carb lovers diet

alright! this is john kohler with okraw.com.today we have another exciting episode for you. i have a friend of mine, robert cheeke,and the reason why i wanted to have him on the show today is because he has a brand newbook and the book is called “shred it!” really simple really easy. now i wanna readyou guys this quote on the book. “robert cheeke is the frontiersman in a plant basedbody building convincingly demonstrating you can be the best you can be eating plants andtraining with skillfully applied resistance” caldwell b. esselstyn m.d. and at the bottomit says “the shred it book is your step by step guide to burning fat and buildingmuscle on a whole food plant based diet” and that’s another reason why i wanted tohave him on the show today because he’s

into a whole food diet which is what i advocate.there are plenty of vegan diets out there that are still eating processed and junk foodsand eating protein supplements. and actually according to robert you don’t even needthat but i’m not even gonna tell you more about that because we’re gonna let robertdo that but before we do, i wanna be sure that you guys get something out of this video.you know and you guys could change your life by watching one of my videos. like i liketo do with all my videos is give you guys some information. so first i wanna ask robertsome other questions on what’s 3 simple ways to burn fat on a whole food plant baseddiet? robert: well thank you john. first of allthanks for having me appreciate it. good to

be back. john: thanks. robert: it’s been a year but it’s alwaysgood to be here. so here it is really simple. so what you really need to do is get intoan effective fat burning zone. i mean you need to be efficient. so what that means isone of the best ways to effectively burn fat is to exercise first thing in the morningon an empty stomach, therefore you haven’t consumed carbohydrates or any fuel or anycalories over the last 8 or 10 hours depending on how much you slept or when your last mealwas the day before. and the reason why that is is because a little bit of glycogen storesin your muscles because we always have to.

we always have to some glycogen. that’sour main energy source. that’s our carbohydrate fuel but we don’t have a whole lot of itif we haven’t eaten in 10 hours. so when you burn through that in the first few minutesof training, your body’s gonna call upon fat as fuel. and so when you do exercise firstthing in the morning, and it can be super low key. you can get up, check your emailriding a stationery bike or go for a hike in the sun or do something for 25 35 40 minutesand that’s it. a short investment. it’s hard an hour. you’re burning calories. you’resweating, you’re burning calories and you’re calling on fat as your fuel. another greattime to get into a great effective fat burning zone is after weight lifting. so during weightlifting, you’ve had maybe you’ve had a

meal right before. maybe you ate just beforethe workout. well great. you burn through those glycogen stores, you burn through thosecalories after about an hour an hour and 15 minutes at the gym. i mean how often whenyou’re training do you start to feel hungry or a little bit tired in your weight trainingworkout or any workout for that matter? after a little over an hour, you just you’re depletedfrom those glycogen stores and your body’s then gonna turn to fat. i spent 10 years asa body builder and that was one of the main approaches that i did. i would either getup first thing in the morning and do some cardiovascular training to get into a fatburning zone and get ripped and shred it. if i didn’t feel like that, not necessarilya morning person, then what i would do is

hammer through a really powerful workout wherei ate beforehand. so i’m really fueled, really strong, and really nourished, and iget a great muscle building workout and i follow it up with 25 minutes on the stairstepper, or if it’s sunny outside i’d go for a jog, go for a hike. get on a rowingmachine, get on a stationery bike. something like that and it’s a fantastic way to burnfat efficiently. another way is we all have friends who spend an hour on the treadmill7 days a week and not achieve fat loss. i mean how can this possibly be? well here’sone reason. what if this person is drinking sugary drinks the entire workout? plant based,plant based sugary drinks whatever the case is, if we’re taking in all of this fuelall of this carbohydrate fuel and sugars we’re

gonna use that. that’s gonna be our fuel.like you know you’re adding the gas in your car. i mean that’s gonna be your fuel toget you through that workout and that’s great if you’re training for a marathonor that’s great if you’re training for endurance. that’s not great if your objectiveis to burn fat. that person on the treadmill may strengthen their heart, may strengthentheir bones, they may build up nice calf muscles but if they’re sipping on a drink reallyof any type of calories in it, anything other than water, they’re slowing down their abilityto burn fat. and so if you do any one of those 3 things you will be on the right path. soworkout on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, or do cardiovascular trainingafter weight training later on during the

day, and always avoid eating or drinking duringthe workout if your intention is to burn fat. john: wow i mean that seems super simple andsuper easy and yet most people are unable to do it. so robert next thing is how do youbuild muscle on a whole food plant based diet? 3 tips. robert: yeah i’ve got a very detailed chapter,as i do for fat burning, in the book and first of all it starts with this john, you haveto know basal metabolic rate. you have to know your caloric expenditure on a daily basis.so based on your gender, age, height, and weight, you have to know how many caloriesyou’re expending and then combine that with your herospanic dec equation, which is youractivity level. so your herospanic dec equation

