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Health & Fitness Redefined
Health and Fitness Redefined with Anthony Amen. Take a dive into the health world as we learn how to overcome adversity, depict fact vs fiction and see health & fitness in a whole new light.Fitness Is Medicine
Health & Fitness Redefined
Menopause, Muscle, and Myths: Transforming Your Body After 40
The hormonal shift of menopause fundamentally transforms a woman's body in ways that extend far beyond hot flashes and mood swings. As estrogen levels decline, women face accelerated bone density loss, diminished muscle mass, and metabolic changes that can dramatically impact quality of life—unless they understand how to counteract these effects.
Lynn, a 54-year-old biochemistry major turned fitness expert, shares her personal journey of watching her body change dramatically at age 49 despite maintaining her regular exercise routine. This transformation led her to discover that traditional fitness approaches that work wonderfully through our 30s and early 40s become dramatically less effective after menopause begins. Body pump classes, cardio sessions, and lightweight, high-repetition exercises simply don't provide the stimulus needed when estrogen no longer supports muscle maintenance.
The solution lies in proper strength training with progressive overload—systematically increasing weight over time to continue challenging muscles. Lynn explains that this approach should become as non-negotiable as brushing teeth for women in midlife, not for aesthetic reasons alone but because it serves as medicine against age-related decline. In the five years surrounding menopause, bone density loss accelerates tenfold, making strength training an essential intervention against fracture risk and functional decline.
The conversation tackles persistent myths that prevent women from embracing weights, particularly fears of "bulking up" that simply don't reflect reality for most women. It also addresses nutrition needs, especially protein requirements that increase with age, and critically examines the recent trend of GLP-1 medications for weight loss. While these drugs may create a smaller body, they don't address underlying habits and potentially accelerate muscle loss at a time when preserving muscle becomes increasingly crucial.
Most encouragingly, Lynn emphasizes that effective strength training requires far less time than many imagine—just twice weekly with a well-designed program provides tremendous benefits. For women feeling overwhelmed by fitness information, this message offers both clarity and hope: strength training serves as powerful medicine against the challenges of aging, requiring minimal time while delivering maximum impact on quality of life.
Ready to transform your approach to fitness after 40? Visit befitafter40.com to discover simple, effective strength training methods designed specifically for women navigating the changes of midlife.
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
Hello and welcome to Health Fitness Refined. I'm your host, anthony Amen, and today we've got another great episode for all you women out there. I know we've done a couple really women-specific episodes, but it's fine, we'll get back to them later. If you wanted a super manly, masculine topic, go check out Masculinity Isn't Toxic episode. That came out about a month ago, so you feel free to check that out. Also, thanks to all of you guys, we did a recap episode Beyond breaking points. The redefined story how I got started Reader and everything Put. Never before told stories on there and then gave some hard lessons at the end of it Came out about a couple of weeks ago. Go check that episode out. I think it's almost our top three most listened to episodes ever. So super excited. Thank you guys. You made this possible Without further ado. Let's welcome to today's show, lynn. Lynn, it's a pleasure to have you on today.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me, and I'll have to go listen to that show, because I saw it on your list and I was like, hmm, yeah, interested to hear that one.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's a tough episode, but it's all right. It's a lot. It's something you'll never forget for the rest of your life, that I promise. Okay, I did drop on that episode so that my wife is pregnant again with her second kid. Ironically enough, we just found out we're having a girl. So perfect.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, so now you'll learn more about what to teach her, about what she needs to do when she's in midlife, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, hopefully. I remember at that point, like dementia didn't hit or anything like that, definitely definitely agree. So, lynn, before we get into today's topic, just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the menopause world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I am a 54-year-old post-menopausal woman and I actually got into this when I was about 49. And the reason really that I got into it was that, you know, I've always been into fitness. I was like in high school I played varsity sports, field hockey and lacrosse and soccer. I played division one lacrosse at Dartmouth College and, yeah, for college, and so I've always been into physical fitness. And after my kids, I started going to the gym and going to body pump classes and you know, I always liked to look toned and that was used to just. You know, when you're always doing workouts, you look fit and that's just part of your identity.
Speaker 2:And then suddenly, at age 49, even though I was still doing all the things, it was like my body changed overnight and I lost all my muscle tone, I gained fat and I was like what you know, what am I doing wrong? And so I'm also very much of a science geek. I was a biochem major and so I believe in, you know, scientific process and figuring out how things work and all that. So I started really studying like so so what's going on here and what do I need to do differently? And what I learned was that I was losing my muscles for a reason because I wasn't doing proper strength training. And I started to do that and it, you know, my body started to change over the course of one year.
