Speaker 1: Metabolism, that word that gets thrown around so often in
Speaker 1: the fitness and the weight loss space. You know, is
Speaker 1: it the thing that's stopping me losing weight? Is it
Speaker 1: the thing that's helping that person lose weight? Are we
Speaker 1: born with a fast metabolism? Are we genetically programmed to
Speaker 1: have a slow metabolism? There are so many products that
Speaker 1: promise to speed up in metabolism. It's a really confusing topic.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to speak to an expert who knows
Speaker 1: a lot more about it than I do, so we
Speaker 1: could dispel those myths and really get to the bottom
Speaker 1: of it so you could understand it properly. And after that,
Speaker 1: we're going to get a little bit in the statgic
Speaker 1: and we're going to reflect on some episodes. I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer that the more you know, the more curious
Speaker 1: you're becoming, the more questions you ask. So we've learned
Speaker 1: a lot from our past guests, but naturally that brings
Speaker 1: up more and more questions. So we're going to expand
Speaker 1: on your thinking. We're going to answer some of these
Speaker 1: follow up questions.
Speaker 2: I've been listening to the Joanne McMillan podcast, so I'm
Speaker 2: just curious what your thoughts are on faster training, particularly
Speaker 2: for menopause or women.
Speaker 3: There are so many protein bars on the shelves, which
Speaker 3: ones are actually any good?
Speaker 1: I'm Sam Wood and this is the Wood Life where
Speaker 1: we're making health and fitness simple. Let's dive into metabolism.
Speaker 1: Our next guest that I am very excited to speak to.
Speaker 1: She is the TV nutritionist, one of Australia's leading dietitians
Speaker 1: with the background in nutrition and psychology, Casi Burrell. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the WOODLFE and thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 4: I'm so honored to be here, Sam, thank you for
Speaker 4: having me.
Speaker 1: You are so knowledgeable and you've got so much experience
Speaker 1: in dealing with the whole spectrum of nutrition. And I
Speaker 1: thought we could really focus on a topic that I
Speaker 1: get a lot of questions about, and that is metabolism.
Speaker 1: What is our metabolism? How does it work? And these
Speaker 1: people that are saying I can't lose weight because of
Speaker 1: my metabolism, is there any truth to what they are saying?
Speaker 4: Oh, it's complicated, isn't it. It's simple? But it's not.
Speaker 4: So I'll try and explain it in as simple terms
Speaker 4: as I can. I would describe metabolism as the body's
Speaker 4: basic engine of burning, and some of it is programmed.
Speaker 4: We don't necessarily have control over it. It's the number of
Speaker 4: calories that's required to keep us breathing. It is heavily
Speaker 4: dependent on our size. So for example, males have a
Speaker 4: higher metabolic rate or higher metabolism because they've got a
Speaker 4: larger body frame generally, and the more muscle mass that
Speaker 4: you have, more what we would describe is being more
Speaker 4: metabolically active, so you burn more calories to keep that
Speaker 4: muscle mass active. And it's dependent from genetics, gender, a
Speaker 4: certain degree of our training loads, so athletes or ex
Speaker 4: athletes personal trainers will have a higher metabolism because they've
Speaker 4: got more muscle mass. And then about twenty five percent
Speaker 4: of the calories that we burn are controlled by us,
Speaker 4: so that comes down to the volume of food that
Speaker 4: we're eating, the amount of activity or the burn that
Speaker 4: we have each day, on top of what we would
Speaker 4: need if we were laying in a hospital bed at
Speaker 4: rest and just needed that certain number of calories to survive.
Speaker 4: So the average person, in my experience, has the resting
Speaker 4: metabolic rate we call it, which is the number of
Speaker 4: calories they require without any other level of activity. Ranges
Speaker 4: for a very small inactive female from maybe one thousand
Speaker 4: up to fifteen sixteen eighteen hundred two thousand for a
Speaker 4: large frame guy with a lot of muscle mass. So
Speaker 4: I think one of the misconceptions about metabolism is people
Speaker 4: believe or like to tell themselves that we can't change it.
