Does Insulin Make You Fat or Metabolism Slow Down with Age? (with Dan Feldman, MS, RD, CPT)

Scrolling through social media for health tips can feel like navigating a minefield. One minute you’re told carbs make you gain weight, the next you hear metabolism tanks as you age — but what’s actually true?

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Dan Feldman, a registered dietitian and personal trainer who’s uniquely positioned to decode the wellness chaos online. We dive into:

• Why certain health trends blow up, even when they’re not backed by science
• The biggest nutrition myths you’ve probably heard (carbs, insulin, metabolism, creatine, abs are made in the kitchen — we’re tackling them all)
• How to tell helpful advice from harmful hype in the wellness world
• The challenges of balancing evidence-based info with the need to capture attention online
• Practical tips for health pros struggling to find their voice amid the noise
• If you want to stop spinning your wheels on confusing health advice and finally get clarity on what really matters, this episode is a must-listen.
  
  

Hit play and learn how to scroll smarter, not harder. 👀

CONTACT/FOLLOW/WORK WITH DAN
Dan's Instagram
Dan's website
Dan's Dietitian Mentor Instagram
Nutrition for powerlifters course

SOURCES/GRAPHICS MENTIONED
Dan's insulin graphic
Dan's metabolism graphic
Metabolism study on Pubmed
Creatine meta analysis on Pubmed

Transcript

Michelle Yates (00:00)
Hey there, welcome to Nourished and Free, the podcast where mental health meets physical health, food guilt gets ghosted, and toxic wellness advice gets roasted. I'm your host, Michelle Yates, a registered dietitian and a nerd about health psychology I'm also a certified health mindset coach This is your safe, sassy and science backed space to heal your relationship with food, your body and your brain.

Do you ever wonder why some health trends go viral even when they make zero sense? Or what it's like to be a credible evidence-based voice in a world where clickbait, fitness and nutrition advice seem to win every Have you ever wondered if carbs actually make us fat? If creatine is worth all the hype?

And if your metabolism actually does slow down when you hit 50 years old. I've got Daniel Feldman today, a registered dietitian and certified personal trainer with a master's in human nutrition to chat through all of this today. He's a competitive powerlifter having competed in several local USAPL meets. Dan has a passion for making nutrition research more understandable and accessible for health practitioners. And you're going to get a really good taste of that today.

Towards this end, he regularly summarizes complex nutrition topics and research findings on his Instagram page. He has a newsletter as well that I just signed up to, I think a week or two ago, that I really love. He sends out some research summaries every week. He also runs a successful insurance-based private practice, helping individuals improve their health via nutrition. He's a mentor for other dietitians as well who need help running an insurance-based private practice.

Michelle Yates (01:40)
Welcome to the show, Dan. So excited to have you. Yeah, I appreciate you taking the time. I was just saying this before we started recording, but I've been following you for ages

Dan Feldman (01:43)
Thank you for having me on, really appreciate it.

Michelle Yates (01:50)
you're doing a good job of getting evidence-based information out there and.

more eyes seeing it without kind of like, I don't know, I don't feel like maybe you do. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, but it seems like you don't feel pressured to be super like click bait or anything like that.

Dan Feldman (02:08)
Yeah. So it's interesting in this, might dovetail on some of the top topics we'll talk about in a minute, but with Instagram, or at least the way I try and view it, I am generally trying to be educational, but there's also the aspect of if you want like a decent amount of like engagement on your posts, likes, follows, that kind of thing. Not that that necessarily matters, but you know, to really have a lot of people see it.

There has to be that level of entertainment in the post and really level of engagement. You know, the post has to be very engaging because people generally don't go on social media strictly to learn. It tends to be more so for leisure or entertainment or just like a distraction. You know, even you or I, healthcare practitioners, you know, if we're strictly trying to learn, you know, or better our knowledge, we're probably not going to go to social media. We're probably going to open a textbook.

Michelle Yates (02:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dan Feldman (03:03)
⁓ look for a research paper, ⁓ read an article, what have you. So when posting on social media, at least for some of my posts there, I'm trying to be, I'm trying not to be clickbaity. I'm trying to really be helpful, but I am for certain posts, trying to have them be somewhat engaging, you know, so it's, it's kind of, how do I, how do I capture someone's attention on social media where, know, really you're, you're competing for people's attention and

without being really kind of ⁓ clickbaity or ⁓ without falling too much into the calling people out. Not that there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but some practitioners will make their whole account ⁓ just ⁓ correcting Paul Saladino. You know what I mean? It's fine, and it's engaging because people like to be angry.

Michelle Yates (03:44)
you

Yeah.

Dan Feldman (04:00)
You know, I kind of don't want to do just that. you know, some of my posts, like you were mentioning, they're kind of like simple and that it kind of delivers like a simple but kind of shareable message, you know, so I try and kind of have the posts, the actual literal posts be shareable. So people will be like something simple when I share in their stories, you know, like I have a post, it just says boring nutritional advice is usually correct nutritional advice. Very simple.

Michelle Yates (04:11)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Dan Feldman (04:29)
But it's very shareable because it's simple. there's kind of that element in my posts as well. Yes.

