Jess Diamond (00:02.124)
Welcome back to another episode of How to 20 something with a repeat guest because her content was just too good last year when we talked about bodybuilding that I had to bring her back on this year to discuss nutrition facts and fables. There is so much misleading information on the internet and it can make eating healthy or eating healthy for your body really difficult. As nutrition coaches, and I both have very outlandish conversations with clients who just

don’t know or have been previously misled and we decided that it would be a fun idea to break it all down for you because your nutrition is the foundation to your entire well-being right behind sleep. You guys know how I feel about sleep. So without it, without proper knowledge backed by research to support it, you won’t reach any physique goals or health goals that you’re after. You can’t out train a bad diet.

but you also need to know what constitutes a bad diet, what are poor eating habits, and where you should redirect your focus to elicit the changes you want to see. So who better to discuss this topic than a pro bodybuilder and not some run-of-the-mill fitness influencer who shows a what I eat in the day video and you know nothing about his or her background or experience or genetics or hormones, et cetera. So we’ve got the expert on here.

And it’s similar to the fitness myths episode I did a few weeks ago. You can’t copy what someone else is doing because you have different bodies. Meaning just because something worked for someone else does not mean it’s going to work for you. So without further ado, let me reintroduce Dee and welcome her back to the podcast. Dee Jackson is a certified personal trainer, weight management consultant, competition prep coach, social media influencer, but a good one.

Fitness enthusiast, IFBB professional bodybuilder and the founder of FitNation. With over a decade of experience transforming lives, specializes in helping clients from first timers to national level competitors build strength, lose fat, and reclaim their health. Known for her no excuses mindset and empowering approach, Dee combines science-backed strategies with a whole lot of heart. Her mission? To help you stop starting over and start living stronger, mind, body, and soul.

Jess Diamond (02:23.778)
Hi, Dee, and welcome back to How to 20 something.

Dee (02:26.651)
Thanks for having me back. I’m looking forward to it.

Jess Diamond (02:28.704)
Yeah, I am too. I’m glad to have you on again. And we’re going to run through this episode a little different than other episodes where I’m going to shoot you a nutrition statement. And you’re going to basically say whether it’s true or false. And then we’ll discuss why it’s true or why it’s false or even why people are made to believe something is true. Now, some of these are going to relate to similar concepts within one another, but the way they’re presented and broken down.

are going to be different. So D, are you ready for the first one? Great. Nutrition statement number one is carbs make me fat.

Dee (03:02.96)
Yes.

Dee (03:11.931)
Well, carbs make me fat. The answer is no and yes. No and yes. Carbs by themselves would not make you fat. As a matter of fact, carbs, which is part of your macros, you know, your macros is protein, fat, and carbs. That is your energy. However, carbs are bad if we eat too many carbs.

just like meat, too much protein and fat that’ll also make you fat. And the type of carbs that we’re eating, he case in point, are potatoes bad? No. But if I make French fries out of them and deep fry them in oil, yes. Is jasmine rice bad? No. But shrimp fried rice is bad. Is jasmine rice, if I steam it and cook it right, is it bad?

Yes and no, because even though it’s good for me, I can still eat too much of it and now I’m going to get fat. So, or put on weight. So, carbs, are they bad in general? No. How we prepare them and eating too much of it, that’s what makes it bad.

Jess Diamond (04:28.47)
Yeah, I think there’s an on average five whole potatoes in a single family size bag of Lays potato chips. So if you think of that alone, because a lot of carbs are highly palatable, they feel really good on your tongue and in your mouth to crunch on and to eat. And that’s why you keep grabbing for more. But if you really broke that down of the Lays potato chips, could you sit down and eat five whole potatoes in one sitting? No.

Dee (04:41.51)
Yes.

Dee (04:57.305)
Yes. I know you’re right. Actually, well, it depends on the person.

Jess Diamond (04:58.348)
Well, no, I don’t think that’s That’s right, it depends on the person. But like, you’re gonna get bored of eating it, you’re gonna get full, like those things are gonna happen versus lace potato chips that dissolves on your tongue. Like you’re just gonna keep shoving those suckers in and then all of a sudden the entire family size bag is consumed by one person. So that’s why… Slider foods. I like it.

Dee (05:07.697)
Yeah, for sure.

Dee (05:16.892)
Yes.

Dee (05:20.517)
It’s called slider foods. Slider foods, yes.

Jess Diamond (05:27.018)
I mean, that’s why people think like, if I eat carbs, I’m going to overeat and it’s going to make me fat. And it’s like, well, what kind of carbs are you eating? And are you measuring it out? And when you and it’s not even to say you can’t have Lay’s potato chips, they’re just not going to fill you up in the same way a potato will. And you’re probably not measuring out the potatoes that you need to eat or the potato chips you need to eat to make a complete serving. Because if you did, you’re going to be very upset with what that serving looks like. And be like, I need

Dee (05:43.846)
Yes.

Jess Diamond (05:56.888)
five more of these servings.

Dee (05:59.656)
So true. Yeah, our perception when we look at the bag of potato chip and the potato, it’s perception of this big bag of potato chips that tastes good versus this potato. That I can cut up, put some great spices on it and put it in my air fryer. It could actually taste just as good. But sometimes what I’ve found is that people want

what they want and they will continue to justify eating the bag of potato chips as opposed to just eating a potato because this is what I want until you don’t get the results you want. So now carbs are bad. No, the carb wasn’t bad. You just made a bad choice.

Jess Diamond (06:48.573)
Yeah, I love that. was a powerhouse statement to wrap up that first statement. So the second one is that I don’t have enough time to meal prep. You and I have talked about this one, so I’ll let you take the floor first.

Dee (07:02.671)
Yeah, I think that we it’s prioritizing what it’s important, what’s important to us. I’ll give myself an example. I meal prep at 6 a.m. in the morning on Sundays as soon as I get up. That’s my downtime. I’m on the computer and I’m doing things. I’m throwing things in the oven because that’s a good time for me to meal prep at 6 a.m.

