Simple Steps To Losing Weight & Feeling Better: The Science of Lifting Weights | Mel Robbins Podcast

if you're frustrated by going up and down and trying this diet and that diet and the other diet and this thing and that thing and the other thing that stops today everybody listening to this they are going to stop yo-yo dieing that this is our deal right Mel that's right do you hear doctor lion she's telling you Stop yoyo dieting put the soda down pay attention sit up because we are going to give you the stepbystep way that you can take control so if we're going to Stop yoyo dieting what are we going to do hey it's your friend Mel and welcome to the Mel Robins podcast so I've decided that you and I uh have been at this podcast thing for long enough that we can cover a topic that everybody talks about everybody wants advice on but for some reason we're not supposed to talk about it I don't know why this is so controversial but it is and today we're going to going to go there what's the topic weight loss weight loss we're talking about weight loss and the reason why I want to talk about this is because we've all been there we've all been at that point in our lives where we're frustrated with how our clothes feel where we feel like [ __ ] where everything we're trying uh is not actually working or the things that we've been doing forever in my case this is me are no longer working and having the same impact and you start to feel like your weight your waistline your attitude everything's out of control and I want to talk about it today and so if you're like me it probably means that you spent most of your life trying to either lose weight or trying to stay in shape and this goes all the way back to when I was a little kid I mean I can remember my mom on the living room floor and Jane Fonda was on the television she had those leg warmers on and my mom was doing all the stuff and then the next thing I remember remember the Thigh Master that thing that showed up at your house where you're supposed to like squeeze it in and out and then as I got older I tried everything step class spin class jazzer size which I think we now call Zumba I've gone to classes in person online I've done pilotes on a mat on a reformer I've tried everything and don't even get me started with the number of diets anybody remember the cabbage soup diet why on Earth was that a thing eat for your blood type I've done that lowfat high fat no carbs complex cards no wonder we are all yo-yo dieting I mean simply listing all of this off makes me start to feel like a human yo-yo and as I've been thinking about this topic and researching it it occurred to me if this is such an enormous problem for almost all of us maybe we've been thinking about it all wrong in fact the expert that you are about to spend an hour with says that you and I are going to stop talking about losing weight right now no more it's the wrong approach you and I need to start leveraging what she calls a muscle Centric medical approach to our health Dr Gabrielle lion is a medical doctor she has completed two research and clinical fellowships in nutritional science and one in the science of Aging she has spent 20 years conducting groundbreaking research and treating private patients in her clinical practice her first book Forever Strong is filled with evidence-based strategies and you're going to learn a lot of here during our conversation today doc G is here to teach you about the largest organ in your body I know you're thinking what is it what is it the largest organ in your body believe it or not that's your skeletal muscles and your skeletal muscles are not only the largest organ in your body they make up the entire architecture of your body and they are key to effective weight loss to boosting your energy burning fat and she's going to talk to you today about how you can use a muscular Centric medical approach to reverse diabetes and to fight heart disease and cancer and my job in all of this is to translate all that she's saying into simple actionable takeaways in fact I'm going to try to reduce all this research to two changes that you can make starting today to leverage all of the things that she's going to teach us so if you want to lose belly fat and live a strong long healthy life there is no more important thing for you to do than to listen to this conversation right now get your pens out and get ready to change your life cuz doc G is in the house all right please help me welcome Dr Gabrielle lion to the Mel Robbins podcast thank you so much for having me I'm thrilled to be able to sit down and talk with you so Dr Lon I'm so excited that you're here and I just want to start with the basics what significance does it have that your muscles are an organ yeah this idea full first of all skeletal muscle makes up 40% of your body weight period which is a huge amount of your tissue wow and I think that this is a really important point is this idea that when we think about skeletal muscle we often hear about just exercising the bicep and really just is it toned or not can I see it or not and that's why this concept of muscle as the organ of longevity is so critical to get out to the public because skeletal muscle is so much more than that well I'll be honest I have only ever thought about muscles in a one dimensional fashion can I see them or not do I have a six-pack which I do not do I have uh flabby arms that flap like skin wings or do I have nice tight you know biceps and triceps and all that stuff so I have thought in such a I don't know I'm sort of embarrassed about how little I know because I honestly did not even know that muscles were an organ and there is so much research that you have in your new book and we're going to dig into it but I wanted to start at that Baseline so that you know anybody that's intimidated by the gym anybody that can't see uh you know any muscle definition we're not here talking about a Beach Body Blast workout program we're talking about using muscle Centric medicine as a way to unlock all of these health benefits that I personally I had no idea that that's the major benefit of doing weight training and why we all need to do it I've got a little like five pound weight here like when you do a bicep curl or you walk up a flight of stairs what is actually happening as I am you know curling my muscle here and attempting to strengthen the bicep what's happening in this organ in my body when I do that there's ton of things that happen and we're going to break it down very simply number one you get stronger which is the obvious number two the nonobvious is that when you contract skeletal muscle it secretes these myocin that then go throughout the body that help with bone health brain health and nutrient utilization which just means the food that you eat when you contract skeletal muscle it moves glucose which is simply the sugar in your bloodstream into the cells into skeletal muscle that's incredible especially with this epidemic of obesity that everybody is talking about this idea of insulin resistance that everybody is talking about skeletal muscle is your architectural infrastructure of everything you know you've got so many medical degrees and fellowships like what the hell made you go from psychiatry and a a practice that was in general medicine and all of these degrees that you have what had you make the connection between muscles and People's Health thank you so much for that question this has been a very long journey which by the way I don't recommend anybody doing that uh there's a lot of other ways to go about that when I graduated high school I graduated high school at 17 pretty early I moved to Hawaii I moved to Hawaii and I moved in with my godmother who was a functional medicine OG oh cool and she was and is a PhD in nutritional Sciences I began sitting in on her patients and I believed that nutrition from a very young age was the key fast forward to then going to my undergraduate which was also in human nutrition vitamin mineral metabolism at the University of Illinois okay my life changed because because serendipitously I landed in the lab of Dr Donald Layman he is one of the grandfathers of protein metabolism huh a lot of the things