Episode 202: Missing Strategies That May Ignite Your Weight Loss

Episode Transcript
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Eric Balcavage (00:23):
Hey everybody, it's Dr Eric Balcavage. We're
back for another edition of thethyroid Answers podcast, where
we kind of go beyond the numbersto uncover what's really driving
your symptoms. Today I'm joinedby negeen Abdullah, an online
weight loss coach whospecializes in helping high

(00:45):
achieving women lose weightwithout extreme dieting or hours
in the gym. But this isn't yourtypical weight loss
conversation. We're going todive deep into real reasons why
women, especially those dealingwith thyroid issues, may
struggle to lose weight evenwhen they're doing all the right
things, from the hidden facts ofstress hormone resistance to

(01:06):
metabolic power of spices, bloodsugar, balance and emotional
patterns around food, thisepisode should pull back the
curtain on the missing pieces inThe Weight Loss puzzle.
So Nagina, welcome to thethyroid Answers podcast. How are
you today? I'm great, Eric. It'sso great to be here with you. So

(01:28):
let's, let's, we'll start bygetting, getting a little bit of
your background. Give us alittle bit, maybe a short
background on how you got intothe weight loss space.

Nagina Abdullah (01:37):
Yes, absolutely. Well, I actually
personally struggled with sugarcravings my entire life, and my
weight, I was always frustratedabout my body, even though I
always I was doing so much morework than everyone around me. I
was watching my calories. I waslooking at how much like making
sure I wasn't getting too manycalories. I was exercising. I

(01:59):
was trying every diet out there,from Weight Watchers to nutrisym
to South Beach to Atkins,exercising a lot and eating
less. And no matter what I did,I would be able to lose some
weight, maybe, like, up to 10pounds. And once I would hit
that number, I would feel so, sohappy that I would start doing
all the things like startedadding back all the things that

(02:20):
helped me get to where I was,and I would put that way back
on, plus more. And so I was on ayo yo cycle for my entire life.
And then once, once I hadchildren, I realized I don't
have time for this yo yoanymore. I don't want to keep
going up and down. And so I havea background. I have a degree in
molecular and cell biology fromUC Berkeley, and then I also

(02:40):
have a graduate degree from NYU.And so I started going into the
research that I had access tothrough this education. And I
started finding that there arefoods that we can start adding
instead of taking away andrestricting, and there's a there
is a concept of focusing onmetabolism versus restriction.
And so I really was it wasreally resonating with me,

(03:03):
because the dieting just wasn'tworking, and I didn't have time
to do that as well as exerciseanymore. And so I started
focusing on increasing mymetabolism by adding certain
foods and combining them in away that kept my blood sugar
even. And so amazingly, I lost40 pounds in nine months, I got
to the most fit part of my life.I'd never been that fit, and it

(03:27):
happened so easily just becauseI started understanding the
properties of food. Now it'sbeen over 15 years, and I've
kept that weight off and I'vegone I'm going through menopause
now, and there is a massivechange that happens in our
bodies with bloating, and I havefigured out how to get that down
again. So I still am at the sameplace that I was since I lost 40

(03:48):
pounds. And so that's really,you know, I was, I was working
in a full time job when I lostthis weight, but everyone around
me was asking me, how did I dothis? What did you do? Please
share this with me. And so Istarted my blog, masala body.com
and started sharing my tips andstrategies, and then started
coaching women. And now and thentransition from that job to my

(04:09):
company, masala body.com and nowI've coached over 1600 women in
midlife to be at theirhealthiest weight.

Awesome. So we're going to kind of get into
kind of the strategies andsolution piece, but I want to
address like right up front,because I know my audience is
thinking, Yeah, another weightloss coach. Weight Loss coaches
are all over the internet, andpeople have had, I'm sure, have
tried them and not had thesuccess. And typically we hear

(04:36):
calories in, calories out. Butwhat do you think is, what do
you think people misunderstandregarding the role of the health
coach, and what do you thinkdifferentiates you from the
multitude of other weight losscoaches that are out there?

Yes, well, I can tell you, I never found
anyone that could help me, and Ihad to create this system all by
myself through my own research.So I agree, there's a lot of
there's a lot of really, reallyuneducated information out there
that is, that is really behindthe times. And instead of
focusing on restriction andcalorie counting and calories

(05:26):
in, calories out, our bodies areso much more complex. And though
calories do play a part inlosing weight, they are not the
number one thing. There are somany more aspects to it in terms
of increasing your metabolism,such as blood sugar balance,
such as hormonal balance, andsuch as thyroid, and make making
sure that your thyroid isbalanced and is working

(05:46):
correctly, since that is ourmetabolism boosting gland. And
so a lot of people areapproaching weight loss from a
very simplified perspective ofonly macronutrients and
calories. And when you hitmidlife, it becomes a lot more
complicated than that, andthat's especially why most
people, when they hit their kindof mid 40s, if not earlier, all

(06:08):
the things that were that wereworking before stop working. And
that's because we require adifferent approach. Our gut
health is changing, especiallyfor women in our 40s, or we're
going we're startingperimenopause. For most women,
that means our hormones aredeclining, and our hormones were
protecting us from inflammation,and so all of a sudden we're
experiencing massive bloating,usually belly bloating, and we

(06:30):
might start blaming it onourselves, because we don't have
the education that our body hasactually shifted. And so now we
have more inflammation. It'salso very likely that and most
women, when they startperimenopause, increase their
insulin resistance. And whatthat means is that that when
you're eating any food that'sbreaking down to sugar, so most

(06:51):
carbs sugars, then your body'snot processing it as
efficiently, and you're storingfat more quickly, instead of
burning fat. And this, thisisn't anything different that
that the person is doing, it'sthat our bodies are changing.
And so if you keep doingcalories in and calories out and
restricting yourself, itactually becomes worse,

(07:11):
especially in midlife, meaningyou will stay stuck at the same
weight, even if you're eatinghardly any calories, and you
will also potentially gainweight because your body doesn't
have the nutrients that it needsto excrete toxins and the other
particles that are causinginflammation in your gut. So we
really have to change thenarrative around what to do in

(07:33):
midlife and beyond to get to ourhealthiest bodies, because
calorie counting restricting andnot giving your body, the
nutrients that it needs, eatingless, even intermittent fasting,
are things that are actuallyworking against us in so many
situations. And so you know whatI what I bring to the table is
an educated view and also amassive experience with not only

(07:57):
myself, transporting my owntransforming my own body, but
working with over 1600 women andseeing the daily struggles that
they go through, the dailyissues, and understanding how to
navigate that. And it's not thesame as it was when we were 20
and 30.

Okay, so if this is something that's happening to
people, men, women, as they hitmiddle age, is this, are you
thinking, this is the normalprocess of aging, or is there
something else at play that'sthe underlying the change in

(08:34):
physiology in middle age?

So even, you know, I actually was thinking,
oh, you know, I had lost 40pounds before I went to the
menopause stages. And I wasthink I was hearing all these
things about perimenopause andmenopause, and I was thinking,
I'm so healthy. I have my body.I got, I figured out how to get
my body to the sick, to the tothe place that I could only have
dreamed of. And then guess whathappened? I hit perimenopause,

(08:59):
and all the things I startedhearing started happening to me.
I gained 20 pounds. I hadmassive bloating in my belly. I
went up two sizes in my pants,and everything I was doing
stopped working. And exerciseabsolutely did not work for me.
Steps did not work for me. Andso because of this scenario,
this, I'm one example of someonethat was really healthy, and

(09:20):
this, this same thing happened.And so, you know, my answer is,
this is a function of aging.It's a natural it's a natural
function. It's things that aregoing to happen to us. Because,
as our hormones are declining,even for men, men's hormone, you
know, other hormones aredeclining, and that's making a
difference as well. But yourhormones are declining, and our
hormones are protective, and asa result, we have different

(09:44):
effects that are happening. Now,the other thing is, even if so,
if you're not healthy, or ifyou're not as if you're if you
think you're healthy, because alot of women feel like they're
healthy, but they're they'rereally under eating, if you're
doing things that are eitherovereating. Eating foods that
are raising your blood sugar andif you're under eating as well.

(10:04):
Those are two problems thatabsolutely have to be corrected
first and eat no matter ifyou're having a no matter if
it's aging or not you, you thoseare things that are going to
affect everyone because youthose are, those are factors of
our metabolism as well as ourthyroid. So, so there's some,
there's some, there's some basictypes of ways of eating that

(10:27):
that we do have to implement.And once you get that down, then
you can start addressing theother age specific types of
things that start happening,like bloating, etc. So it's kind
of like you have to be healthy,you have to know how to eat. But
aging is going to happen, and soyou have to learn a new approach
on on how to increase yourmetabolism.

