Episode 92: Why You Need Carbs for Weight Loss (ESPECIALLY In Peri and Post Menopause)

Still thinkin' carbs make you gain weight, eh? Here's everything you need to know about the damage NOT eating them is doing to your weight loss journey...

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Transcript

Becoming MindStrong: Why You Need Carbs for Weight Loss (ESPECIALLY In Peri and Post Menopause)

00:00
Welcome back to the becoming mind strong podcast, and today we are talking about one of my
favorite topics to shout from the rooftops. We are talking all about carbs. Now, if you have hung
out here before, you know that I have a letter of content out there, including a podcast episode
all about carbs. But today, I want to dig a little deeper, and I want to speak, I'm going to speak
big picture that applies to everyone, but especially if you are a Peri or post menopausal woman
and you are not eating enough carbs, what we're going to dive into today is especially going to
be true for you. This. This is universal. If you are human with a pulse and a heartbeat, this
applies to you, and if you are Peri or post menopausal, this, especially times a billion, applies to
you why you are doing your body a disservice, why you're driving your metabolism into the
ground. If you are not eating enough carbs, check it out. So I'm going to start this conversation
big picture, as I like to do, and then get more and more specific as we go and really speak to
my Perry and post menopausal women here. So if you are not a Perry or most post menopausal
woman, maybe you listen to three quarters of this podcast and then turn it off, or maybe you
just learn something new and share it with your friends at a party. But we're going to start big
picture, and we're going to hone in as we go. If you have listened to any of my content. If you
have read my book, if you have hung out with me in any capacity, you know that I do not
believe in low carb diets. And when I say do not believe that doesn't even sit right with me,
because that, to me, that's kind of like saying I don't believe in gravity, like you don't have to
believe in it, but it's still there, right? You You can believe that low carb diets are good for you,
but if you study the science, they are not. So when I say I don't believe in them, they're not
good for you, we're going to blanket statement that. And that is not Rachel's opinion. That is
not Rachel's laws of health and fitness. That is that is science, that is human biology. So to start
the conversation, here's what we need to understand. First and foremost, your body, in its
biological goodness, was literally designed to go to carbs for energy. And again, if you've
listened to my content before, what I'm going to say in this opening is not new to you, but I
think it's important to hear it again and again. Because we go on Instagram, we google one
thing, we walk away. We're more confused when we get started. And the amount of people I
talk to that are like, I'm just scared to eat at this point, because I don't know what's true or not.
So you know me, I'm here to cut through the BS. Let's cut through the BS. Your body is literally
designed to go to carbs first for energy when we go on these low carb diets, what we are
attempting to do, attempting is to trick our body, is to say, Hey, I'm not going to give you your
first choice for a prolonged period of time until you give up looking for it and find other ways to
produce energy, right? And my favorite analogy is, if you have an emergency, you, God forbid,
chop your arm off and go to the hospital. And they're like, well, the guy who's supposed to deal
with this isn't really here, but I don't know. We could probably figure it out with another doctor.
I don't know about you. Like, I want first choice. I don't I don't want to be making any
exceptions and bending the rules. Like, give me the best. Your body is designed in its best. It is
designed to run on carbs for energy, blanket statement, hard stop biology. 101,
03:27
03:27
now the reason that carbs get a bad reputation, a lot of people say, well, carbs make me fat,
right? I went on, I went on a low carb diet, and I lost 20 pounds. Whatever it is you did not lose
20 pounds of fat by going on a low carb diet. We need to understand one scientific fact, and
again, none of this is Rachel's laws of health and fitness. We're talking science right now.
Carbs, by nature, cause your body to hold on to water. One gram of carbs creates in your body,
it holds onto anywhere from one to three grams of water. So if you eat 100 grams of carbs. We're talking as much as 300 grams of water. So yeah, if you eat some carbs and you get on
the scale, you're going to see that scale goes go up. But is that fat? Absolutely not. That is your
body holding on to water. You know how you can release water? Spoiler alert, you don't have to
go on a low carb diet. Drink some water, and your body's going to release the water. There's a
whole podcast on on water weight, my one of my favorite joking analogies, and it's not is
cutting out carbs, is like finding one gray hair in your head and then shaving your head. Like,
okay, that's one way to do it. Or you could just block out that hair, or you could just dye that
one hair, if you want to be meticulous, but shaving your head over one gray hair, why? Right?