Michelle Yates (04:31)
Yeah.

Do you ever feel like almost like a tension or something where there's that temptation to make something super clickbaity? Because I'm sure, I mean, you and I both are on social media consuming content as well as creating. So there's opportunity that you probably see and I definitely see to make something more ragebaity or clickbaity and.

For me personally, I feel like there is a tension sometimes of like, how do I maintain integrity with the content I'm making? But also, I want people to see it too so that I am furthering education and combating misinformation. How do you walk that line, I guess?

Dan Feldman (05:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

There's absolutely attention because if your sole goal was to just get as many followers as possible on Instagram and to get as many likes as possible on Instagram, that's a very different goal than wanting to be have integrity and wanting to be true to your morals and your values. Those are two different things. You know, I mean, look at look at liver King. I mean, like that that he the guy Brian Johnson, I think is the real guy's name is his entire

Michelle Yates (05:37)
Yeah.

Dan Feldman (05:49)
goal, and I think this was revealed in like when it turned out he was taking steroids, ⁓ was to just ⁓ get his body to be as crazily looking in terms of muscularity and leanness as possible for the use of drugs, but to lie about it and say he was natural and then using that and using just crazy videos with his crazy physique to get millions of followers so he could sell supplements without telling people that he was taking steroids. ⁓ Is that

Michelle Yates (06:16)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Feldman (06:19)
⁓ morally not great thing to do, of course, but you know, his goal wasn't to do that. His goal was to get millions of followers so he could sell supplements and he did that. You know what I mean? ⁓ Or again, like, you know, like Paul Saladino. I don't know if he believes everything that he actually posts and you know, yeah, I mean, he you know, for those of you maybe who aren't familiar, you know, I think most of your listeners probably are but you know, liver King,

Michelle Yates (06:27)
Yeah.

I would love to know the answer to that.

Dan Feldman (06:48)
taking tons and tons of steroids looks ⁓ like someone who takes a lot of steroids, lied and said he wasn't to get millions of followers and sell supplements, false aladino. Nothing about steroids or anything, but he just shares very crazy, I would say crazy opinions about how like spinach is terrible for you. you know, he kind of pioneered the whole walking, you know, in a grocery store with no shirt on and talking about how

Michelle Yates (07:15)
Yeah.

Dan Feldman (07:17)
these foods are poison and seed oil is like machine lubricant and all of these things, which aren't true or are extremely misleading claim, but they're very like they attract attention and kind of get people to like and follow and share because it's very engaging. know, so basically, yes, there is a degree of tension because they're as you start to build a following on social media, you know, I've got like

Michelle Yates (07:28)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Dan Feldman (07:45)
nothing matters like 46,000 followers, you've got many thousands of followers, I believe over 30,000, there's going to be a part of you that wants just to get more followers and to get more likes. It's just, yeah, it's addictive. And I think just as humans, naturally speaking, are ego kind of wants to see that. And it's easier to do that with more kind of rage baiting stuff, calling people out, maybe over simplifying things, you know.

Michelle Yates (07:54)
can be addicting.

Dan Feldman (08:12)
I've even done this a little bit as well. Like I had a post I used to post pretty regularly Maybe I'll still keep posting it. I don't know ⁓ where it's it's a meme of a guy basically at like a Table, ⁓ I forget the guy's name, but it's it's like a meme and it's like something something something proved me wrong It's I think Steve Crowder ⁓ So I've posted a few times where I've just said pre-workout is just overpriced caffeine proved me I'm wrong

Michelle Yates (08:31)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you're talking about.

Dan Feldman (08:39)
I think it's like, it's kind of a little bit more of a hot take. It's sort of an oversimplification in reality. that, so is that kind of click baiting? Yeah, kind of, you know what I mean? But it also tends to be very popular. So yes, there is definitely that, ⁓ you know, that, that kind of temptation to maybe be not as kind of ethical, but I do the best that I can to kind of strike that balance. ⁓ you know, to, have posts that are relatively engaging have interesting.

visuals are kind of simple, shareable. ⁓ But also my number one priority isn't necessarily to get 100,000 followers.

Michelle Yates (09:17)
what do you think is a common

denominator among content that gets shared very easily or goes viral? Why do you think certain messages catch fire so quickly?

Dan Feldman (09:30)
⁓ A lot of it is how engaging the content is. I mean, that's really most of it. Content that tends to be most engaging tends to be content that goes against the grain. ⁓ Tends to be content. I mean, not always. These are just things like it. Oftentimes it goes kind of against conventional wisdom because conventional wisdom is boring, right? So if Paul Saladino says, hey, spinach is terrible for you, eat lots of butter. I don't know exactly what he's saying these days. I don't follow him. But like,

Michelle Yates (09:49)
Yeah.

It's close enough.

