The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

204. Phases, Fat Loss, Mindset, and More: Answering YOUR Biggest Questions

• Kristy Castillo

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For this episode, I’m digging DEEPER into the conversations we’ve recently had around nutrition phases, mindset, and the bigger picture of structuring your year with intention. 


I want to break your questions down here, so you can apply these strategies to YOUR real life!


We’re covering everything from how to set up your phases, how your workouts should shift for a cut, build, or maintenance, and how to plan for upcoming vacations.


We’re also diving into why you can stay motivated without falling for every shiny “quick fix” that pops up in your feed, calorie adjustments, how to know when it’s time to move from a deficit to maintenance, and more.


This work doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to do everything “perfectly”, or live in a constant state of “cutting” to make progress. 


The most powerful thing you can do is stay consistent, give yourself grace, and trust that your body can and WILL respond over time!


Episode recap:

  • How to align your year-long nutrition and fitness phases with YOUR life & goals
  • What changes (and what stays the same) in your workouts across each phase
  • Simple ways to track your phases with a planner, calendar, or sheet
  • How to approach vacations without stressing over your current phase
  • Why weekly calories matter more than obsessing over daily numbers
  • A peek into my daily schedule + why it’s never “perfect”
  • Why living in a constant cut is a recipe for burnout
  • How to phase if you still have significant fat loss goals
  • What calorie adjustments should really look like week-to-week
  • Navigating nutrition when fresh food isn’t always available
  • Staying motivated long-term without falling for quick fixes
  • What to focus on in the gym during a cut
  • My take on daily step goals + what actually counts
  • How to know if it’s time to reverse to maintenance, even when you’re not at your “goal” yet
  • Why maintenance levels shift over time + how to embrace those changes


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take you from feeling stuck to feeling sexy. Let's go, hey guys, what's up?

Speaker 2:

Welcome to today's episode. I am excited to chat with you In this episode. I'm just going to be answering questions today that I have gotten from the last two episodes and so I got a lot of questions. They're pretty in detail, kind of specific to, obviously, each person that asked. It's specific to their situation usually, and so I'm excited because I think this will really help to narrow things down. And I got a lot of questions, a lot. Yeah, I got a lot of the questions more than once, so I think this will be very, very helpful for you.

Speaker 2:

So two episodes ago in 202, I talked about the year-long nutritional fuses, how I break that up and what that looks like for myself, a lot of my clients, and how that works. So that came with a lot of questions and that's when I thought, okay, I need to do a Q&A for sure. But then last week's episode 203 was talking about the mindset kind of how to approach workouts, what that's going to look like, what things are going to feel like, how you should shift from thinking about surplus into maintenance, into deficit, what that looks like, what that feels like, because I feel like that's not talked about a lot and it's hard to put yourself into these phases For one. It's hard to put yourself into these phases For two. Secondly, it's hard to experience things that come along with that not knowing how should I approach this and what should I be thinking about? What should I be planning for? What should all of this look like? What should I be expecting? So I think expectations are really important, and so last week's episode was a lot about that, and so I went into Spotify and gathered questions, and then I asked on my Instagram stories for questions, and so I went into Spotify and gathered questions, and then I asked on my Instagram stories for questions, and so I have a lot of questions. They're very, very good, but I want to dive right in because they are specific and I think they. I did get a lot of the questions more than once, and so I want to definitely dive in and I'm really, really excited. So I hope the last two episodes were helpful.

Speaker 2:

I hope this episode is just as helpful, and I think it's going to be, because we're all in different spots, right? If I'm, you know, maybe at my goal weight now and I'm going into a maintenance and then a reverse in this season, maybe you have weight to lose. And so you're like do I still do these phases exactly as they are? Do I lose weight first? What do the workouts look like? So a lot of questions that I want to dive into, and I'm super excited because I think this will help you to make it even more applicable to your own life, which is obviously the whole freaking point. So let's dive in. These are completely random. I just copied and pasted from anywhere that I got a question and wrote down some little notes that I kind of wanted to touch on. So hopefully I can get to them all, and hopefully I can get to them all in a way that is extremely helpful. So let's dive in, okay. So first question Well, before we dive in, actually, let's talk about the purpose of the year long plan, just to kind of remind you and get you in the right mindset of what we're kind of talking about.

Speaker 2:

So when you approach this plan, when you approach this kind of year-long strategy or any kind of strategy, let's say, maybe, right now you're not going to go into a maintenance phase, you're going to stay in cut phase for a while. That's fine, all of this is fine, right? The purpose is to change the look of your body, not just to lose fat, not just to gain muscle, not just to lose weight and be smaller and skinny. It's to change the overall look of your body. It's going to take time. It's to enjoy life. It's to have a plan. It's to feel more in control. There's a purpose for this whole plan. There's a purpose for the whole year. It makes everything that you're doing seem intentional, and that's the point.

