[00:00:19] So welcome back everyone to Midlife Unleashed. In this episode we are diving into a topic that hits home for so many and that is drug roll weight loss after 40. So if you feel frustrated or stuck, this is the episode you want.

[00:00:40] On episode 1 we talked about Dr. Dorsey's journey and why this series exists. And today we are tackling what seems to be one of the biggest struggles for people as they age. So let's start with Dr. Dorsey's perspective.

[00:00:59] Dr. Dorsey's perspective. Doug, when did you first notice the unique challenges of weight loss for people over 40? Was there a personal or client story that opened your eyes to this? It was a bunch of client stories. Right? So I kept hearing the same themes over and over and over again.

[00:01:22] So so people were coming into my studios and they were saying, hey, I don't know what happened, but I woke up in this body. And I'm like, what do you mean you don't know what happened? You know, like you've been walking around with their bodies. I don't know since I've turned 40. I've got this stuff. And you know, and you're pointing to their stomach and you're pointing to the back of their arms and they're like, I just don't know what happened.

[00:01:47] You know, something's changed. And then the other two themes that were very common was people coming in saying, no matter what I do, I can't lose the weight. You know, I, you know, before I could just go back on Weight Watchers or I could just cut carbs out or I could just exercise a little bit more or I could just cut down on the drinking and I would lose the weight.

[00:02:11] Well, now I'm doing that and nothing's happening. Right. And then and then the third thing that they said was, I'm doing everything right. And and and really, they weren't doing everything right. They were doing everything and anything because they were just so desperate to lose the weight. But what it was, was they were just trying a lot of surface different things that they heard, that they saw, that their neighbor did or someone did that was successful, albeit temporarily.

[00:02:40] And they were trying all of it instead of really taking a bigger comprehensive approach. So so what I found was, you know, I had to really train things in terms of training them for performance.

[00:02:55] And now we had to work more on weight loss and health to make sure that they were able to actually become much more healthier and their bodies become much more efficient and boost their metabolism so that they could actually stop storing fat and start burning. So let's dig into that. Why is weight loss so much harder after 40?

[00:03:23] What's the real deal? What is happening in our bodies during this stage of life? Yeah, well, great question. There's there's a whole lot of things going on. There's physiological factors. There's some behavior habits. There's some lifestyle habits. And all of them are kind of culminating at at one time, you know, but but but one thing is that you're going to be a little bit more. One thing I will say is that it's part of the process. Right.

[00:03:49] We're not meant to be here forever. And there is a process through this, an evolutionary process. And part of that process is the changes that you see going on in your body. Right. And the first thing that I'll talk about, which I don't think it's as much attention as it needs is sarcopenia. All right. And sarcopenia is the losing of strength and muscle as you age.

[00:04:18] It's just a natural process for us not to be as strong and not to have as much muscle as we did when we were young. And so for women, after the age of 30, they're losing about three to five percent of their muscle every decade. And so as you get older, that starts to compound. And so I'll give you a quick example of how this impacts what's going on in terms of muscle and storage.

[00:04:48] Let's say that by the time you're 40, 50, you've lost about 10 pounds of muscle since you were in your 30s. All right. And that's a very realistic number when you talk about three to five percent per decade. Well, every pound of muscle burns about six calories at rest, which isn't a lot.

[00:05:09] But when you take six calories and you multiply it by 10 pounds, that's 60 calories per day that you're burning less. Still doesn't seem like a lot, but multiply that by seven days a week. Now we're at four hundred twenty calories. Multiply that by 52 weeks a year. Now you're at 22000 calories.

[00:05:30] And if you're eating the same amount of food, your body, because of that muscle loss, is burning about six pounds less of fuel. Right. Because muscles metabolic. It requires energy, energies, calories, calories as food. And so technically, as you're losing this muscle, we should really be eating less. And that's not what's happening. We're actually eating more.