Speaker 2:I mean, of course, I was like trying to do that and it, you know, my body started to change over the course of one year. I mean, of course, I was like trying to do it on my own in the beginning, learning at the same time, you know, figuring it out, you know doing the coursework and all that. And you know, by the end of a year I had totally transformed my body back to the one I was used to, right, and I thought, man, you know, no women know this. And so I felt like I need to start talking about this, because if I'm having this issue, thinking I'm doing all the right things, then I know other women have this issue, and so I started a podcast and then started helping women to start strength training, because that really is such a key in midlife. So that's how I got in here.
Speaker 1:I love it. And something you've noticed is a lot of women more recently have kind of shifted into strength training. I mean, I believe every year it's been five and 10% more women are like really go and hit the weights again, less intimidated by it, which is amazing.
Speaker 1:So how do you specifically talk to women who are currently going through perimenopause and menopause so we're talking 40s, 50 year old women who still kind of in that mindset of not to hit the weights. How do you talk to them and kind of get them interested in moving over from the class to the weight section?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so actually this is. This is actually an interesting point, because when I started, this was before the bigger menopause boom. Now we have like menopause books. Menopause is all over. You know, social media Oprah's bigger than what it was in the beginning and what those experts are saying is lift weights. You should be strength training. You need to lift weights. You know, when I started, I was like I felt like I was the only one there going oh hello, are you noticing some muscle loss? You need to start lifting weights. So now I feel like it's getting better.
Speaker 2:But one of the big challenges is that women still think that going to a class with weights, with dumbbells, doing these small dumbbells, little long sets of something, feeling the burn, sweating, getting their heart rate up, body pump classes, f45, orange Theory that those are going to make a difference, and the thing is that when you hit a certain point, those are really not going to make a difference.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was doing body pump for years and looking great, so I understand that you can be doing that for a long time and you look great, and then all of a sudden, you don't. You look great and then all of a sudden you don't, and then you need to actually do something about it. And yeah, the strength training is definitely the most important thing. But well, what I'll say is that, yeah, because I just did a podcast episode myself on kind of the biggest challenges that I see, is that women still think like, okay, if I'm doing some random workouts that I find on YouTube, where it's different every day, but I'm using weights and it's called strength training and strength training, and then they wonder why am I not like seeing any results? And so I think right now, the education is more around what is strength training really? And that strength training is not the same as doing something with weights. Right, they're two different things.
Speaker 1:Why do you think that is? Why do you think women get it confused that these body pump classes and they correlate that to weight training. Is it a lack of education?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it is the marketing that you know they are fed. I see menopause fitness coaches who are talking about their strength training programs and then I go take a look at them and they're these follow along change every time. They're not tracking, they're not making sure that they're progressively overloading, they're not doing the same exercises week after week to be able to enable that progressive overload that'll stimulate muscle growth and strength growth growth. So so it's yeah, I think it is very hard actually for women to get that message because there's so much misinformation coming at you.
Speaker 1:It's unfortunate Progressive overload, which is awesome, right, and I feel like a lot of people just don't understand what that is and how to not even what it is, but how to actually go through it in a workout. So, as an example, you're lifting weights, right, you get to a certain point and you're too afraid to go to a certain weight. Oh, I can't do that. I can't do that, and they're afraid to kind of hit certain exertion levels. So how do you think you can want to explain to people what progressive overload is? And then how do we get around the mental barrier of you know, I need to learn how to exert myself better, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the way that I like to talk about it is to compare it to if you are going to start running. Okay, so if you were like, I'm going to take up running, I'm going to run around my block, I'm going to do that three days a week, and you start that and the first days, that one time around the block is going to feel really hard, and then the next time it'll feel a little bit easier and over the weeks it's going to feel easier. Well, nobody is going to continue to run just around that one block at exactly the same speed for like months and years on end, right, because it's going to get easier and they're going to be like okay, well, I could run this, maybe a little faster, or maybe I can go one and a quarter times around the block, or maybe I'll go twice around the block. So somehow, naturally, when you're doing something like running, you start to progressively overload. So all it means is that when you get to a certain level, you continue to push yourself, you know, challenge yourself a little bit more and a little bit more, and with weights, in a way, the fact that you have to pick up a different weight that has a different number on it maybe makes that a little bit more intimidating. But I think the tool that really helps you to make that happen is that you track, and so you have your exercises and you like. Well, I, for example, have a spreadsheet that I give away for free that people can track.
