Christa 0:00
Some of the women here are pre menopausal in 40. In your 40s, you got to really start to think I want to utilize my hormones my cycle, because those really helped to grow muscle, and it's your armor as you age. Welcome to the wild. And well a collective podcast where we believe empowered health is your superpower,
Sheree 0:17
we have combined our expertise in medicine and nutrition to bring you the latest research, expert insights and success stories of people on a mission to live a big life.
Christa 0:26
So buckle up and get ready to learn how to live wildly well.
All right, let's talk about a topic that I think pretty much every woman could benefit from, and that is weight loss or maintaining weight, or building muscle mass as a woman, because as we're going to talk about, we're not little Ben, we're just different. And that makes losing weight, maintaining weight, building muscle mass, a whole different topic. So yeah, I'm excited to chat about this and kind of hear your take, first of all your background is, is more so in the physical training aspect, mine is a bit more on the medical aspects. So I can't wait to kind of riff on both of these, like both of our points of view and what we've learned through the years working with clients.
Sheree 1:17
Yeah, it's such, it's such a deep topic, I think it's quite often underneath it all, as much as people want to feel better as much as people are sick of symptoms, and that a lot of my clients at the root of things. And I'm sure you find this, too, would still love to feel a little bit leaner, a little bit lighter in their bodies. But there's our much misconstrued information out there, there's so many different takes so many different angles feel like it gets so overwhelming, like, I'll even pop on Instagram and be like, What on earth is this person talking about now, and it's just, it's going from one thing to the other. And ultimately, I think what we're both going to share today is really about laying those foundational things right and giving you a couple of tools, you know, to to our listeners that they can actually take away and go and physically apply and know and understand. Right? Like we talked about being it's been really empowering, no one understand what's actually going on in your body. And if you're not losing weight, this is why and if you aren't putting on muscle, this is why so yeah, I
Christa 2:14
think it's really important to have these conversations right now to just because, like, let's just, I don't even want to talk about them only, but the Kardashians like, you know, they're losing all this weight. And so that brings up all this to this talk, like how, and there's new medications coming out that, you know, they're probably using that is really causing a lot of weight loss, rapid weight loss, the HCG diet has been around forever. I'm almost embarrassed to say that I worked at a clinic where we prescribe that for a period of time before sort of woke up to wow, this is really damaging metabolisms, right. So some of these medications can be helpful long term, some of them are really beneficial for, let's say, some of the diabetic medications that they're used for diabetes, but they can also have the side effect of weight loss, which is now being prescribed for weight loss, those can be really effective. But when we want to talk about long term weight loss, and really understanding your body, and keeping a safe level of weight loss, and also like really preserving our metabolic health, right, because sometimes these medications really push us to eat 500 calories, you know, under 1000 calories. It's just not beneficial. Because our body responds to that in a way that long term. It's not really what you want. So yeah, I think what you said, for women to be really educated on what's happening and how they can support their body to weight loss. It's not necessarily rapid, but it's eventual it will happen. And it's more sustainable.
Sheree 3:37
Yeah. And just for the people listening that don't know what an HCG diet is, do you want to just elaborate on that a little bit? Because you hear all these different things? And it's like, well, I don't
Christa 3:46
know. Yeah. Yeah. So HCG is a diet that was developed by a doctor who realized, wow, when women are pregnant, they utilize fat differently, right, like they use kind of switches turns on more of that fat burning capability. And they're not as hungry. So because their body is using fat for fuel, the thing is, you know, so we exogenous li or out of the body give the HCG hormone. So if you're on that diet, you're gonna test positive for pregnancy tests, even though you're not pregnant, because when we're pregnant, you know, your body emits human branded growth hormone hCG. So when you're given that it kind of tricks the body into that form of using fat for fuel, but what I would find, so then we would put them on, you know, 500 or 750 calories a day, and they would have rapid weight loss, and they would also have hair loss and they would also have other health issues, you know, getting sick more often all that because they're basically over a long period of time that's just not healthy. Their body isn't getting the nutrients because it's just not possible to get the amount of nutrients that you need long term when you're eating like that. And so those diets just aren't shouldn't be long term. But the problem is if you get off of that and you start eating normal, then The weight comes back on. So it's a really frustrating Yo yo, and it's not healthy, it's very hard on your heart, it's hard on your adrenal glands, it's hard on your immune system. So it's just not, it's just not the route to go. If your goal is to really be healthy, live a long powerful life, then we get to address ways to sustain that in a healthy way. And again, to reiterate, it's not overnight, like you're not going to lose 30 pounds in a month, most likely, especially if you don't have a lot to lose, right. But when you do it healthily, and the ways that we're gonna kind of talk about and explain, then you're more likely to sustain a healthy weight and your health along the way.
Sheree 5:44
Yeah, I think you touched on a really good point, especially with the calorie intake. And a lot of it's understandable, right, a lot of the time, you've been through quite a journey. So you just want to see some wins. Like there's a lot of pain that can come with wanting to lose weight as well, like the emotional distress that it can cause. And so sometimes, if you know, you're gonna get a massive weight loss quite quickly, it's it can be very easy to, in your mind like, well, I want to go with that option. One thing I always, you know, when we're talking about this, I always say to people, remember that a toddler eats around 1200 calories a day, a toddler, and yet we're putting women on this 507 50 calories a day die like no body, physical body is actually going to be able to function on that, like you say, for the long term. And so yes, it might be a slower, it might be a longer process, but we've learnt now and there's so much science to support that the faster it comes off, the faster it goes back on. And that's because the metabolism hasn't had a chance to adjust. Right. And so you mentioned how it really helps the body utilize fat. And I know that you're a fan of doing a little bit of keto keto cycling, how do you find that that release helps them support swimming, because I think there's so much misinformation around keto, and that it's just this one wonder diet for everyone when it isn't right.
