Can metabolic profiling help you reach your running goals?

I'm Angelo poli and you're listening to run to the top. Hello fellow runners, I'm your host, Finn Melanson. And this is the run to the top podcast podcast dedicated to making you a better runner. With each and every episode. We are created and produced by the expert team of coaches at runners connect dot net where you can find the best running information on the internet as well as training plans to fit every runner and every budget. In this episode. I am talking with Angelo Poley, founder of Met Pro You'll learn more about the relationship between diet metabolism and running fitness, lifestyle evaluation and actionable strategies you can take to master your nutrition and truly meet your running goals. How the process of metabolic profiling can help you reach those transformation goals as a runner and when and why. It makes sense to have a personalized nutrition coach in your running journey. Among other topics. Let's get started finding the right supplements at the right dosage is specifically for your needs isn't easy.

That's why we love L. O. Health. Elo uses a combination of at home blood biomarker testing, Apple health data and dietician support to determine exactly the right supplements. Just for you, I'll tell you more about how it works and how you can get a free biomarker test later in the episode before we get to our conversation, I wanted to talk about the importance of electrolytes especially in the winter maintaining healthy electrolyte levels is not only important for your run but your recovery and overall health as well. And that's why we recommend all runners check out element this winter, it's loaded with everything you need to replenish your electrolytes bala with 1000 mg of sodium, 200 mg of potassium and 60 mg of magnesium. And it doesn't include anything you don't need like extra sugar or anything artificial stay tuned for how you can get a free sample pack at L. M and T dot com forward slash runners connect Angela poli great to have you here today.

Thanks for having me fan. It's a pleasure. We were talking offline just a moment ago and you told me that you are a big fan, a big nerd of quote unquote transformations in the world of endurance sports. And this is also our first time meeting. So talk about that a bit. Uh so we have been doing this a minute, uh apologize if we've, you know, if I've talked to some of the other coaches before and some of this is redundant, but my background before developing met pro was in personal transformations. Um but you know, I was the guy that walked with a cane for almost a decade and that that's ultimately how I ended up getting into Sports nutrition. Fitness and wellness is for me it was necessity to survive. I suffered a pretty catastrophic back injury in my 20s. Um got me really interested in fitness for wellness. I was already in, you know, I was already in that category in that space when I was injured, but my my interest accelerated and what can be done through nutrition and of course training and fitness and strategy is really the category I'd put it under to help people achieve their wellness goals.

And of course, over the course of, you know, going through the adventure for myself because I needed to I needed to survive. Um It turns out I had a lot of clients that were benefiting from the strategies as well. Nowadays. Fin we specialize in metabolism now. When So if I say metabolize what? Because you're a runner, what do you think of when I say metabolism cause that's a broad topic processing fuel? Yes, well, absolutely. So when when I when I bring this up, some people say um energy exchange, energy management, calorie consumption. Some people think of blood sugar control more of medical terminology. But what a lot of people don't necessarily think about is how the metabolism impacts their day to day performance, energy and recovery. We tend to think of metabolism as the dirty word is the thing that's stopping us from reaching our our weight loss goals if that's on the bucket list for us.

But it really controls so much about our day to day performance. And it's not that it's more important than any of the other more commonly talked about aspects of fitness, nutrition wellness, it's that I would argue it's the least understood in the industry. And so that's what we met pro we do with our clients. We do a lot of research, we do a lot of practical work and we're in the trenches with our clients and what we've really learned is it has to be individualized. Everyone's body is responding a little different. And is that a little different place in their journey? For example, I can't tell you how many times a week one of my clients will tell me, you know, Angela last time I did X, Y. Z routine fitness or diet. This, this and this happened. Now I'm doing that. I'm not seeing any other results.

How is that possible? Well, it's possible because the way our metabolism works is it's a constantly changing, constantly refining, retuning um orchestration of all the biological little processes in our body that does exactly as you say, it burns fuel and it utilizes that fuel efficiently. So in in our transformation journeys, when when we're working with clients, that ends up being our focus is really low. That's what we named the company after metabolic profiling. Um We named it that because we really wanted to focus on what each individual is gonna need metabolically, whether it's to perform at their highest level for their runs on the field or on the court or whether it's to get the most efficient results, as far as body composition, weight loss plateaus, you name it. Um that's where we live. That's the nerdy stuff I deal with every day.

Finn I like I like your use of the phrase transformation journeys because this audience, it's a group of really passionate runners, they're wanting to train for in pr in races and events, you know, let's just say, ranging from the five K to the marathon sometimes beyond they care about leading a healthy active lifestyle. They're looking for solutions to round that out. And I think a lot of runners are notable for leaving no stone unturned. It. Also, even though it may be the case that, you know, metabolism isn't the first thing that comes to mind. I think that there are a lot of people in the audience that are fascinated by this topic. And you also said, um it's it's it's not it's little understood and it's important to know how metabolism impacts you, not just on a day to day basis, but when it comes to going out there and executing a workout from a performance standpoint recovering from that. So maybe we can start by breaking down each of those areas, starting with the day to day. Can you talk about how metabolism impacts us on a day to day basis first?