For somebody else, maybe it’s eight o’clock at night. I think what we have to do first of all, is it a priority? Because we tend to make time for things that we really wanna do. So how important is meal prep? And then sometimes, yeah, I’ve had people say, my God, this took me forever to do. And they just don’t know how to do it. So on TikTok, I love TikTok Sunday because TikTok Sunday is meal prep Sunday. If you go on TikTok and you Google,

I mean, you search for meal prep Sunday. It’s tons and tons of ideas, quick fixes, how to prepare meals in 10, five, 10, 15 minutes in some cases. Me, I can prep a whole month of protein in an hour. I just cut it all up. I put it in the oven and then I freeze it. So I’m not all because protein is the hardest to, you know, to prepare rice. You can cook fast.

potatoes, whatever your carbs are, your vegetables, you can cook that really fast. So it all comes down to, number one, is it a priority? Is it really important to you? Number two, sit down and pick the best time for you to meal prep. And you can still watch TV, do other things in between while your food is cooking. So, you you got time to get dressed and go to the Beyonce concert.

and stay up all night, got two hours of sleep and went to work. huh. Yeah. That was a priority. It got two hours of sleep. So why you can’t meal prep? Right. Okay.

Jess Diamond (09:02.03)
Yeah, I mean, even this past weekend, I was meal prepping and I was I had High School Musical 2 on while I was meal prepping. was like, yeah, I want to be entertained while I am in the kitchen on my feet chopping things up. And it’s even like as my chicken’s cooking, I’m microwaving some overnight oats at the same time or like measuring things out or cutting something else. So there’s multiple things happening at once. So for me, it takes about an hour.

Dee (09:20.423)
and

Jess Diamond (09:29.44)
of my weekend from start to finish. And 60 minutes is not very long. You spend 60 minutes sitting on the couch scrolling on your phone. You can spend 60 minutes prepping food. And you don’t have, I think a lot of the backlash with meal prepping is people don’t like eating the same meals over and over again. And I’m, I personally cannot relate to that. I see it. I understand it. I am that person that can eat the same meals over and over again and never get bored. But

Dee (09:46.182)
Yes.

Dee (09:54.407)
Thank you.

Jess Diamond (09:56.832)
Meal prepping comes in all different shapes and sizes. So it doesn’t have to be you’re prepping all of your meals for the entire week. It could be you’re prepping a couple meals that you know your schedule’s a little tight. It could be you’re prepping ingredients that you can then easily throw in to a skillet and make for itself. there’s what you said is like you’re chopping up and measuring out your protein and then putting it in the freezer. That’s a form of meal prepping. So there’s a lot of different tactics where it’s not only what you’re made to believe

Dee (10:20.593)
Yes.

Jess Diamond (10:26.604)
by what you see online where it is you’re making the same exact meal to have for lunch every single day the entire week. Is that the easiest way to do it? Cause you don’t have to think as much. Yes, yes it is. But if you’re someone that feels like you can’t eat leftovers or re-microwave your food or you want it fresh, like there are other options that still constitutes you meal prepping.

Dee (10:49.873)
Yes, I think I’ve invested a lot in spices. I have a whole section in my kitchen that’s just for spices. So can take the protein and I can do curry. I can do garlic, pepper, garden herb seasoning to make my food taste different every time I prepare it. But you know, it’s all gonna go back to mindset.

If I see meal prep as being something negative and torturous and taking up too much of my time, then it will. It will be that way to you. But you have to look at at, this is what’s going to help me get to my goals. This is what’s going to save me time throughout the week. And if you think about it, it’s also going to save you money.

Jess Diamond (11:36.096)
Mm-hmm. And it’s gonna make life easier.

Dee (11:39.33)
much easier. my gosh. I love just grabbing my food and going. I meal prep four days at a time. It saves me so much time. I love it. And I don’t feel like, some people, I mean, I don’t want you feel like you’re a slave to it. It’s not. It’s actually freed me because I don’t have to think about it and I have more time. So it’s actually helping me to meal prep because it’s helping me to save time.

So you got to look at it in a positive way. And you know what? Stop being so lazy. Everything that we want is going to require work. Meal prepping is hard. Sometimes I don’t want to do it. But not meal prepping and making bad choices out of convenience throughout the week because I didn’t meal prep, that’s also hard.

Because when I get on the scale on Friday, I can’t say, what happened? Well, you ate out of convenience all week. Nothing was measured because you didn’t meal.

Jess Diamond (12:48.192)
Yeah, and if anyone’s like me who’s listening and hates doing the dishes, it’s less dishes throughout the week. You just have one container versus like the whole pots and pans and cleaning down your kitchen every time. that’s honestly a large part of my own motivation is like I don’t have to do all of these dishes every single night.

Dee (13:02.04)
That’s so true!

Dee (13:07.751)
That’s true. I didn’t think about that. That’s true. Five dishes, said.

Jess Diamond (13:11.918)
Alright, the third statement, true or false, I should aim to hit my body weight in grams of protein every day.

Dee (13:22.385)
That’s for us.

Jess Diamond (13:24.182)
What’s the truth?

Dee (13:26.395)
The truth, everybody’s different. Everybody’s body is not the same. I have a client, if I give her more than four ounces of protein per meal, she bloats horribly. You if you’re somebody like me who weight trains on the level that I do, I might require, when I start carb cycling, some days I require more protein than I do others, especially when I pull, when I start leaning out and I pull my carbs.

Some of my carbs, I have to up my protein or my fats to compensate. That’s a whole nother conversation. But no, that’s not true. I got to hit them. What if you hit them and you gain weight? Maybe your body is sensitive and it doesn’t like all of that protein. My body loves protein. Actually, my body does not do well with a lot of carbs. I had to learn that. My body does well with a lot of protein and a lot of fats, then carbs.

So you have to kind of watch your body, listen to your body, see how it responds when you do certain things, which we’ll talk about, I’m sure later, about consistency. But no, that’s not true. Don’t torture yourself trying to hit this amount. Is eating protein important? Absolutely. Especially when you get to be my age, it’s very important. But hitting a certain number all the time, no, that’s not true.

Jess Diamond (14:48.822)
Is there a minimum that you should be hitting for overall health? Because I think it’s in the fitness world, is we’re told like one for one, body weight per gram of protein. And it’s more of just like an easier way to not severely under eat your protein is like, I have a goal, a target I’m trying to reach. And you don’t have to hit that number. You don’t have to go over that number, but you don’t want to be extremely far under it. So.

Dee (14:57.851)
Yeah.