or dec calculator, will determine based onyour true activity how many calories you’re burning which you then add to your basal metabolicrate and come up with the real number. so in a real world of application what does thatmean? for me as a 35 year old handsome 176 pound man, i’m burning i’m just joking,i’m burning 1,740 calories if i just lie on the couch watching tv. something i don’tdo but if i’m just burning heat through metabolism or just lying their on the floor,that’s what i’m gonna burn. but when you factor in all the things that i really doi go for walks, i take the dog out benny on a regular basis, i take the stairs i won’tsee the inside of an elevator i take the stairs at every opportunity. i go to the gym 4 to5 times a week depending on my travel schedule.

when you factor all of that in, all of thethings that i really do, carrying things lifting things up and putting them down, in realityi burn 3,230 calories a day. so what does that mean? that means if i wanna build muscle,i need to consume from plant based whole food nutrient dense sources, 3,200 calories justto maintain weight. if i wanna build muscle i need to supersede that and consume an excessor a surplus of maybe about 500 calories per day. so over the course of a week that’s3500 excess calories and combined with resistance weight training that could theoretically puton another pound of muscle per week which over the course of a month that’s 4 pounds.that’s quite a bit. in reality that’s adding 12 pounds in 3 months. it doesn’talways equate to that but if we are stedfast

and determined and consistent, what we’llnotice is that transparency is the most important thing. many of us say you know i’m a bigeater. i have no idea how many calories per day i eat. like oh i workout a lot, no ideahow many calories i’m expending. but actually it becomes a mathematical formula and it’svery very effective when you do know the metrics. you can actually have control over whetheryou’re gonna lose weight, stay the same. or gain weight and it’s just gonna be combinedwith resistance weight training and really knowing your caloric expenditure and eatingthe right kind of foods. now additional tips, you know we’re talking about multiple tipshere, is actually doing the right type of exercise. so compound movements, resistanceweight training, bar bell, dumbbell lifts.

usually a pyramid in repetitions, so maybestarting out with 15 reps on some sort of exercise bike, bench press 15 repetitionsas you warm up get your joints loose get muscles loose and supple and ready to be filled upwith blood and to really push hard and create micro tears and muscle fibers which will thenrebuild and repair even stronger. so you start with maybe 15 reps and then 12 reps 8 repsand get a really power set in of 6 or even i was doing 1 rep max last week in austintexas. just as much weight as i could press for 1 rep and then i pyramid back up. wherethen i’ll lower the weight and go up to again maybe 7 8 reps and then 10 12 and finishout with a burn out set. so it’s using free weight exercises compound lifts, to createthat stimulation that muscle growth stimulation.

and then the third tip i would say is findthe exercises that yield the best return on investment. there’s all just like not allfoods are created equally like iceberg lettuce isn’t as good as darker leafy green vegetablessame with lifting weights. an isolated movement for the most part is never gonna be as effectiveas a compound movement which is multi joints, shoulder joint and elbow joint, knee jointand hip joint. anything that’s like a squat or a pressing movement, overhead press, abench press, a bent over row, t bar row, pull ups, these dips these types of exercises.if you can make that the core of your workout. i mean it’s not too uncommon and maybe thisis i’m writing a new article about this actually, it’s not too uncommon for me togo to the gym and pick the one exercise that

i believe will give me the greatest returnon investment and stay there for an hour. 12 sets or more on just the leg press. justthe bar bell bench press putting on hundreds of pounds because i know that’s better thana little cable movement as far as muscle growth muscle growth stimulation strength gains buildingmass. so to build muscle you really have to understand what you’re really consumingwhat you’re really expending. be honest and transparent and have a foundation andbaseline from which to work from and then create a consistent resistance weight trainingprogram with a special emphasis and preference on the exercises that yield the greatest returninvestment. john: that’s really wise words. that’sreally cool. it sounds kind of technical but

i mean it just makes sense to me and i’mnot even a body builder. i mean i like to i mean i do compound exercises all the timeby not going to the gym by just moving my body working in my garden and doing all kindsof crazy things spinning compost shoveling and that’s just getting real world exerciseand that’s what i believe in. i’m not a body builder but yet i have a pretty goodphysique you know for what i do. but robert another thing i really wanted to get intoin this episode for you guys is you know i know you’ve been into being a vegan fornow 20 years and i can’t say when i met you in the beginning you know i think youwere on maybe a little bit more a junk food vegan style but you were really had core veganmore than i ever have been or something but