Speaker 4: You know, I've got a poor metabolism. My body is
Speaker 4: not burning or working as well. And indeed, when people
Speaker 4: gain weight over time and have higher proportions of body
Speaker 4: fat or have hormonal shifts, certainly that does happen to
Speaker 4: people as they become less efficient at burning glucose over time,
Speaker 4: and hormones like our insulin are not being well regulated,
Speaker 4: and that can predispose us to storing body fat. There's
Speaker 4: a perception that the metabolism isn't working because you would
Speaker 4: take one person who could eat a certain number of
Speaker 4: calories each day and lose weight successfully a person given
Speaker 4: exactly the same number of calories, and yet they still
Speaker 4: don't lose weight or even gain weight, depending on some
Speaker 4: of those underlying factors, like how much body fat they
Speaker 4: have or what their hormones are doing. So indeed, there
Speaker 4: are large individual differences in metabolism and metabolic rate, but
Speaker 4: what I want most people to take away from it
Speaker 4: is that we all have the capacity to improve metabolic
Speaker 4: rate and become better at burning over time. And I
Speaker 4: would say that one of the key jobs I have,
Speaker 4: particularly working with women in their thirties, forties, fifties, as
Speaker 4: they've experienced that gradual weight cree and had some of
Speaker 4: the metabolic inefficiency build over time as a result of
Speaker 4: gaining weight and having those in pormodal impairments. My job
Speaker 4: as a dietitian is to help what I describe is
Speaker 4: rehab that muscle and try and get it better at burning,
Speaker 4: and then of course working very closely with personal trainers
Speaker 4: who are also skilled in that area. As I'm sure
Speaker 4: you would agree, your job is also getting that person
Speaker 4: better at burning with their muscle mass or the type
Speaker 4: of training that they're doing. So it's absolutely a misconception
Speaker 4: that people have got a bad metabolism because the truth
Speaker 4: is larger people, even if they've got more body fat,
Speaker 4: have also got more muscle mass, so they've actually got
Speaker 4: a higher metabolic rate than someone who's much smaller, but
Speaker 4: they're not operating efficiently as such, and perhaps sitting down
Speaker 4: a lot through the day or consuming their calories at
Speaker 4: the wrong time of the day, and so hormonally they're
Speaker 4: not working as efficiently as they could. And there's absolutely
Speaker 4: no reason why we can't, as we would describe, rehab
Speaker 4: that muscle over time and get it back on track
Speaker 4: and improve an increase metabolic rate. But it takes time.
Speaker 4: If you think about bodies, you know they might have
Speaker 4: had ten or twenty years of that gradual inefficiency happening.
Speaker 4: It takes time to reverse it. And that's why when
Speaker 4: people are wanting to improve metabolte rate, lose body fat,
Speaker 4: lose large amounts of weight ten twenty thirty kilos, it
Speaker 4: takes three, six, twelve months to reverse all that what
Speaker 4: we would describe as inefficiency that's built over a long
Speaker 4: period of time.
Speaker 1: That's a really good answer, he said. It's the personal trainer,
Speaker 1: which is me that side of things, which I'm really
Speaker 1: glad you brought up because I have a lot of clients.
Speaker 1: We've had a lot of clients over the years. They
Speaker 1: come to me and there I genuinely think they believe
Speaker 1: that they can not get a result, And where I
Speaker 1: always start with them is we can have this conversation
Speaker 1: in three months or six months. Unts if you follow
Speaker 1: my plan and if you do what I say from
Speaker 1: a workout perspective, and if that doesn't work, then we
Speaker 1: can perhaps look at the metabolism side of things. From
Speaker 1: an exercise perspective, it's consistency. It's the quality of your workouts,
Speaker 1: and it's not getting big and bulky. For all of
Speaker 1: the particularly women out there that are a bit reluctant
Speaker 1: to do weight training or strength training or whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it, any form of resistance work, it
Speaker 1: is building strong, toned, lean muscle to help stoke that
Speaker 1: engine that you talk about when you talk about rehabbing
Speaker 1: the muscle, which I love that term. By the way.
Speaker 1: From a nutrition perspective, what do you do?