Dee (15:12.697)
No, I agree that there should be a good start is pound for pound or ounce for pound. I do think that’s a good place to start. But then monitor. Me, I actually eat more protein than that. I have to. So it just, again, you just have to monitor what your body likes and what it doesn’t. That’s just a good base point. But I’m not going to say that that’s how you have to do it. It’s not true. It depends on the person.

Jess Diamond (15:39.798)
Yeah, it’s just protein keeps you fuller for longer. It’s very satiating and it aids in the muscle building process. So that’s, that’s why it is the most important macro for you to be eating. But as far as the nuanced pound per gram pound of body weight per gram of protein every single day to D’s point, it’s going to depend on the person and how your body responds. I’m like you D.

Dee (15:43.247)
Yes.

Jess Diamond (16:04.256)
I respond better with more protein than my body weight because otherwise I feel like I’m snacking all day or I’m constantly hungry and like I need a little bit more to help me get to my next meal or my next snack.

Dee (16:16.849)
Yeah, and if you weren’t paying attention to your body and eating kind of like the same thing consistently, you would know that that’s what your body needed. Yeah.

Jess Diamond (16:28.686)
All right, next one. When logging my food, I need to also include the calories I burned from my workout.

Dee (16:38.309)
Yes.

Jess Diamond (16:40.778)
Okay. I’ve heard no. Like I believe because like you don’t actually know the exact calories you’re burning in your workout. There’s activity factors but like calorie for calorie.

Dee (16:40.967)
Absolutely not.

Dee (16:51.108)
Yeah.

So what I do is I do think it’s true. I do cut my device on when I start working out. So I know how many calories I burn when I work out and how many calories I burn throughout the day, like activity, working out, it breaks it down for me. And this is why I do think it’s important. I see a lot of women fall into this. You are working out like a bandit. All this cardio, all these classes.

and you give yourself 1500 calories because you think that’s gonna make you lose weight faster. And initially it does until you don’t have enough food and it just stalls. So what ends up happening is because you’re not eating enough, feeling your body like it should be, then I get, I have them do an invite and they’re like, I lost muscle mass. I’m like, yeah, because you’re working out so much and what you’re eating is not, you know, it doesn’t line up to the amount of calories that you’re burning.

Now me, I’m in a deficit right now. For example, right now I burn throughout the course of the day about 2,600 calories a day. I move a lot. I have a lot of muscle. Right now I’m eating 1,900 calories and my weight is going down. But people are like, 19, how could you lose weight? Because of how many calories I burn throughout the day. You see me just walking back and forth in the gym, loading weights.

then I got an hour and a half workout, then I got to do cardio. So if I was giving myself 12 and 1300 calories, I’m going to lose muscle. That’s not enough. So you should have a general idea of how many calories you’re burning per day to make sure you’re eating enough. Then you have just the opposite. People that don’t do anything. You’re not burning off the food that you’re putting in. Basically, your activity level is 1200 calories that you’re eating.

Dee (18:49.895)
3,000 calories a day. You’re not track, so you’re overeating, so you’re gonna gain weight. So do I know the exact figure? Can someone figure it out exact? Probably not, but you should have a good idea of how much you’re eating versus how much you’re burning. That’s very important.

Jess Diamond (19:07.286)
Yeah, I think it also depends on the type of workout you’re doing because a lot of people are like, I or what unit of measurement you’re using to give you the feedback of calories burned. So I’d say like watches are getting better, but it’s still not an exact science. Your treadmill is going to be dead wrong. Whatever tells you. Yeah, it is not. It is not accurate. So a lot of people will.

Dee (19:11.514)
Yes.

Dee (19:24.827)
The tremors do wrong.

Jess Diamond (19:30.54)
go on to like my fitness pal or something similar and be like, well, yeah, I burned 700 calories in my workout. And I’m like, no, you didn’t. That’s not possible unless you really

Dee (19:40.359)
Well, yes, I mean it is my leg day. I burn about 600 on my leg day. Yeah, that’s true. average person does about 300. And that’s a really good workout, 300.

Jess Diamond (19:45.098)
Well, the average person, the average person, like if you’re running, yeah. Yeah, and that’s it. Like I’d say on average, according to my watch, my workouts are like 250, 275. And it’s a full body workout for an hour, according to my watch. And like, I feel like that’s, that’s relatively, you think that’s wrong?

Dee (20:07.567)
Okay, that’s probably wrong.

For a whole hour? Yeah. An hour. Okay, we’re have to bump it up a little bit.

Jess Diamond (20:13.62)
I don’t think that’s wrong.

My boyfriend also says I definitely don’t work hard enough in the gym. It’s a harder thing to for the average person who’s just getting started. I think it’s either you’re going to consistently include your workouts and your workout should be also on a plan and like consistent from week to week. So that’s the same or you don’t include your workouts and just monitor your calories and your macros.

Dee (20:20.648)
Yeah, that’s about 500 from easy, easy. Yeah. So, you know.

Dee (20:40.699)
Yes.

Jess Diamond (20:46.764)
So you’re adding it in and then not adding it in or adding or like putting in a walk, putting in a strength training session. And like, you’re just not, it’s more inconsistent in that regard versus for someone getting started or someone that wants overall health, like not including it, just to not add in that extra thought process. Or the other way around is a habit I’ve seen as people be like, well, I burned this many calories so I can eat that many calories to gain it back.

or like I burned off the cookie that I ate or something. So it kind of gets into more of disordered eating and a poor relationship with food. When you think of like food and exercise working together in that way of calorie for calorie, I ate this, I burned it off kind of thing. And that’s where it gets a little messed up.

Dee (21:25.563)
Yeah, in that way, yeah, in that way, that’s not true. That’s not true. You’re not going to work out. You can’t out exercise a bad diet. There has to be some type of control and consistency. That’s why it’s important to stay consistent. You know, kind of do a periodical, the same workout over and over again, which you should be doing anyway in order to be progressive. Especially you’re trying to put on muscle.

doing the stay inconsistent so you can know your body and have a general idea of how much food you need. Let me just give a quick example. If you work out, let’s say I work out at 11 o’clock and I eat 30 minutes before, when I’m done with my leg day, I am starving. I mean, like I haven’t eaten all day. That’s a good indicator that I just burned off everything.

