Episode 17: Got Questions About Fat Loss? We've Got Answers!

In this episode, we're answering some of the most common fat loss questions we hear from women and giving you real, practical answers to help you cut through the noise.

Whether you've been at this for a while or you're just getting started, this episode will help you understand what actually works, what's getting in your way, and how to keep moving forward.

In this episode, we cover:

• Do you really need to track calories to lose fat? Or is there another way?
• What a realistic and healthy rate of progress actually looks like (and when is it better to go faster or slower)
• Why losing weight gets harder as you get older
• What to do when fat loss stalls
• The truth about hormones and fat loss. Do they actually prevent progress?

If you've ever felt frustrated, confused, or like your body just isn't cooperating, this episode is for you.

If you found this one useful, share it with a friend who needs to hear it, and leave a review if this one resonated. It means the world to us and helps other women in midlife find us. 

Make sure you're subscribed to the show so you never miss an episode. New episodes release every Monday.

Connect With Us:

@marcinevin

@eats_by_dre_nutrition

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Good afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Well, hello there. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 0:04

We're at a different time now.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

We are at a different time, but for good reason. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Because you're traveling.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

I am traveling. I'm headed to Chicago on Thursday morning. Very excited about it because that is a bucketless city for me. Never been. Always wanted to go.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

I think I was I did a layover and spent one night there.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Okay, so I've been to Illinois, just not actual Chicago, the city. So I'm excited. I'm going for my cousin's graduation from college. So my mom and I are gonna fly on Thursday, meet my aunt and uncle. Obviously, my cousin will be there. And at first I wasn't gonna have to go to the ceremony. My mom said, Oh, she can't get tickets. And I was like, too bad.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Oh no, so sad.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Like maybe we just shouldn't go. And then a couple of days ago, it's like, oh, she's thinking maybe she can get tickets. And I'm like, please say no, no. Uh, because that takes away half the day. And I'm only gonna be there until Sunday afternoon. So basically, Thursday and Sunday are completely shot. I only have Friday and Saturday. So to think about getting my ass up at I don't know, whatever time, my mom said we probably have to leave the hotel by eight, get on the train to the college, sit through the ceremony. I'm sorry, I love you because, but I'd rather not just be glad that I'm showing up in support.

SPEAKER_04 1:38

Are they doing a live stream? Be like, I'll watch from the restaurant or and to be honest, I don't think she cares.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

You know, us coming is good enough. And then I'll go to the after party.

SPEAKER_04 1:49

Yeah, that's where the good stuff's at.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Yeah, it's at a restaurant, so it's not like it's anything crazy, but so I am looking forward to it. Although the weather here has been abysmal for the past two weeks, I'd say. So it's kind of been raining off and on. Yeah, I don't know what's going on. And just as I leave, it's starting to warm up. And what do you know? Pouring rain in Chicago.

SPEAKER_04 2:15

Oh no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

It's been a little dreary the last couple days here, but that's just been overcast.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Yeah, so it's showing Friday, Saturday, Sunday between 40 and 65 percent. So who knows?

SPEAKER_03 2:30

Maybe it'll change, but is the graduation outside?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

I don't think so. I think it's inside. Well, that's I know. Um, so yeah, that's what I've got going on. What about you?

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Not much just subbing my life away right now. Um, I'll be there, I believe, 18 days in a row. So yes, I was telling you offline. Um I am helping them state test and at the site that I don't know if the other schools of the district do this, but uh at our site in particular, we take kids who have a hard time focusing. Uh, we put them in a room together, uh, and I get to manage that room. So um that's super fun. Basically trying to keep noddies in life. They're fine actually. Um, if you know junior hires, I know they sound like a nightmare, but really when it comes to this stuff, they just like the worst is that they're sleeping. And I'm like, hey, you have a test to take. And they're like, but I'm real tired. And I'm like, yeah, but you still gotta take this test. So like, can you can you wake up?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

It's so wild to me that they're sleeping. I do not remember that nonsense going on when I was in teaching high.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

I don't know. I went to private school, so like I feel like it was a little different, but yeah, it's just insane. When I started teaching, I I purposely wanted to teach, um, wanted to go into the public sector, and I was just like, oh my god, this is so different than private school.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

So in what way?

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Oh, well, I mean, in private school, parents are very involved and very opinionated, and they really drive a lot of I think what's happening there because they're just very like eyes on everything. Um, now to be fair too, I worked in a Title I, so low-income school or district. Um, parent involvement is much less. And a lot of that I was telling you too. It's I am not I'm not trying to like um poo-poo on parents, like these are single parent families, they're typically like uh first generation here. So they've got like two and three jobs, they're living with multifamilies, so they got a lot on their plate. Um so there's just not a lot of like parent support, and that also generally comes through with like kids just kind of raising themselves and yeah, which is why why they're up late, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

So I was gonna say, would you rather have more or less parental support? Because I know for my mom when she was in uh what do you call it administration for and she did special ed. And so those parents are very difficult, um, you know, more so than I think your average parent. But yeah, would you rather have more or less involvement? Less. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Um parents can be unfortunately a nightmare. Um and especially like what I observed as a student in the private sector, uh, parents feel real entitled. And I understand because they're paying, you're paying for your kids' education, so they just they have a higher stake as well. But like that's just really hard when you're the professional and you're the one with the degree to have parents then telling you how to do your job. And you're like, you're welcome to come in here and do it yourself. Um, so I just knew one, I did not want to deal with that clientele, and I just felt like I wanted to work with a population that needed good educators. Um, kids in private school are gonna do fine, they have resources, they have parental support. So I purposely was like, no, I want to be in a sec a sector where um, you know, I can be a positive influence, even if that meant less parental. But even though there's less parental support, it means that you know I have a little more freedom to to teach and not be scrutinized like everything I do.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Yeah, I can imagine that being under a microscope like that is really stressful.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Yeah, especially when you're new. I mean, teaching stuff. I was just watching something that was like saying, I want to say it's like 44% of teachers quit before year five.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

No way.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Yeah, and it I mean, it's hard. And then she went on to say, like, most teachers don't feel like they hit their stride till 10 years. And I was like, Yep, that I tell people that all the time. It wasn't until year 10 that I was like, okay, I have this, I got it, I know what I'm doing. Like 10 years before you feel good at what you're doing. It's hard. It's really hard.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just makes me think of you know, our clients who get upset because they're not making progress in a week of being on a planet. Like there are just so many other areas of life where you do not get results nearly that fast. Yes. And yeah, I mean, gosh, 10 years. 10 years.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Like the first five years, I would always tell people we're just I was dog paddling. I didn't know what I was, I was drowning. Um, because it's hard and it's a lot. And then like I think when you're young and like new, you want to do everything. And so like you're you're kind of taking on too much as well. But like there's just not enough mentorship as well. Um once you pass that five-year mark, you're you're likely gonna stay. Um, although we're seeing high numbers of teachers leave, which I believe them. Yeah, yeah, but it it really does take a while to like kind of come into your own. And um, yeah, it's it's uh I mean, I just remember being 23 and like, I don't know what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

But I had a lot of heart. I mean, I really love the kids and I wanted to be there, but God, it was just so hard.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Yeah, I'll have to ask my mom when I see her how long it took her because she started as a preschool teacher for blind and low vision kids. Wow. So I think that's like a little different though. You know, like they're they don't have as many behavioral issues and whatnot. Uh, so I'm sure it had its own challenges. But yeah, I'd be really curious. I'll have to ask her that and report back.