you were eating junk foods but yet still bodybuilding and yet still putting on weight but now i’m so glad that you’ve made the switchto a whole foods plant based vegan diet and you’re able to still maintain your muscle.and you’ve been getting stronger right? so tell my viewers about why you might notwanna eat you know processed foods and even like you know raw vegan protein powders youknow. robert: yeah. john: what that may be doing. robert: good question. i you know i’ve beengoing through this transition. i transitioned to a whole food diet about 3 years ago. andi’ll just take you back in time because

as john said i’ve been doing this for 20years. i started as a 120 pound 15 year old. you know vegan 5 star athlete in high schoolwith the ambition of getting bigger and stronger. i wasn't sure that i could do it. this wasbefore the internet came of age or at least the public internet. there weren’t a lotof resources to look to and so i just created my own path myself. a few years later i was195 pounds and winning body building competitions but as you pointed out some of my claims tofame were eating 18 tofu hot dogs a day, a baker’s dozen of sesame seed bagels. formy size, 170 or 80 pounds, i was consuming 5,000 calories. at 300 grams of protein thatled me to eventually a very bloated 195 pounds. i was strong and i succeeded in body buildingto some degree winning multiple competitions,

runner up 4 times, competed in the 2006 naturalbody building world championships. i took pride in the fact that i was able to competeas a long time vegan especially someone who had no business in body building. i was askinny runner. i was a skinny runner who had no business in any strength sport but i hada hard work ethic and drive and passion and determination so i made it happen. so i tookpride in the fact that there’s a lot of guys who eat 3 to 6 chickens a day like wholechickens. i mean this people eat multiple fish a day and bits and pieces of many otheranimals their just body builders consume more animals than almost anybody except for maybethe nfl football players. and so i took pride in the fact that i could go up against thatidea that notion and be successful and be

victorious and win and help put that on themap a little bit in the early days. that vegan body building was something that was not onlypossible but you could actually really excel and succeed at it. but over time i reallywasn’t comfortable using so many supplements which i took basically every vegan supplementthat i could and i have to admit that. i mean even primrose oil and i don't even know whatthat does. i don’t know. it was an oil i think it was omega 3s i don't know flax oil,primrose oil, amino acids, glutamine, protein powders. i was even doing 6 protein drinksa day at one time. i was just trying to just get as big and strong as possible and theni came across the opportunity to work for forks over knives and take dr. t colin campbell’splant based nutrition course through cornell

university. and then along with you know i’vealways knowing you you know you always would come by my booths and look at all my stuff.yeah and you know i’d say here comes john again oh. here’s the guy that he broughthis own food and a pineapple’s in his back pocket or something. this guy’s got a bagfull of greens he’s eating and i’m you know got my packaged burrito or somethingover here and anyway yeah you know there were a lot of other influences you know you andmany others who always had me thinking about it but i had the same fear that a lot of peoplehave. i had the fear that i need a certain amount of protein. i mean after all i’ma competitive body builder right? but after taking dr. campbell’s course and havingto write papers and do assignments and give

convincing presentations i decided that youknow i’m gonna give this a try and i’m just gonna eat whole foods. and so about 3years ago, what are we 2015, it was 2012 somewhere around 2012 i decided you know what for atleast a period of time i’m gonna be supplement free and i’m gonna get off processed foods.well fast forward we’re 3 years into it and though i’m not as big as i used to bei would really like to take the opportunity to clarify i retired from body building 5years ago. i retired from body building 2 years before i started this whole food approachand i was writing books and touring, this is my second book i’ve been traveling allaround the world and just doing other interests you know. i mean body building ran its course.i hung up my posing trunks and decided to

do more meaningful work and outreach and tryto interact with people and write books and lecture and tour and try to help animals directlyand do all these other things that were compelling and meaningful to me. so i wasn’t sure icould do it. a low protein diet i mean come on. i mean i actually write about this inthis book. this book is a 70 15 15 approach. you’ve heard of dr. gramhs 80 10 10 andother people have an 80 10 10 type of approach. i have a 70 15 15 approach which i think isjust more practical for most people. if you’re eating a 80 10 10 it really it really i don’twanna say it limits but it really it means you’re gonna be eating a lot of fruits andvegetables. the moment you add legumes and grains nuts and seeds your percentages goup. you can’t do an 80 10 10 with nuts and

