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If I Wanted to Get Shredded In 2027, I'd Do This — Transcript

by Jeremy Ethier · 4,217 words · 602 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00This is Namesh with the age of 35 had
0:03the most belly fat ever in his life. But
0:05less than a year later, he now looks
0:07like this. His belly fat is now lower
0:10than 98% of men. This is because nobody
0:13approaches losing belly fat in three
0:15layers with each layer requiring a
0:17slightly different strategy, which works
0:19for both men and women. But most people
0:22are stuck in the outermost layer, layer
0:241, which is right where Nesh's journey
0:26began with a day one body fat of 29.5%.
0:29Now, one of the cool things about DEXA
0:30scans is they don't just give you an
0:32overall body fat percentage. They let
0:34you split the body into regions. So, you
0:36can see your body fat percentage in your
0:38arms, your legs, your hips, and even
0:40your belly. Where Nesh clocked in at
0:4334.4%.
0:45Higher than anywhere else on his body.
0:47>> You said that belly fat's like one of
0:49the areas where you struggle and you
0:51feel like genetically you're kind of
0:52like
0:53>> cursed. Yeah.
0:54>> And the uncomfortable truth is he wasn't
0:57wrong. Almost every single guy I've run
0:59through a day one DEXA scan has shown
1:01that their belly carries more fat than
1:03anywhere else, which can become a
1:05serious health risk. As large population
1:07studies have shown, every few
1:09centimeters [music] you gain around your
1:11waist increases your risk of metabolic
1:13disease and death, even if your weight
1:16stays the same. But to see how
1:18consistent this belly pattern is and
1:20whether this holds true for women, my
1:22team and I analyzed eight years of DEXA
1:24scans from nearly 18,000 American men
1:27and women. And what we found actually
1:29paints a pretty clear picture of why
1:32belly fat seems so hard to get rid of.
1:34For men under 25% body fat, their belly
1:38fat levels are actually about the same
1:39as the rest of their body. But once you
1:41go above 25% your belly now becomes the
1:45preferred place for [music] fat storage.
1:47And this doesn't just mean belly fat
1:48becomes easier to gain. It also means it
1:51becomes harder to lose. So we plotted
1:53the data to show the rate of fat loss
1:55from different body parts as you get
1:56leaner with the belly here in red. Now
1:59the flatter the line, the slower the
2:01rate of fat loss. So at higher body fat
2:03levels, notice how fat quickly drops off
2:06from the arms, the legs, and the [music]
2:07hips, while fat in the belly remains
2:10much higher. But right around 30% body
2:12fat, belly fat actually starts to nose
2:15dive and the other areas flatline. And
2:17by the time you get to 25%, the belly is
2:20no longer fatter than other areas and
2:22continues progressing faster afterwards.
2:24So it seems like once your body has
2:26burned off enough fat from easier to
2:28access areas, it'll eventually start
2:31pulling more and more from your stomach.
2:33Now for women, the picture actually does
2:35look quite a bit different. They tend to
2:37store less fat in the belly to begin
2:39with and more in their hips, their legs,
2:41and their arms. For [music] example,
2:43this is my friend Nicole who was
2:44starting her fat loss journey at 33%.
2:47When I looked at her belly fat though,
2:49it was almost identical, 33.7%.
2:52Whereas her legs and hips clocked in
2:54much higher. And if the data from our
2:56DEXA scans proves reliable, we should
2:59see that when Nicole and the mesh see a
3:01similar drop in total body fat, Nicole
3:04will probably see more of that fat loss
3:06coming from her belly compared to the
3:08mesh. At least as they're both working
3:10to burn through what I like to think
3:11[music] of as the first layer of belly
3:13fat. So, this is a soft outer layer of
3:16belly fat that prevents you from seeing
3:18any ab definition. When men burn through
3:20this, you should see some upper abs
3:22poking through and usually some shape in
3:24the rest of their [music] abs. Now, for
3:25women, the waist tightens up and rolls
3:28smooth out, but you're not going to see
3:29any clear ab definition yet. [music] And
3:32typically, the end of layer 1 gets you
3:33at 20% body fat for men and 28% body fat
3:36for women. Now, the good news about this
3:38layer is it actually requires the least
3:40amount of effort to burn off. For
3:42Nomesh, all he needed was four core
3:44habits, plus a bonus one to help him
3:46push through the biggest challenge this
3:48layer posed. First, I set Nomesh up with
3:51a workout plan consisting of just three
3:53[music] workouts per week, just to make
3:54sure any weight he does lose comes
3:56directly from fat, and we may even see
3:59some muscle gains at the same time.
