Calories, Genetics, Metabolism and the Holidays Ep 76

Can you truly trust popular apps like MyFitnessPal to guide your calorie intake, or is there a more personalized approach to understanding your body's energy needs? On this episode of the Find Your Edge podcast, we're unpacking the complexities of predicting energy requirements just as the holiday season tempts us with indulgence. Join host Chris Newport as we prepare for the upcoming 21-day nutrition reset challenge in January by questioning the reliability of resting metabolic rate (RMR) prediction equations and physical activity estimations. Drawing insights from nearly two decades of RMR testing, Chris shares why personalized testing often trumps generic formulas and how this can prevent post-holiday panic over calorie control.

Together, we explore the fascinating role of genetics in energy expenditure through tools like the three-by-four genetics report. This episode sheds light on everything from basal metabolic rate (BMR) to energy needs for various activity levels, offering critical perspectives on making informed nutritional decisions for weight management and energy balance. Discover the limitations of conventional methods and the importance of understanding your unique physiological makeup for better health and performance. Whether you're in it for weight loss or maintaining your current energy balance, this conversation promises practical insights to optimize your nutrition strategy.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 1:32

Hey y'all, welcome back to the Find your Edge podcast. I am your host, chris Newport, and we are knee deep in the holiday season by this point, and one of the things that came up for me as we were preparing for our 21 day nutrition reset challenge coming up in January and during the holidays, are prediction equations, because what people tend to do is, the holidays get done, they tend to overeat or increase their energetic consumption and then they sort of panic and want to get control and then reduce their caloric energetic intake once the new year starts. So that got me thinking how reliable or how validated are some of our resting metabolic rate prediction equations and physical activity prediction equations? So let me just give you an example. One of the articles I ran across was in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition and it's titled Prediction Equation for Estimating Total Daily Energy Requirements of Special Operations Personnel. So yes, this is for the of sports nutrition, and it's titled prediction equation for estimating total daily energy requirements of special operations personnel. So yes, this is for the military, and these ladies and gentlemen are burning very large amounts of energy in the jobs that they do. So the purpose of this study was to generate a predictive equation estimating their energy requirements, so that they could appropriately feed these folks for their work. So how does that relate to you if you're not a special operations personnel? Well, that just goes to say that some of our equations are either outdated or just hard. It's just generally hard to predict your energy needs. Let me just put it that way, and as somebody who's been doing resting metabolic rate testing with an actual metabolic cart not just a formula necessarily for let's see for almost 20 years, I see people, generally speaking, whose resting metabolic rates are typically right around predicted. But then we have the occasional person who is far below predicted or far above predicted. So in those instances they would never know unless they actually get it tested.

Speaker 1 3:46

Now, am I requesting or requiring you to go get your resting metabolic rate test done? You can. I'm certainly not requiring it. It's really not very difficult at all, especially to put a mask on your face and lie down on a mat and close your eyes for 20 to 30 minutes and not have any access to anything else. I don't know why you wouldn't want to do that. But that being said, if you don't have access to an RMR like we have in our facility in North Carolina, or if you just don't want to, how much energy should you be taking in? So that's one of those tricky things that also ties into okay, so now I have my RMR, then how many additional calories do I need if I'm doing all these, this exercise, or if I have a really active job, or if my goal is, say, to lose weight?

Speaker 1 4:37

So then we get into a lot of different pieces. What y'all are probably used to is something like, say, for example, myfitnesspal, where you go in and you say here's my age, height, weight, gender, and this is my goal, and then it automatically decreases or increases a certain predetermined amount of calories for you, just as it stands Now. Is that a good way of doing things? It's a start. Is it an accurate or validated method? No, not really. So then it's kind of like well, what the heck do I do?

Speaker 1 5:13

So keep in mind when we're consuming energy? There's a lot of things going on. So, first and foremost, we have genetics. That's a massive piece, and that's one of the things that we do in our longevity nutrition program, which is sort of the program that follows our nutrition challenge that's coming up here January 1st. So just to give you an idea in the three by four genetics report that we use under energy expenditure, which is basically your resting metabolic rate that's needed.

Speaker 1 5:47

So let me back up a little bit. Your RMR, or your resting metabolic rate another term you may have heard is BMR, that is basal metabolic rate. That is the amount of energy you need to sleep. Rmr is just to rest and this is doing important things that your body has to do, like breathing, digesting foods, circulating blood, regulating temperature, etc. You know your heart's got to beat, your lungs still got to do their thing, your liver still has to work. Your brain is incredibly active in terms of using energy. So what of that? This is in essence. How do we quote, unquote, burn calories just to be, and some people say oh, I have a fast metabolism or a slow metabolism.