Yes, So here's what here's what I want to do. I want to expose a couple myths because this is may not be relevant to each individual listener, but when you walk away from you, hopefully you'll have that light bulb moment where it's like, oh wow, I didn't realize that. So here's the myth. I want to expose when it comes to metabolism. The myth is your age, height, weight, gender are the deciding factors. The myth is your uh, your heredity. Your genetics are the deciding factors. Now. It is absolutely true. Those are influential. They are not the deciding factor. In fact, there's something that is significantly more relevant to how your day to day metabolic rate is going to respond. And I can prove that. In fact, Finn, let's do just a little quick mental experiment here.

So the first is to illustrate your metabolism can change on a day to day basis. So anyone who's watched any of my youtube videos or anything that may have heard this illustration before. But if we were to take 100 people and drop them off on a deserted island and put them on rations. Okay, um, what do you consider, Finn? If I were to say, what's a low calorie diet, what would you say? No. Right or wrong, purely purely sourced via protein, Purely source to be a protein. You would correct? Yeah, that's gonna you're gonna run into some problems, let's say um, you know, we'll just use the industry standard. You know, it's gonna say 1200 calories. Now, hopefully none of our runners particularly advanced runners are anywhere near that. But if you go to, you know, your your weight watchers, your Nutrisystem, your, you know, your general mass market is 12, whatever the case may be standard, um, you know, restrictive diet. What would happen if we were to take 100 people, You have big people, little people, small people, large people, men, women, everything In between athletes.

Non athletes would drop them off on this island. We put them on rations 1200 calories a day. What would happen to these people? Do you think they'd lose weight? Fin I don't think they would. Some would some wouldn't specifically those accustomed to greater than 1200 calories would absolutely lose weight. Of course, if someone's used to eating 3300 calories a day, you drop them off 1200, they're gonna lose some weight. Those accustomed to eating. Maybe just a little beyond that. It's not gonna be a huge delta. Now, how do we know that? We know that? Because here's the question, will they die on 1200 calories a day? What do you think? No, of course not. Even even if we went lower than that now, they most certainly will not thrive. They're not gonna they may wish they were dead there. We're gonna thrive. They're not gonna perform well. But the sad reality is, there's entire third world countries around the world where the populations are, you know, existing on barely 1200 calories a day is an average.

That's the sad reality in the world today. So here's what that means. That means, regardless of their state. Prior to being dropped off on this island metabolically When they are rescued? six months or a year later. Their new metabolic rate has now acclimated to exactly 1200 calories a day. Because if I'm wrong, finn they don't come off the island, they're dead. If they kept losing weight, it means that that they would waste away and die. They don't why our body's biological response to adapt to our environment because it prioritizes homeostasis above all other factors. So that's we're getting back to your size, gender activity. All of these are highly influential. But your body will find a way to recreate homeostasis as the priority because you can't exist in a perpetual state of weight gain or weight loss.

Now you're in you're in really good shape. Fin can now, can I ask, you know, put you on the hot seat. Ballpark, height and weight. What's your ballpark? Hard in height? 5 11 1 70. Okay. Uh what would happen? Um I'm guessing you're probably pretty clean eatery. Um I have a sweet tooth. You have a sweet tooth. Okay, well let's let's use that. What would happen Finn if we were to change nothing about your running or training routine. Nothing about your diet. Everything stays intact. But we add a pint of Ben and jerry's ice cream every night before you go to bed. What's gonna happen? Your body, I would anticipate, I'm gonna gain weight. Yeah, Fair enough. Okay. Now you're how old are you fen? 30 one. So You've lived in your body 31 years. You're an expert on your body, how much weight you think you're gonna gain in about a month? Ballpark? I bet I'll gain £5. Yeah. So I've literally asked this question on podcasts, live seminars, you name it, every sort of retreat, imaginable experts.

I've asked this hundreds and hundreds of times, I invariably get an answer, 5 to 15 lbs. And these are just people in the audience that I'm asking, well, they're not metabolic experts, depending on what day of the week you catch me sometimes I think I am. That's kind of what I'll do when I spend my days doing. I researched this stuff day in and day out and guess what I would say you're accurate, you probably gain five maybe for some people, £10 is probably your intuition is pretty accurate Now how much weight if you continue doing that for an entire year. What's your gut say? How much weight you think you'd gain in a year? 15 to £20. Fair Enough. Every time I ask the audience, they always say somewhere between 15 and £30 is what I'll get now. We have a math problem. You know, I use the example of a pint of Ben and jerry's, it's almost exactly 1000 calories now.