4:00Second, [music] I gave him a few simple
4:02diet rules. At every meal, include a
4:05portion of lean protein about the size
4:07of your palm. Prepare most of your meals
4:08at home where portions and ingredients
4:10are easier to control and build each
4:13meal around these core foods. With these
4:16changes, he shouldn't even need to count
4:18calories to start seeing change. Third,
4:20I set him a baseline goal of 8,000 steps
4:22per day to bump up his daily calorie
4:24burn. And lastly, I got him a scale to
4:27track his morning weight with a weight
4:28loss goal of just one pound per week.
4:31Now, I also set up Nomesh with our Built
4:32with Science Plus app to help him track
4:34his weight loss, coach him in his
4:36workouts every week and just get healthy
4:38meal recipes to try out. Now, even
4:39though layer 1 requires the least effort
4:41physically, it's actually the hardest
4:43mentally. [music] And Desh found this
4:45out when he checked back in on day 30.
4:47Despite being 7 lb down on the scale, he
4:50didn't feel like his belly had changed
4:52at all. He actually texted me afterwards
4:54doubting the plan was even working. But
4:56if you look closely at his chin, [music]
4:57his chest, and his arms, you can clearly
5:00see that these areas have leaned down.
5:02And when I measured his waist, he was
5:04already down 3 cm, [music] which meant
5:06he was definitely losing belly fat, just
5:09not at the speed he was expecting. And
5:10if you remember from earlier, that's
5:12exactly what our DEXA data predicted. In
5:14[music] the early stages, fat comes off
5:16from the easy areas first, while the
5:18belly lags behind. So by day 60, even
5:21though he had lost another 3 cm around
5:23his waist, visually his belly hadn't
5:25progressed as much as his chest and his
5:27arms, where he even had some new veins
5:29showing. And then when you compare
5:30Nesh's progress to Nicole's, who had
5:32lost a similar amount of total body fat,
5:35she was down 8 cm around her waist and
5:37already had some ab definition starting
5:39to [music] poke through. And while we
5:41were finally starting to see where
5:42Nesh's abs would eventually come
5:44through, the abs are relatively small,
5:46flat muscles. Compared to your big arm
5:48and shoulder muscles, you simply [music]
5:50have so much more fat to lose before
5:53your abs can start poking through.
5:55Remember, the goal of layer 1 is not to
5:57get six-pack abs. And if I wanted to
6:00prevent Nash from quitting right before
6:02the going gets good, I desperately
6:04needed a way for him to see all the
6:06progress he was clearly making
6:07everywhere else. Which leads me to his
6:09bonus habit [music] where I asked Nomesh
6:12if he'd be willing to take a progress
6:14photo after his morning weighing. When
6:16reviewing these photos, I wanted him to
6:18not just hyperfixate on his belly fat,
6:20but to be able to see the progress he
6:22was making through his chest, his
6:24shoulders, and his arms that he was
6:25clearly overlooking. And with the
6:27ability to look back at his pictures
6:29every week, Nash genuinely started to
6:31notice the progress he was now making.
6:33Plus, now that he was below 25% body
6:35fat, progress around his belly finally
6:38started to really pick up all the way to
6:40day 90, where after losing 12 lbs of
6:42fat, layer 1 was successfully burned
6:45off, revealing some clear upper ab
6:48definition. Now, although it may not
6:50seem like it compared to most of the
6:51influencers you see on Instagram, at
6:53this point, Nesh is already leaner than
6:55about 84% of men. But to push this even
6:58further, he's going to have to get
7:00through layer two, which for most men
7:02gets you to around 15% body fat and 23%
7:05for women. But I'd say layer two is
7:07where most people give up. In layer 1,
7:09it seems like nothing's changing.
