Liz Wolfe has been in the nutrition and wellness space almost as long as I have, so it's hard to believe our paths haven't really crossed until now! This in-depth conversation is a paradigm shift from how we often think about metabolism, which is basically just about calorie burning and boosting. Metabolism—especially at midlife-ish—is about so much more and (news alert!) most of what we've read and been fed about metabolism and aging is either wrong or misunderstood. We also get into what Liz describes as her "intentional weight loss" with peptides (and the backlash) and much more.
Some of the Questions Explored:
Top Questions from Insatiable Listeners (and being searched):
Transcript & Show Notes:
Connect with Insatiable & Ali:
Join our free Insatiable community gathering on the first Tuesday of each month from 2-3:00 pm ET to meet other Insatiable listeners. Bring your burning questions about the show or whatever you are struggling with for some free coaching from Ali. Visit alishapiro.com/gathering to sign-up and learn more.
Call or text our new Insatiable hotline: (412) 475-8006.
Have a question you'd like Ali to address on a future episode or a comment on the show? Ali would love to hear from you. Be sure to leave us a way to reach you in the event we'd like to play your message on a future episode.
Please rate and review Insatiable on your favorite podcast platform—it means more to us than you know—and helps others find the show!
Liz Wolfe has been in the nutrition and wellness space almost as long as I have, so it's hard to believe our paths haven't really crossed until now! This in-depth conversation is a paradigm shift from how we often think about metabolism, which is basically just about calorie burning and boosting. Metabolism—especially at midlife-ish—is about so much more and (news alert!) most of what we've read and been fed about metabolism and aging is either wrong or misunderstood. We also get into what Liz describes as her "intentional weight loss" with peptides (and the backlash) and much more.
Some of the Questions Explored:
Top Questions from Insatiable Listeners (and being searched):
Transcript & Show Notes:
Connect with Insatiable & Ali:
Join our free Insatiable community gathering on the first Tuesday of each month from 2-3:00 pm ET to meet other Insatiable listeners. Bring your burning questions about the show or whatever you are struggling with for some free coaching from Ali. Visit alishapiro.com/gathering to sign-up and learn more.
Call or text our new Insatiable hotline: (412) 475-8006.
Have a question you'd like Ali to address on a future episode or a comment on the show? Ali would love to hear from you. Be sure to leave us a way to reach you in the event we'd like to play your message on a future episode.
Please rate and review Insatiable on your favorite podcast platform—it means more to us than you know—and helps others find the show!
Ali Shapiro [00:00:07]:
Hello, insatiable listeners. You are in for such a treat today. I have the Liz Wolff who has been in the nutrition and wellness space almost as long as I have on the podcast today. I cannot believe our paths haven't really crossed until now, and I can tell you the conversation was worth the wait. Before we get there, though, 2 little updates I wanted to give you. First of all, if you remember, we have an insatiable hotline now where you can call in and ask your questions. You can also text in, and I will be answering those questions in upcoming episodes. And once I announced it, I didn't expect the hotline to be so hot.
Ali Shapiro [00:00:50]:
I thought it would kinda grow over time as these things do. But we've gotten a lot of great questions, and I will be answering those in the next upcoming episodes. The hotline number is 412-475 8006, and you can call in if you have questions. You can even text in, and I will answer those in upcoming episodes. And that number will always be in the show notes as well. So, again, that number is 412 475-8006. And the reason I haven't been able to answer those yet is because I am preparing for a keynote address at a really wonderful wellness center in Miami for the young president's organization, the Southern Gold chapter. So if you're not familiar with the Young President's Organization or YPO, it is this global leadership community, just extraordinary leaders and women, and this is their women's retreat.
Ali Shapiro [00:01:52]:
And I am preparing a really wonderful keynote for them about how to part harness the second half of life, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I am so excited. I've met with the organizers a couple of times, and it's just gonna be wonderful because in our culture, we are told that the second half of life, you know, which depending on who you talk to, some people think it begins at 30, some people think 40. Regardless, I'm just gonna say the second half of life in our culture is often marked by menopause, and we're told to dread it. We're told that it's just about your period not, you know, stopping, and that's not how nature views it. That's not how other cultures view it. And with the right nutritional strategies and a holistic approach. Right? One of the things I'm gonna share about is that wanting to be healthy is not enough.
Ali Shapiro [00:02:46]:
We really need to zone in on what it what what what mark do we wanna make in the second half of life, and I'm gonna guide them to figure that out in this in this presentation. And I'm so excited for it because I love when women come together. I see the power of that all the time. It's happening in my Truth With Food Group right now. Just being witnessed and seen as in your discovery process and sharing your challenges and sharing your triumphs, it just exponentially helps you change and shift and contributes to your own well-being. One of the my favorite memes that I have seen on Instagram is, you know, there's we in wellness, right, community, and there's I in illness. So being in community with people who wanna get better, like they do at YPO, and feel better is just so powerful. So I will be in Miami next week.
Ali Shapiro [00:03:41]:
And once I return, I will be answering listener questions. Okay. So back to Liz Wolff and our conversation today. So Liz is just recently turned 40, and she is all about she's a nutritional therapy practitioner. She recently became a certified personal trainer, and she was a best selling author about 10 years ago called from a book called just eat the it's called eat the yolks. And she is all about now embracing her forties. And as she said, after spending the latter half of her thirties in denial about the milestone that is the big four o, she realized that getting real about the aging process is not just a privilege but an empowering, exciting, and necessary step to living your most fulfilled life. So I wanted to have her on because she reached recently launched a program called Own Your Metabolism.
Ali Shapiro [00:04:38]:
And what I loved about this was it's a complete paradigm shift from how we're taught to think about metabolism, which is basically just, you know, oh, it burns calories. So we had a really long conversation. We're talking. This is one of my longer episodes. But it's worth the length because this is such a paradigm shift that Liz talks about how you actually have to fuel yourself. You have to fuel your metabolism. This is so much more than calories in, calories out. So we talk about all that good stuff so that you can really harness being over 40, being, you know, the second half of life and feel great.
Ali Shapiro [00:05:17]:
Because another thing that we talk about in this episode is that the fact that your metabolism doesn't actually decrease as you age, really until about 60. But we talk about why it feel it does and what you can do to shift that and feel full of vitality in the process. 2 things that I wanted to mention. First of all, we talk about intentional weight loss towards the end of this episode. That's how Liz describes her recent weight loss journey is an intentional weight loss. And so if you are someone who gets triggered by weight loss based on where you are in your journey, you may wanna skip over those parts or just not listen to the second half. But I just wanna give everyone, you know, a warning that we talk about that. And Liz and I both talk about, you know, we aren't triggered by weight loss talk anymore because we've really separated our worth from our weight.
Ali Shapiro [00:06:07]:
So that is in there. And the second thing is I want you to know that we do talk about peptides and how Liz used peptides to make weight loss easier for her. Now peptides are the brand names are Ozempic, Wegovy, Mancharo, and Zetbound. And one of the things I wanna mention because, you know, I know that people who listen to Insatiable are socially aware. And in the in the media, it's been said that, you know, oh, people who need these drugs can't get these drugs, and that is true in that is true in many cases, and there's many reasons for that. And one of the there's kind of 2 routes to get these peptides slash drugs, And one is through pharmaceutical companies, and one is through compounding pharmacies. And so I just want you to know that Liz is not taking taking away from people who need this. She didn't say how she got them, but she has shared on other podcasts, and I chatted with her about it, that she's not going through the traditional means.
Ali Shapiro [00:07:12]:
So don't think that she's taking it from other people. There's a lot more nuance to these peptide conversation or slash weight loss drugs is how they're marketed. And so I just want you to know that that she was thoughtful about that because she's a really, really thoughtful person, which is why we had such a great conversation. So just to wrap up before we get started, in addition to being the Wall Street Journal bestseller of Eat the Yolks, a book she wrote. She's also host of the award winning Balanced Bites podcast. She's the founder of Ideal Age Supplements and Daily Aminos Plus and the creator of own your metabolism program. Alright. Without further ado, here is my conversation with Liz.
Ali Shapiro [00:07:57]:
Liz, thank you so much for joining me here today on Insatiable. I know listeners are gonna get so much out of today. So thanks for being here. I'm I'm excited.
Liz Wolfe [00:08:07]:
I have not been this excited to do a podcast in a really long time. I love all the podcasts that I do, but the the preparation that you did, like, all the questions that you sent over and all these topics that we're gonna cover, just, man, I they just really they they really resonated deeply with me. So good good
Ali Shapiro [00:08:23]:
job. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, I was just in my truce with food group yesterday, and some metabolism questions came up. And I'm like, I'm
Liz Wolfe [00:08:29]:
gonna have a podcast for you
Ali Shapiro [00:08:31]:
next week, so hold on.
Liz Wolfe [00:08:33]:
Yes. Awesome.
Ali Shapiro [00:08:35]:
So, Liz, you started in the paleo world, and it seemed to you seem to have more recently pivoted to more of a focus on metabolism. Is that is that fair to say?
Liz Wolfe [00:08:45]:
Yes. Yes. The yes. It's been a 15 year evolution. I feel like I I you know that saying, I was the best parent I knew until I had kids? I feel like I was the best. Like, I had everything figured out until I actually had something to figure out, you know? And now, it's like it's more than just food. It's all it's it's contemplating so many other things. What food does, what lifestyle does, what the world that's been built up around us does, all of these things, and then, like, basic bodily functions.
Liz Wolfe [00:09:18]:
How are we actually driving the physiology that we want to drive using those means and some others. So it's just been it's kind of been an evolution. I mean, I hope I'm evolving over 15 years because, otherwise, like, what am I actually doing? Stagnating.
Ali Shapiro [00:09:33]:
Yeah. I know. I always say nature evolves in complexity. Right? That and that's what we need to be doing to actually be healthy. And I I love I love that you said that. I joked with my friend who's a coach. I'm like, I can't believe anybody listened to anything I said before I became a became a parent. So, like, oh my god.
Ali Shapiro [00:09:52]:
Telling people how to hack time management. Oh, like, I cringe. Yes. And me, like, at 29 years old, telling people
Liz Wolfe [00:09:56]:
how to be healthy and have bodies that run, like, the way they want them to run, I had no experience. I was running, like, well oiled machine at 29 years old. But, you know, give give me a decade, and things feel a little bit different. Yeah. Yeah. But to your credit, I mean, your best selling book, Eat the Yolks, I mean, that was revolutionary at
Ali Shapiro [00:10:18]:
the time. Right? Like, it was super helpful for where the cultural conversation was. Right? Like, people were still ordering egg whites. So I I think some people still are. Yeah. They still do.
Liz Wolfe [00:10:30]:
Apparently, I did not do my job well enough, and they still they still do that. But, you know, like, removing some of that, I don't know, stigma, fear around real food, I feel like was a really important step in the whole shift toward even having these conversations. Because I feel like before that, not that I had anything to do with this, but before that, it was like low fat had shifted to low carb, and we were still afraid of food. And so my mission was, like, let's get people less afraid of food, and then we can have the real conversations.
Ali Shapiro [00:11:01]:
Yes. Yes. Yes. I love that. Just said I love that. I agree. I can't
Liz Wolfe [00:11:07]:
say that. I'm gonna say that a bunch. I can't help it.
Ali Shapiro [00:11:10]:
So coming back to obviously, this isn't about parenting, but with aging. And I know you just turned 40, and that's actually how I started finding you is you're like, I'm preparing to be 40. And I was like, oh my god. That's so smart because I had no idea. So what are you noticing that you're like, I didn't know what I didn't know as you're aging?
Liz Wolfe [00:11:30]:
Yeah. Well, I'm really into birds now.
Ali Shapiro [00:11:34]:
I know that was your question.
Liz Wolfe [00:11:37]:
But that's the hallmark sign that something is around the corner when you start to notice every single cardinal. And are you like, oh, it's a male cardinal? I wonder where the female cardinal is. Oh, there's 2 cardinals. They must be partners. All of that. That that's part of it. But then, you know, things start to get crinkly and things start to get snappy, and you just start to realize that you're not maybe sleeping as well as you were, you know. Oh, the little things too, like the gray hairs and the exasperation with the whatever generation comes after you, the not knowing how to use social media, just little things.
Liz Wolfe [00:12:12]:
And then the big sign for me too, I mean, besides all the physical stuff, recovering not as well, all of that, it was that my Instagram feed started just being full of, like, midlife perimenopause stuff, and I was like, someone has decided that I am eligible for, like, the AARP, you know, dog whistle of Instagram or whatever, and and that was kind of my my big sign on top of everything else. But it's also it's it's a I've been thinking about this a ton lately. The compounding of stressors over time, like, from our twenties to our thirties to our forties, and it's the lifestyle stressors, but it's also the nutrition stressors and it's the exercise stressors, the physical fitness stressors where we are we can handle those things in our twenties. And then in our thirties, we're still kind of, like, I can still do what I used to be able to do, and then we get into our late thirties and into our forties. And we we see the compound effects of all of these things that we have been experiencing and doing to ourselves for decades. And it's sometimes hard to articulate exactly what it is, but there's that moment when you're like, okay. I have to get a grip on these things, or I don't know what it's gonna look like in 10 years.