So I there, there likely is a natural
decline in metabolism as we age.But I don't know if it's just
there is a drop in estrogen asespecially for women, as they
start to progress, that's anatural decline, and that might
and the estrogen really supportsmitochondrial function. So if

(11:08):
there's low levels of estrogen,you're going to have reduced
mitochondrial function. So yourefficiency at at converting food
energy into cell energy can godown, but it doesn't happen to
everyone. But I think there'sother issues that probably
aggravate the situation, andthat is, the vast majority of

(11:28):
people have low gradeinflammatory mechanisms going on
low grade and that low gradeinflammation creates some level
of glucose resistance and drivetowards fat storage. And as we
start to compile thatinflammatory process, it does
change thyroid physiology at thecell level, which impacts your

(11:52):
body, your metabolism. Andwe're, you're seeing that
decline in estrogen. So betweenthe decline in estrogen the low
grade inflammation. I think itsets the stage for for a lot of
people to start gaining weight.But it's not just age dependent,
because we have a largepercentage of our population
that's overweight or obese, evenbefore they hit there. I mean,

(12:14):
you said, Hey, I was 40 poundsoverweight and trying to
struggle.
So one of the things we hear inin in healthcare, is that you're
unhealthy because you'reoverweight. And I would make a
different argument, is thatyou're overweight because you
were unhealthy first. Where doyou where do you fall on that?

Yes, well, so I mean, there, so I don't want to
say there's only one way oranother, but, but definitely
being overweight is a symptom ofNot, not, not having a
metabolism that is efficient.And there are a lot of aspects
of our metabolism that we cancontrol, and we can control much

(12:58):
of it with food. We don't haveto necessarily have medication
specific if you are, if you aresomeone that has hypothyroidism,
then definitely you need thatmedication. But there's a lot of
people that that that may not beat that place, and food is going
to correct a lot of those, a lotof those problems. And so, you
know a thing about aging that Iyou know, that I want to touch

(13:21):
on also is that as we're gettingolder, our muscle mass is
decreasing. So in our 40s, ourmuscle mass starts to decrease
significantly, and that muscleis turning into fat. And now we
all know that muscle is burnsmore calories than fat, so as
our bodies are transforming intomore fat, our metabolism is
going to decrease, and we'regoing to start putting on weight

(13:42):
because of that. We're alsoputting on weight because of the
the the change in as the declinein estrogen, which was
protecting us from what's calledinflammatory cytokines, and now
those are being able to bereleased, which is why there's
more bloating that we'reexperiencing, especially in our
bellies, especially for womenand so. So the thing is, these

(14:02):
things are changing and but interms of being being unhealthy,
there are some people that haveto struggle. You know, they
struggle more because they mayhave a more severe thyroid
condition they have, they havean immune system that is not
functioning as efficiently assomebody else, and that makes a
difference in fat metabolism aswell. So there's, there's some

(14:25):
things that they have to workthrough and they have to repair
so that they can start to loseweight. So it could be that your
body is not like you have, youhave you have to improve your
gut health. Gut our gut healthis very related to our weight.
And so once you repair that, youwill lose weight. But a lot of
times, you're going to see thatpeople that are overweight,

(14:47):
they're not eating in the rightway. And if they make these
changes simply by eating in theright way, their fat is going to
drop, and they are going tostart increasing their
metabolism completely naturally.

Okay, we're going to get into more of that,
but I guess that it that begs adifferent question, right? So
who's to say what the right wayis right? And what's the right
way for different individuals?Because there are people that
eat what they think is a healthydiet, right, the Mediterranean

(15:19):
style diet. They don't loseweight, they eat a vegan diet,
which somebody tells them ishealthy, and they don't lose
weight, they eat a carnivorediet, and maybe don't lose
weight, they do a keto dietdiet, and maybe they don't lose
So we'll get into the context ofwhat what you're thinking is the
weight.
right way to eat in a bit, butlet's hit a couple other
questions, and it kind of tiesto this. Is that even though

(15:42):
many people have tried lots ofdifferent things and they're
still struggling with weight isit weight issues? It's not
always the food, right? There'sother factors that contribute to
weight gain. And you talkedabout gut health and gut and gut

(16:05):
dysbiosis. What are some of theother factors? Is it, do you
think it's just food? I don'tthink you do. But, and do you
think there's other factors thata lot of people have going on.
And you talked about, well, theyhave a thyroid condition, or
they have immune condition, andI would say, I would agree with

(16:26):
those things, but then we haveto ask the next question, what's
causing the thyroid condition?What's causing the immune
activation? So what do you seeis the biggest drivers, and
maybe if you think it's onlyfood, to say, I think it's only
the food that people eat. Butare there other habits,
lifestyle factors that you thinkcontribute to the weight gain at

(16:51):
the hypothyroidism, the immunesystem issues, what are there
other things that you think arecontributing that most people
aren't taking intoconsideration?

Unknown (17:01):
Yes, so the first, the first way that I want to respond
to your question is to be veryclear that food is the main
reason. Food is the main reasonthere are other things that are
very important, that are veryimportant. And I want to, I
don't want to say that there'snothing else. There are

(17:23):
absolutely and I want to, I'mdefinitely going to talk about
those. But like we're talkingabout thyroid, our immune our
immune system, we can, we canhelp to support that by eating
the right way. So our thyroid,if for many women that have or
many people that havehypothyroidism, there's some,
there's a lot of nutrients thatthat are lacking, and once you
supplement yourself with thosenutrients, and including eating
more carbohydrates that arehealthy, which our thyroid

(17:44):
needs, then we're going to startto increase that function. But
it's not going to necessarilyget to where, you know, get to
complete health withoutmedication. So there is some
support that we need, but youcan help yourself and support
yourself.

Now, there's a lot of issues that happen in our
gut, but it's because we're notgiving ourselves enough
nutrients, which comes fromfood. A lot of times, people
feel like they can only takesupplements, or they have to
only take medication that canhelp you, that can support you,
but you for you have to do that.You have to get to the root
cause and really have a strongfoundation, which comes from

(18:20):
food. But let me say I wanted tostart with that, but there are
many other lifestyle factorsthat are incredibly important,
and one of the top ones isstress.
Now, if somebody is eatingcorrectly, and when I say eating
correctly, we're going to talkabout what that means, but I
really want to want other youknow, those of you that are
watching and listening to knowthat that doesn't mean eating

(18:41):
healthy foods. It means eatingthe types of foods that keep
your blood sugar even and eatingenough of those foods that
increase your metabolism. Soit's not about just like no just
being kind of random about whatyou're eating. There. It has to
be a structured way of eatingand and so even if you're eating
in that way, but you don't haveenough sleep, or if then, then

(19:03):
that's going to cause stress toyour body. That's going to cause
your body to hold on to to fat.It's not going to allow it to
burn fat as much. In addition,if you don't have enough sleep,
you're going to have very strongsugar cravings, which also
impacts the food piece of it. Soso sleep can impact a stress can
create a stress on our body,also emotional stress and just a

(19:25):
lot of lifestyle stress thatthat many people are dealing
with, just with so manyresponsibilities, so many things
on our plate, working takingcare of kids, sometimes taking
care of parents. You know, allthe things that comes with that,
without having enough supportthat stress can help, can
literally shut your body down,and especially in midlife and
beyond our body as our as ourhormones are declining, it's

(19:48):
more sensitive to cortisol, soour cortisol increases more
quickly, and we really can'thandle as much as we could have
10 or 20 years ago, or sometimeseven five years ago.
And when we increase ourcortisol, which is. Due to
stress, then we, our bodiesstart to shut down, and we, our
bodies are not processing foodin the right way. So, you know,
stress sleep, another aspectthat that that is, that is a

(20:12):
function of stress that manypeople don't realize is when
you're under eating, you'reputting your body in a massively
stressful situation. And that's,that's a that's very, very, a
very, very likely thing that'shappening for many people in
midlife, because we've beentaught that dieting and eating
less is the way for us to loseweight, so we start eating less,

(20:33):
but that actually puts our bodyin that stress mode, and then it
starts holding on to fat insteadof releasing it, and that's why
it's so harmful to eat toolittle, and we shouldn't be
scared of food. We should justknow which foods are nourishing
our body.
So, you know, there's stress,there's sleep, you know, I am
going to say like walking,exercise, it has a place, but it

(20:56):
is not the number one way, andit's not even the top five way
to lose weight or to to increaseyou can. You can be you can. You
can build muscle, and that willhelp increase your metabolism.
But you really have to hone inon what you're eating, and you
can absolutely lose weightwithout exercise. And I say that
because I have lost 20 pounds inmenopause by only lifting

(21:17):
weights, no cardio, and I'mseeing women in their 60s and
70s, lose up to 40 pounds withminimal, minimal exercise. It's
really about changing their dietand increasing their metabolism.
So, you know, there are and thenthe other factors are things
like a PCOS, hormonal issuesthat if your hormones are not
balanced, it's extremely hard,especially if you have estrogen

(21:40):
dominance, it's very hard tolose weight, so hormonal
changes. So these are allfactors. And if you have your
eating right, but you haveestrogen dominance, you're not
going to be able to lose weight,so you have to work on that, and
you have to work on balancingthat out. So there are these
other factors absolutely and youdo have to work on each and

(22:00):
every one of them, but if youare ready for the biggest bang
for your buck, it is by taking alook at what you're eating and
increasing your metabolismthrough natural foods and making
sure you're eating enough ofthose foods.

