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#168 - Underrated Habit For Fat Loss, Gut Health, And Longevity
41 Plays9 days ago
The missing link to easier fat loss, better gut health, and long-term health is something I bet you're not getting enough of: fiber.
Most people aren't getting nearly enough, but with a few simple tweaks, you could change that to get the benefits.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why fiber is one of the biggest missing pieces in most people’s diets.
- How eating more fiber can make fat loss easier without needing a perfect diet.
- Why fiber matters for digestion, gut health, cholesterol, blood sugar, and long-term health.
- Simple ways to start eating more fiber without feeling bloated, overwhelmed, or forcing foods you hate.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fitness Project with your host, Latham Bass. We make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. It is time for that weekly episode, as we always have for you.
00:00:13
Speaker
Before we get into that, just a reminder, if you can leave a review, continue to help get this show out to the people who need this type of information to help people look better, feel better, live longer, happier lives. That is the goal of this show, and we will keep on trucking with
The Underrated Health Practice: Fiber
00:00:26
Speaker
that goal. the topic for this week i wanted to do a topic on something that i think is super low hanging fruit that most people are not taking advantage of and this is something that i would probably even put up there close with like walking or getting good sleep things that i talk about quite often but this is something that is just not talked about enough it's something that can make fat loss easier It can improve your gut health and digestion and how you feel on a regular basis and just make you a overall healthier person and even is associated with living a longer life.
00:01:00
Speaker
Lots of people know some of the basics, like we know certain things like I need to eat less if I want to lose weight. I know that protein is important. I know walking and exercise is important. I know I should move more, drink water, get better sleep, eat more whole foods, all that stuff.
00:01:15
Speaker
but this is still one of those things that a lot of people overlook this is something that has an impact on how full and satiated you feel how good your digestion is how good your gut health is it can improve heart health help with regulating your blood sugar help with better cholesterol levels living longer making fat loss easier all those different things and if you haven't figured it out what i'm talking about by now i'm talking about fiber The bottom line is most people are eating not nearly enough fiber, which means, again, it is a very low-hanging fruit that if you start to prioritize something like eating enough fiber, it can make a pretty substantial difference, not only in how you feel, but if you have fat loss goals, it can help with that. It can help with gut health and all those different things that I just listed
Are We Getting Enough Fiber?
00:02:02
Speaker
off there. So in this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about why it's important to eat fiber, and then, as always, give you some practical tips about how to get more fiber in your diet, because
00:02:11
Speaker
this has been something for me that has made a pretty big difference which is why i think that it's necessary to talk about because you hear people talking about certain things like high protein diets and walking and getting enough steps and getting enough exercise and all those different things that we hear over and over again but fiber is still one of those things that is not talked about quite enough and i think as we continue to go into all the different health trends and different things like that i do think that fiber is going to be something that more people start to prioritize especially with the use of people taking more GLP-1s and how that can affect people's digestion and stomach health and gut health and all those different things. I only think that fiber is going to become um something that's more important.
00:02:54
Speaker
So getting into this episode, the fiber gap it is estimated somewhere around 90 depending on where you look at your statistics but around 90 of women are not getting enough fiber in as much as 97 of men are not getting the recommended amount of fiber the range that people want to be shooting for is somewhere within about 25 grams of fiber to 40 grams of fiber per day and this is based on how many calories you are eating so The standard is roughly for every 1000 calories that you're eating, you want to be getting about 14 grams of fiber. So if you're eating 2000 calories a day, that puts you at about 28 grams of fiber. If you're eating 3000 calories per day, that puts you a little bit higher, closer to that 40 grams per day. So I like 25 to 40 grams because they're nice round numbers, easy to remember. And if you're in that target range, you're going to be in pretty good shape.
