Never Diet Again with Max Lowery

Unlock Your Metabolism: The Secret to Effortless Fat Loss in 2025

• Max Lowery

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Tired of constant cravings, fluctuating energy levels, and feeling stuck in your weight loss journey? You might be dealing with metabolic inflexibility—and it’s sabotaging your results.

In this episode of the Never Diet Again podcast, Max and Mollie uncover the truth about metabolic flexibility, why it’s essential for fat loss, and how modern lifestyles are destroying it. 🚫🍫

Discover:
✅ Why snacking culture is keeping you tired, hungry, and overweight.
✅ How to use larger, less frequent meals to improve energy and control cravings.
✅ The role of sleep, movement, and mindful eating in building a resilient metabolism.
✅ How societal norms have made unhealthy habits feel “normal”—and how to break free.

This isn’t about fad diets or quick fixes. It’s about sustainable, science-backed habits that support energy, focus, and fat loss. If you’re ready to transform your health, this episode is your blueprint.

🎧 Listen now and take the first step toward regaining control of your metabolism, your weight loss, and your life.

Watch my Free Fat Loss Master Class:   https://www.neverdietagain.uk/register-podcast

52 Days of FREE Fat Loss Advice: https://www.maxlowery.com/newsletter

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/max.lowery/

Book a call: https://calendly.com/live360transformations/strategy-session

Max Lowery (00:02.158)

Hello, happy new year everyone. It's 2025, back here with the Never Diet Again podcast. I'm Max Lowery, weight loss coach. been helping women over 40 lose weight for the last 10 years. In those 10 years, helped over a thousand women lose weight and keep it off. I'm joined today by Molly, who is one of the Live 360 coaches. Hello, Molly.


Mollie (00:22.177)

Happy New Year.


Max Lowery (00:23.648)

Happy New Year to you. Today we're talking about something a bit different. This is a topic that I used to talk about a lot back when I was mostly talking about intermittent fasting, but I've realized that actually we need to start talking about it again because it's a very, very important topic. And that is something known as metabolic flexibility. Really, let's start from the top. What is metabolic flexibility? Metabolic flexibility is your body's ability to switch between different fuel sources. Okay, so when you eat food that's broken down into sugars and carbohydrates and you use that those carbohydrates for energy. But when you don't have a constant stream of food, we also do have the ability to tap into stored energy. And if we didn't have this, this function, this capacity, then we wouldn't have got to this stage in human evolution. Like we haven't had this continuous access to food. So there are other fuel sources that we can tap into. So we have stored carbohydrate, which is known as glycogen, and that is stored in the muscle and the liver. I think the average man can store about 3000 calories of carbohydrates in their muscles and the liver. But that can quite quickly run out, especially if you are being really active throughout the day, if you're doing a workout. But then we have another...


quite significant fuel source and that is body fat. pretty much one of the only reasons that we store body fat is for later use, just in case we need the energy and take in case harsh times come. And we are still basically the same as we were when we were hunter gatherers. Like nothing has, not much has changed with our physiology, but obviously the environment we live in has completely changed. so although back in thousands of years ago, this capacity to store


energy in times of scarcity was a good thing. Now, actually, it's not really serving us because we don't have scarce times. We've got Western sedentary lifestyles and people are just putting more more and more weight on. But our bodies see that weight, that extra fat as a good thing. And that's why weight loss can be quite difficult sometimes because your body does everything it can to keep the fat. So back when I was leaner than I am now, I think when I was kind of sitting around eight, nine percent body fat, I worked out


Max Lowery (02:49.954)

how many calories I had on me in the form of fat. So remember, seven to eight percent body fat as a man is almost as low as it gets without it being unhealthy and ruining libido and all sorts of different things. So it's a low body fat, but still as someone with a low body fat, it worked out. I think I had like seven or eight kilos of body fat on me. I did like a scan.


