Weight loss drugs + plateaus
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. So the people on the lock in challenge, this is week three. So just kind of getting back into tracking and steps. A lot of people have already got the benefits of doing that.
Speaker 1:So anyone else feeling a bit behind, start there. Okay? Start with steps and start with just tracking without pressure on hitting targets. But today, kind of different topics usually, the stoicism stuff. There's a lot of talk about the GLP-one drugs.
Speaker 1:What do they do? Maybe pressure from people you know that are taking them. Maybe it's in the back of your mind, should you take them? What's happening? The conversation spiked in the group because someone mentioned on GLP-1s, but want to hit protein target but don't want to eat anything that's processed.
Speaker 1:Now because something's processed doesn't mean it's bad, that's a fact okay, like processing something doesn't mean it's bad. Like obviously the processing of like raw cacao to chocolate and the added sugars and everything they add to it isn't great. But the process of taking milk and turning it into cheese or milk and turning it into yogurt or Greek yogurt with added protein or milk turning into whey protein or clear whey clearly isn't bad. In fact, it would enhance the benefits we want from the raw material because we strip it from some of the additional fats and carbs and add in, enzymes to help digest and stuff, especially with whey protein. So we need to be careful with this language.
Speaker 1:And if we're gonna go down this route, if you do take a GLP one drug, we'd literally discovered it through well, we knew about GLP anyway, GLP one anyway, but we discovered the way to have it long term in the body through the flipping Gila monster or the Gila monster. It's like a massive lizard looking thing. It's from the venom of the Gila monster that they developed GLP-one, Ozempic and stuff like that. So they found this hormone in the lizard in his saliva and his venom or whatever. And is very similar to human GLP one and has longer half life and is more stable and essentially synthesize that.
Speaker 1:So if we're gonna talk about being processed and want to stick to the natural stuff well if you're gonna do GLP one it's good enough to find the lizard take a saliva and see what happens. A lot of things today come from the natural world and they synthesize it, it's just kind of how it is. Like nearly every medicine is discovered this way. So, yeah, like, it's not about labeling it as bad. I think it's been the news media has done that to us.
Speaker 1:It's important that we do the logical kind of stuff the stoics would do and be like, is this true, first and foremost? You know? Is this are we being deceived here? Which we have, which needs to be reclassified, and even ultra processed foods, and all of them are bad either. But, look, the first thing to mention about this entire debate about GLP one stuff, the how they work is, and this is important for fat loss and a reminder for everyone, they work, okay, by reducing your appetite.
Speaker 1:And basically, they're no magic, they reduce your appetite and you get into a calorie deficit without tracking calories in most cases because the appetite suppressing is so great that you just don't feel like eating. Okay, that's the reason why people lose weight on these drugs. The drug itself does not melt fat away, the drug itself doesn't increase fat oxidation in the sense outside of what normally would do it. It doesn't do any of that, It just reduces appetite. It it slows down kind of gastric emptying, so makes you feel fuller for longer and it just makes you feel like your your your hunger levels go down and your satiety goes up.
Speaker 1:But eventually over time in the studies the results you know the weight loss starts plateauing, the effects go start dimming and that's why they try and increase the doses and stuff right but it's not a magic kind of like the a sense it does work magically because it can do such a powerful thing, that's the reason it works. When they did research and they look at the numbers on someone on a GLP and say they were eating 800 calories a day and 50 grams of protein and then other persons on 800 calories a day 50 grams of protein without GLP, the same results occurred. Okay, so there's no magical result to that even though some studies now showing maybe GLP ones have got extra vet health benefits, Still early days, when we're looking at fat loss that's all what's happening okay. So you know essentially obesity is like a chronic issue and it needs to be resolved chronically obviously, so this is one part of it. But yeah, like and another important factor with all of these GLP-one drug statistics is that all of them, nearly all of the studies done with GLP-one and the results they get came with lifestyle interventions.
Speaker 1:Explaining about calorie deficits, explaining about getting your steps and explaining about like the importance of doing some resistance training. Like this was given to them in the research. So it's not like people are just charming and then happy days. And even though that does happen, that's when we're seeing news reports of like, oh my god, Ozempic face. Oh my god, people are losing loads of muscle on Ozempic.
