Episode 167: How Do You Know If Your Metabolism Needs Healing During Menopause?

No more guessing. Discover how to tell if your metabolism is ready for weight loss or asking for healing first. This episode walks you through the process, with the free How to Fire Up Your Metabolism in Menopause workshop available for those who want to dive deeper.

Check out my (free) workshop, How to Fire Up Your Metabolism in Menopause and Beyond right here: www.MindStrongFitness.com

Transcript

Becoming MindStrong Episode 167: How Do You Know If Your Metabolism Needs Healing During Menopause?

Speaker 1  0:00  
If you're already eating low calorie and not losing weight, and someone tells you to keep cutting calories, I don't care if it's a doctor, I don't care if it's a nutritionist, I don't care if it's a coach, do not go to that person, and it is rare that I will be that up front, but I'm being that up front. We only work with perian postmenopausal women, and about 80 to 85% of women who come to us, they're not saying, "Hey, I'm eating 3000 calories a day, and I'm not very active. They're not eating more than their body needs, they're already doing the quote unquote right things, the things that worked in our 20s, 30s, early 40s, right. We're eating less, we're moving more, we're eating healthy, but the problem is not only is it not working, but the scale is moving in the wrong direction. So one of the questions I get a lot when I do, a lot of people find us through my live workshop, How to Fire Up Your Metabolism and Menopause, Beyond, or my three day Metabolism Boosting Challenge. The one of the common questions I get on my live events, or the pre-recorded version of those live events, is, Okay, Rachel, but how do I know if I'm under eating? So, in today's episode, when I say we're going to get a bit more tactical, I'm going to show you exactly what to do to figure out if you're under eating. Now, the beautiful part of this is there's no wish, hope, praying involved. One of the reasons that we have the success rate that we do, that we've been able to not just survive but thrive for 10 years and help 1000s of women, is I did not invent Rachel's magical 12 week diet. My superpower is educating, so what I teach is, welcome to a menopausal body. The old rules of our 20s, 30s, early 40s, they don't work right. If it still works, we wouldn't be here right now. It doesn't mean we're broken. It doesn't mean all hope is lost. It means we need to understand the new tool bag for our menopausal body. And, as you heard me say in the intro, the beautiful part is, once you have the tool bag, that's it for the rest of your life. You don't need me or anyone else. Try to fall off the bike, and with that, the work works when you do the work, right? If you listen to podcasts, you hear me say that all the time. There's no wishing, hoping, praying involved. A lot of times, people ask me, what's your success rate, Rachel? And my cheeky answer is, what's the success rate of biology? Right, you go to a financial advisor and say, 'Hey, if I spend less money than I save, what are the chances that I acquire wealth? Like, they would look at you like, 'I, you have 12 heads, like 100 right? Like, math is going to math in our world. Biology is going to biology, science is going to science, math is going to math. So, I say all that to say, as we get a bit more tactical today, there's going to be no wish, hope, praying, or guessing involved. Like, if you do the work I'm going to lay out in this episode, you will know if you're under eating or not, and you will know what the game plan ahead is. And I'll talk more about that in a second. Okay, so the first step, if you've hung out here before, you already know what the first step is. Where I'm going to repeat it for anyone who's, who's new, or needs a refresher. And then we're going to get deeper in the weeds about what to do with that information. The first step that we have, every woman we work with, every woman we've ever worked with, ever will do: eat as you normally eat, pop your food into any app for five days. I don't care what app. We, in our world, we're not - we don't have a partnership with them, we do have a discount code for them, but we use macros first, which, by the way, if you use the word Mindstrong, you get an upgraded trial. I'll just put a little plug in there while I'm mentioning it.

