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Let's have a convo on some unpopular truths about fat loss! How much do genetics matter? What roles do exercise and nutrition play? Where do we actually burn the most calories? How much exercise is too much? When does our metabolism slow down? And so many more. This episode is meant to shed some light on common areas we tend to blame a lack of progress on and what we can do about them!
To try a free week of my signature Fit for Hiking program to get you fit from the trails (gym AND at-home options) start HERE.
To try a free week of my signature Fit for Hiking program to get you fit from the trails (gym AND at-home options) start HERE.
For next level fat loss strategies, hormone/gut health help, serious performance goals and unparalleled support, apply for Mountain Metabolic coaching. Learn more HERE.
For more free wellness resources, hiking/travel guides, and other blog posts, check out my website HERE.
What is Fit for Hiking?
Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. 1s What is up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. Man, I'm coming off of the most relaxing weekend. This past weekend we literally did nothing like no social events. Hardly left the house. I think we went for a walk. We went to the gym. Other than that, we stayed home. We got caught up on some house stuff. I read a whole lot. It was so nice. As someone who has been like a chronic, um. On the go type of individual. Those type of weekends are kind of hard for me from a mental standpoint. I always feel like I'm wasting my time or I'm not active enough. I'm not doing something interesting enough. I need to be doing like an epic adventure, or I need to be doing something super productive or working. Um, and I've really been working on shifting my mindset around that to really enjoy rest and like actually pursue seasons of intentional rest. And I think winter is a great time to do that, because in general, I'm not as much of a winter sport girl as I am, you know, summertime adventures, hiking, things like that. So it kind of is a natural time for me to just rest and be a bit of a homebody. But like I said, I've always struggled with that and really trying to lean into that this year, and it's been a bit uncomfortable. But I'm finding that I actually really enjoy weekends like that, and we're actually leaving for a six week long stint in Guatemala coming up this next week, we leave, so I know that things are going to get busier, I'm going to be more active. I'm going to be around people a lot. Um, we go every year for, you know, certain amount of time in the winter because I have family there. So we go stay with my parents and we can work from there. And it's just a nice way to kind of like break up the mundane winter months. Since we live at a pretty high altitude. Winter lasts for a very long time, so I always look forward to this, but it was so nice to have a little bit of rest and kind of leaning leading into that. Um, so that's just a little bit on the personal front. Um, and today, you guys, I'm going to be getting into ten unpopular truths about what it takes to get really lean, because I think oftentimes we see, you know, people who are maybe our, you know, hashtag gold body or super lean. And we look at them and we think, oh my gosh, I just want to look like that. But we don't necessarily understand what it takes to get to that point. And we have to really ask ourselves, am I willing to do what's necessary to reach that level of willingness? And I think in my early 20s, I used to be so motivated by the number on the scale and being as quote unquote skinny as other girls that I saw at the gym that I managed. I would always compare myself, and I had a really hard time. 1s Um, you know, just staying levelheaded and accepting the body type that I have. And, um, I just really didn't grasp that there are certain things that are required to get to a very low body fat percentage to the point where you have visible abs and you're very, very lean. And I thought that I was willing to do it all. And, you know, as I've aged a little bit, I'm 31 now. I have kind of accepted that. I'm not willing to do certain things anymore, and I am happy to maintain like a normal body fat percentage as long as I'm fit, healthy, feel comfortable in my clothes, confident in my body. I'm not trying to be the leanest I've ever been anymore. I'm not trying to have visible abs year round. Um, and that's just kind of what I've accepted because I want a more balanced lifestyle. So I wanted to kind of just go over what are the ten things that we kind of need to understand about what it takes to get really lean. And then you can decide for yourself, am I willing to go on this journey? Because getting really lean is not easy, especially if you have a little bit of body fat to lose in the first place. If you're a very naturally lean person, then this might might not seem like it's that difficult for you. But for someone who, uh, you know, has more body fat to lose, it is going to be a big commitment. So let's get into these ten Unpopular Truths about getting Really lame. So number one is that your metabolism may not be to blame for your body weight. I think a lot of times we're so quick to just be like, I have a slow metabolism. And I