Speaker 2:

The point is to change your body, and we need each one of these phases to be intentional. Otherwise you're like I've just been dieting all year and nothing's happening, and then, when I'm not dieting, I'm eating too much and you just feel like you're all over the place and that cycle continues. So that's the point of this. You can make changes to this plan. These phases, the timing of them, everything can be molded to your situation. It can be changed to fit your purpose, whatever that is. If you have vacations, if there's holidays at different times, if you're in summer and I'm in fall, different times of the year for people, whatever the season is, it can be different. So I want you to make sure that you do make this something that works for you.

Speaker 2:

For example, usually my phases look very strict this year. My goal was overall health for my body, with my blood pressure and my heart rate and all that kind of stuff. So I wasn't able to stick to the phases exactly how I would normally like ideally plan them out, but that's okay. My purpose changed. My purpose was health and having a healthy heart and figuring out how to maneuver and still stick to my workouts, my training, my lifting, my walks, everything that I wanted to do. How to maneuver that into making myself healthier and making my heart healthier instead of just building, building, building muscle, right. So make sure that you keep that in mind.

Speaker 2:

Everything that I'm saying needs to be, in fact, molded to your life. It needs to be changed and adjusted to fit your life. Otherwise it's not going to work because we don't live the same lives. So that's the purpose Now, keeping that in mind when I talk about all these things, okay? So first question how do the workouts change during these phases? And I'm going to read these questions basically exactly how they were written into me, so bear with me. How do these workouts change? Or how do the workouts change during these phases? What does your cardio look like in each and how do your rep ranges change or stay the same. Example how to mix running and lifting together, like wanting to be outside in the summer, running, but still training enough. So makes sense, right? We're like now I want to be outside running and in the winter I don't. So how do the workouts change?

Speaker 2:

So for a surplus and a build phase, you want to do minimal cardio. That makes the most sense because your goal will be to build muscle. You're eating in a surplus and you're building muscle, so your goal is to spend all those extra calories. You want to build muscle with those calories and make them really count. The reps you want to focus on progressive overload. So, in a surplus phase, minimal cardio and you want to be working on progressive overload. The plan in surplus build phase is to build muscle. So you want to be trying to make your muscles work harder as often as you can and you want all of your calories to go toward muscle building.

Speaker 2:

Maintenance and deficit can be similar as far as workouts. So maintenance, this should be your normal. Maintenance should be what you can maintain, even physically, what you can maintain for workouts, what feels not easy but what feels very, very doable. So you don't want to be adding in a shit ton of cardio. You don't want to be doing too much. You want to be doing like what can you do on a basic day, right? Not like a that was a perfect day, I had every, all the stars aligned for me, but not like, oh, that was a shitty day and I got nothing done. What is a normal day for you look like and what can you fit into a normal day on a normal week?

Speaker 2:

No-transcript 15 reps and use a medium weight. Use a weight that feels difficult to get those 10 to 15 reps up. Deficit and cut is similar. You want to keep your workouts pretty much the same as maintenance, because you don't want to change your workouts a lot. Workouts should kind of look the same. The reps can change, the goal can change right, like I just said, but you want to kind of keep them same. And then you just want to add in some cardio to boost fat loss and speed up the process. That way, if you're keeping the workouts the same, your muscles are working just as hard. You don't want to drop down to like 20 reps, anything like that. Keep it between the eight or 10 to 15 rep range and then just add in some cardio, add in some sprinting, add in some rowing, things like that. The goal is to keep workouts training and weightlifting workouts pretty much the same. The workout training sessions, strength training sessions and all of these can be pretty much the same as far as movements, exercises, progressive overload and build and surplus and then maintenance deficit cut back to 10 to 15 reps, a little bit lighter weight and then, for a cut deficit, add in some cardio. You can also, you know, steps, things like that can be added. The goal of cardio and steps, you know, more movement in a deficit cut phase is just to increase the calorie burn, because fat loss happens when you are in a calorie deficit.

Speaker 2:

All right, next question I would like to know how you set this up. Do you use an Excel sheet with a calendar that lays out nutrition and workout phases? So this for me right now, personally, I mean it says like I would like to know how you set this up For me personally, I don't do that anymore Because it's so automatic For me. I've been doing this for so long that it's just automatic. I know what. I know we're coming up on September and I know that I am going to be switching gears Like it just happens automatically for me, but yes, I used to write it out on a calendar. I'm more of a I think it's the hairdresser in me where I had a calendar always in front of me and I like to see things kind of spread out and written out. So if you're an Excel person, go ahead and do it in Excel, but I like to see everything in a planner. So, yeah, I would go through my calendar and just kind of write you know, this is the last two weeks of August or a little bit of a reset, and this is my goal and this is what I'm going to do. September hits and I'm going to increase my calories and this is how my workouts are going to change up. I already have everything planned out for myself as far as workouts that I'm going to be doing. I actually started them this week and I am because I'm a little bit ahead of my Fit Clubbers, so that I can obviously do the workouts and make tweaks and then roll them out to my Fit Club, but they do essentially the same thing that I'm doing, just like a week behind. So I'm doing different my reset workouts right now, but I will be increasing weight before my Fit Clubbers will. So, yeah, I have it all written out.

