Episode 168: How to Tell If Your Body Is Going Through Body Recomposition?

The scale isn't the only measure of progress, especially during menopause. This episode explains what body recomposition really looks like, why the number on the scale can be misleading, and how to know if your body is changing even when your weight isn't. If you're ready to learn more, the free How to Fire Up Your Metabolism in Menopause workshop is the perfect next step.


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

Transcript

Becoming MindStrong Episode 168: How to Tell If Your Body Is Going Through Body Recomposition

Speaker 1  0:00  
I have been doing this for over a decade, and what I have seen time and time again is if I had to put a pin in the one thing that messes with women's minds the most, it is the scale, because we're doing everything right, we're checking all the boxes, but the freaking scale won't move, and for some women it causes them to quit. So, here's what we need to understand, and here's what we're going to talk about today, and then we're going to get deeper in the weeds about what it looks like. For the vast majority of menopausal women, our body is going to do what we call a recomposition, we call it a recomp, which simply means that your body composition, as the name implies, I know you're not supposed to use the name in the definition, but your body makeup, right, how it looks, how it feels, your tighten, your tone, your stomach looks flatter, your arms feel more muscley, to use a very scientific term, the composition, the makeup, how your body looks and feels is going to be wildly different. The scale may never move. Now, this is true of every single menopausal woman out there. This is true by 100 if you are a menopausal woman who works out, so we're going to get a little deeper in the weeds in a second here, but the biggest concept of today's episode is we need to digest, pun intended, digest this fact that welcome to menopause, we're not 20 anymore, the same rules of our 20s, 30s, early 40s, you've heard me say it a million times. They do not apply, and women drive ourselves bananas, because in our 20s or 30s we came up with some goal weight, right? At 140 I feel my best, and now at 180 I cannot stand my body until I get back to 140 Guess what? Your body may never get back to 140 It doesn't mean we can't look like we did back then. It doesn't mean we may not, that we can't feel like we did back then. But this is not the same body, and the scale may never reflect that. And we get so caught up on it. And if we could just, before we get deep in the weeds, let's just take a minute and zoom out. Why the heck do we care, right? And I mean that sincerely. Like, let's zoom out together, because we all do it. If you've listened to podcasts, you hear me talk about, I don't own a scale. Why? Because I don't want it to mess with my head. I've been doing this for a decade. I do it for a living. This is who I am and what I do, and I don't even want the temptation of the scale messing with my head, so I don't own it. We all do it to different degrees. So, let's, before we get deep in the weeds here, let's just talk about why. If we were walking around with a T-shirt, like if society was set up in a way where every day we had to wear our T-shirt, or we had a little neon sign above our head that showed our current weight, sure, I could understand being a bit obsessed with it, or if we were wearing a T-shirt or had a little neon sign that said I lost x number of pounds on the scale. Sure, we might pay more attention. That would actually be a funny note. That would not be a funny movie. That'd be a terrible movie. But if society were set up that way, I could understand it. Why the heck do we care about that number? Literally, ask yourself that for a second, 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.

