Women's Fitness Q&A: Macros, Soreness and Vegetarian Protein

Nikkiey: What's up, everybody. Hey, you guys, Nikkiey here with WarriorBabe, and I am excited to be here with you guys for our live WarriorBabe Wednesday Q&A time together. We're doing it the same as we've been doing for the previous weeks. We're going live on my Facebook page and we're also live in my WarriorBabe community. So if you guys are tuning in from my live Facebook page, welcome. You're going to get a glimpse of how I communicate with my WarriorBabe community as they come here and watch me every single Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time do this live Q&A with them. They come and present any questions on their journey, on their macros, on their workouts, whatever it may be, needing some tough love, needing some support. This is what our Wednesday live Q&A days are all about.

So if you guys are tuning in from the Facebook group, welcome. If you guys are tuning in from my community, welcome. I am excited to be here with you guys. As you join, as you're listening, comment, say what's up, let me know who's here. Plus, the more that you guys comment underneath my video, the more it puts it to the top of our Facebook community so that babes can see that we are live, and they will tune in and click on it and listen to it. If you guys are watching from the Facebook page, share this video so that other women can chime in and join in on this live Q&A.

These are honestly such a valuable time, these live Q&A days on Wednesday. You're going to learn so much information, you're going to excel forward, it's going to be super valuable for you. That's why I recommend either sharing this video so other women can tune in, or at least marking your calendars so you can tune into this live Q&A every Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard. I took a break last week because of the holiday, but we're back here.

What's up, Anna? Hey, babe. What's up, Deanne? What's up, Danielle? What's up, Shayla? First time catching one. Nice, babe. Welcome. What's up, Pamela? Cool, guys. Keep commenting and say what's up. I love being able to see who's tuning into this live Q&A. If you guys are catching this after it's done live, you can do the hashtag replay. And if you're part of my WarriorBabe community, do the hashtag replay, and any questions that pertain to this live Q&A, you can leave them underneath in the comment thread, and our community manager Kate will come in and answer any questions that were left after I was here live with you guys. There she is. What's up, Kate? Patricia: hey there, my first live. Cool, awesome. What's up, Stephanie? Nice.

We do have a lot of new babes inside of our community. So before we dive into this Q&A, which we will start in a couple seconds, go ahead and start leaving your questions in the comment section, and then I will kick off the live Q&A. But before we do, welcome, welcome to all of our new WarriorBabes from this past week, these past two weeks, this past month, this past year. Let me just say, this past year WarriorBabe has three times its growth, maybe even more than that, compared to 2019, which I'm super excited about. We're going to three times to five times that in 2021.

So huge welcome to all of you new WarriorBabes who have joined us. Super freaking excited for you guys to be a part of this community, to be a part of thousands of women who are on the same journey as you, who are working to become toned, to become stronger, more confident versions of themselves, to build muscle, to change their body composition, to feel more confident in their skin. I am so stoked for every single one of you guys who has joined us this year, last year, since WarriorBabe was born in 2018. You all rock, and our community is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It's so freaking cool to see how that's happening.

So welcome to our new Warriors. If you aren't a WarriorBabe yet, and you're listening on my live Facebook page, and maybe you've seen me pop up in ads, you've seen something on Instagram about our program, you've seen other women talking about it and their testimonials, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? This is going to become one of the biggest movements. It already is, and it's just going to get bigger: women building muscle and changing their body composition, having a body that they're confident and proud of, which is unheard of in the industry right now, because a lot of women are just focusing on losing weight. And losing weight and losing fat are two completely different things.

What WarriorBabe presents is that toned, beautiful structure to the body, when a lot of other programs are just telling you to eat less and eat less and do tons of cardio, which is actually completely counterproductive to what you want to accomplish when it comes to getting toned and building muscle. So if you're on the Facebook page and you're like, I need WarriorBabe, check us out. If you've just been waiting, pull the trigger and join us. Start 2021 off on the right foot. You will not be disappointed. And yes, I may be biased because I'm the creator of the program, but we have an entire plethora of amazing people on our team who are also presenting everything that WarriorBabe is all about. And we have hundreds to thousands of women who have changed their body. So it's your turn now. Join us.