00:03:50
Speaker
Again, those
Improving Diet Mindset with Fiber
00:03:51
Speaker
are very high numbers. So 90 to 97% of people not getting enough fiber, which means, again, it is something that if you are listening to this podcast and you care about your diet, if you care about living longer, if you care about health, if you want to feel better, if you want to make fat loss easier, then fiber is one of those things that if you start to focus on can help to fill some of those gaps.
00:04:13
Speaker
And I think maybe one of the most underrated things about fiber, as I've already talked about some of the benefits just from a physical standpoint, from a health standpoint, there's quite a bit of those benefits from fiber. But I think maybe one of the most overlooked things when it comes to fiber is how it can help when thinking about diet, like the mindset, the psychology, all those different things. Because when you hear people talking about diets, a lot of times it's talking about all the things that you shouldn't be having you should be cutting out more sugar and eating less processed foods and you shouldn't eat this food and you shouldn't eat that food and it talks about so much of the things that you shouldn't be doing but by focusing on adding more fiber into your diet you are going to naturally notice that your diet quality improves you start to eat less calories overall because if you're eating more whole foods you're typically going to be eating less calories which can help with fat loss and even just maintaining your weight. if your diet quality is improving, that probably means that you're getting more nutrients, which is good for helping you feel better, having better energy, having better health, all those different things. If you're eating more whole foods and eating more fiber, you're going to be more full and satiated, which helps to regulate hunger, which helps to handle some of those issues that so many people struggle with when it comes to overeating. By focusing on adding more fiber, you're naturally going to notice that
00:05:29
Speaker
you're not eating as many of those other things, those super processed things. You're not eating as much of the things that maybe make overeating easier or just don't have tons of benefits when it comes to improving your health. And if you've been listening to this show for any time at all, you know that I'm never going to tell you not to eat certain things. I think that you can find a good balance and moderation is very helpful when it comes to sustaining good long-term health. But from a general standpoint, we know that we want to be focusing on more whole foods. We want to be eating more proteins, more fruits, more vegetables, more fiber, those sorts of things. And if you do those simple things, you can have tons of really good benefits. So I think something as simple as focusing on even just like high protein diet mixed with a high fiber diet, you can solve a lot of those issues without having to feel like, oh, I can never eat this thing or I have to restrict this. I can never have sugar. I can't have desserts. Can't have any processed food. focus on adding more protein, adding more fiber in your diet quality naturally improves and start to solve a lot of those issues that so many of us struggle with.
00:06:33
Speaker
But getting into what is fiber exactly? Not going get into too many of the details with this because frankly, it just really doesn't matter that much. We don't need to overcomplicate it that much, but fiber is a type of carb that your body does not fully digest.
00:06:46
Speaker
So instead of it being broken down, it moves through your digestive system and can support some different things to help with just keeping things moving good and that stomach feeling good and some of those other benefits that we've mentioned as well there's two different types of fiber you have your soluble fiber and you have your insoluble fibers don't need to get into the weeds about this stuff they have certain different benefits and as long as you're eating couple different varieties of fruits vegetables whole grains things that have high fiber you're probably going to be getting enough of each of these types so i'm not going to spend too much time on that because there's no reason to over complicate these things why fiber can help with fat loss i think this is something that a lot of people who listen to this show or after wanting to get leaner wanting to lose some weight wanting to maybe even just maintain weight Whether or not you're trying to lose weight or even just maintain weight, fiber can help.
00:07:39
Speaker
It does not magically burn fat. It does not replace a calorie deficit. You still have to be in a calorie deficit over time to lose weight, but having a enough fiber in your diet can make being in a calorie deficit easier. Having a higher fiber diet increases how full and satiated you feel after meals. helps to slow digestion, which if you've heard anything about GLP-1s, that is one of the things that it does and has been helping people with overeating.