SPEAKER_05 8:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

And then also, you know, I'm I'm curious. I I've never really asked her this either. Why did you decide to go into administration? Because she had to go back and get that credential and at night when I was, I don't know, I don't even remember. I think she feels terrible about it that she like abandoned me. I'm like, I don't remember shit.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

I mean, and she could look at it as like showing you like a woman like continuing to level up and you know, like go for her dreams. Yeah, I would never go into admin as as difficult as teaching is admin work never um intrigued me.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Like that just looks like a whole other nightmare that like yep, and like I said, special admin is a whole different beast.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Nope, no, thank you. Like uh no, so anyways, yeah. I'm not surprised that I would be I would have gone into a field um that requires a lot of um patience and right, like sometimes my sister and I kind of laugh at like like why do we choose the hard thing all the time? You know, that type of mentality. She's a nurse. Um so we're like, my God, what what in us is like, hey, that's really hard. You should do that.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

You know, it's so funny. I made a post on Sunday. I had found this audio, and then I saw a post from another creator, and the audio is something like, Aren't you embarrassed? And it was basically like, Aren't you embarrassed that you post content online and you know, make make these stupid reels? And so my comeback was, I used to go door to door selling copy machines in a power suit and high heels. Nice to people who basically treated me like I was the scum of the earth. Yeah, like this is a cakewalk compared to that. I did not know you did that. Oh, it was my first job out of college. Yeah. So I I bet that taught you a lot. Oh, talk about resilience, like that will put some hair on your back. Yeah. Because, well, and what I had wanted to do, well, let me back up. I went to journalism school thinking that I wanted to write for a fitness magazine.

SPEAKER_05 10:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

And then as I was going through the program, I was like, no, no, this is not what I want to do. I am a free spirit. I guess it's the Aquarius in me. I didn't know it at the time, but don't chain me to a desk and tell me when my deadlines are. So I decided that I wanted to go into outside sales and because I also saw other people. My dad was in sales and I saw the like the potential that you could have when term comes to like making money and just the freedom and the flexibility and whatnot. So I moved home and I started getting messages from recruiters. And what I did not know at the time is that oh, you don't just go straight into the sexy pharmaceutical medical equipment. No, you gotta start at the uh bottom of the barrel, low end of the totem pole. So I was selling copy machines.

SPEAKER_05 11:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah, and I would come in on a Monday, sit in traffic for you know 45 minutes, and 8 a.m. we would have our sales meeting where you had to do your like forecasting and all that, and say how much you had sold the week before, and then after that, you would go and you would make a hundred cold phone calls, and then that was Monday, and then on Thursday, you would come back, do 50 cold calls, and then the rest of the time you were out on the pavement going door to door. And yeah, let me tell you, people do not want to deal with a copy machine sales rep. I mean, I was cute, right? Like I put in my my BB suits and my heels, and I was all done up. Um, I think back, I'm like, how did I have the energy to do all that? Like I would be young. Oh, I was up at you know five in the morning at the gym by 5:30. I was getting ready at the gym, and then I would come back at night to lift, and I just didn't even think twice about it. But yeah, so that certainly taught me resiliency like nothing else. And it was very short-lived, also.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

Yeah, no, I there's no way in hell I would have done that when I was younger.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

I was way too shy.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Oh, yeah, I mean, I was I shy.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

No, I wasn't really shy, but no way if you were doing cold calls, I had no idea what I was doing. Like they just threw me to the wolves. Yeah. Yeah. And it was funny because my dad's first job was selling Xerox, which it was just a different brand. And I'll never forget the night I was living at my parents' house at the time. And so the night before my interview, because the recruiter didn't really tell me anything, like they didn't help me when it came to like preparing necessarily. And so my dad said, I bet you anything, they're gonna make you sell something. They made me sell an ashtray. That was like back in the day. He's like, So let's role play a little bit, sure as shit. The next I go into that interview. She's like, sell me this pen. And so I knew exactly what to say. But that's the thing with interviews, right? Like you can totally bullshit your way through it and then get the job and have no idea what you're actually doing. Yep. So, anyway, that was a tangent like usual, but here we are.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

Yes, here we are, decades, decades later.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Talking about that loss.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Who would have thought? I mean, not me. I definitely did not think I'd I'd end up here, but I'm happy I am.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah. So, and that is our topic for the day.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

It is okay. So, we did a poll and we've got some questions. We just want to kind of like quick and dirty, right? Just kind of answer some typical questions for you guys. Um, people tend to like these rapid fire. We'll see how rapid we can be. You and I are talkers, so I think we can do it. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Should we give us ourselves what like uh let's say until until 5 30? Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

All right, I was gonna say per question, like oh but yes, till 5 30, because this girl wants to have dinner, so yeah, and I got a pack.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Oh, Cinco de Mayo, what are you having for dinner? Anything exciting? Do you celebrate?

SPEAKER_03 14:50

You know, I should, right? I'm Hispanic, uh, but I don't. It's just not um I I don't know. I uh no, I don't really. I don't drink, and yeah. It's more it's so funny. I so I was subbing today and I'm usually just doing um the testing, but today I did take a uh teacher's class, and so she had them do like a proofreading exercise. It was a language arts class, and they did a Cinco de Mayo, and it was saying how Cinco de Mayo is more popular here in the United States than it is in Mexico. So that's kind of my thing. Like, I think it's more of an Americanized thing. So I'm like, it's I think I've heard that. Yeah, yeah. I think we just like to drink, so like, oh, no, you're right, not you and I, but like, I mean Americans, like anything to drink.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

And although we were talking offline, I'm like, it has been a day. I would I could go for a margarita right now. That's the thing, is like I do I miss drinking in some circumstances. Like, I like the taste of it, it would be enjoyable just to have a little bit buzz, but that's the buzz.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

There's like a certain moment of like just being buzzed and relaxed that I do miss. Yes. Um, but yeah, I know. I'm gonna just say no. I'd rather have it. I'm like, if I have to, I'm like, I'd rather just have a a dessert. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Oh, do you like flan?

SPEAKER_03 16:16

I do not. I am not a great Mexican. I don't cook Mexican food. I I like it, but I don't like often go for it. I don't like flan. I don't like like horchata or anything.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Just yeah. My my dad loved flaw, and so my mom used to make it for him. And I think I like the texture of flawan and like puddings, but like for some reason the taste of it is just very off-putting to me. So I was at Trader Joe's this morning and they were sampling the flawn. So I texted my mom and I said, Did you make dad flawn? Uh, you know, because like right now he can kind of only eat soft foods. And it's unfortunate. I mean, because of his condition, he really doesn't enjoy anything that he makes anymore. But she still tries to make things nice for him. And she's like, No, I didn't make myself. I went and bought the Trayer Joe's kind, and it was really like, Well, there you go. Let it be easy. But Mexican food, I think, is my favorite cuisine.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Really?