definitely fell into this category because I've always been a little bit, you know, of a larger person than my sister, and she's always just been so skinny, so lean. And, um, I've always had to work a lot harder. And I always would just say, well, she has a much better metabolism than me. And, um, the reality is your metabolism is not going to actually slow down due to aging until you're in your 60s. Okay, so while genetics are going to play a certain role as to kind of your set point, and we'll get into genetics a little bit more later, um, we can't just blame our body weight creeping up as we age on our metabolism. If you feel like it's because you're getting older, you need to really look at the fact that you're probably moving a whole lot less than you did when you were a kid and in your teens, and even in your 20s. Think about how active children are. I mean, I have a toddler and they never stop moving. I mean, they're just all over the place. They aren't just lounging on the couch all night like we tend to do. And if you think about how sedentary our lifestyle is as an adult in the United States, particularly where we're not walking most places, we go from sleeping all night to getting up, getting in a car, going to work, sitting in the car, then sitting at work all day and then sitting in the car on the way home, and then getting home and sitting at dinner, and then sitting on the couch and then going to bed. That is a really, truly what most people's lifestyles look like. Um, maybe a little bit of movement infused, but for the most part we are very sedentary as a culture. So the lack of movement means you're going to have a lower Neet, which is your non exercise activity thermogenesis. That number is going to go down the less active we are. And as we get older we tend to just be less active. We're not looking for opportunities to move our bodies anymore. And quite the opposite. We're looking for ways to conserve energy. We're trying to be as not overly worked as possible. We're trying to find ways to make everything easier so we can conserve energy. So kind of looking at that for what it is, being honest about that as we get older. And another thing is most adults are losing muscle over the years. We're losing, you know, up to 3% of our muscle mass every few years. As we get older, if we're not actively working to conserve that muscle mass or add to our muscle mass. This is why I'm such a big advocate of strength training. As we get older, it's one of the best things we can do for anti-aging as well as preserving our metabolism. So when we have less muscle on our frame, our basal metabolic rate is naturally going to go down. So when you pair a lower basal metabolic rate with a lower non exercise activity thermogenesis, our total output of energy in the day goes way down. And then most people on top of it are not really looking closely at their food intake. So all of that is going to really accumulate over time and lead to steady weight gain, whether it's slow over the years, like, you know, only £5 a year or, you know, even more than that, 10 to £20 a year, it can really add up. So instead of just blaming your metabolism, especially as we get older and saying, well, my metabolism just slowed down as I got older, really be willing to look at your habits, your movement and your muscle mass and ask yourself if you're just kind of blaming your metabolism. And there are definitely circumstances where the metabolism is a big factor, but those types of situations are typically more for women who are over exercising. And under eating. So if you don't fall into that category, then you really don't need to be too concerned that it's your metabolism fall. Instead, you can kind of look at the ways that you are in control over this. You can start working on adding muscle to your frame and getting a few sessions in of weight lifting a week. You can start adding walks and looking for ways to increase your energy expenditure on a daily basis. You have control over that, so you can't just blame your metabolism and call it a day, right? Okay. Number two and remember these are unpopular truths. So I'm sorry if I'm pushing some buttons today, but this is just keeping it real over here. Number two is. Um, a lot of people really look for reasons why they're not losing weight, kind of like what we talked about with the metabolism. Right? And they look for trendy types of solutions instead of actually taking a hard look at whether or not they're consistent with the basics. And I actually did a whole podcast episode on this very recently. So episode 40, um, it's one of the main reasons why people stay stuck, and it's that they cling to these like small minute behaviors such as, you know, oh, I need to juice or I need to cut carbs altogether, or I need to do this trendy weight loss thing. Um, you know, instead of actually looking at their consistent behaviors over a long freaking amount of time, we can't just assume something's not working when we are only putting in effort 50 to 60% of the time over a short span. Okay, so definitely listen to episode 40 if if this is kind of resonating with you, I lay out some of the main basic things that you need to be doing on a daily basis, a weekly basis before you go to the minute things such as like juicing or obsessing over