So for any of our listeners, that's, you know, up on the basics of the science of, you know, energy expenditures and clerk intake. There are 3500 calories and a pound of body fat? Therefore seven days a week, 1000 calories a day. That should be £2 a week by the math. I'm not making this up by the math, whoever they are, that says the math. Now, there's 52 weeks in a year last I checked. So any chance you're off, Finn and in reality you're going to gain 100 and £4 if you had a pint of Ben and jerry's at night before bed? Well, I think the reason I went 15-20 as you talked about the body achieving homeostasis and getting accustomed to new demands. So that's why I didn't let the math run wild. And, and you are absolutely dead on point. Uh, your accurate to do so because we all know that if you if you had 1000 calories a night, you will gain weight.

You're not gonna be happy about it. It's gonna affect your performance. But you there is no scenario where you are going to gain the weight by the numbers. Why? Just like the illustration with that with that deserted island on rations, If you increase your intake, your metabolism seeks homeostasis. So it will actually speed up to stop or at least slow down the weight gain. So why do I bring this up? Because if your metabolism can speed up and slow down, That means it can be controlled. So now we're gonna throw out the whole idea of eating a bunch of ice cream every night. And instead what if we were to do it? What if we were to do it in a way that was strategic where we were actually trying to condition your metabolism to a certain spot by taking graduated steps to get there. And so here's the trick in sports nutrition. Here's the trick in transformations. And this is what, you know, our celebrity clients, this is what our executive ceo S.

R. V. I. P. S. They hire me to work one on one with me. I'm telling you exactly what I tell them transformations are about contrast. So we read, you know, somebody this active should be eating this many calories. The problem is your body is always seeking homeostasis. So if you're wanting faster recovery, greater performance, there could very well be a delta where your metabolism could be conditioned to being able to process more fuel in a beneficial way to translate to performance without negatively impacting body weight or energy. Now, of course, that's all conditional. Now, the obvious elephant in the room is, you know, despite the fact that we are a sports nutrition company and we specialize in high level athletics, my background, I got to work with, you know, a p athlete of the year, you know, a decade ago, I, you know, olympic athletes, NFL players, you name it still despite that 83% of the people who hire us for transformations list some level of weight loss among their goals for their journey.

So of course the elephant in the room is, does this have application for people who are like, hey, I've got a race coming up, I want to be £10 lighter. Can I cut do a cutting cycle prior to the race? Do I need to do a cutting cycle after the race? How does that work into my performance and timing to make sure that I'm optimizing both my body weight and performance and recovery. And that's where if we can track your metabolism, we can stop guessing. Um, It's the one size fits all where the gurus and the experts. Um, you know, I've been doing this for 21 years now, over two decades. So I've seen, I've seen all the trends come up remember back in the nineties, we, we all marched in early 2000. We all marched the carbs out back and shot him and buried them. And that was it. All carbs are bad, you know, back in the Dr Atkins days. And then after that it was more of a diversity. And it was like, well, no, what you actually do is you just, you limit certain carbs, you know, and that was the mediterranean diet and paleo diet.

And I remember, you know, rob Wolfe had a gym right behind me in northern California. We, he was, he was all about zone uh very sear zone before he was teaching, you know, keto and paleo and stuff like that and we would have interesting conversations. Um and then that was a trend for a while and then now it's well, wait a second now, you just eat at certain times of the day where you just eat certain days of the week, that's now all the hot top. I've seen them all come and go, I've seen them all come and go. Which one's right for you. It always is going to come back to where is your metabolism at? If you're just guessing based on, you know, hey, you know this year these celebrities are all doing this diet next year. The celebrity is going to be doing a different diet. It's never gonna be optimal for you. It should be sports oriented. First, it should fuel athletics first and then after that it should be individualized where your metabolism is at and how we raise the bar on your on your performance.

You talked there about how the body has this amazing self controlling homeostasis mechanism where it can just grow accustomed to whatever you throw at it. Can you talk about the challenge of layering human intervention on top of that to act as another sort of controlling conditioning mechanism to get it to a certain spot and why we want to do that in performance and recovery setting, like for runners. So I think and correct me if I'm going in a different direction than you had in mind, but you're gonna find that typically athletic programs are going to be frequent fueling throughout the day, clean foods and so when it comes to human behaviors, that's the hardest part to master and I'm gonna I'm gonna try and put my finger on even more specifically with the challenges. So executive C. E. O. S, they'll hire me to give seminars to teach. Mr poli we know who your athletes are, we've seen your transformation, what's the best food to eat or what's the best exercise to do?

And I tell them all you're asking the wrong question. You want to know the secret to performance and transformation you ready Here. It is time management, it's time management because there are certain activities you're gonna do and if you can do them quickly, if you can execute in a fast, consistent way, you're going to be able to make them stick. If it's slow, awkward or cumbersome to fit into your lifestyle, you're gonna last three days and if the routine is gonna fall off speed is king speed is king in sports, speed is king in routine when it comes to human performance and sports nutrition. If you were to be a fly on the wall listening to one of our first conversations, coaching a client, I'll get, you know, hey, you know, johnny tells me, yeah, Angelo, I lost £5 this week, I did this, I did that, I was like john I don't care.