seeds and legumes. it just doesn’t workmathematically. it just doesn’t work and so what i found was that 70 15 15 was morepractical and for me and other people. and so i have this 70 15 15 whole food approachand though i’m about 176 pounds right now i’m lifting as heavy as i ever did duringmy hard pro body building career. i mean i may not look i don't know if there’s a widelens on the camera that’ll add 10 pounds. i mean a little flex there i’m not surebut i put up 315 pounds in the decline bench presser a week ago, 120 pound dumbbells ineach hand for for a chest press. i was leg pressing 900 pounds a couple months ago youknow 750 pounds last week. you know i just throw those numbers out there to show thati didn’t lose any strength. i’m 20 pounds

lighter in fact pound for pound i’m stronger.there’s no question about it. john: strength to body ratio yeah. robert: exactly strength to body weight ratiopound for pound i am actually stronger that’s just mathematics. that’s just the way itworks. and i don't even train as consistently or as hard core. i’m not a competitive bodybuilder i don’t have those ambitions. i don’t train with that kind of drive. i trainto stay in shape for my book tours and because i find enjoyment from it. i mean there weretimes when i was body building, i didn’t really like it all the time. i felt forcedto do it. i had to do it for my reputation i had to do it because of what people wouldsay about me and i had to do it for this or

that. as soon as i wiped all of those reasonsaway not necessarily worrying, i mean i still wanted to lead by example i still want tolead by example but not really i’m not gonna let it bother me or whatever people say aboutme and what i’m doing now. i’m having fun eating plant based whole foods high fruithigh carbohydrate low protein low fat you rarely ever hear a body builder say that ora former retired body builder still a fit guy say that. but that’s what i’m doingand that’s what i really that’s what i really believe in right now and that’s whati write about that’s what i speak about and i think it’s important to get that messageout there to athletes who even in this conference i hear it all the time i just can’t go thatlow protein i just need protein. well try

having just a huge heavy workout pressing300 pounds and then go eat a bunch of blueberries and orange and bananas and watermelon andpotatoes. that’s what i do i’m totally happy doing it i’m still very fit stillvery strong and i believe it’s effective. john: so why do you think it’s so effectiverobert? like what’s in the whole foods that’s really giving you the opportunity to be strongerand weigh less? robert: well it’s nutrient density. i meanit’s john: yeah it’s all about the nutrients. robert: it’s not caloric density. i meani used to eat, i say this in all my presentations, you know loaves of french bread, 1100 caloriesin a loaf of french bread. i could do that

in 20 minutes and dip it into like a hummusor something else. that’s another what like okay 3,000 calorie meal just on half timein a football game. you know but thats not nutrient dense. there’s almost nothing inthat. so now what i look at is like i look at the nutrient density of leafy green vegetablesof fruits of root vegetables, of hearty starchy foods whether it’s grains like brown riceand quinoa and other things like that barley, or potatoes yams beans lentils oats. theseare the foods i really use as my hearty filling foods to power me through the day. complexcarbohydrate energy for long fuel long lasting fuel and then a lot of fruit and i’m reallyactually i call myself a high fruit diet. i eat

john: he’s a fruit guy now. i mean i’vebeen doing this for a long time now and finally he’s coming on board. robert: yeah high tofu hot dog guy to highfruit guy same guy same guy. i recently had 19 different kinds of fruit at home i meanthere’s persimmons, guava, yeah i counted and there was you know blueberries raspberriesblackberries strawberries watermelon pineapple papaya guava persimmon tropical ones orangesgrapes bananas i mean you get it. john: so robert how important is eating avariety of fresh plant whole foods you know? do you just stick to bananas and romaine ori mean you just said you had like 18 different varieties. like why is this so important tohave a variety of foods instead of just being

so limited in what you’re eating? robert: i’ll tell you this. most peopleeat about a dozen foods total. the same 12 foods. look at your receipts look at yourpantry look at your refrigerator look at your habits. okay habits is the word here. so mostpeople eat the same dozen foods. here’s the problem, for most people 7 or 8 or moreof those foods are processed refined animal based. they are not plant based whole foods.so now what we’re looking at is the majority of the population consuming 3 or 4 plant basedfoods a day a week a month a year. this compounds. i mean we forget how things compound. ourcaloric intake compounds. we don't gain weight over night we don't lose weight over nightwe don’t increase our endurance and run

a marathon tomorrow. our activities our behavioris compound. and so here’s why variety is important. most of us eat the same foods allthe time most of those foods are unhealthy and more variety it’s kind of cliche it’soverstated all the time but it does need to be absorbed and applied is that the more varietyyou get and the variety of nutrition you’re just gonna get more variety of amino acids,antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fiber. all these different things that come with it.all these different things. i mean water rich foods antioxidant rich foods foods that maybehave a little bit higher this or that i don’t wanna say i’m not gonna do a higher nutrientslike a higher protein kind of food cause i don't think we do or a high fat food thishas this this has that, the idea is you eat

