T Nation

I Took the Neurotype Test Twice. 1B?

Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
#1

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Am I really a type 1b??? Idk :man_shrugging:…

I recently took the thib army neurotype test in dec 2019 and March 2020 because I wanted to be sure. In dec 19 I was going through some family issues, and in March I was a little less stressed out. I won’t consider myself the cliche super confident like the articles suggest because I honestly don’t give a shit about dominating every situation… only want to dominate when it counts. I guess I see myself as silently competitive… waiting to pounce on an opportunity with viscous malice …then chilling out as of nothing happened.

Motivation during workouts has never been a big issue for me. I maintain 10-12% body fat year round. Currently #1 at my sales job and doing decently well for my age (24).

BUT I HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM

Some days I can’t seem to be motivated during work (7am-2pm)…I’ve tried everything… Ltyrosine in the morning, macuna puriens… cordiceps militaris…Still nothing. My coworkers call me the most inconsistent hard worker they’ve ever seen. Some days I literally set records… & some days I just chill out and Don’t give a shit. How can I make my performance more consistent. How can I BOOST dopamine without relying on increasing caffeine (I drink one cup a day)…

PERHAPS I AM NOT REALLY a type1B and should change my approach? I’m literally considering getting blood work to see if I have hormone issues.

I have plans to start a business but I must unlock the next level of consistent focus otherwise my goals will not be reached. I plan on working on my side business after work/working out but the energy / focus is just not there sometimes (it feels like it’s in a cage waiting to be unleashed)…

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Random notes that might help:

Body weight : 185lbs
Body fat: 12% ??? (See attached image)

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-Breakfast : high protein (80g protein, 20g fat, 20g carb)
-lunch: (40g carb, 40g protein, 20g fat)
-post workout (50g protein, glycine, taurine)
-dinner (40g protein, 20g fat, 20g carb)
** 2200 calories per day usually …

**I have the weirdest cravings. I usually crave steak or something very meaty. I’ve never craved carbs or sugar…

I know this was a long post but I look up to thib army’s advice because it is properly researched. I just need to find a way to maintain motivation everyday without blowing my adrenaline receptors up :pray:

#2

You look fantastic, whatever you did to get there is obviously working.

Even the most exceptional people will occasionally have average days, or even below average days. That’s just the curse of averages.

Not to get too metaphorical on you, and I get that a sales job might not afford you a lot of leeway but maybe you can leverage your chill days somehow. I won’t speculate what you can do there that’d further your success from a career point of view.

And, maybe you are a 2A, but I’m like the least we’ll equipped person to answer that. :woman_shrugging: You do mention other people and their impression of you though and when scores vary that usually indicates 2A.

Your lows in motivation seem to coincide with your carb intake. Tried skewing that toward the end of the day?

Also,

=1700 calories.

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#3

We are not qualified to answer neurotypes questions but, you are 10% at most, and yeah this seems very low calorie. Like if you’re been this low, for years, at this bodyfat… It’s probably you just should eat more for a while. Especially around workout. You have 40g of carbs pre and zero post, then 20g later? This is probably too low. If you’ve been through some stressful times, + the workouts etc probably your body needs a bit of leeway to recover

#4

It’s got nothing to do with working out, but sales can be a grind. I don’t know your pay structure, but I used to have my reps pick something just for them they were going to buy when they hit their full bonus. It can’t be like “save for my kids’ college” or something; it has to be “I want a new watch” or “I want to go to Hawaii”. Then I held them to it. I am not telling you to be financially irresponsible, but it’s tough to have a hunter’s mentality every day without that trophy kind of reward.

I also think your calories are low, but you’re very lean so maybe that’s just what that takes. Like everything, there are trade-offs there: if you want to stay that lean, you’re probably not going to feel like killing it in the gym every day. If you want to improve your gym performance, you’re probably going to need to bump your calories up a bit.

It also may be worth playing with the timing of your training - I am absolutely incapable of having a good session after a full day with customers. If I go first thing in the morning, though, I then have a better day at work There’s also the added bonus if I can eat a slightly bigger dinner to both give me a better night’s sleep and give me fuel for the morning session, and still be in my caloric budget.

Edit: I just realized you’re asking about work performance! All the above still stands.

For sales, spend the “down” time working on your craft. Pick a sales model you like, and study and get great at it. Learn your product. All sales people have those ups and downs because your reliant on your customers’ cycle; worry about the results more than the effort.

After that, I’d find the biggest obstacle and use all that “chill” time to find ways to get around it. For example, access to the customer is the toughest challenge in my industry. When not selling, I’d ask different assistants where the customer is most relaxed and happy to talk. I’d bring the assistants coffee and we’d just hang out until they wanted me around. I don’t have to be in a “killer” mindset to do that - I’m just chatting with a friend - but it still was productive to my career.

I don’t know if all that helped or if I’m just rambling, but I just wanted to throw my experience your way.

#5

Only the 1A want to dominate in every situation, not the 1B

#6

Congratulation… in the history of mankind you are the first one to claim a bodyfat HIGHER than he really is. Most people on the internet with your physique would have claimed to be 3%.