Speaker 4: I absolutely do it in stages, So I guess my
Speaker 4: way of working through it with clients, and particularly clients
Speaker 4: who would present with that my metabolic rate's not working
Speaker 4: very well. I want to lose quite a lot of weight.
Speaker 4: I like to work on the nutrition first, because within
Speaker 4: calorie loads, and there's only people are going to need
Speaker 4: between say twelve fourteen hundred and maybe two thousand. I've
Speaker 4: only got two for six hundred calories to play with it.
Speaker 4: It's not really a lot of variables. So once I've
Speaker 4: perhaps cleaned out all the rubbish, reduce the carbohydrate load
Speaker 4: in line with the amount of activity that they're doing,
Speaker 4: loaded up their vegetables so they're getting a lot more
Speaker 4: low calorie energy volume, nutrient dense food so they're nice
Speaker 4: and full. The dietary plans not restrictive. It's structured timing
Speaker 4: so that they're fueling at the right time and allowing
Speaker 4: for an overnight fast to achieve a deficit. Just basic
Speaker 4: kind of calorie control. Reduce the carbohydrate load, get rid
Speaker 4: of the process packaged food, and stick to a relatively
Speaker 4: calorie deficit of say up to five hundred calories a day.
Speaker 4: Once I've done that, and over four weeks, eight weeks,
Speaker 4: twelve weeks, got that initial five ten kilos off, the
Speaker 4: only other thing I have to do is get that
Speaker 4: muscle better at burning. And the only way, as you know,
Speaker 4: to do that is to train the right way. So
Speaker 4: I will start my clients with a basic level of movement.
Speaker 4: I want them to be basically, you know, getting their
Speaker 4: ten thousand steps a day, and then the job is
Speaker 4: to fine tune the exercise to improve the muscle's ability
Speaker 4: to burn, and the way to do that. It's high
Speaker 4: intensity interval training to challenge the muscle to increase metabolic
Speaker 4: rate and get it better at burning, and it's working
Speaker 4: on the muscle mass. So it's looking at how much
Speaker 4: muscle mass is this person got, and how can we
Speaker 4: strength train in a way to get that muscle more
Speaker 4: sensitive to insulin, better at burning body fat and even
Speaker 4: building muscle tissues so that over time we increase metabolic
Speaker 4: rate with more muscle mass. So people can eat more,
Speaker 4: because let's be honest, most people like to eat. So
Speaker 4: I tend to work in stages, and indeed I have
Speaker 4: some clients who only need to keep their calories controlled
Speaker 4: and walk, do a little bit of cardio, and they're
Speaker 4: very happy with their body. And then I've got others
Speaker 4: who are much more interested in shaping and want to
Speaker 4: really lean up and get a low body fat and
Speaker 4: they would work very closely with a personal trainer to
Speaker 4: achieve those goals in the gym. So it's looking at
Speaker 4: people where they're at. But absolutely I would say nutrition
Speaker 4: is the initial intervention. We all have to eat, we
Speaker 4: all have to get our calorie loads right. We all
Speaker 4: have to create the deficits that we need, and then
Speaker 4: after that it's about working out the right workout program
Speaker 4: for you long term that enables you to eat and
Speaker 4: enjoy food and not have to constantly be on diets
Speaker 4: and restricting. So absolutely, it's a process and it all
Speaker 4: works very very closely together.
Speaker 1: It's funny, it doesn't really surprise me. So you start
Speaker 1: with the food, I start with the gym. We're probably
Speaker 1: twenty episodes into the wood Life Suits, and it's amazing
Speaker 1: how many common themes keep coming back to the surface.
Speaker 1: It comes back to these basics. Eat real food, reduce
Speaker 1: your process food and carb inate, eat more vegetables, drink
Speaker 1: more water, move more consistently. I mean, it's not rocket science.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this, you have to actually be
Speaker 1: prepared to hear it and accept it. Because if you've
Speaker 1: been told this and you've had the blinkers on or
Speaker 1: that your hands covering your ears for five years, ten years,
Speaker 1: fifteen years, twenty years, it's never going to change. That
Speaker 1: fundamental advice is always going to be the way that
Speaker 1: you are going to start to get yourself into shape.