Personal Experiences with Fiber
00:08:06
Speaker
So eating more fiber can help with slowing digestion, which is helpful to eating less food. It adds lots of food volume, which I've talked about on this podcast before. I'm a big volume eater myself. And by adding in high fiber foods, which are typically not super calorie dense, so things like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, you can eat very large quantities of food without adding tons and tons of calories, which make it harder to lose fat or even maintain weight. can make your meals feel more satisfying, and can help with stabilizing blood sugar so you don't have a bunch of crashes or have a bunch of cravings or different things like that.
00:08:44
Speaker
It can help with reducing snacking if that's something that you're struggling with. If you're eating more fiber in your meals, you may find yourself being a little bit more full and satiated in between meals so you don't need to be doing as much of the snacking. If you are trying to lose weight and eat lower calorie meals, you can add more fiber rich type foods to make those meals feel bigger.
00:09:06
Speaker
So adding in these high fiber things can do a lot for fat loss, eating things like potatoes oats berries fruits vegetables whole grains all super helpful when it comes to trying to make fat loss a little bit easier because if you think about eating 500 calories of say chips or cookies things that are very easy to overeat you try to eat something that's high in fiber 500 calories of that let's say 500 calories of potatoes or 500 calories of beans or 500 calories of fruit or vegetables, it's much, much harder to eat 500 calories of something like that than it is to eat something that is highly processed, made to be high in sugar, high in fat, salty, sweet, all those type of things that make it very easy to overeat. You don't have those same problems with fiber. And so by adding in more fiber, you start to just help with all those things and start to reduce the amount that you're actually
Fiber's Impact on Gut Health
00:09:58
Speaker
overeating. So improving your food quality, adding in some fiber just makes fat loss in general easier. Overall, this was something that helped me a lot and probably something that I didn't actually realize until i would say even just three or four years ago when I really started prioritizing fiber a little bit more, adding in lots of vegetables into my meals, adding in more fruits in between meals or even at breakfast and different things like that has helped a ton because as I mentioned just a second ago,
00:10:27
Speaker
I am a very high volume eater. I can eat very large quantities of food, but I have to find ways to do that without eating thousands and thousands of extra calories. Well, adding in high fiber foods, fruits, vegetables, whole grains is a great way to do that. So there's a lot of times where I'll have like for breakfast, I'll have a couple servings of fruit, whether that be like a banana and some oatmeal or some berries and some Greek yogurt or adding in some berries on top of protein, waffles or pancakes or having stuff with protein shakes. Like pretty much every time that I'm eating breakfast, I'm adding in some sort of fiber, some sort of fruit to help make that meal feel bigger. And then when I'm eating lunch or dinner, Same thing, I'm adding in whether it be some sort of vegetable, like I'll eat an entire can of vegetables or I'll eat a whole bag of frozen veggies. Like you can add tons and tons of vegetables without adding many calories. And it really bumps up how much food you're eating so that you actually feel full and satiated.
00:11:25
Speaker
after eating foods because if you're trying to diet and you're eating very small portions very tiny meals it makes it much more difficult so adding in something like some fruits some vegetables into your meals can be a game changer for making fat loss or even just maintaining your weight that much easier Second big reason why fiber is huge is that it helps with your gut health. So lots of people have gut issues. I feel like that's something that has become more prominent and something that a lot of people deal with. And fiber is one of the most important nutrients when it comes to your gut health. And there are certain types of fiber that can feed the beneficial gut bacteria that we have in our stomach. So our stomach has tons and tons of bacteria in there and they need to eat and they need to be fed by fiber. And fiber has a lot of good stuff that can feed those things the right things, which make us feel better. And again, I'm not going to overcomplicate it i'm not going get into the details on that, but just understanding that eating a higher fiber diet can help with gut health. If that's something that you're dealing with,
00:12:26
Speaker
might be something to consider. Now, there's lots of caveats with this because some people who have gut issues, if they're trying to add in tons and tons of fiber right away, they might run into some issues or you might find certain high fiber type of foods that you don't do well with. So some of this is going to be trial and error.
