Episode #137: How Chat GPT Can Help In Your Weight Loss Journey

What if you had a 24/7 weight loss companion that could help you plan meals, stay motivated, and troubleshoot challenges—all at your fingertips?

In this episode of Conquer Your Weight, Dr. Sarah Stombaugh explores how ChatGPT, an AI conversation tool, can support you on your weight loss journey. From meal planning to mindset coaching, ChatGPT can act as an accountability partner and source of personalized ideas whenever you need it.

You’ll learn:
 - Practical ways to use ChatGPT for meal planning, journaling, and motivation.
 - How to leverage AI to troubleshoot weight loss barriers and stay consistent.
 - The limitations of AI—and why it’s a supplement to, not a replacement for, professional care.

Whether you’re curious about AI or looking for new ways to stay on track, this episode will give you simple, actionable ways to use technology as an ally in your health journey.

Listen now and discover how to make ChatGPT a powerful tool for your weight loss success!

Ready to lose weight? We're enrolling patients now for in-person visits in Charlottesville, Virginia and for telemedicine throughout the states of Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Visit www.sarahstombaughmd.com to learn more and get started today. 

Transcript

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh 0:00

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh: Before we get into the episode, I am thrilled to announce we are launching an online course, The GLP Guide. The GLP guide is a must have resource for patients who have been prescribed any of the GLP medications such as Wegovy, Ozempic, semaglutide, Zepbound, Mounjaro, tirzepatide, Saxenda, liraglutide. There are a lot of them and this course is available for anyone to purchase. We often hear from people who haven't been given much information about their GLP medications. No one has told them how to handle side effects, what nutrition recommendations they should follow, or what to expect in the long term. And it can be really intimidating and simply frustrating to feel like you're alone in your weight loss journey. With the GLP guide, you'll get access to all of the answers to the most common questions for patients using GLP medications, not sure how to use your pen, struggling with nausea, wondering how to travel with your medications. We've got you covered for only $97 for one year access. This is an opportunity you do not want to miss. The course is launching on October 1st. For more information and to sign up, please visit www.sarahstombaughmd.com/glp. You don't have to be on this journey alone. We are here to guide you. And now for today’s episode. This is Dr. Sarah Stambaugh, and you are listening to the Conquer Your Weight Podcast. Announcer: Welcome to the Conquer Your Weight Podcast, where you will learn to understand your mind and body so you can achieve long-term weight loss. Here's your host, obesity medicine physician and life coach, Dr. Sarah Stambaugh. Dr. Sarah Stombaugh: Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Conquer Your Weight podcast. We are talking about a very relevant topic, and I'm kind of surprised we haven't talked about it before, which is chat GPT or utilizing AI in your weight loss journey. Now, as I was saying, this is super timely. People have been talking about all of the different AI products left and right, how to utilize them in many different contexts. And today we're going to talk about that with chat GBT in your weight loss journey. What are some of the different ways that you can use it? What are some of the different limitations? And I look at this as a tool that partners really nicely alongside of a professional weight loss journey, you know, with a physician, maybe with other professionals like registered dietitians or psychologists or whomever it is that you need in your health journey. And it can be a really amazing tool before we dive into today's episode. I would love to have you invite a friend or someone else in your life with whom to share this podcast episode. If you have been listening to this podcast and enjoying it, I would really love if you could share this with someone else in your life. It would really mean the world to me to get this episode and this podcast into the ears of even more people. So thank you so much in advance for sharing it and for everyone who already does. I so, so appreciate that. I love watching my listenership grow. I am so appreciative to everyone who downloads these episodes week over week. And if you've been listening, if you have topics you want me to talk about, I would love to create content for you. So always feel free to email us at info at sarahstombaumd.com. And I would love to create that to help you in your weight loss journey. So let's dive in talking about ChatGPT in your weight loss journey. And let's talk about what is ChatGPT. So today I'm specifically using the brand name ChatGPT, but this can apply to any of the AI tools. ChatGPT is one of the most popular ones and does have a free and very usable free version available. So it is a really nice starting place if you are looking to use AI. Now, if you have another AI tool that you use and that you like, you can absolutely trial doing this with their platform as well. But this episode, I actually outlined using ChatGPT and then some of the prompts that it suggested. I plugged those in and I'm going to share the responses that it gave. One of the things with ChatGPT is there's the free version. There's also an upgraded version and you can sort of train your ChatGPT over time. What I thought was really important was that I would use the free version and an untrained version of AI in order to create this episode and create some of the content and share what it gave in terms of feedback. And so this will look very similar to you plugging in prompts to ChatGPT and seeing what comes back. So these AI tools are designed for conversation, for problem solving. And in the weight loss world, they can be really helpful in a lot of different ways, whether it's meal planning, whether it's like an accountability partner, ChatGPT can help to provide that. If you've ever, if you've never used it before, just do an internet search for ChatGPT. It's made by the company OpenAI. So you may find that come up when you go to download it. But you can basically just sign, I say download, but you'll just visit the web browser. You could do it on an app on your phone or in a web browser. And you don't even have to have a username and password, but I do recommend doing that because it can save the stuff that you do over and over again. And then you can go back and look at it. And then you can, like I said, sort of train it over time. So this is this AI tool where it's searching all of the internet. It's using all of the data that is available to it to help give you feedback and create answers or give you answers to problems that you have. And so I think there's a likelihood you know, I think some of the patients in my practice are already doing this. We sometimes utilize ChatGPT and brainstorming with our patients of different snack ideas or high protein ideas or, you know, accountability ideas and that type of thing. And so it can be really a great tool and something you can use alongside of your professional weight loss journey. The nice thing about chat GPT is it's available 24/7. So you can log in at any time, you can get instant answers and you can tweak it, give feedback and sort of have a back and forth conversation with it. So this instant access of personalized information, like I said, there's this back and forth so you can give feedback and make adaptations. You know, it gives you a meal plan and you're like, oh, I hate eggs. And then it gives you a variation of a similar meal plan, but without eggs perhaps. And so you can give it feedback and tweak it. And then, but clarify, of course, like, this is not medical advice. And so I want to make sure that you're aware this is a really nice compliment, but it's just that it is a compliment. So I asked ChatGPT, what are some different practical ways that patients could use ChatGPT in their journey? And it came up with five for meal planning and recipes, for tracking and accountability, for education and quick answers, for mindset and motivation, and for problem solving and barriers. Now, as I mentioned, we use this a lot actually for meal planning and recipes. And this is a really fun way, especially if you're feeling in a rut and you're like, oh my gosh, what am I going