A lot of you are on the GLP-1 drugs and you're getting great results with it. And I'm not here to discredit the results because millions of people are losing weight and improving their metabolic health with it. And I also want to bring forward when we start to see that there are some side effects that might not be presented to you or discussed. I think it's really important that we fill in where these GLP-1s may be creating some health consequences beyond just, you know, obviously the scale loss is phenomenal. The A1C going down is incredible, but there's a few health things that we need to look at. And there's some new evidence that the GLP-1s are really hard on bone density. And so I want to talk about some of the information that is coming forward so if you're on those drugs, you're able to course correct so we don't lose that bone density.


And keep in mind that if you want to get off the drugs or you don't want to be on these GLP-1 drugs, then I've done a lot of videos on how you can use fasting and food to actually repair the microbes that make GLP-1. So, I'll leave those links in here so you can dive into those videos if that's helpful.


But here's the information that we are seeing that basically—and it was presented at an orthopedic conference—which is really—it was basically what the research was presented at one of our country in America's top orthopedic surgery conferences and it came out with this declaration that GLP-1s may be increasing the risk of osteoporosis, bone softening, and fractures. But the good news is you, if you know this, you can course correct and add some things in. At the end of this video, I'm going to give you five ways you can prevent this from happening if you're on the drugs.


So, what was happening at this conference and what is the research saying?. So, Dr. John Hornoff, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania, started really looking at what was happening in the musculoskeletal system with his patients that were on GLP-1s. And he had a suspicion that these drugs were affecting bone and connective tissue. And he looked specifically at the semaglutides. So Ozempic and Wegovy and the liraglutides like Victoza and Saxenda. So he looked at both of them.


If you're a GLP-1 expert and his team analyzed five years of medical records from more than 146,000 adults, this is a lot, who had both obesity and type 2 diabetes. And what he found—and stick with me through these stats because I found them interesting. They found that 4.1% of GLP-1 users developed osteoporosis. Now, that's in comparison to 3.2% of non-users, which doesn't seem like a huge percentage increase, but it's a 30% increased risk of osteoporosis. Specifically, he saw that it was contributing to osteomalacia, which is a softening of the bone. He saw increases in gout, which doesn't surprise me because as you're losing that much weight, all of a sudden you're getting a lot of uric acid crystals that are going to go into your system as your body drops weight. I've seen this even with fasting. And so gout can increase from that toxic dump from fat being burned so proficiently, and the gout rates were increased at a 12% increase.


Now what he said, this doctor at this orthopedic conference, and I just want to point out to you, is that this is observational research which means that it's by association not causation. So when you observe findings like this, you're not saying that this is actually causing it, you're just saying we see a trend here and we might want to look out for the trend. What they really need to do is now dive deeper into then and really study this in isolation.


The other interesting thing that I think we need to talk about is that there is a study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism that linked GLP-1s to higher fracture rates in adults. So, we're—I mean, it's enough—I don't know about you, but it's enough information for me to want to do a video on it and for me to want to advise you to do some lifestyle steps that will make sure you hold on to bone.


So, first I just want to point out like what would be the mechanism behind why these weight loss drugs would weaken your bones. And there's two theories that the experts are going off of. Theory number one is that you're not getting enough nutrients in. So, Vitamin D—Vitamin D is really brought in through fatty fish. So, this is going to be one of my recommendations to you is if you are on these drugs, let's make sure that you're getting enough Vitamin D when you're eating. And if fatty fish doesn't feel good to you, I would recommend some Vitamin D supplementation. Cataplex D is my favorite by Standard Process; I'll leave links for that in the notes.


But you also—what they're seeing is people on these drugs aren't getting enough calcium. They're not getting enough protein and they're not getting enough collagen. This orthopedic surgeon Dr. Hornoff said people are taking these medications and there's a tremendous amount of upside, but with that they start to decrease their food and nutrient intake. So you have to be very intentional with each meal. Think about your protein, think about collagen, think about Vitamin D. Like everything you put in your mouth needs to be intentional or the consequences will start to appear.