Okay, so what do you think for the people? We'll
come back to some of this stuff,and we'll talk about it, but you
you're keep mentioning the rightway to eat. So let's talk about
what your belief is, the rightdiet, or the right Nutri right
intake of food. And I so we'llkind of talk about what you

(22:34):
think, what you think that is,and maybe have a discussion
around that first, becausepeople are probably going, What
do you mean the right food? Sowhat's your definition of the
right foods to eat?

Yes, okay, so, so the right, the right foods to
eat, I include all of themacronutrient categories,
meaning protein, protein, carbs,fat, and then also fiber. And so
all of those are important. Wecannot take any of those out. If
we take any of those out, we'reputting our body under stress.
But it's just important tounderstand how much of those to

(23:07):
eat. And one of the biggest,most important priorities in
increasing metabolism is to eatmore protein. I have a mantra
that's called protein more, andthinking of protein more at
every meal, and what proteindoes is that it directly
increases our metabolism,because it is giving our body
the building blocks so that wecan build more muscle, even if

(23:28):
you're not working out and weand sometimes we're just
fighting to maintain our muscle.And so we need those amino acids
to be able to to be able tobuild our muscle, also to be
able to be used in differentprocesses in our body. And in
addition protein, it digestsmuch more slowly. So when you
have the right amount ofprotein, which I'll go over in a

(23:50):
moment, you don't feel ashungry, and your sugar cravings
literally start to disappear. Itis so directly related. And a
lot of times when people havesugar cravings. They think that
they have to take out sugar, andthat's actually the wrong way.
That's actually that actuallydoesn't work. It just makes you
want to eat more sugar. Youstart obsessing and thinking

(24:10):
over sugar, thinking about sugarall the time. I know because I
thought I was just naturallyborn with with uncontrollable
sugar cravings, because Ithought about it all the time
when I was on those diets. Butwhat I found is when you start
adding protein, that is theanswer. It's an indirect way to
get rid of your sugar cravingsand have so much control over
what you're eating, is by addingenough protein, because it

(24:31):
digests more slowly. It keepsyou satiated. And the reason it
increases your metabolism,that's the most powerful, is
that it keeps your blood sugareven so if you're eating
something that is that has sugarin it, or if you're eating a
carbohydrate and you pair itwith a protein, that your blood
sugar is going to going to it'snot going to rise as much. In

(24:51):
fact, it could. It could riselike 50% up to 50 or 60% less
than if you ate thatcarbohydrate or sugar alone just
by pairing it with the protein.

Unknown (24:59):
And this concept is really important about keeping
our blood sugar even becausewhen our blood sugar increases,
then our pancreas releasesinsulin, and insulin goes and
takes the sugar out of ourblood, and after a number of
processes, stores it as fat. Anda lot of that is being fat,
stored as fat in our belly. Soif we are keeping our blood

(25:20):
sugar balanced, then we're notgoing through those ups and
downs of energy all day, andwe're not going through fat
storage. Instead, we're goingthrough fat burning because our
our blood sugar is even soprotein is the key to keep your
blood sugar even. And talkingabout amounts, it's important to
get you know, a magic number tostart with is 30 grams of

(25:42):
protein at each meal. So 30grams at breakfast, 30 grams at
lunch, 30 grams at dinner. Andthen even throw in like a
protein shake or a Greek yogurtor something else, that will
give you a little little bitmore and get you at least over
100 100 grams a day. And that'sa starting point. Once you get
there, it's important toincrease, and it really depends

(26:02):
on your body weight. So I'mgiving a general number here,
but if your body weight is, asyou know, it increases with with
the with the with the moreweight that you have. So I want
to cover the other threemacronutrients, but I just want
to stop there in case you have,yeah.

So there's a lot of controversy around how much
protein somebody should intakeand but I agree that most people
aren't consuming appropriatelevels of protein in their diet.
There's some literature thatsays like point eight to point

(26:39):
seven to 1.2 I've seen as farper per kilogram of ideal body
weight, and other things thatsay per pound of ideal body
weight.
And I do think it's, it's persondependent, right? And so when we
think about how much you know, Ithink your starting point of 30

(27:02):
grams is probably not a badbecause most people are, are
probably under consuming andthey're probably not maybe
getting that much. I think whenI have patients do their three
day dietary intake, most peopleare just not getting enough
protein. And we'll talk aboutwhy a lot of people don't.
But where do you stand on whatthe appropriate dose is, and are

(27:26):
you and how do you justify whatthat dose is? Are you looking at
just as from a, from a, fromjust your experience? Are you
looking at clinical literature?Are you can are you looking at
what somebody's metabolismcurrently is or their state. How
are you what's your range for anindividual? Because it really

(27:47):
does need to be individualbased. And, yeah, how do you
make the criteria and what doyou think that what the optimal
number is?

Yeah, so it's definitely very individual
based. And so you know, when Ishare, when I teach someone how
much protein they should eat,I'm looking at a lot of factors
about themselves specifically.So the numbers I'm sharing right
now are a starting point, andthey are, they are. They do
apply to pretty much everybodyas a starting point. But the
amount that I'm recommending isbased on clinical literature,

(28:20):
based on research from my frommy background, and it is also
based on studying over 1600women myself, and seeing my
seeing what is working and whatis not working. And so there's a
combination of experiencetesting, hands on experience, as
well as research. So I reallystarted with the research, and

(28:42):
then I saw what worked for me.That's how I that's how I got
started. I saw, okay, does thiswork for me? And it was working.
And then as I started losingmore weight, I started seeing
that I needed different amounts,and then I needed a different
amount to maintain. And so itdepends on where you are in the
phase of losing weight as well.And so then I started testing it
with my clients, because Ialready knew what worked for me.

(29:04):
I already knew what what wasrecommended from multiple
scientific scientific literatureand and so I started testing,
and I actually have a veryspecific formula, which is based
on someone's weight and whattheir goal is. It's also
somewhat dependent on theirheight, but somebody that
weighs, say, 130 is going toneed less protein than someone's

(29:27):
than someone that's 190 and butthe thing is, it doesn't go up
in a linear way. A lot of timeslike the scale. It changes
where, when, say, if you're 190200 you're not going to need as
much protein per pound of bodyweight as somebody that's 130 so
when you're 130 you're going toneed to increase, you're going

(29:50):
to need to decrease the amountof protein, but you're going to
have more protein per pound ofbody weight. So that percentage,
that ratio changes. It increasesas you lose weight, but the
number may decrease.
And so we know the ranges forevery person, like for 150 to
155 to 100 you know every singlerange. We know what has worked.
And then we start there, and wesee, see how our someone's body

(30:12):
is responding, and it's not, youknow, everyone's body is
different, because people aredealing with thyroid issues,
with gut issues, with immunesystem problems, and so they may
or may not respond, and if theydon't respond, then we realize
there's something deeper goingon that we need to look at their
gut health, that we might needto look at their a one C's, that
we definitely need to get theirthyroid tests, because then we

(30:33):
may need to delve more deeplyinto the functional health
aspect, which is, what are thequalities of the foods that you
need, and what exact foods doyou need? Other than just saying
you need 30 grams of protein ateach meal, we actually need to
look at the benefits of thefood. Which food is medicine, so
we start adding certain types offoods to help correct those

(30:54):
issues.

Okay, and so if we get back to the number, where
do you fall in the camp of, arewe thinking per we're thinking
gram per kilogram, gram perpound, like those are, because
these are drastically differentnumbers, and there's people that

(31:18):
argue on both sides, andsomebody's listening to this.
But how do I know just 30 or Ineed to increase it? But what
should they be thinking aboutfor a ballpark? Do you think it
should be closer to the let'sjust use the number like a gram
per kilogram of ideal bodyweight, or a gram per pound of
ideal body weight, like, what'sthat? Which? Number Are you

(31:41):
looking at?

Yeah, I love this question, because you're
it's you're getting so specific,and this is literally what
people need to know so that theyknow the amounts. Otherwise,
this information is so general,and we, we're not going to get
the benefits from it. We have toactually get specific. So, so I
like to talk in grams per pound.I'm not saying one gram per
pound, but I want to talk inthat, in those, in those
metrics, because it's morerelatable for a US audience and

(32:06):
and so instead of, most peopledon't even, don't even want to
do that conversion, which isfairly straightforward, but so,
so it's, it's more in the campof a little bit less than one
gram of protein per per pound ofbody weight. So I'm more in the
camp of point eight to pointnine, grams of protein per pound

(32:27):
of body weight, so a little bitless than your weight. So if
you're, you know, if you're like170 you're going to want to have
a little bit less. You're goingto do like, point eight times
170 and and start there, andthen maybe increase to point
nine as you start losing weight.So, so it's, it's, but it is,
you know, in general, you couldjust think of it as just a it as
just a little bit less than apound per per a gram per pound.
And that may seem like a lot tosome people, you know, even,

(32:50):
even somebody that's 140 pounds,they may think that that's a lot
because they weren't eating it.You know, we find that most
people, especially women, areeating around 60 to 80 more,
like 60 to 70 grams of protein aday, because when you're not
conscious of it, and when you'renot thinking about, what am I
eating for each meal, it's not,it's it's, you have to work to

(33:12):
get that much protein. Doesn'thappen by mistake.

