Healthy Habits and Weight Loss

Speaker 1 0:04

So remember that when we're setting the calorie deficit , we are setting it knowing that there are things that impact how the calories actually impact you and if you're subtracting the carbs from it for fiber and all that stuff , you're probably throwing yourself out of the deficit .

Speaker 2 0:17

Yeah , stop doing too much .

Speaker 1 0:19

Hey guys , cory from Redefining Strength , and today I want to talk about some common healthy habits that I really hope you didn't fall for , and I say this lovingly , because we all want a shortcut , we all want a quick fix , we all want to get away with whatever we can , and in our attempt to get away with things , we often go to healthy habits that are mimicking healthy habits , things that aren't really what they seem , and so in this episode , I want to talk about some of the common things we do that might be sabotaging our results , and one of the big things I'm going to cover with Michelle is net carbs and whether or not they really have a place in a weight loss diet , because I think they can actually be sabotaging our results . Often We've seen it with clients time and time again that they don't really understand why they're not seeing results , and it comes out to net carbs . So I really am excited to dive into these different healthy habits and what you can do to make them work for you or even avoid falling for them , because one size doesn't fit all and we need to meet ourselves where we're at . So let's get started . As I was trying to break down what healthy habits to include .

Speaker 1 1:22

I sort of found myself feeling like any healthy habit could technically be included in this , because there's a habit that works for somebody but doesn't work for somebody else , and that's what I wanted to highlight more than anything is why certain things became known as healthy habits , but also why they may not work for your goals , and one of the habits that I want to discuss first was weighing yourself on the scale . So if you're looking to lose weight , often we do have you know the scale is one of the measures that we're using to track progress . But you'll hear people say don't weigh every day , and others that say weigh every day and others that say weigh once a week . And what healthy habit you decide is right for you will really vary , and if you fall for one of the other ones , you might be sabotaging your success . So what determining what habits are right for you really comes down to is self awareness . In my coaching , when I work with clients , what I always want to strive to do is help them build a better self awareness . What are things that have made us fail in the past ? What are common triggers for us now ? What healthy habits meet us where we're at ? What are we even doing that ? We know will drive us towards our goal based on fundamental things , but won't be the exact way , shape or form that we implement those habits as we actually reach the goal .

Speaker 1 2:29

And so , coming back to the scale , you might be thinking oh well , I've heard , don't weigh every day . Well , maybe you do weigh every day because by weighing every day you desensitize yourself to the scale meaning anything , because you see those trends go up and down every single day , potentially even during the day , right as you eat something or poop something out or whatever else . Uh , get dehydrated after workout . But you see those trends where you see it fluctuating every day , so you get desensitized . You can also track trends over time better , because if you weigh only once a week , which is the popular , common healthy habit to do , if you're tracking weight loss , you might have actually gained weight only on that day , which sounds really weird to say . But the simple fact is is you could have lost earlier in the week , gone out to eat that night before , had more sodium , not even eating , you know , more calories , more macros are off your plan , but simply gone out eating later , whatever else done a hard workout where you have inflammation and muscle tissue damage from that . So your sore not slept as well , because maybe the dog woke you up , the kid woke you up , whatever else it was . And all of a sudden on that way in day you went up and so you think I didn't make any progress this week . I lost progress this week when had you weighed multiple other times during the week you might have actually lost .

Speaker 1 3:32

So by following that common healthy habit of weighing once a week for your weigh in , you might be sabotaging your results , just like if you really are sensitive to the scale , even trying to desensitize yourself to it might not work , which might mean that you can't use the scale at all . I always like to avoid giving a tool power , so as much as possible I like to put in its place by finding out can I use this , even though I don't use this longterm , and gain control back over it and really understand what the data is actually telling me and separate my emotions from the tool . But doing that , you might decide that weighing is sabotaging your success and that common healthy habit for other people that keeps them on track doesn't work for you . Instead , pictures , measurements all that stuff is way better . So when we're going through all these different things and we're thinking about different healthy habits or you're hearing your friends say what they really do .