Theory number two is that when you carry less weight, you've dropped all this weight, there's not as much strain on your bones. So your bones have no reason to hold Vitamin D and calcium inside them. So they have no reason to be strong to keep themselves strong. And Hornoff's analogy is that he says when astronauts come back from space, they come back often with low bone density. There's nothing forcing those bones to hold on to calcium and so the skeleton starts to weaken. Well, when you don't carry as much weight, you also have that problem. So, you might think about adding a rucking vest when you go for a hike to keep those bones—put a little bit of added weight to because you've lost weight to be able to keep those bones strong.


Um, and additionally for women, I just want to point out that there's a 2016 review in Nature Reviews Disease that bone density in women declines rapidly through menopause. I think we all know that because of estrogen loss. Um, and it's particularly in the first five to 10 years of your post-menopausal experience that we see that rapid density go down. So if you are combining menopause with these GLP drugs, you may actually find that you lose bone density even quicker than the average person. So this becomes so much more important for menopausal women because you could put yourself—I mean I know I have osteoporosis in my family. I'm postmenopausal. I'm doing everything I can to keep that bones density up. Um, and so if you add that with these GLP drugs, you may weaken your bones and then you've got an osteoporosis problem. So something that we just need to bring to the GLP-1 conversation.


Here are the five things you can start to do if you are on these drugs and you don't want to lose bone density. Here they are. Number one is you get a DEXA scan. So know your baseline before you go on the drug. Your GP can do that; your OB hopefully can do that. But let's get a baseline because bone density is not easy to measure. It's not easy to figure out. So I want to make sure you have a baseline before you get on the drug. Okay? And this is especially important for women over 40 because you are going to lose bone density as you lose estrogen.


Number two, and this may be the most important one, is to lift weights. When you lift weights, what you're doing is you're actually putting more strain on the bone. A bone has to pull in more calcium and more phosphorus into your body when it has more muscle. Now, for our menopausal women, that's hard because you're not building as much muscle. You're losing muscle as you age. So, lifting weights, specifically heavy weights, if you're menopausal and you're on these drugs, we need to weightlift. We need to get muscle on those bones. And so, there's a Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist who runs a weight loss clinic and he uses these GLP-1s and he is saying that we should combine all GLP-1 prescriptions with structured exercise and he says that lifestyle factors will play an incredible role. So, we got to make sure that we don't go on these drugs and just assume everything's going to be beautiful and incredible, but that we actually are aware of where we need to backfill in with our lifestyle. And weightlifting is one of those places that we need to backfill in.


Okay. Number three, I want you to think about eating enough collagen and enough protein. Um, this one's hard because your appetite is low. But we've got to get some protein and we've got to get some collagen in. Now, good news. You can actually put collagen peptides in your coffee. You can put it in a smoothie. And the research shows that collagen peptides that you'll see in protein powders are really popular and you can get them at your natural health food store. And here's the research on them. It was a 2018 study done in Nutrients that gave 131 post-menopausal women. There were two groups. So one group got five grams of collagen peptides daily and the other group was a placebo group and they did this for a year. And the collagen group—the people that got the collagen peptide—showed an increased bone mineral density and improved bone formation. Whereas the placebo group didn't have that same effect. So collagen is not just for your skin, it's for your bone. And if you're on these weight loss drugs, put a scoop of collagen peptides in your coffee every single morning. Have it in your protein drink. You got to make every meal count.