Here's what I want to know. We picked a routine we laid out meal plan. We give you lots of options. We built it with foods you like. I asked you to do one thing for me. I asked you to prep this specific snack or that specific meal. Did you prep it in advance Because john you're getting graded not on whether you lost weight gained weight or pr this week you're getting graded on how well you have adopted the behaviors. I need long term to make sure that these performance changes stick that's we live and die by that that's where that that's the wind conditions for us. When it comes to supplements it can sometimes feel overwhelming when you look at the myriad options available and try to figure out exactly what you need and what's going to help you most enter. Ello, ello takes the guesswork out of finding the right supplements by taking into account your blood biomarker values, health history and fitness goals to determine the optimal supplement formulation just for you, the biomarker test is shipped right to your door and it's simple and easy to take at home.

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Plus the sweat gets absorbed by our clothes. So it's harder to notice now you already know that when you sweat you lose electrolytes which are essential for your body's best performance. But you've also been told that too much salt is bad for you so it can get confusing to know what to do. The truth is that athletes healthy eaters and heavy sweaters all need more sodium and just about everyone needs more potassium in their diet and we don't need a bunch of sugar and artificial junk along the way element is the hydration solution designed with athletes and everyone who sweats in mind element comes in lots of salty flavors that even the saltiest sweaters will love, such as citrus, raspberry and orange. It even comes unflavored for those who prefer the clean, salty taste. That's why we recommend all runners check out element this winter. It's loaded with everything you need to replenish your electrolyte balance with 1000 mg of sodium, 200 mg of potassium and 60 mg of magnesium and doesn't include anything you don't need like extra sugar or anything artificial. Even better. They are currently running a special deal where you can get a free element sample pack with any order so order your favorite flavor and get a free sample pack to try out new flavors or share with your running friends to claim this exclusive deal, you must go to drink L M N T dot com backslash runners connect what are some other important, like within the conversation about metabolism and preparing for, you know, a lot of these events in the running world.

Are there any other important takeaways you have about how to think about this around performance and recovery and just day to day that listeners should take away from this episode. Yes. Okay, so I'll do two things. I'll give you some baseline testing and then life hacks. So the first topic is baseline testing and so whenever we do a high level transformation with someone. The very first thing we do is a detailed baseline testing strategy. Uh You may have heard terminology around that. Does that mean you have to go and get blood work done this that the other? No absolutely not. If you have access to it? Great more data is always better. But base baseline testing to me is essentially this no more guesswork. I don't debate about the correct intake or its impact on someone's body. I baseline test and I show here's the data. So what I'll do is I'll typically take let's just say uh you know an executive with a busy schedule or mom with you know with several kids and she's a busy mother but she's active and she's trying to fit and figure out okay what really is going to be the best routine for me.

What I'll do is I'll put him or her on a baseline meal plan that is middle of the road but here's the attributes to the meal plan. I Know the exact macro nutrient breakdown, I know the glycemic load of each meal, I know how many meals are in it and I know what they're consuming so it's gonna be boring but 72 hours you can you can do boring for 72 hours for the data based on that. Now I'm gonna be able to go back to johnny or go back to susie and say look here is your intake here's the macro nutrient breakdown, here's the glycemic load, the meal frequency, the calories and here is exactly how you responded. This isn't hypothetical, this just happened. Here's how you went up £2 you lost £2 you expressed greater energy, you expressed an energy deficit. This just happened based on this intake. Now I have a baseline to establish because if I were to line up 10 guys built like you Finn And I would establish what each 10 baseline, what the baseline is for all of them.

You know what they have in common, what nothing They would be 10 completely different baselines. That's just the reality because the body seeks that homeostasis then you layer in different activity levels. Then you layer in different genetics, then you layer in different levels of what we call in research terms adaptive thermogenesis which is the body's response to changes in dietary intake and you're gonna have every single person is going to be at a different spot. So we baseline tests to establish where someone should start for listeners at home. It can be this simple first of all you you know you can reach out to us we can show you how we do a very polished version of this. But you can do this at home just get any food logging app, pencil and paper and if you need to and just track a couple of things um If you can only track one thing, track your calories. If you can track a couple of things, track your calories and the ratio of carbs that will give you a good little snapshot, do that for just three or four days and then compare.

Okay, am I in homeostasis on this? In other words, am I in weight maintenance with balanced energy? Am I increasing body weight or am I decreasing body weight? And that gives us our starting point. That's what we would do at a high level. That's what someone can even do at home. Now, as far as time saving hacks. Um, let me give you, let me give you my list of 11. Um, I call these disruptive behaviors and they're not gonna be the things you would think so finn if if you were my client and you hired me helped me improve performance. I got a guy right now. He cutting edge high performing athlete, but he's trying to quote, Well, we got he was under fueling, He didn't know how to increase his intake in the right way. Now he qualified for kona Now he's that 1% that the top 1% you know, of the athletes took it to the next level. What is the absolute number one most disruptive strategy I would have you implement if you said I got three minutes to execute on it.