[00:05:57] And so because you don't have the muscle to burn that additional calories. Guess what happens? It gets stored on your body and it gets stored as fat. And the other side of that is now it's cumulative. That example I just gave you was one year. You put years behind that going forward. And next thing you know, that's why people were coming in saying, I woke up like this. Like this isn't my body.

[00:06:26] Because ultimately that changed their body composition simply because of sarcopenia. But with that muscle loss, you have to do something to combat it. If you really want to be successful and lose weight and maintain weight. Now, outside of that, you still got hormonal changes going on. Right.

[00:06:47] And these hormonal changes are quite significant as you reach that perimenopause, menopausal stage in your life. And then the third part is we've got these lifestyle habits now. Right. We tend in our 40s and 50s to be less mobile. Right. To not burn as much calories. To be a little bit more sedentary.

[00:07:10] We've also built up this lifestyle of, I won't say bad eating habits, but not the most productive eating habits. Right. And then we throw on top of it that at that time in life, we kind of find the finer things in life. The finer foods. Maybe it's some of the alcohols. And you can afford it. Right. Right. And you can afford it. Exactly. And you're at a stage when you're like, I'm going to enjoy it.

[00:07:40] I'm going to enjoy myself. Right. You may have gotten the kids out of the house. They're on their own. Now you're an empty nester. You've got the income. You can travel. You can do these things. And so when you put all of that together and then you try to focus on weight loss, it really does make it not a monumental task. It's definitely manageable.

[00:08:03] But it's one that you can't take that little surface approach that you used to take in the 20s and 30s. It takes a much more comprehensive, holistic approach if you really want to be successful in terms of weight loss. So basically, that line that many women say after 40, which is, I don't understand. I drink a glass of water and I gain weight. It's true. Yes.

[00:08:33] Yes. Yes. There is so much to it. And everybody's just trying to take these little surface approaches. It just, not now. You can't do that at midlife. It worked in the 20s and 30s, but not now. Yeah. So, are there any specific signs or symptoms that people should look out for that signal?

[00:08:58] I mean, that we should look out for that actually signal these changes aside from weight gain? Yeah. So, you're going to see some of that body composition change, right? From sarcopenia, from losing that muscle. If you start to realize, if you're not exercising, the changes are coming, all right? Because you have to maintain that muscle or else you're going to start storing fat, right?

[00:09:27] Now, naturally, there's some hormonal changes going on as well. And so, some of those you'll experience in terms of having difficulty sleeping, right? Maybe you're a little bit aggravated, a little bit faster. And maybe you're a little bit hungrier because you're not getting enough sleep. So, there's some of those changes that are going on. But, you know, you'll be aware.

[00:09:56] But I don't think you should be looking for any specific event. I think that we all know it's coming because it's part of the process. And what you want to do is prepare yourself if you're ahead of it. And if you're actually in it, then you want to take certain actions and change certain habits and behaviors so that you can be productive not only now but going forward.

[00:10:22] So, okay, you've talked about hormones and metabolism. And I'm guessing, like, when we are over 30, we hear about hormones and metabolism all the time. And that metabolism slows down and we know hormones have got something to do with it.

[00:10:42] But can you please explain how it is that hormones affect metabolism and what we can do to manage this? Sure, sure, sure. Well, there's several hormones. So, let's go through each of them. And you're going to see a theme about really trying to manage them. Okay? Because it really comes down to just certain actions and behaviors, right?

[00:11:09] But first, let's start with the big E, which is estrogen. And as you kind of age and move on to perimenopause and menopause, your estrogen levels begin to decrease, right? And estrogen helps to manage your metabolism as well as your body fat.

[00:11:32] And so, as you actually decrease or your body produces less estrogen, there is the ability to actually store more fat. And that fat is primarily in the midsection, right? And it's visceral fat, which isn't the good fat. That's the fat that's around the organs. And so, that's one of the hormones that you're going to see change as you actually age.

[00:12:00] And the best thing you can do for that is really eat a balanced diet, exercise, and actually get some good sleep. So, those are the things that can kind of help combat that decrease in estrogen. And then there's insulin. And then there's insulin. And insulin basically tries to help keep your blood sugar balanced.

