Episode 93: The 3 Stages of Fat Loss Part I: Healing Your Metabolism

If I had my way, I'd wave a magic dumbbell and, just like we all dream of, the fat would melt away. Unfortunately, the proof is in the pudding and it doesn't work that way. For fat loss to happen--especially in peri and post menopause--there are 3 stages. Here's the MOST IMPORTANT first step we need to take.

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Transcript

The Becoming MindStrong Podcast: 3 Stages of Fat Loss Part I: Healing Your Metabolism 

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
weight loss, fat loss, healing stage, metabolism healing, calorie intake, post menopause,
long term success, biological standpoint, fat loss stages, metabolism retraining, calorie burning,
nutrition balance, hunger signs, energy levels, fat loss stage

00:00
Welcome to the becoming mind strong podcast, and I'm going to tell you flat out today there
are a lot of people who are not going to want to hear what I have to say in today's podcast,
because when it comes to weight loss, a lot of us are like, I don't care. Just get this weight off
me now, and unfortunately, especially, especially if you are Perry and post menopause,
sometimes it doesn't work like that. And I love you too much. I care about you too much to
sugarcoat number one and number two, I want to make sure that you are absolutely set up for
success, set up for life with this and you are in the driver's seat, you are in complete control of
this weight loss thing. And we're not sitting here, wishing, hoping, praying. Will this be the thing
that works for me? When we understand how weight loss works from a biological standpoint,
we put ourselves in the driver's seat. There is no wishing, hoping, praying. It's just, oh, okay,
I'm walking the path. If I keep walking the path, of course, it's going to work. It's biology. 101,
so I say all that today to say today we are talking about the three stages of fat loss. And before
I get deep in the weeds about this, I want to point out one very specific thing about that title. I
am not saying the three stages of weight loss. I am saying the three stages of fat loss, because
there are a lot of ways to lose weight. If we're talking about the scale. What the scale is doing,
it's measuring measuring gravity, right? If you listen to the podcast before you hear my favorite
example, you get on the scale. It says a certain number. You get off the scale. You chug three
glasses of water, you get back on now, the scales got up. Did you just gain fat? Did you gain
two pounds of fat from those three glasses of water? Of course not. There's more mass in your
stomach. It's pushing down. Gravity is pushing down on the scale. The scale went up. So if
we're going to talk about weight loss, there's there's inflammation, there's bloating, there's
water weight that's easy, but that's not fat loss. What most of us here are, what are we're here
to do is to lose those extra pounds of fat on our body, and to do that again, especially if you
were peripost menopause, which is a lot of what we're going to talk about today, there are
three stages we have to non negotiable. And I'll talk to you more about why I'm being so
adamant about that. If we want our body to, number one, release the fat, and number two, if
we want to set ourselves up for long term success, meaning not yet, not yet another yo yo diet,
check it out. One of these days, I will come up with some kind of witty acronym for this. Maybe
by the time you're listening to this, I've come up with it. But today is not that day. So when we
think about the three stages of fat loss, I wish I had some fun, memorable little gimmick for
you, but I don't. So we're going to keep it very simple, stage number one, and of course, we're
going to dive deeper into these. Is the healing stage. Stage number two is the fat loss stage,
the one that we're actually here for, and stage number three, as of today, I'm going to call it
the whatever heck, whatever the heck you want to do from here stage. So we've got the
healing stage, the fat loss stage, and the whatever the heck you want to do from here stage.
And that'll make a lot more sense as we go. Now I'm going to go in order here, and I I recognize
I've done this for a long time. As of the time I'm recording this podcast, we are going into year
seven of mind strong. We've helped over 2500 women and counting. The vast majority of those
women are Perry and post menopause. So I can tell you firsthand, the healing stage is not a fun
stage. Nobody wants to be in the healing stage. And if I could wave my magic dumbbell, and
we could bypass that healing stage, hallelujah, hands in the air, we would all of us would do it.