Christa 7:01
It's not for everyone. But I will say it's a powerful diet to do temporarily, regardless of who you are. So I like to put women men, men can do it long term because they don't have ovaries, and they don't have fluctuating hormones like we do. So it's important to understand that your ovaries are adrenals, we need carbs, we need carbohydrates to have a fully functioning healthy menstrual cycle. So that's a fact for women. And that is why I don't and thyroid health as well, we need to have carbohydrates. So when you're going really long term. And by long term, I mean longer than three months that can really start to have detrimental effects on thyroid on your cycle. And that's not the direction we want to go either. But I do like to put women on keto for a month, maybe up to three months, depending on how much weight they have to lose, depending on things like how high their blood sugar's have been running. Because switching over to the keto diet. So to kind of back up a little bit keto is a diet where you're doing primarily fats, and it forces then your body to convert to using fat for fuel because it starts to realize, Oh my gosh, I don't have fast fuel, carbohydrates, which I like to say, live in the upstairs refrigerator, you just open it, it's a premade meal, you get it, fats are more like go downstairs in the basement in the freezer, get the thought out, like the body doesn't naturally want to go that route unless it's really attuned and trained to do that. So there is a transition period entering into keto, which would be for the Keto flu, but that's really where the body's like, Ooh, I don't feel good, because I don't have any energy until it wakes up to the idea like, oh, wait, I do I just have to kind of switch gears. So keto, then really helps you to get better about having a more stable blood sugar. So with women who maybe have pre diabetes, or they have PCOS, or they've got a lot of weight to lose, they may be on it a little bit longer. But what I like to do then is transition into keto cycling. And so that really is in sync with your menstrual cycle. And to really make it very simple right now, week one of your cycle is the bleed week, right? So week one, we're really our body is able to use fats for fuel easier hormonally. And again, we three So after we've done a solid month, I like to switch people over to kind of a cycle where week one and week three of their cycle, they're doing higher fat diets. And then week two and week four, we naturally need more carbohydrates to build the endometrium to ovulate all those things. So week two and Week Four is when I would cycle out getting off of the Keto macro level and and when I say macros any macronutrients, like higher fats in ratio to carbs the week to week four, I do higher carbs. And so that really helps the body then become flexible, like oh, I can use fats for fuel. Oh, I can use carbs for fuel and then guess what your body is actually using what your eat as energy instead of storing it. And so when we become metabolically flexible, you can eat more and you're not. So your body is so rigid and how it uses fuel, and then you lose weight easier because you're actually using the energy instead of storing it.
Sheree 10:10
I love that you explained it so, so simply but so effectively. And, you know, something I've personally stayed away from with clients is keto, because I know the effect it can have on our ovaries on our menstrual cycle. And so, you know, keto cycling is actually a far more effective way of doing it. Like you say, it's for a short for a short period of time up to three months, where you're going for keto. And there's nothing wrong with that. And I think this is like personally anyway, I think this is the problem is we do something like the amount of women that I've spoken to that go, Oh, I did a keto diet. It was amazing. I felt really good and and all of a sudden, I felt like crap, the way it wouldn't anymore. Things weren't working. And we're often looking for the magic diet, this magic pill was magical solution to long term weight loss, like, and so then everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Everyone's promoting it, pushing it everywhere, right? And like you said, it works really well for males, but then not we are not we are not small men, unfortunately, does not work that way. I know so many women that struggle with that concept, like my husband or my partner, or my brother just dropped weight like can be so frustrating. And so with keto, it's really important to know that it can be beneficial for this period of time, but you are going to notice that you plateau, and you are going to notice that other things start to come into play that might start to feel out of balance, which is where you can implement something like the Keto cycling, and it can be really, really powerful, like you say, for balancing those blood sugar levels because a lot of woman right now especially can be quite insulin resistant. Right. So can you talk to that a little bit?