[00:12:25] And as we eat food and it turns to sugar in our body, insulin comes out, it grabs that sugar up, and it stores it in our cells for energy and for fat. And if we don't use it for movement, for exercise, then it actually just stays there and it gets stored as fat.

[00:12:45] And that insulin, eventually, if we don't do anything in terms of managing that, our bodies start to become a little bit resistant to that insulin. We may not become full type 2 diabetic, but we will become a little bit insulin resistant, which makes it much harder to lose weight. So, you want to make sure you're keeping insulin at bay. How do you do that?

[00:13:12] Eating a balanced meal, right? Making sure that you've got protein in the meals that you're eating. You've got to also make sure that you move after you eat. That's one of the other things that you can do to kind of balance out, you know, insulin. And you want to exercise, you know. So, and sleep. Sleep helps to balance your insulin levels as well and helps to make sure that you're not becoming resistant.

[00:13:44] So, those are two hormones. There's a couple more. Cortisol. You know, we got to talk about cortisol. That's our stress hormone. I was going to. You know what? You read my mind. Because I was going to tell you that another thing that we keep talking about or hearing about on social media is cortisol, which is released by stress. And how stress plays a huge role in weight gain, especially at this stage. So, let's go there. Now that you mentioned it.

[00:14:13] How does stress fully in butterability lose weight? And are there any ways of making this not as hard as it is? Sure. Sure. Well, you know, cortisol is a stress hormone. And what I don't think we kind of realize today in our society is we're constantly under stress.

[00:14:38] And it may not be like a total fight or flight level of stress, but it's a consistent level of stress, whether it's family, whether it's work, whether it's relationship, whether it's money, whether it's lifestyle, whether it's social media. But there's just a steady level of stress. And when your cortisol levels get high, your body, again, wants to store fat in that midsection.

[00:15:08] And at the same time, it makes it much more difficult to lose weight, much more difficult to lose weight. So, that's a hormone that you need to address as well. And, you know, we can work to manage our stress. Well, and let me tell you something else about stress because stress affects sleep. And those are two other hormones. So, we talked about estrogen. We talked about insulin. We talked about cortisol.

[00:15:36] The other two hormones that I'd be concerned about are leptin and ghrelin. And those are hunger hormones, right? And ghrelin is your hunger hormone, right? That's your one that tells you, hey, it's time to eat, feed me. And then you got leptin, which is your satiety hormone, which tells you, hey, I'm full. Stop eating, so to speak. And those two hormones are directly impacted by your sleep.

[00:16:05] And if you're stressed and you're not sleeping well, well, what's going to happen is your ghrelin levels are going to increase, which means you're going to be hungrier. And your leptin levels are going to decrease, which is your satiety hormone. It's a perfect situation for overeating, which there's no way you're ever going to lose any weight if you're overeating.

[00:16:32] And so, stress is something that just has to be managed because there are compound effects to it. And so, in terms of handling that, for all my clients, what we do is we do guided meditation. So, 10 minutes is real simple, just a guided meditation.

[00:16:54] And the idea is meditation completely does the opposite of that fight or flight response. So, it's almost like a reset for your body so that it can get out of that stress mode. And it'll also help you manage stress much better when those situations kind of come on.

[00:17:18] So, that's one way that you can kind of offset the impact of stress is through meditation. There's other things you can do. You know, I like to ask people to take time, carve out time in your schedule for exercise and eating. All right? Because that kind of helps. Those are the two best ways you can manage your stress. By burning off a little bit of steam, you can't do too much because too much exercise actually does just the opposite.

[00:17:48] It causes higher levels of cortisol, right? And it also makes sure that you've got kind of like a more balanced meals because most of us, when we're stressed, we're not eating vegetables and protein. We're eating comfort food items. And if you're like myself, you might be having cocktails or alcohol to kind of help manage that stress, right? And so, those aren't like the ideal ways.