Now number four, the fourth thing you can do is supplement with Vitamin D. So remember, Vitamin D is really helpful in the formation of bones. I've done a whole video on Vitamin D, how it's a pro-hormone. People who carry extra weight—that fat in their belly around their body actually becomes a repository for Vitamin D. Therefore, there's less Vitamin D circulating in the system. So as you lose weight, you should become more sensitive to Vitamin D. Your body should know how to use Vitamin D better because it's not storing Vitamin D. So actually a Vitamin D supplement becomes even more potent as you start to lose weight. And specifically when you are doing Vitamin D—and I just want to point out a couple interesting studies because a 2011 study in the Journal of Nutrition and Research found 42% of Americans are already clinically deficient. And so, and we know their Vitamin D—like food sources are not that great. I mean, they're like fatty fish. So, that's great, but what I've heard from a lot of people who are using these drugs is that their appetite even when they do eat is just not spectacular. So, I don't think most people are going to crave sardines. So, we've got to look at adding in Vitamin D.


Number five, add in magnesium and Vitamin K2. Now, this is uber important because when we start to look at exogenous nutrients where we are adding in different nutrients, sometimes these nutrients work in synergy. So, Vitamin D and K2 work together. Magnesium and K2 work together. And there was a 2022 meta-analysis that pulled 16 clinical trials with over 6,400 women and found that Vitamin K2 significantly improved lumbar bone density. That's your low back. So, and it was specifically in post-menopausal women, over 6,000 of them. And interesting enough, the food source that has the best Vitamin K in it is something called natto. It's a fermented soy food. It has a tremendous amount of Vitamin or K2. So, you might actually try to add that into your food.


I personally take magnesium every single night. My favorite to take right now that I'm loving is Standard Process's EZ Mag because it's whole foods based. And I like to just try to get everything in through food. And this is just food put into a supplement. There's no synthetic ingredients. So again, I'll leave links at the bottom here for you.


But I think there's something that we just need to bring forward that yeah, weight loss drugs are working. Incredible. Yeah, you can make your own GLP-1; I've taught you in many videos here how to do that. And if we're going to be on these GLP-1 drugs, we need to not just see the upside. We need to use our lifestyle to deal with some of these consequences that can filter in. So, let me know if you're on a weight loss drug. I'd love to know if you are experiencing—or you've had it—it's been reported that you have low bone density. Um, if you are really using your lifestyle to improve your bone density, put in the comments so we can all share it together. Um, but I'm always a believer that we use lifestyle first and if lifestyle doesn't fix a problem, then we go to medication. I'm also a believer that if we're on a medication, we shouldn't think of it as a free pass. That we need to look at, okay, now I'm on this medication to solve this problem, what can I do to bring in my lifestyle so that I'm backfilling in any consequence from any medication, but specifically the GLP-1s because the whole world is in love with them. And I just keep thinking like, oh my god, when are people going to start to see that these consequences if they are not addressed are going to be big hurdles in your health?.


So, let me know if that's helpful. Um, and I'll put videos in here because I really want you to see that you can make your own GLP-1s. But those of you who are on it, I—you know, I'm not trying to steal your enthusiasm for it. I'm just trying to help you understand that there may be some other pieces that you need to incorporate. So, as always, I hope that helps.


