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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Hello, everyone. Hope you're well. Welcome back to the one day at a time podcast where we focus from now until bedtime, and that is it on our actions. You know, can long term plan wherever you want to put actions, guys, from now to bedtime. Anyway, five key points to cover in today's podcast.
Speaker 1:And if I cough, sorry, guys. I still got a cough going on. It's a lingering one that seems to have hit everyone in London apparently. First one, GLP one medications. Is it a magic bullet?
Speaker 1:So Popular, Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, a lot of buzz in the weight loss world. Okay? So they basically work by suppressing your appetite. Hopefully suppress a cough. They work by suppressing your appetite and this is often dramatically, right?
Speaker 1:So you say, okay, you're not going to eat as much. It's going to make it easy to get to a deficit and that's essentially how they work. Most of the weight loss comes from fat, but there is a concerning portion that can come from muscle as well in some studies, especially when there's no strength training or enough protein. You want to maintain muscle for cognitive reasons, for health reasons, la la la la. There's many podcasts on proteins that you can listen to.
Speaker 1:And GLP one meds typically lower protein and micronutrient intake in people that take it because it just lowers general desire to eat, makes it hard to eat something that's satiate you, know, like eating more protein makes you feel fuller. So when you've got like a drug that lowers your appetite, combine now with trying to eat protein that makes you feel full as well. It's like, wow, how do I eat more protein? Feel so full already. Then you might eat less.
Speaker 1:You might find that you would typically eat less protein kind of automatically, which is not ideal. That's where you should track your protein if you're on these medicines. And maybe micronutrient intake reduces as well. It's important to look at those two because it can be a dramatic shift in total intake of nutrients and calories in general. So what's the fix for this?
Speaker 1:If you are using them, making sure that your protein is higher, and if you can fit in one or two resistance training workouts a week. Sorry. If you can do that, ideal. You know, if you don't if you've never lifted weights before, have no idea what you're doing, go to the local gym, get the speak to the PTs and say, listen, I'm a beginner. I want to do a really basic twenty five minute workout or twenty, twenty five minute workout.
Speaker 1:I just want to do two sets and everything. Don't you push me too hard right now, but I just want to start really basic and then just go from there. So the second point from this podcast is, you can build muscle whilst losing fat. Okay? But there is a catch on this.
Speaker 1:A lot of people ask, can I build muscle whilst I'm at deficit? And yeah, it's a common question. So this is known as body recomposition. It is the dream to lose fat, to gain muscles. Your body fat percentage goes down, transform your physique.
Speaker 1:So this is achievable for beginners or people returning after a long time to like, exercise or especially weightlifting and, like high protein and stuff. So if you're a high 45%, you can go into a deficit, lift some weights, eat protein, you can gain muscle, lose fat same time for sure. But the leaner and more experienced you are, the harder it is to build muscle was losing fat. Okay, you kind of need to focus on one goal at a time. And there's a lot of people as well who are trying to run marathons or super marathons whilst trying to lose fat.
Speaker 1:It's like they're very they're contradictory goals. You should focus on one of them at a time. If you're gonna run an ultra marathon in in ten weeks, make sure you eat enough energy and carbs and everything to train well because fat loss shouldn't be a goal. Even though you might want it to be a side effect of this training, it's not good for you and in a sense you're going to feel burned out and terrible and you won't perform well. If you do want to focus on gaining muscle, eating at the maintenance or slight surplus is always best for maximizing muscle gain.
Speaker 1:And then obviously a deficit is needed for fat loss, okay? So this main gain in trend, trying to build muscle at maintenance, it does work. But again, it's a slow process, just like the fat loss progress is slow. Gaining muscles is slow. Progress takes many years.
Speaker 1:But yeah, overall, it's good. But if you are in the deficit, make sure it's not a severe deficit. Okay? In the app, you will not be on a severe deficit, you will maintain a moderate deficit. There was one person who wanted to go on a very severe deficit recommended by a dietitian apparently of more than half of the maintenance calories.
Speaker 1:And this is a this was a a male as well. And if you look at the Minnesota starvation experiment where they actually did this, fed them normally. They needed to find out during World War two what would happen if you're in a concentration camp essentially. And they fed them normally for many weeks, and then they put them on essentially a starvation diet, which was half of their maintenance, which is what this guy would have been doing. You know, this dietitian was telling me to do this.
Speaker 1:And what happened was some people had cannibalistic dreams. They had to take one person out of the study, losing his mind. Lost a lot of muscle mass. And what happened when they were told to eat normally again, they gained 180% of their original body fat percentage body fat levels. Because they lost so much muscle, the body kept pushing the hunger, hunger, hunger until they regained the muscle they lost during the starvation part of this of the Minnesota starvation experiment.
