Ultimate Nutrition Bible Decoded: Reverse Dieting, Raw Food, Enzymes, Weight Loss, & Amino Acids

Nick Urban [00:00:05]:

What if there was an all in one way to burn your body fat, to build muscle, to optimize your health, your productivity, your energy, your stress, your sleep, and a whole lot more? What if there was a way of customizing the latest and fanciest and best protocols to your unique biochemistry and, more importantly, to the constraints of your lifestyle and your specific goals? Well, I’m pleased to say that that system now exists. And in today’s episode, we will be diving deep into exactly what it is and some of the often overlooked principles when it comes to diet, nutrition, and overall health optimization? Hi. I’m Nick Urban, host of the Mindbody Peak Performance podcast. Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by Wade Leithart. Wade is a certified sports nutritionist adviser and president slash director of education and cofounder of bioptimizers? As a plant based and drug free athlete for more than 2 decades, Wade is a 3 time national natural bodybuilding champion who competed in both the IFBB Mr. Universe and the INBA Natural Olympiad by the age of 31? At the age of 50, Wade came out of retirement to win the Open Men’s and Grand Masters categories at the INBA Ironman International, then competed at the PNBA Natural Olympia? As we discuss, 6 months later, Wade successfully ran his 1st marathon in 4 hours, a feat that you rarely see bodybuilders accomplishing? Today, we’re discussing Wade and his cofounder, Matt Gallant’s latest work called The Ultimate Nutrition Bible. I have it in front of me. I’ve read about a 150 pages so far, and it is quite comprehensive as you’ll see in the show.

Nick Urban [00:02:20]:

If you want to check out the previous episode I recorded with his cofounder, Matt, you can go to mindbodypeak.com/thenumber92. Today’s episode, you’ll find at mindbodypeak.com/one30. In the show notes, you’ll find the links to the resources of everything we discuss? Wade and Matt arranged for an exclusive offer for my listeners. If you go to ultimate nutrition system.com/nickurban, in addition to the 10% discount you get by using my code, Nick Urban? You’ll also unlock special bonuses and gifts with your purchase. You won’t find this deal anywhere else on the Internet. It’s only available at ultimate nutrition system.com/nickurban, and it’s for a limited time only? So go there right now. Grab your book and your free gifts. Once again, The link to that will be in the description of this episode.

Nick Urban [00:03:22]:

And if you wanna check out any of the other products that BioOptimizers carries, you can use the code urban, and that’ll save you 10% as well? Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, sit back, relax, and enjoy my conversation with Wade Leithart? Wade, welcome to Mindbody Peak Performance. Dude, great to be here. It is great to host you, and You guys sent me over your Ultimate Nutrition Bible recently, and I dug into it expecting to learn the intricacies of nutrition? And I quickly realized it is your 4 hour work week, Tim Ferriss style. You come for the nutrition. You leave with a whole operating system on how to live a better life? So I would love to chat about this with you today.

Wade Lightheart [00:04:08]:

Excited to get into it.

Nick Urban [00:04:10]:

Alright. Let’s start off with the unusuals or nonnegotiables you’ve done for your health, your performance, and your bioharmony.

Wade Lightheart [00:04:18]:

Okay. Great question. So, this morning, I got up, did my energization exercises, which would be kinda like a chi energy kinda thing. I did a neurovisor treatment. I don’t know if you guys have used that, that’s a that’s a cool device, kinda get myself in a really nice brain state. I did a nano v with, a, Cloud Pimp machine to kinda get my electromagnetics in the right space, Then, went down to the gym. I walked to the gym, weight training workout, walked back, and then, you know, had a really nice, protein shake and some fruit this morning for breakfast? So, you know, get my mind in the right state, get my body in the right state and then fuel up, I guess it’d be the, those are kind of my standards every morning, you know?

Nick Urban [00:05:07]:

Yeah. And you’ve pulled out all the fancy biohacks and also done some of the basics. I love that you also just, Not only do you go to the gym, but you also walk to and from, and that’s a great way to get in some extra movement. And movement is so much more than just burning fat and calories, and we’ll talk about that in this podcast as well also? But tell me about your background a bit. I I know about it, but I want you to share that with listeners so they understand who they’re talking with.

Wade Lightheart [00:05:30]:

Yeah. So, you know, I’m a kid that grew up in rural Canada, hunting, fishing, all that sort of stuff. I lived, You know, as a teenager, it was 5 miles to my nearest neighbor in the middle of the woods at a my parents were the caretakers of a private resort, so, you know, I’d wake up with, you know, Deer or moose looking in the window and, you know, out of the lake. And so I grew up in a very rural environment. That’s where I got started into, lifting weights. I built a gym in my garage, Or it wasn’t a garage. It was actually a barn and, you know, old school Rocky style with the pulleys and, you know, things like that and the old, York dumbbells, the cement sets, you know, and I and I created my own pulleys and things like that. So I started training that way naturally because I Read about Arnold Schwarzenegger and saw this guy that was, you know, at the top the biggest movie star in the world, and he had all these muscles, and he was making all this money.

Wade Lightheart [00:06:24]:

He was and he had won all these eliminations. Like, man, I wanna live in California and have a great body and go to mister universes myself. And so that kinda spawned my dream, and, from there, I went to exercise physiology at the University of New Brunswick, was really unimpressed. I I remember in my 4th year asking my exercise physiologist, I had been doing high intense I’ve been experimenting with high intensity training at the time. And over the course of about 3 months, I had dropped my resting heart rate by about 10 beats per minute, I went to my exercise physiology professor, and I said, hey. Why do you suppose this is happening? Now this is back, like, in 1993, 94, A long time ago. And he couldn’t tell me.

Nick Urban [00:07:13]:

Wow.

Wade Lightheart [00:07:14]:

And I was like, I’m in the wrong place.

Nick Urban [00:07:16]:

Yeah.

Wade Lightheart [00:07:16]:

Wait. Like, this is my professor and he doesn’t know this? So from that point, I took it on a mission myself, just find people who are producing great results and learn from them and, you know, went through every aspect of the nutrition industry? Eventually, you know, got to represent my country at the Mr. Universe contest, and then Matt and I started a company, after that, trying to help bodybuilders avoid the pitfalls of the industry, and then eventually that evolved into years later. And so, yeah, it’s been an awesome journey. And, you know, now I’m up in my fifties, and now I’m playing the, the the the Optimal aging program.

Nick Urban [00:07:58]:

Optimizing not just the longevity or the years you have on this planet, but the quality of that, which you guys call, I believe, biospan?

Wade Lightheart [00:08:05]:

Biospan. Yes. In other words, how how healthy can you live as you age? So we believe You know, if you look at the if you look at the advances, probably mostly from medical surgeries, And then it’s from the let’s say, you know, I had a life expectancy in the 19 sixties of about 67 years old, and it’s about 80 from there? It’s now on the decline, thanks to, you know, the reliance on pharmaceuticals, but we hit we peaked at 80. And I think most of that was just surgery intervention that Stop people dying that would have died before you had cardiovascular cancers, things like that? Basically, you got a 20% bump. So I believe that if you start Using some of the technologies and strategies, leveraging epigenetics, nutrigenomics, like, you know, dealing with your suboptimal genetics through lifestyle intervention that we can probably extend life expectancy into the mid nineties and and a healthy version of that? So instead of spending the last 25% of your life in a really painful, slow, you know, decrepit declining aspect of yourself that you’re living pretty pretty well and pretty strong and pretty vibrant until, you know, okay, The numbers came up on the serial, and God’s like, alright. You’re done. You know? Get out. So, and then, of course, some people are gonna go beyond a100, So, depending on, you know, what their potential is.

Nick Urban [00:09:31]:

Yeah. It’s really interesting. If you take the average lifespan of humans, or I guess maybe the median lifespan of humans a while back and you account for the deaths that occurred during childbearing and you filter out the deaths that occurred due to a poor sanitary environment? The lifespan back then was actually surprisingly long, and, like, it’s really those 2 main factors that are what made it so much shorter and why we think of, like, old older humans as having shorter lifespans.

Wade Lightheart [00:09:56]:

You know, perception has been shaped by a variety of institutions And they’re funding partners, and it’s to a certain outcome that may not necessarily before the person’s health and well-being? It might be actually that perception is benefiting, you know, the latest medical intervention that you just need that’s been, you know, supported by your government agency?

Nick Urban [00:10:26]:

Absolutely. And so one of the things that the old systems of medicine I’ve talked about traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda on this show a fair bit. One of the, like, core principles of all the old systems is digestion? And I know that you guys have focused on that heavily. I’m not sure if it’s because you guys also looked into some of those old systems or if it’s out of personal need? Why did you focus on digestion, and why does it matter?

Wade Lightheart [00:10:49]:

We’ve started most of our things because of a problem. In other words, when I came out of the, my 1st mister universe contest in 2003, and I was keep in mind, I was doing, if it fits your macros version of dietary strategy. I had, one of the world’s best bodybuilding coaches. So we’re we’re only looking at a a macro strategy, like, are you getting enough protein? How many carbohydrates? Tell low body fat, like, fat intake, and I was then adapting that to a vegetarian diet Now and there was that was really difficult in 2003. So, yeah, I did I, you know, I won my national titles and got to the mister universe, but After the mister universe, I gained 42 pounds of fat and water in 11 weeks. Okay? Like, don’t try this at home. I literally Completely wiped out my digestive system. I didn’t know anything about reverse dieting.

