Cori

00:00
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks podcast. This is a show where I share all my free work on the nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is, if you’re enjoying the podcast, to leave a review or leave a five-star rating or, even better, share it with someone you think it might help.
00:21
This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone you know. So let’s jump right in. I’m super excited to jump into five metabolism boosting protocols with Michelle. Before we jump in, I want to have Michelle sort of go over why it’s so important that we adjust our nutrition to really keep our metabolism healthy, especially because I think so often we do think metabolic adaptations, the slow metabolism, especially with aging, hold us back from seeing the results that we deserve, and then we also only blame our age. But there’s so much we can actually control. So, michelle, why is our nutrition so important to improving our metabolic health?
Michelle

00:59
Exactly what you said you can control, and we want you to control what you can control.
01:03
So often I hear people say, oh, I don’t have the metabolism I used to when I was in my 20s, or I wish I had a fast metabolism, but I’m cursed with a slow metabolism, and I really want to kind of just bust through this myth.
01:16
No one’s metabolism is broken and no one’s metabolism really like research has actually shown that no one really has like a major advantage when it comes to a fast or slow metabolism. The difference is is how you’re actually treating your body overall and the new how nutrition plays a role in that for you. So yeah, there may be some various differences between someone that you know it has more muscle on them or is in more shape versus someone who doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get there. There’s always going to be ways that we can tweak our both our nutrition and even our training to actually improve our metabolism and allow us to have what we envy and others that fast metabolism. But so often I see people who are trying to become healthier actually doing more harm to their metabolism than at then actually improving it or doing doing it good.
Cori

02:11
And often the metabolic adaptations that we see, the changes that we see, the slowdown we see with age is previous dieting practices adding up and that loss of muscle. Which is why I was so excited to see your first protocol, which was increasing protein, but specifically increasing protein at every meal.
Michelle

02:28
Yeah, so a lot of times people I don’t even think really have a true grasp on what metabolism is, and that’s your body is constantly doing hundreds and thousands of chemical reactions all day long, from digesting your food to growing you know more muscle mass, to growing your hair, your nails all this takes energy and your and these chemical reactions are all kind of balled up into what your metabolism is. It’s all that work that you do not realizing how much you’re doing, and because of that, we want to make sure that we are giving our body the appropriate nutrients throughout the day, and that means not just loading up one meal with high protein, but really making sure that we are focusing on protein throughout the day Protein in and of itself. A lot of research shows that even having a high protein meal will significantly raise your metabolism rather quickly for the short term. So increasing your protein alone is actually going to boost your metabolism, and that has a lot to do with it requires more work for your body to break down protein in general.
Cori

03:36
And when we’re increasing protein, often like the slow down we blame on age is partly due to changes our body is going through, Like, yes, our hormone levels as we get older are not at the optimal levels. They were when we were younger, right Like when we’re younger a lot of times when we’ve done studies on 20 year olds and whatnot. Their body is like prime to make anything work. They can grow muscle, thinking about growing muscle, but as we get older we don’t have that same stimulus for muscle growth. So actually increasing the portion of protein we’re consuming at meals not only takes more energy to break down by our body, but it can help stimulate that muscle protein synthetic synthesis response so much better because we need that extra load to create that same stimulus for that growth of that muscle to help actually build and retain the lean muscle which then has that great metabolic impact.
Michelle

04:25
Yeah, and it’s us actually fighting a little bit against age. As we age, as you mentioned, your hormones change. It does get a little bit harder to build muscle, but on top of that you’re more at risk for actually losing the muscle mass you have. So this also is going to not only hopefully encourage that muscle protein synthesis, but also protect the muscle that you already have. We don’t want you losing anymore.
Cori

04:49
Especially if you are in that deficit.
04:50
You are trying to lose fat, achieve that body recomb it’s even more key that we focus on protein, because high protein diets are like the one diet that have been shown to help you build and retain lean muscle while in a deficit, and top of that. I do just want to get your thoughts on this, and I know I have my opinions as well, because often people will be like well, I’ve even heard you can only use 20 to 25 grams or even 30 grams at a meal and any more than that just is wasted. But while we’re talking about muscle protein synthesis and building lean muscle, right, and there is a portion of the protein that goes directly to that and only so much can go to that. Protein is used in so many other functions and we have to realize the importance of that, not to mention in a deficit. You’re not getting enough of anything Muscles, metabolic, lead, costly so we need that, those calories, we need that protein to stimulate that growth and maintain that lean muscle while we’re trying to lose fat. But we can use more right.
Michelle

05:40
Yeah, there’s no cap as far as, like, you can only consume so much at a certain time. If you are consuming it, your body is going to break it down and utilize what it means. Now you touched on it. This is all within a calorie deficit. If you are eating in a calorie surplus, yeah, your body is going to start storing things and you’re going to potentially have a little extra fat if you are eating in a large surplus. But even then, if protein is harder to do that with because it does you know the thermic effect of food you are going to be burning calories, breaking down protein.
06:12
I’m not saying you can’t overdo protein, but if your aim is to stay within a calorie deficit, you aren’t going to be all of a sudden. You know having 40, 60 grams at a mill and that extra 20 is going to be, you know, converted to fat. That’s not how the body works, and even current research is even showing that there is no cap, even post-exercise. So, really making sure or being worried that you’re overdoing protein, as long as your kidneys are healthy, the chances are very low that you’re actually overdoing it.
Cori