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Uh-huh. I would say, I would say Mexican, and then like I feel like they're similar, but Thai and Chinese would be number two.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Italian is my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

See, and I'm not much of an Italian person.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Really? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

And maybe it's because like I can't do the gluten in the dairy, so I just it's been so long. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do like an Alfredo. I can get down on an Alfredo. I'm not really a red sauce person.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

Oh, I am just still, I think, trying to make up for the years that I gave up gluten um when I was bamboozled by you know, like whole 30 and paleo and all that. And like, I mean, even like people close to me are like, girl, you made us avoid Italian. And like, I'm so sorry. Other people do it. What's that? You made other people avoid it? Oh, well, I mean, if I were like, it's like I don't really like Italian, like I'd rather have steak or um more Mexican or what else, a Thai. I really do love Thai food too. In fact, I think we're gonna do we're talking about doing Thai for Mother's Day. We'll see. Um, but yeah, I so yeah, I still feel like I'm making up for lost, like a lost decade where I just shunned all things gluten.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Yeah, I get that. And it's interesting because when I go to Chicago, my cousin booked like a late luncheon for her and some of her friends at an Italian place. And I guess a couple of the friends are gluten-free. So she made sure that she found a place that was gluten-free friendly. I'm like, can I see that menu, please? I wonder what am I getting myself into here? So we'll see. Maybe they'll have gluten-free pizza. I haven't had pizza in probably 20 years.

unknown 18:54

I love pizza.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

I know.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

Pizza and burgers.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Oh, see, you know what's so funny? You could put a burger in front of me, and I would not be tempted by it at all. Wow. Yeah, that's not burgers. I think like more American type cuisine is like really not my thing. Like, I don't love French fries. More, yeah, I know. I'm weird like that. But put us put a basket of tortilla chips in front of me, we'll house that entire thing, no problem. So we all have our preferences, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:24

Yes, it's funny, like maybe a couple weeks ago I watched Just My Niece, the the youngest, um, because they took one and two to Universal Studios, and so in the morning I was like, let's go out to eat. We went to just a little diner, and I I don't know why, but I ended up getting a burger. I was just like, I don't know, I didn't want their breakfast. Fine, whatever. I had a burger. She had fries and fruit. Um, and then whatever, we spent the day, and it was a long day. Um, because I had to be there like 6:30 in the morning. And by dinner time, I was just like, I don't think I want to like cook or do anything. And so I'm like, let's go to McDonald's. And she was so excited because she loves chicken nuggets and fries, especially from McDonald's. So we went and I sent my sister a picture, and she looks so cute, she's so happy, and I am too because we're just eating our favorite food. And my sister was like, dude, you've had burgers twice today. And I was like, oh my god, I didn't even realize that.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

It's hilarious. It makes me because you said diner, and it makes me think back to the last time I ate at a diner. I was on my way to the Warriors game with a friend of mine, and we stopped at this place called Val's, and it is a fixture in this town that actually my dad grew up in. And so growing up, we used to go there quite often, and we would get there was like a baby burger, a mama burger, a papa burger that was like the size, and then you know the fries, and then the milkshakes, the chocolate malt in the tin, like the freezing cold tin with oh, right? I know. So I do remember enjoying those burgers, but the last time I was at that diner, which I think, as I said, was the last time I've ever been at a diner, which is probably 15 years ago. I ended up getting pancakes.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Oh, and those pancakes were good. So they were. I like, I mean, I I could do breakfast foods for every meal of the day.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Yeah, I I often like breakfast for dinner.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Oh, absolutely. It's easy. So easy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Okay. Well, um we're gonna get into it, we promise.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

We're talking about welcome to our show about fat loss. Let's talk about all the most fattening foods. Yeah, let's talk about all the foods we love. Are we?

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

Okay, let's go through these questions.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

Okay, number one, probably the I don't want to say number one question, but definitely something I get asked a lot is do you need to track in order to lose weight? Short answer no. You don't.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

You don't make it a lot harder on yourself if you don't.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

I mean, there's a lot of ways to skin a cat, right? Is that the saying? Um I just like to make things as efficient as possible. But like if someone has a huge aversion, of course you can, uh, but it's a lot harder.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Yeah. And I like to say that tracking collapses time. So who wants to drag out the process?

SPEAKER_03 22:18

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

It's not enjoyable to begin with. So why make it harder on yourself? And I am someone who likes certainty. And that is what tracking gives you. Not only the awareness of wow, that's what a tablespoon of peanut butter actually looks like. I've probably been eating a quarter of a cup. So that's you know the first part. But the second is when you know that this is exactly how much that I need to eat, and then I can find foods to fit within that. I mean, not only does it allow you to include those foods without the feelings of, am I having too much? Oh, these foods are bad. I mean, tracking really is what healed my relationship with food.

unknown 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

I don't know if you would agree with that.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Yeah, I mean, definitely I want to say, like, if you're somebody who has a proclivity towards eating disorders or just disordered eating, which are different things, um, be careful. I mean, definitely stay very mindful of why or how that kind of leads towards that. But at the same time, I also like encourage a little pushback when somebody doesn't want to as to why, you know, like again, if it's if you have a past, you know, with EDs, then okay, I'm not gonna push you. I'm not qualified to do that. But I think for most people, there's um there's a like a misperception around it. And yes, I think people assume it's disordered, but yeah, I mean, it gives you so much clarity that I think it helps with that piece where you're actually not being neurotic, you're just being smart. Like it's it's like your finances. If you're if you have financial goals saying, Oh, I'm just gonna spend less, okay, yeah, in theory, that's what you're supposed to do, but don't you want to actually know how much you're spending? And don't you want like a plan in terms of like, well, if I want to put aside such and such amount, then I should make a plan to do that and then make sure I actually implement. And if I'm not, why not? Is it too you know what I'm saying? Like it's just to me, you do it in other in other areas, so it's like pushing back on why. Why don't you want this to be more efficient, you know, and such a phenomenal tool? Like, and yes, I agree, like it helped me erase all this fear around food. You know, I don't I never struggled with an eating disorder, but I certainly was bamboozled into thinking certain things were bad, they were gonna kill me, and I avoided them. Like again, we're just talking about gluten, right? I mean, that was for no reason. I am not gluten intolerant, I don't have celiac disease, so there was no reason. Um, except I was convinced, you know, that everybody should avoid gluten, and that made things made me a little neurotic where I'm just telling you I wouldn't let people take me out to Italian because I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna eat that. And so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Yeah, and it's interesting because I developed what I would call disordered eating in college, and that was because I was following the advice in the fitness magazine. So it's oh, if you want to look like the cover models, then you're gonna have to follow this diet. And we talked about this on one of the episodes, Tosca Reno's clean eating. Yep, and she was, you know, one of the Oxygen magazine was the one that she uh helped run, and that was the verbiage. So I was eating, I can't believe it. Well, not uh what were the egg beaters, and you know, not even really fruit. I think oatmeal and maybe some sweet potatoes were the extent of my carbs. Other than that, it was vegetables and protein. I was gonna say, I can't believe it's not butter spray, anything that was sugar-free. So the syrups, the splendas, all the diet coke, I mean like that was the extent. And so, yes, I did have these like labels like this is food is good, this food is bad. But it's interesting, I was not counting calories at that time. I was restricting. Right. So I think I was restricting calories unknowingly because the foods that I were eating was so uh, you know, they weren't very calorie dense. So it just kind of like controlled the calories naturally. But I would say it wasn't until my mid-20s where I really had awareness around calories because when I did finally hire a coach, I was given a meal plan. And so the meal plan allowed for more freedom and flexibility. And one coach that I worked with, he would give the meal plan, but then he had this online site where you could go and make substitutions. So if it was okay, you have chicken on your plan, well, then you could substitute it for salmon or whatever. So there was just full database, and it was foods that I had been restricting, like potatoes and cheese and you know, all these things. And I'll also remember that part of it was on the days that you lifted, you could have a certain amount of grams in any low-fat carbohydrate that you wanted. So I started eating candy and cereal and frozen yogurt, all these things that I had loved, and I had at one point given up, and I started incorporating them, and I was getting into the best shape of my life. So it was like, oh, there's something to this. And then eventually I started tracking macros, and that's when you know the calories came into the equation. But yeah, for me, it was what allowed me to say or believe okay, there are no foods that are going to put weight on you. It's only the amount that matters.