Speaker 2:So maybe that's a good way for people to think about it right now is that you know, I go today and I've got my five pound weight and I aim to do eight to 12 reps of my bicep curls. Maybe I can do eight of them today. Eight, you know, three times, do three sets of them. So next time I go in, I pick up that same weight and I aim to do nine, you know, in each of my sets, and maybe I'm able to do that on one of my sets, maybe I'm able to do it on all three of them. But in any case, each time I try to do just a little bit more and you will be able to do a little bit more over time, because you are getting stronger over time.
Speaker 2:Now in the beginning, you know you're going to notice significant improvements, so maybe you'll go for all eight reps in each of the sets the first time you go in, then the next time maybe you're already at nine, and then 10 and 11, 12. And then when you hit the top of your rep range and you're able to do that with good form, then you pick up the next weight up, and you don't want it to be a huge leap. Sometimes, unfortunately, weight rooms have only huge leaps and then that poses some challenges. But the idea is that when you hit the top of your rep range, then you pick up a little bit heavier weight and that way you're doing the same kind of thing as you were doing with your jogging, in that you're increasing how far you go or how fast you go, and both of those are challenging your body a little bit more.
Speaker 1:But, lynn, I'm you know. I noticed all these women align that weight lift. They look really bulky and I really don't want to look like a man. So why am I going to go pick up weights?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I, I mean I I have to say like most, most, um, I think fitness coaches will say you won't get bulky. But I know that if I look at those girls, you know, especially these younger girls who are like, really want to get their glutes, you know to, bro, I mean, if you look at their before and after pictures, one could define that as being bulkier, because there is a lot more glute on their body and their legs are much bigger and that's probably not the aesthetic that we Gen X women are so much after. You know, we grew up with Polina Porskova and and Christie Brinkley and these kinds of ideals of the female physique and I don't want that either. But the thing is that that takes an enormous amount of effort, time and and, like you, you really have to have that goal to do that. And even I, who am lifting heavy consistently and I've been doing so, for I'm now on year four, five, and I have not managed to grow those kinds of huge glutes. So it's not like you're going to walk in one day, or even if you strength train for a half a year, that all of a sudden it's going to be like you're going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or something. It comes so gradually.
Speaker 2:And if you are worried about it, then my best advice is to take regular kind of progress videos of yourself. And the reason I say video is because a picture is just like one angle and the lighting and everything can affect things so much. But if you take a video of you doing like the same thing, like you know, I set up my camera on a wall and then I back up, I stand face on, I flex face on, I turn to the side, you know. So I actually see really, actually what my body looks like. And if you do that regularly and you see your, your progress video and you think, oh, my goodness, I'm really starting to look too muscular, then you just ease up, you know, you go more into a maintenance mode.
Speaker 2:You don't progress so hard. Maybe you train less frequently. You know that kind of thing to to not, you know, because there are some people who are going to be these unicorns who develop muscle very nicely. But the other thing I would say is that if you have fat on your body, that is generally if you get rid of that, you know, then that muscle underneath it looks amazing, you know. It gives you that wonderful shape that most women are after. So usually the bulky thing is really something you can get rid of by doing a little bit of calorie deficit, losing a little bit of fat from your body, and then you'll be like wow, yeah, I mean, if the aesthetic is your main concern there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Lynn, you know I'm weightlifting. I'm doing that in my scale. Weight's not going down. I don't understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, yeah, scale weight is really not a good indicator, because muscle is denser than fat.
Speaker 2:So, for example, when I started strength training, I was at a level where my weight actually stayed exactly the same and I had done a body scan, an in-body scan to figure out my body composition when I started.
Speaker 2:And then I started taking scans every three months and my weight stayed the same, but my fat levels went down, my muscle went up and my body looked different. So the scale is like, I think, a one piece of data, which is sometimes useful, um, but it's not the only thing. That's why I think one piece of data, which is sometimes useful, but it's not the only thing. That's why I think the progress pictures and measurements and maybe you know, most women have like a pair of jeans that they've had for a long time and then you know when you slip those on how they fit you is some kind of indicator of like am I a little bit feeling heavier now or, like you know, thinner now than I was before? Of course, those jeans will fit you differently. So, because if you get more muscle on your booty, for example, they're they're going to be a little bit tighter around, you know the hip area, but anyway, yeah. So don't use just the scale to measure.