The following is the word-for-word transcript from the video:
* So, most of you have heard about the weight loss drugs, right?
* Like they're really popular.
* We have about 15% of women here in America that are on them.
* I find that fascinating.
* And we also know that there are some consequences to it.
* And so, we have people who are either all in on it, and that's fine, and we have people who are a little bit more cautious about it.
* And what I want to do in this video is really compare it to what I call a fasting lifestyle.
* Because in full transparency, when I first heard about these weight loss drugs, the first thing I asked people who were using them was, "What do you notice?"
* And this is before we knew about the muscle loss.
* This is before we knew about the regain.
* Like everybody was just totally enamored with these.
* And every single person said, "I'm not hungry. I stopped being hungry."
* And my brain was like, "Yeah, that's what fasting does. That's fasting lifestyle."
* The more you learn how to cycle your fasts and the more you learn the importance of breaking your fast and refeeding, your hunger just goes away.
* And so I was baffled as to why we would choose $800 a month over something you could do for free for yourself and get the same result.
* So, in this video, I want to break down the scientific difference of these two.
* And this is not about shaming anybody that's on these.
* This is not about convincing you to get off these medications.
* It's about helping you make educated choices so you can see what's right for you.
* So, first we've got to talk about what a GLP-1 actually is.
* So, GLP-1 stands for glucagon-like peptide.
* So glucagon is a hormone that stores glucose and so when—or let me—let's back that one up.
* No, glycogen actually is the stored version of glucose.
* So when your body raises glucose from food, if it doesn't know how to use all of that, the first place it will send glucose to is it will convert it into something called glycogen.
* And glycogen—most of it gets stored in the liver.
* When the liver's glycogen stores are high, then what it will do next is it starts to put that extra glucose around your belly and around your face and your breasts—like your booty—like it stores it in other places.
* When you get into a glucose deficit, when you're not eating for a while, what happens is you stimulate a hormone called glucagon.
* The way we learned it in school always was "glucose is gone."
* And so when glucose is low and glucagon gets stimulated, then that glucagon will actually go to the liver and say, "Hey, liver, release the storage. Hey, fat cells, release the storage."
* So glucagon's a really powerful hormone.
* And what these drugs are doing is that they're adding this hormone in, which is a big part of why you're losing weight on them.
* And with GLPs in your system—this glucagon-like peptide—it will signal fullness to the brain.
* It will slow down the digestive system and it will help improve how your cells respond to insulin and the glucose being released.
* Now what products like Ozempic and Wegovy, Tirzepatide, Mounjaro, Zepbound—these are all synthetic versions of that hormone that keep you full longer.
* And what's interesting is that it actually keeps glucagon up at a level that is consistent in your system for as long as the drug is there.
* I first want to note that the problem with that is now we've put the body in unnatural physiology.
* We are meant to have this GLP-1 hormone; it should get released 30 to 90 minutes after we eat and it will be released when you fast.
* We'll talk about that in a moment.
* And so the clinical trials—nobody can knock what the clinical trials are showing—that 15% weight loss in 68 weeks.
* That's pretty impressive.
* People are losing weight, but there are hidden costs with these drugs.
* So first, the first hidden cost is muscle loss.
* And what's interesting about the muscle loss that I want to point out is let's use this as an example.
* For a younger woman, if you lose some muscle, you still have the hormones in you like testosterone and estrogen, a little bit of progesterone as well, that will help you rebuild muscle.
* So, if you're in your 20s and 30s and you go on these drugs and you lose muscle, you still have all the hormones, specifically testosterone, that will help you build back up those muscles.
* But if a woman is in her 50s, 60s, or 70s, she doesn't have as much testosterone.
* So, the ability to build muscle back up becomes more compromised.
* So muscle loss for women over 50 on these drugs is a serious concern because sarcopenia is what they call it, and it really can be dangerous for the 70 and 80-year-old version of you.
* If you lose muscle and you do not regain it, that is a problem when you're in your 70s and 80s.
* So here's an interesting way to look at this: 56-year-old woman.
* She starts on a GLP-1. She loses 30 pounds and roughly 10 of those pounds are muscle.
* It's something that they're now calling sarcopenic obesity.
* It's a new term that came from these drugs.
* Now, she decides to get off of these drugs and we know within a year she's going to gain most of that weight back.
* But she doesn't gain it back in muscle; she gains it back in fat.
* And so she's now gone on this drug; she's had this experience where she got to lose weight, which is exciting, but she also lost 10 pounds of muscle, and she's going to have to fight like hell to get that muscle back.