You know what it is. Number one most disruptive behavior. I want you to prepare an afternoon snack in advance every day. We find that the afternoon snack is the most disruptive in a good way when it comes to performance nutrition for the average athlete and that it changes the time management, it changes the strategy and the layout from a performance recovery, nutrition and behavior standpoint across the board, if you can have a consistent mid afternoon snack now, what if you're listening and you're saying, well, that's great. I just hit my first five K, I'm working up towards a half marathon. What I really want to do is lose £25 great, you're already on the right track, still afternoon snack. You know why, you know, you can read all of these debates. Some, some nutritionists say, well, you only when you're hungry, some nutritionists say, no, you gotta snack frequently. And if you go into bodybuilding world, it's all about frequency and these are individuals, the lowest body fat percentage, the highest lean mass.

Um, if you go into high level sports nutrition, you're almost always gonna have frequent fueling is, but there is some relevancy to listening to your body and appetite. If you were my client, you're gonna eat an afternoon snack and it is for none of the reasons you think you ready for this, It's gonna be ridiculous. Here. Here it comes. My clients eat an afternoon snack because we don't eat snacks socially. In other words, if I said, hey, Finn, would you mind eating exactly this, this, this, this for lunch every day or for dinner every day. You know, you're gonna say to me, unless you're hardcore hardcore, you're gonna say perfect, I'm gonna do it. Most people are gonna say, yeah, I'll try, but I can't be perfect every day. Why? Because I have a business lunch with johnny? Why? Because I have dinner with the family, Why? Because we're going to this restaurant, I can get close, but I can't always be perfect. But if I say I want you to eat half an apple and 12 almonds at 2 30 every day, you know what most people say to me say, sure, okay, I can do that, Angela.

So what it gives me is an anchor in your diet, where I can guarantee that every day at 3:00 or whatever we determine, you can have a consistent nutritious snack and don't get hung up on the details of what's the best snack, consistent, nutritious snack. Now, I know that you're gonna get fueled every day in the afternoon. Now, if you're going through the effort of preparing a mid afternoon snack, odds are, you're also eating breakfast. And if you're eating breakfast, that means you're gonna have stable blood sugar when it comes to lunch and you have the knowledge that a mid afternoon snack is coming, so you are going to overeat at lunch less frequently or choose junk food less frequently. Not, never that's not a real world thing, it's just less, then you're gonna get that mid afternoon snack, which is critical because while most people will go four or five hours between breakfast and lunch, It is very common for people to go 7, 8, sometimes nine hours between lunch and dinner, depending on how crazy their schedule is.

And so afternoon snack is critical for recovery and stable blood sugar throughout the afternoon. And because your blood sugar is stable, you're less likely to overeat at dinner and then you're less likely to snack throughout the evening on junk food or sugar. So it has a stabilizing effect. So number one hack afternoon snack. Number two hack, if you have the afternoon snack dialed in, I want then your breakfast dialed in and most people, if they can do an afternoon snack, they can do breakfast. Breakfast tends to be the easiest behavior to integrate across the board, pick something clean, healthy, make sure it includes some protein, includes some carbohydrates and if you're gonna do fats, just a small amount, it is okay to do some fats at breakfast. Just more protein, more carbs. If you have a mid afternoon snack breakfast dialed in, then it's exercise frequency. Now here's a radical statistic and this is the nerdy stuff that we study When we look at hundreds of clients that have high, high value data.

In other words, because they're tracking their workouts, they're tracking their exercise. We have quality data on them. What we find is people that are exercising running whatever the case may be for their exercise 3-5 times a week. Have 34% greater results than people only exercising once or twice a week. Now here's the kicker that is independent of considering intensity, volume or exercise type. That is a statistic. Now, if we consider that we can even sharpen the pencil more and argue that you get even a greater return on investment. But just think about this. The underlying message is for beginners, consistency and frequency is king. Don't don't worry about going out and crushing yourself in a boot camp. Don't worry about, you know, doing the workout that you push yourself to your limits and that's what's gonna transfer.

The most important thing is you do something you can be consistent with. Once you get to that intermediate level, then we start dialing in in in what exercise you're doing volume, intensity and all of those things. And I'm sure you've been you're in the industry. I'm sure you've seen that just, you know, common sense stuff after exercise. Reagan we're almost through this list. The next thing is accountability. That's the next biggest thing. Well and that's what I'm in the business, my company does accountability. But if you don't have hired coach working with you Accountability can be verbal, you can just tell your friends your family when you audibly commit to doing something out loud. Statistically, you are significantly more likely to follow through and it's just human nature 101. We'll let ourselves down before we let other people down. It's just, it's just, it's common habits. So when we verbalize it, if you have a mid afternoon snack, breakfast, exercise regularly and accountability already in place, then the next step is a planned lunch.

