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Transcript

Carbs After 35: Why Cutting Them Is Keeping YOU Stuck (Lose Fat + Build Muscle) · The Body Recomposition Revolution | Fat Loss and Strength for Women 35+

0:05
This is the body recomposition revolution.
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I am a former personal trainer and educator for over a decade
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who is obsessed with teaching women 35 plus how to finally
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drop fat and completely reshape their bodies through science
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backed nutrition and training protocols optimized to meet your
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body's changing hormones. Classes in session.
0:31
Welcome back to episode 4 of the Body Recomposition Revolution.
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This is Robin and today we are talking about that macronutrient
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we all love to hate and hate to love Miss carbohydrates.
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It is so profound to me the amount of knowledge I have
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gleaned over the last two years on nutrients and how they impact
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women aged 35 and above. It's profound because I have a
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couple different certifications regarding nutrition.
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One is new and none of them, none of them touch on the
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science that I've learned from Doctor Stacey Sims and other
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exercise physiologists that focus on women above the age of
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35. It is, as I said, profound.
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We're going to get into that today.
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But as always, channeling my teacher background, we are
1:25
starting off the episode with a learning objective.
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And I had, I had someone ask me why I start with learning
1:31
objectives. It's not just because I'm a
1:34
teacher, It's because as a teacher, I learned how important
1:38
having an objective at the beginning of a lesson is.
1:41
It tells you exactly what you're going to learn.
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And if you know the learning goal ahead of time, it
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inadvertently kind of keys your brain into organizing that
1:50
information so you retain it. And it also kind of gives you a
1:53
motivation to understand and comprehend and file away the
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information. So that's why I do the learning
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objective. And today's learning objective
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is as follows. By the end of this episode,
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you'll understand why carbs are essential for women over the age
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of 35 to build muscle, burn fat, and balance hormones, and how if
2:17
we cut them too low, it actually sabotages that progress.
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You heard me right. If we cut carbs too low, you
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will keep your belly fat. Now, I have learned so much
2:30
about carbohydrates and the way they affect women in the past
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year and a half, two years. It blows my mind that we have
2:38
been so lied to. And I'm not sure if that's
2:40
intentional or unintentional or if we just did not have the
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research. I'm gonna go with the latter
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because it feels less icky, but if any of you were around for
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things like the Adkins diet, where you are basically eating
2:53
no carbs whatsoever, you probably saw results.
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I mean, you did see results, or if you were like me and was
3:01
really into nutrition and fueling your body, you did eat
3:07
carbs, but it was a small amount.
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I did a figure competition years and years ago and I remember
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having days where I could only eat 25 grams of carbs and I was
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dying. But it worked.
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I was shredded and that was the point.
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That was the point when you're going on stage.
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So if you're a competitor on stage, you're a bodybuilder.
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Whatever, I get it. I got it.
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Good. Respect it, but for the average
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person who's not, you know, oiled up on stage, you need
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carbs. And anyone who has been oiled up
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on stage and knows what happens to your body after you depleted
3:41
of carbs will understand why carbs are absolutely imperative
3:45
to keep that body fat away. I remember after my first and
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last figure competition, I was lean.
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I was cut. I was completely emptied of
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carbs for a two week process. And I ignorantly thought that I
4:00
would maintain that amount of leanness just by going back to
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my normal maintenance phase. I thought, well, I will just
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maintain at this phase and go back to eating my sweet
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potatoes, my rice. Oh my gosh, I blew up.
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I think I gained 15 lbs in two weeks.
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And I'm not kidding you. And if you're a figure
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competitor, you're not surprised.
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And I was much younger at the time, so I got it sorted out.
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My hormones recovered. But if you are a woman over the
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age of 35, you cut carbs too low and you are going to lose
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muscle, slow your metabolism and keep if not gain belly fat even
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if you are training hard and eating next to nothing.
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First I want to touch on why your age matters.
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Why does it matter more at the age of 35 and beyond if you are
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not getting enough carbs? In terms of your body's
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composition, starting at age 35, your body is experiencing
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hormonal shifts. OK, they might be really
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moderate if not unidentifiable or non existent at 35, but as
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those years creep on 3637, those hormonal shifts are wreaking
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havoc in your body. And that's normal.
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It's natural. It's completely what your body
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is supposed to do as it ages. Now, if you're age 40 and
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beyond, you are well aware of the hormonal fluctuations that
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your body is going through. You can see it, you can feel it,
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you can and identify all the frustrations that come along
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with those hormonal shifts. And it's not just hormonal
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shifts. After the age of 35, you are
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losing muscle every single year and your recovery time is
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slower. So carbs are not a threat.
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They are a tool. They are a tool.
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Carbs do not make you fat. They make your muscle building
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machinery work, but that does not by any means mean that you
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should go sit down and have a doughnut and say it's helping,
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because it's not. It's all about what kind of
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carbs you're getting. And I have learned through
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working with women that it is really helpful for me to go
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through what that means in terms of what carbs are acceptable and
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which carbs are not. And I won't say they're not
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acceptable. They're just not ideal, right?
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Because if we have a goal of dropping fat and gaining muscle,
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we're going to talk about carbs in a factual way.
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And there are carbs that are ideal for that and there are
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carbs that are not ideal for that.
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So I don't even need to go through the bad carbs because if
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it doesn't have a mom or come from the ground, that's a bad
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carb. Let's go through the good carbs,
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the carbs that are going to fuel our fat burning machine.
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OK, good carbs, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, but
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you can also have sourdough bread, sprouted grain bread,
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sweet potatoes. Those are all fantastic carb
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sources. But keep in mind you need to
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pair that with a protein when you eat it because that's going
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to balance your blood sugar. You pair it with the protein and
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that moderates your blood sugar. That's important.
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I just want to share a little quote from the Goat Sims about
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carbohydrates being paired with protein.
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Carbohydrate Co ingestion with protein significantly increases
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MPs which is muscle protein synthesis building muscle in
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women due to heightened insulin sensitivity around training.
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That was in 2020. Here is another one.
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Without adequate carbs, women may fail to trigger the full
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anabolic response to training, regardless of of protein intake.
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That's from the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and
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Exercise, and it was in 2020. What that means is even if you
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are eating as much protein as I am always preaching about and
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everybody else is preaching about, that's great, but it's
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not going to trigger the full anabolic response to training.
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So you are not going to see the full anabolic response to your
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training if you are not eating enough carbs.
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OK, back to talking about what are the good carbs.
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And I know I listed veggies and fruit and I know what you're
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thinking. You are thinking vegetables are
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not carbs and who would even count fruit as a carb?
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Well, we don't in America and look at our population.
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But they are every other society.
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Every other culture does not view fruits and vegetables as a
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sideline item. Fruits and vegetables are the
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main course and then you have some protein sprinkled in.
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Our Americanized plates are just a big slab of meat or you know,
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a ton of noodles. And vegetables are irrelevant.
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They are non existent. But vegetables and fruits, those
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are the carbs we're going after. Those are the carbs that are
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ideal for body composition. When we talk about body
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recomposition for women above the age of 35 or body
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recomposition in general, it is a formula.
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Carbs plus protein plus lifting, not just a calorie deficit.
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And that is so hard for me to accept.
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I, I constantly fall back into that eliminating carbs in
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general mindset. It's been really hard for me to
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overcome that actually in the last few years.
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But it is so imperative it, I was forced to overcome that when
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I was not seeing the results because carbs do not make you
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fat. They make your muscle building
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machinery work. The low carb approach, the zero
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carb approach that men can do that was not designed for women.
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I think I mentioned this in a previous episode, but those
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foundational nutritional studies about how women drop bat, those
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were conducted on young, healthy, active men, not women.
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We are physiologically different.
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What that means is the studies that analyze how carbohydrates
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affect body fat, those do not account for hormonal
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fluctuations, perimenopause or female specific metabolism.
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So if we are going to apply those protocols to women, it has
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really adverse effects, especially on your energy and
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your hormone balance. It might work in the beginning,
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but then you're always going to have this feeling of being wired
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and tired. And I, anybody who knows me
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knows that I battle that always. And what I have been doing a lot
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of studying on and re studying and rereading because it is so
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deeply ingrained in me. And what I have learned is that
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after age 35A low carb, low calorie approach is the literal
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perfect storm to derail all the progress that you've been making
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in the gym, in the kitchen. It is the perfect storm to undo
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that. So a few things happen when
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women follow that advice of doing low carb, low calorie.
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Now I just want to add this in because you have to be in a
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calorie deficit to drop that. That is facts.
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It is the law of thermodynamics, it's true.
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But there's a difference between going in a calorie deficit and
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starving yourself. If you are sitting at a thousand
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1100 calories a day, none of which are from carbs, you are
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starving yourself. That is going to unravel all of
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your progress. You are going to be larger in
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the stomach than you were before you started crash dieting.
