Most of us have a number in our heads that we think we need to weigh. But where did that number come from and would we even look the way we wanted if we got there?

Michelle and Coach Emily are talking goal weights this week, and they’ve both had this conversation with plenty of clients. Olivia started around 170 with a goal of 140. She’s now around 131 with more muscle, looking completely different than she imagined she would at that weight.

They’ve been through it themselves, too. Michelle used to think 150 was where she’d see the physique she wanted. These days, she’s around 129–130, eating roughly 2,200 calories and maintaining visible abs. Emily was 104 when they recorded this episode, and people regularly argue with her about it because they assume she weighs more. Having muscle changes what those numbers look like.

They also talk about the impatience that comes with wanting your body to change, Michelle’s experience with weight rebounds after competition prep, and a consult with a woman whose previous coach promised eight pounds of muscle in twelve weeks… on 1,200 calories. Michelle had a few thoughts about that. “The land of make-believe” came up.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting a certain result. But getting attached to a number can make it harder to see the progress you’re actually making. As Emily puts it, focus on the things that get you the results. That’s the part you can do something about today.

See how BIA coaching works: https://go.bianutrition.com

Michelle sits down with Amber to talk about what eating and training look like when the person you share a kitchen with doesn't share your goals. They get into:

• How Amber feeds a house where she's the only one who eats the zucchini, without cooking two dinners every night
• Eating her own prepped meal while she cooks theirs, so their food never tempts her
• Why she doesn't want her husband in better shape than her (a Bumstead joke is involved)
• Michelle and Matt's early days of one medium Domino's pizza each, every single night, and how they got from there to tracking macros
• Why Amber says lifting made her more confident in her marriage

If your partner, your kids, or your friends aren't on board with how you eat and train, press play. Amber's rule for her husband is simple: "I'm just asking you to not make it harder on me."

Got a topic you want Michelle and the coaches to take on next? Drop it in the comments or send us a DM on Instagram.

Michelle and Emily went exercise by exercise, top to bottom, on what they actually feel working. Michelle's list is short. Delts, lats, glutes. She doesn't train quads, calves, abs or chest, and somebody complimented her triceps this week anyway.
Emily has been chasing her glute med, so there's a lot here on kickbacks, step downs off a high platform with the dumbbell in the opposite hand, and 45 degree hyperextensions. She also worked out that rolling a couple of yoga mats under the pad on the glute drive machine keeps her knees from traveling, which is how she gets four plates a side on it.
Michelle hip thrusts 260 for four sets and will swear on her grave that the plain barbell version beats every machine built to replace it. Emily does ten or eleven palms-forward pull-ups. Michelle tops out around five and is still annoyed about it.
It ends on mind muscle connection and how many years it takes to build one. Emily said once she could actually feel her lats and her hamstrings, the growth followed. Michelle's rule is blunter. If she can't feel it in her glutes, she stops doing the exercise.
Need help navigating the gym: https://www.bianutrition.com

Michelle came off Power Hour wanting to talk about the two levers clients keep leaving alone. Steps and actual training intensity. Food is still the main driver and nobody is arguing with that. But most of the girls hit a ceiling on food and stop there, and these are the two things that move the ceiling.
Emily's BMR is about 1100 calories and her appetite runs over 2000. She closes that gap with 12 to 15 thousand steps a day and almost no cardio, partly because the steps keep her reflux manageable and cardio makes it worse. Michelle is on the same number and says the leanest she has ever been came from an hour of walking before the day starts. She also has a lot to say about what walking does for your digestion. You have been warned.
On training, Emily does two sets to failure and that is the whole plan. Five exercises, two sets each, going until she has to rack the Smith machine at the bottom and crawl out from under it. Her cue is to pretend your life depends on the last rep. If you get home from the gym and can dilly dally for two hours before you eat, you did not train hard. Michelle told a client sitting at 1800 calories and 160 pounds to train harder so she could eat more, and the client said she had never once thought about pushing her calories up.
And going to the gym four times a week while sitting on your booty the rest of the day still makes you sedentary. Sorry.

