Fat Loss Q&A: Thyroid, Detox Water, Loose Skin and Cardio

Nikkiey: What's up, you guys? Hello. You guys know what day it is. First of all, happy St. Patrick's Day. I am super excited to be here with you guys. It is Wednesday. It is time for our live Q&A session, our time together.

I'm stoked to be here. I love coming here and hanging out with you guys on Wednesdays and doing this live Q&A, answering any questions that you have that pertain to nutrition, to macros, to workouts, to some mindset, to some tough love, to some realness. Whatever it is that you guys need answers to, I am happy to clarify that with you today on this Wednesday live Q&A. We've got my Facebook followers. What's up, you guys? We've got the WarriorBabe community tuning in as well.

What's up, babes? I love coming here on Wednesdays and hanging out with you guys. So as you're tuning in and you're here live with me, pop in the comment box: what's up, hello, hey. Let me know you're here so I can say what's up and how you doing back, and we can kick off this live Q&A in just a couple of minutes. If you guys are tuning in at a later date or time after this has been done live and you're leaving comments or questions here, remember to use the hashtag replay and leave any questions that pertain to this live Q&A in the comment box, so that my girl Kate, who's our community manager, can come back in and answer any questions that were posted after this was live.

All right. What's up, Yana? What's up, Diane? Hello. What's up, Ruth? Jamie? Nice. What's up, you guys? Welcome to our live Wednesday Q&A session together.

Stoked to be here. Shannon, hello from North Carolina. Nice. "Hi Nikkiey from cold, dark New York." Well, it's still light. How are we all dealing with daylight saving time? I know it's a little struggle. I'm on the struggle bus in the morning. Cool. I'm super stoked to be here with you guys anyway. I hope you're having a good start to your week. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Let's fire off this Q&A. So if you have any questions that pertain to macros, to workouts, to mindset, to some tough love, to some myths that you need busted, because I'm here to be real, open and honest with you about anything in the fitness industry, start commenting your questions in the chat box, and in a couple of minutes I will kick it off by answering the questions coming through.

Now, before I do, if you're new to following me here on Facebook, or you're a new WarriorBabe, I want to welcome you, whether that's a new follow or you're a new member of my community.

If you are a new member of my community, welcome, guys. Our community is getting bigger and bigger by the day, by the week, by the month, and it's so cool to see all of you amazing women, all of you amazing WarriorBabes, joining the program and having huge aha moments within the first five days. I love seeing our community flooding with transformations, and comments like, "Oh my God, I can't believe I'm eating twice the amount of food. The personal trainer I was working with had me on 1,200 calories,

and now I'm eating 250 calories more, and I'm working my way up to keep eating more, and I'm dropping the bloat." It's amazing to see you having these aha moments and these transformations. You're eating more food and you're feeling your body. So welcome to the community, all you new WarriorBabes. You are part of thousands of women working to get stronger, get toned, and become stronger, more confident versions of themselves. WarriorBabe is where strong is the new sexy, and I am so stoked to have you be part of the community.

This is your beginning to a more sustainable, realistic lifestyle for yourself. And what's so cool is the community has thousands of women who are collectively working towards the same goal. Some have been in it for a while and are veterans, some are just starting off, some are starting at different points or have different goals, but we're all working collectively towards the same goal, and it's so cool to see how supportive our community is.

All right, what's up, everybody? Even more hellos. Hello, hello. First-timer, Tracy. Nice. Welcome. Super stoked that you're here. Like I said, if anybody is new to following me or new to our community, welcome. What we do on these Q&As is I answer any mindset, macros, nutrition, all that jazz. So if you have any questions you want me to answer, drop them in the chat box, and we'll fire that off in a couple of minutes, because I do see some coming through.

But before we kick it off, I need to ask a huge favor. I need you to smash the like button right now, because that helps this video get more views, aka more women who can chime in on this Q&A and hear some value, some knowledge, some key aspects that could help them along their journey as well. The more you like it, especially if you're WarriorBabes, it's going to bring our video to the top of the community so other babes can see that we're live and chime in. And if you're a follower on my Facebook page and you're liking it,

it's going to push it in front of more women who need to hear this video as well. If you share it, that's an extra step. I would absolutely love it if you could share it to your page so that women can hear the knowledge bombs that are about to be dropped on this Q&A. I always read what women are saying at the end, like, "Oh my God, I'm so happy that I tuned in. I feel like I learned so much just by being here for this short period of time." So I absolutely love coming here and helping clarify anything that you need clarified.