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OK, So what exactly does go wrong when women follow the
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advice of going super low carb and super low calorie?
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Number one, you have a reduced insulin sensitivity.
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What does that mean? It means your body doesn't
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respond to insulin well. So normally you eat carbs and
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that insulin helps shuttle glucose into your muscles for
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energy and storage. But if you have a reduced
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sensitivity, which means your muscles don't hear insulin as
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well, which means more glucose stays in your blood and your
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body stores more as fat. So remember this when you hear
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the term reduced insulin sensitivity.
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Because to me, I was like, what does that even mean?
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Reduced insulin sensitivity means you're going to have a
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higher blood sugar and fat storage, especially around the
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belly. That's your body's response.
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Another thing that happens when you are doing way too low carb
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and way too low calorie is you have cortisol increases.
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That happens from the stress and the under fueling and that also
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equates to more belly fat and muscle loss.
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The two exact things we do not want to happen when you are
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trying to look toned. As much as I hate that word #3
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muscle protein synthesis slows down.
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So that means how your body is building muscle that slows down
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without insulin, that's triggered by carbs.
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And the fourth thing that happens when you go drastically
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low calorie, low carb is your thyroid function.
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Your T3 drops under chronic carb restriction and that slows your
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metabolic rate. I know you know what that means.
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That means you are burning less calories at rest.
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All of these things are the exact opposite of what you want
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to happen in your physique. If you are listening to this
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podcast, you want less body fat, you want more muscle because
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those two components combined give you that toned look.
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To put it simply, when you look at a woman body, we need carbs
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to burn fat because our bodily systems need carbs to function,
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to get the mitochondria working, to get those free fatty acids
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that are in our blood, not to be stored, but to be used as
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energy. If we want body recomposition,
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we have to fuel for that, and fuel includes carbs.
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Now, I have a few clients who are women above the age of 50 or
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just before 50, and they had this problem.
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They were so active, they were so fit, but they had complaints
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about belly fat. They had complaints about their
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overall physique. And these are metabolically
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active women. So when you are too
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metabolically active, your brain says, hey, I need to break down
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the most energy expensive part of your body, which is going to
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be your muscle. Since you're not giving it
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enough carbs to fuel for what the task at hand is, it's going
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to breakdown your muscle first. O When that happens, if you are
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a super active woman and you're struggling with belly fat, you
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are not fueling appropriately. You're going to put on belly
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fat. It's subcutaneous fat.
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So again, for my super active ladies, many of which are my
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clients, my super active ladies who are above the age of 35,
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this is their number one complaint.
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But they're barely eating, They're moving a ton and they're
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sporting a little tummy. They look puffy.
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In their mind they have an idea of how they should look because
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that's how they're training and they're barely eating but they
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can't sleep. It's because their bodies are in
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a sympathetic Dr. They are in this super high stress state.
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There is not enough nutrients in and your body is ready to fight
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or flight. So when not fueled
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appropriately, your body goes for that most expensive part,
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which is your muscle, and it takes that apart and you're left
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with a skinny fat look, a flabby tummy, whatever you call it,
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it's not what you want because all that hard work is being
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wasted. And if you're transitioning into
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menopause, unfortunately there is a big shift in your body
14:58
composition regardless of what you do.
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It's a hormonal change and it's, it's natural.
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It's totally natural, but it is also under a sympathetic Dr.
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just because of the onset of menopause.
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You know, that's what I talked about where you're tired, but
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you're wired. Your body is naturally in this
15:13
state of OverDrive and that's why we have to feed the body and
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train appropriately. So if we are fueling the body
15:22
properly and we are training the right way, our organs, they just
15:26
start working better. They work Better Together, which
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stops our body from having that visceral fat, that belly fat,
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and it allows our body to use the fatty acids for energy
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instead, even when it rest. And it also helps muscles to
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pull glucose more easily without relying on insulin, which
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improves your overall for all metabolic health.
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But if we don't give the body enough fuel, if we are taking
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away all of our carb source, if we are in too steep of a caloric
15:53
deficit, none of those processes can happen.
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They don't happen efficiently. And what happens is you store
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the belly fat, as I mentioned before.
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So as our episode approaches an ending, I want to go over
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briefly a quick synopsis of what we talked about.
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So what happens without enough carbs?
