Dan Martell - How I Got Abs in 90 Days (Using Principles)

00:00:00.000 I'm going to share the 11 health principles to transform your body and mind.

00:00:04.120 They're what I use to go from soft 20% to a shredded 6% body fat in 90 days.

00:00:09.420 And keep it off while constantly traveling as a busy entrepreneur.

00:00:12.780 Anyone can use these to get fit fast,

00:00:14.940 even if you've tried every fad diet and workout routine out there.

00:00:18.020 So here's how to transform your body.

00:00:19.700 Starting with principle number one, it's not how much you eat, it's what you eat.

00:00:24.160 See, a lot of people talk about calories.

00:00:26.180 Let me tell you this, micronutrients is how you feel.

00:00:30.240 calories is how much you weigh, but macros is how you look. See, most people think that it's

00:00:36.160 about calories, but I'm telling you, you could eat the crappiest calories in the world. If you eat

00:00:40.580 a bunch of Cinnabon or freaking Krispy Kreme donuts, you might hit your calorie goals and 0.93

00:00:45.900 you might even lose weight, but you will feel like crap because you don't have the right 0.80

00:00:49.280 micronutrients. You need the vitamins. You need the minerals. You need that to control your energy,

00:00:53.660 to maintain good immunity, your mood, even your recovery post-workout is all about your

00:00:58.260 micronutrients. Macros is a completely different game. Your macros are your protein, your carbs,

00:01:03.080 and your fats. And what's unique is you need the right type of macros for your specific goals to

00:01:08.020 actually sculpt your body. If you don't understand how to do this, you can go into a cut, into a

00:01:13.060 caloric deficit, lose the weight. You actually have the ability on your reverse diet up if you've

00:01:16.960 dialed in your macros to actually use that and your insulin to put on lean muscle mass. Most

00:01:22.380 bodybuilders know it. Most people that are on a diet never get there. But it's not just about

00:01:27.520 what you eat to transform your body, let's get serious when you eat. Which brings us to principle

00:01:32.420 number two, don't eat after 6 p.m. I first learned this concept from my coach, Alan, because I realized

00:01:39.120 that I would make bad decisions after 6 p.m. Honestly, most cravings, most cheats, most moments

00:01:45.220 of weakness happened after 6 p.m. And Alan just said, you shut it down at 6 p.m. So what do you

00:01:49.600 mean? He goes, you just shut it down at 6 p.m. At 6 o'clock, you stop eating. There's no discussion.

00:01:53.200 There's no conversation. You have to eat within that window, so shut it down. It's funny because

00:01:57.080 if you listen to Brian Johnson, the blueprint guy who wants to live to like 400 years old,

00:02:01.080 he says the same thing. He said, old Brian used to make bad decisions after 4 or 5 PM. And I just

00:02:06.000 decided to take that optionality off the table. You got to do the same thing. Here's why it's so

00:02:10.560 powerful. First off, if you look at your eating pattern, you probably follow the same thing. You

00:02:14.600 snack at night, you eat because you're hungry. Just take it off the table. It's the easiest way

00:02:19.340 to ensure there's no calorie sleep. The other thing is your digestive system follows your

00:02:24.020 circadian rhythm and you need time to rest. You need the ability for your body to relax and

00:02:30.460 recover. If you're eating, you're literally kicking it back into high gear right when you're about to

00:02:34.840 go to sleep. The cool part is it also creates a natural 12 hour fast without effort. Some of you,

00:02:39.940 if you don't eat, you know, until 8am, you can get a 14 hour fast. The longer your body has time to

00:02:45.280 actually feed off of its own energy source, the better you're going to feel mentally and you're

00:02:50.600 recovery but stopping to eat late night meals and snacking can be really hard if you don't follow

00:02:55.480 this principle which brings us to principle number three it's easier to avoid the dragon than to slay

00:03:00.620 it when i was 17 i ended up getting a lot of trouble and found myself in rehab and i dealt

00:03:05.400 with addictions and demons and it was a tough period of my life but i learned something in

00:03:10.020 rehab that's applied to every aspect of my life since then which is my environment dictates my

00:03:15.880 choices and one of the ideas that they shared with me is that it's easier to avoid the dragon

00:03:21.640 avoid the temptation than to slay it see a lot of you guys try to focus on willpower and mental

