In this episode, we have two plant-based bodybuilders, Giacomo and Dani, discuss how to gain strength on a plant-based diet.
Questions Answered
- (00:39) – Introducing Giacomo Marchese.
- (01:23) – Introducing Dani Taylor.
- (02:58) – Where do you get your protein?
- (03:18) – How did you transition to more of a whole food plant based diet?
- (04:49) – Do you guys suggest protein supplements for people?
- (05:31) – What kind of things are you guys coaching and helping people with?
- (06:41) – What do you think the main differences between someone who's doing body building versus an endurance sport as far as what the requirements to sustain their activity?
- (08:11) – Anything there as far as age as we get older and having the same benefits of weightlifting?
- (11:34) – Do you guys have your clients use as specific app to track their food intake and energy expenditure?
- (13:04) – What percentage of fat do you strive for in post menopausal women?
- (14:40) – For women on body composition, what would be the fat composition that you're finding that would be a healthier body fat percentage structurally in the body?
- (15:51) – Is there a way to measure body fat percentage at home?
- (17:24) – What can you do naturally to build bone strength?
- (23:25) – Do you have a recommendation of a brand of weight vest?
- (24:47) – What if you have someone who's trying to gain weight, what would you recommend?
- (31:15) – How do you encourage an older person that yes they're making progress?
Complete Transcript
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(00:03)
To welcome our guest, we have Giacomo Marchese and Dani Taylor. These are plant based bodybuilders athletes. So welcome. And we're so excited to have you today.
Dani Taylor
(00:13)
Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. This is really exciting. You guys have this going a well oiled machine. I'm like, wow. Awesome.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(00:21)
Well, it started with me and Chris about two years ago. So we've been practicing for a little while. But could you guys tell us a little about yourselves and maybe a little bit about your journey, what you offer, and then we can start asking a ton of questions. I'm sure we will be getting some.
Dani Taylor
(00:37)
Yeah, go for it. You go first.
Giacomo Marchese
(00:39)
Sure. Well, brief little bit about me. I enjoy drumming and I like playing video games, but I mostly just work a little bit too much. I like to train a lot. As far as my background, I went vegan about 20 years ago. I was interested in fitness about 10 years before that, and it was to make a tennis team. But then I got into competitive body building. Went vegan the more I learned about health and dietary cholesterol and taking care of myself and realized I couldn't help others until I led by example. Made the connection, embraced veganism and that led me to meeting Dani, my wife, my business partner, and many of my colleagues and friends. And we do activism work together and put a good message out there.
Dani Taylor
(01:23)
Yeah. So I have a bit of a different story than Giacomo. So I grew up in a really unhealthy household, pretty overweight, but everybody was so I didn't think too much of it. I went vegetarian really young, eight years old, just for ethical reasons. And then when I was 16, I was doing research on a paper about vegetarianism and decided to go vegan. It was something I'd never even heard of, again for ethical reasons. But at this point I was about 210 pounds at 16 years old and going vegan, I did a terrible job going vegan. Just excluding animal products and basically eating junky vegan food. But even still, the next time I went to the doctor, she was just like, Hey, you're down 30 pounds. What's up? And it was the first time I started to be like, oh, I actually have some control over my own physical being. What if I actually learned something about nutrition? What if I actually tried? Because at that point I wasn't.
Dani Taylor
(02:23)
And yeah, that was 20 years ago that I went vegan. And since then I've gotten healthier and healthier. Also found Giacomo, got into competitive body building and coaching other vegans and plant-based athletes specifically, because there wasn't a lot of resources for those particular people back in the day. And yeah, that's led us to where we are now. That's what we do full-time, we coach plant based people to reach their athletic goals.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(02:49)
Awesome. That's fabulous. And these guys are really cool. You guys got to check out their website. What is your website?
Dani Taylor
(02:56)
Veganproteins.com.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(02:58)
Awesome.