Speaker 2:

So if you like to have things written down, I definitely recommend that you do that. I would recommend brainstorming it out on just a piece of paper or you know, kind of doing a rough draft, just like anything else that you're building. Kind of get your thoughts out, write down you know your cut phase, your build phase, your maintenance phase. Get it all like just on paper and then get yourself a calendar and kind of get your thoughts out, write down, you know your cut phase, your build phase, your maintenance phase. Get it all like just on paper, and then get yourself a calendar and kind of write it all out and these are the weeks and this is what it looks like, and then you're going to fuck it up and you'll have to change. So do it in pencil.

Speaker 2:

But, yeah, definitely, definitely plan it all out. Absolutely, that's what I do for my Fit Clubbers inside of the app. I mean, it's all there for them. So I'm answering questions right now on the app, like I'm ready to, you know, reverse and I don't know what my macros should look like. So I'm answering questions inside of the chat in there. I am, of course, planning workouts for them, so they don't have to think about their workouts at all. I'm doing a lot of one-on-one calls right now where you know they're like I don't, can we chat about my macros, can we chat about what this is going to look like for the next few months? So we jump on a one on one call inside the app and plan it all out. So I can, you know, definitely explain all of that. So, yeah, I definitely do that for myself. I have it all planned out for the year on on a planner. I have so many planners. I have one planner for workouts, I have one planner for work, I have one planner for podcasts, topics. So definitely a planner, a written planner type of a person, all right.

Speaker 2:

So this one is dig into specifics when you have a trip in the middle of a phase and how to work up to the trip and then come back. So I'm going to answer this very simply. I used to really stress out about this and, kind of, you know, think, oh, no, life is going to end if I go on this trip and if I kind of screw up my deficit, and I'm not going to be in a deficit If I'm in a cut phase and I go on vacation and it's going to, you know, ruin everything. Truth is, it's not going to ruin literally anything. So I'm just going to say this very bluntly I don't do anything to prepare physically for a trip in the middle of a phase. I don't care what phase I'm in, I'm gonna go on a trip.

Speaker 2:

It's a very short period of time. I mean, what is a trip or vacation? Is what? A week? A week out of the whole year? Or a week, one week out of my 12 week deficit, or a 12 week cut, or a 12 week surplus, whatever it is, it's nothing. It's basically nothing in the grand scheme of things. So that week just doesn't really count in my mind at this point.

Speaker 2:

I know that's probably hard for some of you to hear because you're like what? That's crazy. I can't imagine not caring or adjusting my life to vacation. But it's true. Trust me that you can go on your trip and have a good time. Of course, be cautious, you know, move a lot. Of course, prioritize protein, stay under in carbs when you can. You know all the things that I teach. But in reality it's just a very small window of time. So physically I just act like it doesn't exist and I will just get home. I will get back to my work. I'll just add on if I'm doing a 12-week cut, let's say I will just take that week out and act like it really didn't happen and get back to work when I get home. So it's going to be like a 13-week technically cut. And that's exactly what I do for my clients too. If they're going on a trip, I'm like, cool, well, I'll just take workouts off for that week, you go, have a good time and I'll move them out a week further and we'll just get back on plan and not stress about it because it's fine, it doesn't matter, your body is going to adjust.

Speaker 2:

What I do prepare for is how I'm going to feel. I might feel like shit. I might feel bloated, I might feel like crap. I might feel like the scale is going to go up. I might feel like I failed. I might feel weaker, I might feel more tired. I can as it can, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. So if you have a trip coming up in the middle of one of your phases because I hope that you do, because life needs to happen go on the trip and don't plan for it as far as sticking to your phases, because unless you are going to compete in a bodybuilding contest or a strength contest or like you know, you're being judged on something like it doesn't matter. This is, it's not that big of a deal. So that's my honest answer on that Love it or hate it.

Speaker 2:

Next question Do you manage your weeks? Oh sorry, do you manage your week's calories versus daily calories, for example, if I get more on the weekends versus the week because of plans, etc. So I do manage and judge my calories weekly, for example, if I get more on the weekends versus the week because of plans, etc. So I do manage and judge my calories weekly. Daily I do get pretty close, but my weekly average will always matter most. I've been having this conversation quite a bit.