unknown 27:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:47

At some point, yeah, I think you have to just figure out that awareness piece of like what's the problem, which is why tracking is so helpful because it'll immediately tell you, like, hey, by the way, all that peanut butter is really wrecking your fat loss. Or like creamers, you know, that's a big thing. I think people just don't think about what's in their beverages. And I don't know, I'm super strategic and like I would like my fat loss to be as efficient, yeah, and painless as possible. So, like, I usually have a tablespoon of heavy cream, I just take that out. That's 50 calories right there. I usually have walnuts in my oatmeal. Take that out. That's a hundred calories. It's 150 calories right there over the course of a week. That's significant right there. And yet I am not gonna feel that in terms of like hunger and volume of food. So I try to be real strategic and I would not know that because those are all healthy. Well, I don't know about the cream. I mean, it's fine. To me, it's neutral. Um, walnuts have omega-3, they have fiber, you know. So, like if you're coming from that lens, like you could still shoot yourself in the foot. So, like, why are we not just educating ourselves just a little at least?

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Well, it's interesting because I started eating walnuts pretty much every day because they are so good for you, and I weigh those suckers out on a food scale, do not get many. Oh, oh, it is so depressing. And I've only been doing half a serving, which is 14 grams, and it is nothing. I could if I you give me a bag of any nut and say go to town, that bag would be gone in a heartbeat. Oh, yes, they're just so easy to overeat. And again, they're I mean, are they feeling uh maybe but not really? You have to eat a lot, yeah. Exactly. You have to eat a lot, and by that time, you're thousands of calories in.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

I rem I remember doing CrossFit. I was like in that world for a while, and I was not, I was like in the clean eating, you know, bandwagon and um whole 30 keto, like that was kind of the what was kind of popular at the time. And I remember buying, I don't remember what it's called now, but it was from Whole Foods. It was like a trail mix that had a little bit of chocolate and nuts, and uh it was just divine. And I was just eating that by the handful, wondering why am I working not so hard and I I don't look like it. I mean I look okay, but like for the amount of effort I'm putting out, like I just feel like I should be looking a lot different. Yeah, maybe because you're eating like 500 calories of freaking trail mix, Andrea, every day because you're hungry.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

But it's healthy. Those nuts, that those raisins. I'm looking it up right now. 14 grams of walnuts, which is what I've been eating every day. A little over 100 calories, 90 calories. Okay, and now I'm gonna look up another food that I eat every day strawberries.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

Oh I have 200 grams of strawberries, and I think it's like 60 calories.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Let's see here. You said 200 grams? 200 grams of strawberries. One calorie pink. 200 65.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

So let's see.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

So guess what Andrea's eating a lot of while she's dieting right now?

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Okay, so you can have 300 grams of strawberries. That's a lot, by the way. That that is a lot of strawberries. That's like at least a couple cups, I think.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

I mean, you could do it. I mean, I've eaten I eat 200 at my lunch every day. Um, could I eat 300? Yeah, but it's kind of like teetering on a point of like, this is a lot of strawberries.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

So two two cups of strawberries, 90 calories, compare that to 14 grams of almonds.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

Yes. So that's like where you just gotta make those. One, the education around tracking can be really helpful so that you can say, hey, while I'm dieting, I'm gonna choose more strawberries than I am nuts in general. I that's funny because I always put 15 grams of walnuts in my oatmeal. Um, but yeah, it also means too, I can make these little adjustments that are gonna have a big payoff because I'm using the actual mechanism at play here. I also want to say this doesn't mean you don't care about quality. I think it's actually more important what you fill those calories with when you're dieting. And um, this is not to say like, oh, calories are all that matter. Yes, they absolutely matter, but you can help yourself out by being smart and choose the strawberries right now because they're delicious, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

They are so good. And have we talked about this? I only eat, I shouldn't say only, but I prefer my strawberries and my blueberries frozen.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

I don't think I've had frozen strawberries, but certainly frozen blueberries, it's like sorbet, so good.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

And sometimes I will pour a little almond milk because I don't do dairy almond milk over it, and it makes it, it gives it this like almost hard shell, and it kind of makes it even more sorbet-I'll have to try that. So good.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

Yes, yes, okay. So you don't need to track, you absolutely don't. You just make it harder, I think, and it will probably be a longer process. And you just you if that's fine, if that's what you need to do or want to do, you just have to accept that you're using a less efficient strategy, and it it'll be harder, especially once you get down to like let's say the last 10 pounds, or you're in a plateau, it just makes it hard to make adjustments because you're not really aware of where you're at, your guessing.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Yeah. And what was the other thing I was gonna say about that? Oh, I know. I made a post a couple of weeks ago. Like, isn't it interesting that us women will borderline neurotically track our steps, our HRV, our cycle. We'll have spreadsheets for our spending, but God forbid we track our calories. And I do think it's because we have to get honest about how much we're actually eating and make adjustments. And there's something very emotionally charged when it comes to food because it's it can be a safety blanket for some people. So having to see, I mean, for lack of a better word, the consequences of their behaviors, but also the changes that are gonna have to be made to something that does bring a sense of soothing, relief, comfort, I don't think they want to have to do that. Yeah, I do think really quite regardless if you track or not. And I was having a conversation with a client this morning who is just in a season of life where she does not feel like she can mentally keep up with tracking. I said, you just have to realize regardless of if you track or not, you are still going to have to practice restraint in some capacity.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

We might need to do a whole podcast on restraint and kind of it's a fine line because I think sometimes people take it to an extreme, but at the same time, like I don't think anything in life is without like having to have some kind of restraint. I mean that's like adulting.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Yeah, cleanance or gratitude, all of that.

unknown 35:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

And and here's the thing like we do it all day long. Everyone says not everyone, but our clients will say, I have no self-control, I have no willpower, and mostly it's when they're referring to food. I was like, but you do, because I'm sure you've got a boss that you don't like and you want to tell him some days to fuck off. You you gotta practice restraint there.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

So if you're a teacher, you are saying things in your mind all the time that you cannot say out loud. Exactly. Me with a smile on my face.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Okay, that's why I have a journaling practice called Rage on the Page. I'll send it to you.

