Effective holiday health and fitness strategies emphasize the importance of focusing on macronutrients over simple calorie counting. Balancing hormones and nutrition can lead to sustainable fat loss and overall better health, especially during the festive season when indulgence is common. Insights are shared on overcoming common fitness myths, including the pitfalls of the traditional bulk-and-cut approach, and offering a more consistent method for building muscle while minimizing fat gain.

Recovery is a critical component of fitness, with an emphasis on sleep, hormone regulation, and the healing benefits of various recovery techniques. These tips aren’t just for athletes but for anyone looking to improve their physical health and wellbeing. Practical advice is given for maintaining a healthy lifestyle without giving up favorite foods, showing that balance and moderation are key to long-term success in fitness and health.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:11 – Introduction

02:11 – Macronutrients Over Calories

05:36 – Debunking Bodybuilding Myths

07:31 – Recovery and Regeneration

12:28 – Healing Methods for Everyone

14:13 – Closing

Jeff Crilley [00:00:11] Coming up next on the Jeff Crilley Show. It’s the most dangerous time of the year for dieters. How do you survive the holidays without packing on the pounds? We’ll be talking to a nationally known healthy living expert next. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they’ve enjoyed the reputation of being the nation’s icebox. Watch the burglar in his home this morning by webcam.

Narrator [00:00:39] As a journalist of over 25 years. Stories are what make my world turn.

Jeff Crilley [00:00:44] Before you last in the Newsroom my name is Jeff Crilley, Fox four News.

Narrator [00:00:47] But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home.

Jeff Crilley [00:00:52] We’re talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I’m using becomes a television network.

Narrator [00:00:57] We started slowly growing the company and we now have over 100 clients and we’ve branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show.

Jeff Crilley [00:01:20] Well, we’ve all seen this movie before. Some of us have to Thanksgivings to go to. We just eat as much as we possibly can and then we feel bad. And so then we eat more comfort food. And then we wake up January 2nd with a New Year’s resolution to lose all that, all that fat. So how do you break this cycle that we all do each year? We brought in a nationally known healthy living expert, Dr. Matt Chalmers. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:46] Absolutely.

Jeff Crilley [00:01:47] I think I spent an hour watching one of your podcasts and you just give away such great information. And what you what you said is we’re all focused on the wrong things. We’re all focused on calories. Sometimes we’re judging ourselves by how much we weigh, which is not always an accurate measure of how healthy you are. So give us a couple of minutes on how we approach food and the right way to survive the holidays.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:11] Absolutely. So what we have to look at is that the problem with calories is it’s like a big empty bucket. And it’s like we have this much stuff in the bucket. The problem is, is that each macro so your sugars, your protein, your fats, they all actually correspond to different hormones in the body. So, for instance, sugar goes to insulin. And so these hormones tell the body what to do. And so, for instance, if you’re trying to figure out why am I getting fat, your hormones are telling your body to do something to store stuff. If you’re trying to figure out how am I going to build muscle or lose fat, you go with other hormones. So, for instance, like leptin tells you that your full ghrelin tells you that you’re hungry. Insulin stores, things in the body, glucagon burns, fat and creates sugars for your body to run on. So figuring out how those those individual macros, titles, hormones allow you to have substantially better function with controlling your body, like those are just your levers you’re using. And so if you go through the macro function, it’s a lot easier to have all the foods you want to eat and not get fat and still build your muscle side.

Jeff Crilley [00:03:08] Yeah, I think you’re absolutely one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever heard breaking it down. We’re going to show everybody his website because you built an amazing practice. And as we scroll down, are you you are into so many different ways to approach health. Why don’t you talk about some of your services?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:25] Well, so well, sort of starting out as the body is a holistic view. And so if you don’t start looking at it from all of the ways that we’re trying to get to our goals, you’re going to be missing very variable things. So like we use a lot of peptide work for healing regeneration. We do a lot of hormone work for men and women. Nutrition and supplementation is really, really, really key because when you start what is the metabolic process? Your body’s just this big chemical machine. And if you don’t start recognizing we want X, Y, and Z to happen, what’s the chemical process that goes through that you’re not going to get healthier. So we like you trying to in the metabolic process that creates diabetes, you’re trying to reverse dementia. We’re trying to gain muscle. Internal is fat. It’s all about the chemistry. And so as soon as you start putting all those things together, it starts working really well. The other thing we have to recognize is that your mind controls everything. So if we don’t do enough proper function for mental health with the gut and everything else has a really hard time staying where it’s supposed to. So we’ve kind of started wrapping everything together. And then I started finding the best people to kind of help us with this. And so that’s how we started putting everything together.