Speaker 2:

It feels like a lot of people have never heard me say that before. I'm getting a lot of messages like I never thought to do the weekly average and I've said that before in podcasts. I'm like go back and listen. Thought to do the weekly average and I've said that before in podcasts. I'm like go back and listen. This does not even have to be Monday through Sunday. This can be. You can do Wednesday through Wednesday. You can take a seven-day average, 14-day average, whatever it is, and that's what's most important. So if you mess up on a Sunday and you feel like you just messed up your whole week because that's what we do, right, when we start a diet and we're like, oh, I'm gonna do X, y and Z, I'm gonna cut out this, this and this, and then you mess up and you think I totally failed, I suck, I have to start over. You don't Just average it out for the week. It's not a big deal.

Speaker 2:

So summer I don't really track because I'm maintaining and living life. It is what it is. That's the whole point, right, but now I will track. Yes, so I will track everything I will do. I do personally do Monday through Sunday for my calories. I'll add them up and then look at my weight, you know, and make sure it's staying the same or where I want it, and look at my weight, you know, and make sure it's staying the same or where I want it, and that's it.

Speaker 2:

I do track daily. I do look at daily and think, oh, really stuck today or I did a great job today. I, you know, I have those thoughts. But then overall. I mean, what's going to be the driving factor? One day is not going to fuck up anything. One week, like I just said, going into a trip is not going to fuck up anything.

Speaker 2:

So just take your weekly average, because a lot of people will think too, like, oh my God, I had such a terrible week. We went out to eat this day and we had a party this day. But if you add it all up and you track it like you track it, you add it all up, you add up seven days, you divide it by seven. Most of the time my clients are like, oh, actually wasn't that bad. Yeah, exactly. So you're throwing away a whole week's worth of work, thinking that you failed or sucked or can't do this, and in reality it's. You did fine. So that weekly average is such a game changer and it really takes the pressure off of each day because your body doesn't know what day it is, your body doesn't know what time it is, your body doesn't know what the goal is. Your body is simply intaking the food you give it and it's outputting the energy. That you are putting it through the workouts, that you're putting it through the movement. It's outputting energy, it's expending energy and that's all it knows. So the more consistent you can be, the better, but definitely add up those days and take that average. It's very helpful.

Speaker 2:

Next question what does your daily schedule look like? I love this question and also hate it, because it's such a mess and I don't want anyone to ever emulate me because it's such a mess. My days are just crazy, and I don't mean crazy as in like crazy busy or crazy stressful. They are, yes, but it's just different because I work from home. I work well. I'm at my office now I have an office. I also work from home. I'm obviously on my own business, and so I'm doing all the things and I'm also momming in there and it's a lot. I'm not going to a nine to five. So I realized that it looks different, but I think it looks like a mess. It seems like a mess to me just because it's not.

Speaker 2:

I don't get up at the same time every single day. I don't work the same time every single day, so for me it feels like a mess. So I wrote down, literally I wrote down it's a mess, but I'm so habitual that everything will get done. But I know that I need enough flexibility. I know that I need less structure with certain things, because you know days can fall apart, workouts can fall apart, kids things fall apart, work things fall apart, calls get rescheduled, things like that. Like a lot of things come up and I know that I need to be as habitual as I can. So my days are flexible enough that I can get up and start work right away, or I can get up and get my workout in right away.

Speaker 2:

My ideal daily schedule would look like getting up, getting my workout in, showering, eating and getting ready for the day physically, get a little makeup on, brush my hair, put my little dry shampoo in, get on a cute little outfit or comfy outfit and getting right to work, and then in the evening I'd be going for a walk and eating dinner. I'm eating all day. Honestly, I'm trying to move as much as I can Walking pad, going for walks. If I'm on a call and I'm not at my desk, I'm trying to get steps in, but my daily schedule's a mess. So I think it's important to know if you need structure, if you need or if you need more flexibility, depending on your personality type. Know what you need and don't try to make your schedule look like anyone else's.

Speaker 2:

I spent so many times so much time, I should say trying to come up with the perfect morning routine and perfect night routine based on what other people were doing, and that never worked for me. So I know I need flexibility. What I will say is I am going to soon. I keep thinking. I need to make a little checklist on my phone, on my notes section, and then of just things I'd like to get done. I want to gua sha. I want to work on my lymphatic drainage. I have supplements that I like to take Obviously, certain days I need, you know, my workouts.

Speaker 2:

I want to stretch more. I want to do my castor oil packs Like I need to have a daily checklist of kind of things to do. I want to do my castor oil packs Like I need to have a daily checklist of kind of things to do. I want to do, like these collagen masks that I've been doing. So I need to kind of just, yeah, write it all down and then figure out which days to do what and kind of structure my days. Like that but not every day is going to look the same. On my non-workout days, I can spend more time walking or on my skincare or stretching. So I think having a master list of what you want to do, what your goals are, what aligns, and then fitting that into your day is ideal.

