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#115 - Fat Burning Zones Explained, GLP-1s, Why The Scale Goes Up When Dieting
15 Plays1 day ago
In this episode, I answer real questions that cut through the noise and get to the truth about fat loss, discipline, and what actually works.
Here’s what we dive into:
- What the fat-burning zone really means (and why it doesn’t matter like you think)
- How to practically build discipline when motivation is low and life is busy
- My honest thoughts on GLP-1 meds like Ozempic and when they might actually help
- Why the scale can go up when you first start dieting—and what to focus on instead
- High reps vs low reps for building muscle: which is better and why it depends
If you’re tired of second-guessing everything and just want real answers from someone who’s lived it—this one’s for you.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Fit-ish Project
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. Before we get into the weekly episode, if you can leave a review, help to get this show out to more people, i really do appreciate that.
Introducing the Q&A Format
00:00:17
Speaker
But with the topic that we have for this week, every four weeks or so, every month or so, I like to do a Q&A episode, just questions that I get from some of you guys, questions that I get from social media, questions that I get from my clients. And so I have five questions to answer.
Weight Fluctuation and Calorie Deficit Discussion
00:00:32
Speaker
And the first one that is going to be about why the scale goes up, even when you're in a calorie deficit. I had somebody recently asked me about that. and i know this is a really big frustration point. So I want to dig into that a little bit.
00:00:43
Speaker
Do high reps or low reps build muscle better? Also do short rest times or longer rest times matter in terms of building more muscle? My personal thoughts on GLP-1s, these have been becoming more popular, so I've been getting more questions about this, so I'll dive into that a little bit.
00:00:59
Speaker
What people actually mean when they say the fat burning zone for exercise and does that actually matter? And then lastly, ways to build discipline, specifically when it comes to your fitness and health goals. so Getting into question number one, I had somebody recently asked me, why did this scale go up the first week after i started my diet?
00:01:21
Speaker
One of the big, big issues that people really struggle with is understanding and handling the scale. And a lot of people get really emotional about the scale, they don't really understand it. And it just has a negative connotation to it. But the scale is just a tool.
00:01:36
Speaker
It's similar in the way of like, If you were to measure something, let's say you need to measure something to like cut something or you're making something, whatever, like you need to use a tape measure. If you measure whatever you need to measure wrong, is it the tape measures fault or is it a user error?
00:01:52
Speaker
And that's kind of how I think about the scale. It's like the scale is literally just a tool. It tells you how much something weighs on a particular day or at a particular time. It's nothing more than that. It's nothing less than that. It's just telling you data.
00:02:04
Speaker
But people have this negative association with the scale for a lot of different reasons. And a lot of people have just struggled with that number and they get obsessive over that number. And it creates a lot of really big issues with people when it comes to losing weight and just their fitness in general. So the first thing I think to just understand is just how to have a better relationship with the scale and the big dilemma with the scale is that it can fluctuate even in a single day anywhere between one to five pounds sometimes even more just depending on if you're a person who holds a little bit more water than other people and so that scale can fluctuate within the course of a single day two pounds three pounds five pounds and so from day to day it's really hard to get a read on like where you're specifically at
00:02:46
Speaker
And so people freak out about this. And when you think about like what's good fat loss progress, the golden standard that a lot of people will say is about a pound a week. That's pretty sustainable. That's pretty maintainable. If you're somebody who does have some weight loss goals. And if you think about losing a pound a week for an entire year, that's over 50 pounds. Like that's incredible progress. So that one pound a week is something that a lot of people can strive for. And it's a good rule of thumb.
00:03:09
Speaker
doesn't necessarily mean you're going to lose a pound a week every single week but that's a pretty standard way to go about looking at weight loss sometimes it's a little bit less sometimes it's a little bit more if you have more weight to lose but one pound per week is pretty good so if you think about that over the course of a month you lose a pound every single week that's four pounds of fat lost but if the scale can fluctuate from day to day anywhere between one to five pounds You might weigh yourself on day one and be 200 pounds and you could weigh yourself on day 30.