So huge welcome again to all the WarriorBabes who joined us, and to all the WarriorBabes who are going to join us in 2021. I can't wait for you guys to be a part of this amazing, inspiring, supportive, motivating, uplifting community. This community is bomb. You guys all rock, and WarriorBabe is where strong is the new sexy. Skinny isn't the new sexy; strong is the new sexy.

Dan: love your program, I joined two years ago, I just got back on track after taking 2020 off, I'm loving feeling my muscles grow again. Let's go, that's awesome. Hey, one of our VIP coaches, Sarah, what's up, babe? Bobby, what's up, babe? Sarah Carter, do you see?

Okay, so we'll kick off these questions now. If you guys have any questions, start dropping your comments in the comment box and we'll kick off this live Q&A.

Sarah's first question: do you suggest adjusting macros for vegans? I get 99 grams of carbs and I'm having a hard time getting enough protein without going way over on carbs. So we do have some vegan options in our lowest program in the application, which is Revolution. We offer vegan support inside the Blueprint, and then we also have the VIP program, where some of our coaches are learning to be more versatile in the vegan world. If you go into the Blueprint program, which is a little bit more in depth on macronutrients, it helps you get your personal macronutrients for your body type and your goals and learn how to adjust them over time. Plus there's community support, with being able to talk with me on a weekly basis three times and another coach one time. So there are four live Q&A sessions in the Blueprint where we're actually able to talk back and forth about everything that you need, so it's way more personalized for you on that aspect too. We do offer that support inside of the Blueprint community, and we do have a lot of vegans who are part of our programs. So yes, we do understand how to adjust macros for vegans, and there are a bunch of babes who can help you out with different options for meals and foods to choose.

Pamela: I'm thinking about doing a 24-hour fast after these crazy holidays. I listened to your rally call to prepare for it. My question for a 24-hour fast: is a high sodium intake something I should do, and if so, what exactly is that? So you don't need to do a high sodium intake, but sodium is going to help you curb any cravings that you have, and it helps if you're going to pull away carbs for that 24-hour time frame. It doesn't necessarily have to be high sodium intake all day long. I just recommend some pink Himalayan salt throughout the day to help you with that fast. You don't need to do a high sodium intake; you can just have some pink Himalayan salt throughout the day.

Diane: still confused on macros. Okay, babe, that's super broad. Can you hone in on a specific question that you have about macros? Because if I was to answer "confused on macros": macros are protein, fats and carbs, which make up everything that you guys eat. Protein is the building blocks for muscle. It helps to satisfy and curb hunger, and it helps to maintain blood sugar throughout the day. You've got carbs, which are simple and complex carbs that provide a lot of fuel for your body and your brain. And then you've got fats, which are good for hormonal support and good for lubrication of your joints.

Now, when it comes to counting, to be really blunt and straight to the point, it's all about just getting started. A lot of people fear failure. So a lot of people do all this planning and strategizing and learning on what to do when it comes to actually counting and doing macros, but nobody likes to take action, because they're afraid that they're going to fail. They're afraid of criticism, they're afraid of judgment from their family, from their husband: "You're doing another program?" So a lot of people just sit in the motion aspect of planning, learning and strategizing, and they actually feel like they're progressing when they're just in motion. But you're really not. That's not going to get you the outcome, the result that you want.

So when it comes to it, you've got to start taking action. If you're confused on it, it's just playing around inside of MyFitnessPal, getting what your macros should be. If you're not inside of one of my programs, get inside one of my programs, because I literally break it down for you step by step: how to get those macros, how to set up your day, how to structure your meal plan, how to distribute those macros. So really, it's just about taking action on whatever you need to do in order to start understanding it better, and knowing that you're going to fail. You're going to fail. Be open to failing; it's going to happen. But you don't have to look at failure as a bad thing. You're learning, and you know not to do what you did that got you to that feeling again.