Speaker 2:

Next question I feel like I always need to be in a cut. I'm afraid to go into a build season because I am not perfect with my macros yet I feel like this is a lot of people. My weight has stayed the same for months now and I still want to lose a few pounds. If your weight has stayed the same. First question if your weight has stayed the same, has your body fat or your muscle mass moved? Because you could be losing body fat and gaining muscle and your overall number on the scale, your overall weight, could be staying the same. So it doesn't mean you're plateaued or stuck. If your weight is staying the same, if you're doing the right things, you're making progress. Still, just because your weight isn't moving doesn't mean you're not making progress or not losing fat. Even you could be. So you should not always be in a cut.

Speaker 2:

If you feel like you always need to be in a cut, that's a mindset issue of that's probably just how you grew up, that's what you saw emulated, that's what you hear or that's what you just think is I need to be smaller, I need to be eating less, and that's not true. Your body needs food to be able to function and I think I answered this a little bit later too, with a different question. But you do need to only be in a cut a true cut If you're tracking everything calories in, calories out a true cut. A lot of us think we're in a deficit and we're not. So if you're in a true cut, you should only be in a cut for 12 weeks. If you're in a cut for more than 12 weeks, your body is going to adjust. It's going to bring your metabolism down and that's not going to be good. You will be stuck and you will have pounds to lose and you will always have pounds to lose because your body will adjust and you'll have to eat less, and your body will then adjust again and you'll have to eat less, and that's not good. So going into a maintenance phase is really, really important. So don't be afraid to increase your calories. Just increase them 50 calories at a time per day rate and move that up. If you don't feel comfortable with that, I highly recommend working with someone a trainer, personal trainer, a nutritionist, whatever you want to work with, whoever you want to work with, that you trust to be able to help you with this because it will truly change your life.

Speaker 2:

Next question how to phase for fat loss if you're not where you want to be yet. Kind of along the same lines, I got this a lot If you're not where you want to be yet, or if you have more fat to lose, if you have a significant amount to lose, fat to lose, would you still follow the phases and guidelines in the same way? Yes, I would. Because well, if you're wanting body recomp, if you have a significant amount of weight or fat to lose, I would still do the phases in the same way, except, instead of being in a surplus, instead of building muscle, I would stay in a maintenance phase even longer. So rotate between a deficit for 12 weeks, maintenance phase for 12 weeks, deficit for 12 weeks, maintenance phase for 12 weeks. I wouldn't go into a surplus. You're not trying to gain muscle necessarily, unless you want to, but time those 12-week phases maintenance deficit, maintenance deficit to where it goes along with the holidays and things like that. But yeah, if you have a significant amount of weight and fat to lose. I would suggest skipping the surplus build phase.

Speaker 2:

Next question when you say add or subtract calories a week, you mean daily, right? So go from 1,700 to 1,750 daily for the week, not spread throughout the week. Yes, I got this a couple times too. So what I'm saying increase your calories by 50 calories per week. I'm not saying just 50 calories for that entire week. That that's crazy. I'm saying go from, yes, 1700 calories a day to 1750 calories per day for that whole week. See what the scale does, see how you feel. If you're happy there, stay there for another week. Then after that you'll go from 1750 to 1800 calories per day for another week and then another week, and so on and so forth. So, yes per day.

Speaker 2:

How to navigate being a picky eater with your year long nutrition? So this is a little tricky for me. I am such a go with the flow type of person when it comes to food, so I'm sorry if I kind of suck at these questions, but definitely and I know what you mean by like eat fresh, I understand like the prices of fresh, you know fresh fruit and veggies, obviously based on when they're in season. So I totally get that. I'm in Michigan. So I have a definite summer phase, I have a definite winter phase, and certain things aren't available or they're just gross, they're not as fresh and not as good, or they're more expensive. So eat fresh food when it's available and cheaper, meaning fruits and veggies. Find foods that you also love in the other seasons, right.

Speaker 2:

For me, it's like I'm not going to be able to have as much fruit in the winter, obviously in Michigan. So also having a reds and greens powder might be necessary when fresh fruit and veggies are not in season. But I mean you're still going to need to get those antioxidants in, you're still going to need to get those vitamins in. So do that any way that you can. Obviously you can buy frozen bagged spinach and frozen bagged fruits, and that might just have to suffice in your yogurt bowls or whatever for the know for the time being. But you're we're just going to have to mold to what it is Like I'm having fresh blueberries right now in my overnight oats and then in the winter I'll have frozen blueberries in my oats overnight. So it kind of just is what it is. I I understand, you know the question there, but I think it. It just it sucks. I mean we're going to have to go into soups in the winter and we're going to have to get our veggies that way. So just find things that are cheaper, find stores that are cheaper, find better options, but I think just having foods that you look forward to having in those different seasons will help with that as well.