Probably and a little bit that that I’ve basically ate before it’s safe to say I’m Tremendously hungry, so I’m gonna eat Again, I just bagged my watch is telling me today that I burned 632 calories. So my next meal has 425 calories in it because again, I’m in a deficit to your point to not eat exactly what I thought I burned out But I’m not gonna eat like a protein shake. That’s not enough

compared to what I just, the work I just did, that’s not gonna be enough. But you need to stay consistent to know your body. I do me personally just dealing with the clients that I deal with, women, they don’t eat enough. They don’t, they’re not tracking, they’re working out so hard, they’re just burning off muscle.

and they don’t know how much they’re working out. So I’m like, you can still go to the gym if you want to, you can stay there two hours if you want to. You just got to eat enough to stay, be, eat enough to compensate how much you’re working out. I just had this conversation with a client. Yep. You lost muscle because you’re at the gym for two hours. You work out a lot. So you need to eat to compensate for that.

Jess Diamond (23:43.266)
Yeah, I think people just get scared of putting on fat instead. So it’s like, but I like they’re going to the gym because they want to look better. They want to lose weight. So for them, they think of more calories in calories out is like, I shouldn’t be eating a lot. And I’ve been I’ve just started with two new personal training clients just just this week. And both of them said, I know I’m not eating enough, but they want to build muscle. And it’s like, well, what’s going to fuel that muscle?

Yeah food. But it’s hard. It’s hard because they think I don’t want to put on the fat. I don’t want to gain weight. But it’s and then I have to explain like muscle does way more. So like if the scale goes up it could be muscle but also what are you eating? But at the end of the day I know a lot of females in particular, males too, but females under eat because they don’t want to put on fat. And now they’re caught in this trap that they’ve put themselves in.

Dee (24:15.249)
Dee (24:38.129)
Yeah.

Jess Diamond (24:42.114)
So how does, how can someone get out of that?

Dee (24:45.351)
Well, it goes back to what you said about having a poor relationship with food and just defining what food does. I do have my clients. I tell them, go and look at what each macro does and why each one is important, why you need all of them. Then, do you feel tired throughout the day? Yeah. Did you eat breakfast? No. When was the time to eat your next meal? Two.

Did you binge on coffee? Yes. Well, coffee is a natural diuretic. You didn’t feel hungry, but you felt tired because you didn’t eat. Food is energy. So now my metabolism is slowed down, right? My body is storing what little energy that it has. didn’t give me any energy. thought the course of the day, this is bad relationship with food. Then I go home and I binge eat because I haven’t eaten all day.

And then you tell me, I don’t eat a lot. Well, yeah, you do. You just eat all your food in one sitting. So we got to change that relationship with food that you think that if I don’t eat all day and I eat this last meal, I’ll be okay. Or I’m scared to eat these little meals off the day because I’m going to get fat. That comes from not measuring and not knowing what you’re eating. So I think the more we educate ourselves about food,

I’m not talking about social media and influencers and stuff that we read. You need to go out and be an advocate for yourself. How food works. How does it work for me? And don’t be afraid to like even experiment. I’ve done it. I’ll say, okay, how does my body respond to this? How does my body respond to that? I think we just have to, the more educated you become, the more that fear of eating isn’t there.

And I think that’s what happens. easier for us to not eat and binge later. It’s easier for us to take a pill. It’s easier for us to get surgery. It’s easier for us to blame the personal trainer for not getting results than just sit down and educate yourself about food so that that fear isn’t there. That’s just my opinion.

Jess Diamond (27:08.526)
Yeah, I agree. A lot of people are afraid of food. I know I used to be afraid of food and luckily.

for the most part don’t have that relationship anymore. I mean, I would say my dairy allergy has helped cut out any bad habits like pastries and desserts, because I simply can’t have it anymore. But that also, that took a trial and error on its own. If I had to learn what was giving me such a bad reaction to, like my skin was just flaring up all the time and had to learn. And it’s like, that doesn’t happen to everybody. That’s not, everyone has the same allergies and it’s knowing what’s going to work for your body and give you the results, but also not going off the deep end. Cause I

do know people that are eating less than 1200 calories a day and walking five plus miles and lifting weights and doing yoga and like just moving their body in obsessive amount. And for what? Like they don’t look good. They look like their body is eating themselves alive because it is, because they’re not fueling themselves. And it breaks my heart to see that. And it’s something that unfortunately like we do come across in this industry, in the fitness and nutrition industry, but

that is on the more extreme side of they need extra resources, extra help that’s out of our scope of they’re clearly struggling with their relationship with food and exercise.

Dee (28:24.775)
Well, you know, have to go back to social media. We’re social media junkies. And anything that looks quick and easy, that’s what we want to do. You know, to people that don’t eat, just afraid of food and just don’t want to eat. I mean, look at the images that they see on social media, right? But these people also can, we have filters that can change the shape of a person’s body.

You know, that thin, yes, we had gotten away from that where everybody wanted this athletic look, but I do see just slowly we’re going back to that very thin physique that wasn’t in and now it’s coming back in again for some crazy reason. Everybody wants to be super thin again. And I guess, and I don’t think women understand that when you are underweight, it messes with your hormones.

Jess Diamond (28:55.478)
angles, lighting, everything.

Jess Diamond (29:05.304)
Me too.

Jess Diamond (29:23.214)
Yep.

Dee (29:23.607)
mess with your hormones, it will start affecting you mentally, depression, and your fertility. The bottom line is you have to find what works for you. Social media can just show you anything. You need to find what works for you. And again, it’s going to require work, and it’s going to require research. So you’ve got to pick your heart.

Jess Diamond (29:49.164)
Yeah, I think the, I made a post about this, the health blindness that I think people who are now reverting back to the, want to be skinny stages is that they’re like, but I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been. I’m working out all the time. I’m eating healthy. It’s like, I’m doing everything right. But it’s to the extreme that they’re not the healthiest they’ve ever been. They’re actually the unhealthiest they’ve ever been, but in the opposite direction.

Dee (30:13.543)
And I don’t think we talk about that enough. We pick on people who are overweight, but I’m seeing the extreme opposite more and more. Yeah. Which is just as bad.

Jess Diamond (30:21.614)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Diamond (30:25.206)
Yeah. Yeah, it’s dangerous both ends. mean, you never want to be on one extreme side of a spectrum.

