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#119 - "Fixing" A Slow Metabolism, Fat Loss Travel Tips & More
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In this episode, we’re diving into how to fix a slower metabolism, fat loss travel tips, and answering some common questions about optimizing your gym routine and nutrition.
Topics covered:
- Understanding metabolism and what factors can slow it down
- Practical ways to boost your metabolism with simple habits
- Travel-friendly fat loss tips to stay consistent on the go
- When and why to change exercises in the gym for better results
- How to get more protein without adding extra calories to your diet
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Transcript
Welcome and Call to Action
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host Lathan Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We got another weekly episode coming at you this week. Before I get into this, if you can leave a review if you have not done so, just help get this to more people who need this information.
Q&A Introduction: Exercise and Nutrition Queries
00:00:20
Speaker
but it is that time of the month to do another Q&A from questions that I get from you guys. So I got five questions that I'm going to get into today. So couple of the questions that I'm going to get into. So how often should you switch up your exercises in order to make the best progress in the gym?
00:00:37
Speaker
What to do when traveling and how to stay on track with your nutrition for that? How to get more protein without getting excess calories? what you can do to prevent your metabolism from slowing down and how much that actually is slowing down when you are losing weight.
00:00:54
Speaker
And then i got a question about the obesity epidemic and what I think some solutions to that should be. And so going answer that one. I thought that one was kind of
Exercise Consistency: Benefits and Challenges
00:01:04
Speaker
interesting. So getting into this very first question, how often should I switch up my exercises in the gym to see the best results?
00:01:13
Speaker
So when we're thinking about this question and seeing the best results, there's a lot of different goals that you could have or reasons that you have for going to the gym. I think for a majority of people, they want to look better and they want to feel better. And so two of the best proxies for that when it comes to your workouts is building muscle so that you can look better and feel better and increase your metabolism, all those different things. And then also strength, which those two things kind of go hand in hand. They're slightly different.
00:01:41
Speaker
But I think for the average person, it doesn't matter too much when you're trying to split those hairs. And so thinking about building muscle and building strength. And so the simple answer is when it comes to exercises and your exercise selection and how often you can change those things, you can do the same exercises for literally months on end and see great results. You can continue to see progress with building muscle and building strength by doing the same exercises for many months in a row.
00:02:09
Speaker
I think when we're talking about these two things, it's easier to split them up into pros and cons. So thinking about what's the pros of keeping your exercise selection very similar for months and what's the cons of maybe changing those things frequently because there are some pros and cons to each.
00:02:27
Speaker
Some pros of keeping your exercises the same. And when we're talking about keeping them the same, I'm thinking at least four weeks at a time. So keeping your exercises the same has some pros.
00:02:38
Speaker
One of those pros is going to be it's easier to track your progress versus if you are always switching your exercises like every day or even every week, you can't really get a good grasp on if you're making progress in those certain exercises. And we know that when it comes to progressive overload, we want to be increasing our strength,
00:02:57
Speaker
increasing how much weight we're lifting, increasing our reps, increasing our technique, all those different things to know that we are actually building strength and building muscle. Well, if you're changing your exercises every day or every week, you can't really track those things over time to see if you are actually progressing.
00:03:12
Speaker
And so one of the pros is it's just easier to track. Another thing that is beneficial about keeping your exercises the same for a while is that strength training is a skill.
00:03:23
Speaker
Lifting weights is a skill. Being able to lift heavy weights is something that you get better at. And if you're constantly changing the exercise that you're doing, you're not getting very many reps to actually practice getting good at those things. Because a lot of your strength to gains will come from just getting better at that movement.
00:03:40
Speaker
And so as you start to do more reps, you're able to build those skills up, you're able to better improve your form. And then ultimately, when you're able to get better at a certain exercise, you're also going to be able to get stronger and build muscle faster. If I'm constantly changing different exercises, that means I'm going to have to be learning how to do exercises all the time. Like if I'm always doing new stuff, I'm always trying different exercise, I'm always switching my exercises to every single workout or every week.
00:04:07
Speaker
there's a learning curve that comes with that and so it's more beneficial to actually find good exercise and stick with those for a period of time because it's going to be more efficient the third reason you're going to have a little bit less soreness which is actually a good thing if you're constantly switching exercises you're going to be sore a lot so if you've ever taken some time off from working out maybe you spent several weeks or maybe even months of just not working out and you get back into the gym you know that very first week you are going to be very sore That happens because your body's just not used to that stimulus. You're doing things that you haven't done for a while. You're using your body and your muscles in a different way.
00:04:42
Speaker
Well, that same thing happens when you're always changing exercises. So if you're doing new exercise all the time, you're always going to be sore and that's going to prevent what you can actually do in your workouts. Because if you're sore coming into the gym every single day,
00:04:55
Speaker
you're not going to be able to get as much out of those exercises versus if you go in there and you feel maybe a little bit of soreness, like a little soreness isn't a bad thing. You feel like you've been using your body and your body's maybe feeling it a little bit like that's not necessarily a bad thing. But if you come in there and like you can barely move and your range of motion is limited and you can barely like touch your toes or get in certain positions or lift any kind of serious weight, then that's going to prevent you from actually making better progress.