that we take for granted now he discovered in his lab 20 some years ago and you were standing there yes as an undergraduate I was working in his lab and I was deeply influenced by this idea of protein dietary protein and skeletal muscle as it relates to Women's Health women and men but the studies that we Prim did were at least the ones that I was working on were women postmenopausal women fast forward through medical school I knew that I wanted to go to medical school did two years of Psychiatry realized that that was not my bag so did family medicine for three years and then finally did a fellowship at Washington University in St Louis in nutritional sciences and geriatrics which looked at aging individuals over the age of 65 and my research at the time because I was a combined fellow I was in charge of um seeing geriatric patients but also doing obesity medicine research and this concept of muscle Centric medicine had been building but there was a flash of insight and I would love to share how it came about and what really changed everything for me absolutely what was the Insight well at the time I was seeing patients in the hospital and in the nursing homes I was doing that during the day and then on the weekends and then in the evenings I was doing obesity medicine research where I was running a weight management clinic and we were also looking at brain Imaging we were looking at the influence of obesity and brain function and there was just one participant in particular we'll just call her Betty Betty was in her mid 50s she had big brown eyes dark curly hair she was a mother of three she was someone who had struggled with yo-yo dieting her whole life had been told to lose the same 10 to 20 lounds that she put on after her first baby she had been cycling through diet after diet the information was to lose more weight exercise more do this cardiovascular training um and reduce her calories and by doing that what ended up happening is we destroyed her muscle she would go through yo-yo dieting and over seeing all of these patients cumulatively I realized that this information and this obesity epidemic that people have been trying to fix for the last 50 years wasn't obesity at its core the problem but the one thing that the patients that I was seeing from the Alzheimer's patients to the cognitive impairment patients to the Obesity the struggling with weight wasn't being overfat it was actually about being under muscled and it was the unhealthy muscle that was driving everything else wow I want to be sure everyone gets the benefit of that Epiphany can you say that again that from your medical and research background you had this Epiphany that the problem wasn't that people were too fat right it was that they had unhealthy skeletal muscle wow and I gather that what you're going to prove to us today is that developing healthy skeletal muscle turns it around and unlocks all kinds of health benefits yes M and in fact it's never too late to start and that's actually where I got the the title of the book it's which is Forever Strong it's never too late to be forever strong and uh I know that together we can change the trajectory of age in we've been trying to combat this quote obesity epidemic for the last 50 years and we haven't gotten anywhere and in fact we've gotten worse and one thing I know for sure is that if you are trying to fix the wrong problem you'll never get there if you are working under a paradigm of thinking about a problem and you are not making any improvements then perhaps we are looking at it from a perspective that really needs adjustment so what I would say is that obesity in and of itself in part obviously it's very complex but a huge portion of obesity and the issues that ride alongside with ob obesity like cardiovascular disease like hypertension like Alzheimer's disease all of these common diseases that we're beginning to see more of they're not diseases of being overweight they're diseases of skeletal muscle first that begin DEC ades before I think you're so cool and I love your passion and your heart and one of the reasons why I was so excited to talk to you is because I feel like the conversation about muscle and strength has been hijacked by the fitness industry that is very much about surface at least when it's marketed and by men and this is such an imperative aspect of living a healthier life creating a better life for yourself their implication here that go Way Beyond the diseases and the issues that your patients were talking about the biggest organ in your body most of us have ignored and women in particular have I personally speak for myself I'm intimidated by the gym I hear muscle I think weightlifting I think a neck a mile wide I think veins popping out of my arms I think that like I can't do that that's not for me and we have been robbed of a very important actually you're works as critical Frontline habit that every single human being needs to put front and center in their lives which is strengthening your muscles yeah and keep it exactly and keeping them healthy there's no such thing as a healthy sedentary person and there was some earlier research that looked at 18-year-old quote healthy sedentary college students the research shows that these individuals were beginning to have signs of unhealthy skeletal muscle with no overt signs of being overweight if we address this early if we address the health of skeletal muscle which by the way there's really two primary ways to do that which I know we're going to discuss is dietary protein really nutritional planning and then exercise training wait Dr Gabrielle are you saying that you can strengthen and build muscle simply by changing your diet you can simply build muscle if you are protein deficient by increasing the dietary protein of of your nutrition plan the other thing is when you design a nutrition plan that is protein forward you will be able to support the health of skeletal muscle and we're not talking about again bodybuilding slamming protein shakes none of that is necessary these are things that are super simple incredibly simple so by here's my you're going to make it simple I already love what you said which is there's two things we need to focus on the dietary protein which we will unpack will get into the science and actually the exercise and focusing on exercise and strength training that will help you build a healthy skeletal muscular system I also love something that you wrote about in your book that you say we all need to stop looking at how much fat we need to lose and we need to start talking about how much muscle do I need to gain and how liberating would it be if instead of going I need to lose 10 pounds I need to like that you actually said I need to put on about five pounds of muscle that's what I need to do I mean that's such a positive reframe but why how did you arrive at that I realized that number one the strategies that have been put in place have failed people and when you focus on losing weight which I don't know one person that hasn't done that over years and years of yo-yo dieting you actually destroy skeletal muscle as we age and become more mature it becomes much more difficult to put it on and regain the health of skeletal muscle if you've spent years yo-yo dieting by thinking of always what we have to lose it becomes very demotivating for people yeah this really crazy thing that Creeps in is sometimes they don't feel worthy of Health and Wellness in the way that potentially we would want them to feel so by Shifting the conversation as it relates to what people have to gain and understanding that muscle is this currency of health and in fact it's the only currency that you can't bargain for you can't buy it you can't sell it but you have to earn it and by thinking about the skeletal muscle as currency you earn and put in effort this crazy thing happens you begin to cultivate a lot of internal strength you begin to cultivate this can do attitude and this way of confidence because you are able to kind of move within a physical domain you're not worried about if you're going to fall and break a hip you're not worried about you know I can't eat that you're not worried about these other things