And that works out as roughly 40,000 calories worth of energy. 40,000 calories. So that's quite a lot. That could potentially do me for a month. So obviously if you have more body fat, that's more calories that you can tap into. So metabolic flexibility is the ability that your body has to switch from the food that you eat into the stored energy.


Mollie (03:25.517)

Mm.


Max Lowery (03:47.938)

And this was first started to be spoken about in 2000 with some research and some studies that were done. And now it's kind of a generally accepted term for your body to be able to switch between fuel sources. The issue is because of the Western lifestyle and because we eat regularly and we don't go through periods of scarcity, we don't practice


our bodies don't really have to use our stored energy because we have a constant influx of food, is that we can become what's known as metabolically inflexible. So your body struggles to switch between the food that you're eating and your stored energy. And this essentially leads to all sorts of different things. So let's talk about metabolic inflexibility. What does that look like exactly? And how does it relate to fat loss? Why are we talking about this today?


So really, if you are metabolically inflexible, you are likely to be craving food all the time, especially carbohydrates and sugary foods. You're also likely to have fluctuating energy levels throughout the day. So you're not going to be on one stable energy level. You're going to kind of wake up, have your breakfast. You're going to get the mid-morning slump. You're going to feel low in energy. You're going to have a snack that's going to pick you up again, which will see you over till lunch.


then you'll be okay until the mid-afternoon, then you're gonna be low energy again, you're gonna be reaching for a snack, a pick-me-up, and it just ends up being a bit of a rollercoaster. And the issue is this kind of energy fluctuations and this cravings of food has just become normalized. Like everyone has it, or most people have it. So everyone just thinks this is how it's meant to be, and it isn't at all, which I find quite crazy.


Mollie (05:41.091)

Mm.


I think as well because you have access to food so easily. There's so many convenient snacks you can grab, often food in the office. If you're working from home, you're next to the fridge. Our behaviors just continue to fuel that. So it's really hard for people to actually notice that this is what they're struggling with.


Max Lowery (06:05.112)

Yeah, and I think this has happened, this has got worse in my lifetime, so in the past 20 years, and I think part of that is due to snacking culture, and we've talked, oops, we've talked a lot about that in different episodes. But this rollercoaster of energy and being hungry all the time has just become normalized, and it's been normalized by big food and advertisements, and the famous one is Snickers. I hate this Snickers advert more than anything, because essentially it says, you're not you when you're hungry.


Mollie (06:09.155)

Mm.


Max Lowery (06:34.926)

And it's essentially saying that you should never ever experience any hunger at all. Like that should just never happen. So obviously they've got these really convenient snacks that you can have so you never experience hunger. And that just leads to this whole issue. So far we've got constant cravings, fluctuating energy levels, and you're also likely to be hungry all the time. Because essentially your body is dependent on a constant stream of food.


So even if you don't actually need the calories, you may need the sugar for the energy just to fuel you through the day. And we've had lots of clients who at the start really, really struggle with what we... Well, they think they're going to struggle because they're so used to eating regularly throughout the day and they're dependent on this constant stream of food. What this then leads to, if you are constantly hungry, if you are dependent on a constant stream of food, then it's going be very difficult to regulate your calorie intake because you're going to be eating


little and often and every time that you eat it's a potentially an opportunity to overeat. It can also impact your mood so obviously the the word is hangry and to be honest like I really don't like that word either because I think it's become normalized as well that you feel irritable and hungry if you skip a meal and for me personally


I don't think I've ever really been like that, but once I got into kind of intermittent fasting and eating in a different way, if for whatever reason I a meal later, it makes little to no impact on my mood or my energy levels. I might feel hungry for a period of time, like yeah, I could probably eat now, but then I carry on and I feel absolutely fine. Whereas for a lot of people, they feel hungry. We've had clients who...


that's kind of been part, it's become part of their personality. And like everyone in their family knows that they definitely don't want to get hungry. And whilst that is a thing, it's going to be very difficult again to be in control of your calorie intake. We've then got, those are all kind of the short term consequences of being metabolically inflexible. So really it's serious. And I think it can have a drastic impact on your quality of life. If you are constantly craving food, obsessing about food,


Max Lowery (08:52.568)

you have constant fluctuating energy levels, your focus, your mood, your productivity, if you're hungry all the time, that you're not going to be enjoying life to the best of your ability, to be honest. So you've got all those short-term consequences, but then you've got the long-term consequences, which potentially lead to metabolic syndrome. So the more metabolically inflexible you are, essentially you lose the ability to tap into those stored...


