Unlocking the Secrets of Sustainable Weight Loss with Dr. Laurie Marbas and Maxime Sigouin

everyone and welcome to Chef AJ live I'm your host Chef AJ and this is where I introduce you to amazing people like you who are doing great things in the world that I think you should know about well today is the fourth Wednesday of the month which means we have a Repeat Performance performance if you will by Dr Lori Marvis and today she's joined by a guest a wonderful plant-based Fitness Coast Maxim and they're going to be talking about effective strategize to maximize your weight loss it's the end of January and I hope you haven't given up on your resolution yet because they're going to show you how you still can be successful please welcome back to the show Dr Lori marvus and Maxim hi guys how are you good thank you for inviting us back this is great well this is fun because people learn so much from you guys and um effective strategies so are you saying then there are some ineffective strategies I think everyone has understood that it's everal tried to lose weight which is the majority of Americans there's a there is effective to lose it for a short time but then there's this the long long term and the sustainability piece which is really really important and that's why I think Maxim is so incredible because he has so many good success stor so Maxim you want to share kind of what you do and what your initial strategies are because I think that's really really helpful yeah of course well first off thank you for having me it's nice to see you um happy to be here so yeah I'm mexim sigani founder of FID vegan coaching we've helped over I think over 750 people at this point in the past three and a half years completely transformed their body on Whole Food plan-based lifestyle Dr Lori was was one of them that got to experience the program um so yeah there's definitely unsustainable ways of doing it right and I think that's what a lot of people take on when it comes to New Year's resolution is they're going to go a little bit too drastic with their approach right they're like oh it's New Year's I'm going to exercise every day for an hour or two hours every day I'm just GNA eat this specific type of food I'm G to cut out everything else that I'm normally used to eating and it's such a drastic change that they haven't adapted their their habit their mindset and their and their life ultimately to be able to sustain that for an extended period of time and so I think the the more sustainable approach is to be like hey like let's just start with something small and then over time kind of add these other components because if you you come in I'm like hey I want you to exercise four times a week and focus on your steps and your water and meditate and read and and do all of these things it can be a little bit overwhelming for people at the start and maybe they can do it for a few weeks but you know after two months when life kind of kicks back in and there's stressors from work or family then just people fall off the wagon yeah I think there's one thing too that there's a some people have been told that you can't gain weight on a plant-based diet but you absolutely can especially if you're a smaller framed woman and you're eating a lot of snacks and more calorie dense foods like nuts and avocados not that those shouldn't be in a healthy diet but can you talk a little bit about the calorie density piece and how you approach and help people understand why they do need to pay attention to how much is you know the portions and what they're actually consuming yes absolutely we seen a lot of those right eat as much as you want as long as it's Whole Food plan-based let's be honest there's a lot of delicious Whole Food plan-based Foods out there right mang think of like something that calorie dents dates mangoes bananas nuts and seeds and you know dried mangoes would be considered almost you know Whole Foods as well um so those things are very dense in calorie and you know I'll just use myself as an example I'm 30 years old and also use examples from a members we coach majority of people between 40 and 80 years old that's kind of our our age group that we coach so whether you're between 30 and 80 years old if let's just say you're supposed to be consuming 3,000 calories per day to maintain your current body shape and you consume 5,000 calories of dates and mangoes and bananas and nuts and seeds which seems like a lot but it's actually not that hard to hit that much food when you're consuming the the denser calorie foods um you're you're going to put on weight right and and simply because your body is not burning enough energy throughout the day to utilize all the energy that you're giving it and so because your body is a survival machine it's just like well there's this excess amount of energy we don't know when we're going to have this excess amount of energy in the future so let's store some of it in case there's a famine right the body doesn't know that there's a Whole Foods around the corner but the thing is if you do that every day your body goes let me store it for the future and then the next day it's like abundance let me store it for the future and it just keeps storing until we have people that end up weighing 300 400 500 600 pounds ultimately so so I think like that's a really good point because like even one medle dat 70 calories and you know get a handful yeah you get a little that's 300 yeah oh and a whole bag of manga dried mangoes they're like candy can we talk a little bit about the mindset of understanding why people over consume because you would think if someone was aware and fo that they wouldn't be continually eating because just because you're eating a whole plant-based diet doesn't mean you have the right maybe necessary relationship with food it's a it's a healthier food choice but maybe there's something here that's occurring yeah well honestly I think the big one that's happening nowadays is people mindless eating right you're watching Netflix you're on your phone and if especially if you're watching something that's a little bit faster Pac which we tend to be our days with scrolling or watching something or watching a movie well I don't know if you ever noticed this but your pace of eating kind of picks up as well as you're kind of more anxious or distracted and so it will take it'll take a certain amount of time for your body to realize that it's actually full and by that time you've consumed a ton of additional calories so I think a big one is just mindful eating sitting down and just eating no phone no TV which is challenging nowadays but just no phone no TV and just eating in being in being mindful would would make the world of a difference because then you can actually be aware of like am I full right versus a lot of the time you start eating and next thing you know your stuffed and you're like you're leaning back on your chair you're unbuckling your belt you're like that was a good meal right so I say that's a big one absolutely and then I think it also goes back to sometimes they still maybe when they're bored or stressed or like you said anxious they kind of pick up the pace but people will go to do something especially if they're working from home like okay need a break from work so they walk downstairs and you know grab something or go to the kitchen it reminds me of um the book The Power of Habit yeah and um it's really funny so the author he was like you my wife is telling me I'm getting a little bit chunky and he's like yeah I've been eating these cookies and I don't understand why I keep eating these cookies so then he that was literally the pull books around his strategy of understanding why he was eating the cookies and end up being he was getting right around 3:00 that was his Trigger he would go downstairs to Cafe by a a cookie and ended up being that he liked the social Factor it wasn't even that he was hungry it was that but he was eating