to cook for dinner tonight? I can't even think of any foods. Maybe you're taking a GLP medication, and the idea of food is just kind of, ugh. And the idea of sitting there and thinking about it and brainstorming just does not appeal at all. This is where you can outsource those thoughts a little bit to plan it. So you can give it some prompts. So an example prompt They had was give me a seven-day high protein meal plan and under 1800 calories. And so I gave it that prompt actually gave it a second prompt as well asking under 1200 calories. So especially if you're maybe you've had bariatric surgery, maybe you're on a GLP journey, and your calories are going to be quite a bit lower. It's hard because patients in my practice know I am not the biggest fan of calorie counting. I think it's easy to overestimate. It's easy to underestimate. Our calorie counting is not always very accurate unless we're weighing our food. And even if our calorie counting is very accurate, the challenge that comes up is that we don't always know the amount of calories that we're burning per day. Nonetheless, you can throw in just a general recommendation of, and this was its own suggestion, seven days. of a high protein meal plan under 1800 calories. And then I gave it the second one of seven day high protein meal plan under 1200 calories. And this is what it came up with. So I'm going to read back to you what it said. This is a plan with simple meals using whole foods to balance protein across meals to support satiety and muscle maintenance, which that sounds pretty good. That's exactly what we're looking for. The calories here, of course, it's going to be hard to get exactly 1200. So they aimed for 1150 to 1200. So kind of a range there with 100 to 110 grams of protein. In this meal, there were three meals and a snack with a note that you can adjust portions to meet your specific needs. And I would say lean into that. This is where we do not want to outsource our brains. We want to also pay attention to our bodies, pay attention to the way food is feeling in our bodies, also pay attention to your preferences. So if it gives you different recommendations of things you hate, please don't just go eat those things. Ask it to add its recommendation, give it some of your preferences. so that you can get that information. So without giving it any information about my preferences, my allergies, anything like that, what it gave me was 1,200 calories, or less than 1,200 calories, at least 100 grams of protein, here is day one. Three quarters cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt with half a scoop of protein powder and a quarter cup of blueberries. Sounds pretty good. Lunch, four ounces of grilled chicken breast with two cups of mixed cream, one tablespoon of vinaigrette, and half a cup of cucumbers. Snack, two hard-boiled eggs. Dinner, five ounces of baked salmon, one cup of roasted cauliflower, and half a cup of steamed green beans. So this is just pulling all of the data from the plan that is going to meet those recommendations. I'm not going to read all seven days, but let me read another one just so you see a different example because it actually gave you seven days with seven totally completely different foods. So here is 1,190 calories, 105 grams of protein. Breakfast is three scrambled egg whites with one whole egg, spinach, and half of a slice of light cheese. Lunch is tuna salad made with three ounces of canned tuna in water, plus one tablespoon light mayonnaise and celery on two rice cakes. A snack is a protein shake with one scoop of whey protein plus unsweetened almond milk. And dinner is four ounces of grilled turkey breast, plus roasted broccoli and half of a cup of riced cauliflower. So again, you look at these two different days, giving you some different suggestions. And even if you don't end up following these meal plans exactly, you could go through and look at, okay, what are some of the different breakfast options here? What are the different lunch options? And pull out one or two of your favorites. A lot of us are people that can eat sort of the same couple of meals on rotation. There are people who love to have variety and love to have so many different things every single day, but the reality is that makes it unnecessarily complex and confusing. My advice is stick to your favorites, have a couple of favorite breakfast, maybe two or three that you alternate throughout the week and utilize those in order to build your meal plan rather than always feeling like you have to have something new. But these were some really great ideas and it did give me a full seven days, like I said, with four meals at each day or three meals and a snack and every single day had totally different meals meeting those requirements. So really great option for brainstorming. The next thing, the next idea is tracking and accountability. And so using daily check-ins or you can journal some of your different things to get feedback. A lot of times in the practice, we're talking about paying attention to which foods nourish our body. A lot of times I will utilize food logging alongside a hunger and satiety scale, and it can be really powerful to start to see things like okay, one day I had oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast and I noticed that two hours later I was really hungry for some sort of mid-morning snack versus on a day that I had two eggs and half of an avocado, I felt satiated for a longer period of time. And so looking at principles of what is the protein, what is the fat, what are the things that are creating both initial satiety as well as lasting satiety and starting to lean into what are my food preferences what are the things I’m already doing and how do i make the choices to lean into the ones that are working really well for me that are creating satiety that last for a longer period of time and so we will pay attention to some of those patterns that happen over time but you can pull this in share it with ChatGPT and ask them also to give you feedback of patterns or even you know let's say you had an emotional eating episode and want to reflect on that this can be really powerful. A lot of times when we're reflecting on our own, it can be really easy to jump into shame or guilt or to just sort of gloss over it and not spend any time with this. This is something that during clinical visits, I'm often workshopping with patients, challenges that they had, days that went not according to plan, episodes of binge eating or overeating when they had certainly not planned to. And it's powerful because to reflect that with another person, whether it is an obesity medicine physician, a health psychologist, a health coach, lots of different people who may be trained in this, but it is something that you could do with chat GPT as well. And so, uh, I gave it a prompt. Let me read it to you here. So this is my prompt. Last night, I binged on a whole bag of Oreos after putting the kids to bed and a stressful day of work. Help me reflect on this experience without judgment. How could I learn from this in the future? So as you can see, I'm giving a pretty simple prompt. I'm just saying what happened and gosh, I really want to learn from this experience so it doesn't happen again. And I'm actually really impressed with the response it gave here. So thank you for your honesty. It takes courage to reflect on something like this with curiosity instead of criticism. Let's walk through a nonjudgmental reflection that helps you to understand what happened and how you can use this experience to grow. Step one, start with compassion. Remind yourself you're human. One moment does not define your journey and you are not quote unquote bad for eating a bag of Oreos. Something deeper was likely going on. You might try saying to yourself that That was a tough moment. I can be kind to myself while still learning from this. Step two, reflect with curiosity, not blame. I'm like, are you kidding me, ChatGPT? This is pretty good. Okay. Ask yourself gently, what was I feeling right before the Oreos or right before eating the Oreos? Stressed, tired, bored, lonely, rebellious? Was I physically hungry? Was I emotionally depleted? Did I eat dinner earlier than usual? Was I satisfied after dinner? What did I need in that moment that the Oreos was trying to solve? And then it gives some advice. Sometimes food is trying to fill a need for rest, reward, connection, or release. And this is really powerful. That is absolutely true. And so, okay, ChatGPT, I'll give it to you. Step three, identify a