Speaker 1  3:33  
It doesn't have to be a Macros First, we just, we like their features and their fantastic service. So, Macros First is a great one, you use the promo code Mindstrong, and you get extra free trial. My Fitness Pal is a popular one. Doesn't matter. Here's the most important part: do not use their goal numbers. All of these apps are going to ask you things like age, height, weight, activity level. They're going to tell you to lose this amount of weight, eat this much. It does not work, especially in a menopausal body, I mean, it doesn't work for anyone, but in menopause it will not work. It'll often dig the hole deeper. Do not use their goals. If it makes you put some goals in, put something outrageous, so you don't even think about it. Do not use their goals. I'm going to repeat that an obnoxious amount. Eat as you normally pop your food into a nap for five days. Okay, so an example of that might be I wake up in the morning, I have a bagel, two pieces of turkey bacon, and some jelly on my bagel. I'm going to go into my app. All of the apps are the same, they have a massive database. I'm going to put in bagel, I'm going to guesstimate how much jelly I did, put in two pieces of turkey bacon, hit the check button, it's super easy, the apps remember the food you eat, so if you tend to eat similar meals, they're going to be in there for these five days. You do not have to measure and weigh your food. Guesstimating is fine. It is not exact. Do not drive yourself nuts. This should be a very simple non thing, right? Just eat as you normally don't. Try to be on good behavior, pop it into your app, that's it. We just want a 30,000 foot bird's eye view of what your body's used to on a daily basis. Now, if you've hung out here before, you've heard me talk about that before. We're going to take it one step deeper. At the end of your five to seven days, we have our members do it for five. You could do it for seven if you want. The more data, the better. I'm going to teach you what we, in our world, we call it the nerdy math. I'm going to teach you the nerdy math. So, this is where you might want to grab a pen and paper. For me, as a visual learner, like, I would rather see someone write this out. So, I'm going to do my best to explain it. I might repeat myself. I've been told that I tend to repeat myself. I'm like, yes, because I taught middle school for years. You have to, but I'm going to do that intentionally, so that you can write it down again. If you are driving, maybe come back to this episode. The first thing you're going to write down, the nerdy math, is this: one gram of carbs equals four calories, one gram of protein also equals four calories. One gram of fat equals nine calories. Fat is a bit more calorically dense. That's why it keeps us full longer. So, one gram of carbs, four calories. One gram of protein, four calories. One gram of fat, nine calories. Just write that down, put it off to the side for a second. Okay, now you've just tracked your food for five to seven days in your app. All these apps are very user friendly. This should, this should not be too difficult to find. I'm confident that that you can find the button that gets you here. There is going to be a button that shows you your weekly averages, we're going to go to that button, we're going to find our weekly average. That weekly average screen is going to show you a ton of information. It's going to show you how much fiber you tend to eat, how much sugar you tend to eat, how much potassium. We're not going to worry about any of that right now. The only thing that we care about are your average carbs, average fat, average protein? Now, I want to put an important caveat here, that app will tell you your average calories.