these apparently delicious cookies that added to this weight gain and when he changed that it dropped right off so um what about negative selft talk or anything is there anything mental component to this other work that you do and work with Coach Sarah and such yeah for sure so you know a lot of times a lot of people we work with are typically going to have more of an unhealthy relationship with food than they typically will tend to have with exercise and so a negative relationship with food could just stem from like years of trying to lose weight and dieting and trying different things left and right and all the new strategies that are kind of coming out and at the end of the day you you kind of develop this yes unhealthy relationship with food but also a little bit of this numbness to how your body actually feels and what your body actually wants you think that you hear about keto and how you how people have lost weight on keto he's like then I'm just going to do keto and I don't think it's a natural thing necessarily to do keto I don't think people really enjoy it the people that it was created from had a hard time having a a high level of compliance in the original study but ultimately by doing keto like you have to kind of numb your sensors of like this is not great I want to have a banana I want to have a mango I want to have rice I want to have quinoa and so the the more years you go through kind of ignoring those senses of what your body actually wants then you kind of become numb and then ultimately most people end up not being at weight that they would want to have so they beat themselves up over it and then they go try a different tactic and they know that they have to the typical is cut carbs right they know that they have to cut carbs and they have to just focus on certain things and do x amount of cardio and that ultimately just leads them to starting to hate certain food groups that are extremely beneficial for them and for most people that leads to binging on that food group after they deprive themselves from it right right um so that kind of leads to negative behavior that brings them them in the opposite direction of where they're trying to go and then they go like well I know what to do and then they try to revert back to limiting that food group which tends to be carbohydrate which is all the good stuff all the foods that rich in vitamins and minerals is in that category and then they deprive himself and then kind of ended up binging on it or eating some of it um yeah do do you give me permission to talk about the glycogen storage thing because I think that's a big one with weight fluctuation for carbohydrate glycogen storage of course yeah so for you have glycogen storage in your body ultimately so when you eat carbohydrate it converts to glycogen stored in your body it's energy for when your body moves throughout the day ultimately but the thing is that glycogen storage being full there's a weight Associated to it so if you deplete it there's weight that's going to drop on the scale so when most people will do Atkins or keto or cut out carbohydrates there's not enough carbohydrates coming in to kind of restore that glycogen storage in the body so it's kind of like a gas tank in your car if you empty it the tank is lighter and so what most people will notice on this scale when when they stop eating carbohydrates they go like I've lost you know five pounds in my first week 10 pounds in my first two weeks and then as soon as they you know eat a piece of bread or pasta or whatever their body goes like yes glycogen energy my preferred source of energy it's going to put it in that tank so it's can use it because it's preferred source of energy but the thing is as you refill the tank there's weight Associated to that so people will eat bread or pasta and they'll see the scale go up and I'll be like oh my God carbohydrates are making me fat but at the end of the day your body is just keeping that that tank full so what we did with you and with our members is if we keep the tank full and we're able to create a deficit elsewhere then there's no fluctuation in your weight because you're consuming carbohydrate so a little right analogy with a gas tank yeah you do like an incremental decrease um but just getting back to the habits and the association with food because I think that is a really big piece because people inherently understand they should be eating a healthy fruits and vegetables beans you know there one there's the addiction piece to the you know ultr processed foods um but there's a really interesting uh commercial that I found on YouTube I put in some of my talks and it's it's this young man he's in his 30s and he's being rushed to an ER and he just had a massive heart attack and it's from his perspective so you see him looking up and he's breathing with this oxygen and the doctor's leaning over him and going how did this happen and then there's like you know when you hear about people who are dying and they have a flash before their eyes it's it's kind of the same thing so he they literally go back in time over the years and you know you can see it where he's in school and the teacher giving him a treat for getting a good grade or um then his you know somewhere in there his mom's taking him to the doctor like he's going to get diabetes you need to do something or then he's hiding food but then it the very first scene is the mom the little one's crying on the hi chair you can see him crying and he's she's giving him french fries so I mean there is so many things that we're asso from a young age now I think it's even harder than when I was a kid you know back in the 70s and so but when you when you look about this for for young adults now I think it's even harder so any suggestions for people who are maybe really struggling with that I really just want this because it's just makes me feel so good because even though they start exercising and eating healthier there's going to be stressors and these different components in life that just make you want to go back to those habits how do you recommend or coach people to deal with those yeah great question so I'm probably use a different road that a lot of people would use but understand that those moments will happen that's the first thing because if you if you think that it's going to be perfect and then those moments will happen and you'll always deal with it perfectly when they do happen they end up destroying people they end up going off track for several months to ultimately a year sometimes right they don't wait till the next New Year's resolution to start start again so just expect that it will happen it makes dealing with those situations a lot better and then when they do happen don't beat yourself up over it right maybe you tried the best that you could with the situation that you have or maybe you didn't but at the end of the day beating yourself up about it is not helping you move forward right it's just keeping you stuck where you're at so like we tell a lot of members is whenn the next meal right if you stuck to your nutrition all day you ate whole food plan base and it was perfect and then at night time there was a stress you ordered a vegan pizza and you ate a pint of vegan ice cream if I was to coach you I'd be like great I hope it was good just eat your breakfast the next day right because the the speed at which you get back on track is is what will determine ultimately how fast you're going to reach your goal and so if people wait till next New Year's resolution to the next month to the next week to the next Monday to the next day even that's still pretty long so if we just focus on winning the next meal not beating ourselves up over it I think that's a great mindset to approach that that way you don't start a really vicious cycle of like oh my God I didn't do the right thing and then it supports the fact that you've struggled in the past with losing the weight and it