00:05:20
Speaker
And the fourth thing that I would say, and this is a big reason because a lot of people struggle with getting consistent in the gym because of time, like they don't have a ton of time to allocate towards their workouts. And so having similar workouts and just performing similar exercises going to allow you to not have to make as many decisions when you walk into the gym. And so you save time, you're more efficient with your workouts, and ultimately you can get better results.
00:05:46
Speaker
One of the things that I hear a lot when people start working with me is I get them on my training app. So they have their personalized workouts all on an app on their phone. It tells them exactly what they're doing as far as sets, reps, exercises, there's demos. And so they get into the gym and they know exactly what they're doing. And they have a plan and they move through it and they're in the gym and they're out of the gym. And so they don't waste any time and they feel like they get a much better workout versus if you go in there, you don't really have a set plan. You're just kind of like moving around. i'll I'll use this machine because it's open and then I'll maybe go over here and do this or I'll do a couple sets here and a couple sets there. You're just not going to see very good results doing that.
00:06:21
Speaker
I always say random workouts equals random results. So you want to make sure that you have a good program to follow and get in the gym and make sure that you're actually getting something out
Nutrition on the Go: Tips and Strategies
00:06:31
Speaker
of it. and so sticking to similar workouts for a period of time you're going to just have better workouts so that's another really big reason why i think sticking to exercises for at a bare minimum four weeks can be really beneficial some of the cons that may come with sticking to exercises for too long so certain exercises are going to target certain types or certain areas of your muscles so when you think about your muscles it's not just one big muscle like a lot of your muscles have multiple different muscles that
00:06:59
Speaker
come together to make that muscle and perform whatever function that is. So if you think of like your bicep, it's called a bicep because there's two parts to that muscle. Meeting your tricep, there's three different muscles that make up your tricep. When you think about your quad, there's actually four different muscles that make up your quad. Your hamstring has multiple muscles. Your glute has multiple muscles.
00:07:16
Speaker
Even your calf has multiple muscles. And so certain exercises are going to hit certain types or certain regions of your muscles. better. And so for that reason, it can be beneficial to change up, slightly change up like the exercises, maybe the grips on certain exercises, or maybe the angle of a certain exercise, or maybe how you perform that certain exercise, because you can still do a similar exercise, but just by simply changing one little thing. So maybe you change the grip a little bit, or you change how you're doing that certain exercise. Or for example, let's say you're doing like a dumbbell bench press, just by moving that bench press up to a slight incline, now you're hitting your chest at a slightly different way. And if you move it up a little bit further, now you're hitting your chest in a slightly different way.
00:07:57
Speaker
Or if you're doing like pushups, like if you change the angle that you're doing the pushups at, like you can change the way that you're hitting the muscle. And so by having a little bit of variety in that way, you can start to hit muscles a little bit more fully and make sure that you're really getting all the benefits out of developing that muscle and building the most strength and building the most muscle.
00:08:17
Speaker
Another reason why it may be a little bit of a disadvantage to stick to the same exercises for a really long time is if you're not careful and you're just constantly doing the same things over and over, it can start to maybe create some imbalances or lead to like some overuse injuries.
00:08:32
Speaker
I think if you're following a good solid program, like a good well-rounded program, you don't really have to worry about this too much, but For some people, like if they don't really know what they're doing and they just create some certain type of workout plan for themselves and they're just doing the same things and they're kind of neglecting certain body parts or maybe they're overtraining certain body parts, it could lead to some imbalances and maybe some injuries down the road. But again, I think if you're smart about following a good plan, you don't really have to worry about that nearly as much.
00:08:59
Speaker
Maybe the biggest disadvantage and the reason that I will typically change up exercises for clients is because it can get a little bit boring and a little bit repetitive. And if you're not like looking forward to your workouts, if there's not as much engagement or motivation to like get into the gym, you're probably not going to see as good of workouts. So a workout that's done consistently and done with good effort and good intensity is going to be more beneficial to seeing better progress. Because if you go in the gym and You just hate all the exercise that you're doing. You're not really looking forward to your workout.
00:09:28
Speaker
You just kind of go through the motions. You're just not going see as good of results versus if you go in there and you're actually excited about the exercise that you're doing. You like your training program. You like the exercises that you get to do that day. You're just going to see overall better progress. And so practical takeaway for all of this is to find exercises that feel good on your body.
00:09:47
Speaker
Find exercises that you can progress over time and actually be able to track that progress over time. And then also find some exercises that you like, because if you can check off all those boxes, you're going to go in the gym, you're going to actually look forward to your workouts, you're going to train those workouts a little bit harder, and you're going to ultimately see better progress over time if you're able to track those numbers and see if you're making strength gains and building muscle and those sorts of things. So find good exercises, stick for those things to a minimum of four weeks, sometimes six weeks, eight weeks. I mean, you can really go for months at a time. Like I personally been doing
00:10:20
Speaker
a very similar program almost this entire year. And I've been seeing some of the best progress that I've ever seen. And the reason I've been doing that is just because I just don't really want to think about my workouts too much. I just want to get in there. I want to train hard at those certain exercises.