Ali Shapiro [00:13:28]:
Yeah. I I totally get what I love that you said the cumulative effect because I mean, I'm even just thinking hormonally. Right? Like, you as our hormones decline, you lose that buffer, cortisol. Right? And you feel everything more. And, yes, there is also more a lot of emotional stresses. And I think about that Brene Brown quote. I'm getting ready to give a keynote talk in Miami, and I'm opening up with her quote about how about midlife is kind of this unraveling. Right? Like, who you thought you should be versus who you wanna be.
Ali Shapiro [00:14:00]:
And I think a lot of us at midlife also feel like, oh my god. I've been putting everyone else first, and that's not working either. And and you feel it physically, but it's you also have to look at that those stress buckets that you always talk about. So I'm so glad you brought that up.
Liz Wolfe [00:14:16]:
Yes. I love that. And I also I love that. Did I just say
Ali Shapiro [00:14:18]:
that? Yeah.
Liz Wolfe [00:14:20]:
Hang it. Right. Don't do that, Liz. I think it's also this this reraving where you're putting the pieces back together and trying to figure out what these next decades are gonna look like. And I wasn't ready for it. I wasn't even ready to look at it until I was 40. I feel like I was in well, and I also had a baby kind of late into my thirties. And so I was very preoccupied with that.
Liz Wolfe [00:14:43]:
But with all that's going on, it is this reorienting of yourself in and I came to realize at one point, I love what you just said, but also that I did not necessarily feel at home in my body anymore. So, you know, you're focusing on the other people. And and while you're doing that, you, in some ways, can lose that tether to to your body, to who you are in space, you know, what you're carrying. And that was a big moment for me as well. And I'm not great at articulating it yet. I'm working on it. But the best way that I can say it is that I suddenly kind of turned around and realized I didn't feel at home in my vessel anymore. And there are multiple reasons for that, but that was that was very disorienting for
Ali Shapiro [00:15:33]:
me. Yeah. And I think it's so hard to know what do I have control over versus what is aging? And, you know, it's to your point, like, can we can we stop, like, being afraid of food so we can have the real conversation? Yeah. It makes this is gonna sound like a tangent at first, but it comes back to this, is that, like, we have this anti diet movement. Right? That was like, oh, this is maybe how I can feel at home in my body. But I had a client just send me this NPR podcast about how food companies are paying anti diet influencers to push sugary foods. Oh. And I'm like, oh god.
Ali Shapiro [00:16:13]:
It's worse than when we started. You know what I mean? It's like, oh my god.
Liz Wolfe [00:16:16]:
Who can you believe? So it's
Ali Shapiro [00:16:17]:
like, where is that line between I wanna feel good in my body, and this may not be like, there's actually agency that I have versus it's just aging or it's just what's politically correct. And I think it's a I think over 40 is is a time that be to your because of the accumulation, you actually have to look at this and figure it out for yourself, I think, versus listening to all the other voices out there telling you what to do.
Liz Wolfe [00:16:44]:
Yeah. Yeah. You realize that this actually comes down to what the f do I want? Like, what is this how does this resonate with me? What makes sense to me? And in my experience and in my all the context that my individual context, you know, it's not it's not gonna be the same as as everybody else's. Wow. That boggles my mind. This is and I have all these notes for what hopefully we'll talk about later. I threw in the word food noise, which is like this complex interaction of outside forces as well as what's going on internally in our minds and in our bodies. And the fact that these food companies are so actively capitalizing on, like, philosophical movements.
Liz Wolfe [00:17:26]:
You know, it's just proof that we are we are daily encountering forces that are attempting to manipulate us in one way or another, and yet we go back and say, I don't have enough willpower. Like, it's my fault that I can't figure out how to feel at home in my body again. And it's it's just and I know and we'll talk about, like, the tools that are available to us.
Ali Shapiro [00:17:50]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Leverage.
Liz Wolfe [00:17:52]:
But, yes, that's I know.
Ali Shapiro [00:17:55]:
It's it's a jungle out there, people. My dad used to always say that, and I'm like, he was a Swami. He is a Swami. He was right.
Liz Wolfe [00:18:01]:
He was right. So before we
Ali Shapiro [00:18:04]:
dive deeper, I would like to establish a baseline for everyone. So where do you think the average woman over 40 today is in her thinking about metabolism? Like, what is she focusing on?
Liz Wolfe [00:18:16]:
Yeah. I really like this question. So we did, like, an informal survey for one of my programs, and it was literally it was 100% related to some variation of how many calories you burn. That's and we don't and and that's not what it is. Your metabolism is like the sum total of every chemical reaction that happens in your body and your body's ability to generate the energy that is needed for daily tasks, which is a whole other complex cascade. But yet, I think a lot of these companies and a lot of people and a lot of influencers really profit from this obfuscation, like this nebulous thing where we don't really know what metabolism is, and that works really well because we can use it as a word to make people feel like burning calories equals weight loss equals health equals, you know, we have this cluster, that word that you were using earlier off the air of concepts that we think are related, but we don't really know how. So I really think even at this point in time when we have access to all of this information, we still only look at metabolism as some function of burning calories.
Ali Shapiro [00:19:26]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. In my truth with food work, part of what we do is really try to expand the values. Like, for example, discipline is defined as control. But a lot of times, you don't have control. So Mhmm.
Ali Shapiro [00:19:40]:
It's like, how can you under discern where you do have control but expand to, I gotta figure out how to be flexible in this. Right? Like so I think of the word devotion, for example. But to your point, I think the value of health for all of us who grew up of a certain age, who are getting midlife in our Instagram feeds and AARP mailers. I'm not. We grew up thinking health equals thinness. And so the whole conversation, something like metabolism, it's like we miss the forest from the trees because all we think of is this is about calories in calories out versus to your point. It's like metabolism is the foundation of health that is bigger than it's like, is your cells getting the energy they need to, you know, keep your heart going Yeah. To like, effectively and all that stuff.
Ali Shapiro [00:20:32]:
So, yeah. I yeah. So when you think about the tip
Liz Wolfe [00:20:37]:
the typical person who comes to work with you, what concerns do they have about their metabolism and overall health? It oftentimes does. Well, there's there are subsets of people. Right? It and it was interesting kind of coming coming of age in the paleo CrossFit world. There were at that point, at those beginning moments, it was all about body composition. And that was kind of the first where you hear, like, you wanna build muscle, and that will do x, y, and z. You don't just wanna lose weight, you wanna be strong, and that was great. But then the paleo community also started bringing in all of the people that had been failed by conventional dietary wisdom, people that were really sick with gut issues, with autoimmune issues. And, you know, there were those those whatever you wanna call them, like, not tangents, but little wings that sprung off from the whole food paleo community where you've got the autoimmune paleo or where you've got the the gut health stuff.
Liz Wolfe [00:21:37]:
And we have all of these different little offshoots of the same generalized philosophy, which is we try to eat real food. So for a while, the people that were coming to me were mostly concerned with body composition. And then it was autoimmunity. And then it was like uncovering all of these other issues that people maybe felt like we're keeping them stuck. And now, it's come back around to, well, none of that worked. And so now I'm just back to wanting to look better, which is very interesting. And better, again, is it's a very relative term. And one of the things you said a minute ago about health, us conflating health with thinness or leanness, I think people are also conflating thinness with worth.
Liz Wolfe [00:22:19]:
And I think there there has to be some juncture there that's connecting those two things because if you were to pitch that to people, of course, being thin doesn't necessarily mean you're healthy because are you healthy? You know, how do you feel? Are you okay? Are you suffering from autoimmune disease? Are you suffering from gut health problems? Is your hair refusing to grow? Are your nails refusing to grow? Those types of things. So there's gotta be some connector there where I think I think it's worth. I think it's just a feeling of whether or not you are worthy and that feeling of self worth. And then it's like, if I'm thin, then people will look at me as a as a worthy person. If I'm healthy, then, you know, so there's there's something going on there. It's not just it's not just those 2 things. And I feel like I went on a huge tangent system. But my point is, it's an interesting shift back to people just really wanting to, yes, feel better, but also feel more at home in their bodies and still conflating that with looking better.
Liz Wolfe [00:23:20]:
So we're still kind of deconstructing all the same things that we were deconstructing before, just in a different iteration, but we have more tools now. And that's what that's what is exciting to me. We have more tools to use to help people understand themselves, understand their bodies, and move forward. And we can also say both and. We can say, let's get you feeling better and let's get you feeling more at home in your body. Yeah. Where did where did I even go with that? I had a lot to say. Did I did I nail any of that down just now?
Ali Shapiro [00:23:50]:
Yeah. No. I I think I think what you're describing is, like, people originally came for the I don't wanna say vanity, but for the body composition changes. Right? That's right. And, again, there's nothing wrong with vanity. I think, especially as we age, kind of, like, we didn't know what we didn't know. When you have youth on your side, you're like, oh, I see why I care a little bit more now. You know what I mean? Like, maybe I'm gonna wash my face before bed.
Ali Shapiro [00:24:14]:
You know? It's like,
Liz Wolfe [00:24:15]:
oh, we're confronting our own mortality now? Cool. Like, okay. Do that.
Ali Shapiro [00:24:21]:
And I think what you're, and so you're saying, so then people went to try to be healthy in terms of gut health, hormone issues, etcetera, but that maybe wasn't the whole complete solution. And so now it's like maybe it is about body composition and all this stuff, but I have seen the same thing. Ulta ultimately, the pressure driving a lot of that stuff was worth because now there's this added layer of you're a moral person if you're taking responsibility for your health. So the pressure in some ways has just increased. So Yeah. It's, yeah. And this I I had Anne Helen Petersen on insatiable, and we talked about how, like, puritanical culture that is America's roots. You know, the worth piece, it's like, it's I'm worthy because I'm working hard and I'm disciplined equals success, not just with food, but life.
Ali Shapiro [00:25:11]:
You know, it's and and that's America's, like, myth. Right? It's like it's the Kool Aid that we drink. So it's really hard to, like, separate that out sometimes. So you said we we have different tools now. We have different understanding, and, obviously, you've become a personal trainer in the meantime, which is amazing. And how does the work you're doing around metabolism differ from what is out there already? And, again, you already said a lot of people are capitalizing on the the complicated truth of metabolism. So we know that that there's, you know, stuff that's being sold that isn't legit. And I know you are legit.
Ali Shapiro [00:25:51]:
So what is different?
Liz Wolfe [00:25:53]:
Well, I mean, I'll give it all away. I I am let's stop fasting. Let's start eating carbs. Let's stop being afraid. It's all the same things. It's It's let's stop being afraid of food, but here's why. Here's the reason that speaks to your particular concerns. So I think that we have gotten so obsessed with fasting for 1.
Liz Wolfe [00:26:16]:
And I don't know how I that's one thing I don't know about you is your feelings on fasting and its utility. I'm not
Ali Shapiro [00:26:21]:
I don't think for women. No. Okay.
Liz Wolfe [00:26:24]:
No. I mean, I think people go ahead.
Ali Shapiro [00:26:26]:
Well, I was gonna say, I think if people wanna fast, they can start by trying to eat less snacks. I know you're a big fan of of snacking. And, again, I think it depends if someone In particular context. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. But the more that I especially you're talking about those stressors that people often, you've internalized it as your normal.
Ali Shapiro [00:26:45]:
I think most women who tend to, still in this day and age, carry the majority of responsibility for children for so much. I think fasting is an added stressor that is is just unnecessary. Yes. But I think, like, okay. If you're gonna fast, do it overnight. Right? Like, do 12 hours. Yes. But that
Liz Wolfe [00:27:05]:
We already fast guy. Like, half I one of the things that I've landed on is don't fast more, sleep more, because then you're doing but, you know, get more sleep. That's our process of repair. That's that's what we need. We gotta and that's a whole mountain of its own. I get it. I'm very bad at sleeping right now. There's a lot going on.
Liz Wolfe [00:27:24]:
I'm not getting enough. But if we're gonna force ourselves to do something, let's force ourselves maybe to go to bed. If we can, I don't know? That's really that's really hard. But, yes, we fast always sleep. We fast overnight. So good job, everybody. We're already fasting. Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [00:27:40]:
You know? You're doing a good job. I also think we're calling it fasting because men are doing it. And so then you can call it biohacking, but really it's dieting.
Liz Wolfe [00:27:50]:
So it's eating meals. Let's call it what
Ali Shapiro [00:27:52]:
it is.
Liz Wolfe [00:27:52]:
It's sipping meals. Yeah. That's what it is. And and then we risk and this is not always. It's always contextual, but you risk that stress response. You risk that physiology that drives literally the opposite of what we want. And my thing about metabolite metabolism, I have a lot of things about metabolism. One of the things about metabolism is that we're always asking how can I boost my metabolism? How can I boost it? Our metabolism is very much governed by, I mean, to a point our muscle mass, but for many of us, like, we're not gonna be able to go put on £20 of muscle.