Speaker 1 4:16

Realize that just because a habit is quote unquote healthy or has been promoted as good for a specific goal , it doesn't mean that it'll be right for you , and falling for it without assessing what you really need will ultimately sabotage your success , because really , things aren't good or bad , clean or dirty , fully healthy or unhealthy . There's so much nuance to everything and we really have to learn about what works for us by building that self awareness . I'm super excited today to have Michelle on to talk about carbs , but specifically net carbs , because there's a lot of debate as to what carbs count . So , michelle , let's talk about what does net carbs really mean ? How can this be used by people to their advantage and how can it actually be a detriment to focus on net carbs if we're trying to lose weight ?

Speaker 2 5:02

So net carbs is really just looking at the type of carbs that you're going to intake that are going to affect your blood sugar levels . So oftentimes people are going to subtract the carbs or the total carbs from so fiber and things like sugar , alcohols from the total carb count and that's going to be what gives you the net carbs . So it used to be that this required the person actually doing the math and calculating what the total net carbs would be from a product . But because we live in a society where marketing is a huge thing and keto has taken off and low carb diets have taken off , we now see products often touting or kind of displaying proudly right on the packaging in the front what their total net carbs is . So it can be confusing because a lot of times this can actually kick us out of the calorie deficit .

Speaker 1 5:56

So this came about because of health concerns and people wanting to address health concerns . They needed to actually do this . It was never part of a weight loss diet , specifically .

Speaker 2 6:07

Yeah . So for those who have , who are diabetic , who are very , you know , wanting to be very aware of what is going to affect those blood sugar levels , that was where this really first kind of came about , while why we even tracked it , why it was something that we encouraged some people to do , but again , not everyone , not the total mass population .

Speaker 1 6:29

Most of us do not need to be counting and trying to calculate our net carbs , so why do you think and I have my conspiracy theories about it , but why do you think this became something that was a popular marketing term that people brought into the weight loss fitness realm ?

Pitfalls of Net Carb Counting

Speaker 2 6:47

So , first and foremost , we want to be able to fit our favorite foods in and to be able to kind of find those workarounds . We do this a lot as humans . We try to find like shortcuts . So a lot of people think that , oh , if I'm doing net carbs that's not really affecting my blood sugar level , so I don't really need to worry about those calories , so I can go have this pancake that the net carbs are only going to be , you know one or two . Or I can fit in this net carb brownie package that's only going to really be boosting my or causing my carb totals to be , you know a few points more . And so it wasn't .

Speaker 2 7:28

The intent of this was originally to help monitor blood glucose with in tangent of you're still focusing on whole processed food groups , we're still wanting to focus on protein . That's what it was originally designed to be a part of . But we have kind of created it to be like oh well , I can have this treat because the net net carb total is only this because of the extra processing that this product has had . Now , all the sudden , the net carbs have been worked down because they do things like replace sugar with sugar , sugar alcohols . They add an extra fiber to try and get that net carb down .

Speaker 2 8:04

Now , one of the issues with this is not all sugar alcohols don't have an effect , so there's only some sugar alcohols that your body actually isn't going to absorb , and so a lot of people think that that's going to be all of them . The other issue with that is , if you are trying to jam pack all these extra carb rich foods into your diet , you're not actually changing your diet , you're just trying to find those workarounds . So the problem is is you're still having more processed foods than probably we would like . If you're trying to fit in as much of these as you can , you're probably actually not in a calorie deficit and most likely you're consuming more foods that aren't going to be as nutrient dense for you .

Speaker 1 8:48

And I want to touch on that calorie deficit thing that you mentioned , because I think it became popular to not count net carbs because the calories didn't count . It was fiber . Your body didn't utilize those calories , therefore they shouldn't count . That was the theory behind it , but you keep saying that it throws us to the calorie deficit which we found . Can you explain a little bit more as to why it throws us out of the calorie deficit ?