Dani Taylor
(02:58)
Fueled by the question, where do you get your protein? Of course.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(03:04)
You're solving the question with your URL. Excellent. So docs, do you have any questions to get things started? We're getting a few questions already. But go ahead. I
Dr. Niki Davis
(03:14)
I had a quick question.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(03:15)
Yeah.
Dr. Niki Davis
(03:18)
You mention that you were eating kind of unhealthy vegan food in the beginning. So how did you then transition to more of a whole food plant based diet, which I'm assuming is what your diet is now.
Dani Taylor
(03:29)
So, okay, couple parts here. So the first thing was, yeah, I just excluded, at that point I was already vegetarian, so really I was just excluding dairy and eggs. So what that left me with at 16 years old was things like plain bagels and french fries and CocaCola, all technically vegan, but not great for you. But I must have been creating a caloric deficit without realizing it is what happened. But that sparked this curiosity. And then I started going to the library because this was 2002 and there wasn't a ton of information. I didn't know how to find this information online, but I went to the library and started taking out vegan books, vegan cookbooks. And there were so many different foods in there that I had never even heard of before.
Dani Taylor
(04:15)
Quinoa, which I pronounced quinoa for about two years because I'd never heard anybody else say it. Avocados, mangoes, things that I just hadn't had growing up. And everybody thought I was going to eat a smaller variety of food that what I was about to do was very limiting. And actually it was the complete opposite. It opened up a whole new world of foods to me. And I would not say my diet is a hundred percent whole food plant based today, but it is predominantly whole food plant based now. And that was many years in the making.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(04:49)
And I had a question because you're athletes and it's in your title. Do you guys suggest protein supplements for people?
Giacomo Marchese
(04:59)
We don't recommend them per se. However, we're not in oppositions to clients using protein supplements, whether it's out of convenience, whether it's to, you can bake and make recipes with them, et cetera, et cetera. So it really depends on the person.
Dani Taylor
(05:15)
Yeah. So we never, nobody needs them. But for some people they're convenient and they like them. And I don't think, I think if the choice is animal proteins or plant-based protein powder, plant-based protein powder all the way. So yeah.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(05:30)
Thank you.
Dani Taylor
(05:30)
No problem.
Dr. Chris Miller
(05:31)
And do you help people with both workout regimens so that they can become bodybuilders if they're interested and nutrition? Or what kind of things are you guys coaching and helping people with?
Giacomo Marchese
(05:45)
Everything. We have some site visitors who come to us and they're like, I want to be a client and I'm willing to go plant-based to work with you because I like your results. And we have other clients who come to us for lifestyle and we have competitive clients who are professionals and want to be at the top of their game. So really anyone who's looking to change their life. And we work with their reasons as far as veganism and their interest in a plant-based diet.
Dani Taylor
(06:13)
Yeah. So we do also write their workouts. The only exception is that we have a couple of elite endurance athletes. And I consider us to be very, very well versed in the strength sports, but we have a couple athletes who know way more about endurance sports than we do. They perform way at the top of their game. So they handle their programming and we handle helping them out with their diet and making sure it supports that training.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(06:41)
What do you think the main differences between someone who's doing body building versus an endurance sport as far as what the requirements to sustain their activity?
Dani Taylor
(06:51)
So I would say people who are doing endurance sports eat way more, just in general. We think that weightlifting burns a ton of calories, but it actually doesn't really burn a ton of calories. Having more muscle mass on your frame, certainly you burn more calories just existing when you have more muscle on your frame. But that does not compare to people who are going out and cycling for six hours on a Saturday afternoon. They just need more food. And the purpose of the nutrition for an endurance athlete, the goal they're looking for is performance. They want to be faster. They want to win their race. With body building, it's very different because when you compete in body building, nobody cares what you can do. You're literally the goal is the aesthetic. So the goal is completely based on what it looks like. Now that doesn't mean you have to completely neglect performance and health to do that, but it's just different motivations.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(07:50)
Cool. Very cool. And then as far as are you noticing differences as far as women and men on, let's say calorie restriction to get to that more aesthetic look? I mean, what is the different, is there an age that you're seeing different? Because my poor ladies in their menopausal age, I think you and I talked a lot about this.