This looks like 8% to me.

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#7

That is often a sign of beta-adrenergic desensitization (the receptors interacting with adrenaline are less and less responsive). Simply put, your body is in a high adrenaline state for too long, too often. As it was pointed out, this often happens when someone is on a diet that is too low in carbs/calories for too long.

What happens is that when your calories/carbs are too low, the body will release more cortisol to mobilize stored energy and bring blood sugar back up (it will be low when carbs are low).

Cortisol increases adrenaline. So if you are super restricted in calories and carbs for too long, you will desensitize your beta-adrenergic receptors because your produce too much adrenaline.

BTW, that’s why a lot of people report having lots of energy when they switch to a keto/low carbs/intermittent fasting diet: the lack of carbs lead to low blood sugar levels. Which raises cortisol. Which increases adrenaline.

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#8

That’s me to a T when my adrenergic desensitization is down.

To me you are more likely a 2A. 2As are the Jekyll and Hide of the neurotypes. Or the Bruce Banner/Hulk, Prince Adam/He-man.

#9

While this can sound like a 1B it could also be a 2A… the 2A tends to have a more vicious streak than 1Bs because of their strong response to adrenaline. When I’m in a high adrenaline state, I can turn to someone very competitive/aggressive/impatient. But otherwise I’m calm, even lazy.

#10

My guess is that it is NOT a dopamine problem. Otherwise, tyrosine would have helped. It is more likely a desensitization of the beta-adrenergic receptors due to an excess of adrenaline caused by too much cortisol.

And in fact, supplementing to increase dopamine might do more harm than good in your case. Supplementing for dopamine will lower serotonin levels, which will make it even harder to prevent adrenergic desensitization.

So what you need to do is bring adrenaline down and you do that by bringing cortisol down. This will allow you to bring your adrenergic sensitivity back up.

Doing that will suck for 1-2 weeks because it will lead to lower energy (you need to bring down cortisol and adrenaline) but after that you will be reset. It will be a matter of not falling into the same traps.

One thing that I recommend, and that is quite extreme is the Rakowski protocol:

1mg of melatonin every waking hour starting at 9pm.

Melatonin essentially stops cortisol production, thus adrenaline. You will feel the laziest you’ve ever been. But it’s only for one week. The second week, keep 1mg/hour, but only from 5pm to bedtime.

ALSO, increase carbs. Carbs is the best way to fight cortisol. So for 2 weeks, brings carbs up significantly, with carbs in every meal. You also need to consume a caloric surplus.

Rhodiola will also help rebalance your neurotransmitters.

After that you can go back to “normal” but keep calories higher. Include deloads in your training (less volume in your case) every 4th week.

Glycine and magnesium taurate post-workout and in the evening.

#11

Thankyou for your response. I appreciate your insight.

I understand that everyone has average days but I honest fee like my average days should be slightly better. On “average” / low days I have 0 motivation to work. I binge watch Netflix and Randomly drive to the grocery store to get a random snack (peanuts, chewing gum).

I’d me more than happy to leverage these day’s. Perhaps you’re right. Increasing carbs could help. It’s just that I can get a bit bloated with carbs. I will give it a try.

As for the calories, I usually track on my fitness pal and it’s roughly 2200-2000/ day

Thanks again.

#12

Sounds like everyone is saying my calories are too low. You’re probably right about calories being too low. How do increase calories and maintain 10% ?? And still feel alive everyday.

I’ve tried the online BMR calculators… they all say I should eat about 2800 to maintain… thing is, after eating anything over 2500 I usually gain weight.

#13

I think you brought up a point that I’ve been avoiding. I hardly ever reward myself… maybe that’s because I can’t really travel anywhere during covid.

Our pay structure is commission based. So I usually just save it and don’t buy anything to celebrate. Motivation has never been an issue, it’s just that on the days I fee sluggish, I feel bored, unaccomplished (even though results suggest otherwise)… lazy (I can watch 5 hours of random YouTube videos… instead of working)…

I pray it’s not a hormone issue. I will definitely try rewarding myself from time to time and scheduling off days with more calories.

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#14

Christian,

Thanks for the detailed response. It sounds like low carbs is what’s killing me. I used to think low carb means 20-60g / day… now I’m realizing that’s probably not sustainable.

The meat cravings got so bad I drove to the grocery store yesterday and ate a 800calorie half chicken in under 10 mins. AND was still hungry after that.

I will try to increase calories, include melatonin before bed and go from there.

A few questions:

  1. how do I maintain at least 10% without feeling like shit every couple of day’s ?

  2. Are online BMR calculators accurate ? They seem to over estimate my maintenance calories by 300.

  3. Not sure if I’m a 2A or 1B. & to be honest, the slight differences doesn’t really bother me. I’m just looking for ways to maximize my potential with the information on your website since it’s very well researched. Based on the info provided, Do you think It worth getting a blood test ?

#15

I just added it up from the macros you posted before.

Have you tried going to 2500, staying there for a while, and then going to 2800 rather than hopping straight from 2000-2200 to 2800?