Dee (30:33.529)
No, never, never.

Jess Diamond (30:36.398)
All right, gonna move into our next statement. All calories are created equally.

Jess Diamond (30:45.056)
Yeah, correct, no.

Dee (30:49.416)
calories are not created equal.

I use an example I use of one of my clients about reading calories on food. Yeah.

Jess Diamond (31:04.558)
Oh gosh, where there’s like a 20 % error rate. Okay.

Dee (31:09.563)
Yes, it’s not accurate, first of all, how many calories that you see on food. And then another mistake, a common mistake, since we’re talking about calories on food, is that we don’t look at the servings and everything on the back of the label that make up the ingredients. I’ll use the, what’s that one, protein, ice cream, everybody was running out, getting at one point.

Jess Diamond (31:38.034)
I don’t know the name.

Dee (31:39.336)
I can’t remember the name of the ice cream, but here’s a good example. One pint of the vanilla bean is 280 calories. That’s pretty low price for the whole pint. That one little pint was actually three servings, but it really was 280 calories, but three servings. One serving was 18 grams of sugar. So that’s 18 times three.

Jess Diamond (31:53.933)
Mm-hmm.

Dee (32:08.825)
And the fat was, I think, like 17 or something. That’s 17 times three. So we’re not looking at the serving sizes. We’re just looking at, it says it’s only 200-some calories. This must be OK. No. It’s not OK. You have to look at the whole picture, the whole spectrum. And then.

If something is high in calorie, doesn’t necessarily make it bad. No, again, it depends on how many calories you need, your total macros, how many you need in the course of a day. So as soon as we see 300 calories, oh, I didn’t throw it down. Right, but what does that 300 calories consist of? Let’s say your oats, you put all your oats together, maybe it’s 400 calories, but it’s 400, some really good calories that’s going to keep you full.

for like three hours. So we’re chasing these calorie numbers like, that’s 400 calories, I can eat that, I can only eat 200. Yeah, but that’s not enough calories. And again, back to products, make sure you read the whole label. What that whole product, what those calories, everything, it consists on before you say that calories are bad. I’m looking at it from the amount, the amount, that’s how I’m looking at it.

Jess Diamond (33:33.814)
Yeah, well, the example I always think of is little olive oil spray cans and it’s like, it says zero calories on the back, but like we know olive oil is not zero calories and you look at the serving side and it’s like one fourth of a second of a spray. Who is spraying it for one fourth of a second?

Dee (33:45.095)
It’s not zero dollars.

Dee (33:52.103)
That’s a really good example.

Jess Diamond (33:54.638)
Like obviously that is not the case. This is not zero calories being put onto the skillet right now or onto my chicken.

Dee (33:59.376)
Yeah.

What else do you want calories in it? Ice?

Jess Diamond (34:06.506)
Yeah, water. But it’s the all calories are created equally, think stems people believe that because it stems off of the law of thermodynamics of calories in versus calories out, which is true. But it’s also not true. And I think I’ve mentioned this on like other episodes, because it’s the metabolism is so nuanced, like people’s no one has the same metabolism, it is as undiscovered as

Dee (34:32.518)
No.

Jess Diamond (34:34.658)
the universe or as the deep ocean. people, there’s so much science behind it that has yet to be finalized and known that it’s really all just an estimate. And as Dia has been saying is like, you have to know how your body reacts. So yeah, you can be given an equation to calculate what your metabolism, like what you’re burning at rest, what your basal metabolic rate is. And then you have to figure out for yourself, like if you’re not eating anywhere near that amount, but you’ve been maintaining your weight, then that’s not yours.

Dee (34:55.131)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Diamond (35:04.503)
So like take it with a grain of salt for one. And then two is the calories you’re eating can either like, yes, calories in versus calories out. And a calorie is a calorie no matter what. But to the other side of that is one calorie can, or not one, but something, a piece of food that contains calories can keep you fuller for longer and have you making better decisions and decrease your cravings and keep you energized.

And then another one is going to make you staying within your macros and within your caloric range a lot harder because you’re going to have cravings and you’re going to have spikes and drops. so it is like yes and no, but at the end of the day, like all calories are not created equally because they do react differently in your body based on what you’re putting in it, as well as how your body as the individual responds to it.

Dee (35:42.631)
You say yes and no. No.

Dee (35:56.967)
Yeah, that was good.

Jess Diamond (35:59.17)
Thanks. All right, moving into the next statement. Eating every two to three hours is how I can boost my metabolism.

Dee (36:07.597)
No, that’s not true.

Jess Diamond (36:10.36)
Alright, explain.

Dee (36:12.923)
That is not true. Again, it depends on the individual and the level of activity that you’re doing throughout the course of the day. You don’t have to eat every two to three hours, but should you wait hours, five and six hours to eat? No, because you’re probably gonna binge later, because you waited too long. And at some point you do slow down your metabolism.

But again, you have to listen to your body. Now me, because I’m constantly moving all the time and my body is more muscle than fat. I burn calories faster than maybe another person whose body fat percentage might be 26. My body fat percentage right now is nine because I’m getting ready for a bodybuilding competition.

So I’m hungry all, I’m hungry all. That’s it, okay. So eating every three hours, I feel like I’m gonna die. So I have to, just to keep up with that. Let me give another good example is Michael Phelps, the swimmer. His calories for breakfast. His mother used to make these stacks of pancakes and sausage, 10,000 calories.

And so the average person might say, that is unbelievable. But when you get in a pool and you swim for three hours and your body fat percentage is less than 10 % like his, you have to eat like that. And you have to eat often or he’s going to lose muscle and he’s not going to have the energy to perform. So I guess I always use a car. Are you driving a Ferrari or are you driving, no, enough for mama Volkswagen. I’m just saying. Or are you driving a Volkswagen?

That kind of determines how often you need to eat. Now, I’m not a big fan of intermittent fasting. I’m not. If it works for you, fine. But I’m not a fan of it because most people, and I’ll tell the truth and shame the devil, because most of y’all I talk to, I do consultations with, you do intermittent fasting because you’re lazy. And you want to just eat once a day. And you eat all this garbage and gluttony.

Jess Diamond (38:14.36)
Me neither.