you have this capacity to shift to a much more positive mind frame and it's the one thing that you also have direct control over the last time I checked you cannot exercise your liver but you can exercise skeletal muscle that's true that's absolutely true so it is within your control I want to um have you talk directly to the person that when you said if you've been spending a lifetime yo-yo diet in you've really destroyed your muscles and just tell them the hopeful message here and why it's imperative that you know if you've been yo-yo dieting like most people have if you're frustrated by going up and down and trying this diet and that diet and the other diet and this thing and that thing and the other thing why is it never too late to put taking care of your muscles and making them stronger the most important thing you could do at at the center of your health number one it's never too late and number two just like you said people have gone through periods of yo-yo dieting which have again we've all seen that stops today everybody listening to this they are going to stop yo-yo dining that this is our deal right Mel that's right do you hear Dr lion damn it she's telling you you are Stop yoyo dieting put the soda down pay attention sit up because we are going to give you the stepbystep way that you can take control so if we're going to Stop yoyo yo-yo dieting what are we going to do the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to leverage dietary protein but first let's talk about what protein is protein is actually not one thing are you ready for this smell it's 20 different amino acids that make up protein can you can you just what the hell is an amino acid like everybody throws around these terms I don't even know what an amino acid does great question this is brilliant um amino acids are those little tiny building blocks think about a sand castle and think about all the little grains it takes to build a sand castle if you think about the sand castle as protein and all those little sand grains are the amino acids I love you I get that and now I'm thinking about the fact that my bicep is tiny little particles of sand is that right pretty close but I don't know yours looks pretty jacked so yours is not yours is not sand yours is more like concrete I've been working out for this I did a set just they' look really you know greased up for you when we did this okay so how do I know what protein is the best protein because I I I would reckon you're about to tell us we all need to start eating more protein because these sand particle amino acid things are very important for our skeletal muscular Health correct that's right but before I tell you that I'm going to tell you why just overarching why protein is important yes and then we'll get to the nitty-gritty I love it you like that sgitty oh oh I didn't even get it see come on some mom jokes coming in here hot cannot be wasted this idea that protein is really imperative is really important for a few reasons number one protein again is made up of these 20 different amino acids what's so fascinating about protein from the big picture is that dietary protein improves satiety just meaning you're not hungry here is the test that I tell people if you're really hungry go ahead and sit down with that chicken breast that will tell you immediately are you really hungry versus a bag of chips and you you know you could probably eat that forever dietary protein improves satiation you are not hungry from eating dietary protein the other reason why protein is so valuable is that it is very difficult to eat a high protein diet and actually gain fat because protein is so valuable to the body it is what we call an essential macronutrient meaning you can't make it you literally cannot make it you have to eat it versus carbohydrates your body can make carbohydrates in fact your body can make some carbohydrates from proteins and then the need for fat is not huge right there's some essential fatty acid need but but nothing major because of these amino acids that are in prot and just protein in general it is very difficult to over consume so you it's very difficult to ultimately gain weight from a diet that is high in protein so the main benefit is that the macronutrient or the 20 sand molecules in a protein in protein when you eat it it gets used up by the body it also makes you less hungry so you have this benefit of being more efficient in terms of the fuel that you're putting in versus just snacking mindlessly on all this stuff that ends up getting stored somewhere in your body is that correct am I following you yes okay you were doing a great job okay protein is very controversial in the nutrition space why and it shouldn't be um well we'll we'll get into that but it it's just very controversial well hold on a second can we just say something here you have a [ __ ] fellowship or fellow you're a fellow you've earned what what it called you've earned you've literally you are a fellow in nutritional science you are a psychiatrist you have been at Ground Zero studying this in the lab of the dude that synthesized protein for the first time [ __ ] the influencers I'm sorry but you know like somebody on Tik Tok that has gotten in shape and is now telling everybody else how to do it that does not have the background that you have quiet and let's listen to Dr lion and I know people will then like just ask absolutely Go Bananas in the comments but I don't care because you're talking about the actual science here and you're not saying you have to be vegan or you have to be a meat eater you're saying everybody from a medical perspective the biggest organ in your body is your skeletal muscular system it is the biggest organ it has a function where it secretes stuff that is the molecules of Hope and Longevity and You by paying attention to this organ that you've probably ignored because you've been YOLO yo-yo dieting and worrying about how you look you haven't been focused on how you feel you haven't been focused on how your body functions and like me you didn't know better you didn't know the science like I had no idea any of the stuff that you're talking about and so there is no controversy in my mind because you are the authority who has been researching this you are on the front lines with people with Alzheimer's and obesity you are talking about this not from how you get your button shape for a bikini you're talking about it based on the science around the way that your brain works and your body works so thank you for listening to my TED talk I'm going to turn it back over to Dr Gabrielle to tell us why a protein forward diet matters and I've been in nutritional Sciences for 20 years and I started seeing with this influence and this social media that the information that is put out there is extraordinarily damaging but where I really had to put my foot down was that the information that a let's say a 50-year-old woman is going to be hearing and she's hearing it from the influencers on um Instagram or Tik Tok or Facebook or wherever she's hearing it that window of getting it right closes there there comes a time where we have to which is exactly what we are doing today is we are getting it right so there's no longer confusion and there's no longer this distraction of trying to figure out what to eat or why we're eating it or ultimately the way in which we age can be strong can be resilient doesn't have to be riddled with obesity diabetes insulin resistance all the ways that we think an individual has to age it doesn't have to be that way so that is why I wrote the book because I wanted to really put something out there to end confusion can you just give everybody a quick list of all the health benefits that happen when you Embrace what you're saying and you start embracing a protein a protein forward diet and you prioritize exercise that strengthen strengthens your muscles what what are the health benefits and the cognitive benefits of doing this number one better blood sugar regulation better energy you'll be stronger you'll have better survivability against nearly any disease or issue or problem that life throws in front of you skeletal muscle again is the largest endocrine organ organ system in the body and what else skeletal muscle is is it's a nutrient sensing organ it senses nutrients blows your mind right it actually senses the quality of the diet it senses the protein quality of the diet which is incredible and one of the things that happens as individuals age is that efficiency of sensing protein and those amino acids decreases so how do you overcome that and and what does it look like when that efficiency decreases from a very visual perspective it looks like sarcopenia which looks like skinny smaller frail olderly individuals but you can overcome that efficiency issue and make older muscles act like younger muscles by increasing dietary protein number one so now you've taken a older more mature muscle you've increased the dietary protein intake and you can get your skeleton muscle to respond as if it was in your 20s wow what is another health benefit it's incredible what's another health benefit of following this protocol and paying attention to this the other thing is that healthy skeletal muscle is your metabolic sink or your metabolic disposal unit you'll go to your yearly doctor and they'll say here's your blood sugar here's your triglycerides here's your cholesterol the biggest way you can make sure that those numbers are exactly where you want it to be is by having healthy skeletal muscle so number one we take care of skeletal muscle and we improve its efficiency efficient muscle is healthy muscle number two we use skeletal muscle healthy skeletal muscle to make sure we don't get diabetes or insulin resistance and all the things that come alongside with that so that's number two number three healthy skeletal mus muscle makes us strong and capable which I would say arguably that's the obvious and of course healthy skeletal muscle is uh some tissue it is the tissue that you leverage through exercise to improve brain health you know we talked about those secreting molecules those myocin when those myocin are secreted through exercise they also impact the brain so it goes which is which is incredible and this is where some of the confusion comes into the space because you're hearing a lot of quote longevity experts saying cut back on dietary protein you're going to live longer okay well let's say potentially that would be true let's just say for for fun number one how long how much longer do you think someone is going to live with no or low healthy skeletal muscle mass not very that's right because I didn't tell you the other thing I think we're at number five of the other thing is that if you get injured if you get illness what do you think your body relies on to protect you where do you think it pulls from those building blocks those grains of sand where do you think it pulls from your muscles that's right do you know that if an individual were to get cancer one of the things that they oftentimes pass away from is this some is this thing called cancer CIA which is this highly metabolic state which ends up destroying skeletal muscle you cannot survive without skeletal muscle the list of benefits from the long term is absolutely I'm sure you're just getting started can you give everybody a sense if you were to make this change of having protein forward we're going to explain this more and you were to start resistance training what are you going to feel dayt day like what are the benefits of doing this almost immediately on your day-to-day life if you get your first protein meal right you will feel better immediately I it might not be in the first 30 seconds but after that first meal you will have more energy you'll have better blood sugar regulation you will feel you will feel better just you know anecdotally we've seen it and not only anecdotally we see it in the literature if you design a diet that is protein forward and balanced with carbohydrates meaning you're not having too much carbohydrates so you're not going to have this huge EB and flow and crash where all of a sudden you're reaching for cupcakes or Donuts which you better not be at 10: a.m. but if you were and then the other aspect of that is you will not be hungry you are using nutritional science to leverage willpower o that sounds sexy let's use nutritional science to leverage willpower everybody I want to keep digging into the protein and I I think that that's really important to understand because the average American by the way the average woman is getting around maybe 60 to 68 if I'm going to be generous grams of protein a day and how many do we need to be getting as women I recommend one gram close to one gram per pound ideal body weight what yeah and I even calculated this out for you okay you ready for this I did this body weight is 138 that's when I always feel my best so for you if you were my patient I would say listen Mel in order for us to correct for muscle Health metabolism satiety then I would put you at roughly easily a minimum of 100 grams of protein but between 100 to 120 maybe even 130 grams of protein I feel like I'm going to gain weight there there I said it there I said it way I said I'm going to gain weight I that that sounds like a lot see that but see I think like I'm so indoctrinated I don't know if a salad Lobby that has been petitioning all of us psychologically but I hear that intellectually I know I got to start taking care of my muscle organ I'm in I want to think clearer I want to lose the belly fat I want to have more energy God forbid something happened to me I want to be strong enough to fight it off I also look at my 85-year-old mother-in-law who has biceps and exercises and resistant trains and the woman is an Energizer Bunny at the the age of 86 I want to be like that and so I'm in the second you said Mel it's between 100 and 130 grams of protein a day I'm like I am not becoming a Weeble wobble on legs Dr Gabrielle and I think that's exactly what a lot of us women who've been socialized to think that we have to be thin that's our reaction but it just goes to show you how [ __ ] up this all is yes isn't [ __ ] up our psychology and the mixed messages and the diets we've been sold and the fact that I'm just going to speak for me but everybody listening has no idea that this is what your muscles do right and by the way I calculated the amount of calories that we would be talking about so I could clarify it for you are you ready lay it on me um so let's say you increased your dietary protein to 100 grams of protein a day okay that would be a total of 400 calories wait what now what are you eating wait that's it but there's something I didn't tell you okay I didn't tell you is that the thermic effect of food or this thermic effect of feeding meaning when you eat dietary protein it because of its impact on muscle increases metabolism so while you're thinking well I'm going to need 100 grams of protein and I'm going to get 400 calories sometimes depending on how you dose it you will use 20% of that energy to just metabolize that protein it would be very difficult to gain weight and it would be so difficult to gain weight you are not going to put on weight from increasing your dietary protein it would be and in fact the studies show that so they've done overfeeding protein studies do you want to know what happens when people quote overeat protein I do their body compositions get better and you know what that means it means they lose fat so by eating more protein the research shows in all these studies and in the work that you've done for 20 years that when people focus on muscle Health resistance training and a protein forward diet they lose fat they lose fat obviously calories have to be controlled but they lose fat and they gain muscle you gain tissue your body composition improves yeah you know I just had this visual that tradition Ally you know I keep saying we keep thinking about this in Reverse everybody you're focused on losing fat when you should be focused on gaining muscle and when you gain muscle you actually lose the extra weight that you don't want and I keep thinking about the fact that you look at somebody that's sedentary or heavy and you see the extra weight that they're carrying and you think about okay well how am I going to how am I going to get them to diet