---
title: '25 Squats A Day Changed My Metabolism - Here''s Why'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=AUDixEhQcas'
video_id: 'AUDixEhQcas'
date: 2026-08-01
duration_sec: 1202
---

# 25 Squats A Day Changed My Metabolism - Here's Why

> Source: [25 Squats A Day Changed My Metabolism - Here's Why](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AUDixEhQcas)

## Summary

This video explains why gaining muscle, not just losing fat, is the true key to long-term weight loss and metabolic health. It cites a large meta-analysis from the American College of Sports Medicine and presents a simple 30-day challenge built around 25 daily bodyweight squats, along with protein and creatine recommendations. The speaker also emphasizes strength as a major predictor of longevity and offers five actionable steps to improve metabolism and overall resilience.

### Key Points

- **Weight Loss Is Actually About Gaining Muscle** [00:02] — The speaker argues that weight loss is less about losing fat and more about gaining muscle. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue that can help you burn fat more quickly.
- **ACSM Meta-Analysis: 137 Studies, 30,000 People** [00:18] — The American College of Sports Medicine reviewed 137 studies covering 30,000 people, finding that resistance training improved muscle size, balance, gait speed, and physical function even at minimal doses.
- **Just 25 Squats a Day Can Make a Difference** [01:05] — Small amounts of resistance training build muscle and start burning fat faster. As little as 25 squats a day is enough to trigger this effect.
- **Resistance Training Improves Full-Body Performance** [03:31] — Full-body resistance training—such as squats and push-ups—improves strength, muscle size, power, endurance, and performance. No gym membership or weights are required.
- **60% of Adults Do Zero Strength Training** [04:17] — The meta-analysis found that nearly 60% of adults do no strength training, leading to muscle breakdown and worsening metabolic health over time.
- **Muscle Is Your Metabolic Insurance Policy** [05:13] — Resistance training improves hemoglobin A1C, the most important long-term blood sugar marker. More muscle means more places to store glucose, preventing it from being stored as fat.
- **Sit-Down-Stand-Up Test Predicts Cardiovascular Risk** [05:51] — A 12-year study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that adults who could sit and stand with the least help had six times lower risk of dying from cardiovascular causes.
- **Squats After Meals Help Glucose Uptake** [11:23] — Performing 25 squats after your biggest meal sends a signal to your body to put that glucose into your muscles instead of storing it as fat.
- **Pair Squats with Protein and Creatine** [13:21] — To maximize muscle building, combine daily squats with 25–30g of protein and 5–10g of creatine. Protein provides amino acids, and creatine energizes the muscles.
- **The 30-Day Challenge: 5 Steps** [17:14] — Commit to 25 squats daily, two strength training sessions per week, protein at the first meal, and 5–10g of creatine for 30 days. Then report your results.

### Conclusion

The video convincingly shows that small daily resistance training, especially 25 squats, can improve muscle mass, metabolic health, and longevity. It offers a simple and effective strategy for those seeking weight loss and long-term wellness.