Here's a little hack. Um, if you're at work during lunch hour, what I want you to do is pick the three closest restaurants that you like and pick one or two items from each menu from those three different restaurants that are clean and are gonna help you with your performance wellness and or weight loss. If that's the case for you goals, put write them down. So there is no mental energy expended when it's time for lunch, you have a menu to do take out from, to order from. You don't even have to waste mental energy thinking, what am I gonna eat today? You have a list right there and and here here, here's a tip. You're not gonna follow it all the time. Sometimes it's going to be there and you're going to ignore it. But if you have it there, you'd be amazed that little five minute exercise. How often that will improve your habits at lunch. Of course if you cook in bulk macro and you do some food prepping better still after planned lunches, sleep hygiene.

I get people raise their hand all the time and say how dare you put sleep hygiene So low on the list. Sleep hygiene is like number one, you're right. It is. But here's the kicker. When people ask me, what can I do to improve my sleep, I tell them to eat a mid afternoon snack. I tell them to eat breakfast regularly. I tell them to exercise consistently. I tell him to be accountable to a regular bedtime. I tell them to have a planned lunch. And then I tell them all the habits on sleep hygiene. Don't read digital device at night, have a consistent bedtime, have a consistent routine, all those things. So that's why it falls seventh on the list. Then after that is training optimization. Of course, that's outside the scope of what we'd have time for today. But we're always looking at body type and genetics and optimizing for time management. Uh, and then eighth is planned dinners planned cheap meals. And that's really when somebody's on a full kind of food prepping routine where they have days where they're really on point days where they're having a cheap meal. Um, and it's really calculated out that's gonna be like my high level athletes where, okay, we want you at this percent body fat on this way and I want you on a revving cycle and um, metabolic performance cycle.

We're increasing your intake for three weeks out leading up to a race or an event or a football game, whatever the case may be. Um, and that's where we can really do those kind of things. So that's that's kind of my my list of the hierarchy of anyone at home saying, hey, what can I do tomorrow to start improving my performance, my wellness or just simply propelling me towards my goal? There's a couple couple things I want to talk about before. We maybe talk more in depth about the accountability process in what you do at Met Pro. Um There's a there's a there's a phrase that I as I was doing research for this episode that I came across in your website called metabolic profiling and I think it's going to set up a few other questions I have. Can you talk a bit about what that means and what the value proposition is there for the listeners. So the metabolic profiling actually refers to that baseline testing process. But I here's a peek behind the curtain.

This is where technology is really cool. We can leverage it as technology has advanced, it can be integrated into sports nutrition. Now it hasn't changed methodology. What it's changed is our ability to extract real time data. So that's what we're able to do. It. Met Pro is extract real time data without it being cumbersome. And what that enables us to do is add a glance see what someone's metabolic rating is and that's a metabolic rating, that's really in comparison. So for example, if I were to put you on a meal plan fin, um, you know, basically you're 31 years old, you're about 100 and £70. You're you're highly active, You're fit well. I've had, you know, 1900 other guys between 30 and 35 years old active about your height and weight roughly. So I've aggregated all that data and I can spit out and tell you what mean averages are.

Now when I put you on a plan and I see your statistics and performance compared against averages. Statistically, I can come back to you and I can say, hey fan, you have a fast metabolism and you can believe it if I tell you that or I'll come back to you and say, hey, Finn. Yeah, your, your metabolisms in the tank. I can see it and here's why. And you should believe me if that's the case because I'm actually using that data, you whether it's good news or bad news or anything in between. You don't paint blindfolded. You don't, you know, so here's the route blindfolded. You have to have a starting point and finishing point. So that's the value proposition on knowing your metabolic profile and what we're doing with our clients is we're tracking that at any point. And so let's talk to the average for zombies. Just speak to weight loss because it's such a common question, people have helped me lose weight, I'm stuck at this plateau or or every time I lose weight, I gain it back. I hear this every day. Most people don't know when they have the metabolic leverage to go into a cutting cycle.

And often someone is entering a cutting cycle with minuscule metabolic leverage. So here, here's what that means. I have the girl that comes to me doesn't have the metabolic leverage. I have the gal that comes to me and she just got done doing keto. And she wasn't quite happy with the results because she felt fatigued on the run. So she stopped doing keto and then she started intermittent fasting and then she noticed that, you know, she's still not getting a result. So now she calls me and says, but I just want to lose £10. Guess what she's used to 1100 calories a day average Because of that intermittent fasting. She's used to a low carbohydrate intake, trying to squeeze £10. That is going to put her in such a depleted, low performing, low recovery state. Even if we got that £10 off at that point in time, there is zero possibility she will actually sustain it. And statistically, I ca plot a chart and say, by what date, statistically, you will be heavier than baseline.