Liz Wolfe [00:28:27]:
That is an incredibly difficult endeavor that takes a very long time and a lot, a lot, a lot of work. Our metabolism in many ways is sort of set by our genetics, by our activity levels. There's not a lot you can do to boost it, but we can stop suppressing it. That's that's how I feel about it because dieting restriction, skipping meals, restriction of not just calories, but also carbohydrates, those types of things, what I see is that we end up with a stress response that and it's a complex physiological cascade, but the body down regulates certain functions such that our energy expenditure decreases. Our body wants us to slow down when it senses a deficit or if when it senses a lack of resources. So our bodies initiate this really complex physiological cascade that makes us do less and also that makes us want to eat more. And it's doing that because it's wise. Like, our bodies are amazing.
Liz Wolfe [00:29:32]:
They are always working for us. It's just that we are trying to manipulate the pieces, and we don't necessarily understand what that that what that is going to do to the overall stress and hormonal hormonal environment. Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [00:29:48]:
I love that approach because ultimately, you're about feeling better, not suffering more. Yes. When you Okay. So how do we so okay. So I love that you said that. So then I'm I love that. And that resonates. I love that.
Ali Shapiro [00:30:04]:
Listening, Carlos told me that I say I love that way too much on on the interviews. So he gave me some other words to say, but I'm not very good at saying other words right now. Then I love
Liz Wolfe [00:30:14]:
that. That's your that's your that's your mountain right now. That's Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [00:30:17]:
That's my mountain. I love that. So one of the things, it sounds like then, if we're working on, like, really not boosting our metabolism, but removing what's what's preventing it from operating at its peak is our hunger. And so many people have a distrust of their hunger, they battle their hunger. Why is hunger a good thing?
Liz Wolfe [00:30:43]:
Oh my gosh. Hunger is our body telling us it could be communicating in a couple of different ways. But the way I like to think of it is in many ways, hunger is your body going, show me that we're safe. Show me that we have resources because we are, and this is my, one of my big things right now is that we are primal beings. We have primal bodies, but we're in a modern world. And so we can't always say we cannot use this ancestral framework to solve all of our problems, but it can certainly lend context to our approach. And so there are times when I reference the types of bodies, these primal bodies that we have, but there are times when I also think that is completely invalidated by our modern lives. One example would be fasting, where a lot of people who promote fasting, particularly to women, say things like, well, our ancestors would have had to fast because this and that.
Liz Wolfe [00:31:39]:
And, yes, because our bodies are always working for us, our ancestors' bodies initiated some positive adaptations that could help us survive in those situations. But to think that that type of thing applies to a woman in 2024 with 3 kids and 2 jobs is just it's asinine. Like, the entire environment around stress is completely different. So these analogies don't always work. I recognize that. But we do have these primal bodies and we need to recognize that these primal bodies are always scanning for signals. That's like a hypothalamic thing. It's not something that we even have con conscious control over.
Liz Wolfe [00:32:19]:
We can't go, you're safe. You're safe. Don't worry. You know, calm down. We're fine. Your body is always scanning, and it's looking for those signs of whether we're safe or not. And the foundational way to communicate safety to your body is through food. That's just that is a sign.
Liz Wolfe [00:32:36]:
Do you have glucose in your system or not? Do you have resources coming in or not? And so if we can resource ourselves, we can start to chip away at that stress response, and that can totally change the metabolic environment. That doesn't mean you're gonna lose weight right away, but we're setting a foundation for a functional body that runs like we want it to run. That is that is receiving the proper stress stimuli and the proper signals of safety so that we can then go on to do the things that we wanna do. You wanna fast? You love it? Awesome. Let's set, like, a foundation of a good healthy metabolism first. You wanna diet and lose weight? There are things that you do have to do, but you wanna come in with a good healthy metabolism, overall bodily function to able to do that with minimal consequences.
Ali Shapiro [00:33:29]:
I love that. Making sure the foundation is is is there first. And I just love that you bring up safety because that's my whole thing. Food is like there's physical safety. Do we have the nutrients? Then there's emotional safety, which is really what the truth of food work is about. And so I love that you bring that up because to your point, it's unconscious. Like, you can't it's like Yeah. Has anyone ever calmed down by being told to calm down? No.
Ali Shapiro [00:33:55]:
You know? It's like the body is just habit. I know. I mean, it makes you more it makes me more angry. So this is was a question that came up in my truth with food group yesterday. But if people aren't hungry in the morning, I was saying to my client, like, no. We want you to be hungry in the morning. Like, that's a sign that, you know and and there's reasons. I know there's a lot of reasons people might not be.
Ali Shapiro [00:34:18]:
But I'm thinking if someone's like, wants to take the first step in in getting this foundation, can you talk about why it's great to be hungry in the morning, if you believe that, or why breakfast is so important?
Liz Wolfe [00:34:30]:
Yes. I absolutely believe that. And this is something that I say in my program. It's one of my, like, what to expect. You might be hungry. This is good. But we differentiate too between being hungry and being, you know, the word everybody uses, hangry, where you're desperate, your blood sugar is low. You get hangry when you are not nourishing yourself properly.
Liz Wolfe [00:34:53]:
So that is a totally different thing. But if you wake up and you're like, oh, I'm hungry. Like, my my engine is asking for some fuel. That's a that's a really good thing. It means that your biorhythms are aligning, which is another really important thing. It means that you've gotten restful sleep and you wake up, cortisol comes up, it starts to recruit resources that you have stored, and it also kind of communicates to your body that, like, it's time to go find some more resources. Let's not just use what we've got in storage because that's supposed to be for a rainy day. Let's get some stuff coming in.
Liz Wolfe [00:35:26]:
So you start out, your body's like show me, and you're like, okay. And then you can go about your day together in partnership and feel really good about that. Another reason is when you when you have really solid thyroid health, you have your thyroid and your metabolism are intimately linked. Your thyroid is a central governor of your metabolic rate. And so if you are, I like to think of not burning energy, but creating energy. When we think of the calorie thing and burning of calories, I like to think of it as we're actually generating energy. And the whole the whole point of all of this is that we are generating energy efficiently to fuel all the bodily functions that we need to be well. So fuel.
Liz Wolfe [00:36:09]:
Right? Fuel the second that you wake up or not the second that you wake up. Although I have with some clients, I have had them basically put a protein shake next to their bed and, like because they're like, I get up and the kids are in my face and I end up not eating breakfast for 2 hours, and I'm like, okay. Let's strategize this. Pre premake, you know, a whey protein, you know, in the little bottom compartment, and then we mix it, and then we shake it up, and we drink it, and then we get out of bed. Like, sometimes it takes that's what it takes. And then we get out of bed. Like, sometimes it takes. That's what it takes.
Liz Wolfe [00:36:40]:
But just in general, if you can get up and eat within 30 minutes of waking some really good protein so that we're not risking any protein catabolism in the body so that we are we give our body a little bit of glucose so our body knows that there's energy coming in. Those are just signals. Like, start your day with those really good the the stressors and signals thing. I think I'm gonna make that my thing. Right? Like, this what stressors do we have and what signals are we sending? So you have that opportunity in the morning to send those really positive signals of safety and of, like, we're coasting. We're good. We don't need to start using stress hormones to recruit stored energy. Like, we're good.
Ali Shapiro [00:37:19]:
Yeah. As you're talking too, I'm thinking about this your your paradigm shift again of, like, not boosting metabolism, but removing what's repressing it.
Liz Wolfe [00:37:29]:
Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [00:37:29]:
You're really on a philosophical level saying this isn't about restriction. This is about like like, to me, the word energy sounds so much more, like, fulfilling than, like it's like, oh, how do I boost it? I'm coming from a deficit that I have to restrict versus, like, let's remove what's in the way so that you can, like, have be resourced. That feels so much more, like, good in my belly and, like, sustainable.
Liz Wolfe [00:37:55]:
There's ease there. It's like Yes. So I just I don't have to strive to try to boot you know, I don't have to, like, shove more energy into, like, this failing system to, like, try and get a little bit of extra energy. I can just remove some barriers. Let's do that. Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [00:38:12]:
I'm also so biased because that's what we do in Truth With Food. We don't give people more to do. We, like, remove the resistance to doing what you already know you should be doing. And it just in this day and age, like, I always tell my clients, less is more. Right? Because when you're the more you do, you're also engaging that stress response on a you know? So I I yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's remove.
Ali Shapiro [00:38:33]:
Let's remove. Yes. So it this is about just removing resistance, and we don't have to boost our metabolism. I wanna ask you, and you recently shared in your program launch for own your metabolism, the 21 20 study published in Science that concluded our metabolism actually doesn't really change between 2060. And even when we reach 60, it's just a slight dip. And I remember sharing this with my list 3 years ago and getting responses like, but why does it feel like it does? So how would you answer that question?
Liz Wolfe [00:39:10]:
Yeah. I had to really contemplate this study as well, because I was like, oh, this is great news. But wait, this doesn't make any sense, because what then what are we experiencing? Like, this this is not making sense. So what I landed on was I feel like the study really shows that we are capable of generating the energy we need to fuel our bodies for the long haul. And that's really good news. It means that our foundation does not change. We have the tools that we need to do that. The question becomes, what processes are we fueling? So that's that's kind of where where it got me.
Liz Wolfe [00:39:50]:
Are we fueling the processes of illness and decline or the processes of health? So we look at things that we do know decline with age, which is muscle mass, generalized activity, insulin sensitivity, things like that. Those are more lifestyle related. And so so when we lose muscle mass, it is not necessarily directly replaced with something, but it is certainly we have consequences of the loss of muscle mass over time that maybe those those buckets are filled with something else, for example, visceral fat. So I'm not saying your muscle turns to visceral fat. I'm saying as we lose muscle mass over time, we cut become less insulin sensitive, which can drive inflammation, which can drive the increase in the type of adipose tissue that is associated with metabolic issues, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, cardiovascular syndromes, things like that. And then we end up with an energetic demand from that adipose tissue. So I know this is kind of a roundabout way of saying, are we fueling our muscle or are we fueling the adipose tissue and the associated adaptations that come along with it? So no matter what, these processes require energy. But the question is, what processes are we fueling? And that's when we come back to the lifestyle stuff that we have control over, which is wonderful news.
Liz Wolfe [00:41:17]:
And I want to throw in there, when I talk about it's still so fraught to even use the word fat because it feels like there's a value judgment attached to it, that that it's a bad or a good thing. It's not. It's just a thing that happens. It's just something it's just a process. It's just physiology. So I hope that comes through when I talk about that. I'm not saying you're losing muscle, you're gaining fat. You know, it's not like that.
Ali Shapiro [00:41:42]:
Well, you even using the word adipose fat. I don't know if people know that one well, explain the diff there's adipose fat and then there's a subcutaneous fat.
Liz Wolfe [00:41:50]:
Well, there's visceral fat and there's subcutaneous fat. The adipose is where it is. That's right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well Okay. Okay.
Liz Wolfe [00:41:58]:
So okay. Backing up. Subcutaneous fat is just kind of your normal fat tissue. Visceral fat is the inflammatory type tissue that oftentimes increases with age. Yeah. So visceral adiposity is the I'm sorry, this is this is the way I wanna say it. Visceral adiposity is the fat tissue that manifests around your middle and that is generally the metabolically suboptimal I'm trying to be so clinical about it because I don't wanna attach any value judgments to this particular tissue because it's so it's just so hard and but this tends to be the type of fatty tissue that is associated with metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and that sort of downstream effects of a compromised metabolism. Did I answer the question? Yeah.
Liz Wolfe [00:42:50]:
In a roundabout way. I know.
Ali Shapiro [00:42:52]:
Yeah. And I know well, I I understand. I appreciate your sensitivity, and I know the listener as well as well and stripping the value. This is also though where people have to understand the facts is that, like, subcutaneous fat is not unhealthy. Right? It's like that is not unhealthy, but add a but visceral fat Yeah. What Liz is saying, and I don't wanna put words in your mouth, that that fat is metabolically active, and it's feeding a process that as the as it accelerates is gonna make you more insulin resistance, which makes it harder to sop up the nutrition you need to full fuel your metabolism versus muscle mass, it's like a glucose hog. It just, like, sucks up all the glucose. It helps you better metabolize your nutrition.
Ali Shapiro [00:43:37]:
And we're not saying and and you can have this might help, like, people really understand there's no value judgment, is that when they look at and I don't even like this term, but they're called TOFIs, thin on the outside, fat on the inside. But there are thin people. They actually have a, like a, I think it's like a 40% higher risk of death as they age because they have more of this visceral fat in their organs, and they thought they didn't have to care because they were thin. Yeah. And that's where it's like even thin people don't benefit from, you know, from a fat phobic culture. I'm not saying they suffer the same way, but I'm just saying, like, they have it too. Guess as well. I'm trying.
Liz Wolfe [00:44:21]:
Or or can happen. And the visceral at when we're talking about it, like, you just you just said something really important that it is the fat that is around your organ systems, which is dangerous in its own way.
Ali Shapiro [00:44:34]:
Yeah. Yeah. So but people of all body sizes have it. So that's just what's really important to to realize. Yeah. Well and so speaking of muscle, because before I went through menopause, when I looked at that study, I was like, well, I was thinking of the accumulation of the stresses that we've talked about. I'm like, you know, you're indoors more. You're sitting more.
Ali Shapiro [00:44:56]:
Unless you're insane like me and had a baby at 41, and you're running around the the playground, but then you pull your back. No. Just kidding.
