In this episode, Alice and Giacomo dive into what it really takes to build muscle on a plant-based diet. They discuss realistic timelines for muscle gain, as well as realistic amounts of weight gain necessary for progress. They also touch on common plateaus, how to push past them, and the importance of staying patient with the process.
📢 Highlights from this episode:
- Building Muscle Takes Time – Gaining significant muscle mass requires at least six months of commitment, with a realistic goal of adding 15-20 pounds.
- Overcoming Plateaus – Plateaus are common, but strategies like adjusting training intensity, nutrition, and recovery can help break through.
- The Importance of Patience – Results don’t happen overnight; consistency and long-term dedication are key to seeing real progress.
- Join the Community – For ongoing support, coaching, and conversations about vegan fitness, connect with us online and become part of our community!
👉 Tune in for an honest, relatable chat that goes beyond the highlight reels and into the heart of what it means to connect authentically.
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🔎 Related Phrases:
How to build muscle on a vegan diet, Vegan bodybuilding tips for muscle growth, Breaking through a workout plateau, Best training strategies for muscle gain, Vegan fitness coaching and support, How to gain weight and muscle as a vegan, Strength training for plant-based athletes, Muscle-building nutrition for vegans, Overcoming common fitness plateaus, Long-term strategies for sustainable muscle growth
Transcript:
[Giacomo:]
Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of Vegan Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Giacomo and I’m Alice and this is episode 209. I get to record with you again.
This is our second time in a week. This is exciting and I know you’re back from California. Are you already missing the wanderlust and the time that you got to spend with family?
And I know how much you love travel. You say that’s when you feel the most alive, right? You’re not just like stuck in your own routine or what have you.
[Alice:]
Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Visiting my brother and his wife, we always just have such a good time.
It always makes me so curious, like what would it be like to live in a big city? What would it be like to live in the West Coast? So I don’t know.
That’s something that I always sort of daydream about when I go out there. And of course they take me to see all the amazing sites, take me to all the best vegan restaurants. Yeah, it’s nice.
We don’t have a lot of that here in a little rural Virginia, right?
[Giacomo:]
I got Robert Sheik sleeping over last night. So he’s on the brain because when he’s asleep, I’m usually awake. We keep different hours.
He’s more of a night owl like Danny. And he’s one of our house guests that has repeated over the past 10 or 15 years. So I’m all too familiar with like having the house, but we’re going out to the Rhode Island VegFest tomorrow.
So we’ll be tabling side by side. He’ll be there with his The Impactful Vegan book and his booth. And then we’ll be there with the Vegan Proteins online coaching booth, not our Vegan Strong booth.
But it’ll be nice because we don’t get to go to VegFest as much as we used to ever since we made the shift and started trying to go to giant events and reach a wider audience. It’s something that we’ve missed because we started in a grassroots way building community and growing the community and going to many VegFest. So it’s more than nostalgic.
It’s actually nice. And I’m looking for we only go to like two a year, maybe our local ones and connect with the local community. So as you can tell, I’m pretty excited.
I’m looking forward to all this as well as time with my friend. Tell me what vegan restaurants did you go out to? What was your favorite meal out there?
[Alice:]
Um, I don’t remember all of them. Because a lot of them are they really like Asian food, too. So a lot of them were like, you know, regular restaurants with a large vegan menu.
But my favorite, my favorite of all time, it’s always the first place we have to go when we go out there is She’s In Sushi. 100% vegan sushi restaurant, you would never know. It’s clientele is, you know, anyone, it’s not just vegans that go there.
It’s one of those places that it’s not hugely advertised that the whole menu is vegan, but they are widely successful. They are always packed. It’s, it’s just so good, like the best sushi you will ever have in your life, I swear.
[Giacomo:]
Okay, where were you?
[Alice:]
She’s In. It’s called She’s In.
[Giacomo:]
No, where is it? Where were you in California?
[Alice:]
Oh, San Francisco. Sorry.
[Giacomo:]
Okay, so now I have to go to San Francisco just to be able to eat at this. Do you think it’s on purpose if they don’t advertise one of those restaurants where they don’t want you to know?
[Alice:]
I have found at least recently, and this is just my observation that, oh, this is the trend now with new, with newer vegan restaurants. They just don’t say it. They don’t say it anywhere, unless you specifically ask.
And that the most successful restaurants that I have been to where, you know, people are just like lined out the door, you can’t you can’t get a reservation like they’re like that they don’t they don’t disclose it. Just like everyone’s eating plant based and it’s just like the world is this way. I don’t know.
It’s magical. I like it.
[Giacomo:]
I love it. That’s one of my favorite things when it comes to travel is getting to try different restaurants and see how different cultures react to different vegan restaurants and how they market to them. Meaning whatever different cities, different rural areas, whatever, whatever.
So it’s a lot of fun getting to will travel for vegan food, basically. Yeah. And then of course, trying to find a way to make sure that you have your basic needs met.
And as an athlete, it’s more than just sleeping, waking up and eating, right? There’s more that goes into that. What was it like for you while you were traveling as far as the things that you do outside of that to as an athlete?
[Alice:]
Yeah, I was really lucky this time. I always sort of search for gyms when I go out there. And the last time I went out there, all the box gyms wanted an absolute fortune for me to be able to just go for a week.
But I found there’s a new gym in the Marriott Hotel. And it’s in my brother lives in the Soma area of San Francisco, by the way. So there’s a Marriott Hotel there.
And they have a gym that I assume is open to everyone who stays at the Marriott. But anyone who’s not staying at the Marriott can buy a membership. And it’s only $50 a month.
There’s no joining fee. There’s no cancellation fee. You can cancel anytime you want.
And it’s not super fancy, but they’ve got the whole array of like Cybex machines. They’ve got a nice cable stack. They’ve got dumbbells going up to 75.
They’ve got a lot of cardio equipment. So it’s way more like equipped than the average hotel gym. And it’s specifically made for people who are traveling and don’t want to be tied down to a full blown box gym membership.
People who are only going to come a few times and then cancel, they’re fine with that. It’s wonderful. So I was so lucky to find that.
And otherwise, just since we were going out to eat every day, it was lots of tofurkey sandwiches for me just trying to reach my protein goals. Yeah, that was pretty much it. And my brother and his wife are very into coffee.
So I did have I did partake in more coffee than I normally drink. But it’s good. It’s good.
Thankfully, I’m not having any withdrawal headaches yet.
[Giacomo:]
Yeah, coffee and me have a very long standing relationship. And it definitely has its claws in me. Because not only do I enjoy coffee, I really enjoy caffeine.