Taking that diet on diet. Yo yo approach how much better to identify that and say, we're gonna take a modest 14 to 19 days, go through a metabolic revving cycle. You're gonna have more energy. You're gonna have greater performance. You're not gonna lose weight, but you're not gonna gain weight either, we're gonna recover your metabolism, then we're gonna have a cutting cycle. And oh, by the way, here's just the reality of it. You want to lose 10 lb, we're gonna take six off and we're gonna pause. We're gonna keep you there for two weeks. We're going to recover your metabolism again and then we're going to get the last four. And oh, by the way, if somebody weighs 100 and £75 and they say, I want to weigh £165. This whole concept is new to most people, not in the field, somebody wants to maintain it £165. I'm gonna diet them down to 163 and then have them gain £2 purposefully back to their maintenance weight as we increase performance and potentially muscle mass at that point.

So they're actually up regulating their metabolism so they have a chance of sustaining that weight. Likewise, people come to me all the time and I'm a hard gainer. I've tried everything. I just want to put on £10 of muscle. I'm eating pound for pound calorie for calorie exactly what the book says, the caloric. I need to gain so many pounds per month and it's not happening fact is in that case somebody needs more, their metabolic rating has exceeded or is matching their intake. So a delta has to be instituted. If you know, your metabolic rate, we can identify precisely what that is a week later re evaluate and adjust. Again, one of the things that I want to talk about before you get to met pro, I think a lot of listeners in the audience are familiar with and they know the value of working with a running coach to write them training plans for a week, you know, you know, workout plans, long runs, etcetera.

They may be less familiar with why accountability also matters. Having a partner matters in this sports nutrition journey. Can you talk about why that makes sense? And feel free to even include any success stories you've seen in this process? Well, we we have thousands of success stories actually met pro dot co, this is what 21 years I've been in the, in the industry doing it. And I love transformations were not some, you know, 3000 coaches across the country, you know, so we're a very uh exclusive, tight knit community where we are all passionate about what we do and we take people through the journey. And success means something different to each person. But we love before and after transformations. That's the, you know, we we that that's the money shot right there. It's so satisfying when, you know, I've had the celebrity athletes, I've had all the ones, you remember those, you know, the people who I'll tell you sorry to kind of go on a tangent here, but I'll tell you real quick story.

I once had a father who brought in his son, he wanted me to coach his son and help him get healthy. And one day he's sitting there watching his son just go through a basic fitness routine and I look over and his dad's crying, you know, I'll just tears running down his cheek. And I went up, I said I saw you get emotional there and I said, why? So that was the first time I've ever seen my son run And this young man was 14 years old. You know, the reality is we live in a time in a in a culture where sometimes, you know, kids are not even exposed to basic athletics, those experiences, they stay with you the rest of your life. You know, when you have somebody who drops £100 and actually lives life again, goes on journey and they can do things with the kids and grandkids and that's the stuff you remember. And yeah, so sorry for the tangent, uh the accountability, you have a coach that's going on the journey with you boy, it makes all the difference in the world.

So what you get is two aspects first the science. So the first thing we do is we identify where someone is behavioral or metabolic and so what that means is if somebody's following a process, there are a lot of people who are doing everything quote unquote right and not getting results because their program needs just the smallest tweak, the smallest adjustment to bust through and to change. And so if if you're a person who is exercising, you're watching what you eat and you're still not seeing the results, you want work with an expert who can lay out a nutrition plan for you that can make all the difference in the world. So you have the science piece, but then you have the accountability piece very common. You know, Hey johnny, here's what we're gonna do. I'm adjusting your carbs on this meal and I'm increasing your protein there and I'm adjusting this here and we're gonna do it with foods you like. We're gonna make this small adjustment, I know you're busy this weekend, so we're going to implement this starting monday.

But here's what I want you do. I want to see you at this weight by thursday. And if you're not, I want you to call me because here's the next adjustment we're going to make when, you know, you have someone in the in your corner who's taking step by step and it's not just that, hey, I'm gonna email you some meme to motivate you. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with that. There's programs out there like that that help people and there's nothing wrong with that. That that that's not our stick at met pro our stick is we're going to talk to you. We're gonna get a food history, a wellness culture. We're gonna do a bite for bite strategy of what's gonna get person a person to the next level. What's gonna get them P. R. Ng their race time, what's going to put them at this body fat percentage for their next event? Um, You know, I'm gonna treat someone just like I would my Olympic athletes, my NFL athletes, my etc, etc until they tell me otherwise. And then if we need to back it off a little, we'll find a balance for that person where they're 80, 20 rule, right, applying the 80% of it.

Um, and and that's where when you have someone in your corner who is just as passionate about seeing you get those results and I'll tell you the secret fan and all my client, any of my clients who get to listen to this are gonna chuckle because they know I do like to win. I do like to win. And when my clients win, then I'm winning. You know, my athletes, I like to see them win and when they win, I win and my lifestyle athletes when they transform when they hit prs, when they hit their goals, where their goal is to feel good in their, you know, jeans and blazer, where their goal is to do a, you know, 50 mile marathon, you know, pr ultra, that's how I win. And so last thing I want to talk about is just a full overview of Met Pro and maybe what the call to action is for listeners that have heard what you had to say here today have learned a lot and maybe are interested in taking next steps.