Dani Taylor
(08:11)
Oh yeah.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(08:11)
Was that seems to be so more difficult from a 30 year old woman to a 50 year old woman in, do you see the changes in men? Anything there as far as age as we get older and having the same benefits of weightlifting? Is it a little harder work, more food, different food?
Giacomo Marchese
(08:28)
So we typically try to keep fat a little bit higher because we're focused on hormonal health while someone is in a calorie deficit, we focus more on this with our female clients than our male clients. And age is definitely a factor. And we keep protein just a little bit higher. The changes are subtle, however they are worth exploring. So keep protein a little bit higher, try to prevent fat from going too low while a female client is in a caloric deficit, especially with body building. And age and metabolism is a factor for anyone. But this is typical. So I'm stereotyping here, female versus male. There are genetic outliers all over the place. There are lean mean female clients that can eat more than strong, big male clients that are half their age. So it all depends on the individual.
Dani Taylor
(09:19)
It is true. I mean, what he is saying is true. There are outliers, but if you have to generalize, which I think is a smart thing, it's a smart starting place, right? You have to start somewhere. Women absolutely, I would say after the age of 40, sometimes 45, it's a mark in difference. They can feel it. They can see it. They're like what is happening? I'm doing the exact same thing I did two years ago and I feel like I'm getting totally different results. And they're not imagining it. They didn't suddenly become lazy or slackers or something. Their bodies are changing. And I think it's really important to be very sensitive to that. And first of all, recognize that yeah, it is harder. And there's no question that it's harder for women than men.
Dani Taylor
(10:00)
Yes, age affects everybody. But if a man is coming to us and they're looking to lose weight or body fat, the chart of their weight loss, it's almost like a perfect, beautiful line. Women, it's never like that. It's up and down and up and down. And hopefully trending in the right direction. But it's never linear for women it seems. So all of that I think is definitely true. And then there's also on top of that, I mean, I guess this is kind of true for everybody, but it's especially true for women. They are almost chronically under-eating and that they're chronically trying to diet. And if you compile that for a lifetime, and unfortunately we see a lot of women who have been trying to diet since they were 15 years old on and off for 30 or 40 years, there are effects from that.
Dani Taylor
(10:55)
You're metabolism, we talk about it like it's this one thing, right? It's not. But your metabolism is not just going to bounce back because you got your nutrition on track at 50 years old if you've been under-cutting your nutritional needs for 30 years. It's not going to be that clean. If that makes sense. It's not a clean slate at that point. And it's just important to recognize that. And that's why we try to catch people as early as possible and get them to start eating what they need earlier and earlier, and try to get them out of this, you need to constantly be dieting mindset, which is way more prevalent with women.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(11:30)
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Dr. Niki Davis
(11:34)
Do you guys have your clients use as specific app to track their food intake and energy expenditure?
Dani Taylor
(11:45)
Go ahead.
Giacomo Marchese
(11:46)
Sure. Well we, with our clients, we largely rely on them feeling comfortable enough being open with us and letting us know what's going on and they can track however they want. So some clients prefer to use MyFitnessPal. Others will use the tracking tools on our website.
