16- The Semaglutide Spectrum: Navigating Weight Loss Tools

Join us in this enlightening episode as we explore the buzz around semaglutides and their role in weight loss. This is not medical advice, but a trainer's perspective based on deep research into what these medications truly mean. We'll break down the science behind GLP-1 receptors, their intended use, and their effects on the body.

We dive into the controversy, the hype, and the facts: What is a semaglutide, and how does it work? Why is it popular, and who can genuinely benefit from it? We'll also discuss the importance of a holistic approach to health, combining strength training, balanced nutrition, and lifestyle changes to achieve sustainable results.

This episode isn't just about demystifying a trendy topic—it's about empowering you with knowledge and encouraging you to take a thoughtful approach to your health journey. Whether you're considering these medications or simply curious about the topic, this conversation is packed with insights.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding semaglutides and their role in blood sugar regulation and weight loss.
• The importance of not relying solely on medications for weight management.
• How to maintain muscle mass and overall health, especially for women over 40.
• Practical advice on incorporating strength training, cardio, and balanced nutrition into your routine.

Call to Action: Don't miss out on this comprehensive discussion! If this episode resonates with you, share it with a friend who might need to hear it. Remember, the doors to my signature KatFit Strength program are now open—reach out to start your fitness journey with a community that supports your goals.

Listen now and empower yourself with the knowledge to make informed health decisions! 🎧💪

☎️ - Schedule a complimentary call to see if podcasting is a good fit for you: https://katfit.moxieapp.com/public/katfit/consultation-call
❓ - Have A Question About Strength Training, Nutrition, and cardio training? Submit It HERE:https://forms.gle/kndmqaf91psZEmPs6
📧 - Join The Email List: https://katfit.ck.page/8c2fa05ed8