fasting or cold plunging or, you know, taking all the right supplements. Okay, mastering the basics first before you start majoring in the minors or saying that things just don't work for you. Number three is that fat loss has so much more to do with nutrition than most people think or want to admit. So I definitely recommend listening to episode 29 if you're someone who really relies heavily on exercise for fat loss efforts. Um, it really, truly will keep you spinning your wheels if all you're focusing on is burning calories, burning calories, burning calories because your output for calorie burn through exercise is going to end up being so much lower than you think, so much lower than these like, calculators are going to spew out at you, and it's going to lower over time as your body adapts. Our bodies are very adaptive, so it's going to adapt to the energy output. And slowly that number is going to kind of go down. So really what we want to do is focus on our exercise for shaping the body, for creating muscle mass, for creating that muscle tone. There's a lot of people like to say, um, metabolic health, mental health, physical health, getting in shape for the activities you love, feeling good, going on hikes, feeling good, going on runs, whatever it is that you're passionate about. And then use your nutrition to manipulate body size. Okay, so I've said this before and I'll say it again, you can do the exact same workout regimen as someone, and they could gain weight and you could lose weight depending on the quantity of your food intake. Okay. So really there are no such thing as fat burning workouts. All workouts are going to do is help you kind of work towards gaining some muscle, build your health, build your strength, shape your body. But if we're all we're focusing on is that calorie burn, we're going to stay very stuck and very frustrated unless we're willing to also look at our food intake. It is so much more effective to really look closely at monitoring our food intake and manipulating that, versus trying to burn calories in and out. Exercise a poor diet. Number four is most people don't have the support they need to actually make long term fat loss happen and really sustain the results. Ultimately, because a lot of people can lose weight and then give it a few months and they've gained it all back. So weight loss really, truly is not that impressive unless we can sustain it, because that is the hard work that shows me that you've changed your habits, you've changed your mindset, and you haven't just done this quick fix effort for many years. I would lose 5 to £10, and then I would promptly gain it back because I did not have the right mindset or the right tools to sustain that loss. So most people need a lot of support. It's tough to do it on our own without creating behavior change and without having support. If you don't have people in your corner who are holding you truly accountable, instead of just telling you what you want to hear or like, kind of prompting you to go along with what they want to do in that moment, then you're going to struggle. This is where having a coach who is unbiased and not a part of your closed social circle is so helpful. And this is why, as a coach, I don't like to work with people that I know really, really well. Like I would never work with a family member or like one of my best friends because I'm not the right person to provide that kind of support in an unbiased way. And it's not going to go well in the same way you have in your spouse to provide you accountability. You're going to be so mad at them if there's trying to wake you up in the morning and get you up and telling you that you need to go work out, right, that's going to hit a little different than if you have a unbiased coach who you have hired, who you are paying to help you. And also, the more you pay, the more you pay attention. This is so true. You guys in so many areas, not just fitness, but even in like. Business development, any sort of thing you're trying to learn or work on. When you put money towards it, you're investing in yourself and you take it so much more seriously. I did so many like freebie courses and, you know, bought or got these like free PDFs, or we listen to podcasts and things like that. When I was working on building my business. But nothing transformed my business like when I made a big investment, I invested like nine grand in coaching specifically to help me build my business. There was so much accountability. There was great support. They were personalizing how they were helping me build things around my current brand and what I was already doing, and it hurt me physically to invest that. But that is the catalyst for so much growth and so much, um, you know, business development on my end, I became such a better equipped business owner and it's because I made that investment. I was paying so much more attention. I was doing the things I was showing up for the calls because I had invested in it. I wasn't going to squander that investment and not and not do the work afterwards. In the same way, when we hire a coach, we're going to do the stuff because we have put money on the line and we know that we don't want to waste it. We want to show up and rise to the occasion. So if you're someone who always looks for like freebie things or is always jumping on the next like free Pinterest workout or Instagram workout and you're not seeing progress, I highly recommend getting real with yourself and investing in a coach who can give you the tools and accountability and support and personalization to move you forward. And then you can go on your own. So much better to invest on the front end, figure out what the heck you're doing and how to succeed, and then take the reins for yourself after a few months. 