(0:41) Welcome
Hello listeners! Welcome to Memorial Day weekend!We have the bathing suit show for you this week!Stacy and Sarah are both seeing a ton of ads popping up, pushing summer six-pack shameStacy is seeing a lot of people speak up about pushing back against this pressureThis is a guaranteed soap box show with lots of tangents, but trust that there will be tons of science as wellStacy has witnessed the clap-back against certain influencers within InstagramCelebrities calling out other celebrities for endorsing products that are actually destructive towards your healthThis week Stacy and Sarah will be talking about feelings, bodies, health, all the things that summer gives us the feels forBut first, a big thank you and shout out to this week's episode sponsor, JoovYou know Stacy and Sarah both personally use and love their productsIf you are interested in learning more about their products and how Stacy and Sarah use their Joov, be sure to visit https://joovv.com/paleoviewSarah sees the beach body marketing as nothing more than predatory marketingIt gets people on the yo-yoWhen we buy into this marketing, we end up in a cycle of poor self-worthWe then put ourselves on a restrictive diet and we lose the weight we think we are supposed to lose for summer so that we can fit what society tells us we are supposed to look likeAnd then we maintain that for a couple of months, but when fall comes we fall into a weight gain period through the holidaysThere are so many people this is true forWe end up having this cyclical weight loss and weight gainThis yo-yo dieting is actually more harmful to our health than just staying overweightGoing back and forth and cycling is way more harmful than loving our bodies, focusing on health, nutrients, activity, sleep, and managing stressWherever you are feeling uncomfortable (as it pertains to your summer experiences), Stacy and Sarah hope to help you find ways to recalibrate your thinkingUltimately the yo-yo mindest isn't just unhealthy physically, but it is also very unhealthy mentally and it puts us in a cycle of shame and negativityYears ago Stacy wrote a post about disordered eatingand when/why/how to take a look at your eating choices to avoid disordered eating behaviorsPeople need to be careful about even yo-yoing within the Paleo template with challengesIt is so hard on your body and is so hard on your emotionsThis will really take a toll on how you are able to enjoy your summerStacy shared how her body shame from when she was young impacted her summers, and how her mindset shifted when she had kidsShe realized that she didn't want that shame mindset to impact her children and her experiences with themWhen you let go of these "ideals" the healthier you are mentally and the healthier you are physically because you aren't hiding during the summer - you are getting out there, living and being activeIt is so important to push outside of our comfort zone, know that it is going to be uncomfortable at first, but it will be so worth it(11:01) The Physical Impact of Yo-Yo Dieting
Sarah wants to get into the physical side of thisWhy to let go of the mentality of having to look a certain way in order to have fun in the summer so that you can get away from yo-yo dietingWhen we are losing weight, we lose both body fat and lean muscle massIt is very challenging to design a plan to preserve muscle mass through fat lossIt is not impossible, but most of the go-to ways for weight loss lead to muscle lossWith most strategies, you are going to lose about a pound of muscle per pound of fat lostThis is a typical body composition change while you are losing weight, especially through rapid weight loss strategiesEx: keto, low carb, severe calorie restriction, carb cyclingThe only way to avoid this is to eat a lot of protein and to carefully factor in the lifestyle pieces (like weight training, lots of sleep, and stress management)How much muscle you have on your body, versus how much fat you have on your body, is a better predictor of healthIf you have a lot of fat on your body, but you have a lot of muscle on your body as well, you don't have an increased risk of chronic health problems compared to someone who is "skinny fat"When we lose weight, especially rapidly, we are losing that important muscle massAnd then when we fall off the wagon and gain that weight back it is easier to put fat back on rather than muscleThere is a lot of science looking at people who have gone through multiple weight loss cycles (aka the yo-yo) and these studies show that these people over time keep increasing their body fat percentagesThis causes a greater increase in risk for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseaseIt would have been healthier to just stay at the starting (higher) weight than to yo-yoIt is really important to emphasize that there are ways to lose weight in healthy waysHowever, the equation boils down to focusing on the health part versus the weight partAvoid the mentality