Transcript

Kat: 0:00

Welcome back to MileFromherView, where we explore all things, health, wellness, and fitness from the perspective that resonates with busy moms. Like us, I'm Kat your host. And today we're diving into a topic that is crucial for many of us weight loss during perimenopause and menopause. We will be discussing the role of semi glutides. Like Ozempic, wegovy rebellious, and exploring the lifestyle, fitness and nutrition adjustments necessary to sustain weight loss. Before we dive into this topic, I really wanna stress, this is my viewpoint from a trainer. This is not medical advice. This is not me telling you you should or you should not. Over the past few months, I've been in a deep dive, reading over the research, understanding what semaglutides are. What do they actually mean? What is a GLP 1 receptor? How does it work in the body? Why was it created? And who does it truly help? Over the past few months, I also couldn't help noticing the prevalence of individuals asking in social media, as well as other personal trainers and the fitness industry bashing these medications and those who use it. Where I stand is I truly do feel these are great tools that can help individuals who may need this and if it is right for them when they consult their medical practitioners. The role that I play When an individual comes to me who is taking it or who is pursuing it is to support them in their goals to see and be what they want through the lens of fitness and nutrition. I know this is a topic that is Buzzing around. It is controversial and you may not agree with everything I say. And that is a hundred percent. Okay. I am sticking with the research that I've read when I research, I. Get a little bit. I'm going to say nerdy. I go in deep. I follow back. I try and find the most unbiased research. There is always going to be a lens in what that research is looking for. I look at behind who is supplying the money in these studies that I looked at. There is a deficit. Women have not been included in a lot. The populations of women have not been as diverse and the population has not matched men. Now, this does not mean everything I say here is wrong. It means we just don't have all the research. The brilliant thing about a lot of the research studies that I looked at is they said we need more research on this. Again, this doesn't mean do not take this. If you are a great candidate and if you are someone who you can benefit from these medications, then discuss that with your doctor. That is the place to go. As I said before, the reason why I'm discussing this is because it is out there and it may have crossed your mind. Weight loss and our relationship with our body and how it changes over time and particularly focusing on women and moms who go through prenatal to postmortem. Partum to menopause, perimenopause to menopause. There are things that happen with our body bodies change. That is a complete sentence, bodies change. What that means for you is going to look different for every person. I'm not here to say you need to love and be 100 percent comfortable in your body. That is not my role. Again, my role when a client comes to me is to provide them with the best strength and conditioning program and nutrition coaching that I can to support their goals. I also have my own morals and ethics in which I will not engage in plans or entertain goals that I do feel may be harmful for the client. I also know that weight loss is very sensitive for everyone and I fully respect that. So it's been a little bit of a long disclaimer and I just want to be as transparent as possible that these topics are tough and there is no right answer and there's a lot of gray area. Bye. Which is tough when we really want black and white kind of just this is the answer This is the path for you. What are semiglute glutides semi glutides? Not only is a tongue twister to say so bear with me a semi glutide Belongs in the class of medications known as a glucogen like peptide 1 GLP 1 receptor agonists Okay, it mimics the GLP 1 hormone that is released in the gastrointestinal tract in response to eating. So one role of the GLP 1 is to promote the body to produce more insulin, which reduces blood sugar. So that is really good for type 2 diabetes individuals because it helps maintain your blood sugar level. your blood glucose sugar allows for the body to have a better um, cessation response. It helps the body, um, suppress appetite. It reduces the glucogen release, um, and it slows the gastric emptying. All right. So that is how those drugs act. It's when the body is not able to do that. It helps boost so the body can function. Now, a cool side effect of what they saw when they introduced this drug was weight loss. That caught on that these drugs can promote weight loss. Whether or not you're diabetic, these drugs still have that same effect. It allows for that blood sugar regulation in the body and suppresses that hunger so that you're not eating more and provides more stabilization in the body with the metabolism. What does that all mean for you? So if you are an individual who chooses to I feel what is being broadcasted out on social media and promotion with celebrities is that this is the magic pill, the silver bullet that I take this and the weight falls off and I never have to worry about it again. That is not the truth. And I want to be really clear with women. It's not that we are super special cases, but we go through perimenopause to menopause. Any weight loss and this drug does not discriminate against lean mass and non lean mass. Lean mass is your muscle. Non lean mass is fat. Okay. So this drug helps lose overall body mass, whether lean or non lean. Why this is really crucial for women to understand is when we get over the age of 40, we start to lose our muscle mass Up to 3 percent per year if we are not maintaining it with a strength training routine to help maintain and build more muscle. So when we take these drugs, it reduces our body mass. That's all it does. And in one study I looked at, it did reduce a good amount of lean mass versus non lean mass. Yes, it reduced a lot of non lean mass as well. And I don't want to, I don't want you to sit here and be like, Oh my goodness, there's no hope. What I'm going to say next and why we shouldn't just take, Oh, the semi glutide is the magic pill. It is the The cure all for non lean mass and getting rid of it is the fact that it does not discern between lean mass and non lean mass. And that is really important for all individuals, but most importantly, I'm focusing on women who are 35 plus, more in that 40 to 55 range where you're in that perimenopause to menopause range and the body composition matters. Your muscle mass on your body. Matters. Muscle is, I'm going to arguably say, it's a general term, the fountain of youth. It is a metabolic tissue that helps with your metabolism, your hormones, as well as, yes, aesthetically, it, you know, gives you that tight, lean look, but it helps you maintain your independence. Yes. Your balance, your coordination, it prevents falls and it helps reduce metabolic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, is truly the fountain of youth in that regard. We're going to kind of take a hypothetical. You choose to take a semi glutide. Awesome. But what comes with that is you need to have a comprehensive encompassing lifestyle modification approach here. Fitness needs to be involved. You need to develop a strength training routine. Dietary adjustments also need to be involved. Cardio routine. And I don't want you to think, Oh my