* The long-term consequence of this needs to be talked about.
* So if she regains 20 pounds, she still has down 10 pounds of muscle, and this is one of the biggest problems that we see with the hormone is this muscle loss.
* Now fasting can do the same thing.
* When you go into this fasted state, it will stimulate glucagon and your body will go and break apart all the stored glucose and you'll start to upregulate things like autophagy.
* And we have evidence that at somewhere between 16 and 24 hours of fasting when ketones come in, ketones preserve muscle.
* This is an evolutionary design in our bodies that kicks in in a longer fast.
* So if I can teach a woman, the same woman at 56, how to do a protocol like I wrote about in Fast Like a Girl that is like what I call a 5-1-1.
* Five days a week she intermittent fasts at a comfortable level.
* One day a week she elongates her fast and one day a week she doesn't fast.
* So I can still teach her how to access getting that glucagon to break up the excess glucose.
* She's not losing muscle; she's losing fat.
* You don't lose muscle when you're fasting, especially if you are cycling fasting, especially when you go into longer fasts, and especially when you understand the principles of refeeding.
* So there is some really interesting research, and this is one of my favorite studies that was ever done on fasting.
* It's a 2019 meta-analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine and it showed that mild versions of fasting produce improvements in insulin sensitivity, in blood pressure, and in oxidative stress.
* The same claims that you're seeing in these GLP-1 hormones.
* Now, let's go back to this muscle preservation in the shorter fasts.
* Anything under 16 hours, when your body switches over and it starts to make ketones, one of the things it may do is start to break down some glucose from your muscle.
* It may feel like your muscle is breaking down, but once you get past that 16-hour mark, ketones typically kick in and we start to see that that muscle preservation starts to be prevalent in the system.
* Your body will not break muscle down anymore.
* Now, if you take that same fasting window and when you're done with your 17-hour fast and you refeed with protein, you are feeding those muscles and you are actually building your muscle stronger.
* I will tell you that I'm 56 years old and I have been fasting for over 15 years, doing it the way I teach you all to cycle it, and I teach you the importance of refeeding and I have not lost muscle.
* I still have muscle. It's possible; you just have to be intentional.
* So when we look at the calorie restriction with GLP-1s, we see the muscle go down.
* And my fear is that when we go off the drug, we've lost muscle that we cannot regain.
* And by the way, those of you that have been following my principles—I know there's many of you who come back to my videos, and I just want to say thank you.
* And you've been reading my books.
* If you've noticed that you have lost weight without muscle loss, please put it in the comments so everybody can learn from you.
* There was a 2020 study in JAMA that I want to bring your attention to—in the Journal of American Medicine—and it found that time-restricted eating alone, fasting alone, without additional dietary or exercise structure, resulted in lean muscle loss along with fat loss just like the GLP-1 users.
* But I'm not advocating for fasting alone; I'm advocating for fasting done correctly.
* And fasting done correctly means you are focused on the refeed.
* And so when you go back into your food: protein, protein, protein—30 grams at that first meal.
* We've got to make sure that we're getting 30 grams at that first meal.
* Now, let's address something that has come up over and over again from many of you out there in social media land, and that is the female physiology that changes the equation of fasting.
* And this was brought by Dr. Stacy Sims who is a popular health influencer.
* Stacy and I know each other; I brought her onto the Resetter Podcast.
* You can listen to that.
* But one of the things she's saying—and I want to quote her—is that it's fasting for women who are under chronic stress or fasting for women who are endurance athletes.
* If you are pushing yourself physically, if you are pushing yourself mentally and you have a lot of cortisol surging through your body, you should not fast.
* I a thousand percent agree.
* If you take a woman who's been under so much stress and you tell her to go on a three-day water fast, that is raising cortisol.
* That is not good for female physiology—more than a man.
* Women need to start to make sure that we aren't pushing these fasts when our body is already maxed out.
* This is why everything I taught you in Fast Like a Girl was about N of one—you finding your fasting behavior and you doing it in a way that works with your lifestyle.
* I have shared this before: that last year was the most stressful year of my life.
* I did not fast as long of fasts last year.
* I was feeding; I was refueling.
* I recently, last week, I went through a 7-day experience where I was doing webinars for our Fast Like a Girl certified coaching program.
* And it was very demanding on me.
* When I got done with those seven days, all I wanted to do was eat.
* And I ate because I needed to bring in more resources into my body.