Speaker 2 9:10

Yeah , so , first and foremost , when people are sitting down and working with you and calculating your calorie needs , they're doing this in a total like they're counting it as a total carbon take . So they're already taking into account that your goal should still be whole foods , that fiber . So that's already been calculated for you . When you try to do the workaround and kind of cheat a little bit with the net carbs , what's happening is , you know , there's that old saying well , a calorie is a calorie . Yeah , it is . It can be like a calorie , can be a calorie as a solitary soldier that's just marching in isolation and it's only focused on energy . However , that's not how calories are packaged . Calories are packaged with other things . They're going to be packaged with nutrients . They're going to be packaged with , you know , things like fiber , and obviously fiber is a big part of the net carb issue . But what happens is when you are consuming these products that have been specially designed to kind of be that workaround , we're now looking at the effects that it can have on the thermic effect of food itself . So your body is actually not having to spend as much energy to actually break these products down , and we're not . We're not taking into consideration the thermic effect of food . When we're giving you the calories , when we're giving you all that like , it's not like , oh , you get this much protein and that's going to increase that thermic effective food cost . So you're actually burning more calories , so you get to eat more calories . That's not the goal . The goal is to put you in a calorie deficit . It's not to try and find ways to actually try and beat the system and hack the system . So we know that focusing on a high protein diet is going to increase your thermic effective food . We know that focusing on whole foods is going to increase your thermic effective food If you are filling it with these products and I'm going to throw keto under , because keto is really the biggest culprit but if you're focusing on a lot of keto products , that are going to be you know those the cake , the microwave cakes , the muffins , the pancakes those things are going to be extra processed so your body is not going to exert as much energy to actually break it down into the nutrients that we need .

Net Carbs Impact on Weight Loss

Speaker 2 11:26

So , yeah , like it has that added fiber , it has that it's replacing sugar with some sugar alcohol . So you may not get that blood glucose spike and for people with , you know , diabetes . That may actually be a benefit for when they want to indulge in something that's going to be a little bit more carb rich , but it shouldn't be the basic , the base of where you're getting your carbs . If all of a sudden , your carbs are coming from these microwave muffins , these pancakes , these all you know , all these diet focused labeled foods , we're really missing out on the big picture and that's going to be nutrient dense foods . So it's really kind of this .

Speaker 2 12:07

You know , when it comes to processed foods in general , they have their place , don't get me wrong , and most products you have are processed in some form or another , but the level of processing changes .

Speaker 2 12:18

So going down that rabbit hole of filling , you know , your cupboards with all the low carb treats , all the low carb keto snacks , you're going to find that you're gonna pay it for it in other ways . Oftentimes it's gonna be the calories but and kind of kick you out of that deficit . But also , these products are filled with those sugar alcohols and if you are consuming high amounts of sugar alcohols which this is what I see , like I said on occasion , sure , they can be fine , but if you're consuming lots of these type of products throughout the day you're going to have issues with loading with gas , some sometimes even diarrhea , and people do not feel good when they're bloating , and that's one of the biggest complaints I see . And I often look at these type of products because it's because they start to purchase what I would call like diet products that have been marketed towards to them for weight loss .

Speaker 1 13:22

Especially when trying to increase protein or cut carbs . They're gonna be found in a lot of those different supplements and people don't realize that they blame the cutting carbs or the increasing protein , but it's often the sugar , alcohols and such and net carbs . And going back to what you just said , like breaking it down , I think it's a really key point to recognize that generally , when we're setting that calorie deficit , it's with the idea that you're eating whole natural foods which contain a lot of fiber . And if you notice what isn't all about marketing their net carbs , it's whole natural foods . It's these other products that do replace it with things and I'm big into using , like I love these one low carb mission tortillas . I love the taste of them , right , I will include that .

Speaker 1 14:00

But I actually went back and calculated the correct calories from it because I knew that when I was creating my calorie intake , I was accounting for eating fiber . I wanted to eat healthy foods and so , if it seems too good to be true , it really is . And with those labels , you have to be conscious that like and we saw this with a client they had three different low carb things in their diet and they were overeating by 400 calories when you actually totaled all the grams and everything . But because labels that have net carbs don't have to list the calories as including the calories from all the carbs , they're gonna list lower calories .

Speaker 1 14:31

So you're gonna potentially be doing something that has 70 calories on the label but really has 140 calories , and this person was eating 1,900 calories when they thought they were eating 1,500 , but when you total all the grams it's completely off and that can , like , throw us out of the deficit . It can not make our body function as optimally . As you touched on , where a calorie is a calorie from an energy standpoint , but the impact it has on the function of your body is completely different . And , yeah , when you set the calorie deficit , you're not like well , we're doing higher protein , so we're gonna automatically bump up . We might adjust calories because we're seeing the thermic effect really work for you and that's too much of a deficit then . But you wanna have the exact data to be able to adjust off of and then make sure you're functioning correctly . Like if you are looking for a way to cheat the system , it's probably going to backfire .