Speaker 1:So that makes sense? So the body's like, we've lost this muscle. We want our muscle back. So you are gonna eat buddy until our muscle is back. And unfortunately, you you tend to eat and eat and eat.
Speaker 1:The body fat goes on much quicker. And that's why the body fat percentage or body fat total was much higher, at the end when the muscle mass finally, came back. But it's it's it's a long process if you go that route, and there's there's a lot of negative consequences to it. So it's not recommended. Okay?
Speaker 1:Third point is why do, breaks from trying to lose weight tend to be like a secret weapon for some coaches and stuff in the bodybuilding world. Another cough, sorry. So these are planned periods of eating at maintenance, not binging, okay, to give your body and mind a breather from chronic calorie restriction. So they can reduce psychological burnout for sure, okay? Some research suggests actually helps preserve muscle and a slight boost to your metabolic rate by reducing fatigue from being in a deficit for so long.
Speaker 1:Improves your chances of sticking to the overall plan. Okay? You don't have to be in a deficit for twenty weeks in a row. They're not cheat days. They're structured intentional periods to increase calories slightly to maintenance.
Speaker 1:And mostly the calories increase come from carbs because that's where the main benefits come from, especially hormonally, to bring the carbs back up, go to maintenance, and you see all the benefits of normalizing certain hormones and reducing the stress hormone cortisol as well. And the practice people usually do, they test out, is they'll do so between six to twelve weeks of being in a deficit. So say you say, I can do eight weeks. Scott, I can do eight weeks. No problem.
Speaker 1:So you do eight weeks in a deficit, and then you'll do one to two weeks at maintenance and mainly increase your carbs. And don't try and push anything else too much. And then yeah. So you'll go back into another phase. So this is something that's commonly used and seems to have positive effects all around.
Speaker 1:So if that's something that suits you guys, for sure, just do it, and then, you might notice better. So protein. It's not just for bodybuilders. There was a discussion, doctor Ids, with with with with someone at a PhD actually, in nutrition about does protein cause insulin resistance? And doctor Ids wiped the floor with her, and she couldn't tell the difference between mechanistic study showing like, well, something should happen in rats with human outcome research, you know?
Speaker 1:That's the main thing. What's the outcome in humans? Like, great that rat study says a to b, but when you take in the full human body and how humans operate, because we're not really rats, obviously. Some people are. The outcome data is different, as you couldn't tell the difference.
Speaker 1:So protein, some people are demonizing. They're saying it's a trend. It's not a trend, guys. High protein, backed by a lot of research. Pepsi stays fuller for longer.
Speaker 1:Mentioned it before. It makes it easier to stay in calorie calorie deficit. It prefers it preserves muscle loss during weight loss. Okay? Women typically often under eat on protein.
Speaker 1:Okay? This is important. GLP one GLP one meds. Again, mainly women using these proteins essential. And one point six gram per kilo of body weight is the aim, which is what the app will put you on roughly depending on a few other factors.
Speaker 1:Okay? So just called an arrow off. And the fifth one I'm gonna talk about is carbs, insulin, and the fat loss myth. The myth is carbs make you fat. It's still going around.
Speaker 1:It's maybe dying off, I hope. It's not insulin that causes fat gain. It's a calorie surplus. Your body doesn't store fat magically from carbs if you're in a deficit. Okay?
Speaker 1:Low carb diets sometimes outperform in total weight loss because a lot of the weight is water weight loss. Because remember, for every one gram of carbs that's stored in the muscle as glycogen, it stores three to four grams of water with it. And this is good. It's hydrating. It's it's in the muscle.
Speaker 1:So you can lose a lot of total weight by, you know, depleting your glycogen, but that's not going help with your overall performance. It's not going to help in your overall energy and vitality either. Okay? Even in research, research shows that meals with different glycemic indexes So you know the GI, people are like, Oh my God, it's a high GI carb. It's a low GI carb.
Speaker 1:So recent research says, Well, even if you have high GI carbs, sugar causes more sugar spikes, you know? There's no meaningful change to short term fat gain or loss when calories are equal. So you can eat your high GI, low GI, okay? Maybe there's an energy difference and you notice, Oh, you know what? I'm eating certain type of cereal and it's crashing me after an hour and I've changed the oats now and I feel like my energy is more stable.
Speaker 1:Great point. That's a separate point from fat loss. Okay? And yeah, you should pursue something that optimizes your energy for the day. But some people notice no difference because they might eat the cereal with some other piece of fruit and some scrambled eggs or something and there's a meal of carbs, fat protein, and it slows it all down.
