[SPEAKER_00]: This is episode 508.
[SPEAKER_00]: How often do you rest?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or how often do you feel rested?
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that I see with people trying to lose weight or just simply get well is that they're not very good at feeling rested.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not very good at resting.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they're chronically stressed all of the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So today I want to discuss this adrenaline cortisol shitstorm with you that is a very important part of losing weight and getting well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even as a scientist, the nutritionist I was secretly trapped in binge eating and hooked on sugar.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's be real, the so-called solutions can feel overwhelming.
[SPEAKER_00]: Calorie counting restrictive diets, weight loss pills, surgery, and even injections.
[SPEAKER_00]: By many lands down and the truth is, more nutrition facts are the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's understanding why we eat the way we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't need to be perfect to achieve great health either.
[SPEAKER_00]: That shift changed everything for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I share it here as the host of the real weight loss coach podcast, where it's my mission to help 1 million people break free from the YoYo diet cycle for good.
[SPEAKER_00]: By bringing you the conversations that really matter in nutrition, health and psychology, and I'm not afraid to challenge mainstream health advice when it doesn't stack up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's begin.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's up my healthy friends?
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to another episode of the coaching with Maddy's stuff where we like to answer questions that get asked regularly by clients or listeners or topics that are regularly discussed in the space that I think have, you know, relatively simple answers or maybe even complex answers but I try and break it down in a way that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully this makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, if you are looking to lose weight yourself, we have totally revamped the aversion of our program that is a more comfortable price than it used to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's community led and we've got a bunch of different supplements in there too for people feeling tempted by GLP1 drugs, but maybe don't want to take pharmaceuticals or get surgery or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or even if you are taking them, these supplements will certainly help you transition off those.
[SPEAKER_00]: by offering a bit of an alternative and avoiding the rebound weight loss.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are not weight loss drugs, but they help heal your mitochondria.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a supplement stack we call mitochondria sink that allows you to burn energy more cleanly and more abundantly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have many, we've got over 500 data points at this stage of anecdotal users in our communities and people have had fantastic results, not for everybody, not a solution,
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're interested in the program and all the supplements, the link is down in the show notes below to get involved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, stress, stress.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's stressed?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who isn't stressed?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's probably a better question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I want to talk a little bit too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess, you know, what stress is, why it exists, and then what we should do about it, essentially.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I guess the first thing is, our stress response evolutionarily, the way we understand it currently, is that it was evolved and designed for short, sharp threats.
[SPEAKER_00]: like running away from the bear or the lion or the other tribe that's got swords and knives and whatever else that are going to kill us or being able to elevate that stress response for a good reason which is that we're hunting or that we're protecting or whatever it might be.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was meant to be short and sharp.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we're talking seconds to minutes, you know, like somebody jumps out and says boo, you have a massive fear of response or stress response, you know adrenaline cortisol and a bunch of other things fire off in your body and then you're like,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's over, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then in theory, we should do something to actually metabolize and utilize those hormones, but often we don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the problem is with the modern life, is that these systems, these stress systems were never meant to operate for hours to days, to weeks, to years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said seconds to minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of where things should have been at stress-wise in regards to the way that our system was designed to handle it.
[SPEAKER_00]: not 24 seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reality is that modern life with all of its inputs results in constant low grade stress that kind of is just like dripping away all of the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you might be blatantly aware of what those things are, but they're not in your face knife die kill scenarios, which cause like a massive response.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there this, I might die one day if this problem continues, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of a way to conceptualize it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's just kind of coming in as this low grade threat signal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember your system, your biology, sure your brain can intellectualize and understand the difference as I explain it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But your body, it can't tell the difference between real stress, perceived stress, memories, or stories in your head.
[SPEAKER_00]: All it does is respond to the information from that you're thinking about in the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it still pumps out adrenaline cortisol even if it's an email from your boss or your kid stepped on your toe or one kid bit the other kid or money's tight.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know none of that is life threatening but your body perceives it as part of the survival response which is to put in cortisol and adrenaline and a bunch of other things into action because that then moves you into action.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess an analogy that's really useful to use in this scenario that might help the concept come together is this idea of the smoke alarm so imagine in your house the smoke alarm is going off all of the time like a hundred percent of the time and it's connected to the fire brigade and so the fire brigade rock up.