Wade Lightheart [00:11:49]:

I didn’t know about, you know, most bodybuilders were using, hormonal augmentation under that type of diet? I wasn’t. I was, you know, natural, wasn’t taking any, testosterone or any other, you know, supportive pharmaceuticals that are common within the industry? And I met a doctor, And that doctor was doctor Michael O’Brien, and he changed my life. And I went to him and I said, hey. You know, here I’m at this aesthetic ideal, Mister universe contest, which you kinda you’re you think because you look a certain way, you’re healthy, and it might be the absolute op opposite of that. And I said, what do I have to know? And he and he told something that changed my life. He said, wait, you’ve learned to build the body from the Outside in. I’m gonna teach you to build the body from the inside out. And he introduced me to the concept of digestive health and how your digestive system worked, particularly around enzymes, Probiotics, hydrochloric acid, amino acids, minerals, all these things That my nutrition training, my my university education, the top coaches in the field that I was in, None of these guys were talking about this in 2003, and so I followed his regimen, which was taking high dosages of enzymes, Probiotics, special amino acids, and some minerals.

Wade Lightheart [00:13:21]:

And 6 months later, I got my body back, but more importantly, I never felt better, and I was like, wait wait wait a minute. This is a whole different ball of wax. And so from there, Matt and I, He also did it, Matt being a keto guy and I’m being a plant based guy. So, you know, there there is an interesting topic. But we both Couldn’t deny the effect of improving our digestive system on our performance. And so we decided that we’d start producing Really high end digestive health products because we saw that the coming problems with digestion were only gonna get worse with The modern food supply, and that turned out to be true.

Nick Urban [00:14:01]:

Yeah. Let’s double click into that and talk about all those factors, the amino acids, the vitamins, the minerals, the probiotics and the enzymes? Because I think vitamins and minerals are starting to become more mainstream as are essential amino acids. You said that you use special amino acids? So I’m curious to hear what those are and also how that whole system came together and why you’d settled on that of all things. I, of course, was following his protocol, Why do you think those are the things that really move the needle?

Wade Lightheart [00:14:28]:

At that time, I was taking 250 grams of protein a day, Common, you know, so it was a little bit more than a pound or 1 gram per pound of body weight, and we’re using protein as a satiety factor on a calorie reduced diet. I realized that everybody in the nutrition industry was making a common fallacious assessment, And that is they think if you put a gram of protein in your body, that you’re getting a gram of amino acids delivered to your muscles. It’s not true because, First off, we know that when you’re a young child, your digestive ability tends to be better than someone who’s a senior citizen. So we have a digestive system. It’s a, you know, it’s a single canal from your mouth to your butt. And because you eat that food, the food isn’t in the cells where you need it. It’s in that tube. It’s not actually in you.

Wade Lightheart [00:15:26]:

The tube is in you, but it’s not in your cells. So upon learning that, I realized, Wait a minute. Am I really getting 250 grams of protein or 250 grams of amino? First off, I don’t need protein. I need amino acids. My body needs amino acids. It builds uses amino acids to build things. Okay. Well, what would happen If I started improving my digestive system, the efficiency and effectiveness of my digestive system, how much protein, what I actually need to be successful in a sport that is primarily dependent on how much amino acids you can deliver to your muscles? Not protein, and that’s a big misidentification.

Wade Lightheart [00:16:14]:

So it took me 4 years to figure that out. I optimized my digestion first using what I shared with you. Before years later, I went back to the world championships eating only 85 grams of protein a day. So 2 50 grams was definitely too much because it wasn’t working with my digestive system, and 85 grams was sufficient when I had a perfectly working system? So the average person’s somewhere in between that depending on how much digestive distress that they have. And so I was able to prove this with myself, and at that point, I was like, okay, then I’m gonna start advocating this now.

Nick Urban [00:16:53]:

To add some context, amino our proteins are made of a bunch of different amino acids and different ratios of them and each protein has different ratios and therefore, like, different protein quality scores? And no shade against vegans or vegetarians or anything, but a lot of people will consider those proteins to be lower quality because they don’t have certain as anabolic amino acids, like lower concentrations of leucine and then the other BCAs and some of the EAAs? So it sounds like with this approach, you’re able to absorb more of those EAAs and BACAAAs and other aminos even though you’re not getting as high concentrations as you would from, like, a grass fed whey protein or something?

Wade Lightheart [00:17:32]:

Well, the reason that we wrote the book, The Ultimate Nutrition Bible, is to expose the biases of ignorance. So for example, people say, well, you can’t get all the essential amino acids from a plant based diet. Plant based diets are All essential amino it’s all the amino acids that we don’t produce ourselves. So so you say, well, if you’re on a plant based diet, those are incomplete proteins. No. If you’re on an animal based diet, it’s an incomplete protein, but if you’re on a plant based it’s not incomplete protein. You have all the amino acids that you don’t produce.

Nick Urban [00:18:08]:

Yeah. And you’re also you’re you’re eating multiple foods at the same time, so you’re getting different amino acids from different food.

Wade Lightheart [00:18:14]:

Well, this is part of another assumption that I’m not so sure is true. It’s here’s the thing. There’s not a lot of Vegan or vegetarian athletes. And because of that, people say, because it’s uncommon, therefore, It’s a it’s a truth. And I’m a contrarian by nature, so I’ll I’ll put my hand up on that one. And I’m not here to to put down plant or, like, meat eaters or anything like that. I’m here to challenge these beliefs because If you have a belief that’s not based in reality, but it’s based on conjecture and commonality, you’re destined to make the same mistakes Steaks over and over again? And what I found is this, most vegans and vegetarians Eat poor diets. Just like most meat eaters eat poor diets, but there’s been a common movement around Consuming consistent amounts of animal proteins or whey proteins or or protein whey protein came in, Animals have been around forever, but why did whey protein come in, for example? Well, because people weren’t consistent enough with their meat consumption, Or eating that much meat may was not as easy as, you know, having a shake and some protein as a as a supplement once or twice a day.

Wade Lightheart [00:19:47]:

So people have a hard time, like, sorting through the nuances even of what’s working for them and why it’s working. So I believe that certain types of people will be more predisposed to having success on an animal based diet. Some people will do well on beef. Some people can’t have beef. Some people can do well on fish and chicken, and some people need to go to, like, lamb and goat, or some people can only eat bison? You know? And that and and all of that, I believe, is gonna come down to, You know, your genetics, your epigenetics, your dietary sensitivity, and your psychological conditioning? And do not underestimate your subconscious psychological beliefs that bleed into the effectiveness of any diet? And I had to overcome these. I thought when I went to a plant based diet? You know, I grew up hunting, fishing, living in the woods, and I wanted to experiment, and I remember The trepidation psychologically that I couldn’t get enough protein on a plant based diet, and and and I did a 2 week experiment, And then I did another 2 week experiment on a plant based diet, and then I went 2 months. I went 2 months, no knowledge, no understanding, No 0 sophistication, but I felt good, and I didn’t shrink up and blow away Like, you know, all of my friends thought, and I was in, you know, the bodybuilding community, probably the most aggressive, condemnative community that you could get as far as dietary regulation? And, I said, no. I’ll try this, and I felt good, and then that was it.

Wade Lightheart [00:21:28]:

I did I just Started experimenting with the plant based diet more and more, not as a way to say, hey. Everybody needs to be plant based. He says, I wanna see if this is actually true or not? And I made all the mistakes too. So you know?

Nick Urban [00:21:40]:

Yeah. So when you cut down from 200 plus grams of protein, 2 50 grams of protein a day to 90, Why did you do that? And you mentioned that there’s issues with consuming too much protein or I guess you alluded to that. And that’s like the pendulum has swung the opposite way now, and it’s like protein is seen as this magic nutrient that helps rebuild. It also satiates appetite, and, like, now there’s, like, a a lot of people consuming 200 plus who don’t necessarily need 200 plus, why did you cut down to 90 and even though you could be getting more?

Wade Lightheart [00:22:09]:

Well, that was because I wanted to see where where did I actually start seeing a physiological effect. In other words, When I was training at a you know, in my mid thirties at a world championship level, so between the ages of 31 and 35, which is pretty much your peak in your your muscle building sophistication level, and that’s not hormonally augmented? Okay? I wanna be clear about that. And and and a lot of people that you know, if you’re jacking up your Protein content, but you’re on a 1000 milligrams a week of testosterone, which is increasing your protein synthesis? Well, you’re distorting the amount of information you’re going there or you’re like Ronnie Coleman that has, like, you know you know, no no mTORF Gene or something. You know what I mean? Like, you you have to you can’t take genetic outliers, and you can’t take, hormonally assisted people and apply that to regular people? Okay? And that’s another mistake people make. But when I went to that level, I was like, okay. At what point do I start to see a loss of lean body mass training at the highest level that you can, you know, in that sport? And for me at that time, 85 grams is when I started to notice the drop off. I felt that around a100, It it gave me a little bit of a a move because you never know exactly what it is. You’re you think it’s 85 grams.