Speaker 4: You know what you've said that I think is the
Speaker 4: thing that links it all together. And perhaps the reason
Speaker 4: that starting with training at that focus level would yield
Speaker 4: fantastic results, but the people I'm seeing aren't doing that
Speaker 4: is the consistency sam Because if people were getting in
Speaker 4: the gym and doing an amazing workout with a really
Speaker 4: well qualified, experienced trainer who can eyeball someone and prescribe
Speaker 4: the right exercise intervention, people would get results. Now, the
Speaker 4: thing with diet, and probably one of the most common
Speaker 4: pieces of feedback I give to my clients on a
Speaker 4: daily basis, is your version of my diet won't work,
Speaker 4: just do it my way. In nine out of ten cases,
Speaker 4: when people aren't get results and they send their diaries through,
Speaker 4: I'll have a look at it and it's nowhere near
Speaker 4: what I wrote for them. Will prescribe because like you,
Speaker 4: I give the recommendations for a reason, But then they
Speaker 4: take the snippets of the diets that they like and
Speaker 4: then do their version because they think, oh I don't
Speaker 4: need that bread there, or cut that out, or That's
Speaker 4: what with our job as health professionals is to help
Speaker 4: people establish those habits. So most of the time, the
Speaker 4: default out of you know twenty eight meals a week
Speaker 4: that twenty four of them are pretty good, or on
Speaker 4: out of seven days, six of them are pretty good
Speaker 4: when it comes to activity, and then you've got your results.
Speaker 4: But in our the clients we're working with and the
Speaker 4: reason they're looking for help and guidance is that they
Speaker 4: don't have that consistency and it's always less days that
Speaker 4: are better. And so it's coaching people to get that
Speaker 4: consistency with both their diet and their movement that will
Speaker 4: yield results for anybody. And that in busy lives can
Speaker 4: be challenging when people have got a lot of other
Speaker 4: priorities or perhaps it's not the right time, or you know,
Speaker 4: not as important as it should be. But yeah, consistency
Speaker 4: for me is everything, particularly because we all have to eat.
Speaker 1: And this is where the problem has arrived from, because
Speaker 1: we none of us get overweight quickly. None of us
Speaker 1: wake up one day and we just happen to have
Speaker 1: been overweight. It is the consistent bad habits that it
Speaker 1: sneaks up on us. You know, we wake up one day,
Speaker 1: Holy crap, I'm thirty kilos overweight, and I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how I got here. And it's a hard thing to
Speaker 1: emotionally and psychologically, get your head around. Most people that
Speaker 1: I have met that are frustrated with their metabolic efficiency
Speaker 1: have done very little in the behavior environmental side of
Speaker 1: things to help themselves for a long time, or they've
Speaker 1: had lots and lots of peaks and troughs for a
Speaker 1: long time. I don't want our listeners to be overawed
Speaker 1: by the mountain is too big to climb by listening
Speaker 1: to us going I feel like I've got all this
Speaker 1: weight to lose, and I do have a crappy metabolism,
Speaker 1: and it's just all too eff and hard. That's the
Speaker 1: last thing I want them to think. And I love
Speaker 1: that you said be patient, except from the outset, it's
Speaker 1: going to be three months, six months. If you have
Speaker 1: not done the right thing for twenty years, where is
Speaker 1: the logic that you can reverse that in twelve days.
Speaker 1: It makes no sense. It doesn't take twenty years. That's
Speaker 1: the good news. If you haven't done the wrong thing
Speaker 1: for twenty years, it doesn't take twenty years to come
Speaker 1: out the other side. But you need to, you know,
Speaker 1: strap yourself in and prepare yourself for a good sort
Speaker 1: of six months, a good twelve months to build these
Speaker 1: habits and get yourself and the great news is it
Speaker 1: gets easier. I think we've sort of touched on you know,
Speaker 1: it's different for age and gender and size, and I
Speaker 1: think people conceptually understand that. But what about specific food Susie,
Speaker 1: What are specific individual foods or types of foods that
Speaker 1: are beneficial from a metabolic perspective that you prescre there are.
