Schafer
Yeah, now I'm like, okay, book our show now. Now the cut, the slow, slow cut begins. And then the steps you're about to go over is exactly what this looked like. And. But that was, that was what triggered. Because someone might ask, well, why'd you stop at 29? Why that number? It was like I kept pushing her until she looked back at me and was like, this is more food I've ever had in my life. It's so much food. I'm like, okay, this is enough Runway for me to work with.
Sal DeStefano
Perfect. So when you get to the place where you're like eating a lot of food, you're strong, you feel good, you're like, I could cut from here and be comfortable. This is when you can start cutting your calories. And it typically looks like a 3 to 500 calorie drop, sometimes a little more, depending on how many total calories you're eating. So I'll say on average 4 or 500 calories below what you've been currently eating. So now you cut your calories and simultaneously add this third step, which is adjust your workouts. So here's what a lot of people do. They cut their calories and they dramatically ramp up the intensity of their workouts. Don't do that either. A Keep your workouts the same, or B, which is more likely is you actually reduce a little bit of the volume because you're just not eating as many calories. Your body doesn't have the same recovery ability now with the reduced calories. If you reverse dieted yourself up to 3,000 calories and now you're at 2,500 calories, you have 500 less calories that you can use to recover from. Okay, so what you definitely don't want to do is simultaneously bump up the volume of your training. Now I'm doing, instead of three sets of this extra, I'm doing five sets. Instead of working out three days a week in the gym, I'm working out five days a week in the gym. Don't do that at the same time. That's a total.
Adam Schafer
I wouldn't make it even. So we, we didn't change that at all. Right. So in fact, I would actually tell her to be careful of intensity and volume because we're now in a deficit. We're adding a new layer of stress.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Adam Schafer
So now that we're cutting and we're not feeding the body what it was just used to feeding it, we're already adding a layer of stress. The last thing we want to do is ramp intensity up. We were doing that on the build when we were building.
Sal DeStefano
Now you can ask when you.
Adam Schafer
Yeah, that we. And we're eating a surplus of calories. That's when I was pushing intensity. That's when I was stacking on things. Now that we're getting ready to reveal this physique, we actually want to keep the workouts the same or actually even back off a tiny bit of intensity and volume. And when you say 500 calories, what I like to do is I want to create a 500 calorie deficit. And the deficit would come from half calories, half steps. So it would look like about 250 calories and I'd add about 2,000 steps. Now, that's very. That obviously body size and everything's going to change. But. But roughly about that, and I know that's one of your. Your points on here is to add steps.
Sal DeStefano
Yes. And so that's the way to add activity. I just wanna be very clear because you may wanna add activity, and one of the best ways to do this is to add steps because it's throughout the day. It's your. It's your regular day. It's not intense, so it's not taken away from recovery. In many cases, it helps facilitate recovery. It's actually recuperative. So. And this is very easy to track nowadays. Step counters are really inexpensive. Your phone probably has one. And so if you're averaging 7,000 steps a day, bump it up to 9,000 steps a day. Very easy thing you can add to increase the calorie deficit.
Adam Schafer
So I tell you the kind of the method behind my madness on that or why. Why that way? I just knowing that I can only play the calorie cutting game for so long. Now, we talk on the show that, like, I think a 500 calorie cut is good or deficit, however you want to say, it is a good number. And so I always liked, you know, being able to keep my. My competitor or person I'm trying to cut fed, giving them somewhat of a reduction. So we move in that direction. But then also just real. Just starting to edge up activity. So I'm creating that deficit you're shooting for, but I'm doing it with a little bit of both. So I have a little bit of Runway on both ends. Like, I know I can. I can continue to go more with activity. Just 2000 steps isn't a huge ask per day. It just means actively paying attention and going after it, which is a couple walks to get 2,000 more, and then that's okay. I'm not asking you to restrict a ton. You're just. You're cutting back a little bit on portion size or maybe one of the. One of the meals, if you're doing lots of small meals. And so it's a. It's an easy adjustment, and it leaves me a lot of Runway. And so that was. That was kind of the theory or idea with the competitors, I would do that. And so I like the idea of like a 250. Now. If I had a big guy who, like, let's say I was coaching you.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schafer
At 4, 000 plus calories, easy to cut. Yes. I can cut 500 calories. And, like, I could cut at least 500.