Do carbs make you fat? No. Do carbs make your body hold water? Yes. Could you go on a low
carb diet to avoid that? I guess if you wanted to, or you could just drink some more water and
eat your carbs and live your life and enjoy it and give your body what it.
05:00
Needs. So when we go on these low carb or no carb diets, number one, what tends to happen,
just kind of talking more generally, is that we're eating higher fat foods, and higher fat foods
are more calorically dense, so we're staying full longer. We're not eating as much food in the
day, and we're losing some weight. Sometimes that is true for people. What is true for
everyone is that as you cut out carbs for a prolonged period of time, your body gets rid of a
whole lot of water weight. But again, that is not fat. That is water weight. You can easily
accomplish that by simply drinking more water. Okay, so first and foremost, carbs are your
body's natural energy source. It is literally designed to go to carbs for energy. Number two,
carbs do not make you fat. Carbs make your body hold water, drink more water, and it's a moot
point. We don't even have to worry about it. Now, here's where things get a little sticky, and
now I'm going to speak particularly to my Perry and post menopausal women. And there's kind
of a two parts to this conversation. One of the said, as sarcastically as humanly possible, one of
the beauties of hitting Peri and post menopause is that our estrogen levels drop. Right? Most of
us have heard that before that hopefully was not a bomb drop news flash for you. We know
that as we hit perimposed menopause, our estrogen drops. Our estrogen is what helps us
balance cortisol in our body. So it's it's the double edged sword of this beautiful stage of life
that as our estrogen drops, our cortisol goes up. Now most of us have heard of cortisol, right?
Cortisol is the stress hormone, and sometimes cortisol people just blanket statement is bad for
you. It's not bad for you. We just like when I talk about fear, right? There's a place for fear.
There's a place for our brain keeping us safe. There's a place where we need cortisol. It is not a
negative, terrible thing. The problem is, when we hit this stage of life where it naturally
becomes more difficult for us to balance cortisol, because our estrogen has dropped, our job
becomes, I need to do everything in my power to help my body regulate cortisol. That is, if I
had to give a TED talk on you. Welcome to menopause. The name of the game is, how do we
manage cortisol at this stage of life? That or some better working title. So the name of the
game is, how do I put as little stress as possible on my body as I get into this Peri and
postmenopausal stage, knowing that my cortisol is naturally going to be higher than it normally
is. Now, there are certain things that are going to be beyond the scope of this podcast that we
can do. They are probably not news flash, mind blowing things, but things like going for walks, meditating, finding a few minutes for yourself each day, right? Natural, calming things that
you're like That sounds wonderful, Rachel, but who actually has time in a day? That's a podcast
for another day. But all of those things, the reason you hear them focused on so much in Perry
and post menopause is, again, the name of the game is, how do I help my body manage
cortisol at a time where it's naturally spiked? Enter the conversation of carbs. Let's zoom out
and think about this logically. Carbs are our body's natural energy source. If your body is not
getting enough carbs, if it's not getting the amount of carbs that it is personally designed for
emphasis on personal because we know by now online macro calculators do not work, generic
formulas do not work. This has to be personalized to you. If your personal body is not getting
the amount of carbs it needs, and it needs carbs as its natural energy source. Do you think that
that is putting more or less stress on your body? Let me give you a terribly overused analogy. If
you're trying to drive your car and it has a full tank of premium gas, how's that car running? If
you're trying to drive your car and it is on e and you are flooring that pedal to the metal, trying
to make it go. Is that more or less stress on that car? I hope I'm being as as blatantly obvious
as possible. If you are not giving your body its natural energy source, if you're not giving your
body enough carbs, all we are accomplishing is we are elevating its cortisol level, where you're
putting it under more stress. We are digging that hole deeper and deeper. That's problem. One,
it gets worse. Sorry to tell you not trying to be Debbie Downer biology, don't lie. So here we
are.
09:31
Number two is this, and again, don't go shooting the messenger. This is not Rachel's laws of
how the human body is designed. This is what happens to our bodies in menopause, in Perry
and post menopause, one of the reasons that people come to me constantly and they're like, What in the actual hell happened to my body? Like, I'm doing all the same things I used to do.
I'm eating right? I'm moving more. I'm X, Y and Z, and suddenly I do not recognize myself,
right? There's more lower back.
10:00
Fat, my body won't release the way that it used to. I'm cutting cutting, cutting calories.
Nothing's happening, right? I've done whole podcasts on that, and I will continue to as we go.
