Fiber Goals For Metabolic Health

We break down why fiber is a metabolic powerhouse for glucose control, heart health, gut health, and fullness, then share simple ways to reach about 30 grams per day without stomach upset. We unpack soluble vs insoluble fiber, label math on “net carbs,” and practical foods, snacks, and supplements.

• soluble vs insoluble fiber and benefits
• daily fiber targets and how to track
• gradual increases to reduce GI symptoms
• high-fiber fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes
• easy add-ins like chia and flax
• smoothies, yogurt bowls, and wraps as vehicles
• net carbs, calorie math, and label pitfalls
• GLP-1 considerations and hydration with fiber
• fiber supplements as a backup option

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Transcript

Welcome And Scope Of Metabolic Health

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 0:00

Welcome to the Modern Metabolic Health Podcast with your host, Dr. Lindsay Ogle, board certified family medicine and obesity medicine physician. Here we learn how we can treat and prevent modern metabolic conditions such as diabetes, PCOS, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, and more. We focus on optimizing lifestyle while utilizing safe and effective medical treatments. Please remember that while I am a physician, I am not your physician. Everything discussed here is provided as general medical knowledge and not direct medical advice. Please talk to your doctor about what is best for you.

From Constipation To Fiber Focus

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 0:54

Last week we talked about one of the most common side effects of GLP1 medications, which is constipation. I highly recommend you check out that video. It had a lot of important information, but today we're gonna talk specifically about how to increase dietary

Fiber’s Big Benefits Explained

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 1:10

fiber. Fiber does much more than keep us regular. Fiber actually helps keep our blood sugar stabilized throughout the day, especially when we eat fiber first in the meal. It is also known to lower cholesterol levels and help prevent cardiovascular disease, which is amazing because cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in both men and women in the US. So anything we can do to lower our cardiovascular disease risk, the better we're gonna be for it. Another benefit of fiber is that it helps us feel full. The fiber takes up space in our stomach. That helps us to feel full and stay full for longer periods of time. Let's start by what fiber even is. Fiber is a carbohydrate. I think that's important to highlight here because often carbohydrates get demonized. And many people recommend lowering carbs, lowering carbs at all cost. But the truth is, fiber is so important for our health for those reasons I just mentioned. And so we do want to have some carbohydrates in our diet. And the more of that that is complex carbohydrates and fiber, the healthier we will be. It's the added sugars that are the carbohydrates that we actually want to limit as much as possible.

Types Of Fiber And Why Both Matter

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 2:33

There are two types of fiber: there's soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber gets its stain because it dissolves in water. And this is what is beneficial for cardiovascular health and blood sugar stabilization. This is the fiber that feeds our gut bacteria and improves our gut microbiome. The insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water. So this is what we see in our really starchy vegetables. This is what helps push our poop and our bowel movements through our system. We want both types of fiber to optimize our health.

Daily Targets And Tracking Intake

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 3:14

How much fiber do we need? It'll depend based on what source you're looking at. It depends on your gender, it depends on your body size. But a good rule of thumb for most people, a goal of around 30 grams a day. For women, it's more like 25. For men, it may be higher, like 35. But that's a good number to shoot for, is around 30. Some days you may end up getting more, some days it may be less. You probably don't know how much fiber you're getting currently. The only way to know that is if you track what you're eating. And I will include a list in the description of some nutrition trackers where you can do a nutrition audit. And the goal is to over a course of a couple of days, up to a week, write down everything that you're eating in one in that day or during that period, and you will be able to calculate on average how much how many grams of fiber you're getting. It may be less than you think, it may be more, but we need to know where you're starting at.

