Weight Loss BS

Hi Friends~

You’ve probably heard news about the miracle fat loss drug Ozempic or Wegovy. It works. Many who have struggled with obesity, or diabetes have benefitted.

Semaglutide injection is intended to regulate blood sugar and insulin, but it’s been co opted by those who can afford it (up to $1500/month) as a get thin shortcut. Here’s a good explainer on NPR. When patients stop taking it, within a year most people have gained back two thirds of the weight they had lost. Semaglutide can cause unpleasant side effects, and long term use has not been studied.

There is now a shortage of this drug for people who need it.

The newsletter from the American Medical Association states that supplements are “under regulated”. Some supplements are dangerous, are contaminated, and others offer zero benefit.

There is a great possibility that pharma can help women manage weight gain and other symptoms associated with menopause: hormone replacement therapy. I’ll get deeper into that in a future issue, for now read this excellent NYTimes article, Women Have Been Misled About Menopause, which covers the history, and every aspect of the science of hormone replacement therapy, HRT.

Stay tuned for an upcoming issue about HRT – Menopause Hormone Therapy, MHT.

Diet after diet after diet. More people than ever are overweight or obese, and the health and fitness industry LOVES it. In fact they’re promoting wacko diets and programs that are unsustainable or just don’t work, so you need to try more stuff that probably won’t work.

People (especially women through menopause and beyond) are spending multi millions of dollars on programs and restrictive diets that promise weight loss. Some might be effective in the short term, but what happens after the program or diet is over? The weight comes back, and leads to yo-yo dieting. That’s what the industry literally banks upon. Diet after diet after diet.

If your diet (that’s the food you eat) includes essential nutrients and an appropriate balance of protein, carbs, and fat for YOU, it will “work” if you can stick with it for the long term.

Build muscle to burn fat. Weight loss advertising disregards the critical necessity of musculoskeletal strength – that it takes time to build muscle and burn fuel effectively. Fat loss and building muscle can happen simultaneously.

Build muscle with resistance training, do some high intensity interval training (HIIT), and get a balance of protein, carbs, and fat to make it happen.

Muscle is active tissue that uses fuel. Fat is fuel stored in the body. When we build muscle, we burn fat. Build a higher % of muscle than fat, and you’ll have a higher basal metabolic rate, meaning that you’ll burn fuel even at rest. And besides building strong muscles and bones, strength training benefits mental health.

There’s no debate (although some “experts” still debate it). Start strength training now, while you establish a foundation of sound nutritional habits. The muscle you build will help burn fat.

What you do in the gym is important. But what you do outside the gym — what you eat, what you drink, and especially how you sleep matters just as much or more.

You’re not getting stronger while you’re exercising – you are actually getting stronger and fitter when you rest.”Sleep gives your body time to recover, conserve energy, and repair and build up the muscles worked during exercise. When we get enough good quality sleep, the body produces growth hormone.”