Christa 11:41
Yeah, a lot of women are insulin resistant. If you you know, women who have PCOS. Not all but I would say 70% and a bit higher. The polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS is driven by high insulin that affects the ovaries and then the ovaries produce more testosterone and they don't ovulate mature eggs. And so then we have infertility we have irregular periods. So for people with that type of PCOS, it's really powerful to start to shift the body into burning more fats for fuel and fats when you ingest them. And we're talking healthy fats here, like there's definitely a bad way to do keto I'm not talking go through the drive thru eat just the patty in the process, you know, healthy keto is going to be nuts and seeds, and using olive oil and avocado oil, MCT oil, grass fed fatty proteins, that kind of a thing. So there's a healthy way, we don't want to don't want to go to the processed food route of keto, but when you start to eat that way, fats create less of an impact on the body on the blood sugar. And so insulin rises, you know, in response to the blood sugar, if you're eating, let's say, a processed bread, you know, we know that that increases glucose spikes it up, and we have the spike of insulin to take care of that. With fats, you could eat the same amount of calorie of fat, but it's going to impact the blood sugar way, way less, that slope is going to be way lower. And so that requires way less insulin. So over time of doing this, then your body becomes a lot more sensitive, like Oh, insulin is here, let me listen up. And you know, we don't need as much of her. But if we're insulin resistant, like we're eating a lot of processed food, a lot of carbs, the cells gonna get overwhelmed with the amount of sugar and they're like, we're buckling up, you know, we don't mean we can't take on more insulin. And so it kind of that's where insulin resistance kind of comes from. I'm really summarizing that in very simple terms, but it decreases the amount of insulin that your body needs. Now, I will say when you hit like plateaus, with keto, sometimes it's helpful then to go back and really start cycling. That's an indicator that keto is just not working well for you. The other thing I like to look at, though, I do some testing, because weight loss is an individual process. Like I love how you said like one blanket diet, it does not work for everybody, and people get frustrated and not and sad and all the things your body and I know you're going to touch on some gut health issues. But when you are lacking some nutrients, namely something called L carnitine. If you are lacking that in your diet in your body, that is a precursor l carnitine is needed to be able to shuttle a fat molecule into the cell for energy. Okay, when we're low on that your body just has a hard stop. It's like I can't do anything with this for energy. So I'll store it as fat. That's a protective mechanism. So sometimes when we look at testing, I run some tests on clients that can look at that. But when you when you see that you're like, Oh, well, you're low in this. And so if we start to supplement this or add foods high in, let's say, magnesium, or carnitine, or B vitamins, something that you're missing to be able to use these good omens for fuel. Your body then is like, Oh, great, thank you, you gave me the key and now I can use this fat for fuel instead of storing it. So sometimes it comes down to nutrient deficiencies as to why you cannot eat a certain way and lose weight. Does that make sense?
Sheree 14:57
100% and actually go leads perfectly into a quote that I pulled up for this podcast because it just summarize it so perfectly. The fact remains that even if you eat fewer calories than you burn, but the calories going in and out from whole real nutrient dense food, your body will still not have the resources to actually allow you to burn your body fat and enable you to lose weight. Yeah. And so just pause and take that in for a second, just what Chris was saying, with not being able to utilize your body's ability to burn fat, because you're having those higher processed foods because maybe your carbohydrates are out of whack because maybe we've developed an insulin resistance. And that's not just for people with polycystic ovarian syndrome, right? It's, it goes for so many worldwide, whether they've developed the resistance or they're starting to listen to sensitivity. And, you know, from a hormonal perspective, blood sugars are balancing blood sugars are essential to having happy hormones to having your body be able to lose weight. And so I don't like to name and shame the calorie equation, because it definitely had a place way back when it was created. But what a lot of people don't realize with the calorie equation is it was actually created as a means to prevent starvation during the war, it was never actually developed as a tool for weight loss. It was made to make sure okay, you're not going to starve today, what is the minimum amount of required calories, we can feed you because we are running short on food because an international bull worldwide shortage, it was never like, oh, Krista wants to lose some weight, let's make sure that we we make sure we cut those calories down. And that's where the quality of the calories matter, making sure you are looking at with that blood sugar regulation. If your blood sugar is super high, I'd like to call it the insulin roller coaster, right, like you have a cup of juice in the cereal in the morning, your blood sugar's super high and what goes up must come down. So then we crash were high and low and high and low when we could be on like a nice gentle wave instead of this huge roller coaster. And that's gonna keep you so much more balanced. But when you're on that roller coaster, that tends to be another thing that impacts the other commands like your cortisol levels, which throws them and they tend to follow that leading to more inflammation in the body, leading to the other hormonal cascades of your progesterone, your estrogen, like the things that keep your menstrual cycle functioning effectively, and also leading you into a healthy menopause. All of this has this negative side effect if our blood sugars aren't balanced. And that's why one of the many reasons why we can't rely on calories in calories out alone, right
Christa 17:34
100%, we have to take like you mentioned it with the adrenals and insulin when you're stressed out. And you're trying to also not eat a lot of food. Any American woman, maybe New Zealand as well. But like hardworking women, women driven women, I should say it doesn't really matter what country you're from a lot of women, they're stressed out, they're running around, they're also not eating enough. And cortisol is a stress hormone. And when our body perceives stress, then it's like we need an excerpt of blood sugar. So it'll pull something called glucagon from your liver to increase your blood glucose. Because the body thinks we're in an emergency, like we need to have available sugar to run from XYZ, right. And when that happens, then the counter effect is higher insulin, so just stress alone. And remember, insulin is a storage hormone. So it's then pushing energy into fat cells into so it's stress alone can drive obesity, or you know, just keeping you from losing the weight you want. Because of that cortisol drive, it affects other hormones. Hormones are messengers, right? They tell the other partner what to do, and it has an effect. So even stress when we talk it's not just like lip service to say, stress might be keeping you from losing weight, like you really do have to look at your whole self. It's not just about Yeah, cutting the calories from a personal perspective felt frustrated, like man, I really don't feel like I eat bad. And you know, I work out every day. And I think you know, this is going to also drive us into lifting muscle mass and women but you know, I'm hopping on my peloton. I'm doing cardio, because cardio really helps me like clear my mind. And it's just quick and easy. I go to 30 minutes. But when I started tracking what I was actually eating, I was shocked. Because I wasn't really that hungry. I felt like Why eat every time I'm hungry. And I was shocked to find that I was only eating around 1000 calories a day. Being around the house. I couldn't believe it. I was like, I don't feel but what I found was happening because I wasn't losing weight at that amount. In fact, I was kind of gaining some when we find that we're not hungry. Often that's actually a bad sign. Your metabolism is like whoa, we want to survive. We don't want you know, it's a protective mechanism. Again, hang on to everything we get because we clearly are in a starvation situation here. And and so then the metabolism slows down and that's where you find Keep on the HCG or, you know, The Biggest Loser, that whole study that was done on these people that were on the show and lost a ton of weight. And then all of a sudden, they couldn't maintain weight loss. In fact, even if they were eating only 900 calories a day, they started gaining, why, because the metabolic rate went down to preserve life. So it's counterintuitive. And it's kind of scary when a trainer or when you look at yourself, like, oh, my gosh, I'm leaving 1000, I really need to bump it up to 1500. That's counterintuitive, and you got to trust the process. Because the beginning you're like, this does not feel safe. This feels like I'm gonna just gain and you might at the very beginning slowly read, it's called reverse dieting, you know, maybe a week for the first week, you eat 100 more calories for that week. And then the next week, you you know, you bump into 200 calories more per week. So it allows the body to maybe have less of that gain. But eventually, when the body feel safe, I'm getting healthy, nutritious, adequate amount of calories, you will start to lose weight, as long as you are eating, like you said, the nutritious foods, the foods that are allowing the body to have the building blocks to use what you're eating.