Speaker 2 15:17

And I think that's kind of important too is because there's more room for human error when calculating net carbs versus total carbon . Take two and you brought up something that I was actually gonna touch on , because I had one client who did have the keto pancake and according to the label , it was one total net carb . By the time they subtracted the fiber , the sugar , alcohols , all this stuff , it came out to one gram .

Speaker 2 15:43

And in reality it was 13 grams of carbs . Now , one gram to 13 grams . You're looking at like what ? Four calories versus like 52 calories from carbs . That may not seem that big of a discrepancy , but that was one pancake . I don't know about you guys that I don't eat ever eat just one pancake . So I'm typically like at least two , bare minimum , most likely four , on like an average day , if we're being real honest and pretty soon . Like those calories just add up Like you said . Yeah , it was , may have been only one , may have been only 50 calories at breakfast , but then you take in lunch and you may have a mission tortilla , you go to dinner where you may have a role that you're subtracting that too , and it adds up really quickly on how off you can actually be when it comes to calories by the end of the day .

Speaker 1 16:33

And not only the end of the day , but the end of the week and then the month , and then you have a vacation where you eat off plan and , all of a sudden , that deficit that you were trying to create a smaller one of just disappears .

Speaker 1 16:42

And I think it's also even key , like I know , you threw keto under the bus with this . But even going back to that , if you are on a low carb diet for health reasons , sometimes these things are okay , but sometimes they're truly detrimental in that we think they're free foods when they're not and they make the diet not work . And then we feel like what we're doing isn't working , when really it's some of the ways we're implementing , the techniques for the macro issues , the whatever , all . So it's very key we understand the nuance in how these things are working and realize that so many good terms or terms that were even created for health reasons right , like keto was developed to address epilepsy and stuff like that Like net carbs are tracked for people with diabetes who need to be concerned about it but some of these terms have now become mainstream and hit the market , and if they're only on processed foods , you got to ask yourself is this a good thing ?

Speaker 2 17:32

And yeah , that's the important question is , if you are someone that's considering tracking net carbs instead of total carbs , really be honest with yourself as to why . Is it because you're just trying to fit in more of those carb-rich foods that you know you probably should be eating less of , just because it may be in way too high amounts ? Or is it because you know you are diabetic and this is actually something that needs to be allowed allowed and so that you can kind of fit more into your diet without affecting that ? But oftentimes too , those people who are even using this approach for their diabetes , they're not also like having . Their goal is just to manage blood sugar levels . Their goal isn't to have body re-comp , it's not to have . I mean , oftentimes we are hoping that they're working towards weight loss , but usually it's the main goal is blood sugar management , not body re-comp , not weight loss , not muscle growth . So it's oftentimes when these medical kind of approaches get twisted into the dieting world .

Speaker 1 18:36

I would really urge anybody who has been consuming low carb sorry , not low carb , but net carb products and sometimes they're marketed as low carb as well , but net carb products and if it has net carbs on there , I would urge them to go look at the label and then do the math on the macros . Multiply the grams of protein by four , the carbs by four , the fat by nine , and you'll see that actually , when you do that especially with the carbs , because they're doing this based on net carbs that the calories you get off of that because that will give you the calories is dramatically different than what they put on that label . And they are totally using that net carb thing to make it look way healthier than it actually is .

Speaker 2 19:11

Yeah , it's just to get your dollar and that's a good thing to just remind everyone . If you are someone that is tracking and you know a tracking tracker like my fitness pal and your ratios your macros ratios are not matching the calories it's most likely the carbs are the culprit and you do want to look at those products and make sure that the product that's listed is not net carbs but total carbs .

Speaker 1 19:35

And even though your tracker isn't defaulting to net carbs , because we've had that happen sometimes , where it's tracking that and it's like what the heck is going on ? Yeah , exactly , so in closing , net carbs for weight loss , do you track them ? Don't track them .

Speaker 2 19:51

Total carbs is going to give you a better picture , more accurate results , and that's really what we base things off of your calories and your macros is going to be based off total carbs .

Speaker 1 20:03

So remember that when we're setting the calorie deficit , we are setting it knowing that there are things that impact how the calories actually impact you and if you're subtracting the carbs from it for fiber and all that stuff , you're probably throwing yourself out of the deficit .

