Speaker 1: 0:02

If you're a whiny snowflake that can't handle the truth, is offended by the word fuck and about 37 uses of it in different forms gets ass hurt. When you hear someone speak the absolute, real and raw truth, you should leave Like right now. This is Shut Up and Choose, the podcast where we cut through the shit and get real about weight loss, life and everything in between. We get into the nitty gritty of making small, smart choices that add up to big results. From what's on your plate to how you approach life's challenges. We'll explore how the simple act of choosing differently can transform your health, your mindset and your entire freaking life. So if you're ready to cut through the bullshit and start making some real changes, then buckle up and shut up, because we're about to choose our way to a healthier, happier life. This is Shut Up and Choose. Let's do this Now. Your host, jonathan Ressler.

Speaker 2: 1:14

Hey everybody, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose the podcast where we cut the noise and nonsense and diet issues and all the garbage that all these Instagram and social media gurus are throwing your way, telling you how to lose weight even though they've never lost a pound themselves. Well, I'm here to tell you, as you know, I've lost over 140 pounds. It's still going, kept it off for over a year, didn't spend a minute in the gym, didn't diet, didn't give up the foods that I loved. I just figured out a way to eat the right foods and eat the foods that I loved and lose the weight and keep it off. So if that's something you're interested in, hey, you're in the right place.

Speaker 2: 1:49

So, look, everybody is always talking about this thing, right? This one, the magic thing. And it is the magic thing. It's actually the only way to lose weight, and that's to be in a calorie deficit, right? You have to eat less calories, then you burn. Pretty straightforward. I started thinking about that and I've never been one to count calories, track that shit, because I believe inherently, we all know what to eat and you don't have to be an internet guru, you don't have to be a scientist to know that a bowl of Captain Crunch is definitely much worse for you for breakfast than a couple of eggs. It's not rocket science here, but I did want to talk a little bit more about a calorie, because calorie is like one of those things that everybody is concerned about and it's one of the biggest lies in the diet culture the idea that certain foods make you gain weight while other foods magically burn fat. That's just such a crock of shit. You've heard it all before. Hey, pizza makes you fat or carbs make you fat. Everybody's talking about keto and paleo. Carbs make you fat and of course, the big one, sugar, is the devil and it will instantly make you obese. And of course, then there's the classic. This one kills me. If you eat clean foods like kale and quinoa, you can eat as much as you want and never gain weight. And guess what? All those things that I just said, they're all bullshit. No single food makes you gain weight and no single food makes you lose weight. It all comes into calories in versus calories out. So balance energy. So sit back, grab a snack and even if it's pizza, that's cool with me. Grab a snack and let's break it all down.

Speaker 2: 3:28

So the first thing I want to talk about, I guess, is really what the hell is a calorie? Everybody talks about calories like we all know what it is, but it's pretty simple. A calorie is just a unit of energy. That's it. That's all a calorie is. It's a unit of energy.

Speaker 2: 3:47

So what a calorie is and it's not a curse, it's not a punishment, it's not something you need to be scared of it's just energy that your body uses to function. So your body needs calories to do everything. It needs calories to keep your heart beating. It needs calories and energy to power your brain. So you can think clearly, which a lot of people in the diet industry don't seem to do. Calories are the energy that allows you to move, to work out if you're into that kind of thing and to basically not collapse on the floor like some sack of shit keeps you going. And, of course, calories help to repair your cells and keep you from getting old age and crotchety and looking like shit. Calories are not the enemy. Excess calories are the enemy.

Speaker 2: 4:33

So I thought that maybe I'd talk a little bit about because everybody usually accuses my metabolism slow. That's a bunch of shit, but maybe one-tenth of 1% have a slower metabolism, but not a slow metabolism and, unless you're a doctor, you went to the doctor and he told you yes, you have a slow metabolism. You don't. I'm telling you you don't. But anyway, your metabolism is basically your body's engine and it keeps everything running, kind of like a car, but unlike a car engine that only burns gas when you press on the gas pedal well, that's not entirely the drum to talk about that a car engine that only burns gas when you press on the gas pedal Well, that's not entirely true. I'm going to talk about that. Your body burns calories all the time. Even when you're sitting, you're sleeping, you're watching TV on the couch and even scrolling on Instagram. Your body is burning calories 24-7.