Wade Lightheart [00:23:41]:

Maybe it is. Maybe you didn’t quite get that right. Maybe that protein wasn’t perfect. A hundred was really nice. And, you know, even today, when I came back and and did the world championships, last year at 50, I was still eating about a 120 grams, so I had a little bit more, and largely in part just because The way my my food broke down over the 4. I was eating 4 meals. Back then, I was eating 5 meals, and I was doing different supplementation. This time, I changed it a little bit As my diet has gotten more sophisticated, as I’ve gotten older, I’m less, you know, hormonally as strong as I was in 30, still not on TRT or anything like that.

Wade Lightheart [00:24:24]:

Not that I have anything against that, but under the competition rules, I couldn’t use any of those agents. So I now use fiber, and this will core correlate with your other question. I now use fiber as a satiety factor. So why is protein king? In my opinion, it is the satiety of factor that allows people to maintain their Their calories in calories out model to create a long term calorie deficit without overtly, throwing out their satiety factor. And and and as a plant based guy, it’s really hard to get that type of volume of plants into your body? And what I found, though, you can use fiber to boost the satiety and still get the same effect? And and I have a a suboptimal gene around satiety, which means I don’t get the signal soon enough to stop eating, so I’ll overeat real easily. I love eating.

Nick Urban [00:25:27]:

It’s interesting how our genes, they’re not deterministic in a lot of cases, but they can really explain clues as to, like, things that we know or in some cases don’t know? Like, yeah, I know that if I pick up a cookie, I’m gonna eat the whole box without blinking, and then I’ll realize I ate the whole thing and I’ll feel bad about it. And if I know that if I, like, take a genetic analysis test and I understand that about myself, then I can make a better decision knowing that and, like, okay. I see this. I see this, how these 2 combine. But without that knowledge, without understanding it, it can be a lot harder, and you might just feel like a bad person for for making that mistake?

Wade Lightheart [00:25:59]:

Well, you know, a couple of things that we talk about, And you you brought up a couple things. In her book, we talk about the pyramid of nutritional decisions. And at the base of that is Spiritual and cultural commitments as well as emotional and psychological needs? So emotional and psychological needs can Logical needs can be as much neurochemistry as traumatic events or positive events. So, like, The social connection, you know, between shared meals. So so when I go out with my friends, I wanna eat like crazy because that was a time of celebration. But if I’m locked into a goal that’s really important to me, I have no problem of going out to a public event and not touching Anything. If I don’t have that goal, I I don’t flip the switch on my importance of values. So, you know, Matt, my business partner, he he doesn’t like that like, I can go I think last year, I went, what, 18 months dieting, Where Matt is the kind of guy who he needs a little reward once a week or he finds it’s too restrictive.

Wade Lightheart [00:27:12]:

I’m more cyborg like when I get onto Something I like, I’m just excited about something really hard and difficult, not that makes me just, you know, deal with that. So understanding and then, you know, maybe there’s spiritual and cultural means. I got Friends who are Hindus. I got friends who are Muslims, and they have and I have friends who are Jews, and they have very specific dietary practices based on their spiritual and Cultural beliefs. Well, you have to be able to build that into your nutrition model and say, well, you know, hey. Sorry, dude. You know, you’re a Hindu, but you gotta start eating meat. You know, that’s that’s not gonna fly.

Wade Lightheart [00:27:49]:

The the the cost to him as a human or her as a human isn’t enough to maintain their cultural commitments. So how do you work within that And optimize within that, and we provide that inside of the books? And, of course, we got a lot of things else on the pyramid, but those are couple factors that I don’t think a lot of nutrition books consider. And you get that feeling, just what you said. I’m bad. I’m not doing this right. This isn’t working for me. I’m different somehow, I’m dysfunctional, I’m not good enough, whatever that subconscious psychological that got laid down and that you don’t even know when that happened now comes up to affirm why something’s not going to work for you?

Nick Urban [00:28:36]:

And, also, I like that you’re able to take that, let’s say, palette of different, like, satiety signals and say you’re not getting as much protein, and so then you increase the fiber and you influence the different, like, hormonal pathways that are associated with hunger and satiety based on, like, what you have, what tools you have at your disposal? Like, for example, if someone’s allergic to eggs, you’re not gonna be like, oh, well, you eggs are a superfood, so you should eat as many eggs as you can because, like, it doesn’t make sense. So it’s it’s nice that you guys take nuance in the consideration that, like, there’s a hierarchy here of the importance of nutritional constraints, and if you don’t follow them, it’s not gonna apply?

Wade Lightheart [00:29:10]:

Correct.

Nick Urban [00:29:11]:

Okay. So now let’s go back to enzymes. We talked about that a little bit, and they seem like this magical substance that allows you to change your macros and get some of the benefits of having different levels? And I became interested interested in enzymes probably about 5 years ago, and, of course, I found you guys through that. But what is the role of enzymes, and why do you guys care so much about them?

Wade Lightheart [00:29:34]:

Well, enzymes and probiotics are essentially the only 2 things in your body that does any work. So everything from thinking to blinking requires an enzymatic activity. There’s over 25 1,000 different enzymes in the body that we know of and probably thousands of more that we don’t. And when it comes to The role of digestion, you have essentially 4 main categories, proteases, which digest protein, Amylases, which digest carbohydrates, lipases, which digest fats, and cellulases, which digest Plant matter. Humans are the only species, well, now probably our pets, that eat cooked food? Now all cooked food, enzymes are the difference between Stones, plants, and people. Stones don’t have enzymes. Plants do. People have a lot.

Wade Lightheart [00:30:37]:

The enzymes that we produce allow us to Convert one thing into another at an accelerated rate? So to convert what you eat into energy units or building blocks, the start of that process, the catalyst for that process is enzymes? Now, everybody probably knows somebody that is lactose intolerant? What is that? That means that you do not have the lactase enzymes. Somebody probably knows someone who’s gluten intolerant. That’s because they don’t make An enzyme called Dipepidyl Peptidase 4 that breaks down gluten. Similarly, I have come to believe with my experience of coaching thousands of people over the last, you know, with 3, 30 decades or particularly the last years when I got into the enzyme conversation is that I believe that people are developing or have or I think it’s getting worse, suboptimal enzymatic pathways inside the body? So in other words, someone who is suboptimal in producing proteases to break down protein might find that eating protein heavy foods doesn’t sit well with them, or they don’t feel good on it, Or they may also notice that they’re are prone to cognitive problems because they’re not able to convert the protein into the amino acids into into the neurotransmitters, and that might be enzymes, that might be probiotics, and get in that in a minute. Also, People who have suboptimal blood sugar profiles often are limited in amylase production. People who, are prone to gallbladder situations or problems processing fats often have lipolytic or lipase Deficiencies. People who aren’t able to break down plants very well, that they take take a little bit of vegetables and they feel awful Often have low cellulase. I do believe that much of this is caused by massive exposure to, biochemicals which disrupt enzymatic activity? Herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides all work By destroying enzymatic pathways on those agents.

Wade Lightheart [00:33:10]:

So if that’s on our food, it’s likely Destroying enzymatic pathways, which are in our body. And why do I say pathways? Well, what I’ve come to notice Is that if you take a person who has suboptimal blood sugar on a glucose monitor, And I don’t change anything in their diet, but I add amylase enzymes before they eat every meal, Their blood glucose levels improve. If if I give someone who has trouble with their neurotransmitters Or breaking down protein and I give them proteolytic enzymes they don’t feel digestive distress after? If I have someone that feels sick When they eat different types of fats and I give them an array of lipase enzymes, suddenly they can have that fat without the digestive discomfort. We’ll also see that lipase person often will have skin conditions. So we give them lipase and the skin condition goes away. We give the people protease and they start their mood starts to improve. We give people amylase and their blood sugar improves. So you’re giving him a digestive enzyme, but I believe that any enzyme that’s not being used becomes reabsorbed and deployed in the system.

Wade Lightheart [00:34:27]:

And why do I say that? Well, you take enzymes, and I’ve taken up to a1000 in a day as an experiment. I am extreme. Guess what? You you never find the enzymes in the stool. So what is not being used becomes reabsorbed and redeployed in the system, and I believe that there’s family of enzymes that become deployed throughout the system? That’s a theory. It’s not proven. However, when people hyperdose in these different types, I’ve seen benefits in these other areas of their life that don’t seem connected to their digestion, which is what leads me to that theory. Hopefully, one day, we’ll be able to prove that.

Nick Urban [00:35:12]:

Very cool. Yeah. I was actually thinking that, like, if you’re consuming, say, glucose or starches or something and you take a enzyme that’s gonna break down those? Are you gonna get a bigger blood sugar spike because you’re gonna be absorbing more of that and you’re gonna, like, store more of that as fat, or is it gonna have the opposite effect? You just you just answered that.