7:11Whereas layer 2, fat loss actually slows
7:13down or even stops because your body
7:16starts to fight back. And the strategies
7:18that work for layer 1 no longer do now.
7:20>> So 2 weeks, the weight hasn't changed.
7:23Uh the progress photos I'm taking daily,
7:25they look identical.
7:27And the weird thing is like I'm
7:30recording most of the meals and been um
7:33pretty consistent I feel. So yeah, I
7:35don't know what's happening. Just got to
7:37figure this one out and um see what's
7:39going on.
7:40>> For starters, depending on how much fat
7:42you lost in layer 1, you're going to now
7:44be carrying less weight than you did
7:46before. And this is like taking off a
7:4824/7 weighted backpack, which decreases
7:51your calorie burn. Plus, your body has
7:53now sensed the fat loss [music] and
7:55tries to counteract it by conserving
7:56your energy. It's subtle at first, but
7:58you might sit down more and just walk
8:00around less without you even noticing.
8:02Now, when this would happen to me when I
8:03was younger, I would try to counter this
8:05by ramping up my cardio, adding 20 to 30
8:08minutes of intense running or cycling
8:10after each workout. And while it worked,
8:13eventually I would just stall again, and
8:15then [music] I just didn't have the
8:16energy to add anymore. Which is why for
8:18Namesh, we simply decided to move his
8:20daily steps from 8,000 to 10,000 steps a
8:24day. This works as an insurance policy
8:26to help keep his daily calorie burn
8:27consistent without spiking his hunger or
8:30burning him out. The one exercise I did
8:32ask Nomesh to bump up though was a
8:34strength training. Most research
8:36suggests that just two to three full
8:38body workouts a week, around four to six
8:40hard sets per muscle, [music] is enough
8:42to prevent muscle loss while you're in a
8:44deficit. But I'm curious if by going
8:46above this minimum, Nash can actually
8:49build muscle even as his fat loss gets
8:51more and more intense. So, we took his
8:533-day workout split and changed it to
8:55this 4-day split, focusing more volume
8:58on muscles that Nesh had been struggling
9:00to grow, like his shoulders and his
9:01arms. And we'll be doing a final scan
9:03and measurements at the end of his
9:04journey to see if he was actually able
9:07to put on muscle. But the extra steps
9:09and workout isn't actually going to bump
9:11up his daily calorie burn all that much.
9:13The more impactful side of the fat loss
9:15equation is his calorie intake. Up until
9:18this point, he hasn't been tracking
9:19calories. But to get rid of layer 2,
9:22it's almost a non-negotiable to make
9:24sure he's consistently in a deficit. And
9:26to find out how many calories he needs,
9:28I entered a mesh's current weight and
9:29activity into our Built with Science
9:31Plus app, which landed at a daily
9:33calorie target between 2100 and 2300
9:36calories per day. Now, if you're not on
9:38our app, then you can take your body
9:40weight in pounds and multiply it by
9:42between 10 to 12. It's not perfect, but
9:44for most people, that's roughly around
9:46the calories you want to aim for during
9:48this stage. But with his favorite order
9:50at Chipotle already coming in at just
9:52over 900 calories, I needed to show
9:54Namesh a better way to use his calories,
9:56which meant setting him up with the 2100
9:59calorie meal plan.
10:00>> Okay, don't take this the wrong way, but
10:02I got some butter chickens.
10:04>> No offense symbol. That's fine.
10:06consisting of apple cinnamon overnight
10:08oats for breakfast, butter chicken for
10:10lunch, some quick snacks before his
10:12workout and a homemade freezable burrito
10:14for dinner. And what I think is the most
10:16important part is saving enough room in
10:18your diet for one treat at the end of
10:20the day to look forward to. For me, my
10:22go-to is always a ninja creamy ice cream
10:25that I make with our science protein.
