Latest / Empower Your Menopause / Episode 86: The Gut–GLP 1 Connection - What Most Weight Loss Conversations Miss

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Episode 86: The Gut–GLP 1 Connection - What Most Weight Loss Conversations Miss · Empower Your Menopause

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely everyone, including us, is talking about GLP 1 at the moment.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Appetite suppression, weight loss, to jab or not to jab results, does it work for other things from weight loss to addiction to all kinds of different things?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: But nobody's asking what we think is a really important question.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: What if your body was supposed to be producing GLP 1 naturally?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: And what if the real issue isn't that you actually need more of it, which is what weight loss jabs are trying to introduce, but that your body isn't able to actually regulate it in the first place?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because once you understand that, the whole conversation about weight loss changes.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome back to um Empower Your Mentor Pause.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Coach James Ellis.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Julie Medacy.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: And today we're just going to dive into this because we have talked about GLP1 quite a bit over the last few episodes, and we realise that we don't want to be on repeat, but we think this is a really important part of the puzzle to bring back into it.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, Julie, just remind everybody what is GLP1?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: What does it do?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: How do the weight loss jabs affect it or mimic it?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Just give us a little bit of a quick overview for people.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it's really interesting because GLP1 hormones actually regulate your appetite, right?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: They they slow your gastric emptying, so it determines how long you feel satisfied or full after a meal.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It uh they also help with blood sugar control, which is what they originally were made to do with people with type 2 diabetes.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the the interesting thing, as we say, is that your body is already producing this.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is, how well is it working for you?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't necessarily want to increase it artificially if we don't need to.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's more important to start a little bit further back and address the root cause to see what's actually affecting our ability to produce it or to produce enough of it naturally.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So let's what we feel is the missing piece.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at that now, and that is the connection with your gut.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So GLP1 is reduced in the gut, right?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And our gut health directly influences our hormone signaling, it influences a lot of other things as well, like our appetite regulation, like our metabolic response, and even something that maybe not specifically directed, but people talk a lot about food noise.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And our communication between our gut and our brain is really important, and that affects emotionally how we eat and how we feel about how we eat.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, but back to the gut.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Your gut isn't just digesting your food.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's much more than just a processing tube, right?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's driving all of the signals that are going to influence a lot of different things, like how hungry do you feel?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: How full do you feel after a meal?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: How satisfied are you for hours after your last meal?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And how your body manages energy.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So there are a lot of things that can disrupt this system.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's important to address as well.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: James, do you want to talk about those things?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I mean, you know, once again, hold your hand up if you relate to any of the things that I'm gonna mention now.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, chronic stress, you know, we live in a 24-7 environment.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're constantly connected to everything all the time by our phones, by our TVs, by our computers, um, within the within our families, within our households, at works, at work, and so you know, there's a lot going on, and particularly if you're a woman of a four, there's a lot going on for you as well because you know you may have kids to parent, your parents might be getting older, you might be really busy at work as well, you're still trying to be a great partner, you want to be everything to everybody, and you never want to show yourself to be failing.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, chronic stress really can play into things.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, poor sleep.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we talked many, many times about the fact that sleep is like a master regulator for us.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's when all the good stuff happens, it's when our body recharges it, when it is it's when it rebuilds, it's when we re-dump um memories and our and our brain resets.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, really, really important.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, poor sleep also has an effect on your gut and your gut health as well.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, stress, sleep, it won't surprise anyone to hear, ultra-processed foods, you know, and even people who tell me that they've got amazing diets, then also in the same breath, tell me a few minutes later, well, you know, we do have the odd takeaway, or we do get the odd ready meal, or whatever.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, another thing that really affects your gut health and can affect your GLP1 signaling.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Imbalance of bacteria, you know, particularly if you eat a low fibre diet or you don't eat many vegetables, many fruits, um, the the balance of bacteria in your gut can be misaligned, and when it's misaligned, then you're less likely to have your gut do all the things that you want it to do, and one of the things that you want it to do is obviously produce GLP1 because that is the thing that tells you when you're when you're full or not, and that's what weight loss drugs are actually trying to mimic.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: But it does happen naturally, as Julie just said.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Then the other one is erratic eating patterns.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was giving a talk on one of our gut health programmes the other day to a bunch of busy business people, mostly women, and when I first walked in, they all told me how healthily they ate, you know, cooking from scratch, uh organic vegetables and organic products where possible.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then when we talked about their actual eating patterns, they were all over the place.