Dee (38:34.821)
and you don’t lose weight. So for some, it’s just an excuse to eat once a day. Now, I’m just being honest, if you’re trying to put muscle on and you have a busy lifestyle, that’s probably not a good idea for you because you need a little bit more fuel than someone who’s just sitting around and doing nothing. But back to the question, do I need to eat every two to three hours? Again, it’s customized. It depends on the person.

Yes.

Jess Diamond (39:05.644)
Yeah, because I’m someone who’s not training for a bodybuilding competition. And I’d say I have like an average amount of muscle, maybe above average amount of muscle on my body. But I’ve always been a grazer. I have never been a person that likes to feel stuffed. That is not enjoyable for me. I like to…

Dee (39:23.335)
Thank you.

Jess Diamond (39:25.058)
feel good and then go on. And so I am someone that has to eat every two to three hours. I’m hungry every two to three hours because I’m not eating massive meals in one sitting. I’m eating like maybe like three, 400 calories multiple times throughout the day, like five, six times throughout the day. And that’s.

That’s what makes my body feel good. And I am also someone that moves around a lot throughout the day. mean, after we’re done recording, I’m going to go train someone for 45 minutes. And that’s me on my feet, moving weights around and interacting. So it does depend on the person. I know people that prefer to have like three large meals throughout the day. And like, that’s what works for them. It carries them over to their next meal. And then they’re good. They eat that one, carries them to their next and so on and so forth. I’m not that person. And I know that about myself.

Dee (39:55.256)
Yeah.

Jess Diamond (40:13.536)
then you as the listener have to know that about yourself with what’s going to work as well as not being stupid about it.

Dee (40:13.649)
Yeah.

Dee (40:20.871)
Let’s talk about grazing for a minute. feel like, let’s define what grazing is. Okay, grazing is not sitting at your desk, go buy candy bar. They eat a bag of potato chips. They eat a bag of peanuts. Cause a lot of times that’s stress eating or eating out of boredom. Grazers are, like she said, I have a grandson like that who was actually underway. was in a hospital for being underway cause he just didn’t like food.

Jess Diamond (40:24.682)
Okay. yes.

Dee (40:51.303)
He just did. And some people are like that. So I had to put food around the house, literally bowls of fruit, and I put a little scarf on the refrigerator. He can open up the refrigerator and get what he wanted. If I let him graze, he ate all day. Good food, fruits, vegetables. I mean, I’ve seen you eat, Jes, you eat really good food. Grazing on good food throughout the day to help keep you full.

Jess Diamond (40:53.42)
Mm-hmm.

Dee (41:20.999)
and energy because some people like you said can’t sit and eat like if you have weight loss surgery you can’t eat four or five hundred calories at one time some people just can’t eat like that so it’s okay if you’re a grazer but walking but snacking all day and grazing is not the same thing that’s different

Jess Diamond (41:42.798)
Mm hmm. Yes, like I’m still eating full meals. My snacks themselves contain usually a protein, a fat and a carb. It might not be like an actual meal. It’s more of a snack, but it still has the macros within it that’s going to carry me for the next couple hours that I need. And I know like the bodybuilding is a little more nuanced. Like it is actual meals. It is like chicken, rice, vegetables like that, but not a bodybuilder. So for me, like it’s a

carrots and hummus and maybe like some fruit. And that’s like my afternoon snack to carry me through. Maybe it’s a rice cake with some peanut butter smeared on it to go with all that. Cause sometimes I need like a little bit of crunch to it. So it’s, it’s clean. It’s clean, like single ingredient foods for the most part. And it’s to keep me energized. I’m not craving it. It’s like, I’m hungry. And for me, it’s not dinner time yet. And I don’t want to cook a whole meal right now. But then there’s also like Sunday. I think I had dinner at like

Dee (42:13.605)
And I just.

Jess Diamond (42:39.726)
515 p.m. because I got home and I was hungry and I was like, I don’t want a snack right now. I want a meal. I am ready to sit down and have dinner. And then I went and walked to Publix after to pick up some groceries that I needed. So it does. It depends on you. It depends. to your point, I’m glad that you define what is grazing versus just, yeah, absentmindedly snacking too, because that’s where people get lost.

Dee (43:01.489)
snacking. I think what’s easy. Yes.

Jess Diamond (43:07.544)
just like an open bag of chips or an open bag of something or like an open container and their hand is grazing its way into that container versus a more thought out, it’s on a plate, maybe it’s measured out, maybe it’s not, but it’s separate from the container that it came in. And it’s with intentionality. It’s I’m going to intentionally eat this to carry me into my next meal so that I’m not craving, so I’m not overeating on my next meal so that I don’t.

Overdo it and like let my hunger tank go completely empty and so on and so forth

Dee (43:41.074)
think that’s a really good example of people who don’t want to feel like they’re trapped just eating meals all day. I think an intelligent way to eat throughout the course of the day is breakfast, a snack, a meal, a snack, and dinner. And that’s good. And if you want a late night reasonable snack, or like you said, like those rice cakes.

chocolate rice cakes, the apple rice cakes, like maybe two of those. I make popsicles, BCAA popsicles, and I squeeze a lemon in it, and it’s like the best that I can do if you have to have something that you, you know, when you go to bed at night. But the bottom line is you have to find what works for you within reason. But when I say that, like, you don’t want to find what works for you because you just want to do what you want to do, right?

The whole key is to stay healthy and to make good choices. And that could be an array of things. You just have to find what works for you that’s sustainable, but can also help you to reach whatever your health goal is.

Jess Diamond (44:53.55)
Yeah, that’s exactly how I eat is breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and then usually like a little evening. Usually it’s right after dinner and one of those cloud palette cleanser moments. So just like, I just need to signify this is the end of me eating for today. And sometimes I don’t do that. It just, really depends on the day. And if I have plans after or, or not, honestly, if I’m by myself, I’ll probably do it. But if I’m out or if like my boyfriend’s over or friends over, I don’t. So I know it’s more me just.

Dee (45:03.504)
Yeah.

Jess Diamond (45:22.998)
It’s like not a calorie thing, not a hunger thing. It’s more of a craving thing in that moment or a habit, I guess I’ve implemented, but it’s not a chocolate bar. It is literally a rice cake with peanut butter and jelly on it. Then that is what I like to have at the end of the day. So, all right, I wanna move into another statement. If I want to lose weight,

Dee (45:29.095)
Yes.