00:03:26.540 toughness i would just take the option out of your house most people sit there and they have

00:03:30.920 family members that have pantries and cabinets and drawers full of junk food for me with food

00:03:36.300 i had to get rid of it i had to make it the option that it's not even in the house why would i keep

00:03:40.860 things in my house to tempt me that in a moment of weakness i would make a bad decision so 0.85

00:03:45.700 literally i'm asking you go in there grab all the crap food all the bad decisions all the leftovers 0.86

00:03:51.220 i know some of you guys but i don't want to waste food great put it in a bag bring it to the homeless 0.99

00:03:55.300 shelter i don't know what you want to do with it it just can't end up in your mouth your environment

00:04:00.260 will beat your intentions every day so here's how to avoid the dragon number one don't keep trigger

00:04:06.100 foods in your house the other day my beautiful friend ellie brought over homemade peanut butter 0.97

00:04:12.260 chocolate chip cookies it was the most beautiful cookie in the world i had one bite and i knew

00:04:16.420 immediately had to be removed from my home couldn't keep it around me had to go at least i know avoid

00:04:22.420 the dragon don't keep it because those trigger foods are going to cause me to make even worse

00:04:26.340 decisions number two don't go down the candy aisle if you're at a grocery store and you're shopping

00:04:31.620 there is an aisle called the candy aisle it's the sugar aisle it's processed sugar aisle it's

00:04:35.540 the place where all the bad decisions are made i know you gotta go get gum but ask somebody else

00:04:38.900 else go pick it up for you don't go down that aisle it is a bad decision avoid the dragon don't

00:04:44.460 try to slay it number three 20 minute rule eat and wait if i feel inclined to make a bad decision

00:04:52.040 instead of just a hard no sometimes i'll just set a timer i set that timer for 20 minutes and i look

00:04:57.420 at my phone i said look i'm gonna wait when this thing goes off i'm gonna then make a decision

00:05:02.420 most of the time i also eat an apple because i figure maybe my blood sugar is a little low and

00:05:06.880 and I need to bring it up.

00:05:07.720 So I have an apple, it's low in calories.

00:05:09.820 I wait those 20 minutes.

00:05:11.040 I would say nine times out of 10,

00:05:12.600 I decide not to make a bad decision.

00:05:14.460 Using that 20 minute rule creates space

00:05:16.440 between the emotion to wanna eat

00:05:18.800 and the decision to actually put something in your mouth.

00:05:20.940 And most of the time you will make a better decision.

00:05:23.340 Number four, replace, don't remove.

00:05:25.720 So if you have a sweet tooth,

00:05:27.320 find something like protein, chocolate, peanut butter cups.

00:05:30.000 I do that with the Quest bars.

00:05:31.000 They have incredible options.

00:05:32.940 Don't have a whole bunch

00:05:33.820 because you might find the whole bunch gone.

00:05:35.360 just replace them with healthy alternatives.

00:05:37.780 I saw this incredible recipe the other day

00:05:39.540 for cottage cheese chips.

00:05:41.280 That's awesome.

00:05:42.120 So if you're kind of a chip person,

00:05:43.240 make some cottage cheese chips,

00:05:44.580 and all of a sudden it's high protein snacking,

00:05:46.740 all night long, just don't eat after six.

00:05:48.600 But it's not just about what you eat.

00:05:50.240 Which brings us to principle number four,

00:05:52.060 measure what matters.

00:05:53.320 It's kind of funny because I always weighed myself.

00:05:55.640 Wake up in the morning, jump on the scale,

00:05:57.100 report into my coach.

00:05:58.420 But the previous coach I worked with

00:06:00.140 never asked me to weigh my food,

00:06:01.920 to measure my food, to measure my macros,

00:06:03.960 which seems obvious looking back

00:06:05.580 because I was measuring other areas of my life,

00:06:07.320 just not my food.

00:06:08.140 I love this Peter Drucker quote that is,

00:06:10.360 if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

00:06:12.480 So measure your food.

00:06:13.800 There's a few things that I do to keep me on track.

00:06:15.760 Number one, ensure that I get the right macros and calories.

00:06:19.000 Like I said, caloric deficit is what I weigh,

00:06:21.760 but macros is how I look.