Dani Taylor
(12:04)
Yeah. So MyFitnessPal is a really easy one. Most people are familiar with how to use it. Cronometer is another good one that does a better job tracking micronutrients. But MyFitnessPal is probably a little bit more user friendly. As far as tracking their caloric output, we don't have, again, unless they're an endurance athlete where this becomes much more important. We don't request that people do that. We know the workouts that they're doing, because we're telling them to do them. And then they tell us if they did it or not. So we have a pretty good idea. But a lot of people have Fitbits and Apple watches that are giving them some data points anyway. And so they do share that with us sometimes. And some of them are pretty good. Some of them are pretty spot on for certain people, but like Giacomo said, there are outliers who, their watch is super over estimating what they're burning or super underestimating what they're burning. So it's a really person by person situation.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(13:02)
Cool. We have some questions. Claire is asking, what percentage of fat do you strive for in post menopausal women? Is there something you've seen that's really a good number to look for?
Giacomo Marchese
(13:13)
I don't like getting fat any lower than 40 grams.
Dani Taylor
(13:17)
Ever.
Giacomo Marchese
(13:18)
Ever.
Dani Taylor
(13:18)
Yeah. For women.
Giacomo Marchese
(13:19)
Right. And not that I'm recommending it here because this is for competition, but we can walk it down as low as the low thirties and even the high twenties with a competitive body. But that is an extreme and that's something I do not recommend for the vast majority of people. So usually we're getting the number of 40 grams of fat or higher for the vast majority of scenarios.
Dani Taylor
(13:41)
Yeah. So when they ask for percentage, I don't really like to think in percentages. I know we've all been sort of trained like, oh 30, 30, 40, or 80, 10, 10 or whatever. I don't like to think of it that way because your body has certain absolute needs. So whether you're eating, don't do this, but whether you're eating 1200 calories or 2,500 calories, you still shouldn't be dropping your fat below certain amounts. So yeah, I mean, I would say bare bones bottom, especially for women, over 40, I would not go below 40 grams. And if it works for you and your life and your goals, I would say even 50 grams ish would be a good place. So depending on how much you're eating, that could work out to be 20%, that could work out to be 15% or 12%, just depending on how much food you're eating.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(14:40)
And for women on body composition, what would be the fat composition that you're finding that would be a healthier body fat percentage structurally in the body?
Dani Taylor
(14:50)
Yeah. So higher than you'd like it to be. That's the answer. No, seriously, I would say a healthy body fat percentage to be in is for a woman is 20 to 25%, you're in pretty good shape. It's not until you get over 30% ish that I would start to worry about someone's health. Most women who come chat with us, they want 15% body fat. And it's like, you could probably achieve that for a minute, but to sustain that is going to be a lot of work for most people. And if you try to sustain that for too long, you could have hormonal implications from that. So we always think lower is better, lower is better, lower is better, but to lump all women together, I would say a happy place for most people is, yeah, 18, maybe to 27 or so. So somewhere in there.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(15:51)
Is there a way to measure that at home? You find calibers or is there some of those weights work better? What have you found?
Giacomo Marchese
(15:59)
We typically go by site. We typically go by site. So I want to make sure my voice is louder. And when you start to see a lot of lines and detail on your frame, you're probably getting below 20%. And there are different charts that show you what different body fats look like. And granted, the body types are different, but there are some pretty decent charts we could get some sort of idea of what you look like as long as you're honest with yourself and you know your body composition well.
Dani Taylor
(16:31)
But if you want just an at home tool, there are those floor scales, those bio impedance scales that will tell your body fat. It's important to realize they're not accurate. The most accurate way that you can get your body fat measured is a DEXA scan or a bone density scan, which you can't even do in a lot of states. We can't do it here, for example. And if you do have a state where you're allowed to do it, it's very expensive. It's not reasonable. Calipers can be great, but you need to be trained how to use them and most of us aren't. So you're going to get a different measurement every time. So I do kind of like the floor scales, even though the exact number it's giving you is probably not going to be right. If you're stepping on it once a week, every week, and the numbers going up, chances are your body fat percentage is going up. If it's coming down, it's probably coming down. So even though they're not perfect, I think some of them can be pretty good.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(17:24)
Kathryn asked a question. What can you do naturally to build bone strength? I've been eating a hundred percent vegan since October of 21 I'm guessing. She says I'm 69 and sher oncologist wants to start on medication. Any thoughts there? Is there any particular exercises that you see the bigger bang for lift I guess.