So smash the like button, share it, and let's dive into this live Q&A.

All right, we've got Sarita: "Have you helped women with hypothyroidism lose weight?" Yes. We have a lot of babes inside the program who have thyroid problems, who take thyroid medication, who are on medications that balance out their hormones, and they are getting amazing results. If you go to warriorbabe.com, our website,

and check out the reviews, you can listen to women sharing their stories who have had or have hypothyroidism, are going through menopause, or are taking medications to balance hormones. Getting their nutrition right and working out properly has helped drastically in aiding whatever disease process is going on or whatever hormonal balances are out of whack.

That has helped aid in healing and also in results. So definitely check that out. But to answer in short, yes, I have. Our program has. And I would love to be able to help more women have eye-opening experiences inside the program.

Yana: "I had a question asked of me. Is the Revolution program still available to newbies?" No. We do not have the Revolution program available anymore. It's strictly our Blueprint program or the VIP.

Now I'm thinking, oh crap, some women watching this are going to freak out. That does not mean anything if you are part of my Revolution program. You are in your lifetime membership. We still do business as business. We still update your workouts. We still give you new menus, all that jazz. Kate is still in the community cheering you on. We still do these live Q&As. So if you're in it, you're in it. We just don't promote it on the front end anymore. It's strictly the Blueprint program or the VIP.

Jen: "Detox water. If you're for it, what's your favorite recipe?" What is detox water? To me, that just sounds like I want to run the fucking opposite direction. Detox water. I don't know what it is. I've never heard of it. But anything that has detox and water in it makes me fear for my life that all you're consuming on a daily basis is liquids. If I were you, I would be running the other direction.

That is not the way to go, guys. Anything that is a detox in liquids, a detox in water, any type of cleanse, is just a quick-fix type of deal. Yeah, it may facilitate results, but if you're trying to detox for health issues, or maybe you ate something and got sick, what I do, every six months or 12 months, and I just did it on Sunday, is fast for about a 36-hour period.

And that's it. That's more for health than for any type of results I'm looking for. If you want to learn more about this, I talk about it on my YouTube channel. If you check out past rally calls, I talk about fasting for optimal health, not for results. I don't recommend any type of detox. I don't recommend any type of cleanse, because if you're in it for results, it's going to skew things mentally for you.

If you're in it for health, that's a different thing. But I wouldn't even do that. I would do fasting over any type of detox.

Shannon: "I'm new to following you. Trying to build muscle after losing 50 pounds. Loose skin sucks. I'm trying to embrace it in the process." Amazing, Shannon. Welcome to your journey. I am very stoked for you. We have women inside the program, and she's probably watching right now,

one of my VIPs, Cheryl, who is 58 or 59 years old and absolutely crushed her building phase. She got up to 485 grams of carbs. She was eating well over 3,000 calories. You can check out her interview on the YouTube channel as well. She did an amazing job with her build. But most importantly, the mindset that comes with the build. I was just talking about this. The mindset that comes with a build kind of screws with women's heads, because

women are so used to seeing external results rather than focusing on functional goals, like getting stronger and building muscle. You may not see that on the outside in the build phase. It's happening underneath the body fat with all the food you're eating. It really shows more when you come down into a cut. That's where you see the hard work you put in. So anyway, a little sidetrack right there.

But welcome, Shannon. I'm stoked for you to be here. Ellen, nice. Elena, what's up?

Jen: "What is the best way to lose fluff, fat, and not muscle?" You guys, this is a great question, and it's something I've talked about previously on live Q&As and shared on Instagram in a post. So if you don't follow me, definitely check out Instagram. But let me tell you this. There is a huge difference between losing weight and losing fat.

If you're just focused on losing weight and on the number on the scale, first of all, you're missing the big picture. You're going to be bashing your head into a wall when you feel like you're not losing weight, yet your progress photos, your data and your measurements are moving and your body fat is trending down, which not a lot of people know to track. If you're focusing just on the number on the scale, you're missing the big picture. Second of all, if you're focusing on just losing weight, you will become a smaller, skinnier,

fatter version of yourself. Why? Because when you're just focusing on losing weight, you're going into a massive caloric deficit and doing tons and tons of cardio. You're not fueling your body properly with the right macronutrients, mainly protein, which I'll talk about in a second and which a lot of women don't eat. When you're just focusing on weight loss, you're losing everything: weight, fat, muscle, even organ size will decrease, everything along those lines.