Mollie (09:02.381)

Mm.


Max Lowery (09:21.454)

energy reserves and it can lead to metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes potentially. So it's a big, big problem, short term and long term. And it's great to have Mollie's perspective on this as well because what she reminded me at the start of this call was that actually all these symptoms women can feel on a monthly basis because of their cycles.


And I think it's really important to understand the difference between what we're talking about here and the normal hormonal fluctuations that can happen for women on a monthly or on a cycle basis.


Mollie (10:03.287)

Yeah, and I think a really easy way of doing that is if you're hearing some of these symptoms and they happen a few times during the month, a couple of days, and you feel that it's usually the same days each month, then that's likely to be related to your cycle. If you're experiencing these every day, as Max said, it's consuming, it's taking over your life.


you know, it's really difficult, it's really unpredictable, then this is likely to be not your cycle and actually to do with your metabolism. So there really is a distinct difference on this. And if you feel like it's extremely consuming and happening or not, that's not your cycle.


Max Lowery (10:48.558)

Yeah, and the same if you're going through the perimenopause as well. you know, the thing of the perimenopause is your cycles become irregular, completely unpredictable. things where maybe you may have felt like this for a few days every month, it could be like two weeks. It could be, you know, for a longer period of time. So it's really important to understand that this is separate to the hormonal.


Mollie (10:52.119)

Mm.


Max Lowery (11:14.862)

fluctuations that women have on a monthly basis and through the perimenopause and the menopause. But generally, you'll know listening to this what I've described if this is you or not. Really the most, the easiest way to tell if you're metabolically inflexible is to skip a meal and see how you feel. If you skip a meal or


wait a few hours to have breakfast, for example, and you've never done that before, then likely you're going to feel low energy, lethargic, headaches, you can't focus. Headaches is a classic one. Then likely you are metabolically inflexible. So why does this happen? Basically, happens for a variety of reasons. But really the biggest reason, I would say, is


how our food habits have completely changed in the last 20 years. We've gone from eating three square meals per day, know, proper meals, sitting down at a table to people eating 12 times in a day. I can't remember the name of the professor, the researcher, but he's a leading researcher in circadian, basically chrono nutrition. So looking at


how timing impacts your, so how you time your food impacts your circadian rhythm basically. So he did a study where he got people, like he built an app and basically got people to track every time that they ate. And people were eating like 12 times in a day, you know, just snacking, like, yeah. Cause you think about it, every single bite of food counts.


Mollie (12:58.947)

12 times a day. Gosh. Yeah.


Max Lowery (13:05.038)

So there's like, bite of this, a bite of that, a biscuit here, a biscuit there, you know, a few crisps, or maybe I'll have a handful of nuts. It's just, we're just grazing on food all day, every day. So people think they're only eating three or four times a day, they're only having their meals, but they're actually eating 12 times a day. And this means that your body will only tap into stored reserves if it absolutely has to. It's not going to go there if it doesn't have to, because remember, we need body fat.


Mollie (13:16.279)

Mm.