Speaker 1:It's really dangerous for muscle. The reason is is that the people are getting given them and not actually given the guidance needed, which is the guidance you get anyway. And their protein intake is way too low. Their appetite is down. They're eating five, six, seven hundred calories a day, you know, maybe a bit more.
Speaker 1:They're not doing any resistance training to keep muscle going and protein. It's disaster. So they're losing fat but they're also losing a ton of muscle and then once the medication runs its course, the weight regain back is huge because the muscle has been lost and everything. Okay. So it's important like, and when you go to such low calories, which isn't advisable really even on GLP one, should try and consume a bit more.
Speaker 1:It's because your nutrient quality, you know, even when you do eat a diet of if you just ate McDonald's like, I'll just eat McDonald's, fifteen hundred calories a you're still gonna have some nutrients coming in. But when you go down to 500, eight hundred calories a day, there's not much chance of getting all these nutrients in. So your vitamins and mineral intake will go down. Okay? It's not ideal.
Speaker 1:And these Ozempic phase, they're theorizing this due to a rapid reduction in some vital vitamins and minerals and stuff like that. And it's just gone to another phase. Right? So you know, you've got to be careful and this is for anyone going on a crash diet essentially, you know, people, many of you listening have probably done the crash diets at five eight hundred calories in the shakes, and these things happen the same way then. So like protein is a non negotiable, okay, you need to, this is one of the most respected guys in the industry when it comes to fat loss, women's health, this type of stuff for like nearly three decades.
Speaker 1:This is his quote, okay and this is important. This is also if you're not on GLP-1s. If all you did whilst using GLP-one was ensure sufficient protein intake, you're already be getting 90% of the way to optimal results. Okay? This is also important just in general follows.
Speaker 1:If you hit your calorie deficit and your protein, you are done guys. It is job well done. People are saying, oh I'm gonna track my carbs unless you medically need to track your carbs. Even then, you know, you say you've got insulin resistance and stuff like that, you can still to improve insulin resistance, you need to lose weight. So you can still eat carbs and lose weight.
Speaker 1:So you can improve your insulin resistance whilst eating carbs too. So it's not like you need to get rid of carbs. There's some factors like if you've got PCOS for example, it is advisable like to maybe go into moderate carbs or lower but you need to test this out 100, one hundred and 50 grams a day, what you feel better on, try two hundred, try fifty, you know. Obviously diabetics are tracking here But beyond that why, what, I'm re saying this because it's of vital importance, of vital importance. So yeah, you need protein, you know, there was a study, right, and it was looking at what would protect muscle loss the most.
Speaker 1:Is it more carbs or more fat in a calorie restricted diet, okay? Well, think about this. So they were testing carbs and fat and they were like, neither of them are sparing muscle. And then someone had the brilliant idea to say, what if they what if we ate more protein? And lo and behold, eating more protein was the thing that they'd protect muscle loss the most, which is obvious, really.
Speaker 1:There are people who thinking about it. They can all protein is needed for that, nitrogen balance, FDA approval, 50 grams a day, whatever it is, and just leave it there. Actually, in reality, two to three times more protein a day is needed for most of us. It's a new it's it's not like, you know, this is a trend or this is like a fad. This has been the data for a long time.
Speaker 1:Protein isn't like gonna be one of these keto type fads. It's like this for there. The research has been there for a long time. It's just that we're so used to eating little protein, especially women because men typically eat more meat and easily easier to get the protein. You need to make some changes.
Speaker 1:And once you get it right, it's fine. You just increase add some meats if you can. If you're vegan, you know, with meat alternatives, you have, like, a clear whey protein shake and you have double serving. So, you know you got 40 grams of protein in your bottle of water, happy days. You're already halfway there.
Speaker 1:If you know, 40% there, unless you're a bit higher. So yeah, it's important. And when it comes to exercise, I want to reemphasize this. So there's something called energy compensation when it comes to exercise. And in one of the studies I was reading, it showed, and this is crazy, like, I mean we knew exercise wasn't the best for weight loss okay or the best for fat loss whatever, but it really really really isn't that useful as a tool for fat loss.