Speaker 4: It's probably more relative is the style and pattern of eating.
Speaker 4: So that programming effects similar to the way in which
Speaker 4: the regular training builds muscle, and so over time you
Speaker 4: have an improvement in burning. The same goes with our
Speaker 4: patterns of eating. So if you think about the average person,
Speaker 4: they get up in the morning, they have a quick coffee,
Speaker 4: and then they've had half a breakfast but not really
Speaker 4: a breakfast, and something very sweet, and then they go
Speaker 4: off and they don't eat a whole lot in the day.
Speaker 4: They're trying to diet and be good as we always
Speaker 4: talk about, and grab a light lunch of the salad
Speaker 4: or the sushi. And then what happens late afternoon they
Speaker 4: haven't eaten enough. The body registers that, they get the munchies.
Speaker 4: They overeat, and then we overeat all through the evening,
Speaker 4: reward ourselves with wine and treats and chocolate, and have
Speaker 4: our largest meal at night. Now, that pattern of eating
Speaker 4: is the most common one I would see on a
Speaker 4: day to day basis. It's very common in busy working
Speaker 4: people who are trying to be good. But it's the
Speaker 4: exact opposite of what we need for metabolic fitness because
Speaker 4: the body is programmed according to a circadium twenty four
Speaker 4: hour rhythm. Basically, we're more active and our hormones are
Speaker 4: programmed to burn in the day and store at nighttime.
Speaker 4: So one of the other things that I am working
Speaker 4: with people on is trying to shift it so that
Speaker 4: we have a lighter second half of the day so
Speaker 4: they actually wake up hungry in the morning and then
Speaker 4: within an hour or two of waking we're looking for
Speaker 4: natural hunger. That's a sign your body's working well, it's
Speaker 4: naturally burning its food and your metabolism's kicking in. But
Speaker 4: then you have got to have a balanced meal sam
Speaker 4: and ideally protein rich. About twenty grams of overall protein
Speaker 4: is the key nutrient that promotes or requires more calories
Speaker 4: to burn in the morning. So that's a little thing
Speaker 4: we can do to metabolic rate is have small meals
Speaker 4: with a good quantity twenty thirty grams of total protein.
Speaker 4: So the equivalent of say one hundred grams of lead
Speaker 4: meat or a couple of eggs is roughly twenty grams
Speaker 4: of protein. So I want someone with an hour or
Speaker 4: two of waking to have a meal that's got that
Speaker 4: component in it. I want a small amount of carbohydrate,
Speaker 4: again important for metabolism to fuel the muscle at the
Speaker 4: right time, because if we deprive the muscle of carbohydrate again,
Speaker 4: we lose metabolic efficiency over time as the body is
Speaker 4: more likely to store. So every three to four hours,
Speaker 4: I then want meal one, meal two. I want to
Speaker 4: top up in the afternoon that's protein rich, so then
Speaker 4: I can leave in a smaller light and I probably
Speaker 4: for most people would cut the car back unless they
Speaker 4: were training early in the morning fasted. So that is
Speaker 4: a model that works really well. So the key components
Speaker 4: are small regular meals. But that's not every hour or two.
Speaker 4: I'm talking every three to four hours, so you're igniting
Speaker 4: natural hunger. The body's burnt through what's there the metabolisms
Speaker 4: ready for some more food. I want a decent amount
Speaker 4: of protein at each one of those meals to get
Speaker 4: the thermic burn effect of that extra protein. And then
Speaker 4: I want a lightness at night to try and get
Speaker 4: the body working harder in a deficit, so you're more
Speaker 4: likely to wake up hungry. So that pattern is really
Speaker 4: really important. But to try and shift people, especially people
Speaker 4: who love drinking coffee and they'll often have milk and
Speaker 4: almond milk, and that delays hunger and then they have
Speaker 4: this kind of weird snacking all the time but not
Speaker 4: really eating a meal. It's that programming and habits and
Speaker 4: systems as part of their workday and at home to
Speaker 4: make those meal choices and food choices the default and
Speaker 4: become the easy option. And so these are all the
Speaker 4: steps we're working through with people to try and create
Speaker 4: what I call the nutrition platform or foundation, which is
Speaker 4: that baseline five or six days a week that also
Speaker 4: then allows people to have a meal or two off,
Speaker 4: not a day or two off, a meal or two
Speaker 4: off each week to factor in celebrations or a high
Speaker 4: carbohydrate meal. But that's that consistency. We want the platform there,
Speaker 4: so most of the time people are ticking those boxes.
