If I Were Over 50 & 30 Lbs Overweight, This Is Exactly What I'd Do — Transcript

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1. 0:00If I woke up tomorrow morning in my 50s or 60s  with an extra 30 lbs on me, this is exactly what
2. 0:06I would do. I would focus on six specific habits  with the highest return on investment. And a few
3. 0:13of them might surprise you. I'm Dr. Rachel Felbur.  I'm an ER doctor and a women's health and strength
4. 0:17coach. And I help perry and postmenopausal  women figure out exactly how to work with their
5. 0:23bodies to efficiently trade fat for muscle and get  stronger and healthier than ever. After menopause,
6. 0:30our bodies change dramatically, even if we don't  do anything different in our lifestyles at all.
7. 0:36Because of the drop in estrogen and all of its  many protective effects, it becomes much harder
8. 0:42to build muscle. And the default is actually to  quickly lose muscle, which obviously impacts our
9. 0:48fitness level and our energy level. Unfortunately,  the strategies that used to work so well for us
10. 0:52in our 20s and 30s just don't work anymore, and  we need a new strategy. The good news is that we
11. 0:59don't need to rely on ever more restriction and  discipline to get the results that we want. What
12. 1:05we need to focus on are the things that tend to  be taken away from us during and after menopause,
13. 1:11such as muscle, strength, recovery, and our  metabolic health. So, if I woke up as a woman
14. 1:18in her 50s or 60s feeling this way, these are the  six things that I would focus on. The first thing
15. 1:24I would do, and this probably won't surprise you,  is start a strength training program. While it's
16. 1:29nice to feel toned and look good in and out  of our clothes, what is even more important
17. 1:36is improving our metabolic health. And muscle is  one of the, if not the most powerful ways that
18. 1:43we have to improve our metabolic health. Muscle  communicates directly and indirectly with the
19. 1:49rest of our body and our other organs including  our brain, gut, heart, and cardiovascular system,
20. 1:56our immune system and our muscle tissue actually  helps to inform our other body systems and our
21. 2:03organs how to function. After menopause with  the precipitous loss of estrogen, we enter a
22. 2:10state that's called anabolic resistance. And that  means that our bodies become less sensitive to the
23. 2:17messages that we give it to build muscle. So we  need to be more intentional about our workouts and
24. 2:23giving our bodies the right stimulus to build and  maintain muscle. Now, if you care a lot more about
25. 2:28losing fat than building muscle, that's fine.  You're not alone. As we build more muscle tissue,
26. 2:35it actually becomes a lot easier to lose fat.  If one of your biggest goals is to lose fat,
27. 2:42you should focus your efforts on building muscle  because muscle is a fat burning machine and a lot
28. 2:49of women don't know that. Now, if you've never  lifted weights before, I understand that it can
29. 2:53feel intimidating because it feels like this whole  world of new stuff that you're just not familiar
30. 3:00with. But I encourage you to just get started.  Just break the seal. And like everything else in
31. 3:07life, you'll find that once you start taking the  first steps, it's not as big and scary as you had
32. 3:12thought. Now, in terms of going about this safely  and putting together a good plan for yourself. If
33. 3:18you have someone in your life, like a friend or  family member who is knowledgeable in this area,
34. 3:22ask them. I would hope that they would be happy  to help you. Another approach is actually asking
35. 3:27AI. Chances are AI will give you at least a good  response as many of these personal trainers you
36. 3:33might get at a commercial gym. At the very least,  it's a great jumping off point. Or if you prefer
37. 3:38a more personalized approach, you could hire a  personal trainer or a coach. The most important
38. 3:42thing is to just get started. It doesn't have  to be perfect. It just has to happen. The
39. 3:46second thing I would do, and this probably won't  surprise you either, is prioritize protein. Now,
40. 3:52I know so many women focus on eating less. They  want to lose weight. They want to get in shape.
41. 3:57So, they decide to just eat less, and that leaves  them massively undereating protein. Our bodies are
42. 4:04constantly breaking down and rebuilding structures  and organs and that requires a pretty consistent
43. 4:12inflow of protein since protein makes up all  of these structures. Not just the structures,
44. 4:17but protein is required for nearly all of the  biochemical reactions that happen in our bodies.
45. 4:23And we want to give our bodies access to plenty  of fresh amino acids all throughout the day,
46. 4:30not just a big chunk at dinner so that our  bodies can continually engage in the processes
47. 4:36of renewing structures and building muscle  and maintaining muscle. Unlike carbs and fat,
48. 4:43we don't actually have a way to store amino acids  in our bodies for later use. So that means if your
49. 4:52body needs access to amino acids to fix something  or to build something entirely new and it doesn't
50. 4:59have access to plenty of amino acids coming  in through dietary protein, your body is more
51. 5:05likely to resort to actually breaking down your  muscle tissue to get access to those amino acids.
