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: 1:13

Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose the podcast that cuts to the noise and the nonsense and all the bullshit that the internet and Instagram and TikTok gurus are throwing your way, telling you how to lose weight when they haven't lost a fucking pound on their own. All a bunch of bullshit. The diet industry a bunch of bullshit, and today I'm going to talk about a topic that's going to make a lot of influencers, a lot of people in the fitness industry, a lot of people in general, just piss them off, and I'm looking forward to it. I promised I was going to do this episode, I think last week or the week before, I don't remember but today I want to talk about why the gym is a total fucking waste of your time if you're trying to lose weight, so, without any further ado, let's jump into it, right? So the gym is a myth that's wasting your time. Let me say it loud and clear in case you didn't hear it you don't have a gym problem. You have a food problem. One of the biggest lies sold by the fitness industry is this If you just go to the gym consistently, the weight will come off. That myth has kept millions of people broke, frustrated and overweight, all while buying protein powder and paying for monthly memberships they barely ever fucking use. I can't tell you how many gyms I've joined, went to once or twice, or for a week or two, and never went back, but I kept paying for a year or so. And let me just say this, don't get me wrong the gym is great. It improves your cardiovascular health, it builds muscle, it boosts your mental health and helps you feel strong and capable. If you're training for performance, longevity or sanity, I'm all for it, but if your primary goal is to lose fat, the gym is one of the least efficient tools you could be using.

Speaker 2: 2:56

And here's why Weight loss is mostly about energy balance. It's the calories you consume versus the calories you burn. A hard 45-minute workout might burn 300, 400, 500 calories max if you're lucky. And guess what? That's three bites of a muffin. That's one Starbucks drink, that's the difference between mayo and mustard on a sandwich. And what happens after your workout? You're starving, right. You overeat because hey, I've earned it. You tell yourself I crushed it today. I deserve that burger. You just undid your entire calorie deficit with a single choice. That's not a willpower issue, it's a flawed strategy issue, this obsession with using exercise as a hammer to fix your nutrition problem is like mopping the floor while the faucet's still running. It looks productive, you feel sweaty, but the room is still flooding. The diet industry loves this lie because it keeps you stuck in a cycle. Go to the gym, don't see results, blame yourself, buy another program, repeat, repeat, repeat. Here's the truth. Fat loss doesn't happen in the gym, it in the kitchen.

Speaker 2: 4:03

On your calendar and in the decisions you make at 8 pm when the fridge is calling your name. The gym isn't bad, but it's not your weight loss solution, and until you stop relying on it as one, you're going to keep spinning your wheels. I just want to set the record straight before going further. The gym is amazing for what it was built to do. It boosts your cardiovascular health, strengthens your muscles and improves bone density, enhances insulin sensitivity and yeah, it can even do wonders for your mental health. You walk out of a workout feeling sharper and clearer and more alive, and it builds something few people talk about enough, and that's discipline. I hate discipline, but it definitely builds discipline. Showing up consistently, especially when no one's watching, builds confidence. It proves to you that you can keep a promise, and in the world full of instant gratification, that's a powerful thing.

Speaker 2: 4:54

I'm not anti-gym, I'm just anti-lie, and the lie that we've been told is this If you want to lose weight, just exercise more. Well, I got bad news for you. Want to lose weight? Just exercise more. Well, I got bad news for you. That's not how this works. You can hit the gym every single day and still stay fat, not because you're lazy, not because you're broken, but because you're trying to solve an eating problem with an exercise solution, and that's a mismatch. Let's break that down for a second.

Speaker 2: 5:22

Look your body and I'm going to get a little technical here and I'll be honest, I had to Google some of this shit so I understood it but your body burns calories through a few key processes your basal metabolic rate. Those are the calories that your body needs to keep you alive, like breathing, thinking, circulating blood, all that shit. Then you have your non-exercise activity thermogenesis. I don't even know how to say that word. It's called NEAT, the small stuff walking around the house, fidgeting, doing chores. Then you have the thermic effect of food, which we've talked about before, which is basically what it takes to digest the food you're eating.