Sheree 21:02
Oh, 100%, you said that so, so eloquently so beautifully. And just to reiterate the cortisol picture. It's this survival mode, it's the starvation mode and take us back, you know, a few 100 years, caveman days, just a little bit earlier than that there were periods of extreme famine. So our body has adapted, right? Like we can quite often think we can blame our bodies like why does it do this? Why does it set up not to burn fat? Why is it set up not sort of our genetics haven't caught up with how fast paced our life has become. And so your body's still going Holy crap, we've just cut out all of the these calories, we've dropped into a massive deficit, or we've been trying to maintain this super low calorie, like you said, brings that basal metabolic rate down. And then the body's like, let's hold on to it because we It looks like we're in a famine, right now we reserve the fat because fat provides energy for a longer period of time, your body is actually your best interests at heart, it's not, it's actually doesn't want to hold on to any extra weight that you're carrying, your body does not want to because it's actually a burden on the body. Right? If he's especially out in the store around the middle of can be harmful, it can cause a whole host of health issues. So it's not going to store it unless it feels like it needs to. And so if you're putting your body into that state constantly, and it's not lifting, not shifting weight. That'll be why when we're talking about what the reverse dieting, we also forget that there's something called the thermic effect of food actually eating particularly things like protein is going to boost that thermic effect of food, which means you're actually burning calories after you've eaten a meal if it's been high enough in protein. And this is where, you know, even if we to go into a little bit of the training background, like you mentioned right at the start, like I was a personal trainer for five years. And I saw this so much with women, they would come in, they'd start lifting weights, they'd see amazing results in their body in the first three months, maybe four months, they'd lose some weight, but then they'd be like, Oh, I'm really into this, the body's doing really well, maybe I stopped tracking my calories, maybe I'm gonna bring my calories down and be like, No, I'm unable to shift, this kind of situation I'm stuck in and the outputs even higher. And so it's like making sure you're actually meeting not only from a thermic effect of food, meeting those caloric requirements for the output that you're doing and the muscle mass you're building.
Christa 23:18
Yeah, and muscle burns a lot more calories than fat. That's also the benefit. And also you need to recognize if you want to maintain and build muscle, you have to eat more than it's reverse thinking. Because as women you grow up early on, I mean, starting middle school, sometimes even younger, having this idea of a diet, and you've really got to cut the calories. And it's just counterintuitive to say what I get to be like literally satiated all day. Yeah. And when the body is fueled correctly, you feel satisfied, you crave more of the healthy foods, you don't crave the processed foods as much. It's not such a willpower struggle. When you're eating healthy fats and healthy proteins throughout the day, and you're really nourishing the body. You don't have those cravings going back to muscle mass in women. That's a hot topic too, because I think I think it's coming around. And I think there's a lot more talk about it. But for women lifting heavy weights in the importance of muscle mass in maintaining the physique that you want in maintaining a healthy, you know, it's like your armor, especially the older you get, you know, I know that some of the women here are pre menopausal in 40. In your 40s, you got to really start to think I want to utilize my hormones my cycle because those really helped to grow muscle and it's your armor as you age, right? It helps support your bones, it helps prevent falls when we're talking, you know, much older in menopause. But not only that, it keeps that basal metabolic rate them the amount that your body has just to survive, it bumps it up, which is why men lose weight a lot quicker because they have more muscle mass than women. And so just sitting there, they burn way more calories than we do. And so that's why diets a lot a lot of times are more effective or quicker acting on them, but the same can be true for us right so if you are are adding, yeah, what I want you to speak a little bit on heavier weights for women and how you train women and what you saw, like there's no bulk, right? It really just kind of helps shape you better and make losing weight easier, right?