And I have not had, well, I’ve been drinking decaf the past couple months, because I just cannot get over the fact that like, I want coffee, right, even though it ends. And also, it’s a vessel for caffeine for me. But it’s been a couple months caffeine free, decaf only.
I’ll throw I’ll get Americano once in a while or something like that. And I can’t get quite get into like the what do you call it the tequino? I forget how they make stuff.
But the non coffee coffees that sort of tastes like chicory roots kind of stuff. I can’t get into it.
[Alice:]
Like the mushroom coffee too, right?
[Giacomo:]
But yes, but I should give it a shot. But anyways, you lucked out big time with the travel because all the horror stories I hear with clients and how it’s like basically impossible them to find time to train and myself sometimes where it’s like, just cost prohibitive, or you don’t have the equipment or this or that. It can get crazy.
And then everything else that comes along with you when you got goals, which I think is a nice segue to what we’re talking about today, which is the mental hurdle of plateaus. And I before I go there, just to tie in what we’re kind of starting with over here, the thing I think about is even if life doesn’t happen, you have a certain routine year round, right? You’re going to travel, you’re going to go on vacation, you’re going to work, you’re going to have different occasions where maybe you have event to go to or different things in your life that happened for good reason for bad reason challenges.
I don’t know. When I think about our clients, and when I think about even us with our because we have goals to write as coaches, I start to think about the fact that when there’s a goal right in front of you, it’s so much easier process wise to get into it. But when but once you reach a certain goal, and once that goal is no longer in your line of sight, or like it’s been a year or two years, it can be hard to stay with it.
And I feel like that is something that can cause people to plateau as well, because you get tired of it, right? You’re not in the grind, and you’re not necessarily motivated. And you’re also like, well, what do I how do I make this a life?
How do I make this a way of life? I know that’s not everything that I personally want to bring to the table for this conversation for this topic. But that is something I think about.
What about you? I mean, when it comes to plateaus, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
[Alice:]
Just really messing with your headspace. You know, I think some of these athletic and fitness goals, for me, there’s not much that could be like more personal. You know, we talk about our career goals and like financial goals, right?
Like, financial is pretty personal, but like, talking about fitness goals, wow, it’s, it’s just it’s, it’s near and dear to my heart. And when you reach a plateau, it’s, it’s the mind game. It’s, you know, it’s kind of like our instinct to like, want to be at peace.
So we’re not going to talk about things that are challenging to us. So a lot of times we sort of sit with this issue. And, you know, no one’s going to talk about the hard journey.
No one’s going to talk about the struggles that you go through. But, you know, we’re pushing our boundaries, trying to reach these fitness goals, and nothing’s going to mess with your head more than that, when you’re outside your comfort zone. And maybe even more so when you are an athlete, and you’re trying to be super competitive, you’re trying to win whatever, you know, competition, or event you have coming up, you want to become a champion, you know, it’s hard to talk about these things.
So a lot of it is just, it’s so personal, and you kind of get stuck. You don’t know what to do. So thankfully, you know, having a coach is super, super helpful with that.
But yeah, that’s my, that’s how I feel about it. I mean, specifically, like with weight loss, right? You think that that’s probably what most people want to hear about?
[Giacomo:]
Oh, yeah. Well, there’s all kinds of different reasons why someone has plateaued, or when someone has not gotten to their goal, and still wants to keep pushing hard to be able to get to said goal. I do think that weight loss is a big one.
And it comes with a lot of baggage also, because people don’t believe that they’re worth the time and the effort that they are putting into themselves into the process. And that can be really hard, or it’s something they’ve really wanted for a long time, and they finally have the opportunity right in front of them. And then they worry about whether or not they’re going to be able to do it.
Right. So it’s becomes a mind game where they or, or let’s, let’s talk about a more of an ideal, which I think is more directly related to what we actually want to talk about today is when someone is in fact, making progress, but then their progress kind of flatlines, right?
[Alice:]
Right, right. Like, you’ve been on this diet, right? So you’ve been at it for three, four or five months, you know, or longer, you know, some, some people have significant weight to lose.
And you’ve been successful, you’ve been seeing progress. And you’ve noticed that, hey, things have started to slow down. And but you’re still, you’re still moving forward, you hear that things are supposed to, you know, slow down, that’s a normal thing to happen.
But eventually, you come to terms of the that, oh, my progress has stopped. And it’s sort of like this panic, because you’re still doing all of the things right, you’re still doing all of the things that you were doing before. And all the things that you’re doing are not easy things, you’re still like giving up so much, you’re still having to feel hungry during the day, you’re still having to miss out on some social things, you’re having to eat different foods.
And it’s like, so frustrating, when you’re doing all the things not getting the results. And you’re so uncomfortable, it just it builds and builds and builds. And that’s why when a lot of people hit a plateau, that’s when they end up giving up because they don’t know what else to do.
So the answer is more things have to change, right? Unfortunately, you have to sort of start asking yourself this question, what else am I willing to give up? Right?
And some people, the answer is, I’m not willing to give up anything else. And maybe they don’t know their options, it’d be better if options are laid out for them, right. And so we can go over some of those things today.
I hope that’s okay with you. But yeah, we don’t want you to give up basically. So do you have anything else to add to that?
[Giacomo:]
I think you’re hitting the nail on the head in a lot of ways. And I do think it’s more than just taking the time to see results. I think it’s taking time to find out what your options are.
And no matter how hard you try, the answer might not be in front of you, because it’s not a simple answer. Whatever it is. I think back to the fact that 20 years ago, I started to learn how to pose as a bodybuilder.
And I still don’t have a stage presence that I know I’m capable of having. I have a hang up. I know this is crazy to someone listening to like, dude, you’ve competed 20 times on stage six preps, like what’s wrong with you?
Why? But it’s true. Like we all have our insecurities.
And because I have insecurities about my body, and what I feel like it’s capable of. And also what I looked like before I tried to change my body. I know that it’s a mental block for me.
And I literally cannot get past it. And it’s preventing me from feeling confident enough to practice. And it’s also preventing me from practicing.
So because of those two reasons, I still cannot figure out how to pose. And on top of it all, I have imposter syndrome, because I’m a coach, who I have another client competing right now, I have to be like, all right, dude, like, go ahead and practice 10 minutes a day, four times a week, every week for the next six months. Worst case scenario, three months, that’s the formula.
PS, I haven’t done that. You’re going to do that. No, but you don’t compete against your clients.
You don’t compare your clients to you, you give them the options, and you coach them into being able to do it. Speaking for personal experience, though, you know, there are things that no matter how much you try to lead someone to the answer, it’s not obvious. It’s just not.