reinforces that identity within you we don't want any of that just like hey hope it was good just you know eat your breakfast the next day no I think the mindfulness piece is really an important piece of that too because we go into this mindless stress right and we're just going into these habits but there's some really interesting books by Dr J Brewer friend of mine he's also plant-based but um unwinding anxiety and he talks about using mindfulness to kind of get rid of the reward in that habit because once you become aware of what you're doing it kind of dampens the reward and over time what you'll see is that craving will subside because you've really just basically dismantled The Habit because the whole reason the Habit exists is because of that reward system and it makes sense that instead of like getting rid of the triggers or you know changing the behavior like well let's just go again to the root reward cause and that will help a lot and it's been really fun to highlight to people how to do that so maybe we can shift to exercise because exercise of course is a huge piece of this um how do you approach exercise with people and because obviously if you're getting 40 to 80 year olds there's going to be a wide VAR variety of abilities interest yeah for sure but at the base for all of them regardless of the age strength training resistance training should be a part of the regimen right so I don't necessarily mean that you have to go to the gym but it could be you exercising at home with resistance ban with a little dumbbells that you have in your house but some form of resistance Against Gravity is what we're looking for um because especially as you age you know the amount of lean muscle mass starts to decrease especially when you don't put a bigger emphasis on on gaining some the amount of the bone density decreases as well so doing some bone bearing activity aka some strength training will help to strengthen the bones and build more lean muscle you know at a minimum for everyone that we coach we never want to go under three days a week of strength training simply because it's not enough of a constant stressor to require the muscle to be built to require the body to become fitter to require the bones to become stronger and so at a minimum three times a week and so we vary between three and five like it very much depends on the age the current Fitness level of the of the client and um you know where they're at in their life ultimately right if you're you know if if you're a mom and you have three kids you're working full-time your husband's working full-time like we're not going to make you train five times a week um because maybe your schedule doesn't allow maybe it's not sustainable for you for some people they can because they like you have an inurance background and they're used to training a bunch of times but to some people it's unimaginable to spend five times a week exercising and so it's very much about meeting the person where they're at you can get the results that you want and incredible results by three by doing three strength training sessions a week just like you can five right and so we'll just meet kind of people where they're at but strength training should be at the foundation of everyone's Fitness routine and just the basic movements right none of the stuff that you the crazy new stuff that you see online the basics have been around for a long time if you think of a deadlift if you think of a squat if you think of a you know a pushup a pullup a bicep curl like all those basic exercise work they've been around for a very long time and so there's no need to kind of jump into these new strategies that are are popping out unless to enjoy them right that's that's definitely you have to make it fun but just the basics work really well and you know if you're just getting started three sessions a full body workout a week meaning you do one exercise per muscle group on one day take you maybe 20 to 30ish minutes and you do that on a Monday and a Wednesday and a Friday it's a great place to start for for everyone great and can you describe also going back to the meal piece like how you guys tell them exactly what to eat and provide recipes can you you describe how that process occurs like how do you calculate what that is are there macro uh things that you pay attention to the macronutrients regarding you know protein carbohydrates or fat yeah for sure so yeah when members come in we we build them a custom meal plan for depending kind of where they're at and what's the goal they want to have ultimately it's it's a game of tricking the body to getting you to the place that you want to right so we have to trick the body into losing x amount of weight putting x amount of muscle on it because naturally your body wants to be a couch potato right your body doesn't want to change if it doesn't have to because it's uncomfortable which why most people struggle with change so what we do will come in as well calculate a theoretical you know average of what this person should be consuming with their age their height sex level of activity current lifestyle and all that and then we also ask you to fill out a consultation form that will kind of tell us roughly how much you're currently eating because there's a reality of where you should be and there's a reality of where you're at if you have a history of severely undereating for a decade for example well we're going to coach you very differently than if someone you have a history of overeating for a long time right or someone that's kind of eating where they want to so we meet people where they're at with their nutrition But ultimately we identify what the starting place is we identify how much protein they should be consuming per day we'd like to be around that 1.2 gram to 2 gram per kg of body weight I should make the conversion the pounds I haven't yet but I just like the Ki number so when it comes to shifting a body composition the only two things that matter protein and calories right so the distribution of fat to carbohydrate doesn't matter when it comes to body composition when it comes to health we personally like to keep the fat on the lower side of things right especially if you eat whole food plant-based you're way more likely to consume more carbohydrates right very I it's very rare that someone's like I want to eat 10 avocados in a row they usually be like ah I want some sweet potatoes I want some rice I want some bananas I now want some dates so the carbohydrate content will be a lot higher the fat content will be a lot lower but the two most important ones when it comes to shifting body composition will be calories and protein and then to add the the health elements to it we're just going to do it in a whole food plan based way ultimately right no fake meat fake cheese fake chicken or anything like that and so we'll build them a meal plan that will meet all of these standards and then the client for example you when you start you follow that first meal plan and then your body change and then we had to change the meal plan because your body changed right basically there were steps to getting you to where you wanted to so yeah we take care of everything for all of our members all the way through okay and then really describing because people are like well that sounds great if you're at home cooking your meals knowing how much you're consuming what about travel what about going out to eat things like that yeah it will give you strategies to be able to navigate when you're traveling and you're going out to eat at the end of the day I don't need you to track your food for a full day right I don't need you to track your food for for a full day um if you we give you a meal plan and let's just say you're dinner you want to go on a date night with your partner at the restaurant let's just say that that dinner is 500 calories and 15 grams of protein for example then simply go to the restaurant have roughly 