Speaker 2: 5:19

So there's basically three ways that your body burns calories, and this is really important to know, and I'm not going to sit here and tell you I knew this. I had to go out and actually research it and figure it all out and then try to dumb it down enough so I could actually understand it. So let me tell you what I found. So the first way is your basal metabolic rate, so also it's called your BMR. So this is the energy that your body needs just to stay alive. So when I was talking before about sitting on the couch or scrolling Instagram your body burning calories, that it's burning calories. It's burning calories 24 hours a day, no matter what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 5:59

And if I use that car kind of analogy, think of it as your car idling You're in idle mode. If you did nothing but just lay in bed all day, you'd burn a lot of calories. Just by breathing, by your body pumping blood and just keeping all your organs working, there's a lot of calories being burned. So BMR is why you could eat food and not immediately blow up like a balloon. Right, think about it. If your body wasn't burning that food and we'll talk a little bit more about that you'd blow right up. So your body is constantly burning calories to keep you alive.

Speaker 2: 6:26

Then the second, I guess part of your metabolism is the thermic effect of food, and that makes up. Oh, by the way, your basal metabolic rate is 60 to 70 percent of the calories you'll burn. The thermic effect of food is about 10 percent of the calories that you'll burn, and what that is is your body actually burns calories when it's digesting food. So you may not know this, but you should. Protein takes the most energy to digest, which is why high protein diets definitely slightly boost your calorie burn. It's why things like paleo and carnivore really boost your caloric burn, because you're eating the food that's the hardest for your body to burn, and that's not I'm not giving you like a free pass to eat steak all day, but it really does explain why protein keeps you fuller for longer, because it takes your body a lot more time to burn, like when you eat things that are high in fat. Your body doesn't have to work. It's hard to burn that shit and you don't stay full and again. So your basal metabolic rate takes about 60 to 70 percent of all the calories burned. Another 10 percent comes from the thermic of effective food, and then the last 20 or 30 percent of calories burned come from physical activities, and this, honestly, is actually the only part that you control.

Speaker 2: 7:46

So your movement, your exercising, even if you're fidgeting or just standing up, some people just move more. I'm definitely ADHD. I move around a lot. I didn't walk a lot when I first started, but I definitely move a lot. They got like me. I fidget, I pace, I'm always kind of adjusting myself and that means I burn more calories without even thinking about it. So the more active you are, the more fuel or calories you're going to burn.

Speaker 2: 8:13

And I touched on this before. If you use it as a real life example, your basal metabolic rate is like a car, or your metabolism, rather, is like a car and your BMR is like your engine running on idle. You just sit there and don't move, don't press the gas. You're still going to burn the gas in the car, it's still going to use up gas. The thermal effect of food is like the gas that you actually use to actually keep the car to process the fuel. So your body burns energy just by digesting food. And then, of course, the activity, which you know is driving the car. So the more you drive, the further you drive, the faster you drive, the more gas you're going to use. Same thing goes with calories the more you move, the more fuel you burn. So if you eat more calories than your car needs or more fuel than your car needs, the extra calories get stored as fat.

Speaker 2: 9:06

If you eat less fuel than you burn, you lose weight. It's pretty simple. So if you burn more gas than you have in your car, it's going to run out of gas and it's going to stop. Just like if you burn more calories than you consume, your body's going to stop storing fat and you will lose fat. So that's really how your metabolism works, and I'm only giving you that example to let you know that in that basal metabolic rate, 60 to 70% of the calories your body burns comes from just keeping it alive, and physical activity is only making up 20 or 30%. So, yes, you can increase your activity and yes, you can move more and do all those things, but the bottom line is your body is burning calories when it's just standing still, when you're scrolling on Instagram. So that tells me that it's much more important to think about the food that you eat than how many hours or minutes or days or crazy shit you're going to do in the gym. You can't move enough to outpace a bad diet, and this just proves that your body needs the right fuel to burn to lose weight.

Speaker 2: 10:16

So let me give you a couple of the metabolism myths that we just need to get rid of. They're not based in science, they're not true. They're a bunch of shit. So here's a couple of them. So myth number one is that eating small meals throughout the day speeds up your metabolism. That's one that I see and hear all the time. You have to eat small meals through the day and, honestly, it does kind of sound logical at first. If I eat more often, my body will keep burning calories all day long, like throwing wood onto a fire. But here's the actual truth, in that your metabolism does not care how many meals you eat. It doesn't give a shit. If you eat three meals, two meals, ten meals, it doesn't matter. What matters is your total calorie intake, not the timing or the frequency of meals, but the number of calories you take in, how much gas you put in the tank. So whether you eat six small meals or two big meals, your body processes the same amount of calories. And just to prove that, a study that was published in the British Journal of Nutrition compared people who ate three meals a day versus people who ate six meals a day, and guess what? There was absolutely no difference in metabolism or fat loss. None, zero, zed, nada, niente, nunca, nothing Doesn't matter how many meals you eat in a day. How many times you eat, it just doesn't matter. It's you eat in a day, how many times you eat, it just doesn't matter. It's all about calories. So another study in obesity reviews I sound like I know these fucking magazines, but I Googled it found that meal frequency had zero effect on weight loss when calories were controlled. The only reason that eating small meals might help you is it keeps you from feeling hungry and prevents binge eating. But if you prefer to eat bigger meals three big meals, two big meals go right ahead. That's fine too. It all comes down to calories in versus calories burned Another myth that I hear and of course this is big, with the intermittent fasting nuts out there and anybody that's on a fad diet or one of these crazy things I'm going to call a nut.