Wade Lightheart [00:35:30]:

Yeah. Well, again, there’s there could be variances because there’s you know, enzymes are only one stage of the digestive Process. You got enzymes, you got hydrochloric acid, and then you got your probiotics. So you could have a dysbiosis of the bacteria. You may have suboptimal levels of hydrochloric acid or you may have deficient enzymes, and oftentimes, there’ll be some combination of all 3 depending on what level of function that a person has? Usually, if you’re finding that you’re prediabetic or diabetic or whatever, you you’ve got multiple problems already before it shows up at that level? And that’s the problem with a lot of our, medical testing right now is we’re getting the info way too late in the story?

Nick Urban [00:36:16]:

Okay. So you have this category of enzymes, the digestive enzymes that you mentioned, but then there’s a whole another category. That’s called the proteolytic enzymes or maybe not a whole different category, but a whole different use case at least?

Wade Lightheart [00:36:30]:

That’s right. So Proteolytic enzymes will be active in certain pH ranges. So when we started looking at Building enzymes, we realized that most companies were just throwing in some protease. What does that mean? Well, does it work at 6.0 pH? Does it work at 4 point Five PH, does it work at 3 point o PH? Because when food enters into the upper cardiac portion of the stomach, you got 30 to 60 minutes in a normal case But as the hydro before the hydrochloric acid comes in, and that’s when the enzymes present in the food are supposed to start breaking it down. But, again, Humans are the only population that doesn’t eat raw food. We eat almost all our food cooked. So the problem with that is is now our body goes, oh, we don’t have enzymes to break this down. We start manufacturing as an adjunct, not as a preemptive piece.

Wade Lightheart [00:37:19]:

If I’m a bear and I eat a raw salmon or a raw blueberries, I get the enzymes present in that to help assist in the, in the process as it goes into my body, the heat, the temperature starts increasing the speed of the turnover rate and the activation of the enzymatic activity? You know, a herbivore will only eat plants because its digestive system has the enzymes for plants. A carnivore will only eat meat. And so we haven’t thought about these things very well because it just becomes normal. And then, of course, now, we’re we’re getting multigenerational dysfunctioning passed on? So I do believe if you look at the canines, the length of the digestive system, and the nervous system response to jetting blood or the response to a fruit tree, orchard that the the natural digestive response would be be be roots, plants, and and and fruits and nuts? But I think that humans, patterns of eating are so gone far gone from our original destination that that isn’t even a possibility for a lot of people unless they made massive corrective aspects to their lifestyle, which might not even be possible at this stage?

Nick Urban [00:38:34]:

And a lot of foods also have been, like, pasteurized and, like, heated and which kills the enzymes. And I know, for example, I used to not be able to handle any milk at all, any dairy, and then if I got raw dairy, I was able to tolerate it just fine, no symptoms, not no discontent at all? And really the main difference there, there’s, sure, there’s misfolded proteins and other stuff also, but you’re gonna get a much higher concentration of enzymes in the raw milk that hasn’t been heated and pasteurized to a a 100 and some odd degrees?

Wade Lightheart [00:39:03]:

Exactly. And so and and not to disparage the sophistication of cooking and storing of food. That’s that we we’ve Solved a lot of starvation problems throughout history of that. So we just have to realize with every technological innovation, there are advantages and disadvantages. And sometimes, we don’t know what the disadvantages are until generations later because There was some assumptive aspects built in with the old system that weren’t present. So you new technology brings forth new challenges, and that’s just part of the human condition?

Nick Urban [00:39:40]:

Yeah. Wait. Based on all the things you’ve said recently, I think you already tell the Pottinger’s cat study? Because that really nicely puts a bow on all this.

Wade Lightheart [00:39:49]:

Yeah. Well, Pottenger was talking about these cats. So he he basically tested cats and fed them enzymatic And by 3rd generation, the cats lost the ability to procreate, had strange genetic diseases, and, Exhibited strange sociological behavior normal to cats. Doctor Howell Took Pottinger studies, and he applied this to cats, monkeys, mice, dogs, horses. And he predicted in the forties fifties with the conventional meta you know, centralized control of farming practice that started to happen in monoculture farming and all the stuff that came in? He predicted that we would end up in the same problem in 3 generations of humans, and here we are, 3 generations of humans left. What do we see? Fertility clinics exploding all over the place. I mean, go on social media. Yep.

Wade Lightheart [00:40:45]:

We’ve got weird sociological behavior going on right now, and we have an explosion of genetic based diseases, and he felt that a lot of that was related to enzymatically deficient components? I think There are other factors involved, and I think some people would argue that point, but I think there was some truth within what he was saying.

Nick Urban [00:41:06]:

And the big thing that he was doing was cooking the food. Is that what it was?

Wade Lightheart [00:41:10]:

Correct. So you you never see, like, a jungle cat starting a barbecue.

Nick Urban [00:41:15]:

Alright. We’ve gone deep enough on enzymes now. There’s so much to cover in the book. I’m only a 100 pages in out of what is, like, 400 and some odd. It has great diagrams and illustrations and makes it, like, turning the pages fun and engaging? It’s really like a compilation of so much good stuff. One thing I would like you to describe is how biological optimization resembles a casino?

Wade Lightheart [00:41:40]:

So if you go into a casino, Basically, they’ve optimized the place to extract as much money from you as possible. The way that the notes are the way the lights are set up, the amount of oxygen they’re putting in, the alcohol that they’re doing. So the goal of the casino is to Keep you in there and get as much money out of your pocket and into their bank account. That’s their goal, and they’ve created an hyper optimized place to do that? That’s why you see these big super things, you know, from the fountains and the lights and the shows, and All of that is to do one thing, get money into their pockets. Biological optimization is the inversion of that mindset in that I wanna live as long and as strong and as healthy as possible so that I can maximize my experience of life. So I’m gonna take and consistently add elements that are going to contribute to that outcome goal? So I’m trying to put as many, health dollars in my biological bank account, and so that might be Doing NAD treatments. It might be resistance training every day. It might be doing atmospheric cell trainer or cardiovascular training or flexibility or, you know, mindfulness or meditation or eating organic foods or, you know, fasting once a week? So I’m stacking the deck to give my biology the best chance to live as long and as strong as possible?

Nick Urban [00:43:13]:

So you have this book, and I know that there’s also, like, a a second part of the whole system? I haven’t checked it out yet, but what is that?

Wade Lightheart [00:43:23]:

Well, we have an entire video summary of every chapter. So Matt and I are doing it so we can kinda go through all the frameworks to allow people to if they like to watch videos and stuff, it’s it’s we shot it in the Hollywood Hills high definition. We have a 200 page supplement book. That way that, you know, people who wanna understand supplements because once you start understanding genetics and, you know, we have, We’re making genetic tests available through the book as well so that you can start to realize, okay. Well, if you have suboptimal genes and your diet doesn’t account for these things? You can take pick the right supplement for you. It’s not just advocating our supplement. We we go into all kinds of supplements that we don’t produce other people producing stuff. We also have another book, that comes with it, which is just the summaries of the 875 scientific studies that validate what we’re talking about in the book? We also have 3 cookbooks, A paleo cookbook, a plant based cookbook, a carnivore cookbook, depending on which dietary stuff you would like.

Wade Lightheart [00:44:26]:

There’s an app that comes with it as well so that you wanna get into tracking calories and things like that? So it’s a whole universe that people can explore and don’t let the volume discourage you? The idea is that you pick the things that impose most of you. What’s your goal? Right? You wanna lose weight, you wanna build muscle, you wanna be a great athlete, you want a great cognitive health, you wanna live long. Pick your goal. Alright. Which dietary strategy do you does this fits, you know, that pyramid of nutritional decisions? You know, like, I must have fits your macro guys. Okay. Great. I’m a keto guy.

Wade Lightheart [00:45:02]:

Great. Here’s what you do. Okay. Take a genetic test. Now, let’s look at the suboptimal aspects of applying that diet to that goal, and then you can supplement or use biohacking technology to offset the the suboptimal side and to enhance your optimal sides? And that’s it. It’s really that simple. And so you could you know, the average person might need a 150 pages out of the book. But I think sophisticated people kinda dive into the whole thing because it’s like Alice in Wonderland program?

Nick Urban [00:45:30]:

Yeah, it really is. So you and Matt have like polar opposite diets, basically. Are there any things that you guys agree on? Again, I’m curious about what you agree on and what you disagree on, like, the nutritional world.

Wade Lightheart [00:45:42]:

I think the thing that we agree on is That in order for you to sustain a healthy, vibrant weight for your life, that you have to pick the diet that’s right for you Genetically, spiritually, culturally, emotionally, and psychologically, and correlates with your goals? The other thing is that we agree we agree on is that you need to retain a level of openness that you’re not too attached to your current dietary strategy because that may prove to be suboptimal in another situation in life, and that can your your identification Identification with a a a cult, a dietary cult, or in that mentality of the do’s and don’ts and the ten commandments of whateverness, That can really compromise you later in life. Where would we disagree? I think Matt would probably say that I would benefit from animal based proteins in my diet. He he he would probably say that, he’d like to have some some more of that, and I would probably say that people underestimate, and I believe this will be proven over time, The information transfer of various carbohydrate sources. So I think that we know that protein has a bunch of signaling. I think that Different foods, different plant, like, carbohydrate based foods have also very sophisticated information, components that may not be discovered yet?