One of the other things that happens at this stage, this beautiful stage of life, is that our body
naturally starts to lose lean muscle mass. This is this side note, but not really. This contributes
to why people start to feel flabbier In Perry and post menopause, because it's not even
necessarily, yes, we are putting on more weight if we haven't learned this stuff and taking
control of it. But it's a double whammy, because in addition to putting on that weight, we're
also losing lean muscle mass. So now our body fat percentage is going up, our lean muscle
mount rate is going down, and we're probably gaining some weight on top of it. Wonderful
podcast. Rachel, thank you for ruining my day. I promise there's a the light at the end of this
tunnel, but for the purposes of this conversation, as we get to Peri and post menopause, it is a
stage in life where we naturally start to lose lean muscle mass. Now, if we are not giving our
body enough carbs, which, again, I'm going to say it to the cows come home, which is our
body's natural energy source, it is what our body wants to use as energy. If we are depriving it
of the thing it actually wants to use for energy, what it's going to do instead. Because our
bodies are very smart creatures, they're not going to say, Oh, you didn't give me you didn't
give me carbs. Let me keel over and die. It's going to find an alternative energy source, and
what it starts to do buckle in is it is going to start to wear away at your muscle. So if you are
someone who's put in time of developing some lean muscle, doesn't mean you're a
bodybuilder, but you've put in some work, and you've got some lean muscle mass, and
suddenly we get to perimpose menopause, and we're like, what in the actual hell is happening
in my body? I feel flabby. I've got this lower belly fat, and I feel like I'm losing my muscle part of
that is natural. Yes, we do Lean lose lean muscle mass at this stage of life, and part of it is, if
you are not giving your body enough carbs you are digging that hole deeper and deeper
because it doesn't have the fuel that it actually wants, and it's not going to keel over and die,
so instead, it's going to start to wear away at the muscle that you have.
12:13
All of that is the bad news. Okay, that's all I got. I mean, I that's not all I got. We could keep
going. We could, don't go down a science rabbit hole. But for the purposes this podcast today,
if there was any doubt in your mind that your body needs carbs, and if you've gotten to a Perry
and post menopause stage of life and you're just like, I don't know what else to do. Like, I'm
already eating healthy, I'm already moving more, I'm already cutting cutting cutting calories,
and nothing is working. So let me start cutting carbs on top of that. Hard stop. Hard stop. Do
not go down that path right now. If your metabolism is in a six inch hole, you're about to make
it a 60 foot hole. Do not stop. Do not start cutting out your carbs. You're making the hole
deeper. Here's the beautiful part, because I told you there's light at the end of the tunnel, and I
promise you there is, if you are 20, right, 20 years old, right now, listening to this, if you are 80
years old, listening to this, if you are perimenopausal, if you're right on the other side of
menopause, if you're not sure where you are in there, no matter where you stand in this, you
can heal your metabolism. Okay, the thing I will say to that is, the sooner we nip it in the bud,
the better. And I say this as someone who spends all day, every day, on calls with women who
are Peri and postmenopausal, and the women that come to me and they're like, I think I'm just
hitting perimenopause. I haven't fully lost my cycle yet, but things are changing. Yes, 1,000%
right now. Let's go because I know what this phone call sounds like 10 years from now, and you
don't want to be having it. Let's have it now. Let's nip this in the bud. Let's get it under control
now, if that's not you, and you are on the other side of it, and you're post Perry, or your post
menopause, and you're like, Oh, crap, like listening to you talk about that. That's exactly what
I've been doing for the past 510, years. There's still hope. Yes, it is true. I'm not going to
sugarcoat like your holes a little deeper the the your menopause needs. Your menopause, your
metabolism needs a bit more healing. And it is possible at every stage of life as of the time this
recording the the most experienced woman I've worked with was 7678
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I think 76 years old, and we healed our metabolism. It is possible if you were 96 I could do it. I
would actually love that to get to work with a 96 year old. But my point in saying this is we can
absolutely heal your metabolism at any stage of life, perimenopause, post menopause. Not
even menopause isn't a twinkle in your eye yet. But here's the key to this. It has to be
personalized to you. What I do not suggest is if you, let's say you use the method that I always
recommend, right eat as you normally eat. Track your food for five days if you see that you're
eating 80 grams of carbs a day.