Speaker 2: 12:24

But anyway, people think that skipping breakfast slows down your metabolism. And yes, the old breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Lecture, guess what it's not. Skipping breakfast does not slow your metabolism. Your metabolism is working all the time. And again, here's the science behind it. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found no zero metabolic difference between people who ate breakfast and the people who skipped it. Another study showed that intermittent fasting, which I just talked about, which involves skipping breakfast, also had zero effects on metabolism and, honestly, in some cases it actually helped people lose fat. So I'm going to do a podcast in a week or two about intermittent fasting. I'm going to rip the fucking shreds, but there are some benefits to it.

Speaker 2: 13:16

The third one is your metabolism slows down as you age, so you're doomed to get fat. God knows, I use this one all the time. Wow, I'm 59 years old. My metabolism. That's bullshit. The reality is, yes, your metabolism does slow down slightly as you get older, but not nearly as much as people think. Not nearly as much as the excuse that I used before. Yeah, I'm old, I'm 59. I'm almost 60. Now I'm almost 61, but that's beside the point. But your metabolism does slow down a tiny bit, but not as much as you think.

Speaker 2: 13:50

What really happens? If you want to know what really happens and why people feel their metabolism slow down, it's because you move less. Right. As you get older, you move less. You might exercise less guilty. You might have a desk job instead of an active lifestyle guilty. You might naturally lose some muscle mass which burns calories. Guilty, guilty, guilty. That's what happens when you get older. You have a job, whatever you're sitting at a desk, you're not as active as you once were. That's the problem. You're not burning as many calories. It has nothing to do, or very little to do, with your metabolism.

Speaker 2: 14:26

And here let me give you the science, because I don't want to hear people going crazy about I'm saying that your metabolism doesn't slow down. A 2021 study in science found that metabolism stays stable from ages 20 to 60. That basically means now I don't know it didn't say anything about after 60, but that basically means your metabolism is not the reason you're gaining weight, so get over it. So, now that we know burning calories is the key, burning more calories and you choose. What is it that you should be eating, what are the best calories for you to be eating? And, of course, this should not come as any surprise. It's nutrient-dense foods. So I'm going to talk a little bit in a minute about why eating you can eat junk food and still lose weight, as long as you burn more calories than you consume. Let me talk about why nutrient density is important, because it's the game changer, honestly, that most people always seem to ignore.

Speaker 2: 15:23

A nutrient-dense food is one that's packed with vitamins, minerals, fibers and a lot of other really good stuff into a relatively low amount of calories and those things. Yeah, I probably don't need to tell you this. But, of course, lean protein like chicken, fish, eggs and tofu if you like to eat that dog shit, I personally don't, although I've had it, it's not so bad. So, anyway, lean proteins like chicken, fish, eggs and tofu. Vegetables I know everybody tells you about, but listen to what I have to say in a minute. And fruits we all know that fruit is nature's candy, but it's actually good for you. By the way, if you ever hear one of those assholes on Instagram tell you that fruit is making you fat, run for the fucking hills, because that is truly a moron.

Speaker 2: 16:05

Then eat whole grains like quinoa, oats, brown rice I eat overnight oats every morning for breakfast. I just recently had some quinoa I was shit on quinoa, but actually the way Vicky makes it is pretty good. And eat healthy fats like nuts, seeds, avocados. Those foods are nutrient powerhouses and that means they give your body everything it needs to function without overloading you with like junk calories that make you feel like shit.

Speaker 2: 16:31

I was the king of junk food. I ate so much junk food. If it was a drive-thru I ate it. I loved donuts, I loved all that junk food, but it made me feel like shit. So when you eat those empty calories, that shit's loaded with fat and sugar. You see a lot of chips. I was never a big soda drinker but I loved sweet tea when I lived in North Carolina and those shitty foods just give you a ton of calories with almost no nutrition and that's why you feel hungry again fast with almost no nutrition and that's why you feel hungry again fast. Your energy crashes and your body actually struggles to function properly.