Dan Feldman (09:58)
it goes against

the grain, whether you like it or hate it, you're going to engage with it. know, people and people who dislike it and then make videos about it, they're engaging with the content or they're commenting saying, hey, you suck. You're still engaging with it. And the more posts is engaged with, the more it gets shown in the algorithm because people Instagram wants to see people are showing interest in a post. That's how it'll you know, Instagram wants to keep you on the on on Instagram. So so it'll prioritize posts that grab your attention and keep you on the platform. So posts that are controversial.

tend to fit into that. ⁓ Posts that go against the grain, posts that kind of suggest that the powers that be are, I don't want to say conspiratorial, although that can certainly fall into this category, but posts that suggest that you've been lied to, that you've been cheated by Big Pharma or by the FDA, you know, or by current food guidelines. You know, I see a lot of people in like the keto community saying like, like the, ⁓

Michelle Yates (10:39)
Yeah. ⁓

Dan Feldman (10:57)
You know, the mainstream told you to eat the food pyramid and how did that work out when in reality we, you know, we haven't used the food pyramid in like 25 years, right? But, but they'll say like, like don't listen to like dieticians with their food pyramid. You know what I mean? So like the seed oils thing, ⁓ like, no seed oils are not inherently harmful, but the idea that there's this demon ingredient that is causing all of the harms and like, there's a big cover up about it. That's a very appealing argument. And even if people.

Michelle Yates (11:01)
The freaking food pyramid, my God

I know.

Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Feldman (11:27)
And like I said, it gets more engagement. So those poets tend to go very, you know, kind of tend to go very viral. And, you know, the people who are spreading not so great information, their priority usually isn't to be kind of be morally correct and to have integrity. They want to make money and they want to be famous. know, ⁓ look at Andrew Huberman. He is a very engaging

guy like his his podcast, well, I think he says a lot of things that are wrong. He has a very sort of like his tone is very engaging, the way he explains things to make them sound like ultra complicated and cutting edge. It does it is very engaging. So his content is podcast very, very engaging. So, you know, it's these kinds of things that contribute to kind of what tends to go viral.

And I think it definitely plays a role in why there's a lot of nutrition misinformation or why, you know, even though like the basics in terms of nutrition or I want to say weight loss or general health are simple, but people struggle is because they have these conflicting messages. And for the general person, ⁓ it's hard for them to tell. It might be obvious for us, but for someone who doesn't know that much, know, ⁓ Andrew Huberman is very good at making it

sound like he's really smart. Not that he's not very smart, he's very good at making it sound like he's very smart in the know and citing study. Same with Paul Saladino to a lesser extent. Not trying to necessarily call these people out, you know, for the... Yeah, so it doesn't take a lot of effort to be wrong but make it sound like you're correct. You know, people kind of using...

Michelle Yates (13:03)
They're good examples though.

Dan Feldman (13:13)
studies out of context, ⁓ using big words, talking about the carbohydrate insulin model and how insulin drives fat into fat cells and ⁓ talking about different glucose transporters. And it sounds very scientific. ⁓ I think someone like Stacey Simps falls into this category as well, where she explains things

Michelle Yates (13:33)
Totally.

Dan Feldman (13:43)
and this is more so towards women's health, that I'm not saying she's not smart, she is, but she explains things in a way to kind of make them overcomplicated. But when things are complicated, we tend to think, okay, that must be correct because it sounds very scientific, even if it's not. ⁓

Michelle Yates (13:57)
Yeah.

And you don't have like, for people that don't have training in that field, they don't have an ability to reason if that could be true or not.

Dan Feldman (14:06)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. you know, even very smart people can fall for that, you know, so it makes it tough. It really makes it tough. you know, sometimes as practitioners and as people on Instagram, we have to kind of pick our bowels. I can't convince everyone that seed oil isn't the devil. you know, to some extent, I of just have to accept the fact that, if I post about seed oils, some percentage of people are going to tell me I'm an idiot. You know, just kind of is what it is.

Michelle Yates (14:12)
yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, you gotta get a thick skin for it. And the reality is it's probably nobody's gonna be talking about it in 10 years anyway. It's, I feel like just another trend, another fad thing, you know, and these things. Yeah, it'll be something else that is making us pull our hair out. So you have the unique perspective of being a dietitian and a personal trainer. So you're wearing both hats there.

Dan Feldman (14:36)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Probably not. Yeah. Yeah, and then it'll be something else. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Yates (15:02)
How do you feel like that's shaped the way that you educate people about food and fitness and muscle building and all of that?

Dan Feldman (15:11)
Yeah, so I'll be honest, the I mean, I have the personal training certification through NASM. I originally got that because before I started my private practice, I ⁓ was working for another company, they would give me clients and it was a requirement to have that. So I got it. I do have, you know, a strength, like I do compete in powerlifting and I find it very interesting. And since then, I've just kept the certification and stayed up to date with it because it's like, why not?

Michelle Yates (15:26)
Okay.

Dan Feldman (15:37)
I don't really use the certification in that I don't take personal training clients, ⁓ but I still have it to kind of have it. ⁓ So, I mean, it really hasn't changed that much. I mean, I guess I feel a little bit more.

comfortable talking about more so training specific things ⁓ that I have that certification, but it is kind of just sort of like a formality in my book. you know, I still more so talk about nutrition on my in my content, my Instagram, because that's kind of what it went to schooling for. But there's a little bit of talk of resistance training, at least the basics, you know, as well.