15:00
Day, and you're like, Oh, cool. I listened to Rachel's podcast. I should eat more carbs. Let me
just start eat more carbs. Or let me go up to 150 grams of carbs a day. Or even, let me go up to
100 grams carbs a day. Don't do that. I mean, you can. You're welcome to zero out of 10, zero
out of 1000 recommend, because a few things are going to happen. Number one, you're not
gonna be able to eat that much food, you're gonna be like this. This doesn't work for me,
because I'm not hungry. Number two, as we've talked about, carbs make your body hold water.
So if you increase carbs that drastically, that quickly, you are absolutely going to be
uncomfortable in your skin. You're going to feel like you gain weight. Your clothes are going to
feel tighter. You're going to see the scale go up. That is not how we do it, the way that we heal
metabolisms. You've heard me talk about this before, if you've hung out, but I'll go through it
just kind of as an overview. Here is, yes, we have every person we work with eat as they
normally eat, track their food for five days. We're going to call that point A from there, we're
absolutely going to set some goal numbers every individual. And again, this is where I'm going
to repeat online macro calculators, generic formulas. They are not personalized enough, but
every individual has an ideal range of carbs, fat, protein that their body needs. What we will
never do is jump you from point A to point C, because your body's going to freak out, your
mind's going to freak out. It's too much change at once. You're going to come back to me and
say, I can't eat this much food, I'm gaining weight, X, Y and Z. What we do is we meet your
body pretty close to point A. We're going to make some tweaks. We're going to have a trending
in the direction of C, but we need to meet your body pretty much where it is so it doesn't freak
out. And over the course of time, we are going to slowly, slowly, slowly walk it from point A to
point C. My favorite analogy of this, and you've probably heard me say this before, is, if I had a
bucket, right? And I wanted to fill that bucket with water, I have two options. I can spray a
freaking fire hose at it, and it's probably not gonna be effective, right? It's gonna spray
everywhere because it's too intense. It doesn't actually work. But if I go a drop at a time, that
change becomes so minimal that the bucket is gonna fill organically. And that analogy is
exactly how we heal your metabolism, A to C, zero to 100 No, your body is going to absolutely
freak out. But a to baby step to maybe hang there until your body lets us know it's ready for
more. To next baby step, to next baby step to Let's hang there, because your body's not ready
for any more changes till it tells us to to the next baby step. When we do it like that, a couple
things happen. Number one, your energy is going to be an absolute fire. Number two, your
metabolism is going to fire up, right? Because our metabolism is how good our body is at
burning calories. So we're training it drop by drop by drop to get better at burning calories. And
number three, you're going to be preserving lean muscle mass, because we're starting to get
these carbs back into your body. It's starting to use those as fuel the way it's designed to, but
we're doing it in a very slow, specific way where it's not freaking out. So if you are someone
who suspects, and I will say this too, like a lot of times, we have no idea what good ranges are,
how the heck would you know what a good range is? If you've never done this before, right? I
have people come to me all the time and they're like, Oh, I'm eating way too many carbs. And
then I took a look at their five days, and I'm like, actually, you are way under eating in carbs.
And I don't that said with zero judgment, because how the heck would you know that? Right
when I first learned about macros a decade ago, I had no idea what good ranges were, so I'm
putting that in here, because again, where I suggest everyone start eating normally, attract
your food for five days. What I would not suggest you do is start Googling. Is this a good range?
Because again, you're going to be more going to be more confused than when you started. We're going to get into paralysis by analysis if you suspect that you're not eating enough carbs,
that you're under eating, that your metabolism needs healing, right? Your perimenopausal,
your postmenopausal doing all the things you're supposed to be doing, and nothing's working.
Eat as you normally eat, track your food for five days. Get a little data. Doesn't have to be
exact, doesn't have to be meticulous. Take a look at where things are with a grain of salt,
knowing that we don't really know what it means. And then if you want some help. As of the
time of this recording, I'm still doing free one to one strategy sessions you can book in. We can
chat about what you saw, and we can talk about an action plan from there. But for the
purposes of this podcast, hear me. Hear me, hear me. Tattoo it on your forehead, put it on your
bathroom mirror, take out a billboard. Carbs do not make you fat, and if you are not eating
enough carbs, you are digging the hole deeper and deeper. And if you are Peri or post
menopause, this is for you, times a gajillion. Not was going to say a billion, but we're going to
go a gajillion, because it in a time of life where we naturally lose lean muscle mass, you are
doing your body a disservice by trying to find an alternate fuel that it doesn't actually want.
Okay, one of the best things, one of the best things.
20:00
That we can be doing for our body, blanket statement everyone, and especially Perry and post
menopause, is making sure that we're giving our body enough carbs.