There.

Are ways in which you can manage your body composition through diet and training. Again, we are leveraging protein and food as medicine and movement as medicine rather than taking something external. I mean, I guess you would be technically external. But here's what I would tell and why it's so important for a menopausal, post-menopausal woman. There is a natural decline in these hormones: estrogen, progesterone, there's an imbalance of testosterone, which can affect body composition. But one of the ways it affects body composition is we move less. We are less active. The way to combat that is through very simply doing some resistance training, which simply means, again, against an external load. It doesn't have to be complicated. And it's not necessarily as difficult as people think. I've been seeing patients since 2006. I have seen a lot of mid-life women, and I've seen a lot of success.

Okay, what do we do? Dr. Gabrielle, I just heard, do you hear that? That was women in 194 countries around the world turning up the dial. What do we do?

Here's what they're going to do. They're going to make it super easy. Their first meal of the day is going to have between 30 and 50 grams of protein. Easy. I don't care if it's a weight protein shake. I don't care if it's Mel's P protein shake. I care. I don't necessarily want it to be collagen because collagen, while great for other things, is not great for muscle health. Okay? Got it. So collagen is a different separate protein. It has a protein score of what is considered zero. It's still great, but we're not going to put in the category of muscle health.

Thank you for saying that.

You are going to have between 30 and 50 grams of protein at that first meal.

Got it.

Then if you were saying, Well, Gabrielle, Doctor, I want to add some carbohydrates. I'm going to say, you know what? Go right ahead. You're not going to have over 30 grams or so of carbohydrates for that first meal because we don't want to skew this insulin and give you this robust response. Again, I'm giving broad generalizations. Got it. Okay. But we're just going to define it and design it so that people can execute right away. Great. You can have a little bit of berries. You can mix it in water. You can mix it in almond juice or whatever it is that you want. Something not major that is calorically dense. Okay, you've done that. You're doing great. Another meal, maybe you want some smaller meal in the day. Maybe it has 20 grams of protein and 20 grams of carbohydrates. What does that look like? That could be three eggs. It could be your chicken salad. It could be whatever it is you want. I'm not so crazy about that one.

I love you for that. Thank you.

You're welcome. The last meal, if you're having two larger meals and a smaller meal in the middle, your last meal is also important because you're getting ready to go into an overnight fast. You woke up in the morning coming out of an overnight fast. Your skeletal muscle, your organ of longevity, is primed for nutrients. You stimulate muscle with your dietary protein. You've done an amazing job. You've improved your signaling. You've made your muscle youthful. You are no longer hungry. Your body is now metabolizing things. We're not gaining weight. We are really setting you up for success. Your next meal is a little smaller. Your last meal of the day is going to mirror your first meal.

Oh, I thought you said it was smaller.

No, your middle meal is smaller.

Okay, got it. So now I'm doing my 30 to 50. I'm having my protein shake or my hamburger with my salad or whatever else.

The last meal of the day is between 30 and 50 grams of protein. You want your burger, you want your chicken, you want your salmon. Great. You have now nailed it. Well, you will, by the way, if people understand the concepts in this book, you will lose body fat by just addressing the dietary component of protein, which is mind-blowing. You will improve your body composition by changing your dietary protein for breakfast. By simply doing that, by swapping out your cereal, by adding in dietary protein, we have seen huge changes in body composition. Simply by doing that. And also, by the way, some of this data was iso-caloric, meaning people both had the same amount of calories. They were both taking in 1,600 calories. And the post-menopausal women, what one group did was change the first meal of the day to have an optimal protein. It was around 40 grams of protein. And then the second group had around, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was probably closer to 50 grams of carbohydrates and 13 grams of protein, which is what most women are doing now. And the body composition effects were negative for the carbohydrate group versus the protein group, they lost weight.

And again, calories were the same. So it was simply changing around the macronutrients.

Okay, can you talk a little bit to the vegetarians and folks that have a vegan diet? What are the considerations as you're thinking protein-forward and the amino acid, sand particle aspect of the macronutrient and protein.