Sheree 25:12
It was one of the biggest things that women would quite often come to me wanting to lose weight. And just when we bring it back to hormones, women only produce 1/10 1/10 of the testosterone that men do. So for us to get bulky quote, you will literally have to probably be injecting yourself or taking some extra stuff on the side to really get to that smoky look, right. So it's very unrealistic, especially for the average woman that might be strength training three times a week, up to five times a week, if that's really what you want to be doing it. And so the woman would come to me and they'd be like, I'm doing heaps of cardio, or maybe they're doing like we do Les Mills classes over here. And they might be doing like a pump class all the time, or some sort of cardio based class with some weight training. But what they're not realizing is it's very endurance based, you're still doing like hundreds and hundreds of reps in that 45 minute hour long class, you're not actually putting on muscle. So again, you might have seen some results in the first couple of weeks, first couple of months, but you're not actually stressing the muscle enough for adaptive change. It's huge, huge. And this is where you know, you don't need to be overdoing it, we don't need be ego lifting from the sense that you don't need to be lifting super, super heavy, but actually slowing down time under tension. Putting some like, I'm gonna swear, but like, lift some heavy shit. That's what your body's gonna respond to. And this is where that healthy stress comes in. That's what causes that positive, adaptive, adaptive change. That's what causes the metabolisms be like, Oh, we're actually going to put on some muscle the muscle has now torn, we need to spend time to repair which takes protein, we need to make sure we're refueling with carbohydrates so that your body can actually restore itself read it regenerate that energy. And lifting the heaviest stuff is going to cause far more of that stress on the body in a good way. And you can give your body time to recover, right? It's something that I think we can be so afraid of, and like to go back to when women come to me, they're like, Oh, well, what do you do, and like, I'm not gonna sit here and say, I've ever felt like it had the perfect body. But I've been relatively fit and in shape most of my life, like, I'm scared to do weights and totally fine. It can be scary can be scary, even walking into a gym. And I really do feel for women in that respect. And I would look at them and I'd say, Would you like to be around my size or a similar kind of size? And they'd be like, yeah, ideally, like, Okay, I don't do any cardio and the look on there. I think Joe would literally drop. And I'm not saying you shouldn't do cardio, because it's great for your heart health. It's great for your fitness level. Like I'll go for walks and stuff, but you'll never ever find me on a treadmill. And yeah, shock factor, I might, because I put on muscle because I've actually tightened up and turn the body. And I've actually got a higher bit basal metabolic rate, right. So go back to that. And I'm okay. And that's not saying that everyone needs to look like me or be training like me. But it just put things into perspective for people that endless hours of cardio. You're only burning what you're burning then and beer, which might be three or 400 calories, but you're not doing anything afterwards. Muscle is me and you just sitting here with the muscle mass that we both have. We're sitting here talking, we're burning fat right now.
Christa 28:28
Yeah, that's a really good point. Because if you're wearing a wearable, and you look at the calories burned in that 3045 minutes or whatever you're like, ah, 78 calories, you know, like so much more tempting when you're looking at metrics in that sense like that. Oh, well, I burn 300 You know, in 30 minutes doing peloton and I only we're in 78 right now, that can be also kind of a mind thing. But it is important to understand the science behind it that it's long term investment you are building the ability to burn more calories and muscles use glucose for fuel so much more effectively. So when you're eating I you know, I make posts about this all the time when you are planning a birthday dinner or Thanksgiving, you know, it was the most recent when you know that you're gonna go out you know that you've got a carb dense meal, lift those muscles, lift those glutes, lift those quads, lift the chest muscles, because that those muscles crave they need they will use that sugar for fuel for repair. Like you were saying, our go to oh, you know, do it and after dinner after meal walk after and use your legs because the muscle and the more muscle you have, the more you're going to burn so I love to strike that home that women it's just a way of thinking it's just what we thought it comes you know, probably stems from the 80s aerobic push, you know Jane Fonda like push off. You know, I found for myself when I was really just doing a lot of cardio instead of lifting weights, especially during COVID We didn't have access to as much weights until we built up our home gym of course, you know, I was doing a lot more cardio and I was realizing man I just I'm losing my So now is doing this cardio. So it's not actually helping my overall physique. It's not actually helping my metabolic rate. So I'm actually gaining weight by over cardio and not eating enough protein. I think that's another thing to speak on. And I want you to kind of take off with gut health here. Because gut health is so important with it's so important to absorb our nutrients, too. And so this is another thing that I want to talk about right before that, before we get into that it's the amount of protein and I would say, if you're tracking anything, if you focus on upping the percentage, we say, macros, it's the macronutrient percentage of carbohydrates of proteins and fats. And each individual typically need somewhat of their own individualized percentage of those. But I would say women really aiming for whatever your ideal weight is, let's say your ideal weight is 125, then 125 grams of protein a day. And when you start to look at that number, you're like, wow, I am hitting maybe 70, or 80. Like I bet most women are not eating near enough protein to support muscle growth, muscle maintenance, tissue development, all that we're under proteins, most of us, particularly women who are vegan or vegetarian, it's very difficult to get that amount of protein in. So paying attention and tracking can be the first key. But on top of that, you know, we've got to be able to absorb these nutrients. And so I'd love for you to kind of talk to us a little bit about gut health and the importance of that in weight loss, weight, maintenance, nutrients, all that.
Sheree 31:30
Yeah, just to drive home the protein point like that's the one thing and greens. But I'm like, every time you look at your meal, you should be asking yourself, where am I proteins were migraines, you know, and even if you're just focusing on protein, it's one of the easiest things to skip over and breakfast. And that's what your body's looking for, it's looking for proteins is looking for fats in the morning doesn't really need those carbs. If you're doing training, making sure you're hitting the protein, even if you're not training excessively, or you know, to an athletic standard, you still need to be hitting like you say that even like minimum is think like 1.2 grams per kilo body weight. That's kind of where if my clients are getting into that tracking route, if they're really wanting to know where even just to get curious. And everyone is always shocked at how little bit eating, like how we're actually quite easy to up it your ways,
Christa 32:18
because I find it difficult to i i like to add you know, maybe ground meat to egg whites in the morning with my you know, omelet, or I definitely do a protein shake with added spinach every night. But I would love to hear your ways to a protein because it can be a challenge, especially for women on the go to really make sure that they're getting enough. So what are your What are your tips?