Dani Taylor
(17:43)
So strength training in general. Resistance training period, that doesn't have to look like what it looks like on a body builder. If you are not exercising right now, doing body weight squats, or pushups against the wall, all of those weightbearing exercises will help with bone density. I mean, the doctors here probably know better than I, I don't know if it's possible to build bone density at 69 years old, but certainly you can do a lot of things to mitigate the loss of more bone density. So resistance bands and doing resistance training with just bands or body weight exercises like literally squatting into a chair and standing up over and over every single day, those are great ways to resistance train your body. And if anybody's listening and they're younger and want to start, you can build bone density at a younger age simply by eating enough and resistance training. And that will help you when you get to the age where you start to naturally lose some bone density. Yeah, no problem.
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(18:52)
I would also suggest using a weight vest when you're walking.
Dani Taylor
(18:57)
That's a great idea. And I'm not familiar with the, I don't know anything about medications and I'm not going to pretend to.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(19:07)
Yeah.
Dani Taylor
(19:07)
I'm sure you guys do.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(19:09)
That's a whole other conversation. But as far as just, are there particular exercises you're seeing that would do that? What should they be focused in on? What would you recommend as far as, if there's someone got limited things, let's say they're at home, what can they do? Squats? Is it deadlifts? What would be the best?
Giacomo Marchese
(19:32)
Well, I like body weight squats and some sort of, so for a lower body exercise for an upper body exercise, something that's going to focus on your chest and your back and your shoulders. So like Dani was recommending, maybe trying to do pushups instead of doing the standard push, do one on your knees. An overhead pressing movement can be helpful. So a curling press. Planks are good. Yep. Planks are really good. So you can take your band and you can curl it and then overhead press it. And I like that. You get some good bang for your buck that way.
Dani Taylor
(20:11)
And you don't have to just use bands. You can use soup cans. If you have soup cans, you can use that. Water bottles, you can use that. I would say squatting. If I had to pick one exercise, the do or die exercise, it's squatting because you want to be able to do that forever. You want to be able to sit down and get up off the toilet. You want to be able to get out of your chair forever. So squats would be the number one that I would say. And if you are good at squatting, just sitting, squatting down onto a chair and getting back up, hold something. Hold a gallon of something out to your chest tight and start practicing it that way. I would also say deadlifts. And I know that's a really scary sounding exercise to a lot of people, but essentially all a deadlift is picking something up off the floor.
Dani Taylor
(20:58)
Again, this is something that you hopefully are going to be able to do for a very long time. So, I mean, you don't have to have a barbell and weight plates to do deadlifts. You can practice it with your bags of groceries, like a suitcase deadlift, with a bag on either side, just keep your back nice and flat, lift with your legs and practice standing up with those. Or your laundry basket. Same thing, if you're putting your groceries away. Think of the activities that you do every day, and those are the kinds of exer, you want to find exercises that sort of mimic those things and do them three times a week. Just pick an exercise of each one, the squat, the deadlift, the overhead press, maybe a row where you're pulling something towards you, like you would do a heavy door if you were walking in somewhere. And just do those exercises three times a week. And if you haven't been doing that before, you're going to notice improvements with just that.
Dr. Chris Miller
(21:57)
I just want to emphasize, thank you guys for that, for anyone doing these, make sure you're doing it with proper form because you can hurt yourself if you just start deadlifting or even a water bottle and you just start bending over and picking it up. So you want to make sure your back is bent straight and you guys probably have videos and information about that on your website. But I know when I first started and I was using a trainer, I was corrected constantly. I had no idea my form was so off. And I thought, oh, I'm young, I work out, I can do this. But I had horrible form. And if I would've kept doing that, I probably would've injured myself. So I always emphasize to people to really make sure you're working with someone that you're looking in a mirror, that you make sure that you're getting it straight, getting it right.