Yeah. And the downside is, if you're not
consuming sufficient protein,which is the building that's
kind of our building material.The amino acids provide the
building blocks for muscletissue, cells, hormones,
enzymes, everything else. Butthat means you're filling the
rest of your dietary intake withenergy, calories that you may

(33:38):
already not be able to utilizeor burn, and so that can become
an issue. And so it's importantto take a look at those things.
So I want to touch one morething on this protein piece,
because I'm sure people arethinking this too. Am I
thinking, if I'm 180 poundfemale and my optimal body
weight is 140 pounds, whichshould their protein target be?

(34:03):
Should it be towards? Do I needa let's just say it's a gram of
protein per pound of bodyweight. Are they shooting for
180 grams of protein? Or wouldyou advise them to shoot for
more of what their ideal bodyweight is? Or somewhere in
between?

Yes. Love the question. You really want to do
it where you are right now. Soif you're 180 and your goal is
140 you gotta start at yourprotein that you need at 180
because that's what's going toactivate your metabolism. If you
do it at the 140 weight, you'renot there yet. You need to get
more you need to get moreprotein to activate your
metabolism, so that your bodyhas what it needs and gets out

(34:40):
of survival mode and gets out ofbeing stuck, and then it can
start actually burning fatbecause you're giving it what it
needs to to actually to be ableto process everything. And this
really goes against things thatare very deeply ingrained in our
brains, from when we were youngin this generation, growing up
with diets, with eating less, itfeels uncomfortable to eat more,

(35:03):
but, you know, I see people allaround me. I saw, you know,
recently, my mom came over, andshe was, she's in her 70s, and
she was eating what she thoughtwas a healthy breakfast, which
was two eggs and then somefruit. And I was like, Mom, you
have to eat more. That's thattwo eggs is only 12 grams of
protein, and you're having somefruit, that fruit that fruit is
going to raise your blood sugara little bit, not too much, at

(35:23):
least you have the eggs with it.And so I recommended that she
add on a Greek yogurt with herbreakfast, or that she has a cup
of egg whites, or half a cup ofegg whites, at least, to get it
into the 20 to 30 grams, whichis a really great way to add
that protein to your breakfast,is to do two eggs plus a half a
cup or a cup of egg whites. Ordo a Greek yogurt, or you can do
a protein smoothie that haseither Greek yogurt or protein

(35:46):
powder that's at least 25 gramsof protein, and then you're
having low sugar fruit in thatpro in that protein smoothie, as
well as maybe some berries,which are going to keep your
blood sugar low, maybe some flaxseed to increase your fiber.
that, and within a week, shelost three pounds, and then she
went on to lose five pounds thenext week, simply by adding that

(36:10):
additional 20 grams of proteinto her breakfast. And I see this
happen all day, every day withmy clients, they start adding in
more protein, starting withtheir breakfast, and their
weight starts dropping and andso that's why you don't even
have to be very specific with itin the beginning in terms of
numbers and calculating how muchit is. You don't have to,

(36:31):
because you're likely undereating protein anyway. So if you
just bump it up to 30 grams permeal, your body's going to get
more of what it needs, and eventhat change is going to activate
your metabolism, and then aftera few weeks, you might see a
slowdown, and that's when youreally should start making sure
you're getting enough proteinfor your current body weight.
And then your body will startlosing more fat, and you'll be

(36:53):
able to get to your goal withthat plus some of the other
combinations that that areimportant.

Okay, and ask you two questions off of that
one, what's the theory betweenbe for you, behind the whole egg
versus theegg whites?

Well, the whole egg is important, because the
whole egg, first of all, the eggis a source of fat. We actually
need fat in our in our diet. Fatis going to, you know, it helps
us in so many ways. From anappetite perspective, it keeps
you more satiated, and whenyou're combining fat and
protein, you're really beingable to control your appetite,
you're really feeling satiated.But of course, egg yolks have so

(37:33):
many other nutritional benefits,but they also have cholesterol
in them, and if you eat morethan two eggs, you're going to
get more than your daily value,daily requirements of
cholesterol. So that's why Irecommend staying at two eggs
per day. But two eggs per day isamazing, as long as you know you
are you like eggs, as long asyou want to eat eggs, as long as

(37:55):
you can find eggs, given ourcurrent climate, and so you
know, egg whites, though, are agreat source of protein only. So
sometimes you just you you'regetting your fat from other
places, or maybe you don't likeegg yolks. Egg whites is a great
substitute, because it's juststraight protein. It has no
carbs, it has no fat. It's avery easy way to add more

(38:19):
protein, and it's also really,really kind of underrated as a
like, as a dinner option or alunch option, that's really fast
if you just get, either getliquid egg whites. I mean,
that's the easiest way, so youdon't waste so many eggs. But
then, or you could also, youknow, crack eggs and just
separate them. But there'sliquid egg whites that are
really easy, that you could,that you could use. So it's,

(38:40):
actually, you know, a decisionon, do I need a lean protein, or
do I do I want to have a more ofa satiating protein? And do I
actually like eggs? Because noteverybody likes eggs, and not
everybody eats eggs either.

I think the egg white controversy was big when
we thought that cholesterol wasthe problem and elevated
cholesterol was caused by thecholesterol we eat. But we know
today that only about 25% of thecirculating cholesterol actually
comes from the cholesterol thatwe it's in our food. Most of it
is converted from the cells. Andexcess of cell energy, not being

(39:17):
able to be or sell cell fuel,not being able to convert it in
into cell energy and efficientmanner, so we can displace that
back out into the bloodstream ascholesterol, so we can make
hormones, enzymes,neurotransmitters. So I agree
that egg whites provide a way toget more protein in, but I I

(39:38):
don't think most people need toshy away from the egg yolk,
especially for from a femaleperspective, because the choline
in there is so important for somany functions in the body. But
we can, we can table that.
As far as the calorie piece, wedidn't really hit this yet, but
I want to make sure we we hit itnow. And then we'll talk about
carbs and fats and fiber. Um. Ifsomebody is there, the general

(40:05):
thought process around caloriesis that if you are calories in,
calories out, you're going tolose weight. Okay, if somebody's
overweight and they'reconsuming, if they're let's say
they're 180 pound person. We'renot even taken into exercise at

(40:28):
this point. They're 180 poundfemale. Their ideal body weights
140 pounds. We'll use the samenumbers. Should they be eating
the caloric intake of somebodywho's 180 pounds, or should they
have the caloric intake overallof somebody's who, who's 140

(40:50):
pounds? Or should there be it?Should the number be somewhere
in between?

Unknown (40:58):
Well, they need to eat the amount of First of all, I
want to start by clearly sayingthat it's actually what actually
is. The most important thing isthe macronutrient percentage. So
they should be eating the rightmix of of protein versus fat
versus carbs, and they should beeating the right types of food.
So the functional aspect offoods is extremely important.

(41:20):
And this is where all of thissupersedes calories, like you
have to get this right first,and then you can address
calories, because if you'reeating the right amount of
calories, but you're eatingprocessed foods, or you're
eating foods that are not highin protein, or you're eating
carbs that are elevating yourblood sugar, it's not going to
work. You have to have all thebalance. You have to have the
right types of foods in theright percentages, and so from

(41:42):
there, in terms of calories,calories do play a part then,
but I look, I've seen them as asecondary, a secondary priority.
First, it's important to get theright kinds of foods, get the
right general quantities andcombinations of foods, so you're
keeping your blood sugar eventhat is step one. Someone is
going to lose a tremendousamount of weight just by doing
those things, without eventhinking about calories, without

(42:05):
even knowing how many caloriesare eating and and I've seen
this happen 1000s of times,because that's that's how we
work with people, is we get outof the calorie conversation and
we get into the foods thatyou're eating, but then after
that, you will see a slowdown inyour weight until you because
you may be eating more or youmay be eating less than your
body needs to burn fat. So youreally do have to have it in the

(42:27):
right range, so that your body'sactively burning fat. And you
you absolutely want to eat theright amount of calories for the
current weight that you're at.You can't under eat and eat for
your future self, yet you you'regoing to work. You're going to
work there. As you keep losingabout every six to eight pounds,
you could lower your caloriesand eat a little bit less by a

(42:50):
certain amount. And it dependswhere you're, where you're
starting. So, so, so, yeah, youreally want to focus on eating,
eating for where you're at,because you gotta activate your
metabolism. You gotta give yourbody what it needs. You have to
give it enough. And also youhave to and also you have to
give it the right nutrientsthrough the qualities of food
that you're eating. So if you're180 eating for 140 pound person,
then you may it's going to behard for you to get there. And

(43:12):
also that's you're you'redrastically under eating at that
point, you'll get there. Likewe'll work there, we'll get
there. So one more thing I justwant to add to that is if you go
too quickly and eat too littlelike you don't have to do that,
because your body responds tochanges. It's not absolute. So
your body's going to respond toyou either lowering your

(43:32):
unhealthy food to intake and orincreasing your your metabolism,
boosting food intake and andonce you once it responds to
those changes, then you canoptimize it, but you don't have
to. You don't want to go too lowtoo quickly, because then you're
going to like, your metabolismis going to get slower before
you reach your goal weight. Youwant to ensure you want to keep
your metabolism high. As you'relosing weight, and if you're

(43:55):
eating too little food, yourmetabolism will slow down.