Speaker 1:I love that. Obviously, those are common misconceptions and you explained them perfectly, so I love that. But I think the important question is we understand that strength training is important, with menopause and everything, but why? So what does menopause and perimenopause do to help justify women's strength training more? What's going on internally?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this, so this is a big one because, um, I think most of us, and for sure me, I went through menopause not really realizing what is going on in my body. I thought, okay, I'm just not getting my periods anymore, I can't have kids, you know. So you know. But actually the fact that estrogen, you know, in perimenopause, but actually the fact that estrogen, you know, in perimenopause your estrogen levels are bouncing all over the place and then when you hit menopause they flatline, and estrogen is a hormone which has been doing so many wonderful caretaking things for your body. So estrogen has been keeping your bones stronger. So estrogen has been keeping your bones stronger. In fact, in the five-ish years around menopause, the rate of bone density decrease increases by tenfold. That was an awkward way of saying it, but the rate at which your bone density decreases like speeds up a ton.
Speaker 2:Okay. So, and that's because estrogen disappears. Your muscles have been taken care of by your estrogen. Your grip, your ability to contract your muscles is weaker.
Speaker 2:Once estrogen leaves the building your joints, you may notice more soreness, because your tendons and your ligaments have actually been kept in good shape by estrogen. So it's actually doing things to all kinds of areas of your body, like actually to your whole body, including your brain, the estrogen and when it leaves, it leaves this kind of gap, and the wonderful thing about strength training is that it fills in for a lot of this gap. So when you strength train, obviously you're building back your strength and your muscle, your ability to actually contract your muscles, so like getting the lid off the jar. Like getting the lid off the jar, that kind of thing your, your ligaments and your tendons start to get stronger again from that, from the fact that you are kind of pulling on them more, from doing the weight training and and so it really. It is a way of bringing your body back kind of to the condition it was before it lost the estrogen, and so for that reason it is.
Speaker 2:Some people call it anti-aging, and I do agree. I mean, I have felt so much younger in my body and I think that's one of the things that a lot of women love. They feel more like themselves when they've started strength training and built some muscle, not only because they again look more defined and everything, but because their body functions the way that it used to, you know, when they were younger and they were doing stuff, they're not so achy and all that. So, yeah, really important at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a lot of changes to the female body, right, it's the biggest reason you mentioned with bone density, that women are more likely to experience osteoporosis and osteopenia, which is bone density loss to kind of an extreme standpoint, and muscle has been shown to preserve your bone density. So building muscle, therefore, will help decrease the probability that they end up with osteopenia or osteoporosis. But I think what the most interesting fact is is that your hormones as women are all out of whack. Right Levels up down day and everything is and everything is. So the point I was trying to make is, when you're looking at something like perimenopause, you need to look more about what you're doing in a day-to-day, and you talked really well about the physical activity, strength training part of it.
Speaker 1:But the flip side of that is we can control our hormones through the food we eat and, with that being said, I feel like a lot of middle-aged women and you can kind of express this a little more are afraid to eat meat, and meat is the biggest component to help hormone regulation. Why? Because it's high in fat and it's high in protein, two things that your body uses to help regulate hormones, and you don't see women reaching for that because they're afraid, yet again, to eat a lot of fats and eat a lot of proteins, for whatever X, y, z reason that they're made to believe. So why do you think that's the case? And then how do you talk to somebody to get them to start eating more animal based products?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so this is protein is a big topic. Yeah, yeah, so this is protein is a big topic. I'm glad you brought that up and and it is something that, yeah, I think one, yes. So where do I want to unpack this from? I think, like in my own journey, it started with the focus on looking better right. Then I start learning about strength training and I and the reason I've like my why for continuing has been all the health and aging benefits that there are.
Speaker 2:But when you want to support growing muscle and maintaining muscle, then protein is really important to have on board every single day and really it's a minimum of 100 grams a day that you eat protein, and some benefits of it are include that it does make it easier for you to manage your hunger and satiety. So I have really noticed that before you know, I could eat something, and it still happens to me. If I don't eat enough protein in a meal, I'll eat and then I feel like you know, like I could eat a little bit more. You know you just keep going because you haven't fulfilled some kind of basic need in your body, and when I eat enough protein in a meal, then I don't have that problem. So I'm able to control my eating or control but you know, regulate, not go haywire with my eating a little bit better.