00:06:23.560 And I'm always trying to OD on proteins.

00:06:26.880 You gotta make sure you hit your macros, your proteins,

00:06:29.100 your fats, and your carbs appropriate to where you're at.

00:06:32.240 So measure those things.

00:06:33.480 Second thing is I always travel with both scales.

00:06:36.120 I travel with a food scale and I travel with a weight scale.

00:06:39.120 First thing in the morning, I report in what I weigh.

00:06:41.260 Right after that, I eat, but I measure all the food

00:06:44.000 so that I know exactly what to enter and track my macros.

00:06:46.760 Number three, removes decision-making.

00:06:48.820 The cool part is by doing it this way,

00:06:50.740 I don't want to create decision fatigue.

00:06:52.780 I wanna set it and forget it.

00:06:54.540 Every time I go to eat,

00:06:55.720 I already know what I'm supposed to eat

00:06:56.980 because I have meal planning.

00:06:58.160 I don't wanna think about it.

00:06:59.460 I don't wanna sit there and look at a menu

00:07:01.160 and go like, I should eat this, but maybe I'll order that.

00:07:03.360 That's where you get yourself in trouble,

00:07:05.200 but to transform your body, it isn't just about eating right,

00:07:08.120 which brings us to principle number five,

00:07:09.980 aim for hypertrophy.

00:07:11.380 This one evaded me for a long time

00:07:13.240 because I always thought that to look good,

00:07:15.600 I just had to lose fat.

00:07:17.020 But what I've learned since then

00:07:18.880 is that the whole point is to build muscle.

00:07:21.800 Why?

00:07:22.640 There's this thing called sarcopenia,

00:07:24.240 which is the body's process of eating muscle

00:07:26.980 the older you get.

00:07:27.820 Have you ever touched an old person 1.00

00:07:29.180 and their muscle feels like a bag of milk,

00:07:31.420 just the skin and there's nothing in there?

00:07:33.200 That's what it is.

00:07:34.520 And usually around the age of 35 to 40,

00:07:36.780 you start to have your body do this.

00:07:38.620 So if you don't put on lean muscle,

00:07:40.920 then it's not there later in life.

00:07:42.980 And the crazy part is most old age injuries

00:07:45.880 are directly correlated to a lack of muscle.

00:07:48.640 They trip and they can't brace themselves

00:07:50.600 on the small fall.

00:07:51.760 And all of a sudden they go down

00:07:52.680 and they twist their knee, hurt their ankle.

00:07:54.460 Then it's a game of operation to operation.

00:07:56.800 All of a sudden they haven't been moving for six months.

00:07:58.800 And I've seen it over and over and over again.

00:08:01.680 If you don't put lean muscle mass on when you can,

00:08:05.460 the older you get, the quality of life goes down.

00:08:08.340 The cool part is muscle also increases your metabolism,

00:08:11.720 meaning, fun part, you can eat more without gaining fat.

00:08:15.460 That's just a fact.

00:08:16.520 Your muscles burn more calories than lack of muscle.

00:08:19.300 So the more muscle you put on,

00:08:20.740 the more space you have in your macros

00:08:22.820 to be able to have some fun throughout your week.

00:08:24.700 And I gotta tell you, it's just a great place to get

00:08:27.120 where you've got the stability, the strength

00:08:29.700 to be able to feel good about yourself

00:08:31.420 and also show up and put out some power.

00:08:33.640 Like if you gotta defend yourself,

00:08:35.720 you don't wanna be easy to kill. 0.78

00:08:37.520 The whole point is to be hard to kill. 0.97

00:08:40.320 H to K means you need lean muscle mass.

00:08:42.980 But now, how do you build that muscle?

00:08:45.320 Which brings us to principle number six,

00:08:47.440 lift the same, look the same.

00:08:49.240 I also heard my trainer, Alan, say this all the time.

00:08:51.740 Lift the same, look the same.

00:08:53.360 If you're lifting the same week over week,

00:08:55.680 don't be surprised if you don't look any different.