And I do think that this is where getting out of your head with a coach, and or by yourself journaling or whatever it is, or a combination of two, and also giving yourself time, like you can start to get some answers on what’s holding you back, what’s causing you to plateau more so than just adherence, more so than just needing to push harder and evaluating that because those are important things to talk about, too. And I hope that you do talk about them.
It’s also, I think, how are you getting in your own way without realizing it?
[Alice:]
For sure, for sure. And I think that that’s a really interesting, like, way to look at plateauing, because absolutely, I think you’re definitely not alone with just the fact that stage presence can be the hardest thing about bodybuilding for many people. So I love that you brought that up.
So thinking about ways that, you know, if you are plateaued in a weight loss journey, like, all right, what are my options? So the most obvious one, right? Reducing your calories, you know, but there’s there’s different ways to go about this.
Reducing your calories is going to be the easiest way that you’re going to see results. But for most people, it’s also going to be the toughest thing to execute. You’re going to feel hungrier.
You’ve already felt hungry. It’s hard to think about giving up even more of your calories each day, making your plate smaller. You know, there’s it’s hard.
It’s hard to to think about, like, OK, it’s time to take that next step and push it further. So one of the ways that we can do this that a lot of people don’t kind of think is obvious is you can start tracking more strictly. Specifically, you know, say you’re using, say you’re tracking your food in MyFitnessPal or Chronometer and say you’re using measuring cups and measuring spoons.
You know, it’s going to be a human instinct that we’re hungry, we’re uncomfortable. We’re looking forward to our food now more than ever. Right.
And we’re going it’s going to be extremely difficult to actually adhere fully to those to those measuring servings. Right. And so it’s just human instinct.
We’re going to give ourselves just that heaping spoonful each time, that heaping cup full. And we end up eating a lot more than we realize. And this can really backfire on a lot of people.
So really just being really strict with ourselves and using a leveler on those things. But to be even more precise, honestly, if you really wanted to get more serious and more accurate is starting to weigh things. If you haven’t weighed your food before and starting to log in that way.
Wow. You think that you tend to go overboard when you are literally using spoons to serve your plate when you actually see on a scale what a tablespoon of peanut butter looks like. It can be like your heart can just like drop.
Right. So it’s a big eye opener for a lot of people. Let’s see if you have only been tracking calories, start to track additional macronutrients, start to keep track of your protein.
If you’re already keeping track of calories and protein, then add on tracking carbs and fats. The more precise you’re going to get, the more you can sort of eat less while you don’t really think you’re eating less. Right.
You still have the same amount of calories, but you’re kind of like, OK, let’s let’s circle back. And this is this is really what, you know, let’s say 1600 calories looks like. Right.
Let’s see. You can exercise more. You can burn more.
You can increase your daily step goals. Say you’re only walking 7000 steps a day and you want to you want to see some more calorie burn. You know, we always suggest going up to 10000 steps a day.
And this is I mean, it’s significant. I notice when I’m in my off season, I’m usually only walking six or seven thousand. It’s a huge difference when I bring it up to 10000 a day as far as like my body is just going to be like a lot more calories burn.
It’s going to be a lot easier to see the weight come off. Right. If you don’t have the time to be doing a 10000 step goal, then instead doing cardio.
Right. If you’re not if you’re already doing cardio, try adding on 10 minutes. Try adding on one more one more time of just doing cardio every week.
If you feel that you’re maxed out for that. Once again, we can track we can track more precisely. You can you can actually use and I recommend using your fitness watch.
Right. Don’t use the machines because the machines are going to be way off. They don’t actually have your pulse or anything.
Look at your fitness watch and actually track how many calories you’re burning. Have a goal for each one of those have a goal for how many calories you want to burn off each week with cardio. Let’s see.
Well, anything else anything else you can think of there?
[Giacomo:]
Oh, no, this is an extensive list and a very valuable list of all of the tools that you need to gain access to. And then you need to start to use because you have to how do they say crawl before you can walk? For example, I don’t know, I’m bad with analogies.
But the point is that these are things that the average person doesn’t want to do. Right? These things require you to literally learn new skills.
And then when should you be driven enough to start to do these things, you start to immediately question? Well, I’m using these skills to get the results. Then what?
And that creates a whole new question when people start to have fear, and they resent it a little bit. And then they almost rebel and they don’t do it, or they do it. And then you’re like, but what about after the fact?
Right? So, but you start with the basics, Alice, and everything you’re outlining, these are the basics. And yes, when you plateau, you do have to do things differently.
And you do have to push harder. And you might think that you’re doing all these things. But until you’re actually looking at it on paper, until you have the cold hard evidence, you don’t know if you’re actually sticking to the plan, just like you mentioned with the peanut butter.
Are you having three tablespoons of peanut butter? Are you having a tablespoon of peanut butter? Are you going on how you feel?
Or are you going on what you’re actually eating? Right? And I do my hope is that eventually over time, because you, you put all these skills into place that after your passion plateau, after you get to your goal on paper, that you’re able to change your way of life, because you’re much more aware of how much you’re eating, you’re much more aware of what kind of choices you want to be making the healthier choices, the right choices when it comes to food, it comes to how active you want to be, you know, getting your butt out of your chair when you’re not at the gym, if you’re if you live more of a sedentary lifestyle when you’re not lifting, but these things don’t happen by accident. These things happen because you put these skills in place. And to your point, you will plateau at some point, if you think you’re doing everything right.
And you don’t know if you’re actually doing everything right.
[Alice:]
Right, right. And I think I also I thought of a couple other ones, actually, to help you increase your calories burned. If you are already doing some form of cardio, think about changing it up to a different form of cardio that’s more intense.
Specifically, some some examples I have, try hit for the first time, right? Try a spin class, something where you’re going to be in a group setting, and you’re going to be held accountable to keeping up with everyone else. You know, something that’s just really, really going to help you step up your game.
That’s gonna be that’s a that’s a fun way. That’s a fun way, you know, to mix things up and to increase your activity, right? And increase your calories out, right?
For they say, as they say, you could also and you got to be careful with this one, you might want to track calories again. But if you’re one of those people who just loves being in the gym, right? If you’re like, Oh, I could handle some more workouts.
You know, if you’re as long as you’re not already going like five or six days a week, I really don’t want you adding more to that. But you could add one more workout to your week. That’s more like a burnout style workout.