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Some people weren't having breakfast, some people were eating at their computer, some people were rushing dinner or really stressed out when they're cooking, and eating dinner because you know all the family ate different foods, and so those erratic eating patterns can really play into your gut health as well.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Your body likes stuff to be pretty boring, believe it or not.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's where it tends to find equilibrium.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it likes things to be pretty boring, it likes things to be pretty stable.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean you shouldn't have a varied diet, of course, but it does mean when it comes to things like you know, trying to eat at the same time every day, trying to have three meals that satiate you at the right times during the day with the right balance of foods on there, and therefore reducing the need to snack, all those kind of things can disrupt your system.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, as I said, you know, hold your hand up if you don't relate to any of those.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure now nobody's holding their hand up, and even myself, and I'm sure Julie does the same.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: We actually work in this business, and the same thing happens to us on occasion as well.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, when all those things are off, the signaling that takes place in your gut is off as well.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: So, that is one of one of the real challenges.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we aren't saying, of course, that GLP1 drugs, um, the weight loss jabs don't have a fit somewhere, right?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: They do actually um for for many people, they can be in fact life-saving.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Julie, why don't you just talk us through why that is and what why that happens?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as I said before, these these drugs were originally developed to help people with type 2 diabetes, um, morbid obesity, and um you know, possibly metabolic syndrome, which can all create magnified health risks and um and be a big factor in in people's day-to-day quality of life.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the GLP1 drugs have been very life-changing and life-saving for many people.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, I worked with a client who was on them for her type type type 2 diabetes, and um it was it was a huge game changer for her.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um so they can be really helpful, but what they're doing is they're they're not creating something new in your body or adding something new to your body, they're amplifying a system that already exists.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, um, I if anybody remembers or if you're old enough to remember that, you know, turning that dial up that goes all the way to 11, right?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are some things in our body that we don't necessarily want to turn up that high.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because once we turn them up, what happens when we turn them back down again, right?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the biggest issue here is that if your underlying system isn't working properly because of all of those factors that James just talked about, then you know you're relying on some kind of an external override system instead of fixing the actual signal uh itself.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that means that as soon as you remove that support, of course, your body is going to go back to what it was doing before.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we find that the people we've talked to who use the weight loss jabs, they're finding that um a bit difficult and and challenging because once you stop the drugs, then what do you do?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: You still need to fix the underlying issues if you want to have lasting results.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, there's some other things that are going on here, but the the biggest the biggest focus is that we're not we don't just want to control our appetite, right?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: We all want to understand why our body's struggling in the first place, work on regulating that, and then doing all the things our body needs for long-term health.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So doing all the things our body needs for long-term health, um, we can talk about that next.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: James, I'll hand that back over to you.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, once again, we're probably gonna sound a little bit like you know, scratched records here, repeating ourselves again and again.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, some things that you really need to start thinking about working on if you want GLP1 to work better for you naturally in your body, or if you're actually on the drugs and you want to move forward to a kind of routine in your life that is going to help sustain the weight loss once you decide to come off the drugs.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because nobody wants to be on drugs for forever, do they?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the general medical advice when it comes to any kind of medication is have the lowest dose possible for the least time possible because the interest people who work in pharmaceuticals, work in the medical industry, realize that being on drugs for long term, unless you absolutely need to be on them, is not really um conducive to to long-term health.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, gut health support.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we talk about this a lot.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, lots and lots, fresh fruit and vegetables, where you where you can, lots of lots of lots of fibre.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: You might want to think about fermented foods when it comes to your gut health.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: You have the 4Ks, kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Pretend that I didn't say sour there, so it just comes up as as kraut and kimchi, they all can can help.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Prebiotics, probiotics can also help when it comes to gut health.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: So doing as much as you can to help take care of your gut.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now, something that helps with your gut lining, but also helps generally with overall health, and particularly as we get older, protein intake.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now, protein, it's all over the place at the moment, and rightly so.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's an absolutely key, vital macronutrient for women as they as they as they age, and all the stats show that women don't eat enough protein.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, I was talking to that group of business people the other day.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about protein intake.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: They were absolutely surprised that the bare minimum recommendations would be a palm-sized portion of protein three times a day at each meal, and that is, as I said, bare minimum, potentially more.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: All studies show that people aren't having enough protein.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really, really important to make sure you're having some.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: What might that look like?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, beef, chicken, pork, all lean, where you can, um game meats, eggs, Greek yogurts, you know, if you're vegan, vegetarian, things like tofu, tempeh, they're really, really great protein sources.