The the person going through the healing stage would do it. I would do it. My coaches would
gladly do it. Because the healing stage is slow, it's tedious, it's frustrating, and it is not actually
what we want to be doing, if big, if our mindset is not in the right place. So like everything that
I'm, that I teach, I'm going to start really big picture, and then I'm going to, I'm going to hone
this in, okay, when we were in and by the way, if you've listened my podcast before, you you've
heard me use some of these analogies, but I think it bears repeating, because this is stuff that
nobody has taught us before. Even Western medicine right now has not caught up as of the
time of this recording, has not caught up with the biology of Perry and post menopause. So you
go to the doctor, they tell you, eat less, move more, and you're like, I freaking AM, and they
either don't believe you, or they just keep saying, well, keep eating less. And in Perry and post
menopause like Hear my words, this is not Rachel's opinion. This is biology that no longer
works. If that worked, 98% of the women who come to me who are eating 900 to 1200 calorie.
They would be skin and bones, eat less, move more. Does not work in Perry and post
menopause, okay? But let me back up a little bit. When we're in our 20s, we want to lose a few
pounds, right? We got a date coming up. We we cut calories a little bit. Boom, the the weight
falls off. We're in our 30s, same thing. We've got a job interview coming up. We cut a few
calories. It's a little bit slower, but boom, the weight falls off. What's happening over the years,
though, is that our bodies are such powerhouses that adaptation, that every time we're cutting
calories lower and lower, our body is always looking for homeostasis. It's always looking for that
resting comfort zone of calories in, calories out. So at some point in life, if you were eating
1700 calories, your body's like, Okay, this is who I am and what I do. But then that went to
1600 then it went to 1500 and for most women, by the time that we're in our late 40s, early
50s, whatever that early 60s, whatever that time frame looks like for you, by the time you're
listening to this, we're in a position where we're eating 1200 calories, which is drastically low, if
you don't know that, that is drastically low, and our body's not releasing the weight. Now
there's a very clear answer to this. There's a few answers. One, your body doesn't trust you.
But on a more biological level, your body thinks that that's its homeostasis. It has found a
resting comfort zone in calories, in calories out at 1200 The problem is, that's not real, and
that's a weird way of saying that. But if we're trying to lose weight, your body thinks, nope, I'm
good, right here, at 1200 calories, the weight should be if your metabolism was working
correctly, the weight should be falling off you. And, you know, I hate the word should, but I'm
using it intentionally here. But what that's telling us is this, if I were to wrap up that whole back
story, what's happening our metabolism is how, by definition, our metabolism is how good our
body is at burning calories. So if you're eating 1100 1200 1300 even, 1400 calories, and your
body is not releasing the weight glaring neon sign that right now, I love you, your metabolism
sucks at burning calories. Blanket statement, there's no wishing, hoping, praying. Is this what's
going on in my body? Nope, that's what's going on in your body. I'm going to tell you blanket
statement. If you are eating 1112, 13, 1400 calories and not releasing weight right now, your
metabolism is not good at burning calories. Now here's the good news. This the first stage we
have to do is heal your metabolism. And the good news is, because I know I harped a lot on
how everyone hates a stage. No one wants to go through this stage. The healing stage is one
and done. If we were teaching this stuff, and I will shout this from the rooftops, we need to be
teaching this stuff in high school and college, because the Perry and postmenopausal women
that I work with, and that is a lot of them. Nobody taught us this stuff. And if someone had told
us in our late 20s, early 30s, maybe not teenagers, because you know, we're not going to listen
back, then we don't care. We're invincible. But if someone had told us in our late 20s, early 30s,
listen, don't cut calories too drastically, because in a few years, you're going to be screwed.