00:03:39
Speaker
And that could be a day that that scales up a little bit because of a water fluctuation and it still says 200 pounds. And now you're thinking, I didn't lose any fat. And so that can cause a lot of problems with people because they feel like if they're doing all this work and they're not really seeing results, well then like, what's the point?
00:03:55
Speaker
But just because your weight says something doesn't necessarily mean that you didn't lose fat because those fluctuations show up day to day. And rather than just looking at the scale at one particular day and just deciding like, oh, like my progress is not coming along, like all the things that I'm doing is not working, you need to look at trends over time.
00:04:13
Speaker
So I'll look at the averages over weeks and sometimes even months to see if that scale is trending down, which is another reason why I like to have people measure themselves on the scale more than just once every like two weeks, three weeks, every month, and just do it randomly. Because if you do it randomly, you could just happen to hop on that scale one day where like that scale is up for whatever reason. Like you had more salt, you had more carbs, maybe you had bad sleep, you're stressed out. And so your body is holding on to more water.
00:04:41
Speaker
And then you've spent the last month dieting, exercising, doing all the right things. But you look at the scale and you're like, I didn't make any progress. versus if you measure yourself, let's say three times a week, you measure your weight every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and you have more data points to compare it to. Now you can start to actually graph that on your weight chart and see, am I trending downwards? If you're trending downwards, then you know that you're losing fat. You might be up on some days, you might be down on some days, but overall you should see a downward trend.
00:05:12
Speaker
And so that's your first tip is to measure yourself routinely and on a better schedule so that you can actually get a better picture of what's actually going on. But back to the actual question about why this happens. So when you first start a diet, you're introducing new stressors to your body, which can cause your body to hold more water. So a lot of times when you start a diet, you also start a exercise routine.
00:05:34
Speaker
And if you're somebody who has not been exercising, or maybe you're exercises or your workouts that you're doing are more intense. This causes a little bit of inflammation in your body, which can also cause you to hold on to more water.
00:05:46
Speaker
Other things that you're doing can also cause you to hold more water. So if you're starting a diet, you're likely starting to make better food choices and you might be eating more fiber. Maybe you're having more carbs. Maybe you're just eating more food volume in general, because if you're eating cleaner, you're typically going to be eating more food volume.
00:06:02
Speaker
You're typically going to be focusing on things like drinking more water. And so For all those different reasons, you could actually be gaining weight. Again, this does not mean you are gaining fat, but you could be gaining weight.
00:06:12
Speaker
Your body could be holding more water. So even after being in a diet for a week and exercising and things like that, that scale could be up after a week. It's not necessarily going to always drop.
00:06:23
Speaker
A lot of people will see a pretty decent drop within the first week or two, but that doesn't always happen. And some of the things that I just listed are some reasons why. And so when it comes to measuring yourself, again, you want to give yourself multiple data points to look at, but also a week is not a very long period of time at all.
00:06:40
Speaker
I don't ever change anything without at least two to three weeks of consistent, let me emphasize again, consistent habits, because another thing that happens is like, people will be really on point for like five days, and then maybe they'll get to the weekend, and then it's just like a free for all. So like,
00:06:57
Speaker
you're really on point Monday through Friday, but then Saturday, Sunday, like you just kind of go off the walls and you're eating a ton of extra food and you're wiping out that calorie deficit. Well, then you're not going to see that downward trend over time. And so you need to make sure that you're actually consistent.
00:07:10
Speaker
And when you have the data there, when you know how many calories you're eating, when you know how many steps you're taking protein, when you're measuring yourself on the scale like you can actually look at the numbers and you can be objective about like whether or not number one you're actually being consistent in hitting your targets and then number two if you are and that scale still isn't dropping and you're not seeing progress in other ways well now you can actually make some tweaks to put you in a calorie deficit to see the progress that you want to see but nine times out of ten when people are like the scale is not moving it simply comes down to they're just not in a calorie deficit because they're not being consistent for a long enough period of time to see those changes and so
00:07:45
Speaker
Those would be some things that I would definitely point out. And then the last thing that I would say when it comes to just measuring progress in general, using the scale can be helpful for sure. And I think it's part of a good plan, kind of depending on where your goals are at and just where you're at within your weight loss journey. Using the scale can be helpful to see if you are making progress.