00:10:34
Speaker
And I want to see how much strength that I can build in those certain exercises. So like I've been doing pull-ups all year long and I've been able to hit some PRs in that lately. Bench press I've been doing all year long, been hitting some PRs recently in that.
00:10:45
Speaker
some dips like I went from doing just 25 pounds on my dips to doing now 45 pounds on my dips and they feel really good. One thing that I'll say too is like people are really quick to write off certain exercises because they don't necessarily feel great when they first try them.
00:11:02
Speaker
I think it's really important to actually give it a chance to like get good at something. Of course, you're probably not going to be great at it when you first start, but don't necessarily just write off an exercise because it doesn't feel great or you're not good at it right when you start. Like give it a couple sessions, give yourself some time to practice and actually build up that skill and get better with the form and technique because A lot of the exercises that I really didn't like when I started training, like I hated pull ups. Now they're one of my favorite exercises.
00:11:28
Speaker
Ab pull downs on the cable machine, like absolutely hated those. But that's one of the movements that I've been doing for the last six months. Dips were something that I did not like. They kind of felt weird on my shoulder. And then I regressed a little bit and just built up the form and technique. And now they're one of my favorite exercises.
00:11:43
Speaker
Bulgarian split squats, I don't like them, but they work really well. And they're a staple in my program because I get really good results from them. so Just don't be so quick to write off a certain exercise just because it feels a little weird.
00:11:55
Speaker
It's likely is going to be feel kind of weird, especially when you first start. Obviously you don't want to do stuff that like feels really painful on your body or like it's going to put you at a risk of injury. But also don't be afraid to be bad at an exercise for a while and actually give it some time to train at it and build up that skill and practice and get better. Because if it feels good on your body and you're able to like get good results from that exercise, that may be something that you want to keep in your rotation quite frequently because you're going to see better results from it.
00:12:25
Speaker
Question number two, I do well when I prepare my meals and eat at home, but I have to travel a good amount for my job and I struggle to stay on track when I travel. Any tips?
00:12:36
Speaker
Yes, I have three different tips for this. So I have some clients that are also in this similar situation and there's no doubt about it that like traveling and getting out of your routine a little bit makes it more difficult to stay consistent. And so the very first thing is just to have some sort of plan when you go on these trips or when you have to travel. Like know what you're going to be eating or have an idea of maybe some of the places that you're going to be eating going into that trip. And so one thing that I do or that I've seen that works really well with clients is to either buy or bring snacks with you on the go.
00:13:08
Speaker
Or when you get to your destination, just go to the grocery store or go to a gas station and get some really easy snacks. So protein snacks or fruits are always really solid snacks that you can stick to just to kind of stay on track of things. And that way you're not just eating a bunch of really high calorie snacky type of things, just by making sure that you're prepared in that way.
00:13:28
Speaker
The second thing I would say is like have some good go to fast food meals. And so anything that is going to be like lean protein and veggie heavy is going to be a good option. So pretty much every place that you go to like fast food wise is going to have some sort of grilled chicken. So that's always a really good option. Grilled chicken with some sort of veggies like grilled chicken sandwich or some grilled chicken nuggets or something like that, like a grilled chicken salad, anything with grilled chicken is typically going to be a little bit leaner, higher protein. So that's always a good option.
00:13:56
Speaker
um Some of those like chain places like Chipotle, Subway, Chick-fil-A are always going to be good options because they have good sources of protein and they have lots of vegetables. And so those are always going to be pretty solid options that you can get.
00:14:09
Speaker
have to be careful about like all the sauces and different things like that, that you add on there. Cause those can add up very quickly, but Overall, just have some sort of idea of different places that you can go different meals that you can go to.
00:14:21
Speaker
And one other thing that you can do, like, let's say maybe you don't want to go to like a Chipotle, a subway, like a commercial type of place, just look up the menu ahead of time of wherever you're planning on going. And then just see like what type of options that you want to go with. Almost all restaurants have this now online where you can just go and you can see all the nutrition facts, you can see how many calories are in each meal, protein, different things like that. And I have clients that will do this too. Like if they're currently like trying to lose weight, but they also want to, they're going out to eat with friends or family or something like that. They'll just look up the menu ahead of time and just see what they're going to eat. That way you can kind of plan ahead. So like, if I know that I'm going to go to this restaurant and I'm going have a little bit higher calorie meal, then maybe for breakfast and lunch, I'm going to cut down my calories and have something a little bit smaller, a little bit leaner so I can budget and save some of those calories for this meal.
00:15:07
Speaker
The third option that you can do is really simple is just fasting. So like you can just skip a meal or two. And I also have clients who will do this as well. So like They're on the road and they know that they're going to have to eat two meals out or just eat most of their meals just on the run.
00:15:21
Speaker
And typically when you're doing that, you're eating out. A lot of your meals are going to be a little bit heavier in calories. And so one thing you can do is just cut one of those meals out. Instead of eating three meals that day, now you're just going to have two meals. So you have lunch and dinner and you skip breakfast or you skip lunch and you just have a late breakfast and then maybe a dinner. And that's a super simple way to just save yourself some calories so you're not overdoing it.
00:15:42
Speaker
Question number three, I'm tracking calories and protein now, and I've noticed some days it's really hard to stay in my calorie goal and still hit my protein goal. Any strategies to help with this?
00:15:54
Speaker
Yes. So I was talking to a client about this recently, and I feel like when you first start tracking calories and start to just take notice of like how many calories are in certain foods and what meals that you're eating and how many calories they have, it's a little bit of like nutrition Tetris. And so first thing I would say is like it's going to be a little bit of trial and error and there's a little bit of a learning curve to it. But as you get better at tracking food and realizing how many calories certain foods have and what foods have more protein versus less protein, you get a lot better at this. Like now I can look at a plate of food or a certain meal and I know, okay, roughly this has this many calories and this much protein. And I know like if I'm having something that's higher in calorie and maybe lower in protein, I know, okay, on the back end, my next meal, I need to get something that's a little bit higher in protein, a little bit lower in calorie. And you just start to get really good at that as you do this more often and you get more reps in.
00:16:44
Speaker
And so just understand, don't be too hard on yourself, especially in the beginning. There's a learning curve to this. The second thing I would say is that when you're thinking about like tracking calories, it's calories first and then protein is a close second. So you don't necessarily want to be going over your calories just to hit your protein goal. So let's say that one day your goal is to hit 2000 calories and you need to get 150 grams of protein.
00:17:07
Speaker
Well, let's say you hit your 2000 calories, but you're only at 120 grams of protein. You don't need to add an extra 30 grams of protein. and go over your calories in order to hit your protein goal. You wanna think of that calorie goal as the number one goal and then that protein goal as the secondary goal.
00:17:24
Speaker
The goal is to get better at hitting both of those more often, but when in doubt, stick to the calories and then try to get protein as a secondary goal. When it comes to increasing your protein, so there's ways to do this and essentially what you have to do is just find leaner protein sources.
00:17:42
Speaker
And so you have your three macronutrients. You have your fats, you have your carbs, you have your proteins. And if you're hitting your calories, but you're not getting enough protein, that means that you're probably eating too many fats and carbs and just not enough protein. know Or you're eating protein, but you're just not eating lean enough sources of protein. And when I say lean enough sources of protein, what I mean is protein sources that are higher in protein, but lower in calories. And so some examples of that would be like Instead of eating 80-20 ground turkey or eighty twenty ground beef, you have 93-7 ground turkey or ground beef because now you're getting more protein, but you're getting fewer calories because there's less fat.
00:18:23
Speaker
There's other sources of protein that are really high in protein and less in calories. So like when you think about like pork loin or ham, super high in protein, lower in calories. There's certain seafoods that are really, really high in protein and low in calories. like tuna, for example,
00:18:37
Speaker
One little can of tuna can be 90 calories and have 20 grams of protein. So it's almost exclusively protein and very little fat or carb. Shrimp is another one that's really high in protein. Other types of fish are higher in protein. Some fish is more fatty. And so you'll get more calories with those.
00:18:54
Speaker
But there's a lot of fish out there that's pretty lean that you can get higher sources of protein from. Think about it like chicken or chicken breast, like that is typically pretty lean. There's not a lot of fat with it. So you get really high contents of protein and not as much fat that come with it.
00:19:09
Speaker
Think about like dairy products. So nonfat dairy versus full fat dairy, you can save a lot of calories that way and get more protein. ah Whey protein powders are almost strictly protein. so you get a lot of protein for very little calories.
00:19:22
Speaker
Mixing in some egg whites with some eggs is another way where you can get a little bit more protein with less of the calories. So you're not necessarily like cutting out certain things. You're just finding ways to make little swaps so that you can get more protein.
00:19:34
Speaker
And that way you can hit that protein goal, but you're not stressing on the calorie goal. And just to give you like a real world example in how this kind of works. So let's say for one day you want to have eggs and sausage and maybe some cheese on those eggs and sausage for like a breakfast bowl.
00:19:51
Speaker
So instead of having like four eggs, you could have two eggs and swap out some egg whites for those remaining two eggs. And you're going to save 75 calories right there while increasing your protein.
00:20:01
Speaker
And then for the sausage, instead of having like some super fatty sausage, you can find some leaner types of sausage. That could be 100 calories that you save right there. And then for the cheese, instead of having full fat cheese, you just have a reduced fat cheese and you're saving 50 calories right there.
00:20:16
Speaker
Maybe later in the day you want to have a snack and instead of having full fat Greek yogurt, you have nonfat Greek yogurt. You save another hundred calories right there. Maybe for a dinner or for lunch, you want to have like a taco bowl. And for your ground beef, you're going to have 93.7 ground beef instead of your 80.20 ground beef.
