My Dad used to say, "If you live long enough, you’ll see trends come back around."

 

Any of my 80’s gals feeling like we’ve come full circle with the pressure to be skinny?

 

It feels like everyone is on weight loss drugs, even here in a small town in the Pacific Northwest.

 

The weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have the pendulum swinging from body positivity to let’s see how skinny we can get.

 

These drugs are designed for people who are struggling with obesity and type 2 diabetes.

 

Yet they’re being marketed as part of a menopause or longevity stack and pushed by wellness influencers with discount codes.

 

They’re being handed out like candy with zero education.

 

I previously wrote about GLP-1s here.

 

My friend went to a Super Bowl party and told me there was very little food, and apparently, everyone was quietly confessing to being on weight-loss drugs. 

 

Here’s what concerns me about these drugs from what I’ve seen with clients:

 

People are eating in a huge calorie deficit.  

 

Over time, this sets your body up to function with less fuel, which lowers your basal metabolic rate (BMR).  

 

If you choose to come off the drug, you’ve now dug yourself into a calorie deficit that will be hard to crawl out of.

 

People aren’t following a consistent exercise routine that includes strength training.  

 

What most people on weight loss drugs are losing is muscle.  

 

They’re becoming skinny fat.  

 

The truth is, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest.  

 

Muscle is what gives your body shape.

 

People aren’t having daily bowel movements and/or they’re nauseous.  

 

You need to be moving waste out of your body daily. 

 

If you don’t, it can, over time, impact your gut microbiome.

 

People have so little appetite for protein.  

 

While I know protein is having a moment, it’s what helps you to maintain lean muscle.  

 

In my opinion, muscle is the fountain of youth.

 

What is skinny fat?

 

I recently met a naturopath who has an In Body machine.  

 

It weighs you, but it also tells you how much body fat and lean muscle you have.

 

We both did the test.

 

She is petite at around 5’3”.

 

Visually, she’s thin with a small frame.

 

Her body type is what many women desire in this new era of skinny.

 

The reality?

 

She’s skinny fat, or what’s known as metabolically obese, normal weight.

 

She’s 34% body fat.

 

That’s getting close to being obese.

 

The ideal body fat range for women is 20-30% and for men is 18-25%.

 

What’s troubling is how little muscle she has.

 

This is called sarcopenic obesity.

 

She’s 40 years old.

 

This puts her at a much greater risk of osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes.

 

I’m 5’6” and have a larger frame than she does.

 

I’ve talked about the impact of menopause and two years of gyms being closed in LA, and how it’s taken a big toll on me.

 

Here’s the reality that the scale doesn’t show.

 

I’m currently 28% body fat (I’ve been as low as 22%).

 

I have twice as much muscle as the naturopath.

 

Just relying on the scale and obsessing over losing “x” number of pounds doesn’t even come close to telling the whole story.

 

Here are a few numbers that actually matter when it comes to your health:

• Fasting insulin (this tells your metabolic health long before fasting glucose or A1C goes out of range)
• hs CRP - this tells how much inflammation you have
• % Body fat
• % Lean muscle

 

I have a program called Metabolic Balance that I’m taking myself and clients through.

 

It’s been around for 25 years and was developed in Germany by a medical doctor to help people maintain weight loss and improve metabolic markers, such as blood sugar.

 

It's a custom food plan based on 36 of your blood markers.

 

It’s ideal for weight loss and for conditions such as inflammation, high cholesterol, and pre-diabetes.

 

It can also help with menopausal symptoms, which are often rooted in poor blood sugar regulation.

 

My inflammatory markers are high, and I think it’s due to a history of autoimmunity.

 

In addition to weighing yourself, you also measure your waist, hips, and upper thigh.

 

In the first 16 days, I dropped six pounds, 1.5 inches from my waist and hips, and 1 inch from my upper thigh.

 

I don’t actually care what the scale says.

 

I want to lose body fat and gain muscle.

 

I want to lower my inflammatory markers.

 

I want my clothes to fit better.

 

Most of my excess weight is the dreaded belly fat.

 

What I’ve found with Metabolic Balance is that my sugar cravings have gone away.

 

People talk about weight loss drugs quieting food noise.

 

In my mind, food noise is poor blood sugar regulation.

 

Let's fix the underlying problem rather than slow down your digestion, which gives you additional problems.

 

I’m finding the portion sizes that work best for my body.

 

The question is, do you want to be dependent on a drug for the rest of your life in order to keep the weight off?

 

A drug that potentially comes with complications and side effects?

 

At what price does losing muscle, especially as a midlife woman, come with?

 

Loss of muscle and bone mass, which sets you up for falls, fractures, and frailty.

 

The lawsuits keep piling up for these weight loss drugs, but I don’t see any slowdown in doctors prescribing them.

 

The reality is that whether you take these drugs or not, you still have to make nutritional and lifestyle changes to achieve weight loss.

 

Here’s the reality of these drugs:

 

• Research indicates that a high percentage of people regain a significant portion of their weight after stopping GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound), often returning to their initial weight within 18 to 24 months.  
• Studies show that 82% of users regain at least 25% of their lost weight within a year, while some regain nearly all of it, leading to a rapid reversal of metabolic benefits. 

 

And it’s highly likely that you’ve shed precious muscle mass and are left with too much body fat.

 

You’re facing the reality of the naturopath.

 

There’s no get out of jail free card.

 

Metabolic Balance works for you whether you’re on the drugs or not.

 

It works for women and men.

 

Here are the statistics for people who complete Metabolic Balance:

 

• 62.5% of the subjects reduced their initial weight by at least 5% at 12 months, and 31% lost 10% or more of their initial weight.
• In the long term, the improvement in triglyceride levels was highly significant. There was also a significant improvement in the total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels. The HDL cholesterol levels also improved during participation in the program.

 

If you want to lose body fat, improve your health and find food freedom, I can help you.