## Transcript

making at weight loss is believing that they need to lose fat. I know we see the fat in the mirror, we're not really excited about it, but weight loss is actually less about losing [music] fat and it's more about
gaining muscle. Now, hear me out because there's a really interesting study that I want to bring to you. It was a brand new position that was put out by the American College of Sports Medicine, the largest authority in exercise science,
that just reviewed, it was a meta-analysis, over 137 different studies covering 30,000 people. This is a big study. And what they found is it was one specific type of muscle exercise
>> that improved muscle size, it improved balance, it improved gait speed, it improved physical function even at minimal doses. [music] And that was resistance training. And here's the really cool part is that
even in small amounts, if you do resistance training, what we know is it builds muscle to the point that you start burning fat more quickly. And it can be as little as 25 squats a day.
Now, in this video, I want to show you exactly what's happening when you're prioritizing muscle. I want to show you why strength [music] and and functionality is one of the biggest predictors of longevity. And as
promised, I want to show you how these 25 squats a day, when put time 25 squats a day, when put time strategically, can be help you have a stronger metabolism, healthier hormones, and keep you resilient for decades. And
channel, I know you're looking for belly fat loss, I know you're looking for weight loss, [music] and this is like coming in the side door in the front door. I am showing you a hack that is easy and effective, and
maybe the one thing that will unstick all of your weight loss efforts. I all of your weight loss efforts. I promise. Ready? Let's dive in. So, first, let's start to look at what the research start proved because I love
to look at a study and then break it down and go, "Okay, how do we all do this?" Because studies can give us so much insight. So, we had 30,000 people, and the comparison was people who did resistance training compared to people
who did no training. Now, resistance training is like a um where you have to push all the way down and all the way up. You're having to use your muscles through a full range of motion, and usually it's your body
weight. This is why squats are so great. We love the thighs. We love the glutes. Um we love the hamstrings because they are great metabolic organs. They are big. They're bigger than your arms,
especially for women. So, if we can get those legs toned, and you get more muscle there, not only does that look great, but we're actually creating more storage for glucose. Think about that for a moment. If I can
help you figure out how to get those legs strong just by doing something as simple as 25 squats a day, and you build muscle doing that, you have new places
for your body to put glucose, and so it doesn't store it as fat. That's how powerful this is. And so, when they compared these two groups, the resistance training, this isn't just lifting weights. This is full body
resistance training. It improved the the strength, improved the muscle size, the power, the endurance, um and performance all overall. And that um and performance all overall. And that meant this person who did the 25 squats
didn't have to have a gym membership, didn't even have to have a weight. It got you can get that result just from squats alone. Push-ups are great as Now, the second finding that this meta-analysis looked into is what are
adults actually doing right now? And it's really dismal. There's nearly 60% of adults do zero strength training. Put in the comments if it's you. And maybe you've been like, "Ah, I just don't want to pick up a dan- darn weight. I don't
want to do that anymore." So, again, this is a weightless exercise cuz you're to do. And so, what they found in this 60% of
Americans not doing strength training, that over time their muscles were breaking down. And as their muscles broke down because they were like, "I want to lift weights." Their muscles started to break down. They They started
to see that their metabolic system got worse and worse and worse. Muscle is a Which leads me to the third finding of this study, which is muscle is your metabolic insurance policy.
Resistance training movement for individuals has proven to improve hemoglobin A1C, which is the most important long-term marker for blood
sugar control. More muscle, more places to store glucose. Your future self right now is begging you to add more muscle. Your current
self is like, "Really? I don't want to pick up a weight." Put in the comments if that's you. So, right now, I want to talk to your future self there's a 25 study in European European Journal of Preventive
Cardiology that followed over 4,000 adults, and they looked at them for 12 years. And check this out. People who could sit down and stand back up from the floor
with the least amount of help help had six times lower risk of dying from cardiovascular causes than those who struggled with getting down and standing back up. We have a membership group called our reset Academy. Every Saturday
morning, we work out together, and one of the exercises I love to do is what I call sit down stand-ups. We have them Everybody sits down to the right, and then stands up, and then sits down to the left, and then stands up over and
over again, minute on each side. Try it. It You'll start to see where your stiff your hips are stiff. You start to see where you're missing some strength, and you might be using your arms more. It is an incredibly important skill to learn