Speaker 2: 17:07

So I always say that you can eat whatever you want and lose weight. People say, oh, how is that possible? I can eat whatever I want and lose weight, because technically that's true. So if you eat 1,500 calories of, let's say, pizza and soda every day but your body burns 2000 calories, you're going to lose weight, period. It's scientific. There's no way around this. If you eat less calories than you burn, you're going to lose weight, but you're going to feel like shit because junk foods lack the protein, the fiber and nutrients that keep you full. You're going to be hungry all the time and that's going to lead you to binging and a lot of small bad choices. Your body needs nutrients to function. Bottom line Starving of vitamins and minerals slows down fat loss, it wrecks your energy, it makes you feel like shit. So you're going to lose muscle instead of fat because you got no protein in your body.

Speaker 2: 17:57

So All that to say yes, you can eat whatever you want, but you just have to be careful of how much of that thing you eat. So I'm not saying don't ever eat a donut or don't ever eat pizza. Yeah, by all means eat them, eat whatever you want, but just don't make your whole diet those things. I'm telling you. You can eat whatever you choose, as long as you're aware of making good choices, small, smart choices. So why are these nutrient-dense foods the better choice for weight loss? Well, it's pretty easy. They keep you full longer, which I talked about.

Speaker 2: 18:32

High-quality foods like I don't know, protein and fiber and healthy fats keep you satisfied. So you're not constantly thinking about your next meal. I was always thinking about what am I going to eat next? I'm going to eat this now, but in two hours I'm going to eat that. So, again, those proteins, the chicken, the fish, the beef they slow digestion and they keep your craving in check. The fiber expands in your stomach and keeps you feeling full and healthy fats.

Speaker 2: 18:55

Eating fat does not make you fat. Healthy fats take longer to digest and they provide long lasting energy. And if you compare the junk, where you'd be hungry again in an hour, there's zero substance to that junk food. Your body also burns more calorie digesting real food compared to junk. We talked about the thermic effect of food. Right, we talked about that earlier. Protein has the highest thermic effect of food and your body burns 20 to 30% of its calories digesting protein. So fiber also requires energy to break it down, so it keeps your metabolism revved up.

Speaker 2: 19:29

If we're going to use the car analogy, junk food digests fast and easy, meaning you burn almost no extra calories from eating it. Another thing about nutrient dense foods they prevent energy crashes and cravings. So like you ever eat a donut and you feel like starving an hour later, that's because refined carbs and sugar spike your blood sugar and then crash it hard. Nutrient-dense foods, on the other hand, stabilize your blood sugar, meaning you don't have the energy crashes, you have no cravings for more sugar and you have no irrational hunger that leads to small bad choices. Another thing they do they support muscle growth. So losing weight is great, but keeping muscle is even better, and junk food definitely won't help you with that. Protein and nutrients from real food help you maintain muscle while losing fat, and more muscle the more fat you burn. Muscle burns fat better than fat burns fat, so it's easier weight loss. So if you lose muscle when you're dieting which I was very careful about, I didn't want to lose muscle, so I did eat a lot of protein your metabolism will definitely slow down a little bit, making weight loss just a little bit harder in the long run.

Speaker 2: 20:38

So how do you get rid of junk food and increase your nutrient-dense food without hating life, because that's really important to me. I couldn't go on a diet where I had to deprive myself and do all these ridiculous changes. So the first thing I tell you is you got to add before you subtract. So instead of going cold turkey, just add some whole foods into your meals before you're cutting junk. It's pretty easy Keep the burger, but swap out the fries for a side salad. You're eating more nutrient-dense foods.

Speaker 2: 21:08

Still eat pizza, but add a little bit of lean protein on the side. I know that sounds crazy. But eat your pizza, but add some lean protein. You love ice cream? Great. Try some Greek yogurt. I have learned to love Greek yogurt with some fruit in it. It's delicious.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Easy thing on snacks I was a big snacker, but an easy thing is instead of chips, eat some nuts or some popcorn. Instead of candy you know what I'm going to say. Try some fruit with some dark chocolate Just as good and much better for you. Instead of soda, try flavored water flavored sparkling water, it's great. And make sure that you're prioritizing protein and fiber in every meal.