06:48
And often or well, our body is very good at using it when it needs it. The other macros we consume with the protein source can really impact the rate of digestion, but it’s also something where, because of the thermic effect, if we’re overeating it a little bit or even go into a slight calorie surplus, it’s a safer way to see results or give ourselves sort of a buffer when trying to get our calorie intake in line.
Michelle

07:10
Exactly and truthfully, it’s more satiety, or sorry, it’s more satiating. So the chance that again you’re going to be feeling full faster if you are consuming a little bit more protein.
Cori

07:23
So, talking about other tips to really improve the quality of our meals, boost our metabolic grade, keep our metabolism healthy to see better fat loss while we’re gaining lean muscle mass. We’re going to talk a little bit about macros because I know often we will focus on macronutrients protein, carbs and fat but those macros do have a huge impact. And I say this and I always like have this weird debate, which I know you also sort of have to where if you’re hitting your macros, you’re going to see results right and we want to include some of those fun foods. However, if we’re treating our body like the sports car and the high performance sports car that it is, we need to make sure it has the proper fuel because that is going to make it run better. And so, focusing still on those micros, trying to get that diversity is key. Can you go over how else we can make sure that we’re really hitting those micros, seeing better results and keeping our metabolic grade higher?
Michelle

08:11
So color is going to play a huge part. It’s going to be a big indicator on if you are consuming a wide variety of these micronutrients. So a good role of thumb is even trying to aim for a different color at each meal and to kind of go off what you’re touching on. Where macros are important and you are going to see results, we do still want to ensure the quality of those macros and oftentimes if you find that you’re like trying to be like, well, this fit, so I’m good, like I can have, you know, ice cream every day and pizza every day because it fits my macros to an extent, you are correct, you probably will see results to a certain point. But if you’re really looking one to fill your best and to really capitalize on your results and get those best results, we want to really make sure that those macros are going to be quality.
08:59
So focusing on color, which is a big indicator of the phytonutrients within plants, that’s going to also help you hit those micronutrients and the big role that these play within your metabolism is going back. Metabolism is all about chemical reactions. This is what your body is doing constantly and chemical reactions require enzymes and coenzymes to actually be able to function and to be able to, you know, do the work and break down and get those nutrients where it needs to go, and to do that, these coenzymes often require vitamins and minerals to actually perform their job. So, again, just making sure that you were trying to focus on a different color at each meal, that’s going to help you get those micronutrients that we want to ensure your metabolism is firing, you know, optimally.
Cori

09:51
I also find that focus on including a different color with each meal allows me to get diversity over the day without making things like super complicated. Right, because you do want to meal prep your lunch, you do want to meal prep your dinner, potentially, and you might want to have some consistency there to keep prep simple. Or, if you’re lazy like me, you definitely want to do that Right by thinking of like saying, hey, I’m going to have a red fruit at breakfast, a green vegetable at lunch and an orange vegetable at dinner. I can then have easier prep across the meals. But I’m still getting that diversity over the course of the day.
10:21
And while you know we do want to work in those fun foods and you even mentioned, yes, you can make them work in. Often, to make them work in, you do have to get other quality nutrients, like we’ll always see, like if it fits my macros and all these fun meals out there. Most of the time when people are making those things work, it’s because they are focusing on, you know, on the nutrient dense, low calorie foods and other meals to find that balance. So recognizing what’s going on behind the curtain might also be key for us to strike our balance as well.
Michelle

10:47
Yeah, and it’s completely fine to have those days. But if you’re finding that those days are kind of taking over you know more consistently you’re having more days like that than not then we want to make sure that we’re striking that balance because oftentimes even those low, those low calories, high nutrient dense foods that we’re eating around those days can sometimes make your variety a little limited. And this is really why I, like you know swapping out the, the vegetable or the fruit at each mill to kind of hit differently, because I do think people stress too much sometimes on what variety means. Oftentimes you know they get well, like I have to eat like a different protein, a different grain, a different fruit or vegetable Every single day for every single meal. But you can’t. This is a more Approachable way for variety. You can still have variety in your it just by swapping out that for those fruits and vegetables, and those are usually an easier swap of to the day to day.
Cori

11:43
And If you find to that you are like hitting your macros and not seeing the results that you deserve, like we always want to go back to I, am I being consistent with them right? That’s my first assessment. Am I truly being consistent with the macro breakdown and hitting it daily right, not just weekly average or monthly averages, but daily? But then I’ll even go into that food quality, because I find often like if I’m feeling hungry or tired or different things like that, I’m maybe not getting the micronutrients that I truly need or the like, the valuable nutrition overall, and that’s why my body isn’t functioning Optimally, because not getting it like the nutrients that we need can impact our sleep, it can impact our recovery, it impacts how everything truly functions and the better something functions, the better the results you’re going to see and no offense. But I want to see better results faster.
Michelle

