Controversial content - clean eating my be holding you back 👀 If your goal is steictly performance or to have a solid training session even in a deficit, you may need to let go of control. Carbs and ultra processed foods (UPF) get a bad rap. I'm not saying to live on UPF exclusively. Context matters. Save the "clean" eating and low cal foods for meals. Throw some simple carbs into your pre-workout nutrition plan and reap the benefits of training with some fuel in you. You don't have to go the sugary candy route. Toast with honey or jam works just as well. White bread, because it digests faster. And for training fuel, that's the point. A better training session creates better results over time. You'll likely have a better session being fed and fueled versus fasted and drained. Go eat, go lift, go get your goals. If you have questions, I'm all ears

So I recently turned 39 and 40 is just around the corner. Inspired a bit by a blog post this title is named after (https://kevquirk.com/blog/fat-boy-at-40). I don't want to be a fat boy at 40. As a bit of backstory, I gained a lot of weight in college, ballooning from 180 to 230 and then started to have prehypertension. I then dieted and exercised in college, brining my weight down to 200 and staying around 200-220 until recent history. I have always been weightlifting at the gym since that time. I'd ideally like to be back to 220, or down to 200 if feasible. It's interesting that I'm only now starting the feel the downside of being overweight at 255 with working out in the gym. I plan to update once a month and then take a literal gut check at 6 months to see if standard dieting is just working or if I should consider some other options. I am already trying to make sure that my weekly step count averages to over 6000 steps/day. I have a relatively good diet foundation, but work is needed to cut out junk at the end of the day. I do stress eat. Since I already workout 3-5 times a week, I need to work on the other aspects to loose the fat. My birthday celebration didn't help kickoff this with drinking 1.5 liters of beer and having pretzels and spaetzel, but you got to start somewhere!