and do stuff so that we can get rid of that weight and what I just got is inside that body is an organ called muscles there's the architecture of a healthy human being and you can activate the healthy human being that is inside the unhealthy body and as you start to really strengthen your muscles we'll get into resistance training in a minute that starts to emerge from the inside out yeah yes and all of the extra weight and all of the disease and complications and symptoms that come with having what is an insufficient muscular system if you start with strengthening From the Inside Out it overtakes all of the unhealthy stuff on the outside and that's what you see emerging and if you think about these before and after photos that you see in these big you know these challenges online or whatever that people use to Market diets or weight loss programs or weightlifting programs we are looking at them wrong because what we're thinking is we're thinking that somebody is like somehow dieting and shrinking what you're actually seeing is the muscle Health emerging yes I just got it you got it that is so cool and it's not about what we have to lose it's about what do we have to gain it's this way of leveraging your system to create flux and movement so then this healthy body emerges why is this so important for women specifically I think women have really gotten a this constant narrative about oh you've hit menopause now you're going to have a menopausal belly and you're going to gain about 30 pounds and it's going to be this is how it's going to be that does not have to happen there are ways in which you can manage your body composition through diet and training again we are leveraging protein and food as medicine and movement as medicine rather than taking something external I mean I guess food would be technically external but here's what I would tell and why it's so important for a menopausal postmenopausal woman there is a natural decline in these hormones estrogen progesterone there's a imbalance of testosterone which can affect body composition but one of the ways it affects body composition is we move less we are less active the way to combat that is through very simply doing some kind of resistance training which simply means again against an external load it doesn't have to be complicated and it's not necessarily as difficult as people think I've I've been seeing patients since 2006 I have seen seen a lot of midlife women and I've seen a lot of success okay what do we do Dr Gabrielle I just heard do you hear that that was women in 194 countries around the world turning up the dial what do we do here's what they're going to do they're going to make it super easy their first meal of the day is going to have between 30 and 50 grams of protein easy I don't care if it's a whey protein shake I don't care if it's Mel's pea protein shake I care I don't necessarily want it to be Cen because collagen while great for other things is not great for muscle Health okay so collagen is a different separate kind of protein it is it has um a protein score of what is considered zero it's still great but we're not going to we're not going to put in the category of muscle Health thank you for saying that because I here I am making my smoothie and I'm adding the mushroom stuff for the hot flashes and I'm adding the protein powder and I don't even know if it's got the loopin thing in it then put in the collagen because a I'm like hair and nails people and two I'm thinking that's another 10 to 20 grams of protein so I can put that in the 50 protein column what you're saying is Mel that is good for your hair and nails but when it comes to complex amino acids that protein scores a big fat so now I'm learning something this is really good you're like a pro homie you are a pro thank you so all these women in a million different countries you've got your dial turned up you're going to make it so simple this is legitimately fail prooof you are going to have between 30 and 50 grams of protein at that first meal got it then if you saying well Gabrielle doc G I want to add some carbohydrates I'm going to say you know what go right ahead you're not going to have over 30 grams or so of carbohydrates for that first meal because we don't want to kind of skew this insulin and and give you this robust response again I'm giving broad generalizations got it okay but you know we're just going to Define it and Design it so that people can execute right Away Great you can have a little bit of berries you can mix it in water you can mix it in Almond juice or whatever it is that you want something not major that is calorically dense okay you've done that you're doing great another meal maybe you want some kind of smaller meal in the day maybe it has 20 grams of protein and 20 grams of carbohydrates what does that look like that could be uh three eggs it could be your chicken salad you know it could be whatever as you want I'm not so crazy about that one love you for that thank you you're welcome the last meal if you're having two larger meals and a smaller meal in the middle your last meal is also important because you're getting ready to go into an overnight fast okay so you've woke you woke up in the morning coming out of an overnight fast your skeletal muscle your organ of longevity is primed for nutrients you stimulate muscle with your dietary protein you've done an amazing job you've improved your um signaling you've made your muscle youthful you are no longer hungry your body is now metabolizing things you know we're not gaining weight we are really setting you up for Success your next meal is a little smaller your meal your last meal of the day is going to mirror your first meal oh I I thought you said it was smaller you know your middle meal is smaller okay got it so now I'm doing my 30 to 50 I'm have my protein shake or my hamburger with my salad or whatever else the last a day is between 30 and 50 grams of protein you want your burger you want your chicken you want your salmon great you have now nailed it well you will by the way if people understand the concepts in this book you will lose body fat by just addressing the dietary component of protein which is mind-blowing you will you will improve your body composition by changing your dietary protein for breakfast by simply doing that by swapping out your cereal by adding in dietary protein we have seen huge changes in body composition simply by doing that and also by the way some of this data was isocaloric meaning people both had the same amount of calories they were taking they were both taking in 1,600 calories and the postmenopausal women what one group did was change the first meal of the day to have an optimal protein it was around 40 grams of protein and then the second group had around um uh I don't remember exactly what it was but it was probably closer to 50 grams of carbohydrates and 13 grams of protein which is what most women are doing now and they the body composition effects were negative for the carbohydrate group versus the protein group they lost weight and again calories were the same so it was simply changing around the macronutrients okay can you talk a little bit to the vegetarians and folks that have a vegan diet like what are the considerations as you're thinking protein forward and the amino acid sand particle aspect of the macronutrient and protein yes all dietary protein is not created equal okay ideally you are eating Whole Foods so now this brings us to this category of dietary protein and what makes up dietary protein how do we score it how do we think about it an overarching way to do this very simply is that anything that is of animal nature that means does it run does it swim does it I don't know walk is a highquality protein okay it is considered a highquality protein and what defines high quality protein is we talked about that there are 20 different amino acids got it obviously not going into those 20 but there are a handful of essential amino acids and are those not present in plant-based proteins they're very low in plant-based proteins so what would you have to do you would have to over consume or increase your consumption of these plant-based proteins to