All right, so where are we at here? Hi, how many exercises should we do per day, or how many exercises per muscle every day? Which workout split is better for women for fat loss along with a calorie deficit? So you should only do one workout per day. How many exercises that consists of can be a wide variety. If you're looking to tone and shape and decrease body fat, it can be a higher repetition of, say, 10 different exercises that target your glutes, hamstrings and calves one day, or another day with chest and shoulders, it can be five exercises for shoulders and five exercises for chest.

A workout split is just like that. Say you're doing five workouts in a week: one day it's going to be arms, one day chest and shoulders, one day back, and two days are going to be split for legs, with a hamstring focus and a quad focus. If you're in a caloric deficit, that should be more of a high-burning approach: higher repetitions, lower weight, creating the intensity with the workouts. That's primarily what I've focused on for anybody who's just looking to tone and shape. A whole different plan would come if somebody wants to maintain and build.

This is everything I address in my WarriorBabe Blueprint program. Literally, if your goal is to tone and shape, here's your workout plan, here are your macros for what you need to do to hit that goal. If your goal is to maintain and build, here are the macros that you need for your specific body: your age, your height, your weight, your goal, your body type, whether you're an ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph, or if you're a hybrid. It's so particular to you. Then you're going to have your macros to maintain and build, and you're going to have the workout to follow to build. So that's my answer.

Jenny: how do I know when to adjust my macros? I get this all of the freaking time. I love this question. There are many different scenarios when it comes to when you need to adjust your macros. Scenario one would be you're hitting a plateau after three weeks, four weeks of true consistency with your macro numbers. You're not seeing any more change. Data points aren't moving, weight isn't moving. Then you need to create a little bit of a shift, minus 100 calories, and then break that down into the macros. That's going to start facilitating more results. That would be one avenue there.

Scenario two: let's say you've been in a deficit for way too long. It's been six, seven, eight, 12 months that you've been in a deficit, and you're like, I need to pull myself up and bring myself up in calories. You're irritable, you're tired, you're not feeling good, your mood's low, you need more food, you're hungry. Then I would adjust your macros and bring them on up. So it's very sensitive. It depends on the individual, it depends on where you are in your progress, it depends on whether you're being consistent. That's how I would answer that.

Laurie: I am 50. What do you suggest for workouts: cardio, HIIT and weight training, is all that good for my age? Hell yeah, absolutely. Age is just a number. I've got 58, 59-year-olds, women up in their 60s in my programs, and they're absolutely freaking crushing it. So if you're somebody who may be new to it, then I would definitely start, a hundred percent. All of my 50-plus babes, y'all should be doing weight training. Every single one of you guys should be doing weight training. It is so good for the density of your bones, for going on and living a healthy, strong lifestyle. Strength training will do so much for your body.

I can't tell you, and this is going off topic a little bit, when I was a nurse working in the ER, how many women 50-plus I would see come in with hip fractures from falling and all this stuff. And I'd just look at them like, y'all should have done strength training 20 years ago. It matters right now. It matters if you're in your forties, it matters in your fifties, it matters if you're in your sixties, it matters if you're in your seventies. If you guys want a body, strength training is where it's at. So yes, even if you're a beginner or advanced and you're 50 years old, you should be doing weight training.

Evening. What's up, Bruce?

Danielle: is overtraining a concern? I used to work out about an hour, almost six days a week. Since I joined, I'm only doing about 33 to 45 minutes five days a week. Should I increase macros at a certain intensity of working out? All right, two questions in one. No, you shouldn't increase your macros at a certain intensity of working out. The question that would need to be answered is where is your carb count and how is your macro intake? If it's too low and you're doing strenuous workouts and you're not getting enough fuel, or you don't feel you're recovering well enough, then that would be something I would question: okay, where are your carbs at? Do you need more carbs? Do you need more fuel? Do you need more recovery? So I would question where you are sitting.

And overtraining: yes, it's possible for you guys to overtrain, aka overreach. This is the thing, you guys. So many of you think that if you're not sore the next day, you didn't have a good workout. But there's one thing you can take away from this Q&A right now: soreness is not an indicator of your progress. If you guys are super, super sore for two days, three days, you overtrained, you overreached, you did too much. And it happens. I've been there thousands of times. You have a day where you have really high energy, or you take a pre-workout, or you just feel really good and you're like, I just want to go crush some weight. But then two days later you're paying for it. You overtrained, you overreached.