[00:18:15] And so, if we're meditating and if we're carving out time for exercise and we're eating properly, maybe having a gratitude practice or practicing mindfulness is always good. Anytime you're appreciative and grateful for the things that you have, that completely offsets that fight or flight mindset and kind of releases those feel-good hormones within your body.

[00:18:43] And then the thing that a lot of people don't really think about or that they can do is very simply, you got to look at how you can eliminate some stress, right? What are some of the things that you can do to eliminate the stress? Is it getting out of a toxic relationship? Is it saying no to something that you should have said no to and starting to say that more often?

[00:19:10] Is it changing some of your mindset, readjusting your expectations? But you really do have to look at stress in a way that managing it is not a luxury. It's a requirement, especially if you want to lose weight.

[00:19:31] And so, you've got to incorporate a stress management practice some way into your schedule and into your life or you're going to consistently struggle from high cortisol levels and then those hunger hormones being completely out of whack. I am going to ask you about two things that you've just said. Yeah. That I think are, is both things are really important.

[00:20:01] Number one, meditation. Lots of people think that meditation is just like some technique that somebody invented in order to make us waste time. And that is just a bunch of people saying, um, why does meditation actually help? Why is it that good? We need to like go against the myth that is just a couple of people saying, um, that it actually does work. Sure.

[00:20:29] And, and so a lot of people I find don't really like meditation because number one, they need it. And number two, they're so caught up in this stressful environment that they don't want to take the time and kind of bring themselves back to what our true state of healthy being is. And so we're operating and under this consistent low level of stress, um, in our lifestyles, the way that we live today.

[00:20:58] And because of that, there are certain responses going on that our body has to fight or flight. And so that's been a protection mechanism. That's been in existence, you know, since we were running from saber tooth tigers. Um, although that's not going to happen today, but that response is still there. And so when we're constantly operating under that, it's not a healthy state and it's definitely not a healthy state.

[00:21:27] For weight loss. And so we have to combat. And so how do you combat? And the only way to really fight that is through meditation. I shouldn't say that's the only way because exercise is one way and eating healthy is one way, but we should be doing those. Right.

[00:21:48] This is an addition to that, that actually brings everything down and that gets you out of that fight or flight mentality. We were never meant to live in that state. We created that. Right. It's supposed to happen. We protect ourselves. Our body goes through all these different changes so that we're all set. We survive. Right. And now we just go back on with life.

[00:22:17] Well, now we've made a, we've created a lifestyle that we're under a constant level of stress. And really what we need to do is combat that and that guided meditation. And, and, and it's not, you don't necessarily just have to sit and quiet with your mind, which is why people struggle with it. Because the fact of not touching your phone and not thinking and not doing something for 10 minutes is frightening to them. Right. Right. It's frightening to them.

[00:22:45] But, um, I know when I started, I tried to do it for 10 minutes after doing all this research and I struggled and I, and I wasn't consistent. And what I did is I actually, um, went to a site. It's called fragrantheart.com. I don't have any affiliation with them at all, but I usually start most of my clients with it. And I downloaded a free guide to learn how to meditate.

[00:23:08] And what they did was they sent me through email, a two minute meditation and I can make it through two minutes. And then the next day it was four minutes. And then the next day it was six minutes. And the next day was eight minutes. And so through five days, I was able to build up to actually quieting my mind and my body for 10 minutes.

[00:23:31] And then from there, once you're there, there's so many apps out there and there's YouTube and there's so many ways that you can just take 10 minutes, go to your car, you know, do it at home. Sometimes in my gym, we do it after we exercise, um, after a workout, just to make sure it gets in. You can do it at night. I've got clients that do it at night and it just helps them to sleep better.

[00:23:53] But you definitely want to take that time and bring yourself down to what really is a normal state consistently. And it also helps you to handle stress better because at the end of the day, you're not dodging stress. That's just part of what we, it's, it's, I mean, it's part of life. And so you're never going to dodge it and you sit and dodge it. But what you want to do is prepare yourself for it and you want to manage it when it comes.