Speaker 1  7:10  
We're going to ignore it, because what I found in all of these apps, I don't care if you're using the best app out there, they're usually the calories are not accurate, and for our conversation right now, that's the most important part. So, I want you to do this by hand, because we need to know where your, your average calories are, and I don't want to wish, hope, pray, and guess. I want to know that it's accurate. Real quickly, before we keep going, in this episode, we are talking a lot about metabolisms in menopause. In today's episode, so I want to offer you a chance to deepen your knowledge, if you haven't yet checked out my free workshop, How to Fire Up Your Metabolism in Menopause and Beyond, it is one of my go-to favorite pieces of content that I have out here in the interwebs. You can use the link in the show notes below, or go to Mindstrong fitness.com and you'll get a cute little pop-up that'll get you straight into the workshop. Now, let's get back to the show. So, for right now, did your five days of tracking. Find your average screen. It's going to automatically pull the averages you tended to eat in the past five to seven days. We're going to find carbohydrates. Don't worry about net carbs, don't worry about sugar, don't worry about fiber right now. We just want total carbs, okay? Total carbs, not net carbs, total carbs, fat, and protein. Now here's what we're going to do. We're going to apply that nerdy math. So let's say that your average carbs - it's probably not going to be whole numbers like this. I'm going to use whole numbers for ease of conversation, right. So your average carbs might say 126 I'm not going to use numbers like that, because I think it's harder to listen to. Let's say that you saw in your five to seven days of tracking that you ate 120 grams of carbs on average. We're going to take that nerdy math you wrote down: one gram of carbs equals four calories, so very simply we averaged 120 grams of carbs. We're going to multiply it by four. Why? Because one gram of carbs has four calories. So 120 grams of carbs times four equals.. I'm recording on my phone right now, so I can't do the math with you, but I'm confident you can do 120 times four. Write that number down, put it to the side. Okay. Next, we're gonna look at your average grams of protein. So let's say again, your app will probably say something like, I don't know, 46 grams of protein for an ease of conversation. Here I'm going to round. Let's say you're averaging 50 grams of protein. Okay, in our nerdy math we know that one gram of protein also equals for four calories, so we're going to take 50 our average grams of protein and multi. Apply it by four. Why? Because one gram of protein equals four calories. So you're going to do 50 times four, and you're going to put it aside, just like you did with your carbs. Last one, you're going to look at your fat averages, right? Carbs, protein, and fat - those are three macronutrients. Let's say your fat averages showed that you're eating 40 grams of fat. Okay, now we learned in our nerdy math that fat is a bit more calorically dense, so one gram of fat equals nine calories. In this case, we're going to take our 40 grams of fat and multiply it by nine, so 40 grams of fat times nine, because one gram of fat has nine calories. Put it to the side. So right now we have three numbers. We have the number you got when you multiplied 120 grams of carbs times four. We got the number that you got when you multiplied 50 grams of protein by four, and then we have the number that you got when you multiplied 40 grams of fat by nine. Here's the last part, super simple. Add those three numbers together, that is how many calories you tend to eat in a day. Okay, no wishing, hoping, praying, it's not exact, right? We don't all eat the same every single day, but that's how many calories your body averages.

Speaker 1  11:20  
Now, buckle in, because what I'm about to say shocks a lot of women. The textbook definition of undereating is anything under 1600 calories. I've been in this industry a long time, over a decade. If a woman comes to us eating under 1800 calories a day and not losing weight, we're going to treat that as if she needs a healing stage. I'll talk more about that in a second. So, to me, in my world, in our world, in the mind strong world, in the.. we've been doing this for 1000s of women for over a decade world. If you are on, if you are already eating under 1800 calories a day and not losing weight, we do not have to wish, hope, pray, and guess. Here's your roadmap. You need a healing stage. We need to train your metabolism to get better at burning calories, so that the old rules of eat less, move more, go back to working. I have tons of podcasts on it, episodes 99 through 104 I've referenced them so many times that I know them by heart. That's going to teach you what that looks like. Okay, for today's episode, if you are already eating under 1800 calories a day and not losing weight, your body needs a healing stage. If you're sitting there pulling your hair out, saying, "Why is nothing working? I'm eating less and move more, I'm eating healthy, nothing's working. You're welcome. Here's your answer on a silver platter: your body needs a healing stage. Cutting calories further is going to make the problem worse. You need a healing stage, that's it. You can stop researching, you can stop going down rabbit holes, you can stop pulling your hair out. That's the answer, whether it's with us, with anyone else, doesn't matter. That's the answer. If you see that you're eating above that, let's say you're eating 2500 calories a day, and you're not an extreme athlete, right? Obviously, for the purposes of a podcast, I'm talking in generalities. If you're an extreme athlete, these numbers are going to look very different, right? If you are not an extreme athlete, you're eating 2500 calories a day, that's actually great news, because the work for you is going to be a lot faster. You get to go straight into a caloric deficit, you go straight into a weight loss stage. You can bypass the healing stage. The name of the game for you is going to be that we can't stay low calorie forever. We have to learn how to master this weight loss cycle, as we like to call it here. So, for today's episode, this would turn into a two hour podcast if I went deep into healing stages, weight loss stages again, episodes 99 through 104 some of my favorites. We recommend it to everyone for today. If your question is, Rachel, how do I know? How do I know if I'm under eating? I got great news for you. You don't have to wish, hope, pray, and guess. Here is the answer. On a, I'm not even gonna silver platter, it's a gold platter. If you did that math and you saw that you're eating under 1800 you need a healing stage. If you're above, you most likely do not. Now, if going through this episode today, your eyes are crossed and you're a little deer in headlightsy, guess what? You don't have to do it by yourself, whether it's with us or someone. Well, let me say like this: whether it's with us or a coach who knows how to work with menopausal women, and I'm saying that intentionally, because if you work with a coach who does not understand menopause, they're going to see you're eating 1500 calories, and they're going to tell you to eat 1200 This is one of the most important things I'll say in this episode. If you do this work, and you see, actually, that's counterintuitive, because I just said if you don't want to do the work, let me, let me give a blanket statement, I'll get back on track. If you do this work and you see that you're eating under 1800 calories a day, and you go to a coach and they tell you to lower your calories, run, don't walk, and you know I hate cardio, so I mean it. That coach does not understand a menopausal body.