Especially if you’re a fan of something like CrossFit. That’s a that’s a great example. Or you can just be doing you know, higher reps, lower weights in circuits, going around the gym, you’re still doing the motions that you love, but you’re doing it in a day in a way that you’ve turned it into cardio.
That can be really fun for a lot of people. So the thing about increasing your activity, though, it’s tricky. In your head, you’re like, I absolutely want to go this round, right?
That’s going to be the easier route. But it’s actually a lot harder to comply with than you realize. Because it’s our human body instinct.
When we find ways to burn more calories, our body is going to find ways to make us burn less without us really realizing it. We’re going to be spending more time on the sofa, we’re going to be spending more time just sitting when normally, say normally, we’re someone who paces on the phone when we’re on the phone, you’re going to find yourself sitting on the chair instead, you’re going to find yourself having more TV time. It’s literally your body kind of sneaking ways for you to not burn as much.
So we have to keep that’s why step goals are so important. And we sort of have to just keep tabs on these things. Also, if you’re adding something like, oh, yeah, I’m going to do more cardio, we could be really exhausted.
And you could be going at it. It’s like, my intensity, I’m just going to take this one slower. And then before you know it, yeah, you’ve spent more time doing this, but you haven’t really burned many more calories.
Does that make sense?
[Giacomo:]
It does make sense. And when it comes to how you’re eating, you could wind up getting more into preparing foods in the kitchen for yourself and really learning about how to make meals that are delicious, enjoyable, that can last for the week that you’re in the mood for, right while you’re a little more hungry than you’d like to be or adapting to a different kind of hunger, right, as opposed to just eating because you’re in the mood to eat or eating because you have to eat or eating because you’re stressed out. Not to say that those three things aren’t going to continue to happen, right? That’s how most people that’s how everyone and that’s how that’s Yeah, food is life.
However, when it comes to making sure losing my train of thought here, not not just your goal, but paying more attention to eating in a way Oh, your hunger. That’s what I was thinking. Thank you.
[Alice:]
So there’d be more hungry.
[Giacomo:]
You have to adapt to a different level of levels of hunger when you’re trying to change your body. And you have to adapt to a different level of hunger when you’re at a different body composition, wherever that is on your weight loss journey, whether you’re an athlete, whether you’re a competition goal, whether you are trying to be in a calorie surplus to gain muscle, like your hunger level changes when you’re changing your body, your hunger levels are different. And to get used to that, as opposed to just eating again, because you’re in the mood to because you’re stressed or because you’re eating three squares like a normal human being, like everyone eats breakfast, lunch and dinner, right.
But when it’s more than that, when you’re trying to learn how to eat in a way where you’re going to be healthier, and you’re going to make fitness a way of life, or reach a fitness goal, you have to do things differently. And in order to do that, again, the things that you’re mentioning, you become aware of how you’re eating you and you find ways to enjoy the process, as opposed to I just have to track now, try to make some, try to make something good in the kitchen, try to find out how to order food differently when you go out to eat, etc, etc.
[Alice:]
Yeah, and I think to your point, like, yeah, when we’re when we’re burning more calories to work, you’re going to oftentimes find yourself to have more hunger cravings. It’s not gonna be the same for everyone. But it’d be like, man, I just got finished, you know, with this new hit class that I tried, you’re gonna come home and it’s like, who I really need to eat, I’m feeling dizzy.
And it’s really easy to go overboard. So just being mindful of that and sort of having your meals planned out so that when you do get home, you know, you can you can still like pick up this food that you already have planned. Or you can make something really quick, because you know, it’s like a new rotation.
And you can still stick to the plan right without going overboard, because that’s it really does sneak up on you. Speaking of, you know, as far as being like, some other things that you can do around the house to like fix, sort of eating challenges and overeating challenges. For some people, you might have to have a conversation with like the people in your household.
Say you’re living with someone and they are not on a diet, and they are still bringing home Oreos and cookies and other cookies and cakes and chips and all kinds of things. And so it’s sitting there staring at you in your kitchen. You know, you may have to go to that housemate and have a serious conversation like, look, these are my goals.
This is why these are so important to me. I’m doing everything that I can to reach them. I’m seeing your chips and your chocolate pudding and all these things in their fridge and in the pantry.
And it’s really distracting. It’s making me have this food focus. It’s making me food obsessed like, can you just hide these things?
Like, can you buy less of them? Can you hide these things so that I won’t be able to like graze and find them and then just be like, I’m thinking about these chips all day long, you know? And I guess some people, it is a tricky one.
If you’re living alone, it’s easier. You can just go and clean up your pantry and fridge.
[Giacomo:]
I get that all the time. I really do. That’s more than a passing thought.
I feel you on that one. You can’t force people, unfortunately, to, perhaps if it’s just you and your partner and your partner supportive of that, hopefully they don’t resent you too much. If in a family dynamic, I think it could be a little easier, but it can also, depending on how old your children are, I think it could be a different challenge because they might be like, what?
No, no. And there are some challenges to all of that. But at the very least, having the conversation, asking for the support and helping you get out of your own head about what you’re struggling with, that act in and of itself, when you frame it like that, when you have conversations, as opposed to no food in the pantry, no food in the fridge, no food in the freezer, that is going to be a distraction for me or is going to hurt me, because then you’re like asking people to change your environment, we’re blaming them. And you get the conversation, you had the conversation, you ask for support, they understand. And you give yourself a chance to get out of your own head and think about what you’re doing.
And there are some, perhaps compromises that can be made, where it is a healthy environment for everyone when it comes to how everyone, whether it’s a roommate, a family, or a relationship, there are some compromises that could potentially be made that with actually changing the environment with where food is, and what food is available, that could be beneficial for you as well.
[Alice:]
Yeah. And if none of you, if you guys are thinking, well, how can, how am I going to have them separate food if we don’t have two different refrigerators, I can’t afford another refrigerator. It’s funny, me and Carson were just having this conversation.
Like last night, he has one of those chest freezers. And you’d be surprised how affordable getting a little chest freezer is. So maybe look into that and put that in your garage.
And this could be something that could seriously change your food game, like for life, having a second freezer in the garage. It’s huge. So that’s a good idea there.
What else? What else could we be tempted with food at work? Right?
Oh, that’s a toughie. Yeah. Because you can’t ask your whole office, hey, can y’all please stop bringing in these donuts?
I mean, thankfully, most of the time, they’re not going to be vegan, right? So there’s that. But, you know, see if there’s a different fridge in your office, or there might, you might even have to come to a point where you just avoid certain common areas.