Jeff Crilley [00:04:27] And one of the things I’m really impressed is you eat your own cooking because you’re now approaching a big bodybuilding contest. And so you have to really dial it in and talk about what you’re eating these days to make sure that you’re continuing to gain muscle and not gain fat.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:43] Well, so one of the things I was trying to do with this is I’m trying to prove that because in bodybuilding, much of it I know this in bodybuilding, right before if you go to contest, you lose a bunch of fat. But it was a ton of muscle too, because of the way that you do the diet. Well, what I’m trying to do is like, I’m trying to gain weight the entire time and still be show ready when I’m there based on the function of don’t look at your calories, look at your macros. And so, like, I’ll have I had pizza two days ago. I’ve got I have nachos pretty much every night with chips I tons of eggs and like I’m full all the time. But it’s the way that I put it all together. And so that’s how when those things when when I step on stage, December 7th, it’s going to be not only a how did I do from a building muscle, it’s a how did my whole dietary process work as far as stripping the fat while maintaining the muscle mass. And so it’s gonna be kind of a fun little experiment.

Jeff Crilley [00:05:36] Well, I think the traditional way to approach bodybuilding is in the off season. You just gain a lot of weight and then you try to shred up. But it’s self-defeating.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:45] It really is like that whole bulk cycle that people talk about. Like you can build muscle and not get really fat because I was like, Why would you put on 30 pounds of fat if you know you’re going to pull that 30 pounds of fat off in six months? Like, right, Because you’ve got this big cycle up and big cycle down, if you just kind of steadily grow the whole thing and keep the body fat to a minimum, it’s a lot easier to do that whole process. And that’s kind of the whole point that I’m trying to push across is not only is this for for bodybuilders, but it’ll work for everybody else because everybody else is like, I want to build some muscle mass, but I don’t want to get fat in the process. Right. And so great. Well, here here’s the metabolic process. Here’s the chemistry. Here’s how it. They works for you to actually build the muscle mass you want, look good and still eat the foods you want to over the course of your time.

Jeff Crilley [00:06:25] Okay, let’s go. Let’s debunk some myths because there’s going to be people watching this right now that says, okay, well, if I spent four hours in the gym every day, of course I could look like Dr. Chalmers. You don’t have to spend four hours in the gym.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:36] Well, so actually, there’s a lot of self-defeating function in that. So what happens is you get to this point called the point of diminishing returns. So what ends up happening is that you can only benefit from a workout that you can regenerate and heal from. And so a lot of the stuff we look at is, is because the workouts, the easy part, like most people are like the workouts, the hard part like the workouts, the easy part. You go when you move this way, this far, this many times, like it’s pretty simple. What’s hard is, you know, where’s my sleep at? You know, where’s my hormone function? Where’s my nutritional function? Like, do I have enough methylated B vitamins? So I have enough, you know, am I getting the waste out of the body? Like, so that regeneration healing process that we use for building muscle or repairing from surgery or whatever, you know, we’re just maintaining proper health. That’s really where the key is, is like, how do I regenerate? How do I this is your longevity thing, your anti-aging thing, how to regenerate and heal. And say the highest quality of life for the longest period of time. That metabolic piece is really the hardest part about bodybuilding.

Jeff Crilley [00:07:31] I love it that you’re an educator at heart because he has a very popular podcast. We’re going to just show some some video of that. But how do you determine the topics that you approach each week?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:41] So typically what it is, is I’ll have people call it ask me questions more like it’s just one of those things like this week I’ve noticed that these will keep having these questions. And so I’ll go over those type of things or whatever’s in the news. But there’s a lot of stuff. The sad thing is, is because I’m that guy who wakes up at 4:00 in the morning and reads medical research every four, two hours, every day. I’ve done it for over ten years. There’s a lot of things people think they know that’s actually 100% wrong. Like, you know, the amount of cholesterol you have in your body has no bearing on cardiovascular health. Like we had the definitive research for that in 2009, and there’s 136,000 people. UCLA made it the study of 136,000 people who were in the hospital for a heart attack. And they found out that over 75% of them had good or normal cholesterol ranges. Really? Yeah, well, because we’ve known for a long time, it’s actually lipid peroxidation that causes that problem. And so this is why we started doing the research on long term function of statin drugs. We’re finding out that it’s not only not helping people, but it’s hurting them. And so when you start getting that information and you’re like, well, this is why cholesterol super important for brain function, for heart health and for hormonal function. And so they start putting that stuff together. It’s like, these are the things we actually have to do to keep things where it’s going to go. And so when we start looking at topics for podcast, it’s like, what if, you know, what did somebody come in to me today and think that they’re like, this is how it works? I’m like, That’s actually not how it works. Yeah, it’s like the calorie thing or whatever. It’s like, let me explain to you how this is actually working metabolically in the body. So that’s usually where my topics come from.

Jeff Crilley [00:09:06] And Dr. Sharma, Chalmers is the guy that the media runs to when they need a quote. And so he was just on CBS last week. Let’s go ahead and roll this clip.

Reporter [00:09:14] Dak Prescott went to New York yesterday to get another opinion on his injured hamstring. He anticipated the news he got. He needs a season ending surgery. Dak’s decision comes after seeking medical advice from a variety of doctors, including a specialist in New York yesterday who will perform tomorrow’s surgery. Reportedly, MRI results showed a partial avulsion of a hamstring tendon, which needs to be reattached to the bone. Medical experts tell us that in all likelihood, Prescott probably sustained a smaller hamstring strain prior to the more severe injury that knocked him out of the Atlanta game last week. Surgery is done to enhance the healing process. We spoke to local doctor Matt Chalmers, who is very familiar with the kind this kind of injury that Dak has. He told us the likely road to recovery after the surgery includes a 3 to 5 month rehab period that would take him right after the start of the Cowboys offseason program next April. He says the recovery is not as difficult as when that came back from compound ankle fracture surgery four years ago.