Nick Urban [00:47:13]:

Oh, absolutely. I totally agree with you. I’ve actually seen some research on microRNA and when you consume a real plant food and within, like, 15 minutes actually, I think animal foods too, but, like, they’re different information signals, but when you sell when you consume that within 15 minutes, you have, like, traceable or trackable levels of microRNA in your bloodstream? Those microRNA go around and act as epigenetics just turn on and off expression of certain genes? So I think that you’re right. There’s gonna be a lot of explosion of interest in that because if you can flip your genetic expression over certain things simply by eating a meal or not eating a meal? It seems like that’s gonna be, like, a really big frontier of science.

Wade Lightheart [00:47:50]:

I believe so, and that and that’s the fun part, I think, where, you know, Nutrigenomics is is going is about, okay, it’s not just about my genetics. It’s like, how do I activate the positive phenotypes by eating the right things or doing the right biohacking thing or doing the right mindfulness Practice. And I think at the highest level of dietary practice, it’s as much your mental, awareness and your ability to influence your DNA as it is the food?

Nick Urban [00:48:22]:

All right. You said that you take some kind of amino acids? What what kind of amino acid are you using personally or did you use?

Wade Lightheart [00:48:30]:

I use a, coconut based essential amino acid group just for extra amino acids? So, for example, if I’m gonna go do a hard workout, like a hard cardio run or a hard weight training session? I’ll take maybe 10 grams of, a coconut amino acid blend, And I find that my training performance has improved than if I don’t do that. And being on a plant based diet, I I do believe that it it’s easy for me to fall into insufficient amino acids, and so I found that adding those in Can be very helpful.

Nick Urban [00:49:08]:

Yeah. And that would probably be more helpful for someone like you who’s eating plant based versus animal based. Would you say that’s accurate?

Wade Lightheart [00:49:14]:

I would say so because, again, Generally, a sophisticated animal base, and we’re we’re we’re looking at sophisticated dietary process because Animal based or plant based, unsophisticated as garbage. I still have to be clear about that. But you know what? If you’re starving for 2 and and and all is available is McDonald’s, McDonald’s is the best thing that you can possibly have Because so so you have to have a there’s a relative level that every conversation comes in, so I don’t wanna make any assumptions. There’s no evil foods. There’s just it’s it’s like a temperature scale. There’s no cotton cold. It is 1 single variable, but at certain points, we say, that’s not good and this is good, and that’s relative to our dietary cult values. Okay.

Wade Lightheart [00:50:04]:

So if I’m a health nut, then McDonald’s is bad and it’s evil or chocolate cake is, you know, the food of the devil. If I’m a plant based person, then, you know, beef is evil and cruel. You know you you know? So so you start to Break that down, and you realize these these aren’t really based in science or sensibility. They’re based in cultural conditioning, these Subconscious means that are making us put good, bad valuations on on on things. And I think, on a plant based diet, I need to be more mindful of making sure I get a sufficient amount of amino acids because, you know, I eat a lot of plants that don’t have a lot of amino acids. I don’t need as much of other people, but I do need some I do need some, and so it’s a it’s a great tool that I can just add, And it’s easy. So I forget what it was that

Nick Urban [00:50:56]:

I read, but I recall coming across something about vegetarians who’ve been doing it for a long time tend to be better at, like, absorbing and assimilating amino acids or, like, doing something, like extracting more, like, tissue repairing nutrients from the food than, say, meat eaters or someone who else who gets a lot of, like, preformed amino acids and everything in their system?

Wade Lightheart [00:51:19]:

I haven’t seen that research, but what I can talk about is through observation on the other end of the extreme, which is the bodybuilding community, which For many cases, especially in the extreme levels of the professional ranks, guys are eating 300, 400, 500 grams of protein a day to sustain the muscle mass. And One of the biggest challenges within that community is digestive issues because of an excess amount of protein and that their ability actually to absorb and utilize that protein actually diminishes over time? And so that goes back directly, I think, to digestive health. So going back to, you know, your state of enzymatic variety, Hydrochloric acid in your microbiome are going to determine how effective, and over time, those tend to degenerate As we get older, especially if you’re not doing regular detoxification of the intestinal tract that I think is valuable for most people in this day and age.

Nick Urban [00:52:27]:

Yeah. And yeah. So if you consume a ton of protein, you’re gonna be getting kind of a buildup of ammonia and when the protein’s digested, some, like, more toxic byproducts than you get if you consume fats or carbohydrates predominantly? But, like, of course, everything in moderation, especially protein and all macros? But it seems like for most people, too much protein is less of an issue than not enough or amino acids specifically.

Wade Lightheart [00:52:51]:

Yeah. And and I just on that ammonia issue, one of the things that I noticed when I went from, a meat eating diet to a plant based diet Is a major change in, the my sweat. My sweat didn’t smell like it used to. It had a high ammonia before really bad. And when I went to a plant based diet, that didn’t happen? Now that may be unique to myself or the way I metabolize this, and maybe I’m more agreeable to a plant based diet, which is not Intuitive considering I’ve got, like, all Northern European genes. It doesn’t look that way, but, hey, you never know about these things. Right? You gotta experiment.

Nick Urban [00:53:31]:

And so unrelated, but I take Maszymes generally and sometimes CAPEX at the same time as I’m using essential amino acids, and I’m not sure if that’s counterproductive or if it’s gonna be more productive?

Wade Lightheart [00:53:44]:

No. It’d be more productive. So anytime that you’re using these, it’s just going to help convert those into the units that you want. So

Nick Urban [00:53:50]:

Yeah. And I think one of the benefits of proteolytic enzymes is that I think I forget what the name for it is, but when you have protein in the bloodstream, that’s like a hallmark of aging, and that’s usually facilitated by poor digestive abilities or like a leaky gut or anything like higher intestinal permeability? When that happens and your body identifies a protein in the bloodstream and attacks it and causes inflammation and all kinds of problems? And so proteolytic enzymes can help clear that protein out of the blood?

Wade Lightheart [00:54:18]:

A 100%, and it’s one of the things that I noticed as an athlete when I was in my Late twenties and was consuming massive amounts of protein, I started to notice I’d get joint pain and achiness in my joints, almost not like carthyritis, but I there was an achiness as I was lifting hard and heavy. And as I went to, I started using digestive enzymes and stuff later on in my career, I don’t have any of those problems. I’m now in my fifties, and I don’t experience any of those problems, which is truly remarkable.

Nick Urban [00:54:48]:

So for someone with, like, I don’t wanna say joint pain, but stiff stiffness and possibly like really sore muscles and everything? Like, say they have some, like, problems with mobility, could enzymes help them?

Wade Lightheart [00:55:00]:

There is evidence that would do that. Of course, I think you wanna look at, And I just discovered this recently. I went to an osteopath, and he explained to me that trauma on the tissues is kinda like a buckyball And, like Buckminster Fuller Ball’s, and he said you’ll get a collapsing you’ll get a collapsing of that, and that may impact blood flow. It may It impact fascia. It could inflict oxygen. There’s always different areas. You don’t have enough energy to prop that up. That’s why they do osteopathic treatments or cocaine injections or ways of removing the trauma so that the cells reinflate back to their natural state without that traumatic, injuries? So that’s what happens with injuries.

Wade Lightheart [00:55:44]:

And I can say that I had some stiffness, particularly in my right leg, And that really showed up when I ran a marathon for the 1st time last year. That’s where I started to cook. I went and had this osteopath work on me, just a couple months ago, and I could not believe in 1 session the the the the range of mobility that happened in my tissue? Now this had nothing related to my digestive system and nothing related to enzymes. It was just a trauma that I wasn’t able to overcome. That being said, there’s a lot of evidence about, proteolytic enzymes accelerating healing and the recovery of scar tissue. I’ve got hundreds of examples of that in my own life, of clients and friends that have seen that, efficacy in their in their own world?

Nick Urban [00:56:30]:

Yeah. But you wouldn’t wanna take that right after, like, say, you get a big cut? Would that impair the the clot formation?

Wade Lightheart [00:56:36]:

I don’t think you’d have to worry too much about it, although if you were taking, like, massive amounts of enzymes, you will have thinner blood, and I know this for a fact. My dad, suffered from cardiovascular disease and Had 20% blood flow, was chopping down trees in the backyard when he realized, oh, something’s not working right. They brought me into the hospital, and the doctor’s How are you alive? I don’t know anybody that could be out, you know, chopping down trees with 20% blood flow in your heart. He’s like, are you doing anything? And my dad’s like, well, I take these enzymes that my son gives me every day. He’s like, that’s probably keeping your blood thin enough that you could get enough oxygen?

Nick Urban [00:57:15]:

And you also just mentioned a minute ago something I found unusual. Bodybuilders tend to be very anti cardio, and you just said that you did a marathon?