00:20:31
Speaker
We've just saved 50 calories right there. It doesn't seem like a lot, but you add all that up. That's 375 calories in a single day that you just saved from making swaps. You're still eating these same foods.
00:20:42
Speaker
You're just swapping them out for slightly higher protein, lower calorie versions. And now 375 calories added up throughout the week, that's over a pound or a half a pound, excuse me, of fat loss that you just made by making these simple swaps.
00:20:56
Speaker
You don't have to obsess over these things, but once you start to see how this works and finding different swaps that you can put in place of certain foods while still eating very similar meals, you'll start to notice that your calorie content comes down, your protein is going up, and that's going to help you with building muscle. That's going to help you with losing fat And again, you're also still eating meals that you actually enjoy. You're still eating a lot of the same exact things. You're just making smarter choices about these things.
00:21:23
Speaker
And tracking calories is a really good way to start to get better and actually start to notice
Metabolism and Weight Loss: Preventing Slowdown
00:21:27
Speaker
some of these things. And so hopefully that helps. And just like some practical takeaways, build your meals around protein first.
00:21:34
Speaker
If you are tracking calories, one thing that you can do is just enter your meals either the morning of or even the day before. So that way you know where you're going to be sitting as far as calories and protein goes. Because if you're entering those things as you go throughout the day, you might have breakfast and you have a snack and then you have lunch and you realize, dang, I only have 300 calories left and I still need 40 grams of protein. Like, how am I going to do that?
00:21:55
Speaker
But if you actually enter all that stuff in beforehand, or at least enter most of your meals in that you plan on eating, well, then you know, okay, um I'm at like 1800 calories, I have 130 grams of protein, I'm sitting in pretty good shape, I can have one more protein snack, and I'm going to be able to hit both of those protein goals.
00:22:10
Speaker
So that's a really practical thing that you can start to do. And then the last thing that I would say is when you find meals that you like, that you really enjoy, and they also help you hit your goals, take note of those and go back to those. Because there's a lot of times where I'll have like clients, they'll go through certain periods of time, like maybe they're busy and they're just not like tracking quite as well. Or maybe like they get in a little bit of a rut where like they're struggling to get enough protein or maybe going over the calories.
00:22:33
Speaker
And I know they've gone through periods of time where they've done really well. Like they've they've hit their calorie targets, they've hit their protein targets. And so I just have them go back and look at old days or old meals that they use to hit those targets.
00:22:45
Speaker
Because a lot of times people don't necessarily need to be taught, they need to be reminded. And so when you go back and you see, okay, this is this is what was working really well for me. Like I was hitting all my protein goals. I was hitting my calorie goal. Why don't I just go back to some of those meals?
00:22:57
Speaker
Because... We eat a lot of the same foods and we eat a lot of the same meals on repeat. We just don't really realize it. So when you find meals that you really enjoy that make it easy to hit your targets, like take note of those and just reuse those often. It makes it easier to be consistent. It makes it easier to get results.
00:23:13
Speaker
It makes it easier to hit all those goals that you wanna hit. And so hopefully some of those tips in there are helpful for you if you are tracking calories. Next question. I've heard a lot of people talk about metabolism slowing down when you lose weight.
00:23:27
Speaker
I'm wondering how much and if there's anything you can do to prevent this. Yes. So your metabolism does slow down a little bit as you start to lose weight. And most of this can be attributed to you are losing weight. And so you're becoming a smaller version of yourself. So it doesn't take as much energy or calories to actually run your body anymore. So if you go from 350 pounds to 300 pounds, you're 50 pounds lighter. It no longer takes as many calories to walk around, to get up, to just do normal everyday things. And so you're not burning as many calories. Your body is becoming...
00:23:59
Speaker
more efficient and you don't need as much food so your metabolism starts to slow down in that way you're not burning as many calories one of the other reasons that this starts to happen as well when you're dieting is that when you put your body into a diet it will start to compensate a little bit through what's known as neat so non-exercise activity thermogenesis so Your body realizes that, okay, I'm not getting as much food and energy as I'm used to. I'm going to compensate by making them move less throughout the day. And this is something that you don't even notice. It's not really something that you can control.
00:24:31
Speaker
But like things like fidgeting, moving around, like different little things like that that you don't notice that you're doing subconsciously start to slow down because you are giving your body less food.
00:24:42
Speaker
And the other thing that happens with metabolism slowing down a little bit when people lose weight is as you lose weight, you typically will lose a little bit of muscle mass. If you do lose weight the right way, you can really cut down on the amount of muscle mass that you are losing.