SPEAKER_04 35:55

Yes, please.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Okay. Anything else we want to say on not having moving on. Okay. How fast should I lose weight?

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Oh, I think the the standard is anywhere from half a percent to one percent per week of body weight.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

Yeah, and honestly, I will say my clientele is a little older. I mean, I think yours is as well, but I've definitely seen, especially once someone's 50, women in particular, um, slower is even better. I usually do 0.3 to 0.7, and I make a range for them. That seems to be because, and this is not because it's harder in terms of like, oh, you're older, so it's harder. It's because things have added up to the point where metabolism is just not like humming away like you're 25. Um, typically you haven't been building muscle, you're not active, you're sedentary, highly stressed, sleep as shit. Um, and we have to accommodate with lower calories. I mean, you just have a lower caloric demand. Um, I have plenty of clients who just their jobs are very sedentary. We obviously are increasing their activity, but uh it's not enough that's gonna get you eating 2,500 calories a day, and that's your maintenance. So I I go a little slower with them 0.3 to 0.7. And and they seem to like that's a place where it's doable, sustainable, they're gonna get results. Um, but yeah, it's just harder to push for really aggressive when you're older.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Well, and I also think when you're smaller too. So yeah, so someone like you know, you or I, we are more petite, small frame, leaner, I would say. So, yes, you're also going to risk losing more muscle if you go faster than that, and possibly being hungrier. So I think in those cases, so that would be the majority of my clients, yeah, I would say err on the side of a little bit slower. So I like that 0.3 to 0.7 range. Uh, I think you could go up to 0.1, just like depending on the person, how they feel. But also, let's say that we have someone who weighs, you know, 200 plus pounds, or like they're okay. Then in that case, you can go more quickly because they have so much stored body fat, it's really not going to impact them. They also have a higher metabolism because they're carrying so much extra weight, even if they are more sedentary and they have more muscle because they are bigger people. So sacrificing a little bit is not going to be as detrimental as it is for you and I. And also, I will say that sometimes I think starting off more aggressively for a person who does have a significant amount to lose is a better approach. Because I mean, can you imagine if you had 200, if you were 200 plus pounds? Trying to we're we're gonna lose a pound a week, yeah. I'd be like, I'm out.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Absolutely, yes. And I you're right. I mean, context matters so much. In fact, I was gonna say with our last question, I think sometimes people don't want to track, but they're very overwhelmed with it because they're just so far from optimal, which means they're not doing anything. So it just seems really overwhelming. But typically, and I think we talked about this on a past episode, the farther away you are, you you only have to do small things and you're gonna see things change quite rapidly. So you don't have to maybe necessarily even go to tracking. I mean, I've seen people like we I just tell them, hey, we're gonna just eat more fruits and veggies, we're not tracking calories, and they drop 20 pounds because it's just pushed out some of the junk food that they were you know overeating, and now they're just focused here. So, like, yeah, I think for that person that doesn't want to track, or like in this case, yeah, you can lose more because you're just so far from optimal that you have so much runway to like you can run. It's infuriating. I'm over here like fighting for a pound, you know. But it's not, I don't take that the wrong way. I'm being facetious, but yeah, I I'm gonna fight for a pound, whereas someone who's obese is gonna drop five easily.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Right. And then from there you can slow it down a little bit, but I think doing it more quickly is going to be encouraging and keep their head in the game so that they can last longer because it's obviously going to take longer.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Yeah. I would say a real safe um assumption because people will often be like, hey, I want to lose 20 pounds. Um, and certainly there are a ton of factors. Obviously, we're talking about that right now, but if you want to just gauge, okay, about how long is that gonna take, I would say you can assume, let's say, a half a pound loss per week over the course of that time to kind of gauge how long it would take. Will there be weeks that you lose more? 100%. Yes, there are definitely gonna be weeks you lose one pound, two pounds, maybe three pounds. There's gonna be weeks you don't lose anything. Um, but that's a very, very um conservative number to just give you somewhat of a ballpark. But again, if you're outside of like the norms, like you're like you have a lot to lose, oh, you'll go much faster than that. Um, but just so that people aren't um totally surprised because life is gonna happen, things are gonna slow down, you're gonna probably have off days. So that's my very, very, very, very conservative estimation for you.

SPEAKER_02 41:24

Yeah, I like that. Yeah, and you laid it out perfectly. We've got to manage those expectations and just remembering that there will be weeks where, oh wow, I dropped one, two pounds, and then the next it's gonna slow down. So don't necessarily think that something is wrong. It's just, you know, what the body does, which I think segues perfectly into one of our other let's see.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

Yes, that was our next question. What do you do when fat loss falls? Because it will. It will.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

It's pretty much inevitable. I think I have had one client in the 12 years that I've been doing this, and this woman is a damn unicorn. It's unbelievable to me, actually. I think we've been doing this now for I want to say six months, and she has lost 40 pounds. Wow. And every single week, I think there's been one week where she's stayed the same. Aside from that, it's like down. I'm like, I tell her every week, I was like, I don't know who you are. Like, but yeah, such an anomaly. Um, but for the majority, yes, there are gonna be plateaus. I think where most clients go wrong, and this is why it is so helpful to have a coach who can be logical and help you take objective. That's really more the word I was looking for. So objective rather than emotional, because if you see yourself stall for a week, God forbid, two weeks, then you're gonna get in your head and you're probably going to make choices that do not support you. Whether that's I'm throwing in the towel because clearly this isn't working, it never does. Why do I even try? Um, or maybe you try to make adjustments that don't actually need to be made. So there can be, you know, reasons why fat loss stoles down that has nothing even to do with the fact that you're not being adherent, but that is always the first place I would start is assessing your level of accuracy and consistency. And if it is not, and we're talking to women in perimenopause, right? I would say if it's not at least 90%, then just increase it.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