Yes. All dietary protein is not created equal. Ideally, you are eating whole foods. So now this brings us to this category of dietary protein. And what makes up dietary protein? How do we score it? How do we think about it? An overarching way to do this very simply is that anything that is of animal nature, that means does it run? Does it swim? Does it, I don't know, walk, is a high quality protein. Okay. It is considered a high quality protein. And what defines high quality protein is we talked about that there are 20 different amino acids. Got it. We're obviously not going into those 20, but there are a handful of essential amino acids.

And are those not present in plant-based proteins?

They're very low in plant-based proteins. So what would you have to do? You would have to over consume or increase your consumption of these plant-based proteins to bring up that level of essential amino acids. Got it. I'm going to give you a very clear example. I'm just going to lay it out on there so nobody has to do any math. Okay. So let's say you are going to eat three or four ounces of a beef patty, a lean beef patty that has this essential amino acid, leucine. Leucine is the critical amino acid for muscle health. Now, remember, you and I were talking about how each amino acid had these dual roles, and we weren't going to go into all 20, but there are a handful that are really important and critical for health and wellbeing. One of those amino acids is leucine. And leucine, what's so fascinating is that it requires a certain amount to trigger skeletal muscle. So essentially, if you're eating under that amount, then you're not actually stimulating this mechanics of skeletal muscle. Three to four ounces of a lean beef patty would stimulate muscle, would give you this whatever number, two and a half grams of leucine, to trigger the muscle to begin to have this process.

If you were to try to do that in quinoa, you would need six cups of quinoa because of the difference in the amino acid profile to trigger muscle the same way. Wow. That's not a good plan. First of all, it's a lot of quinoa. Second of all, that's like carbicide. You don't want to be doing that.

Carbicide is a word? Yeah. No.

Well, it can be now.

Wow. I think you should trademark that. Is there a supplement for our friends that are vegetarian or vegan that they can take to up the lysine or to get the amino acids without having to overdose on quinoa? It's important to understand because I sit here and I drink a lot. I drink smoothies a lot because they're easy, and I use a plant-based formula. And here I am, like dumping more scoops in, thinking I'm loading up and I'm protein-forward. And you're sitting here telling me, not really, not necessarily, because it might not have the thing on it. But I know I'm doing something, and that's better than nothing.

No, you are. Mel, I'm going to interrupt you because you're doing great.

Thank you.

The plant-based protein powders is a way to begin to balance these amino acids because they've made it in a way where.

They've balanced these amino acids. Okay.

But this is a way to do it.

Great. You're talking about if you're doing whole foods, like you got to be really- If.

You're doing whole foods, exactly. If you are doing whole foods and not adding supplements, you may need a total of 35 % more dietary protein.

I love that. Okay, so here's what I want to do next. I want to get into the second piece of advice for muscle health, which is actually lifting weight. And what I would love to know is for those of us that feel bombarded with all different types of ways to exercise, should I do yoga? Should I do pilates? Should I go to the gym? Should I put on a streaming class? Do I need bands? Should I pick up a weight? Are the weights different than the hot mom walk wristband things? Do I need to squeeze the thing? Should I do hit? Should I do resistance? It is so overwhelming. So if you were to talk first to anybody listening, it's like, okay, Doc G, I'm in. I'm in. You got me with the protein. I'm going to check this out. I feel so much smarter. I love you. I get it. But the weight thing, the resistance.

Training, what's so fascinating about exercise is there's a million different modalities, and there's a million different classes, and a million different ways to skin the cat, right? It's very confusing. Here is the one non-negotiable that everybody is going to take away and build on. No pun intended here. Resistance training is any move against weight. So that could be body weight. You could be doing pushups. You could be doing bicep curls, you could be doing bands, you could be doing any different type of resistance training. That is a non-negotiable for muscle health and body composition.

I.