bring up that level of essential amino acids got it and I'm going to give you a very clear example I'm just going to lay it out on there so nobody has to do any ma okay so let's say you are going to eat three or 4 ounces of a a beef patty a lean beef patty that has this essential amino acid Lucine Lucine is the critical amino acid for muscle Health okay now remember you and I were talking about how each amino acid had these dual roles and we weren't going to go into all 20 but there are a handful that are really important and critical for health and well-being okay one of those amino acids is Lucine and Lucine what's so fascinating is that it requires a certain amount to trigger skeletal muscle so essentially if you're eating uh under that amount then you're not actually stimulating this mechanics of skeletal muscle oh 3 oz of you know 3 to four ounces of a lean beef patty would would stimulate muscle would give you this whatever number two and a half grams of Lucine to trigger the muscle to begin to have this process if you were to try to do that in quinoa you would need six cups of quinoa because of the difference in the amino acid profile to trigger muscle the same way wow that's not a good plan like first of all it's a lot of quinoa second of all that's like carbicide you don't want to be doing that carbicide is a word yeah no well it can be now wow that's I think you should trademark that um is there a supplement for our friends that are vegetarian or vegan that they can take to up the lysine or to get the amino acids without having to overdose on quinoa it's important to understand because I sit here and I drink a I drink smoothies a lot because they're easy and I use a plant-based formula and here I am like dumping more Scoops in thinking I'm loading up and I'm protein forward and you're sitting here telling me not not not really not necessarily because it might not have the thing on it but you know what but I I know I'm doing something that's better than nothing but you are you are Mel I'm going to interrupt you because you're doing great thank you so the plantbased protein powders is a way to begin to balance these amino acids because they've made it in a way where they've balanced these okay so this is a way to do it great you're talking about if you're doing Whole Foods like you got to be really doing Whole Foods exactly if you are doing Whole Foods and not adding supplements you may need a total of 35 % more dietary protein I love that okay we got so here's what I want to do next um I want to get into the second piece of advice for muscle Health which is actually lifting weight and what I would love to know is for those of us that feel bombarded with all different types of ways to exercise should I do yoga should I do Pilates should I go to the gym should I put on a streaming class do I need bands should I pick up a weight do I are the weights different than the hot mom walk uh wristband things do I need to squeeze the thing should I do hit should I do uh resistance like it it is so overwhelming so if you were to talk first to people to anybody listening that's like okay doc G I'm in I'm in you got me with the protein I'm gonna check this out I feel so much smarter I love you I get it but the weight thing the resistance training what's so fascinating about exercise is there's a million different modalities and there's a million different classes and a million different ways to skin the cat right like it's very confusing here is the one non-negotiable that everybody is going to take away and build on no uh pun intended here resistance training is any move against um weight so that could be body weight you could be doing push-ups you could be doing bicep curls you could be doing bands you could be doing any different type of resistance training that is a non-negotiable for muscle health and body composition okay I will say all exercise is important and anything is better than nothing but when we are talking about muscle Centric medicine we are talking about getting stronger and building the infrastructure of our body for for the time that we need it resistance training as a non-negotiable which again could be weights could be machines could be at home um push-ups or band workout even you know if someone really wants to do yoga and pilates they could but that is not going to be ideal over a period of time but it's a great starting Place gotcha okay gotcha but again we are going to focus on moving some kind of weight and okay what's the minimum amount of time I realize you say some is better than none but for just somebody going I'm going to take this seriously three days a week two days a week one day a week where's a starting point for somebody where this is like a whole new world yes here is what the general guidelines will tell you okay they will say 150 minutes to moderate and to vigorous activity whether it's cardiov and that's a week because that's about 22 minutes a day but what does Doc G say here's what I say I say that you should be lifting a minimum of two days a week okay and that would be if you're only going to do two days a week then you're going to do full body and I love the idea that you are doing um what we call multi-joint movements so for me what did I do this morning I go oh man I'm GNA be on Mel Robins podcast I'm getting my butt in the gym and we did deadlift okay okay I don't necessarily think that people need to start with that but again I've been training for you know a period of of of years so for me deadlift but for you know someone who is just starting out there are still machines machines are very safe that they could do a squat on a machine or a leg press on a machine they're things that involve multi- joints and multibody parts at once super easy we don't need to over complicate it um one of the things I will say is two days a week would be the minimum of doing whether they're doing upper body and lower body uh all of those again two days a week gotcha if you were to take a protein forward diet and you were to do two days a week of fullbody resistance training okay how long does it take for that inter muscular body to start to appear and you to start to see some sort of something happening here's the great news of someone who's just starting out those people will get the bigger benefit and see more Improvement faster than someone who's been training for a long period of Time how long I would say maybe 6 to 8 weeks you stay with it oh my God that long can we see a little something better like we're going to feel better though right you will feel better immediately okay that's all I need to know feel better immediately and you will begin to improve while transient those immediate markers like blood sugar like triglycerides like HDL everybody talks about again it's over time but these will be immediately impacted which is incredible incredible which is absolutely incredible are there some aspects to resistance training that women should be doing differently for maximum benefit that's a great question I think that there's been a lot of discussion in the literature there was a period of time where I believed that you had to lift heavier weights and I I personally prefer to do that but the evidence would suggest as long as a woman is really taxing herself you know she's not on her phone and she's not kind of distracting but going to where she really goes to fatigue then I I think that it it's not necessarily for women but you know again there is some evidence in the literature or some speculation that some women need more volume but again I do think that we shouldn't get caught up in the weeds but we should understand that two to three days a week of resistance training if you're going to do two days a week it should be full body there's many different ways to do it now here's one other thing that I think women should do tell me one high-intensity interval training session a week okay what does that actually mean I think that we should do it Mel I heard you're in Vermont I heard from a mutual friend wear in Vermont and I think I should come down I think you should too I think you should I'm terrified already okay go ahead and so this could be on say an airdine bike or a rower