Yes. If you want a deeper dive, literally, I just realized I was like, gosh, this feels like I just talked about this. My last podcast on my separate um podcast, but last episode, I should say. Uh, this was the whole topic how to handle plateaus when dieting. And yeah, number one, audit your expectations because likely you have unrealistic expectations. Um, and then I tell them time, like, how much time has it been? Like, if It's been one week, it's not enough time to assess. Um, I often will say a mentor of mine actually said this um you need the body's like on a two-week delay, so you can't make decisions before that. Um, and then you have to audit yourself. And I think you're hinting at that right here that like, what are you bringing to the table? Like, are you really being as adherent as you think you are? And if you don't have data, you don't know. Yeah, so we that can go back to the question about do you need to track calories? No, but it may like again, it makes it really hard. How do you assess if you're really in let's say a plateau? And what do I adjust? Yeah, do I just tell you to eat less, eat more healthy? Like that's not a thing. I mean, that's just too vague. Yeah, so vague. So, so so vague. Um, but sometimes you might actually be in a true plateau because that happens at some point, like you're losing and losing, like your energy needs are gonna go down, especially during the fat loss phase itself, because your body is adapting to the fact that you're starving yourself. Um, what is your go-to when someone's plateaued? Do you drop food or do you increase activity? I I increase activity first.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Yeah, and it but it depends on how much a person is already doing. So I have a client right now, and this woman, she she was the one that I was telling you offline. She is my age, so 42. She's got two young kids, and she's basically retired right now. She doesn't even like she set herself up so well with her previous career that and her husband works as well that she technically does not have to go back to work. And she's just enjoying her life, and she has more time to devote to movement. But before coming to me, and this is a client who had worked with me years ago, uh, she was getting maybe five to six thousand steps a day and was like, Hey, you are a lean person already. I think she weighs 125 pounds. So I said, Your calorie needs are gonna be lower. I would much rather you increase activity, especially because you just got a dog. So there's you know, something like you kind of have to go walk the dog, that's gonna make it easier. You live in Oregon, finally, the weather is improving. It's nice being outside. So she agreed to that and she texted me today and she's like, Oh, yeah, my weekly average was 13,500. So if she, if someone like her plateaus, I'm not gonna say, okay, let's bump it up to 15k. I would say, let's reduce calories slightly. And oftentimes I will give the client the option because, you know, depending on what they want to do, what they feel comfortable with, and then really at the end of the day, the client knows themselves better than I know me. So yes, I can be objective, I can point out blind spots, but I am not living their day-to-day life. So if they are an office worker and they're at the job, you know, and commuting, so they're sedentary eight to five, then yeah, maybe it's going to be harder to get 12,000 plus steps. So what would be easier is to reduce calories by 100 or 200. So it really just depends on the individual.

unknown 47:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

I agree. And I actually I do the same. I usually offer them the choice so that they can decide what they'd rather do. Cause sometimes people surprise you, and I'd rather you do I'd rather not make you do something you don't want to do, but I certainly also don't love taking more food away. Um, but yeah, steps, and you're right. I cap, like once we're at like the the highest, I'll go is 12 to 14,000. And sometimes, like, you just gotta get there. If you have ambitious goals, you you're gonna have to probably do that. I'm I'm there right now. It's like right now it's a minimum 12,000. Um I also will sometimes step on the gas of just like moderate uh cardio to just be like, okay, like obviously we're time, it's like time dependent. Like, if you don't have the time, well, we can also just increase the intense intensity of your cardio if you want. So that's another option, and then then food, of course. But do you ever find because this happens sometimes with my leaner clients really pushing things? Sometimes you just need a break, like a good diet break actually will help you push through that plateau just mentally, yeah. And then like physically to just feel fed for a week, let's say, and then like I just watch people do that and then they come back like a new person, like, okay, I feel good, I'm ready, and then we can go another six weeks or something.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

Yep, and there can be a couple of different benefits. One, the mental. So I do have that break. I can eat a little bit more, and then as you said, now I have stronger workouts, I have more energy to actually get more movement, so that can help with calorie burn. And then they feel rejuvenated, recharged mentally, physically, so they're ready to go back into it. The other thing that can happen is we know dieting is a stressor, and in perimenopause, we are already so susceptible to stress. We're likely not sleeping as well. We have stress from our job and our families and all of that. So when you add dieting on top of it, then it's just like stress upon stress upon stress, and that can increase cortisol. And I think different people are more or less sensitive to cortisol. Um, I am someone, even though, like on labs, my cortisol shows that it is very elevated. I am not someone who really holds on to a lot of water when I'm really stressed. Whereas other people, like they're holding on to a couple of pounds. And so if you give them that diet break, feed them a little bit more, now the body's like, uh, I'm not starving, and it can release some of that. And so they'll see a water drop, just not even from fat, but just from um, yeah, the water retention that the cortisol is producing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:43

I so I was definitely in the into fasting um when it was really in vogue. And gosh, the longest I went was three days. I do not recommend.

SPEAKER_02 49:54

You can seven chair fast. Oh my gosh. I I've considered doing one for health purposes. Like they say can basically like reset your entire system. And being someone who already has a compromised system, I was like, oh, maybe I should do that. I don't know if I could.

SPEAKER_03 50:08

Don't do it. Uh, it did teach me a lot. I'm not gonna completely poo-poo it, but like I do not recommend that for most of the people.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

It's a spiritual experience more than anything.

SPEAKER_03 50:17

It's a lot uh you learn a lot about yourself. Um, absolutely. And it also taught me a lot about hunger. I mean, yes, you get hungry, but it goes away too. And like, it's not like you just get hungry and hungry and hungrier. Like, certainly, yes, you get hungry, but it and then it subsides, and you're like, oh, that's interesting to like go through that process of actually experiencing it. But um, anyways, what I would notice was when I was fasting a lot, of course, there would be come time or come times where I was just like, I'm gonna eat, and I would, you know, this is where I don't love fasting because I think that it does push people to overeat. Um, and then I would drop weight after, like, so I would fast, then I'd eat a lot, and then I'd drop, and I know that was stress, you know. So it's like unfortunately felt rewarding, but then I was like, okay, I'm not gonna do this forever, you know. Uh, but yeah, I would certainly see those drops after eating a lot, and then I'd be like, okay, my body is way stressed out right now. Absolutely. So yeah, there's no reason, I don't think there's really a need to be that extreme and to push yourself. Um yeah, I learned what I learned and I'm glad I experienced it. I think it makes me a better coach, but it's I do not steer my clients towards that. No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

And I did it, gosh, I would say a year and a half where I was doing a weekly 17 or 18 hour fast. We talked about this on the other episode. I hated every minute of it.

SPEAKER_03 51:48

So you're just hungry a lot, and that's like I I get and I get really lightheaded too.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

Oh just kind of like lightheaded, fatigued. Yeah, I don't love it. So it's not even like so much the hunger as it is I just don't feel great.

SPEAKER_03 52:01

Hypoglycemic, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

I just get real hungry. Okay. Um, let's go on.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

Yeah, let's go on.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

Why is it harder to lose weight as you age?

SPEAKER_02 52:14

Well, we all want to give the hormone answer, don't we? And I'm not saying that we can't, that that cannot be part of it. And we discussed that in our previous episode. So if hormones are declining or they're erratic, what can that cause or what can that lead to? Poor sleep, lower energy, increased hunger and cravings. So that is going to make it more difficult to adhere to the principles that are required for fat loss. Um, so your consistency might get impacted if you are, you know, you're overly hungry, you're craving these things, and then you're sleep deprived. Well, now decision making is going to be you know out the window. So you likely will end up eating more. And then also if you are fatigued, whether it's because hormones are declining or the impact of uh interrupted sleep, then that's going to make it more difficult to push yourself hard into the gym, to get that extra movement and not even from the perspective of, oh, I need to hit 8, 10,000, 12,000 steps. Like, yeah, that's part of it. But even just your like really subconscious activity, that need going for a walk is not neat. I think that's a mistake that a lot of coaches make, is that they any type of purposeful movement is technically exercise or movement, right? Neat is more the upconscious, the subconscious.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

So the fidgeting, the I mean, even as simple as like what you see me doing right now, like I'm standing and I keep shifting my weight, and I'm and I'm here, I'm playing with a a lip gloss, right?