Will say all exercise is important, and anything is better than nothing. But when we are talking about muscle centric medicine, we are talking about getting stronger and building the infrastructure of our body for the time that we need it. Resistance training as a non-negotiable, which again, could be weights, could be machines, could be at-home pushups, or band workout. Even if someone really wants to do yoga and pilates, they could. But that is not going to be ideal over a period of time. But it's a great starting place. Got you. But again, we are going to focus on moving some weight.

And what's the minimum amount of time? I realize you say some is better than none. But for just somebody going, I'm going to take this seriously, three days a week, two days a week, one day a week, where is a starting point for somebody where this is like a whole new world? Yes.

Here is what the general guidelines will tell you. Okay. They will say 150 minutes to moderate and to vigorous activity, whether it's cardio fat, and that's a.

Week, because that's about 22 minutes a day. But what does Dr. G say?

Here's what I say. I say that you should be lifting a minimum of two days a week, okay? And that would be if you're only going to do two days a week, then you're going to do full body. And I love the idea that you are doing what we call multi-joint movements. So for me, what did I do this morning? I go, oh, man, I'm going to be on Mel Robbins podcast. I'm getting my butt in the gym, and we did deadlift.

I.

Don't necessarily think that people need to start with that. But again, I've been training for a period of years, so for me, deadlift. But for someone who is just starting out, there are still machines. Machines are very safe that they could do a squat on a machine or a leg press on a machine. There are things that involve multi-joints and multi-body parts at once. Super easy. We don't need to overcomplicate it. One of the things I will say is two days a week would be the minimum of doing, whether they're doing upper body and lower body, all of those, again, two days a week. Got you.

If you were to take a protein-forward diet and you were to do two days a week of full body resistance training, okay? How long does it take for that inner muscular body to start to appear and you to start to see some something happening?

Here's the great news of someone who's just starting out. Those people will get the bigger benefit and see more improvement faster than someone who's been training for a long period of time. How long? I would say maybe six to eight weeks. You stay.

With it. Oh, my God, that long? Can we see a little something better? We're going to feel better, though, right?

You will feel better immediately.

Okay, that's all I need to know. You will.

Feel better immediately, and you will begin to improve, while transient, those immediate markers, like blood sugar, like triglycerides, like HDL that everybody talks about. Again, it's over time, but these will be immediately impacted, which is incredible, which is absolutely incredible.

Are there some aspects to resistance training that women should be doing differently for maximum benefit?

That's a great question. I think that there's been a lot of discussion in the literature. There was a period of time where I believe that you had to lift heavier weights. And I personally prefer to do that. But the evidence would suggest as long as a woman is really taxing herself, she's not on her phone and she's not distracted, but going to where she really goes to fatigue, then I think that it's not necessarily for women. But again, there is some evidence in the literature or some speculation that some women need more volume. But again, I do think that we shouldn't get caught up in the weeds, but we should understand that 2-3 days a week of resistance training, if you're going to do two days a week, it should be full body. There's many different ways to do it. Now here's one other thing that I think women should do. Tell me. One high intensity interval training session a week.

Okay, what does that actually mean?

I think that we should do it, Mel. I heard you're in Vermont. I heard from a mutual friend, we're in Vermont. I think I should come down there and.

I think I should do it. I think you should. I'm terrified already. Okay, go ahead.

So this could be on, say, an airdine bike or a rower. Or if someone is at home with no equipment, it could be as many air squats as they could do for a 45-second to a minute session, all-out effort. But you're really going to put in high effort for a minute and then you're going to rest. And then you could do that... Again, there's many different ways to do that, but you could do this for a total of 20 minutes, and that's your workout. So you do 10 rounds with a minute in between, and that's it. You have taxed your muscles, you've released myokines, you've improved your blood sugar, and you're going to eat your dietary protein, you're going to be stronger. Over a period of time, you are going to be stronger from following that.

I love this. And I love that you're saying 10-20 minutes. I love that you've got resources that we can link to. I love that you've got a playbook in Forever Strong. I know a lot of people were hanging on the words when you said, just you can do resistance training for 20 to 30 minutes three times a week. For women, it's important to go to failure. If, for example, you're doing an online streaming class, and it's one of those small weight things, and you are doing your arms up and down, and you've been holding them up for five minutes, and you're like, I can't do this anymore, and you drop your arms. Is that what you by failure.