Max Lowery (13:34.738)

or to survive, or that's what your body thinks anyway. Like, it's anticipating harsh times coming. But fortunately in the Western world, for most of us, or many of us, you know, obviously there is a big problem with homelessness and all that kind of stuff, which we're not going to go into today, but I'm aware of it. But obviously for most of us in the Western world, we have unlimited access to food and we're snacking left, right and center. We're in the office and they've got, you know, someone's birthday, they've got the biscuit jaw, they've got all sorts of stuff and it's just become completely normalized. So our bodies...


are never tapping into the stored reserves. We've then got the fact that we have sedentary lifestyles, you know? So if you look at the average person who has a nine to five job in an office, they wake up, they sit down to have their breakfast, they then maybe, they might walk to the station or they might sit in the car to the station, then they'll be sitting on the train for an average of 45 minutes.


Then they'll be sitting down all day at their desk. Maybe they'll go out at lunch to get some lunch. Maybe not. Maybe someone will get the lunch for them and they'll sit down at their desk eating lunch. Then they'll be sitting down for the rest of the afternoon. Then they sit down on the train to get home. Then they might walk home from the station maybe, or they'll drive from the station home. And then they'll sit down in front of the TV all day. So people are getting like on average three to five thousand steps a day, which is, you know, it's not going to do your metabolic flexibility any...


favors at all. Then on top of that you've got chronic stress and poor sleeping habits, sleeping hygiene. So because people are working more and more and more, because we have access to artificial lighting, because we have caffeine, because we have Netflix, because we have phones, people's bedtimes are being pushed later and later and later and the amount of sleep that we're getting is getting shorter and shorter and shorter.


It's not uncommon that we work with clients who are know, averaging five, six hours sleep a night. And great book to read if you want to scare yourself into sleeping better is Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. But he has a great quote, which is, the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. Simple as that. And then potentially on top of this, we've got the highly processed...


Max Lowery (15:54.166)

or ultra-processed foods which have become normalized, like I said, the Snickers, the food, Big Food, who have essentially normalized snacking culture and then created ultra-processed foods for you to snack on, which are really easy and give you a quick boost of energy. So those are the main reasons why people are metabolically inflexible, and unfortunately, everything that I just described has just become normalized again.


And actually, if you're not doing those things, then you're seen as like a fitness freak. You're seen as like, there's a great quote that's gone viral on Instagram, which is, it's something along the lines of, we've got so far removed from how we're meant to eat, that just eating health, like just eating healthily, people just presume you're on a diet. They just think that is dieting, just when you eat like real food cooked from scratch.


Mollie (16:26.903)

Mm-hmm.


Mollie (16:46.168)

Mm.


Mollie (16:50.005)

Yeah, I think with this as well, which is scary, it's easier than people think.


All of this has become normalized, but it's not normal. And Max, I know we speak about, I speak about my granddad quite a bit, but if we think back to their generation before all of this happened, my granddad doesn't understand working from home. He doesn't understand the use of technology. He sits down, he lives alone, but will have his three meals sat alone, mindfully. He eats balanced plates. This is not normal just because everyone is doing it.


I think it is easier to get in some of these habits than we think. And it's actually a conscious decision not to do some of these things or at least be aware of them. How stressed are you? How much are you snacking? How many steps are you genuinely getting? How good is your sleep? Clients are like, well, I've been in bed for eight hours, but they've been scrolling for three. That's not eight hours of quality sleep.


The fact that this has become normal makes it harder to really have the awareness that you're potentially struggling with some of these things.


Max Lowery (18:09.282)

Yeah, it's hard because when everyone that you are around is suffering from the same thing and it is normalized, it can be very difficult to go against the grain and to even realize that there's a problem. But it's not normal and you have to really have a bit of perspective shift to distance yourself from this kind of, from these issues and living your life in this way in order to get the results that you want.


So obviously this is a weight loss, we have a weight loss program. It's my goal to help people lose weight and keep it off the rest of their life and to never die again. So let me just emphasize again, so not only will this have a drastic impact on your mood, your energy levels, your productivity, your focus, potentially your long-term health, but it's gonna make long-term weight loss almost impossible. Like if you are craving food all the time and you're trying to lose weight, it is going to be very, very difficult.