Soft girl era. Michelle and Coach Emily wanted to know whether it has made everybody scared of doing hard things.
Emily's position is that ease is earned. She didn't touch investing until about three and a half years ago and had to ask her parents roughly 20,000 questions before she opened an account. Michelle's version came with an ultimatum from Matt. Pay off the debt or we're not getting married. She had $40,000 in student loans and cleared them in seven months by taking the train, packing her own food and skipping every margarita her Aladdin tour friends were out buying. Almost ten years later, plenty of those friends still have their loans.
They also get into why lifting made them both feel more feminine, Emily being the designated pasta jar opener, the guys who want an independent woman so they can sit down and be parented, and the client who finally dropped 10 pounds after cutting the gym from six days a week to four. Michelle has never trained more than four times a week.
Then a client found bats in her attic, which turned into a whole thing about how fast you get yourself back to baseline.
See how BIA coaching works: https://bianutrition.com

Time to open the gym confession booth: the things we see and hear at the gym every week. We listen, we don't judge... okay, maybe a little.

If you've ever trained fasted because you thought you had to, bought a fat burner to speed things up, or stretched your way toward 'long, lean muscles,' this episode is about you. It's not about doing more extreme things. It's about doing the boring basics that actually change your body.

Inside: the keto guy trying to build muscle on zero carbs (and what happened when Michelle finally got him eating), why a fat burner is basically a $40 cup of coffee, the ChatGPT deficit spiral that bottomed out at 1,000 calories, and how Michelle dropped 25 pounds eating 250 grams of carbs a day.

Ready to stop guessing? See exactly how BIA coaching works: https://inquire.bianutrition.com

Most people aren't under-trying on purpose. They genuinely believe the effort is there. But tracking 70% of your food, cooking oils that "don't count," and two years with the same 20-pound dumbbells tell a different story.

Michelle shares her toothpaste analogy for why 50% effort works at the start and then quietly stops working, and why the answer is never keto, soup diets, or blaming your hormones. It's coming back to the basics and actually executing them.

Key Topics

- Perceived effort vs. actual effort, and why the two rarely match

- "I'm aware of what I ate" is not the same as knowing your numbers

- The untracked calories hiding in oils, sauces, drinks, and restaurant meals

- The toothpaste analogy: the effort that got you started won't get you finished

- Going to the gym vs. actually training at the gym

- Program hopping, macro hopping, and hormone blaming when the real issue is execution

- Why this country doesn't have a weight loss problem, it has a weight maintenance problem

- Soft girl era dreams require anything but soft effort right now

"Some of you aren't disappointed with your progress. You're disappointed that your progress accurately reflects your effort. And those are two different conversations."

If this episode stung a little, good. That's the gap talking. The fix isn't more willpower. It's knowing your numbers and having a coach who won't let you grade your own effort. We show you exactly how that works here

Michelle flies solo this week and the timing couldn't be better. The day she recorded this episode, she officially hit 100,000 followers on Instagram. She rewinds to 2020, when she had about 2,000 followers (mostly friends and family) and posted her first YouTube video that Matt didn't even want to publish, and traces the journey through Broadway, swinging Tina and Water for Elephants while building BIA backstage, to then moment on stage she knew it was time to leave and go all in on coaching.

Then she opens up her sticky notes: six quotes from a recent women's conference that have been living rent-free in her head all week, and how each one maps to her fitness clients, her business, and the life she's building (retirement by 40 is on the record now).

The Six Quotes:

1. Stop waiting until you feel ready, if you feel ready, you've already waited too long.

2. Don't monetize what you do. Monetize what and who you are.

3. Every decision is a portal to your future life, indecision is a decision.

4. You have to let go of your old self to step into your higher self.

5. You'll only grow as high as your lowest thought.

6. The level you want to unlock is on the other side of the decision you're afraid to make.

What's in this episode

- (0:28) The 100k milestone, and a BIA shirt spotted in a Walmart in Maryland

- (1:27) The viral reel: leaving Broadway and words for theater performers who feel a pivot coming

- (2:24) Starting BIA in 2021 backstage at Tina, and the first messy YouTube video in 2020

- (5:31) Her one piece of advice for coaches trying to grow online: you have to post

- (8:21) The other milestone this month, winning Miss Tennessee bikini

- (11:00) The six sticky-note quotes, one by one

- (18:39) Why "I'll try" and "I'll start Monday" language guarantees you never win

- (22:27) On the man comments, judgment, and doing it messy anyway

- (26:37) Higher-vibration people only, and the retire-by-40 promise, on the record

If you feel like you've waited too long to get started on your health journey...this is your sign. Learn more here.