1s And this is why we have metabolic coaching, because people see so much better results when they actually have someone checking in with them, and when they have that support and accountability when they've invested. So. As always, check the link in the show notes if you want to apply for coaching and get some seriously hands on and personalized support. 1s Okay. Number five, uh, our unpopular choice about getting really lean is that each new level of leanness is going to require more of you. Okay, I'm going to say that again, each new level of leanness. I'm not sure if that's a word or not, but it will require more of you. New level. New double is what I like to say and remind myself of. Every time we level up, it's going to require more of us. It's going to require more sacrifice, more precision, more mental energy, more physical energy. We can't expect different results or leveling up our results without also leveling up our efforts. Right? So while it might be easy to lose weight initially, maybe lose those first 10 to £20 if if that's something that you're working towards, you can adjust a few things. You can, you know, start implementing some basic healthy habits. But over time, if you want to get leaner and leaner and leaner, like I'm talking, you know, bodybuilder lean like if for me personally, if I were to go from where I am right now, where I'm like relatively lean, I'm not like super cut. Um, but I'm happy with my weight and I feel fairly lean and comfortable in my clothes. If I were to try to compete in a bodybuilding competition right now and get to the point where I have extremely visible abs, I'm, you know, creeping down into really low body fat percentage territory, that's going to require a whole lot more of me than what I'm doing right now to maintain my weight. Right. I would have to increase my workout sessions. I would have to get seriously intense with like weighing and tracking my food, increasing my protein to even higher than I am right now. Tracking my need, adding in some cardio. I'm not going to just be able to do what I've been doing and expect a different result. So we have to kind of decide what level of leanness am I content with? Because yes, like right now I could get leaner. I could be looking like some of these Instagram fitness models who look amazing. And there's so lean. But is that something I want to do as a. Mom and business owner at age 31. And I just want to have a balanced life. And my goal is not visible abs right now. My goal is maintaining my health, my goals, being able to carry my daughter up a mountain and feel strong doing it. I want to be comfortable in my clothes and maintain my weight with ease, instead of trying to kill myself to try to achieve, you know, a 10% body fat percentage. Um, so really look closely at am I willing to level up and is it worth it to me? What am I content with? What's good enough for me that I will be happy? Um, and content with with the level of leanness that I'm achieving? 1s Um, and, you know, am I willing to be semi restrictive for a lot of the time in order to maintain a six pack year round? You will have to say no to a lot of things. You will have to be restrictive. You will have to keep track of calories really closely. You're not probably going to be able to do that. I would say very few, maybe like 0.5% of the population can have ABS simply because of some genetic predisposition. Most people have to work so hard just to maintain any semblance of that. Okay. Number six of our unpopular truths is that tracking food intake for a period of time is necessary for most people when fat loss is the goal. 1s So I know that tracking can be a bit taboo. And for some people it is very triggering because maybe they have a history of disordered eating. Maybe they have become super sucked into tracking in a way that it became really mentally unhealthy. Um, but for someone who's maybe never tracked before, this is the person I'm talking about. If you've never really paid attention to your food intake and you kind of just mindlessly eat. Then having some idea of the amount of food that you're putting in your body is going to be necessary, because otherwise, we really have no idea what at that point is and how to manipulate our calories based on that. And I'm not saying this is something you need to do forever, but if we never bring awareness around what our typical intake looks like, it's going to be very hard. I have gone through seasons of tracking and then I've backed off. Right now I'm not tracking at all, but every now and then I'll track again for just a few days because it's really helpful for me to see what are my baseline calories right now. Like, what's a typical day look like for me? And if it's really, really high, then I know, okay, this is maybe why I've been feeling a little