00:12:42
Speaker
As a general overarching recommendation, adding in more fiber is typically going to be good for gut health.
The Longevity of High Fiber Diets
00:12:49
Speaker
And then the last thing that fiber often gets talked about with is fiber being good for long term health. So there's lots of so there's some studies out there that have associated having a high fiber diet with living longer. And so it's not just that fiber is important for digestion or helping with fat loss, but it's just good for your overall health.
00:13:10
Speaker
So,
00:13:18
Speaker
better bowel health which can help with just keeping everything running smoothly and also just things like colon cancer or different things that can lead to issues if you don't have good bowel health so helping with weight management, helping with metabolic health, longevity, all those different things are connected with eating higher fiber diets. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that it's causation. Like there are some things that fiber does directly with helping with things.
00:13:44
Speaker
Most of these studies are more association. So people who eat more higher Fiber type of diets are typically people who are eating more whole foods, maybe those type of people that are exercising, paying attention to their health, that sort of thing. But I think checking that box and eating more high fiber style of diet is going to be helpful for lots of people with lowering the risk of those chronic diseases that we're all trying to stay away from. So if you care about living longer, if you care about feeling better, if you care about making fat loss easier, if you want better gut health, then I think fiber is a good thing to start to focus on.
00:14:17
Speaker
Practical side of this, how much fiber should you be aiming for? So as I said, typically 14 grams per 1000 calories for women, since they're typically smaller and eating less food, typically around 2000 to 2500 calories, somewhere in that range of like 20 to 25 grams a day is typically a good place to aim for. And then for men who are just typically larger, maybe have a little bit more muscle mass or eating a little bit more than females, you're probably going to be shooting for a little bit higher range. So 30 to 40 grams per day. if you know how many calories you're eating, multiply every thousand calories by 14 grams, that'll give you the specifics. If you really want to dive into the details and be a little bit more specific about it, you can absolutely do that. But again, I think somewhere in the range of at least 25 grams, and then if you're eating more calories shooting up to that 30 maybe even 40 grams per day is a good end goal to shoot from when it comes to increasing fiber it's probably not smart if you're not eating any fiber at all or not really focused on fiber right now and not really getting a ton of fiber in your diet to go from say 10 grams to 40 grams overnight because that's how you end up bloated and gassy and probably not feeling very good i think The better approach is if you are starting to focus on more of this, it's just maybe adding five grams for a week or so and then upping that over time to where you hit that end goal of 25, 30, 40 grams of fiber and just see how you feel. Let your body, let your gut have some time to adjust and build that up slowly in the same way that we like to do a lot of different things. It's the same way with exercise. It's the same way with building good habits. It's the same way with a lot of these healthy things that we want to be doing.
00:15:55
Speaker
Oftentimes going from zero to 100 not the best answer. And so building that up slowly is probably the better approach. When adding more fiber, it is important that you want to be drinking more water.
00:16:06
Speaker
As you are adding in more fiber, that becomes more critical to make sure that you are, again, able to just keep everything moving smoothly and feeling good. Because if you're adding tons of fiber without adding water, that could make for some difficult appointments with that ah porcelain thrown with that toilet. So you wanna make sure that you are drinking plenty of water as you are adding fiber because that could lead to some not so pleasant things if you are not doing that. And then again, just adding things gradually You might try some foods that are high fiber that you don't do well with, or maybe find that they just don't agree with your stomach. So finding which fiber foods actually do well with you is going to take probably a little bit of trial
How to Incorporate More Fiber
00:16:45
Speaker
and error. And again, like certain people may find that cooked vegetables feel a little bit better on their stomach than eating raw vegetables, or they might find that this certain vegetable feels great where this other high fiber vegetable does not really sit well with you. So trying some different things and just being more in tuned and more aware with how those things actually affect you will be helpful.