12:26
Most people do, that’s the thing is this if you want those faster results, you’re going to need to be to sacrifice a little bit more to get there.
Cori

12:34
And so, going off of this talking about how micronutrients can impact the quality of our recovery, you brought up that creating a sleep snack can really help your metabolism and the results that you see to see better Weight loss and fat loss results and I think this can be slightly a controversial subject just because some people will be like, oh no, if I eat too close to bed, I’ll gain fat or it interrupts my sleep. So let’s talk about the nuance and how having that sleep snack might be beneficial, what might be needed to be included and even how to know if this is right for you.
Michelle

13:05
Yeah, so sleep it just plays a vital role overall and making sure that your metabolism is properly regulated. If you do find that, you know you’re often waking up and you feel Still tired, like no matter how long you slept in the evening, you’re still waking up exhausted. Often that times that’s an issue with sweet sleep quality, or if you were just one of those people that are really struggling just falling asleep again. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to improve that sleep quality and the sleep duration. So I hear it often to you know, don’t eat past seven. If you eat past seven like you know it’s, you’re gonna gain fat, all this stuff. But again, we are still. You’re still. The goal is still to remain and within your calorie deficit. This isn’t all the sudden extra calories and these are calories that are going to be accounted for, so you’re still gonna be remain in your deficit. And then the other thing is is this, isn’t something that it’s? Oh, I’m going to sleep in 15 minutes, I’m gonna go, you have my snack and go to bed. We really want to time it a little bit better, so about one to two hours. If you are someone that you do worry that food does disrupt your sleep. We’re gonna aim a little bit more on that two hour mark and the big thing again is the quality of what this sleep snack actually consist of.
14:23
We really want to aim for things that are going to actually promote sleep, so Things that are going to help you produce natural melatonin. So trip the items that are going to be higher in tryptophan, things that are going to have magnesium, that are going to help you, your body naturally relax and your muscles relax before bed. And of course, there is a lot of research that shows complex carbs before bed About one to two hours before bed, does improve your overall sleep quality. So this isn’t a huge mill. The aim up for this isn’t have 500 cat plus calories two hours before sleep. The aim is really about 150 to 300 calories and we want it to kind of be a well rounded snack, so something that’s going to have a complex carb, a good source or amount of protein with some fat. And again, we really want to kind of lean in and Lean into items that are going to have that higher a magnesium, items that are going to naturally help you produce melatonin, and I don’t.
15:23
Some of this is just going to be like oatmeal made with milk and dry tart, cherries, nuts, kiwis, peppers with cottage cheese, even rice cakes with peanut butter and banana, is going to help you actually Improve the quality of your sleep. So there’s really no cutoff time for when your digestion stops or when, all of a sudden, your whatever you eat is going to turn into fat. But we do want to take into account that sometimes, if we overdo particularly like refining, particularly like refined carbs or high fat you are probably going to have a little bit more indigestion. If you were to lie down, you know within 20 to 30 minutes post eating that. So it’s really about making sure that we are aiming for that quality and we’re eating with a purpose. It’s not just a random snack. We’re actually eating to promote that sleep.
Cori

16:13
It’s those micro is that really make a difference, and especially what you’ve mentioned can really help during menopause, when our sleep quality is impacted. And I also think it’s really interesting to talk about like eating and metabolism and sleep, because so often when we think Metabolism, boosting protocols and foods, we think, oh well, I’m going to do like spicy foods and all these things that increase metabolic rate. But part of this sleep snack is improving the quality of your sleep, which impacts appetite, which can make you not feel extra hungry, because a lot of times when we don’t get that quality sleep, we want to eat more. Right, we want that, not only that feeling of satisfaction from eating more, but we get signals that we’re hungrier, which really does impact our overall like Metabolic health, our fat loss results. So part of this is improving the quality of your sleep to help regulate appetite so that we’re able to eat the appropriate number of calories during the day and not getting signals that we’re hungry when we actually aren’t.
Michelle

17:07
Yeah, and that’s a big part of it is whenever you know you have poor sleep, your cortisol levels go up. When cortisol level goes up, you do have more. You know you do. Your body is signaling yourself to eat more and it’s not segment, it’s not all of a sudden like, oh, you should have more protein. Oh, oh, you should have, you know, more fruits and vegetables. Your body actually signals you to crave more refined carbs so you can kind of get more thrown out of whack with this.
17:35
And this is really where women specific I mean you brought up spicy foods, which I mean spicy foods do does help with metabolism. But men and puzzle women oftentimes. If they consume spicy foods, they often will sometimes have their symptoms worsen. So this is a way to kind of make sure that we are tackling kind of two birds with one stone. So it’s really focusing on that calcium, that magnesium and potassium. That’s going to actually help promote muscle relaxation and also kind of improve that overall sleep quality, allowing you to not only fall asleep quicker but also to get into that deep REM that we that is our goal that does decline with age which we need that you know recovery sleep so that we can building muscle, which helps improve our metabolic health.
Cori