00:08:03
Speaker
But you also want to look at other things as well. Have some other markers to... see if you are losing weight. So like if your clothes are fitting better, if you are losing inches like on your waist and other body parts, that's a good sign.
00:08:15
Speaker
Progress picks are really good because now you're actually looking at the whole picture rather than just using this one particular thing to measure not whether you are making progress because that scale could stay the same for and entire week. It could stay the same for multiple weeks, but you could notice that, oh, my clothes are fitting better and you're not really seeing that show up on the scale because of those fluctuations with the water.
00:08:36
Speaker
But like if your clothes are fitting better, that's a good sign that you're losing fat, maybe building some muscle. And so while that scale weight isn't necessarily going down, you are making the changes and you're going to see those changes that you actually want to see.
00:08:48
Speaker
And so don't get too hung up on what that number says. Yes, it can be helpful, but don't hyper focus on that and definitely don't let it start to dictate your actions and be something that gets you super emotional.
Muscle Building Techniques
00:08:58
Speaker
The more that you can get a more comfortable and positive relationship with the scale, the easier that this whole process becomes.
00:09:07
Speaker
Question number two, I lift three to four times per week and I'm really wanting to maximize building as much muscle as possible. So I'm wondering whether low reps or high reps build muscle better.
00:09:18
Speaker
Part two of this question is do rest times actually matter for building muscle? So the very first thing that I'll say is it really doesn't matter when it comes to building muscle, whether you use low reps or whether you use high reps, as long as you are getting really close to muscular failure.
00:09:33
Speaker
And there's tons and tons of different studies on this. As long as you are pushing your sets close to that muscular failure or all the way to muscular failure, you could use five reps. You could use 35 reps. It really doesn't matter.
00:09:46
Speaker
When it comes to the practical use of this, a lot of people will tell you like to stay in that 5 to 15 range for building muscle, which is typically what I like to do for most of my sets and for a lot of my clients. Now, there's some nuance with this depending on the exercises and things like that. But as a general statement, being in that range.
00:10:04
Speaker
works out really well. And the reason why is because if you have some sort of exercise and you're trying to go 25 reps, 30 reps, 35 reps or more, it's really hard to push yourself that intensely for that long. And so then you are not going to get as close to that muscular failure because you might start to feel a burn at like rep 15.
00:10:23
Speaker
But in reality, you could go another 15 reps. And if you stop at 20 reps when you really could have got 30, now you're not really getting close to that muscular failure. So it becomes hard to train that intensely with super high rep training.
00:10:36
Speaker
Depends on the person a little bit, but I would say for most people, it's really hard to maintain that type of training when you're using super high reps. Same thing goes for like low reps. a lot of people struggle when it comes to using lower reps. So like if you're trying to use like sets of three or even like sets of four, sets of two, things like that. like it's also a skill to just be able to lift that heavy. And so for most people, I think just aiming in that five to 15 range is typically a good rule of thumb, like adding in some of a variety in there is good, but I like to use the 80, 20 rule. So about 80% of my sets will be somewhere in that five to 15 range.
00:11:10
Speaker
And then sometimes I'll go above that 15 rep range. Like if I'm doing a body weight exercise or maybe I'm doing something on a machine or I'm using like a smaller muscle group where it's a little bit easier to push into that higher rep range.
00:11:21
Speaker
Then I'll use some of those higher sets or like if I'm focused on something like a bigger, more complex lift, maybe I'll go under five reps. So like if I'm doing a bench press or if I'm doing a squat or something like that, I might do a really heavy set of three.