Speaker 2: 5:55

And then, of course, exercise the gym time, the runs, the spin class Exercise is the smallest part of that puzzle. It only accounts for about 5% to 10% of your daily calorie burn. Your basal metabolic rate and NEAT they do the heavy lifting. Neat drops like a rock when you're tired, overtrained or starving from too much exercise and not enough food. The gym simply doesn't burn enough to make up for consistent overeating. You cannot and will not ever outwork your fork, so let's say you crush a one-hour workout and burn 400 calories Great job. Now you grab a smoothie afterwards, that's 350 calories right back, or you get hungrier later and you snack more than usual.

Speaker 2: 6:39

The deficit disappears. That is what most people don't understand. Exercise makes you hungrier, more tired and more likely to compensate. It doesn't fix late night snacking, stress, eating, emotional binges, eating out of boredom or eating out of identity. You know the shit like? Oh, I always eat when I watch TV. It also doesn't fix the stories in your head about food, the stuff that lives between your ears, not between the squat rack.

Speaker 2: 7:04

Most people don't need a treadmill. They need to stop using food to self-soothe reward, to numb or to cope. They need to deal with the real triggers behind their choices, and no gym in the world can do that for you. So here's what happens instead. Someone goes to the gym four or five times a week, but they're still exhausted. They don't sleep enough. They don't eat to fuel. They eat to feel better. They spend five hours a week sweating, but zero hours fixing their food patterns. They see no results and they wonder what the fuck is wrong with me? And the truth is nothing's wrong with you. What's wrong is the model that you've been handed.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Now again, let's be clear that gym is not the enemy. It's a powerful tool for your health. Strength training improves longevity, it helps with aging, it improves insulin sensitivity and builds muscle mass. I mean it's amazing for your brain, but it's not for your weight loss. It's not a weight loss plan. If your goal is to lose fat, your strategy has to start in the kitchen and in your daily choices what you put in your mouth, how you manage your stress, how you sleep and how often you pause before automatic behavior. That's what drives fat loss. Working out while ignoring your eating habits is like putting premium fuel in a car that has a flat tire. I mean it might run a little longer, but it's not going very far. So, yes, of course, move your body, lift weights, walk, stretch. But don't let the gym become a distraction from what really needs fixing, because weight loss doesn't happen in the weight room. It happens when you stop letting food run the show.

Speaker 2: 8:34

So let's cut through the bullshit and get to the truth. Fat loss is not a gym thing. It's not even a workout thing. Fat loss is a math problem and, like any math problem, it doesn't care about your feelings, your motivation or your five-day-a-week gym streak. It cares about what you eat, when you eat and why you eat. You don't need a six-day-a-week gym schedule. You need a system that works in your real life, one that holds up on days when you're tired, when you're stressed and the fridge is calling your name.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Let me be blunt here. I lost over 140 pounds without any gym membership, no trainer, no burpees, no tracking macros, no secret supplement stack, just small, smart choices. I could repeat and repeat and repeat. That's what I talk about in my book, shut Up and Choose. And that's exactly how I coach people when I coach them one-on-one in a group on how to lose the weight. This isn't theory, it's real world weight loss that works for busy people. So let's break it down a little bit further.

Speaker 2: 9:34

You've been told that weight loss is all about movement. Just get 10,000 steps, just move more, just exercise harder. But let me hit you with some math. One pound of fat is 3,500 calories. A good workout, let's say it burns 3 to 500 calories if you're pushing really hard. So you need to crush like 7 to 10 killer workouts to maybe maybe lose a single pound. Meanwhile, three slices of pizza and a glass of wine you've eaten the pound right back and you did it in 20 minutes. This is the part that nobody likes to tell you.