Michelle Yates (16:15)
Yeah.

I imagine that's probably handy though when you're working with clients and there's opportunity to talk about training and you're not stepping outside of your scope when that's something that you know about, you know.

Dan Feldman (16:23)
yeah.

yeah, yeah. So I'll give people general guidance. Sometimes I'll go as far as kind of giving them sample exercises. ⁓ you know, ⁓ you know, if I start recommend resistance training, I might give them examples of, ⁓ like I said, various body weight exercises to start off with. So it definitely can compliment, you know, lot of my clients are looking to lose fat, gain muscle, that kind of thing. So it can compliment that for sure. Yeah.

Michelle Yates (16:33)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

That just made me think of the saying that, what is it, like abs are made in the kitchen or your fitness is like 80 % diet, 20 % training or something. I don't remember how it goes, but off the top of your head, do you have any idea where a claim like that would have been made, the 80, 20 claim?

Dan Feldman (17:15)
Um, well, some of it would be due to the fact that a lot of people want to be not just skinny, but a lot of people want to be very lean for men, you know, wanting to have a six pack for women wanting to have like a thigh gap or not to have a pooch or whatever it is. And for getting lean, I mean, you know,

Michelle Yates (17:39)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Feldman (17:45)
want to be resistance training so that you have visible muscle, but it does come down mostly to diet and calories, as you obviously know. So I think that's where it comes from. ⁓ Again, in reality, is that necessarily the case? It depends very specifically on the goal. For this specific goal of fat loss, I think that can be a somewhat accurate statement, just in that it does ultimately come down to calories. Obviously, it's kind of overly simplistic.

But a lot of people are really focused on fat loss and for fat loss, again, it's like, you ⁓ can burn, I don't know, 100 calories by running a mile. So you can burn 600 calories running six miles. It could be more or less, it just depends on the person. Whereas I could eat 600 calories in chocolate like that. That I think is where it comes from. And for people who, traditional Western diet, typical American diet,

Michelle Yates (18:37)
Yeah.

Dan Feldman (18:44)
the amount of over consumption in calories is likely going to far exceed ⁓ just kind of on average calories that might be burned during exercise. So that I think is where it comes from. obviously it depends on the goal. ⁓ Ideally, most people would be doing regular physical exercise, resistance training, cardio, et cetera, and also eating in a way that's helpful. Obviously, if the goal is weight loss, then the

Michelle Yates (18:57)
Yeah.

Dan Feldman (19:11)
Eating in a calorie deficit, if that's their goal, or otherwise just following healthy nutritional principles, I should say. So really, both are important. right, right, right, right, right. Yes, the food pyramid, 23 servings of bread per day. Yeah, yeah, 23 to 27 servings of bread per day for the food pyramid, yes. Right, right. Yes, yes.

Michelle Yates (19:20)
Yeah, like the food pyramid, right?

at least.

and a couple of Hershey bars too. Yep, essential.

Yeah, well, and what you mentioned too about the running to burn 600 calories versus eating it very quickly just highlights how there's a level of, I guess a reality of effort. How much effort does it take

to run six miles is very high, whereas the effort to consume it is very low. And then also vice versa, the effort to not consume it is much lower too. It could still take more effort than it would to consume it if that's a habit that you've developed and is a coping skill for you. But still, think it makes sense where that comes from because there's this reality of

Dan Feldman (19:59)
Exactly.

Michelle Yates (20:18)
What's realistic for the public is probably not encouraging them to run six miles every day.

Dan Feldman (20:23)
Yeah, and to

be clear, like, and I'm sure this will vary, you'll very, much agree with this. The I strongly dislike the whole idea of like, burning your food through running like, ⁓ run five miles, so burn 500 calories, you can eat a big amount. Like, that's a very unhealthy way to go about things. I'm sure you would agree. So just to clarify, I'm not saying people do that. This is just to explain where that particular idea comes from. You know, in reality, I think that the

Michelle Yates (20:33)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Totally.

Dan Feldman (20:50)
nutrition and physical activity, like physical activity, I mean, it can, for a weight loss intervention, obviously be very helpful. It does increase total energy expenditure, but I try not to think of it so much in terms of the means of burning calories, more so about the cardiovascular benefits of cardio, the ⁓ myriad of benefits of resistance training independent of the calories being burned. So again, kind of want to get that out there. I'm sure you agree ⁓ with that. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Yates (21:12)
Yeah.

absolutely. Yeah, I appreciate that clarification. that's

a way better mindset to have towards that exercise too. It's way more sustainable.

Dan Feldman (21:21)
Yeah, yeah. So like for me, I do powerlifting. I genuinely enjoy doing it. That's a big reason why I do it. You know, I do, I kind of do the cardio because I, I don't enjoy it as much, but I know it's going to be healthy for me. So, so I do that as well. But you know, having something you enjoy when it comes to physical activity is a lot more important than finding the exact perfect program. Something you can stick to, that you reasonably enjoy, or at least, you know, maybe you don't enjoy every minute of it, but at least you don't mind doing it, you know.