00:08:57.940 And it's funny because you go to the gym,

00:08:59.280 you see all these people working out,

00:09:00.920 sweating doing the thing week over week over i've seen people years in the gym and they haven't

00:09:06.040 changed their body composition or their physique at all see the same effort same outcome so how do

00:09:11.400 we change everything we need to understand this concept called progressive overload training which

00:09:16.200 is essentially you want to increase your volume and you switch body parts so you may be in a six

00:09:21.080 week block and you'll focus on certain types of movements to hit different body parts and you want

00:09:25.240 to max out every time you go to the gym you want to figure out are you in the rep range of 12 to 15

00:09:30.120 If you're easily getting 15, increase the weight.

00:09:32.720 Log it.

00:09:33.240 Next time you go back, are you able to get 12 to 15?

00:09:35.900 No, you can only get 10?

00:09:36.820 Cool.

00:09:37.120 Stay there, but lift harder.

00:09:39.460 Last few reps, try to go 11, 12.

00:09:42.000 Once you get back up to that 15, increase the weight.

00:09:44.720 That is progressive overload.

00:09:46.220 And the cool part is you safely increase weight

00:09:48.800 week over week.

00:09:50.040 You don't just go in there and go like a cowboy 0.86

00:09:52.100 and put a bunch of plates on the bench press

00:09:54.160 and then try to push something and impress all your friends

00:09:56.260 and pull a muscle,

00:09:57.040 and then you can't work out for three months.

00:09:58.660 That's literally the thing that takes people out

00:10:01.040 from making progress is injury.

00:10:03.460 So the whole idea for me and how I train my clients

00:10:06.000 is to avoid movements that could cause injury.

00:10:09.180 If you do that, you stay in the game to get the game.

00:10:11.680 And your body adapts to stress.

00:10:13.600 You need to increase it.

00:10:15.340 If you don't increase the level and volume of stress

00:10:18.000 you put on it, the weight, the strength, the effort,

00:10:20.780 then you're not gonna increase your ability

00:10:22.660 to lift more and change your body.

00:10:24.400 But to gain muscle and strength, you need the right fuel.

00:10:26.980 Which brings us to principle number seven,

00:10:29.500 travel with your food.

00:10:30.640 See, most people give up their gains when they travel.

00:10:33.700 I've seen client after client, go on vacation,

00:10:36.560 come back, put on three, five pounds, and I'm like, why?

00:10:39.240 Have you ever considered that you could go on vacation

00:10:41.900 and actually come back leaner, come back healthier?

00:10:44.680 It's actually not hard.

00:10:45.740 I'm gonna tell you how to do it

00:10:46.800 because most people don't believe me, but I just did it.

00:10:49.260 I got back from Australia and Bali with the family,

00:10:51.740 came back leaner.

00:10:52.820 Well, I learned this the hard way

00:10:54.160 when I did this thing called Project Visible Labs.

00:10:56.100 and the whole time I was doing this for 90 days,

00:10:58.820 essentially cutting my whole body

00:11:00.280 and changing my composition, I traveled.

00:11:02.720 I did like six trips, vacations, family stuff,

00:11:06.080 the holidays, because I didn't want anybody to go like,

00:11:08.680 oh, it was easy for you.

00:11:09.820 You just hibernated in your basement and did your thing.

00:11:12.100 No, I went and lived and still got fitter.

00:11:14.880 How did I do that?

00:11:16.060 I got good about my meal prep.

00:11:17.560 So how do you find food when you're out there traveling?

00:11:19.860 First off, contact the local gym on where you're going

00:11:23.040 that's meant for bodybuilders.

00:11:24.420 My tip is ask them if they have a hip thrust machine.

00:11:27.140 If they have a hip thrust machine,

00:11:28.560 they probably are the place that the bodybuilders go.

00:11:31.640 Most of those gyms have a relationship

00:11:33.440 with a meal prep company.

00:11:35.060 Number two, order the food before you get there.

00:11:37.200 The cool part is, is those meal prep companies,

00:11:39.180 most of them, you can give them your macros

00:11:40.840 and they'll literally deliver you food

00:11:42.960 made specifically for your macros

00:11:44.760 or at least close enough to it.

00:11:46.380 I always like to do lunch and dinner.

00:11:48.300 Number three, get a hotel with a fridge.

00:11:50.260 Then I call the hotel and I ask them for a fridge.

00:11:52.280 I ask them for a microwave

00:11:53.360 and I make sure I have a plate and my cutlery

00:11:55.460 and essentially I do my breakfast in my hotel room

00:11:58.360 and I do my lunch and my dinner.