Yeah, the argument would be, especially
with the thyroid crowd, wouldwould be that their metabolism
is slow already, and so eating100 and calories for an 180
person, 180 pound person, whenthey already have sluggish and
slow metabolism, they'reinefficient at burning fat as a
fuel, and they really process108 calories of 180 pound person

(44:24):
because they're not in a healthymetabolic state at that point.
So eating calories for 180 poundperson, it sounds good, but for
a lot of people may already, maygo, Look, I've, I've, I'm there,
and I'm not doing that, and it'sstill not causing me to lose
weight. I'm in the right proteinratios. I look at I look at
patients food logs every day,especially the people that are

(44:47):
really engaged in their health,and they're really on track.
They're eating a whole foodbased diet. They're eating
appropriate levels of protein,carbs, fats, and for some of
those people, they're in theright calorie range. They. Have
appropriate macros, you're stillnot losing weight. There's other
immune inflammatory mechanismsgoing on. But I do think this is

(45:07):
where we have to have someconsideration for somebody and
say, Look, where are you. And Ithink we both agree with that,
where are you with what you'reconsuming and where you're at?
You may not have the metabolismto do it, you may be way under
calories, and that'scontributing to the excessive
stress on your physiology, butif you're eating the calories of

(45:27):
180 pound person who's gotinflammation and slow
metabolism, you still may not beable to lose weight effectively.
I see that on a regular basistoo, so I think there's, it's
got to be somewhere in between,and there's a lot of factors in
here, like, what's your activitylevel, what are the other
factors that are contributing?What's your metabolism? What's
your conversion of t4 to t3 sothere's so much in here, but big

(45:49):
picture thinking, I agree withyou. Most people need to have a
higher level of protein. And sowe'll circle back to this, to
this calories point. Becauseit's it is hard, and it is
people try, are trying to figureout where they need to be, and
it's nice to say we got to getthe macros right, but the the
number of calories we're tryingto get in helps us determine, to

(46:11):
some degree, what those with themacro percentages are. So if
we're saying that we're at we'vegot to increase the protein, and
we need to have the macros inthe right range, if it's based
on their pounds of body weight,then how are you determining

(46:31):
what the carb percentage is orthe fat percentage is, which are
both energy calories thatthey're not efficient at burning
in the first place?

Yeah, so can I address kind of what you were
saying also about being thatmetabolism isn't high, you know,
a lot of times based on thyroid,which it absolutely is true that
your metabolism isn't as high,especially if you have, if you
have thyroid issues. I mean, Ipersonally have hypothyroidism
and Hashimotos and so I havedirectly had to go, you know,

(47:01):
understand how it was slowing mymetabolism. So, but the thing
is, when you eat so, so whatI've seen is that when you eat
the these foods in the in theright proportions, and you're
really activating your you startactivating your metabolism with
more protein and by keeping yourblood sugar even by eating the
right kinds of carbs, eating theright balance of fats and also

(47:22):
increasing your fiber. That'salso really important in terms
of how to keep your blood sugareven so you actually get your
metabolism going with food. Andthen if you're if your body's
not responding, we have toactually take ourselves out of
the conversation of macros andcalories, and we have to get
into a functional food, afunctional a functional

(47:43):
discussion about there'ssomething lacking in in that
person's body. And this happenedto me. I was lacking so many
things, and my body just wasn'tburning fat, and I didn't know
it. I felt fine. But then once Istarted getting the right blood
test as well, like very, veryspecific blood tests, I started
seeing where I was lacking, andI started adding certain foods
that had qualities to it, like Inever really ate potatoes or

(48:06):
sweet potatoes that much. Andthen I started seeing all the
benefits from adding potatoesthat they had so many nutrients
that my gut and my thyroid wereresponding to. And so I actually
have seen that if somebody's notburning fat there, you could try
to cut their calories, thatcould be away, but I've also
seen that doesn't work in somany situations, and it's very

(48:28):
surprising, but you actuallyhave to increase their calories
and give them specific foods,because those foods have
benefits to them that are goingto get their metabolism going.
And so it's a biggerconversation and macros and
calories, it's the qualities ofthe food you're eating and the
nutrients that you're lackingthat you can get from food. And
I have seen so many women'sbloating decrease massively by

(48:50):
eating more of of these likelike foods that reduce swelling,
foods that reduce inflammation,and they're eating more
calories, but yet that theyneeded more of that quality from
the food so, so, so that just adifferent because as I started
going through menopause, Istarted realizing that there was
a lot of nutrients that arelacking and changing, and my gut

(49:13):
health was changing, and thecalorie conversation was just
not happening, just not working.I had to, I had to feed myself
up, and then feed my clients up,get my metabolism going, and
then my body was repaired, andthen I could start reducing
calories again. So kind of adifferent it could be a
different journey.

Okay, so let me we'll, maybe we'll get there in
a different direction. So whatshould people be eating by your
metrics? And then, once we knowwhat they should be eating, then
you can help us understand whatyou think, the where they should
fall with their macros. How'sthat?

Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we
talked about protein as a keyarea. Now the second, the second
piece, this is my, the secondmost important part of you know,
I have this fat. Of thisframework called the tested and
perfected fat burning foodframework. And it's the foods
that I'm talking about. It'simportant that we combine them
in the right ways. So the secondone that's very important, you

(50:11):
really want to have 40 to 50% ofyour plate be veggies, but I
call it tasty veggies. So thereason that's important, first
of all, we need vegetables, butwe all know we need vegetables.
This is something that we'rehearing everywhere we are.
Everywhere. We obviously knowthat, but it's important to make
them tasty, because the reasonmany people aren't eating
veggies are because we theydon't like the taste. Over time,

(50:32):
as you start eating vegetables,you're going to your gut biome
turns over, and your gut startscraving vegetables, just like
right now, if you're cravingsugar, it's likely because
you're feeding your body sugar,even if it's not in the form of
sweets. There's foods thatyou're eating that are breaking
down to sugar, and sugar onceyou want gets want, gets you to
want more sugar. Well, once youstart adding more veggies to

(50:55):
your diet, you start cravingvegetables. Like, I love eating
vegetables. I can't eat one mealwithout vegetables, like I go
for that first, and I never usedto do that before. So the the
reason veggies are so importantis because they have so many
nutrients, so many minerals thatare replenishing our body,
really helping our metabolismstabilize and increase in many

(51:16):
cases, and also it has a veryhigh source of fiber without
requiring a lot of calories, andso we can eat, we can really
fill ourselves up. What fiberdoes is it keeps you more full.
So when you have about 40 to 50%of your plate with protein, and
then 40 to 50% of your platewith vegetables, you're getting

(51:37):
protein and fiber, and that isreally digesting very slowly and
keeping you full for many, manymore hours than if you were
eating other kinds of foods thatwere lower in protein, lower in
fiber, and especially higher inin only carbs. So those tasty
veggies are really key and andjust to give you a few ideas of
how to make your veggies tasty,I always recommend using

(51:59):
metabolism boosting spices,things like cumin, which has
been proven to decrease bellyfat, coriander, which has been
proven to de bloat or decreasewater retention, because that's
what it does. You'll actuallynotice if you put coriander on
your veggies, you'll have to gothe bathroom soon after, and you
even if you didn't drink water.And so it works very well. And

(52:19):
then also turmeric, which isanti inflammatory and helps
reduce puffiness and swelling.But also all of these are none
of these spices are spicy.They're all mild, and all you do
is you sprinkle them onto yourveggies. If you want to put a
little olive oil, you can, butyou don't even have to. And you
could roast it in the oven. Youcould saute it on the on a
skillet, and make enough forthree or four days so you just

(52:42):
have those veggies cooked.
So veggies are very important,is another major area, then
healthy carbs. So healthy carbsare also important, because we
need carbs, especially for ourthyroid. And I really found this
out I had personally been on alow carb diet, and I found out
after I after I figured out thatI had hypothyroidism, which my

(53:03):
doctor never diagnosed, I had toreally understand it myself,
because they kept saying itwasn't hot, my my TSH wasn't
high enough, and they didn'teven ask for my t3 or my t4
tests. So I had to actively goand get those tests. And it was
blatantly obvious that I wasthat I had hypothyroidism, but
they never would have diagnosedme. And so I started reading,
reading about that, and seeingthe one of the key things are

(53:26):
our thyroid needs is carbs, andare, it's feeding, you know, it
is. There's so many importantreasons to have carbs, and when
you deprive your body of carbs,it's affecting our thyroid. And
so the thing that's importantabout carbs, and that, well,
that is scary about carbs isthat it elevates our blood sugar
so we can make you gain weight,and that's why I talk about