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You eat protein, you lift weights, but muscle protein
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synthesis stays really low because your insulin isn't
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triggered. So even though you're doing
16:21
everything right, your body cannot build or maintain that
16:25
muscle. And believe me, I can speak to
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this. I was going in extreme carb
16:31
deficits to try and drop weight. I'm like, what is going on?
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Why am I losing muscle mass? That never happened to me in my
16:37
early years. It really didn't.
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Why was I, why was I gaining belly fat?
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Your body is different. You have to give it enough fuel
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so that all the systems work properly to shuttle that body
16:47
fat out. Because what's happening is
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instead of losing body fat, you might.
16:52
The scale will tip downward, but it's going to be water weight,
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it's going to be glycogen, It's not going to be body fat, and
16:57
you're actually going to burn muscle instead of fat, which in
17:01
turn will slow your metabolism and give you that skinny fat
17:04
look. You'll feel tired, inflamed,
17:06
bloated. It's just an overall stuck
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feeling and it sucks. But what happens with enough
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carbs? And we're going to go over how
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much that is because I know in your head you're probably
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thinking sweet, how many sweet potatoes can I have during the
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day? Enough.
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Probably not as much as you're thinking, but enough.
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So what happens with enough carbs at the right time?
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Your carb intake triggers insulin, which is great because
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then it shuttles nutrients like protein into muscle, flips the
17:32
switch on muscle building. So we are engaging that muscle
17:36
protein synthesis process we are building and it supports your
17:39
recovery and your hormone balance and gives you enough
17:42
energy. If you've ever gone super low
17:44
carb, you are burned out. You're burned out.
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But when you're eating enough carbs, you have that energy
17:50
back. And if you combine it with
17:51
strength training, now you are preserving that hard earned
17:55
muscle and you're even building muscle.
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So with enough carbs, you are preserving and building muscle.
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You are burning more fat. And I promise you, talk to any
18:02
of my clients, they can attest to that.
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And you are going to keep that lean, strong shape and you're
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going to feel energized instead of depleted.
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Now let's talk about carb timing because you want a little bit of
18:13
carbs with each of your meal. And I touched on you're going to
18:16
be eating a lot more vegetables. Yes, there's carbs and
18:18
vegetables. That's a normal realization for
18:21
anybody else but an American. Vegetables, fruits, those are
18:25
your main dish. Now, I've noticed a lot of
18:27
people will call this disordered eating rhetoric.
18:30
They will say, oh, you're only eating filler foods if you're in
18:34
a caloric deficit. A filler food meaning a bunch of
18:37
vegetables because they are filling but not high in
18:39
calories. What's wrong with that?
18:42
What it literally what is wrong with that?
18:45
There is nothing wrong with eating filler foods.
18:48
It is not disordered eating rhetoric.
18:51
That's a healthy eating practice.
18:54
Maybe not to an average American, but that's the
18:56
problem. One of many that is not
18:58
disordered eating. Anybody can is welcome to their
19:01
opinions, but in my opinion, that's a healthy eating
19:05
practice. And if you want to sit down and
19:07
have a steak and potatoes, yeah, that's that's great too
19:10
fabulous. But if you're in a caloric
19:11
deficit and you're hungry, eat a bunch of veggies, you're you're
19:14
making a great health choice because of the micronutrients.
19:18
We'll, we'll get into that in another episode.
19:20
So you're going to want a little bit of carbs with each of your
19:22
meals throughout the day. But as the second-half of the
19:25
day passes, you want the carbs after lunch to come more from
19:29
vegetables because then you have that fiber compound and you
19:32
don't get the big spikes and blood sugar.
19:35
Because we want to signal to our hypothalamus that, hey, you do
19:39
not need to be storing this fat. We are going to be fed again.
19:43
Let go of this body fat. Use it as fuel.
19:47
You want to keep signaling that to the hypothalamus by eating
19:50
meals throughout the day. That way it knows it's safe
19:53
here. This is a safe place.
19:54
We don't need to store the belly fat.
19:56
Let it go. We're going to get fed again.
19:58
No worries. And as Doctor Stacey Sims says,
20:01
she talks about training and lifting weights as a way.
20:04
To kind of manipulate the signals we send to the brain to
20:07
change our body's composition. That's what we're doing.
20:10
We're signaling to the brain, hey, let go of this fat, let's
20:13
build muscle. We're never training fast it
20:16
ever. Never.
20:18
You're always eating before and after training.