10:26And for Nomesh, it was a combination of
10:28either sugar-free Jell-O, Greek yogurt,
10:31caffeine-free Coke Zero, and Smart
10:33Sweets. And if you guys do want Nomesh's
10:35full meal plan, I'll give you a PDF of
10:37it completely free and I'll put a link
10:39in the description box down below. But
10:41what's perhaps the trickiest thing about
10:43this phase is not everyone's metabolism
10:45will respond the same. Researchers in
10:472019 discovered that most people's
10:49metabolisms fall into one of two
10:52categories. The first is what
10:53researchers call a spend thrift
10:56metabolism. People in this group, when
10:57their calories are restricted, their
10:59metabolism stays high and they continue
11:01dropping weight. However, the second
11:03group is what researchers label a
11:06thrifting metabolism. And when this
11:07group was placed in the same deficit,
11:10their bodies adapted to reduce their
11:12calorie burn and slow their weight loss
11:14to a crawl. Now, there may be an
11:15advantage to having a thrifty metabolism
11:18as you typically have an easier time
11:20gaining muscle. But when it comes to fat
11:22loss, you may have to restrict your
11:24calories further or increase your daily
11:26activity in order to keep up with
11:28individuals in the spend thrift group.
11:30The question we needed to figure out
11:32though was which group would Nomesh fall
11:34under. If his metabolism was spent
11:36thrift, 2100 calories should be enough
11:38to keep seeing progress. But if he has a
11:40thrifty metabolism, then our app will
11:42notice if he's not progressing and
11:44likely recommend dropping his calories a
11:46little bit more. Luckily, Nesh's body
11:48was clearly responding to his calorie
11:50intake as fat loss around his belly was
11:52really starting to pick up with visible
11:54definition in his upper abs and his
11:56obliques finally coming in. Now, for
11:59most guys, burning through all of layer
12:012 will usually take about 10 to 16
12:03weeks, depending on how aggressive you
12:05are with your diet. But by this point,
12:07you should see a visible four or even
12:09six-pack, depending on how your fat is
12:11distributed. Whereas for [music] a
12:12woman, your stomach will look visibly
12:14tighter. And depending on the lighting,
12:16you might even see some definition in
12:18the upper abs and down the middle. But
12:20even after burning through layer 2,
12:22there's usually still some softness left
12:24around your abs, especially in the lower
12:26belly and around the love handles. And
12:28for those areas, you'll need to burn
12:30through the most stubborn third layer of
12:32belly fat, where less than 1% of people
12:35ever succeed. But while this final layer
12:37is the hardest to lose, it's actually
12:39when your belly visually progresses the
12:42fastest because there's now much less
12:43fat covering your abs, even a small loss
12:45makes a noticeable difference. So
12:47instead of waiting months or several
12:49weeks to see changes, now you might see
12:51sharper ab definition every few days.
12:54But it comes with a catch that every
12:56pound of fat you lose now is going to
12:58feel like a battle. Part of the reason
13:00for this is not all body fat is created
13:02equal. Certain fat on your body is
13:04packed with beta receptors, which you
13:06can think of like a gas pedal, making it
13:08easy for your body to burn for energy.
13:11Most of the fat you burn off up to this
13:12point are from those areas. Whereas the
13:15stubborn fat left on your body is full
13:17of alpha 2 receptors, which instead work
13:20like a brake pedal, slowing down fat
13:22release. So your body always has some
13:24fat reserves to rely on. And typically
13:26the areas that have most of these
13:27receptors are going to be your lower
13:29abs, love handles, hips, [music] and
13:31especially the glutes. It's why shredded
13:33glutes in professional bodybuilders is
13:35seen as the holy grail of elite
13:37conditioning.
13:38>> So just struggling to fall asleep today
13:40a wee bit. Um I'm usually pretty good at
13:42falling asleep, but uh the hunger is
13:45just setting in a bit more than usual.