18:23
So it’s just assessing all the different components of it versus. I know we often default back to well, what’s the one thing I can just include that magically helps? And really it’s creating all those life stress, lifestyle factors, addressing like even stress and how stress is impacting your body and everything. And I also love that, like a lot of things you included are perfect desserts. So for a sweet treat person, someone who likes to end the night with something on the sweet side you know a little treat dessert these are perfect ways to sort of include something that might be a little bit more macro friendly. Get you the micros that you need, improve the quality of your sleep so that you’re really seeing those results snowball with something sustainable.
Michelle

19:01
Yeah, and as you mentioned it is, it’s a combo. We’re not focusing on the one, we’re focusing on the combo. So you get the benefit of having the sweet dessert, but you’re also getting the benefit that it is isn’t all of a sudden going to spike. You know you like sugar levels making it more difficult to fall asleep.
Cori

19:19
So next tip so we’re talking about sleep and I like that because it did address a different like aspect of metabolic health than we usually talk about, I feel like. But the next tip that you met brought up, I thought was very interesting because I think it’s going to ruffle a few feathers, since a lot of people are on the low carb train and you know getting sufficient carbs especially if your training heart is very key to metabolic health, to our thyroid functioning, which helps with weight loss. So there’s lots of benefits to carbs that I think are often overlooked when it comes to the fat loss process, especially for active women. But you mentioned specifically the importance of whole grains. Can you talk about the importance of whole grains for our metabolic health?
Michelle

19:56
So B vitamins, often known as, like your, energy vitamins the reason why they’re known for this is because they are a crucial part of your metabolism for your body to actually be able to break down and get the energy from those calories you consume. Almost every single reaction requires B vitamins and because of that, we really want to make sure that we are putting an emphasis on consuming them. And B vitamins are a water soluble vitamin, so it is something that you need to consume daily because otherwise you are going to it’s going, you’re going to lose it through your urine. So, because of this, we want to make sure that we are including including high quality sources of it.
20:35
But on top of this, the big, the big importance with B vitamins because, again, I always know people be like well, I’m eating very similar to how I ate when I was. I mean, I’ve even had athletes come to me and be like you know, I was a college athlete and this is how I ate and this is how I ate and performed when my body was at the top of its conditioning. And now you’re telling me to change it. Well, age plays, plays a big role. So, even if you had eight decently before, what happens when we age, we actually don’t absorb the B vitamins as easily.
21:07
So we kind of want to flood our system a little bit more with those VVV vitamins to make sure we’re giving our body plenty of chances to absorb what it actually requires. So this is really where we want to make sure we are opting for the whole grain options more often than not and this can be as simple as you know consuming the brown rice, barley, ferrule, gluten free oatmeal or oatmeal, depending on on who you are and even items like millet. And a lot of times I will bring up grains, and people when you would say grains, oftentimes their heads only go to rice, oatmeal, quinoa. But there’s a lot more grains in there that we can kind of mix and match that are still going to allow us to get those B vitamins. And if you are, really if you’re following like a gluten free diet, of course there’s gluten free options in oats, but you cannot also get these B vitamins from other sources as well, including things like beans or nuts. Those are going to also be excellent sources of B vitamins.
Cori

22:08
I love that you bring up the fact that age impacts things, because, going back to even the protein and our discussion about increasing the amount of protein you’re consuming at each meal, right, age impacts things. We need to recognize that. But we need to stop blaming it and instead just recognize the impact that it has to work around it, because so many of these things, like just increasing the amount of B vitamins we’re taking and just increasing the portion of protein we’re consuming at each meal, can get us the same stimulus, can get us the same results. It just requires us to be willing to evolve as we get older instead of just writing ourselves off, because we are getting older and even with that, I like that you mentioned, like not only the whole grains which you know that was, of course, the focus of this talk about the B vitamins in there but also the other options, because when we go through menopause, you might be trying to cut back on carbs a little bit, but going to more whole grains might allow us to feel very satisfied and full while still getting in, you know, the carbs that we might have enjoyed when we were younger, even in a different form. But if we can’t have those carbs, or we’re cutting carbs or, sorry, cutting gluten, or we’re cutting carbs.
23:09
We can always go to dairy or beans and nuts, so there’s always a way to assess what’s even underlying some of the protocols to make them work for us. So it’s like taking the thing okay okay, I’m going to swap in whole grains okay, whole grains are right for me. B vitamins Okay, how can I include that? Or sleep snack how can I include that, right? So each of these tips, it’s also about being like why is this important which we’re trying to give you guys, but then how can I include this to address what I need, as my needs and goals change as well?
Michelle

23:37
Yeah, exactly, it’s really about adapting and understanding that your lifestyle isn’t going to stay still, so your diet needs to match it.
Cori

23:46
And so, off of that, talking about our lifestyle will evolve A lot of times. When we want to lose fat, we want to build muscle, we want to see that re-comp, we default back into what worked in the past right, but a lot of those previous dieting practices have actually created metabolic adaptations that we’re now trying to reverse to see better results. Talking about this, one of the things we often have clients do if they are trying to lose fat, which goes against what they’ve usually done, is eat more. Can you talk about why not creating too extreme a deficit is really key for our metabolic health and how that can actually improve our fat loss results? Even though we think calories in versus calories out, we need the calorie deficit to lose.
Michelle