Michelle Yates (21:34)
Yeah.

Yeah,

you tolerate it. Yeah, agreed. ⁓ So we kind of started to touch in to or tap into myths with that whole 80-20 myth. I feel like there's some others that we hear a lot from our beloved social media and I've seen you debunk them specifically and I love the way that you have.

Dan Feldman (21:51)
Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah.

Yeah.

Michelle Yates (22:13)
I'd love to chat through, I've got three main ones and then if we have any others that come up that we think of, we could always chat through it too, but for the sake of time, we'll try to not go too overboard here. But I would love for you to speak to, you actually touched on this already, the carb insulin model of obesity basically the whole idea that anytime you raise your insulin, you are promoting fat storage. Can you speak to that?

Dan Feldman (22:39)
Yes.

Yeah. And there was a whole kind of group of researchers who sound very smart. ⁓ Like Gary Taubes is one of them and there are a few others. But they basically, and there's papers on it. So it'll, they'll sound like, again, it sounds like it's very scientific about the carbohydrate insulin model of obesity, where essentially it's not so much calories that are the issue, more so insulin and carbs. Insulin. So, so when we consume food, especially carbohydrates,

Those carbohydrates break down into their smallest components of glucose molecules or glucose and fructose molecules usually. ⁓ You know, or if it's dairy, glucose and galactose, right? But simple sugars that ultimately our body breaks down these carbohydrates into that raises our blood sugar. ⁓ Then when our blood sugar is raised, our pancreas creates insulin. Insulin...

basically ⁓ shuttles the energy into your cell, shuttles the glucose into your cells so that your blood sugar goes back down to normal. ⁓ Very important process that needs to happen. Insulin has a lot of roles in the body. They tend to be anabolic, so kind of building up tissues, restoring tissues. One of its roles is to shuttle fat into fat cells. So it does have that role.

So within the course of a day, if you eat three meals, to some extent, right after your meal, there will be some degree of fat storage. Then in the period between your meals or when you're sleeping overnight and not eating, there's a degree of fat burning as breaking down that fat in ⁓ lipolysis and beta oxidation, essentially.

And there are certain hormones that are in charge of that, but insulin is in charge of, among many other things, shuttling fat into fat cells. So the carbohydrate insulin model of obesity essentially argues that it's the insulin that's the issue. And then if you can reduce your carbohydrate intake so that you're consuming less insulin, that that is the key to preventing obesity, improving insulin resistance, et cetera.

taking a mechanism that is insulin, shuttling fat into fat cells and using that to kind of determine kind of cause and effect. In reality, it's not true because ultimately when you're storing fat, you're storing energy. Stored fat is stored energy. So it really comes down to whether you're in an energy surplus or an energy deficit, so calorie surplus or calorie deficit that determines whether the net

Fat storage versus fat loss is ⁓ overall storage, losing fat or overall maintaining the same. So like I said, over the course of the day, so you have three meals, you store a little bit of fat right after the meal, but then between the meals, you'll burn off some fat. Same thing after your second meal or after your third meal. So it's really the net fat gain versus fat loss over the course of the day and really more so over the course of the week or many weeks or months.

that determines whether your body fat, levels of body fat roughly stay the same, roughly go up, roughly go down. So it's still ultimately the calories that matter, not so much the insulin. ⁓ And I referenced this in a post I made on April 16th. So if you scroll down in my Instagram, go to that post. ⁓ I said it's some controlled feeding studies where they specifically control for calories and compare low fat versus low carbohydrate diets.

Michelle Yates (26:00)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Feldman (26:28)
pretty similar body composition outcomes. There have been some studies that have ⁓ looked at mechanisms by which the body can store fat without insulin. Yes, that is possible as well. So by minimizing insulin levels, by eating a very low carbohydrate diet, if you're still on a calorie surplus, you will still gain fat, most likely. ⁓

So like I said, it's taking a mechanism where in reality, the net fat gain or fat loss comes down to calories, not carbohydrates. ⁓ Because it's the ultimate, it's the energy that you're storing, the energy that you're burning. So it comes down to the overall energy, calories. So that is kind of it in a nutshell. Like I said, also low carb diets aren't necessarily bad. There are many contexts.

in which they can be beneficial and can actually make it easier for people to eat fewer calories. If someone follows a low carbohydrate diet and by doing so they're reducing their intake of very palatable, hyper palatable tasty foods like sweets and candy or like chips and they're just eating like a lot of protein and foods that are like mostly just fat. ⁓

At least the protein in certain ways, the fat can promote satiety, lower calorie intake, thereby you lose fat. Also, when you follow a low carb diet, at first, you'll oftentimes see a loss of glycogen, so stored carbohydrate in your muscle and liver from consuming fewer carbohydrates. And then when you lose that stored glycogen, ⁓ with that you lose body water. So essentially, when you first start a low carb diet,

really any diet, but especially low carb diet, you will see ⁓ a larger degree of weight loss due to body water and glycogen. And that comes back. So oftentimes, that mechanism, which has that kernel of truth, along with the fact that when people do follow the carb diets, they see an initial pretty big drop in weight, even though it's mostly water weight, glycogen, it can be very encouraging to people and motivating, and they may see weight loss just due to consuming fewer calories. So yeah.