Liz Wolfe [00:45:02]:
That's and that's how you know.
Ali Shapiro [00:45:04]:
Yeah. But there is as we age, you know, it's like, oh, there's less. What for people, often in metabolic terms, they call it NEAT, which is nonexercise activity thermogenesis, which is basically how active you are during the day really matters. I thought of the wear and tear. I thought increased, like, accumulation of environmental toxins and increased stress, which isn't wrong. But I did not know how important muscle's role is in our metabolic health. So can you talk about muscle and why it's so critical? And I know we just touched on a little bit, but I wanna, like, concentrate the the the question.
Liz Wolfe [00:45:41]:
Yes. So the thing that really was compelling to me that I learned fairly recently was that your muscle tissue stores, like, 5 times more energy than your liver. And that might be a practitioner thing, that might not be like a something that people actually care about, but your liver stores about 5 apples worth of energy for you, and it your body pulls from that throughout the day. Your blood sugar levels go down a little bit. It'll pull from that stored energy in your liver. But your muscles, that that's where your energy stores are in general, other than your fat tissue, which is an entirely different thing, the the way that works and the way it's oxidized, the way the oxidation of it or the use of it is initiated. But, in general, your body wants to pull stored energy from your liver. That's just what your body wants to do.
Liz Wolfe [00:46:34]:
That's what it prefers to do. And that is also sort of a signal. Do we have available energy or not? How much stored energy you have available? So there's sort of a hierarchy of signals there, but your muscle stores like 5 times more energy than your liver does. And we don't think about that. We don't think about that the the energy that we take in in the form of food, it goes somewhere. And the more muscle we have, the more capacity we have to store it in a place that is just programmed to shoot it right back out in the form of movement, in the form of enabling us to do all of the physical things that we wanna do throughout the course of the day. So as we get older, and I think a lot of us probably in our age bracket or right now watching our parents age and watching their capacity for movement go down, muscle doesn't just enable you to move through the world in an effective way. It also enables you to recruit energy in an effective way.
Liz Wolfe [00:47:31]:
And the other cool thing about muscle is that we can move energy into our muscles for storage without having to use insulin. It's It's called non insulin mediated glucose transport. And this is also why exercise and movement is so important because it is exercise and movement that enables that process to take place. We move the energy into our muscles without having to use insulin and that is why muscle is so profoundly intertwined with our insulin sensitivity. And oftentimes, it's that insulin sensitivity going down for a variety of reasons. It can be because we're moving less, it can be because we're eating differently, it can be because we're ill, it can be for a lot of reasons. But as that insulin sensitivity goes down, those markers of poor metabolic health start to go up. So it's that that tie between insulin sensitivity and metabolic syndrome, visceral fat, type 2 diabetes, all of those things are interconnected.
Liz Wolfe [00:48:29]:
So muscle is like a stay against aging. It's a glucose sink. It's where we put a lot of our stored energy, and we also wanna give our bodies a reason to use that stored energy. So that's where movement comes in. So it's not just muscle. It's also it's also movement. It's all of those things that are no no coincidence associated with youthfulness and feeling really good as we age. Yeah.
Liz Wolfe [00:48:55]:
Wow. I didn't know that
Ali Shapiro [00:48:57]:
about the insulin, like, not needing that.
Liz Wolfe [00:48:59]:
I know. Isn't that something? I mean, we don't nobody tells us this. I know. I know.
Ali Shapiro [00:49:05]:
Well and what are your thoughts? And I heard that they're now considering muscle, like, the largest organ in the body. Like, they're actually looking at as an organ system.
Liz Wolfe [00:49:13]:
I love that. I love that that people are actually thinking about it because I feel like when you and I were growing up, I I was outlining this the other day. Even being in the gym, I had a gym membership for a while in college, and I was like, I don't think I'm allowed to use the weight room. I think that's a separate membership, you know, like, just there's this whole beefcake thing around, you know, lifting weights and and around muscle mass, that the people that cared about their muscle were weird in this whole, you know, category of people that were just kinda, you know, meathead, beefcake type people, and it wasn't for us. And now And you had to grunt. Talking about it.
Ali Shapiro [00:49:48]:
Yes. You have to have to
Liz Wolfe [00:49:49]:
have to grunt, like, have if you're a man, you have to have, like, your nipples showing, like, a really, you know, not just a sleeveless shirt, but, like, the it's got a cut real real close in the middle there. And, yeah, it it's just it's and I'm so happy that we're talking about muscle in the context of, first of all, overall longevity and health, but also as a system, because it's not, like, just this inert thing that moves our arms around. It is metabolically active.
Ali Shapiro [00:50:16]:
Yeah. That is that's wild when you, like, think about how important that is. And we didn't know until and I mean, it's still the research is still trickling down, but so what is the key to building muscle as we age?
Liz Wolfe [00:50:32]:
This is so important. I was going through some studies that were talking about using resistance training in older folks to help them promote health. And it was like, we had them hold these cans and do this many things with the can. You know, they're trying to make it easy on the people and accessible. And they were so perplexed. Well, you know, scientific language, but at the end of this study, they were like, paradoxically, this doesn't seem to have actually increased the strength in the older people. And I'm like, well, yes, because you're doing you're providing resistance, but you're not prioritizing progressive overload. So there's 2 answers to your question.
Liz Wolfe [00:51:08]:
There is resistance training is incredibly important, but it is also really important to progress how much resistance you're using. It's important to always be making progress in some way or another, whether that's the resistance you're using, the density of your workouts, how much work you're doing in whatever period of time it is. You always wanna have some kind of goal, even if that's even if that's small. You can't just do this should be this should be intuitive. Right? You can't just do the same thing every day. You can't do biceps curls with the same can of black beans every day for the rest of your life and think that that's gonna make you healthy. Right? So progression, that's what's key. Resistance training with progressive overload, which just means you're just trying to increase the work that you're doing.
Ali Shapiro [00:51:53]:
And when you say resistance training, do you mean your own body weight? Do you mean barbells?
Liz Wolfe [00:51:58]:
Do you mean Pilates? All it's all wonderful. I'm biased towards strength training and here's another thing I think I didn't even realize the difference until a few years ago. The difference between building muscle as in adding more muscle mass, which is it can be difficult depending on where you're coming from. If you're already generally healthy and you exercise and then you wanna add extra muscles, that's gonna take some really dedicated work. Then strength is enabling yourself to do more with what you already have. It's improving the quality of the muscle that you already have. Both of those things are awesome. My bias for most people is strength.
Liz Wolfe [00:52:40]:
Is let's take what you already have and make it better. And then if you want to go on to try and add more muscle tissue, we can do that. It might just happen just by virtue of doing something a little more targeted, doing something a little different. But let's work on strength first because that's what enables you to move through the world more comfortably, more effectively, lift the bag of cat litter off the floor, that type of thing. Those things that we actually wanna do that we injure ourselves doing after a certain point, you know, which is just so not sexy to think about things this way, but it's real. It's reality. You know?
Ali Shapiro [00:53:14]:
Yeah. You're making me think about my gym. They did this, like, little reel on functional fitness because and they had, like, somewhat they had my my trainer, Erica, going to Target and trying to, like, reach up and get the cat lit. Yeah. I heard exactly what he's saying. It's like Yeah. This is squats. You know? And I was like, oh my god.
Ali Shapiro [00:53:30]:
It's hilarious.
Liz Wolfe [00:53:31]:
That. We had so I had a program. I still have it. It's closed right now, but it's called athletic mom. And I was all about if you're a mom, if you're if you're a human being, you're an athlete. You and let's train. Let's train for let's train for our event. Let's train for what it is we wanna do.
Liz Wolfe [00:53:47]:
And so we did all of these videos where we were paralleling activities of fitness activities with activities of daily life, and my mom jumped in. It was so fun. She was getting a cooler off of a high shelf. She was pushing the lawnmower up a hill. All of those things that translate into these moves that we do in the gym that we can actually start leveraging strength and resistance training to make us better at real life. We don't just have to be doing biceps curls, you know, and squats. And, well, squats are very, very important, but bicep and tries buys and tries. You know? It's not it's not about that.
Ali Shapiro [00:54:19]:
Yeah. I had never heard that about the quality versus I don't wanna say it's quantity, but thank you for sharing that. Okay. Yeah. Because I Yeah. And is that, like you said earlier, like, some people and, again, muscle's all the rage now, so I never know. What are people trying to sell me versus, like, which means exaggerate? But are you saying that there is a genetic component to how much muscle people can actually build? Not necessarily strength, but how much muscle they can actually like, do we how much control do we actually have over how much muscle we can add on, I guess, is what I'm thinking.
Liz Wolfe [00:54:55]:
I mean, it just depends on how miserable you want your life to be. There there's definitely a feeling for most people. But, you know, this is why bodybuilders are eating literally nothing, but they're eating, like, 2.4 grams of protein per pound of body weight or something insane. I made that up. I don't actually know that that's true. But they work there literally, like, they are working day and night doing nothing but the things that are gonna enable them to pack on muscle, and it's really hard. It's hard to do after a certain point. So I feel like my my scenario, I've been working out consistently 3 days a week for, like, 6 years and never was consistent before that.
Liz Wolfe [00:55:37]:
So I feel like now I have some data that I can look at on myself for so, you know, in and out, like, I've had some taken some weeks off here and there. For about 6 years, I've been very consistent with training strength. That got me to a baseline of muscle the amount of muscle that I have that is correct for me, that my body carries naturally when doing the activities to nurture it and nourish it. So that for me would be my my foundation. Over the last couple of months, I did a hypertrophy phase where I was working to add muscle back. And this also goes back to my intentional weight loss phase, which I did, which we we we can talk about. Yeah. But I was able to put on maybe, like, a pound and a half of muscle.
Liz Wolfe [00:56:27]:
It's really hard to do. It's really hard to push yourself above baseline without not making yourself miserable, but without having the type of hyper focus that is necessary for an endeavor like that. And it's not it's not worth it to everybody, I don't think.
Ali Shapiro [00:56:42]:
Yeah. No. I was just saying that. I'm like, I would rather just walk more if I'm trying to lose weight. Like, I would just Yeah. You know? Yes. That that actually makes me feel really good though because when I I went, I started lifting, like, a year postpartum. And, like, after 6 months, I had put on some muscle.
Ali Shapiro [00:56:58]:
And then, like, in the first, so basically 2 years of being consistent, I was able to put on, like, £5 of muscle, but I've kinda plateaued. Yeah. And I'm like but I'm going up in strength, and I'm like, okay. But it's just been like, I was I was like, oh, what and I I mean, I haven't focused on it enough, but now I guess I don't have to focus on it. Because you're saying, like, you've probably reached what you can do, especially being post I mean, I wanna preserve it. Yeah. But I thought it was the goal was just more and more and more and more. But I don't wanna cycle.
Ali Shapiro [00:57:28]:
Yeah. But I don't wanna focus on I don't wanna hyperfocus on it. So that's Well, and how
Liz Wolfe [00:57:32]:
much strength do you actually need? You know what I mean? You wanna be able to do some cool stuff. Right? I I did my first chin up the other day, and I was really excited about that. But I don't need to do I don't need to be slinging weights like at the cross fit games. And so I have found a level of strength and muscle mass that is that works for me. And another interesting thing is when I was in my intentional weight loss phase, I did lose muscle. And that was a big, I mean, that was a big thing that I'm mad at myself about. You know, you think you know a lot, you think you know what you're doing, and then you lose focus for one second and and you lose muscle mass. But I did not decline in strength during that time,
Ali Shapiro [00:58:12]:
which
Liz Wolfe [00:58:12]:
was really, really fascinating to me and just proof proof of this concept that you can continue to nurture your strength even in the face of muscle loss. Obviously, it's not ideal, but it is it it does happen. It happens sometimes. So that really articulated me the difference between the amount of muscle you have and what it can actually do.
Ali Shapiro [00:58:33]:
Yeah. I love that. We we are gonna ask you about your intentional weight loss, but Sounds Yeah. In a second. And that kind of bridges to I love that you're all about hacks when done smartly, especially, you know, we both live in the real world. We're both mothers, business owners. I I was joking with my Truth With Food Group yesterday. I'm like, the people who give you time, the the popular time management people are, like, white dudes that do not have a lot of responsibility.
Ali Shapiro [00:59:00]:
They're probably Yes. Their wives are doing or their or they don't have kids. Podcasters, by
Liz Wolfe [00:59:05]:
the way. The big the big male podcasters. Yep.
Ali Shapiro [00:59:08]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I know. I know. I know. It's like because they have so much control, and our culture loves control. Well, that's a whole other podcast about why the big podcasters are so popular. I have some thoughts.
Ali Shapiro [00:59:20]:
But oh, goofy. But you're the first person to teach me about essential amino acids for building muscle. So can you tell me about how this can help our metabolic health, essential amino acids?
Liz Wolfe [00:59:34]:
Yes. Okay. And I'm shocked that I was the first person to teach you about that because I feel like there are a couple essential amino acid brands that are, like, everywhere right now, so it actually makes me feel a lot better that I this information is still useful and that I that I should continue on this path of talking about it. Glad glad to be a woman talking about it in 2 women. That's that's the goal here. So essential amino acids are, essentially, they are the amino acids that our bodies cannot manufacture themselves. So there's 20 amino acids. There's 9 essential amino acids.