Sal DeStefano
You don't even need to add steps yet.
Adam Schafer
Yes. Because you. You're at such a high color. When I start, when I'm. When I'm doing this with. With female clients who are under 3, 000 calories, I do a little bit of. Of both because I have less of a Runway. A big dude who's eating five who has a hard time eating enough to keep his mask, I'm like, oh, chop five, 700 calories right away. I don't even have to add steps. And they're right away sort of Right.
Sal DeStefano
So you're adjusting your workouts. You're not training with tons of intensity because you're cutting your calories. You're monitoring your activity, increasing your activity a little bit. The best way to do this in our experience is to monitor your steps. Obviously, you can be active different ways, but it's just something you can track and you can see on a regular basis. It's objective. Steps is a great way to do this. And here's the last thing you do. The last thing you do is add cardio. This is the last thing you do in this fat loss process. So you're cutting your calories, you're adding steps. You could cut your calories probably a couple times through this process at 1.250 with added steps. Another time, another 250 with added steps. And then at the end, probably with the few weeks left, this is when you add your 30 minutes or whatever. Everybody usually puts that first. Everybody does this all the wrong way. Number one, everybody's the wrong way. Loses a bunch of muscle and finds themselves in a very different.
Adam Schafer
So most. The most. The research that I read around this, and this is what led me to like, the, the strategy that I used of the final weeks of only cardio is it only takes about two to four weeks for your body to get adapted to whatever cardiovascular training that you're doing, which is. I also think this is where the whole hell week came from. Why it only takes like a week of like hard training for a sport to. And that doesn't mean you're at peak condition, but, like, you still get a.
Sal DeStefano
Fetch, but you get a lot of fat.
Adam Schafer
But you, you, you adapt to game speed. You, you act, you adapt really fast to cardiovascular endurance. And so because you adapt so fast, so do the, the fat loss results from that. So my logic behind training the clients or competitors was let's keep moving steps through activity through the day without using any bouts of cardio. Yeah, structured cardio for as long as you can until just like the food thing, the feedback. I would look back from Melissa when she was coming back to me, she'd go, okay, Adam, you're having me do 16, 000 steps. This is hard for me to not to get on a piece of equipment and, and kind of get after it a little bit to get those steps up there. Now we start doing this now, when we do this, it's. It's ending up being somewhere between two to three weeks before peak time. So if you're getting ready for summer, this is just the final couple Weeks. So if you do a really good job of what I'm talking about with calories and a little bit of steps, you inch away from the average person who does six to 8,000 steps, you know, 8,000 to 10,000 to 12,000 to 14. You start getting what I have found is common. Once you start putting over 15,000 steps or so, you need to do. Most people need to have some time on some equipment to do that, which is perfect because we've now been doing this for a month or well over a month and a half to heading down this pathway. And now it's time. Okay, I can start to introduce a little bit of cardiovascular endurance training. And because it's, it's so foreign to the body, so novel, your body goes oh my God and it's burning and it, and it leans you out really nice. And it's the perfect way to get somebody show ready. It's the perfect way to get somebody ready for summer is to use cardio as a tool. When you are thinking about aesthetics, how you want to look, this is not the best approach. If you're trying to run a marathon or you are looking for longer.
Sal DeStefano
This is fat loss.
Adam Schafer
This is. You want the best strategy to lean out the fastest possible, the healthiest, smartest way. Then you want to use cardio as your final chisel or tool. That's how I used to explain to my clients is right now we, we, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna use your piece of clay and I'm using the chainsaw to knock the big pieces off. And then when we get to the final couple weeks is, is cardio and that's the chiseling away at the, the aesthetics of the body. And that's what the final two, three weeks look awesome.