00:11:35
Speaker
But in general, I think focusing in that like five to 15 ish range is a really good place to be for most people. The second part of this question when it comes to rest times. So as a general rule, I always say the very minimum, at least 60 seconds in between your sets, even better would be closer to like 90 seconds to like two minutes. And if you're going like super heavy with certain exercises, or you're doing like a more complex movement, like a barbell movement, maybe like a barbell squat or barbell bench press, or maybe like a
00:12:07
Speaker
heavy set of like lunges or Bulgarian split squats, you might even go like three minutes, maybe even a little bit more if you're like really taxing your system. And the reason why this is important is because if you really want to maximize building muscle, you have to give your muscles a chance to recover in between those sets. Because again, we want to make sure that we're pushing really close to that muscular failure so that we can really milk as much gains out of every single rep as possible because those last couple of reps those last three four five reps like getting close to muscular failure those are the ones that really stimulate the most muscle growth and so you really want to be able to push to that maximum intensity you're not taking actual rest times in between you're not going to be able to push that hard and so you're not going to be able to see the progress that that you want to see or make the most muscle gains
00:12:52
Speaker
There's a couple little nuances with this as well. So like if you're using smaller, less taxing exercises, so let's say like calf raises, maybe bicep curls or like something with your triceps, even maybe like some lateral raises or something that's a little bit smaller and not quite as taxing, you can use a little bit shorter rest time. So like for calf raises, for example, they recover really quickly. So like when I'm training, my calves are doing like some calf raises.
00:13:15
Speaker
I only rest like 15 to 30 seconds and I'll start my next set. Or if I'm doing like bicep curls, like I don't need three or four minutes in between those sets. I can go 60 seconds and I feel pretty good to hit my next set. And so that's one thing. If you're using a little bit more bigger, complex exercises, then in general, you're probably going to want to take some extra time to just chill out and make sure that you're recovered and ready to go for your next set.
00:13:39
Speaker
I think a good rule of thumb is just to typically just wait until you feel ready. Like your body is pretty good at knowing when you're ready to go. And if that's anything under 60 seconds, that's probably a sign that you are not pushing intensely enough to actually build a good amount of muscle. And so you can push a little bit harder within your sets.
Understanding Fat-Burning Zones
00:13:57
Speaker
Question number three, when people say fat burning zones for exercise, what does that actually mean? And is that important? So the outright answer is no, it's not really that important.
00:14:09
Speaker
A lot of times you'll hear people say like, do this exercise because it burns more fat or be in your fat burning zone when it comes to like burning more body fat, but that's not really how it works. It comes down to calories in versus calories out. And If you've ever tried to lose weight, you've heard of a calorie deficit, you've heard of calories in versus calories out.
00:14:27
Speaker
And that's the basic premise that you want to look at all this stuff with. When you try to get into these like minute details about like, does this exercise burn this many calories of fat versus this? Like you're just getting in the weeds and that stuff really doesn't matter.
00:14:41
Speaker
It's much easier to just focus on calories in versus calories out. And When it comes to that, exercise is a part of that, but you're going to do most of your calorie control or managing your calories through your diet.
00:14:52
Speaker
And so when you're thinking about this from big picture, you want to make sure that you're hitting your calorie target. So if you're trying to maintain, need to know how many calories you need to hit to maintain your body weight. If you're trying to lose, you should know how many calories you need to Hit that target.
00:15:05
Speaker
Or if you're trying to gain, you should know how many calories you want to hit for that target. But in this context here, you want to make sure that you hit your calorie target, you're getting protein and you're lifting weights. Then when you have like the types of exercise, which is typically like cardio in this instance where we're talking about like fat burning zone and things like that.
00:15:23
Speaker
It doesn't really matter. Like you can do higher intensity stuff. You can do lower intensity stuff. Both of it is going to burn fat. And both of those things are going to burn calories. When it comes to efficiency, you're going to burn more calories doing higher intensity stuff.
00:15:37
Speaker
And so from a time perspective, you might be actually burning more calories in high intensity exercise. So like if you're short on time, if you're busy, if you want to burn some extra calories, that can be a good option there.
00:15:48
Speaker
But low intensity exercise also burns calories as well. It just takes longer to do it. So for example, let's say you're running a mile versus walking a mile. Well, running a mile is going to be a lot quicker.
00:16:01
Speaker
but you're actually going to end up burning around the same amount of calories if you go the same distance. It's just going to take you longer to walk that mile than it is going to run that mile. And so all that to say, like fat burning zone is really irrelevant. It doesn't really matter. It just comes to calories in versus calories out.
00:16:18
Speaker
And so like when you're thinking about doing a certain exercise or a certain type of cardio, don't worry about like if this burns more fat versus this. You want to make sure that your calories are in place, your diet's on point, you're getting enough protein, you're lifting weights, and then any kind of cardio that you do is good.