00:24:58
Speaker
And where people get into trouble is they lose weight very quickly. When you lose weight very quickly, you are very likely losing a good substantial amount of muscle mass. And when it comes to your metabolism, most of that is predicted or made up by how much muscle mass you have up to 80% of your metabolism and how fast or slow it is comes down to how much muscle mass you have. So ah if you are losing weight,
00:25:22
Speaker
but you're also losing a ton of muscle, you are slowly bringing down your metabolism, which is not good. We want to have as much muscle as possible so we can keep our metabolism high. When our metabolism is high, we burn more calories. We're able to have more flexibility with food. And that just makes dieting as well as just sustaining your weight that much easier. So yes, your metabolism does slow down a little bit. I think a lot of people really overblow how much it actually slows down. It doesn't slow down all that much. So when I was looking into like some of the studies,
00:25:52
Speaker
It referenced that metabolisms, if you lose a significant amount of weight, so like at least 10% or more of your body weight, it can slow down anywhere between like 5% to 15% due to, again, you becoming smaller version of yourself. You're not burning as many calories. Maybe your meat is slowing down a little bit or you're losing a little bit of muscle mass. Those are all reasons that your metabolism might be slowing down.
00:26:15
Speaker
And 5 to 15%, it's not nothing. Like it does add up a little bit. That could be anywhere between like 50 to 300 calories, depending on your size. But if you're somebody who is dieting and like you're trying to lose weight and your metabolism has slowed down a couple hundred calories and your body's adjusted a little bit, now that calorie deficit that you used to be in that was getting results, maybe aren't getting you the same type of results or as quicker results. And so that's when people start to think, oh, my metabolism is screwed or I'm broken or like I need to change things up. And that's not really what's happening. It's just like,
00:26:45
Speaker
your body is becoming more efficient, you're not burning as many calories as you used to, and you just have to make the right adjustments in order to make sure that you continue to make progress. And so what can you actually do about this?
00:26:56
Speaker
since i mentioned muscle is such a big role in your metabolism the other part of that is just moving more so how much muscle you have and how active you are are going to be the main factors and how fast or slow your metabolism is and so when we think about this these are all the things that we talk about all the time so to make sure that you are building or at the very least retaining as much muscle as possible you want to lift weights and make sure that you're lifting heavy so that you give your body a reason to hang on and build more muscle eat a high protein diet to help with that muscle.
00:27:26
Speaker
And then also just making sure that you are just moving. You don't necessarily have to be in the gym for hours and hours, but just moving throughout your day. So tracking steps is something that I talk a lot about, but also just finding ways to get active outside of that, whether it's getting out and doing some yard work or gardening, or maybe you have some hobbies that are active or you join a sports league or you're playing with your kids, like just finding ways to be less sedentary and more active is just going to help you to burn more calories throughout the day and keep that metabolism.
00:27:53
Speaker
a little bit higher. Some other things just when you're dieting more specific to making sure that you don't just mess your metabolism up is like crash dieting. When I say crash dieting, I mean like really, really dropping your calories like super low. like eating under 1000 calories and working out all the time because when you're doing that, you're going to start to have some effects on your hormones, which are going to then going to affect your metabolism a little bit. And then you can start to run into some real problems.
00:28:17
Speaker
For a majority of people, that's not what's going on, even though again, that gets overblown a lot like people like all my metabolism is screwed. And it's really not for I would say over 90% of people, it really just comes down to their underestimating how many calories they're actually eating.
00:28:33
Speaker
and they're not being consistent enough for long enough to actually see the results that they want to see. And so people get in this headspace of like, I'm working out all the time. um eating low calories, but they get in this yo-yo cycle. Like they do well maybe for some of the week, but then other days of the week, they're just eating way more than they think. So like this happens on weekends all the time. People be really good Monday through Friday.
00:28:56
Speaker
They get to the weekend and then they eat a ton more calories without really realizing it. And it just kind of like all ends up being a wash. So they're not really seeing any type of progress. or maybe they're even gaining weight, but they feel like I'm exercising all the time. Like I'm following this diet. I'm doing really well.
00:29:11
Speaker
Well, actually I hate to be the person that tells you this, but you're not like, you're not in a calorie deficit. You're not being as consistent as you need to be. But when you take a step back, you start to track these things. You start to get a little bit more strategic about it. You just start to look at it as data. You'll see that it's really simple equation. Like it's just a science and math equation on losing weight and being able to actually keep that weight off.
00:29:34
Speaker
But for a lot of people, They don't track. They don't track their steps. They don't track their workouts. They don't track their food. So it just becomes this guessing game. And then it's easier to blame your metabolism being slow than it is to take responsibility and actually just track those things and just be strategic about it and be patient and be consistent and see that progress over time.
00:29:53
Speaker
All that to say, like, yes, your metabolism does slow down a little bit, but it's not nearly as much as people think.
Obesity: Causes and Lifestyle Solutions
00:29:59
Speaker
If you lose weight in the right way and you're lifting weights and you're staying active and you're eating protein and you're tracking things like you can continue to lose weight and your metabolism is not going to be the limiting factor into why that you can't lose weight.
00:30:13
Speaker
And the last question of the day. It seems like more and more people are struggling with obesity now. Why do you think that is? And what do you think some solutions would be to fix this? This a really interesting question.
