UGH – All the Diet (and Keto) lies out there…keeping women stuck (including the scale), second guessing themselves and spinning their wheels….even I got derailed with all the myths and mistruths that didn’t apply to me – and I’m a board certified, licensed nutritionist and “expert” in the field of keto, hormones and women’s health!
But today I want to introduce you to the voice of one of my favorite clients – who’s also a recent student in my 8 week group coaching program (Weight Loss Mastery – which runs 2-3 x/year – be on the lookout for it soon!)
Margaret is in her early 50s. She heard me on a podcast – I believe it was Jimmy Moore’s. I was being interviewed by Jimmy on the topic of Menopause and Keto and she resonated with my message.
She reached out for some support with her nutrition for some stubborn ‘weight loss resistance’ and, in general, improving her health markers. With her family history she wanted to be optimal and live a long, fully functional and happy life – like we all do!
We worked together for 3 months early last year. We tweaked some things and she made some good progress. And then in the fall she joined the Weight Loss Mastery Program and it was there that she connected even more to what was keeping her last few stubborn pounds off…(despite doing everything “RIGHT”).
She’s a GREAT writer and knows the science and health industry very well, so when she shared her takeaways as we wrapped up the last group program, I asked her if I could pass them along to you because I think there’s so much value and insight here – especially on the low carb/keto nutrition side of things…
AND it’s also great to hear a slightly different perspective..not just me blabbin’ away all the time! 🙂
So hhheeeeerrre’s Margaret!:
“You know how we’ve been mislead by the USDA and the food pyramid and conventional diet advice?
In some ways, we menopausal women have also been misled by the Keto community as well. Things I realized since getting more serious about losing those last pounds and working with you:
1. I must feel hunger to be losing fat. If I am too comfortable, I’m not losing. Keto community says that keto makes it so you don’t feel hungry – ever. This isn’t true for me. Maybe when I had more fat to lose? This is the biggest myth and misconception, and I don’t know why it persists. Again, maybe for super obese people just starting keto this is the case.
2. Calories matter, but not in the way we think. It matters in terms of eating when you’re hungry. If you always eat something when you feel the slightest hunger, you won’t lose weight. At least I won’t! You can’t eat and eat and eat at every meal and feel full each time and expect to lose weight.
3. The keto community is JUST starting to say this, but you can’t overeat fat if you want to lose fat. Meaning, fry your eggs in the minimum amount of butter, not a whole tablespoon of butter. Don’t pour on the salad dressing or mayo like it’s “free calories”. Don’t be adding butter to a stew or soup to add fat and make it taste even better, if it tastes fine as is. Eating a hunk of cheese as a snack won’t help your goals. Not eating that snack will. Fat calories aren’t “free calories”. They prevent you from using your own fat stores.
4. You can’t eat 6x a day with keto snacks like cheese and salami and expect you’ll lose weight simply because you’re keto. Ketosis doesn’t mean weight loss.
5. That period of time right after you stop getting your period (menopause) is when you’ll gain 10-15 pounds and it has NOTHING to do with what you’re eating or how much you’re exercising. So relax and know it’ll come back off, as long as you work on it.
6. Yes, it does get harder to lose weight as we get older, we aren’t imagining it. Why? Because we need less food than we did when we were 20, 30 and 40. WAAAAAH! Look at the bright side, eating less calories means you’re going to live longer. It’s been a researched fact.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself! Thank you Margaret for sharing your insight and experience!
Although I do believe that weight gain in menopause involves imbalances of energy intake and expenditure based on hormones and lowered metabolic rate, it’s not JUST about the calories in/calories out. Because of the stress and hormonal shifts, women tend to gain weight during this shift, because they MAY need less food than they’re used to taking in – even if they’re taking in the same amount they always have.
Margaret’s story is a perfect example of getting unstuck just by fine tuning her nutrition approach…Unlike many of my other clients, we didn’t really have to go too much into mindset or stress, emotional eating or other aspects of her life balance because she’d already come from a balanced place…
The BIG mindset shifts for her really were around letting go of the confusion, the diet rules and dogma that FLOODS the health industry and EVERY media outlet known to womankind – no matter what camp you’re in…Plant-based, Carnivore, Paleo, Keto, Low Fat, Fasting..whatever!… there’s LOADS of opinion and dogma to wade through and rabbit holes to get lost in…and one way contradicts the other…it will make anyone BAT-💩CRAZY!
Her work really has been about shifting away from over thinking, over analyzing and instead building more connection with her own body and her results – developing self-trust and allowing her body to experience weight release with more ease, discernment and common sense vs. force, unnecessary concern and someone else’s arbitrary (or even “evidence based”) rules.
It’s OK to explore various nutrition and health philosophies and to research all the pearls, bio-hacks and nutrition approaches, but don’t let those external voices and rules drive you nuts or override your own inner wisdom and intuition.
Like for me – and for all my clients, students and readers – my mission and aim is ALWAYS to guide you, support you and encourage you to find your OWN way…to stop dieting, to stop obsessing, to stop looking for what’s WRONG – and to instead, fine tune your own inner compass, own your choices – to empower you to dismiss the rules that don’t work for you – to reject the pundits and their diet dogma (DELETE, UNSUBSCRIBE & UNFOLLOW)…AND instead, make this journey 100% yours.
