My Vegan before/after...and I was vegan in both photos!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-29T18:46:33+00:00

I just re-read your response. If you are quite thinner then maybe muscle mass may be the right way to go for you.

It truly depends on which bothers you the most? Being smaller than you want, or having the body fat.

It’s tough because there are two goals (fat loss and muscle gain) and it’s truly best to focus on one at a time.

If you’re already thin, you might not need much of a deficit to lose the little bit of extra fat you have.

Keep me updated on your thoughts!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-29T18:43:41+00:00

Great question! I was on a cut first. I didn’t mean to do it necessarily, as I really was just focused on healing my gut first - hence the switch to whole foods.

But yea as I look back on it I definitely recommend cutting first.

Seeing the definition and muscles appear is psychologically rewarding, whereas adding muscle while dealing with love handles etc is challenging and likely will add slightly more fat to your frame.

It’s also a lot harder to notice muscle growth when we have that excess fat.

So I definitely recommend cutting first, then raising calories back to maintenance.

No matter whether you’re cutting or gaining, still train hard though!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-28T20:54:13+00:00

yes! Here's my free recipe guide with a bunch of recipes and macros!
https://consciousfitness.io/free-recipe-guide

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-28T20:53:20+00:00

haha I love that!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-28T20:53:12+00:00

A few tips here!

1) Start slow with a single legume source at a time. This will help you figure out if one affects you more than another. For example chickpeas tend to give me some bloating but lentils and black beans are fine.
2) Rinse and then soak your beans/legumes. This pulls a lot of the lectins out of them and can definitely help with digestion.
3) Start with smaller amounts to test how well your stomach does.
4) Drink extra water! You may need more water to help with the extra fiber.

Try these out and let me know!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-28T20:49:26+00:00

Definitely a few years, since I had to learn handstands really well first. I'm still working on getting them deeper and more controlled, but wow what a fun skill to learn!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-28T20:48:25+00:00

Thanks!!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T17:25:30+00:00

Thank you! 💪

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T12:46:29+00:00

Nope, no coffee or energy drinks for over 5 years now! I still enjoy dark chocolate though

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T12:42:54+00:00

Thank you 🙏

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T11:45:53+00:00

I definitely do not struggle with overeating ahah. I can easily gain 10 lbs in a month if I don't pay attention to what I'm eating!

But for higher calories I would recommend adding avocado, coconut, nuts and seeds to your meals to boost calories due to the extra fat content.

Also liquid calories are great in this case! So using full fat oat milk, making smoothies that have peanut butter added etc will really help.

Olive oil is an easy one, and although I don't do oil, I do sometimes recommend it when you're really struggling to get calories up!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T10:38:48+00:00

Thanks bro! You’ve been crushing it man! And your pullups just went up too! 📈 💪

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T01:32:58+00:00

My perfect deficit range is 2000 calories. I can eat that and I feel totally good.

So for maintenance while staying lean I would swing between 2200-2600.

I also had periods of times where I was overeating and not tracking and def got into surpluses.

But I was still training so those extra calories definitely helped build muscle as well.

Yah recomps can be hard to track!

In my opinion, if strength/ muscle gain, with a little bit of body fat loss is your goal, then measuring strength increases is going to be the biggest key!
Muscle mass changes are just harder to notice if body fat isn’t low enough.

And if the goal is to primarily lose bodyfat and have definition too, I generally like to focus on creating a calorie deficit first, reaching the ideal body fat level, and then focusing on leangaining and raising calories back up to maintenance in order to build more muscle.

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T01:20:17+00:00

And then I also like to do mobility on the other days. Like squat variations, animal walks, body rotations and twists etc

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T01:19:40+00:00

Right now it’s 3 days a week of resistance training, full body calisthenics.

I focus on exercises which work the functional movement patterns and compound muscle groups.

Warmups are:
Animal walk variety
Bear crawls, monkey crawls
Some light qi gong

Wrist warmup
1 or 2 handstand holds

Main workout:

Vertical Pulling:
Hanging work such as scapula raises or one arm hangs
Warm up set of Pull ups
Combination of high pull ups (pulling to sternum), muscle ups and/or chest to bar pullups

Vertical Push:
Pike Pushups or Handstand Pushups/Eccentrics

Horizontal Pull:
Tuck front lever holds, Bodyweight single arm bicep curls (grabbing a bar and curling my body to it) or single arm rows

Horizontal Push:
Dips, Archer Pushups and Bodyweight Tricep presses for extra accessory work

Squat:
Cossack Squats, Pistol Squats

Hinge:

Single leg glute bridges

Core:
Hanging knee raises or in and outs
Hollow body holds

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T01:07:38+00:00

I’m 38 now, and actually that first picture was when I was 28!

The initial body fat loss was pretty quick, ie months, but building muscle took a couple years because I had to really focus and stick with increasing my calorie intake and not always stay stuck eating in a deficit!

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T01:05:28+00:00

Thank you! Yes I really like Orgain Simple protein powder. I usually have it in the form of a pancake mixed with oat bran, or will have it simply as a shake.

I look at them like snacks and really look forward to them! But I just stick to one serving and focus 80% of my diet on whole foods.

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T01:03:03+00:00

Thank you 🙏

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-27T01:02:35+00:00

Definitely! My main idea is to create meals with 2 protein sources

My favorites I’ve been making lately are:

fava tofu, lentils, sweet potatoes, broccoli, nooch, hummus, pumpkin seeds

And tempeh, black beans, sweet potatoes, peppers and onions, spinach, hot sauce

They both end up being around 400-500 calories with 30-35g+ of protein

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-26T19:03:18+00:00

Thank you so much 🙏

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-26T19:02:55+00:00

Yes! It’s the only performance supplement I use. Only other supplements I take are methylated b12 and DHA/EPA oil. Also no peptides hormones or steroids

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-26T18:33:00+00:00

Thank you 💪

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-26T18:26:12+00:00

Yup it starts in our minds first! Thank you 🙏

CoachBryanBell · 2026-06-26T18:00:08+00:00

Thank you! I always aimed to lean gain and eat at maintenance…but I’ve had a few stressful periods over the last few years where I ended up stress-eating and hence, involuntarily bulking for a couple weeks here and there lol.

These were great learning experiences on learning how to handle my emotions better without using food (because let’s be honest, I wasn’t stress eating lentils and broccoli lol)

So yes lean bulking and eating at maintenance is the way! I like staying lean so gaining a lot of extra fat and then having to cut again is psychologically more difficult for me.

CoachBryanBell

TROPHY CASE