Liz Wolfe [01:00:06]:
We have to get them from food. We can't make them within our bodies. So essential amino acid supplements are basically just free form essential amino acids. And the cool thing about them is that they are almost, can't say entirely, but they are almost a 100% bioavailable, which means the body can use almost all of what you give it in an amino acid supplement. And they are also almost a 100%, or they are also almost instantly available to the body. So one of the things that happens as we get older is not only does our digestive capacity decline, but also our ability to utilize amino acids. So we're it's just a smart way to circumvent that that reality. I mean, we're privileged to be aging, and I said this the other day.
Liz Wolfe [01:00:54]:
I think it airs next week. In my own podcast, I was talking about my grandmother who passed away probably a decade ago. But at one point, she was like, Liz, I know you're really into nutrition. Why like, why is my hair breaking? Why why won't my hair grow anymore? Why you know, she was really grappling with that. And I was like, what's your protein, grandma? Like, you need to eat more protein and you need to be able to digest it. So the only tool I had in that moment was to recommend, like, digestive enzymes and betaine HCL to her, which I knew she wasn't gonna do. I mean, she's she just wasn't. I wish that I had this tool because it's another way that we can we can acknowledge the reality of our bodies, our primal bodies that are in the aging process and use a modern tool to hack it.
Liz Wolfe [01:01:39]:
Even though I hate the word hack, I'm trying to think of a better word. Maybe you can help me with that.
Ali Shapiro [01:01:43]:
How elegantly get to that.
Liz Wolfe [01:01:46]:
It's such a beautiful solution. I need, like, a one I need a punchy one syllable word. But that's what's cool about them is that they are almost a 100% bioavailable and they are quickly utilized. So when we signal our body something like, I need you to build more muscle, so we go we do some resistance training, we tell our bodies I need you to recover me from this. We can give our bodies amino acids to initiate that process almost immediately. You can also eat a meal. You can also do a protein shake after, but the only the only place that I say maybe that's not a 100% optimal is because after I work out I'm not hungry. Process is not my digestive fire is not high.
Liz Wolfe [01:02:27]:
So I like the idea of just using this tool to make that recovery process easier and to ensure that I'm telling my body, like, here, here are the resources to rebuild. You don't have to pull from what you already have and break me down further in order to recover from the stimulus.
Ali Shapiro [01:02:46]:
And and I love that because tell people why you need to eat or get some sort of protein source or in this case, essential amino acid source after you workout.
Liz Wolfe [01:02:57]:
Okay. This is what this is another thing I never thought about for the longest time that working out is not what makes you healthier. I mean, it is. It is. Your your oxygen capacity like, all of these things go up when you work out. But what working out does is it is a stressor. And it's your body coming back to rebuild from that stressor that makes you healthier, that gives you more muscle, that enables you to do all of these things that you wanna do. So when you recover properly, not just rest, but when you give your body the fuel it needs to replace what it has used during exercise and what it has broken down, then you can build back better.
Liz Wolfe [01:03:35]:
And that's kind of the point of that whole stimulus is to do that. Now we can improve our VO 2 max, our cardiorespiratory capacity, things like that without refueling. However, those consequences are just a little bit more they're down the line. We don't see them right away. But when we're not fueling and we're just doing a lot of cardio, a lot of running, a lot of stuff like that, the body does eventually start pulling from its own resources to fuel that process if we're not recovering properly. And if we're not really intentionally trying to preserve muscle mass, then we end up, unfortunately, becoming less healthy, less resilient, and less able to recover.
Ali Shapiro [01:04:19]:
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that because, again, even though at the beginning of this, we talked that hunger is important. It's like, people are so like, oh my god. I'm not hungry. That's great. So I want I want people after a workout to realize, like, you that's where you're gonna get your body's gonna need, you know, something to recover to your point. That's the the health part, which I didn't know that. I had no idea that I thought it was all of it, not just like the the linchpin is in the rebuilding.
Liz Wolfe [01:04:49]:
Yes. And I love what you just pointed out too. That's that's a very apt that's that I'm glad that you pointed that out. And then I had another thought come in, and then it left really quickly. Oh, I remember what it was. You know, folks, like, around Thanksgiving or Christmas, they'll say, you gotta earn your food by exercising. You know? I think it's the opposite. I think you have to earn your exercise by fueling it properly.
Liz Wolfe [01:05:10]:
Because if you wanna build back better and you wanna build back in a more if you wanna build your performance, your strength, your longevity, all of that stuff, you have to be willing to fuel it properly because it goes back to those signals that you're sending your body. Your body exercise is a stressor. You might as well be running away from a mastodon, you know, or a lion or whatever. But but the good thing about exercise here's the other thing. Can I riff on this for a second?
Ali Shapiro [01:05:36]:
Yes. I'm just laughing that you used mastodon, like, you know,
Liz Wolfe [01:05:40]:
I love it. Prehistoric. It seems like the right, there's nothing mastodon too. What is a mastodon, by the way? Is it a bird? Well, I
Ali Shapiro [01:05:49]:
mean, it sounds like a dinosaur to me. I my son's really into dinosaurs.
Liz Wolfe [01:05:53]:
So that's We would ask him. We'll ask her into Dinodana over here. We'll just put on Dinodana later, and we'll see. So this is another thing where we're talking about historical context. The type of exercise we're doing, in my opinion, should reflect the types of stressors that we incurred or the types of stressors that our primal bodies are primed for. So when you are running a marathon or doing some kind of really long duration steady state type of exercise, yes, the the experts, you know, the anointed experts say, you're burning fat, so that's a good thing. Yes. You are.
Liz Wolfe [01:06:29]:
But but you are also breaking down your body and you are prolonging the stress state such that it becomes a chronic stressor. When you are using pulsed stressors, as in, like, temporary short duration stressors, like you would get from an hour of exercise or 5 minutes of HIIT, high intensity interval training or something like that, which Stacy Sims talks about a ton. When you're getting those types of stressors, your body is primed to build back from them. It sends signals. It's like, alright. This is what we need. You give it to us. We're gonna build back, and we're gonna be better.
Liz Wolfe [01:07:03]:
So that is the type of exercise stimulus you want, those shorter duration resistance training hit that type of thing, or your body literally, like, sends out those messages and is like, I just need to receive this, this, and this. I need some protein. I need some glucose, and I need some rest, and then we are gonna build back so much better. That's not the signal that you necessarily get from that longer duration chronic cardiovascular type of stuff. That's not to say you can't do it, but it does come back to you have to you do have to earn that. You have to be willing to fuel that properly. And that involves I mean, the professional athletes that do the long duration stuff, they are fueling intermittently during that process. They're not just doing it and being like, yeah.
Liz Wolfe [01:07:46]:
Yeah. I'm not hungry.
Ali Shapiro [01:07:49]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're eating those pouches, like, as they
Liz Wolfe [01:07:53]:
Yes. Goo and the pouches and stuff like that.
Ali Shapiro [01:07:55]:
Yep. I love that because I I've always, like, what is universally true? And for everyone listening, like, you can about when you're going after a goal you really like. That's like a pulse emotional stress. That is great. But if you have chronic stress that you're worried about, it's, like, not so helpful. And I think we're in this world where, you know, it's always like stress management. Stress is bad. And to your point, there is a healthy stress that helps us evolve in complexity, get more out of our lives, show us what we're made of.
Ali Shapiro [01:08:25]:
And so that's what we want with with pulsed exercise. I love I'll that's that really resonates. So you believe in aminos so much, and I love this idea too because it's using aminos as a hack because I think about, like, I especially now that the weather is nice, I like to bike home from the gym and, like, chitchat a little after the gym, and it's like, oh my god. If I know that I don't have to get home in 30 minutes to eat my breakfast, it's like, oh, I have, like Yes. It gives you more flexibility, which I so I can't I can't wait to start trying. And you have your own line coming out, and so you believe in these so much. And so given you were telling people to eat the yolks long before the mainstream, what gaps did you find in the supplement market that you believe weren't already being addressed? Because we know there are, to your point, so many supplements in general, not just Yeah. But what what is your line? And I know it's for women, but, like Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [01:09:23]:
Tell me why you're going through all the hassle of of creating your own supplement line.
Liz Wolfe [01:09:27]:
Oh my gosh. Well, it was it was part of that, I'm 40. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do all the stuff. Because how many times have I thought I could do that? I could do that better. I don't mean it that way because I there's room for all of us. I really feel that way. A rising tide lifts all butts, which is how my kids would say it, which is true.
Liz Wolfe [01:09:47]:
But they're especially especially, there's a reason that I came out with these amino acids first. They're called daily aminos plus. It's because I recognized how impactful this particular type of supplement was, but I also felt it could be better catered to women in our age bracket, much better cater to women in our age bracket. So I wanted to enhance the leucine content. Leucine is an essential amino acid that is incredibly crucial to the muscle protein synthesis process. So if you want to maintain muscle, you want to build muscle, you wanna have a good response from your exercise, you need a certain amount of leucine to make that happen. So I wanted to add the leucine content. I also wanted to add a couple of other things.
Liz Wolfe [01:10:32]:
I wanted to add taurine. I absolutely love taurine for women. It is like it does so many different things. It's hormonally, neurologically, energetically. Like, taurine is I I love it. And we think of it as an ingredient in energy drinks because it is and but not because taurine is bad and it's like a rock star energy drink. It's taurine is really, really an amazing substance. So I wanted to add that, and I just knew that we could put together something that was it was like why am I complaining about something that's not out there? Why don't I just make it? I have 15 years of experience in the wellness industry.
Liz Wolfe [01:11:08]:
I've seen things come and go. I've never bothered to make a supplement before because other people had had these things handled. But I saw that people didn't. I saw that it was not handled yet, and I felt like I can do this. And why wouldn't I?
Ali Shapiro [01:11:21]:
Yeah. No. I love it. I love it. What would you say to people who are skeptical of people selling their own products?
Liz Wolfe [01:11:28]:
I mean, I think, like, skepticism is a sign of a thoughtful, intelligent person. I just think we need to not stay in skepticism. I think people get stuck there and their identity becomes, I'm a skeptic. And so they're never willing to incorporate new information or navigate outside of the, I don't know, the the dominant narrative. So I think skepticism is good. I I am skeptical of many things myself. For example, I was very skeptical of Gwyneth Paltrow for a very long time. But because everybody else became skeptical of her, I decided to become unskeptical of her and just embrace her for who she is.
Liz Wolfe [01:12:01]:
So I'm experienced with skepticism. But I think that that people should be skeptical, but I think at the same time, we need to recognize that there's a person behind every product line, Not always people that care about quality. Not always people that care about the people on the other end. I am out here opening myself up, putting my name on I mean, who knows what's behind, like, Swanson's vitamins? Nobody knows. If you're mad about something, you're gonna send a customer service email to who? I don't know. Who knows? If you're mad about something in with Daily Aminos Plus or the line the overarching line that will have a couple of other things, not a lot of things. I wanna do just the core things. 3 to 5.
Liz Wolfe [01:12:42]:
I would prefer 3, but I know people want a few things other than that. But I would like to do and what I'm working on doing is the supplement that maximizes your return on investment from your exercise. I would like to do one for sleep and one for energy throughout the day. Those are like the three things that I think that we can really make a difference with. So that's that's my goal there. And then I would like also like to do this is down the road. Just a few really solid scientifically oriented skin care products. Because I did the natural skin care thing, loved it, and then I turned 35.
Liz Wolfe [01:13:14]:
And I was like, oh, anything works when you're 27, you know. So anyway, that's a bit of a tangent. But I I am putting myself out here. If you're mad about something, you're gonna come straight to me, you know. Yeah. And that's that's hard. So I must be really passionate about that if I'm opening myself up to that. So that's that's why I think it's important.
Liz Wolfe [01:13:34]:
You know. I also think it's important. There's only so many supplements that are necessary at this point. And one thing I think people should know about the supplement industry that I learned as I was doing this research is that a lot of stuff come comes from the exact same place. But yeah. I mean, there are large supplement manufacturers that are producing the supplements for multiple, multiple brands. It's all the same raw materials. You can add some testing on top of that.
Liz Wolfe [01:14:05]:
You can add some different things to your process on top of that. But I think what really matters is, is there a person behind the brand that really cares about your experience with them? And for me, the answer is yes, obviously. I absolutely do. And this is something that I use every day for myself too. So
Ali Shapiro [01:14:23]:
Yeah. I love that. Women's health is so forgotten. I mean, it's it Totally. Yeah. It's becoming more and more thought of, but, yeah, I I appreciate that you're targeting women because we as Stacey sit doctor Stacey Sims would say, we are not small men.
Liz Wolfe [01:14:39]:
Yes. We're not small men.
Ali Shapiro [01:14:41]:
So you mentioned a supplement for sleep. And as I was going through menopause, my main symptom was sleep. Mhmm. And I later realized sleep was a window into my metabolic health. So what do you see as the relationship between sleep and metabolism?