Michelle Yates (28:30)
Yeah.

Yeah, which then fuels

that belief that, carbs were the problem when I took away carbs. Now I'm finally able to lose weight and I'm losing it so quickly. Yeah. Yeah. there's a natural up and flow that happens throughout the day of consuming carbohydrates, which triggers your insulin, which triggers fat storage, but that storage does get used if we're in a normal range of

Dan Feldman (28:52)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So it's kind of like that cycle.

Michelle Yates (29:18)
caloric intake for our needs throughout the day. It's a nice little ebb and flow. And I think we just get so obsessed with that phrase fat storage, like everybody's ears perk up that we're like, we kind of stop listening to anything that comes after. So it's like, ⁓ fat storage. That's all I'm going to focus on now is we can't let insulin trigger at all. We can't let insulin do its thing at all. To play devil's advocate for the people who think insulin is bad thing.

Dan Feldman (29:34)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle Yates (29:47)
what would happen if we did not have insulin and we consumed carbohydrates and you.

Dan Feldman (29:51)
you would die. You

would die. No, I'm serious. You need insulin to function. People who have type 1 diabetes, and I'm obviously preaching to the choir, people who have type 1 diabetes, they can't produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes, they can, but their body doesn't respond to it properly so that the cells don't take in the glucose, blood sugar gets really high. But for type 1 diabetes, they don't.

make insulin, so they have to take exogenous insulin or they literally die. So you need insulin. You don't need carbohydrates. You can live and not eat carbohydrates. ⁓ You would still end up most likely breaking down. ⁓ I mean, you could enter a state of ketosis, but also if you're eating a lot of protein, you would just ⁓ turn that protein into glucose via gluconeogenesis.

⁓ for your carb needs, so you should get it then. like I said, if someone was in ketosis and yet managed to be in a calorie surplus, which would basically be very, very high carbs and not even that much protein, because protein does stimulate insulin to some extent. Like I said, you create glucose from protein if you need glucose, but ⁓ like very, very high fat diet, low...

protein and no carbohydrates, one that would be very difficult to sustain, two, your body does have other mechanisms to store fat directly from that fat that you're consuming. yeah, like I said, insulin has a lot of other really important roles in the body. It's absolutely essential to live. ⁓

Michelle Yates (31:35)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

you have a really great graphic that shows that it's not just for fat storage. I'll probably link that in the show notes actually, because again, your graphics are great. Very saveable, not just shareable.

Dan Feldman (31:48)
Thank you. Thank you. Excellent. I

try to make them like that. So yeah. Yes. Yes, I do. I do. Thank you.

Michelle Yates (31:54)
They are very saveable. love it. And I love that you always put your PubMed IDs too. It's always appreciated. So

what about, you're welcome. What about, you also had a graphic on this myth about metabolism slowing down as you age. I feel like there's this fear that as soon as we hit 50 years old, our metabolism just plummets. We're just burning 200 calories a day and that's it.

Dan Feldman (32:16)
Right, right.

Yeah, so that

post comes from a paper published in 2021 by a lot of authors. The first author's name is Herman Poncer. He's done a lot of work in this area. If you go to, if you just Google PubMed to get to the PubMed website and then you put in the number 34385400, that's a PubMed ID. So if you go to the PubMed website and put in like the 8-

character ID, the eight number ID, you'll see it, it's called daily energy expenditure through the Human Life course. They evaluated data from just under 6,500 people, 29 countries, to assess their energy expenditure, to assess the total calories they're burning. They used a technique called doubly labeled water, which is a gold standard measurement for energy expenditure, and assessed

total daily energy expenditure. So how many calories you burn every day from the age of zero to two like older ages like 90, 95. After adjusting for body fat and for lean lean mass, so that includes muscle all of that from about the ages of like 20 21 22 through the age of like 60 total daily energy expenditure stays the same after adjusting for

fat and fat-free mass, then it kind of declines a little bit after age 60. So the idea that just your metabolism, quote unquote, goes down just because you're getting older, at least throughout your adult life, is not supported by the research. That said, people do tend to become more sedentary when they go from, say, college, walking to different classes, maybe they're playing sports, to 25, 30, 35 years old working a sedentary job.

Maybe having kids, ⁓ being busier. And also with that, as we get older, if we don't do resistance training, we'll tend to see some degree of lean mass loss, muscle loss or bone mass loss. That will reduce your energy expenditure. But this is accounting for fat-free mass and fat mass. On average, total daily energy expenditure tends to stay the same. ⁓

some when I've posted this, and actually the last time I posted this, I got some pushback, you what about ⁓ menopausal woman, perimenopausal woman, ⁓ you know, those women, you know, they do find oftentimes that some weight does come on. ⁓ And that also the distribution of their weight changes. So it tends to kind of more so be stored in the abdominal area. To my knowledge, I don't think I could be wrong. I don't think there is direct evidence showing

reduction in total daily energy expenditure strictly during the menopausal period. like I said, a lot of women during that age, they might experience losses in bone mass, or fat-free mass if they're not regularly resistant straining, that'll impact totally daily energy expenditure. Some of the hormonal shifts can, like I said, affect the distribution of body fat. And just anecdotally, ⁓ women going through perimenopause

Michelle Yates (35:27)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Feldman (35:38)
They just tend to oftentimes have a harder time losing weight. Whether or not that's due to total daily energy expenditure going down, know exactly why that is. not 100 % sure, but you know that is true as well. again, people do tend to struggle more with their weight from the time they're 20 through the time they're 30, 40, 50, 60. But the idea that metabolism automatically goes down as you get older is not true.