So what is the whole Met Pro program look like? And is there anything you can offer listeners that they might be interested in following up on? Oh my gosh! Well that that is super generous. Fin thank you. Um go to Met pro dot co slash R T T T. Met pro dot co slash R. T T T. Um And if you go there, what you can do is you can sign up to talk to an expert. We don't just indiscriminately take anyone on. We talk, we actually talk with you, you'll talk with a metabolic expert who's gonna say, I want to know. Okay, tell me about your current routine, Tell me about your health, what you've done in the past, they're gonna explain to you based on what they're hearing. Here's what others have done in similar circumstances. This is not a canned approach. There's no guarantee we're going to start with an up adjust cycle. A cutting cycle. It's all gonna be individual performance cycle, whatever your needs are call talk to someone if you like, what you hear, you can take what you learn and apply it on your own and we're both enriched for it because you'll pay it forward, you'll tell someone if somebody's stuck and hit a plateau and they need help with their performance or weight loss or whatever the goal is.

It all comes back to us if you like what you hear and you decide you want the additional accountability and support of working with a professional coach. Step by step for the journey. Then the next thing you'll do is you'll be scheduled with one of our registered dietitians. I'm gonna take you through the health history, all the details, get your background and then they're gonna work with you with our coaching department who's gonna be the day by day. They're gonna baseline test. They're gonna put you on a admittedly boring meal plan. But it's only 72 hours and you're going to be, Most people find it fascinating the amount of data we get from just 72 hours of baseline testing. Once we have that data, then your coach will work with you day in and day out to refine it to make sure we are managing and conditioning your metabolism on our terms. Because when you cut your metabolic rate slows, even when executed flawlessly homeostasis and survival requires a deregulation and downgrading and drifting of your metabolic pace.

When we go into a performance cycle. Even if executed poorly, your metabolic rate will a. K. A. The the Haagen Dazs or Ben and jerry will be forced to speed up course, We're not gonna do it that way. We're going to do it in an optimal, you know, in an optimal way. Um But that's where they're gonna work with you day by day and put together that specific protocol. Um That's going to condition your metabolism versus you saying I'm going to react to what the scale says today by changing something and it's that knee jerk reaction that leads to diet and stability. And ultimately that's where performance recovery, the athletics fall off. So, um that that's the that's the story arc and it's it's fascinating going back to that baseline testing process and the data we get from it. We'll have some people every once in a while who will hear me talk about this 72 hours will raise their hand and go, well, how can you learn enough about what someone needs in 72 hours?

That's not long enough. Right. Well, some interesting facts on that back in the day, a decade ago when I started this more than a decade ago. Um We did Baseline testing. It was a seven day process. Well, what we did was we said, well let's take the data and let's compare when we do a five day baseline, how much difference is the data that we get and the directional arrow that we get from five days of data And the difference was almost non existent. It was like 5% difference. If that then we went to 72 hour data, 72 hour data. Now there was a delta. It's about a 20% difference between 72 hours and seven day. That means 80% of the time. The data we have in 72 hours will tell us to do the exact same thing at seven days. 20% of the time it's different. But with that Delta, what we learn is we're going to continue collecting.

So at the sixth day mark we're still gonna be able to course correct and actually do so 24 hours faster than a seven day baseline testing. And then we got really cocky and we said we're gonna try 48 hour data And that was a disaster. It only had like a 40% accuracy rating. What we found is it was a coin toss whether or not we had enough data. It was consistent with what we would do at 72 hours or seven days. So we've actually gone through the process to find the sweet spot of of data collection for what the person's best next steps are. I love it. I love it. Angelo. It's been it's been great having the podcast. We thank you for your time. The knowledge I think that we're building at MIT pro is exciting. Make sure to link to all of the appropriate stuff in the show notes. Any other final thoughts that you wanna leave listeners and viewers with that we may not have covered uh sufficiently today. I just wanna you have been so generous, Finn and uh thrilled visiting with you and the community that you work with is a blast to work with.

That actually had the privilege of working with your community for some time now and having a lot of fun. It's always great when I get the athletic community, runners, people already passionate then of course that you know, dialing in the nutrition, you know, next logical step for them. They just over we go over the moon when we see people from your community coming through and so I thank you for having me on today. I really appreciate it's been a blast there. You have it hope there were many takeaways for you there around diet metabolism and their connections to building running fitness is metabolic profiling something that interests you now. Were there any nutritional strategies that Angela mentioned there that you might try from here on out, let us know we would love to hear from you in the comments section of this episode's post on both facebook and instagram. Thanks for listening to the run to the top podcast. I'm your host, Finn Melanson. As always, our mission here is to help you become a better runner with every episode. These consider connecting with me on instagram at Wasatch Finn and the rest of our team at runners connect also consider supporting our show for free.

The rating on the Spotify and Apple podcast players. And lastly if you love the show, and want bonus content behind the scenes experiences with our guests and premier access to contests and giveaways and subscribe to our newsletter by going to runners connect dot net back slash podcast until next time, Happy training.