SPEAKER_04 53:54

I was gonna say, did you put some lip gloss on? Because your lips look amazing. I did. I did.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

I must have missed seeing it, but I was like, all of a sudden, I'm like, man, like yeah, if you can't see us because we're not recording it, but like we're both fidgeting around. So it's that subconscious or unconscious activity that actually does burn calories and it burns the most. So if you are low on energy, then you are not going to be doing those little movements as much. Or I I want to sit instead of stand. And it adds up over time.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

It does. I'm gonna insert a little story here. So I've been, you know, testing with the kids, and so I'm just kind of watching them, and it was very interesting to watch. I was kind of stepped back, but I could see them from the side, I was on the side of the room, so I was watching them from the side. And the there was one boy in particular who's very thin. He was moving the whole time, like his leg was just like and there was another boy who was pretty thin as well, also moving, very like just fidgety, and then the students that were had a good amount of weight on them not moving at all. It was just really interesting to watch that the just like subconsciously, those boys were just non stop, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, moving their feet, moving, shifting, like they were non-stop. And it was so obvious from the side to watch um how some people just have an affinity to move more and others don't. And I was just like, oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

I think I think that's even like genetic too. And it's why there can be two kids who even weigh the same and they can have gosh, 2,000, and I'm not saying just kids, but like people in general. I mean, they've done studies where there can be a 2,000 calorie discrepancy between how much someone burns. And that's interesting. I'm glad you brought it up because I was having a conversation yesterday with one of my good friends since we were in first grade, and we are still in touch. So she trains with me every now and then, and she's got four kids, three of whom are girls. And it's really tricky because her oldest daughter is definitely built more like her husband. So tall, they're all very tall, but um, you know, a little like thicker, stockier, and she's not very active. She doesn't play sport, she's more into you know, like the arts and things like that. And then the middle daughter is a bean pole and she dances 10 hours a week. So my friend reached out to me yesterday. We're gonna get together, she's gonna come into the gym to train with me next week. But she said, Hey, do you have any time to sit down and talk to me about, you know, the older daughter because she's really struggling with her weight, and I want to be able to have a conversation about nutrition and exercise in a positive way. And I said, Yeah, absolutely. And they are already an active family, they eat very well, they're one of the families that I do the house sitting for. So it's like I see the food that is in the house. You know, they're not eating junk, but they're still, you know, snacks and all that. And we know those can be calorie dense, right? Um, and it's interesting too because I babysat the girls about six months ago and I didn't notice any eating behaviors where the one who is a little bit heavier was snacking all the time or anything like that. I do think it's just the difference in movement. So yeah, I was like, oh, is the older one comparing herself to the middle one? Because, you know, she is so much thinner, and she's like, Yeah, she is. And then they were getting ready on Sunday to go to the oldest son's. Um, oh, I don't know, it's something with the Catholic school. Oh, catechism. Yeah, like confirmation, I something like that, right? And I guess she was really struggling because she couldn't find anything that she felt good in when it came to what to wear. So, and it's tough. I mean, she's in middle school, right? Like that's when I started to I started to know it's in elementary, but yeah, it's really hard. And so that's kind of what I was saying too is there's the difference just in the activity level of these two girls.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

And I think, yeah, it's very much when it's subconscious like that, yeah, it's definitely just driven like internally genetics and and all that.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

In this situation, it's the one daughter dances 10 hours a week, and then the other isn't really playing sports. So that's gonna do it. And then funny enough, we were talking about my aunt who I'm gonna see in Chicago this weekend, and they live in this in San Francisco. So for a while, they didn't even own a car, and she walked everywhere she went. So my cousin went to school in downtown San Francisco. She walked her to and from school, and this woman is like a honeymoon bird. She does not sit down, she's always fidgeting, she's always talking, she's talking with her hand, she's just going a million miles a minute. And I've known her now for 35 plus years. She has never been overweight, she doesn't eat a lot, but she eats whatever she wants. So she's never dieting, she's never saying, Oh, I can't eat that because it's not good. But because she moves so much, she doesn't have to worry about it.

SPEAKER_03 59:12

Look, when you go to other countries, especially very walkable cities, and you look around. I mean, it's always the first thing I notice is like, wow, everybody's so much trimmer in Europe. And, you know, and I know they had like, what are French women eating? No, it's that they're walking everywhere, they're very active. I mean, it's they're not necessarily going to a gym, it's just that like people don't buy cars, and so they have to walk everywhere, and it's just like part of daily life, and that makes a huge difference. And we spend so much time in the car, like you don't understand how much that takes away. I mean, yeah, it's time, but like we live in like especially LA where I'm at, like everything's at least 20 minutes away. Like, I'd love to walk to work, that's never gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 59:59

It's too far, like well, and it's funny because you were just saying about the gym, and those women typically do not go to the gym. My aunt, she's never been to a gym in a day in her life. Yeah. No, we're not saying don't go to the gym because you're right, like we no, don't get it twisted. So you need to be lifting because if you don't, then you risk losing muscle, and that is going to downregulate your metabolism. Well, that's the other reason why it's harder to lose weight in midlife and beyond, is because if you have not been building that foundation for years and you don't have the muscle mass, and then you're also adding on top of that the chronic dieting, so you're losing some muscle mass, you are impacting your metabolism to some extent, then yeah, you're just gonna have to eat less, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:43

Yeah. Funny, I was just putting together a post for tomorrow. Um, and one of the statistics I put on there was that by 40, if you've done nothing, so you know, you've just you really haven't been paying attention to fitness or nutrition, you've likely already lost five to ten percent of your muscle mass. And that's a huge driver of why all of a sudden you're like 45 and you're like, oh my god, like why am I gaining weight? Like, yeah, unfortunately, if you haven't been proactive, like you don't use it, you lose it, and that like works against you, right? So, like, like and it only like accelerates, you know, like in your 30s is where you start to lose muscle mass, and then like by 40, like it's gonna continue to just um you'll lose it at a higher rate, which is unfortunate. But that means start now.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:29

It's never too late. No, yeah, and that is your insurance policy, and it's your metabolic currency as well. It really, really is, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:39

Um, I also like to just be like, ladies, you're probably we're classic cars, you know. Um, we're just older, and so like your parts are old, you know, just like you gotta upkeep the car and things are gonna, you know, be slower, not as as great. Like, I mean, we already feel that. Like, I mean, yeah, that's that is a part of aging, is that like your body is just older, and then depending on how you treated yourself in your 20s and 30s, you may be unfortunately having to deal with the consequences of some extreme stuff. Um we're not without consequence.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