You know, if you’re in a big enough office building, a lot of times they’ll have multiple kitchens, and seeing if they have another kitchenette somewhere, or on a different floor, maybe even asking a different team, like, hey, can I just put my stuff, my one lunch in your fridge so I can avoid this? They probably won’t care. You know, and just setting rules for yourself, like, you’re just not going to have, you’re not going to partake in this food that’s brought into the office, right?
Because none of it’s going to be on on plan. I guess also, talking about like people that you work with, or even friends and family, maybe you have someone in your life that’s like a food pusher. Right?
Have you ever had someone like this in your life? It’s just like, whenever you go around them, they want to feed you, they want to bring you treats. They’re always enabling you to like, oh, come on, you can go out to eat, we can go have that one drink.
Or we can go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And like, it feels like every time you’re having to have this like, sort of like mini argument with them, and you know that they’re doing it out of love, but it’s like, you are sabotaging me. Again, having that conversation about your goals, why it’s so important to you, please, please help me by not doing this and not doing this.
I want to hang out with you. But you know, maybe you guys can do something together that’s not food related, right? And you guys can go for a hike or go for like a bike ride on the boardwalk or go axe throwing, you know, who knows?
mini golf, there’s all sorts of like activity levels that you could that you could have. It’s hard in the winter, but it’s easier in the summer, because it’s like, let’s go to the beach.
[Giacomo:]
But let me there’s something that just crossed my mind that I want to also bring out and talk about here. How about being having worked on the goal for so long, or you’re working on the goal, and you’re just you’re trying all these things. And you’re just so frustrated, fed up.
And it’s like, after a certain period of time, or after a certain amount of progress, taking a little bit of a break, pulling back a little bit, because you’re just beating your head against the wall. And also, you’ve been pretty taxed and pretty stressed, trying to successfully or unsuccessfully trying to make a change, you’ve reached this plateau, we call them diet break, so to speak, if the goal was weight loss, but whatever it is, right, whatever, whatever it is, if you’re taking putting a prep on pause for a couple months, even if it means that the prep is longer, and you have to put your show up, if you’re canceling a competition, doing another one, in a year from now, like changing competition season, if you’re what it’s for one reason or another, if a plateau is getting to a place where you’re literally driving yourself crazy, or it just the writing is on the wall, that maybe recharging your mental battery a little bit is going to be a good thing. And finding other things to focus on is gonna be a good thing. You could fall back in love with your goal, fall back in love with your process, recharge, refuel, and have more energy in the tank to keep pushing and hold on to the progress that you’ve made, whatever it is, and then push after the fact.
And I feel like that is something that is really, people don’t like that. Right? pushers don’t like that.
People that are hard on themselves don’t like that people that are achievers don’t like that. And obviously, when they’re working towards the goal, especially if they’ve hired a coach, it’s the expectation, I need to get to my goal. You know, that’s a lot of pressure.
And of course, goals, you don’t everyone knows the chart, right? Where this is not what a goal looks like. It’s kind of like, well, it’s like that for everybody.
It’s like that. That’s the way it works. No one’s an overnight success in anything.
You know, if you’re lucky enough to run screaming in the direction your goal and get there, there’s consequences after the fact, if you reach it, reach it within a certain amount of time, within the time that you created for yourself. You know, how will you sustain your results? How will you experience personal growth after the fact?
How will you be able to do it again? So those breaks, whenever you choose to take them could be exactly what you need to push past the plateau.
[Alice:]
Absolutely. Diet breaks can be a game changer, especially if you’ve been going at the diet for longer than three or four months. That’s sort of when a lot of people just start to crack, right?
And taking break, taking a break and just turning to maintenance. What does that mean when you turn to maintenance? It means that you’ll get to add a little bit more calories, you know, maybe a hundred to two hundred calories and go into like your maintenance mode so that you’re no longer like in this weight loss trajectory for a little bit.
So it gives you a little bit more wiggle room. It gives you some time to just let your body settle because sometimes having that time, whether you’re building muscle or you’re trying to lose fat, having time where you’re just like letting your body like sort of reestablish a new homeostasis, it can actually be a really big game changer. And, you know, some people, some people, you may not be willing to go back on the diet, right?
Or you may have just reached the end where it’s like this is as much as I’m willing and able to do right now. And so this is you like learning your new lifestyle and learning, you know, this you can you can change to a body recomposition mode, right? You can continue going to the gym and pushing and trying to get gains.
And even though your body size isn’t necessarily changing, you could still be adding on muscle and losing body fat at that same time. You can completely change your body composition. I’ve worked with multiple clients now.
I’m surprised how many clients I’ve worked with now that we’ve gone this route and they’ve seen a lot of success as far as like, okay, I’m just burnt out on this dieting thing. But it’s like, all right, let’s just talk about establishing your new lifestyle. And it’s slow.
That’s the only thing is it’s slow. Like a coach is going to be able to see those results within a few months. But like you looking at yourself in the mirror, you might not you might not notice the changes that are happening to you for like a year.
So it’s very, very slow, but it’s so worth it when when you start to see like, you know, the shape of your body, like, you know, you start to see like, how you’re, you’re growing sort of like more of a V taper in your back, how you’re getting these more sort of like raised up athletic style hips. You’re just having like this sort of athletic shape, sort of morph into your body. And it’s like, I actually like what I see a lot more in the mirror now, even though I’m not like, small, right?
You could actually end up being a lot happier. And, you know, the ultimate goal, I think everyone, all of our listeners, I think could agree the ultimate goal is to keep these, keep your, your, your gains, keep your weight loss for life, right? Maintain a healthy lifestyle.
[Giacomo:]
I think so. Yeah. And everything that we’re talking about applies to anyone, whether your goal is to be an athlete or not, whatever it is, when you see your body changing, and you feel yourself having more energy, and you know that you’re getting healthier, it’s rewarding.
And that transcends across all kinds of people and goals as far as like, what it is that you’re seeing in the mirror and, and what your experience is energy wise, right? It’s tough, because you and I are competitive bodybuilders, you’re pro athlete, we all have these, we work with athletes of all calibers, we work with people who just started getting to lifting, but often our conversations revolve around hardcore aggressive goals, competition goals for athletes, because we want to talk about our own personal experience as well. But everything that we’re saying is directly applicable to you, no matter where you are at, when it comes to lifting weights, and when it comes to eating healthier, and when it comes to doing in a way where you want to have feel more, feel like you have more energy, and you’re stronger, and you can be healthier and look the way that you want to look, essentially, like it’s, it’s all directly related to your goal, whatever it is, do you have anything else that you want to add as far as anything we can talk about yet?