500 calories and 15 grams of protein right you can kind of eyeball 15 grams of protein it's pretty easy if not you can just use tools like your phone to kind of Google it uh if you're in the United States the amount of calories is written on all the menu so you'll know very much how much you're going to be consuming but what it's going to do is going to allow you to still have some flexibility still allow you to live your life while still staying on track right because talked about this in my master class but if you were to eat vegan ice cream and vegan chips and drink protein shakes all day and hit your calories and your protein you would get fit you would feel terrible your digestion your energy would be off your sex drive would be off like everything would be off so if the principle of calories and protein allows us to be fit then if we introduce whole food plan based then we get to feel good have good digestion sleep well have great energy have all these benefits that come from it right so if you eat whole food plant-based 90% of the time and 10% of the time it's you going to the restaurant with your partner and eating something that might not be to the standards of what you would eat at home but you stay within your metrics you're still going to be on track with your transformation you still have the flexibility to to live your life ultimately Yeah so basically we're saying it's a relationship with food it's also calorie consumption if you're looking to to lose weight a whole food plant-based diet with the appropriate calories along with your protein based on activity level and needs as your body is adjusting so there's this interesting piece though that I think more people don't quite understand so you do all the work and you're like okay I'm here and now what so do I just keep at this low calorie much you know it's not super low you'll still have energy but what then like what is this next phase because I think this is that's a really interesting phase yeah the next phase is the Secret Sauce of what changes the game when it comes to Fat Loss so basically it's the way that you it allows you to consume more food to maintain the weight that you've lost right because we know in in in North America the stats are about like 90% of people will put the weight back on within six months to a year after they've lost it which is crazy that's a lot of effort and like self-work to get to a place where ultimately a year later you'll be back at the starting point or worse for the most part ends up being worse first so reverse dieting is the process where we basically trick your body into being able to process more food to maintain the weight that you've lost if you've lost 20 pounds 60 pounds 80 pounds you're going to be able to keep that weight off and ultimately be able to consume more food so if we grab the analogy of flames and fires right if any of you gone camping before started a fire before right you have your little baby flame at the start that's your metabolism at the end of a fat loss phase right just because naturally we have to kind of decrease the energy intake to get you to the place to achieve this transformation we're going to increase your energy output through exercise and so by increasing energy and decreasing the intake your metabolism is going to have to slow down because it has to learn to perform more on less which is how we shift someone's body composition so at the end your metabolism is slower not necessarily a baby flame but it's it's smaller than what it should be so if you're here what most people do either because a they use an unsustainable approach to get to the fat loss phase so either they cut out all their carbs they were very strict they're severely OV exercised they usually will end their fat loss phas with the energy of like yes it's done finally now I can live my life right and slowly the foods that they enjoyed starts to creep back in slowly the amount of food creeps back in because ultimately you can't live at this lower amount of calories forever right even though it's not that low it's still not an enjoyable place to be for the rest of your life and so as people kind of add more food in that's like throwing a big log of wood on a small flame I can't handle it right and so what your body does when it receives this abundance of energy with a metabolism that can't process all of it it goes like great I've been technically in the desert not having access to a lot of food for a while right and I've been having to walk everywhere at to Fine Food well I have this excess of energy let me store it in my fat sales for the future because I don't know when's the next time I'm going to encounter that Buffet but again the next day it encounters another Buffet if you continue to overeat and it goes like let me store it for the future and then you just store back up those fat cells that you basically just depleted so what we want to do is instead of throwing a big log of wood on it we want to throw small branches on it right and over time as you throw small branches that fire is going to grow and grow and grow until it becomes a raging fire so if we use the the example of food if I am to give you an additional 100 calorie per day for one week after your fat loss phase when your body gets that additional 100 calorie and we'll use a banana for example from carbohydrates it goes great additional energy it's not enough for me to store it I need it right now because I've been in a deficit so your body is more likely to use that energy than it is to store it and we do that for a week we let your body be uh get adjusted to processing that additional 100 calories per day and then the next week if your body stayed the same weight then great let's add another 100 calorie let's add a date per day right so now you're adding a banana and a date on top of what you were eating so the key is to add carbohydrates because it's more easily digestible it's more easily accessible as a form of energy and way less likely to get stored when you do reverse dining you do not want to increase your calories from fat because it takes longer to digest and way more likely to be stored because it can't be used right away so ultimately it takes four months to do the reverse dieting process um I know it sounds long but at the end of the day it's the thing that prevents you from being heavier than what you started a year later right so to me I think that that little four months is well worth kind of ended up in that original position so that's reverse liting in a nutshell yeah know I think that's it's a really interesting concept and how it's made uh enjoyable because you look forward to the next week you're like yes now I'm just going to keep eating a little bit more every day more food yeah um that's fantastic but um you know I think it's a really interesting process that occurs mentally can you talk a little bit about people that you've worked with because I know as I've worked with patients and they've lost weight so many other things outside of you know just the scale and their body compositions improve you know sleep uh relationships can you talk highlight some of those because I think those are actually the fun Parts people understand the quality of life improves yeah for sure let's talk about the fun side effects that happen when you lose a bunch of weight um one is if you're training at home you will need to buy more weights because you're stronger than what you've been handling uh you will need a new wardrobe at one point all right yeah I know you bought like three pairs of shorts at one point because you kept losing weight yeah yeah and it's not even that much weight it was just a change in the composition um that's what was so incredible yeah yeah so a change in wardrobe um obviously there's a massive change in energy I think there's a change in mental health as well for a lot of people they just they just start to show up differently because I think there's