So soreness is not an indicator of your progress. Progress is an indicator of your progress. If you're not sore, that's great. You're doing awesome. You are doing peachy. You are progressing. And if you're increasing weight and you're not sore, you are progressing beautifully. So yes, overtraining is a concern. You don't want to overtrain. You don't want to be too sore. Remember, soreness is not an indicator of progress.

Michelle, what's up, babe? "Fellow WarriorBabes, can't wait to crush 2021." Yes, let's go. I can't wait for all of the WarriorBabes to crush 2021. It's going to be so freaking exciting.

Lakeisha: how do you know your body type? It depends on the way you look. It's an easy Google: you can Google ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph and relate it to what your body is. I have my babes go through a specific quiz that asks them a bunch of different questions, and then it produces what their body type is. Ectomorphs are super tall and super skinny. Mesomorphs, and I'm a mesomorph, have more of a built complex: capped shoulders, bigger quads. And then the endomorphs. J.Lo is a perfect endomorph. She's got the curves. That's what I like to call the endomorphs, the curvy babes. You've got the muscle there, but you're carrying a little more body fat, and you've got those nice curvilicious angles to your body. So those are the different body types.

Jenny: how do you know what those numbers should be? What numbers? How do I know when to adjust my macros? Oh, so you were asking about the numbers for adjusting. Again, very case sensitive, very individual. But if you're looking to get more results and you have room to pull down your carbs, I would keep pulling down your carbs by 20 or 30 grams. I'd pull down some fats by 5 or 10 grams. If you're getting low in the carb arena, I would up your protein by about 10 grams. So it's very different, it depends on a lot of things, but that's how I would normally do adjustments.

Cheryl. Yes, Cheryl. You guys, one of my babes who's 58, 59 years old and absolutely freaking crushing it. If you didn't see her interview on the YouTube channel, she's eating 485 grams of carbs and absolutely crushing her weight training regime. "Weight training makes working out bearable." Yes.

Arian: I've been really learning how to listen to my body. I love strength training but have to balance pushing myself versus reps because of autoimmune challenges. So just a shout-out of support to everyone to keep really paying attention to and loving what your body is telling you. Every moment in the journey is important. Yes, 100 percent, you guys. I provide the foundations for a lot of women, but my ultimate goal is for you guys to learn your bodies the most. That's why I like my Blueprint program: it's how to be in control of your body for the rest of your life. I'll give you the backbone, I'll give you the foundations, and that's why I check in with everybody three times a week, and we have another coach who does another call once a week, for Q&As for you guys to question things, to learn on your journey, to learn your bodies. Because there is nobody who is the same. Everybody is completely different. So you're all going to have different experiences, and it's really key for you to learn what your body is saying to you. What are the cues? What are your signals? How do you know when to pull back? How do you know when you need to rest? So yeah, that's a really fire statement there.

Erin Helen: what would you say to vegetarians trying to increase protein who don't want soy products? Oh, that's hard, because I always go to my seitan. Seitan is one of my favorite go-tos, but I know it's got soy in it. So in that category, I would go to protein shakes, unfortunately, right now, until we have more options in that world. But vegetarians, wait, is it pescatarians? Vegetarians, you guys can do fish, right? Am I having a blonde moment right now? I think I'm having a blonde moment. Pescatarians are the ones who can do fish and eggs. There's tempeh too. Tempeh is a really good plant source; I know it's got some carbs in it. What else? Tofu is another really good one. That's high protein, minimal carbs. Those are some ideas for you. I would also look at vegan protein powders. One of the vegan protein powders I've been using is Sun Warrior, which is so good.

Oh, okay, I just saw you typed in: avoiding meats, can do eggs. So egg whites would be what I would tell you to do. And yes, you're probably going to get burnt out over time with it, but there are always fun ways to make egg whites more enjoyable: hot sauce, making a scramble with egg whites in the morning with some oatmeal. Yeah, a hundred percent. I would tell you to do eggs and fish: tilapia, haddock, cod. Those would be really good food choices.