Sheree 32:37
Yeah, the biggest thing is to make sure that the breakfast is really potent, right, we should be aiming for at least 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal. Ideally, you know, lunch and dinner, you're looking at at least 30 grams from your main protein sources. But for example, like breakfast, three eggs is only going to give you 18 grams of protein. So sometimes we do need like you say, to add some ground meat, sometimes people add like a really high quality organic like sausage or something. Some people add bacon, and people go, oh gosh, bacon and egg. So breakfast is actually super, super healthy. Or you can load in a really good quality protein smoothie in the morning, right like most protein nowadays, as long as it's natural, and it hasn't got any of the artificial crap in it, it will give you around 25 to 30 grams just in one scoop. So starting now you can add that to your porridge in the morning, you can add it to a chia pudding, like, look at what you're having right now. And go, Okay, if I don't feel like something as heavy as eggs, or if I don't feel like adding meat in the morning because my body just doesn't seem to like that. Then see, can I add protein to whatever I'm having. And stay away from those like high sugary foods like those cereals and stuff that we tend to just attend just be a big massive load of carbs in the morning, right? And then lunches and dinners, it's looking at quite often will booster about what we think is our protein portion size and will be really small. And so even just increasing that by 10 20%. Again, notice how you feel Do you feel more satisfied, maybe then you reduce the carbs ever so slightly, right? Like it's all about creating that balance. But instead of maybe having the 70 or 80 grams of along what a woman might have, you know, you guys work in ounces. So this has probably been a confusing thing. 100 grams is four ounces, I've learned that but even having that potion, just increasing it up just slightly 10 to 20% more all of a sudden you've got an extra five to 10 grams of protein in and then having something like you said like a protein shake in the afternoon like our blood sugar's tend to be a little bit lower and crash our adrenals need a little bit more support in that afternoon period. That's where we reach for the sugar. That's feedback robotic she needs more protein. So having you can you can make a little cheer again, I love Chia puddings, you can add us like half a scoop of protein, all of a sudden you got 15 grams of protein in your afternoon snack or make a smoothie or make little protein balls not bliss balls, non GMO stuff that's going to be loaded with sugar and dates and you're going to spike your blood sugar ginormously let's talk about actual protein balls. They don't take that long to make in fact a lot of the stuff If you can buy, we just add some coconut milk or something, mix it around, add some protein powder, you're good to go. There's so many flexible ways to do it. Another one of my favorites for a snack is actually like beef jerky or biltong. As long as it's like really low sugar, and it's very minimal ingredients. Super, super high protein hit for such a little snack takes you a while to chew. It's salty, it's often a great, again, support for the adrenals in the afternoon as well. So this is something
Christa 35:27
I agree. And I think, you know, along the lines of keeping things simple when we talk about planning ahead when we talk about tracking, hitting macros, maybe meal planning of those trigger for me because I'm a very like, No, I don't want, I don't want to be stuck, I don't want to, I don't want to have all these tasks I have to do, I've realized that a lot of it can be easy. So tracking I think is important for at least five to seven days, you know, for some people can be triggering to really, you know, hone in that quick that much on everything you're eating. But I think it is important to spot check yourself to really know I might over eating my under eating. Where are the ratios of this fat proteins and carbs, like what am I actually doing? So that from there, you know how to adjust it up or down how to share with the person that you've hired, you know, the trainer or whatever. This is what I'm actually eating, I'm not lying to myself anymore, because we tend to under estimate or overestimate, we really do. So I have found like tracking that minimally is important. The other thing with tracking and planning ahead for me, I'm happy having the same protein for the same breakfast, the same snacks, the same smoothie every day. Like there's three things I'm happy to repeat every day. So I just track it over to the next day. And then I'm only managing what am I going to eat for lunch and dinner. Like it takes a lot of that guesswork out. And the other thing is like for me meal planning, it doesn't have to be hard, like you said like a scoop of protein that's a lot doing a whole slew of chicken breasts and having that so that the for the least next four days or so you've got quick protein, maybe some ground chicken for adding into your eggs in the morning. So doesn't have to be this three hour Sunday expedition it can be literally prepare a few things that happen in the oven, do some laundry, come back, take it up in the fridge. And at least you've got your proteins nailed down for the week. Because I think the easier when we're creating any new habit, if it's there, make it obvious make it easy, right? Like if it's easy, you'll do it. If it's not, you're going to have a scoop of we talked about some myths here that a big scoop of like peanut butter is full protein, I don't know it's just there's a lot of fats, there's a lot of sugars in that. And so being aware reading some labels can also really help you like that's actually not pushing my protein meter as much as like half a chicken breast will today. So
Sheree 37:40