Speaker 2:And and I know a lot of women are also trying to lose weight they're the ones who are on the shots and dieting. In general, then, eating protein is very important for helping your body to maintain the muscle. So, yeah, it's, it's a tough sell in a way. You know they have to understand the reasons, because a lot of women are just used to eating, you know salad or you know vegetables or whatever. It is nuts, nuts. But yeah, we got to get in way more of the protein and it does take a concerted effort and planning a little bit ahead of time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we've mentioned protein, but what about fats? I mean fats learning that it's one of the most important macronutrients. When it does come from satiety, right, it's the most orcly dense. On top of that, it's known to strictly help regulate hormones. So how do we convince a generation and your generation was the tipping point of it of everything being low fat? How do you reconvince people to start getting back to eating fattier foods?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's really about education, and you know well.
Speaker 2:So I I don't coach, I'm not a nutrition coach, but I do teach women that they should be eating more protein, and I do also have like a small dieting mini course, and and the thing that I'll say about that is that what it does is it teaches like a system of tracking your eating so that you can really understand what you're putting in your body.
Speaker 2:I think, even if you were not actually trying to lose weight, I think it is very educational to spend two weeks weighing absolutely everything, tracking absolutely everything, and look at what your macros are and see, you know that you are getting enough protein and then that you are getting fats and carbohydrates, cause, like you said, your body needs both. There are also women who are like, oh, I can't eat carbs. I mean, you know, I I do agree that some people feel better when they eat more of one or the other, and that you know we're all different and and I know that for myself, on days when I do cardio, I feel like I want more carbs. So so there are, there are individual differences, but you need everything. Like humans were made to eat all three of the macronutrients and not not just two yeah or one yeah.
Speaker 1:Totally agree. I mean, I get on the meat bandwagon only strictly because it's heavily the one product that a lot of women don't eat right or just don't eat enough of it Like men. You see the problems less with men. You see it more with women. On that, men have all sorts of other issues, but just specifically that one, just knowing working directly, I mean, even when you're looking at creatine, which is only found in red meat, right, the benefits of that, with menopause especially recently coming out in studies and how it helps.
Speaker 1:That in and of itself helps regulate hormones. That in and of itself helps increase bone density. That in and of itself has decreased the chances of you getting dementia. But the avoidance of something altogether is helping escalate a whole bunch of issues inside of it.
Speaker 1:And I said not really you don't want to put the nutrition side, which is fine, but I just think it's so interesting to know that you need to, like you said, focus on all three macronutrients. So the flip side of this is, why do you think a lot of people, just in general especially if we just stick on just middle-aged women reach for GLP-1s? So why are they going for Zempik, for Zepound I don't remember all of them, but why are you seeing such a high increase of usage of these as opposed to strength training and nutrition?
Speaker 2:I know and yeah, I mean this is actually really interesting. I just just had last weekend a conversation with my girlfriends around this topic, so the GLP-1s are not so prevalent yet here. I mean, I've been watching what's been going on in the States, but I think speaking to women who are considering taking it, talking about their friends who take it and whatever it just offered a lot of insight and I think, well, what I saw in the discussion last weekend was A like had not even actually tried to be systematic and look at what she's eating and, you know, regulate it that way. It was just like, oh, I've been overweight for a long time, now I'm pre-diabetic, so I should take the GLP ones. And, and the thing that's a bit scary is that if you're not on them forever, then you're just going to end up in the same problem when you get off Right, because you haven't changed, like, your understanding of how you should be eating and, and I think that is such a critical piece.
Speaker 2:The other thing that I think was really alarming in the conversations was one woman who had taken them and lost a lot of weight and now she stopped exercising altogether, because she used to exercise, at least do cardio. She never strength trained, but she did cardio so that she wouldn't be fat. But now she doesn't need to because she's skinny, because she takes the shot, and I was thinking, oh my God, you know that's so awful for her health, right, and then she's not strength training while she's, you know, using the drugs. It's like she is going to suffer for that, you know, in the long term. So that was really really scary, that you know, in the long term. So that was really really scary.