Michelle Yates (35:42)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. think there's, with those hormone shifts too, there, I don't know this with 100 % certainty, but there's probably changes in your hunger hormones and maybe you're more tired, generally moving less. And, you know, I think it's a tragedy that a lot of times when we're having conversations like this, people feel like they're being dismissed or they feel like, I don't want to hear that it's just calories in calories out.

And to be fair, there's a lot of people who do say that very callously and don't have any empathy around what makes calories in versus calories out difficult. Like for example, the women that I work with, it's very difficult to just address calories and calories out when they're struggling with their relationship with food, they're using it as a coping mechanism, they're too depressed to move, maybe they have kids. Yeah, hearing calories and calories out does not super help.

for them or anybody really. And there's so much that affects those two things. And I think you do a really good job of explaining that too in your content. just thinking about the menopausal community or guess like age range, there's so much, I hate to say predatory, but kind of predatory stuff going on around that.

Dan Feldman (37:06)
Yep. Yep.

There it is.

Michelle Yates (37:31)
because people feel really self-conscious about their changing body. And it's very comforting to hear, oh, that's why, because my metabolism is broken. To have a specific answer is so much more comforting than being like, oh, it's complicated. I have to actually sift through all the different possibilities here. But I think it's good to have. I mean, love that that study.

was done and that we have something to look at like that where it's clear that it doesn't just drop off, it does slow down a bit. But do remember how much per day it's slowing down by or even per week?

Dan Feldman (38:14)
Once you're in your

60s.

Michelle Yates (38:17)
Yeah, once you're in your 60s.

Dan Feldman (38:18)
You mean like-

let's see, ⁓ once you turn 60, I just have the paper pulled up here. Total basal energy expenditure begin to decline. ⁓ Adjusted total energy expenditure. this is energy expenditure after accounting for changes in fat mass and fat free mass declined by

0.7 % per year. ⁓ Basal energy expenditure was pretty similar.

Michelle Yates (38:52)
Wow, that's tiny.

Dan Feldman (38:54)
Yeah, yeah. And again, it's not to kind of ⁓ tell people they're wrong when they have a harder time losing weight. It's just that the idea that it's necessarily your metabolism in and of itself, think a lot of it has to do with losing muscle and being less active, less energy. A lot of it more so has to do with that. So again, you know, and I think for as people get older, especially perimenopausal women, it still can be a lot harder. And that

Michelle Yates (39:08)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Feldman (39:24)
this study and that same metabolism doesn't necessarily ⁓ decrease independent of fat in fat pre-mats doesn't negate the fact that weight loss can and often is a lot harder once you reach ⁓ a many menopause perimenopause. Yeah.

Michelle Yates (39:39)
Absolutely.

And it doesn't negate the fact that it can be upsetting to all of a sudden gain weight when you've changed nothing, or seemingly changed nothing in your life, you know. Yeah, love that. Okay, last one that I have on my list for you is creatine. This is a hot topic lately. Is creatine all hype or actually legit?

Dan Feldman (40:06)
Creatine is one of the only supplements that is actually shown to be beneficial in so far as ⁓ gaining muscle. It's one of the only supplements that actually is beneficial, which is part of why it's become so popular, that it's actually effective. There's a lot of research showing it's pretty effective specifically ⁓ for improving performance.

⁓ in intense short bursts of exercise. Basically, supplementing with creatine ⁓ helps saturate phosphocreatine in muscles. And by doing that, when we saturate phosphocreatine in our muscles, it allows us to regenerate energy, regenerate ATP energy more quickly during exercise.

Michelle Yates (40:42)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Feldman (41:05)
under conditions of high energy demand, such as lifting weights. So essentially, it can help you get an extra couple of weights, a couple of extra reps in your sets when you're lifting weights. And through that, it can potentially help a little bit with gaining muscle. Also, when you start taking creatine, there's usually a little bit of an increase in body water. So people who do like DEXA, they might show an increase in lean mass, it's because of that to some extent, but it can help athletic performance in certain contexts. And by doing so,

can indirectly help with building muscle. ⁓ That said, the effects are still relatively modest. ⁓ I shared a paper pretty recently, ⁓ which I can pull up, where they found a... It helps with hypertrophy with gaining muscle, but not by a lot. ⁓ The PubMed ID for that. So again, you go to the PubMed website, Google PubMed, and type in 374...