24:25
Yeah.
24:25
So this all comes back to your body is going to work within a hierarchy of needs. So if all this setting you are in an extreme calorie deficit, which a lot of people do, because they’re like I’m not getting the results I want, I know to lose weight you need to be in a deficit, so I need to. I need to be in a bigger deficit, so I’m going to eat less. The problem with this thinking is, if you do that too, too much of extreme for too long, you are going to have metabolic adaptations where your body is. It’s not. You’re not wrecking your metabolism per se, but your body is not going to be firing all those chemical reactions at an optimal level. So things like growing your hair, growing nails, skin, cellular turnover, those things are not going to be happening as often for you and because of that, because your body’s going to main goal is going to be focused on having your organs stay functioning, you’re not going to actually be using as many calories, because it’s going to be taking those calories and moving it for it, using it for those direct needs, and because of that, a lot of times people don’t even notice, but they start to do things to naturally reserve those calories for that specific purpose of just maintaining life. So things like talking with your hands, being more willing to walk a little bit extra steps or kind of those you know non exercise activity that we do that burns calories throughout the day. You will naturally just kind of stop doing that. Fidgeting goes down. All these things start to decrease because your body’s trying to take all the calories that it is going to going to have and reserve the calories. So it’s going to signal you to burn less through that other activities and focus it on those things. So because of this, we you actually do better by eating a little bit more. And I think the biggest issue is people will care, will eat more. You’re going to knock me out of a calorie deficit Now. We’re just going to put you in a more appropriate calorie deficit so your body’s going to actually be able to have a higher functioning metabolism so you can do those things like fidget when you’re talking, have a little bit extra energy, and a big thing is is having a little extra energy to actually push it harder in the gym and be able to recover from those workouts better and faster. That’s going to be a huge thing. So it’s really not about knocking you out of the calorie deficit, but it’s about closing that gap so that you, your body, is like, okay, I’m getting fed enough, I can still do these things and we can do these extra things.
26:58
So I always get asked Well, how do you know if your calorie deficit is too large? And of course you know you can go off of a formula to kind of get a rough estimate, but truthfully, I don’t love those formulations because it’s not taking into everything into account. So I really like to go off our body signals. So one if you’re skipping a lot of mills in general just to try to reduce calorie intake, you probably most likely are under eating or setting yourself up for a binge, quite frankly, later. But if you’re eating extremely low calories and for some people lower calories is appropriate, you know, if you’re barely five foot and you don’t do a lot of activity, you can remain kind of in the 1200 calorie range.
27:44
However, most adults need to be above the 1000 calories.
27:48
So if you’re eating below 1000 calories, which I see quite often, you are probably way under eating.
27:56
And then, of course, looking at your energy levels, how hard is it for you to want to get up and do things, whether it is like even talking yourself to get to getting to the gym, or talking yourself up to going on that lock or even moving in general it’s probably because your body’s trying to fight you against it to try and reserve those calories.
28:16
And then, of course, you know I’ve mentioned it but if you have sudden hair loss or if you’re noticing your nails or your hair take forever to grow, it’s probably because that’s your body’s not making that a priority for you and you don’t have enough energy and calories to actually go go to those things. And another big thing that I think often gets overlooked is your metabolism, because it’s all these chemical reactions. A byproduct of those chemical reactions is heat. If you find yourself constantly cold, it’s a good, it’s a good. There’s a good chance that it’s because your body’s not actually able to maintain a healthy and comfortable body temperature, because it’s not. It’s not actually having all those chemical reactions firing off and creating that byproduct of heat.
Cori

29:08
It’s such an interesting thing, right? Because people hear this and be like okay, maybe I am consuming two low calories. Right, they’re like well, I’m eating 800 right now, but I’m not seeing results, because that’s a common thing that people come in with as well. And I bring this up because you mentioned the 1,000 calories and it’s because we’ve trained our body to function off of less. We’ve seen those metabolic adaptations because our body’s like well, heck, I have to find a way to survive off of these 800 calories.
29:32
This is where, too, when we lose weight, we’re not controlling for whether or not we’re losing fat or muscle. And a lot of times we are losing more muscle with those extreme deficits, because muscle costs more energy and so our body’s like if we don’t have this energy coming in, why are we going to expend it for muscle? We want to survive, right? So we’re going to end up losing that muscle in losing weight, which then slows our metabolic rate because we’re not burning as many calories at rest and our body finds a way to function off of those 800 calories.
29:56
So in the eating more process, you might not see the fat loss you want right away. You might actually see you’re even losing inches, as the scale is not budging and you might be like, but I have 50 pounds to lose. How am I losing inches but not seeing the scale change? And it’s because your metabolism is actually increasing. You’re seeing that lean muscle being gained and you’re going to look leaner. So sometimes, in embracing this last metabolism boosting protocol, we really have to realize that there is a retraining process and that the scale if that’s our ultimate goal may not change right away. But we have to do it because otherwise we’re just going to have to keep eating less and it’s like at some point you can’t go down any lower, right.
Michelle