Your metabolism is going to be screwed. Is is an extreme there. Your metabolism is going to
stop functioning properly. If someone had taught us this stuff in college and grad school, we
would not need to do the healing stage. That the healing stage is much of a fan of radical
personal responsibility that I am. It's not our fault, because nobody is telling us this stuff to this
day, doctors don't know this stuff, which is why they're telling you to keep cutting calories. So
the healing stage as annoying and as frustrating as it is, once you've healed your metabolism,
you never have to do this part again, unless you go back to eating 1200 calories again, which I
can't I don't know. I would hope not, but I can't imagine that we've ever had someone ever go
through the healing stage and then be like, Screw it. I'm just gonna shoot myself in the foot
again. Go back to 1200 calories. That would be the definition of insanity. Like, why would you
put yourself in that position again,
09:18
once our metabolism is healed? And what I mean by that is, once your metabolism knows how
to how to burn calories again, then and only then are we ready for the fat loss stage. But I don't
want to we're not going to get too deep in the weeds about fat loss yet, because I want to give
you more information on the healing stage. Now, the name of the game in the healing stage is
we need to teach your metabolism to be good at burning calories again. That's it. We are
retraining your metabolism how to get better at burning calories again, how to do its job. So
let's say you come to me and I have you eat as you normally, track your food for five days, and
I see you're eating 1200 calories a day. Okay? So. There are two types of coaches in the world.
You've probably heard me talk about this before. They are the coaches who do not know any
better, and they're going to start you at 1000 calories. Do not work with that coach. From the
bottom of my heart, do not work with that coach. You are digging a six inch hole, six miles deep
there. There are coaches out there who understand this. They understand how to heal
metabolisms, but they're going to do it very aggressively. They're like, all right, the name of the
game is, heal your metabolism. Let's freaking go. And if you're eating 1200 calories, they're
going to start you at 13 or 1400 calories, and the next week they're going to raise you to 1500
and the next week they're going to raise you to 1600 will you heal your metabolism?
Absolutely, you're forcing your metabolism to get good at burning calories really fast. I have
two problems with that approach. Number one, when you're under eating for a prolonged
period of time, 99% of people don't feel hungry anymore, right? When I have this conversation
one to one with women, one of the biggest things I hear is, yeah, but I'm not hungry. And the
answer is, of course, you're not, because we have sensors in our brains and in our stomachs
whose sole purpose is to communicate hunger and fullness, and because humans are pleasure
seeking creatures, if you if your body is just grown accustomed to under eating, it's not going
to push on the bruise saying, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry. Those sensors are going to
shut down so we don't feel hungry. So if I, if you come to me eating 1200 calories, and I'm like,
Here, go eat 14, 1500 calories, you're gonna be like, I physically cannot eat this much food.
Problem two of raising your calories that aggressively is that you're going to gain weight. It is
too much, too fast. So in the healing stage, the name of the game, Baby steps. Baby steps.
Baby steps. If you come to me and you're eating 1200 calories a day, I might meet you right
there at 1200 maybe I'm going to bump you up to 1250 maybe, because in the first few weeks,
all we want to do is master the skill and nutrition. How do I eat the foods I love in the right
balance of carbs, fat, protein, staying within my quote, unquote, budget from there, the name
of the game is listening to our body when your body is giving us certain signs, like hunger is a
huge one. I was saying to someone the other day, what a weird job I have because I think I
celebrate people telling me they're hungry more than anyone. I know when people come to us
and they're like, I don't know what's happening, but I feel hungry. I am hands in the air.
Hallelujah. That is sign number one that your metabolism is firing up. Energy increases. If
you're someone who works out, you're going to notice your workouts start improving. If you
don't work out, this works without that part, you're going to notice your sleep starting to
improve. There's specific signs that we're looking for. Notice that none of them have anything
to do with fat loss. We are not in the fat loss stage yet. We are in the metabolism healing stage.
You cannot get to the fat loss stage without this stage. I'm going to talk more about that soon.
Now I will add a caveat here. Sometimes we get someone who's lucky, and as we start healing
their metabolism, they lose a couple pounds. That's icing on the cake, icing on the macro
friendly cake, because that is not the purpose of this. You will notice things change again.