Speaker 2:

Next question how to stay motivated and how to not give into the quick fixes. I'm going to answer this in the sense of how to stay motivated, obviously, because I'm doing this in reference to these phases that I'm talking about. So how to stay motivated with this year long phase and how to not give into quick fixes with this year long, these year long phases that I'm talking about. For me this is really easy because if you and this may not be easy for you and sorry, not sorry, but how to stay motivated the reason that I planned my phases this way is so that I do stay motivated. This keeps me motivated because I'm in a cut phase for a while and then, as soon as I'm like I am so over this freaking cut phase, I'm moving into maintenance and then, as soon as I'm over that, I'm like I am ready to build some muscle. It's time to build muscle, so these phases, broken up this way, should keep you motivated.

Speaker 2:

Remember, though, that motivation is not a feeling, it's a decision. You wake up and you can say, god, this is going to suck, I hate this, this is so boring. Or you say I'm going to kick some ass today, I feel motivated. Whether I feel motivated or not, I feel motivated to do this, and this is the right choice. Choice, and this is why and you have to remind yourself. So how to stay motivated? You just fucking have to do it. There's no way to do that. You have to just commit to it. You have to commit to it. You have to be this. You're not always going to be motivated, so it's hard to even answer that Like how to stay motivated. You're not going to stay motivated, so you have to motivate yourself. How to not give in to the quick fixes? I've never really thought of it like this before, but this popped in my head when I was really answering this, because I was probably Feeling a little spicy.

Speaker 2:

Know that you deserve better than that shit if you come across a quick fix and you think, wow, this would be really easy. I could just take this supplement, I could drop all this weight. You deserve better than that, because it's a quick fix. If you know it's a quick fix and you know it's going to work for you for the time being and then it's not going to work for you, you're going to feel like shit. It's a waste of money. You're better than that. You are better than putting chemicals in your body. You are better than taking something that you don't need. You're better than buying products from someone who's not licensed to sell them for you. So commit to the process because you deserve it. Know that you deserve better than to put shit in your body that doesn't serve you. And you deserve better than a quick fix. You deserve to know what's going on, enjoy your life, have knowledge, go through these phases and just really be a badass. So yay, love that, love that answer. You're just not going to always stay motivated. You're just not, so you just have to do the shit regardless. All right. Next question We've got a couple more and I feel like I am running out of time. Oh shit, here we go. All right.

Speaker 2:

When going into a cut phase, should you continue progressive overloading or is it more about maintaining your strength in the gym? Same with maintenance Should you or can you progressive overload all the time, or should it be more focused on a growth phase? So should progressive overload be more focused on in a growth phase? I touched on this a little bit earlier. I personally do, and I also recommend focusing on maintaining strength and muscle mass. In a cut phase. You always want to maintain. You're always going to lose. If you're in a deficit, you're always going to lose fat and you're going to lose a little bit of muscle along with that.

Speaker 2:

So when you are in a build phase, make sure you are building more muscle. Like you're like oh, I'm looking a little too muscular, which is very hard to do, by the way. But if you're feeling a little too muscular, don't worry, because you're going to go out of that build phase and you're going to lose some of it. So it's fine. But you do not want to, or need to, progressive overload. If you are maintaining, which is maintenance, or if you are cutting in a deficit because you're not eating enough to be able to suffice that muscle build, like you're not consuming enough calories to work that hard and to make that progressive overload really count, you're just going to wear yourself down. So that's why earlier I talked about that 10 to 15 rep range. Make sure you're lifting heavy as heavy as you can in those 10 to 15 reps. I personally like the 10 rep range. I can hardly count to 15 when I'm working out because I get so bored and, yeah, my brain just wanders. But yeah, you want to make sure that you are just doing enough to maintain your muscle, like that should be your mindset. I answered that a little bit last week too. That should be your mindset. You are in maintenance, which literally means maintaining your muscle. Yeah, you have to work hard. Yes, you have to challenge your muscles, but you don't have to challenge them in a progressive overload fashion every single week.

Speaker 2:

Next question how many steps do you recommend getting a day and do you recommend incorporating cardio with strength training? For overall fat loss, I will always recommend the goal of 10,000 steps per day. That's where I've seen a lot of change with my body. That's where I feel really good. It feels challenging. I have to go for a walk, I have to get up and move. It feels like it's on purpose. It's definitely something that I have to think about and I like that, because if it's too easy, it's probably not enough. I guess in that way, if that's possible for you. If 10,000 steps is not possible for you, then I just challenge you to move every single moment that you can, because it's a very easy way to continue to burn calories is what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 2:

But I always recommend the goal of 10,000 steps if you can get it. If not, just try to increase the steps that you are already getting. But also, if you're like I can literally only get in 6,000 steps, christy, that's all my life will allow me to get in this season, that is totally fine. You can just manipulate your calories, your macros, to be able to work with that. Not a huge deal, but I do love 10,000. 10 to 12,000 is where I personally feel like lean, I feel good, I feel challenged, I feel like I have to stay off my phone, go for a walk, like it just feels difficult enough to feel really, really good.