30:34
Yeah and that’s a big conversation I have is where do we go from here? If you hit that next toe in your weight loss journey because everyone does all of a sudden, you can’t throw, like a you know, a mini cut at that issue, because anymore we’re going to be headed into some really scary territory with how low of calories you already are at.
Cori

30:56
Which is why, like if you are finding your low calorie, you might first change your macros before you even increase your calories to help you trust in the process of increasing your calories, or you might have to embrace that that diet break before you can then use the deficit again.
31:09
So it’s not that you’re not in a deficit to lose, but it’s that you’ve got to retrain your body to eat more to be able to use the deficit and get your body functioning at the higher level. And again, like all of these things really relate back to, we’re trying to create the healthiest environment for our body to be able to build muscle, because the more muscle we have on and not talking about getting bulky, but the more muscle we have on the higher metabolic rate, the more energy we’re even going to have to do other things and often the easier it is to see the fat loss results we want and maintain them long term which is something I think we don’t talk about enough is we want to set ourselves up for success with how we adjust our nutrition to see lasting results.
Michelle

31:48
Yeah, it’s all about longevity and that sustainability. A lot of times, if your mindset is, I just need it, I need to look this way for this one wedding date, we really want to break that because I want you to look that way all the time and feeling good about yourself all the time and have a same sustainable approach for that.
Cori

32:07
So, using these tips, we really wanted to help you build that sustainable lifestyle. Make sure that you’re really listening to the why behind everything to see what you need for your best results, for your best lifestyle, for your best body, because there is nuance everything and one size doesn’t fit all. Michelle, any closing thoughts for someone really looking to boost their metabolism, see the best fat loss while gaining lean muscle, even as they’re getting older and feeling like age is fighting against them.
Michelle

32:33
Start with protein. Start somewhere, and number one thing is going to be protein. If you do need to increase your calories, you can also do that by just adding in that extra protein. So that’s really going to be my number one tip, and then from there you can slowly focus on the other items.
Cori

32:51
I love it because, with the thermic effect of protein, you’re going to burn more calories to digest it, which will help you even embrace increasing your calories a little bit more. And again, that high protein diet is the one that has been shown to help you build and retain lean muscle while in a deficit, but also protect you from gaining fat if you go into a slight surplus. So it’s a perfect way to retrain your body to eat more, get an even some beneficial micros and really see sustainable results. Thank you so much, michelle, for joining me today. Thanks for listening to the Finis-Hacks podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is, if you’re enjoying the podcast, to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life with someone you know.

00:00
Hey guys, it’s Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks podcast. This is a show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is, if you’re enjoying the podcast, to leave a review or leave a five-star rating or, even better, share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone you know. So let’s jump right in.

00:29
The best workouts for fat loss are not necessarily cardio workouts. They might actually be strength workouts, and it’s because, even though your goal may be fat loss, you want to focus on building muscle with your workouts. So often we do think of them just as a chance to burn more calories, and this is ultimately what sabotages our long-term success, because you cannot exercise your diet. You can’t just try and burn more calories, create the deficit through your training alone. You need to adjust your nutrition. So if you want fat loss, you’ve got to adjust your nutrition. But then, when our workouts complement it and all the systems work together, we see better results, faster and lasting results, and part of what helps us see those fat loss results faster from our nutritional changes is the fact that we’re building lean muscle, which helps keep our metabolism healthy. It also means that we don’t have to slash our calories as low, because so often when we cut our calories super low and then we add in more cardio, we end up losing muscle, which means we’re burning fewer calories at rest, which means we need to eat less. Try and keep creating the deficit through our diet. But if we actually focus on building muscle with our training, then we’re going to increase our metabolic rate. We’re going to need to even increase our calories while staying in that deficit, because we’re burning more calories at rest.

01:35
So your focus, if you want to lose weight with your training, should be on building lean muscle, and I wanted to give you six tips to really help you design those workouts that work, because one size doesn’t fit all and we do have to recognize too that it’s not cardio or strength. There’s a whole spectrum and continuum we can really work on or work along as we’re designing our workouts. So just remember that you can get cardiovascular benefits while improving your muscle mass and doing that strength work, and you can also be improving your cardio and also build strength in that aspect too. So there are a lot of different ways you can design to make it really work for your time, your schedule, your goals. Now, I’m not telling you not to do cardio if you are an endurance athlete or you really enjoy it, but if you are solely focused on improving your training regime for fat loss, these tips will help.

02:17
So, number one, see your workouts as a chance to build muscle, which is sort of what I just went over. But I bring this up because I want you thinking about how can I lift heavier, not how can I cut out more rest and feel more slaughtered and see my calorie burn be higher in my watch. The more you are focused on building strength, okay, and then building lean muscle, and that means using a variety of rep ranges. I know often we think I only should go lower rep range or stay in the hypertrophy rep range, but they’ve shown that a diversity is really key, which I’m going to touch on a little bit more shortly. But you want to focus on building strength because as much as yes, maximal strength is that one to five hypertrophy reps, that sort of six to twelve and 15 to 20 is that strength endurance, all those things build together, because if you can lift more weight and move more weight because you’ve worked on maximal strength, you’re gonna move more weight during that hypertrophy of your rep range. You’re just gonna see better results. And if you have that strength endurance, you’re gonna be able to do more reps to failure which is gonna help you recruit more muscle fibers, which is gonna help you see better results as well. Not to mention, you’re gonna recover a lot faster between different rounds of your strength work which will ultimately pay off. So you want to think about how can I build muscles efficiently, which means focusing on loads lifted, okay, and not just making yourself feel completely destroyed. You actually sometimes you want to feel like you’ve recovered so much the next round you can go to true 100% intensity, versus like feeling like the same weights are even heavier than extra on whether to feel light or like you can go up okay and challenge yourself.