Speaker 2:I do think they have a place. I know that, you know some people really really have a hard time with the food, noise and this kind of thing. So I don't want to say that nobody should ever take it, but I would really hope that before you make that decision, that you do kind of the hard work of spending two weeks of tracking everything that you eat and learning from that and seeing if you can make some lifestyle changes, because I really think, like, long-term, that is going to serve you better than that and at least if you go on them, then you can at the same time, work on better eating habits. And then, of course course, start the strength training. Yay, because you want to hold on to your muscle.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to ask you a hard question Do you think that people shouldn't take DOP ones? Do you think that's something that people should grow and grab and try and do? Or do you think it's okay for people to jump onto the bag wagon of taking them and using them? Is the cure worse than the disease? So is taking them ultimately going to make them worse off than if they just haven't taken them at all?
Speaker 2:So I don't know and I don't think anybody really knows. You know, what are the long-term health consequences just of taking those? And? And what I see on social media and it is kind of alarming, is these super fit, you know 50 ish, uh, midlife women who have huge audiences and they look amazing. Right, they've been strength training, they have everything on point, and then they're like, oh, but now I'm going to start taking these microdosing things because I have inflammation or whatever. And actually they are affiliates for these companies selling the microdosing and and I feel like that's so much preying on, you know, women who may have an issue of feeling like, oh, if I just lost another five pounds, my life would be amazing.
Speaker 2:And you know the the just so external appearance focused world and trying to be smaller, when we were just kind of getting to the point where people are talking about being stronger instead of smaller. So so that's where I see this conversation going kind of in a scary direction. And I because, because I feel like when women strength train, what I've noticed in my clients when they start strength training, they start because I want to be more toned. You know, that kind of thing is always like I don't think there's anybody. Well, okay, there are few who come in and they're like I have osteoporosis, I need you know that's their main driver.
Speaker 2:But everybody wants to get toned right. I mean who doesn't? But when they've been doing it for a while, they love how it makes them feel that they're they're feeling powerful, they can lift heavy stuff. I mean it's like psychologically pretty amazing to push your body and and see it be able to do more and more, you know, than before, and see it be able to do more and more than before. And I'd rather they feel pride in their bodies for what their bodies can do rather than for the fact that, oh, I could lose another two pounds and my body fat percentage is lower. So, yeah, I think it's such a hard situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I said, it's a tough question.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:You mentioned previously. In the States it's very prevalent maybe not so much in Finland, but here it's. Everyone knows someone, it's across the board. You're like where I am it's. I know countless people lines out the door spending thousands of dollars to get it because insurance won't cover it. So it's scary.
Speaker 1:I mean, one of the biggest things you mentioned pre-show not pre-show, but earlier in the show was how menopause causes bone density issues. Right, and the reason it causes bone density is because you're stripping away muscle tissue, as your body naturally goes to menopause, which is what you mentioned. Take the same example for starvation. If I starve myself, my body's going to lose weight, but I'm going to lose the same proportion of fat and muscle. So I might weigh less on a scale, but my body fat percentage overall is going to stay exactly the same. But now I have less muscle tissue and therefore I'm burning at a lower metabolic rate and therefore when I start eating again, I'm going to gain weight back a lot quicker because I burned through all my muscle tissue and I'm starving myself.
Speaker 1:That is exactly true for bariatric surgery. All bariatric surgery patients that lose a hundred pounds lose the same proportion of fat to muscle and that's why it's so much harder for them to keep the weight off Because, like you said, they haven't fixed the underlying issues of the habits, but now they're burning at lower metabolic rates and therefore, when they start eating again, they gain all the weight back quicker. That's same true. If you catch where I'm going with this is with GLP-1s. They strip your body of the same proportion of fat and muscle and then, in the same cycle, you double that with menopause. You're going to see women getting diagnosed with osteopenia and osteoporosis at an alarming high rate.
Speaker 1:And that's just one of the many issues that is going to happen with this drug, because, one, no one fixed the underlying issue. Two, now you're stripping away muscle tissue. So what's worse, right? Is it worse to be 50, 60 pounds heavier or is it worse to be skin and bones with no muscle and being super frail? And that's a really tough question because I don't think no one really knows the answer to that.
Speaker 2:a really tough question because I don't think no one really knows the answer to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess I guess the well, if it's an extreme amount of overweight that one is then losing the weight is very beneficial.
Speaker 2:Well, if it's like, I guess like 50 to a hundred pounds. I mean it hard. You know it depends on how tall you are and what your biological markers. If the doctor has said that you are pre-diabetic, it might be that it happens even sooner on a diet or on the shots always, always, will eat protein and strength train and proper strength training. I'm not talking about going to the body pump classes. You get a strength training program and you apply progressive overload and you don't need to start living in the gym. In fact, you don't even need to go to a gym. You can do it at home and twice a week. If you have a good program that'll hit all the muscles in your body a couple times a week is sufficient. So you know what I would like to see.
