Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.

That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body so that you can take the targeted action needed.

With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with Doctyesmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health.

Visit v three sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more.

This is healthy Heir with Amelia Phillips and welcome to another mini motivation episode.

These are shorter, more size conversations focusing on one specific topic in the hope that you will feel educated and of course inspired to take action when it comes to your health.

Today, we are diving into targeted nutrition for what I like to call the Holy Grail, which is nutrition to lose body fat but to also build muscle strength.

What do we need to do with our diet and our food if we are wanting to strip off some body fat, but we are also wanting to build muscle strength at the same time.

So often when people go on a fat loss mission, we can accidentally lose muscle at the same time, kind of in what we call a catabolic state, and other times we're in what we call an anabolic state, which is a growth state.

But it doesn't actually have to be this way.

In fact, when I worked on the TV show Do You Want to Live Forever?

Last year with Luke, one of the contestants I worked with, we managed with him to strip off five percent body fat over twelve weeks, which was great.

But also at the same time he gained five kilos of muscle, So we were so so happy with that, and it's not an easy thing to do.

So to help us understand the best strategies for losing fat but not at the expense of muscle, I asked doctor Stacy Simms.

Now, doctor Stacey is a world renowned exercise physiologist, a nutrition scientist, and a speaker who specializes in female specific training, performance and hormonal health.

She's actually recently on the Mel Robbins podcast, so I felt pretty chuffed to have her happy to come on my podcast now.

She completed her post doctor research at Stamford University focusing on the sex differences in environmental and nutritional physiology.

She's also got over twenty years of experience in helping women to optimize their fitness, their recovery, and their longevity.

She's the author of Raw and Game Changes, which are books that really empower women to train smarter.

So if it's something you're interested in, grab those books.

They're great reads.

Now, before we do dive into this episode, I also wanted to mention that in our conversation, Stacy talks about her protein coffee, and I just know that you are going to wish that I asked her what her protein coffee recipe was, and so I did, but I asked her after we stopped recording.

So I've come back and I've popped the recipe in the show notes in case you're interested.

As for the rest of our conversation here, it is enjoy you, caution against training fasted for women?

What is it about intermittent fasting and maybe a prolonged overnight fast that could potentially be counter productive for female physiology.

It's hanged on like why should women not be fasting?

So if we bring it back down to the origins of fasting and calorie restriction, I want to have some definitions of terms right.

So we have intermittent fasting that came as a response to calorie restriction because people found it was easier not to eat than to try to pull food away.

And looking at longevity and mouse models, we see that some fasting does extend the health span.

When we bring it down to the human model and look at appetite hormones and the way that the brain is perceiving fuel utilization, there's an inherent sex difference.

What I want people to understand is there is an active form of garlin.

So Garlin is our hunger hormone.

It's called aclated garlin.

When we're looking at women versus men at rust, it's already higher in women, and there is a parallel increase of acylate garlin and cortisol.

Women when first wake up, it's primarily because of a cortisol awakening response, So our cortisol is going up naturally and it needs a signal to drop.

As we're waking up.

We're also having our appetite hormone increase, and a lot of women have trained themselves not to feel hungry.

So if you are holding your fast and you're having this acleid garland come up and cortisol is staying elevated, we also have a drop in our lutinizing hormone and a lutinizing hormone pulse.

Why bringing that up.

It's really important to maintain that pulse for endocrine health and for appetite control.

We see in the research that when women hold a fast or do training fasted, that ascaliate garland doesn't come down to a baseline level that allows for as satiation.

Basically means we stay hungry.

We stay we stay hung and we get more hungry, which is kind of what we're trying to avoid in the first place, because most people are fasting because they're trying to control the tidal caloric intake.

Right, So we see that we stay hungrier throughout the day, but instead of craving or wanting to eat protein or other building blocks, there's a craving for simple carbohydrate because the brain is feeling fatigued from the lack of blood glucose, and one of the first things it does is like I need to have some fuel, So the hypothalamus is like, blood sugar is low, we need to bring in some fuel.

You end up moving less, incidentally, so you're going to sit more, be more stationary when you are seated and feel hungrier.

The other thing is when the hypothalamus is having this perturbation in our appetite hormones and our blood glucose levels, we also have a wind down of our thyroid so we start to see the lower level of thyroid function because it's all about conserving.

But for men, it's a different story because they have different responses to low blood sugar and the fact that the eslic garalin is not tightly tied to our cortisol responses.