00:17:06
Speaker
When it comes to a list of high fiber foods, some high fiber foods, just people don't actually eat. So I'm only going to address foods that people are eating on a regular basis. So beans are very high in fiber. So that's something easy that you can start to add all different kinds of beans typically have good sources of fiber oats or oatmeal is typically pretty high in fiber berries so your raspberries your blackberries your blueberries strawberries any kind of berries typically have a little bit higher fiber potatoes or sweet potatoes have some good fiber in them anything that's whole grains is going to have some fiber so whole grain breads you can find whole grain wraps
00:17:47
Speaker
brown rice. You can find whole grain pastas, different things like that. anything Anything that has whole grains is typically coming with some good sources of fiber. So you can look at those. Lots of different vegetables have high fiber. Some vegetables have higher fiber than others. But again, that's one of the things that I don't really try to overcomplicate too much. I just focus on eating more vegetables.
00:18:06
Speaker
If you find vegetables that you like, add those in and you're going to be getting some more fiber. Fruit, same thing. Like Typically with fruit, if you're having fruits that have skins on them, so fruits that you can eat like apples, like pears, like kiwis, things that have edible skins, those going to be a little bit higher in fiber. But again, that's another thing that I don't really sweat too much. Like when it comes to fruits and vegetables, I just eat the ones that I like. And then if I know that if I'm eating vegetables, I'm eating whole grains, if I'm eating more fruits, I'm going to be getting more fiber in my diet. Another one that I think a lot of people don't really think too much about, but seeds. So things like chia seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds. Those are really easy things that you can throw into a protein shake.
00:18:47
Speaker
You can throw into some yogurt. You could throw into some oats like in a breakfast meal or anything like that. Super easy things that you can add in if you find it difficult to get enough fiber. Seeds or flax seeds can be something that you can throw in there.
00:19:00
Speaker
If you're trying to lose weight or even just trying to watch your calories, seeds like chia seeds, flax seeds, things like that might not be the best option because they're not really adding tons of volume or adding a ton of like fullness to your meals. But if you're struggling to get enough fiber and you also have the room to add some gall calories or maybe you're just trying to eat more calories, seeds can be a good option.
00:19:22
Speaker
And then maybe just some other ones that you probably wouldn't really think of that are pretty high in fiber are avocados. Popcorn is also pretty high in fiber. And then hummus, like those are three pretty good foods that are higher in fibers that you can start to add to your diet to get more fiber. So some practical takeaways when we're thinking about this, like if you think about just breaking this down into some simple ways. So if you think about breakfast, just some simple ideas that you can start to add in.
00:19:47
Speaker
as i mentioned before just adding a serving or two of some sort of fruit or even whole grains to your breakfast so things like maybe adding some berries or some seeds to a greek yogurt bowl or oatmeal or a protein shake if you're eating toast or bagels or breads at breakfast you could think about swapping out some whole grain type of products for those adding a little bit of fruit on the side. One thing that I've been doing a lot is protein waffles or protein pancakes. And a lot of times i will make this with whole grain flour, which is like 10 plus grams of fiber to start off my day. And then I top that with some blueberries or strawberries and I'm getting a good amount of fiber just from that very first meal and getting a good portion of that fiber that I need for my day. So lots of easy ideas there when you're thinking about maybe upgrading your lunch or dinner to add in a little bit more fiber, any kind of like Mexican style bowl or wrap or fajita or anything like that. You can add beans to those things, or if you want to add beans to like soups or different things. Those are always going to be good options. You could use higher fiber wraps or buns again for the whole grains.
00:20:56
Speaker
You could add a side of fruit or vegetable to your lunch or dinner. You could add vegetables to things like sandwiches, like bowls, like wraps, like soups, like salads. You could add in potatoes or some other sort of whole grain source like brown rice or something like that.