or if someone is at home with no equipment it could be as many air squats as they could do for a 45 second to a minute SE uh uh session all out effort but you're really going to put in high effort for a minute and then you're going to rest and then you could do that again there's many different ways to do that but you could do this for a total of 20 minutes and that's your workout so you do 10 Rounds with a minute in between and and that's it you have taxed your muscles you've released myokines you've improved your blood sugar and you're going to eat your dietary protein you're going to be stronger over a period of time you are going to be stronger from following that I love this and I love that you're saying 10 to 20 minutes I love that you've got resources that we can link to I love that you've got a playbook in Forever Strong I know a lot of people were hanging on the words when you said just you know you can do resistance training for 20 to 30 minutes three times a week for women it's important to go to failure if for example you're doing an online streaming class and it's like one of those small weight things and you are doing your arms up and down and you've been holding them up for five minutes and you're like I can't do this anymore and you drop your arms is that what you mean by failure yeah yes and by the way I did say 10 or 20 minutes you know 30 minutes if you work hard enough you could get a great workout in seven minutes you could get a great workout in one minute if you gas yourself on some kind of just allout 80 to you know 90% more effort that's good it could literally take you four minutes so we there is there are ways to navigate this it doesn't have to take a ton of time um you did mention make Muscle magic what are the five ways to make Muscle magic and what is muscle magic so how to make Muscle magic and basically the way that I think about that is how can we add in Snippets in the day to really augment our health what are we going to do about health and wellness that's going to take two seconds to do and going to be at the Forefront of our mind every hour complete number one you like numbers number one every hour complete 10 to 20 air squats dude you could totally do that you could totally do that number two stand at your desk which I'm sitting right now but I do have a standing treadmill desk number three get your heart rate up with a brisk walk to the bathroom or water fountain 10 times a day great easy you literally if you had a glucose monitor you ate lunch you have that glucose monitor on you can see improvements in your blood sugar just by leveraging skeletal muscle instantaneously um we're at number four bring a resistance band to your office uh and get in a quick 10 reps of Mel's bicep curls or any exercise of choice just resist the band people yeah you could do uh overhead press you could do um whatever you want to do I have a question so a lot of us have these wrist weight things you can hear me opening it up they were very popular when we were all in lockdown the hot mom walk so this is a one pound wrist weight if I just wear these all day long is that like something that I can do that will help or is that not a good thing it will help is it going to be optimal maybe not but it'll help okay and when when you said I think you could put like I I think we could put a little more probably given that you've practiced as a psychiatrist as uh a in a family medicine practice and you've spent 20 years and are a fellow in nutritional medicine I wanted to get ask you some questions from our audience and see if you would give people advice so Vicki writes doc G how do I get my 24 four-year-old daughter to start taking charge of her health I send her podcasts I send her articles the more I do she turns away as she wants to be in control which I know she should be she's a workaholic she's a perfectionist she has anxiety but she mopes around and doesn't exercise much I'm worried because she's burying herself in work and that means she claims she doesn't have much room for exercise or enough sleep she's put on about 25 lbs since graduating and I'm just really worried about her what what can I do oh well first of all don't worry we've got this and I'm going to share with you a little secret over time the most and highest success a person will ever be able to achieve the one common denominator is their health so if Vicki's daughter cares about building and becoming successful which she clearly does right now she is making a rookie entrepreneur real mistake I have seen this over and over and over again human beings are predictable this behavior of late nights early mornings little sleep burn you know like charge hard and burn out it goes like this right and as people's career goes up this Behavior goes like this until ultimately something breaks people hit rock bottom and then they have to rebuild so one of two things are going to happen number one you're going to get to it early and you're going to say listen you care about being successful you are so driven you have external discipline so this is someone who is exhibiting external discipline to drive the needle forward that is a translatable skill we are going to encourage the external discipline to then translate to internal discipline not with the goal of weight loss not with the goal of being healthy but all of which is going to be framed around this idea of future success Daily Success and future success she's going to be able to perform better at work and dominate and that is how you are going to change her mind Dr G is in the house that was genius you know why it's manipulative and it works because you've attached motivation to something that she's demonstrating that she actually cares about which is her success and when you carve out a little bit of discipline to start to weight train by the way because of all the benefits with sharper thinking with the discipline that it takes to fit it in with the fact that you get this Rush of endorphins and adrenaline and you're able to focus it translates directly to you being better at your job or taking care of your kids or anything that you want to do and in fact for you stay-at-home moms let me tell you something there is new research out that shows that the best way to help a kid who is struggling is to help the caregiver by helping the caregiver start to take care of themselves and start to become healthier themselves it translates directly and so I freaking love that you just said that I've got another one um from Maddie and I know that you had um some issues with binge eating when you were a teenager and so I think you'll be in a very um you're in a really important position to make a difference here Maddie writes I'm 19 years old and my social media feeds are filled with Fitness influencers I enjoy Fitness a lot I love the way the gym makes me feel and the reward of how my body can look but I get too carried away with my image sometimes and let it control my day and my mood I struggle with binging at night but I haven't been diagnosed with an eating disorder do you have any tips for comparing myself to other people comparing my body to other people's bodies and even more importantly how do I just build a better relationship with myself and my body that is a very deep question and I absolutely can relate because when I was her age I also struggled and I think a lot of younger women struggle one of the things that younger women now that are up against that I didn't have and many of us didn't have is that social media has no rules so the first thing that Maddie has to do is limit time on social media and I mean really limited to what is she trying to gain out of it and this is going to take some internal fortitude because it is addictive and that is how these apps which we all love but are designed and they allow for dopamine release and we want to keep going back for more I personally have a lock on my social media I can spend 30 minutes a day on social media Max until I'm locked out and that is exactly what Maddie should do because comparison is a kiss of death for people we have no idea what is happening it really truly is about being One's best version of oneself and shifting away from