I think there's two levels of confidence there's confidence that you can buy through clothing cars houses and all that but then there's true confidence when you know you have the ability to do what you say that you're going to do and the manip being able to control your body is a perfect illustration of that and so once people get fit and they they know that they have discipline they know that they have control over themselves they start to show up very differently for them eles in their relationship with their partner with their kids in their career like that's why I believe that having a fit and healthy body is the foundation to just live an incredible life so like all other areas start to be affected once you start to gain Mastery control over your body so yeah it's cool you get to go shopping you buy new clothes but the the the positive effects of it leaking into other areas of your life is what's a game changer for a lot of members and for a lot of members that have struggled with their with the whole life this is one that I never expected when I got to all of this it's like Maxim I don't know how to deal with the compliments that I'm getting I've never been complimented like this before and it's a it's a funny thing to think of but we you know when people like oh my God you look so great you lost x amount of weight and oh my God and then guys are starting to talk and to them and or or girls are starting to talk to them and they don't know how to deal with it because I'm not used to looking like this and so I we had a member Darcy I don't think you've ever met him I think he was in the program when you were there very funny guy from from uh Canada but he came back one day he's like you know what I took your advice someone gave me a complt like Darcy you look great you've been working hard and he said I know I know it look good so yeah ultimately those are kind of the changes that kind of people notice but yeah it's a it's it's a very different life and you get to experience life on a different level and you get to see what's possible for you because I think mastering your body is the first level to just you know just again building an incredible life from there there yeah and it really can be kind of a reverse engineering piece right so sometimes you're like everything's already failed here's one more well I'm willing to try so it's taking a step in faith and then as you start seeing these things occur um that's where the mental shift occurs and that can really be very beneficial for the mental health side of things which is phenomenal yeah I had a patient one time um she did great trans you know had some health issues end up going plant-based it was a I had a lifestyle medicine program in Colorado and the program was about 12 weeks and they went uh she did great 40 lbs loss by the end of it and she she came at the end and was sharing her story how she walked into a you know where the changing room I don't know what it looks like on the men's side of the changing rooms but for women there's usually these horrible lights they're like you don't it's like if you're meant to brought me to buy some clothes I would start with the lighting um but uh it was really interesting because before she said she'd just either go in and not try something on because she was always embarrassed or she'd go in and cry and then put it back on the rack she goes you know I was trying these clothes on and I was going to smaller clothes because she was looking for something for a wedding and she goes I was so thrilled by how good I felt and how um when she put something on she felt like you said that confidence she said I bought two dresses and she was just crying sharing this story in front of every it was so wonderful and then she went on to become a health coach herself which is even more fun so I mean that's incredible you'll see people change their career choices because they're like I figured this out this is amazing so it's absolutely incredible yeah so those stor those stories are great that's why I do that's why I do what I do those the best part yeah absolutely I think you know in and Beyond the fact that if People's just I should highlight the medical side of this so if people are coming to you on medications particularly diabetic medications or hypertension medications they really need to be mindful because the need to be on these medications May decrease very rapidly and I'm talking within days if not 24 hours and so really important um that people pay attention and let their doctors know that they're dramatically changing their life and getting healthier so eating healthier foods so that makes good problem to have yeah it is a a big problem to have so um I don't know Chef AJ if anybody has questions or anything I mean I we could always keep going but well you know what's interesting is um I've been I've been monitoring the let me put myself back on screen I've been monit during the chat as I always do and every now and then we get like a troll somebody that really doesn't need to be here and somebody kept posting about uh to to join their support group for people taking OIC and wovi oh good we talk about OIC for sure serious yeah so this is a it's a medication typically prescribed you originally prescribed for diabetics and um and it affects certain hormones and it but the way it's working is it's decreasing your appetite and there's some newer ones that actually also affect the brain too where the craving for the food also declines and what you see is a very rapid weight loss and the greatest concern is if someone is not one if we're not addressing the root lifestyle causes if they get any side effects or um they can't afford it anymore because these are very expensive drugs what will happen is you just go back to the same thing but you're also at risk of losing muscle mass because you're B basically not eating you're at a very hypocaloric diet and that can be very serious um there are you know potential individuals who can do very well with these medications and I'm not saying they're not uh very potent for some folks but I think there should be some additional education about the lifestyle interventions that the habits and everything as as they're making this transformation that they should start adopting so that they don't need to be on these medications you know they're talking about putting people on these medications for a lifetime like are you we're going to we're already about to be bankrupt in this country let's just push it over the edge yeah like revenue for those drug companies for sure yeah exactly I'm like and who wants to be beholden to an injection I mean I think there's some oral ones coming out um for the rest of your life I mean I would say work on your lifestyle but also we need to be doing more work on our environment and you know making that is one of my favorite things a that you always say is if it's in the house it's in your mouth I've never known that not to be true and especially because I people think I have like a you know Iron willpower I was at a Meetup and a chef Naomi from raw uh food freso gave me this like raw vegan carrot cake and it it hits all the buttons for me it's gluten-free it's SOS free vegan of course but it's really really calorically dense you know it's made with the meat of the coconut and every day I mean thank goodness it was a personaliz cake because every day it kept calling to and I ate it I mean you know I was able to moderate how much I ate every day but with not without difficulty because now that it's gone all I think about is is that cake coming back I don't know if you guys are familiar with this book I'm gonna have him on the show on Thursday I know you really like Dr Brewer and um so it's it's a really good book you know one of the things and maybe if you did address this maybe even bring it home a little more I don't think people realize that if you're doing that weight is not lost as quickly as people