pattern or trigger. Was this part of a familiar cycle, an end of the day fatigue, unwinding after quote unquote being good all day, rewarding yourself after a long and draining evening? If any of those are yes, identify the when, where, and why to help create new patterns. And we see this all the time. We have certain default patterns that a lot of times we've practiced over years or even decades that we may turn to certain foods or certain eating habits as a result of those patterns. And a lot of, if we think about cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a framework by which many therapies take place, learning and understanding the why behind what you're doing so that you can pattern into is really powerful. And so this is asking some of those questions to identify that pattern or trigger. Step four, plan for the future. Now you understand the situation better. Think of one or two things you could try next time. If you are emotionally depleted, can you build a non-food reward system or a self-care ritual after bedtime? If you are physically hungry, would having a satisfying protein-rich dinner or an evening snack help? If it was just a moment of impulsivity, can you keep your favorite treat in a portion-controlled way? So for example, could you have two Oreos on a plate and enjoy them mindfully earlier in the evening, for example? So as we're thinking about what happened, how could we, or if you gave yourself the situation next time, because inevitably we're When these patterns come up, there are types of things that have happened over and over again and will likely come up in some similar variation of the future. What would you do differently next time? And then reframe the narrative. Step five, instead of I failed, I blew it, try, something in me needed comfort or relief. This was just one moment. I now understand it better and I can support myself differently moving forward. And then they have what they call the gentle takeaway. This wasn't a setback. It was a learning opportunity. You notice the pattern. You should showed up with curiosity, and now you're more equipped to take care of yourself with compassion and consistently. You don't have to be perfect to make progress. You're already doing the work. Keep going. And I just was really moved by this, actually. This is just ChatGPT looking at across all of the internet, what is in the deep, dark crevices of the internet, pulling up the things that have come up with good sometimes good evidence, sometimes with good popularity, and utilizing that to give some feedback here. And this certainly does not replace the need to work with a mental health professional, especially in this episode, sort of describing what looks like a binge episode, maybe the bigger part of a binge eating disorder or another eating disorder, for example. And so if you are struggling with an eating disorder, working with a trained health psychologist, working with a physician who is trained in eating disorders, that is going to be a really important part of your journey. And I was pretty impressed with what ChatGPT had to say in this reflection. And so that's one example of, you know, let me workshop this thing. Let me think through it. It takes what can be a very emotional response that we want to, like I said, either beat ourselves up over or maybe gloss over. And it can take that and help to... to make it a little bit more logical, to break it down, to give us some really good thinking points. And especially if you took some of those pieces and, you know, with a pen and paper or just going on a walk, you thought about those or journaled about those can be really powerful, some steps for moving forward. So we went through the meal planning recipes, tracking and accountability, also from education and quick answers. And I've been doing with the internet for the longest time. I used to joke that Google probably thought I was an idiot because anything that I did not know, not necessarily in the medical space, but just, you know, oh, this city or this historical event or this type of food item, anything that somebody said in my life that I didn't know a phrase that someone would say, I would Google that. And I will say chat GPT takes it a step further with giving some more information. And so really great way to have things explained to you. You know, again, this is just looking across everything on the internet. So you do want to be careful with some of those explanations. But if you want to understand, you know, how do GLP medications work? Why is protein important? Asking some of these questions can be really powerful to help to get an explanation. You may decide to run that by a healthcare professional. to, I guess, both fact check it as well as then to think about it in the context of your own health, but really good for some educational and quick answers. Also great for mindset and motivation. So generating affirmations, motivational imaging, reframing negative thoughts. So it gave this example of write five affirmations to help me stay committed when I feel discouraged. I actually put that exactly into ChatGPT to see what it said. It said, absolutely. Here are five affirmations to help you stay committed, especially during moments of discouragement. One, I don't need to be perfect to make progress. Every step forward counts. Two, setbacks are part of the journey, not the end. Three, I am learning, growing, and becoming stronger every day. Four, my commitment is bigger than this moment of doubt. Five, I've made through hard things before and I will again. And so these are really powerful just on the surface. If I were doing this and trying to give it feedback, for example, I might read that list of five and maybe one would stand out to me of, I really love I am learning, growing, becoming stronger every day. And so what you could do instead of just accepting this list of five, you could type in that one and say, you know, I really like your example of I am learning, growing and becoming stronger every day. Give me five more affirmations that are similar to this one and see what it comes up with. And it can be really powerful when you have this sort of back and forth conversation because you might find something that just really feels powerful. Like the type of quote you would frame and hang in your office or the type of quote you would write on a Post-it note and put on your bathroom mirror. You know, something that you feel like I would want to see that quote over and over again, see how different things resonate. And so you can even give it this feedback to help make adjustments and work to find something that feels really in line with your goals. The other piece and the last thing is problem solving and thank you so much for joining us. But one of the things that gives an example is help me to make a plan to eat healthier with a busy work schedule. I think I have workshopped this type of thing a hundred times with patients. This is such a common request. I have a hectic life. How do I eat healthier? So let's ask ChatGPT. What do they say? And they say, absolutely. Let's create a realistic and sustainable eating plan, which is key, especially with a busy work schedule. Here's a step-by-step plan to help you eat healthier without adding stress or complexity. Step one, set your personal goals. Before diving in, define what eating healthier means for you. It may mean eating more protein, decreasing takeout, reducing afternoon crashes, improving portion control, or getting back with consistent meals. So they recommend picking one or two main goals to focus on. Step two, structure your day in a simple way. Use a basic framework that fits into your work schedule. For example, a meal rhythm may look like breakfast, quick and pro I love that they mentioned that. This is something we talk about in the practice all the time. When you are hungry... your brain goes from your prefrontal cortex, which is your uniquely thinking human brain that makes decisions, that plans in advance, that knows your ultimate goals to our lizard brain, which is like, ooh, that sounds good. Oh, I'm hungry, which will be the quickest food available for me. Ooh, ooh, ooh. And it's just kind of like, you know, the brain that gets you driving through the drive-through is not your frontal cortex, your thinking, planning brain, it's that lizard brain. And so pre-logging, planning meals the day before or even sort of planning those in a way that maybe you've purchased foods from the grocery store that are in line with your goals such that you know, for breakfast, I'm