Yeah. Yes. And by the way, I did say 10 or 20 minutes, 30 minutes. If you work hard enough, you could get a great workout in seven minutes. You could get a great workout in one minute. If you gas yourself on some just all out 80 to 90 % more effort, that's good. It could literally take you four minutes. So there are ways to navigate this. It doesn't have to take a ton of time.

You did mention make muscle magic. What are the five ways to make muscle magic? And what is muscle magic?

So how to make muscle magic? And basically, the way that I think about that is, how can we add in snippets in the day to really augment our health? What are we going to do about health and wellness that's going to take two seconds to do and going to be at the forefront of our mind? Every hour complete number one, you like numbers, number one, every hour complete 10 to 20 air squads. Dude, you could totally do that. You could totally do that. Number two, stand at your desk, which I'm sitting right now, but I do have a standing treadmill desk. Number three, get your heart rate up with a brisk walk to the bathroom or water fountain 10 times a day.

Great. Easy.

You literally, if you had a glucose monitor, you ate lunch, you have that glucose monitor, and you can see improvements in your blood sugar just by leveraging skeletal muscle instantaneously. We're at number four, bring a resistance band to your office and get in a quick 10 reps of Mel's bicep curls. Or any.

Exercise of choice. That's an exercise of choice. Just resist the band, people.

Yeah, you could do overhead press. You could do whatever you want to do.

I have a question. So a lot of us have these wrist weight things. You can hear me opening it up. They're very popular when we were all in lockdown, the Hot Mom Walk. So there's a one pound wrist weight. If I just wear these all day long, is that something that I can do that will help? Or is that not a good thing?

It will help. Is it going to be optimal? Maybe not, but it'll help.

Okay. And when you.

Said- I think we could put a little more- Probably.

Given that you've practiced as a psychiatrist, practiced in a family medicine practice, and you've spent 20 years and are a fellow in nutritional medicine, I wanted to ask you some questions from our audience and see if you would give people advice. So Vicky writes, Docjie, how do I get my 24-year-old daughter to start taking charge of her health? I send her podcasts, I send her articles. The more I do, she turns away as she wants to be in control, which I know she should be. She's a workaholic. She's a perfectionist. She has anxiety, but she mopes around and doesn't exercise much. I'm worried because she's burying herself in work, and that means she claims she doesn't have much room for exercise or enough sleep. She's put on about 25 pounds since graduating, and I'm just really worried about her. What can I do?

Well, first of all, don't worry, we've got this. And I'm going to share with you a little secret. Over time, the most and highest success a person will ever be able to achieve, the one common denominator, is their health. So if Vicky's daughter cares about building and becoming successful, which she clearly does, right now, she is making a rookie entrepreneurial mistake. I have seen this over and over and over again. Human beings are predictable. This behavior of late nights, early mornings, little sleep, charge hard and burn out, it goes like this, right? And as people's career goes up, this behavior goes like this until ultimately, something breaks, people hit rock bottom, and then they have to rebuild. So one of two things are going to happen. Number one, you're going to get to it early and you're going to say, Listen, you care about being successful. You are so driven. You have external discipline. So this is someone who is exhibiting external discipline to drive the needle forward. That is a translatable skill. We are going to encourage the external discipline to then translate to internal discipline, not with the goal of weight loss, not with the goal of being healthy, but all of which is going to be framed around this idea of future success, daily success, and future success.

She is going to be able to perform better at work and dominate. And that is how you are going to change her mind.

There is new research out that shows that the best way to help a kid who is struggling is to help the caregiver by helping the caregiver start to take care of themselves and start to become healthier themselves. It translates directly. And so I freaking love that you just said that. If you're frustrated by going up and down and trying this diet and that diet, and the other diet, and this thing, and that thing, and the other.

Thing, that stops today, everybody listening to this, they are going to stop yo- yo dieting.