What's the secret to creating a body that keeps up with the life you love? Body composition! By prioritizing body composition, you'll build stronger muscles, reduce body fat, and truly start enjoying life to the fullest. In this episode, I'm so excited to introduce my latest program, The Body Composition Project! Drawing on my 30+ years of experience, this program shifts the focus from weight loss to building lean muscle and improving overall body composition.

Today, I explain why traditional weight loss goals might be holding you back and how refocusing on body composition will get you the results you've been looking for. I also dive into the proven strategies of The Body Composition Project that have already transformed so many women. You'll learn how strength training, proper nutrition, and the right type of cardio can help you become your best self – without any extreme restrictions. Listen in to hear how you can join the next round! 

Topics Covered:

• The importance of body composition 
• How to get an accurate body composition scan
• Why The Body Composition Project is so effective
• The truth about weight loss
• 2 mistakes that are preventing you from building muscle and losing fat
• Everything you will learn in The Body Composition Project

Resources Mentioned:

• Join me LIVE for The Body Composition info session HERE
• Learn more about The Body Composition Project HERE
• See the research on the utility of body composition assessment in nutrition and clinical practice HERE
• See the research on body composition tests HERE
• See the research on the benefits of utilizing total body composition as a predictor of cardiorespiratory fitness HERE
• Listen to the first 39 episodes of Holly Perkins Health Podcast HERE
• Transcripts can be found on the official blog page for this episode at hollyperkins.com/blog

Follow Me: 

Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins

Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com

Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness/

Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

A 2021 review in the journal nutrients, states that, quote, body composition is a key component for maintaining good general health and longevity. As humans age, there is a natural increase in fat mass coupled with a gradual decline in lean mass, specifically in bone and muscle mass. Individuals with high body fat percentage are at greater risk of cardiovascular diseases, type two diabetes, several types of cancer and early mortality, significant decreases in bone mineral density signify osteopenia and osteoporosis, while reductions in skeletal muscle mass increase the risk of developing sarcopenia. End Quote, sadly, sarcopenia, which is the muscle loss that occurs with aging is unavoidable, and it's a big reason why a person feels softer with every passing year, weaker than they should be and older than their age. Despite all of this, there is so much that you can do if you're ready to improve your body composition so that you can beat the odds. Keep listening. Hello and welcome. If you are new around here, I'm Holly Perkins, and I help women build strong muscles and solid bones so you can quit suffering and getting by each day and actually start enjoying your life. Today's episode is a quickie ish, because I want to introduce my newest program, the body composition project. Now if you want more in depth information on the best ways to improve your health through strength training and nutrition, be sure to check out the first 10 episodes of this podcast. In the first half of my career, I was catering to the goals and wishes of my clients. A new client would come in tell me what they wanted, and I would simply provide the service directly for that goal. And most of the time the goal was to lose weight. You know, honestly, pretty much every single time that was the goal, all these years later, not much has changed. Weight loss has been drilled into us so deep that I believe it has become unconscious. New clients will come to me and say that they want to lose weight, but when I ask some questions, we discover that what she actually wants is to feel good every day, reliably, to be healthy on all levels, without too much compromise, to trust that she's going to age gracefully and without the frailty that we see in our parents, and to look fit and athletic, and for all of her hard work and efforts to be visible, when you add these up and summarize, it doesn't actually indicate Weight Loss, these specific goals are the result of better body composition. If you're like me and most of my clients, you might be able to relate. And if you want to become more muscle and less fat, it isn't a weight loss protocol. Instead, it's a very specific set of principles and practices that number one, improve build and maintain lean muscle mass, so that two, your muscle influences your metabolism and biochemistry, So that three, you release unnecessary body fat and become leaner.

I've been in practice for 30 years now, and since 2020 I've been more focused on coaching from women around the world virtually. It has given me so much information and feedback on the best practices that actually get results. Last year, I decided that I wanted to be the voice of change in the world and stop letting women focus on weight loss as a goal. So I restructured my coaching programs and created the body composition project so that you could have a guided, personalized, comprehensive strength and nutrition coaching program to show you how to become at least 70% lean muscle. Before I continue, I want to make sure that you understand the term body composition. A body composition assessment divides. Needs an individual's total body mass, which is your weight as per gravity, into the relative proportions of fat mass and fat free mass. Fat free mass compromises muscles, bones, organs, ligaments, tendons and water, everything else is fat. The quantification of fat, muscle, bone and water are highly informative in the diagnosis, management and treatment of several health conditions that impact individual and overall population health. There are a number of ways to measure your body composition, but really there's only two or three that are actually accurate. More on this in a minute. Once you achieve that 70% fat free mass mark, it's then important to cross over the muscle tipping point so that you're a lean, mean, healthy machine that doesn't ever have to speak the words body fat ever again. I'm thrilled to discover that my ideas paid off, and we are currently wrapping up the first round of the body composition project, and the results are way beyond what I ever imagined

At the start of the program back in March, I instructed the Group of 27 women how to get an accurate body composition scan. My first choice is a DEXA or Bod Pod, but depending on geography, some of the women used an in body scan, which would be my third choice at the end of the program, which is about now, I instructed the women to get another scan so that we can compare results. We're still waiting on many of these post program scans, but I can tell you that I am already getting a clear picture of the effectiveness of this program. Every two weeks, we're reviewing progress photos so that I can monitor their success. Then each week, we're also looking at videos of the participants performing a specific strength exercise of the week. This way I can guide them towards better technique, and I get to see how her body moves. I'm also collecting self reported progress reports, and some of the women got additional body comp scans during the program. Based on all of this evidence and feedback, I'm estimating 83% of the women will complete the six month program in its entirety, and this is a really big deal, because most fitness industry programs are only six weeks long, because adherence is a real problem, most people struggle to stay with something beyond six to eight weeks, 75% of the women had between a two to 3% improvement in body composition, and 67% of the women had a five to 10% improvement in body composition. This is huge. These are big numbers, and they translate to an average of three to six pounds of muscle increased alongside and simultaneous to a reduction in body fat of about eight to 12 pounds. When you consider that these women experienced very little discomfort or restriction. The average age is 58 and they also felt better along the way. It's pretty darn remarkable, once the program officially wraps up, I hope to share the results in really, truly factual numbers. So please stay tuned, and please know that I'm not saying all of this to toot my own horn in any way. The truth is I don't need to do that. I've always said my programs are proven and based on science, so I can't really take any credit other than cheering the women on and helping them navigate the twists and turns of body composition. When your programming is right, it just works.