Wade Lightheart [00:57:24]:

Yeah. So that so once again, I got done the Mr. Olympia last year, and I said, well, Going back to that contrarian thing, well, they say bodybuilders can’t run marathons, and then they’re supposed to do it. So I’m like, okay. Why don’t I go try that? So I started training for a marathon and I ran a half, and then I ran a marathon within 6 months. I have no experience, 50 years old, And said, yeah, I can do this. So, again, I don’t like I don’t like creating proclamations out there that limit us, and and, You know, the with Matt and I, what’s been great because we came from such different camps, we were forced to to deal with their own biases and realize this isn’t a truth? It’s just a collective group of artifacts reinforced by a cultural community with which I identify with and are backing up my biases with scientific evidence and all this sort of stuff? And then I started to realize, or both of us did, wait a second. Why are we having all these diet wars and these Arguments about these things that really don’t matter.

Wade Lightheart [00:58:34]:

Why don’t we just strip all that away and get to the truth? And and and and how to let people choose whatever diet’s right for them, just how to be successful on it based on their goals. And and that’s that was the foundation of the book.

Nick Urban [00:58:48]:

It’s so liberating to know that I really thought strongly about this. Okay. Well, the person standing right next to me, my good friend, my business partner, he’s doing the the opposite of me and also getting great results. How can that be given my set of values, my set of, like, beliefs and expectations, and yet here he is doing the opposite and getting great results also? So it’s like, okay. Well, I can do what makes sense to me, I can test and experiment and find out and open up all these doors, whereas the typical diet mentality is like narrowing the blinders, focusing full steam ahead on this one particular thing, ignoring all the other evidence that doesn’t fit my own narrative? So it’s cool to see that you guys with this book are actually opening, making it more less restrictive even though it’s in the guise of a diet book. What else is important to cover in your recent book? I know that people are gonna wanna know about the 2 primary goals of, like, entertaining diets in the 1st place, and that is putting on muscle or losing weight? But what would you say are your top takeaways there are?

Wade Lightheart [00:59:48]:

First off, All diets work for a while, and I think the weight loss industry has done the world a big serve disservice because it’s focused on calories in versus calories out? We identified that that works for a while, but the problem is is that your metabolism starts to adjust to down regulation of the calories? Now this is where the The bodybuilding history really helped out. The worst bodybuilders on the planet get in better shape than the general public ever will do? You can go to any local amateur contest, and the worst bodybuilder on stage is probably in better shape than most people As far as body fat level, and we have an obesity crisis. So how is it that all these people with all these different genetics are able to do this? Because they understand the calories in, calories out, But bodybuilders focus a lot on boosting their metabolism while in a calorie restricted environment. And most diet strategies just focuses on the calories in calories out. And so we identify how to strategically keep your metabolism high through a dietary process, both in the short term, medium term, as well as long term results kinda locking in that final form? So that’s a big, big reveal. The second1, I would say in Before you

Nick Urban [01:01:12]:

go on, what is, like, the TLDR, the essence of reverse dieting? Because I’m sure people are gonna be hearing this for the 1st time, and they’re gonna be wanting to know what exactly it is that they’re doing?

Wade Lightheart [01:01:22]:

We’re on the same page because that was the next thing I was gonna talk about. So going back to my 2000 universe story. 42 pounds of fat and water in 11 weeks. I went from mister universe to mister marshmallow because I was on an extended diet For a long time, in a suboptimal dietary strategy, I was starving. I felt terrible. It was miserable. I had no energy, but that was what was accepted to do at that time? When I came out of it, my starvation response activated so high that I couldn’t stop eating my metabolism and my digestive thing, and I gained 42 pounds In 11 weeks from mister universe to mister marshmallow. So what we realized later on is that Most people who follow diets, like, on The Biggest Loser or whatever, they lose all the weight, but then they go back to the next thing.

Wade Lightheart [01:02:10]:

So we believe in setting a goal immediately after or or before you even hit your final form, like, let’s say your weight’s to get to this point, set another goal at that So that I wanna stay maintain this weight for how you know, the rest of my life. So if I’ve done a calorie restriction and a high metabolic output, I need to to gradually take as probably as much time as I took to lose that weight is to recomp out of that to gradually add calories back into the diet that doesn’t trigger my metabolic response where I’m gaining body fat or gradually drop off exercise at the same rate until I hit my ideal weight and it becomes normal and that becomes my body’s set point? And strategically, nobody talks about this in dieting. The getting to the goal is all that’s mattered. What happens after? And the reality is is 97% of people who start a diet will end up gaining all the weight back within 3 years? And that’s on everybody in the diet industry because we haven’t given them the whole story. It’s not about just getting to the weight. It’s what you do when you get there is more important than the how you got there. Now it’s like, how are you gonna stay here in the long term and be able to have a functional life?

Nick Urban [01:03:33]:

So let’s do some back of the napkin math. Like, how many calories are you going under your maintenance when you’re cutting initially? And then also, you doing any refeeds or anything, like, throughout are you like, every month, are you have adding a high calorie day back in so your metabolism doesn’t down regulate in the 1st place?

Wade Lightheart [01:03:49]:

Yeah. Great example. So, generally, For men, I feel that, 500 to a 1000 calorie deficit a day in combination between diet And exercise is optimal. So, for example, if you’re having a, Say, 250 calorie deficit from your med basic metabolic rate, and you got a 250 Calorie, exercise rate, that’s about 500 calories a day. It’s about a pound of body fat a week. That’s reasonable for most people. If you’re really gung ho and really going for it, you can you can do a 1,000. You know, like a body builder Type diet will typically look at a 1,000 calorie deficit a day, 500 from diet, and 500 you know, excess calorie burn from exercise? That’s about all that’s sustainable psychologically before you start tripping All the defense mechanisms inside of the body.

Wade Lightheart [01:04:49]:

So that would be about a 2 pounds of body fat loss today, not 2 pounds of weight. Like, people can go on a ketogenic diet, for example, drop 7 pounds in a week. Most of it’s water. Okay? Or some people will start a weight training. A lot of young ladies will start a diet. They’ll start a diet and have to eat all this extra food And intestinal bulk for the 1st few weeks as well as maybe adding muscle mass if they haven’t done exercise before. They start weight training. They start building muscle.

Wade Lightheart [01:05:18]:

3 weeks later, they’re weighing 5 pounds heavier. Now their lean body mass, the body fat ratio might have changed in a positive direction, but they’re looking at just the scale. So, you know, this is where things like DEXA scans become very critical because you’re watching your body fat, your muscle mass, and your bone density so that you’re you’re seeing all those 3 things track so that you stay efficient in that model? For women, about 250 to 500 calories is sufficient. Again, oftentimes, you’re dealing with smaller body mass, So the I’m really, really wary of ladies going on those restrictive calorie diets, Especially when they’re younger, you see all the disasters in the fitness world, fitness competitors and stuff because, you know, women at that age are supposed to have higher levels of body fat because it’s optimal for having children. And when they reduce that, they run into a lot of hormonal problems that you can’t diet your way out of. Now you have hormonal dysregulation. So we concentrate on keeping your hormones optimal, keeping your exercise optimal, in your calorie restriction just enough that you can maintain that other side without starving yourself? And that’s kind of the strategies that we outline in the book.

Nick Urban [01:06:37]:

Do you ever do cyclical refeeds, like, say, once a month or once a week or something?

Wade Lightheart [01:06:40]:

Yeah. And the cyclical refeeds are gonna be dependent on a couple of things. So the best guy to ever write about it, is, Scott Abel, and he was my coach for many years and was blowing people’s minds with single digit body fats? And and once a week, he’d be eating, like, 8, 10000 calories a day for a day, but he would be in this calorie deficit every day up to that? And he talks about it in his book, Slingshot diet and, his metabolic stuff is brilliant, brilliant work. Scott’s a real genius on it. But, when people start a dietary program, you can go about 12 weeks, depending on where their body fat level is, and then I would start that’s about as long as I would go without Doing refeeds for that metabolic boost. For most people, you know, get the momentum on your diet without breaking it too soon? Because oftentimes, you need a bit of an extended period of time to break the dietary habits, like the The addictive nature of food. So, you know, that 6, 12 weeks oftentimes will help you get rid of the addictive side of it. Metabolically, you might do better if you had a boost sooner, but the addictive nature of your old eating pattern needs to be overcome first.

Wade Lightheart [01:08:07]:

So I would rather go a little bit restricted, but 12 weeks is sufficient enough. And then your refeeds, I suggest, You know, for most people, you can start with a meal or a day. If you do it earlier, do 1 meal a week. We have a, you know, a refeed refeed meal, like so and if you get as much as 12 weeks going in doing a refeed, You know, once a week, I think is really great psychological break and can have metabolic benefits. Again, we kinda outline in the book how to track that to see what’s gonna work for you because everybody’s metabolism is different, their age, their genetics, what their exercise program is, all that. And so, you know, you wanna be always calibrating to where you are at any given time.