Speaker 2:

And then do you recommend incorporating cardio with strength training for fat loss? Yes, both are ideal for fat loss, calorie deficit being the number one factor for fat loss, and cardio can help increase your calorie burn. So cardio is not magic. It's not like you have to do cardio to burn fat, you just have to be in a calorie deficit. But if you're eating a certain amount of calories today, like if you've been eating a certain amount of calories for the last month, and you continue to eat that same amount of calories for the next month, but you add in 30 minutes of running every day, that's more calorie burn. So you're gonna be in a calorie deficit without changing the amount of calories you're consuming. So yes, ideally for overall fat loss, cardio and strength training are the best way.

Speaker 2:

Last two questions I am in a deficit right now and have been and still am not at the point where I want to be. This kind of goes along with another question too, but I like how it's worded differently, so you guys can maybe think like oh, that one applies to me. I want to have that stronger physique with reducing body fat percentage. With that being said, should I wait to start the reverse phase or go ahead and start? Like I said earlier, this is kind of just phrased differently again, which I love.

Speaker 2:

If you have been in a cut phase for 12 weeks or more, you need to be going into a maintenance phase because your body is going to adjust, it's going to bring down your energy and that's not good. You do not want to be in a cut phase forever, all the time. If you feel like that, please, please, try to change that. But yes, once you have been in a cut phase for 12 weeks or less, whenever you feel like, start to reverse into a maintenance phase because you want to make sure your metabolism stays working effectively. So, once you've been in that cut phase for 12 weeks, even if you're not where you want to be, if your goal is, like this person said, I want to have that stronger physique If you continue to be in a cut phase, you're not going to have a strong physique. You have to take time to be in maintenance and you have to take time to build muscle. And then, after 12 weeks of that or however long you want to be in that phase months, hopefully you want to live there. That'd be be great.

Speaker 2:

Then you go back into a cut phase. You cut more fat and you can see that muscle that you built after you cut the fat. So do not cut for more than 12 weeks. You do not have to lose it all at once. I think a lot of people are like I'm not at my goal weight yet, so I don't want to go into a reverse phase. Yes, you do.

Speaker 2:

For so many reasons you do want to go into a cut or a reverse, into a maintenance phase. You do because you do want to live at maintenance. You do have to have your metabolism be running effectively. You do have to have your body trust you. And if you are always in a cut phase, that's not good. And on top of that you're not always in a cut phase.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people think I always have to be in a cut phase. I'm not where I want to be yet. But it's hard to stay in that diet mentality when you're starving, when you're bored, when you're like I just want some food. I don't want to live like this. This is too hard. You're kind of going in between a surplus and a cut phase anyway because you're like I just binged all weekend and now I'm back in a cut phase. That's sending your body so many mixed signals. So this is absolutely perfect. Yes, if your goal is to have the stronger physique which the goal of these phases this year-long phase is to have body recomp, achieve body recomp, then yes, Even if you are not where you're at with your body, you do want to start to go into a reverse.

Speaker 2:

You do not have to reverse to a surplus. Like I said, if you have still a lot of weight to lose, a lot of fat to lose, don't go into a surplus, but do reverse into maintenance and live there, because you can burn or you can lose body fat and you can gain muscle in a maintenance phase. You can still make a shit ton of progress in a maintenance phase, which I've talked about before. And lastly, when we are in the maintenance summer phase, my favorite is our maintenance level the same as where we started or is it going to be changed? So the best way I could think to answer this is that it will change. You are always maintaining a new body, your current body.

Speaker 2:

So my maintenance phase this summer, compared to last summer, was more. I weigh a little bit more. I have more muscle on my body. Again, my goal this year was to be healthy, healthy heart, healthy. You know, cutting out some processed things, lymphatic drainage, all the things. So my goal was a little bit differently, but you always want to think so you're in a maintenance summer phase right now. Right, you're going to be slowly reversing into either just a build phase, you're going to slowly be, maybe even right now. You're going into a cut phase for a while. Then you're going back into a maintenance phase.

Speaker 2:

Let's use that for an example. Let's say we're in our maintenance summer phase. You want to go into a quick little 12-week cut just to kind of see where you're at and then get ready for the holidays. I'm not doing that because that's crazy, but y'all can do that if you want. And then you're going into a maintenance phase. You will be maintaining your current body, so you're not going to go back to your previous maintenance calories.