[Alice:]
Because I feel like we kind of covered, I kind of covered most of what I wanted to say, I think, but there are a couple more things for weight loss, but then I’m ready to go on to talk about more muscle, because I think we’re kind of definitely going in that direction. Okay, I didn’t want to get to the point where we talk about muscle building plateaus. I think one of the biggest things that comes up with, as a challenge for a lot of people that are trying to lose weight, is the struggle of alcohol, right?
And, you know, I always have to have this conversation, like, I’m never going to tell you that you need to quit drinking, right? If something, if that’s something that brings joy to your life, like, you know, I’m not telling you that you have to give it up entirely, but the fact of the matter is alcohol is extremely high calorie, and it’s got zero nutrients in it, right? And it’s shocking, it’s shocking how much, like, this tiny, tiny bit of alcohol can be so high calorie.
And so this is the hardest part for a lot of people is learning to limit how much you drink, in order to be able to continue to move forward in your goals. Because we have to keep you in a calorie deficit. That’s, that’s how it is.
So learning to drink, you know, no more than one or two drinks at a time, maybe only one or two nights a week, right? Would you say, would you say that’s about right? Unless you want to skip the meal.
[Giacomo:]
Depends on where their starting point is, depends on how you frame it, depending on the kind of person that you’re speaking to. I think if you when you meet them where you’re at, like, if I have someone who’s a party animal, I’m like, listen, if you’re going on benders, and or you’re doing your thing regularly, but like, you’re still able to reel it in and mostly know how much you’re getting in for the day calorie wise more power to you, but this will obviously affect your ability to like getting good sleep and recover. And if this is a pattern, of course, that ain’t gonna be good.
I mean, it’s not how it speak to the person. This is more just like you and me, I was reflecting on these conversations I’ve had, as opposed to being like, it needs to be this amount of drinks, it needs to be this way, or else. But your approach could work for someone not suggesting to your approach, saying it like that, literally could help for someone who takes that very goal oriented, I need to make calculated changes, right?
So it really, it depends on who you’re working with, right. And as long as you, I think, say it in a supportive way, and, and focus on what what they’re doing and being like, Alright, well, I guess if it’s working for your goal right now, but they’re, this could be done in a better way. And I’m not asking you to make a lifestyle change.
And PS, this is what it’s looking at looking like, you’d be surprised how you can get people to make some changes, because then they have their they’re like, Alright, well, they’re not they’re not shaming me for drinking or, or, you know, whatever partying recreationally. But they are suggesting that some changes in this department will help as far as they as well as them doing in their own way. And people do make changes.
They do. They absolutely do. You know, for sure.
I’ve tried the other approach in the past. And sometimes it’s backfiring. People are just like, this is too judgy.
And this is very calculated. And that’s how that’s not how people work. And it’s like, well, I’m just trying to spit the facts.
I’m just giving you the evidence was giving the science behind do with it what you will. At least that’s what I that’s how I wonder if they’re they’re taking it and I just, you know, the conversation doesn’t continue. But that’s where I think it becomes an art where you’re like, All right, I’ve still changed.
And this is all well and good and have fun and eat, drink and be merry. However, let’s see what we can do about helping you make some healthier choices. And even if they’re not the healthy choices, how can we still get you to make progress?
Right?
[Alice:]
Right.
[Giacomo:]
It depends on the person, for sure. Some people will, will go out and have a second or third dinner or a big breakfast after they’re hungover. Other people can really it depends on the person.
[Alice:]
You’re right. It absolutely lowers, you know, our self-control. Typically, the more alcohol you consume, the less willpower you have.
So a lot of times you’ll end up, you know, eating twice or even worse, even more as you normally would, because you just don’t have as good of decision making power. And for sure, yeah, I always approach it in the sense that this is about your calorie deficit. This isn’t about, oh, you’re drinking alcohol, and that’s bad.
You know, some other sort of like creative ways that you can sort of reduce the calories from alcohol. I still recommend, you know, about that average, like how often drink for most people, because that’s like a moderate approach, right? But also like there are low calorie drinks, right?
There’s light beers. If you’re, if you’re a wine drinker, drinking like white wine is usually going to be a lot, a lot fewer calories. Also now, which I’m a huge fan of, and I think I talk about this all the time.
There’s the non-alcoholic beer market, and you can still have that taste with anywhere from 35 to 85 calories where I can. And I, I don’t, you know, I haven’t been drinking since I started my bodybuilding journey, because it’s just, I find it to, it’s not something that I really enjoy very much. So, but I do miss, I do miss the taste of beer, the taste of wine.
So this is perfect for me. You can go to Total Wine, and there’s almost a whole aisle now dedicated to non-alcoholics. So you’d be surprised what you can find, and more and more companies are coming out with their non-alcoholic drinks, their own version, their own spin on it.
Also, you know, say you’re drinking, say you’re going to a social event or something, and you have some not, some low, some like light beers or some lower calorie mixed drinks, right? At some point, you know, everyone else is going to keep drinking and drinking and drinking, right? At some point, you can switch to something like a zero calorie drink, like maybe some hops water.
There’s still, they still give you that relaxation effect, right? It’s actually surprising. It’s actually, people don’t realize that you still get like a relaxed feeling when you have like those hop waters and those hop teas that are like carbonated.
So I highly recommend those, or just, you know, bringing some carbonated water, like some, I don’t even know if I’m pronouncing it right, like the LaCroix, that drink.
[Giacomo:]
Yeah, those are good.
[Alice:]
And that way you still have, you still have your drink, you’re still having something special, and you’re still, you know, sort of like fitting in, right? And you know, if you are one of those people who just really struggles with willpower, when you go to social events, then it might also just mean like, going to fewer of these events, right? Anything we can do to get you successful on your on your diet and on your weight loss journey.
[Giacomo:]
Or if you don’t have a choice, continuing to replay what you’re doing again and again, after the fact to try to think about it a little more and reflect and also say to yourself, why am I doing this? Why am I? So when I’m socializing, or whether I’m entertaining, or whether I need, I’m at an event, like, why is this?
Why am I doing this? Right? Because it’s not as simple as knowing that this is not something you want to do, or this is a change you want to make, you have to find out your reasons, you have to really think about and create some intention, right?
Reminders that go into it for the fact being like, I’m going to make these changes. Sometimes I will literally take something I journaled about, and I will read it before the thing that I do to help me. Like before I’m traveling, if I know my pitfalls, when I travel, I’ll literally, I’ll journal it back, and then I’ll read, read it to myself.