gonna have A or B. For lunch, I've got this thing that I can just pull together really easily. It makes it so much easier to stick with your goals when you've decided them in advance rather than having to rely on your brain when you're hungry, when you're short on time. So making those decisions in advance, I love that it brings that up. So step three, build a healthy go-to meal list. And so here it goes through breakfast ideas, lunch ideas, snack ideas, dinner ideas, and it gives four different suggestions for those. And again, if you were like, oh, shoot, I forgot to tell it that I hate peanut butter or whatever, because as I'm reading this list, there's a couple of peanut butter things in there. You can say, hey, by the way, I hate peanut butter and all nut butters. Give me some different suggestions. But it gives four different examples there. Step four, smart grocery planning. Make a weekly list of your staples. Keep backup items on hand, things like frozen vegetables. canned beans or protein shakes? Can you pre-portion snacks for grab-and-go type options so that you're not going to find yourself eating out of a large bag, for example, or relying on drive-through or other fast things? You have grab-and-go right there. And then step five, mindset and flexibility. Give yourself permission to be imperfect but consistent. Plan for takeout or convenience nights and make them balanced. And this is great. I'll often recommend if you have a favorite, let's say, two or three restaurants that you go to, just know what are the options on that menu that are in line with your goals. You can still eat at Chick-fil-A or any other fast food restaurant and make a pretty decent decision that will align with your goals. And that's fine. There's nothing wrong or bad with driving through a drive-thru. You just want to feel at the end like, yeah, I'm pleased that I made that decision. I would make that same decision again. focus on patterns, not single meals, and remind yourself that prepared does not mean complicated. And I love that they brought this in as well because a lot of times we see all these fancy recipes that people are chopping vegetables for an hour and you're like, I do not have time to do that. Prepared can just mean that I have all the ingredients in my refrigerator. I have some grab and go things that if I forgot to pack lunch, I can grab a cheese stick and an avocado and an apple and some nuts and it might be a weird lunch, but I'm going to cobble that together and call it lunch. That is prepared and that is certainly not complicated. And so I like that it says this, remind yourself, prepared, not complicated. And then even gives the option then here to pull up a weekly grocery list, for example, and a weekly plan so that you can make that. And I think, you know, these type of things, like I said, you can really adapt them and really good for this back and forth of just getting some ideas, thinking about all the foods that's out there. or if you're anything like me, sometimes if you haven't planned dinner, you're like, oh, what can I make for dinner? And your brain goes blank as if you've never made a meal before, as if nothing sounds good, as if you can't possibly imagine any food that you would serve your family. And so this can be a really powerful thing just to get yourself out of that rut to get yourself brainstorming. Now, there are limitations as well. So whether we're talking about ChatGPT or any other AI tool, it is scanning across the internet. And so it is possible that it will bring in some fake information. Now, this is less damaging, I think, in the context of what we're talking about, although it could be, but you're not citing papers or anything like that. But you want to make sure that generally calorie counts are accurate. If you were trying to count calories, if you read a meal and you're like wow is that really under 1200 calories you might you know pop it into a different app to check it generally I will say we do this like I said a lot with our patients and we'll go through some different options they're pretty on target because we have so much good data about food nutrition and calories listed on the internet that is generally pretty accurate but you do just want to be careful I've not come across anything that's been biased or discriminatory or anything like that. But unfortunately, those type of things could come through. And so preparing yourself for that, being aware that that could happen and remembering that this is not a person, this is just a computer tool. And so it can be really helpful with offering guidance, offering support. But again, it's just a tool. It's just a piece of it. I would not use ChatGPT for diagnosing a problem, for recommending a medication for you. If something's going on, you definitely want to talk with your own healthcare provider to make sure that you are getting an expert medical opinion on your situation and then actually getting a blood test and getting further evaluation and getting a physical exam and whatever other testing or evaluation you need. Certainly, ChatGPT is not going to replace a licensed healthcare professional in any of these ways, but it is a really good tool. Like I said, when you're trying to get the most out of it, you do want to think about how do you write good prompts. And again, take a little bit of time to do this. Although the prompts that I typed in, for example, those were exactly as is in an untrained ChatGPT. And so you can start with a prompt. And if it gives you backwards really bad. Like if you said, oh, plan meals for seven days, for example, Lord only knows what it is going to say back to you. So you can say in things like, I'm trying to emphasize protein in my diet. My doctor has told me to aim for a minimum of 60 grams of protein. I'm trying to follow a low-calorie diet. I'm taking a GLP medication, so I get nauseated really easily. I typically don't feel hungry in the morning, so I want my first meal to be at 11 a.m. You can put in all of this different information so that it can help create something that actually works for you. If you have food allergies, if you have food preferences, put all of those in as well. If you forget, no big deal. But if you're reading a meal list, and like I said earlier, it's got a bunch of eggs on it, and you're like, oh, actually, I hate eggs. Well, just tell ChatGPT, oh, by the way, I hate eggs. Can you make me an amended version of this that doesn't include eggs at all? And so over time, as you sort of practice and play around with it, you can adjust the initial prompt that you gave it. But don't be afraid to give it feedback. And just because it gave you something does not mean that has to be the final version. You can have some back and forth there. So do the experimentation. Use it as a supportive tool. If it feels like it's getting to be a pressure, if it feels like it's too much, if it turns into a restrictive meal plan, this is where we want to have guardrails on anything in our life. And I'd love to even talk with you, if you're a patient in my clinic, to discuss how does this make sense? Is this aligning with your goals? Where do we want to use it as a tool versus maybe there's places we need to dial back, especially... If you've been really struggling with an eating disorder or something like that, I do not feel confident in saying that chat GPT would be helpful in treating and supporting that in a comprehensive way. And so make sure you reach out to your healthcare provider, talk to them about it, talk to them about how you're utilizing it. And if there's ways that are helpful, absolutely lean into that. And if there are ways that are challenging, stay away from those and put some guardrails in place. If you are interested in working with someone like myself to help you lose weight further last time. I see patients in person in Charlottesville, Virginia. I also see patients throughout the states of Virginia, Illinois, and Tennessee by telemedicine, and I would love to help you in your weight loss journey. If you are not in one of those states, I recommend seeing an ABOM, an American Board of Obesity Medicine certified physician. You can find those on the ABOM website. They have a physician finder tool that can be a great way to look in my area. Are there physicians who are experienced in this that could help Thank you all for joining me today. We'll see you all next time. Bye-bye.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh 0:00

is Dr. Sarah Stambaugh, and you are listening to the Conquer Your Weight Podcast.