Increase Gradually To Avoid GI Upset

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 4:22

And then we want to slowly increase it over time. If you go from five grams of fiber a day to 30 grams of fiber a day, your stomach is gonna feel upset and you're going to want to then in the future avoid fiber. The truth is anybody's stomach is gonna be upset with that big of a fluctuation in fiber intake. So you want to slowly increase it over time. An easy way to do it would be increasing by about five grams every couple of days as long as you're tolerating it well, or five grams a week until you reach your fiber

High-Fiber Foods And Easy Add-Ins

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 4:58

goal. So, what are sources of fiber? How can we add it into our diet? Most fruits and vegetables have a good source of fiber. Ones in particular that are known to have higher fiber amounts include for fruits, apples, berries, and bananas, for vegetables, broccoli, carrots, and leafy greens. You can easily Google a list of high fiber foods or high fiber fruits or high fiber vegetables and get a list. And it'll often report how much fiber is in each item. And so you can find ones that you enjoy and can and you can increase that or incorporate that into your diet. Whole grains are another great source of fiber. These are things like oatmeal and quinoa, brown rice, legumes are another great source of fiber, beans, lentils, chickpeas, and then nuts and seeds also are a great source. You can incorporate fiber into your diet in many different ways. Fruits and vegetables, you can cut them up, eat them by themselves, or have them with a dip. If you're trying to incorporate more protein, then maybe doing a Greek yogurt dip would be very beneficial here and would be a well-balanced snack or part of your meal. You can also create smoothies and shakes and put in different um fiber sources. You can easily put in things like chia seeds or flax seeds. You can also include those chia seeds or flax seeds into baking products like muffins or breads.

Chia Tricks And Real-Life Audit

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 6:39

A great tip that I got from a dietitian is to add chia seeds to Greek yogurt in the morning. I did one of these nutrition audits not too long ago and realized that I was not getting enough fiber in my day-to-day. And so I asked a dietitian what her recommendations are, and she recommended adding chia seeds to Greek yogurt in the morning. And I was already eating Greek yogurt with blueberries and walnuts, but now all I do is I put in a scoop or two of chia seeds, and that adds fiber into my diet very easily. I have I just go ahead and buy like a big thing of chia seeds here, um, and then do a scoop or two, like I said, um this uh serving size is two and a half tablespoons, and in just two and a half tablespoons, you get five grams of protein and ten grams of fiber. So, really easy to incorporate this. Um, she also said you can incorporate it into like a pasta sauce. So if you're making pasta and you're wanting to add more protein and fiber, just put some chia seeds in there. Super easy and doesn't affect the

Low-Carb Tortillas And Net Carb Math

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 7:57

taste. Another thing we commonly see and that I've um started using are the low-carb tortillas. Um, these seem to cause a lot of controversy, surprisingly. But in these, in the big ones, um there are 30 grams of fiber in here. So this is something that if you are not used to having fiber in your diet, you don't want to go to a full large one of these. It may upset your stomach. But it's a great way to incorporate fiber if you enjoy wraps, which I really love wraps. An important thing to know about these um labels and these low-carb tortillas, and really any label in general, is that they're gonna put the net carbs here. So there are 33 carbs in total, and then there's 30 grams of fiber. So then they're gonna subtract that, and it's only three grams of carbohydrates left, the three net carbs. And what I just learned from an amazing dietitian is that they are only required to report the calories from those net carbs. It is a little bit misleading when labels do this, and it may or may not be the deciding factor in whether or not you're losing weight right now, but it's just important to know. And you can do the calculations to see how this is true. For every gram of carbohydrate, there are four calories. For every gram of protein, there are four calories, and for every gram of fat, there are nine calories. And so if you look at the label and you do the calculations, then you'll see how many calories should be reported in that item. But if they are only reporting the net carbohydrates, then there'll be a discrepancy with that um equation.

Supplements, Hydration, And Wrap-Up

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 9:50

As mentioned in the last video, if you are struggling to incorporate enough fiber into your diet, whether that's because you're feeling too full on your GLP1 or whatever reason, you can add a fiber supplement. And check out that last video for my discussion on fiber supplements. They are available, it's okay. Just remember always drinking lots and lots of water when you are consuming fiber, especially supplements. And there you have it. Some key recommendations on how to incorporate fiber into your diet for your overall health and health optimization while on a GLP1. Thank you for listening and learning how you can improve your metabolic health in this modern

Share, Subscribe, And Review

Dr. Lindsay Ogle 10:38

world. If you found this information helpful, please share with a friend, family member, or colleague. We need to do all we can to combat the dangerous misinformation that is out there. Please subscribe and write a review. This will help others find the podcast so they may also improve their metabolic health. I look forward to our conversation next week.