* Fasting is a tool that is flexible based off of your lifestyle.
* It's not, "Oh, I'm stressed, therefore I don't fast."
* No, you have more options than that.
* So, this last piece that I want to bring to your attention is let's just compare the GLP.
* How do you decide if GLPs are the right tool or how do you decide if fasting is the right tool?
* Or maybe you use them together.
* So GLPs are the right tool if you are type 2 diabetic and you are not responding to lifestyle intervention.
* If you are severely obese and you have a BMI of 35 or higher and you can't get a hold of that, GLP-1s are your tool.
* I really love the interview I did here on YouTube with Dr. Lee Erin Connealy, who treats cancer patients and she has a whole longevity clinic.
* And she says when somebody is really obese, "I'm going to give you a little head start; we're going to do these GLP-1s, but I'm going to be working with lifestyle."
* She likes to pull people off of them within 30 to 90 days so they don't lose muscle.
* So in severe conditions of obesity and metabolic syndrome, it can be really helpful, but it should be used with lifestyle and there should be an exit ramp.
* Fasting is a better first-line tool for women 45 plus with metabolic dysfunction.
* If your hemoglobin A1C is below 5.8, this is a great tool for you.
* If your hemoglobin A1C is more in the sixes, then you might look at GLP-1s.
* The whole idea that we're giving these GLP-1s to people who want to lose five and 10 pounds—that is ridiculous.
* So anyways, just have to say that.
* Fasting is a great tool for those women that want to help address insulin resistance.
* And fasting is a great tool when body composition is what you're looking for.
* You want to make sure that you decrease fat, but you preserve muscle.
* If you are wanting that, fasting is your first-line tool.
* So, here are your five action steps.
* First, let's start with a 12-12 eating window—that's 12 hours of fasting and 12 hours of eating—for two weeks before you go any longer.
* So, if you're new to fasting, let's start with two weeks of 12 hours of fasting and a 12-hour eating window.
* If you need to know more, this book has it all in there.
* After two weeks, you're going to move to a 14-10: 14 hours of fasting, 10 hours of eating.
* And then after you get comfortable there after a couple weeks, you can try a 16-8: 16 hours of fasting, 8 hours of eating.
* Okay. Number two, front load your 30 grams of protein at your first meal.
* The magic of fasting isn't just the fasting window; it is the refeed.
* And that first meal needs 30 grams of protein to stimulate the growth of muscle. End of story.
* You can break your fast a lot of different ways, but if you want to lose weight and you want to make sure that you preserve muscle, make sure in that first meal there is 30 grams of protein.
* Number three, add resistance training in two to three times a week.
* This is mandatory.
* Everybody needs to be adding this in.
* Whether you're on the drugs or not, this is two 30-minute sessions per week of some kind of squatting, deadlifts, rows—something where you're pushing against a resistance that will strengthen muscle.
* Number four—this is an important one—is track your waist circumference.
* It's not just about the scale.
* We want to make sure you're not losing too much muscle.
* You might see the scale go down, but that could also be the muscles going down.
* So the scale lies all the time.
* And so waist circumference is an important measurement.
* And many of you care about belly fat.
* So let's make sure that waist circumference is—use that should be your mark along with hemoglobin A1C as to metabolic improvement.
* And then the last thing is, as I have always said, cycle your fasts.
* If you are a woman who has a menstrual cycle, this book was written for you; it was written to change the fasting game for women.
* If you're a post-menopausal woman, I do have information in here, or you can check out Age Like a Girl where I have information there as well.
* But rigidity is the enemy of metabolic health for women over 45.
* You're a rhythmic human; find a rhythm with fasting.
* But you'll see I've been doing a lot of videos here on YouTube about GLP-1 hormones because we cannot deny how these weight loss drugs are working.
* But we can't get so wrapped up in glorifying them that we forget the consequence that they create—a consequence that our lifestyle could bring back.
* And I am here to tell you over and over and over again that a fasting lifestyle mimics exactly what these GLP-1 hormones are doing.
* And it's free; you just have to train yourself how to do it.
* It's not as simple as just giving yourself a shot.
* So, if you have lost weight, let's play this game: I want to know how much weight you've lost building a fasting lifestyle.
* Put it in the notes.
* We're trying to keep a running total here, so we would love to see how many pounds you've lost following a fasting lifestyle.
* If you're contemplating GLP-1s versus fasting lifestyle, look in the comments and see what our community has done for free.
* And it's a lot more empowering.
* And like I said, there's a combination for both.
* But weight loss drugs without lifestyle changes—that's a recipe for longevity disaster.
* So, as always, hope that helps.
GLP-1 is a hormone produced by gut microbes that signals fullness to the brain, slows digestion, and tells the pancreas to release insulin.