And what's crazy to me is that we have had a number of clients who suffer from something called chronic fatigue syndrome. And let me just give a disclaimer here. I'm not claiming that everyone with chronic fatigue syndrome is going to be impacted by what I'm about to say. And that like, have, I know more than the medical profession on this, on the subject. I don't at all. However, we've had a number of clients with chronic fatigue syndrome and


I think I would say five and each one the same things happened. And because they are suffering from this issue where they are like tired all the time, they get into this habit of constantly snacking and grazing on food. Like we had one client who basically would wake up every two hours and just she'd have biscuits by her bed and she'd eat the biscuits because she was craving the food so much. basically once I found this out, first thing I asked them, did you know?


did your doctor, your GP or whatever, did they actually ask you anything about your nutrition and how you're eating? And all of them said no. So obviously I heard how they're eating and I was like, well, you know, essentially it sounds like you're dependent on a constant stream of sugar and that is going to lead, you know, it's going to make things worse potentially. So we've gone through like a process and it's a very, very gradual process of changing the way that they eat. And we'll talk about that in a second. And every single one that we've had suddenly had their symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome disappear.


Max Lowery (21:39.126)

So it's a, I think it's not, it's not very well, it's not a very well popular topic to talk about. It's not necessarily taking into consideration a lot of how eating in this way can have a drastic impact on your life and your overall health. But I think if you are suffering from low energy, you're tired all the time. The first place that I'm gonna look is your nutrition and then probably.


do a blood test and see if there's any deficiencies and issues with hormones. So again, not saying that we have the fix for chronic fatigue syndrome, but it's definitely worth looking into this and seeing if you're metabolically inflexible, if you are suffering from it. So let's talk about the opposite. What are the benefits of being metabolically flexible? What does that look like? Well, it's the opposite. So you're going to have stable energy levels all day long. Like I said, I actually


This is, you can get these benefits without intermittent fasting. Okay, obviously I did write a book called The Two Meal a Day in 2017. Intermittent fasting has changed my life. Some of our clients do it, some of them don't. It really depends on the individual. It's not a, it can't fix all your problems. However, it does, it can teach you to be more metabolically flexible. And I can go till two, three o'clock in the afternoon, just working and maybe even do a workout with no food and have like, not have any crash and just be full of energy the whole way through.


Again, you can have these stable energy levels, you can have this insane mental clarity without fasting, but that's just what I do personally. Reduce cravings and hunger. You're not going to be obsessing about food all the time. So for me personally, when it does get to about lunchtime, yeah, I'm like, I can eat now. I'm kind of ready to eat, but it's not an obsessing, I can still focus, I can still do other things. And when I do eat, it's not a case of...


Gorgeing and binging and overeating and being out of control. It's just I a meal like a normal human being It's much easier to manage your weight Because look when you eat less frequently you eat larger meals less frequently Then guess what you're giving yourself less opportunities to overeat so much much easier to stay in shape and this is this is this basically underpins the nutritional


Max Lowery (24:05.582)

guidelines that we give our clients. You're to have improved mood and mental clarity. You're not going to have these constant fluctuations of your mood and focus. And you're going to feel really empowered to know that you can function without needing a constant stream of food. And then potentially in the long term, lower risk of chronic diseases like metabolic disease, type 2 diabetes. So really,


really big and profound impact in the short term on your day-to-day life, but also in the long term for your long-term health. And I really do, again, want to reiterate that your energy, your attention, your focus, that's all you have in life, really. Like, that's your day-to-day experience is your energy. And if it's being compromised by being metabolically inflexible, then you are not living your best life.


Like at the very minimum, you know, it's not a good place to be.


Mollie (25:09.869)

I was just gonna jump in here as well and just say, we're not saying you're not gonna get tired at the end of the day and be ready for bed. We're not saying that your stomach isn't gonna rumble throughout the day, but there's a difference again between feeling tired after a productive day, your stomach rumbling when it's approaching lunchtime and you haven't eaten for a few hours, that's entirely normal. What we're talking about here is,


you know, being really distracted, being really irritable, snacking all of the time, never really having your stomach rumble, you know, constantly think about food. There are differences here and it's that extreme is what we're talking about that happens all the time that consumes your day. And trying to flip that on feeling a lot more clarity, calm, improve mood throughout the day.


Max Lowery (26:06.89)

You raise a really good point as well. think there is on the topic of your stomach rumbling, I think there's this confusion. And I think part of that is to do with the food culture now that just because your stomach is empty that you should eat. And this is you have to really take what I'm about to say with a pinch of salt or no, what's the expression? It's like, yeah, pinch of salt. Because what I'm about to say


Mollie (26:31.467)

Yeah, picture's up. You got it right.


Max Lowery (26:39.83)

This is going to be almost impossible to understand or to comprehend if you've been dieting your entire life, restricting and depriving yourself, if your hormones are all over the place, if you're stuck in the dietist mindset like a lot of the clients that we speak to. However, once you do get to a good place with your metabolic flexibility, with your mindset and you're fueling yourself properly, you'll realize that just because your stomach is empty doesn't mean that you should eat. We aren't designed to have full stomachs all day long.


You can function optimally with an empty stomach and that stomach rumbling is literally just your Digestive enzymes being released because it's expecting to your body's expecting to digest food. It doesn't actually necessarily mean that you should eat But again, you have to take that with a pinch of salt to get to that stage, which I'm talking about takes a long time But I think everyone is scared and you know, there are there's a societal fear, but there's also a fundamental like basil


reflex to fear having an empty stomach. Because like I said earlier, we are still the same as we were when we were hunting gatherers. So all sorts of alarm bells go off in your head that when your stomach is empty and your stomach is rumbling, that you're going to die and all hell's breaking loose and you need to eat something ASAP. But really, once you are metabolically flexible, you'll have an empty stomach.


I basically prefer to get most of my work done on an empty stomach because I find when I do eat, I start to slow down, I feel very distracted and my body is going into rest and digest mode instead of getting shit done. So yeah, as Molly said, it's not that you won't ever feel tired or you won't ever feel hungry, it's just learning to differentiate between real hunger, real tiredness,


and actually just being metabolically inflexible and being on this roller coaster of snacking and eating regularly. So the obvious question you're going to have listening to this is how do you become more metabolically flexible? Well, I would say the number one thing that you can do, and I've seen this personally and I've seen this with thousands of clients.


Max Lowery (28:52.68)

And not only does this work to improve metabolic flexibility, it also works to reduce your calories without it feeling like you're on a diet. And that is to eat larger meals less frequently. So go back to how your grandfather, your grandparents ate, which is probably three square meals per day, nothing in between. That is probably the most powerful thing that you can do.


can be really difficult at the start. Like you're gonna be craving food, you're gonna be obsessing about food in between the meal times. Give it a week and you will suddenly feel way better. You won't be constantly grazing on food, obsessing about food and needing to graze on food all the time. And a recent client I had, and he's actually a man.


I'm not going to say his name, but one of the very few male clients that we come on, it basically became part of his identity to eat all the time, to eat massive meals and to be constantly eating. It just become, it became like expected. Everyone had the expectations that he was going to do that. And he kind of liked to live up to it. So when I kind of said that we're going to shift the way that you eat and eat like this, he honestly couldn't believe that it was possible. He really was resistant and just didn't have the belief that it was possible. But


He trusted me, trusted the process. I took him through a very gradual process and he got to the point where I was able to, if he wanted to, he didn't have to have breakfast. He would fast until lunchtime and he had stable energy levels. He felt incredible. So it really can drastically improve your life doing this, but it can be very difficult at the start.


Mollie (30:37.015)

Just a question if people are listening to this, when you say large meals, how do you suggest people build those meals?


Max Lowery (30:46.838)

Yeah, really good question. So what I mean by eating larger meals, I don't mean stuffing yourself until you're uncomfortably full. What I mean is that most people who are trying to lose weight are conscious that they need to eat less food. So at meal times, they are restricting and depriving themselves in some way, shape or form. They're kind of not, they're eating and they're not feeling satisfied and full at the end of the meal.


And what that leads to is hunger building up throughout the day and it can lead into snacking and overeating and binging in the evenings or the weekends. So we suggest to our clients that, and this takes practice and evolves over time. This is a skill that you get better at. It's just to eat until you're full. And ideally, it's going to be much easier to do that if you're filling up on protein and fiber. So, you know, any animal product, basically, eggs.


Greek yogurt, you're vegan, things like tempeh and tofu and things like that. And fiber are basically fresh fruits and vegetables, you know, from scratch, oats, things like that. Apples have very high in fiber and those help you feel fuller for longer. So protein is the most important macronutrient for fat loss. So if you have a protein source at each meal,


you're going to feel fuller for longer, you're feel more satisfied and that's going to reduce the snacking in between the meals. So it might be a very radically different way to how you eat at the moment if you're kind of used to eating smaller meals and eating regularly throughout the day. And I'm not saying that this is necessarily going to work for every single person in the world, but in our experience for 90 % of people who don't have underlying health conditions or this really does make life much easier.


for energy levels and for weight loss. So that's the biggest way that you can improve your metabolic flexibility. Then to incorporate regular movement, in particular steps and walking. The more steps you can get in a day, the better, ultimately. We are built to move. All sorts of things happen when you sit down all day. Back issues, joint issues, you become metabolically inflexible, you're not using any of the food that you're eating and it's just ended up being stored.


Max Lowery (33:12.674)

But walking can honestly fix nearly all your problems with weight loss, also mental health, happiness, depression, all sorts of different things, especially when you're walking in nature. Things like strength training. basically the more muscle you have, the better. So it's been shown actually the higher percentage of muscle mass that you have, the more likely you are to be metabolically flexible. Because essentially your muscles use


a lot of the sugars from the food and everything just becomes more sensitive. But any kind of low intensity exercise can also help as well. The composition of your food, so like we said earlier, so trying to eat whole foods cooked from scratch and to limit the ultra processed foods. I'm not saying that like no food is off limits. You're adults. You can eat the Snickers if you want, but just be aware what it's going to do to your body.


Like sometimes the Snickers is exactly what you need to be to live a happy and balanced life. know, sometimes the dessert when you're out for dinner with friends is what you need to have a great life and to improve your mental health. But in other times, the Snickers in between breakfast and lunch might not be doing you any favors. It may actually be making this whole process much harder. So focus on the nutrient dense foods cooked from scratch 80 % of the time, 20 % of the time enjoy the desserts, the chocolate, the Snickers or whatever it is. Potentially...


Try intermittent fasting. Again, you really have to take this with a pinch of salt. If you are a woman who is going through the perimenopause and the menopause and you have issues with monthly cycles and hormones, then you need to be incredibly careful with this. And there's probably loads of things you should be doing before doing this. And equally, if you've been trapped in the diet cycle, if you've been dieting since you were a teenager and you've been losing weight and put it back on, losing weight and put it back on continuously, don't try intermittent fasting.


But if you feel like you are in a good place, if you feel like you are ready to try it, then try it very gradually. You could just wait an hour or two to have breakfast instead of having it as soon as you wake up.


Mollie (35:19.703)

This also doesn't mean a breakfast time. So for me, breakfast is the main meal for me, if anything. I'm always quite hungry in the morning. Breakfast is quite a big thing for me, but actually throughout the day, I get to around, I have my breakfast around 10, probably have my lunch around three, and often skip my evening meal.


So it doesn't have to be breakfast when you're having that period of fasting. You can try it at different points throughout the day.