of having to look a certain way so that we sacrifice health in order to be a certain weightThis is exactly what yo-yo dieting isEven at the 10/15 pound cycle level, it is gradually shifting body composition over the cycles towards one that increases the risk of chronic diseaseIt is sacrificing health for weightStacy is so in love with everything that Sarah said wants her to physically drop the micThe news article Stacy and Sarah discussThe graphs Stacy mentioned:Stacy shared her experience with losing a massive amount of weight multiple times and what happened when she went back to her "normal life" and how this impacted her over timeMore info on the study that produced the graph:13 of the 14 Biggest Loser contestants regained the weight they lost4 of them are heavier now than they were before the competitionAnd nearly all of the contestants have slower metabolisms than before the competition and burn fewer calories than expectedIt makes it so much harder to not gain weight when your metabolism and hormones are all out of whack from having this huge loss and then regainThe other thing to consider with weight loss is that you are releasing hormones that are stored in your body fat every time you lose weightSome of these can be negative as wellSo every time you lose weight you are putting yourself in a detox cycle with every yo-yoLet's say together as a community of friends that it is silly to subscribe to the idea that you have to look a certain way to enjoy your summerSarah notes that the reason she included this graph in this week's show notes is because we have learned a lot from the Bigger Loser contestants in terms of why weight loss maintenance is so hardThe science shows that pretty much every diet can help you lose weightIt isn't actually hard to lose weight - it is hard to keep it offStatistics for years have shown that approximately 80% of people will gain the weight back over a five year period after a substantial weight lossThe Biggest Loser contestants showed that this is because losing the weight so quickly tanked their metabolismTheir metabolism never recoveredThis is likely because of the loss of lean body massOur muscles burn a lot more calories than other parts of our bodyOur brains burn about 25% of our calories and our muscles burn most of the restIf we are losing muscle mass that directly impacts our basal metabolic rateThe other impact here is on thyroid functionOur thyroid hormones are directly controlling our metabolismThere are now a variety of studies showing that rapid weight loss can reduce thyroid functionThere was a study published in 2017 showing that very low carb and ketogenic diets can actually cause hyperthyroidismThis then requires thyroid hormone replacementRapid weight loss has a pretty big effect on metabolismIf your metabolism takes a small dip every single time you are losing weight because of the impact of thyroid function and loss of lean mass and it doesn't fully recover as you gain weight, your metabolism is slowly going downThis means that you need fewer calories to lose your weightYou end up chasing your deficits because you need a bigger and bigger caloric deficit in order to successfully lose weight every cycleTo compound this, there is this additional effect on ghrelinGhrelin is our hormone hunger that is the highest right before we eatIt is the hormone that is responsible for us feeling hungryIt is a really important hormone that feeds into a number of systems within our bodyThere are studies that show that people who lose weight double their baseline ghrelinSo when you lose weight quickly you reduce your basal metabolic rate and you increase your ghrelin so that you are hungrierYou are basically creating a situation where you are setting yourself up to failIf the only focus is that you must be ripped/thin, and the focus is not on health, these are the consequences(26:33) Thinness vs. Health
Sarah feels that there are a lot of myths around weight lossThe focus is still on "how to trick your body" and "how to become a fat burning machine"These taglines are the wrong focusMost of us are probably healthier heavier than we think we need/want to be because having a little bit of extra stored energy is important for hormone regulationThere are so many ways of measuring health that have nothing to do with the number on the scale or what size clothes we wear, and these measures are far more importantLooking at hormones, insulin sensitivity, inflammation, body composition - these are all better predictors of chronic disease predictors and overall healthWe get in this cycle where we evaluate health based on a comparison between us and the cover of Sports Illustrated, which is not a picture of healthNow we are sacrificing our health to try to achieve this misguided idealIt's far more important to focus on getting healthy to get thin instead of focusing on getting thin to get healthyThe hardest thing that Sarah has had to learn in her own health journey is the words