[00:24:23] So it doesn't have that negative impact on your business. Perfect. More than clear. Everyone, please listen to Dr. C. Now, you've also talked about a balanced meal and we keep hearing about a balanced meal, but I don't think people actually know what a balanced meal is. So let's try to make it very easy, very comprehensible for everyone.

[00:24:54] What is a balanced meal for dinner? Great. Thank you for asking that question. And I'm going to give you... When I said dinner, I did not say lunch. I said dinner. Yes. Yes. And the thing about it is whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner, they all should be balanced. Okay. Because what we want to do is when we eat, we want to have proteins, carbs and fat. And so what I teach my clients is real simple.

[00:25:23] Every time you eat a carb, you're going to eat a protein. And the reason is if you eat carbs by themselves or if you eat too many carbs, like I hear someone say, I've had oatmeal and banana for breakfast. All right. That's too many. It's all carbs. There's no protein in it. What's going to happen is your blood sugar is going to go up too high. So 80 to 120 is normal blood sugar.

[00:25:49] Once your blood sugar gets over 120, insulin comes out because your blood gets too thick to circulate. It takes all the sugar out and then it stores it in your cells for energy. And if you don't use it, then it becomes fat. And so by eating a balanced meal with that oatmeal, you have some eggs, you have some sort of protein.

[00:26:16] As your blood sugar goes up, it doesn't get over 120 and then it starts to come back down. And then that's when it's time to eat again. And you've kind of got this wave going. And that's when your blood sugar is balanced. So really a balanced meal means a blood sugar balanced meal. And that includes protein, carbs and fat. So not too many carbs.

[00:26:42] So if you're having dinner, have rice, have potatoes, have wheat potatoes, couscous, some sort of starchy carb, have vegetables and then have protein. And that's usually in the protein or fats and how you make it. Right. And so that's the type of meal that you would want to eat for dinner. All right. Now, could you eat a hamburger and fries? Well, that's stretching it a little bit.

[00:27:12] Right. But the bread on the hamburger is the carb. So you can eat the bread on the hamburger and eat the hamburger because that's your protein and fat. You can't eat the fries, though, because now you've had too many carbs and too much fat. All right. So protein, carbs and fat are what you want. Carbs are anything that comes from the ground.

[00:27:39] Now, that's that's a simple way of thinking about it. All right. Proteins, anything that walks, swims or flies and has a face. Right. And so and then you want to have some sort of fats with it. Right. So some sort of some sort of olive oil or some sort of healthy fat included in the meal. So that's a simple, easy, balanced meal. And all your meals should look like that. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[00:28:07] Um, what about veggies? Veggies? Veggies? You can't eat enough of them. Nobody's overweight from eating veggies. Okay. So veggies and all your meal. So some people, when they hear fats, protein and carbs, think, okay, sounds good.

[00:28:31] But if I take out the carbs, then I'm going to lose weight more easily because carbs are like the demon of weight loss. Is it true that if you take the carbs, you're going to lose weight more easily or should we not take out the carbs? Temporarily, you will. Temporarily, you will. Right. But never long term. Never long term. And your body needs the carbs.

[00:29:01] Right. Very simply, the carbs are your number one source of fuel for energy. So you should be eating the carbs and you should be using the carbs for your energy. Not just to exercise, but to do all your daily activities, you know, that you do. So you can try to find the cheap fix of cutting out the carbs. I've never found anyone who can do it long term. So it's a very temporary fix.

[00:29:31] And all it does is you're just losing some water. Your body's not retaining as much water. When you eat carbs and they get stored, water gets brought into the cells. And so now that you're not eating them, the water's not going into the cells and you temporarily have a weight loss. But guess what happens when you start to eat them again? It's coming right back. Right. It's coming right back. So right. Right. Right.

[00:29:58] So so what you want to do is you want to eat them. I never, never, never encourage or have clients lose weight by not eating carbs. You can lose weight eating carbs. You should be eating carbs. What you should do is learn what the proper amount is, because that's the problem. It's not the carbs. It's the amount that you're eating. And it's sometimes is the quality of the carbs that you're eating.