extra fluffy the last few days. Maybe I need to back off a little bit, or sometimes it's the opposite. And I realize, man, this may be why I've been not feeling my best in my workouts. Maybe not crushing it on my hikes the way I'm like under feeding. I'm not getting nearly enough carbohydrates, nearly enough calories. And during different seasons of life, of different stress, different weather, seasons, even, we're going to have an ebb and flow. So it's helpful to bring some awareness to that. And typically most people, research shows that we can underestimate our intake by up to 50%. So that means that we're eating double the calories that we think we are. And this is often why a lot of people will say, well, I'm eating so healthy, I'm barely eating, I'm only eating like 1300 calories and I'm not losing weight. But when when researchers actually follow these people around and look at what they're actually eating and keep track, they're eating double that. Okay, so we underestimate our food intake so drastically that without really, really being diligent about tracking, we're going to struggle to lose weight and often kind of fall into that category of just blaming, um, you know, our metabolisms or saying, I just, um, you know, I'm just not losing weight. I don't know why we have to be really honest about every single thing that we're putting in our bodies for a season. And then once we kind of achieve what we want and we have an understanding of, uh, what the calorie and calorie out looks like, then we can veer away from tracking and move more towards intuitive eating. And some people enjoy tracking for longer. They like just having that awareness. Some people friggin hate it, and I totally get that. It is tedious. And that's why I say you don't need to do it forever. But if you're, you know, working out and you feel like you're doing all the things and you're not seeing fat loss, start tracking. It is the number one thing that leads to weight loss over literally everything else. So that is where I would suggest that you go if you're like, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, really look at your intake and be super honest and be diligent with it for at least a few weeks, okay? And not just like a few days on a few days off. I'm talking like, be consistent. Be really consistent, okay. 1s Number seven is plateaus don't mean that you're failing. They're actually to be expected. We're always going to hit plateaus because of how adaptive our bodies are. So as you continue to lose body fat, your body's compensatory mechanisms kick in, making it less a little bit harder. The longer that you're doing it. So this is why having a strategy really helps. Because this this concept called metabolic adaptation starts to take place where your body is trying to preserve energy because it doesn't want you to starve. Right. It's a compensatory mechanism kicking in to keep you alive. It's a good thing. But as you continue to lose fat, it's going to become harder to lose fat. Your body is going to slow down. It's going to try to conserve energy. People who have been in long term fat, fat loss deficits even, um, blink slower than people who are not. So if you are chronically underfed, your body is going to start trying to conserve energy anyway it can. You're going to fidget less. You're going to actively try to conserve energy whether you want to consciously or not. And even your blinking is going to slow down because you're tired. Your body doesn't have the energy to do these things. So not just staying in a long term deficit is really important. And this is why doing things kind of physically going into a fat loss phase for a bit of time, then coming out of it, going back to maintenance so that you're setting yourself up for success physiologically and even just mentally. It can be draining to just be constantly in a deficit, constantly in a fat loss phase. So it's better to rotate this and also kind of combat that metabolic adaptation and help yourself not feel so miserable along the way as well. 1s All right, number eight of our unpopular choices, that genetics can determine ease of fat loss, but not as much as people think. So this is another thing that I think a lot of times we place blame in genetics, and it's really just that we need to be accountable and responsible for our own decisions. Yes, there are going to be people who can stay so lean fairly easily, but those people are probably also active and they probably also are not eating very much. Um, they might just naturally not eat as a ton or as much as you are. And we cannot compare just based off of genetics. We don't know what the ins and outs of these other people's lives are, and we need to just take that on our own personal responsibility and say, okay, yes, I might not have the genetic lottery here, but what can I do with what I do have? And that is super important because we're we can only control what we can control, but we can control a lot of this stuff. You guys, even people with the worst possible genetics can come out on top if we set our minds to it and have the right habits in place. So again, going back to episode 40, really looking at those basic activities that you can do on a daily and weekly basis, um, the most important things that are going to move the needle as far as staying lean or getting leaner, look at those before blaming your genetics, and get really honest with yourself about how your, um, really showing up on a day to day basis. Okay, genetics are not going to doom you. And I think, you know, sometimes we can hide behind genetics, but it's also really empowering to know that we're not just doomed because of like, our grandparents or our parents or our family lineage as far as obesity. 