would like at least the way that we recommend sustainably you know because these drugs and and surgeries can make people lose weight quickly even going on a an unhealthy diet like keto people I I was I'm saying this because yesterday I was watching presentation from Dr Doug ly because I'm part of the McDougle program and he was saying you know people lose about two ounces of fat a day you know it's it takes some time to lose weight and people are not realistic I think sometimes well I think if they're also just looking at the scale to determine oh this is my my goal but if you you're approaching this the way Maxim does it you're also building muscle over time as you're losing some fat so the the scale may not even move even as quickly as you think the inches and the body fat composition is a much better way of looking this don't when you agree Max I think looking at the mirror is going to tell you more than the scale Absol yeah absolutely because you again you can lose you can lose two l pounds of fat and put on one pound of muscle and just be negative one pound on the scale but when we look at the photos a pretty significant difference right that shows more than a one pound loss that's why like for example for you some of your photos or for some of the other members that's why we do the photos it's like you can see like okay you didn't lose weight this week but your your your photos definitely show right your inches around your waist your your your thighs are definitely shrinking you can definitely tell the difference and ultimately you know I I doubt anyone wants to look like skinnier and fluffier at the end of of kind of doing all of this work everyone wants to be lean and tone and just have a bit more like muscle mass because you feel stronger you feel so much better it's so much better for like reduced risk of injury for longetivity as well and so when you go to those rapid fat loss method which I think is what we started off the conversation with yeah it's it's one of those unsustainable things like I think doing OIC is just a very much more extreme version as if you were to do keto and starve yourself because like yeah what happens when the drug stops being made what happens when you run out of money well guess what your hunger's coming back right and it's going to come back strong because you've been under eating for such a long time and I also heard of uh AIC face you ever heard of that before people's face start to get droopy yeah because they've lost such a significant amount of weight very quickly and the skin doesn't have time to adjust I like looking good I don't want to Sag My Face but yeah so ultimately yeah it's it's it's a part of those unsustainable methods I think there is a place for it depending on a situation I was thinking about this like you should ask your doctor but your doctor's probably going to prescribe it you should ask Dr Lori Dr Lori will be like a genuine advice of if you should or not but yeah for a lot of people it's just a it's it's a pill solution to work that doesn't that people don't want to do for the most part and it it won't serve them and it's sad how many people it's going to hurt and affect in a negative way to take this thing and then just you know five years on the road everyone's even heavier than what they were when they started it'll be interesting to see what the long-term consequences are because I mean I remember taking fenfen over 30 years ago and then getting a letter from the FDA saying you have to have an echocardiogram because it caused heart lung damage and you're absolutely right Maxine I mean fenfen worked great as long as I was taking it but you know and and I think it's the same way with these drugs they are they're if if they like them that's fine but it's going to be expensive and they're going to have to do it forever right and some of them have a side effect of potentially increasing risk certain types of thyroid cancer so we don't know what that number is going to be and you know 10 20 25 years and now I think it just shows how people how desperate people are I remember starting the year with Dr ly said in the United States weight loss is the number one personal goal and I I've heard that now we're 91% overweight I don't know if that's true but it's a lot I mean because Dr Ferman has always said that the BMI is wrong that that that we're making it that really more people are overweight than what is being reported you know for normal BM Well I'm overweight according to BMI just perspective yeah well when I was in the Air Force I mean we'd have got that were very muscular young and their BMI was put them in the overweight category and you're like yeah but it is what you can use I mean that's the it's it's a simple thing you can do very quickly in a clinical setting I it's I think it taking outside of the clinical setting when you're not looking at a person from as a medical person that's when it gets a little dangerous because also people they have they're like oh I made it under the BMI of 25 but they still have probably 30 you know 40 pounds to lose they're still hypertensive their blood sugar aren't where we want them and they're wondering why isn't I you know my a normal weight and I'm like well there's more to it than that and so um I think it's a really good lesson to understand that BMI isn't the the only key factor to be looking at but I think the the actually the waist hip ratio is a much stronger indicator of if you're at where you need to be because now we're talking about visceral fat which is actually very different metabolically active so it's much more inflammatory can increase risk of things like insulin resistance can lead to diabetes and hypertension higher cholesterol all these different things so you get fatty liver which can convert to you know where you get inflammatory issues and can lead to curosis liver cancer so again the really important thing is they approaching this in a healthy sustainable fashion and but it's it's it's the mental piece that so many people need to get over I think it's such a perfect concoction and it's just kind of how my brain thinks that's the stuff I think about every day but we live in a in a in a in a distracted world with with Netflix and our phones and scrolling and all that that we feel that we and that in combination with an overabundance of high calorie foods very easily accessible for really cheap because it's a lot cheaper than healthy food you can just order on your app it comes to your house you don't L have to leave your couch and we're eating distracted and but we're spending so much time on this thing that we like I don't have time to exercise and so then it kind of just everything kind of feeds itself over and over again and so you know I've told you this Lori but I do a week off no phone I did every quarter last year I'm doing every two months this year I have so much time during that week it's crazy like I I gain hours back in my day by not having my phone with me and I'm like life is beautiful I can like go read I can go for a longer walk I can do all of these things so I think it's right now it's a it's a we're in a weird time where everyone's very distracted there's an overabundance of calories and everyone's looking for quick solution because they don't feel that they have the time but all their time is going on this thing when ultimately they should be spending it with family Outdoors or prioritizing themselves and that gets back to the hunger habit which is jud's NE newest book um so Jed and I have been friends for about six years now and he's been phenomenal he's just but he will talk about this mindfulness piece because I as a physician can't go a week without being or as a parent you know it's going to be really hard to not have your phone and but what I found is the more mindfulness practices that I bring into even my routine daily activities I am not doing the scrolling piece of it that I sometimes can do um that