Speaker 1  3:56  
The only answer that I can come up with is that we have lived a lifetime of diet culture telling us that the scale is the representation of success, and the scale is a representation of how much fat is on our body, and zero of those, neither of those are capital T truth in every episode that I've ever done that even references a scale. I love to share my favorite visual of this. Okay, I get on a scale right now, let's say it says 180 I get off a scale, I chug two glasses of water, I get back on the scale. The scale now says 182 183 Did I gain two to three pounds of fat by chugging two glasses of water. No, there's more mass in my body. I just chugged a bunch of water. There's more mass pushing down on that scale, making the number go up. That's what the scale measures: mass in your body. So, it is true that muscle weighs more than fat. It is true that inflammation causes that more mass to push down on that scale. It is true that as our body holds water weight, if we're dehydrated, if we've had salty meals, if we haven't gone to the bathroom the day before, all of these things are pushing down on the scale, making that number go up. It is not measuring fat. So, why do we care so much? Because diet culture has brainwashed us to believe that is the measure of success, and it is not the vast majority of women. I'm going to say this again, then we're going to get deeper in the weeds about what it means. The vast majority of women in menopause are going to do what we call a body recomposition, or we tend to call it a body recomp. I'm going to give you one of my favorite examples. We had a member back in the day, and I'm not going to use her real name, just because I didn't ask her permission, but I kind of wish I had, because I think she listens to the podcast, and I'd love to share her name. I'm going to call her Jane. Okay, when Jane came to me, she was an intense worker outer, she was someone who loved workouts, it was part of her career, and her nutrition wasn't great. I, this was back in the day. This is back when Mind Shrunk was a one-woman show, so I was her coach, and Jane was checking up off all the boxes. Her workouts were already in check, so we focused on nutrition, and every day Jane was doing what she's supposed to do. Right, doesn't mean it was perfect, doesn't need to be perfect. I don't want it to be perfect, but let's call it perfectly imperfect. She was checking the boxes, she was hitting her macros, her body was responding. We were changing our plan, golden. And every day, Jane would message me and say, "Yeah, but the scale, yeah, but the scale. And as her coach, I was like, "Jane, I hear you, I hear you, I get it, look at your body, because I'm seeing Jane took before and after pictures, not everyone does. I love when people do. We're going to talk about it more in a second. I'm like, can you see how your body looks, and the answer was, yeah, but yeah, but the scale, yeah. I see it by the time this went on. I worked with Jane for quite a while, and one day this is the picture that's on our before and after, on our before and after pages, is why I wish I had asked her permission before doing this podcast, so that I could tell you which one to go to. Maybe I'll ask permission in retrospect and put her name in the clip in the show notes. One day, Jane sends me a picture and says, 'Holy crap, Rachel, someone took this picture of me this morning in my workout class. Whose arms are these? And the running joke in the world of Mindstrong at the time became suddenly Jane's arms were rivaling mine, because I'd been working out for, you know, I've worked out for years at that point. She looked like an athlete, like she had the biceps that women are like, how do I get those biceps?

Speaker 1  7:32  
So I took them immediately and did a before and after. I took the picture that she had sent me before she started the program. I sent this one. I'm like, Jane, tell me now, do you care about the scale? And she was like, not even a little bit, that's what it took. She had to visually see it, which makes a lot of sense to me. Jane's body, especially because she's a worker outer, did a complete recomposition, like from kind of average looking couple pounds to lose type of woman to absolute athlete, and it was hard for her to see, because her horse blinders were on, and she was so focused on the scale. Now, the Jane in the after picture that she sent me, the scale did not budge. If anything, it may have gone up a couple pounds, because, because of the muscle, that, that, how hard she was working on the muscle she's been on. But my point is this, Jane is not an outlier. There are so many women that work with us where the scale either doesn't move, or again, if you're an intense worker outer, it might fluctuate two to three pounds. Do we get women where they do this journey and the scale goes down 20 pounds? Absolutely, every once in a while we do. It is not the norm. It is not the norm, especially in menopause. Typically, when we see huge scale shifts, it's because they came to us early. They're in perimenopause, typically. Once you've had your one day of menopause and your post, this is what your body's doing. Now, that is a tough pill for a lot of people to swallow, because the logical question is, okay, let's let's say I can swallow that pill, Rachel. Let's say I can get away from focusing on the scale. How do I know it's working? How do I know if my body's doing a recomposition? I'm going to give you a few answers. The first one, you're not going to like, it's the one that I use, but then I'll give you some, some more tactical answers for those who don't like my first answer. For me personally, and let me give a caveat here. This is very easy for me, because I've been doing this for over a decade. I don't need a scale. I don't worry about this stuff, because science is always going to science, and you do something for it. Didn't take me a decade to trust it. It took me, maybe I don't know, I'm not going to put a time frame on that. It didn't take me very long to trust it, because as a very data brain person, I saw, oh, when I do x, y happens when I do a b happens right. The work works when you do the work, and because I have a very database brain, it was very easy for me to trust the process because I saw the results. With that said, I don't own a scale, I do not take measurements, I do not take but. Before, and after pictures, even the only thing I go off of, this is my capital T truth, is how my clothes fit. I know my body, and when I put on a pair of pants and they feel a little tight, it's like, all right, we've been going out to eat a lot, I've been traveling a lot, haven't been as consistent, maybe I'm going to track for a few days, get back on track, go back to intuitive eating, I know what to do. I know how to get my body back to where it feels comfortable. I can do that using my clothes alone. I don't have to wish, hope, pray, and guess. I don't need to scale to tell me. I don't need measurements. I don't even need pictures to do it. I can feel it in my body because I trust the process. I trust myself. I don't gaslight myself. It's not like, well, maybe no. Like, I know. I know what's going on. Makes sense. Here's my lifestyle. Here's what's been happening. A lot of women don't like that answer, because number one, it's not tactical enough, and number two, maybe it's too new to you, to where either you don't trust the process yet, or maybe you don't trust yourself enough yet, right?