1s All right. Number nine is staying lean once you get there still requires a lot of discipline. That's why it's a lifelong journey and not a 30 day quick fix. Um, getting leaner really does require a lifestyle overhaul for most people, and that's going to require continued sacrifice and discipline. It's a lot easier to maintain, and it is to lose, right? Because we're not having to create as much of a deficit. Simply maintaining is going to not feel as difficult or straining on the body. However, we still have to be mindful of the habits that allowed us to lose weight and how we can continue those without feeling super restricted over time. That's why taking these really restrictive paths to lose weight are not going to help you maintain it. Because if you can't do those activities long term, how are you supposed to maintain that loss? Right. So we want to make sure that what we're doing true is sustainable. And yes, you might have periods of of a calorie deficit. And that's not going to be sustainable forever. But things like a daily walk for 60 minutes, things like strength training four times a week, things like getting eight hours of sleep, things like, um, really focusing on stress management activities, things like getting 100oz of water a day, those activities you can do every single day for the rest of your life. And they're not restrictive and they're not crazy, and they don't require, you know, anything super intense from you. Um, they're just going to take some practice because yes, they are simple, but that doesn't mean that they're easy to implement. So, um, definitely not just focusing on the fat loss phase, thinking about what happens after this. Right? Do I have an exit strategy? How am I maintaining this? Is what I'm doing maintainable at all? And if it's not, then I would say it's probably not the best approach for fat loss. And number ten, you cannot exercise excessive food intake or an extremely high stress load. We really have to look at our health holistically instead of just compartmentalizing and saying, well, I'm working out seven days a week, so why am I not losing weight? Well, what is your stress like? What is your sleep like? What is your food intake like? What is your protein intake like? So many different things can affect how our body responds to the exercise that we're doing. And if we're not optimizing our efforts in the gym through how we're eating, how we're recovering, how we're managing our stress on a day to day basis, then it's all pretty futile, and we're going to spin our wheels and struggle over time. Um, and I am definitely a testament to this. I spent many years working out more than almost anyone I knew, and still steadily gaining weight instead of losing it due to not managing my stress very well due to. I've been honest about my food intake. I would really restrict during the week and then kind of binge on the weekends. A lot of unhealthy habits around my food, unhealthy mental stuff with my food really being on or off the wagon. Um, and I just wasn't looking at things holistically. I was just saying, why is this exercise not working for me? Why? Why am I stuck? It must be my metabolism. It must be, um, you know, my genetics and kind of throwing those excuses instead of really looking closely at some areas that I could control, such as stress management and my food intake and alcohol intake, especially on weekends. So, um, you can't exercise those things. Exercise is a means to improving our health physically, but it's not going to be able to do all of the heavy lifting when it comes to losing weight or getting or staying lean. Okay, so those are the ten unpopular truths. Again, I hope I did not ruffle too many feathers with some of that. Some of these topics are kind of uncomfortable to bring up, but I do think it's important to be real with ourselves about the areas where we can take control and kind of give our power back to ourselves and say, I am able to handle so much of this myself, instead of just passing off the blame for looking for excuses. Um, when we take that power back, we can do some pretty incredible things and we can really surprise ourselves. So I hope that this has been helpful. Um, if you guys have any questions about any of this, always feel free to send me a DM at Ponytail Underscore on a trail. You can also hit us up at the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page. Um, I'd love to hear any topics that you guys would like to hear about. I'd love to hear your feedback on the show. As always, if you can hit it with a review and a rating that is so helpful to kind of spread the word about the show, let people know that it is a worthwhile listen. You can also share with friends and family if you are enjoying the content on here. All right you guys, I hope you have a stellar week and I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.