(53:46):
healthy carbs. And what healthycarbs are, are fibrous, complex
carbs, so they also have a veryhigh amount of fiber, and
they're not going to elevateyour blood sugar as much. In
fact, sometimes they barelyelevate it at all, and you
especially when you're combiningit with those veggies and that
protein on your plate. Sohealthy carbs, examples are

(54:08):
things like beans, lentils. Youcould have Ezekiel bread. You
could have another high fiberbread, or even sourdough or rye
can work sweet potatoes,potatoes, especially if they're
cooked and then cooled, whichcreates a resistant starch. So
it doesn't it doesn't activateyour blood sugar as quickly at
all. And then also what I callslimming grains, which are

(54:30):
alternatives to Rice, becauserice will increase your blood
sugar unless you cook it andcool it, then it also has that
resistant starch. But thingslike millet, buckwheat, farro,
couscous, quinoa, those are allbetter options that that have
more fiber in it and that aren'tgoing to elevate your blood
sugar. And so this is a reallyimportant way to get this into

(54:52):
your diet. And for for carbs,what I recommend is is, you
know, I said 40 to 50% on the onthe protein and on the. Veggies,
but for carbs, it's more like20% to 25% of your plate, maybe
one to once to twice a day, andand so then you're still getting
a good serving of it, but you'renot, you're combining it, so

(55:12):
it's not increasing your bloodsugar. And the actual carbs
themselves are healthy. Andthey're, they're, they have a
lot of fiber, so they that's whyI call them slimming carbs.
They're actually going to helpyou burn fat by having those
carbs.
And then the final category isfats and healthy fats, which we
absolutely need for so manyreasons. And one of the biggest
reasons that we need fats andhealth healthy fats means that

(55:35):
there's more omega threes, andomega threes are going to help
us reduce inflammation andreduce swelling. And with most
of the fats that are in ourfoods are Omega sixes, and a lot
of times we have an imbalance ofthe types of omegas that we
have. And so when we have toomany Omega sixes and too little
omega threes, that that's a lotof times what is causing

(55:58):
inflammation and swelling, we'renot having the right amount of
omega threes, and so reallyincreasing that is important.
And you know, the way to do thatis eating foods like salmon,
which is high in omega threes,avocado. You know, making sure
you just have healthy fats ingeneral is also important,
because it satiates you. It'simportant for brain health, for

(56:18):
skin and just keep you satiatedas well. So you know fatty
meats, like chicken thighs,beef, that's lean, is great.
Eating nuts, peanut butter,almond butter. But for fats,
what I recommend, it's the onearea where I really recommend
that you look to limit how muchyou're eating, and all the other
areas I've been saying actuallyeat more of most of the things,

(56:40):
carbs, you just want to have theright amount, but fats are very
dense in calories, and if youmistakenly eat even one, one
tablespoon more, that's like 200calories more, and it could
quickly become 400 caloriesmore. With peanut butter, for
example, two tablespoons is 200calories, and you may not
realize that you're eating foursix tablespoons, if you're just

(57:03):
get taking it out of the peanutbutter jar, which sometimes we
do. And before you know it, youknow you've gotten 400 extra
calories for the day, which isabsolutely going to put you into
a place of not being able tolose weight. And so you know
also, avocados. Having a half anavocado is really good. So what
I recommend is having oneserving of fat, which is 14
grams of fat three times a day,so fat three times a day. And

(57:26):
the best way I have seen thatthis works is to have it at
breakfast, because then you'resatiated, and then to have it at
dinner, because it helps yousleep well, and it helps your
blood sugar stay even. And thenyou can have one snack, like a
small apple and peanut butter orsomething like that.
So you put all those, you know,macronutrients together your
meals are mainly protein,veggies, and then either a

(57:46):
healthy carb or a healthy fat,and then you add in a snack of a
healthy fat. And it's great ifyou can get in one extra protein
a day. And that is the formulafor fat loss. And the second
layer on that is to look at theamounts and make it coincide
with with where you're at to getyour metabolism higher. And the
third element is looking at thebenefits of the food that you're

(58:07):
eating if you need to get geteven deeper in terms of healing
yourself.

Okay, so I think we got to where we wanted to get
to. You're saying from there'sreally not, you're not really
breaking this down. I don'tthink too much from a percentage
thing, but you've just got somegeneral guidelines, initially,
starting with 30 grams ofprotein, three times per day,

(58:33):
plus a little bit extra,potentially 14 grams of fat,
about three times a day. Andyou're, you're keep, you're
talking about eatingcarbohydrates from plants and
from plants like bees, lentils,things like that, and keeping

(58:55):
that number somewhere aroundwhat grams, percentage

that number is gonna, I mean, that number could
be it really, that number can goup and down depending but, I
mean, that's more, you know,when you start losing weight,
just because it's important tokeep your blood sugar lower,
that percentage could be like25% of your calories, and then
you could increase it as you'relosing weight, as you're getting
into maintenance mode, becauseyou do need, you don't want to

(59:21):
live at a low carb in a low carbway, it's, it's, it could be
very unhealthy, like for ouractual immune systems in our
bodies, but starting at 25% andreally, you know, over the
course of the day, like 25% ofyour calories could be, could be
from carbs.

Okay, so we're talking somewhere 40, 50% of
your percent of your percent isprotein, about 25% is
carbohydrates, and about 25 to35% fats is that, yeah,

Right, 35% fats. 35% fats is really good to
start with, and that's reallyimportant. Because, you know,
one of the second, one of thethe main reason that I see that
people are not losing weight,especially in midlife, is
they're eating too little andthe second, the second reason is
they're mistakenly eating toomuch fat. Because fat, they're
trying to be healthy by eatingnuts, by eating avocados.

(01:00:16):
They're really take they'rereally studying what to eat.
That's healthy. But fat has isvery calorically dense, and it
does put you much, much overwhat your body needs in order to
actually lose weight. So that35% is a really good place where
you're not deprived. You're verysatiated, and you are getting,
you're not going, you're notgetting too many, too many of

(01:00:38):
your calories from fat, whichyou need enough from protein to
feel more full so.

Eric Balcavage (01:00:42):
So the important part here for the person who's
sitting and listening to this isthat, hey, I need to have some
kind of reference, if I'm justtrying, if I'm overweight, I'm
struggling with health issues.I've got immune inflammatory
issues, I've got thyroid issues,I got adrenal issues, I got sex
hormone hormone issues. We needto give them some type of a

(01:01:03):
guideline as to where they needto start. So we're based on your
suggestions they're eating. Theycould do a calculator for their
height, their weight, their ageand their and you We didn't even
get into activity level, butthere's calculators for activity
level. And you're initiallysaying, hey, initially eat for
your current body weight in a50, 50% protein, 25% healthy

(01:01:30):
carbohydrates. This is wholefood based carbohydrates, and
then, and then healthy fats,right?

Nagina Abdullah (01:01:37):
Yeah. And I'd say more like 40% protein. Yeah,
40% protein.

Okay, so then if we're at 40% protein, then we're
at 35 and 25 for carbs andproteins. Okay, so that gives
everybody the framework as maybea starting point. If you're
already doing that, then there'simmune inflammatory issues that
you're probably going to needsome additional assistance from.
If you're increasing yourprotein intake and you don't
tolerate it well, it'spotentially because you already

(01:02:03):
have immune inflammatory issues.If you have thyroid issues, your
stomach acids already downregulated. Your gut pancreatic
output is already downregulated. Your bioflow is
probably down regulated, andthat's going to impact
digestion. One of the bestthings to do for the average
person who's got gut issues, andif you've got weight issues you
have, you likely have gut basedissues going on. A good systemic

(01:02:25):
or a good digestive enzyme isgoing to be a huge benefit,
because you're just not makingappropriate acids and enzymes,
and that can really help you asyou start to try and increase
your your protein intake,because you probably just don't
have the digestive capacity.Some people, I want to touch
base on two things you said. Oneof that is the fiber. Why is the

(01:02:46):
fibers so important? And youtalked about it from it helps
with burning fat. The big driverwhen you when you start making
the dietary changes, is thechange in your gut flora, and
when you do what you feed you,you feed your gut flora. So if

(01:03:06):
you feed you a bunch of BurgerKing, you're going to probably
be inflamed and have problems,and you're going to grow
different bacteria in your gut,which is going to have different
physiology than maybe a healthygut biome. When you feed lots of
when you have a lot of fibercoming in that you can tolerate,
and it's not always good. Somepeople go, I tried to do the

(01:03:27):
fiber I don't tolerate. Well, Iget gassy. I get bloated. Okay,
eat more fiber. That's notnecessarily the answer. You've
got bacteria that's taking thatfiber and it's fermenting that
fiber, and it's creating somechallenge, so that there's some
there may be some work thatneeds there, but the gene is, I
generally agree with the kind ofwhere she's at from a new macro
standpoint, but those short, thefiber that you eat provides bulk

(01:03:54):
for the bow and she covered thatit pulls fluid into the bowel to
help with bowel movement andmotility, it produces short
chain fatty acids that arecritical to maintaining the
tight junctions, to regulateyour T regulatory cells, to calm
the immune system down and do awhole bunch of other things. So
what you're really trying to dohere is not just feed you, but

(01:04:19):
Feed and Grow the type ofbacteria in your gut and your GI
tract that's going to be healthyand versus less pro inflammatory
and and less healthy. So that'sthe big goal of potentially
trying to get into these ranges.
If we start talking about you,um, if somebody's doing this,

(01:04:46):
they're eating this way, they'restill struggling to lose weight.
Where do you go from there? Whatare the suggestions that you
typically give them? Becausethere's a lot of women that are
already eating that. Way andsaying, I'm already doing it. It
ain't working.