Speaker 2: 10:07

Weight loss doesn't happen at the gym. It happens in the kitchen and on your calendar. The kitchen is where the choices are made and the calendar is where those choices get locked in or fall apart. If your week is pure chaos, a total shit show skipping meals, late night takeout, no prep, zero structure then it's not your workout that's failing you, it's your system. I tell clients that all the time you don't have a motivation issue, you have a calendar issue. If you don't plan ahead, then your food is always going to win, because food is fast, it's emotional and it's everywhere. You don't need willpower, you need a strategy. So what actually creates fat loss? Well, we all know this, it's eating fewer calories than your body needs over time. That's it. It's not sexy, but it works. It's choosing foods that keep you full without making you feel deprived. Yeah, I'm saying yes, you can eat the food that you love deprived. Yeah, I'm saying yes, you can eat the food that you love, minimizing those autopilot snacks and emotional eating that basically sabotage and totally fucking destroy your progress. And the fourth thing is learning the course correct fast. When you do things, when you make a mistake, when things go sideways, you don't need to starve and you don't need to suffer, but you do need to take ownership. The mistake most people make is trying to work off bad habits instead of replace them. They think a workout will undo a weekend binge. It won't. They think they can fix the scale by sweating more and you can't out sweat sabotage. So let me say this again Real fat loss is in the kitchen and on your calendar. That's where success lives. That's where change happens. That's where change happens. That's where your life starts to feel different, not just your pant size. You want to get leaner, eat smarter. You want to stay leaner, get organized.

Speaker 2: 11:57

I didn't lose 140 pounds by becoming a gym rat. In fact, I never went to the gym one time, as you know. If you've listened to my podcast at all, you know that I never, never, not once went to the gym. In my weight loss journey, I beeped the horn a few times when I drove by, but I never actually went inside. Actually, that's not true. Once I got a massage, but other than that I didn't go to the gym. But I lost about becoming someone who didn't let their schedule or stress control the food. I became someone who made a few good choices every day until those decisions added up, and now I help other people do the same thing.

Speaker 2: 12:32

So if you're tired of chasing workouts and still not seeing results, maybe it's time to stop chasing and start choosing it. Start looking at the real drivers of weight loss. Ask yourself what am I eating? Why am I eating it? Is my environment set up to make better choices easy? Is my schedule supporting my goals or sabotaging? Because if your kitchen is chaos and your week has no structure, you could have the best fucking trainer in the world and it still wouldn't matter. The truth is, the scale doesn't give a shit how hard you worked out, it only cares about what you chose to put into your body. So if you want to lose weight real, sustainable, no bullshit weight forget the gym grind. Start with your fork, start with your fridge, start with your calendar. When you're ready to actually change not just try harder, maybe pick up a copy of my book and check out my program.

Speaker 2: 13:23

So let's talk about something a little bit uncomfortable. The gym actually might be keeping you stuck, not physically stuck, but mentally stuck. See, most people use the gym as a guilt eraser. They eat like shit all weekend, feel terrible about it, then punish themselves with a sweaty Monday workout and call it even. That's not fitness. That's a cycle of shame, and I call it sweat washing, your bad decisions.

Speaker 2: 13:45

Let me say clearly going to the gym does not undo a weekend of overeating, and yet that's the mindset most people are in. I worked out today, I earned that treat, or even worse, I feel like shit about what I ate, so I need to burn it off. That's not health. That's emotional damage disguised as self-discipline. Here's the real kicker, right. Most people gain weight while going to the gym, not because exercise doesn't work, but because their mindset is broken. They eat the same, they drink the same, they binge on the same stress stacks at night, and then they wonder why the scale doesn't move, even though they're crushing it at the gym.

Speaker 2: 14:23

The gym basically becomes a hall pass for bad habits. It becomes a performance, not a transformation. Here's the toxic loop that keeps everybody stuck. You eat emotionally, you feel like shit. You go to the gym all of a sudden, now you feel good, you reward yourself with more food and you fucking do it again. It feels like you're doing something, it feels productive, but you're just running in circles, literally and figuratively.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Working out without changing your eating habits is like washing your car during a rainstorm. It's activity, sure, but it's not progress. Here's what most coaches won't tell you. The gym, honestly, is often just a distraction. It lets you avoid the real work, the food decisions, the routines, the mindset shifts. Why? Because it's easier to sweat than to sit with your choices. It's easier to log a workout than admit you eat to numb stress. It's easier to post a gym selfie than to track what's really going on in your body at 9 pm when the cravings hit. That's why the gym isn't saving you. It's actually stalling you. So you know.

Speaker 2: 15:26

I like to point out the problem and give you the solution. So what's the fix here? It's to shift your mindset. Stop using the gym to feel better about not doing the real work. Start focusing on the things that actually move the needle your food environment, your patterns, your consistency. The gym is fine, but if you're not willing to fix the fork, stop pretending the treadmill is your solution, because it's not.