Speaker 2 20:16

Yeah , stop doing too much .

Speaker 1 20:20

Many people have done the calories versus calories out to lose weight , and I think this is a common , healthy habit that can actually hold us back , and I want to bring this up in like specific mention of the trend towards 1200 calories as the weight loss calorie intake that you're supposed to be taking in . I know that became popular with a couple of different programs that have come out in recent years and it's very interesting because this one number is given and it's either loved , and everybody thinks they need to do it , or it's hated and it's too little for any human to survive on . And the simple fact is this 1200 calories can be both too little and too much and it just depends on your needs , your goals , your activity level , your age , your height , your weight , all those different things , even what you've trained your body to prior . I've had clients coming in eating 800 calories , not seeing weight loss results because they've created those metabolic adaptations , they lost muscle mass or going through hormonal changes , and that is no longer a calorie deficit in a weird way , because their bodies adjusted . Is it too few calories ? Yes , but then 1200 might be an increase for them . So one calorie number is not right for everybody , it's not bad for everybody and we need to stop saying , well , this is , you know , the intake that only a child needs . No , each of us has different resting metabolic rates , different activity levels , different things we've trained our body to function off of .

Common Healthy Habits for Weight Loss

Speaker 1 21:30

But this also leads me to the other healthy habit of just focusing on calories in versus calories out for weight loss . When we do this , we are sabotaging our success because we're not addressing the other factors that impact how the calories really impact us , how the meal timing can impact us , what even previous dieting practices we put into play that might change what calories we need .

Speaker 1 21:50

Again , if you have been on that yo-yo dieting cycle and especially if you're female going through menopause or premenopause right now , if you've done the lose weight to regain it , a lot of times when we lose that weight , we're under eating . Okay , we create metabolic adaptations by losing lean muscle . When we regain the weight , we don't regain that muscle . It's why it becomes harder and harder to regain the muscle . It's why we feel like we need to eat less and less to see results . And the more we repeat this pattern , versus trying to bump our calories up so that we build muscle , the more we're sabotaging our long-term success .

Speaker 1 22:18

And for many of you who might be in menopause now and have started a weight loss routine where they're making you eat more and you're like , well , I'm seeing inches lost , but I'm not losing weight on the scale and you're frustrated by this , realize that this is actually because you've created really , really poopy , so to speak , body composition prior . So what you're actually seeing is yourself gaining muscle , because you have sufficient fuel to gain that muscle , which will create better metabolic rate , healthier metabolism , but it won't change . So it would change on the scale because even if you're losing fat a lot of times because you have , you know , this improper balance of muscle to fat ratio , you'll see yourself gain three pounds of muscle while losing two pounds of fat , so you actually gain a pound of the scale . So just realize that if you're starting a weight loss journey and not losing weight , but you're seeing those inches , that this is your body recomp happening in a good way . So don't sabotage yourself by slashing your calories super low , okay , because that is a healthy habit I know we all go to with weight loss because , yes , if we eat less than we technically are expending , we think we're going to lose right , because we're in that energy deficit . But it's not as simple as that and a calorie is not just a calorie and how our body utilizes it .

Speaker 1 23:23

Off of this , the other thing I did want to talk about is with creating a calorie deficit . A lot of times we put meal timing restrictions on ourselves of I can't eat after X time or I can't eat before X time if you're doing intermittent fasting and while fasting and meal timing can really vary . Again , it's not just one healthy habit that works for everybody . We have to stop saying that we'll automatically gain fat if we eat after a certain time , because that is just not true . If you are working out late , if you are needing those calories to hit your macros for the day and you're eating at 9 , 10 pm , sure , maybe your weight will be higher the next day on the scale because you ate closer to your weigh in than you usually do . But you need to get the calories in to make sure that you're fueling that lean muscle , to maintain that lean muscle , not putting yourself into a catabolic state , so you can actually see the weight loss results you deserve . So just remember that while , yes , we do need to create a calorie deficit , just thinking calories in versus calories out . Thinking that one calorie intake is right for everybody , thinking that there's a magic meal timing , is ultimately going to sabotage our long term success and our weight loss results .