20:20
We do not abide by the same training principles as men.
20:24
We're not men because if you're doing silly things like fasting
20:28
and believe, believe me, I've fasted this year.
20:30
Even I learned the hard way. If you are doing things like
20:32
fasting, you are signaling to that hypothalamus we're in
20:37
trouble. We have a lot of stuff to
20:39
accomplish. She's asking us to run and lift
20:42
things and I don't have enough nutrients to accomplish these
20:45
tasks that are being demanded of me.
20:47
So I better store this body fat because I know what she's going
20:51
to ask me to do it again tomorrow.
20:52
She's been doing it for years. That's why I'm going to keep
20:55
harboring this body fat exactly where you don't want it, in your
20:58
belly. That's what your hypothalamus is
21:00
thinking, OK, how you're going to use carbs strategically to
21:05
build muscle and burn fat. So how you're going to use carbs
21:08
to continue body recomposition? You're going to have a pre
21:13
workout with carbs and it's only maybe 15 to 30 grams of fast
21:17
digesting carbs. What is that?
21:19
Bananas, dates, rice cakes, oats, honey.
21:23
And this blunts your cortisol. It fuels your performance.
21:26
OK, so pre workout, 15 to 30 grams toast workout, you get a
21:31
big one here, 30 to 40 grams of carbs plus 20 to 30 grams of
21:36
protein. This is going to support your
21:37
recovery after you tore those muscles up in the gym.
21:40
And if you're recovering, you are building you that protein is
21:43
getting shuttled into those muscles where you have those
21:45
microscopic tears from lifting. And it's patching up the holes
21:48
we're building. And then it's replenishing your
21:50
glycogen. And other benefits of having
21:53
your carbs post workout is it improves your sleep quality and
21:56
it improves your metabolic rate. OK.
21:58
This is going to increase your metabolism.
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And as I mentioned, you're going to have a little bit of carbs
22:04
with each of your meals, but try to keep those carbs to things
22:07
like whole carbs, oats, sweet potatoes, quinoa, berries.
22:11
And then the second-half of the day, you want your carbs more
22:14
from veggies, fruit. This is a quote from Doctor
22:17
Stacey Sims. Timing carbs around your
22:20
training is one of the most powerful body recomposition
22:23
tools women have, but most are told to fear them.
22:27
To fear carbs. That's me.
22:29
I am 100% afraid of carbs. And as I rewire all of my
22:35
thought processes to align with this new way of thinking and
22:39
training and doing this polarizing method, I am seeing
22:43
progress. But I am learning the hard way.
22:45
I've been learning the hard way for two years.
22:48
And it's hilarious because I had a nutritional certification
22:50
about a year ago. So funny how opposite it is to
22:53
all of this. Because it doesn't apply to us.
22:55
It's different. It's different after age 35.
22:58
S keep learning alongside me. I'm learning every day.
23:01
Let's go over that learning objective one more time.
23:04
By the end of this episode, you'll understand why carbs are
23:07
essential for women over 35 to build muscle, burn fat, body
23:11
recomposition and balance hormones, and how cutting them
23:14
too low can actually sabotage your progress.
23:19
Now here's the take away. Carbs are your recomposition
23:23
weapon, not your enemy. If you're 35 and beyond training
23:28
and cutting carbs, you're sabotaging yourself.
23:31
Believe me, I've been learning this the hard way the last two
23:34
years of my life. So these big mental blocks we
23:37
have in our brain with carbs, we need to tear them down after age
23:42
35. We need to tear them down.
23:43
But that does not mean you get to sit down with a bag of potato
23:46
chips and and think that's going to help you with your
23:49
recomposition journey. It's not, it's about the right
23:52
kind of carbs. It's about timing your carbs.
23:55
And I'm going to provide a little resource in the show
23:58
notes, a list of carbs that are great choices for women and
24:02
anyone in general. And I'm also going to put a
24:05
little blueprint for how you can time your carbs throughout the
24:07
day. And this is a general rule of
24:08
thumb for women above the age of 35.
24:11
Just kind of a bare bones outline of when you should eat
24:15
your carbs and how much you should be consuming and what
24:17
those carbs should consist of. So thank you again for joining
24:21
me. I love any and all feedback you
24:23
can send my way. It all helps me to deliver
24:27
information to you that is helpful.
24:29
I absolutely love teaching and appreciate every single listener
24:33
that tunes in each week with me. Have a fantastic day and you
24:36
will hear me again next week.