[00:30:24] But you should always be eating carbs as a source of energy. And if you're going to eat them in the long term, then why would you stop for a temporary weight gain? It just it just doesn't make sense.

[00:30:39] Now that we're here, I think it's a good moment to talk about the biggest misconceptions that people have about weight loss in midlife and those diet trends or quick fixes that you've seen that simply do not work. Yeah. So so the reality at midlife is that now, you know, those diets and those trends don't work because you've tried them. Right.

[00:31:07] There's not a client that hasn't walked into any of my facilities that hasn't tried everything under the sun and now nothing's working. Right. And so we know that at this point, you didn't know that at 20 or 30 because your metabolism was good enough that you could do some of those things and have some success. Right. Right. But now the reality is it doesn't work.

[00:31:32] And the biggest misconception of losing weight at midlife is that it's about diet and exercise. That is all you hear. Diet and exercise is diet and exercise. And part of that is the health care industry and the fitness industry. And if I were to ask you how much of how much of weight loss is diet and how much is it exercise? What would you say? 50-50. I'm turning the tables on you.

[00:32:02] 50-50. Well, it's not a bad number. It's not a bad number. But most people will say 80-20, 90-10. Some people will say 50-50. But the biggest misconception is that those two things equal 100% of weight loss. They don't. They don't. There are other things that deserve a seat at the table besides nutrition and exercise. And I like to say the S's.

[00:32:31] Stress and sleep. They both impact how you eat and your ability to exercise. And so if you're not sleeping properly and your hormones, leptin and ghrelin, are all out of whack, you're probably going to eat more food than you should. And you're definitely going to eat more carbs than you should. And that's not a nutrition problem. That's a sleep problem.

[00:33:00] And if you're stressed and you're not managing it, and you're therefore eating a stressful diet, comfort foods, maybe a little bit more alcohol than you should, maybe it's throwing off your sleep, your cortisol levels are too high, that's not a nutrition problem. That's not a diet problem. That's a stress problem. And so there are other things that belong in this conversation.

[00:33:26] And the biggest misconception is it's just diet and exercise. It's diet and exercise. And no, it's not just diet and exercise. Stress plays a part. Sleep plays a part. Hydration plays a part. And during midlife, planning plays a huge part. Because if you don't plan, then you're not going to eat a balanced meal. You're not going to have the time for the exercise.

[00:33:54] You're not going to manage your stress. And you're probably not going to have quality sleep either. And so it's a more comprehensive approach that's needed to lose weight during midlife. And yes, we could get away with not sleeping when we were young. I can remember that. Go out, party all night, have a great time, get up in the morning, go play basketball, go do this, go do that. And, you know, no weight gain, right?

[00:34:22] But that's not happening anymore. It's not happening anymore, right? It's part of the evolutionary process. And that we're not supposed to be here forever. And we're on the other end of the spectrum. And now in order for us to be healthy, in order for us to lose weight, in order for us to maintain that muscle, it's a more comprehensive approach. And it goes beyond diet and exercise. I love your holistic approach.

[00:34:52] And I love that you talk about planning because it is true. Unless we organize ourselves and say from 5 to 520, I'm going to meditate. I'm going to have like the two liter of water thermost with me all the time. It is impossible. Sure. Impossible to achieve it. Sure, sure. And the body is just so complex. And now you're at a state where, not necessarily intentionally,

[00:35:20] but some of those bad habits have become cumulative. And in order to overcome them, it's going to take a much bigger effort. Okay. So let's talk about that client. Yeah. But it's not a client. It's all of your clients. Sure. And that could be me. Okay. Comes to you and says, hey, I've tried everything.

[00:35:46] The moon diet, the water diet, the pineapple diet, the, I'm not eating the water diet, the cauliflower diet, the soup diet, because there are so many diets. I've tried keto. I've tried everything. Nothing works. Where should I start fresh? Yeah. Yeah. So we got to hit the reset button. We got to hit the reset button.