Unknown (01:05:03):
Yep, yeah. And I mean, thanks for doing that deep dive
on fiber, because fiber is anincredibly important part of a
healthy gut biome, and to beable to have sustainable weight
loss, that's healthy. It's alsopushing food out of your of your
intestines, so it's allowing youto excrete a lot of foods and
also a lot of toxins in yourbody and and so like a high a

(01:05:26):
high fiber diet, we think the 25grams is something that we're
supposed to you know that thatthat is the metric. 25 grams is
starting point we should really,I have seen that women that are
able to get more like 30 to 40actually, is, is really going to
change so much for them. But ifyou're, if you're somebody that
is having issues with addingfiber, that means you have

(01:05:48):
something going on with your guthealth, and we have to get in
deeper, and we have to work onyour gut, and once we do, you'll
be able to actually eat morefiber. There's that's a symptom
that I've seen for forinflammation and for gut
problems is that when, when,when people cannot digest fiber,
especially from flax seeds orother kinds of foods, it's a
it's a clear symptom that theyare, that they that they need to

(01:06:09):
work on their gut, and thenthey're going to be able to lose
more weight, they'll be able toincrease their metabolism, their
whole body is going to startfunctioning much better, as well
as like constipation, othertypes of things are symptoms of
gut health.

So, so, yeah, so, okay, so, so in terms of,
of, like, what to do, so ifyou're doing all these things,
so first thing is, I talk towomen every day who tell me, I'm
already healthy. I'm healthy, Ithink I'm already doing these
things. And then once theyactually we start to work
closer, closer together, and I'mguiding them on the actual
amounts that they're eating.They were never eating those

(01:06:45):
amounts. So So most people whothink that they're being
healthy, and they think thatthey're following it, they're
not actually connecting the dotsin the right way. That you might
be eating these foods, butyou're not eating enough of
them, and you're not combiningthem in a way to keep your blood
sugar even you're not doing likeprotein and veggies, plus a
healthy carb or a healthy fat,you're not getting enough
protein, you may be eating toomuch fat. This is a big thing

(01:07:08):
that I see, so it's important toknow and to be open to saying,
okay, there could be a gap inthe amounts and in the
combinations that I'm eating,because there are extremely
healthy, very educated womenthat I'm talking to on a regular
basis, and once I actually startshowing them what that means for
breakfast, lunch, dinner andsnack, they start losing weight
by increasing their metabolism.

(01:07:31):
So let's talk about if someoneis following all the amounts,
and if someone is following thefood combinations, and like
they're being supervised by me,for example, and they're still
not losing weight, which I haveseen, that means, usually, that
there is some, some big, somemassive inflammation going on.
There's some gut health issues.There's very likely some thyroid
issues as well. And there'salso, when we're talking about

(01:07:53):
gut health, a lot of it isrelated to our liver, because
our liver is, is needs, ourliver is responsible for us to
excrete toxins, for us toexcrete hormones, for us to
excrete food, and if our liverisn't performed well, as well as
t3 to t4 to t3 and so the a lotof the conversion is happening
in our liver. And so if ourliver is not working openly and

(01:08:18):
efficiently, that's blocking alot of processes and and so that
is a big thing that's happeningin in our gut health, is in that
we can work on improving and sowhen women are not losing
weight, then we start looking atgiving them additional foods
that are known to improve yourliver. Certain teas, like
dandelion tea, start evenpotatoes are helpful for thyroid

(01:08:41):
and for opening up our guthealth and our liver, really
adding those foods and sometimesrequiring additional supplements
if needed, just to work throughthis.
And so, so, so that is where wehave to go. We have to start
addressing those things. And alot of times what we have to do.
And this is the situation whereI have seen the only thing that
works is what I call feedingthem up. So giving them more

(01:09:05):
nutrients, like higher doses offood specific, like of foods
that are specific in thenutrients that are important for
our gut health and and andnourishing their body,
replenishing their body. And sosometimes somebody that should
be eating, say, like 14 or 1500calories, maybe eating 2200
calories, which sounds like somuch to certain to some people,

(01:09:28):
but they're eating it in theform of the types of foods that
are that are beneficial, likeolive oils, which are which
reduce swelling, potatoes, sweetpotatoes, zucchini, eating clean
proteins, like white fish, orlike salmon, or like like
Turkey, that's ground so thatour gut isn't actually having to
process and and be as it isn'tworking as as hard. It's not

(01:09:50):
under as much duress while we'rerepairing it. And so we actually
feed them up, and that thatreplenishes their nutrients, it
increases. Increases theirmetabolism because they have the
nutrients that they need. Andonce we're there, they actually,
they're actually losing weightthat whole time. Like at 20, if
someone's 15, supposed to be1500 calories, or even 1300

(01:10:17):
calories, and they go up to 22it doesn't even matter about the
And one of the techniques that Ido is I talked previously about
how intermittent fasting doesnot work anymore. Well, this is,

So for the listener, I think this is like,
calories. At that point, theyare getting the nutrients that
they need, and they're losingweight.
there's one situation wherewhere it does work, and that's
when you're feeding your bodyreally, really up with all these
nutrients, and then youintroduce two intermittent
fasting days a week. And this isthis just wipes out so much
inflammation, and it releases somuch bloating through that

(01:10:42):
process of autophagy, where yourbody is just cleansing, all the
dead cells are being releasedbecause of diet variation.
You're eating a lot for fivedays, and then two days you're
eating less, and you're alsofasting for like 14 to 16 hours
everybody's got differentopinions on here. I've had other
or so. And then through thatprocess, so much inflammation is
released, and so that's what Ihave, a system called the Bloat

(01:11:02):
bust, where we feed people upthat aren't responding to the
typical fat burning foodframework, and we feed them up,
and then introduce thoseintermittent fasting days, and
they lose so much weight, theyrepair their gut, and then After
around maybe like eight weeks ofthat, they can, they can go back
to eating normal foods, andtheir bodies replenished, and

(01:11:23):
they have a health, muchhealthier metabolism, and
they're able to lose weight atnormal calories. And so it's
guests on here that have talked
kind of like going against whatwe what, what you know, what I
grew up knowing, because it'sreally looking at the functional
properties of foods and the gapsin our gut health, replenishing
that, giving your body that timeand then, and then cutting

(01:11:43):
calories, because if you cutcalories too fast, your body
can't handle it, if you have aweak metabolism, and if you
don't have the right nutrients,and if your liver is not
excreting the right toxins inthe right way, if you're not
converting t4 to t3 you have toget that going, and then you can
start cutting calories again.But you don't even have to cut

(01:12:03):
it that much. You just startbringing it down a bit and
balancing out in those ways thatI was sharing before.

(01:13:22):
So I think it can work. Theinteresting thing about the
autophagy, and you may have donesome more research to show this,
but I had the some of the peoplefrom Prolon on the podcast, and
they're talking about autophagydoesn't start until you're three
days into a fasted state, and itdoesn't occur. I don't know if
that's correct or not, and but Ido. I I do think we just have to

(01:13:49):
consider the each individual andwhat's going on. So I don't know
if true. Autophagy doesn't startfor 70 for three days. I don't
know if that's the case, buttheir whole structure is built
on that. But they also have aproduct they're selling. They
now they do have some it lookslike good research to back up
some of their thoughts andfeelings on it. But I don't know

(01:14:10):
this is a controversial topic, Iwould say for the individual
who's listening to this, shouldI do intermittent fasting?
Should I do not do intermittentfasting?
I think if you're on your own, Idon't think you should. It's
something you should dochronically, periodically, a
couple days in a week, if, ifyou're doing it. But keep in

(01:14:31):
mind that you can't be 500calorie deficit because you're
doing intermittent fasting everyday of the week. That is going
to potentially create someissues from a nutrient
deficiency challenge, even ifyou have gut issues. And I think
correct me if I'm wrong, Nagina,I think your feeding up strategy

(01:14:51):
is moral, and I could be totallywrong. So you tell me, if I've
got this wrong, you're feedingup strategy. Part of that is
you're saying. There's nutrientdeficiencies here, potentially
micronutrient deficiencies. Somy goal is I'm going to feed
them up with nutrient densefood, so even though they're not
absorbing things or they've gotmalabsorption issues, because