Michelle, what's up, babe. "Hi beautiful, happy holidays, I love you but can't get in. Any advice for women going through menopause?" What's up, babe, happy holidays to you too. Some advice if you're going through menopause: check on your nutrition. How are you eating? And workouts would be a different style for a lot of women who go through menopause. If you have imbalances with your hormones, you probably need to structure your workouts a little bit differently so some things aren't causing cortisol to spike and you're not being stressed out.

But I think my number one advice for any woman going through menopause is to definitely incorporate strength training, because estrogen drops, and that means your bone density, the strength of your bones, can also decrease. And then check on your nutrition. Make sure you're eating enough, you guys. So many women don't eat enough food. That's the downside for a lot of women: they don't eat enough food, and that's why they're not getting the results that they want. Us WarriorBabes know that we eat tons of food and we're getting the results that we want. So you've got to make sure you're eating enough.

And it's not just about, okay, I'm going to go have a burger now, I'm going to have some pizza, I'm going to eat tons and tons of food because Nikkiey just said I can eat tons and tons of food. No. It's about eating enough protein, it's about eating enough carbs, it's about eating enough fats. Because that piece of steak or those potatoes, all those foods are made up of protein, fats and carbs. You want to make sure you're eating enough of the right types of foods.

Marie: "Hi Nikkiey, just letting you know I'm actually getting rest and sleeping." Yes, babe. Awesome. Love to hear that. I'm so happy.

All right. "How much are any of your programs? And wow, you are real." Oh, thank you, I appreciate that. Yes, I am real, I am a human. I don't talk about the pricing for my programs. That's something you can talk to my team about. If you apply for the Blueprint or apply for my VIP, which is one-on-one coaching, my team will talk to you about which program would be best for you.

"Can you do a plant-based diet and do macros?" Yes, 100 percent.

Laurie Carl: I'm really struggling with what to eat to lose weight. I can hardly do any exercise because of my back. Again, babe, it's not what you need to eat, because you can have whatever you want in balance. You can eat whatever you want. It's just knowing what types of foods you should be eating: protein, fats and carbs. It comes down to understanding that, because everything you eat is made up of different macros, like I was just saying. And if you can't do any exercise because of your back, the thing I would do if you were in one of my programs, and if you are, you can hop on a Q&A call and we can talk about this, is pull back on your intake. Let's say you're eating 1,500 calories. We would probably pull back to around 1,400, because you don't need that 100 when you're not doing as extensive workouts. And the main thing is, don't push yourself to do workouts if you're injured. You want to take that time to recover and then get back to it when you're at 100 percent, because you can only exacerbate things if you're not fully recovered.

"Eggs and hot sauce is amazing." Oh, that does sound really good.

"Do we need to do progressive overload for abs as well, like other body parts? Thank you so much for all the amazing answers." You're welcome, babe. You don't necessarily have to do progressive overload for abs. I mean, yes, you can, but I would always just try and hammer the shit out of your abs on the days that you're going to focus on them. Don't get me wrong, you guys, if you're in my programs, during my workouts you hit your abs every day in every single one of the exercises that you're doing. But let's say you're saving your abs for a warm-up or a core session. Then I would absolutely just hammer away at them. Your abs get worked even by laughing, right? So many people will say, I'm laughing so hard my abs are hurting. Your abs are constantly being used, just as much as your calves, like any muscle that's always being used. So you can always go really hard with them, as much as you can.

"Nikkiey, I'm up to 2,300 calories now. Started at 1,200." Let's go. Guys, I love these stories. I love hearing that you were at 1,200 or 1,300 and now you're eating 2,300, 2,400. I have women up in the 3,000s. Freaking love that. That's amazing. "Isn't it awesome, all the foods you can eat and see progress?" I love reading that stuff, you guys. It's awesome.