[00:36:14] And we got to understand that the diets don't work. And that we're meant to be fueled on protein, carbs, and fat. And that we're going to change our mindset. And we're going to figure out what we want from our health. Right? And we're going to then determine what we're willing to change. Because you're going to have to make some changes. If you want something different, you're going to have to make some changes. And once you realize what those are, that's great.

[00:36:44] And then you got to start small. And too often, by the time people want to lose weight, they want to step up to the plate and hit the biggest home run ever. And they're trying to swing for the fence. And that's not how you do it. You got to just start small. Get a single. Get another single. Start to build on these habits on top of each other. Stack them. Stop trying to be perfect.

[00:37:12] And just be consistent. And then grow on them. And then you'll start to see more success. And then you can focus on another area. Do the same thing. And so if you're not sure where to go, and it's different for everybody. Because I see overweight people in the gym. So you can't say exercise, although they may not be exercising properly for weight loss. Right? But they are exercising. They're doing something. Right?

[00:37:39] And so that's very different than somebody who's sedentary, who sits on the couch and never does any exercise. So here's some areas that you can focus on. But remember, start small and pick an area based off of your lifestyle. Okay? That's going to help you. And the first thing I would say is strength train. You got to lift weights.

[00:38:05] I know people like to do the yoga and the Pilates and the walking and the running. And you have to lift weights. That will boost your metabolism by building muscle. And that will actually help to balance your blood sugar. It'll burn more calories. It's just a great way to go. So you got to do some strength training.

[00:38:31] If you're not doing that or if you want to do something else, well, then start with your sleep. And make sure you're getting seven to eight hours and doing the things that you need to get quality sleep. Maybe it's putting down the phone hours before bed. Maybe it's not consuming two glasses of wine every single night. Maybe it's doing some supplement with magnesium or something along those lines. Right?

[00:38:57] If stress is the issue, then, hey, then focus on stress. Do, like I said, just a little 10 minutes every day. Right? So that you can consistently get ahead of that. If you're not eating enough protein, add some protein to your meals. If it's water, it could be something as simple as that. But, you know, 75% of our body's water. And if you're dehydrated and you think your body's functioning properly, you're living in la-la land.

[00:39:27] That's just not how it works. You know? So start small. Just start small. So if you're drinking eight ounces of water, that's not good. That's not good. So start just drinking more water. And then get consistent with it. And then get it up to where it should be, which is about half your body weight. And then let's get on with the next thing. But the key is consistency. Like, that's the answer.

[00:39:51] And when people start off with these big elaborate plans, it's so difficult to be consistent. And then once things don't go well, they go right back to those bad habits, you know, that they had. So basically, if I were to ask you for easy habits that anyone who is listening can start today to kickstart the weight loss,

[00:40:18] it would be lift weights, sleep, meditate in more protein, drink more water. But I know what everyone is going to say is, okay, okay, okay. But we like getting immediate results. Yeah. Wait, wait. Yeah. Well, it's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to be like flipping a switch.

[00:40:43] Um, that's not going to be sustainable weight loss. And I, and I often just talk about sustainable weight loss. I mean, there's all these tricks and traps you can do, but if you want sustainable weight loss at midlife, it requires a comprehensive approach. You know, if they're looking for one thing to do, just one little simple thing to do, add protein to your meals.

[00:41:10] Make sure you're getting 15 to 20 grams of protein in the smaller meals, 20 to 30 grams in the larger meals. If you're eating four times a day, that's probably 80 to 100 grams of protein. Now, when I work with my clients, it's much more specific. I dial it down. I make sure I find out exactly what their needs are based off of how much muscle they have on their body and the frequency, intensity, duration of exercise. But this is a general ballpark.

[00:41:41] People really aren't eating enough protein. And so get protein in every single meal, 15 to 20 grams in the small meals, 20 to 30 in the bigger meals. And then make sure before you eat, you look at it and you say, okay, where's my protein? Is that enough? Right? Because generally, there's more carbs than there is protein. And that's not the case for weight loss. It shouldn't look like that. It shouldn't look like that.