Dani Taylor
(22:41)
Yeah. You're totally right. And the thing is most of us are picking up our laundry basket off the floor wrong. Most of us are getting off the toilet wrong. And a lifetime of that is where you get people with low back pain.
Dr. Chris Miller
(22:53)
Absolutely.
Dani Taylor
(22:53)
So if you have the privilege to be able to, even just have one or two sessions with a physical therapist or a personal trainer, they're going to be able to assess you and your needs. And hopefully, literally manually manipulate you in the right positions, because if you've never been in those positions before, how would you know what it feels like? So, yeah, there is something to be said for meeting with a professional in person who can help you learn these things and then practicing them over and over again.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(23:25)
Great. And Kim, did you have a recommendation of a brand of weight vest? Someone was asking?
Dr. Kim Scheuer
(23:30)
That's a really good question. Actually, I just took my significant others fishing vest to put some weights in and then added more and more and more. So a backpack, something like that. You want something that's tight to your body and not all over the place. And don't go crazy with too many weights to begin with. Add a little bit more at a time. But I found that going online and buying a weight vest was too expensive. So I just did it that way.
Dr. Chris Miller
(23:59)
I had gotten a weight vest years ago and I got mine from drfuhrman.com. And the reason I went with him back then was because it explains they had the weights. They were half pound weights. And they were at the top, the front and the back, and then mid body in front and back. And so they explained sort of where to start. You want to start higher up, make sure it's equal and start in low amount so you don't hurt yourself. And so if you're totally new to this, or you're not sure, because sometimes if a backpack, like Kim was saying, it's not tight to your body, or if it doesn't fit you well, or the weight is not distributed right, you could actually injure yourself. And so this way I felt a little safer. But again, it was expensive. And you can get them on Amazon now too, with the little weights that you can put across. So you can find cheaper versions of that. So you have options.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(24:47)
Perfect. Another question is what if you have someone who's trying to gain weight, what would you recommend?
Giacomo Marchese
(24:54)
If you have someone who's trying to gain weight, what do we recommend as far as nutrition training?
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(25:00)
Both. One or the other? Yeah.
Giacomo Marchese
(25:03)
Track, keep a food journal for three days, find out how much you're eating. It's easier than doing guess work and feeling out of control or one day you're trying, you think you're eating too much the next day you think you're not eating enough. Keep a food journal for three days and then eat more.
Dani Taylor
(25:21)
I mean, that sounds so simple, but it's kind of true. We meet a lot of people who do want to, they want to gain weight, quality weight, they want to gain muscle. And they say, man, no matter what I do, I just can't gain any weight. And then they'll write down what they're doing. And they might have one day where they do eat in a caloric surplus, a great job, but then the next day they're really full from the day prior. And then they under eat without realizing it. So, it's very easy as somebody who was formally obese for me to be like, I don't understand what these people are talking about. But I've seen it. And everybody has their struggle. If your goal is to lose weight, that's going to be hard. But there's plenty of people who their goal is to gain weight. And that's going to take work too. And consistently making sure that you're eating more.
Dani Taylor
(26:07)
So whole food plant based, but calorie dense foods. Because plant-based foods, one of the great things about them is they're so nutrient dense and calorie light. Great, when you want to lose weight, and fill up on fruits and veggies and fiber and all of that. Rough when you're trying to gain weight because you get so full, so fast. So things like nuts and seeds, avocados, some of the fruits. If you really are what we call a hard gainer, if you really have a hard time getting the calories in, this is where something like a trail mix or dried fruits can be helpful, which is something, when someone's trying to lose weight, we usually say, Hey, you probably shouldn't do this because it adds up really, really quickly. But if you're in the opposite boat, putting a handful of trail mix on your oatmeal in the morning, that can add two or 300 calories and you almost don't feel it in your stomach. So yeah, but definitely tracking because you can't manage what you don't measure. So keeping track of it and increasing it is a good place to start.