03:34
Tip number two is use a diversity of rep ranges and realize pushing to failure is key. They’ve shown that really there’s nothing necessarily magical, but only staying in that six to twelve reps. Well, that can be really good in terms of creating the right training density for you. While moving heavy loads, we do want to use a variety of rep ranges and we can’t say, oh well, I’m trying to get bigger, you know, build muscles, so I’m not gonna do the higher rep ranges. Okay. Often we don’t do that because even myself as a lifter, I like to pick things up and put them down right. I try and avoid higher up ranges on some moves because they’re uncomfortable. But you need those higher rep ranges, especially after heavier lifts, to really work that muscle to failure, failure. But no matter which rep range you use, you want to focus on that failure point. Okay.

04:11
This doesn’t mean you have to feel absolutely destroyed, like you can’t even like lift the weight at all, but it does mean that you can’t just stop because it felt hard and you hit the top of the rep range. That’s actually something I wanted to touch on. Is that double progression? Because I see so often we just think about lifting a heavier weight or using a harder variation and we don’t really understand the nuance and the rep range we’re given. Usually you are given a rep range of three to five if it’s maximal strength, or six to twelve, that if it is in hypertrophy, even eight to twelve to keep you in that higher rep range or 15 to 20, right. And so we’ll say, okay, I can do the top end of the rep range. Great, I felt. Challenge, that’s good.

04:43
But if you can do that top end of that rep range at any point with any weight, you need to go up in weight the next round until you hit even a weight, especially the more experience you are. You can barely do that bottom end of that rep range and maybe even on that final round of that week you can’t do the bottom end of the rep range like I love when a client hits eight reps consistently and on that final round they can’t do eight without a rest pause where they do six and then pause and do eight or two to get that eight, because that means that they really maxed out with that load and took it to failure. And so the next week I might have them stay at that and they might get nine, nine, nine and then finally hit that eight on the last one, right. And then once they work up in that rep range, that we might add loads from there as well, depending on how advanced you are, how much you really want to work on that maximal strength and you feel comfortable with your form or recruitment patterns. You might stay lower in that rep range, consistently, making sure that you’re always sort of adding weight to max out only a rep or two above the bottom. But if you’re hitting that top end of the rep range, I can tell you right now, no matter how hard it feels, you need to go up, okay, and if you can still hit it, go up again. But don’t fear. Also with this, when you’re doing the two different rep ranges or multiple different rep ranges, doing the back-to-back, you want to think about, yes, potentially lifting heavier, doing more compound movements with the lower reps because you can move more loads, and then, as you go over your workout, potentially doing more isolated movements for the higher reps or for the stubborn areas. But you can also think about using things like compound burners where you’re doing that, you know, hypertrophy rep range of even 8 to 12 reps for a compound them. Or you’re going heavier followed by a higher rep move where it’s more isolated, because then you’re really working a muscle group to failure and that work to failure is going to create that muscle growth which will ultimately help you look leaner, be stronger, functionally more fit, have a higher, healthier metabolic rate.

06:18
Okay, and it becomes harder, guys, to build and retain muscle as we get older, because the hormonal stimulus is not as optimal as it was when we were younger. Often we have to make adjustments to our fueling. But we also want to do more in our training. We need almost more of that stressor in our workouts to create the same stimulus for growth and that same muscle building response. Okay, so you got to use those rep ranges. Sometimes you got to do the higher reps. Even if you only like to lift for lower reps, okay, you can’t fear them. But that doesn’t mean going light for those higher rep ranges because you don’t want to turn it just cardio. No weight should ever be light. Okay, even with higher rep ranges. That should challenge you for those reps. So it should always feel heavy for whatever reps you’re doing.

06:54
Tip number three is focus most on compound moves, and I bring this up because isolation exercises are super key for stubborn areas. We need to include them. But so often when we’re short on time, we do those things and then we don’t burn the maximum amount of calories we can. We don’t build the maximal amount of muscle we can. In that time, if you can move a heavier weight, you are going to see more muscle growth from it. Okay, with compound moves, we are using more big, large muscles all at once to move the weight. We’re gonna see better benefits. Okay, that’s why we want to focus on those. However, yes, if you do really want to build more muscle in your arms or build your glutes or build your quads or build a specific aspect, that’s where you’re going to use those isolation moves to help take that muscle group to failure. But if you are especially short on time, focus on those compound movements. They’re bigger bang for your buck. You’re going to move heavier loads and that quality movement of heavier loads is what is going to stimulate muscle growth, stimulate the best metabolic response.