the external again this whole conversation hasn't been focused about the external drivers of of looking good but understanding that the better you treat yourself we only have one body the better an individual treats themselves from from the inside the more capable Maddie's going to be throughout her entire life and ultimately she's going to go through a period Where You Know Each decade we compare less right right right now Maddie you're at the height of comparison and that's so true also part of being a 19-year-old woman you know a 19-year-old girl is is you are in the zone of comparison but this is an amazing opportunity to develop some mental toughness and what what do I mean by develop mental toughness I mean having a lot of discipline to say you know what I am not going to go and look at those things and compare whatever it is that those people are doing and the other thing is I'm actually going to focus on a goal that I set for myself that is not external it shouldn't be based on external looks it could be based on so she said something very important she said something about the progress in the gym right I don't see progress in the gym well what about saying you are going to do 10 dead hang pull-ups that has nothing to do with how you look it purely has to do with embracing the discomfort of becoming more skilled at a movement you know what this actually points to the whole reason why I wanted to have you on because the reason why Maddie and just about everybody on the planet particularly in that age group has trouble with comparison is because they're focused on what they look like versus being in the gym to take care of your muscular Health being in the gym because of the different amino acids and the uh way that your neurotransmitters and your thinking and your mood and your mental health are impacted and one thing that helped me a lot because I struggled like everybody with profound comparison is if you're going to compare yourself right if you just have this habit of looking around and Laser focusing in on the one person person whose body type is exactly the opposite and genetically impossible for you to ever achieve and then beating yourself up for the fact that you're not 11 feet tall or 3 feet tall or whatever it is that you wish that you were if you're going to do that with one person try for a day admiring everybody admire everybody in the gym admire the freckles on that person over there admire the curly hair on that person over there admire the monster calves that that person over there has admire the gap between the teeth of the other person over there find something that you admire that's unique about every person that you pass by just you know casually and you'll start to notice that you can flip it from this seeking of someone looks better than training yourself to see something unique and beautiful in everybody because we all look very different and you know I think intellectually we know this but that's a way to start to train your mind to default in a very different way um Pamela wrote Mel I need mental strategies and thoughts to lose weight because I uh really want to stay in shape I'm tired of calorie counting intermittent fasting what do what what do in shape women tell themselves because the old strategies are no longer working for me and I need an epiphany so doc G mental neutrality have a neutral mind this next meal is not that big of a deal this one last cheat meal this I need these cookies it's so good I can't not have X Y and Z neutral be neutral all of this hype around food and dieting is all some stuff that we made up doesn't have to be that way just neutral mind my friend it's not that big of a deal it's not just it's just one more meal allow yourself to gain control take actions to become the person that you know that you can be and ask yourself are these actions and these behaviors is this in line with who I want to be and you close the gap I think that people always put together and put forward weight loss goals and when you have goals that means when you hit a goal of 10 pound weight loss you're now back at the starting point of what's your next goal as AOS oos to putting together standards what is the standard how are the standards of how you function you are going to execute on an appropriate training program you're going to set a standard for the kinds of foods that you're going to eat you are going to set a standard for yourself for how strong you want to be we're not chasing goals here we're setting standards for our life that allow us to execute and live a life of longevity of strength and resilience doc G you have given me so many epiphanies today you've changed the way that I think about what I'm eating you have uh had me learn so much and everybody listening about muscle Centric medicine the importance of this I feel a sense of freedom and Liberation from Decades of thinking about calories and losing weight and I really am empowered by what you've taught us today and how it impacts my health how it could help uh shape my body and my future and my longevity and so what a freaking gift thank you thank you thank you thank you for spending so much time with us and going into such detail I cannot wait to have you back and everybody the book is Forever Strong new science-based strategy for aging well doc G everybody thank you so much thank you for having me I love these conversations don't you when it's like epiphany epiphany epiphany I think the biggest one for me is really thinking for Real about my muscles about this organ I've been neglecting about how I could build Health From the Inside Out by taking care of the largest organ in this is so cool it has changed me forever okay so um I I I know you got a lot out of it and I want to just say something else everything that I talk about with you here on the podcast it is meant to open up possibilities if you feel inspired and empowered and it's safe to do so try it but only you know whether or not it works for you so take what she says try it out if you feel inspired and make sure that you're constantly checking with yourself and I'll be checking in with you about this too all right I got to go prepare a uh snack that's about 30 to 50 grams of protein and now I know the collagen is zero protein I feel so empowered and I hope you do too and the reason why is because I love you and I tell you that every time I talk to you I love you I believe in you and I believe in your ability to be smart about the decisions that you're making especially those that you're making about your health because you deserve to live a long and strong and healthy life and now you have the research and the tools to do it let's go get them I'll talk to you in a few days hey oh my God okay I gotta get in here let me put these on all right we ready everybody okay great and they are the key to effective late lo oh my God epiphany epiphany epiphany world class medical expert okay let me try that again the number one change that I need to make in order to start to melt away the Bel the number one thing we all need to do in order to melt body fat you body fat or belly fat belly fat [ __ ] okay here we go I don't know who that is good job on those bicep curls I'm really liking that form so what is my m m Ria what miter cromia I'm sorry I can't talk that's like wait that's like um abomi yes call them abomi yes oh and one more thing and no this is not a blooper this is the legal language you know what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you this podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes I'm just your friend I am not a licensed therapist and this podcast is is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician professional coach psychotherapist or other qualified professional got it good I'll see you in the next [Music] [Music] episode didn't you love her well guess what you're going to love this episode it's with Dr Mark Heyman and it's using food as medicine we talked about him in this episode go

Channel: Mel Robbins

Views: 272,920

Keywords: Mel Robbins, Mel Robbins Motivation, Mel Robbins Advice, inspiration

Id: F4jxN4v50iI

Length: 75min 29sec (4529 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2023