When you focus on fat loss, which you all should be focusing on if you want an athletic figure, to look more toned, to have a little more muscle, because muscle is toned, to have a strong body, then your ultimate goal is fat loss. When you focus on fat loss, you're eating appropriately for your body. You're eating enough protein, the right fats, the right carbohydrates.

And what you're doing is decreasing body fat while holding on to and preserving lean muscle at the same time. So that's the massive difference between the two. When you're focusing on just losing weight, you're losing everything. When you're focusing on fat loss, you're preserving lean muscle. You're eating enough to preserve it, because muscle is an active tissue, guys, and the only way that active tissue gets fueled is by nutrition, by food, by eating properly. So when you're preserving that lean muscle,

you're decreasing the body fat around it, and that's where you're losing fat. So how to do it, the best way, is to make sure you're eating enough protein. What I recommend for protein intake varies widely for each individual and each body type, but you want to be eating anywhere from about 0.8 to 1.2 times your body weight. Again, that will differ depending on where you are along your journey.

It will differ depending on whether you're in a deficit. But that's your best way. First of all, it's eating enough, and eating enough of the right food, making sure your protein intake is high, and making sure you're doing strength training exercises, things that stimulate your muscles. Not tons of cardio. Why? Because tons of cardio does not require strength. It does not require muscle. So when you're focusing on strength training, you're making the muscles work.

And when you do that, you create blood flow to the muscles to keep them intact, while also giving yourself enough nutrition to preserve that muscle. That was my long version of explaining it, but that's exactly how I can answer the question of what's the best way, while also sharing the whys and the hows, because I am huge on that. My ultimate goal for all the women I coach, for all the WarriorBabes inside my program, is fat loss, which is a hell of a lot different from weight loss and from what the majority of the fitness industry

and the majority of things promoted to women are marketing. Not many are marketing how to do fat loss properly. So that's more reason to check out WarriorBabe if you're not yet inside our programs.

All right. Aw, Yana, thank you, babe. I'm probably saying that wrong, but I know one of my girls inside the program pronounces it Yana, the one who's tuning in right now. But thank you. I appreciate that.

Crystal: "Hey, Nikkiey. I'm saving up money for your program but totally soaking up everything: videos, emailed workouts. I'm eating food for a change and loving it. My biggest concern is that I'm a marathoner. I don't run for weight loss. I run because it's my passion. Before I officially sign up, I really need to know if it even makes sense for someone who logs lots of miles each week. I am already, after one month, noticing a difference after switching to tracking macros instead of low carb

and working on strength training, even while being near peak marathon training." Yes, yes, yes. Look, when I bash on cardio, I'm not bashing on it entirely. I'm bashing on the way people do it, because they're doing it wrong when they have a goal of building and maintaining muscle mass. Especially with circuit training and Orangetheory classes, and people not fueling their bodies enough.

If you have a goal and a passion for running, there's a strategic method that needs to be put in place where you're eating far above what somebody normally eats who's just trying to get toned and in shape and doing strength training workouts. You require way more calories because you're burning a shit ton of calories. You require a different breakdown of macros, because calories break down into macros. So to answer your question, yes, there's a specific part of my program where I teach you that if you're doing X amount of hours of cardio, this is how you refuel your body with X amount of carbs, X amount of protein, X amount of fats.

It breaks it down for you inside the program. My program is very individualized for each person who comes through. That's why I say you add X amount of carbs to whatever your macro calculator is telling you to eat. So, yes. And to make it even more individualized, you can hop on the four weekly calls we have for support and clarify: "Hey, am I doing this right? I'm running this many miles.

You told me to increase my carbs this much. Is this right? Am I eating enough? Is this going to help me get the results I want?" So, yes. I'm huge on supplying you with the material and the resources, but I'm also huge on supplying you with the support to make it even more individualized, with the four weekly calls that we have.

"How many days a week do you work each muscle group?" Me specifically, I work out five days a week and I work each muscle group once,

if not twice for shoulders. I'll probably train shoulders twice a week.

Sherry: "Fasting is fabulous." Yes, fasting is fabulous for health. Fasting is not fabulous if you're somebody who is looking for results, because right there your mindset is skewed around what you're doing. And let me back up, because I know a lot of women are going to say, "But Nikkiey, you said fasting was awesome, and I do intermittent fasting." I'm not big on intermittent fasting.

You intermittent fast while you sleep, right? While you're sleeping, you're basically fasting. I'm big on fasting for long blocks of time because it helps your overall health. Like I said, I have a rally call where I dive into this and talk about intermittent fasting, and about fasting for health rather than doing intermittent fasting. So I just want to clarify that.