Giacomo Marchese
(27:12)
Yeah. Don't forget smoothies.
Dani Taylor
(27:14)
Yeah.
Dr. Michael Klaper
(27:15)
Hey.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(27:16)
Hey Dr K How are you?
Dr. Michael Klaper
(27:19)
Hi. Hi there. Sorry. I'm late. I thought we were doing this on Friday.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(27:23)
Oh, we have Thursdays and Friday.
Dr. Michael Klaper
(27:27)
Thursdays and Friday.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(27:27)
We're alternating. Dr. K.
Dr. Michael Klaper
(27:29)
Got it. Sorry about that. So I joined late, but I heard a little whisper about a weighted vest, which I think are wonderful things to do. I'll come back to that in a minute. And like everybody else who does nutrition counseling for the vegan community and plant-based folks, I've got skinny vegans who want to put on some weight here and we all wrestle with that a bit. Actually the two converge nicely. And one thing that I've had success with, again I'm going to go back to mother nature here. If you look at the vegan animals, you look at the antelopes and gazelles, giraffes, they're lean muscular animals and they're eating high carbohydrates, high fiber foods all day, they're grazing. And yet they don't become obese, but they're flipping around big, heavy bones and muscles. Their body mass is significant.
Dr. Michael Klaper
(28:32)
And over time, day after day, month after month, year after year, the muscles accommodate to this and metabolism sends energy rich molecules to muscles ATPs and all that kind of stuff. So where I'm going with this is that one of the nice things about the vests is that you don't need a lot of weight. And you can, I tell the folks here, get one of these vests with all the pockets. Start with an empty vest, just put it on, put a t-shirt over it, nobody needs to know you're wearing it. Just wear it around the house, go to the post office. Just wear the thing for a day or two or three, just to get used to it. And then pop in when you're comfortable, half pound, two pounds at the most, and just pop that on every day.
Dr. Michael Klaper
(29:24)
And again, you don't have to make a big deal of it, just wear it during the day, you can vacuum the house. But the best of course is going out for a good walk, maybe grab a couple of two pound, three pound hand weights and your weighted vest, you go for nice 40 minute walk. That's the Cadillac treatment for building up bones and muscles. But just wearing it. And then after a week or two or three, yeah, bump it up another two pounds. And until you get it up to four pounds, six pounds at the most, all you need to do. And just wear that for an hour a day, all day if you can. And like the antelope and the gazelle, whatever, the steady we're getting in and out of the car, walking up steps, carrying packages with the vest there adds that little bit of weight movement after movement hour after hour.
Dr. Michael Klaper
(30:13)
And the tortoise won the race, step by step will get you there. And as the months go by, watch if good muscle doesn't appear on your axial skeleton next to your spine, but certainly in your legs and arms. And be patient. So it takes you three months. It takes you six months. But you'll put on, I dare say 3, 5, 8 pounds of good muscle and good, healthy fatty tissue and blood vessels that go along with it. And so, it takes you a few months to get there. Patience and perseverance magic ingredients here. So, that absolutely that high density nutrition program that was just outlined by our very wise guest. Yes, it's absolutely important. Keep those high protein calorie dense foods going in, but then stress that skeleton a little bit every day. And watch it turn into good muscle in a lean healthy body with some good strength there. My suggestions [inaudible 00:31:15].
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(31:15)
Very good. We have another question. So what are the measures of success, for example, how do you encourage an older person that yes they're making progress, even though they're not getting the same results compared to when they were 30? So when you're working with someone, how often would you say, is it lifting heavier weights, more repetitions? What do you look for?