Speaker 4: So in short answer to your question, small regular meals
Speaker 4: that have a good amount of protein is the most
Speaker 4: important thing we can do. There's a little bit of
Speaker 4: stuff on green tea and chili, but really it's minute
Speaker 4: compared to that baseline, you know, as we've just talked
Speaker 4: about twenty four to twenty six meals out of twenty
Speaker 4: eight being pretty on trap from a balance perspective of
Speaker 4: those macros and calories.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting. I mean, you say it's so easy,
Speaker 1: but I also understand why people struggle so much. And traditionally,
Speaker 1: historically we've all been brought up that dinner is the
Speaker 1: biggest meal of the day, and we you know, we
Speaker 1: are hungriest at dinner because we probably haven't eaten as
Speaker 1: much during the day. Then there's the other challenge, how
Speaker 1: much people struggle to not snack after dinner. That takes
Speaker 1: some serious willpower. And then the third challenge, it's really
Speaker 1: hard to get protein into your breakfast.
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more, and I would say that the
Speaker 4: increase in the number of protein based breads has really
Speaker 4: helped that breakfast problem.
Speaker 1: Oh good one, yeah, because now you can.
Speaker 4: Get a whole range of protein bread that you can
Speaker 4: team with some one hundred percent nutspread or banana or
Speaker 4: I quite like the protein wraps as well as a
Speaker 4: different option, and the same for the higher protein yogurts.
Speaker 4: So that has given a whole span of other foods.
Speaker 4: And I quite like my clients if they can to
Speaker 4: prep their breakfast the night before, because it's then that
Speaker 4: quick when you've woken up late, you're in a rush,
Speaker 4: you might be trying to get to a workout. Then
Speaker 4: you don't have to think about it. You just grab
Speaker 4: it from the fridge, the breakfast wrap or the breakfast sandwich.
Speaker 4: But I would agree with you getting twenty grams of
Speaker 4: high quality protein at meal one and having an eating
Speaker 4: cut off time that gives you ideally sam twelve hours
Speaker 4: overnight without food. That's the gold standard from a gut
Speaker 4: health perspective. So the way I deal with it myself
Speaker 4: with clients is if they want to have they have
Speaker 4: to choose whether they have wine, dessert or carbs at night.
Speaker 4: So if you're someone who loves a glass of wine,
Speaker 4: no problem, but you don't get the potato. And if
Speaker 4: you love to have the sweet treat an hour or
Speaker 4: so after dinner, you got to keep it at a
Speaker 4: hundred cow, but you can't have the carbs. So we've
Speaker 4: got to factor that in because then it's sustainable. And
Speaker 4: then when we've got a sustainable model, it's not restrictive,
Speaker 4: it's not depriving. You won't binge eat, and that's a
Speaker 4: lot of what we work on with people is creating
Speaker 4: that nutrition foundation that is sustainable for them long term.
Speaker 1: So you've absolutely loved what you've said, But what about
Speaker 1: our listeners that are sitting there and there will be
Speaker 1: playing any of them that are saying this all makes sense,
Speaker 1: it's all great information. But I know that I have,
Speaker 1: whether it be hormonal or otherwise, that even if I
Speaker 1: do all of these things and take all of this advice,
Speaker 1: I still really really struggle to lose weight. What do
Speaker 1: you say to those people?
Speaker 4: For people who do struggle to lose body fat? And indeed,
Speaker 4: there is a group of people who, you know, I'm
Speaker 4: not talking about people who are carrying five kilos, but
Speaker 4: people who are obese have been had weight issues their
Speaker 4: entire adult life. They find it really difficult to lose weight.