Speaker 2: 15:49

Fat loss isn't about movement, it's about ownership. So I guess at this point I've dismantled the gym myth or I hope I have and the real question that you're probably asking is what should you do instead if you want to lose fat and actually keep it off? So I'm going to break that down for you no fluffs, no bullshit, no fad, just the real stuff that works, even if you're busy, stressed or sick. Starting over. Number one is walk daily. Yeah, walk. You don't need CrossFit, you don't need a spin class, you need your feet and a pair of shoes. Walking is the most underrated fat loss tool on the planet. Why? Because it's low stress, it doesn't spike your hunger, it burns fat, it clears your mind and it gives you momentum. You know what's better than that 60-minute hit class? You never actually do A 20-minute walk that you do every day. Walking doesn't drain your willpower, it doesn't wreck your joints and it doesn't come with a complicated schedule. You can walk when you're mad, when you're tired, when you're bored or when you're craving something you shouldn't eat. It's not sexy, but it works and it stacks. You do it daily and suddenly you're not just moving more, you're proving to yourself that you can follow through.

Speaker 2: 16:59

Second thing is fix your food narrative. It's simple. You're not just eating calories, you're reinforcing beliefs. What do you eat? When do you eat? What are you really trying to fix with that snack? Until you get honest about those answers, you'll keep repeating that same loop that overeat, feel guilty, restrict, binge, repeat it's just the way it is. So start with the story that you're actually telling yourself. If you're constantly saying I'm just an emotional eater, I have no self-control at night, you're programming yourself to keep being that person. Believe me, I know, I did it for 59 years. So change the language you talk to yourself in. Instead, say something like I'm learning to eat in alignment with my goals, or I'm the kind of person who stops when I'm satisfied. You don't need a new diet here. You need a new script.

Speaker 2: 17:45

The third thing I want you to do is build habits at scale. I promise you this game is not intensity, it's consistency. You don't win this battle by doing more. You win this by doing what you can on your worst day. So ask yourself what are the habits I can do when everything fucking sucks? Here's like your baseline Hydration. I mean drink water every day, no exception, more water than you think you need. There's all kinds of numbers out there. I say just drink more water than you want to. Second thing is sleep. Guard it like your life depends on it, because the truth is it kind of does.

Speaker 2: 18:24

You got to change your self talk. Start noticing your internal dialogue. You can't change your body with the same voice that broke it. I promise you that If you're telling yourself that you're an emotional leader, that you can't do this, then you're right. You can't. You're an emotional leader and you can't Change the script. Change the self-talk and then set some boundaries. So say no to people and places and situations that constantly derail you. You don't owe anybody your progress.

Speaker 2: 18:50

When you build habits that fit inside of real life, even your most stressful, exhausted, emotionally shit days, you finally stop falling off, because there's nothing to fall off from, it's just life and your plan still works. And, of course, as I tell you all the time, learn to bounce back fast. This is the part that no one really teaches you. Everyone's obsessed with motivation and discipline and getting started, but the truth everyone messes up, everyone fucks up. It, just it happens.

Speaker 2: 19:14

What separates the people who lose weight and keep it up from the ones who stay stuck isn't perfection, it's recovery. The bounce back muscle is the most important muscle in weight loss. Make a bad choice. Cool, big deal, own it, don't spiral. Your next move Drink some water, take a walk and make the next meal better. That's it. No punishment. No, all or nothing. No, I'll start Monday. Just bounce back fast. The faster you bounce back, the less damage that gets done. Eventually, bouncing back becomes your second nature. You don't need to stay perfect, you just need to stay in motion. So here, don't, don't, don't, do this. Don't spend 90 minutes at the gym and call it winning if you're still binging at night. Don't tell yourself one bite won't hurt if you're saying that like 12 times a day. Don't wait for the perfect time to start, because here's the bad news there isn't one, so do this instead.