00:21:13
Speaker
When it comes to snacks, some good options kind of mentioned these already, but Greek yogurt with like berries, fruit is going to be good. Popcorn can be a good snack, protein shakes, maybe some sort of like veggies with hummus, cottage cheese and with fruit. I'm not a cottage cheese with fruit type of person, but that can also be an option if you are somebody who mixes fruit with cottage cheese, that can be an option. if you wanted to go cottage cheese with more of a savory thing one thing that i used to do a lot is use like whole grain crackers with cottage cheese i'm not a big like sweet with cottage cheese type of person but i like more savory type of stuff so crackers with cottage cheese has always been one of my go-to so that's an option as well i think just to make it super simple and to like boil them down and just some simple practical recommendations adding some sort of fruit or vegetable at each meal
00:22:00
Speaker
is going to help to boost up your fiber, adding some sort of whole grains when you can. So whether that be through pastas or breads or rice, you can add whole grains in some of those instances to get yourself some more fiber. And then when it comes to snacks, one of my rules around food is to either eat high protein or fruit when it comes to snacks. And so You can add fruits to your snacks options or if you're somebody who likes vegetables like raw veggies for snacks, you can add that too. I'm personally not that guy. i don't really like raw vegetables or eating vegetables on their own as snacks. But if you do, adding in fruits or vegetables as part of your snacks throughout the day can be another easy, simple way to add in a little bit of fiber.
Cautions with Fiber Intake
00:22:43
Speaker
Some common things to make sure that you don't do when trying to increase your fiber. I just want to touch on these real quick so you're not sitting on the toilet or dealing with a bunch of stomach issues when trying to add more fiber to your diet. It's just adding too much too fast. Again, just slowly build your way up, give your stomach some time to adjust and so that you're not having all these issues with adding too much fiber too fast. Make sure that you're drinking plenty of water.
00:23:08
Speaker
making sure that you are finding foods that you actually like and giving your gut a little bit of time to adjust those are just some of the basic things that you want to do so closing this all out is fiber the magic bullet is it the end-all be-all is it going to make you super fit or make you lose tons of weight or fix your entire gut health the answer to that is no but it is something that so many people are not getting enough of where i think if they make some of these simple little tweaks they will notice the differences not only in how they feel but just making them more full more satiated having some better long-term health effects so to me it just seems like it's one of those things that why not take advantage of it because it is really easy to start to do in the same way that like protein isn't the end-all be-all but there's some very practical reasons that we want to eat protein not just because it has amino acids that our body can't provide and helps us to build muscle and things like that but some of those other things that protein helps us do with not overeating or helping us to eat a better quality diet i think of fiber in a similar way like fiber is not the end-all be-all but it does have some benefits and it's going to help us indirectly with a lot of those things that
00:24:18
Speaker
so many people struggle with, with overeating, with having good energy, with controlling their blood sugar and not having so many cravings and different things. I think fiber is very similar in that aspect. So focusing on just getting a little bit more fiber in your diet to help with that digestion, gut health, cholesterol, blood sugar, fat loss, consistency, long-term health, all that stuff is really good stuff. Start small, build up over time. And I think you can get a lot of these really good benefits from something as simple as adding in more fiber.
Encouragement and Future Episodes
00:24:48
Speaker
That is the episode for this week. Pretty short and sweet with this one this week. Wanted to do this one here because, again, I think that it's just something that we could take advantage of that I know not very many people are taking advantage of. And if you look at the statistics around that, it's pretty evident that that is clear. Not many people are getting enough fiber and getting enough fiber has tons of benefits. So why not take advantage of it? So hopefully we're able to gather a few practical recommendations, something that you can start to focus on a little bit more. You don't need to completely overhaul your diet and eat 50 grams of fiber starting tomorrow, but just starting to make some of those simple swaps can have some good benefits over time. And so hopefully this can be a little bit of a catalyst for you. You can start to make some of those little swaps, some of those little things. and continue to build those things up over time and see some good benefits from that. But with that being said, that is all I have for this episode. The one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes as it always is.
00:25:44
Speaker
And i appreciate you listening and we will see you next