13:47And at this stage, your body ramps up
13:49hunger, lowers your energy, and
13:51basically does everything it can to
13:52prevent more fat loss. So, I had to
13:55introduce Nesh to two [music] simple
13:57strategies to break through. The first
13:58was his food selection. Name mesh's diet
14:01had a ton of wiggle room when he was on
14:03layer 1. [music] And when we moved on to
14:05layer 2, things had to get a bit
14:06tighter. But for layer three, our
14:09margins are thin. We needed every
14:11calorie he's eating to go as far as
14:13possible to keep him full [music] and
14:15energized. That meant no more cream in
14:17his morning coffee and fewer nights out
14:19for drinks. We also strategically
14:21swapped the rice in his meal plan for
14:23yellow potatoes, which in a well-known
14:25satiety index study scored as the most
14:29filling food you can eat. In [music]
14:30fact, I'm currently working on another
14:32project where we tested a simple no
14:35calorie counting diet mainly based
14:37around potatoes. And let's just say the
14:40results were pretty mind-blowing. So,
14:42make sure to subscribe so you don't miss
14:43that. But no matter what you eat, your
14:46body's resistance to fat loss is only
14:48going to continue to get stronger the
14:50longer your diet lasts and the leaner
14:52that you get. And one side effect of
14:53this is stress hormones like cortisol
14:56start to rise. This is where many people
14:58get blindsided. Higher cortisol levels
15:00make your body hold on to more water. So
15:02at this stage, you can literally wake up
15:04one morning and your belly will look
15:06worse than it did the [music] day
15:07before, softer and more bloated. And
15:09when you're this lean, even a small
15:12amount of water retention around your
15:13midsection becomes very noticeable. Now,
15:16when this used to happen to me, my first
15:18reaction was to assume that my plan just
15:20wasn't working and my belly fat was not
15:22coming off. So, I panic, adding more
15:24cardio to my workouts and dropping my
15:26calories even lower. But this only made
15:28things worse, putting more stress in my
15:30body and even eventually causing me to
15:32lose muscle. But once you understand
15:34what's really happening here, rather
15:36than trying to fight harder to lose fat,
15:38your best move might be to stop fighting
15:40at all. Which brings me to our second
15:42strategy, diet breaks. So, as soon as I
15:44could tell Nesha's body was starting to
15:46hold on to more water and just wasn't
15:48responding well to his plan, instead of
15:50lowering his food, we [music] increased
15:52it roughly 500 calories higher than he
15:54was dieting at. And mainly by adding
15:56more carbs to his date, rice, bread, and
15:59some of his favorite snacks. Usually,
16:01you'll want to do this for anywhere
16:02between 5 to 14 days, as that's often
16:05enough time for cortisol to come down,
16:07sleep to improve, and those relentless
16:09hunger signals to finally ease off. But
16:11for the mash, 5 days was all it took.
16:13And even though he was eating more, his
16:15abs actually came back looking sharper.
16:17His energy also improved, and he just
16:19felt ready to push forward again. The
16:21only question I needed him to answer now
16:23was how far he wanted to go. based on
16:26where he was currently at. If we wanted
16:27to push all the way to 10% body fat,
16:30which is where the vast majority of your
16:32stubborn fat is actually gone, it would
16:34probably take another eight weeks of
16:35dieting. But for some people, chasing
16:37that level of leanness is just not
16:39always the smartest move. Take my
16:40brother-in-law, Dayton. He dropped from
16:4233% body fat down to about 18% in just 5
16:46months. The leanest he's ever been in
16:48his life. And by that point, his body
16:50was definitely starting to resist. So,
16:53if I had tried to push him to get even
16:55leaner in one go, it would have almost
16:57guaranteed a crash and uncontrollable
17:00weight regain afterwards. So, instead,
17:02we hit pause on his fat loss and shifted
17:04to maintaining his new weight, followed
17:06by a lean bulk to gain some more muscle.
17:09And now that his body has actually
17:10settled into his lower level of body
17:12fat, [music] he'd be ready to tackle
17:14another diet if he wanted to get leaner.
17:16But the second reason layer 3 just isn't
17:18for everyone is that most guys
17:20overestimate how much muscle they have.