Liz Wolfe [01:14:56]:
Oh, man. This is still one that I'm working on. There's the really direct sort of obvious stuff where it's, like, if you're in a stress state and you're producing too much cortisol, then you're gonna compete with melatonin, your melatonin won't be able to come up, and then so you have your diurnal rhythm that's becomes dysregulated and then that's sort of a feed forward mechanism. There's the interplay of hormones with your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep and get into deep sleep and all of that. Then there's also the metabolic processes that happen as you sleep where you're removing metabolic waste, your glymphatic system, which is literally detoxing waste from your brain, from its metabolic processes. All of those things happen as you sleep. But it's difficult because if you are having trouble sleeping, then you are creating, I guess, a metabolic bottleneck around some of those processes and it just makes it that much harder. So I haven't solved this yet.
Liz Wolfe [01:15:50]:
I mean, I am very motivated to figure it out. The the hunger regulating hormones around sleep, which I also think is interesting, Those primal signals that you're sending to your body, which are if you're if you're not sleeping, you must not be safe. Right? And so then your body's like, k. Show me you're safe. I'm gonna crave some carbs. I'm gonna see if we've got some fruit available, like, for quick energy. Show me we're safe with the food. And so your ghrelin goes up, and your leptin goes down.
Liz Wolfe [01:16:17]:
And or do I have that reverse gut?
Ali Shapiro [01:16:19]:
No. You're right. Your ghrelin
Liz Wolfe [01:16:20]:
goes up, leptin goes down. And so you're driven to to eat more, which, again, your body's always working for you. It's always working for you. It's not so I I thank my body a lot. That's that's been a practice that I've tried to that I've tried to utilize in those moments where I'm like, thank you. Thank you because I see what you're doing. You're you're trying to provide for me in this moment and that's that's wonderful. So anyway, as far as sleep goes, the best solution I have and I think the best solutions anybody has right now is basically cortisol management, stress management, sleep hygiene, and all the other BS that drives me nuts.
Liz Wolfe [01:16:57]:
Where I'm like, I don't have time to take a bath. I don't have time to meditate. I'm not gonna do any of those things. So for me, I think it comes back to how can we leverage those signs of safety with food and potentially act on cortisol. I think that gives us our best opportunity to maximize sleep without, like, having to take a bath in Epsom salts and go to yoga and all of those lifestyle things that people recommend to try and solve problems. Problems. Yeah. A lot deeper than that.
Liz Wolfe [01:17:26]:
I know. Oh my god. The other day,
Ali Shapiro [01:17:28]:
I was gonna try to take a bath, and then my son's like, I want I wanna get in the bath. So I was like, can't turn into his bath. You know? So Now it's your bath. Yeah. We got our bathroom redone, like, 2 years ago. I think I've used it twice. Yeah. Oh, I feel that.
Liz Wolfe [01:17:42]:
Yes. We put in this beautiful wet room, and I think I've maybe it is filled with children's bath toys, and the bathtub has not been cleaned, and the the grout, all of it. I mean, it's just we try. One day. One day, we will. Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [01:18:02]:
Alright. So I wanna switch gears to or, I guess, speaking of sleep and how it's not switching gears, but the intentional weight loss because I'm sure people are like, wait. What? You it's okay, first of all, to intentionally lose weight. And then the other hack you've talked about recently is that you have used peptides, which the brand names are Ozempic and Monjaro. Mhmm. But let's first start with, what do you mean by I did intentional weight loss?
Liz Wolfe [01:18:30]:
Yeah. Okay. Do you want, like, the over explanation, or do you want, like, a really short explanation?
Ali Shapiro [01:18:36]:
I want the over explanation.
Liz Wolfe [01:18:37]:
Okay. Okay. This is what I was so cheap in. I always intended to talk about this publicly, but the way I am is that I felt like I needed to have all of the things that I needed to say prepared ahead of time. And that was really, really difficult because I just assumed that everybody was gonna hate me and have that knee jerk reaction that, you know, you talked about in your podcast around this stuff. So I take on that stuff, and I feel like I have to prepare for it and I have to have what I need to say. And so and and now and so when I finally went out there and I said something about it, it wasn't that it was shameful. I had mentioned it in other podcasts.
Liz Wolfe [01:19:14]:
I just had not bothered to explain it. I had talked about another old podcast that I'm experimenting with peptides, that I'm doing blah blah blah. But actually to come out and feel like I needed to head everybody's objections off at the pass, like, make sure that I had was prepared for all of that was really difficult. So when I finally started talking about it, there was a moment where I was like, oh, I just don't want people to be mad at me. I yeah. I was managing everybody's emotions around it, and now I'm just like, yeah. I absolutely did that. And all the reasons I did it are a 100% valid, and don't be upset because you wanna do it too.
Liz Wolfe [01:19:48]:
You know what I mean? Yeah. Which I think is what it comes down to in some ways that it's when you hear somebody is doing something and you're disoriented over it because we're we're community beings. Right? And we, who we are is very much built in relationship with other people. And when people do something that you didn't expect, or when people do something where there's some baggage attached to it, It's not that you're mad at them. It's that you're disoriented for yourself. You don't know who you are in relation to these other people anymore, and that's frightening. So which was a total tangent. And I know you have a lot to say about that.
Liz Wolfe [01:20:28]:
I love love your loved your podcast on that, by the way. Oh, thank you. Thank you.
Ali Shapiro [01:20:33]:
It's the Oprah and Ozempic episode, everyone. It's like we'll link to it in the show notes. But you're right. Yeah. Especially these days with these, like, parasocial relationships. Like, people, you've been around for 15 years. You are so honest. People are like, I know Liz.
Ali Shapiro [01:20:47]:
You know?
Liz Wolfe [01:20:48]:
Yes. I never knew you at all. Your whole some people in my whole life was a lie. I was like, what? No. It's not. Like, just but that but I can have compassion for that person now because I understand, like, they were deeply disoriented, and that is a really scary thing. That's, I mean, that's feeling unsafe. Right? That's it really is.
Liz Wolfe [01:21:07]:
When you're disoriented, you you feel unsafe. You don't know where you are in relation to the space that you're in and that can feel really scary. So I can I can feel that now for that person? You know?
Ali Shapiro [01:21:19]:
And when we're in what I talk about in that podcast, the socialized mind, we're in binary thinking. So it's like, oh my god. Your whole life is a lie because Liz took the easy way out. Right? Versus, like, no. You built a strong metabolic base. You've put in the work, and you you you were holding the and, and I brought in some ease, yeah, where I could. So so was it just was the intentional just to kinda back up. Yep.
Ali Shapiro [01:21:47]:
The intentional weight loss, was it like, I'm not feeling at home in my body. You've had 2 kids. You're, you know, you're aging. And it was like, I'm doing a lot of the things. And you had said, like, I just didn't wanna be hungry, which I was like, I love that she owned that. Like, I Really?
Liz Wolfe [01:22:03]:
Hunger sucks. Hunger is a and I have a theory around these things, which I haven't proven yet. I need to ask chat g p t what what what it thinks. But my theory around these things is that it sort of takes some of the stress response away from the intentional weight loss process and thus enables you to do it with less misery. And I wanna there's so many things here. So the thing that I said was I was interested in losing some weight, but I wasn't interested in being hungry. And so I would not have gone through an intentional weight loss process unless these tools were available. I was not interested in that.
Liz Wolfe [01:22:40]:
And so I think that brings up a very important distinction, which is that one, no, I didn't really feel at home in my body, but I still loved and appreciated my body. And I also did not ever shrink or shy away from being in the world and making my impact because I didn't feel at home in my body. I did a, I created a workout app where I was the fitness model years before I ever did anything like this. I I am not in any way ashamed of who I was before or who I am now. I was wearing a crop top and tight pants and doing all the workout moves, demonstrating all the workout moves, and selling my workout app because I was someone who is I am, still am, someone who takes care of myself the best I can. I screw up a lot, but I think that I am a good I don't know if you wanna say role model, but I think that I represent balance, and I'm proud of that. And so I never shied away from being out there and being and promoting, you know, health related content because I was however many pounds heavier. That had nothing to do with it.
Liz Wolfe [01:23:49]:
But I still felt like I wasn't exactly in the body that was most functional for me. And that's it. So I thought, oh, there are these tools available now. They've actually been around for, like, 10 years. The precursor to all these was liraglutide, which I've known about for a long time. I've done a lot of research on before these came out, all of the social hysteria around them, I've done a lot of research on whether liraglutide could reduce our body weight set point. So I was just interested in how these different things work together, our leptin set point and all of that. So I was just interested in how these different things work together, our lectin set point and all of that.
Liz Wolfe [01:24:20]:
So when I realized that these tools were available and I could get my hands on them, I was like, okay, cool. That's what that's how I'm gonna do it. The end. I had worked for years before that, never dieting, never restricting, having the food that I wanted, improving my relationship food, which I think is a lot of what you do with truth of food. And I lived that for for years. People and that's and that's where people were so disoriented, I think. Because for years I've been like, eat what's right for you and let the chips fall where they may. You don't need to lose that last £5.
Liz Wolfe [01:24:50]:
You don't need to do any of that. Just nourish yourself and go from there. And I meant that and I did that. And then I was at a place where I was ready to do something a little bit, not different because I still nourish myself, but I was ready to make some moves. And so I did.
Ali Shapiro [01:25:07]:
Yeah. Yeah. I love that you said, like, other people just wanna do it. They do. They do. They do.
Liz Wolfe [01:25:13]:
Yeah. Well and you talk about
Ali Shapiro [01:25:16]:
microdosing them as opposed to the using them them as the main lever to lose weight. So I think of again, to help people understand holding the and, you and so is that accurate to say you microdosed it first?
Liz Wolfe [01:25:30]:
For a period of time. Yes.
Ali Shapiro [01:25:32]:
Okay. For a period of time. Mhmm. And you still prepared yourself metabolically because, again, I see those if you're microdosing it or even if you're using them full on is the word. I don't know. You still have to do the other things. It's not like, oh, you do this, and then you just ride off into the sunset like a lot of people are are judging. So how did you prepare yourself metabolically? And is it what you just said? Like, for years, I I did not diet.
Ali Shapiro [01:25:59]:
I ate no food. Yeah. So I'll let you know.
Liz Wolfe [01:26:01]:
Me realizing I was prepared. I was metabolically prepared. I wanted to have and this is this I'm gonna I'll butcher this. I'm not gonna say this. Right? This wasn't this this isn't something I've really said anywhere else, but weight gain does not necessarily represents a decline in metabolic health. We gain weight for a lot of different reasons and also there are times, for example, during pregnancy and postpartum where we are eating in excess of energy demands. And so that can people are so and I was too. There was a time I think even in my book Eat the Oaks where I was like calories don't matter.
Liz Wolfe [01:26:36]:
They actually do matter but not for the reasons that we think. But if we're just talking about if you're eating in excess of what your body needs your body will store the energy. Thank you, body. Again, thank you for not wasting this and knowing that this might be useful to me sometime in the future. But we go through sometimes periods where we gain weight quickly. We also go through periods where we gain weight more slowly. Generally, that is because we are in excess of our caloric needs. It's fine.
Liz Wolfe [01:27:02]:
That's not that's neither here nor there. It's not a value judgment, but that doesn't necessarily mean the destination is metabolic decline or a lack of metabolic health. Sometimes we're metabolically healthy people that are carrying around more fat than we were before. Maybe you want to get rid of it, maybe you don't and the means to do that can be healthy or they can be unhealthy. And that's sort of where I land on it. You can lose weight, but it's that phrase garbage in, garbage out. I don't know if this is exactly applicable to this situation. But if you go into intentional weight loss with a garbage metabolism, with a terrible lifestyle, then you're gonna come out with that same thing, and you will more than likely end up right back where you started.
Liz Wolfe [01:27:42]:
So you want to go into these things with the foundation of metabolic health, whatever that looks like for you. And then you can go about intentional weight loss, which requires a specific approach that is not necessarily pro metabolic. You know what I'm saying?
Ali Shapiro [01:27:59]:
Yeah. Yeah. Like, well, I'm thinking about, like, my own self. Like, when I I got on the scale, like, a year after being postpartum, and like you, I had done the work to separate my worth. Ultimately, what you're saying is, like, I separated my worth from my weight. And I was a little like, the same way that you said you lost too much muscle when you were on these peptides.
Liz Wolfe [01:28:18]:
It is.
Ali Shapiro [01:28:18]:
I was like, oh, I'm so proud of myself. I'm not trying to get my body back in 6 weeks. Like, I'm just you know? And and I didn't eat for 2 during my pregnancy. Like, it was kind of like and then I saw the scale, and I was, like, £30 above my pre pregnancy weight. And I was like I was just confused because not much had changed. But, like, I was able to to lose over and, I mean, again, it took 2 years, but I was able to lose 25 pounds of fat and then £20, like, in total. So I so it was like I was getting myself metabolically healthy. So then if I want to, like and I'm I've kinda stalled, right, like, at this point.
Ali Shapiro [01:28:58]:
So it's like if I wanted to then try peptides, it's like I'm in a metabolically healthier place that I can then handle the stress of maybe not doing something that is, quote, unquote, natural. Is that what you're saying?