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so having those in there, gut health support, protein intake, they're gonna help with our third thing, which is blood sugar regulation.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: So trying to make sure that your blood sugars are as balanced as possible.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, you can't go around with a little scale constantly measuring the amount of sugar that's running around in your bloodstream, but by eating more consistently, by having better protein intake, by supporting your gut, then that is going to help with your your blood sugar balance, as is movement.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, movement doesn't have to be excessive, it doesn't have to be huge, you don't have to be running ultra marathons for you to kick in when it comes to helping things, when it comes to producing GLP1.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: You just need to be moving consistently and challenging yourself to move a little bit better tomorrow than you did today, and for today to have been a little bit better than yesterday.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you can keep doing that on a regular basis, you know, that's probably enough all the movement that you need.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Within the movement, let's talk about strength training.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Super, super important from for many, many different reasons.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but helping with muscle mass, helping again with blood sugar regulation, really, really important for women 14 above.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then finally, touched on it a little bit before, but consistent eating patterns.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if one day you're having breakfast at seven, and then the next at nine, and the next you're skipping it altogether, and some days you're having lunch, some days you're not having lunch, some days you're having lunch while you're still working.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Meals one day at six, one day at seven, one day at nine o'clock, all those things will challenge.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: So trying to be as consistent as you can with your eating patterns.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now that can be can be an issue for some people, particularly people who work, shift work, etc.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: So taking the time out once a week, have a little bit of a plan about what's going to happen for the rest of the week when it comes to your food and trying to see where the hurdles are going to be is really you know half an hour well spent.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'd argue that planning your meals on a weekend, whether it be a Saturday or a Sunday, before you go into your supermarket shop, is probably the best half an hour you can spend every week on your on your health.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because once you've got a plan in place and you know what what you're eating on each day, it will give you less chance to veer off that path during the week.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing worse than having a fridge full of food and just going in and thinking to yourself, I've got no idea what I'm cooking now.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because what tends to happen is that something comes out that is probably not as health-giving as you'd like it to be.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's worth saying that all these things that I've just talked about: gut health sport, protein intake, blood sugar regulation, strength training, movement, consistent eating patterns, they aren't nice to have.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's how your body works as a system, right?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, if just like if you had a Ferrari parked in the drive, and I hope some of you listening do have Ferraris parked in the drive, you are not gonna pour cooking oil into the gas tank or the petrol tank, right?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: You are gonna pour in the best gas that you can get to help run that car.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna look after that car's internal mechanisms, you're gonna keep it well lubricated.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Every so often you're gonna you know get somebody or do it yourself back the outside and give the uh sorry, the inside and give the outside a polish.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: So looking after your own motor, your own body is absolutely key.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't all have to happen at once.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: You can work at things one at a time, but they're really, really important bits that will help when it comes to increasing GLP 1 naturally and helping manage your weight.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that is whether you go decide to take the jabs or you decide not to take them.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's really important to start thinking about what that off ramp might look like, and that what it might look like, and the things that I've just mentioned are exactly what that off-ramp needs to look like moving forward.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really why so many women end up feeling stuck because they're trying to fix the symptoms, and we hear this all the time, you know, whether it's through diets or restrictive diets or excessive exercise, or now the the weight loss jabs, um, we're fixing symptoms, we're addressing symptoms without ever understanding the full system and and how it works and how it needs to work optimally.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're we're never gonna perfect things, right?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Life happens, and we're even us as coaches, as James said before, we understand sometimes things get in the way, but generally speaking, when the system is working well, those hiccups matter less.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all about fixing the system and getting the system established, and that's exactly what we're gonna be breaking down in our upcoming workshop, which is called thinking about weight loss jabs, start here first.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's simple.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna give you a clear and balanced understanding of your option, whether that's jabs alone, jabs and uh health support, or just working on fixing the systems before you go any further thinking about the jabs.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: The workshop is just 10 pounds to join, that's about 13 US dollars.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna walk you through what these medications really do, how your body regulates your appetite, and the kinds of things that you need to have in place whether you decide to use the jabs or not.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that way you can make a decision from a place of clarity and confidence rather than feeling confused or pressured into doing it.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you can find more information there at jabs.fabulousbeyond40.com.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we'll put the link in the show notes so we'll have that available to you.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we hope to see you there.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's all we have time for this week.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, as Julie said, we'll see you on the workshop.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: But in the meantime, we've been James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40, reminding you to stay strong and stay fabulous, and we will see you next time.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Take care.