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Welcome back to the 925 Wellness Podcast. Today’s a QA episode. So instead of me talking at you, we are digging into questions you’ve actually sent in about balancing career growth with real health questions, right? Real health challenges. No fluff, no filler here, just straight answers you can use before your next meeting starts, before you can dive into next week, thinking, oh my gosh, I’m so behind on my health goal. So let’s get into it. The first question is from one of my clients, Layla. She said to me, I think I need a stronger core. I’ve been trying to get stronger for the last 10 years, and I’ve tried everything. I want to know why my core muscles aren’t strong despite my efforts and why those muscles don’t show despite working out consistently. So, Layla, this is such a great question because a lot of my clients come to me for this reason. And a lot of the patients I’ve talked to, they always have this question front and center. So this is a question I believe is going to help so many of our listeners and viewers. Let’s take a look at core. Now, your core muscles, they consist of three major muscle groups. Of course, there are some minor ones too, which are not included in this definition, but the three major muscle groups are rectus abdominis, obliques, and gluteal complex. And these muscles actually respond quite well to training. However, the training has to be consistent. And most people who do consistent core work build real strength and muscle mass in those muscle fibers and these muscle groups. The problem isn’t the muscle itself, it’s what’s covering it. Okay. So I’m talking about the body fat percentage because that is the main gatekeeper. Abdominal definition, which we are talking about, the six packs or the eight-pack muscles, right? That’s what we’re really talking about. That’s what my client, Layla, wants. Now, abdominal definition typically starts becoming visible around 15 to 19% body fat for men and around 20 to 24% for women with more distinct shredded visibility lower than that, these percentage ranges. So even lower than 15% is where you will start seeing those uh serratus interior muscles and or eight-pack muscles instead of six-pack. For women, it would be between 15 to 19% body fat, where you’ll really start seeing that visible tone in your musculature. So you can have well-developed abs and still not see them if there’s a layer of subcutaneous fat or the fat that sits under your skin over the abdominal wall. And this is true no matter how many crunches or planks you do. Spot reduction, losing fat from one specific area of your body by training it doesn’t work. Let me just repeat that. Spot reduction, losing fat from just one particular area of your body doesn’t work. So, you know, that’s something I just wanted to share over here because I think it’s a confusing concept, there’s a lot of confusion around it. But this is a fact, this is a scientific fact that if you’re trying to get just fat reduction around one area of your body, it’s probably not gonna be successful. Okay, so fat loss happens systemically, and it is based on your genetics and your hormonal, hormonal profile at that time or hormones in your body. That’s why when women and men are in midlife going through that transition of um perimenopause and or andropause, you start seeing that fat accumulation uh around belly area, especially, but other muscles as well. So it’s not really just based on muscles that you just worked. The second thing to consider, Leila, over here is that training the core is not equivalent to losing fat. Now, abdominal exercises build the muscle underneath, but they burn relatively fewer calories. And those exercises don’t create the caloric deficit needed to reduce your overall body fat. So people who do hundreds of crunches on a daily basis, they genuinely build a stronger core, but they still don’t see it. Why? Because the diet and fat loss side of the equation was never addressed. So just doing core exercises will make you have stronger core muscles, but not necessarily the visibly toned core muscles, right? For that, nutrition is where it comes down to. So nutrition and fat loss is what you want to address. These are the two primary reasons why you can’t see visibly toned and defined core muscles. Now, what does it actually take to get toned muscles? Toned isn’t really a separate physiological state. Let me just repeat that. Toned isn’t really a separate physiological state. It’s the combination of reasonable muscle mass, right? A decent amount of muscle mass in your body built through progressive resistance training, increasing weight, reps, difficulty over time. So there’s actually something to see under the skin. Then it also includes low enough body fat to reveal those muscles driven primarily by nutrition and a sustained caloric deficit over time, not by exercise selection. Um, this is the