Speaker 1 24:22

The final common healthy habit I see people implementing when they want to do the ideal for weight loss , when they want to do the ideal for their workouts , is really striving for that one hour day , six day a week workout progression . And while I do think that it's super beneficial when designed the right way , seeking to only think that one is the ideal and if we do anything less we won't see results , really hold us back . Also , I think that puts a lot of pressure on us trying to train even harder for six days a week , when even in that the ideal the one hour a day for six days a week there should be intensity changes . I know people can feel guilty if they take a recovery day like they're not burning enough calories , like they're not doing enough to see the weight loss results , but our workouts are not just about the calories burned and feeling like we have to go at 100% intensity really sabotages us actually being able to train in a way that creates results . Because they're going to be days . You need to be fresher for days that you need to recover so that you can get more out of subsequent workouts . So instead of seeing it as some ideal , as working out longer is better , we need to think about the quality , not just the quantity , and that might mean designing three workouts that are 30 minutes each week so that you get consistent , because consistency really does win out over the scientific optimal or what we see is optimal , if we do it again more consistently , because what you do consistently yields the results .

Speaker 1 25:37

If you're doing , or striving to do , six days a week but you can't stick with that , you're not going to see results from it , especially if you're doing a body part split or something where you might train a muscle group only one time a week . If you miss that workout , then you're not training at all for potentially 10 , 14 , 21 days , versus if you design for three days a week , knowing that you can truly get those three days in , you're going to see better results because you're training that area consistently and especially a stubborn area . Three times a week is really great . Two to three times a week frequency is actually ideal . So think about designing for the time you have , so you can get consistent , so you'll see better results , but also realize that less is more , and by trying to constantly over train or push ourselves harder , we're going to see a point of diminishing returns where we're not actually able to go at 100% intensity at any point , not to mention , we simply are just going to be doing a ton of wasted volume that leads to us being burnt out , injured , not able to push as hard as possible , even putting ourselves into a catabolic state , so we can risk losing muscle mass because we're creating hormonal levels that aren't ideal by doing too much . And so then all this hard training , especially if we're trying to create the calorie deficit , could end up leading to us seeing worse and worse results while working harder and harder . So remember , quality matters , not just the quantity , and designing for the time you have to get consistent can really , really , really I'll say really pay off .

Speaker 1 26:54

And then , don't just see your workouts as a time of burn more calories . It's about building lean muscle . When we build that lean muscle , we help ourselves avoid metabolic adaptations , we help ourselves to functionally strong and fit till our final day on this planet , because while we might be striving for aesthetic goals , we don't want them to come at the cost of living quality years and when we build that lean muscle , especially because as we get older , it becomes harder and harder to build and retain that lean muscle because we're less able to utilize protein as efficiently and we have to create a greater stimulus for growth . When we build that lean muscle earlier on , we're going to not only see better body composition but we are going to be functionally strong and fit so we can take on any challenges that we get older . So we can't just see our workouts as a chance for more calories , because that leads to the quantity over quality . It leads to longer workouts , wasted volume , us trying to do more , us cutting out rest , all these things that ultimately backfire even if they seem to work in the moment . And when we see those the muscle mass loss we see those metabolic adaptations , which is why we then feel like we need to cut our calories lower and lower to see any better results , which again then creates a catabolic state where we lose more muscle . So it's a vicious , horrible cycle .

Speaker 1 27:55

So whether you've seen two a day workouts because some figure competitor didn't for a specific competition , or whether or not you just have seen all these different workout progressions that have one hour , six days a week . Stop going for some version of an ideal . We don't want to fall prey to that common healthy habit of doing a specific design . We want to find a design that truly works for us and the time that we have , because that ultimately will lead to the best results .

Speaker 1 28:20

Well , that's a wrap for this episode of the fitness hacks podcast . If you've found yourself falling prey to any of these common healthy habits and seeing things as very binary , good or bad , hopefully this really helped . I know we can all want to find things to help us get away with doing less sort of cheating , the system working in more , but we have to remember that if something seems too good to be true , if something seems too much like this is the only way that probably there's more nuance to it and we really need to learn what and how that would impact us and what might work for us . So don't hesitate to question those common healthy habits and really see what is behind them to know if they'll work for you . And if you haven't yet , please leave a review on iTunes . Those reviews help me keep the episode sponsorship free .