Speaker 4: Even with relatively good dietary and exercise compliance, their weight
Speaker 4: loss results are slow. This is the group who perhaps
Speaker 4: lose size but not weight on the scales. These are
Speaker 4: my groups who probably do have hormonal issues like clinical
Speaker 4: insulin resistance, and absolutely for that group, I would be
Speaker 4: suggesting they go and consult with a good GP or endochronologist.
Speaker 4: What we want to see is the hormonal response, and
Speaker 4: really I'm looking for what we call insulin resistance, so
Speaker 4: it's pre diabetes. But when this group of people eat
Speaker 4: carbohydrate rich foods, they oversecrete insulin which blocks that loss.
Speaker 4: So it does work against that standard energy and versus
Speaker 4: energy out. These people won't lose half of a kilo
Speaker 4: a week consistently. They will lose body size over time,
Speaker 4: but they will struggle and really contain that have that
Speaker 4: abdomino obesity. Be carrying twenty thirty kilos, they've got about
Speaker 4: twenty five percent more muscle mass than a normal person
Speaker 4: without insulin resistance, which means we have to train them
Speaker 4: in a different way because they don't need to build
Speaker 4: muscle tissue. They need to just get it working better,
Speaker 4: which means we've got to deplete it as opposed to build.
Speaker 4: And because they will build more readily because they've got
Speaker 4: a storage hormone in elevated amounts. But absolutely, and I
Speaker 4: see a lot of those people because that's my specialty area.
Speaker 4: That's probably the one the only ones that really spring
Speaker 4: to mind. But I do think in the future we
Speaker 4: will absolutely have full genetic profiles of people and what
Speaker 4: they should and shouldn't eat. But for me, I sort
Speaker 4: of am looking generally at hormonal disturbance, which is generally
Speaker 4: insulin resistance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it, SUSI thank you so much for
Speaker 1: coming on the woodline.
Speaker 4: Thank you always nice to chat.
Speaker 1: What a fascinating conversation. It varies a lot between dietitian
Speaker 1: and nutrition us as you speak to them, and I
Speaker 1: obviously have the privilege of speaking to lots of them.
Speaker 1: I think that's the beauty of getting into shape, and
Speaker 1: it's the beauty of this show that you get to
Speaker 1: make up your own mind. And I'm absolutely comfortable by
Speaker 1: saying there's more than one way to get into shape.
Speaker 1: There's more than ones that are rules. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are absolutely some underlying fundamentals that I think I harp
Speaker 1: on enough about that you would understand it's not just
Speaker 1: a one size fits all when it comes to getting
Speaker 1: ourselves into shape, whether it be exercise or nutrition or
Speaker 1: any other facet of wellness. And on that note, we
Speaker 1: are twenty episodes into the WOODLFE now absolutely three that
Speaker 1: we've made it episode twenty. Can't wait for the next
Speaker 1: two hundred. But it made me think we should go
Speaker 1: back into the archives. We're going to have a little
Speaker 1: bit of a question recap. That's what's up next. We've
Speaker 1: spoken to some really knowledgeable people in the Woodlfe episodes
Speaker 1: and we've answered some of your questions and some really
Speaker 1: great detail. But some of our guests that we've had
Speaker 1: on the wood Life really get your thinking deeply about
Speaker 1: your own lifestyle, and it's only natural that as you're
Speaker 1: thinking about it, you're going to have some follow up questions.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're going to get into.
Speaker 2: Hi. Sam, My name is Karen from South Australia. I've
Speaker 2: been listening to the Joanne McMillan podcast with the importance
Speaker 2: of maintaining muscle mass for menopause or women. So I'm
Speaker 2: just curious what your thoughts are on faster training, particularly
Speaker 2: for menopause or women.
