When you build some muscle you become more insulin sensitive, becoming more insulin sensitive means you're going to have less of those ups and downs and we know those ups and downs affect how we feel and a big thing that we don't focus on when we talk about nutrition that I learned a lot as a trainer was how food makes you feel is paramount because I could tell you what to eat all day long if you give you the perfect amount of calories but if you have a relationship with food where

you're tired, depressed, sad, you reach for something to comfort yourself. Well if I can get you to feel a little bit better you're more likely to make conscious decisions that are better for you.

Welcome to the Drupal Podcast. Each week we explore the inner workings of the brain and the body with one of the brightest minds in wellness, medicine and mindset.

This week's guest is Sal de Stefano and he's here to continue our summer weight loss and body composition series by sharing his practical steps on how to get results not only quickly but more directly and how to forever break free of the yo-yo diet and fitness culture.

Now a little bit more about Sal. Sal started as a professional in the fitness industry as a trainer at the age of 18. At the age of 24 he left the commercial gym industry to open his own fitness and wellness studio after he became disabled.

So he became dissatisfied with the big box gym approach to health and fitness. He wanted to bring a wellness based, well rounded approach to people.

This approach led to the opening of a new gym and long term success with his clients and he developed a behavioral focused approach towards health and fitness which he'll be discussing today.

After a decade of running his own studio he met his friends Doug, Adam and Justin and they launched the Mind Pump Podcast which quickly became the number one fitness and health podcast in the world.

Currently Sal is one of the most sought after experts in fitness and health with his effective grounded and easy to understand style of communication.

He has been on hundreds of top podcast episodes and frequently speaks at trainer and health practitioner events.

His deepest passion and goal is to make the fitness industry one that's a force for good with long term health being the focus and not one that is riddled with diet pills, crash diets and false promises.

Stay tuned for a fantastic episode with Sal the Stefano.

Sal welcome to the podcast pleasure to have you here. I want to jump right in you know I heard you say once online and it fascinating me when it comes to the concept of losing weight and belly fat.

Instead of focusing on calories first with your clients you actually focus on building muscle.

Is that true? Yeah 100% so there's two reasons for that now let's let's little context so I trained every day people as a personal trainer for over two decades and I had a deep passion I still do for helping people.

And so through that process I mean you're talking about 20 years through that process you start to kind of learn what works and what doesn't work.

Now there's what works in textbooks and in studies and then there's what works in the real world and what I mean by works isn't necessarily just do they lose weight but rather are they able to keep it off and keep it off forever.

Am I able to create a sustainable approach for this person and help them develop a relationship with exercise and nutrition that lasts forever.

Because a lot of people don't know this but the fail rate with weight losses close to 90% so we don't have a problem losing weight.

We have a problem keeping it off everybody's focus on how do I lose it nobody's looking at the big problem which is okay once I lose it then what happens and what's going on why can't we keep it off and a lot of it has to do with how we lose the weight the approach that we have.

So the first reason it's going to sound kind of silly but the first reason why I would focus on I guess the fitness aspect or building muscle in particular was it was easier.

It's easier for me to help you build muscle if you're seeing me two days a week as a trainer then it is for me to get you to alter and change your nutrition that you're going to deal with every single day when I'm there when I'm not there when you're stressed when you're tired when you're at a party or whatever.

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