07:44
Then, tip number four don’t do body parts splits. I have no problem if you really can train for hours in the gym because you have the ability to have the rest periods. If you really like that workout design, doing body parts splits where you’re doing chest one day, back another day, arms another day, but this is the least efficient schedule possible. When you’re working some of the smaller muscle groups, you’re really not going to end up burning as many calories in the day. We don’t want our workouts just to be about calories burned. This isn’t optimal if we are looking for efficient workouts to lose fat and gain muscle and create a better hormonal environment, especially as we’re getting older. Think about how you can work more large muscle groups in each and every session. Again, going through menopause, we need to create the stimulus for muscle growth through a bigger stressor. We want to work larger muscles in each session if we can. That might mean we do upper lower to give our body a break. It might mean we do full body splits. Focus more anterior, posterior over the week. We want to think about how can we work at least one or two large muscle groups before we even isolate if we do have stubborn areas. Can’t just do body parts splits if you really want the most efficient thing, especially as you’re getting older.

08:49
Tip number five use cardio strategically. As much as I say, don’t turn your workouts into cardio. As much as I say cardio is not the best thing for fat loss. Even though we tend to turn to it, this doesn’t mean you want to avoid it. Cardio has great health benefits and it can even be used to create the stimulus for growth. We can make it again on that continuum. It doesn’t have to be cardio or strength.

09:08
We can make our conditioning more strength-oriented or we can make our strength work more metabolically oriented by how we include cardio. This might mean doing more circuits where you rest in areas in another area of work so that your blood does get pumping as you’re alternating areas, especially if you’re short on time. That can be great. It can be using intervals over just set reps and sets. Sometimes when we do an interval of work we do more reps than we would have done had we just had eight to 12 reps. We force ourselves to use rest pause technique and eat things out. It does work on that. Strength endurance takes us potentially more to failure. Then we also want to think how can we use sprints even after our strength work, especially when we’re short on time. If we add in that little five-minute burner at the end, that might be more metabolically focused, more conditioning-focused. That’s going to help us recover faster so we can get more out of our strength training routines. It’s going to help us bring that heart rate down faster if we do that conditioning.

09:57
Thank you for the little short intervals. This can be more like sprint training or it can be more like speed training. I’m going to separate those two out because with sprint training, you might have 10 seconds of work with 15, 20 seconds of rest or even only 10 seconds of rest. It might not be a longer rest to work, but you’re keeping those intervals very short so you can go to high intensity even though you’re not fully recovering, which is a great stressor for your body and can really be helpful during menopause. If you want to work on that speed and that true recovery, you’re going to think, how can I do 10 to 30 seconds interval work with two to three times the rest? Because you actually want to be training speed so you don’t fully recover, you’re going to be training slowness because you’re not going to be able to go as fast as you did before. You need that longer rest interval between. Consider even just five to 10 minutes of that sprint work, sometimes after a strength routine. Or consider how you’re designing your strength workouts to be a little bit more metabolically focused with that circuit training, the density sets, or the intervals.

10:48
Then tip number six, do more mobility. This is the least sexy part of it, I know, but the more mobility work you do, the more you’re going to recruit the correct muscles at the correct times as efficiently as possible, which is not only going to help you avoid falls and fractures in everyday life and be more powerful and more explosive, but this really does improve your strength because of the improvements in my body connection, because being stronger is about how quickly and efficiently you can recruit muscles to the right extents, in the right orders, even to the right amount of muscle fibers being called to do the movement. All of that is efficiency in movement, and that’s what strength truly is. It’s not just brute force. The more we do that mobility work, the more we’re able to work through a full range of motion, the more we’re able then to maintain that full range of motion, but the more we’re able to recruit the correct muscles to the correct extents because the joints are fully mobile. It also includes in the mobility work that activation which establishes that my body connection, and activation alone drives muscle growth. It’s been shown to really improve muscle hypertrophy. So not only are we helping ourselves potentially recover, we’re getting more out of our training sessions, and we’re helping ourselves avoid injury, which means we can train more consistently without being sidelined by different things popping up, which helps us see better results faster. So mobility work has a lot of different benefits, from injury prevention to recovery, to being able to actually go harder, even in our sessions, to see better muscle hypertrophy or gains from those sessions.

12:04
Okay, so, using these six tips, start to make small tweaks, to work on design and then make sure you’re designing a weekly progression that you repeat over and over again, because that’s going to show you the best results, because you’re able to build and know what isn’t isn’t working and even track those numbers over time, because that’s the way to track progress. If you’re randomly stringing things together, there might be one week where, because you did it in a different order, you don’t feel as strong or you can’t go up in weight. Okay. And then, even as you’re adjusting your nutrition, you’ll see how your nutrition impacts things, to even know hey, I have gone on more of a mini-cut, my energy is lower, so then I need to still maintain my numbers from the week before. But here’s how I’m going to do it with rest-pause technique or longer rest intervals or whatever else, so that I’m not going backward on my training. But having that clear progression really allows you to drive yourself forward faster, okay. So don’t randomly string things together. Use these six tips to really design workouts that work for you.

12:52
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is, if you’re enjoying the podcast, leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes, and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone you know.