Speaker 1  10:52  
Like, we try to, we try to rationalize our way out of it, or maybe we make things worse than they are, maybe we make them better than they are. Regardless, if you don't like that answer, I've got some better ones for you. You could take pictures, right? You could take a picture when, if you do this, I suggest, if you don't want to do like brawn underwear, if you want to wear clothes, wear the same clothes each time. One of my favorite before and afters on our website is, we had a member who lost 120 pounds, she was in perimenopause, had a larger amount of weight to lose. People who have a larger amount of weight to lose tend to lose a lot faster. She lost 120 pounds, and she took progress pictures every single week. We don't require that, but she wanted to. She wore the exact same outfit every week, so you can imagine 120 pounds, picture one to the last picture. It's, it's, uh, it's beyond inspiring. Anyway, taking progress pictures, you will see the difference in your body. You will watch your body get more tightened, get more toned, belly get flatter, whatever that looks like for your journey. Remember, side note, you cannot spot check fat. Lower belly is called a trouble spot for so many women, right? That's why we call it meno belly, because we have a lot of cortisol receptors there. For a lot of women, it's the last place to go, as long as you do the work, the work works, and you do the work, eventually things will get better. Side note, back on track here, taking pictures, either brawn underwear or in the same clothes, you will see the progress with time. One more caveat here, before we go on to the most tactical answer, if you are in a healing stage, a healing stage is not a weight loss stage. So, the measures of success in a healing stage are not, oh, I look like this in my bra and underwear, but then I look like this, right? That's for a weight loss stage. Healing stage measure of success is, am I eating more food without gaining weight. If the answer is yes, your healing stage is successful, and we can get deeper than that. How's my sleep? How's my energy? How's my inflammation? Right, all the things with our members, these are questions we're asking on a daily and a weekly basis. These are measures of success in a healing stage. A healing stage is not a weight loss stage. If you're already eating low calorie, not losing weight, you cannot without a drug until you go through a healing stage. Before and after pictures are not going to do much for you in a healing stage, unless you're a unicorn. We do get unicorns now and then. The measures of success in a healing stage are, am I eating more calories and not gaining weight? Beautiful, that's the whole point. Is it new higher maintenance? I have tons of episodes on it. How's my energy? How's my sleep? How's my inflammation? How's my gut whole health? How are my cortisol levels feeling? Check, check, check, check, check. Okay, that, that was an important side note. Getting back on track, so if we're not going to use this scale, I use how my clothes fit. If that doesn't feel tactical enough for you, you could take before and after pictures when you're in a weight loss stage. You could do it in the healing stage, you're not just might not see as much of a difference. The most tactical for people who are like, "No, I like, do better, I need more answers than that. Is you can take measurements. So people take measurements typically around their arms, around their bust, around their waist, around their thighs. Just make a note in your phone, take some measurements. Again, I'm going to go back to the caveat that I just gave. A healing stage is not a weight loss stage. So, in a healing stage, you might see some differences as inflammation goes down, but a healing stage is not a weight loss stage. What I'm talking about here is when you are in a weight loss stage, how do we know it's working? Measurements are the most tactical way to do that.