Max Lowery (35:54.828)

Yeah, to be honest, women do often do better from doing it like that. And actually, if you look at the research that is more in line with our circadian rhythms, it's better to eat earlier in the day. For me personally, I get all the benefits from not having breakfast first thing in the morning. So, you know, it really depends on the individual. But ultimately, it doesn't matter how you do it, but just extending gaps between your meals is going to have loads of benefits. And you can do that in any way, shape or form.


So like we said earlier, prioritize sleep. Like sleep, I should have said this first, to be honest, because sleep is the most important thing. It's the base of the pyramid. Every system in your body is optimized and controlled by what's going on with your sleep, ultimately. Like the better your sleep, the better your body is going to function. So the number one, I'm not going to go into exactly how to improve your sleep now, but what I will say is the most important thing that you can do is routine. Go to bed at the same time.


wake up at the same time every single day. What that will do is it will synchronize your body clock and the quality of your sleep will improve and the efficiency of your sleep will improve. You'll start to feel tired at that time. You're going to be ready for sleep at that time. And equally, if you wake up at the same time, you're going to be in a light sleep phase. You're going to feel more alert and probably wake up a bit before your alarm. The classic way to tell if your body clock and your circadian rhythm is functioning


optimally in your good routines is that you wake up naturally before your alarm goes off instead of being rudely awoken in a deep sleep in the middle of a dream by your alarm. If that's happening, then you need to go to bed and wake up at the same time. Be mindful of alcohol consumption as well because alcohol gets broken down into a form of sugar and energy that your body uses and that can wreak havoc on your metabolic flexibility. It also wreaks havoc on your sleep.


I'm not, I drink, we're not here to say that you should be T total. But if you are drinking more nights in a week than you are not drinking, then certainly this is something that you want to look at. And we can do a whole podcast on this in another episode. So to summarize, how do you become more metabolically flexible? Sleep.


Max Lowery (38:13.164)

Reduce meal frequency, eat larger meals, focus on nutrient dense meals, limit the snacking, limit the processed foods, balance your macronutrients, potentially try extending your fast, and you can do that in any way, shape or form, so extending the gap in between meals, and move more. So none of this is rocket science, none of this is magic pills, none of this is unenjoyable and unsustainable, this is all just the basics done consistently.


But I really wanted to talk about this because this could be one of the big reasons you're finding losing weight difficult. What I also want to say is that in order to get long-term success, you have to also address your mindset, your emotional regulation, your identity, your negative self-talk, all these things.


are incredibly important. You can't only address this. Like even if you are perfect, even if you're not metabolically inflexible and you're not snacking all the time, you can still be struggling with your weight and that is likely to be because of what I just listed. But I think we're going to be talking more and more about this because it is very, very important. Anything else to say, Molly? I think we've covered everything.


Mollie (39:41.175)

Yeah, I'd just say sleep. For me actually listening to all of this and the changes I've made over the years, sleep has been the biggest improvement for me. I am known to be the sleep princess in my family now. I go to bed before my parents.


Max Lowery (39:56.238)

Mmph.


Max Lowery (39:59.788)

Wow. Yeah, look, sleep is sacred. It should be anyway. Everything is much harder when you are tired. You're gonna be craving, you're gonna be low motivation, you're gonna be hungry all the time, energy levels are gonna be all over the place. And it's going to lead to some serious long-term consequences as Matthew Walker said. So yeah. Any questions at all on this? Just best places to reach out to us is on Instagram, max.laury.


Mollie (40:11.288)

Yeah.


Max Lowery (40:29.102)

You can also book in for a chat with one of the team or myself by clicking the link below. And if you want to have daily emails from us with lots of tips and insights for 52 days, so 52 tips in 52 days, then again, click the link below and you can access to the free email series. But what everyone, we're going to be ramping up the amount of podcasts that happen. We're going to be doing two every week.


I want you guys to keep me accountable, but we're going to be aiming to do that from next week basically. So looking forward to sharing more. See you soon.


Mollie (41:07.213)

Bye everyone.