Ashley: I just recently hit my weight loss goal with my macros set at 40/40/20. I'm now looking to lean out and build muscle. Any suggestions on what to change my macros to, to help with building muscle? Yeah, I would start slowly increasing your caloric intake by about 100 to 150 per week. This is what I deem a reverse inside of my programs. I slowly bring people up by 100 to 150, sometimes 200 if their bodies can handle it, calories per week, with the breakdown coming from protein, fats and carbs. After that initial increase, if it was protein, fats and carbs to begin with, then it would just be carbs and fats to reverse upward. So I would keep doing a slow reverse. I put an Instagram post out on this and how to do it, so go back through my Instagram posts and check it out. I literally break down what I'm saying right now: 150, majority coming from fats and carbs, and doing that weekly to see how your body is adjusting to it.

Then you're probably going to get to around maintenance, where you're maintaining your weight. And if you really want to go ham and go into a surplus, you can up your calories by 300 to 500, which is going to put you over into a surplus. This is where I say in my programs, building and putting on muscle is a whole different mindset. If you're moving in that direction and you want to start building, I highly recommend that you check out the interview that I did with Cheryl. Cheryl has gained 10 pounds plus being in the build phase of her journey. She's amazing. She can handle it. She just trusts the process and does it.

But there are so many women who freak the fuck out over that scale going up by two pounds or three pounds. If you guys are building muscle, just take it from me. For example, I was 140 when I started my journey. I got as low as 123, 125. I rebounded up to 150. And now I'm at around 145, 150, but my body is completely freaking different. I don't have the same body that I had when I first started. So please don't get hung up on that scale. My body looks drastically different. Your muscles are more dense than body fat, and that scale is going to go up, especially if you're building muscle.

Yes, Cheryl, let's go, babe. Almost 20. We're pushing it.

Lydia: when retraining metabolism, do you increase calories at all if weight training? Is the calculator not for working out? No, you don't have to worry about the calories that you burn while working out. All that matters is that you follow that metabolism retrain each week and you're consistent with your numbers on a weekly basis. It doesn't correlate to workouts. That doesn't matter.

All right, you guys, any more questions? I absolutely love coming here on Wednesday and hanging out with you guys, answering any clarifications on whatever it is you need for your journey. You can tune in every single Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I will be here to help you guys with any questions that you have.

It's a new year, you guys. In two days it's New Year's Eve. It's 2021. Let's go. How many of you guys are super ready for 2021? Hopefully it's drastically different than 2020, but it's not too promising. Anyway, focus on what you can control. You have the ability to control your workouts. You have the ability to control your nutrition. It is all in your control. Even if the gyms are closed, move your body at home. Go to the grocery store, they're open, and choose better options to put in your pantry and in your fridge. That's your control.

And you also have the control to take action. If you're somebody who spent the last week, week and a half talking to your family, like, yeah, January 1st I'm going to hit it, January 3rd I'm starting Monday. Awesome, cool. You've been planning and strategizing, you've been learning what to do. You've been in motion. That may make you feel like you're making progress, but that's not going to get you to the outcome of the goal that you want to accomplish. You've got to start taking action.

So what does that mean? You're going to start hitting your markers. You're going to start tracking. You're going to join WarriorBabe. You're going to start doing your workouts. You're going to have a successful week of doing all of your workouts and cardio and hitting your macro numbers. It's not just, oh, I went into MyFitnessPal and I planned my entire week with macros, let's go, and then come Friday you've hit three out of the five days. Be the go-getter. Take action. Don't be passive. Don't be in motion. Be active. Take action.

All right, guys, you all rock. Show up for yourselves, because that's what matters most. I can feed you with all the energy and the passion that I have until I'm blue in the face, but you've got to be the one who takes the action. I am adamant on that. All my babes in all my programs know that they're not going to get it done just because Nikkiey's giving them accountability or the VIP coaches are giving them accountability. You've got to take action.

All right, cool. So one way you can also take action is by showing up here next Wednesday, marking your calendars for 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and being like, yo, Nikkiey's going live, I need some motivation, let's show up. Joining WarriorBabe is going to be the push for you in 2021. If you need somebody to help you take action, signing up for a program is going to hold you accountable, and God damn, I will make sure that you're held accountable inside of my programs. You have to take advantage of these Q&As. Thank you, Cheryl, yes, so true.

All right, cool, you guys. I'm going to tune out. Enjoy the rest of the evening. Start 2021 strong, and I hope to see you guys inside my programs. Bye, everybody. Thank you.