Gaining weight when you increase your calories doesn’t necessarily mean that the guesstimate 2800 is wrong. Initial weight gain is explained by having more food moving through your digestive tract, and holding on to more water as a consequence of refilling your glycogen stores, and the latter might make you look a little less defined (at least initially) but if your immediate reaction to weight gain is presuming that you are gaining fat and lowering calories again then you won’t get to see what happens after an initial period of adjustment.

How long would you say you’ve tried periods of higher caloric intake?

#16

I’d say I increased to about 2600-2800 for maybe 4 consecutive days tops. I’ve gone just over 3000 calories only 3 or 4 times since February/early March at most.

My goal is to stay lean and feel good every day … not just 4 days out of 7. Idk if this helps but I do morning steady state (low intensity) fasted cardio once per week for 40 mins.

I almost went to get my blood work last week to see if something is wrong but the lady said I can’t workout on blood test days so I didn’t go

#17

You could try bumping your current calories by 10% and see what happens for two weeks. If the scale is still stuck, you can probably increase another 10%.

#18

Well, first nobody feels good 7 days out of 7 under the best circumstances. Feeling good 7 out of 7 at your level of leanness (which is more like 8%, not 10%, and yes it makes a difference in how you feel) is pretty much impossible. I know because I’ve been there.

Unless you are someone who is super lean by nature, i that you’ve always been lean and can stay lean without effort, maintaining a true sub-10% bodyfat level is simply not something that your body wants to do.

To be fair, it’s not necessarily the level of fat itself that is an issue, but what you need to do to maintain that level.

For a man of your muscularity, 2000 calories is very very low. The fact that you are simply maintaining your leanness at that level tells me that you have had a lot of metabolic adaptations, which will in part contribute to not making you feel good all the time.

I stayed at a similar level of leanness as you for 18 months one time, and honestly I felt like crap half the days. Heck, there was one day I even thought about suicide. At that point I was resorting to lots of stimulants just to have energy.

Then, for my past two photoshoots where I dropped down to 7-8% again, my quality of life also suffered a lot. My energy was low, I was lazier, had no joy in life, etc. And it’s not like I had to take extreme measures to get lean as I don’t get more than 10lbs away from photoshoot condition.

Here’s the point: unless you are genetically built to be super lean, if you want to stay super lean year-round you will have to sacrifice many things, including well-being. That’s just a physiological fact.

That might be one of the reasons why recreational drug use is rampant in bodybuilding and in those seeking that type of physique. They need something to feel better.

And here’s the thing: are there supplements (or drugs) that can make you feel better? Sure, but it’s an “artificial feeling”, a band-aid that can (will) make matter worse down the road. Heck even a simple supplement that increases dopamine, like tyrosine, can deplete serotonin levels. So while they give you a quick boost, if used daily it can make things a lot worse.

You really have to make a choice. What is your priority: feeling good most of the time or looking shredded all the time?

I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and very few can feel good most of the time while staying super lean regardless of the strategies they use.

I’m not saying that you need to get fat to feel good. But you will certainly need to gradually work up to what your normal daily caloric intake should be (3000-3200 kcals/day) over time and likely gain a few pounds of fat.

Me I feel great at a true 11-12%, acceptable at a true 10% and as soon as I drop lower I have a lot more bad days. If there was a magical solution, I would have found it.

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#19

Dude, that sentence alone tells me how deep your problem is (but how similar to how I was a few years back). If you cannot stop training for one day to take care of your health, I believe that I cannot help you because you don’t yet have the mindset to do what’s right to feel better.

*Pretty much nobody should train 7 days a week. Some might do 6 if the daily volume is minimal but I doubt that in your case you do low volume. With a normal volume of work, 4 workout days per week is best.

*Nobody who is 185lbs and super lean should eat 2000 calories unless preparing for a contest. If you need to eat that to stay lean, you have a problem.

*Not wanting to take a day of rest to take care of your health is actually a sign of a mental issue. I’M NOT JUDGING I DID THE SAME THING. But it really is.

*Steroids (I’m not saying you are taking them, I’m making a point for all the readers) CANNOT help you tolerate more extreme measures (training and diet) from a mental perspective. YES they help the muscles recover from more volume and help you keep your muscle mass while your calories are too low. But they do not prevent the mental side effects of training/dietary excesses.

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#20

Hi Thib,

You have a point but let me rephrase what I was trying to say about the blood work. Due to COVID, their offices were only open 4 days out of the week. deep down I know I don’t have any testosterone issues but who knows what they could find.

That being said, you do have a point. I think I over estimate how much volume is required to stay in shape. As a matter of fact, after some introspection last week, I believe I need to cut down on volume. Here’s my current split

Monday: shoulders / biceps
Tuesday: hamstrings / abs
Wednesday: quads / calves
Thursday: chest / triceps
Friday: back
Saturday: rest
Sunday: HIT sprints/ prowler push/ med ball tosses

Yea probably too much for 2000 calories / day…

I’ve increased calories to 2500 since last week. Gained a lot of water weight the first few days but feeling a lot better already. I’ll probably go up to 2700/2800 and see what happens.

I appreciate the feedback. Thankyou.

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