and to touch on making meal prep easy. One of the biggest tips is use your leftovers for lunch, like cook extra dinner, you got lunch, the next day, you're sorted, you've got and we're creatures of habit, we tend to want the same breakfast most days in the week, you might do something a little bit different on the weekends. Like it doesn't have to be had exactly like what you've said, but touch on what you said about birth, the high protein I love and it's not anyone, it's just such a common thing that I know we both encounter with clients and the people that we talk to, it's like, I had a handful of nuts, or I had some butter, or sometimes people like I had some cheese. And that's where the tracking can be powerful just to give you some insight. And I know that for me, it was very triggering at first having the whole history of like an eating disorder on that. But it can work through it. And again, if you've got support, it can be really helpful to work through some of those those battles that you're having internally. But if you track for example, won't be like I have Hulu me me as a great source of protein. You know, if I didn't want to eat meat, but meal or something and like in 100 grams of whole immune to get six grams of protein six, or quinoa, I had quinoa with my meal. Again, same thing. 6% of that is protein you would have to eat. Again, my math is going to fail me here. But you know, you'd have to eat 400 grams of halloumi or 400 gram like golf ball cups of quinoa. Are you eating that? And then if you're forgetting about all the carbs that come with that, or with the cheese and nuts and stuff, or the fats that come with that, yes, and no one's going to eat 400 grams alumium meal like let's be real and you're gonna feel disgusting, you're gonna be really constipated. And so it's
Christa 39:17
me I don't think we have blooming in the US right
Sheree 39:21
now. Have you call it something else? Cheese. So anyway, like if any kind of cheese but it's like a really it's called like the squeaky cheese. Okay, Riot and like put it into things. But yeah, quinoa is probably another example. Same thing. Peanut butter, or even a handful of almonds. Right? Chickpeas, huge, like a huge amount of woman I work with like, Oh, but I want to do like a meat free Monday or something because it's trending. And I'm like cool. Chickpea is a great 18 grams of them per 100 grams protein. There's also 28 grams or so of carbs. You've got to take into account. Yeah, that's hot sauce. You don't get to have your chickpeas with rice. No, I I'm confused, and they think they're doing the right thing. And I bless your soul, like if you're listening to and reading labels, I just want to congratulate you for taking that step initially. And it's so unfair that they put it on the label. Anything I know, in New Zealand, anything over five grams of protein per 100 grams is allowed to be called a high source of protein. So it's very easy to understand you pick up something high source of protein, great, I'll have that as my protein source. And you're not you're not getting it.
Christa 40:27
Yeah, that's where tracking is powerful, because then you start to realize what you're really doing. While we're on this topic that I will circle back to that health really quickly. But what do you recommend for you know, for me, I would say anything under 1500, for most people is not an acceptable place to start. So if you're tracking and you're under that, especially if you're an active person you work out, you have an active job, certainly, if you're working out, you need to be around 1500, possibly, significantly more depending on your activity level. So when you're tracking and checking, I would definitely pay attention to that as far as like macros go again, that's going to be very individualized. But I would say, aim to have your proteins and your fats be the higher percentage and your carbohydrates being 30 30%, maybe of the macro of your total calorie intake, I think you'll see I think that's a safe, safe amount for most people, 30 40% maybe max of their calories coming from a carbohydrate source. But something like My Fitness Pal, or you know, some of those free apps can really help you in understanding the percentages of what you're actually eating. So you're not doing math all day, you're just plugging it in, and you're looking at it, you're like, Okay, here's where I start, here's where I'm going to make some slow tweaks and adjustments. Yeah,
Sheree 41:43
and I will just say quickly, if you are using a lot of those apps, they'll quite often set you up at 50% carbs, like really low protein and like 20% fats or something. So just be mindful, like go in, use some of the this is a baseline. Again, this is not generic advice, labeled advice for everyone. But just be aware that you can adjust those because I have so many clients who have been tracking and telling me I should eat more carbs, and this is too high and listens. It's like no, so they're not actually geared up for you to lose weight in a healthy holistic way. So this is where working with someone can be way more beneficial.
Christa 42:15
Oh, for sure. And I going back to you know, outside of testing, knowing exactly maybe what nutrients your body needs, you may have to adjust, you start somewhere you pay attention to it for about two weeks, you trust the process, and then you take note, I'm losing, I'm not losing. So what you know, where do I adjust, and I find most women need to adjust, you know, maybe lowering carbohydrates a little bit adding, you know, adjusting the proteins and the fats, maybe even eating more, you know, it's it is it's a very individualized thing. And so I I wouldn't dare sit here and say this is exactly what you need to do. You know, this whole talk is just to kind of make make you aware. So you even know what to ask for, or be aware of like, oh, maybe this is something that I shouldn't get, you know, individualize guidance on and find somebody who recognizes that and doesn't, you know, don't find a trainer, that's like, we're going to get you down to 1200 calories, you're gonna do an hour of fasted cardio every day. Like, that's not the healthy way to do life.