[SPEAKER_00]: put out the fire, they get everything out, all of the hoses, all of the equipment, the ladders, and they walk into the building, and every single time, it's just toast that is burning.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no fire, no one's in trouble, everyone's alive, but the alarm never stops.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the fire brigade in this situation are effectively your stress response and your immune system and all of the systems that get put into action when stress is happening, only to
[SPEAKER_00]: other than the way that we're conceptualizing and perceiving reality in our own head.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, aside from situations that are genuinely terrifying, most of the stress is in our head.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not saying you're making it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm saying the way that we process it produces a stress response.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said before that what we should do is actually metabolize and utilize those hormones that have been dumped into our blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after we don't and that can then lead to different poor decisions, but the example that I want to give is if you think about if you've ever seen a cat that Like is given a fright or has a fight with another cat or something happens as they walk away or just after they walk away you'll often see them like have this shutter this like this shutter that goes like a shiver down their spine
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe that what they're doing in that scenario is they're processing the stress and actually one thing that's really good for you to do after you realize that there's lots of stress going on is shake and move your body like shake it out, especially if you've just had an argument with your partner or a yelling match with somebody or if you something intense has just happened or you've just even sitting at your desk quietly, you've just been really triggered by something that just happened or maybe it's an awful memory or reliving you want to move your body you want to be out of process.
[SPEAKER_00]: These hormones and this cascade of different things that are dumped into your blood so that they don't then go on to do horrible things to your body, which is what I want to talk about now, which is that cortisol is a fat storage hormone and also the stress response also elevates insulin and insulin is also what one puts, you know, your blood takes sugar out of the blood and then puts it into the places that it's needed, but it also puts it into places that are not what we need, which is gaining body fat.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, only that.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's another layer that few people talk about in the context of blood sugar and insulin and that is insulin is a fat storage hormone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So not only does it put it in there, but it actually locks it up and makes it even more difficult to access when you want to burn body fat.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this whole
[SPEAKER_00]: Chronic cortisol adrenaline scenario is that the basically that the body prioritizes survival over burning fat over digestion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what it does is it just quickly says, Ah, well, let's just get it into fat stores.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can't don't have to think about it because we're focused on, you know, killing the the will the beast in front of us, despite the fact that we don't have that will the beast in front of us, right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, it's how we conceptualize it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The body can't tell the difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the body holds on to body fat because survival also comes with the possibility of starvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if we're through our survival is threatened by an animal and knife, a lack of food, famine, all of that kind of stuff, your body goes into a very intelligent process, which means it holds on to body fat, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It also drives sugar cravings because it's like, well, if there's a possible famine or danger, then we need energy to survive.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it increases your cravings for food, especially sugary foods, because they're calorie rich.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the more calories we can get into body fat, the better to survive the perceived threat.
[SPEAKER_00]: It also wrecks sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why does it wrecks sleep?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you should be up hunting.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should be awake finding solutions to these problems, so you can stop stressing and get sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's also kind of explains the people that are kind of doing everything right or at least 80% of the way 70% of the way you're doing it right and you're still not losing weight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess one of the things that really pisses me off is you've got all of these personal trainers and low education status nutritionist and health experts that beat their chest and basically talk to the fact that it's all about calorie deficit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I understand that we're all at different understandings of biology and complex molecular biological mechanisms that they're not out there for everybody to understand right but I do understand them and so this is why I get frustrated with the poor messaging by personal trainers of people that don't understand it is that they just say it's more about calorie deficit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the stress response is one perfect argument, one of many arguments that stack up very accurately in regards to explaining why the perfect mathematical caloric equation doesn't solve weight loss for everybody because stress inhibits this process and your body doesn't work on the laws of maths.
[SPEAKER_00]: right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It does maybe once you get every other system perfect and balanced or it does maybe when you're young before you've experienced enough life to for for that life to have done damage to your body, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So sure, there are some people, but there are many people, maybe millions,
[SPEAKER_00]: That this basic coloric equation doesn't work and it's okay for personal trainers and nutritionists to not understand it But I would at least like some of them to admit that hey, I don't have that level of understanding But the clients I work with seem to get results and I would also say the clients that they work with end up rebounding and ending it ended up working with a psychologist or somebody like me to figure out what the hell is going on Why do I keep ending up back here anyway?
[SPEAKER_00]: This wasn't meant to be me beating them up, but I'm just getting frustrated with this calorie deficit bullshit that Instagram and TikTok is littered with that makes you feel like you're failing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I've worked with many clients that are eating well, training, they're exhausted, they're inflamed, and they've got the supplements, they're doing all the things that isn't moving.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would say, in my personal opinion, that stress is usually the biggest factor, because even being sick and overweight, both of those things are added stresses on the system, feeling shit about the person in the mirror is added stress on the system.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, the really actually uncomfortable reality
[SPEAKER_00]: is that you've got a rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's two modes of your body.
[SPEAKER_00]: One is fight, flight, or freeze their stress responses, and the other is rest, digest, and repair.