Speaker 2: 21:46

So what does that look like? Make sure that your plate includes some lean protein, some fiber and some healthy fats, because that's going to keep you full for longer. That's going to give you more food and less calories, and that's the whole idea of this thing is to eat more food but ingest less calories, and that's the whole idea of this thing is to eat more food but ingest less calories. So the easiest way to do that is, I think, the 80-20 rule. So don't look for perfect. Perfection is not possible and it's not sustainable. So just aim to make 80% of your foods nutrient dense and leave yourself 20% for that garbage, for that shitty food. Hey, if you can do better, that's even better. But if you live by the 80-20 rule, it's going to be easy for you to lose this weight so you can enjoy your favorite stuff without derailing your progress.

Speaker 2: 22:33

So, yeah, yes, I always say you can eat whatever you want, as long as you burn more calories than you ingest. And that's true. You can't obsess over the calories. I told you I never counted calories one time, never, not once. You know what to eat. Like I said just two minutes ago, eating some popcorn instead of eating some chips. You know that's better for you. And I'm not talking about that processed cheddar cheese shit that gets if it sticks. If it sticks to your fingers, you have to lick your fingers to clean and you're eating popcorn. It's a pretty good chance it's going to stick on the inside too. So don't eat that. But I'm just talking about eat some popcorn or nuts instead of chips or other garbage, because at the end of the day, the truth is that food is much better for you nutrient-dense food.

Speaker 2: 23:14

So it's not just about the weight loss. It's about yes, you want to see a smaller number on the scale, but it's about becoming the strongest and happiest version of yourself. I told you last week or two weeks ago in a podcast that I'm the happiest I've ever been. I'm in my happiest place, and that's not. It's partially because I weigh less, but it's really because I feel so much better. So here's the net. Net your metabolism is not broken, you don't need to eat six times a day, you don't need to eat breakfast if you're not hungry and you're not doomed to gain weight just because you're aging.

Speaker 2: 23:51

What really matters in all this and I've talked about this a thousand times and everybody out there is saying it is your total calorie intake. That's it. That's what matters. Yeah, get some regular movement in there and even exercise if that's your kind of thing. Not my thing, although, like I said, I do walk quite a bit and that is exercise.

Speaker 2: 24:07

In fact, I would go out on a limb and say that's the best exercise you can do is just moving around naturally and eat in a way that keeps you full and keeps you satisfied, because that's what leads to sustainable weight loss when you're satisfied, when you're not constantly feeling deprived, when you're not constantly worrying about oh my God, what am I eating. You know what to eat, what's nutrient dense, and you know what's garbage and ultra processed. So stop worrying about your meal timing, stop trying to figure out some metabolism hack and, of course, knock it off with these fucking stupid detox scams. They don't work. Just focus on eating smart and staying, as that's called, making small, smart choices. Now go out and eat whatever fits your goals and stop stressing over your fucking metabolism. You know what to do. Now go do it. So that kind of wraps it up on calories and what I think of calories in versus calories out and what I think about.

Speaker 2: 25:07

Well, like I said, I'm going to talk about intermittent fasting and some of those other crazy diets and why they're just complete bullshit. But in the meantime, you know you can get my book Shut Up and Choose on Amazon. It's a bestseller. We're an Amazon bestseller, which I'm pretty excited about. I'm pretty excited about I'm getting really close to a big announcement, which is my 1000th email of people telling me that it's great. I'm hoping it comes in this week and I'll read it to you next week. If not, I'll read it the week after. But you can get that on Amazon. Get that anytime you want.

Speaker 2: 25:34

I also have a brand new video course that's coming out, which I told you about. It's called the Effortless Weight Loss Academy. It's still in beta. I'm just waiting for some people to give me more feedback and find any bugs, stuff like that. As soon as that's ready to launch, I will certainly happily give you the URL for that. So that's it for today. That's all I have to say about calories, and hopefully you learned a little something. I know I did, because I had to research the shit out of it to learn about basal whatever the fuck that stuff's called. But the bottom line is eat less calories than you burn, period. It's easy to do. You know how to do it. It's built into your DNA. Now all you have to do is shut up and choose.

Speaker 1: 26:20

You've been listening to Shut Up and Choose shoes. You've been listening to shut up and choose. Jonathan's passion is to share his journey of shedding 130 pounds in less than a year without any of the usual gimmicks no diets, no pills. And we'll let you in on a little secret no fucking gym. And guess what you can do it too, jim. And guess what you can do it too. We hope you enjoyed the show. We had a fucking blast. If you did, make sure to like, rate and review. We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find Jonathan on Instagram at JonathanWrestlerBocaRaton. Until next time, shut up and choose.