Speaker 1:So if you were to walk 10,000 steps a day, roughly you're gonna be burning about four to 500 calories from the walk. There is no adaption going down from that, there's no adaption in the body like, my god, you've just done something super hard core. We're gonna have to down regulate a bit for the day, save calories and energy. No. When you do exercise, it does happen.
Speaker 1:So they looked at these two groups. They give them 1,500 calories of excess so they said, right, do exercise over a week to burn a fat 1,500 calories. Okay? And then the other group said, right, you need to do enough exercise to burn 3,000 calories a week from exercise. So roughly week one, the first group, 1,500 calories burned from exercise is probably three big workouts, three sixty minute workouts, maybe maybe a bit more.
Speaker 1:But you know, that's a fair chunk, three hours of working out and really really not weight, something more like consistent like spin or running or whatever. And the other group has obviously doubled that. So what did the study show? Again, there's some flaws to the study because it's not metabolic water and stuff. But what it showed was that from the 1,500 calories burned in exercise in the first group, only four ninety, like four ninety eight calories was net burned.
Speaker 1:So it's like it's like, man, how much is that a day? It's like less than hundred calories a day by doing three long sixty minute workouts. In the group that did more, however, 3,000 calories burned from workout, actually 2,000 net was burned. So there was kind of an adaption that eventually you push through and do enough exercise, and it was more. But again, those are unrealistic levels, you know, six to seven hours a week.
Speaker 1:And again, there's an adaption there that's not ideal. It's like 60% of the calories you expected is burned from exercise is net burned, and people think it's a hundred. And as, you know, these these watches and stuff overestimate loads as well. So you're miles off the path. So it's like, do you wanna play that game which isn't gonna serve you or you just do exercise for the sake of performance benefits and stuff like that?
Speaker 1:So when it comes to it, you're gonna do three hours and this could be if it's three hours of workouts a week, that could be like four or five workouts, five, five minutes. It's a significant amount of working out working out time for less than hundred calories a day net or you can just go and walk more for 400 to 500 calories a day. This is why walking is superior for fat loss because it doesn't have this adaptation, there's energy compensation, it's easier to scale up, you can do it, it's got other health benefits. So again, I just want to reiterate this. Doing two or three workouts a week does nothing.
Speaker 1:It does have it's so close to nothing. There's really no point in thinking the car was burned about it. And don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. We factored it in as a tiny percentage because we do it and it's like obviously we factor as many things as we can in.
Speaker 1:But yes, miniscule. Now when it comes to working out what you should you do if you have no time. We're going to discuss this this week with Doctor. Paul. But really, it's important to know what the minimal dose is and what is it really.
Speaker 1:The protein of exercise, with protein is the main thing when it comes to macros, but the protein of exercise is resistance training, which is body weight, bands, dumbbells, barbells, machines. Anything the muscle is using to exert force. Okay? If you did and again, the research is good. If you one set is it if you did one set, it's this 80% of the benefits of doing three sets.
Speaker 1:Okay. You with me? So doing one set of 10 reps, so one set of squats is 80% of of the strength and results you're gonna get from doing three sets of 10 reps. Right? So if that's the power law we've got working for us, we just do one set of squats, one set of like wall presses, one set of like something for the back, one sets with the side raises for the shoulders, one sets of like abdominal crunches, and we just get on with our lives.
Speaker 1:And we just do that as our base once a week. If you wanna do twice a week, then you can move up. But, you know, that's amazing. Like ten to twenty minutes twice per week if you wanted to do it or once a week, ten to thirty minutes. That is it.
Speaker 1:The bang for buck is insane. So please try and add in if you can. So, you know, when it comes to plateaus and stuff, and I'm gonna finish on this one because I think it's important that we cover kind of like what happens in any case of GLP-1s, whatever. What is a plateau? When should you worry?