Nick Urban [01:08:56]:

That’s a good reminder because it’s it’s I forget the addictive nature of food and, like, the common patterns and, like, the psychological and, like, yeah, it’s great to do it, like, say, once a week if you’re, like, been in this journey for a long time, you understand it, but if you’re just getting started, you definitely wanna take that longer period to kick the habit completely, let your microbiome adjust and your hormones stabilize and all kinds of other stuff?

Wade Lightheart [01:09:18]:

Yeah. Exactly. And that’s that’s what I found because, like, the the food is hyper addict like, the hyperpalatal addictive foods? And I’m a foodie, man. Like, I’m I’m not here to tell you I’m not genetically superior. I got lousy genetics. I love junk food. I love all that sort of stuff. I’ll eat my face off with the best of them.

Wade Lightheart [01:09:38]:

So, like, both Matt and I are really Clear about, like, the downsides of all those things and have gotten ourselves into trouble in the past because of it?

Nick Urban [01:09:47]:

Yeah. One other tip on this front too is if DXA scans are unavailable to assess your body composition, whether it’s muscle or water or body fat? Another good one, it’s not as good, not as accurate, but it’s much more practical if you wanna get, like, an at home scale would be, what was it called, bio bioelectric impedance analysis, BIA, I think is what it is. And it’s not nearly as accurate as DXA, which is, like, considered a gold standard, but it helps you see that at home? And, again, you don’t wanna be doing it weighing yourself every day because there’s a lot of fluctuations just from water weight alone, for example, and you can see big differences from day to day, and that’s not necessarily indicating progress. Okay. So that’s weight loss, fat loss. Then on muscle building, since you have lots of experience in that realm as well, Any big tips there? Oh, and before we go on, what are like, what’s your take on the importance of amino acids during both of these for body fat loss and also for obviously, muscle building?

Wade Lightheart [01:10:43]:

Well, the the beauty of, amino acids in those situations is that it Improve satiety. That’s the big factor. And satiety, I think, is a big factor in in maintaining the dietary strategy that you’re going on because they’re we’re biologically programmed to Eat more than we need because that’s a survival mechanism, and, amino acids assist in the recovery of tissues, especially if you’re in a strength training muscle building program? So the 1st and foremost thing that I would say on a muscle building program is number 1, get a professionally designed training program. Any program will work in a beginner for the maybe the 1st 6 months to a year. You could just pick up weights in the gym and carry them around and probably gain 10 pounds of muscle. That becomes a lot more difficult over time. So, have a professionally designed training program that’s based on your individual biomechanics. If you have aesthetic goals that is designed around optimizing your aesthetics or if you have performance goals Based on a sport or something or lifestyle that you wanna do, you wanna include all of those factors, and that’s why getting a professional to design a program for you is of of smart move? It will help reduce injuries, help produce better results, and help you get there faster and take a lot of the thinking work out of that? And so you’re not just leaning on bro science or what worked for, you know, the jacked guy in the gym.

Wade Lightheart [01:12:21]:

That’s primary, 1st and foremost. Second, you want to be monitoring your dietary habits From the get go. Most people, if you ask them about their diet, they go, yeah, I eat pretty good. You write that down for a week or 2 weeks, and you start to realize you don’t eat that good? So dietary consistency and for gaining muscle, unless you’re some sort of genetic freak, the reality is is regular food feedings throughout the day In combination with a robust training system are a must. In fact, It’s better to miss a training session than an eating session if you are trying to gain muscle. And we know this from animal studies, force feeding animals and stuff like that, they all get bigger. If you don’t force feed the animal, they don’t. Now in some people, particularly a lot of people who suffer from not having enough muscle or or or having a hard time building muscle, is if you look at their Their eating psychology is is they’re just not a type of person that gets hungry that often.

Wade Lightheart [01:13:37]:

You have to build that into your accountability network, and then you have to overcome your either biological or psychological biases?

Nick Urban [01:13:47]:

Accountability network. I like that idea. Do you how do you recommend people do that? Because that’s a really important concept for all health related stuff, and it’s not as discussed as it should be in my opinion.

Wade Lightheart [01:13:57]:

Yeah. So when you’re talking about your accountability network is you have to understand how your psychology is. So some people Will do better by making a public declaration that they’re going to do by this. Some people need to have Skin in the game, so they’re gonna have to have a bet. For example, they’re gonna have to see some sort of important, humiliating social loss that they couldn’t possibly have, like donating money to the candid the political candidate that they hate if they don’t hit that goal? They need something both on the attractive side that is inspiring and something on the reprehensible side that will allow them to Continually stay on their program? Second thing is I do believe, if and and most people have struggled in this. If you haven’t got to this area in your life at this point in games, chances are you’re gonna need some help, and you’re gonna need something that you’re accountable to on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis at the minimum? So when I’m getting ready for a major competition or doing something, I’ve got a coach. Got a dietarian. I made a public declaration.

Wade Lightheart [01:15:12]:

I know I’m gonna show up on this stage with shining lights in a marble bag. Like, if I’m fat, everybody in the audience is gonna know. Right? If I you know, so the reality is is whatever makes you a kennel, some people Like to have, a group that they are are they go to. So, for example, one of the reasons CrossFit has become so popular It’s not because of the safety of the exercise environment because I don’t think it’s that safe, but it’s Hard to argue with the social cultural connection that makes people coming back and feeling that they’re part of something, and that’s So people who gravitate to that social cultural aspect of going to CrossFit, they wanna keep going back to that environment or maybe going to their martial arts or, for me, I like individual expertise that’s kinda hard, that just gives me zero flexibility, no Acknowledgment, nothing. Just, you know, and Scott was my coach for years, and he’s that guy. He’s He’s like, the Bill Belichick of bodybuilding. You know what I mean? He’s like, if you I I think I got 3 compliments from him in my life in my entire career, And and I and I cherish every one of those. Some people like somebody that boosts them up.

Wade Lightheart [01:16:33]:

So you gotta pick the right coach, the right accountability system, And that also goes with your family. If you’re gonna make the you know, most people’s families will throw them off and they blame their family, and it’s like, hey, guys, This is important to me. I’m not gonna be eating and doing the same things you are because I need to hit this goal because this goal means a lot to me, and I need you to help support me. Don’t make fun of me, don’t put me down, rather, I’d love your your care, your love, your support, and your attention, and getting that buy in for people and will be transformative for your relationships as well as their awareness about what you’re doing?

Nick Urban [01:17:11]:

That one especially seems like a small thing, but it really the environment you’re in makes all the difference in terms of, like, how you end up showing up and if you’re able to complete your your goals or not?

Wade Lightheart [01:17:21]:

Exactly.

Nick Urban [01:17:22]:

Cool. Wait. Well, we’re start gonna start to wind down now. If people are interested in using some Biotomizer’s products to help with their digestion or their body transformation goals? What do you recommend? Because I personally whenever I have my bigger meals, my off day meals, I like that you don’t use the word cheat meals because I don’t like that word exactly either, but I use blood sugar breakthrough, and I’m curious because I know certain glucose disposal agents harm or can potentially blunt the hormetic beneficial effects of training? Does blood sugar breakthrough have that issue, or am I good to use it on the same day that I’ve been training?

Wade Lightheart [01:17:59]:

One of my close friends, Crosby Taylor, who is the cookie guy, he Swears by blood sugar breakthrough before all his workouts and pumps ups, and the guy I mean, if you see this guy, he he he is a physical specimen. Looks great. He loves the the the the pumps. He says, like, the pumps he gets, his ability to manage his blood sugar because he, you know, he has a cookie company and Stuff and the guys just shred it. So, I think that blood sugar breakthrough is truly a breakthrough blood sugar, product And that it can enhance your results in the gym. Again, use a continuous glucose monitor and test it And see those responses. There’s gonna be certain foods that may be less responsive than others and certain people that’ll be less responsive than others, but most people will see a benefit on the blood sugar breakthrough? You know, digestive health, We have enzyme solutions for every type of diet. We have CapEx for ketogenic people.

Wade Lightheart [01:19:02]:

We have veg enzymes for plant based guys. We have MasZymes, which is the all encompassing super enzyme formula. It’s our most popular enzyme ever. If you’re gonna eat some gluten, gluten guardian is really great. That’s that’s a favorite. If we’re going out for pizza and stuff, I Stuff a few of those in my face before I go out there and enjoy my pizza. And then, you know, your probiotics. P three o m is the best Probiotic out there.

Wade Lightheart [01:19:25]:

We’ve tested everything out there as far as breaking down, proteolytic organisms in, other, undigested protein In the intestinal tract.

Nick Urban [01:19:35]:

So it’s almost like a probiotic and an enzyme on one.

Wade Lightheart [01:19:39]:

Well, it’s a proteolytic probiotic. Most probiotics aren’t, don’t don’t break down protein. It does. And that has some we’re not even allowed to say on the radio or on the news or on the social media, whatever. What was proven in the US patent with this product?