(01:15:13):
almost everybody who's got awhen we do testing, we say, You
got magnesium deficiency, you'vegot b9, be six, be whatever
deficiency. They either have adiet problem, consumption
problem, like what they'reeating isn't healthy and it's
nutrient to void, or they've gota digestive problem, an
absorption issue, right? Andjust because we put more

(01:15:36):
micronutrients into the systemdoesn't always mean they're
going to do what we want themto. That all depends on the
state of the individual. But mymy take in what you said is
we're going to up feed them sowe have a greater ability to get
more nutrients into the system,to potentially sort support
deficiencies, versus maybe loadthem with excessive amounts,

(01:16:00):
super physiologic doses ofindividual micronutrients as
supplementation. Is that part ofyour thinking, or am I

Well, the reason so, the reason that foods
are so effective is because, ifsomeone is deficient in
micronutrients, there's a lot ofother micronutrients in foods
that are not even tested, likewe don't even know what they are
exactly, and so when you'regiving food, there's so many
more benefits than having asupplement that has that only
that one, that one nutrient thatmay be also helpful in addition,

(01:16:31):
that may be helpful in addition,supplements can absolutely help
and especially with absorptionissues. So sometimes we need to
to combine feeding someone upwith some additional
supplements, digestive enzymes,also, if they're not breaking
down protein enough, giving themeasier foods to break down, for
example, for example, essentialamino acids, which is a really

(01:16:53):
great thing for people as theyage, because we all start,
start, we're all not able tobreak down protein as well. So
when you have an essential aminoacid, you just put that into
your water, and so you getdirect amino acids, and versus
having to break it down. And so,yes, there are some, you know,
the absorption piece is, is key.But I have also seen that
really, really adding, adding inthe just adding in nutrients in

(01:17:16):
the right form, in the rightamounts, it starts. I mean, you
do need to add absorptionsupplements if that's a problem,
but for many people, just addingin the additional nutrients
really changes the game. Itreally changes the game and
through food.
So and one thing aboutintermittent fasting, I just
wanted to say is thatintermittent fasting can work.

(01:17:38):
It is a tool. I don't think it'sa lifestyle, so it's a tool,
like it works in example Italked about, and it absolutely
works in the example you weresharing, which is when people
are eating too many calories, orit could work, you know, or
they're eating that they need aboundary to stop eating in their
day, and that that helps them,but after a while, it's going to
stop working, because your yourbody has to, like you have to

(01:18:01):
make sure that you're eatingenough, and a lot of times, when
you're intermittent fasting, youend up eating too little
calories. For many people, forsome people who are eating
unhealthy foods, processedfoods, you know they're on,
they're still in that, in thatlifestyle, it's definitely going
to help restrict their calories.But if you're a healthy person
and you're eating mainly real,natural foods, intermittent
fasting can help for a littlebit, because it's a diet

(01:18:23):
variation, anything that'sdifferent, our body's going to
respond to for a little bit, andthen it's going to plateau. So
we have to just understand, youknow, it could be a tool. I look
at it as a tool. I look at ketoas a tool, but I don't look at
it as a lifestyle. A lifestyle,to me, is eating eating protein,
eating veggies, 40 to 50% ofyour plate, eating carbs and

(01:18:43):
fats, one or the other duringeach of your meals. That's a
lifestyle, but sometimes youneed to introduce these tools to
accelerate fat loss and to alsoheal your gut and heal your
body.

Yeah, I would agree with that part. I mean,
I've, I've had a lot of peopleon here touting their different
dietary style. We fight about itall the time. The vegans are
fighting the vegetarians. Thevegetarians are fighting the
carnivores. Carnivores arefighting the Ketos. They're all
my personal belief that a moreof a Mediterranean style diet is
probably a great place to liveand the kind of what we talked

(01:19:17):
about. But if you want tochange somebody's gut biome
rapidly and change their andpotentially change their immune
inflammatory process, absolutelydo 180 degree change in their
diet, and things are going tochange, yeah, but they may not
be able to be there. This iswhat happens. Somebody does like

(01:19:38):
a they're eating a standardAmerican diet, which is terribly
unhealthy, and then they go to avegetarian diet, and they go, Oh
my gosh, I lost weight. I feltbetter. I'm going to be a
vegetarian or vegan for the restof my life. But they're not a
great vegetarian or vegan.They're back to a standard
American vegan diet orvegetarian diet, and it still
becomes a pro inflammatory andsome of the sickest people I see
in my practice are people who.Are have been long term

(01:20:01):
vegetarians or vegans, and whenyou look at what they're taking
in, it's like, but you're not,you're you're a carburean,
you're a processed foodcarburean. And yes, it's got the
ilk of a of plant based, I guessthat to some degree, but that's
not really food. That veggieburger may not actually be just

(01:20:23):
vegetables. There's a wholebunch of other things in there
that may not be super healthyfor you, but these things can
change, which is why you'll hearsomebody tout about the
ketogenic diet and say, hey,they made a lifestyle. It was
huge difference for me. Orsomebody goes carnivore. I agree
with you that these are alltools, and that's what we all
have to keep in mind.

(01:20:44):
If your current diet, even ifit's the diet that we were kind
of discussing here, isn'tworking for you, and you're
chronically unhealthy, andyou're not working with a
practitioner, if you change yourdiet, you're probably going to
see some change, good or bad,because you're going to change
your gut biome. You're going tochange your physiology a bit. Is
it where you should be longterm? Probably not. I mean, if,

(01:21:04):
if you did, there was a fad fora while where people were
drinking, what celery juice,right? Everybody's doing the
celery juice diet. I think itwas celery I forget what it was.
Something along those lines,where they're just drinking just
celery juice all day, andthey're seeing massive changes.
Of course, you did. You changedyour gut biome. You got rid of a
lot of processed food. You'reyou're creating deficiencies in

(01:21:28):
what you're consuming because ofwhat you're consuming, and it's
going to create a change. Canpeople live on celery juice for
the rest of their life? Probablynot, and be healthy. Okay, so.
But, yeah, we can use it as atool. We're kind of getting to
the end. I only got throughabout half of my questions,
unfortunately, because we keptdiving into different topics.

(01:21:50):
But I want to respect your time.If we want to have another
discussion, we can. We can dothat again, but if somebody's
interested in what you do andwants to learn more about you.
Where can they go? And can youexplain what, what kind of offer
that you have for people whenthey come for help with their

(01:22:12):
weight?

Yes, absolutely. Well, this has been
so so wonderful. We've talkedthrough so many things. I can't
believe you only got throughhalf the questions, because I
feel like we got into such greatdepth here, which is the which
is why your your podcast is soamazing. It's like we really get
into such a depth. This is notjust high level conversation,
and you really created that. Sothank you so much.

Unknown (01:22:34):
I so I have, you know, I offer really, a really, really
informative and valuable freecalls with me, which are called
Connect calls, just so that Ican get to know those of you
that are watching or listeningthat might be wondering, okay,
what is the next step for me?I'm trying to do everything I'm
already healthy. Things are justnot working, but I feel like I'm

(01:22:54):
following all the right things.I have these calls that are free
and they're for people that arealready healthy that you're just
frustrated about what else to dobecause you're following all the
rules. You're listening to allof these podcasts, but yet your
body's not responding. Well, letme tell you, your body can
respond. You just have to make afew switches, a little few
tweaks. So I'd like to offer afree connect call with me. What

(01:23:15):
you do is you just go to masalabody.com, forward slash apply,
and there'll be a place for youto set up a time, and there's a
quick survey afterwards thatI'll afterwards that'll help
give me more information so Ican make sure the call is
valuable to you. And I wouldabsolutely love to do that.

second I have a live event that is coming up
called the five day metabolismboost for midlife women, and
this is where I'm going to belive every day for five days,
and I actually add on four bonusdays, and I'm teaching all about
things like your metabolismboosting morning routine,
exactly how to eat in yourmorning, exactly the the areas

(01:23:49):
that the ingredients to add sothat you can balance your blood
sugar, get your metabolismgoing. I talk about the fat
burning food framework, givingyou specific examples. I talk
about how to get off sugarwithout feeling tired or
restricted, and show you foodcombinations so you can still
eat your favorite foods withoutelevating your blood sugar. And
I also give you a free workbookthat is so comprehensive that

(01:24:09):
really works through all thethings that may be blocking you
from your weight loss andexactly what to add. And so if
that's something that you wouldlove to attend, I would love for
to have you there, and that isat masala body.com, forward
slash boost. And then I'm alsogoing to be sharing a free sweet
spice cheat sheet in the in thenotes, which is a cheat sheet
that will tell you that onespice that is sweet to add that

(01:24:31):
lowers your blood sugar andhelps you get off of sugar. It
helps really quench your sugarcravings. And includes a fire, a
fat burning fire, tea that helpsto burn belly fat, and it's
especially great at night beforeyou go to bed. So check those
things out in the notes. And Iwould absolutely love to talk to
those of you that decide toconnect with me, and I hope to

(01:24:51):
see many of you at themetabolism boost.
Awesome. Thanks for coming onthe thyroid Answers podcast.
Thank you for having me.

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Episode 202: Missing Strategies That May Ignite Your Weight Loss

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