00:30:25
Speaker
And I think I'm going to answer this in terms of like what you can do for yourself because ah the obesity epidemic is a very large problem. And there's a lot of factors that go into this, but I tend to focus on like, what are the things that you can do to make the changes, to see the results you want to see? Because Sometimes you'll see people get into like the politics or they'll blame the government or blaming all these different things. And it's not to say that those things don't play a role, but at the end of the day, what you have control over directly is the things that you're doing, your behavior, your mindset. And that's, what's going to actually be able to give you those changes that you want to see. Because if you're relying on the government to make these changes or things in politics to change, like you're not playing a game that you're probably going to win. And so focus on the things that you can actually control. But
00:31:11
Speaker
Talking about just why people have gained weight and why obesity has become such a popular thing, I started looking into some of the statistics. In 1980, it said that about 15% of people were obese.
00:31:24
Speaker
And then fast forward that to the 2000s, it doubled to about 30%. And then you fast forward that to now, it's around 40% of people are considered obese. And when you combine obesity with overweight, then it's over 70% of people fall into that category. so Seven out of 10 people are either they overweight or obese according to the BMI scale, which isn't perfect, but it's a pretty good proxy about where people at just as far as fitness goes. And the reason why this is such a big deal and the reason why I talk about weight loss so much is because
00:31:55
Speaker
Extra fat on your body is negatively associated with just about every big health risk that you can think of. So cancer, heart disease, mental health issues, all the big drivers that people struggle with and all the big problems out there, all are made worse by having extra fat on your body.
00:32:14
Speaker
And I think that's common sense. And sometimes people get into the weeds about like, the morality of it of like, it's their choice. And it's all those things or it's you know, the economics around it and all that stuff. And like, I'm not here to say like dig into that stuff because that's that's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about you getting more healthy.
00:32:31
Speaker
And the way that you do that, like one of the simplest things you can do is to get your body to a place where you don't have a bunch of excess fat on your body. Like we know that you're just going to feel better. You're going to look better. Your mental health is going to be better. Like you're going live longer. Your quality of life is going to be better. And so that's why this is so important. and That's why I talk about this stuff so much. And I think sometimes people will stress over the little things when it comes to like losing fat and getting healthy.
00:32:56
Speaker
But all you need to know is that as you lower that fat, no matter how you do it, your health markers will improve. And this has been proven through a lot of different studies. So there's been people that have lost weight on junk food diets, on McDonald's diets, on potato diets, and all those people by losing weight, their health markers improve regardless of how they do it.
00:33:15
Speaker
Now, obviously, I'm not telling you to go out there and eat McDonald's every day or like follow a junk food diet because there's a lot of other things that go into health besides just losing weight. But when you zoom out big picture, like one of the highest leverage things that you can do is just to get to a healthy body weight and reduce the amount of fat that you have on your body. And so some reasons why this has gotten really bad lately. And think the obvious thing is that we just we move less and we eat more. And there's a lot of different reasons why that is so with our diets.
00:33:45
Speaker
processed foods are very popular now. And so people eat more processed foods than they do whole foods. And as I've talked about tons of times on this podcast, it's much harder to regulate how much you eat when you're eating more processed foods.
00:33:57
Speaker
They don't have as much nutrients and fiber, and people just tend to overeat them. So they're eating more calories. And then when you eat more calories, as you know, you gain weight. And so it's just as simple as that. When you're eating more processed foods, you're typically going to be eating more calories.
00:34:10
Speaker
Portion sizes have gotten way bigger than they were back in the day. Like if you go to restaurants and things like that, the portion sizes are much bigger. When the portion sizes are bigger, we eat more food, we eat more calories. That leads to gaining weight.
00:34:22
Speaker
People eat out more than they used to. And so like people don't cook as many of their own meals. And typically when you eat out more, you're getting, again, bigger portion sizes, but you're also getting a lot of hidden calories through sauces, through cooking oils through different things like that. And so again, you're just eating more calories. So when it comes to our diets, it's just simply the fact that we're eating more calories.
00:34:42
Speaker
When it comes to activity and exercise, we are moving less, which obviously is not a good thing. So people, we use cars a lot, like people don't bike or walk nearly as much as they used to. We have Ubers and lifts and trains and subways, which is all good stuff. Like we all want that. It's efficient and we like that stuff, but people just move less in that way.
00:34:59
Speaker
There's less manual labor jobs and more sedentary jobs with computers and technology and things like that. So people aren't getting as much activity in that way. And when you look at the statistics, less than one in three Americans meet the recommended activity levels. so those levels aren't really even that high. And you can get a lot of the health benefits from hitting those numbers, but to look at it and see that not even one in three people are hitting those numbers, it's obviously saying that like we're not moving or exercising as much as we need to. And so that's something that we have to change.
00:35:32
Speaker
When you look at environment, the marketing around like food and ultra processed foods is pretty crazy. Like there's a lot of money that is thrown into these businesses to make sure that you are buying these foods that are very easy to over consume.
00:35:45
Speaker
We're on screens more than we ever were and that plays a big role because when you're on screens, you're typically going to be laying down, sitting down, you're not up and moving. And so we're on our phones, we're on laptops, we're watching Netflix, we're doing different things like that. So more screen time, we're not outside nearly as much doing different things.