17:22and underestimate just how much fat they
17:24have to lose. In fact, every person that
17:26I've dieted this lean has been surprised
17:28[music] by just how low the scale has to
17:30go to get there. So, if you don't have
17:32much muscle to begin with, you may end
17:34up feeling and looking a little bit
17:36skinnier than you'd hope for.
17:37Fortunately, it seems like the mesh has
17:40been able to build some muscle as he's
17:41lost fat. But today is actually the day
17:44he's going to get his final DEXA scan,
17:46which will tell us how much fat he lost
17:48and how deep he made it to losing his
17:50third layer of belly fat. But first, I
17:53should also mention that from the start
17:54of his journey until now, it has taken a
17:57mesh 275
17:59days using this exact plan for each
18:02layer of belly fat. Now, I'm sure some
18:03of you would be expecting those results
18:05in half the time, but for context, Nash
18:07also took a fiveweek trip in the middle
18:09of his plan where his goal was just to
18:11maintain his weight while keeping up
18:13with his training. And he also just
18:14personally found the slow and steady
18:16approach worked best for him. So, while
18:18taking almost a full year may sound like
18:20a long time, think about how many years
18:22it took for you to gain your belly fat
18:24in the first place. And think about what
18:26you were doing this same time, but last
18:28year. That time is going to pass
18:30regardless. So Nash just focused on
18:32making small improvements week after
18:34week [music] until he was here. All
18:38right, let's see what we got.
18:39>> Okay.
18:43>> Damn, dude.
18:46Look,
18:48>> dude.
18:50There's no way.
18:52Holy. Look at this. One, two, three,
18:56four, five, six. I feel you got a eight
18:58pack coming in, too. Dude, they're
18:59coming slowly,
19:00>> dude. And like the size is there.
19:04>> Yeah.
19:04>> You know what I mean? Yeah. Give her a
19:06little double bicep flex for the camera.
19:08Holy crap, bro. You look amazing, dude.
19:11Holy. Now, Masha's total body fat
19:14dropped from 29.5% on day one all the
19:17way down to just [music] 16.7%. But when
19:20we zoom in on his belly fat, the change
19:23was even more [music] dramatic. From
19:2534.4%
19:26down to just 13%. That's a drop of 20
19:30percentage [music] points. And the best
19:31part is he actually gained almost seven
19:34pounds of lean mass throughout the
19:35entire process [music] with a good chunk
19:37of that being actual muscle.
19:39>> I'm getting there. I'm happy, man.
19:40>> What do you mean you're getting there?
19:41You're there, bro. Holy crap.
19:43>> Cheers, man. I appreciate it.
19:45>> That's incred. Look at this. I'm just
19:46going to peel it.
19:47>> If you guys are watching and you want,
19:49you know, a pine that takes care of all
19:50the guest work for you. I can't
19:52physically be there, but it's the next
19:54best thing. He can vouch for it. Um,
19:56just head to buildwithcience.com or scan
19:58this QR code. You get two weeks free to
20:01try out the app. It's going to take care
20:02of all the workouts, all the nutrition
20:04for you. It's actually going to purize
20:05the plan based on your body just like it
20:07did for no mesh.
20:08>> Yeah, 100%. Um, and just to Jeremy's
20:10point, I mean, without the app would
20:12have been really hard. I was tracking
20:13everything every day. Um, the app does
20:15the foods, does the weights and
20:16everything. So, just having everything
20:18in a one-stop shop, again, not pushing
20:20it, but it genuinely helped a lot. So,
20:22um, massive guts for the app as well.
20:24Yeah. Well, it it didn't do the the hard
20:27work, which is, you know, showing up at
20:29the gym and um prepping the meals. That
20:31was all you. So,
20:33>> yeah. Without your guidance, it wouldn't
20:34have been possible. But yeah,
20:35>> man, dude, I'm freaking stoked for you.
20:37Holy crap.
20:38>> Thank you so much.
20:39>> I wish it wasn't so cold, though. I want
20:40to just like go to the beach right

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