actually has helped quite a bit where I don't want to be in the front of the computer I don't want to be watching the Netflix show because I'm doing something else that I'm present in that moment and I think that is maybe one way if we can start teaching these skills to our children earlier on um I think that will be quite a powerful thing because the phones aren't going any away well this is this just the way life is and we can't step away from technology um as much as we'd like to but I do know being out in nature is very very very potent in helping people understand the power of the mindful moment and being present yeah so there's a question from klen saying what is the best way to measure body fat and muscle what the cheapest way would be to buy body fat calipers maybe like10 $15 on Amazon so you just there's you just pinch certain skinfold and there's an equation that comes with it uh if not you can go to your local gym sometimes they have a little machine you can put your hands on it's not as precise um and then you can do a dexa scan which probably the most expensive but one of the most accurate versions of getting your body fat uh but if you're just curious like I would do the body fat calipers like $15 on Amazon you have the tool that way you can track your own progress as you're kind of moving forward um yeah that would be one of the best ways or you can buy a body fat scale like uh we use with thingss for a member it'll tell you your weight amount of lean muscle mass body fat percentage water retention and all that but one thing to keep in mind it is a cheap scale relative to a dexa scan so it's inaccurately accurate as long as you say use the same tool of measurement you'll get a uh you'll get an idea of how much you've actually changed yeah on the twin stady on Netflix um you are what you eat I think that's that was that the name of the the series they do the Dexter scan so if someone is curious they can actually go and and watch that and they can they actually do Dex SC for people where where do you get those like at your doctor's office because I've heard of the Bia I've had that done bioimpedance analysis I've had mine done that way yeah yeah so there's a few different ones yeah and a lot of places there's like these little pods that you can sit in as well um there's a lot of different places you can do it but again if you're at home you could even even just use your tape measure and get again there's a thing called the Navy method and I'd say as long as you're using the same method and being consistent that's going to be the key as well um but the calipers can be a little bit tricky uh but as to Pinch at the same spot then yeah and the same pressure you put too much pressure it's like so it's it is a little tricky but just make sure it's if you're not doing it someone else the same person's doing it to you especially like sometimes you can go to a gym and they'll do the calipers for you um but just make sure it's you try to get the same person because they're different techniques and yeah yeah when you start off you really squeeze it you're like ah it's really thin skinfold yeah but you know if you have a freckle always measure out the freckle or if you have a you know some SCAR or something that that might be helpful there so um yeah I think the weight loss has it's such an important piece and we're we're not wanting to approach people and tell them to have any body shame or anything we're just saying at a healthier weight with you know higher lean muscle and less fat composition you're just going to be healthier feel better there's longevity there's decreased risk of chronic disease that's the point that we're trying to make and understand that that there is a healthier way to do this and it's very sustainable if someone's willing to embrace and do the work um but at the end of the day it is requiring you're going to have to invest in yourself and there's no way around that that's just the way it is that's like for sure just just to go off of that yeah like the goal is not to give everyone a six-pack right right right like you and I in this for very similar reasons like I don't want anyone to have to deal through with cancer heart disease diabetes Alzheimer all these things that could be pretty easily prevented through living an active lifestyle and eating healthy food like that's why I'm in this and there's a lot a lot a lot of studies showing that if you have a lower body fat percentage up to a certain point you're greatly reducing of of all these things right the goal is not to look like you're going to step on stage for a fitness competition the goal is just to be at a at a healthy body fat percentage for for where you're at in your life yeah and just you know I think for me the goal is just to be able to move and do the things that I want to do well until whatever how many years I've bu blessed with and not be hindered by illness or inflexibility or not enough strength so I think that's really important he say someone who's entering into their mid-50s but AJ is very flexible thank you you know here's a question from markar is there a possibility of using hypnosis to help for the first month when you first start it's so hard and I heard it helps you know I think there is some evidence with self hypnosis in weight loss there's um an interesting uh podcast I think he was on Rich role um Dr David speedle um and he's the founder of Ry which is a self- hypnosis app but there's some really interesting um gentleman Dr shad helmstead and he did this thing called um he wrote a book called what to say when you talk to yourself so when he he was a linguist by by training and was really fascinating he he goes you know I was learning about this negative self talk that was his focus and he's like you know I had some weight I needed to lose about 50 pounds and he goes so I started writing the script he recorded it it was things like positive statements in the present I am healthy I only eat foods that are feeding my body nourishing and so they weren't like I'm going to lose weight you're going to actually it was more of like these are these positive things that I'm going to do and so what he would do is he' play them every morning in his bathroom while he was getting ready and this incredible thing happened over 10 weeks he lost 50 pounds and um he goes and the crazy thing was my wife was also listening to him in the background she lost 25 pounds he didn't you know go out and make a very strict dietary change and just suddenly started exting he started changing just what he was listening to so there's some really powerful things going on there in the mind but I thought that was really fascinating so I think there is some place for things like self hypnosis and yeah I think they definitely think there's place for it yeah is it just like a daily reminder of your new identity ultimately right because sometimes you'll get busy and you'll forget to think about these things um so yeah daily reminder of your new identity and also just looking at the method that this gentleman is potentially using at the start right like if he's just trying to go Sprint a marathon ultimately that's it might be more challenging the first month as well yeah but sometimes just started it feels like a mar it feels like the the marath or it's so far to go but if they and I was like you know that's the one thing I was like the only thing you can do the future may or may not happen whatever you think will happen but the only thing you can do is two things is right now is either you can accept the situation or you can do a small step some active something action right now to change your current state and that's all we have literally every moment it was like that choice and so you you can accept or you can do something make your choice yeah so Jennifer says how do you do how do you get off the phone for a week when you have family needs business others and does the computer count