Lindsay: "Due to health problems, I'm always nauseous. Do you have any solid food suggestions to help besides Ritz crackers or something?" Well, Lindsay, I would go down to the root problem. Why are you so nauseous? That's something I would take to your doctor to figure out, maybe blood work that needs to be done. I think it's way deeper than just the superficial question of what kind of food you should eat. If you're always nauseous, there's definitely a root problem behind that, and that's what I would try to figure out.

Angela: "The best time for me to work out is first thing in the morning, but I feel like I don't have energy in the mornings. Would it be bad to take a pre-workout drink?"

No. Now, I'm not big on taking pre-workouts, but that's me personally. The best way I can direct you, if you were to choose a pre-workout: don't get one that has beta alanine in it, because beta alanine is the thing that makes you want to itch your freaking face and ears off. And make sure the caffeine isn't going past about 250. The 300, 350, 400 is just absolutely freaking ridiculous.

You're going to have fucking heart palpitations and your heart's going to be exploding through your chest. But if you need a little extra push, there are some really good pre-workouts out there. Just make sure you understand what you're taking. Make sure it's something clean, something natural, something that doesn't have tons of ingredients you can't read, because there are a lot of things in pre-workouts. One reason I don't take it is that there are a lot of hidden things in those supplements, and I don't really recommend taking them.

But if you want to, go for it. It's going to give you a little extra push.

Sari: "Have you ever assisted type 1 diabetics?" Yes, there are a couple of type 1 diabetics in the program. To be honest, though, if you were checking out my programs, I would probably check out the VIP. VIP is more one-on-one. We have a coaching division of 11 coaches, and you're able to work more one-on-one with those individuals. Blueprint, on the other hand, is education-based. It's very individualized to you,

but it doesn't have the amount of support that working with a one-on-one coach does. So if you're looking at programs, I would definitely check out the VIP.

Jen: "I like me some protein, but I love me some carbs. Problem?" No problem. Guys, I have tons of women who eat tons and tons of carbs. It's just about figuring out the right breakdown for you.

And you can enjoy carbohydrates. Oh, Cheryl, Marie, what's up, you guys?

Ellen: "Can strength training help tighten up loose skin from a large weight loss, or is loose skin just going to be part of my life?" Everybody's genetics are completely different. While you lose tons of weight, it may work in your favor and the skin may tighten up naturally as you're doing it, as you're eating healthy and eating the right types of foods.

But in some cases, and I will be bluntly honest, there may be something further you have to do to help tighten up the skin, and it may have to be surgical. If you aid your fat loss the right way, and then you get to the point where you're like, "Okay, I've got to take it the next step. What should I do?" because it's not happening naturally, then that's something you would probably have to look into.

Or you can accept that it's part of your journey. It's part of you. It's your story. So you can just accept it for what it is. Or if you're somebody who says, "I've come this far, let's get me to where I want to be 100%," then that's totally up to you. But to answer your question, yes, strength training will help. It probably won't do it all the way, though, especially if you're losing a significant amount of weight.

Christine: "How do I know the proper amount of protein I should consume after lifting?" This is how I do it for my WarriorBabes. Whatever set protein number you're consuming on a daily basis, whatever that macro count is for you, I would divide it by how many meals you eat. So for example, if you have 100 grams of protein, just for easy math, and you divide it by five meals a day, that's 20 grams of protein at each meal.

That's how I would do it. That's what I recommend for all the WarriorBabes, the Blueprint and the VIP members.

Cynthia: "Thank you for explaining in such awesome detail. With all the information out there, you really narrow the confusion." Ah, yes. Good. My job is complete. No, really. I absolutely love explaining the why and the how, because I feel like when I explain it, a lot of light bulbs go off in your head, like, "Oh, shit, this makes sense."

And first of all, you're more likely to engage and do the right thing. If you understand it and you get it, you're going to do it, instead of being told, "Okay, do this," while all these thought processes are going off in your brain about things you tried in the past that totally contradict it, and you're totally lost. I get the confusion, because there's a shit ton of stuff out there. But when you have the hows and the whys broken down for you, like I just did, you're more likely to understand it and you're more likely to take action on what's right.

So, awesome. Thank you. I appreciate you thanking me, and I thank you, because that makes me happy.

Shauna. What's up, babe? "Hey, Nikkiey, my book came out today." Nice, babe. Congrats. "Will send yours this week. Love listening to your little gems. Thanks for all that you do. I really think you are the best at what you do. You make so much sense." Thank you, babe. Shauna is one of our Blueprint members.