thin and healthy don't actually have the same definitionStacy brought up a great example of how this situation can go the other way when someone is sick and losing weight when they don't want toAnd this again does not mean that your body is not worthy of enjoying your summer experiencesStacy also noted that this year's Sports Illustrated bathing suit issue actually includes bodies of all sizes and is a huge stride in the right directionOver the last 50 to 60 years we have seen dietary guidelines focus on achieving low cardiovascular diseases factors and thinness, different than healthinessAfter these poor dietary guidelines have failed to achieve these goals, the conversation has gone so much more extreme, which is why these fad diets have had so much room to growThis is also why there is so much shame associated with struggling to maintain a lower body weightStep one of correcting this path that we are on as a society is redefining the conversation and the goalsDefining health in terms of how we feel, our energy levels, the easy markers in our blood to measure, mood and how we handle stress, we would go a long ways towards fixing a lot of the bad information out there in terms of what the best diet practices areThere are a lot of people who are not well and who wish they could put on lean muscle mass and focus on healthIf more of us could put ourselves in their shoes, and challenge our negative thoughts about our own weight, it would challenge what has become normal around striving for thinnessThis will also allow us to learn to focus on our healthWhat am I doing and what can I be doing to focus on my healthWe have to learn to let go of this mentality of thinness being the ideal because the ideal is health and that looks different for everythingStacy would love to challenge everyone to really change their negative thoughtsTo not just turn those off, but to learn to shift those thoughtsWhat is something positive and encouraging you can think about yourself?This will change so much about how you choose to live your lifeA mindset of negativity will snowball into disordered eating for most people, which feeds right into the yo-yo cycleThe other thing that Stacy wants to mention is this idea of 'all bodies are swimsuit/bikini bodies' can cause some confusion and be taken too farThere are so many people who then feel pressured to wear a bikiniStacy wants to encourage people to ultimately do what they feel comfortable doing, and wear what you feel comfortable wearingThere is a difference between getting outside your comfort zone and loving yourself, and pushing yourself to feel uncomfortableThis won't help it feel any betterThe 'fake it until you make it' mentality doesn't work for Sarah when it comes to body imageShe feels much better wearing something more flattering and modest since that is something she personally gravitates towardsThese are the style of clothes that make her feel prettyFind the clothing choices that make you feel beautiful(41:04) Closing Thoughts
Sarah notes that these are hard concepts to challengeEven when you feel like you are doing all of the healthy things right, it is really hard to see all the diet propaganda and not second guess yourselfFind a way to shut those influences off and to create a new bubble for yourselfLearn to focus on the most important thing, which is honoring yourself and respecting yourself enough to make the healthy choice, not the societal pressure choiceBefore this week's show is wrapped up, Stacy wants Sarah to share a bit on the new Joov Go(the good entry model), what are the best uses for this?Sarah thinks that this depends on what your goals areMost of the Joovmodels have two different wavelengths that are clinically proven to benefit different systems, but the wavelengths work independently of each otherThe JoovGo only has the red lightThis wavelength is responsible for the skin health benefits (wrinkle reduction, scar reduction, skin tightening, increase in collagen)Sarah brings her JoovGo when she travels and she notices that it has a calming effect on her and help with her sleep quality while on the roadShe will typically do two or three 10-minute sessions, moving it aroundIf you are looking to reduce inflammation or to manage pain, Sarah would suggest investing in the JoovMiniYou can build off the JoovMini, but you can't build off the JoovGoThe JoovMini allows you to experience the benefits of both wavelengthsStacy notes that Joov offers a 60-day trial and free-return policySo if you want to test the JoovGo and see how it works for you, you can give it a trySarah has a blog post on the science of Joovthat you can check out hereTo check it out, visit https://joovv.com/paleoviewThank you so much for listening this week!We hope that this information inspires you to have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and let go of all the stuff and just enjoy spending time with family and friends!
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