how to sit down and stand up as you get older, not just for functionality, but what this study tells us is it's incredible for cardiovascular health.
So, we're not just talking about weight loss here. We're talking about your whole cardiovascular system improving. Now, here's what I don't want you to do. So, don't click off this video yet, because some of you are going to go,
"Okay, that's all I need to know. 25. I'll do 25 squats a day." But, I want to you to do. I don't want you to think that this is
going to bulk you up. Most people, over especially women over 40, you're losing muscle every year. So, you're not going to bulk up. I promise you as somebody who's 56 years old, I used to worry about bulking up. Um I'd look at a
weight and I'd get muscular. Now, at 56, I have to really fight for muscle and I lean into resistant training exercises like this. So, don't skip the workout bulk up. Second issue that a lot of women do when
they're trying to lose weight or stay fit is they do cardio only. So, they skip the resistance movements because they're like, "I'm just going to do cardio. I get the endorphin rush, helps my weight." We're talking future
self. We're talking weight loss long-term. We're talking cardiovascular version, healthy cardiovascular system. Think about that person 10, 20, 30 years Think about that person 10, 20, 30 years down the road. That person needs muscle
and you start to create it today by making sure that you are adding in these resistance training exercises. Okay, the other habit that a lot of people think about is They think, "Oh, I'm too old to start
Okay, well, this is interesting for those of you who feel that. There is a position that they actually took with the American uh College of Sports Medicine and they looked at resistance training in uh see if it was safe for
healthy adults of all different ages and they collected data um that included over 11,000 older adults. They didn't say what the age was. And what they found is that if you just started to exercise right now and do
weight resistance training, that there was no serious adverse events from it. I mean, they're squats, for God's sake. We can do squats. We can all do it. We can do it together. We can do it at strategic times. Your muscles are
listening and they're asking to be worked. they think movement only counts if you go to a gym. I personally don't like gyms. I spent my earlier part of my life in in gyms. I
now work out out in nature, and I do mostly resistance training. So, you don't have to have a gym to get these kind of uh results. And a lot of people believe if I do one workout, two workouts a week, that will be enough.
Nope. In if we're going to do these squats, and we're going to do them on a we're going to really want to focus on them being on a regular basis, not just once a week, not even two times a week. I'm going to encourage you to do these
every single day. So, here we go. Here are your five steps. First, today, make a commitment. Put it in the comments, so you're accountable to me. We'll be accountable to each other. How about that? You're going to do 25 bodyweight
squats every single day for the next 30 days. Who's in? Tell me, who's in? I want to I want to get to know you, so we can all do it together. Now, this can all do it together. Now, this doesn't have to be 25 at the same time.
When you're making your coffee in the morning, can you just you know, boil the water, however whatever coffee you make, do five squats whatever coffee you make, do five squats then. Maybe in between Zoom calls. You
know, sitting is so hard on our body. Maybe you just get up and do 10 squats then. Maybe in the afternoon, when you're starting to feel a little bit sluggish, you stand up and you do 10 more squats. So, you can do them any
single time during the day, and 25 could be your daily goal. I'll tell you one of the times that I really like to do squats is after a meal. So, if you all are trying to lose
weight, which many people who come to my channel are trying to achieve, try doing channel are trying to achieve, try doing 25 squats after you your biggest meal. Now, this is a really cool concept because what happens is you eat a meal,
your glucose goes up. Now, that glucose has to go somewhere, right? Insulin starts to go up. It the glucose and insulin hook together and their insulin hook together and their preferred place to go is muscle.
And if you are low in muscle, then what your body will do is it'll store it in your body will do is it'll store it in fat. But if after a big meal, you do 25 squats, you are sending a message to your thighs and to your brain saying,
"Hey, that glucose I just that meal I just ate, put it in my muscles. Use it for activity." So, I personally, if you're going to do the 30-day challenge, I highly recommend you do it after a meal. It's going to be
the best for your weight loss goals. Second step I want you to think about is Second step I want you to think about is making sure every squat counts. So, a lot of you are going to find that you just go through those squats really
fast. I'm going to ask that you slow down. That you try to get your butt equal with your knees. So, if you need to look in a mirror, try to get that butt down so that your it's parallel with your knees.
And you're going to go slow. Because you want to go slow down and slow up, it's going to work that muscle a lot more than if you speed through these squats. Um it's it is one of the tricks with