So I want to give another personal anecdote, and when I say personal, I mean about myself. So I weigh myself most days just to keep an eye on things because I am in maintenance and I've noticed that I've gained a little bit of weight, maybe like a pound, pound and a half. I was like, oh, that's interesting because my calories have not changed. I've been eating the same amount, I track everything to a tea. I have not been going out to eat more. I'm still like I am busting my ass in the gym right now. Like my workouts are really good. I'm doing the same amount of cardio, I'm still getting, you know, minimum 10,000 steps. I'm like, what is going on here? Like it could be something completely unrelated. It could be some muscle, maybe so. Yeah. Um, but I was like, oh, that's interesting. And now I'm like putting the pieces together, especially as we're having this conversation. And what was it? It has been about a month, maybe five weeks since I stopped working that office job that I was at two days ago. So it was a small place. So I wasn't necessarily getting any more steps. I typically don't get more than 12,000 steps a day. Uh, it is very rare. So I was walking again, I'm still walking like 10 to 12,000, but I did not sit down when I was at that place. And my it was it was four hours, and I was just go, go, go. Like maybe I would sit down a little bit here and there, but it was not a sedentary type of job by any means. So I was up, you know, walking around, going up and down stairs. And I'm just wondering if now that I'm not doing that, my butt is on the couch a lot more. Also, the weather has not been that great. So, like I haven't been as motivated to go outside and walk around. So I am, even though I'm getting the same amount of steps, I feel like during the day I'm just more sedentary. And I wonder if my calorie burn has just decreased a little bit and now it's catching up with me. And like you were saying, it does there is that lag time. So I'm not gonna quit my job and a week later, like the pounds are coming on. It probably, you know, took some time for it all to catch up. So that's just like on my mind. I I can't say for sure, but it would not surprise me.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:18

Yeah. For sure. And those are things that like be that's true neat, right? Because you're not intentionally trying to do that, it's just kind of like subconscious, and then your environment, right? For whatever reason you're up and about. Um, but yeah, I think people don't, or people underestimate how much like your work environment and um like what you're doing, like really impacts because it it can be kind of separated, like you're saying, and I was saying, like, there's a two-week delay, and that you forget what you were doing two weeks ago, you know. So it's like I think we want immediate, like, well, I dieted for one day, I should see it on scale. No, no, there's like all kinds of compensations happening, like you have to be in that deficit sustained before your body's like, okay, fine. I guess we're gonna burn some fat for fuel. Like, it's just unfortunate. Like, one day is not doing anything, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:11

And if you do see a drop in a day or a week, I mean it's it's gonna be water retention. In in glycogen stores because you're eating less, you have less smooth contents in your stomach. And don't get me wrong, it's encouraging just to see that scale drop, right? And you probably do feel a little bit lighter because you're reducing some inflammation, just some water retention. So that is encouraging for sure. But for it to really be true body fat loss, yeah, I would say you're right, a couple of weeks is probably what it's gonna take. Oh, the same consistency. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:43

Look, I tell people go jump in a sauna. Uh you'll drop water weight like that. And that will prove to you also that it was just water weight. You're not burning fat, like you're just sweating out excess water. I mean, and sometimes that feels good when you're just bloated or like you know you're holding water. Okay, go if you have access, like They just put a nice one in my gym. Go sit in there, sweat it out. You'll feel you'll let go of that extra weight and then prove to yourself, oh, look, I was just retaining water because I just sweated it all out here. Sweated it. I don't think that's a word, but you know what I mean. Well, our last question was actually related to that one. Do hormones prevent fat loss? And you answered that beautifully. Like, no, they don't prevent it, but they sure make it hard. I mean, I don't know about you, but like paramenopause sleep is just kicking my ass. That's really my only complaint. Uh, I do have hot flashes every once in a while, but they're very minimal compared to what I hear, or they're just kind of like, and then it goes away. Um, but sleep is in the doghouse for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

My sleep is my sleep is trash. So I'm going back on HRT probably in I would say end of June. I don't have my appointment until June 19th, and we'll see. The last time I was on progesterone and estrogen for maybe a couple months, I really did not notice a difference. So I'm hoping, but yeah, it's rough.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:06

It is. I need to get on it. I just have been my doctor started the conversation with me, and then I didn't follow up with labs. And now it's just been a year, and I just need to just be like, give me something. Cause well, I'll hold you to that, my friend. Please do, because it's really ridiculous. Um, how terrible my sleep is. It's like literally the one thing that it's just awful, and it's just hard to do life on little sleep or poor sleep.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

Well, last thing I'll say about the hormones is especially when it comes to cortisol, because a lot of people say like that's the fat storage hormone, and it's really not the case. It can influence where you deposit body fat, sure, but having high cortisol in itself does not put fat on your body. And I say that if that was the case, I would weigh 300 pounds. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:03

I I think a mentor of mine was like, it's actually a mobilizing hormone, and you want that, right? I mean, cortisol is to help you deal with stress, and so it's gonna help you mobilize blood sugar and you know, help you um like heart rate's gonna increase, you're gonna breathe, right, to deal with the stressor. It's mobilizing your resources. So, like it doesn't make sense that it would be a fat storing hormone, um, but it certainly can ramp up hunger and cravings and make you tired and you know, certainly move your unconscious behavior over there. But no, cortisol is not gonna make you fat. You're right. I mean, all of us who are just stressed the hell out would be massively overweight, but right.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

Uh so you mentioned about the hunger, so yes, it can increase hunger and cravings, and then also, as I was saying earlier, it can increase water retention. So that can make you feel a little bit puffier, bloated, inflamed, and it will mask any progress that is happening on the scale.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:03

For sure, yes, which is why, right, when I would do these long fasts and then overeat, I would drop weight because you know I was just retaining water from like stress hormones. Uh starts with an A. Eldosterone. Yes, aldosterone is having me retain water, right? So it's like a nice like you can watch it in action. That's why you just like kind of flush out. Sometimes too, like you could just tell a client, hey, I just want you to get an extra hour of sleep. Boom. Yeah, game changer. Yes. I often will drop weight on the weekends, especially if I've subbed a lot because all of a sudden I just get better sleep, I'm less stressed, I sleep more, and then boom, like I just, you know, weight comes.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:45

I think that's also I think that's also why in perimenopause using the scale can be a little bit tricky because we have all of these external variables that are going on that are even more outside of our control than usual.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:57

Yeah, like you're already like women already have like a 20-ish eight-day cycle, right? So you're already going through this monthly, and now in perimenopause is like all rules are gone. Like you're like, I don't know, is it gonna be 20 days or 40 days this month? So you're all over the place, and your body's just kind of it's holding on. It's remember, it's just a transition, it will go away. You're offboarding.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:24

All right, well, we're 20 minutes overdue.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:26

So I hope that was helpful though.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

Yes, it was, and now I'm gonna go eat. Yeah, and I am going to resist the chipotle that I would really want to get. Go make myself something that I already have.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:41

I know. I have chicken ready to go. I need to go eat that. Although Kava is really calling my name right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:46

Oh, I went to Mendocino Farms somehow. Oh, how'd you like it? I loved it. Okay, so good. But then we have a kava right next to it as well. So next time I'm there, I'm gonna try kava. Okay. It's been a while since I've had Mendocino Farms, but the honey goat salad, chef special. It had that hot honey on it. Woo!

SPEAKER_03 1:11:08

I am very much into hot honey right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:11

That was good.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:12

Yeah.

unknown 1:11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:14

So all right, friends, until next time. Until next time.