[SPEAKER_00]: And many people that have stress issues also have gut issues, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And in order for you us to move you into fat burning, we need to be in a state of relaxation, rest, digest, repair.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can repair your gut.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your hormones will start regulating.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be able to sleep better.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of this stuff happens at its best
[SPEAKER_00]: Another mistake that people make, by the way, is when they feel like leaning into rest or recovery or any of this kind of stuff, they go to sauners and they increase the amount of times they go to the gym and they might do a bit more fasting because of that calorie deficit they're trying to achieve and this is just more stress on an already stressed body, especially if you're a woman and especially if you're a cycling woman and menstruation is what I mean by cycling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Going to the sauna, it feels good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it training more, feels good fasting, feels good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do all three of them at different times, although fellas for all the men out there, you should be taking ice packs into the sauna.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll do another episode on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the point is that's high intensity stuff that puts your body in a state of stress to respond to those stimulus stimuli.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, what I always encourage those clients to do is actually we need to hit the break.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to relax, we need to chill out, we need to self nurture, you know, and it might only be a fair period of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we might need to go a lot more nurture for the next three months than we would, you know, normal life because we're trying to recover a system that's burnt out, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: and you cannot out-train a nervous system that's stuck in overdrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess, you know, it's worth asking yourself, you know, when you sit still, do you feel relaxed or do you feel anxious or guilty?
[SPEAKER_00]: because if you're feeling anxious, then that just tells me that you're overstimulated and you're like, oh my God, I'm so uncomfortable in this piece, in this quiet, in this rest, my nervous system and my body and my brain, don't know what to do and they go into panic mode and they find a way to make me feel guilty so that I end up going and doing something.
[SPEAKER_00]: there's no rest for the wicked as they say, but also there's no rest for the good because the second that you, you're a good person, the second that you rest, all of a sudden you feel like you should be doing stuff for yourself or other people that's active.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is one thing that I would say is a consequence of the
[SPEAKER_00]: Health and wellness movement is everybody should be doing and fixing.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're actually one of the biggest solutions is actually doing nothing being peaceful, being relaxed and getting your mind to a place where you understand being peaceful and relaxed is okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have massive difficulty being in your own company and sitting in peace, then you know, maybe I'm someone that can help or maybe our programs can help.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there's some stuff going on in your head there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, it's not all this stuff that the guilt and the anxiety, they're not a personality trait for most of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're just a symptom of an overstimulated life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we can wind that back so that we can remove stress as one of the contributors to your weight gain and your cravings and your poor decisions and your poor sleep and your pitérable gut health, we can fix that, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But a massive piece of it involves actually relaxing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, if you're going to take away anything from this episode, it's that basically you're stressing your cortisol may be a much, much bigger factor in your eating and your sleep and all of the other areas of your trying to lose weight or trying to get well and healthy journey, then you might think, so you need to take it seriously.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just the word the doctor or the practitioners throw around like, are you stressed?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it's a major contributor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And the solution is rest and becoming okay with rest and managing the feelings that come up in that space when you do rest because those feelings are going to drive you back into stress because you're on a loop.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're on the hamster on the wheel.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we want to we want to break that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So whether it be the phone that you break up with for a night or for at different times of the day or whether it be less gym sessions or whether it be less food or whether it be less commitments or getting some help or reducing what's going on at home whatever it is I encourage you to pick one this week to work on so you can do it less okay stress less is the take home message or be better at managing that stress anyway if you've enjoyed this episode thanks for hanging out thanks for listening and I will see you on the next one
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, thanks for listening to the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed this episode or learned anything at all, the gift of your five-star rating would be incredibly helpful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's even more powerful is if you write a review.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can do it below each episode on Spotify, every time an episode comes out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And inside Apple Podcast, simply find the main page of this show with all the episodes on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scroll to the bottom, hit write a review, share your amazing feedback, and then hit send.
[SPEAKER_00]: It helps this show grow tremendously and allows me to successfully invite bigger and more famous guests each time we do the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, thank you for helping us climb the charts, climb the algorithm and help more people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and by the way, I have a short disclaimer as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just wanted to quickly remind you that the information provided on this podcast is for general informational purposes only.
[SPEAKER_00]: While we strive to bring you accurate and up-to-date content, it's important to note that a lot of this is mixed with opinions, stories, and ideas not supported by mainstream science or medicine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any advice or suggestions should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Always consult a healthcare provider before making any decisions about the health and wellness of you and your family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember to, that what works for one person may not work for another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just as we promote on the show, each person is responsible for their own health decisions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning into the Real Weightless Coach podcast, and now the next episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here it is!