Speaker 1:What should you do? If your weight is stable, so if you've been doing this process for eight weeks plus, okay, and then after the eight weeks plus, there's a period of about four weeks where your average weight which you've taken more than three weigh ins that week is roughly the same okay and you've been hitting your calorie targets right, the chances are you're likely in a plateau. You're basically at maintenance. If you're in the first four to eight weeks of the process and your total weight hasn't come down but you're hitting your calories and protein, the chances are you're losing fat but there's water retention happening for many reasons not going to go into detail just look there's a lot of reasons that go into it but you'll be holding on to water. After four weeks five weeks if you don't see anything it could be related to the menstrual cycle so we need another another cycle of the menstrual cycle to start looking there.
Speaker 1:Then after eight weeks if it's still the same then it means what you're doing is maintenance which means everything you do in day to day, your entire activity, your entire life plus the food you're eating is balanced in energy. Okay? So you're burning as much as you're eating. And you might say, well, no, I'm in a deficit, but you're not. Because the fact is you're at maintenance and you haven't moved in weight.
Speaker 1:So whatever you're doing activity wise plus your eating is maintenance. So what do you do? Luckily you're tracking your calories, so your calories will get reduced, especially in the app it'll automatically do it. If you wanna do it yourself, can do it, but I would recommend doing that. So you reduce your calories and you start looking at your day to day movement and you increase that too.
Speaker 1:And that doesn't mean increasing workouts, it means day to day movement. So if you're gonna be doing 5,000 steps a day, try and move that up a bit. So you move the steps up a bit and you move the calories down a bit. And this should get you back into a deficit and you go again. And then you will get back into another plateau.
Speaker 1:Plateau is a part of the entire journey. You will plateau because as you lose weight, there is less weight on your body to move which means you're gonna burn less energy a day even at base without moving and also when you move losing weight. There's some studies in people putting weighted vests on to to keep the weight that they've lost on the body, you know. And they say, you know, it does show some benefits, but again, you adapt and stuff like that. But again, it's it's putting a weighted vest on every day is not ideal.
Speaker 1:And, you know, for us, people who are immortals here who are just trying to live healthier, lose a bit of weight, and get get mentally mentally sharp for life. We we don't necessarily need to be walking around with weight weighted vests sweating our head off going into everywhere. Like, what's wrong with you? You haven't done anything today. Alright.
Speaker 1:I got a 10 k g weighted vest on. I am sweating. So yeah. And I don't know how how good that would be for the back and other other posture stuff. So I wouldn't recommend right now.
Speaker 1:So all of this recovers this all of this what I've spoke about is like a big mental shift, isn't it? Okay. But after fat loss, not weight loss, but weight loss, total weight eventually over time will come down because you cannot gain as much muscle as you lose fat. It doesn't happen at the same rate. Gaining muscle is way slower, way slower so eventually you show.
Speaker 1:When men need more time than men because you've a mental cycle, you need to stick to the game plan, you need to make changes as they come in. If you're thinking, oh, we got all of these people on GLP-1s. They're like, oh, should I do it? Should I not? If you feel like you can regulate your appetite and get into a deficit for a decent time, then happy days.
Speaker 1:You don't need it. If you feel like the food noise in your head and you've got a lot of weight to lose and you're like, my god, then maybe go and speak to a doctor and chat about it. Know, I'm not someone who's gonna demonize it, I'm just saying that what it does is it reduces your appetite. It doesn't actually cause melted fat loss. So you're not missing out on some magical benefit there.
Speaker 1:It's just the food noise. But can the food noise, not even maybe ignored, but can the food noise be made aware of without disturbing your day, like the stoic view of things or whatever, like all the Buddhist view of things of being kind of like at peace, at one, you know, not not reacting to every thought and thing that comes in your head. Can you can you do something there that's habsa? And and possibly the answer is yes, but some people know. So I've covered a lot of detail there, and I wanted to cover it because some of the questions I've seen over the weekend and things like that.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, protein is of vital importance, guys, in fat loss. It can't be underestimated. So please get it in however you can. If that means protein shakes, get it in you. And yeah, from from that happy days, but it's week three for the lock ins.
Speaker 1:Have a good start to the week. Again, today is the only day you can take action. So who cares what happened yesterday now and tomorrow isn't here yet. So, it's not given right now. So what's given to you is today.
Speaker 1:And we expect you to make the most of it if you can. So speak to you all soon. Have a good day. Bye bye.