uh yeah so my computer I don't touch my computer I don't touch my phone um so I'll have like a flip phone with me so I can't do I can't do any social media with it the whole point is to not be on Instagram Tik Tok YouTube or any of those things and then my wife so funny to say I got married to weeks ago so I'm still getting used to it but you got married congratulations boy how close how tight lipped can you be that's wonderful oh my God thank you thank you um but she has her phone so if there's emergencies my parents can just call her yeah but it's not a flip phone right it just just the whole point is to not scroll on something or be distracted um and they're pretty boring to text with so I just I'm just talking to people that's great I that is fantastic so so Dixie says where's your question I just saw it do you wait should you wait until your stomach grows to eat if your schedule allows like waiting till you're hungry I mean Well here here's the thing at least here's my experience with fat loss and kind of hunger signals if you're just getting started and your goal is to lose weight you're probably either have been undereating for a long time or overeating for a long time and I think a lot of people are numb to how their body is actually feeling and so I feel like it's better to follow a structure because if you're just waiting for your body to be hungry if I was to do that I would eat once a day even though I work out twice a day I would only eat once a day um if I wait for my stomach to be hungry which would mean I would be severely undereating which mean I would be getting weaker losing a lot of lean muscle mass as I'm progressing in my day so on a personal level and for some of our members like I think structure is better at the start until you can get your body to a place where it's used to healthy food it's used to a little bit more consistency especially post- reverse dieting where your body is able to process more food um at least that's my that's my approach to it because yeah I would eat once a day if I just waited to be hungry and I think there is some some um elements that we should also look into when you look at your body um its metabolism you're more insulin sensitive in the morning so eating some type of breakfast is very helpful and then you are less likely also to binge in the evening which I think most people find that's their most vulnerable time of eating the unhealthier foods when you're going out with family you've had a long day your willpower is where it's well probably disappeared after 8:30 in the morning so that's also will help and Aid in that consistent eating pattern and your your hormones will change your circadian rhythm you'll start noticing that as you start timing things um differently your your your hunger will start uh aligning with what you do on this regular habit so there is some very there's some very good benefits of structured but also for people who are maybe not doing a structured program the other piece to it I would say when you find yourself ready to eat ask yourself are you actually hungry I think that might be some so you're just trying to be understanding there's some intuition pieces there that people have lost as far as like you said that understanding what hunger actually is it's actually boredom or stress and it's not actually hunger or thirst yeah or thirst yeah exactly um yeah so great um Dr marbus there's a question for you and Maxim you're welcome to answer it it's not about weight loss but Tracy wants to know how do you feel about cooking and cast iron um I think you can yeah so I think you know there's some benefits to getting some additional iron um in the diet um certainly seeing those are one of the blood tests I do recommend for plant-based eaters to test is a fertin level to see if their iron levels are appropriate especially if you're administrating female so um I find them very inconvenient and heavy and clunky so only time I've it's like that's the only time I've used them is when I've gone camping that literally is it um because otherwise if I drop that break your toe or something yeah yeah I'm on the same boat here just when I go camping it's a definitely a camping tool yeah well this is not a question but it's a comment and it's really really nice and I'd like to read it if you don't mind and it is from Dana and she writes I have been I've been listening to Chef AJ for a long time and there have been many fabulous doctors on how do you pick the correct ones for you I took the leap with Dr Lori marvus and I'm so happy I did not only is she brilliant if she does not have an answer to your question she will research it and get back to you and she follows through Dr Marvis has a good heart and is genuinely a good person person the first time you speak with her you will feel this I have only nice things to say no one asked me to write this it's just how I feel and if it helps someone that would make me happy with much gratitude Dana and I'm not making it up it came in just what I see yeah so it's too bad there's not like a because I know you do tele medicine you're welcome to tell people how you do that but is there like you know how like um like there's Health grades and doximity like where you can put good reviews for your doctors too bad there's not a place for that for tele medicine doctors and she could poost that review yeah you're oh that's very kind of her for soul so thanks Dana um I truly appreciate that yeah the yeah I have tele medicine I'm licensed in all 50 states in DC at Dr maris.com and then Maxim if you want to highlight and I'm sure I think we put the links in there too but actually did so I'm gonna need even better show notes for you I have 1500 characters left you gave me great uh description but it would be great to also have all your links and I'll I'll I'll tell you that a little bit later how we can make it even more comprehensive okay how do people connect with you well first of all there spot on with Dr Lori I love working with her she's great I love working with her as a coach and also together as a team and thank you for having me on and yeah just uh fit vgan coaching.com you'll find everything you need on there from the podcast to the Instagram to all the social media platforms that exist that I trying to take a break of every two months nice thank you so much and and um you know it's funny because Dr Marvis not funny but it's coincidental you work with Britney Judy and she's gonna be my guest at 11 you know yeah she told me so we have the he this is like the Lor Marvis day yeah it just worked out that way yeah no it's uh I know you guys had rescheduled but um we're we we have the healing kitchen and um we meet weekly and she cooks and I answer medical questions and then we do workshops with guests and I do a workshop like tomorrow we're doing one actually on the psychology of weight loss which is really interesting again all that found at Dr mar.com and we're going to we're going to be publishing our first book together Britney and I um we very excited so it's a work in progress but we'll let you guys know when it's available that's fantastic because NE when is it do you have any idea when it might come out I'm thinking in a month or two there there well we can maybe debut it here yes we absolutely can that's fantastic well you're fantastic and so are you and congratulations Maxim so that means ladies he's off the market now sorry about that but it's good that it's good to know so thank you yeah yeah thankk very much it was a wonderful conversation and thanks all of you for watching another episode of Chef AJ live please come back in just about an hour for Britney Judi she's going to be making tortilla soup she's fabulous you're going to love her I really appreciate you watching take care everyone and bye-bye

Channel: CHEF AJ

Views: 5,308

Keywords:

Id: A93_mxj3uaI

Length: 57min 54sec (3474 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 25 2024