Speaker 1: First of all, Karen, I love that you've been listening
Speaker 1: to the episode. I'd have to say that's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite episodes. You know, Joanne knows her stuff because
Speaker 1: she was speaking so quickly without drawing breath, and had
Speaker 1: so much gold, so much knowledge to share. I was
Speaker 1: literally scribbling notes seriously trying to keep up and take
Speaker 1: it all in. And one of those key things was
Speaker 1: the importance of resistance training or wait training for mental
Speaker 1: pools or women. The question that you're asking, do I
Speaker 1: do that training faster or not? It really depends on
Speaker 1: the individual. I think the fact that you're a mental
Speaker 1: pools a woman shouldn't necessarily dictate that choice one way
Speaker 1: or the other. I think you need to find what
Speaker 1: works for you now. I know some people that train
Speaker 1: brilliantly on an empty stomach, and then they get their
Speaker 1: carbs and protein into their system post workout. I know
Speaker 1: other people that are just not going to train well
Speaker 1: or feel very good training on an empty stomach. They
Speaker 1: need some kind of fuel in there, particularly early in
Speaker 1: the mornings, to really get the most out of their workout.
Speaker 1: So it's an individual decision. You need to experiment see
Speaker 1: what works for you. Do some more carbs and protein
Speaker 1: half an hour before you work out. Men, you train
Speaker 1: really really well, and you're bursting with energy, and you're
Speaker 1: lifting heavier, and you've got and you know you're smashing
Speaker 1: pbs and you're feeling great or does it make you
Speaker 1: a bit heavy and slow and letharge you can it
Speaker 1: actually has the opposite effect. And then of course you
Speaker 1: balance that out with what's on the other side. And
Speaker 1: I always advise that you get some carbs, good carbs,
Speaker 1: and some protein into your system within thirty minutes of
Speaker 1: finishing that workout.
Speaker 3: Hey, Sam, it's lou There are so many protein bars
Speaker 3: on the shelves, which ones are actually any good?
Speaker 1: So remembery, this is a follow up question from the
Speaker 1: hate or rated section that we did on protein bars,
Speaker 1: which is way back in the first week of March.
Speaker 1: And I recognize that voice. That's beautiful Lube from Bar
Speaker 1: and Bay, who has been to a couple of my retreats,
Speaker 1: and I would recognize that voice anyway. She's a lovely
Speaker 1: twenty eighter. Hello, Lo and great question. There's two parts
Speaker 1: to this. The first part is you need to always
Speaker 1: remember that a supplement needs to be exactly that. And
Speaker 1: I've said that a couple of times, but it's a
Speaker 1: really important reminder. Let's not have protein bars instead of
Speaker 1: getting our protein from a real food sauce, eggs, chicken,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. If we can. So if you
Speaker 1: can get the protein from one of those real food sources,
Speaker 1: then that is always my preference. However, if you do
Speaker 1: need a supplement because you're on the goal, whatever it
Speaker 1: might be, protein bars can be good, but it's really
Speaker 1: important that you become a good label reader because they
Speaker 1: are not all created equal. Some of them literally have
Speaker 1: as many calories or as much sugar content in as
Speaker 1: much as a Mars bar. You may as well grab
Speaker 1: a marsmar off the shelf for the amount of good
Speaker 1: it's going to do. So you want to look at
Speaker 1: something that's got as fewer ingredients as possible, as much
Speaker 1: protein as possible, and as lower grams of sugar per
Speaker 1: one hundred grams as you can, particularly if you're trying
Speaker 1: to lose weight. If you're an athlete and you're just
Speaker 1: sort of trying to break even and get energy in there,
Speaker 1: and your case, loof it's your little boy and he's
Speaker 1: just finished tennis training, it won't matter as much. But
Speaker 1: if you're trying to lose weight and have a good
Speaker 1: healthy snack option, then make sure you really read the label.
Speaker 1: As always, thank you so much for sending through those
Speaker 1: questions and anyone else that's got any questions, don't hesitate
Speaker 1: to click on the link in the show notes and
Speaker 1: send those questions through and go back and listen to
Speaker 1: those episodes. Look at the title of the episode. There'll
Speaker 1: be plenty in there, with a guest that you may
Speaker 1: not have known that we've spoken to, or a subject
Speaker 1: matter that you may not know that we've covered. And
Speaker 1: I would love you to go back, listen to the episode,
Speaker 1: send me a message, let me know what you thought.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you.