And then when I’m in the moment, I’m more likely to have it top of mind, like, okay, these are the things that stress you out, don’t be stressed out. It’s your feelings are going to pass, you’re going to be all right, these are the choices that you want to make. These are the ones that you don’t make, whatever it is.
You mentioned, you also want to talk about muscle building.
[Alice:]
Yeah, yeah. So with gaining muscle, I’m really happy that just in general, we have so many people that are looking to gain muscle now. I’m really happy that and just in general, it’s become sort of like muscle is trendy, muscle is beautiful.
And I really, really hope that this trend never fully goes away. I know that body and beauty trends change constantly. But I’ve just been so like, grateful that now people are allowed to look like a real human being.
And, you know, and we’re also realizing the importance of muscle just for our health. Right? What was it the you are what you eat documentary on the twin study?
Yeah, you’re watching on Netflix. Literally, it was said on there, if you don’t have muscle, you are unhealthy. And I’m so glad that that was just like said, and that’s becoming like an accepted, like piece of science that has been put has been out there, but not really.
Yeah, people just don’t want to listen to that. Women has historically have grown up like, being told like not to even touch a dumbbell or they’re going to get too big. You know, we’ve had to historically starve ourselves, right?
So I’m just excited. I’m just excited that just, it’s all changed. So what does it look like, you know, when you’re building muscle?
And say you’re in an actual build? And what does it look like when you know, the scale at home sort of stops going up? And maybe you’re like a hard gainer?
What happens when you’re unable to get stronger in the gym? Well, when you’ve reached a certain amount of, you reach a certain amount of strength, and you’re, you’re really struggling to make any progress, you’re stuck? You know, what do you what do you think?
What are your thoughts on that?
[Giacomo:]
I have someone who have been trying to get to gain five pounds for over a year now. The his, the words that were seared into his mind that he repeats now, are he wants to eat like eat like it’s a sport eating like a sport. He just repeats that I’m eating for sport, because he’s very competitive.
He’s very athletic. It’s in his nature. He’s been like that since he was a kid.
And he’s found all kinds of reasons why he can’t eat as much as he knows he should be eating to gain muscle, because logically he knows. And he’s found his reasons. And he’s found the actual things that are holding is holding him back.
And he’s made those changes. But then he also has to give himself permission to eat more. Because for him, he is, like you said, a hard gainer, and it’s starting to work.
It took a full year.
[Alice:]
Right.
[Giacomo:]
And even though he’s like, the kind of person you would never know if he didn’t outright say it, because he’s bubbly, happy, extroverted, motivated, competitive, like that, just like that classic kind of personality, you would never know. He’s also been extremely frustrated because he’s the type that wants to it’s like, if you’re not, if you’re putting in the effort, and you’re not getting the results, it’s like the definition of insanity. But but it’s starting to work.
It’s starting to work. So but we found some solutions along the way. In that, for that particular person, but a lot of it was in fact, mindset work.
Hop on some live calls together to get there. Think of the things that were holding him back emotionally from wanting to be able to allow himself to eat more. And also, the reality is that he like, like you said, he’s that kind of person who it’s hard for him to pack enough calories.
So we’ve had to get creative about figuring that out, figure out the patterns that cause him to be right back to where he started, whether it’s when he gets sick, or when he travels, and he’s stressed, etc, etc. So it’s like, Oh, no, like, we got to be on it during those times. But this is one of those classic examples where, you know, your goal, in theory, you should be able to achieve it inside of six months tops, maybe six to nine, but it’s been well over a year.
And it’s not it’s not for lack of trying. So but uh, but yeah, no, and what you were mentioning about muscle gain, being trendy. Now, I, I couldn’t be more happy about that.
[Alice:]
Yeah, yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head. A lot of times when I start working with clients who are just ready, they’re finally ready to go and venture out on an actual build.
You know, especially women trying to build lower body, right? It’s pretty easy for women to I think, build upper body, but to really get significant, like leg mass, lean body mass on legs and glutes. Like you got a ball, you’ve got to go through the stage.
And like I said, we’ve all been so conditioned to stay small, stay thin, keep the scale low, keep the clothing size down as small as possible. What will happen is we’ll start out on the beginning of the journey. And there’ll be a little bit of weight gain because you know, I think everyone maybe maybe they were just staying in a little bit more lean state in the first place.
Like they had somewhat recently lost some weight or so we just sort of filled up the filled up the gap to bring them back to homeostasis, right? So at first, it looks like we’re having success, but then they struggle, they struggle to actually continue to gain because they look at the scale. And they don’t, they actually don’t want that scale going up.
They know in their brain that has to happen in order to make progress, but they’re just they’ll just self self sabotage, right? But if you are, you know, at the gym and struggling to make strength gains, you know, the answer is usually going to be increasing your calories and putting on a little bit more weight, right? I think also similarly, when we start out with these clients, they’ll also have that newbie gains phase for a while when they finally get on like a real, like training program, like athlete training program as far as like lifting weights is concerned.
So they’ll go through a new newbie gains phase and all look like they’re having all they’re having all kinds of progress, right? But then three to six months goes by, and they’re not gaining weight. And then that’s where the plateau happens.
They’re like, what’s going on? I’m doing all the things that I was doing, I was seeing so much success. But you’re not you’re not willing to put that weight on, right?
[Giacomo:]
Correct. And it depends on the person too. I was just listening to a podcast yesterday, and it was just clear as day as a guest.
That’s absolutely true. If you’re not getting about 50% stronger your first year in of training, you’re doing something wrong, it should be as opposed to someone who’s been lifting for 510 15 years, but also to your point of if that person who’s been lifting for 15 years, or has been trying to manage their body weight 15 years, or their whole life, let’s take the person who’s successfully done that. If they’re not actively trying to get out of their comfort zone, experience what it’s like to be in a calorie surplus, put muscle on, see their body shape change in the process, put the work in, and then eventually figure out like where they’re going to have their year round look 123 years in with your body changes super fast when you start lifting for the first year, right?
Yeah, well, I put that work in and you keep you keep asking for what you want to get from your coach or like out of yourself. And you’re like, Well, yeah, I just, well, I’m not really, I’m afraid to, I just want to, you’re doing all these this doubting, right? Well, it’s like, No, let’s put the five or 10 pounds on, put the muscle on, it will turn into muscle, let it happen.
Your clothes will fit differently, your shape is going to change. It’s all going to be for the better.
[Alice:]
Yes, it’s really hard having those conversations, especially I think, especially with women, oh, my goodness. You know, I try and give a lot of encouragement. Because learning to love your body as it changes is very challenging, very challenging.