Announcer 0:09

Welcome to the Conquer Your Weight Podcast, where you will learn to understand your mind and body so you can achieve long-term weight loss. Here's your host, obesity medicine physician and life coach, Dr. Sarah Stambaugh.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh 0:28

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Conquer Your Weight podcast. We are talking about a very relevant topic, and I'm kind of surprised we haven't talked about it before, which is chat GPT or utilizing AI in your weight loss journey. Now, as I was saying, this is super timely. People have been talking about all of the different AI products left and right, how to utilize them in many different contexts. And today we're going to talk about that with chat GBT in your weight loss journey. What are some of the different ways that you can use it? What are some of the different limitations? And I look at this as a tool that partners really nicely alongside of a professional weight loss journey, you know, with a physician, maybe with other professionals like registered dietitians or psychologists or whomever it is that you need in your health journey. And it can be a really amazing tool before we dive into today's episode. I would love to have you invite a friend or someone else in your life with whom to share this podcast episode. If you have been listening to this podcast and enjoying it, I would really love if you could share this with someone else in your life. It would really mean the world to me to get this episode and this podcast into the ears of even more people. So thank you so much in advance for sharing it and for everyone who already does. I so, so appreciate that. I love watching my listenership grow. I am so appreciative to everyone who downloads these episodes week over week. And if you've been listening, if you have topics you want me to talk about, I would love to create content for you. So always feel free to email us at info at sarahstombaumd.com. And I would love to create that to help you in your weight loss journey. So let's dive in talking about chat GPT in your weight loss journey. And let's talk about what is chat GPT. So today I'm specifically using the brand name ChatGPT, but this can apply to any of the AI tools. ChatGPT is one of the most popular ones and does have a free and very usable free version available. So it is a really nice starting place if you are looking to use AI. Now, if you have another AI tool that you use and that you like, you can absolutely trial doing this with their platform as well. But this episode, I actually outlined using ChatGPT and then some of the prompts that it suggested. I plugged those in and I'm going to share the responses that it gave, um, One of the things with ChatGPT is there's the free version. There's also an upgraded version and you can sort of train your ChatGPT over time. What I thought was really important was that I would use the free version and an untrained version of AI in order to create this episode and create some of the content and share what it gave in terms of feedback. And so this will look very similar to you plugging in prompts to ChatGPT and seeing what comes back. So these AI tools are designed for conversation, for problem solving. And in the weight loss world, they can be really helpful in a lot of different ways, whether it's meal planning, whether it's like an accountability partner, ChatGPT can help to provide that. If you've ever, if you've never used it before, just do an internet search for ChatGPT. It's made by the company OpenAI. So you may find that come up when you go to download it. But you can basically just sign, I say download, but you'll just visit the web browser. You could do it on an app on your phone or in a web browser. And you don't even have to have a username and password, but I do recommend doing that because it can save the stuff that you do over and over again. And then you can go back and look at it. And then you can, like I said, sort of train it over time. So this is this AI tool where it's searching all of the internet. It's using all of the data that is available to it to help give you feedback and create answers or give you answers to problems that you have. And so I think there's a likelihood you know, I think some of the patients in my practice are already doing this. We sometimes utilize chat GPT and brainstorming with our patients of different snack ideas or high protein ideas or, you know, accountability ideas and that type of thing. And so it can be really a great tool and something you can use alongside of your professional weight loss journey. The nice thing about chat GPT is it's available 24 seven. So you can log in At any time, you can get instant answers and you can tweak it, give feedback and sort of have a back and forth conversation with it. So this instant access of personalized information, like I said, there's this back and forth so you can give feedback and make adaptations. You know, it gives you a meal plan and you're like, oh, I hate eggs. And then it gives you a variation of a similar meal plan, but without eggs perhaps. And so you can give it feedback and tweak it. And then, but clarify, of course, like, this is not medical advice. And so I want to make sure that you're aware this is a really nice compliment, but it's just that it is a compliment. So I asked ChatGPT, what are some different practical ways that patients could use ChatGPT in their journey? And it came up with five for meal planning and recipes, for tracking and accountability, for education and quick answers, for mindset and motivation, and for problem solving and barriers. Now, as I mentioned, we use this a lot actually for meal planning and recipes. And this is a really fun way, especially if you're feeling in a rut and you're like, oh my gosh, what am I going to cook for dinner tonight? I can't even think of any foods. Maybe you're taking a GLP medication and the idea of food is just kind of, ugh. And the idea of sitting there and thinking about it and brainstorming just does not appeal at all. This is where you can outsource those thoughts a little bit to plan it. So you can give it some prompts. So an example prompt They had was give me a seven day high protein meal plan and under 1800 calories. And so I gave it that prompt actually gave it a second prompt as well asking under 1200 calories. So especially if you're maybe you've had bariatric surgery, maybe you're on a GLP journey, and your calories are going to be quite a bit lower. It's hard because patients in my practice know I am not the biggest fan of calorie counting. I think it's easy to overestimate. It's easy to underestimate. Our calorie counting is not always very accurate unless we're weighing our food. And even if our calorie counting is very accurate, the challenge that comes up is that we don't always know the amount of calories that we're burning per day. Nonetheless, you can throw in just a general recommendation of, and this was its own suggestion, seven days. of a high protein meal plan under 1800 calories. And then I gave it the second one of seven day high protein meal plan under 1200 calories. And this is what it came up with. So I'm going to read back to you what it said. This is a plan with simple meals using whole foods to balance protein across meals to support satiety and muscle maintenance, which that sounds pretty good. That's exactly what we're looking for. The calories here, of course, it's going to be hard to get exactly 1200. So they aimed for 1150 to 1200 room. So kind of a range there with 100 to 110 grams of protein. In this meal, there were three meals and a snack with a note that you can adjust portions to meet your specific needs. And I would say lean into that. This is where we do not want to outsource our brains. We want to also pay attention to our bodies, pay