Cravings, Weigh-Ins, Cardio and Supplements During a Cut

Nikkiey: What's up, you guys? Nikkiey here with WarriorBabe, and welcome back to our weekly Q&A. You guys know the drill if you've been tuning in for the past couple of weeks. If you don't know this drill and you're new to this channel, welcome. Make sure to smash that like button and subscribe to this channel, because every single week I take four questions from the live Q&A I do weekly on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at facebook.com/WarriorBabeNikkiey, and I answer them here for you guys right now.

So if you guys are excited, again, be sure to smash that like button. I am stoked to be here with you right now doing this Q&A and helping with any questions you have that will put you on the right path in your journey. All right, let's dive into it.

Question number one: How do you discipline yourself to resist the cravings? They feel overwhelming at times.

I have a two-part answer to this question. The first part is you've got to assess the nutrition you're already doing on a daily basis. If you're not giving yourself enough food, or enough of the right types of macronutrients, protein being one of them, then you're going to feel like you have endless cravings all of the time. You're going to feel like you have to walk down the hallway at work and stick your hand into the candy jar your coworker has on their desk. So the first thing you need to address is making sure you're getting enough of the right macronutrients on a daily basis, which is going to curb your cravings. Protein is one of those things. It's going to help you feel fuller for longer periods of time, and getting enough of the protein macronutrient is going to knock down those cravings in general.

The second part of the answer is asking yourself about the craving you want to fulfill right now, whether that's sticking your hand in a bag of Doritos, having some chocolate at the end of the night, or indulging in food that maybe doesn't serve the goals you want to accomplish. I always say, think not so much about who you are right now, but about the person you're working to become. In the long run, is that person letting this craving control her, instead of her controlling it? And understand that this craving to devour all this food, to stick your hand in a bag of Doritos and eat until the bag is empty, is not going to serve the goals you want to accomplish.

At the same time, if you have a craving for chocolate, you don't need to eat a whole bag, but you can fit some pieces of chocolate into your routine at the end of the night, so that you're not restricting yourself from specific things, because that's not the way to go about your journey. You don't want to restrict yourself, because then you're just going to go off the deep end and indulge in all of the foods you want to have. But if you allow yourself to meet that craving without having an obscene amount, then you're curbing that craving. For example, every single night I have either two or four pieces of Cadbury chocolate if it fits into my macros, and I enjoy that chocolate. I'm enjoying that craving. I don't need to have five or 10 or 20 pieces. I can get the fix with two or four.

So it's all about making sure you're eating enough of the right foods on a daily basis, thinking from the end point of your goals and what's required of you to meet them, and making sure you're not letting the cravings control you, but you're controlling the cravings. And also make sure you're not entirely restricting yourself, and understand that you can work in the foods you want to enjoy.

Question number two: While I'm in a cut phase, how often do you recommend measuring body fat and/or weight? Daily, every other day, weekly? Thanks.

This is a great question and I'm so happy I'm able to speak to it right now. First of all, I want you all to understand that your weight is not an indicator of your progress. That number on the scale does not define your success. That number is always going to fluctuate. For a beginner, you may be triggered by that number on the scale. It's either going to make you feel elated or extremely frustrated. If that's the case, then maybe weighing yourself on a weekly or biweekly basis is what's going to best support you and the longevity of your goals.

Now, if you understand that your weight is just a tool, solely used to track data in number form, and you don't have any emotional relationship with that number, then I would say track your weight daily. Track that number daily, because you're going to see and understand how your body fluctuates by one pound, two pounds, three pounds, or even maybe 10 pounds if you're on your menstrual cycle. Yes, that does happen. You're also going to understand how your body responds to specific foods on a daily basis. And it's going to help you know that this is just a specific data point, a way to measure your journey, and it doesn't mean anything other than showing how your body fluctuates.

Now, when it comes to body fat: weight loss is not linear, as many people think it is. It could go up and down like this, yet your body fat may be coming down. Your body fat is definitely going to be an indicator of more linear progress in your journey. The best way to measure your body fat is an InBody scan, a DEXA scan or a Bod Pod. Those are more reliable points to focus on. The scales that show numbers for body fat, or tell you what your body fat is, are not a reliable source to measure by. Those three things I just mentioned, the InBody, DEXA scan or Bod Pod, are going to be the most accurate. You do sometimes have to pay for them, unless your local gym has an InBody scan.