a variety of of healthy foods. and what ilike to do not that i like to really you know isolate certain nutrients or anything likethat, but what i do like to be a little bit conscious of is the fact that for examplei said earlier there is an iceberg lettuce and there is a better option. john: right. robert: what i like to do is look at eachdifferent foods classification and look at fruits vegetables nuts grains seeds legumesand pick the ones that will give me the greatest return on investment. just as i do with exerciseif i can or if i have the knowledge i try to get the foods that have the fruits thathave the most antioxidants or the seeds that

have the best sources of omega 3s and naturalfats or the complex carbohydrates that give me the most fuel for the longest lasting timeyams potatoes oats that kind of thing. so that’s where i think variety comes in. varietyis also important in just keeping ourselves happy and excited and into different typesof foods. i mean that’s why we have seasonal foods you know. i mean cherry season lastslike what 8 days i mean you don’t have a lot of time and it’s the best tasting foodon the planet. some mango lovers or jackfruit lovers will argue but just trust me cherriesare the best and you only have but a week and a half to get them. in fact i’m flyingback to oregon any day now to get peak cherry season on the farm i grew up on. i alreadycalled my mom to check when those are available

so i’ll run back home just for the cherries. john: send me some man. robert: yeah i mean it’s that good it’sthat good. so that’s where i think the variety comes in. the nutritional variety, the overallstress of just being able to enjoy so many different things throughout the year and tojust increase your overall nutrition from that diverse selection i think that’s agood way to go. john: yeah i totally agree. eat a diversityof fresh fruits and vegetables. you could eat dark leafy greens you could eat cactusfruits one of the most anti-inflammatory fruits, high nutrient density and number 1 anti-inflammatoryfruit. it has taurine in it. really really

cool. anyways robert i wanna thank you forbeing on the show. robert:yeah thanks. john: i hope you guys wanna get this bookshred it. this is the book that i recommend if you guys wanna get into body building,if you wanna lose weight and lose fat on a plant based diet whole foods diet you knowi’ve never recommended another book before because they’re all having to do with processedisolated foods and robert has proven and shown that you can do it on a whole foods and doit better be lighter be stronger and have fun doing it with a variety of plant basedfoods. so you could also be as healthy as you can cause there are big problems withhaving too much of any kind of protein including

animal protein and yes even plant proteinyou can over do as we talked about earlier off camera. so robert if somebody wants toget your book shred it how can they do that and how can they contact you for more information? robert: thanks john. thanks for the opportunityand for the endorsement. shred it is on veganbodybuilding.com. there’s a few other websites as well butthat’s the main place we get it and i like to sign a lot of books that i ship directlyand the reasons it’s so meaningful is that i spent a few years writing it i got 28 worldrenowned experts to endorse it. i mean many names you would all recognize from the topnutritional scientists in the world doctors registered dietitians, i mean yeah you getthe campbell and esselstyn and all those guys

on there and that meant a lot to me. thathad not just my 20 years as a plant based athlete vegan athlete and my 3 years as awhole food plant based athlete but these top doctors and scientists and experts and authorsand athletes from the nfl to the nhl said yeah this makes sense. there’s 75 wholefood plant based recipes in there there’s meal plans. there are dozens of workouts there’sthe case studies, transformation stories. i feature about 3 dozen other successful plantbased athletes and it’s also very very motivational and inspirational and i really i really tryto teach people how to set achievable goals so that we can really go from the get go withan achievable goal deep meaning behind it work hard and then i teach people exactlyhow to burn fat exactly how to build muscle

and to achieve whatever fitness or outcomethey’re looking for. john: that’s the real power of his book.this book will tell you how to do it but robert really gets into some of the psychology orchanging your habits into making it into things you’ll do on a daily basis and be consistentabout them. that’s what i love about robert. you know that’s what i teach in my teachingsabout being consistent whether you’re gardening whether you’re eating raw plant based foodsis being consistent and even if it’s just a little consistency a little consistencyover a long way long time goes a lot farther than being consistent for a week in a bigway and then just you know blowing out. so i definitely wanna recommend this veganbodybuilding.comget to the website. hope you guys enjoyed

this episode. if you did please give me athumbs up. i’ll do more episodes with robert in the future because i’m really lovinghis ways and how he’s super strong on whole plant based foods and once again he eats lotsof fruit guys. he has one of the best foods on the plant and also has the vegetables andof course the leafy greens. don’t forget about the leafy greens. so once again my nameis john kohler with okraw.com. we’ll see you next time and remember until then keepeating your fresh fruits and vegetables. they’re always the best.