#94 Matt Gallant – Sleep, Sun & Refeeds

Meet Matt:

Matt Gallant is an entrepreneur, a poker champion, an ex-rock guitarist, a serial entrepreneur (who’s built 13 companies in the last 20 years) strength and conditioning coach with a degree in kinesiology, the CEO and co-founder of a company called BiOptimizers.

Show Notes:

ABOUT MATT

• I am a Canadian and have a degree in Science of Physical Activity and Kinesiology
• I was a personal trainer for about a decade and now an entrepreneur
• I started keto about 26 years ago
• The story behind that is, I went on a date and there was no second date. I asked my friend why did that happen and he told me that, she said I had a “bubble butt”
• So, I realized that I had some weight to lose and I started looking at diets at that time and I found Atkins
• I decided to try Atkins and it worked really well for me
• I got into body-building and found a book called, The Anabolic Diet by Dr. Mauro DiPasquale, which he kind of tweak keto
• I tried a lot of other things and I like experimenting, but I’ve always found for my genetics that keto is the best diet
• I am also the co-founder and CEO of biOptimizers and we are a company focused on optimizing and fixing digestive issues and we have been around for 2004
• I have used keto weight loss and I once lost 64 lbs. for 14 weeks, which was a mistake
• I have also used cyclical keto to gain probably 60 lbs. of lean muscle mass
• Back then, we did not know what we know today. I was doing a lot of keto mistakes
• Overall, I love the energy that I get off from it, I love the mental clarity, I love the reduction in hunger and these days, I only eat one meal a day which is very easy for me on keto
• Back then, I started the Anabolic diet and I went from 147 to 235 and I decided to compete in body-building
• So, I start dieting and used keto, and I just went crazy. I did every mistake that you could possibly do
• I did not have a coach, I did not have guidance, I was doing 3-4 hours of exercise a day, I was training twice a day doing weight for about an hour plus cardio
• And my calories got down to 800. I was eating 3 patties a day.
• I remembered that I did not have any bowel movement for 2 weeks because I was incinerating calories
• That’s how I lost 64 lbs. in 4 weeks and I lost a lot of muscle mass
• That was a huge mistake and I’ve learned a lot about dieting successfully for long-term
• One of the biggest mistakes you could make is losing too much weight too fast
• Your body has one goal, which is survival. So, if want to lose 20 lbs. in 10 weeks. That means you’d only have 20 lbs. body fat left
• So, if you keep burning the number of calories that you’re burning right now and feeding me what you are feeding, we are going to die
• Your body has all these built-in survival mechanisms and one of them is going to lower your metabolism
• Doing the exact the same thing that you have been doing for the last 10 weeks will not produce the same amount of calorie or energy loss
• Your body starts downregulating its metabolism and that’s survival mechanism number one
• Survival mechanism number two is that it starts increasing ghrelin
• I call ghrelin an unbeatable hormone and it’s a hunger hormone
• Usually, an hour before you typically eat, your body releases ghrelin which makes you hungry and motivates you too eat
• So, if you are losing weight too fast, your body will start increasing ghrelin to the point where you just snap mentally
• 8 years ago, I got married and I was getting in shape 2 years prior
• I was pushing my body past the point of feeling safe
• I dropped another 10 lbs. and literally, after the wedding, I was hungry for 2 years and I gained about 35 lbs.
• We must keep our bodies feeling safe throughout the weight loss process
• And when we push ourselves too far, that’s when the survival mechanism kicks in
• When you start keto, your body has probably excess body fat, so it’s very happy to release and burn that
• But, there will come to a point where weight loss will slow down and this is where you got to get smart and take your time
• What we need to do at that point is to take the long-term view
• If you are refeeding which means you are ingesting a surplus of calories, you are making your body feel safe
• Refeeds has been a huge part of my strategy for a long time
• What I typically do is 5 days in a calorie slight deficit and on Sundays, I eat a massive surplus of calories and I eat carbs
• I eat carbs because it helps reset leptin, which is a key part of our metabolism
• This carb surplus also helps me build muscle mass
• Insulin got a bad rep, but only if insulin is chronically elevated will it produce problems
• On Sundays, I eat carbs and on Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, I am burning up these glycogen and carbs that are in my muscles
• By Thursday, the carbs are gone out of my muscle
• As soon as I eat carbs on Sunday morning again, because my muscles are mostly depleted of glycogen, that’s where all my carbs go
• The other approach which is recommended for people that are training really hard or athletes
• They will eat anywhere from 40-80 grams either right before or during a workout
• I do recommend people are at least 12 weeks on pure keto before they start carb refeeds because you really want to be at that second stage of fat-adaptation before bringing back carbs
• The first stage is around two weeks which the day you will get keto flu
• The second one is around 12 weeks and the third one is around 12 months and that’s the time you could perform in the gym at the same level as you could on carbs
• It’s not about what we eat. It’s really about what we can break down and then absorb and then assimilate and that’s what really digestion is
• When people get about 35 years old or in their 30’s, that’s when enzyme and hydrochloric acid and bile production start dropping off quite a bit
• It doesn’t get better in time, it tends to get worst. It is one of the things that we have to deal with aging
• I am all about slowing down and combatting aging on all levels
• I don’t want to age normally, I want to stay as young as I can for as long as I can
• Our goal is to be the digestive company and fixing and optimizing digestion
• If we look at health on one side, we have death and sickness and in the middle is what most people “healthy” which is the absence of disease
• On the other end is what we called, bioptimized health
• Once you experience that state, you will feel another level of energy and vitality
• If your body is healthy, your brain is healthy – that’s the goal

ADVICE

• If you are slowly getting off the weight, that’s where you want to be
• That’s the key to making your body feel safe
• The goal is to always make our body-safe
• Let’s a lot of troubleshooting you can do and one is sleep
• Sleep is probably one of the biggest game changes for fat loss. If you are not getting enough deep sleep, I would start there
• If you want a deep sleep your room should be a very cold room
• The other thing is light. Ideally, wear a blue light blocking glasses about 2 hours before bed
• The other one is light in the morning. Wake up and go into the sun.
• You want the sun to hit in your eyes because your body can tell that the day is starting
• The biggest one is the sun. The sun and vitamin D and what I have noticed is if I can get 15-20 minutes of strong sun, my fat loss doubles or triples
• No sunscreen and no show for a few hours
• Get some blood work, look at your hormones, work with a naturopath or an anti-aging medical doctors to look at your hormones and start troubleshooting
• Another tip is really optimizing your digestion to the next level

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE KETO

• For me, if I eat too much coconut oil my triglyceride gets out of control
• I do not have the gut biome to break down that coconut oil
• If you are going to do it for life, get the blood work and do it intelligently

WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU

• Website: bioptimizers.com

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