00:36:01
Speaker
The cultural aspect of it, like drinking and socializing, typically comes with consuming more calories and food and things like that. Technology, so like the ease of accessing different foods like Uber Eats and things like that with literally a click of a couple buttons on your phone, you can have your favorite restaurant food delivered directly to your door and you just have to move 10 steps and go get it.
00:36:21
Speaker
Like that was never a thing. So that makes it easier to overconsume. exercising and eating right now, you're kind of like the anomaly. If you do those things, like if you look at the activity guidelines, if only not even one in three people are meeting those guidelines, if you're a person that works out consistently, that kind of makes you like a standout, like you're kind of weird if you do that, or like if you eat a quality diet, like most people aren't doing that. And so you're kind of the anomaly when it comes to that. And that's why I talk about like being the example, because If you follow the crowd, you're going to end up like the crowd. Like when you just look at it statistically, most people are unhealthy, they're overweight, they're leading down a path where they're going to be really struggling with a lot of health issues very soon, if not already.
00:37:02
Speaker
And so you have to kind of take that stance of like, going be a little bit different than the crowd. And I'm going to be an example for my friends and my family and be okay with that. And The last factor that I think plays a pretty big role is just stress. Like a lot of the hospital visits now are related to stress. And when you have excess stress or you have chronic stress, it just leads to a lot of different things. a lot of people stress eat, so they're eating more calories. A lot of people have effects on their sleep when they're stressed out all the time. And we know how much sleep affects diets and eating more and not exercising. And so it's just this really big snowball effect of a lot of different things that culminate to make a really bad situation.
00:37:40
Speaker
And so if you don't make the conscious choice to change your behavior and change your mindset, you're going to struggle. And so when it comes to like the solution, i thought about this a lot. And this is like the five pillars that I really focus on with my clients as well is like.
00:37:53
Speaker
Number one is just changing your identity. So like, as I talked about, like being that example, becoming that person who really values being fit and being healthy and wanting to exercise and wanting to eat healthy and be that that example for your friends and family of like what it actually means to be healthy and to live a healthy life and to be able to enjoy life to the fullest.
00:38:12
Speaker
And I think without that, like you can do these other things, but it's really going to always feel like a struggle until you start to shift to that person who does want to embrace this life and this lifestyle. The second thing that I talk about all the time is just like eating more whole foods. And the reason being so that you can not overeat calories when you're eating more whole foods, it's just going it easier to just eat regularly, to not have as much hunger, to be more satisfied and to just be at a normal healthy weight by doing that. And so not eating too many calories and eating whole foods is one of those pillars that I focus on a lot with people. And I think is really important.
00:38:45
Speaker
Prioritizing protein, as I've mentioned, important for building muscle, important for not overeating and different things like that. Steps is another one. So it's just a really easy way to measure how active you're being. So focusing on getting plenty of steps within your day.
00:38:59
Speaker
And then workouts would be the other thing. So just making sure that you're strength training, building muscle, moving, making sure that you're keeping your or strength levels high. All those things are going to be really beneficial for just living a long, healthy life.
00:39:11
Speaker
There's other things that also matter too. There's some lifestyle factors that I would throw in there that are pretty important with just like your sleep with creating a good environment, hanging around good people, your relationships, being able to manage stress, like all those things are important and they affect your health as well.
00:39:26
Speaker
But I tend to focus on those five things because I think if you can focus in on those five things and really get those things right, like all these other things are going to start to fall in place. And so That's kind of where I stand. Like you have to take ownership and responsibility over these things and you have to actually want to change. Because again, if you follow the crowd and you just continue to go down the path that most people are going down, you're not going to end in a place where you want to be and it's just going to make life that much more difficult because if you don't have your health you don't really have anything and so it's important to really focus on these things and I think when you start to really hone in on what's important and what's going to help move the needle for yourself and then ultimately kind of create that that cascade effect on the people around you it's these five things your identity focusing on eating whole foods eating plenty of protein getting your steps and getting your workouts in
00:40:14
Speaker
You nail those five things down, like you're going to be in better shape, more healthy, feel better, look better than 95 plus percent of the population.
Closing Remarks and Coaching Offer
00:40:23
Speaker
And with that being said, that is it for this one. I think this one went slightly longer than the typical podcast, but I appreciate you listening in. If you ever want some questions answered on in the future, you can always send those to me.
00:40:34
Speaker
through social or wherever you can find me. I enjoy doing these and just really being able to expand on some of these topics and really dig into some of the background and education and all those things. Because I think It's important to really understand these things and why they're important and then ultimately have some good action steps to follow with these things, which is exactly what I try to do with this podcast. So hopefully you're getting some of that. And I do appreciate you listening. If you're somebody who is interested in some one-on-one coaching, wants some help with some of your weight loss goals, getting more fit, figuring some of this stuff out in a way that makes sense for you and your lifestyle. You can always check the link in the show notes for that. But I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.