Thank you so, so much. I appreciate you, and I'm looking forward to reading that book. That's so exciting.

Sandra: "I am afraid to start a program and fail. It's been my track record. What is different about your program from others? I need accountability and somebody to help me every step of the way." Sorry, we have Shauna, Sandra and Sharon in the last comments. If you are somebody who needs a little more accountability, more hand-holding, more 101,

that would definitely be the VIP program. And when I get asked what's so different about me compared to everybody else, you guys see that I have thousands and thousands of WarriorBabes inside my communities, and I know people, down to the fact that Shauna has a book and she's sending me a copy. I really love support and I really love connection. That's one value my whole team has. Secondly, we aren't in business just to prescribe macros and prescribe workouts.

We're in business to help you understand why, how, and the things you need to do that are going to facilitate results. And that comes along with the mindset. So, Sandra, you have a track record of failing. More likely, it's probably due to you and not necessarily the programs, because you're just trying and trying and trying. So what my coaches and I do is pinpoint the reasons why this is happening: what are the behavioral issues, what are the triggers, what is the root problem behind this type of behavior.

How can we pull that out of you so you see it and become more aware of it, and then help you set specific expectations that are going to help you show up, not fail, feel confident, be 100%, and get to the results you want. Now, I will be honest, with women like you, Sandra, it takes a little bit of time. But if we can break down the habits that aren't serving you and getting you to where you want to be,

and create better habits for your lifestyle, that's all the difference right there. That's where the transformation happens. That's where the change occurs. So again, it's not just, "Hey, here are your macros, here are your workouts." It's mindset, and it's coaching you along the way, whether that means tough love or whatever you need. That's where our team comes into play. So that's how I think we're a little bit different from just following apps and workouts.

We dive into the whole thing in a way that's going to completely transform you and your journey.

All right. I'm going to take a couple more questions, and then I'm going to have to pop off, because I've got another call in the next 29 minutes with my Blueprint community.

Sharon: "I've done so much cardio because it makes my calorie burn so much higher." Yeah, but it doesn't. When you're focusing on just the calories being burned manually,

you're going to plateau super, super fast. First of all, if you're focusing on what your treadmill or your StairMaster is telling you in terms of calories burned, that shit is completely wrong. If you're doing tons and tons of cardio, over time your body adapts to that type of training. Your body goes into conservation mode to hold on to calories, to try to give you enough energy for those types of workouts.

You're adapting your body for endurance. So if you're just focusing on fucking calories, you're going to be facing a wall in six to eight months, bashing your head into it, because you're going to plateau super fast and you're not going to know why. There are two ways you can burn calories. You can do it manually, like you're doing, with tons and tons of cardio and circuit training and Orangetheory classes, or you can adapt your body to build muscle. And if you adapt your body to build muscle, in the long term you're going to burn more calories,

because muscle is part of your basal metabolic rate. It's part of your metabolism, and metabolism is what burns calories. Whoa. I feel like everybody needed to hear that. Cardio is not a bad thing, okay? Cardio is not a bad thing. You just don't need to do a shit ton of it to get to where you think you want to be with your body. Build muscle. Focus on building muscle. That's what's going to change your body composition.

Okay. I'm done. All right, where am I? I see a couple more people coming through. "So many of us in the program have been in your shoes. I'm living proof." Yes, Marie, you are. Guys, I cannot wait for you to see Marie's interview. We do a WarriorBabe interview every single month, and Marie did an interview yesterday, and it's so amazing. It's going to help so many of you women along your journey. We're going to be dropping that in April.

I will definitely let you know in a live Q&A when we're dropping it. It's amazing, and I can't wait for you to watch it. Aw, Shauna. Thank you guys so much. You guys are all firing. Shauna and Jenny, I appreciate that so much.

All right, you guys. I'm going to pop off. I absolutely love coming here and hanging out with you on Wednesdays, being here

with you all and dropping some value bombs, some knowledge bombs, sharing the whys and the hows and why you're doing these specific things. What is serving you? What is not serving you? Hopefully I'm giving you things to consider and put into place. That's what I hope I'm doing with these live Q&As, and I hope you take away these little golden nuggets on a weekly basis. I will not be here next Wednesday, but I will be here two weeks from today, kicking off another live Q&A at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

All right, I hope to see you there. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Enjoy the rest of your day. Be safe. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Whoop, whoop. I almost said Happy Thanksgiving. All right. Peace out, you guys. Have a good rest of your evening.