00:16:35
Speaker
Like if you want to do low intensity stuff, do that. If you want to do high intensity stuff, do that. It really just comes down to what you enjoy and then also what you're going to be consistent with. From a recovery perspective, it matters a little bit, like when you're trying to diet and things like that, because if you're always doing high intensity stuff, that can be hard to recover from. And so that's where maybe throwing in some lower intensity stuff like walking or really light cardio can be really useful.
00:16:59
Speaker
But again, on the opposite end of that, like if you're really busy, then maybe doing some higher intensity cardio that takes less time can also be an option as well. So they're really just tools in the tool belt. It doesn't really matter all that much as long as you're making sure that you're checking those boxes of making sure your diet's on point, lifting weights, and then any kind of cardio that you're doing is just going to be a bonus. So you don't need to be confused about like fat burning zones or whether this kind of exercise is better than this exercise. Like make sure you have the main things checked off and then any cardio that you're getting on top of that is just a bonus.
Building Discipline Over Time
00:17:33
Speaker
Question number four, I'm really wanting to work on my discipline around health and fitness. Any tips on this? So with this question, I think it's important to define what discipline is. And think the simplest definition of this is just doing what needs to be done, even when you don't feel like doing it. To me, that is what discipline means. And so there's some ways that you can increase your discipline or to make discipline better. And I think, I guess, before I even get into that, understanding that discipline is similar to a muscle. It's something that you build. It's something that you can work on. It's something that you can improve.
00:18:07
Speaker
So sometimes people will look at like, quote unquote, disciplined people and just be like, oh, they're just kind of born that way or wired that way or whatever the case may be. And I don't think that's true. Like, I think you can build discipline and I think you can get a lot better with discipline.
00:18:20
Speaker
And so understanding and having that mindset, that growth mindset around like, OK, I might not be super disciplined right now, but it's something that I can grow is an important first step to just improving your discipline overall.
00:18:31
Speaker
But when it comes to practical ways that you can actually improve this, the first thing that I would say is just set up your environment in a way to win. And so make the healthy choice the easy choice. Remove as much friction as possible from actions that are going to help you be healthier. So some simple examples of this would be like when you meal prep your food, it makes it a lot easier to stay consistent with your diet.
00:18:54
Speaker
When you go to a gym that you actually enjoy going to, it makes it easier to be consistent and get in the gym. When you follow a good structured training program that gets you results and that makes your body feel good, you're going to be more likely to stick to those results.
00:19:06
Speaker
When you hang around people that also prioritize fitness and health that encourage you, maybe a lifting partner, a group that you ah lift with or work out with, like all those things are going to help to reduce friction and help to make that healthy choice the easy choice.
00:19:22
Speaker
The second important part of this is to pick and to clearly define the actions that you want to do. So I've called these daily disciplines or weekly disciplines and on other podcasts. If you've heard me talk about this, this is exactly what I'm talking about.
00:19:35
Speaker
Get super clear on the things that you want to do. And a big part of this is making sure that those things that you want to do on a daily or weekly basis are things that you can actually do. This is where a lot of people make a really, really big mistake is they try to bite off more than they can chew. And so they're like, I'm going to work out five times a week. I'm going to follow this strict diet. I'm going to get 12,000 steps and I'm going to do three cardio sessions. And it's like,
00:19:58
Speaker
You might be able to do that for a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks, but like you're not going to be able to just like fresh out the gate, just jump on all these different things and be able to just nail those things consistently. If you're not able to be consistent with it, then you're not going to be able to cultivate those new habits and develop this new level of discipline. So you need to make sure these are things that you can actually achieve.
00:20:18
Speaker
And so when you start out, start small. So maybe that's 20 minutes of walking a day. Maybe that's 6,000 steps a day. Maybe that's getting protein at every single meal. Maybe that's hitting a certain protein or calorie target or protein target or step goal. Like it doesn't have to be this overarching huge thing because again, if you're not able to be consistent with that, you're not going able to build habits. You're not going to be able to build that discipline. The key is to make sure that these are things that you can do.
00:20:41
Speaker
And then as you start to build those habits, you can start to build on those things and start to increase those things. And as you start to build the habits and increase these things and get more consistent, you start to build that discipline.