attention to the way food is feeling in our bodies, also pay attention to your preferences. So if it gives you different recommendations of things you hate, please don't just go eat those things. Ask it to addend its recommendation, give it some of your preferences. so that you can get that information. So without giving it any information about my preferences, my allergies, anything like that, what it gave me was 1,200 calories, or less than 1,200 calories, at least 100 grams of protein, here is day one. Three quarters cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt with half a scoop of protein powder and a quarter cup of blueberries. Sounds pretty good. Lunch, four ounces of grilled chicken breast with two cups of mixed cream, one tablespoon of vinaigrette, and half a cup of cucumbers. Snack, two hard-boiled eggs. Dinner, five ounces of baked salmon, one cup of roasted cauliflower, and half a cup of steamed green beans. So this is just pulling all of the data from the plan that is going to meet those recommendations. I'm not going to read all seven days, but let me read another one just so you see a different example because it actually gave you seven days with seven totally completely different foods. So here is 1,190 calories, 105 grams of protein. Breakfast is three scrambled egg whites with one whole egg, spinach, and half of a slice of light cheese. Lunch is tuna salad made with three ounces of canned tuna in water, plus one tablespoon light mayonnaise and celery on two rice cakes. A snack is a protein shake with one scoop of whey protein plus unsweetened almond milk. And dinner is four ounces of grilled turkey breast, plus roasted broccoli and half of a cup of riced cauliflower. So again, you look at these two different days, giving you some different suggestions. And even if you don't end up following these meal plans exactly, you could go through and look at, okay, what are some of the different breakfast options here? What are the different lunch options? And pull out one or two of your favorites. A lot of us are people that can eat sort of the same couple of meals on rotation. There are people who love to have variety and love to have so many different things every single day, but the reality is that makes it unnecessarily complex and confusing. My advice is stick to your favorites, have a couple of favorite breakfast, maybe two or three that you alternate throughout the week and utilize those in order to build your meal plan rather than always feeling like you have to have something new. But these were some really great ideas and it did give me a full seven days, like I said, with four meals at each day or three meals and a snack and every single day had totally different meals meeting those requirements. So really great option for brainstorm The next thing, the next idea is tracking and accountability. And so using daily check-ins or you can journal some of your different things to get feedback. A lot of times in the practice, we're talking about paying attention to which foods nourish our body. A lot of times I will utilize food logging alongside a hunger and satiety scale, and it can be really powerful to start to see things like Okay, one day I had oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast and I noticed that two hours later I was really hungry for some sort of mid-morning snack versus on a day that I had two eggs and half of an avocado, I felt satiated for a longer period of time. And so looking at principles of what is the protein, what is the fat, what are the things that are creating both initial satiety as well as lasting satiety and starting to lean into what are my food preferences what are the things i'm already doing and how do i make the choices to lean into the ones that are working really well for me that are creating satiety that last for a longer period of time and so we will pay attention to some of those patterns that happen over time but you can pull this in share it with chat gpt and ask them also to give you feedback of patterns or even you know let's say you had an emotional eating episode and want to reflect on that this can be really powerful. A lot of times when we're reflecting on our own, it can be really easy to jump into shame or guilt or to just sort of gloss over it and not spend any time with this. This is something that during clinical visits, I'm often workshopping with patients, challenges that they had, days that went not according to plan, episodes of binge eating or overeating when they had certainly not planned to. And it's powerful because to reflect that with another person, whether it is an obesity medicine physician, a health psychologist, a health coach, lots of different people who may be trained in this, but it is something that you could do with chat GPT as well. And so, uh, I gave it a prompt. Let me read it to you here. So this is my prompt. Last night, I binged on a whole bag of Oreos after putting the kids to bed and a stressful day of work. Help me reflect on this experience without judgment. How could I learn from this in the future? So as you can see, I'm giving a pretty simple prompt. I'm just saying what happened and gosh, I really want to learn from this experience so it doesn't happen again. And I'm I'm actually really impressed with the response I gave here. So thank you for your honesty. It takes courage to reflect on something like this with curiosity instead of criticism. Let's walk through a nonjudgmental reflection that helps you to understand what happened and how you can use this experience to grow. Step one, start with compassion. Remind yourself you're human. One moment does not define your journey and you are not quote unquote bad for eating a bag of Oreos. Something deeper was likely going on. You might try saying to yourself that That was a tough moment. I can be kind to myself while still learning from this. Step two, reflect with curiosity, not blame. I'm like, are you kidding me, ChatGPT? This is pretty good. Okay. Ask yourself gently, what was I feeling right before the Oreos or right before eating the Oreos? Stressed, tired, bored, lonely, rebellious? Was I physically hungry? Was I emotionally depleted? Did I eat dinner earlier than usual? Was I satisfied after dinner? What did I need in that moment that the Oreos was trying to solve? And then it gives some advice. Sometimes food is trying to fill a need for rest, reward, connection, or release. And this is really powerful. That is absolutely true. And so, okay, ChatGPT, I'll give it to you. Step three, identify a pattern or trigger. Was this part of a familiar cycle, an end of the day fatigue, unwinding after quote unquote being good all day, rewarding yourself after a long and draining evening? If any of those are yes, identify the when, where, and why to help create new patterns. And we see this all the time. We have certain default patterns that a lot of times we've practiced over years or even decades that we may turn to certain foods or certain eating habits as a result of those patterns. And a lot of, if we think about cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a framework by which many therapies take place, learning and understanding the why behind what you're doing so that you can pattern into is really powerful. And so this is asking some of those questions to identify that pattern or trigger. Step four, plan for the future. Now you understand the situation better. Think of one or two things you could try next time. If you are emotionally depleted, can you build a non-food reward system or a self-care ritual after bedtime? If you are physically hungry, would having a satisfying protein-rich dinner or an evening snack help? If it was just a moment of impulsivity, can you keep your favorite treat in a portion-controlled way? So for example, could you have two Oreos on a plate and