resistance training I highly recommend so that you get the most out of it. You're just looking at doing 25. Okay. Step number three is we want with our squats with our slow squats, I'm going
to start calling them slow squats, with our slow squats that we're doing every single day, you're going to start to make sure that you're increasing your protein and your creatine. Protein is packed with amino acids.
And those amino acids are building blocks for muscles. So, we've got to get amino acids into you so you can get the most out of this this study that proves you can actually build muscle with as little as 25
squats. So, on average, you're looking at 25 to 30 g of protein a day. You're looking at eating that protein earlier in the day so that it sends a signal of fullness to your brain.
And if you combine that protein with fiber, it will slow down the absorption of the glucose into your system so that your body can methodically start to put
that glucose into your muscle. So, squats alone are amazing, but combine them with protein and now you have really created a scenario where you can build muscle. Now, for my menopausal women,
out that everybody loves with good reason and it's called creatine. And when estrogen started to go down, you started to lose creatine. I wrote Age Like a Girl for those of you who want to dive into that.
And creatine, you Yeah, you get it in animal protein. So, if you're a plant-based human um and you've gone through menopause, I want to remind you that you definitely are going to need more creatine. But creatine energizes
the muscles. My favorite creatine is Qualia. It's like a soft powder that I mix in my coffee every morning. I don't taste it. You can mix it in water. Um I'll leave links for it, but this I've I tested so many creatine products and
this is absolutely my favorite. I do a lot of swimming, which is another form of resistance training and the mornings that I put 10 g of creatine in
my coffee, I can feel my paddling strength so much stronger. So, give it a give it a try. Otherwise, you can get creatine in eggs, you can get it in
So, you just want to make sure that you're intentionally leaning into that. I have charts in Age Like a Girl on sources of creatine that you can dip into there. Step number four.
This 25 squats. I want you to build it on two strength I want you to build it on two strength training sessions a week. So, maybe one session a week you're going to really try to strengthen your glutes and your
and your quadriceps and your hamstrings by doing lunges and squats and step-ups. You can do this holding a weight, totally great. But, you might want to add on to the strengthening of your lower body in
these squats by doing one strength training session where you actually are holding on to a weight. It's going to make those 25 much easier. Then the second day, maybe you do arms and you're going to lift arms whatever
style of arms you want. So, I'm not recommending that you look at this as a complete avoidance of other strength training. You can if you want, but I'm
encouraging you to take one step further and actually two days a week to lift those weights so you get the more muscle and you with more muscle, you're going to have a better metabolic experience. So, I throw that out as an opportunity
Okay, step number five. Here's a big one. I really want you to challenge one. I really want you to challenge yourself and do a 30-day program. My point for doing these videos is to improve your life. So, I want you to do
improve your life. So, I want you to do 25 squats for 30 days. I want you to do two days a week of strength training. One is lower body, one is upper body. I want you to focus on your protein
earlier in the day, first meal of the day, you're getting 25 to 30 g of day, you're getting 25 to 30 g of protein. I want you to do five to 10 g of creatine a day. And I want you to do that for 30 days.
And then I want you to come back to this video and I want you to report what you noticed. I am going convinced that weight loss is not about discipline. The more I research, the more certain I am of that.
I am absolutely convinced that longevity is not about you getting the next fancy biohack. It is strategy. And this 30-day routine that I just mapped out for you is one of the best strategies I know for not just
building muscle, but for improving your metabolic health, for improving your cognitive ability. When you break muscle down, you form something called BDNF, which is like miracle grow for your brain. And I can't wait to see who you
meet at the end of that 30 days. So, let me know in the comments if you're taking my 30-day challenge. Here are your five quick tips action steps you can do right now if you are like, "Oh my god, I'm totally
Here they are. 25 body squats every single day. You can break them down into small sets. Second one, you're going to do these squats slow and you're going to pause when they start to burn, you can pause
Number three, you're going to feed your muscle signals with protein and creatine. Number four, you're adding two structured sessions a week um so that
you can start to improve other metabolic strength markers like upper upper body markers. And number five, we're going to do it for 30 days. Easy easy, y'all. This is not rocket scientist and I can't wait to see who
you're going to be 30 days from now. So don't give up your on yourself. I know you've tried a lot of things. This may be the magic thing that turns your health around. As always, I hope that helps. If you like this
video, you're going to want to check out the next one.