Speaker 1:Okay? Another thing about carbs to remember is cutting carbs can make workouts harder and make you suffer more, basically, especially strength training, high intensity sessions. If you go too low carb, you're going to feel really terrible in the gym. So if you to start doing high intensity and just keeping your performance high, you don't really want be cutting carbs. So the bottom line is on carbs.
Speaker 1:You can include carbs in a fat loss plan for sure with amazing results. Just comes down to personal preference. That's the part you have to explore yourself. You have to go and read the book of yourself. You've to figure these things out.
Speaker 1:Online will tell you 10,000 different things. These studies, they look at loads of other studies and randomised control trials, stuff like that, telling us the truth in our face. But you can always find one study that says, Oh, maybe low carb is better slightly. But when they looked at all the research and they do these systematic reviews, you know, And they show, you know, guys, it's a minuscule difference, you know, minuscule difference. So one study I was fascinated in, and I finished on this one was they and I haven't covered this before, but it's important to mention.
Speaker 1:They realized there was a big difference in fat loss outcomes in studies. They were like, well, how are some people losing like one pound and then some people are losing like 10 pounds? And they were like, oh, maybe they got certain genes. Maybe some people prefer to eat carbs and some people prefer to eat fats, you know, biologically, like they're more suited to it. So they did this.
Speaker 1:And they looked into it and they were like, Yeah, some people are more fat responders and some people are carb responders. What if we match the calorie deficit with their preference of fats or carbs and then maybe that's going to improve fat loss results and maybe that could explain the differences. And what did the study show? There wasn't a difference even when you did do that. Even when you are aligned more to eating more carbs or eating more fats, it comes down to calories and protein.
Speaker 1:And again, it's trial and error for what works for you in terms of energy, how you feel, the foods you eat, how they go into your gut. Again, there's all the gut research. If people are claiming they're real gut experts inside out. They're not. There's so many variables when it comes to the gut.
Speaker 1:Super hard right now to understand it. There's some things we can learn from it, of course. But in general, a lot of people are going for these like allergy tests and stuff, and all they do is tell you the foods you currently eat and what you're allergic to or what you shouldn't eat. And that's why people come back and go, oh my god. I can't eat any foods I like.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, that's what the test does. That's how it works. Now, when you go and eat the foods, different foods and go back for the test again, it'll tell you those foods, you know? So there's a lot of confusion out there with these things. So it's more about listen to yourself more, okay?
Speaker 1:And when you think of your day and you think of a perfect day, and right now you might be on a fat loss phase. But if you think of a perfect day, you know, the day involves you feeling, you know, full of beans, you know, energy, happy, got a bit of a, you know, what's it called, b tier step. That's important. You don't want be walking around with an irritated gut or feeling bloated, do you? So maybe having a Domino's pizza the night before, a day you want to feel great isn't going to be good.
Speaker 1:I can't remember when I did it. It like the day before I had a big training session. And the night before, I had a I had just come back to London and I had the Popeyes and a double chicken deluxe or something and fries and corn cake or whatever, and I had it quite late as well, it was like 10PM or something. And I woke up early the next morning and was like, oh, don't feel too good, you know? And I was like, well yeah, obviously I just consumed like two and a half thousand calories late last night, fried chicken, all this and it's still probably in my stomach and it's not sat well with me.
Speaker 1:And I know it doesn't sit well with me because each time I have it, it all feels great, you know? And I was thinking, you if I just didn't have that, I'd feel much better today. It's not about fat loss. It was nothing to do with the fat loss element or whatever. There was a lot of protein in that meal actually, but it was more so how I felt the next day.
Speaker 1:And so when we think about these days, want to feel our best. We have to think about the day before, what foods we know work well for us and what foods don't, day of not to eat foods we know, Oh, this doesn't quite sit well with me. Or like maybe you have two or three coffees in a row without eating and you start feeling jittery or something. There's a lot of things you know about yourself and you need to start writing things down like, When I do this and this, I don't feel great. It might not be a study that says anything about this, but this is your personal energy and how you feel.
Speaker 1:And it's important that we do know this part about ourselves as well. I can't teach this to you. I can't tell you, but I can, you know, be your own scientist and go and figure it out. So hopefully this podcast episode was useful and a little reminder for a lot of you. Again, focus from now to bedtime.
Speaker 1:That's all you can do, and we go again tomorrow. So track your food, get your steps in, hit your protein. And if you're gonna do workouts, one or two workouts this week, get them done, enjoy them, and you're pretty much doing everything you can for the better version of yourself. So happy days. See you tomorrow.