enjoy them mindfully earlier in the evening, for example? So as we're thinking about what happened, how could we, or if you gave yourself the situation next time, because inevitably we're When these patterns come up, there are types of things that have happened over and over again and will likely come up in some similar variation of the future. What would you do differently next time? And then reframe the narrative. Step five, instead of I failed, I blew it, try, something in me needed comfort or relief. This was just one moment. I now understand it better and I can support myself differently moving forward. And then they have what they call the gentle takeaway. This wasn't a setback. It was a learning opportunity. You notice the pattern. You should showed up with curiosity, and now you're more equipped to take care of yourself with compassion and consistently. You don't have to be perfect to make progress. You're already doing the work. Keep going. And I just was really moved by this, actually. This is just ChatGPT looking at across all of the internet, what is in the deep, dark crevices of the internet, pulling up the things that have come up with good sometimes good evidence, sometimes with good popularity, and utilizing that to give some feedback here. And this certainly does not replace the need to work with a mental health professional, especially in this episode, sort of describing what looks like a binge episode, maybe the bigger part of a binge eating disorder or another eating disorder, for example. And so if you are struggling with an eating disorder, working with a trained health psychologist, working with a physician who is is trained in eating disorders, that is going to be a really important part of your journey. And I was pretty impressed with what ChatGPT had to say in this reflection. And so that's one example of, you know, let me workshop this thing. Let me think through it. It takes what can be a very emotional response that we want to, like I said, either beat ourselves up over or maybe gloss over. And it can take that and help to... to make it a little bit more logical, to break it down, to give us some really good thinking points. And especially if you took some of those pieces and, you know, with a pen and paper or just going on a walk, you thought about those or journaled about those can be really powerful, some steps for moving forward. So we went through the meal planning recipes, tracking and accountability, also from education and quick answers. And I've been doing with the internet for the longest time. I used to joke that Google probably thought I was an idiot because anything that I did not know, not necessarily in the medical space, but just, you know, oh, this city or this historical event or this type of food item, anything that somebody said in my life that I didn't know a phrase that someone would say, I would Google that. And I will say chat GPT takes it a step further with giving some more information. And so really great way to have things explained to you. You know, again, this is just looking across everything on the internet. So you do want to be careful with some of those explanations. But if you want to understand, you know, how do GLP medications work? Why is protein important? Asking some of these questions can be really powerful to help to get an explanation. You may decide to run that by a healthcare professional. to, I guess, both fact check it as well as then to think about it in the context of your own health, but really good for some educational and quick answers. Also great for mindset and motivation. So generating affirmations, motivational imaging, reframing negative thoughts. So it gave this example of write five affirmations to help me stay committed when I feel discouraged. I actually put that exactly into chat GPT to see what it said. It said, absolutely. Here are five affirmations to help you stay committed committed, especially during moments of discouragement. One, I don't need to be perfect to make progress. Every step forward counts. Two, setbacks are part of the journey, not the end. Three, I am learning, growing, and becoming stronger every day. Four, my commitment is bigger than this moment of doubt. Five, I've made through hard things before and I will again. And so these are really powerful just on the surface. If I were doing this and trying to give it feedback, for example, I might read that list of five and maybe one would stand out to me of, I really love I am learning, growing, becoming stronger every day. And so what you could do instead of just accepting this list of five, you could type in that one and say, you know, I really like your example of I am learning, growing and becoming stronger every day. Give me five more affirmations that are similar to this one and see what it comes up with. And it can be really powerful when you have this sort of back and forth conversation because you might find something that just really feels powerful. Like the type of quote you would frame and hang in your office or the type of quote you would write on a post-it note and put on your bathroom mirror. You know, something that you feel like I would want to see that quote over and over again, see how different things resonate. And so you can even give it this feedback to help make adjustments and work to find something that feels really in line with your goals. The other piece and the last thing is problem solving and Thank you so much for joining us. But one of the things that gives an example is help me to make a plan to eat healthier with a busy work schedule. I think I have workshopped this type of thing a hundred times with patients. This is such a common request. I have a hectic life. How do I eat healthier? So let's ask chat GPT. What do they say? And they say, absolutely. Let's create a realistic and sustainable eating plan, which is key, especially with a busy work schedule. Here's a step-by-step plan to help you eat healthier without adding stress or complexity. Step one, set your personal goals. Before diving in, define what eating healthier means for you. It may mean eating more protein, decreasing takeout, reducing afternoon crashes, improving portion control, or getting back with consistent meals. So they recommend picking one or two main goals to focus on. Step two, structure your day in a simple way. Use a basic framework that fits into your work schedule. For example, a meal rhythm may look like breakfast, quick and pro I love that they mentioned that. This is something we talk about in the practice all the time. When you are hungry... your brain goes from your prefrontal cortex, which is your uniquely thinking human brain that makes decisions, that plans in advance, that knows your ultimate goals to our lizard brain, which is like, ooh, that sounds good. Oh, I'm hungry, which will be the quickest food available for me. Ooh, ooh, ooh. And it's just kind of like, you know, the brain that gets you driving through the drive-through is not your frontal cortex, your thinking, planning brain, it's that lizard brain. And so pre-logging, planning meals the day before or even sort of planning those in a way that maybe you've purchased foods from the grocery store that are in line with your goals such that you know, for breakfast, I'm gonna have A or B. For lunch, I've got this thing that I can just pull together really easily. It makes it so much easier to stick with your goals when you've decided them in advance rather than having to rely on your brain when you're hungry, when you're short on time. So making those decisions in advance, I love that it brings that up. So step three, build a healthy go-to meal list. And so here it goes through breakfast ideas, lunch ideas, snack ideas, dinner ideas, and it gives four different suggestions for those. And again, if you were like, oh, shoot, I forgot to