00:11:59.720 Even if I have to go out to eat, I'll eat before I go out

00:12:02.200 and then just order a protein side to hit my macros 0.99

00:12:04.720 where I'll talk about more later.

00:12:05.980 The key is, is to be prepared

00:12:07.840 and order your meal prep on the go

00:12:09.960 in the city you're traveling to

00:12:11.580 so you don't have to make those decisions at restaurants.

00:12:13.880 And if you want my help with that,

00:12:15.660 find me on Instagram and DM me YouTube Fitness

00:12:18.300 and we'll see if you'd be a fit. 0.86

00:12:19.700 But I only wanna work with people that are serious.

00:12:21.540 But there's one thing you consume

00:12:23.380 that you need to watch out for.

00:12:25.140 Which brings us to principle number eight,

00:12:27.160 don't drink your calories.

00:12:28.800 When I was in my 20s and 30s,

00:12:30.460 I was one of those late night entrepreneurs.

00:12:32.440 I would stay up till two or three in the morning

00:12:34.160 because that's when I felt I did my best work

00:12:35.920 and then I would sleep in.

00:12:37.160 Energy drinks with a bunch of sugar or soft drinks

00:12:39.640 or any other kind of vice

00:12:41.340 that just had a bunch of sugars that I didn't need.

00:12:43.780 I was drinking my calories.

00:12:45.620 You don't even realize it, but for some people,

00:12:47.620 half their calories on a daily basis

00:12:49.540 this comes from liquids, from the things they drink,

00:12:52.580 that if they just got rid of that,

00:12:53.820 it would change the game for them.

00:12:55.080 The truth is most calories are invisible.

00:12:56.940 It's not just what's on your plate,

00:12:58.580 but what happens in between meals.

00:13:00.200 Right off the bat, it's just not balanced nutrition.

00:13:02.820 You don't wanna be drinking calories

00:13:04.600 and trying to track those macros.

00:13:06.140 The other issue is liquid calories don't make you feel full.

00:13:09.280 So you could drink a bunch of stuff, have a sugar high,

00:13:11.320 and then just absolutely crash

00:13:12.580 and then feel hungry right after.

00:13:14.060 And the crazy part is there's hidden sugars and fake sugars.

00:13:16.940 I mean, all over the place.

00:13:18.220 It's just the way they report it,

00:13:19.480 They know that they're doing low-cal options

00:13:21.300 or diet options.

00:13:22.480 That stuff will mess with your gut.

00:13:24.480 Stick to water, black coffee, or tea only.

00:13:26.720 But it's not just about removing bad drinks from your diet,

00:13:29.480 which brings us to principle number nine,

00:13:31.540 drown yourself in water.

00:13:33.860 Most people are chronically dehydrated.

00:13:36.600 I can't tell you the amount of people that come up to me

00:13:38.520 and they're yawning and they're tired.

00:13:39.720 And I'm like, have you drank enough water today?

00:13:41.340 They're like, what does that have to do with anything?

00:13:43.600 The truth is, is your body needs water,

00:13:45.720 especially if you're working out, you're moving around,

00:13:47.480 walking a lot and you're not drinking a glass of water all the time when i'm on meetings i'll

00:13:51.480 literally ask people everybody show me your glass of water they show me their glass of water go good

00:13:55.080 let's chug it boom i now know i'm getting the best version of them on the other side of chugging that

00:13:59.480 water most people just drown themselves in other stuff and they don't get enough water and that

00:14:04.280 makes them feel hungry all the time which then leads to making bad decisions dehydration causes

00:14:09.240 more cravings poor recovery bad decision it makes your heart work way harder than anything else and

00:14:14.280 And what you wanna do instead is drink one liter

00:14:16.400 within one hour of waking up.

00:14:18.220 As soon as I wake up,

00:14:19.360 I literally pour myself a filtered glass of water,

00:14:21.920 put a little bit of lemon, a little bit of salt,

00:14:23.540 and I drink that because I wanna rehydrate

00:14:25.600 and provide some electrolytes to my body.

00:14:27.400 Most people don't know this,

00:14:28.660 but you actually burn calories by breathing at night.

00:14:31.500 That's actually where the calorie burn comes from

00:14:34.320 is your breath.