It's not as tightly tied from a hypothalamic response with lutinizing hormone.

So men they'll wake up and they won't feel hungry because their garlin level isn't as high, and then if you're not eating, it drops goes down until you have some food, and then it comes back up.

So when we're looking at the whole fasting situation, it might work for three or so months and women will say, oh, I feel fantastic, I'm having success with body fat loss.

But when we really start to dig into a dexa, we're seeing there's a lot of skeletal muscle loss because we end up eating less in the eating window that we have, and we aren't getting as much of the micronutrients and the protein that we need.

And even if you look relatively thin on the outside, we see a higher accumulation of visceral fat.

So the fasting conversation is more than just oh, you know, we're having a perturbation in the hypothalamus.

It is much deeper than that with the way it affects body comp as well.

And is this relevant to someone who is a weight or obese Because it's such a prolonged overnight fast is such a well known tool for weight management, and for someone who's trying to lose weight, you would advising the same thing for an obese or overweight woman.

This is where there's the noise chatter food that people can't get away from, and so it depends on what is going on from that infernal conversation.

You are someone who is overweight and trying to lose body fat, then yeah, it still holds true because you don't have a change or a metabolk shift in the way your body's perceiving appetite hormones.

It's the same as someone who's normal weight.

When you get into severe obesity, there is definitely a change in appetite hormone responses and lutinizing hormone that's occurred because of the obesity.

And this is where the OBEs research is coming into place, saying, you know what, if we use kiss peptin as a kispeptin injection, then it does help stimulate the right responses for appetite hormones and we start to see weight loss.

So it's a completely different population when we're talking about obesity and calorie restriction and fasting.

We do see that holding an overnight fast for thirteen hours is really beneficial for people who've had tumors cancer tumors because it does help mitigate some of the intur and rapamycin responses.

But again that's a subpopulation.

When we're looking in general for women who are trying to optimize health and body calm, we really want to pay close attention to that chronobiology and circadian rhythm one.

Our circadian rhythms are different than men's from a cellular to whole body response, and that drives our hormone pulses as well as the way that our appetite hormones respond in kind to day and night as well as when we're eating.

Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.

That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body so that you can take the targeted action needed.

With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with Dottyasmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health visit V three sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more.

If a listener has been training fasted for many years and she's kind of okay with a body comp yes, we all want to and we'll talk about strategies in a moment to strip a bit of fat and to gain a bit of muscle.

But if it seems to be working okay for her, she's been doing it for many years and she's kind of okay, is she alright to just keep going or is this something that you really feel passionately about that she should start to train her body to tolerate food even when she's waking at five in the morning and you know, having to train at five point thirty.

From the evidence and the exercise literature, I would really really push upon her to have something small before she goes and does her training session.

One is going to help longer term, to help preserve muscle mass, and it's also going to give her more of a stress tolerance for hitting higher intensities and getting more out of a session and having more energy later on in the day.

Okay, and look, be a little labrat on yourself.

Go and get a DEXA scan.

Go and make some changes for three six months and retest and see how your body's responded.

Exactly, exactly.

Yeah, and I didn't have to remind people that we're in a Bell curve, right And when we're talking about the subset of women who are active, that's even a smaller part of the Bell curve.

And when we talk about in general, these are the things we find that work in the active population.

You might be on one end or the other of the Bell curve, so we do have to do some biohacking.

Here's the general advice, and you have to find out if that is specific to you or not.

So play around.

Yeah, it's fun to be well.

I'd love to know your day on a plate, assuming that your goal personally is to protect and maybe even add some lean tissue and to keep your body fat at a nice healthy level.

Give me a doctor stacy day on a plate.

So I've had a significant knee and reasince February.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that sucks.

Corn, hamstring and meniscus.

Yes, I am trying to build and maintain, will maintain and build strength and lean mass on the right side because I have lost quite a bit.

So that's the strength focus.

So a day in the life of me is okay, we'll use today for an example.

I got up at six and had protein coffee and some grapes before I walked across the field to do a swim session.

Then I came home, I took a shower, I had overnight oats and with some protein powders stirred in because I had an eight thirty to ten thirty meeting.

And then after that I had some sprouted grained toast with almond butter, and then I did a quick weights session to focus on rehab and strengthening that stupid right side, had another coffee and a big bottle of water, and then I sat down to have podcasts with.

You, beautiful.

What's for lunch that I haven't quite decided yet, but most likely it will be some of the grilled temp based sticks that I made last night.

On some spinach with some orange and apple and some cottage cheese and nuts.

You're a cottage cheese girl too.

I feel like it's coming back.

It was so big in the eighties and they did.

Yeah, I have to take the dog for a walk and pick my daughter up from school.

Dinner.

I don't know, I haven't saided that I haven't gotten that far yet, but usually dinner is a plate of lots of colorful fruit and veg and then some kind of lean protein.

Yeah, so that's it.

I love it.

Supplements Creatine definitely.

Oh my gosh, what a game changer that was for me at the start of the year.

Excellent, oh wow.

Performance in the gym recovery focus like amazingly changed for focus.

And then, as my husband pointed out to me about six weeks after I was taken it, he was like, how come you've been in such a good mood lately, Like you've had none of those snaps that you normally have.

Wow.

I was like, why, what where have you been for the last twenty five years?

Creatine Like Yeah, I used to give it to my Jim bros.

In the nineties and then it just disappeared.

I never thought about it for the girls, so not the same reaction for everyone.

But I must have had a low saturation because it literally lit me up in a good way.

I mean, I've been playing forward since I was fifteen, so I'm pretty sure I've had low saturations me really.

In the Creatine Like, oh, there you are all right, so creatine yup, check vitamin D three check.

Yes, because I'm in New Zealand in the wintertime and it's pretty low light and rodeola.

Ah, why Rodiola?

I find that it really does help give me focus, and when it's wintertime, I tend to be very super flat and not able to focus very well.

So I'd use rodiola just to try to get that focus and energy.

You're on par and stable, especially when my now almost teen daughter comes home from school and I need an extra boost and I don't want caffeine.

Oh my goodness.

Oh my oldest is twelve.

I've got four kids and Luckie's twelve going on thirteen.

I keep bracing myself for the teenage years.

I'm not quite there yet, but that they're between seven and twelve.

So you'll have to send me some survival tips.

How old your daughter.

She'll be thirteen?

Oh okay, yeah, yeah, And I know girls kick off a bit earlier, because yeah, my son's not nowhere near.

He's keep saying, mom, when's my boys going to change?

When are we going to start to get the hair?

I'm like, buddy, you got a long way to go.

I know, I know.

Well, look there is so much we could cover on nutrition, but it is a mini motivation episode.

So I think just that whole faster conversation I find so fascinating and so confusing because you know, a couple of years ago it was all about the fasting, and you know, I have seen results, particularly with obese women and women that struggle with body fat, where it has really worked for them.

But I recognized, you know, we weren't doing DEXes, so I am yet to know whether that weight loss was unfortunately the magic muscle that was dropping down.

So I really like this idea of you know, testing seeing how it works for you, and even if you don't feel like eating, it might just be that your digestive system hasn't come online yet because it's so well trained, and you know you do need to slowly train your digestion to come online a little bit earlier.

I'm going to give it a try because I have usually trained faster, but with my poor dexter results recently, you know, everything is pointing to I really need to give that a well.

So I'll report back Stacey, and I will let you know in about four months time when I redo whether this dietary change has helped with my lane muscle.

So here's a reframing to have.

It's not about the food and how you lose things.

It's about the food and how you gain things.

Because people are always conscious about if I eat this, how's it going to make me put fat on?

Or if I don't eat this, it's going to help me lose weight.

But I want people to reframe and say, if I eat this food, it's going to build my muscle.

I want to be really focused on building my lean mass.

So how is this going to help me build?

And when you put that reframing in, you're like, Yes, if I have protein before my strength training session, then that's giving amino acids to help go forward to build that lean mass.

I'm having protein afterwards, then it's really going to help, you know, push that muscle.

Protein synthesis in reparation, it's all going to help muscle and bone, and that's what we want, especially as we get older.

Oh, that reframe is such a beautiful note to end on.

You know, what are we doing to build, to not take away and destruct, but to actually build on our body And obviously as our lean muscle grows and we do get stronger, than metabolically, we're going to be healthier anyway, and that's going to help us strip the body fat.

So it's a lovely positive upward spiral anyway.

Doctor Stacy Simms, thank you so much for your time today.

It's Margaret.

Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.

That's why I created Vitality three point sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body so that you can take the targeted action needed.

With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with Dottysmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health.

Visit v three sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more