piece most people underestimate. Diet plays a larger role in visible definition of your muscles. And then third and lastly, I would like to touch on consistency. Consistency, consistency, consistency over months and years, not just weeks. Both muscle building and meaningful fat loss are slow processes. So patience and consistency of correct exercises and workouts leads to resolve. So that’s the answer to your question, Layla. Second question. All right. Second question comes from a listener, Dave. And honestly, I think it’s the question I’ve been hearing in some way or form from almost everyone lately. Clients, listeners, and Instagram DMs. Here it is. Why do I feel so burned out trying to be healthy? I’m doing everything right, and I still feel exhausted by the whole thing. I hear you and I feel for you, Dave. I totally understand where you’re coming from. So I want to tell you this, Dave. I don’t think you’re tired of being healthy. I think you’re tired of chasing 12 different definitions of healthy at the same time. Now let that sink in for a second. Because I think that reframe changes everything about how we solve this. I call this health fatigue. Think about your feed for a second, your Instagram feed, your TikTok feed, whatever social media platform you’re on and you’re consuming it. Think about that for a second. One person’s telling you to practice intermittent fasting and fast until noon. Another is telling you breakfast is non-negotiable. Someone’s pushing 10,000 steps. Someone else says, Oh, forget about the steps. Steps don’t matter. It’s all about zone two cardio. Or another person is like, forget about zone two. You should be doing high-intensity interval training day in, day out, cold plunges, supplements, deep optimization, macros, mobility work. Oh my. I am exhausted with just listing these. None of these people are talking to each other. They’re not coordinating, but you’re the one trying to run all of these programs at the same time in your one actual life, in which you have probably family and friends and a corporate career to take care of. That’s not a motivation problem. That’s a systems overload problem. So here’s what I tell my clients, and it’s the same thing I’ll tell you. The number one thing that you can do right away and right now is pick one definition of healthy for yourself. Just pick one out of these twelve that I just mentioned and fire the other 11. You don’t need to reconcile every health philosophy on the internet. You need one, maybe two. That’s it. One, or maybe if you have enough time right now, two definitions or two tasks that you can prioritize today. Pick them because those are the ones that actually matter for what you’re trying to do right now. Everything else gets the permission to go quiet. Secondly, separate important from everything. So you’re like, okay, how do I decide on which one to choose from uh this list? You know, figure it out. Like what is important, and if you can’t figure it out on your own, reach out to a health coach or a physiologist or someone working in the healthcare industry to help you figure it out. Sleep, hydration, strength training, stress, nutrition, screen time. They can’t all be the loudest voice in the room every single day. Pick the one lever that actually moves your specific health goal, whatever you’re striving for, let the rest sit in the background without the guilt trip. If the only way you know you’re doing well is a score or a number, maybe it’s like your sleep score, maybe it’s your VO2 max. I mean, really dependent on your goal, whatever that is. It’s the step count, it’s calories, it’s workouts logged. You will always feel behind. Try this instead. Did today’s choices match the person I’m trying to be? Find out your identity around health. That’s a much easier bar to clear, and it survives your bad weeks. It’s gonna survive your bad weeks, bad days. So, in all honesty, Dave, I want you to build the off-ramp before you need it. Decide right now what your bare minimum looks like: a 10-minute walk, one real Whole Foods meal, lights out on time. So when life gets hard, you’ve got a floor to land on instead of falling all the way down to zero. And I want to finish this answer to your question with a blunt statement. Unfollow the noise. Every time you open an app that’s throwing five competing philosophies at you, you’re paying a mental tax. Curate hard, fewer inputs, more consistency. So that’s what it is all about. It’s not about health fatigue. It’s not, it’s not about choosing 12 different things to do during the week and adding them to your already busy schedule, picking one or two out of those and really honing them and then moving on to the next one. Thanks for sending your questions my way. Keep sending them. I enjoy answering your questions. That’s all for today’s episode of 9 to 5 wellness. Talk to you guys soon. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Bye for now.