00:20:51
Speaker
And eventually, once you get to a place where these things do feel like a habit, you're starting to shift your mindset, you're starting to just cultivate that new identity as somebody who just does these things on a normal basis.
00:21:02
Speaker
that's when you start to feel like that disciplined person. And so now you don't even have to use that discipline muscle as much because these things are just habitual at this point. So like now when I go run,
00:21:13
Speaker
There's definitely some days where I'm like, screw this. I really don't want to do this. But more often than not, I'm just like, all right, this sucks a little bit. But like, it's just something that I do now. Like, I don't really think about it. Or when I have to go work out, like, I don't really think about It's not really a choice. It's like, I know I'm going to do it.
00:21:28
Speaker
It sucks a little bit. So like, I have to use discipline to get started. But I just know that it it's going to get done. Like, it's part of who I am. It's part of what I do. I'm just, I feel like I'm that disciplined person now. And that's something that I've trained my way up to be that way. And I've seen this with tons of different clients as well. Like they don't really think about getting 8,000 steps in a day, but then a couple months down the road, it's like, that's not even something that they think about anymore. It's just like, I hit my 8,000 steps. It's just what I do. Or like somebody who focuses on getting protein, like that was never even a thought in their mind, but now it's just like,
00:22:00
Speaker
I know when I go to eat, I need to try to get this much protein at each meal. And then at the end of the day, I'm able to hit my target. And that is what being disciplined looks like. So like from the outside looking in, you might look at that person and be like, oh, they can easily do all these habits. They're super disciplined, but it's like, they weren't like that in the beginning. They just focused on these things. They made a conscious effort and they made just a choice that like, I want to focus on these things. And over time you get more consistent and then that's how you build that discipline. And so It starts small.
00:22:28
Speaker
It starts with knowing what you actually need to do and then just slowly building your way up over time. And then I guess the last thing that I would say about this too is like there will be some times where like you fall off or if you don't exactly hit your target, the best thing you can do is just pick right back up as soon as possible.
00:22:45
Speaker
You're always one decision away from being right back on track. You're one meal away from being right back on your diet. You're one workout away from being right back on your training routine. You're literally just always one healthy choice away. So it doesn't have to be this like Big thing. You you like have to go and you know spiral and now you're just way off on your diet. You're not working out. You have to wait till Monday or next month or whatever to get back on track.
00:23:07
Speaker
You can get back on track within that same day. doesn't have to be this huge thing. You learn from your mistakes or you learn from certain situations and then you just get back on track and you just continue to build on it.
GLP-1s and Sustainable Weight Loss
00:23:18
Speaker
And the fifth and final question of this podcast is I've been seeing more and more about GLP ones and I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on these. So if you don't know what GLP-1s are, these are medications that people are taking to lose weight. So things like ah Manjaro, Ozempic are some of the popular names that you hear out there. And like these are just, again, medications that people are taking and it's helping them lose weight.
00:23:43
Speaker
So the first thing I think about when I think about something like this is like, there's no solutions, only trade-offs. And I think a lot of people are looking at these things like the magic bullet, like these magic pills that they can take in order to make them lose weight, but there's like no side effects or anything like that.
00:23:57
Speaker
And that's just not the case. Like there's always going to be certain trade-offs when it comes to medications, when it comes to really anything, like anything that you decide to do, there's always going to be trade-offs for those things. So even something like, let's say exercise, like,
00:24:10
Speaker
Exercise is a solution that has tons of benefits when it comes to living a longer life, living a better quality life, improving your mental health, improving your physical health, building muscle, improving confidence, like all these different things.
00:24:21
Speaker
But your tradeoff is you have to spend a little bit of time every week doing those things. For a lot of people, they still decide that it's not worth that tradeoff. I mean, when you look at the statistics only around, think it's, I want to say like 20% of people hit the activity guidelines in the US, which is 150 minutes of exercise per week. So that breaks down to about two and a half hours per week, only around one in five people are hitting that actual target.