So measuring your body fat on a monthly basis, or maybe every two months, whatever supports you and your understanding of all of these as just tools to measure your progress, is going to be of the most benefit to you. Now, when you do measure your body fat monthly or every two months, you need to do it the same way every time. What I mean by that is, if you measure your body fat one time in the morning before you've eaten and after you've gone to the bathroom, you have to do it the same way the next month. If you measure your body fat on your period one month and off your period the next month, that's going to skew the number. If you measure your body fat in the morning one month and after a workout the next month, it's going to skew the number. So you want to make sure you're consistent with the way you measure your body fat every month or two.

Question number three: Can doing too much cardio hurt you if your goal is building muscle?

I'm going to say yes, but I'm saying yes because not many people pay attention to how much food they need to eat when they're doing tons and tons of cardio. Marathon runners, or people getting ready for long-distance endurance events, who aren't paying attention to their nutrition will have their body tap into their muscle stores, because muscle is active tissue. Your body is going to go searching for energy to help you sustain that long endurance activity, and it's going to do that by tapping into your muscle stores, grabbing energy from them and providing you that energy so you can take part in that activity.

So yes, it can hurt your overall goal of building muscle if your nutrition isn't paired correctly with the amount of cardio you're doing. It's an epidemic in the fitness industry that nutrition is the hardest thing to nail down. A lot of women don't eat enough of the right types of foods, yet they feel like the ultimate way to get their goal body composition is to do X amount of cardio, an excessive amount of cardio. Whereas cardio is only going to make you look more like a skinny-fat version of yourself. It's not going to give you that tone. It's not going to give you that muscle. Strength workouts, resistance against the muscle, are what's going to give you the toned look you want to accomplish. It's not the cardio.

So if you're doing a lot of cardio, let's say because you love cardio, you've just got to make sure you're pairing it with the right amount of nutrition to help you meet that endurance activity and also preserve the muscle mass you want to keep on your body. And you've got to understand that cardio is an endurance activity, so it requires less strength, and your body is going to adapt in that way to fulfill the endurance activity. And vice versa: when you're doing strength-based workouts and training your body for strength, your body is going to adapt that way. So you've just got to understand what your goals are and make sure you're pairing the right nutrition and the right type of exercise to meet the goal you want to accomplish.

Question number four: What are the most important supplements you take to keep muscle when in a calorie deficit?

Great question. As you can see, I have a First Form sports bra on right now. This is the company I rep and stand behind for supplements. They are amazing, and the supplements they provide are great quality. Everything from First Form is in the link in the description below. But I want you to understand that the most important thing isn't a supplement, whether that's a protein, a carb, a pre-workout or X, Y and Z, that's going to get you where you want to go with the results of a caloric deficit.

The number one supplement you need to nail down is your nutrition and being in a proper caloric deficit. That's what's going to get you the results you want to accomplish. What I've always preached and will always stand behind is that supplements will not get you the end result. They benefit you in getting the end result, but they're not going to get you there. They're going to help you along your journey. Hard work, consistency and dedication, and being in a proper caloric deficit, are what's going to get you the end result you want to accomplish.

Now, if you are in a proper caloric deficit and you're doing everything the right way, then a supplement is going to benefit you. The two I would recommend are a protein powder and a carbohydrate powder, and I take them immediately after my workout, post-workout, in a shake. Vegan Power is an amazing protein powder. It's easily digestible, it tastes great and it blends very well. And Ignition, also by First Form, is a carb powder. I mix those two together and I down that right after I finish my workout.

Those are the four questions I wanted to bring to the table and answer today, to help provide clarity around questions you may also have and help you stay on the right path toward your goal. So again: understand that you've got to control the cravings and not let the cravings control you. Your weight is not an indicator of your progress, and there are other ways to properly understand body fat, and to use weight as a tool, just a data point to help you understand how you're progressing in your journey. But they're not going to be the ultimate distinguishing factor of whether you're doing it the right way or the wrong way. Can cardio hurt you with building muscle? It can, if you're not pairing the right amount of nutrition with the cardio you're doing. And understand that supplements are a benefit that helps you get to your end result.

Every single week, four new questions are coming to you guys, and who knows, one may be something you need to hear or understand that's going to help you on your own personal journey. If those answers helped you, let me know in the comments below. I love hearing your feedback, and if you have any more questions, I can take them from our YouTube channel and make them part of this weekly Q&A too.

Make sure you subscribe to the channel and leave comments below. And if you have any other questions, or other things you want to learn about doing the right thing individually for your nutrition, or doing the right exercises to reach the goals you want to accomplish, and doing those things right so they create results that last forever, head over to warriorbabe.com. There are tons of other free resources just like this that can give you information and knowledge for your own fitness journey. All right, you guys, I'll see you next week in our next Q&A.