Jess Diamond (45:50.464)
I should only eat salads for lunch and dinner.

Dee (45:55.602)
That’s my, well, we know that’s my truth. Cows eat salad all day and they’re fat.

Jess Diamond (45:57.966)
you

Dee (46:02.983)
No. Most salads, let’s say iceberg veggie salad, there’s like little nutrients in it. Every macro has its place and it’s important. Starving yourself is never the answer. Number one, it’s not sustainable. Just eating salads all the time. Don’t say you’re not, you are going to binge later.

It’s not enough food. You’re going to be hungry. That’s not the way to lose weight. Are salads bad? No, they have their place. But it goes back to making sure that you’re eating enough. And just eating salad all day, that’s not sustainable. And you’re not getting all the nutrients that you need either. So no, that’s not a good idea.

Jess Diamond (46:57.89)
I think the opposite is also true of more so when you’re eating out and getting salads is that there’s so much stuff in it that you’re actually over eating the amount of calories, but you’re like, it’s a salad. So it’s healthy. Versatile, if you make it at home, you’re going to make it healthier for sure. But that’s where it’s more of a catch 22 is like, if you’re not making a salad properly, if it doesn’t have the right macros in it still for a full meal.

Dee (47:05.019)
Mm-hmm.

Dee (47:09.957)
Very good point, that’s right.

Dee (47:18.129)
Yeah.

Jess Diamond (47:27.054)
then or for like your full meal is what you need, then you’re going to be hungry and you’re not going to be satisfied and you’re going to just want to keep snacking throughout the entire rest of the day until you get to your next meal. But then the other side is sometimes salads have a bunch of crap in it and you’re ordering that and you’re eating all of it. But like I said, my god, you’re like, I’m healthy. I’m eating a salad. Why am I not losing weight? It’s like, well, cause it’s, there’s a lot of food in there. It’s a lot of calories in there.

Dee (47:45.189)
Me too.

Dee (47:53.384)
Well, the salad has chicken and cheese and croutons and ham and ranch dressing. It’s like the salad is 700 calories. It’s seven. And then the portions of the salad is this big. the worst is probably a cod salad. my goodness. The cod salad is this big. It has everything in it. Yeah, just because it’s a salad.

Jess Diamond (48:07.373)
Yeah.

Dee (48:22.117)
doesn’t mean that it’s good.

Jess Diamond (48:24.812)
Yeah, so it could be both sides of it. But at the end of the day is like, if you want to lose weight, you do not only need to eat salads for lunch and dinner. If you don’t like salads, don’t eat salads. I like salads sometimes like my meal prep this week is chicken salad. Well, not chicken salad. There’s chicken in my salad. There’s nuts like a handful of nuts. There’s a little not even a full handful like a sprinkling of nuts sprinkling of dried cranberries.

of what else is in there. I honestly think that might be cucumbers and I’m not a huge dressing person so it’s one of those like pre-made salad packs things that is so I’ll buy two of those and I’ll use the salads and I don’t I can’t have the cheese so that’s not in there and I don’t usually put the crouton parts in there and I break it up over the course of five meals and the the little dressing bag like the tiny little thing that’s in it I use

Dee (49:04.677)
Mm-hmm.

Dee (49:18.821)
Yes.

Jess Diamond (49:21.058)
half of that for the entire week, just because I’m not a huge dressing person. So I know when I make salads, like they are healthy. They’re not overdoing, they’re not 700 calories. There’s not a whole bunch of crap in it, filling it up, but it makes me feel good. And I wanted to make it this week. Am I making it next week? Probably not, because I can’t have it every single week. I’ll lose my mind. That’s one of those foods that I cannot eat all the time.

Dee (49:25.403)
Yeah, I don’t like a lot of them.

Dee (49:45.479)
Yeah, I can’t eat salad all time. Nope, that’s me.

Jess Diamond (49:49.64)
Yeah, all right. And Dee’s saying that and she’s at 9 % body fat right now. So you do not need to eat salads to lose weight. Okay, let’s go to the last statement that I have. And I think this will be your favorite one. I have time to get healthy later.

Dee (50:10.235)
Yeah, I think I hear a lot of this statement, I’m just wanting to live. You need to learn how to live. And I get that a lot because of what I do. And I always tell people, I do what I do so I can live. I’m trying to live longer and live healthier. again, it goes back to mindset and how you view health. It’s not a punishment.

to make you feel better, looking good as a bonus, just longevity of life, being able to take care of yourself. How about not being pain, know, weight and pain in your knees, pain in your back, you know, it all, it all of it goes back to perspective and how you view things. But I get that a lot. My favorite statement is just when can you eat again? I’m like, what?

If I didn’t eat, I’ll be dead. I mean, I eat. You see me just at the gym. I eat all the time. It’s just that all the time I’m always eating. I just don’t eat what you perceive as food, which is really messed up. You know, that we, you’re shocked when you hear someone say, I don’t eat pizza. And they look exactly crazy. Like, you don’t eat pizza.

Jess Diamond (51:10.766)
You

Jess Diamond (51:14.85)
Yep, always kind of counter eating.

Dee (51:37.051)
What? And my response to that is, you do? You eat pizza? my God.

Jess Diamond (51:44.686)
You

Dee (51:45.573)
You know, but it all goes back to perspective and how you view things. Yeah.

Jess Diamond (51:50.594)
Yeah, I think the hardest part of being in this industry or one of the hardest parts is that preventative care that we’re trying to promote of you don’t want to be like this down the line. I’ve recently had over the last couple of months, a lot of 29 year olds come to me for personal training.

which is very like they’re all 29. It’s because they see 30 and they’re hearing all of a sudden like when you turn 30, everything starts going down. Like it’s downhill from that point. And I mean, it is true. Like you start losing muscle mass, your body isn’t responding as well to things. Your metabolism is slowing down because you haven’t done anything to maintain or to take care of your health. This is a 20 something podcast. Like you’re in your 20s. You’re listening to this.

Dee (52:20.231)
Yeah, yeah.

Dee (52:27.921)
Yeah.