00:24:45
Speaker
And so even though exercise has all these great benefits, a lot of people still decide that the trade off of spending two and a half hours, putting in some effort, sweating a little bit, being a little sore, like dedicating some time to that, maybe learning some new training protocols, things like that, it's just, it's not worth the trade-off to them. And so I think when people look at things like medications or even like supplements, they just assume that, oh, I can take this pill or I can take this thing and it's going to solve this issue.
00:25:09
Speaker
But again, that's not the case. There's always trade-offs in these certain instances, but something like this is very appealing to the masses because it has all these promises and People don't really ever think about what are the trade-offs that I'm getting for these things. And so I'm not necessarily against medicines or supplements or things like that, but I think you have to look at both sides of it in order to like really see it for what it is and decide if it's something that you want to do.
00:25:33
Speaker
And so I've listened to a few podcasts about these things. And I recently came across a really good post that was just breaking down this long-term study that came out about these GLP-1s.
00:25:43
Speaker
And so I thought it'd be interesting just to talk about some of these things that was mentioned in this study. And so The data says about these things, people who get on these GLP-1s lost about 8% to 11% of their body weight over a 14-month period, which is pretty decent. So like if you weigh 200 pounds and you lose 10% of your body weight, that's 20 pounds. If you weigh 300 pounds, you lose 10% of your body weight, that's 30 pounds. So not like a crazy amount of weight, but that is definitely substantial in
00:26:14
Speaker
The research shows that even if you lose like 10% of your body weight, if you're somebody who has excess body fat, you are going to improve your health markers. You're taking stress off your joints. You're going to see improved blood markers. Like there's a lot of things that losing just even 10% of your body weight can do from a health standpoint. So obviously that's pretty significant.
00:26:34
Speaker
The thing is when it comes to these GLP ones, two thirds of the people that came off of these GLP ones regain the weight within a year. so Pretty similar statistics to just the diets in general, honestly.
00:26:47
Speaker
And again, I think this is because like when you think about weight loss, the things that you are doing has to be sustainable. And that's why I'm so big on a sustainable approach and really changing your identity, changing your mindset, really focusing on making this a lifestyle and changing your habits. Because if you don't do that, you're not going to be able to sustain the results. And I think even with these medicines, that's another prime example of that. So the people who get off these medicines,
00:27:13
Speaker
two out of three people who get off these GLP ones are gaining that weight back all within a year. And that's not even to say like maybe those other people, that one other person, like they didn't gain it all back within a year, but they could gain it back within the next couple of years. Maybe they kept it off.
00:27:27
Speaker
We don't really know. But again, lifestyle has to be a big part of this. Changing your habits and changing your mindset has to be a big part of it, whether you're using medicine or not using medicine. Some of the other things that it said within this study that Obviously, there's some side effects that come with something like this. And the big thing is, was like stomach or like gastrointestinal issues. So people would have like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, things like that, even like some loss of appetite. And so obviously, there's some effects that go with this as well. And so you can't just overlook that. That's something that you kind of have to weigh out.
00:28:00
Speaker
With these GLP-1s, a lot of people see rapid weight loss. Not everybody, but a lot of people do. And anytime you have some sort of rapid weight loss, whether it's with medication or without, you're risking losing muscle mass, which is, again, why I'm such against like these fast, strict diets, like these extreme programs, because if you're losing tons and tons of weight, you're also losing muscle mass, and that's setting you up for some issues down the line, because if you're losing muscle mass, you're going to be lowering your metabolism.
00:28:29
Speaker
And you're probably not going to look the way that you want to look. Muscle is critical for looking a certain way. It's critical for your metabolism. It's important for just being strong and feeling healthy and all those different things. So we always want to try to prevent as much muscle loss as possible when weight loss is the goal.
00:28:44
Speaker
And so making sure that your strength training is obviously important, whether you're using medicine or not using medicine, you want to make sure that you are holding on to or building as much muscle as possible. Some of the other stats that they talked about within this post is that people aren't sticking to these things long-term. And so people will try these things or they do these things for a year. They go into it with this idea of like, I'm going to do this GLP one for like a year and then I'm going to come off and then I'm going to be all good.
00:29:10
Speaker
This is the same thought process that people have when they do some sort of like strict protocol, like they get on keto or they get on carnivore or they do intermittent fasting. and They're like, I'm going to use this to get all the weight back.