The following is a transcript of the video detailing how to naturally stimulate this hormone through diet and lifestyle:
* Introduction to GLP-1: GLP-1 medications are used by tens of millions, but many do not realize they can produce the hormone naturally.
* Mechanism of Action:
   * It takes approximately 15 to 30 minutes for gut microbes to produce enough GLP-1 to signal fullness to the brain.
   * It slows digestion via the parasympathetic nervous system, which can cause side effects like nausea if digestion is slowed too much.
   * It triggers insulin release to stabilize blood sugar, preventing afternoon energy crashes and unpredictable moods caused by glucose instability.
* Natural vs. Pharmacological Change: Weight loss drugs mimic these hormones, but they represent a pharmacological change rather than a physiological one. Many people regain weight once they stop the medication because their underlying physiology did not change.
* The Ideal GLP-1 Plate: A combination of fiber, protein, and healthy fats is essential for natural production.
   * Protein: Aim for 20 to 40 grams per meal. It is a strong natural trigger for GLP-1 and has a high thermogenic response.
   * Fiber: Aim for 25 grams daily. Fiber feeds the microbes that produce GLP-1, serotonin, and melatonin, and helps the "estrobolom" break down estrogen.
   * Healthy Fats: Focus on a 1:1 ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats. Most Americans have a 20:1 ratio, which contributes to visceral fat. Adding two to four tablespoons of olive oil daily can help balance this ratio.
* GLP-1 Amplifiers:
   * Protein/Fat Combos: Eggs, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines), and grass-fed meats or dairy.
   * Legumes: Lentils, chickpeas, and black beans provide a combination of fiber, protein, and phytoestrogens.
   * Healthy Monounsaturated Fats: Avocado, olive oil, and raw nuts.
   * Fermented Foods: Kimchi, sauerkraut, and probiotic yogurt feed the bacteria that signal GLP-1 release.
   * Apple Cider Vinegar: Can be taken before meals to prime microbes for hormone release.
* GLP-1 Blunters:
   * Ultra-processed foods contain chemicals that destroy GLP-1-producing microbes.
   * Refined sugars and high-fructose corn syrup cause insulin crashes that kill beneficial gut bacteria.
   * Vegetable oils (canola, soybean, corn) and artificial sweeteners confuse hunger signals and damage the microbiome.
* Strategic Eating Patterns:
   * Intermittent Fasting: Compress the eating window to approximately 8 hours, allowing for 16 hours of fasting to spark metabolism and rehab gut microbes.
   * Front-load Calories: Eat larger meals during daylight (breakfast or lunch) when insulin response is more efficient.
   * No Grazing: Stop eating between major meals and stop eating at least three hours before bed.
* Sample Daily Plan:
   * Morning: Black coffee, green tea, or water with sea salt, lemon, and apple cider vinegar.
   * Lunch (12:00 PM): 3-egg veggie scramble with avocado and berries (30g protein).
   * Main Meal (3:00 PM): Large salad with mixed greens, lentils, and grilled salmon or chicken with olive oil.
   * Light Dinner (6:00 PM): Grass-fed beef or wild fish with roasted sweet potatoes.
* Common Mistakes: Undereating (less than 1,000 calories can tank the thyroid), insufficient protein or fiber, and constant snacking.