Speaker 2:You know, I feel like when I was growing up you're younger than I am, I think, but when I was growing up it was all I remember. The toothpaste commercials were like you should be brushing your teeth, because when you're older you don't want to be wearing dentures, right? So it was very much education. Nowadays nobody questions that you should be brushing your teeth. So all the toothbrush I mean toothpaste commercials are like you need fresh breath. You need whiter teeth. You know that's kind of thing, and I feel like I want strength training to become so much a obvious everybody absolutely has to do it that it's like brushing teeth. You know, by the time your daughter and my daughter already by the time my daughter hits menopause, she's 19. So, yeah, and I think that is the level that we need to get to. You don't need to love it, it doesn't need to be anything fancy, but you do it because you want your body to function when you are older, just like we want to hold on to our teeth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great way to put it, linda. Is there anything else, and specifically menopause, you think is important for women to understand?
Speaker 2:before we wrap this up, I think one thing that we haven't touched on really is kind of recovery and the fact that there is I have noticed it myself and I have noticed in other women like a shift in our body's ability to recover, and I think that's part of the equation to look at.
Speaker 2:Also, when you you know if, if you're a woman listening to this and you've been working out a lot seven days a week, maybe even twice a day on some days, and then you suddenly realize, oh, I'm like feeling really dragged down, that is natural. You know, this is that part of life and doing less is not necessarily going to get you less results. I mean, I used to train pretty much seven days a week. I would strength train and run and you know, or do my fitness classes, maybe two in a row and all this kind of thing, and nowadays I lift four days a week and then I do cardio one or two days and it might be a 20-minute session and I'm like, yeah, in just as good a shape. So just watch how much you can recover from and think about modifying your exercise accordingly so that you work with your body rather than like beating yourself up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the same goes true. When you start, people always tend to jump headfirst into things. I'm going to work out seven days a week for three hours a day, just like an extreme example, and the way you said is totally accurate. You don't need to do that. You don't want to shock your body, you don't want to not be able to get off of the toilet bowl because you squat up for the first time too many times. So we've all been there, which is why it's funny when you don't understand weight training and it's just an understanding of slow and steady wins the race but still adding in the progressive overload. Just go three, four times a week, even if it's a half an hour, 45 minutes. If you're really lost, get a coach. I think that's something that's people just don't look up to. But you can really find people like you or like I that really understands how the body works and just do what's right for you at the end of the day, but don't do nothing.
Speaker 2:I think that's the moral of this, don't do nothing and it really does make a difference. I mean, I just think about so many of my clients who live twice a week and after even 10 weeks of just following a consistent program and applying the progressive overload, they notice difference. It's not like they've had this huge transformation like you would have if you went on a diet for that amount of time, because that's more visually noticeable, but they notice that they can pick up heavy things, their posture's gotten a little better and they may notice even that hey, now you know I want to wear that tank top and not cover up my arms like I did, you know, a couple months ago. So yeah, it really like, but you need to start right. That's the most important thing.
Speaker 1:Couldn't agree more, lynn, so I'm going to ask the final two questions. I ask everybody. The first one is if you were to summarize this episode in one or two sentences, what would be your take home message?
Speaker 2:So my take home message is that strength training in midlife should be as obvious a thing to do as brushing your teeth every day. You don't have to strength train every day, twice a week is enough, but it should be so clear that you have to do it. It wouldn't even come, you know, you wouldn't even think of not doing it.
Speaker 1:Make strength training at least twice a week, just like brushing your teeth.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Love that. And then the second one how can people find you, get a hold of you and learn more?
Speaker 2:So on my website, wwwbefitafter40.com, and from there I'm also on Instagram. But my links are all on my website and I have a Learn to Lift program all on my website. And I have a learn to lift program. It's 10 weeks long and teaches you everything you need to know to get started. You can do it at home or the gym and two, three or four days a week. So really like I try to make it like really lower the barrier for women to get started.
Speaker 1:I love it, boom. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, guys, for listening to this week's episode of Public Fitness Redefined. Don't forget, hit that subscribe button and join us next week as we dive deeper into this ever-changing field. And remember fitness is medicine. Thank you, outro Music.