00:14:35.280 That's a crazy idea.

00:14:36.500 So you're probably massively dehydrated

00:14:38.560 as soon as you wake up.

00:14:39.520 So I walk around with a liter of water

00:14:41.400 and I just fill it up

00:14:42.640 but I make sure I try to get three or four of those a day

00:14:45.140 to make sure that I know I'm hydrated.

00:14:47.500 And here's a fun little way to do it.

00:14:49.240 Do you get a clear piss before noon?

00:14:50.980 Try to get enough water to get a bathroom break

00:14:53.520 with some clear pee, then you know you're well hydrated.

00:14:55.840 But the truth is you will end up going out

00:14:57.680 for food once in a while.

00:14:58.880 So here's the right way to do it.

00:15:00.760 Which brings us to principle number 10, load up on protein.

00:15:04.140 I mean, one of the games I play with myself

00:15:06.300 is to overdose on protein.

00:15:08.040 When I say that, I mean like I'm always trying

00:15:10.480 to find lean protein sources when i go to a restaurant my favorite thing to do is go straight

00:15:15.440 to the add-on section and see what protein options they have because you can find chicken you can find

00:15:21.120 tuna you can find eggs and it's for like seven bucks ten bucks and what you don't realize is

00:15:25.440 most restaurants will allow you to order just the sides without the whole plate so for 30 bucks

00:15:31.600 oftentimes i can get a hundred grams of protein lean without making bad decisions with a saucy 1.00

00:15:38.240 salad or some bad decision like nachos and pizza now i know that sounds crazy and most people will

00:15:44.240 look at you like you're weird but my rule is you have to be willing to be misunderstood for a long

00:15:49.280 period of time to get any results in this world if this is new to you i want to teach you a few

00:15:53.600 things first off you have to increase the amount of protein you're having and fill up on it well

00:15:58.160 i don't want to look too bulky and i think protein is not good for my indigestion i'm telling you

00:16:02.480 most people are not eating enough protein check with your doctor but definitely increase number

00:16:07.840 two, look for chicken breast, steak, fish, eggs on the go. I mean, I will do beef jerky, but it's

00:16:14.100 high in sodium. So I don't love to do that. I'm just looking for high protein options with low

00:16:18.440 calories. And I try to make sure I front load those before I make any other food decision.

00:16:22.560 Number three, ask for no seasoning oil or salt. Just put it on the side. But if you want to

00:16:27.540 transform your body and your mind, none of this matters if you burn yourself out, which brings us

00:16:32.680 principle number 11, prioritize your sleep. Sleep isn't rest, it's reconstruction. I need you to

00:16:38.820 understand this mental model. It's not about getting enough rest. It's literally allowing

00:16:43.600 yourself to recover. Now I get it. Most people think I'm crazy because I get up at 4am most

00:16:48.320 mornings, but most people don't realize I'm going to bed at 8.30, 9 o'clock. I'm getting seven to

00:16:53.540 eight hours and I have incredible sleep. Now what I do is I set an alarm for when I go to bed. See

00:16:58.920 most people, their problems in life would be sorted and solved if they just went to bed on

00:17:03.880 time. Think about it. My dad used to say nothing productive happens after 11 PM. Why are you up so

00:17:08.820 late? Go to bed. And the crazy part is your recovery happens during sleep. If you want to

00:17:14.140 get the results of all that heavy lifting of all that effort with your nutrition and you don't

00:17:19.340 sleep right, you don't get the results. The crazy part is people see me and they go, Oh, he must be

00:17:24.200 on TRT or some kind of growth hormones. The truth is whole foods, hard work. I call it testosterone

00:17:30.140 E and C for effort and consistency. But the truth is, is growth hormones peak during your deep

00:17:36.100 sleep. That's why sleep is so important to me. The people that need you to be around,

00:17:41.280 that need your energy, that need you to show up with focus and have the capacity to be able to

00:17:47.240 protect them, to serve them, to play with them, need you. You know, most people would die for

00:17:53.340 their kids, die for their family. Could you live for them? Could this be the moment you make your

00:17:58.600 health a priority? That's my question to you. Now, if you want to see how I got visible abs in 90

00:18:03.640 days, click the video and I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - February 21, 2025

How I Got Abs in 90 Days (Using Principles)

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