Speaker 1 6:32

Usually, when people tell me that I call BS until I actually see it in person and see what's going on, or I actually see what's going on in terms of their genetics. So remember, a lot of these things are also turned on or turned off. So, for example, one of those genetic SNPs that's under that energy expenditure category is a gene called FTO or fat mass and obesity associated protein. So this FTO gene was the first obesity susceptibility gene identified by a genome wide association studies. It's pretty amazing. Now, that being said, I've probably seen I don't know, let's call it maybe 20 people or so who have in the options, for your alleles are an A or a T allele. So the impact allele is the A allele, which leads to increased expression of FTO and is associated with higher body mass related to dietary and lifestyle behaviors. So it's also associated with greater energy intake In other words, you consume more calories and a decreased responsiveness to satiety In other words, your brain does not get those signals as well to your stomach being full than people without this A allele. Now I have seen a large majority of people with this A allele in fact, homozygous two A alleles who are not obese. So it is incredibly responsive to diet and lifestyle interventions and that's obviously massive.

Speaker 1 8:12

We got to get our fiber, you have to get your protein, managing your appetite and your satiety. So it's not a jail, it's not a sentence, but it's great information to know about yourself and know okay, this is something that I really have to stay on top of. So knowing how much energy you actually need and then understanding your genetics and, furthermore, understanding you and the way that the brain works. So when we eat and especially again, this comes into that holiday timeframe we're generally off of our routines. We're probably under more stress, so our natural response oftentimes is to consume food. When we're stressed out, right, then you may also be stimulated to eat food. When you smell something delicious or when you see something, your body will naturally start to create or increase your saliva and start to sort of in the anticipation that digestion is going to start to happen. So those are things that happen during the holiday season.

Speaker 1 9:25

You go over to friends' houses, you go to a party, go to Thanksgiving dinner, you go to whatever buffet or whatever you're going to, you're probably going to see and smell food and therefore be more likely to consume that food and the food that you are eating. You are likely not going to be able to understand or know how much you've actually consumed. Another piece of that is just that the food might just be there. You may not even want it, but it's just there and you're used to eating it. Or it might be part of a social situation where everybody's eating. And what happens if you don't? Are you going to have somebody ask you Probably not, but there are various social situations and then are these things happening out of habits?

Speaker 1 10:13

So all of those things that I just mentioned are things that we need to tune into ourselves, and this is part of what we're going to be doing in that 21 Day Nutrition Reset Challenge is tuning in and understanding what does your body need in this moment. Is this a stress response with which you're eating? Are you bored? Are you just seeing and smelling the food, but it's not really time to eat yet, and you're not necessarily hungry, but it's just there? Or are you eating just because your friend is having a drink, so you want to have a drink as well? These are all things that we need to take into account, and I tell you why it's hard is that our prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain it's located right above your eyebrows is in high demand. That is the part of your brain that's doing all the planning and all of the executive functioning. That is, it's tired y'all, especially during the holidays and when we're stressed, the amygdala is going to take over and pushes out that prefrontal cortex operational processes more so than not. So then it just becomes harder to make those decisions of. Is this something that I want to consume that is beneficial for me in the long term.

Speaker 1 11:33

We, as humans, operate very much in the short term, so there's a lot going on and these are all of the things that we're going to be talking about in that 21 day nutrition reset challenge. Yes, you'll get meal plans. Yes, you'll get recipes and all that good kind of stuff, but really educating you on how do we deal with not only the stress, not only the exposure to all of these different things, how to make those decisions, how to tie in just like Coach Carly and I talked about last week and if you missed that episode, go back to last week, check that one out about goals and values and mindfulness. All of this truly ties in and then ties into your overall energy needs and that's sort of next level. That gets into our longevity nutrition coaching program, which happens after the challenge, where we get into your genetics. We get into how much energy do you need, how to calculate that, at least to the best of our ability and understanding, variations and just like that predictive equation that I just told you about.

Speaker 1 12:38

So those things that you see on the app of like oh, you're sedentary at this many calories. You're active at this many. That is not the greatest tool and I show you how to actually try to calculate that. So a lot going on in this episode, but one way or the other, listen, you're human and it's okay. It's okay to be susceptible to things like eating more during social gatherings. You know that's. That's just part of our culture and I'm not here to shame you.

Speaker 1 13:09

I'm here to tell you that you're human, too, and there are ways that we can continue to reach our longevity goals and our health goals and still enjoy ourselves at these various parties or soirees or whatever it is that you're doing during the holidays, and know that it's okay. You can get back on track and we can help you. So check it out at theenduranceedgecom forward slash challenge. That's where you can sign up for our 21 day nutrition reset challenge to reset your gut, reboot your mindset and detox your kitchen so that we have an amazing 2025. You kick off your health goals the right way and, again, it's more than just an eating plan y'all. This is really comprehensive, holistic way of getting you on the right track. We got you and if nobody has told you today, you are stronger than you think you are. Thanks for listening and I will catch you guys next week.