Jeff Crilley [00:10:14] All right. Here’s the question for cowboy fans, because obviously they’ve got trainers and he’s got great doctors. For the average person who gets an injury. What’s the best way to heal the fastest? All right.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:26] So when I work with NFL guys, I work with normal people. It’s actually easier to get the normal people that are faster because I can use more peptides and hormones. So what we typically will do when someone’s going through this is we’re like, All right, look, we’ve got to make sure your body can heal, regenerate at the highest level. So after a surgery, we recognize you’ve just had fentanyl, so you’ve had some opioids to be. I got issues. We had antibiotics, we that got issues. So we want to go in ahead of time and be like, here’s the nutrients for your liver and for your kidneys so that we can get the waste out. And then afterwards, when you go through it, be like, okay, so we’ve already pulled your sleep study, so we know you’re breathing at night. We’ve already pulled your hormones, so I know your testosterone levels, arcus testosterone as the healing hormone. So we’ll add the testosterone and we’ll add in peptides like, you know, the growth hormone stuff. This from all that formula and BP 157 to, you know, latticework. So we start doing those hyperbaric oxygen. So we have really big play now that 100% needs to be in hyperbaric oxygen because the more oxygen we have, the faster we heal. And so we’ve got to get that in. And then there’s a whole slew of of nutrition nano kinase for blood flow and AC to help increase interstitial clue to fire on and clean that stuff out. And so those nutrients are going to be big once you get the metabolic process started, there is just move. And so you’re going to spend about a week, ten days to weeks without moving, no weight bearing. We get in a pool and it’s like, okay, get the range of motion back and whatever joint we’ve had with a full range of motion back and then activate the range of motion back, then we start slowly resisting the range of motion rebuilding muscle function and building that back up. Now one of the big things for any lower extremity issue is your gait or your weight. You walk is going to be messed up. And so what we’ve got to do is say, okay, you got to find a good chiropractor, a good physical therapist to reset the joints, reset the muscle tone and keep this thing moving in the highest range of motion and resist it all the way through. The other thing with hip and the hamstring is if you have balance and coordination function issues as well. So you’ve got to make sure that when you’re doing your exercises, you bring that in as well. So why would do like single leg squats to really build, you know, balance and coordination function back up there? Those are the things that you put in to rebuilding an athlete like this or just the normal guy who wants to have a high quality of life.

Jeff Crilley [00:12:28] Wow. Well, clearly, you’re brilliant. And I know the audience is going to have a lot of questions and we’re going to give your website in a second. But why don’t you talk to the person that camera on the left about the person who is sick and tired of being sick and tired?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:12:41] So the biggest things we’ve got to do for people who are just like, look, I’m tired, I’m out of it, is we check a couple of different things. So where’s your oxygen function? So get a sleep study, especially if you’ve had the Covid vaccine, because we’ve seen a lot of damage to the Pons from the Covid vaccine. So it’s just sleep study, done. Check your hormones and make sure you’re working with something. Who knows what they’re doing with hormones? A lot of the medical doctors are not trained in hormones. So you have to look at your testosterone. And if you’re going to get your thyroid pull, T3, T4, but those are to be free, T3, free T4 and reverse T3, You can put TSA out if you want to. TSA just not as beneficial as people think it is for thyroid function. And so you got to get those done. And then stress function is a massive one. You’ve got to figure out what’s causing you stress and how do I either offset or get rid of it. Sleep’s going to be a big one. And then what are you doing for physical exercise? And then the biggest piece is your diet. Like, we have to drive the glycemic function so it’s a sugar function or an insulin release function and then get a whole a whole lot of more nutrients and strip as much processing out as we can. And the fun thing with that is, is that when I do this with people, I’m like a New York ten favorite foods and the five foods you never want to eat again. And I’ll show you how to get your ice cream, your cookies, your cake, your pizza and your nachos in a diet. That’s healthy because if you can get rid of all the things you enjoy, that is not going to be a sustainable diet. Right? So we’ve got to be able to put that together for somebody so that they can still have all the things they enjoy but get the healthier version so that they can now be chemically healthy.

Jeff Crilley [00:14:05] Well, I can see why you’re so successful. We’re going to end with his website, which is pillars of wellness.com the great Matt Chalmers thanks for coming on the Show.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:14:12] Absolutely. You bet

Jeff Crilley [00:14:13] That’s it for now. We’ll see you next time.

As always if you have any questions, please send them to [email protected]

Check out Chalmers Pillarsofwellness.com for Wellness updates! And ask me any questions you have at [email protected]. I answer all of them and look forward to hearing from you.

The Chalmers Wellness Stubstack just launched. Comment, Like, and Interact with other people on their wellness journey. Communities can make a difference.     DrChalmers.substack.com

Dr. Matt Chalmers

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Before taking any action based on this information you should first consult with your physician or health care provider. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions regarding a medical condition, your health, or wellness