One of the main things that I tell people about is my experience bulking, you know, I’m able to, of course, it was it was very challenging for me, because historically, you know, throughout my teenage years and young adult life, I was the same way trying to stay so thin and so lean, and having ridiculous arbitrary goals about staying at a certain pant size for forever. And, you know, I bought into all that too, I was there. But you know, going into a bulk, finding a way to look at yourself in the mirror, and trying to notice the weight gain that you do like, like seeing the muscle building under your skin, seeing glutes getting bigger, right?
Not only that, but I try and explain to people like, trying to notice how even though you’re you might be, like getting bigger and looking at yourself in the mirror and seeing different but noticing like you feel meatier, right? And that can be very encouraging, I think, especially for women with their legs, right? You feel that okay, this is mostly muscle here.
This isn’t just I’m not just gaining fat here. Maybe less jiggle, maybe smoother skin, maybe fewer dimples, right? Maybe practicing even like flexing a little bit in the mirror to be able to see the lines in your in your muscles.
Looking at yourself in more flattering lighting, take a minute to figure that out. Your gym probably has very flattering lighting and say the locker rooms or in a classroom, they’ll have lighting that is all from above. Right?
Or if you’re at home, and you have a dark room and have a window, like open the window and set up a mirror, like your windows over here, set up a mirror like over here. So you have the natural light hitting you from the side and practice then and look at yourself then. Usually natural lighting you’re going to look best, right?
Learning to pose whether that be if you’re aspiring to be a bodybuilder and learning bodybuilding poses, or just posing in a way that you can match some of these people on social media that maybe have a similar physique to you, right? And learning to find the the angles that you love. I think also just practicing positive self-talk is huge.
I love using mantras. You know, I’m strong, I’m fit, I’m healthy, I’m a gym babe, whatever you need to tell yourself and say it over and over again in your head out loud. And you will slowly convince yourself and you will slowly believe it.
Sometimes it can take, you know, I’ve seen it take a year for people to really start to love the changes that they’re getting from their bulk. But at some point you always do, right? And like you said, I think you said with your client, they know about the health benefits, right?
Reminding yourself about the health benefits of going through this. Similar to that, like having some goals for like setting performance goals, maybe setting some calisthenic goals, like pull-ups, being able to do a pistol squat, being able to do hanging leg raises, like some fancy stuff. Like when you gain muscle, like it’s going to be, you’re going to be more capable of training in these ways.
And being able to do these cool tricks in the gym, being able to make goals for how, like can I add 15 pounds onto my dead lift in the next six months, right? And working our way up towards that. And that’s why tracking is so important.
So do you have anything else to add to that?
[Giacomo:]
No, this has been, this conversation far exceeded my expectations. I had a feeling it was going to be really good just knowing you, knowing the you that I know, and knowing myself all too well. And you and I are, in my perspective, we are extremely driven and extremely goal-oriented.
So the idea of a plateau just does not apply. Like I cannot, no, no, I have to keep making progress. So of course, the only way out is through, and it’s more than just what you do in my paper.
You got to get into the mindset stuff. So the mental battle there, just having this conversation, not just obviously about you and me, but like our perspective, like there’s got to be a solution, there’s got to be an answer. And then of course, I feel like this conversation exceeded my expectations and it’s just as fun as I hoped it was going to be.
So thank you.
[Alice:]
Did you want to talk about discipline? You said you wanted to talk about that earlier?
[Giacomo:]
Particularly, I feel like the diet breaks help with that. And sort of taking a step back in the journaling help when it comes to discipline when you’re just, yeah, not, I feel like I pretty much covered most of what I want to say on discipline as well.
[Alice:]
Okay. I think, you know, specifically for people that are looking for, are plateauing with weight loss, you know, I laid out a lot of different options and I don’t want you to see all those options as something that’s like crushing. I actually want you to see it as something that like, these are your choices.
You don’t have to give up every single one of these things. I think what’s really important is being able to choose what are you willing to give up next? And really critically thinking, maybe journaling for yourself and being like, what out of all of those things that we went over is probably the biggest problem for you and what would move the needle the most, right?
And sort of trying to weigh your pros and cons to that. And, you know, once you figure out what you’re willing to change, like commit to it. You know, a lot of times when we have to reduce what we eat, like tiredness goes up, our motivation goes down, you know, our bodies will be literally tricking us to doing less.
You know, the science is really annoying, right? The process is really annoying, but you can be smarter than the process. You can be smarter than all this.
You can figure it out. And when you commit to it, you’re going to achieve your goals, you know? And I think it’s really encouraging that like, you literally don’t have to do all of those things in order to be successful.
So that’s what I wanted to talk about with discipline. I think that’s really it.
[Giacomo:]
What else?
[Alice:]
Just for the people that are building, the bodybuilders, the lifestyle bodybuilders, you know, be willing to lean into the weight gain, try to trust your coach, and they are going to guide you through a slow gaining process that is going to get you the results that you want. It’s scary seeing that number on the scale go up. But you know, look at yourself in ways that you’re trying to find things about yourself that you love.
And look at yourself in a different setting. I always like the way I look better, like if I’m flexing in the mirror at the gym, versus my mirror at home, and expect to gain significant muscle, I mean, a significant amount on the scale, you know, in order to really get, you know, those glutes and those quads and hands that you want, like, you know, you’re going to be committing six months to this, at least, you know, you’re going to be committing, you know, what would you agree with, like, 15, 20 pounds, at least, to committing to, you know, seeing these results. That’s my number, I think, for the most people.
[Giacomo:]
Gotcha. For you’re talking about competitors, is that right?
[Alice:]
Well, just just anyone trying to gain significant mass, if they’re on a build, taking at least six months, and gaining at least 15 to 20 pounds, you know.
[Giacomo:]
So I’d say that’s more than 50% of people for sure. Yeah, well more than 50. Cool.
Yeah. And obviously, if you want to talk more about where you’re at with your plateau, or your process, or if you want to help or support, we have so many different resources out there. And it’s so easy to find us, you can find us pretty much anywhere.
And you can reach out to us anytime consider joining our community. These are the kinds of conversations that we have all day long. This is the stuff we live for.
So hope you found this episode helpful. And I’m curious to know where your head’s at with plateau. So let us know.
[Alice:]
All right, everybody, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of vegan proteins muscles by Brussels radio. Make sure to follow us on social media at vegan proteins and at muscles by Brussels. And make sure to contact us if you are interested in one on one coaching, you can reach us at vegan proteins calm.
Again, my name is Alice and I’m Jacqueline. We’ll talk to you soon.
[Giacomo:]
See ya.