Speaker 1  14:55  
You are going to take a six inch hole and you are going to make it six miles long if. You're already eating low calorie and not losing weight, and someone tells you to keep cutting calories. I don't care if it's a doctor, I don't care if it's a nutritionist, I don't care if it's a coach. Do not go to that person, and it is rare that I will be that upfront, but I'm being that upfront. You are going to make the problem worse. Back on track to what I was saying, if doing this work made you feel a little deer in headlightsy, a little, a little panicky. You don't have to do it. This is literally step one of what we do with every single one of our members. So, the first thing we, their only assignment is, you normally track your food for five days. They don't have to do this math, they don't have to learn this nerdy math. The coach does it for them. They say, okay, this is your averages, this is where we're heading. And then, of course, we don't just set people's macro plans, they have a nice life. We're going to walk you from where you are to where you need to be, right? Because the obvious next step is, okay, I'm under eating. How do I go through healing stage again? I have lots of episodes about that, and this is what we do for people - is our coaches not only do it for them, but they teach it to them. So I say all that to say the intention of today's episode is to black or white give you the answer. Am I an undereater? Am I overeating? There's not really an in between there, it's one or the other. From there, again, those episodes will help you get the ball rolling down a hill, or if you need some help, I always suggest, and we'll put in the show notes, my how to fire up your metabolism workshop is a great place to start. We don't work with every single woman we talk to, so we always start with a free one to one strategy session. You can apply for one of those, which is on the same page as the workshop, which I will link here. What I love about this conversation, you've heard me say it a few times, there's no wishing, hoping, praying, right? As someone with a very data brain, I, if I'm going to put my time, energy, money, everything, focus into something, I want to know it's going to work. I am not a gambler. I am someone who's like, if I give you, yes, my money, but to me is more important than time, because time is the one thing we can't get back. If I'm going to give you my time, I want to know this is going to work. And the beauty of what we teach is it's biology, right? What's your success rates? I don't know what's the success rate of biology, right? The work works when you do the work. So this is step one. If the million dollar question, the I'm ripping my hair out, Rachel question is, how do I know if I'm under eating, black or white conversation? Track your food for five days, apply the nerdy math. If you see you're eating under 1800 calories and not losing weight, they see an answer. You need a healing stage. We can help you with it, or go listen to those episodes. You could start on your own. If you see you're eating more than that and you're not an extreme athlete, congratulations. You get to get the healing stage. The work gets to be a little bit faster. But this is step one. This is the non-negotiable. This is how we avoid wishing, hoping, praying. Math is going to math, and science is going to science. For more information on Mind Strong Fitness, or to apply for a free one to one strategy session with my incredible all-female team, visit www dot Mind Strong fitness.com

Unknown Speaker  18:03  
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