Speaker 1  14:18  
Obviously, don't try to don't try to use a ruler, you get like one of those flimsy ones, you do it, have someone help you, it's super easy. I've never done that, never have I ever. If someone asked me, like back in the height of my weightlifting days, people like your body shop sign, I don't know, like I've never ever put a tape measure on my body, but again, that's how my brain works, and I've been doing this a long time, so I trust the process, so I do not take measurements, I do not take the only before and after pictures. If you go through my Instagram, are from like when I was 25 and not working out to when I was 30 and started lifting. Man, it's been over. I keep saying 10 years, been a lot of.. how old am I? It's been a lot, a lot more than 10 years. What. Time, anyway. I use before and after pictures from when I was much, much younger, because I don't - I kind of wish I had. I wish I had taken them when I first started training to now. But when it comes to weight loss, I do not take before and after pictures. For me, I know how my clothes fits. I trust how my clothes fit. I trust the process. I trust myself. I'm not going to gaslight myself. I know the work works when you do the work, so as long as I'm following the plan, I don't have to wish, oh, pray, and guess the only times I have the moments of, like, oh, hands are getting a little tight, it's like, yeah, we've been going out to eat a lot, yeah, I haven't been on my routine as much as I like, yeah, I've been traveling a lot, cool, I know what to do, and take tool out of my tool bag, use it for a few days, get back on track, put the tool away. Right, the whole point of this is not to be the focal point of our life. It's to give us a tool that, when we need it, we use it, we put it away, we live our life, right. No one's getting to the end of their life and saying, "Hallelujah, I got back to 140 pounds on the scale. Number one may never happen, doesn't mean your body can't look that way, doesn't mean you can't feel that way. The scale may never happen, and who freaking cares, right? I'm saying this as a joke, but let me wrap it up with this. I would really encourage you to sit with the question I asked earlier. Why does that number matter? Because what I have found in my years of doing this is that a lot of women come to us hyper focused on that number, and by the time they graduate, they literally do not care. They're like, you know, it's so interesting. I came in like obsessed with seeing this number on the scale. I've heard this even in healing stage, like, I haven't even started. We hear this all the time. I freaking love it. We haven't even started my weight loss stage yet, and honestly, like, yes, I want to lose the weight. I don't even care that much anymore, because I feel so good in my body, and that that is the point, right? It's that whole saying of like, people don't care what they don't remember, how what you said, not they don't care, people don't remember what you said, they remember how you made them feel. Humans make decisions off of how we feel, right? We are looking for a dopamine hit, so we think what we care about is seeing 140 pounds on the scale. Again, I'm just making that number up. What we care about is how we feel at that number.

Speaker 1  17:10  
So, if we can get you to a place where you feel good in your body, your sleep is better, your energy is better, your confidence is better, you're showing up in the world instead of opting out, if we can get you to that feeling, I guarantee you, and I don't guarantee a lot, but I guarantee you, maybe there's a person out there who's the outlier, I've never met her, you will not care about that number, because we don't care about that number, we care about how we feel, and the beauty is the work works when you do the work, so as long as you are meme image number one, and you keep checking the boxes, you get away from the distractions that are going to knock you off course, meaning the scale. As long as you keep doing the work, the work will work. You will get the feeling that you're chasing. You will feel more confident in your skin. You will stop opting out of life, and that is what this is truly, truly, truly about. 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  18:23  
and.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai