So many women over 35 feel stuck in their bodies.
They feel or have felt flabby, untoned, and completely unable
to drop fat. And this is because it's not
just you. This is because most women are
focusing on the least impactful fat loss methods like endless
cardio or cutting out all your carbs.
Today we are going to go through the five ways our bodies burn
fat, starting with the most effective and these five ways
make up what we call the fat loss pyramid.
At the base is the most effective way we drop fat
leading up to the top of the pyramid, which is the least
effective way to drop fat. We are starting at the bottom of
the pyramid where you get the most bang for your buck, and
we're heading all the way up to the top of the pyramid where
endless cardio sits. So let's get into it.
At the base of the pyramid, at the foundation at the very
bottom is the most impactful method we utilize for fat loss.
The base of the fat loss pyramid is called a calorie deficit.
You must be in a calorie deficit to lose fat.
Now you might be thinking, what is a calorie deficit?
A calorie deficit happens when you are consistently eating less
calories than your body burns through living, existing
movement, exercise. So you're eating less food than
your body burns. Now I'm going to throw some
acronyms at you. You might want to get out a pen
and paper or just mentally note what these acronyms are.
And the first one is called your TD EE.
This stands for the Total Daily Energy Expenditure, and all that
means is the number of calories your body burns in a day.
When I was first learning about these acronyms, I was like,
well, what is BMR and what is TD EE and what is TEF?
Don't even pay attention to that.
You just need to know what your total daily energy expenditure
is because that encapsulates. That includes your BMR, which is
your basal metabolic rate, just the calories burned by staying
alive, by existing. If you sat on a couch all day,
these are the calories you're burning just sitting there and
existing and not eating. It also includes your NEAT,
which is your non exercise activity.
You know, if you're a fidgeter, you have a higher NEAT.
If you are a stagnant person, a bump on a log, a couch potato,
you have a lower NEAT. It includes your exercise, which
is your structured workouts and the TEF, which just Thermo
effect of food, thermic, excuse me, effect of food.
None of those acronyms matter in this scenario.
We are paying attention to the TDE, total daily energy
expenditure and encapsulates all the other acronyms I just gave
you. That's what's important here.
So your TDE is the total number of calories your body burns in a
day. For example, we have Jessica.
Jessica is a super busy teacher. She is 40 years old, 5 foot six,
170 lbs. OK, Jessica's TD EE, which is
the calories her body burns through breathing, moving,
teaching, workouts, etcetera, is about 2200 calories a day.
So let's play out these three scenarios #1 if she is eating at
maintenance and she eats around 2200 calories a day, her body's
burning 2200 calories a day. Result, she's staying the same.
Physically, she's staying the same.
She has no reason to lose weight and she has no reason to gain
weight. Let's move into scenario #2
surplus. So now Jessica's eating 2500
calories a day. Just a tiny bump, but her body
only needs 2200 calories a day. That extra 300 calories is now
going to be stored, and a lot of times it's going to be stored as
fat, especially if you don't have a lot of lean muscle on
your body. Over time that adds up and it
adds up quickly. On one day when you're eating
ice cream and you're thinking, oh whatever, it's an extra 500
calories. OK, well, if you continue doing
that one time week, 2 * a week consistently, what do you know?
A few months later, you're 5 lbs heavier.
The last scenario scenario #3 the one we want, this is what
we're striving for, is a deficit.
We want to eat in a caloric deficit.
So Jessica's eating 1900 calories a day instead of her
2200 calories a day. Now she's missing that 300
calories a day, so her body has to dip into her fat stores.
Her body is dipping into where she stores that extra energy,
which is her fat. Now overtime that's going to
result in fat loss. Now macros matter.
Macros matter, protein matters, carbs matter, fat matters.
But what matters more than that, what is the foundation of fat
loss is that you are in a deficit because without eating
less than your body needs, you're not going to drop fat.
In regards to if that weight that's being lost comes from fat
or lean muscle, that's when we move into the protein quadrant
of the pyramid. I want to make this really clear
because after you get past the caloric deficit, this is when
you make the decision on if you want to be skinny fat or if you
want to look toned, because either way you need to drop fat.
And now that we've covered the caloric deficit, this is where
we determine where that fat comes from.
And here is where a lot of women make a huge mistake because tier
#2 of the pyramid is the factor that's going to determine what
you look like as you drop fat. Are you going to look skinny fat
and flabby and damage your metabolism and gain it all back
times 10? Or are you going to eat enough
protein so that that weight loss does not come from lean muscle
mass and fat, but primarily from fat, leaving you with your lean
muscle to look toned and fit, leaving you with a higher
metabolism so you can eat more, fuel more, feel better?
This is where programs like Weight Watchers make me want to
bang my head against a wall because it is not just about
calories in, calories out. Without enough protein within
that calorie deficit, the weight you lose is primarily going to
come from lean muscle. That's that's just the brakes.
We are moving right along the fat loss pyramid into the
protein quadrant. We have Jessica.
She has now gotten into a deficit.
She's eating 1900 calories instead of her 2200 calories.
Maintenance check. Most important component of fat
loss. Done the deficit check.
Now we have two other scenarios to cover.
Scenario #1 Jessica is only going to eat 70 grams of protein
per per day. This is not ideal.
Jessica wants to be 140 lbs. So on the lower end, Jessica's
protein goal every single day should be 140 grams of protein,
the same number that she wants to weigh.
So if you're Jessica and you want to weigh 140 lbs, then you
should be eating 140 grams of protein per day.
Just like Jessica is not doing bad Jessica.
She's eating 70 grams of protein per day, but she's going to lose
weight because she's in a deficit.
Now here's the horrendous part that all of us have done. 50% of
the weight she's going to lose is going to be her muscle and
water, not her fat. 50% of that weight loss is muscle and water.
So now Jessica weighs 140 lbs, but she's still in a bigger pant
size than she envisioned. She still looks the same as she
did when she was larger because she is skinny fat.
She lost all her muscle. She has no tone.
OK, now we have all been Jessica.
We have all done those crash diets.
We didn't count our protein. We ended up looking skinny fat.
We gained it all back. Now Jessica's going to do what
we have all done. And if you haven't done it yet,
now is the time. She's going to do it again, but
this time she's going to follow the protein guidelines for women
above the age of 35. So now, every day, Jessica is
eating 140 to 150 grams of protein every single day, and
she's still losing weight because she's in a deficit,
meaning she is eating less calories than her body needs to
maintain her current larger size.
That weight loss, every pound that clicks down off the scale
is primarily coming from her fat stores and not her lean muscle,
not her water mass. It is coming from her body's fat
stores. The result?
Jessica looks stronger. She looks more toned.
She looks tighter. She looks more defined.
It is true body recomposition when you drop fat and you gain
or maintain your lean muscle and you are much smaller overall.
And the best part, by giving your body what it needed, which
was adequate protein, you have a higher metabolism, you have
healthier hormones which affect every aspect of your life.
Boom, good job Jessica. She has hit the bottom
foundation of the pyramid which is the calorie deficit.
This is what you need to make any kind of fat loss possible.
Boom, she hit the protein intake, the second tier that
protects her muscle. You can even build muscle while
in a calorie deficit. This this was debatable 15 years
ago. You can.
The science shows you can. And eating enough protein
ensures she's not just smaller, she's not just skinny fat, but
she is leaner, stronger, and more metabolically resilient.
Meaning you can have those cheat days, you can eat those treats,
you can do those things way more often because your body is
metabolically resilient. You have increased your resting
metabolism because you increased your lean muscle mass.
I remember this line. This is key.
Calories decide if you lose weight.
Protein decides if that weight that is lost is from fat or
muscle. Calories decide if you lose
weight. Protein decides if that weight
is from fat or muscle. You want it to be from fat.
We don't want skinny fat, we want strong.
OK, so calories have set the stage.
The protein has protected Jessica's muscle.
She is now moving into the third quadrant, the third tier of our
fat loss pyramid, which is lifting weights.
Now, lifting weights is my favorite pastime.
I just want to preface this section because so many women
are so lacking in the confidence arena.
They don't want to walk on a gym floor.
They don't. They don't want to take up
space. They don't want to touch the
dumbbells. They don't want to wait for a
machine. They don't want to feel awkward.
You have to get over that. You have to.
Nobody's looking at you. Nobody cares.
The only person who cares is you.
And the only thing you care about is how you look to other
people. So get your butt out there.
Lift your weights, take up space because you are not there for
anybody else besides yourself. You are not there for anybody
else in that gym besides yourself.
So who cares what they think? And I promise you from somebody
who has been in the gym for 15 years, anybody who is
consistently in that gym, if we see somebody who has never
touched a weight walking around like a lost puppy, the only
feeling that we have towards you is admiration.
Total admiration. Because every woman who is a
seasoned lifter who has been on that floor knows the feeling
that you are going through. And we are only looking at you
in the same way that you might look at a child at the park who
is getting on a bike and you see them falling down and you know
they don't want to try again, but they do.
And you in your head are just cheering them on.
You are happy for them. You want to help them, but you
don't want to make them feel uncomfortable.
We all feel that way when we see women enter the gym floor.
We are happy you're there. OK?
Jessica is now on the weight floor.
She is in a caloric deficit. She is eating enough protein and
now she is lifting weights because that is what's actually
going to build and shape her body.
Lifting weights is what's going to build and tone your body, not
endless cardio, because every time you lift a weight, you are
applying a stressor on that muscle.
You're applying a stressor on that muscle and that signals
your body body. It signals your body to say,
hey, I need this muscle. Don't let it go.
I know we're in a caloric deficit and you're going to
start letting go of things we're holding on to like fat.
But the first thing your body is going to want to do is let go of
muscle because it's the most metabolically expensive tissue
in the body. And the only way that you can
signal to your body, hey, keep this is by eating enough protein
and by lifting weights. It's truly telling your nervous
system hold on to this. We obviously I need it.
I need to preface this next part.
Runner ladies, I love you. I have many runner friends.
But if you are just running, your body's not going to hold on
to those muscles. You're not going to have a lot
of shape. You are running your body.
The last thing your body needs is muscle.
So without lifting, but if you're still in a caloric
deficit, you will have a skinny fat but smaller version of
yourself. So the weights in combination
with the protein, that's what sculpts your body.
That is body recomposition. Remember this line, protein
protects your muscle while you're in a deficit, but lifting
weights improves it. That's how you go from just
losing weight to actually reshaping your body.
All right, Jessicas, moving into the 4th tier of fat loss, the
one I am so afraid to talk about because I am horrible.
I am so horrible at this one. It is sleep.
Sleep is the 4th tier of fat loss.
Jessica is in a deficit, which is the foundation of the
pyramid. She's hitting her protein goals,
which is the next layer. She's lifting weights.
Now, if Jessica's constantly running on five hours of sleep,
her body is going to fight her. So that lack of sleep raises her
hunger hormones, which is called ghrelin, and it lowers your
satiety hormones. I can never say satiety.
Satiety, basically what makes you feel full, which is her
leptin and makes her crave quick carbs, quit carbs like chips or
Cheetos or candy. Those are quit carbs.
Plus, she's not going to be able to recover from those lifting
sessions. I am Jessica.
I'm literally my face is getting warm because this is this is me.
But I really, I'm really doing everything I can to remedy that.
So under the guise of Jessica, I'm going to continue talking
about how horrible I am at this tear.
So sleep is not the foundation. It's not as critical in terms of
losing fat as being in a deficit.
And the other two, which was lifting weights and protein.
But it's like the support beams, OK?
It keeps everything else standing strong.
And you need 7 to 9 quality hours of sleep if you are
somebody like me who is constantly on go.
I don't know if I'm just born that way, but I, I swear I was.
I've been just naturally on speed since the day I was born.
I'm an early riser. I move, I go, I don't stop
talking. It's just the way it was made.
But now I'm 37 years old and it is doing a massive disservice to
me. So I'm in the process of
remedying that. I'm getting my hormone panels
done in the next few weeks. But until then, I'm going to
talk about the the havoc that low sleep has wreaked on my
body. So #1 getting less than 7 to 9
hours of sleep, which that's hard for me to even say because
I'm so jealous of anybody who can naturally just do that.
The first negative impact is the hormone regulation.
So having poor sleep increases ghrelin, which is the hunger
hormone. It decreases leptin, the
fullness hormone. And this makes Jessica, AKA me,
hungrier and more likely to crave high sugar, high fat
foods. And they do this makes a calorie
deficit so incredibly hard. It really does.
I have a lot of mental tricks up my sleeve that I pull out when
I'm in this type of phase, this mental phase at night where I
want all the fats and treats I do.
One of them is to just brush my teeth.
Another one is to have tea. And that taste in your mouth
just kind of puts you in a state of relaxation and not not needy
enough to get off the couch or get out of bed to go get some
snack foods. Although I have done it.
The other thing, cortisol rises with lack of sleep, which not
only increases your fat storage bridge, especially belly fat,
but also makes muscle recovery slower.
Definitely seeing that in my body composition.
I've never struggled with sleep quite as much as I do now.
And I'm in the process of just checking all the boxes, trying
to do all the things before I go down a more intense route of
remedying the lack of sleep situation.
But the biggest thing that happens, well, the biggest thing
in my mind that happens while you're sleeping in deep sleep is
the body releases growth hormone.
And growth hormone is crucial for repairing the muscle that
you tore while you're lifting. Because when you're lifting,
you're putting tiny little microscopic tears in your
muscle. That muscle needs to be repaired
in order to get bigger and stronger and give your body that
toned look. That can only happen if you have
enough deep sleep because that is the only time your body
releases growth hormone. Very unfortunate for me.
Not without that sleep. Jessica may train hard, but her
muscles are not going to recover optimally, which means less
strength gain and less visible definition.
Horrible. And when Jessica and I under
sleep, our workouts are heavier, our motivation drops, our form
suffers, it blows our training session, it blows our calorie
burn. It really is pretty
counterproductive to even go in for a lifting session when I'm
running on five hours of sleep. But since I have habits and
systems so deeply ingrained in my body, I can't skip it.
I'm sorry, I'm a flawed human. I won't.
I just go there and go through the actions and then go home
annoyed that I didn't sleep. I'm working on it.
It also, studies have shown that chronic sleep restriction
decreases insulin sensitivity, which just means it makes it
harder for your body to use carbs for energy and instead
store them as fat. Atrocious.
Horrible. So bottom line, sleep doesn't
directly cause fat loss? Like a calorie deficit, but
without it, Jessica's body and my body and your body is working
against you because more hunger means harder to stick to the
deficit, slower muscle recovery, which means less definition, and
higher cortisol, which means more fat storage.
Here's the key line for this. If protein and lifting are how
you shape your body, sleep is the recovery tool that locks
those results in. And last but not least, and also
one of my favorite methods that I overuse all the time, cardio.
The 5th and final tier of the fat loss pyramid.
Now, cardio, cardio is pretty much where all women start to
lose fat and that's where they start spinning their wheels
because they are on that elliptical, that treadmill, that
stair climber for hours a day. And they're like, why do I just
feel tired? Look, puffy, can't eat anything.
When I do, I blow up. Well, it's because you started
at the top of the pyramid instead of the bottom.
And nothing's going to happen until we go from the bottom up.
Now cardio has its place. I'm a cardio lover.
Cardio is awesome for your heart health, for your stamina, but it
is not the driver of fat loss. OK, so if Jessica tries to
outrun her fork, she's just going to end up exhausted,
swollen, frustrated, hormones out of whack.
All the above, which basically is the majority of my clients,
when they come to me, they're cardio Queens and I actually
love that because I know they work hard.
I know they're not afraid to do what they need to do to get
things done. They're just doing everything
they can do plus more, and nothing's happening.
We're just going to start at the bottom and go to the top instead
of that reverse pyramid. Quick overview of the entire fat
loss pyramid starting at the bottom.
The foundation is the deficit. This is where weight loss
happens. Coming in at tier #2 is protein.
Protein is going to protect the muscle you have.
Protein is also going to build some muscle.
It decides what you lose. When you're losing weight, are
you going to lose fat or are you going to lose muscle?
Protein determines your body composition.
Don't look skinny fat or do you want to look toned?
You want to look toned. Eat enough protein into tier #3
is lifting now. Lifting is what's going to shape
your body. This creates the shape of your
body. You want a bigger butt?
Lift heavier on the glutes. You want more capped shoulders
to have a really athletic frame? Lift your doubts more often.
Lifting. It's what's going to build your
frame. You decide what you want your
body to look like. That's what I love about lifting
sleep, the shame. Sleep supports recovery and
hormones. You need this, I need this, I'm
struggling. You need sleep.
Don't let it slip away from you. And if it has, do what you need
to do to make it right. I'm actually preparing the
entire episode on this in hopes that I can remedy the situation
for myself and speak about it. OK #5 the very tip of the fat
loss Pyramid, Cardio, cardio. View it as your, your extra
credit. You know, if you're sitting on
this podcast listening about the fat loss pyramid, I know you're
somebody who likes extra credit. You're going to do that cardio.
Do it. It is the salt of life.
I have so many clients who love cardio.
I just had a client last week do an incredible relay.
She's 50 something and she did an incredible job with a team of
other women. I think it was a 10K relay.
Oh my gosh. She runs.
But you know what she does differently now?
She lifts and she eats enough protein and she was stronger and
faster and better than she's ever been before.
So all that being said, that is the fat loss pyramid.
You don't start building a house from the roof down.
You don't start dropping fat from the top of the pyramid
down. Start at the foundation, start
at the base. And if you're like me when you
first started, you're probably wondering, wait, back to the
calorie deficit, the foundation. How do I know what my TD EE is?
How do I know what protein I should eat and how much and how
many carbs and how many fats? I can help you with that.
In the show notes, you can click on my e-mail address
racfitnessmn@gmail.com, RAC fitnessmn@gmail.com and I can do
a customized macro plan for you. It's comprised of three quizzes.
They don't take long. If you do want to do it, please
have a tape measure handy. Please.
You wouldn't believe how long this holds people up.
If you need your macros customized, shoot me an e-mail.
I can give you a very detailed one page PDF on what macros you
should be eating, when you should be eating them, what you
should be eating, etcetera. There's also some really great
online calculators you can do that will give you a relatively
detailed outline. I have a program that gives you
your carb tolerance type as well as your macro amounts.
But before I started using that program, I would just go on to
calculators.net and use the macro one.
It's a great place to start to just determine your TDE.
Follow it for a couple weeks. If you're following it to A and
you're not dropping weight, well then you're not in a deficit.
That's the facts. If you want to start losing
weight, you have to track your food.
That's a non negotiable. There's no way around it.
Not until you're seasoned with understanding exactly what you
are eating. It's a learning experience, as
is everything in life that's worth pursuing.
OK, thank you for joining me. And again, if you want help
calculating your macros, go to the show notes, click on my
e-mail address, shoot me an e-mail.
I can do an individualized macro plan for you.
I'm not taking on clients at this moment, but I can't.
And do those individualized macro plans that include your
carb tolerance type. This has been another episode of
the body Recomposition revolution with Robin and I'll
be back with more science backed strategies next time.
Until then, thank you for listening and keep lifting
ladies.