[00:42:12] Awareness. Be aware of what you eat. Be conscious. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. I know every person that is listening to this podcast wants to be a client of yours. I know I want to. So, before that happens, let's pretend that I'm your client. That every single listener is your client.

[00:42:39] And what's one piece of advice that you give me or us to make us rethink our approach to loss? Wow. So, that would be stop looking at the scale. Take your scale. Throw the thing in the basement. And don't let it come back out. All right?

[00:43:05] And what you want to do is you want to measure the things that are going to boost your metabolism. And focus on those. Because once you boost your metabolism, the weight's coming off. The fat's coming off. Right? And so, monitor those things. So, monitor your meals. And how often you're eating and how balanced they are. Right? Monitor your stress management.

[00:43:34] And are you managing it every single day? Right? Monitor your sleep. How many hours of sleep am I actually getting? If it's not 7 to 9, then that restorative process isn't actually going on. Right? Monitor your water. How much are you actually drinking? Right? And, of course, you got to exercise. Right?

[00:44:01] And so, when I work with people, I teach you a 10-point system. And your goal is to get 10 points every day. Now, will you get 10 points? No. You won't get 10 points every day. Every day is not perfect. But every day is an opportunity to get 10 points. And it's also an opportunity to learn different behaviors that will help you increase the amount of points that you actually earn.

[00:44:29] So, those 10 points that I teach, you get 5 points for 5 meals. And so, to your answer earlier about how much is nutrition, how much is exercise, you said 50-50. I'm with you. 50% of it is nutrition. All right? The other 50% is an exercise though. Right? You get 1 point for exercising or resting. You get 1 point for managing your stress, which is 10 minutes a day.

[00:44:56] You get 1 point for sleeping the right amount, 7 to 9 hours. You get 1 point for drinking the right amount of water. And you get 1 point for planning. So, it's a 10-point system. And your goal is to get as many points as you can every day. And what I've seen in my facilities and in my research, if you can average 8.4 points over a 16-week period, you can lose about a third of your body fat. And so, without losing muscle.

[00:45:26] Without losing muscle. And so, that's what I would tell people to stop getting on the scale and trying to worry about the weight. Because that's just another stressor for most people. Because you're doing all this and you're thinking, I need to get a result. I need to get a result. I need to get a result. And when they don't get the result, not only is the stress high, but their ability to stick with the process kind of disappears. Right? And you can determine every day, did I eat enough?

[00:45:57] Did I move enough? Did I drink enough? Did I manage that stress enough? Did I sleep enough? It's a real simple process. Yes. And that's what I would tell people. And if you're not a client of mine, go buy my book. It's all outlined in there for you. One last question. Because I've heard people say, okay, I need to drink two liters of water a day in order to stay hydrated.

[00:46:24] But I might drink one liter of water, one liter of diet soda, and I'll be hydrated. Is it true? No, that's not true. That's not true. Water is water. Right? See? And those other beverages, especially caffeinated beverages like coffee, which most of us drink, you have to add that amount to the water that you're supposed to drink. So, for example, I'm 200 pounds.

[00:46:54] I drink probably 120 ounces a day, but I'm supposed to drink 120 ounces, 100 ounces of water. Right? If I drink 16 ounces of coffee, then I need to add 16 ounces of water to that number in order to be properly hydrated. So, you know, if you're doing, you know, and I find some people, as I teach them this and coach them, they don't really drink water. You know, they don't like water, which blows my mind.

[00:47:23] So, if you're going to put some flavor in it, that's fine as long as it doesn't have sugar in it. And if you want it to be seltzer, plain seltzer water, that's fine. But once you start getting into diet beverages and coffee and that thing, you have to offset that by consuming additional water or liquids. Dr. C, it's been a pleasure, as always.

[00:47:49] I know I am looking forward and everyone's looking forward to our third episode of Midlife Unleashed. Thank you so much. Thank you.