Jess Diamond (52:35.488)
you have so much like time is on your side so much, but don’t let that be an encouragement for you to slack off now because you have time to catch up later. Essentially, it’s like no, it’s an investment. It’s a you’re putting away money into your 401k. It’s the same thing you’re putting in health into your body so that it can grow over time and you don’t deteriorate as you get older, your bones don’t break your your you stay fertile, you stay healthy. I have one client right now who’s 30.

seven, I think. And she’s like, she just talks about preventing menopause. She’s had this conversation with you. She’s like, yeah, I’m, I’m trying to delay menopause as best as I can. Like I want it to be so far down the road because I, I don’t want it to be early onset. That’s scary for her. So she’s been lifting weights for a very long time and eating well and like nourishing her body. And it’s like, you need to be doing that for yourself today. It’s not too late to start today. You do not have time to get healthier later.

Dee (53:34.12)
Yeah, you don’t have time. And once it’s gone, sometimes it’s just gone. Or you have to climb that mountain. It’s a little steeper than if you had started when you were young and it becomes a healthy habit. But that’s what most of us do. We wait until we get the diagnosis. We wait until now we’re in full blown menopause. Now we find ourselves at 50 % body fat.

Jess Diamond (53:41.987)
Mm-hmm.

Dee (54:04.453)
and we had willful blindness until it was put in front of us. And now we want to do something about it. But health, living healthy, working out, eating right, that should be part of lifestyle. And it’s not a choice. It’s what you do. Not leisurely when it’s convenient because you’re trying to live a little. Well, you want to live a lot, not a little. And don’t wait.

until the time is no longer on your side and now you have to pay catch up. Now I see that the most. I do maybe about six or seven phone consultations a week. My most common client are females who are now in menopause and body fat percentage is over 40%. And they’re like,

What happened? I woke up and I had this stomach. I used to could just do this and the weight would come off. Now it’s not moving. Now I want to do something. I’m like, well, you can still do something. It’s just harder. You picked the hard road. So, know, to young people, you know, pick your heart. I always say that. There’s a hard…

that leads to reward. And there’s one that leads to regret because when you’re trying, when you’re 40 % body fat and you’re in your mid forties and mid menopause, it takes you double the amount of time to get the weight off. So do it now while you’re young and make it a lifestyle. Can you still go out and enjoy your friends? Absolutely. Go out to dinner, go to the bar and have a drink. It’s just that

That shouldn’t be 70 % of your time. It should be leisure. It’s something me, I do a cheat meal with my husband on Sundays. We planned it in advance. If I do something really over the top, like I’m going to a wedding or something, I plan ahead. I’ll lose two pounds just because I know I’m going to put two pounds on it. You know, to thine own self be true. I know I’m going to do it. So these things are going to the bar for a drink.

Jess Diamond (56:02.21)
Yeah.

Dee (56:26.695)
going out to dinner, those are treats, not my lifestyle. But we go out and we eat every day, because it’s convenient. You say you don’t want to eat the same thing every day, but you go to Chick-fil-A every damn day. Sorry, I didn’t mean to that. Every day. You and you at Chick-fil-A. Yeah. So you really are eating what you want to eat every day. Then when we tell you to do this, now you’re bucking up against the system because

Jess Diamond (56:45.944)
Thank you for still here.

Dee (56:55.847)
Again, perspective. So while you’re young, do it now so when you’re 40, it’s easy. I’m a 55 year old woman in full blown menopause and most 29 year olds, I can outwork them, outrun them, do a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff better. And that shouldn’t be that way. You have to invest in your health. Because again, once it’s gone, it’s gone.

You need it. Just sustainable, just the same life. need it.

Jess Diamond (57:30.156)
Yeah, do it now while you don’t have kids and you’re not married or most of you aren’t married yet. Like you have the time right now. It might not feel that way. That’s where I come in as your coach, help you find that time. But you have the time to implement these habits now. So D, what?

Dee (57:36.103)
you

Dee (57:46.482)
I hear people say things like, just one more thing, when they say to some of my clients, you go to the gym at five in the morning? Yes. This is their time. They go to the gym at five in the morning. They’ve made it a priority. know, just if you make it a priority, it’s easy. It’s easy.

Jess Diamond (58:08.214)
Yeah, takes a little bit of time, but it makes it much easier and it gets easier. Maybe not five in the morning. I feel like that’s always a, my God, I don’t want to be up right now, but you do it. You just do it. And you learned how to manage and you’re proud of yourself for showing up and for doing so.

Dee (58:15.111)
You

Dee (58:24.133)
Yeah, you’re proud of yourself. Just show up. You don’t have to be the best version of yourself when you go. Show up. Be have the discipline to show up. You’ll be so proud of yourself. Just a little thing. I actually ate well this week. You’ll be proud of yourself. Not only will you feel better, but you accomplish something that so many people cannot. So you should be proud of yourself.

Jess Diamond (58:47.03)
Yeah. All right. What a great conversation. So thank you, Dee, so much for coming back onto How to 20 something. Where can people find you if they have questions, if they want to work with you, or if they want to follow you?

Dee (59:00.337)
So my web address is deejsfitnation.com. That’s D-E-E-J-S fitnation.com. That’s also, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. We have some great workout tutorials and information about food. We sell meal plans on our website to get you started. We do lifestyle coaching.

all those things to help you get started. We even just have 90 day programs to just get you started. Cause you know, I had had to have someone help me to motivate me. I didn’t know everything. Having a coach even as for a short period of time, it’s worth the investment to get you started. Jess also does that. Reach out for help, you know, because a lot of people are making these mistakes. Cause like you said earlier, they just don’t know.

and maybe they’re embarrassed to say, I don’t even know what a Mac, what is a macro? And that’s okay. Look, you can either Google it or find coaches that’ll teach you.

Jess Diamond (01:00:09.612)
Yes, which macro is abbreviated for macronutrient just just for all of you guys listening. You don’t know. But all of these information will be linked in the show notes for you guys to access. But hopefully we cleared up some misconceptions about your nutrition habits and that eating healthy doesn’t have to be hard. Just stick to the basics and consistency and you will be all right. On that note.

This does conclude another episode of how to 20 something. So if you liked what you heard, if you learned something new, if you agreed or disagreed with what we had to say, or if you want to see this podcast thrive, then share this episode, send it to a confused friend, post on social media and tag me and tag D when you do. And as always, I can’t wait to be in your headphones again next week with another brand new episode.