Sal DeStefano
Now we have a fat loss guide that's free. It's how to lose fat loss in three steps. It's totally free. You can go to mpfatloss.com to go and check it out. You can also find us on Instagram, it's Mind Pump Media. We'll see you there.
Mind Pump Announcer
Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, Don dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle@mindpumpmedia.com the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, anabolic 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 resources@mindpumpmedia.com 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 now. Next time this is Mind Pump.
Sal DeStefano
Began Terminal.
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge
Date: January 26, 2026
This episode dives into the most effective, sustainable way to start losing weight for summer—by beginning the process in winter. The hosts stress that most people wait until it's almost too late (spring) and scramble for results. Instead, they reveal the science-backed strategy of metabolic "building" (reverse dieting) before entering a fat loss phase. With clear, tactical steps, real client stories, and their signature candor, Sal, Adam, and Justin break down the common pitfalls and present a stepwise road map to not only looking lean for summer but actually maintaining it.
“The real work is done right now in the winter of laying the foundation… As we get closer into spring, heading into the summer, is the revealing of the hard work into the cut.”
— Adam Schafer [03:45]
“If your resting metabolic rate is high, then the amount of calories I can eat to cause weight loss can be higher.”
— Sal Di Stefano [05:15]
“She hit stage and she was eating 2,200 calories in her final prep week… and this is stage leanness!”
— Adam Schafer [09:20]; Sal Di Stefano [09:20]
“I’ve taken female clients like that and been able to feed them 900 more calories and them not put on body fat.”
— Adam Schafer [10:43]
“When you’re eating a lot of food, you’re strong, you feel good… this is when you can start cutting.”
— Sal Di Stefano [12:37]
“Now that we’re cutting and we’re not feeding the body what it was just used to… we actually want to keep the workouts the same or even back off a tiny bit.”
— Adam Schafer [14:07]
“Add steps because it’s throughout the day… not intense, so it’s not taking away from recovery.”
— Sal Di Stefano [14:43]
“You adapt so fast… so do the fat loss results from that. So my logic was, let’s keep steps up as activity without using formal cardio as long as possible.”
— Adam Schafer [18:08]
“If you want to look lean for the summer, right now is when you start with the reverse diet and the building of the metabolism. This is the most important part.”
— Sal Di Stefano [05:47]
“The last thing we want to do is ramp intensity up. We were doing that on the build… Now, back off.”
— Adam Schafer [13:57]
“The final couple weeks is cardio. That’s the chiseling away at the aesthetics of the body.”
— Adam Schafer [19:51]
| Timestamp | Segment Title & Key Point | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:10 | Why you should start your summer fat loss now | | 04:20 | Metabolic foundation: Reverse dieting, building up calories and muscle | | 07:31 | Adam’s story of client “Melissa”: real-world example of reverse dieting success | | 09:27 | The muscle metabolism myth—practical vs scientific perspectives | | 11:10 | Step-by-step breakdown: When it’s time to cut and how | | 13:30 | Training adjustments: Don’t increase intensity with calorie cut | | 14:43 | Why and how to increase daily steps (NEAT), not just gym time | | 17:45 | The proper role of cardio: Only the final few weeks as a “chisel” | | 18:08 | How fast the body adapts to cardio and why to delay it |
Direct, practical, and loaded with “coach wisdom,” this episode is for anyone who’s tired of short-term fitness results and instead wants the long-term, sustainable approach—rooted in science and battle-tested in the trenches. With their signature humor and engaging storytelling, the Mind Pump team demystifies the process, outlining exactly what to do and why—no quick fixes or crash diets, just effective, sustainable habits.
For further action, the hosts recommend their free fat loss guide at mpfatloss.com and ongoing discussions on Instagram @mindpumpmedia.