tell it that I hate peanut butter or whatever, because as I'm reading this list, there's a couple of peanut butter things in there. You can say, hey, by the way, I hate peanut butter and all nut butters. Give me some different suggestions. But it gives four different examples there. Step four, smart grocery planning. Make a weekly list of your staples. Keep backup items on hand, things like frozen vegetables. canned beans or protein shakes? Can you pre-portion snacks for grab-and-go type options so that you're not going to find yourself eating out of a large bag, for example, or relying on drive-through or other fast things? You have grab-and-go right there. And then step five, mindset and flexibility. Give yourself permission to be imperfect but consistent. Plan for takeout or convenience nights and make them balanced. And this is great. I'll often recommend if you have a favorite, let's say, two or three restaurants that you go to, just know what are the options on that menu that are in line with your goals. You can still eat at Chick-fil-A or any other fast food restaurant and make a pretty decent decision that will align with your goals. And that's fine. There's nothing wrong or bad with driving through a drive-thru. You just want to feel at the end like, yeah, I'm pleased that I made that decision. I would make that same decision again. focus on patterns, not single meals, and remind yourself that prepared does not mean complicated. And I love that they brought this in as well because a lot of times we see all these fancy recipes that people are chopping vegetables for an hour and you're like, I do not have time to do that. Prepared can just mean that I have all the ingredients in my refrigerator. I have some grab and go things that if I forgot to pack lunch, I can grab a cheese stick and an avocado and an apple and some nuts and it might be a weird lunch, but I'm going to cobble that together and call it lunch. That is prepared and that is certainly not complicated. And so I like that it says this, remind yourself, prepared, not complicated. And then even gives the option then here to pull up a weekly grocery list, for example, and a weekly plan so that you can make that. And I think, you know, these type of things, like I said, you can really adapt them and really good for this back and forth of just getting some ideas, thinking about all the foods that's out there. or if you're anything like me, sometimes if you haven't planned dinner, you're like, oh, what can I make for dinner? And your brain goes blank as if you've never made a meal before, as if nothing sounds good, as if you can't possibly imagine any food that you would serve your family. And so this can be a really powerful thing just to get yourself out of that rut to get yourself brainstorming. Now, there are limitations as well. So whether we're talking about ChatGPT or any other AI tool, it is scanning across the internet. And so it is possible that it will bring in some fake information. Now, this is less damaging, I think, in the context of what we're talking about, although it could be, but you're not citing papers or anything like that. But you want to make sure that generally calorie counts are accurate. If you were trying to count calories, if you you read a meal and you're like wow is that really under 1200 calories you might you know pop it into a different app to check it generally I will say we do this like I said a lot with our patients and we'll go through some different options they're pretty on target because we have so much good data about food nutrition and calories listed on the internet that is generally pretty accurate but you do just want to be careful I've not come across anything that's been biased or or discriminatory or anything like that. But unfortunately, those type of things could come through. And so preparing yourself for that, being aware that that could happen and remembering that this is not a person, this is just a computer tool. And so it can be really helpful with offering guidance, offering support. But again, it's just a tool. It's just a piece of it. I would not use ChatGPT for diagnosing a problem, for recommending a medication for you. If something's going on, you definitely want to talk with your own healthcare provider to make sure that you are getting an expert medical opinion on your situation and then actually getting a blood test and getting further evaluation and getting a physical exam and whatever other testing or evaluation you need. Certainly, ChatGPT is not going to replace a licensed healthcare professional in any of these ways, but it is a really good tool. Like I said, when you're trying to get the most out of it, you do want to think about how do you write good prompts. And again, take a little bit of time to do this. Although the prompts that I typed in, for example, those were exactly as is in an untrained ChatGPT. And so you can start with a prompt. And if it gives you backwards really bad. Like if you said, oh, plan meals for seven days, for example, Lord only knows what it is going to say back to you. So you can say in things like, I'm trying to emphasize protein in my diet. My doctor has told me to aim for a minimum of 60 grams of protein. I'm trying to follow a low calorie diet. I'm taking a GLP medication, so I get nauseated really easily. I typically don't feel hungry in the morning, so I want my first meal to be at 11 a.m. You can put in all of this different information so that it can help create something that actually works for you. If you have food allergies, if you have food preferences, put all of those in as well. If you forget, no big deal. But if you're reading a meal list, and like I said earlier, it's got a bunch of eggs on it, and you're like, oh, actually, I hate eggs. Well, just tell ChatGPT, oh, by the way, I hate eggs. Can you make me an amended version of this that doesn't include eggs at all? And so over time, as you sort of practice and play around with it, you can adjust the initial prompt that you gave it. But don't be afraid to give it feedback. And just because it gave you something does not mean that has to be the final version. You can have some back and forth there. So do the experimentation. Use it as a supportive tool. If it feels like it's getting to be a pressure, if it feels like it's too much, if it turns into a restrictive meal plan, this is where we want to have guardrails on anything in our life. And I'd love to even talk with you, if you're a patient in my clinic, to discuss how does this make sense? Is this aligning with your goals? Where do we want to use it as a tool versus maybe there's places we need to dial back, especially... If you've been really struggling with an eating disorder or something like that, I do not feel confident in saying that chat GPT would be helpful in treating and supporting that in a comprehensive way. And so make sure you reach out to your healthcare provider, talk to them about it, talk to them about how you're utilizing it. And if there's ways that are helpful, absolutely lean into that. And if there are ways that are challenging, stay away from those and put some guardrails in place. If you are interested in working with someone like myself to help you lose weight further last time. I see patients in person in Charlottesville, Virginia. I also see patients throughout the states of Virginia, Illinois, and Tennessee by telemedicine, and I would love to help you in your weight loss journey. If you are not in one of those states, I recommend seeing an ABOM, an American Board of Obesity Medicine certified physician. You can find those on the ABOM website. They have a physician finder tool that can be a great way to look in my area. Are there physicians who are experienced in this that could help Thank you all for joining me today. We'll see you all next time. Bye-bye.