Liz Wolfe [01:29:09]:
I think so. I think and you can handle potentially a caloric deficit because a caloric deficit is how you lose weight. You Yeah. Fat or muscle. In a caloric deficit, that is how your body dips into its reserves and utilizes them for energy and then gets smaller. I mean, that's what it is. And if you want that, there is a particular way to go about that. Now some people don't approach it that way and yet still lose weight.
Liz Wolfe [01:29:38]:
And when I, again, when I say weight, I say fat and muscle and that's not necessarily a good thing. But when you lose weight and you're not paying attention to whether you're in a deficit or not, if you have lost weight, you're in a deficit. That's that is how it works. Now there is a incredible orchestra of hormones that are also going on in the background that you can crush with this process or you can harness a little bit and leverage with this process. The the it's kind of up to you how you do it. But no matter what, you do wanna go in with the foundation of a healthy metabolism, of being nutrient sufficient, of having a good amount of muscle just in case you lose some, all of that type of thing. So there's yeah. I don't wanna say there's a right and a wrong way to do it, but there is so much going on in that process.
Liz Wolfe [01:30:24]:
If you're going to put yourself into a deficit, let's do it with a good foundation and good awareness of what the overall, like, orchestra is going to be playing during that time. We want it to be, like, at least somewhat in harmony.
Ali Shapiro [01:30:37]:
Yeah. Because do you think my again, as I've been learning more about this, I wonder if at smaller doses like the microdosing and you said you've been researching this for a while, could it actually be regenerative given that other peptides are regenerative? Oh my gosh. Like, regenerate your insulin sensitivity, I'm thinking.
Liz Wolfe [01:30:57]:
I feel like it is a unbelievably powerful like, I'll say metabolic reset. I don't know that that's I think people could object to that and could probably prove their points, but I'll say it anyway just for ease. Yeah. Phrasing. But yeah. And these peptides appear to exert beneficial effects on the body that are independent of weight loss. So it's not like, oh, you lost some weight and so you got healthier. It's it's somehow these peptides are exerting positive effects directly on tissues that have nothing to do with weight loss.
Liz Wolfe [01:31:34]:
I believe Manjaro is approved for treatment of PCOS right now. I could be wrong or either that or doctors are prescribing it off label for PCOS, But these are doing really, really interesting things. And I don't that's not my, like, I don't have, you know, my dossier prepared on that. It's stuff that I've looked into for myself, but it's very interesting. And there are a lot of other peptides too, by the way. I mean, there are peptides that help you build muscle that are not like anabolic steroids. There are peptides that help with your immune system, with longevity. This is a whole world that I'm telling you is going to be leveraged above and beyond anything that we're seeing right now, probably by the pharmaceutical companies.
Liz Wolfe [01:32:16]:
And I'm not making any conspiracy statements there, but I'm just saying that they have discovered how powerful peptide therapy is and they are going to start levering leveraging that. We're gonna see that a lot more in the next, like, 10 to 20 years.
Ali Shapiro [01:32:29]:
Yeah. We were talking about doctor Tina, who we both have listened to. And her thing is she's wondering if the drug companies that make so many of, like, the diabetes drugs and these other drugs are actually planting all this bad information because these peptides could put by made by the other drug companies could put them out of business.
Liz Wolfe [01:32:50]:
I mean, essentially, either that or they created, like, the problem and the cure. You know what I mean? Yeah. They're like like, we this is, like, gonna solve everybody's problems. We have to have access to we have to be able to prescribe it. You know? Yeah. Totally. Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [01:33:03]:
Well, in in this I mean, we I was joking earlier about fasting being biohacking because men are doing it. But in the longevity community, community positions and, again, they're different peptides, but they position the peptides towards optimization and antiaging, which are culture values. No one's up in arms about that. You know? So it's just, like, very interesting of, like, okay. At the core, right, what's essential here is these are peptides, and they're being shown to be regenerative in many ways. And you mentioned PCOS. I have a client who it's, like, unclear if she has PCOS, probably does, but has insulin issues. And she's microdosing these, and she was like, I used to only be able to understand I was hungry if I got a headache.
Ali Shapiro [01:33:49]:
And now I can actually hear my hunger, and I'm feeling better. And I'm like, I wonder if it's gonna help you regenerate. Maybe something that has has gone wrong. I mean, I don't know. But, like, that's what I'm really curious about. You know?
Liz Wolfe [01:34:04]:
Yes. That makes sense to me. And, also, the other thing that these do, which I found fascinating, and there's literature on this. I mean, you might have seen some of the chatter about how these are effective against multiple addictive behaviors, not just addictive behaviors around food, gambling, alcoholism, all of that, which is fascinating. But what I found was the reduction in food noise, which I didn't realize I was experiencing that food noise, which is just you think about food. You're it's always sort of in your consciousness that you can't look at a box of cereal without thinking about eating that cereal, that type of thing. It made me realize how the entire marketing corporate food world that is built up around us, how much of an effect it has on us and we don't even know it. And I thought, of course, it does.
Liz Wolfe [01:35:00]:
I mean, these companies have whole marketing wings dedicated to figuring out how to make their food more hyper palatable, make their packaging look more enticing. And, gosh, I was thinking in relation to my kids too. Like, how can I expect to take my kids to the grocery store and have them build any kind of regulation around appetite food or hunger because not only is it available 100% of the time anytime they want it ever But it is also created even the healthy stuff to make you want to eat it? And you experience that in an entirely different plane than you experience authentic hunger. So for me, it sucks that it comes down to having to use a tool that you inject into yourself to calm that food noise. But to be able to do that is a life saving measure for a lot of people. Not so much for me, it helped me lose weight, and I'm grateful for that. And it helped me realize how I am influenced in ways that I didn't even realize I was. But that tool alone is unbelievably powerful.
Liz Wolfe [01:35:58]:
Yeah. You're making me think
Ali Shapiro [01:35:59]:
of a client. I think she went to Croatia with her family, and she's like, it was so crazy not to see food, you know, food carts on the beach or food. You know? And I was like, I know. And it's I mean, it's like food companies 50 years ago. Right? Once you had to Wall Street was like, you have to grow every quarter. They're like, how do we get people to eat more? Well, we have to interfere with their hunger singles signals, and let's put food everywhere.
Liz Wolfe [01:36:22]:
Everywhere. And
Ali Shapiro [01:36:23]:
so to your point, it's like I always use the example of, like, libraries. I remember, like, being a kid, and it's like, you can't bring food or drink into a library. And then it's like in Philadelphia, there's, like, a Starbucks now. You know? Like, at the it's like at the front of, like, the big library, and it's like, wait a second. What what's going on here? Absolutely. So I'm sure the people are gonna wanna know, did you may have you kept the weight off? Because there's this idea again, and it depends on how it's dosed and all this stuff, but that you have to be on it forever or you'll gain all the weight back. But have you kept the weight off?
Liz Wolfe [01:36:53]:
Yes. Yes. And I eat about 23 100 calories a day. Like, I'm in maintenance. That's my TDEE. That's my total daily energy expenditure. I don't track it every day. But every once in a while, I check-in with myself, and I do weigh myself now, which has been interesting.
Liz Wolfe [01:37:08]:
It was something that I was not interested in at all for a very long time, But now that I know that I can look at it just as data, as interesting information, it's been it's been interesting, and it's been interesting to see that I have maintained the weight. Generally, in my luteal phase, I'll go up 2 or £3, and then go back down again. It's fascinating. And to look at it unemotionally, I never thought I would be there. If you'd asked me 20 years ago, could I do that without self judgment, without making it mean something it doesn't mean, I would have never been able to do that. But I can do that now, which is really, really interesting. And I've tracked muscle mass and all of that stuff, which has been good. But I have, I've kept it off.
Liz Wolfe [01:37:46]:
And I wanna say, I think part of the reason that it has been easy for me to do so is because I also was at this weight for a very long time in my life. I'm not at a level that my body isn't familiar with. I, over the last, probably, 5 to 7 years, gained a certain amount of weight and now it's gone. So I think this is a comfortable place for myself and for my body. That's not necessarily how it is for everybody, especially people with a lifelong struggle with weight, obesity, overweight, all of that. It can look a little bit different and the approach to maintenance might look different. But for me, it has been it it's confirmation that I did the the choice was an okay choice to make.
Ali Shapiro [01:38:29]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love that you shared, like, 23 100 calories because I I do a free community call for my for my list in insatiable listeners. And when I was doing active weight loss that, again, because my worth is separated from that, it it was an easier process. But I had said to someone that I'm like, yeah. I I'm cutting down to about 1900 calories. And to lose, like I mean, I was losing a half a pound to a pound a month. That was very slow, but I Mhmm.
Ali Shapiro [01:38:57]:
Because I'm unattached to like, I'm still out living my life. It's, like, in the background, not the forefront. Yeah. But they were like, 1900 calories to lose weight? And I was like, yeah. I was like and then they were like, I feel like I'm eating 1200, and then they gain 1500. And I'm like, well, you have to slowly add, like, you like, 1200 calories, I think, is so little, but that's what most people think Yeah. Is takes. But it's like, if you're listening to this, no.
Ali Shapiro [01:39:21]:
You you can slowly add, you know, calories get add your walking as you're doing that. But it's you you to your point, you need to fuel your you need to fuel your metabolism. So I just want people to realize that, like, it's so you're still gonna be able to eat a lot of calories if you're if you're nurturing your metabolism.
Liz Wolfe [01:39:43]:
Yes. It 1200 calories is barely enough to lay in bed all day. Yeah. And that's why that's why when we this is the layers over time. We we think of these things as these their own little things, their own little microcosms of things, but this is since our twenties. Right? I remember being an intern in DC. I was, like, 21. Maybe I was in college, and I was counting calories at, like, 1200 calories a day to try to lose weight.
Liz Wolfe [01:40:09]:
And and this is layering over time, over 2 decades of different endeavors to try and figure out how to beat my body into submission to make it look like I wanted it to look like. And we don't think all that stuff adds up. It absolutely does. And those are the things that were that are suppressing, that our body is down regulating its metabolic rate. It's making you more tired so you don't do as much, so you don't need as much energy. Like, all of those things are compounding over time, and that's what makes this hard. So that's why let's stop doing that. Let's stop trying to battle with our bodies, and let's just instead take away some of the barriers, like you were saying, and see where that gets us.
Liz Wolfe [01:40:49]:
And then, you know what? And then if it's not enough, then you have at least solidified your metabolic function and then you go do some peptides.
Ali Shapiro [01:40:58]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Wolfe [01:40:59]:
Is that an okay thing to say? Are we gonna get you out? No. No. Okay. Good.
Ali Shapiro [01:41:04]:
No. I the I I have trust that the insatiable audience is curious and can handle you know, this whole podcast is about there are no answers. I just bring people on so that they can think this through. And I also think, you know, you talking about, like, this weight is my like, it's been a natural weight. Yeah. And I I was thinking about how you were saying, like, in your twenties, this is kinda you don't know what you don't know. You can handle more stressors. So you can cut your you can cut calories like that and not affect you.
Ali Shapiro [01:41:33]:
And it's like when you're in your forties and your parents are aging, you have young kids, you're running a business, You're living in late stage capitalism while the environment collapses. Like, it's like, give yourself throw yourself a bone if
Liz Wolfe [01:41:46]:
you want. I mean, again, you have
Ali Shapiro [01:41:47]:
to do the foundational stuff, but there's and this brings up I mean, I feel like, you know, we were talking about wellness has completely gone off the rails, but one of the unexamined values is natural health. And the way that the wellness world I mean, even the aesthetic and, again, I love a clean aesthetic. Don't get me wrong. But the it's this puritanical version of natural. Right? It's like, oh, it's like clean food. Even though we know dirt is really good for your microbiome, we know it's really good to and so we take the parts of nature we want, but not the, like you know, one of my clients was like, I was out in my garden, and I saw this hawk eating a squirrel. And it was just, like, so gruesome. You know what I mean? Yes.
Liz Wolfe [01:42:33]:
Oh my gosh. I saw a fox the other day chasing a bunny, and the fox the bunny went one way, and the fox went the other way. I was like, oh, that bunny's gonna get it. It thinks it's safe. It thinks it escaped, and that fox is gonna go right around that house, and it's gonna get that bunny. Nature is brutal.
Ali Shapiro [01:42:50]:
It is so brutal. And so it's like okay. Yeah. So what is your because this is something I've been thinking about since I went on HRT in October, and and my doctor's like, it's not a medication. Like, you should be having this at your age. But what do you think of as your line as you've grown and, again, the conditions we're not living in? Right? If we're all about natural,
Liz Wolfe [01:43:19]:
There is no line. No. There's a line. I I will 100% pursue hormone replacement therapy. Absolutely. Yes. I've played with, I've played with, progesterone dissolved in vitamin e before. I'll play with anything.
Liz Wolfe [01:43:32]:
Yeah. It's so You're a pharmacist too, Liz. Well, I'm a pharmacist. Everyone's like, where do you get these things? I'm like, I can't tell you that. I'm sorry. You're just gonna have to Google it, figure it out. But I'm a self experimenter. I'm not a if I wouldn't say biohacker.