Sheree 43:06
It done that living example of why it doesn't work. Yeah, that's a comeback to like to tie in the carbs really like it's a huge thing that I typically focus on when we're looking at gut health, right, because carbs typically feed those bad bugs too much. And this is where we do sometimes need to monitor it. So again, if your carbohydrates are too high, it can cause some of those bad bugs in your tummy to overgrow. And this can be one of the other reasons that we again, calorie equation does not take into account the health of your gut microbiome, the effectiveness or the balance of your bugs, and there to not over complicate it too much. But there are your bacteria diets, which are really, really good, positive, happy bugs that are gonna do a lot for your body. And then there's something called your Firmicutes, which are the ones that love sugar. And we want to make sure we've got a good ratio, we're never gonna have no bad bugs, right? Let's be real, like we're living in a, in a real world. We're not living in a little cubicle, that's super cleanse, and we only feed what we like what's been through the door. So there's always gonna be some bedbugs that come in. But the main thing is like making sure you're getting enough fiber in that to actually support these bacteria diets, these positive ones, and not overfeeding these Firmicutes and actually found a study that I'll read from because it looks really supports to have a little bit of science behind this. So there was a research study on two groups of genetically identical mice. And so they are translating this into humans, but just bearing that in mind that was done in animals. And they were done with steroids guts. So there was actually no bacteria, which normally like if you did that to a human would pretty much die. But what they did is they introduced Firmicutes and one and bacteria diets, and the other and now both sets of mice were given the exact same number of calories. I identical identical food sources as well. So they'll fit the exact same diet, the group that feed the bacteria dates. So the positive the good books, were actually able to stay the same weight the same size. The Firmicutes are the ones that thrive on feeding, like the bad bugs, that the carbohydrates can overdo. They gained weight. And mice also looked puffy, they looked swollen. And it just shows right this scientific paper and there's hundreds more out there show that the quality of your gut microbiome, the quality of the bugs in your microbiome, can significantly influence your weight. And so that's why we say Krista could be eating X, I could be eating x, we could both having the same diet and it would have a completely different result on us. Because the way my gut interprets it, the way your gut interprets it, depending on the balance, the ratio, everything can throw things out of whack.
Christa 45:53
It's wild, the connection, the mind, the gut, brain access, and how what you're talking about the bad bacteria, the ones that are opportunistic, we should say, signals, yeast overgrowth, I find that a lot in clients to those elements, you know, the bacteria or the yeast, they feed on sugar, so they literally send signals to the brain to eat more sugar. So it's almost like beyond willpower, like you're literally getting a signal in your body to eat whatever, you know, your kids snack in the pantry and it's very overwhelming. And so it's not that you're you know, you have no willpower. It's that you're literally getting signals so, so right that gut bacteria really It influences hunger signals, it influences satiety and influences how we use bacteria. I mean, how we use calories. Yeah, yeah.
Sheree 46:43
on just that, like
Unknown Speaker 46:44
100% should
Sheree 46:47
kind of present but I really just hope that that helps bring into into perspective, right? They really drive home the fact that there isn't this one magical diet, it is about listening to your body. It is about understanding that your body and your gut microbiome is gonna be different what your thyroids at your hormones, where you're at, as women we go through so much of a hormonal journey and hormonal roller coaster through from puberty through pregnancies. If you go through pregnancies postpartum, then pre menopause, perimenopause, menopause, post menopause, like, we've got a bunch of hurdles, and your body is different things at different stages, like one thing you did in your 20s, it's not going to work in your 30s, it's not gonna work in your 40s. But listen to your body, your body knows best. And if you need support, like it's why it is Virginians out there, right.
Christa 47:32
Yeah, yeah, I think it's important to, you know, not beat yourself up, especially if you're doing the work. Like a lot of times it is just being aware of what's going on with your body fat is a protective mechanism. And I have found even people with mold toxicity or a high level of just environmental toxin exposure, that their bodies hang on to weight as a protective mechanism, because fat is a storage for toxins. So sometimes when we just get out of our way, and when we talk about toxins, food sensitivities, even hidden food sensitivities that you're not quite even aware of, like maybe you know, you're just not realizing that tomatoes are causing an issue or you know, sometimes food sensitivities bring awareness to something that your body's having a reaction to, and really hanging on to weight because it feels like it's in danger. And it's trying to save you really trying to keep you safe from being able to have a great place to store, right, it's just, it's the storage unit there. And so I've worked with people that, you know, once we look at food sensitivities, even they start to lose weight easier, it can be very frustrating to feel like you're doing all the right things are what you've been taught to do. The body is meant to be lean, and I'm not saying everybody has to be, you know, stick, then that's fine. You know, genetically, we are different. Some people are going to carry weight in different places, that's just we have different body types, it's totally fine. But if you've got some goals, or if you're in an unhealthy weight, you're really struggling to lose, there is a reason. And hopefully, our conversation today at least brought awareness to some of the areas to start to focus on. And I think we're definitely going to have more conversations about this. Because we could really just pull apart you know, just gut health and weight loss and just muscle mass and weight loss and sleep, the amount of sleep and how that affects our hunger hormones. And there's just so much to talk about. But I think we've both been able to share, you know, some points to start to bring into your awareness of things to address and things to consider in your weight loss journey. Yeah, and
Sheree 49:26
if anything has sparked an interest in you today, or you're like, wow, I wish you guys would go deeper on that. I really heard this, but I want to know more. Let us know in the comments, send us a message. Like we want to hear what's going to support you what what you really need and maybe even share a story about where you're at. And we're happy to kind of talk to that too. So we just appreciate you for being here. We hope that this has been super, super helpful and thank you for listening. Share this with someone that maybe needs to hear it. Maybe you're struggling maybe they're going through a journey or maybe someone needs to find this this empowering so that they feel like they've got a little bit more control. All over their health in their body. Absolutely.
Christa 50:02
Empowerment is the word of word of encouragement for sure. So, yeah, thanks for being here. We'll see you next time.
Sheree 50:08
If you love this episode, be sure to leave us a review, download and subscribe.
Christa 50:11
If you know someone that could also benefit from this conversation, please share. That's how we spread empowered health.
Sheree 50:17
We'll see you again for another episode of The Walden ball collective
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