Nick Urban [01:19:56]:

I’ve actually read that patent, so I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Wade Lightheart [01:19:58]:

It’s crazy. It’s crazy, But it’s a it’s an amazing product, to keep your to fighting off the bad guys, and it is undefeated against food poisoning. People get food poisoning. I take take A handful of p through m immediately, do it another, 30 minutes later, and a couple hours later, and you will not have a problem. I’ve seen people on the floor ready to go to the hospital. 30 minutes later, they’re dancing on the dance floor.

Nick Urban [01:20:23]:

It’s a much better solution than activated charcoal too, which indiscriminately binds to everything, including vitamins and minerals and stuff that you do wanna absorb too?

Wade Lightheart [01:20:31]:

Exactly. So, that’s been great. Stress Guardian’s a new product that we came out with is I if if you’re clocked up or you’re using a lot of nootropics or caffeine or stimulants? You take some of that later in the day, and it just clocks you down in a really nice way?

Nick Urban [01:20:47]:

I really like that one. I was part of your beta testing group, and I’d make my own, like, adaptogens, like, herbal tinctures and supplements and everything, and I have, like, 25 different things all in one. And I was like, finally, a product that mix so I’ll have to mix my powders and both do them and so I can just take 1 1 serving and and replace all of that?

Wade Lightheart [01:21:06]:

Yeah. That’s what I that’s what I liked about it too because I’m the same way. Like, I I love playing around with stuff, but it was just convenient. And it was put together by a Chinese master herbalist. So and, yeah, again, with all our products, we’re able to with our lab in Bosnia, we’re able to test the quality of the raws? This is way beyond lab assays. We’re able to see what the probiotics are doing. We’re able to see if it gets delivered into the cells. So it allows us to produce products that simply other companies couldn’t possibly do because they’re not able to to break down the efficacy of the raws.

Wade Lightheart [01:21:40]:

Microbiome breakthrough, that’s a game changing product that helps repair the, the intestinal lining. We just found a new source on that for the, the the building, the mic the biofilm that’s even better than the one before, so really excited about that product. A lot of people who have leaky gut and stuff Swear by that? So, yeah, I think there’s a product, and, of course, magnesium. Everybody uses our every person on the planet seems to be using our magnesium nowadays? Our our we’ve got the the best magnesium on the market, Mag Breakthrough. Our sleep products are really nice. People have trouble sleeping, and, some of our Nootropix and Neutopia brands are really wild too if you if you’re a little bit more lenient on some of the things. We’re Moving everything to GRAS certification on that. So yeah.

Wade Lightheart [01:22:30]:

So it’s been an ongoing product. We bought a company and we’re we’re we’re going through that whole process with them, but we have a Nootopia, we have a collagenius product, which is a blend of mushrooms, and these are, 100 to 1 concentrations. So every serving is like getting a pound and a half of these, like, really potent mushrooms. So from a BDNF, aspect? You take that in the morning. I actually mix it with my protein breakthrough and my microbiome breakthrough and my enzymes. I make a little pudding, And I’m just flying on that stuff afterwards. So, yeah, that’d be great. That’s a great combo.

Nick Urban [01:23:07]:

I love that combo. I added I added some of that into my coffee this the college, and then I had my power solution, Utopia power solution, maybe, like, an hour and a half, 2 hours later, and it’s the perfect way to start my day? I just did, what was it, 10, 12 days of no caffeine as a quarterly tolerance reset, and it’s, like, the perfect way to get back can do it.

Wade Lightheart [01:23:28]:

Right on, man. That’s I I I love that.

Nick Urban [01:23:31]:

Yeah. Where are your enzymes derived from? I’ve gotten that question before. I didn’t know what to say.

Wade Lightheart [01:23:36]:

Well, our enzymes so if you go into the world of enzymes, they’re all gonna be derived from a cultured fermented process. So some of them are gonna come from, various, mushroom stocks or or, like, bacteria culture, these type of things. So proteolytic enzymes come from 1 place, analytic enzymes come from other, cellulase comes from, so there’s a massive array. We’ve literally contacted, I think every major supplier and some minor suppliers around the world to to get these different, enzymes. And Even if they’re coming from a, a fungus, people go, oh, I don’t want any fungus in my diet. What you’re what you’re you have to recognize is the fungus, The extraction process is just extracting the pure enzyme out of it, so it’s not gonna cause any, problems if You have, like, mold issues or things like that. So a lot of people worry about that, but it’s not an issue.

Nick Urban [01:24:31]:

What about porcine derived enzymes? Are those at all similar, different class, or what?

Wade Lightheart [01:24:35]:

Yes. So you have, plant based enzymes, you have, animal based enzyme, which porcine would be an animal based, For example, you have, systemic enzymes, and then you have cultural enzymes. And so, a plant based enzyme usually has a wider range where it’s effective in pH. Animal enzymes are usually In a lower pH range that they’re they’re like a very low bandwidth. A, and then you have a systemic enzyme, which is an enzyme that may be from an either a plant, an animal, or synthesized, and that enzyme is usually not used in digestion. It’s just taken and used in, for, like, a systemic enzyme for various functions, and then You have a cultured enzyme. And a cultured enzyme would mean that you are growing the fungus or the bacteria, the mushroom, or whatever in in a very specific environment that are gonna enhance its enzymatic capacity, and then you extract the enzymes out of that? So you’re gonna get about Somewhere between a 100 a 1000 times more powerful of an enzyme by using a cultured enzyme over, say, a plant, or an animal based enzyme?

Nick Urban [01:25:56]:

Alright. Cool. I heard Matt speak on, another podcast, and he mentioned that CapEx can help break down seed oils.

Wade Lightheart [01:26:03]:

Yeah. So that was just recently proven in our microbiology lab, and, you know, we hear all this bad stuff about seed oils. Well, we have, 4 different types of Protease or excuse me, lipases, which are different types of lipolytic enzymes. And What was remarkable is that we were able to demonstrate in the lab that we were able to completely knock out all of the negative components of seed oils if CapEx is taken with it? Now that’s not getting it out of the tissues if it’s already there, but you will not Suffer the negative consequences if you’re using CapEx around seed oils. So if you’re out there and you’re going for the snack attack with the seed oils on it, take your K PAX beforehand, and you should be good to go?

Nick Urban [01:26:50]:

That is really cool. I did not know that, and I will have to be adding that. So when I go out to restaurants, a lot of times, I’ll take blood sugar breakthrough, and I’ll try and take something to, like, reduce the oxidation of the polyunsaturated fats, the PUFAs, and it looks like CAPEX will be joining my pre restaurant meal stack?

Wade Lightheart [01:27:05]:

Yeah. It’s it’s it’s a it’s a great addition. Right?

Nick Urban [01:27:08]:

Yeah. Well, wait. I have a couple more questions for you, but if people wanna connect with you to try some BioOptimizer’s products, to grab your latest and greatest book, in my opinion, that is? How can they go about that?

Wade Lightheart [01:27:19]:

Well, I think if you go to the ultimate nutrition system .com/nickurban, put in It was just nerd. Nick Urban got ahead of myself there. You’ll get a little discount, on the project. You can follow us on Bioptimizers, you know, we do all the social media stuff and all that sort of stuff, and we’re pretty easy to find.

Nick Urban [01:27:43]:

Beautiful. Yeah. And I think that if you use the code urban in the BioOptimizer shop in general, that’ll save you on anything you get from them. So thank you guys. Thank you for setting that up. And now if there’s a worldwide burning of the books and all knowledge on earth was lost, but you get to save the works of 3 teachers, who would you choose and why?

Wade Lightheart [01:28:03]:

Doctor David Hawkins, who wrote Power versus Force and created a whole system of conscious of of conscious calibration through kinesiological testing. I think his work will probably be considered one of the most profound works from centuries to come, Probably the complete works of the Buddha. If you look at the most comprehensive, and and easier to understand than perhaps maybe the Hindu philosophy that is, you know, the Sanatana Dharma that which has existed, you know, the Vedas and all that of stuff, but oftentimes, that gets lost. And the 3rd piece of information, I’d have to say that the essential teachings of Christ, in that If we live a Christ like life, many of the problems would go away. If we practice the Buddhist path, Many of the problems would go away. And if we use that in the map of consciousness, we’d understand where everybody was, to be less inclined to worry about where we were or where we were going or where we’re from?

Nick Urban [01:29:25]:

Wow. Okay. Well, we will wrap this one up today with a fun fact that the Biooptimizers tribe does not know about you?

Wade Lightheart [01:29:35]:

Maybe that I was an exotic dancer at one time.

Nick Urban [01:29:40]:

That’s pretty fun. Wade Leithart, thank you for joining me on the Mindbody Peak Performance Podcast. It’s been an honor to host you today to chat about your latest book, some of your breakthrough products, and just to reconnect?

Wade Lightheart [01:29:52]:

Always a slice. Thanks so much for having me, and, Really appreciate you taking the time. Great questions.

Nick Urban [01:29:58]:

I hope that this has been helpful for you. If you enjoyed it, subscribe And hit the thumbs up. I love knowing who’s in the 1% committed to reaching their full potential. Comment 1% below so that I know who you are. For all the resources and links, meet me on my website at mindbodypeak.com. I appreciate you and look forward to connecting with you.