Giacomo Marchese
(31:37)
Measuring success is consistency and knowing what's happening and seeing progress. And progress by any measure is success. As far as getting in more reps. And I feel like when it comes to training, there's this focus on how strong you can be and how much resistance you're using. And I think the wiser you become the more you realize that movement patterns matter. You not only need to be moving safely, you need to be moving well. Eventually you hit a plateau at any age. I don't care if you're 20 or if you're 80. And when you hit that plateau, the only way you're going to get through it is by improving your technique and that's how you're going to become stronger. So if you lead with that, you're more likely to celebrate your successes by focusing on proficiency and then working your way towards technical mastery.
Giacomo Marchese
(32:23)
But in more simplistic of terms, just moving safely, moving well and celebrating the fact that you're becoming more able bodied. And as a result, you get stronger. I mean, even with younger athletes who move barbells, we tell them, Hey, you're not going to put much more weight on this barbell, but be as you become a barbell technician, you're going to wind up getting stronger. And you can move a barbell at any age with proper training in all honesty.
Dani Taylor
(32:49)
Yeah. I would also say, they are similar measures to success. It might just be smaller amounts or slower progress, but really what we're looking for at any age is have we increased your capacity to do work? So are you seeing increases in any one of these places? Is your strength increasing? Is the amount of reps you're able to do increasing? Is your volume increasing? Is it getting easier in any way? All of these things would be markers that you are improving. And I know that's not as clear cut as, oh, the number on the scale changed. That's a very easy thing to quantify, but that's actually really not a great marker of success most of the time. But are you getting stronger? Is this getting easier? Is your day to day life, are the tasks you have to do in your day to day life feeling easier? Then you are absolutely making progress because you're increasing your work capacity over time. And again, like Giacomo said, you can do that at any age.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(33:54)
Excellent. Any other questions? I know we're kind of past our half our mark.
Dr. Chris Miller
(33:58)
I love that definition of success. Thank you so much.
Dani Taylor
(34:02)
Yeah, no problem.
Dr. Michael Klaper
(34:04)
Function is the name of the game. Function. Amen. Great. Good for you guys.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(34:10)
So remind us again. I'm going to put you up here on speaker view, where they can find you, and if you have any final thoughts and wisdom to share.
Giacomo Marchese
(34:22)
It's never too late to start again. You can be active, fit and healthy at any age. You have so much support right here. Reach out to any one of us. As far as where to find Dani and I, go to veganproteins.com and hit the contact button. And I promise you, you'll get a response as well as access to lots of free resources like recipes and workouts.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(34:46)
Excellent. Well, thank you both for joining us. This was wonderful. And sorry if we didn't get to everybody's questions, but we try to be conscious of everybody's time and we appreciate you sharing your experience with us. And I'm hoping that someone will come and seek your help and we'll see benefit and be happy to hear about it if that happens. So thanks everyone and doc [crosstalk 00:35:06].
Dani Taylor
(35:07)
Yeah. Thank you for having us.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(35:07)
Absolutely. Docs, anything you'd like to say before we go?
Dr. Niki Davis
(35:11)
I just want to say thank you for coming on. It's really great to hear the things that you recommend. I'm going to start doing those body weight squats today.
Dani Taylor
(35:19)
Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. I'm so happy. This is an honor to get to speak amongst you guys. When we were coming, we were like, wow, we're going to go talk with doctors now. This is crazy. So yeah. Thank you guys for having us. This was great.
Dr. Laurie Marbas
(35:33)
It was a delight. Thanks again. And like everyone said, just check out the YouTube page. This will stay on the Facebook page and we appreciate you and we'll go live again next Friday at 11:30 mountain time, have to do the which day I'm in. And then the other thing is we're going to be working on a, [inaudible 00:35:55] on the Healthy Revolution podcast. So that's what we're doing tomorrow, but that won't be live. But just want to share that with you guys. And at the end of the month, we're being in the [inaudible 00:36:04], who everybody loves and adores and looking forward to that. So we'll see you guys then, and thanks for joining us.
*Recorded on 1.13.22