goodness, now I have to do everything. If you want to maintain the weight loss, let's say you're like, I don't want to do any of that. I just want to take the semi glutex. Perfect. Okay. That's the path you choose. Well, the end result is this. When you stop taking that, because at some point you're going to stop taking it, you're going to reduce the dosage, what happens is the weight will come back. Your body doesn't magically continue to function the same as it would on the semi glutate. If you do not make these life changes, the weight will come back in some capacity. This is not to scare you. I want to be as transparent because I genuinely feel these are good tools to have in your back pocket, in that toolbox, or whatever you want to classify it as, because it can truly help. But it is not. And it's not the sole thing you need to do. Yes, if starting there helps because that's the capacity and the driving factor. I think that is brilliant knowing that incorporating certain lifestyle modifications to incorporate a fitness routine and dietary adjustments are needed will help provide sustainable results when You choose to end your time with these drugs looking into this. So what does that look like? It's the same for anyone who's choosing to start a routine. It's working on getting that 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise weekly coupled with strength training activities. That looks like, you know, getting Walk with purpose in, uh, multiple times a week, engaging any progressive strength training routine. It doesn't have to be lengthy, but getting in and lifting heavy, doing activities like brisk walking, cycling, spinning, yoga, dancing. Those all can be moderate intensity, like exercises. Strength training is different. We want to put that load on the body. It's great for. Maintaining and building muscle mass as well as helping bone density. We do not want to increase our chances of sarcopenia or osteopenia or osteoporosis. We want to have strong bones. We do not want to become frail. I don't know of any person who's like, Oh, I'm super excited to get old and lose my freedom. We want to be free. We want to be mobile. We want to have our independence and feel strong to live healthy and feeling good in our bodies for as long as possible. So those things will 150 minutes of moderate to intense exercise. activity of exercise, looking like brisk, walking, cycling, spinning, yoga, and even doing any sort of dancing, anything where you're getting that heart rate up. You're not at your max capacity where you cannot breathe or you can't carry on a conversation, but you're feeling good. feeling that challenge. You might break a sweat or you want to get that heart rate up that progressive strength training. We want weights to feel heavy in our hands. I did an episode several episodes back about progressive strength training and you're going to get so sick of me saying and talking about it, but that is how we maintain and build muscle. And there's more into it. I don't want it to sound complex, but that's the stuff I nerd out on nutritionally. Adopting a balanced diet of rich fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains is crucial for sustained weight loss. This will help you overall in so many ways. Notice I didn't say Anything about timing of food, fasting or cutting out any food groups, fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains are all needed to support and to sustain weight loss. There is a variety of fruits and vegetables and lean proteins and whole grains that you can enjoy to help support that. We want to limit processed foods and sugars and high fat items because that will help mitigate. The risk of gaining weight back. I want to point out, it's limiting, not completely avoiding. I will tell you this, if there's an apple and a donut sitting on the counter and I'm hungry, you know what? The donut's gonna be more appealing because it's fun, it's yummy. I love apples. I think apples are great. But you know what? Let's all face it. That donut? And especially chocolate donuts are super yummy to me. You're going to prefer that over something that is super nutrient dense. It's how we're wired. It's how the brain works. So no amount of willpower is going to stop you from making that choice. That does not make you a bad person at all. It's just how we're wired. We want to be able to limit those processed foods, sugars, and high fat items during that time and practicing portion control through healthy methods. Tuning into our hunger cues. Are we satiated? Are we not full like? Oh my goodness, I ate a huge feast, but okay, you know what? I'm satiated. My body feels good. I can go on. Helps tuning back into those rhythms of the body is going to help you prevent overeating. and under eating going to allow for that sustained weight loss. Nutritionally, I really encourage people to work with a registered dietitian who is skilled in that. With perimetopause and menopause, there are hormone fluctuations that do genuinely pose challenges with weight management because when our estrogen drops, we become more insulin deficient. sensitive. We have an increased risk of metabolic syndrome and this causes our blood sugar to go up. And so a semi glutide can help mitigate the risks and enhance your overall being. Now that does not mean, and I really want to be clear because they are expensive and there is a shortage of them. I don't want you to think now I'm perimenopause and menopausal, so I'll just hop on a semi glutide and I'll change this. No, you can still mitigate these. changes or reduce your risk of insulin sensitivity and metabolic syndrome risk by doing the aforementioned things, incorporating a progressive strength training plan, getting on our 50 minutes of moderate exercise per week, as well as adopting more of a whole food diet filled with fruits, vegetables, whole greens, and lean meats. So those are all things that can go into that and reduce. insulin sensitivity, risk of metabolic syndrome. That was a lot to take in. Semiglutides are going to be around for a while and I want you to take away that I think they are a big tool that can help a lot of people, especially individuals who are diabetic. Also, individuals where they need to lose weight and they are actively working on these lifestyle changes. They are not. The miracle pill, the magic pill, the silver bullet, whatever you want to classify it with. It's not take this and then you never have to worry about the weight you lost ever coming back. Look it over with your medical practitioners and find individuals, if you're looking for individuals to help you make that, that are open to this, that know about these drugs, that can see the Power that they have to help, and also how movement and strength training and nutritional tweaks can make a big impact. So I'm gonna leave you with this. You are truly a powerful person, capable of incredible things. Embrace where you are currently, knowing that it's okay to redefine your goals and find joy in your journey. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who might need to hear this message. And remember the doors to my signature CatFit strength program are now open. Whether you need one on one coaching or supportive community, there's a place for you here. Let's embark on this journey together. Thanks for tuning in to Miles from Herview. Stay tuned for more insightful episodes on health, wellness, and empowering your fitness journey. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Until next time, keep moving forward and embracing the powerhouse that you are.