52. 5:11And that's the last thing we want, especially  after menopause when hanging on to our muscle
53. 5:16is already so difficult. So, if I were starting  over, I would prioritize protein, not just in the
54. 5:22day. It's not like I just want to hit my goal for  the day, but I would want to hit a goal for each
55. 5:28meal. I would want to get enough protein in in big  chunks several times throughout the day so that
56. 5:34my body could continually engage in the process  of maintaining and building muscle tissue. So,
57. 5:40I would shoot for at least 30 grams per meal over  three to four meals. And depending on your age
58. 5:47and size, at least 120 grams of protein over the  course of the whole day. The third thing I would
59. 5:52do is increase my overall daily movement. And this  is different from workouts. Somebody who gets in
60. 6:00a great highintensity 60-minute workout a few  times a week and then feels like they're covered,
61. 6:06they're healthy, they're active enough, and  then spend the rest of the time mostly sitting
62. 6:11or mostly inactive. That is a bad approach that is  not going to get you the body composition and the
63. 6:18health that you want. There's actually something  called exercise resistance. And this is really
64. 6:24unfair, but basically a body that is spending  most of the day inactive or sedentary is not
65. 6:32going to get the full effect of the exercise that  they do if they set aside a dedicated say hour to
66. 6:39exercise. There is a study that describes this  very well and I'll include the link to it below.
67. 6:45The takeaway from that research and this concept  is that doing dedicated exercise is excellent,
68. 6:52but it does not negate the negative effects  of being sedentary for the rest of the day.
69. 6:58The more you can be up and moving around, standing  instead of sitting, walking instead of standing,
70. 7:04do meetings or take phone calls while walking,  parking farther from the entrance to the grocery
71. 7:10store or the shopping mall, taking the stairs  instead of the elevator. This type of activity
72. 7:15really does matter and it really does add up.  So, it's helpful in terms of contributing to our
73. 7:22overall calorie burn throughout the day, but more  importantly, it contributes to better metabolic
74. 7:28health. The more time you're spent being active,  things like walking, especially after a meal,
75. 7:33the more your muscles pull glucose into them and  rely less on insulin to manage the glucose load
76. 7:44in your bloodstream. So when done on a regular  basis over time, this can contribute dramatically
77. 7:50to improving your insulin sensitivity. When your  body can manage glucose without needing as much
78. 7:56insulin, that's the goal. And I'm not talking  about a 30 minute walk or a 60-minute walk.
79. 8:01Even just 5 or 10 minutes is enough to have the  kind of impact that we want. People talk about
80. 8:06having their daily step goal, something like  7,000 or 10,000 steps a day, and that's great.
81. 8:12But even more importantly, just like we don't want  to save all of our protein for the end of the day,
82. 8:17we want to spread it throughout the rest of the  day. We want to spread our physical activity
83. 8:20throughout the day as well. In terms of improving  our metabolic health and our insulin sensitivity,
84. 8:26our bodies will respond a lot better to small  segments of physical activity throughout the day,
85. 8:32such as a five minute walk every hour, as opposed  to getting all 10,000 steps in at the end of the
86. 8:38day after work. So, if I were starting over, I  would do something like set an alarm on my watch
87. 8:43to go off every hour to remind me to walk  for just five minutes. And I would make a
88. 8:49conscious effort to just be up and moving around  more than I have been. Fourth thing I would do
89. 8:55is start doing one HIT session per week. HIT is  highintensity interval training and it is a very
90. 9:02specific type of cardio workout. They are one of  the most efficient ways that you can improve your
91. 9:11metabolic health and your cardiovascular health.  The benefit that we get from this type of cardio
92. 9:18exercise is tremendous and really remarkable for  the amount of time put in. A properly done hit is
93. 9:27only something like 15 or 20 minutes with a few  minutes warm up and cool down on either side. and
94. 9:33it gives benefits that far far outweigh an hour or  90 minutes on a treadmill doing moderate intensity
95. 9:42cardio. I just uploaded a video on this topic  on highintensity interval training to my YouTube
96. 9:48channel and I will include a link to that video  below. I recommend you watch that to learn exactly
97. 9:52how to put together a proper HIT workout. So, if  I were starting over, I would include just one
98. 9:5915 to 20 minute HIT session per week and focus on  increasing my fitness overtime. Number five is I
99. 10:06would reduce or eliminate my alcohol intake. Now,  if somebody said this to me 5 years ago or so,
100. 10:14I would have laughed so hard I would have spat my  malbeck all over their faces. But now that I know
101. 10:19what I know about how it impacts our bodies and  our efforts at improving our body composition, it
102. 10:26definitely makes the top six. Now, I'm not saying  everybody needs to just stop drinking cold turkey,
103. 10:31but the truth is the more you can cut back and the  sooner you can do it, the better. You are going to
104. 10:39notice dramatic improvements in your energy, your  sleep, and your body composition. Even if you make
105. 10:46no other changes in your life, just cutting out  alcohol, you will notice the changes in your body.