3,2,3,0,0. ⁓ That was a meta-analysis where creatine was beneficial for gaining muscle, but effects were relatively small. So it's beneficial. I think for a lot of the non-gaining muscle ⁓ applications, I think it's overhyped. There is some research that in certain contexts, there might be a cognitive benefit specifically in the context potentially of sleep deprivation ⁓ of Alzheimer's. ⁓

Michelle Yates (42:19)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Feldman (42:30)
of traumatic brain injury, higher intakes like 10 to 20 grams in a day may have some benefits in those contexts. Under conditions of cognitive ⁓ deficit or sleep deprivation, like I said, having that kind cognitive deficit, still research is still kind of new there. And there isn't nearly as much research as there is backing up its effects on performance, muscle strength and thereby muscle gain.

Michelle Yates (42:48)
like still.

Dan Feldman (43:00)
Um, it's definitely overhyped lately. I've been seeing particularly for, uh, hopefully it's okay. I'm like naming names. I'm not trying to call these people out, but, um, particularly for, for women's health. You know, I mentioned Stacey sends earlier. I do think she, she probably means well, but, um, I know in like a recent podcast she did on the mill Robbins podcast, which is one of the biggest podcast platforms in the country of the United States, at least, um, she made a lot of.

Michelle Yates (43:09)
no, no, no. I love it.

Dan Feldman (43:29)
or has in general made a lot of questionable claims on creatine over hyping its benefits specifically for women. there just really isn't research for that. creatine monohydrate, there are some potential benefits, but it's not steroids. It's not like a magical weight loss pill. I don't think it would really help with weight loss at all. ⁓ So yeah, it's beneficial, but it's not like, my god, you need to be taking this or else. Yeah.

Michelle Yates (43:56)
And I think what you shared was that it's in the context of that exercise. So taking it without any training or resistance training makes no sense.

Dan Feldman (44:07)
Correct. Correct.

will not help you gain muscle if you're not already resistance training.

Michelle Yates (44:13)
Yeah, if you're not stimulating that muscle growth. Yeah. Love it. Is it something, I've heard mixed things on this, so I'm interested if you know more about this, is it something you have to take every day in order to see the benefits?

Dan Feldman (44:15)
Yes, 100%. 100%. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, so ideally you'd want to three to five grams per day every day to maintain your, ⁓ to keep your muscle levels saturated with creatine. Some people will take, do creatine loading where they'll take like 20 grams a day for like seven days to saturate their muscle stores faster. But you can take three to five grams per day daily for people who are particularly large with a lot of muscle mass, ⁓ either women who are a lot

kind of larger in terms of like muscle mass than average, or for bigger men, you know, like a guy is like six foot four and is pretty muscular, they might benefit from slightly more closer to 10 grams per day, just because they have more muscle, but generally three to five grams per day, most people should be enough to saturate ⁓ muscle stores. Yeah.

Michelle Yates (45:13)
Fascinating.

I love it. Well, this was fun to dig into some common myths and hear you. You're awesome at communicating the science You simplify while also being factual and I appreciate that very much as a colleague. ⁓ Any other thoughts or things that you want to touch on before we sign off?

Dan Feldman (45:16)
Yeah. Yeah.

⁓ No, I think we went through a lot. ⁓ Just when you get your nutrition information, health and fitness information, just always try and be little bit skeptical. If people are saying things that are very much against conventional wisdom, just kind be careful. ⁓ And just kind of be careful where you get your information in general, ⁓ because you'll encounter a lot of BS. ⁓

But yeah, otherwise, that's kind of pretty much all I have to say.

Michelle Yates (46:05)
Yeah, and I would add to that too, the things that you're seeing on your algorithm, you're probably seeing for a reason because they were very engaging, they were ⁓ controversial. I think that hyper skepticism is very healthy to have

Well, thank you so much, Dan, for your time today. Can you tell the listeners where they can find you and how they can work with you if you're taking clients in any capacity? What would that look like?

Dan Feldman (46:23)
100%.

Yeah, so my best contact on Instagram, my main account is powerlifter dietician. you search for Dan Feldman, you'll likely see me as well. DanFeldmanRD.com.

If you're interested in my services, ⁓ most of my clients are able to see me for free because they use their health insurance. least this is United States at least. I also have out of pocket options for people who don't have health insurance or have the health insurance I don't accept or out of the country of the US. ⁓ But I am taking clients. If you're a dietician and you are interested in starting a private practice, and especially if you're in the US and looking to accept health insurance, you want to learn more about it.

got another Instagram at dietitianmentor. for other RDs who are looking to accept health insurance. ⁓ You know, I have some services for those specific people as well for dietitians.

Michelle Yates (47:32)
love it, and then you're building a powerlifting course as well, right?

Dan Feldman (47:35)
That is correct. That is correct. If ⁓ you go to nutritionforpowerlifters.com, all one word, ⁓ you'll see a button that says join the wait list. If you want to get email updates about our course, will go through ⁓ specifically what power lifters need to know for their nutrition in a lot of detail. So definitely check that out. Yeah.

Michelle Yates (47:58)
But all right,

thank you so much for your time today.

Dan Feldman (48:01)
My pleasure.