Speaker 2: 20:06

Walk every day whatever that is An extra hundred steps. Park further away in the parking lot, whatever. Get more walking in every day. Fix your internal script. Build habits that will survive even your worst, your shit days, and then master the bounce back muscle. That's how I lost 140 pounds without a single gym membership, without starving myself and without giving up the foods that I love. I ate donuts. I ate Costco hot dogs. I ate all this shit that everyone would tell you is terrible for you, and I still lost 140 pounds in just a little bit over a year.

Speaker 2: 20:37

So you don't need to suffer your way to success. You need to learn to choose differently, one small, smart choice at a time. So, if we're going to strip it down to just the truth, you don't need to crush yourself in the gym to lose weight. You don't need a personal trainer screaming at you. You don't need 5 am workouts. You don't need to earn your food or burn off your weekend. What you do need small, smart choices, repeated relentlessly, because fat loss isn't a punishment game. It's a pattern game. You didn't gain the weight because you skipped the gym. You gained it because of repeated food choices, unmanaged stress, late night snacking and the stories you told yourself while you were doing it. That's not judgment, that's just reality. So here's the real shift Let the gym be a bonus, but definitely not the strategy. Use it to feel better, to sleep better, to boost your mood, to improve your heart health, but stop pretending it's a fix for fat loss, because it's not.

Speaker 2: 21:39

If your goal is weight loss, you need to focus on your plate what, when and why you eat, your patterns, the habits that run on autopilot when no one's watching, and your bounce back, how quickly you reset after fucking up. You want results. That's where they live under the squat rack. And listen, I'm not anti-gym, I'm just anti-bullshit. I'm against wasting time, energy and hope on something that won't move the needle if you haven't fixed the foundation.

Speaker 2: 22:03

I've worked with high performers, executives, parents, entrepreneurs, the busy people on the planet. I've watched them lose 20, 50, 100, more than 100 pounds without ever going to the gym, without one single gym session. Why? Because they finally focused on the right things. They stopped using the gym as a guilt eraser, they stopped chasing burn and started chasing better choices, and they stopped starting over every Monday and started mastering the middle. That's what changes everything.

Speaker 2: 22:34

So, if you're tired of spinning your wheels, if you've done feeling like a failure every time the gym doesn't fix your weight, if you're ready to stop relying on punishment and start using power, then good, you're finally free to stop doing what doesn't work, which is the gym, and start doing what does, because this isn't about being perfect. It's about being honest and then choosing differently. One choice at a time, one bounce back at a time. Let the gym serve your health, let your choices drive your weight loss. You don't need a six-pack. You need a plan that works on your worst day. And this that's the plan. That's how you get it done, and that's what I have to say about the gym. I'm sure there are gonna be all kinds of fitness gurus listening to this thing and tell me how wrong I am, but the reality is they all know it's the fucking truth.

Speaker 1: 23:21

You're not losing weight in the gym.

Speaker 2: 23:23

It's great for other things, but that's not where weight loss is happening. So if you wanna read more about my 140 pound weight loss journey, you can get my book on Amazon. It's called Shut Up and Choose. We're an Amazon bestseller. People love it. You can read it in a couple hours. It's changed a lot of lives. It's one of the things I'm most proud of.

Speaker 2: 23:40

I also have a video course. It's called the Effortless Weight Loss Academy. If you're more of a visual learner, it dives deep into the mindset and what it takes to lose weight. You can get that at learnshutupandchoosecom. That's learnshutupandchoosecom. I also offer group and one-on-one coaching. I got a bunch of stuff. But anyway, if you're a high achiever, if you're like lazy sack of shit, I'm not really that interested in working. But if you're a high achiever, if you really want to lose weight, you want to do it once, you want to do it the last time, you want to do it permanently, then send me a DM on Instagram. Go to my website, JonathanWrestlercom. You can learn all about my philosophy. You can see before and after pictures.

Speaker 2: 24:19

You'll pretty much learn everything you need to learn at that site. If you're interested, reach out. If not, stay fat. That's all up to you. Bottom line is all this talk about the gym being a waste of time. I know it's going to piss people off, but people don't like to hear the truth. The diet industry is built on scammers and scams. So the reality is you hold the power. You have the choice. You have the power to lose the weight, to burn the fat and to really change your life. The only thing left now to do is to shut up and choose.

Speaker 1: 24:47

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. 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 jonathan wrestler boca raton. Until next time, shut up and choose.