Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Muscle Intelligence Podcast. I am your host, Ben Poclesi. Today,

we're going to talk about exactly what I would be doing if I wanted to lose 20 pounds of fat as a man over 40.

If you don't know me, my name is Ben Pocleski, former professional bodybuilder, Canadian champ 2008,

Mr. Olympia competitor 2012 and 16. And I started at a place of literally zero muscle mass and obese.

Many times in my life I've been obese. I've been 25 plus percent body fat.

I've had literally what I would say is zero muscle when I started out.

I started off as a vegetarian and I lost all my muscle and I became very weak and I became very tired and I didn't know why.

And I thought it was just like, gosh, is life going to be hard? Do I have bad genetics? All of those stories that I had were things that I've overcome along the way. Going from a kid, literally was zero muscle mass to being top Mr. Olympia competitor in the world, being considered one of the top seven bodybuilders on the planet at one time. And I always

joked that I made a living in my underwear for 15 years, walking around at sub 6% body fat for a very

long time. I know a thing or two about fat loss. And so as a man over 40, things are different now.

And you've got so many useful tools. Whereas I struggled along the way. You don't have to.

Right. I struggled to see you don't have to. I learned through really just like brutal hard work. I would do two hours of cardio a day. I would do two workouts a day. I would starve myself. I remember times when I was getting ready for bodybuilding shows, I was eating 15 or 1,600 calories a day as a 250 pound man. That's not a good idea. But I didn didn't know any better I followed through because I was committed to the outcome I was like I'm getting there no matter what and I remember there's

people on the way who would say you don't have what it takes you're not going to do it and I'm so

grateful for those people for giving me that extra nudge of like two middle fingers in the air,

you damn right, I'm going to do it. I have everything it takes to get there and more.

And I wish I had someone who had come before me a mentor, a coach, a leader who said,

hey, you don't have to do that. I just didn't know a better path. And while I had coaches

along the way, and while I had books along the way, we're talking like early 2000s here, so 20, 25 years ago, there was no such thing as ubiquitous information. There was no such things as artificial intelligence. There was no such thing as peptides. And there's no such thing as, you know, to learn something, I had to go read a book. I had to go, you old nerds will remember the microfiche in a library. Like if I wanted research studies, I was at the library. I was reading old books from Mel Siff and Yuri Verkoshanski and like these books that, you know, generations after me, probably don't know what they are because now you're like oh if i want information i just go on

youtube or i just go on the internet i'm like man i didn't have that um so i was just a big dumb oaf who

said hey i'm really stubborn and persistent and i think that served me because i would say many of you

guys may or me agree disagree the work ethic in the younger generation isn't instilled yet because

they just don't have to.

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