00:29:21
Speaker
going to get all the weight off and then I'll be good to go. But again, if you can't sustain these things, like if you don't have that good foundation of health and just understanding like protein and understanding calories and having better eating habits and just improving your exercise habits and being more active, the weight loss is not going stick. There's just, there's no way around it. Whether using medicine or not, you have to change your lifestyle.
00:29:42
Speaker
And then the last thing that they talked about was just the price of these things. And these things are pretty pricey, which I didn't really know. Some insurances cover these or will cover part of it. But on average, they said people spend $12,000 to $18,000 a year on these GLP-1s. And so obviously these things are pretty pricey.
00:30:01
Speaker
And think with any kind of medications, like there's always going to be a business for these things because people want those quick results. And they think if I can just take a pill, why wouldn't I do that? Or if I can just get an injection without having to exercise or change my diet, like why wouldn't I do that? So there's always going to be a market for these things.
00:30:17
Speaker
But again, I think it's important to just realize like what you're getting when you're using these things. And so to kind of sum all that up, I don't think this is the magic pill. I think GLP ones are a tool. They're not really a solution to a problem. I don't think they really teach you how to eat better. They don't necessarily like build better discipline or build better habits that last. And without those things, like the weight is often going to come back when the meds stop.
00:30:40
Speaker
And so if you're planning on taking a GLP one, just understand that this is something that you're probably going to have to take for the longterm. On top of that, I think since I've been a person who's been in that situation where like, i don't really come from a fit family or a healthy family, i don't would necessarily say that I have like great genetics, I was overweight for most of my life.
00:30:59
Speaker
And I've been able to completely flip this around and just like really embrace this lifestyle and learn a lot about like how to transform my body and change my relationship with food, learn to manage hunger, things like that. And a lot of that happened because I was just like,
00:31:13
Speaker
wanted to dive into this and just like really get to the root of the problem and like fix a lot of those things. And I think for a lot of people, that's really hard to do and they don't really want to do that work. But again, with that being said, like if you don't actually get to the root of the problem, it's really hard to fix these things for the long term.
00:31:29
Speaker
And so I think there is a subset of people out there like who have tried a lot of different things. And for whatever reason, like they just really, really, really struggle to lose weight. And so like for them, maybe this is like that spark that they need or maybe that catalyst that they need to kind of help them get going to get on top of these things and start to make some of those changes along with improving some lifestyle changes and continuing to try to do some of those things.
00:31:52
Speaker
that deeper work and really trying to like change some of these patterns that they've had for a really long time. Or for people like who are just in a really big health situation where like if they don't get this weight off soon, like they're really going to be struggling or they're really going to have some serious health issues with like diabetes or some other health stuff going on, then maybe this is something that they need as well to really help them get that weight off as quick as possible.
00:32:16
Speaker
But I think I'm in the camp of like, try as much as possible before you jump into like using medicines or GLP ones and really try to change your lifestyle, change your habits, change your identity, really work on these things and spend some time on these things too. It's like, I didn't make this transformation in a couple of months or even a year. Like it took multiple years to get to a point where like now this stuff feels really easy.
00:32:37
Speaker
And so, yeah, I guess that's kind of where I'm at with, with GLP ones and in my thought process in that whole thing.
Engagement and Coaching Opportunities
00:32:43
Speaker
But obviously, you know, I'm not the most educated person on these things. I'm not a doctor or anything like that. So weigh it out for yourself. Talk to professionals who really understand these things, but also just like take a look at yourself and where you're at and what you really want to get out of these things before you make a big decision like this.
00:33:00
Speaker
And with that being said, that is the podcast for this week. Five questions all answered. If you want some questions answered in the future, you can always shoot me a message on Instagram and just let me know. I always like diving a little bit deeper and getting a little bit more detailed on these questions.
00:33:15
Speaker
So if you want me to answer a question in a future podcast, just shoot me a message. Other thing before I hop off, just one-on-one coaching. If that's something that you're interested in, you want a little bit of help with your fitness goals or weight loss goals, you can always check the link in the caption for that or the link in the show notes for that. And with that being said, i appreciate you listening and we will see you next