106. 10:52I talk to women all the time who ask me, "What  is the best supplement they can take? And how
107. 10:59can I dial in my diet perfectly? And what are the  best exercises for so- and so changes in my body,
108. 11:06but they're still drinking alcohol on a regular  basis?" And what I really really want them and you
109. 11:13to understand is that if you are struggling with  crappy energy and crappy sleep and trouble with
110. 11:22losing fat and losing your muscle and you're still  drinking alcohol, this is possibly the number one
111. 11:30change that you can make that will dramatically  impact your results in a pretty short period of
112. 11:37time. And problem with alcohol is not just that it  is empty calories without any nutrition or that it
113. 11:43increases hunger and cravings or that it reduces  your inhibition. So you tend to make worse choices
114. 11:49in terms of what you eat. But it also directly  impacts your overall metabolic health and the way
115. 11:56that your organs function. When you have alcohol  in your system, your liver sees it as poison,
116. 12:01as a toxin, which it is. And your liver gets busy  processing that. And while the alcohol is in your
117. 12:08system, your body is not able to efficiently  break down fat or excess fat for energy. And
118. 12:14furthermore, the food that you eat while you  have alcohol in your body is much more likely
119. 12:20to be put into fat stores. Alcohol also messes  with our hormones and there are many that are
120. 12:27really important in the context of improving our  body composition including testosterone and growth
121. 12:33hormone and melatonin and insulin and all of these  are negatively impacted by now lots of people turn
122. 12:39to alcohol to help them sleep and the problem  with that is while yes alcohol does tend to help
123. 12:45us fall asleep it has a negative impact on the  overall quality and the architecture of our sleep.
124. 12:51So when you drink alcohol close to bedtime, you're  more likely to spend less time inm sleep and in
125. 12:59deep sleep. And these are the phases that are most  important for our recovery and for muscle building
126. 13:05and for giving us that restfulness so that when we  wake up the next day, we are alert and we're not
127. 13:10suffering from that brain fog. So, if I woke up  as a woman in my 50s or 60s struggling with body
128. 13:15composition changes and worried about my overall  health, cutting out or at least cutting back on
129. 13:21alcohol would definitely be one of the first  things I would do. The sixth and final thing I
130. 13:27would do is protect my sleep like it was a matter  of life or death. This is one that is really hard
131. 13:34for so many of us. And this is the one that's the  hardest for me is to prioritize sleep and give it
132. 13:42the respect that it really deserves. Especially if  we're looking to improve our body composition. If
133. 13:46we're looking to trade fat for muscle, sleep  does need to be a non-negotiable. When we're
134. 13:53chronically sleepd deprived, everything becomes  harder. We are hungrier. It's harder to ignore our
135. 14:00cravings. Our decision making gets affected. Our  motivation to work out gets affected. Our recovery
136. 14:07gets harder. Our hormones are impacted. And our  blood sugar control takes a hit. And that's not
137. 14:13even to mention all of the highquality studies  out there that show that chronic sleep deprivation
138. 14:21increases our risk for dementia, for certain  cancers, and for all cause mortality. So, in
139. 14:28a way, it kind of is a life ordeath situation. If  you have everything perfectly dialed in and your
140. 14:33diet's on point and your exercise is on point and  you're moving more throughout the day and you're
141. 14:39cutting out alcohol, but your sleep is still  crappy, meaning low quantity and or low quality
142. 14:47sleep, your body is not going to transform in the  way that it otherwise could. I see that as trying
143. 14:54to drive a car with one foot on the gas and one  foot on the brake. Some concrete things that you
144. 14:59could do to improve your sleep hygiene are try to  get to bed around the same time each night. If you
145. 15:05got to drink alcohol in the evening, try to have  your last drink at least 3 or so hours before you
146. 15:11go to bed. Avoid having caffeine later in the day.  Reduce your screen time in the evening as much as
147. 15:17possible. I know that's a hard one, but that makes  the list. And avoid eating a large meal close to
148. 15:23bedtime. And if you're like me and you get in  bed and turn off the light and then your mind
149. 15:27just starts racing with all of the things that you  have to do the next day, you can do the mind dump
150. 15:34where you have a pad of paper and a pen next to  you at the bedside and you just jot down all of
151. 15:39the things that are going through your mind. And  when you offload that from your mind to the paper,
152. 15:45often it will help your mind calm down and relax  and allow you to fall asleep. So that's it. Those
153. 15:50are the six things that I would do. You've  probably noticed that none of those things are
154. 15:55exciting or trendy or even really complicated  or difficult. These are just the foundations
155. 16:03that are most likely to move the needle and will  give you the biggest return on your investment in
156. 16:10terms of the time and energy and effort that you  put in. After years of practicing medicine and
157. 16:16studying this field and coaching women who are  going through these challenges, I can tell you
158. 16:22confidently that these are the things that matter  the most. These are the things that will get you
159. 16:28the body and the health that you want. I'm Dr.  Rachel Felbur. I am an ER doctor and a women's
160. 16:32health and strength coach. Thanks for watching  and if you found this valuable, hit subscribe.