Hunger, energy is a huge one. Sleep, sometimes clothes start fitting differently. Sometimes
they don't yet, but we are deep in the healing stage. But the fat loss stage. The good news is
the fat loss stage is inevitable. It has to happen after this stage. Okay, let's keep going with the
the healing stage. So we've given it a week or two. You're like, oh, I don't know what's
happening. I feel a little hungry. We're gonna go from 1250 maybe we go to 1300 if you're like,
Oh, I'm feeling nervous. This is scary. I hear you on how it works, but I'm kind of a head case
about it. Let's go to 1275, I am a huge fan of Baby, baby, baby steps, because, number one, I
want to flow with your hunger. Number two, when we do it this slowly, we are it's the difference
between filling up a bucket of water, a tiny little drop at a time, versus spraying a freaking fire
hose at it right when we do this, a baby, baby, baby step at a time, you will not gain weight
because you are firing up your metabolism, meaning your body is getting better at burning
calories. But we're doing it that drop at the time at a time. If you're raising 150 200 calories
every single week beyond what we talked about, about not being hungry, you're absolutely
going to gain weight. So I've never had it happen personally, but if someone came to me and
was like, No, I don't care about gaining weight, just heal my metabolism cool. Let's go faster.
I've never had that experience. Most people don't if we're here to ultimately lose weight, right?
We're in the metabolism healing stage with the purpose of eventually losing weight, then we're
not trying to put on more weight before we get there. So we go slow and steady. We're
listening. We're looking for very, very specific cues from your body, about hunger, about.
Energy about how your body is responding, and we're only baby stepping it when it tells us.
Now, in the next part, I'm going to get into the fat loss stage. Once your metabolism is healed,
we are now ready for the fat loss stage. But before I do that, I want to be abundantly clear
about something. Again, this is not Rachel's laws of health and fitness. This is how the human
body is designed. 101, I tend to not be a black or white person. I believe life, life, lives in the
gray. Took me a long time to train my brain to think like that, because I grew up in a very black
and white family. That's that's a TED talk for another day. When it comes to healing your
metabolism, there are literally only two options. And if there was a third, I would tell you, but
there's not option. One is, you go through the slow, tedious, somewhat annoying stage of
healing your metabolism. We focus on the big picture, right? That this is a necessity, that
there's winds along the way. For me, the biggest one is I don't ever have to do this again. Now
that I know better, I will never go that low calorie again to where I have to ever do this again.
Healing Your metabolism is option one. The only other option if, if you are peripost menopausal,
and you have anywhere from five to 105 pounds to get off you and you're already eating under
14 1500 I'd go even as high as 1500 calories. If you're eating 1500 calories a day consistently
and not losing weight. The only other option besides healing your metabolism is to go on a drug
like ozempic. And I am telling you from the bottom of my soul, you're going to be right back
here having the healing stage. But the difference is that six inch hole is now six miles deep.
Drugs like ozempic or any of these peptide BS, they're all the same. Yes, you will lose 1020,
pounds very quickly. And the the hole that your metabolism is in right now, again, is going to
go from six inches deep to six miles deep, and eventually, whether it's six months from now or
a year from now, because I'm already seeing it, you're going to come back to me and we're
going to have this conversation about healing your metabolism. But we're starting from A to
say a much deeper hole is comical, like a world of difference. We
17:18
it is.
17:19
It is a terrible situation to be in. It's fixable, but we have just quadrupled the time it's going to
take to heal. Those are your only two options. And if there was a third, I would tell you, we're
either going to go for the quick fix, dig the hole deeper, and be back here in a few months or a
year having this conversation, or we're going to buckle in. We're going to flex our patient
muscle, patients muscle. We're going to do a bit of mindset work around the fact that this is a
one time deal of healing our metabolism. We are setting ourselves up for a lifetime of success. We're going to get through the healing stage, and then we're going to be ready for the fat loss
stage. Okay, I'm recording this podcast in a few parts because I don't want to. I don't like doing
podcast episodes that go an hour long. I like to keep these short and punchy, but I highly
suggest listening to all of these parts together. This is intended the healing stage, the fat loss
stage, the whatever the heck else you want to do from here stage.
18:13
This in an ideal world, if
18:15
I did hour long podcasts, I would record all of those sections together. So I highly I don't know
that I've ever said this in a podcast before, but I highly suggest listening to these as one series.
So if you're listening this week to week, once all three are released, go back and listening to
them back to back to back. Obviously you know how you learn best. That's what I suggest,
because these three parts go hand in hand in hand. Okay, so in the second part of the series,
we'll do a quick recap of this healing stage, but we're really going to dive deep into okay, my
metabolism is healed. Now what? And we'll talk about the fat loss stage. Do?