I share this with you because I want you to know that these are women just like most women. They aren't special or otherwise gifted in any other way. My clients look like your friends, your sisters, your coworkers, maybe even you. And if they can do it, I promise that you can too. I also share this with you because I've officially decided to offer another brand new round of the body composition project, which is starting September 16. 18th, and I'm hosting a live information session so that you can learn more about it and get my three steps to becoming more muscle and less fat. To sign up for this workshop and information session, come on over to Holly perkins.com, forward slash INFO so that you can join us live, learn a thing or two, and hear how you too can work with me to improve your body composition. I predict in the coming five to 10 years, you're going to see a completely different conversation in the health and medical fields, where your trusted advisors and doctors all promote body composition, not weight loss, as the metric to determine optimal health. Up until now, it's been body weight. Some of us are already approaching health this way, and you're going to see more of it. The truth is, your body weight does not matter. I wish I could scream it, but I would blow your ears out. It really doesn't matter. The only thing matters here is the percentage of your weight that is muscle as compared to the percentage of your body weight that is fat. There are two big mistakes I see women making that's preventing them from becoming more muscle and less fat. The first is unconsciously programming for weight loss. It's like I said at the beginning of this episode, so many women have been, I should say, so many of us, because myself included, have been brainwashed towards weight loss that it's really almost become a deep seated unconscious belief system that you might not even be aware of, and yes, some people do need to achieve a lower number on the scale, but the mistake is approaching your programming through the lens of weight loss as the goal. This often means too severe calorie deficit, too much food restriction and too much cardio. I see it all the time. I used to program this way in my early 20s. That was the way that we did it. Now it also often means lower weight loads during strength workouts, because, God forbid, you could gain weight due to muscle, right? So if you're just focused on weight loss, on the scale, muscle is scary. I think the body composition project has been so effective because number one, I program for an improvement in muscle quality, strength, and, yes, hypertrophy, which is a size increase through very specific strength workouts with very specific variables for this very specific demographic of women. And that means I'm looking at sets, reps, rest, frequency, nutrition, all of those other programming variables that impact muscle. I also think this program has been so effective because you'll learn to eat reasonably with a mild calorie deficit, if needed, where you feel good, have energy for your workouts and life, and you burn off any extra unnecessary body fat. If you have it, we get very specific about how much protein to eat in relation to carbs and fat. And the last reason I think this program has been so effective is because you'll learn to use the right kind of cardio at the right heart rate for the right length cardio is valuable and important, and the right programming promotes beta oxidation, which is the kind of fat burning that we want, not just calorie burning, and it promotes stamina recovery From workouts and heart health.

The second common mistake I see other women making is to actually fear building big muscles. I want you to check in right now and ask yourself, if that's a concern for you. I do believe that some women build muscle more easily than others, and I can absolutely understand a fear of not wanting to get muscles bigger than what you want. You're never going to develop big, bulky muscles like a man, but if you don't want muscles beyond a certain size, I think that's also understandable. But the truth is, while. I can understand this fear. It is so hard to build muscle and the odds are against you. I always say, I challenge you to try and get too much muscle. It would be the best problem that could ever happen for you, and the right programming can eliminate this fear, judging by photos, the women in this round of the body composition project have become smaller, tighter and leaner, all while increasing muscle size while also reducing body fat. So can you see how that would result in a smaller, tighter person, even if your weight stayed the same, pound for pound, muscle is smaller now five pounds of muscle weighs the same as five pounds of fat, but but muscle is a lot more compact. This happens because I program for strength first and hypertrophy second.

See strength and size are not the same. You can be strong without a significant increase in muscle size, and you can increase muscle size without a significant increase in strength, they're different, and sadly, you can lose weight without an improvement in body composition at all. This is why your strength, nutrition and cardio programming are all equally important, and the programming of each has to support the other. Your cardio has to support your muscle building. Your Nutrition has to support your muscle building. The body composition project features a resistance program that progresses and changes over six months. Then the cardio is supplemental and supportive, rather than the driver of weight loss. Using my program, the nutrition project, you'll learn how to get the right amount of protein and the right amount of carbs, so that you learn what macronutrient strategy is best for your body. When you sign up for the information session, you'll join me live on September 3 and learn more about the program, as well as my three steps to becoming more muscle and less fat. You can sign up for the information session at Holly perkins.com, forward slash INFO. Then get ready to grab your spot, because they are limited, and we kick off a brand new round of the body composition project on September 16. This is your chance to work with me and finally, learn the right way to build stronger muscles, better muscles, so you can create the body that you need to keep up with this life that you love. I can't wait to see you at the information session. And if you're listening to this episode after September 16, you can get on the wait list at Holly perkins.com, forward slash body wait list. Listen, even if you don't work with me, I encourage you to find the help or the inspiration that you need to become better your future self will thank you for it, especially when you're able to climb stairs and lift heavy things in your 80s and 90s. Take care, my friend. I'll see you on September 3, and stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong.