The Eat Build Sculpt Podcast

Can you build a bigger butt and a smaller waist? It’s a question I get all the time, because the hourglass is the shape so many of you are after.

The short answer is yes, it’s possible, with a few caveats. Some of it you have a lot of control over, and some of it you don’t. In this episode I walk through both. I also cover the biggest mistake I see women make when they go after this shape, and I give you a clear plan for working toward it.

What you’ll learn

• What’s set by your anatomy and what muscle can actually change
• The biggest mistake I see: piling on glute volume while eating too little
• Why being sore all the time isn’t proof you’re building muscle
• How I structure training volume inside Stuck to Sculpted
• Why you can’t expect fast fat loss while eating enough to build muscle, and why that doesn’t mean you’ll stay stuck
• How clients lose inches off their waist while eating more
• Who might benefit from a slight surplus, and what to expect if you try one
• How long muscle takes to build
• The three-part plan: how to eat, how to train glutes and shoulders, and how to progress
• Why you should stop prioritizing fat loss, and when a moderate deficit comes in

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Today I’m pulling out my BS radar. Always a fun time.

There is always a new trend, a new fad, a new “thing” — and most of them have just enough truth behind them to be convincing. That’s actually what makes them such effective marketing. A small, real kernel of truth gets amplified into a universal prescription, stripped of all nuance, and sold to women who are desperate for results.

In this episode I’m calling out eight specific fitness and nutrition trends I don’t believe in — why they have the traction they do, what the research actually says, and what I’d suggest instead. I’m also sharing some personal accountability here, because some of these are things I’ve tried myself and had to change my mind on.

What you’ll learn

• Why intermittent fasting “works” for weight loss — and why that has nothing to do with the fasting itself
• Why any diet that eliminates an entire food group produces results for the same reason every other diet does — and what it costs you in the process
• Proxy tracking systems that overcomplicate calories and macros and simply get things wrong
• Why gluten and dairy elimination is mostly unnecessary for most women — and how to tell if you actually need it
• Carb cycling: who it’s actually designed for, why it’s not the average woman, and what consistency beats every time
• The fitness devices and accessories category: weighted vests, vibration plates, continuous glucose monitors — what the evidence actually supports and what’s just novelty
• Perimenopause and cortisol supplements: the grain of truth, the massive overreach in marketing, and what the real solution to chronic stress actually looks like
• GLP-1s and microdosing: not an anti-medication stance — but an honest conversation about what happens when you come off them and why the mental struggle is real
• AI-generated workout and nutrition plans: why AI is fundamentally biased toward you, the hypertrophy-to-cardio experiment I personally ran, and what a good coach does that AI simply cannot

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Perimenopause is everywhere right now — in your Instagram feed, in supplement ads, in wellness content, in the mainstream media. And the message being marketed to women in their 40s is essentially this: your body is changing, the things that used to work don’t anymore, and you need special products and special protocols to navigate it.

But actually, a lot of that is bullshit. And in this episode I’m calling it out.

This isn’t an episode that dismisses what’s real about perimenopause — the hormonal changes are real, and they do affect the environment in which you’re trying to lose fat and build muscle. But the fundamentals haven’t changed. And today I’m breaking down exactly what is and isn’t different, why women don’t need a specialized peri supplement stack or a specialized peri workout plan, and what actually works for body recomposition in this phase of life.

What you’ll learn

• What perimenopause actually is — and why it’s not one universal experience
• Why estrogen doesn’t just steadily decline — and why the unpredictability of the early stages is what drives a lot of the symptoms women experience
• What progesterone does and why its earlier decline matters for sleep, anxiety, and water retention
• Why not everything a woman experiences after 40 is perimenopause — and the lifestyle factors that are often the real culprit
• How the perimenopausal environment affects cortisol regulation — and why this matters more than most fitness content acknowledges
• Why under-eating in perimenopause tends to make things worse, not better — and why aggressive restriction is especially counterproductive in this phase
• What actually works: the specific approach to training, nutrition, and recovery I recommend — and why it’s not as complicated as the industry wants you to believe
• The honest conversation about HIIT, alcohol, and sleep that most coaches skip
• Why you don’t need a special perimenopause supplement, workout plan, or nutrition protocol — and how to spot the marketing designed to make you think you do

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Enrollment for Stuck to Sculpted is open now. Apply at https://kassiebethfitness.com/coaching.

Every year, the holidays go one of two ways. You either white-knuckle it through — staying in a deficit, saying no to everything, feeling guilty every time you slip — and still end up off track by Thanksgiving. Or you check out entirely because it's "that time of year" and January feels like a fresh start.

What if there was a third option? One where you actually enjoyed the season, didn't feel guilty once, and came out the other side in a better position than when you started?

That's exactly what I cover in this episode. October through December is my favorite season in Stuck to Sculpted — and in this episode I explain why, and how you can use the next three months as a building and priming phase that sets your body up for real, effective fat loss in 2027.

What you'll learn

• How to use this season as a "priming phase" and what that actually involves
• How to treat Q4 as an intentional, strategic phase in your overall plan
• Why the holiday season is the best time to focus on building, and the worst time for a deficit (usually)

Enrollment for Stuck to Sculpted is open now.

Q4 is the best time to start — because this is almost certainly the phase your body needs first anyway. Work with me to build your calorie capacity, establish real consistency, and prime your body for the results you want next year.

Apply at https://kassiebethfitness.com/coaching

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Please don't tune out when I say this, but a lot of you are doing too much. And it's actually costing you the body you want.

Today's episode is about recovery — specifically, why the "more is more" approach that most women have been following since their twenties is working directly against them, especially as their hormones start to shift. The truth is that at some point, adding more workouts, more cardio, more steps, and more intensity stops producing additional results and starts taking them away. And learning to recognize that point — and pull back before you cross it — is one of the most important things you can do for your body composition right now.

This is the episode that sounds counterintuitive and might just be exactly what you need to hear.

What you'll learn

• Why my minimalist approach to my home, my business, and my life directly shaped my approach to fitness
• The point of diminishing returns in fitness: where adding more stops producing benefit and starts subtracting from your results
• Why your body doesn't change during your workout — it changes after — and what that means for how often you should actually be training
• What a real rest day looks like
• Why advanced women fall into the trap of thinking they need more complicated, varied, or intense workouts to keep seeing results
• The sleep conversation and how to handle the early morning workouts
• How to keep your routine for your mental health without overdoing your training
• Why working for two competing goals makes recovery harder
• Why under-fueling on top of over-training creates a compounding stress effect that is working against you in every possible way
• Why this all becomes even more critical in perimenopause — and what changes about how your body handles stress, cortisol, and recovery as your hormones shift

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Women go into a calorie deficit and feel miserable. They don't see the results they expected — or they see no results at all. They either give up or white-knuckle through it and still end up frustrated and stuck. And most of the time, it's not that they're not trying hard enough. It's that they're making one or more of the mistakes I'm covering today.

This episode is for you if you've ever attempted a fat loss phase and wondered why it didn't work the way it was supposed to, or if you're planning a fat loss phase in the future and want to make sure it's successful. I'm walking through the eight most common mistakes I see — from my own experience coaching real women through this.

What you'll learn

• Why going into a deficit before your body is actually ready is the most common and most damaging mistake — and the TDEE calculator test you can do right now to find out if this is you
• Why a deficit without a planned end date almost always ends in adaptation, adherence breakdown, or both — and what a properly time-bound fat loss phase actually looks like
• Why moderate is almost always better than aggressive when it comes to your calorie deficit — and the specific range I use with my clients.
• Why precision matters more in a fat loss phase than in any other phase — and the tracking habits that are quietly closing your energy gap without you realizing it
• The carb-slashing mistake that produces fast scale results and slower actual fat loss — and what I do with macros instead when transitioning from maintenance into a deficit
• Why a deficit is supposed to feel uncomfortable — and the practical strategies that make the discomfort manageable without abandoning the plan
• Why increasing your training volume during a fat loss phase is working against you — and what recovery actually requires when you're under-fueled
• The GLP-1 culture problem: why the expectation of rapid weight loss is costing women the body they actually want

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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You're lifting. You're tracking. You're getting your steps and hitting your protein. You're doing all the things. So why isn't your body changing the way you expected?

Here's what I think is actually going on — and it might not be what you think. The problem isn't your consistency. For most of you, your consistency is actually better than you realize. The problem is your strategy. And more specifically: not having one that's actually designed for what your body needs right now.

In this episode I'm breaking down why doing the right things and doing things right are two completely different things — and why the stitched-together "Frankenstein plan" most women are working off of is keeping them stuck no matter how hard they try.

Free live training — register now

If this episode felt like I was talking directly to you, I'm hosting a free live training called How to Finally Look Like You Work Out — specifically about the different phases your body actually needs to lose fat, build muscle, and get that visible definition, especially after 35.

The training is live on Wednesday, September 23rd at 1PM Eastern on Zoom. Even if you can't make it live, register to get the replay.

Register here → kassiebethfitness.com/the-phases-training

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Cortisol support. Hormone balance. Metabolism support. Debloat. Menopause belly. Natural GLP-1 support. Fat burners. Gut reset.

Sound familiar? If you spend any time in the health and fitness space on social media, you are being sold something constantly — and the marketing has gotten very good at making you feel like you're one purchase away from fixing the thing that's been holding you back.

This episode is my honest, no-BS breakdown of supplements specifically through the lens of body composition: is this [insert product] actually going to help you build muscle, lose fat, or meaningfully improve your body composition?

I cover what's worth it, what's genuinely overhyped, and the filter I run every supplement through before spending a dollar on it.

Note: nothing in this episode is medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional before adding supplements, especially if you take medications or have underlying health conditions.

What you'll learn

• Why no supplement can compensate for not doing the foundational work, and the specific pattern I see with with women who are spending money on products before ever executing the basics
• Why the more complicated a supplement company makes the problem sound, the more likely you are to hand over your money
• Protein powder: what makes whey a complete protein, and what to look for in a plant-based option
• Creatine monohydrate: the most well-researched performance supplement that exists — what it actually does, why women should stop being afraid of it, and the bloating question answered directly
• Pre-workout: what the performance effect is actually coming from, the timing issue that matters more than most women realize, and why more stimulant is not automatically better
• Amino acids (BCAAs and EAAs): the honest answer on whether you actually need them
• Vitamin D: the association vs. causation lesson that explains how one legitimate finding gets twisted into a fat-loss claim
• Berberine and the "natural GLP-1" trend: what the research actually shows, why calling it "nature's Ozempic" is one of the most irresponsible claims in the supplement space, and who it might actually be appropriate for
• Fat burners and metabolism boosters: the full honest breakdown — including my direct take on where that money would be better spent
• Cortisol support, debloat, hormone balance, and perimenopause blends: the marketing pattern behind all of these products, and the most important distinction — a supplement helping a symptom is not the same as a supplement causing fat loss
• The five-question supplement filter I run before buying anything — including the one question that will save you more money than anything else in the episode

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Carbs. The most feared macronutrient in the fitness space — and honestly, the most misunderstood. Women are still scared of bread, terrified of pasta, eating the burger without the bun.

But carbohydrates are not the problem. They never were. And in this episode I'm breaking down what carbs actually do in your body, why they're essential for the training that creates the physique you want, and why so much of what you've been told about carbs and fat gain, bloating, and insulin just isn't accurate.

Consider this your permission to order the pasta.

What you'll learn

• How carbohydrates got blamed for a problem they didn't create — and what actually was the issue all along
• The insulin argument: why "carbs spike insulin → insulin stores fat → carbs make you fat" is a massive oversimplification of how your body actually works
• What your body does with carbohydrates once you eat them
• Why muscle glycogen is so critical for women who lift — and what happens to your training when carbs are chronically too low
• Why women say carbs make them bloated, and the real reason that's happening (hint: it's not the carbs)
• Simple vs. complex carbs: why white carbs aren't bad and when simple carbs are actually the smarter choice
• My take on keto — why using fat for fuel doesn't actually mean losing body fat
• Do you need fewer carbs on rest days? The carb cycling question answered directly
• How much of your diet should actually come from carbohydrates — and why so many women are getting this backwards

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Maintenance. Most women hear that word and think: boring holding pattern, nothing is happening, this is just where I sit between real phases. Or they think it's the destination — the mythical land they'll arrive at when they finally hit their goal.

Both of those ideas are wrong. And in this episode I'm dismantling them completely.

Maintenance — what I actually call the building phase, or sometimes the optimization phase — is one of the most powerful and most underutilized phases in the body recomposition process. And most women have never truly been in it. They've been dieting or overeating or both. But intentional, sustained, true maintenance? For most women I work with, that's a completely new experience. And it's usually exactly what their body has been waiting for.

What you'll learn

• Why maintenance is not a destination you arrive at when you've finally earned it — it's a tool you use strategically at multiple points throughout your journey
• Why you can't build meaningful muscle in a prolonged calorie deficit
• Who actually needs a maintenance phase right now — including the women who are convinced they need to lose 10–15 pounds but actually don't
• Why maintenance is NOT set it and forget it — the slippery slope that turns a building phase into unintentional weight gain
• What changes in maintenance: the metrics you should actually be measuring, and why the scale is no longer the scoreboard
• What to expect when you first increase to maintenance calories — including why the scale will come up and why that is not something to panic about
• How maintenance can genuinely transform your relationship with food
• The difference between your calculated TDEE and your true maintenance

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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This one is different. I'm talking all about consistency, but not in the way you might expect. No habit tracker. No five-step morning routine. No checklist.

Because consistency isn't just about what you do — it's about who you become. And until we address the identity piece underneath all the tactics, the tactics never really stick.

In this episode I get personal. I was not an athlete. I had no physical identity growing up. I struggled with emotional eating and binge cycles from a young age, and I spent years starting over every Monday. What changed for me wasn't a better program or a different strategy — it was a deliberate decision to start acting like the fit person before I felt like her. Before I had her results. Before anyone around me would have called me that.

That's what this episode is about. And it might be the most important conversation we've had on this podcast yet.

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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There is so much nutrition fear circulating right now — some of it leftover from diet culture, some of it brand new and wrapped in health language — and I watch women build their entire approach to eating around claims that have little to no scientific basis. They're avoiding things they don't need to avoid, adding things they don't need to add, getting more confused and restricted with every new trend, and still not seeing results.

Today I'm cutting through the BS. Nine of the most common nutrition myths I see derailing women from their body recomposition goals — debunked with science, flavored with my personal experience, and delivered with zero fluff.

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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You're going to the gym. You're getting stronger. You're using heavier weights than you were six months ago. So why do you still look in the mirror and feel like you don't look like someone who lifts?

This is one of the most common frustrations I hear from women — and it's one I lived myself for a long time. In this episode I'm breaking down exactly why strength training isn't translating into the visible muscle definition and body composition you're after, and what actually needs to change.

This one gets specific. And it might make you rethink everything about how you've been approaching your training.

What you'll learn

• The most important distinction in fitness that most women have never been taught: the difference between training and just completing workouts — and which one you're actually doing
• Why the number on your Apple Watch, the sweat on your shirt, and the soreness the next day have nothing to do with whether you actually stimulated muscle growth
• What "dang near failure" means and why your working sets need to get there
• Why form isn't just about avoiding injury — it's about making sure the right muscle is actually doing the work (and the sneaky ways your body compensates to avoid doing that)
• The mind-muscle connection: what it actually means, why it matters more than you think, and how to develop it
• Why the layer of body fat sitting over your muscle is the real reason you can't see the definition you've built — and what has to happen nutritionally for that to change
• Why recovery and sleep are not optional extras — they're where the actual results are built
• The GLP-1 comparison trap: why body recomposition is a fundamentally different process than rapid weight loss and why comparing your timeline to someone else's is wrecking your mindset
• The hard truth about how long this actually takes — especially if you've spent years or decades in diet culture

If you're tired of putting in the work and not seeing the results — and you're ready for a strategy shift, not just more motivation — apply for Stuck to Sculpted at kassiebethfitness.com/coaching.

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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If you regularly feel bloated, puffy, or like your body changes dramatically from one day to the next, this episode is for you. I dive into the difference between digestive bloating and water retention, why puffiness doesn’t automatically mean inflammation, and the everyday factors that may be contributing to how you feel.

In this episode, I cover:

• How inconsistent eating, under-fueling, and changing your carbohydrate intake can affect water retention
• The role of stress, intense exercise, poor recovery, and inadequate sleep
• How ultra-processed foods, alcohol, fiber, and hydration can affect bloating
• Why eliminating gluten, dairy, or other foods shouldn’t automatically be your first step
• How your menstrual cycle and perimenopause can change your digestion, appetite, and scale weight
• Why some bloating and day-to-day fluctuation is completely normal

The goal isn’t to maintain a perfectly flat stomach every hour of every day. It’s to understand what your body may be responding to, recognize repeatable patterns, and address the habits you can actually control.

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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You've calculated your deficit. You've been tracking. The scale was moving — and then it stopped. Or maybe it never moved at all. And now you're convinced your body just doesn't respond to a calorie deficit the way it's supposed to.

Here's what I want you to know before we get into it: a calorie deficit is scientifically required for weight loss — no exceptions. But there's a big difference between thinking you're in a deficit and actually being in one. And even when you are, there are specific things that can make it stop working or appear to not be working at all.

After coaching hundreds of women, I've narrowed it down to three main reasons, plus a bonus tip that applies to more women than you'd think.

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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The fitness industry is very comfortable talking about the outer game — the macros, the training, the steps, the measurable things. And those things matter. But they're only half of what determines your results.

The other half is the inner game. How you respond when something goes off plan. What happens inside you when the scale does something you didn't expect. Whether one bad meal turns into a bad day, a bad week, or a bad month. That emotional side of the body recomposition journey is responsible for more stalled progress than any macro mistake or missed workout ever was.

This episode is personal. I share things I haven't talked about much on this podcast — including where my own inner game used to break down, what negative self-talk looked like for me for years, and the specific trigger patterns I had to identify and rewire to get out of my own way. I also get practical — with specific tools and mindset shifts you can start using right now.

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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We're wrapping up the Macros 101 series with the part that actually stumps people the most — how to apply macro tracking in real life. In this episode, I get into the real-life logistics: what app to actually use, why chasing perfect numbers is a losing game, and what to do when you're at a restaurant that isn't in the app or a cookout where tracking feels impossible.

In this episode:

• Why tracking is awareness, not restriction
• The app I still recommend after years of tracking, and why I'm cautious about AI photo-scan apps
• The real margin-of-error targets for protein, carbs, and fat
• What to do when you're somewhere you can't track
• How to make the right call when your plan falls apart
• Tips for keeping tracking simple and sustainable
• How to avoid the slippery slope after one untracked meal
• What to do when it comes to family meals

Loved this series? Subscribe and leave a review — it helps other women find the show. And if you're ready for someone to take the guesswork out of your numbers entirely, the link to apply for Stuck to Sculpted is below.

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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I just got back from a week at the beach with my family — and I promised I'd come back and tell you exactly how I handled it. So that's what today is. No generic advice. Just exactly what I did and how I approached the week so that I could enjoy the vacation without feeling like I'd "undone" all my progress. If you have any trips planned this summer, this episode will help you navigate your nutrition, movement, and mindset so you can enjoy it without guilt.

What you'll learn

• The single most important decision to make before any trip — and why making it in advance changes everything
• The difference between a "YOLO trip" and a mindful trip — and how to know which one is right for you
• The fat gain math that takes all the post-vacation panic off the table (and why you should never get on the scale the day you get home)
• What I actually ate on this trip — including the breakfast and lunch strategy that left plenty of room for dinner splurges
• Why I did exactly one workout the entire week — and why that was the right call
• The gas station snack mistake that quietly blows a lot of calories on travel days (and what to grab instead)
• Why the vacation itself rarely derails people — and what actually does
• The two things I did the day I got home that made all the difference

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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Body recomposition is slow. It's supposed to be slow. And if you've been doing the work for weeks or months and find yourself wondering why the changes aren't showing up faster, this episode is for you. I get into why the fitness industry has conditioned us to expect rapid results, why that expectation is actively working against you, and why the real reason you're stalling is your own self-sabotage.

What you'll learn

• Why body recomposition is supposed to be slower than you think — and what that's actually a sign of
• How the fitness industry profits from selling quick & easy
• Why women who lose weight quickly almost never keep it off long-term
• What's really going on metabolically for women who come to Stuck to Sculpted after years of yo-yo dieting
• The non-scale wins that actually signal progress — and why you need to start looking for them
• The pattern that quietly derails more results than slow progress ever does

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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School's out, the schedule's blown up, and summer is officially here — which means more trips, more events, more ice cream, and a lot of anxiety about losing the progress you've worked for all year.

This episode was inspired by real conversations I'm having with my clients right now: how do you stay consistent when everything about your routine is changing? How do you enjoy the summer — actually enjoy it, fully, without guilt — and still come out the other side feeling good about where you are?

I cover the practical side: how to adjust your training when you can't get to the gym as often, what to do with your nutrition depending on what phase you're in, and why scaling back your workouts this summer might actually help your results. But I also get into the mindset piece, which I think matters more than any of the tactics.

What you'll learn

• Why summer is actually a great time to scale back your training — and why that might improve your results rather than hurt them
• How to build a three or four day summer split that still hits your priorities
• Why full body workouts are usually just cardio in disguise — and what to do instead
• What to do with your nutrition if you're currently in a deficit, at maintenance, or heading into a season of more social eating
• Why strategic diet breaks aren't cheating — they're smart, and how I schedule them for her clients around summer travel
• The mindset shift around food and joy that changed everything for me — and why "just live a little" means something completely different to me than what it used to
• Why she stopped chasing the "food fix" — and what she found on the other side of that

➡️ To learn about working with me, check out Stuck to Sculpted Coaching.

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