Liz Wolfe [01:43:45]:
I'm a very lazy person that sometimes tries really interesting, you know, ways of, you know, driving the physiology that I'm interested in. But the line would be if I'm gonna do something that's gonna leave me worse off. And I know that that felt a little nebulous for a minute with these peptides. Is it gonna leave me worse off? I didn't think so. And so I was willing to go down that road. Anabolic steroids? No. You know, like, synthetic estrogen? Probably not. There's there are ways to do these things that are, you know, working with your body, I think.
Liz Wolfe [01:44:18]:
And and do I'm not even opposed to a face lift, and that is the opposite of natural. Like, you know, never say never. And I just think I think we just judge ourselves and each other too harshly. You know? Yeah. Let's let's live in that flow state where everybody's just doing their thing, and we're like, oh, that's interesting. Cool. Not for me. Awesome.
Liz Wolfe [01:44:36]:
Maybe that is for me. You know, let's just all support each other.
Ali Shapiro [01:44:40]:
Well, yeah. I mean, patriarchy tells us we have to compete with women for scare you know, for scarce resources.
Liz Wolfe [01:44:45]:
For resources.
Ali Shapiro [01:44:46]:
Yeah. Because no one's judging men for doing all this biohacking peptide stuff. It's like and can you last thing of the peptides, and then I wanna do a little lightning round with you of some of the common questions. But can you also explain to people I mean, these are categorized as and and just to back up for everyone. Ozempic and Wegovy are they are brand names of the peptide called semaglutide. And then Zepbound and Manjaro are brand names of a generic peptide called trizepatide. So and then there's other like, Liz was saying, there's peptides for skin. There's peptides peptides to regenerate your shoulder if you injure it.
Ali Shapiro [01:45:29]:
You know? There's there's all these different classes. These are marketed as drugs, but they are different. Can you explain can you just hash that out for people how you would explain the difference that these aren't,
Liz Wolfe [01:45:42]:
like, typical drugs? You yeah. It's not and I it got so complex. I was trying to unravel all of the legalities around this stuff. I don't know who first synthesized these peptides. I know the his some of the history of peptides. It's very fascinating. It was like optimizing soldiers, like Russian soldiers or something. It's crazy.
Liz Wolfe [01:46:04]:
Of course
Ali Shapiro [01:46:04]:
they're not. Out of Russia. Of course it did.
Liz Wolfe [01:46:06]:
It's it's also I mean, there are ones for your eyes. There are ones for it's just the whole world of it is crazy. There are some there are bioregulator peptides, which are are supplements. They are pills that you take and those can actually affect your, like, your DNA. It's wild. I've never done any of those, but they're like biohacking staples at this point. I don't know who first synthesized these molecules. So it is your body does produce GLP 1, which these are GLP 1 agonists.
Liz Wolfe [01:46:35]:
So your body produces these substances, but they are slightly chemically different. So they are in that way synthetic. It's not like you're taking some kind of completely natural thing out of your body replicating it and then injecting back in. It's not that. These have been engineered to have a longer life in the system.
Ali Shapiro [01:46:52]:
So I don't
Liz Wolfe [01:46:52]:
know who first created these molecules, but there are laboratories dedicated expressly to creating peptides that are able to create them and sell them. And that's about as deep as I will get into that because I don't want people running out and googling. Don't run out and Google Tirzepatide and just order it from the first website that you see. There are reputable ones and there are disreputable ones that are capitalizing on your desire to lose weight without having to go through a doctor. So then, of course, you can get the prescriptions to your doctor or through some of these clinics that are that just don't take insurance. Right? So there are multiple ways to obtain them. But what I know is this particular peptide is available without a prescription and without the brand name. I don't know why.
Liz Wolfe [01:47:42]:
I don't know how it works. I'm sure the pharmaceutical companies are gonna come after it at some point if they can't figure out how to profit off of it first. I thought by now these would have been completely shut down the way that the way that many people obtain them, but it hasn't. So my sense is they probably figured out a way to profit off of it. So I I don't know that we need to worry about it anymore. But, yes. So I don't know. I don't know how they unwind the legalities around it.
Liz Wolfe [01:48:05]:
My sense at the beginning was that the only thing that was, like, patented about Ozempic was the delivery system. That may or may not be true. That could be a total that could be totally out of left field. I have no idea.
Ali Shapiro [01:48:17]:
Yeah. But I guess I should just to what you're saying though is that these are very similar molecularly to what we produce in the body. Yes. Yes. So it's a little bit different mechanism of action
Liz Wolfe [01:48:29]:
than typical Oh, I get what you're saying.
Ali Shapiro [01:48:31]:
Drugs. Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Wolfe [01:48:32]:
It would be nice if I could answer a question like yes or no.
Ali Shapiro [01:48:35]:
I know. Depends.
Liz Wolfe [01:48:37]:
2 hours of your time to do that.
Ali Shapiro [01:48:38]:
No. I love that. Because I always say the answer is it depends. Like Yes. People. Okay. As we close out, what do you really want people to understand about metabolism as we age?
Liz Wolfe [01:48:51]:
That it is not equivalent to or synonymous with weight loss. That's it is so contextual. It's so nuanced. And I think, and this is what I've said about my metabolism programs is it's a metabolism first approach. We do this first and then we go on to do other things. We need to repair. We have to repair. And that process of repairing many, many years of battling ourselves is giving ourselves what giving our bodies what they need to support all of the metabolic processes that need take place for us to be healthy.
Liz Wolfe [01:49:25]:
And we have to be healthy if we wanna do things like lose weight or if we wanna do things like perform at a really high level in a sport that is not really concerned with your overall level of health. You know? I mean, performance is less frequent as a goal, but if you wanted to go to the CrossFit games, you've gotta come in with a baseline of metabolic health in order to put your body through something that you wanna do just because you wanna do it.
Ali Shapiro [01:49:49]:
Yeah. I even think again, because I'm an older mom. I'm like, I love that I can run and keep up with my kid on his bike. Or, like, I'm on the playground on the monkey bars and the slide, and I'm not worried about I mean, I pulled my back at the gym deadlifting. But That's happened. But for
Liz Wolfe [01:50:05]:
the most
Ali Shapiro [01:50:06]:
part yeah. I'm like, oh my god.
Liz Wolfe [01:50:08]:
I'm still pretty agile.
Ali Shapiro [01:50:09]:
So, yes, I I love that. Okay.
Liz Wolfe [01:50:11]:
And you're agile because you enable your body to go through processes of repair and and, you know, recovery and all of that. And that's a huge part of of owning your metabolism is enable is enabling those processes.
Ali Shapiro [01:50:27]:
Yeah. Totally. I always say, like, to because I focus on, like, physical and but more emotional safety's safety signals. But I tell clients, like, if you give your body what it needs, like, if you do need to lose weight for health, that will happen. Now, you know, maybe the last 10, £15 for vanity, maybe not. But based on where you are, you know, those safety signals will help you. Yeah. So I'm glad that that you you say that as well.
Ali Shapiro [01:50:55]:
Alright. So we're gonna do a quick asshole as lightning round because Yeah. Right. People wanna know. These are
Liz Wolfe [01:51:01]:
some of the top questions
Ali Shapiro [01:51:02]:
I've received from listeners and are being searched on on Google. So number 1, is there a way to reset my metabolism?
Liz Wolfe [01:51:11]:
Oh, man. I wanna like, I made notes on these because, everyone, she was kind enough to tell me what these questions are ahead of time. I said that my answer to this was yes, but it might not look like what you think. If you think resetting your metabolism is synonymous with weight loss, then you need to adjust those expectations. Metabolism first. Yes.
Ali Shapiro [01:51:28]:
I love that.
Liz Wolfe [01:51:29]:
Yeah.
Ali Shapiro [01:51:30]:
Now we kind of talked about this, but what is your number one tip to increase metabolism over 40? Which you might not say boost, but what what would be your number one get out of the way?
Liz Wolfe [01:51:41]:
Yeah. This is the bait and switch. Right? Oh, is that your question? Well, let me answer a different question. And it's always that rather than trying to increase your metabolism, just stop trying to decrease it with fasting and dieting and carb restriction and sleep deprivation. And then and see where that takes you. Right? There's there's, like, there's you cannot there you can't boost your metabolism. I mean, that's a blanket statement. There's, you know, people wanna do boost their metabolism by eating more protein because it has the highest thermic effect of food, and it's like, yeah, but you're digesting food.
Liz Wolfe [01:52:15]:
You're, like, cancelling out. It's a net zero. You know, like, these how do you boost your metabolism? Add 1 pound of muscle burns, like, a 100 additional calories a day. So if you want to put on £10 of muscle, which is gonna take you 5 years and make you miserable, and then you can burn an extra whatever that math is, you know, then, okay, you can do that. But rather than go through all of that, let's look at the basics.
Ali Shapiro [01:52:43]:
Yes. Yes. I always tell people, I'm like, when it comes down to it, nutrition is as boring as, like, retirement financial retirement advice. Yeah.
Liz Wolfe [01:52:51]:
No my god. I said that wrong, by the way, just now. Sorry. One pound of muscle burns 10 calories.
Ali Shapiro [01:52:56]:
Oh, okay. But I because I was if people can't see me on the video, I was like, woah. I didn't know it was a 100 calories. I was
Liz Wolfe [01:53:02]:
like, wait. She was way way way more compelled by that than I
Ali Shapiro [01:53:09]:
I was like, I got a lot to learn here. So when people say, what's one food I should consider adding to my diet to boost my metabolism? What's the bait and switch? Okay.
Liz Wolfe [01:53:20]:
That was a good one. And there's no single food that's gonna do that, but what I was thinking is if you wanna add something that will support your thyroid function and bring down stress hormones so that that central governor of your metabolism can run properly is I would I would add fruit. I mean, people are so afraid of fruit, but it is easily digested. It contains, especially, citrus fruits, right, vitamin c, which is really important for thyroid health and adrenal health. So if we wanna power up those organs that are responsible for metabolic function, let's let's do that with fruit, with something with a lot of nutrition in it, quick energy that the body can digest easily and and recognizes.
Ali Shapiro [01:54:00]:
I love that, especially because summer is coming up. So it's like all the good fruits. Are there any drinks that assist metabolism? Or the the query is speed up metabolism. Oh my god.
Liz Wolfe [01:54:12]:
This is I have to do this. Daily aminos plus.
Ali Shapiro [01:54:16]:
Yeah. Put it
Liz Wolfe [01:54:17]:
in your water and it will fuel your and thus, support your most metabolically active tissue.
Ali Shapiro [01:54:22]:
I love that. And we'll put a link to for people to get on your list about the the aminos. Yeah. And that's good for people too to realize you can put it in your water, which will then will also help you get more water in, which is really important.
Liz Wolfe [01:54:35]:
I'm terrible about being accountable to my hydration, but the way I use these is they're they're my workout drink, and they this has been studied. I mean, the using them before, during, and after has a continuum of positive effects on your recovery, on your muscle mass, on your energy, all of that. So I literally just put them in my water and take them to the gym with me. I start drinking them on the way there, and I finish them on the way home. That's it.
Ali Shapiro [01:54:57]:
That's what I'm gonna do. Yeah. Because I'm ordering them. So
Liz Wolfe [01:55:00]:
Well, I'm sending you some, obviously.
Ali Shapiro [01:55:02]:
I can't wait to try them.
Liz Wolfe [01:55:04]:
The page will let you talk for 2 hours straight.
Ali Shapiro [01:55:06]:
Yeah. Any top rec your top recommendations for strength training after 40?
Liz Wolfe [01:55:15]:
I mean, any kind of resistance training with progressive overload. It doesn't matter what it is. You can do bands and body weight at home. Just try and do harder and harder things.
Ali Shapiro [01:55:24]:
Love that. I love that. Is there any questions you wish I had asked you during this interview or anything else you'd like to leave our listeners with?
Liz Wolfe [01:55:32]:
I just appreciate the opportunity to be here. I think I said everything I could have possibly said, and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to do so.
Ali Shapiro [01:55:41]:
Well, I could have asked you, like, a million questions, so we'll just have to have you come back.
Liz Wolfe [01:55:45]:
Absolutely. Anytime. This is a this is so much fun. I just this is this is a blast. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. And where we'll link to
Ali Shapiro [01:55:53]:
you in the show notes, but where can people find more of you? Because I'm sure they're gonna just appreciate your nuance, humor, and honesty.
Liz Wolfe [01:56:00]:
Oh goodness gracious. I hope so. You can find me at real food liz on Instagram. That's probably the easiest place to find me and where I am most active, and you can go to ideal age dot com. I can't remember if I even said this or not, but the name of my company, of my supplement brand is Ideal Age because we are at our ideal age and you can make whatever age you are your ideal age. We are we are at the ideal age for doing anything and everything that we wanna do. We're ready, like, we're doing this. So ideal age dot com is where you can find the supplements.
Ali Shapiro [01:56:31]:
Oh, my god. I love that. I love that. That's It's brilliant, Liz. See, you're great at you're great at marketing.
Liz Wolfe [01:56:38]:
Getting the trademark too, everybody. It's mine.
Ali Shapiro [01:56:40]:
Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for your time, Liz. Thank you, Ali.