Speaker 2:

Don't ever go back to think I have to maintain my past body or and this, I get stuck here too, so I know this is hard. I know a lot of people are like well, this is what I looked like in college and this is my post baby body, or this is my pre baby body and I want to maintain this body forever. You don't, you don't, you're not going to do that. So you always want to think let's say you go through a cut phase and now you're going into maintenance again. You're going to be maintaining a different body. Always think about that. You want to maintain your current body. You want to build a better body. You don't want to be maintaining your previous body. So that was the best way that I could think, without a shit ton more information that I don't have from whoever wrote that in. I don't have more information, but when you are going into a maintenance phase, always think I'm maintaining what I have now.

Speaker 2:

And I know that's a little bit difficult because, to be honest, I even looked at myself. I looked at a picture of myself. I actually posted on the picture a side-by-side of my physique last August and my physique my body currently. It was actually a couple weeks ago, but I took a picture in the mirror in my garage and thought, man, I look so freaking good. I feel lean, I feel great. I'm so proud of myself. And then I'm like I'm going to see what I looked like last year at this time it popped up. I did a side-by-side and instantly I was smaller. I've been smaller the last few years because my goal was more fat loss instead of health, which is probably not great. But I instantly put those two side by side and I thought, oh, I'm bigger this year. And I instantly thought I don't know if I want to maintain this. I don't know if I should be this big. I don't know if I instantly went down this rabbit hole of should I be smaller? Should I look like that? Should that be my goal? Oh no, and then I thought stop, chrissy, stop. I have to actually talk to myself like that Bitch. Stop.

Speaker 2:

You were happy with how you looked and how you felt in that photo until you compared it to a previous version of yourself. I'm not maintaining her anymore. That was last summer's version of me. This is this summer's version of me. We love her, we built her, we are happy for her. She's healthy and I had to really bring myself into that moment. So I know that that can be hard, depending on what you're maintaining, but you want to maintain your current body, so that and like, be real with you and yeah, I just authentic because I struggle with the same things but always maintain your current body and don't think about the past and compare, and I know that's hard, but please try very, very hard to not do that. I know it's hard for me. Like I said, I just I literally have to say to myself Christy, stop, you were so proud of yourself before you compared. Get that pic, delete the picture. Whatever you had to do. I came to terms with it and I posted it and I didn't share a lot of that part of it, but I am proud of myself. But there are times when I do think, ugh, should I be smaller? So I get it. Well, that is all the questions that I have up to date, so I hope that is really helpful in being able to figure out where you are, take that into account and then figure out how to maneuver.

Speaker 2:

Also, I think the workout questions are really good. How do you work out in a surplus and a build phase? How do you work out in a maintenance and a cut phase? It's so simple, you guys. I want to remind you of this too. Lastly, it's so simple. There's a lot of information out there, a lot of podcasts, a lot of reels that are 30 seconds long and give you like no information.

Speaker 2:

A lot of trainers, a lot of things that you're going to hear like progressive overload is absolutely crucial and it's a must to be able to gain muscle, and it is. But you can also maintain your muscle and you can also build a little bit of muscle and maintenance. You don't always have to be building muscle. You can just maintain your body and live a good, happy life, right? You don't have to do all these things. So I love that these questions were even asked. Should I be even trying to do progressible overload in a maintenance or cut phase? That's not exactly how it was worded in that question that one of you asked, but I love that you asked it because it's like you already kind of thought like am I even, should that even be my goal in a maintenance cut phase? No, it shouldn't. And so it's almost like we know the answer, but we have to ask someone we trust to be able to give us the okay, and I'm totally fine with that. I love being that person for you.

Speaker 2:

But when you really look inside, I think you know a lot of this stuff and it's really simple. I don't want you to overcomplicate it. I want you to listen to your body. I want you to do these phases because it's happy and it keeps you healthy and it keeps you happy. It's not happy. It keeps you happy and it keeps you balanced and it's sustainable, and that's really what it's all about, and so none of this has to be perfect. Okay, you don't have to do any of this perfectly. You can screw up quite a bit of it actually and be okay, and your phases don't have to look like mine, they don't have to look like anyone else's. As long as you keep that 12-week guide of build for 12 weeks, cut for 12 weeks, maintain for 12 weeks, I don't care when you do it, change it all up for whatever works for you, but it doesn't have to be perfect, and I love that you guys are already writing in questions like I think this is kind of true, but I want a little confirmation and so, yeah, just really proud of you guys for coming along this journey with me and learning, and I appreciate all the messages, all the questions that I got.

Speaker 2:

I'm really, really excited for the macro series coming up. I will, of course, be talking about things that I have planned and then taking questions as well, so please be sure to leave a comment on Spotify and ask your questions. I look at them every week and, as we're going through the macro series, please ask If I don't answer them in a DM or respond to you on Spotify. I am going to answer them in a podcast, because more than one person has the same question. So I think it's really important. All right, thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I will talk to you next week.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. So much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at ChristyCastilloFit. I will see you next time.