Episode 8, Part 2 of The Living Life Well Show: Weight Loss: GLP-1s, Fasting, Diet, Exercise, Sleep and Hormones
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
Yeti Nano & FaceTime HD Camera-1: Welcome back. This is part two of episode eight, dedicated to weight loss. So we discussed in the first part, the GLP-1s, their mechanism of action their negative side effects, their positive side effects. We contrasted that with fasting. And so just to recap, primarily the issue with the GLP-1s is. It appears to cause some early [00:01:00] satiety meaning. You feel full all the time and you aren't hungry, so you don't eat. We contracted the reported benefits in the literature with those of fasting, which include obviously weight loss. But also changes to your cholesterol and blood pressure. Risk for a heart attack and stroke things.
They don't cover in the GLP one literature as of yet. But do cover with fasting is the fat burn that you get with a fasting and the maintenance. Of your muscle mass. And your lean muscle mass in particular, which obviously is very important. And we discuss the mechanisms and hormones in which are effected. By fasting as well.
And the benefits associated with that. And we discussed a little bit who should, and shouldn't fast. We didn't really go over any specific plans and we're not going to do that today either. We'll have a dedicated episode. To [00:02:00] fasting sometime in the future. But for now what I'd like to talk about today, as I'd like to talk about diet. So there's so many different diets out there, right?
And so we get a question a lot. So what is the best diet? What's the best diet for diabetes or a thyroid or this condition or that condition. And it's a very common question. It's a very pertinent question, right? Because it is, it's very confusing. What do we eat? What is going to be best?
And so we have a real difficulty around figuring that out. And so we've come up with all these different diets. We have the Keto, we have the paleo, we have the Mediterranean, the vegetarian. I'm sure there's a Cheeto diet somewhere. But all of these diets have benefits and all of them have downsides too.
So keto and vegetarian. Probably have a few more [00:03:00] downsides than say the paleo or the Mediterranean. So the keto diet primarily is going to be a high fat, high protein diet think lots of dairy lots of meats very little to no fruits little to no vegetables and essentially all carbs are going to be gone.
All sugars are going to be gone. All breads. Flours, anything like that is going to be gone. Paleo is more of a whole food diet in which you're going to eat primarily whole foods. But typically you're going to avoid beans or legumes. You're going to stay away from any kind of seed oils or anything like that. , it is as close to what you would call a whole food diet. Meaning you're eating a beef. Chicken. Fish tends to be higher in protein, but you do still consume fruits and vegetables to a large degree again as I mentioned, [00:04:00] there are some exceptions with that. A Mediterranean diet is a little bit different. It's primarily going to be fruit and vegetable based along with fish. Based. As well as some lean meats, it's very similar to the paleo diet. But it's a little bit more varied. With what it allows and then you've got the vegetarian diet or the vegan diet.
So the vegetarian diet would be one in which you're really just consuming vegetables primarily fruits. Of course also you may have some eggs or you may have a little bit of fish, a vegan avoids all animal products whatsoever. There is no eggs or anything like that . When you're eating a vegetarian and a vegan diet, you still could have very processed foods, right?
You're not eating the whole foods. Like you would be on the [00:05:00] paleo or Mediterranean diet. Think getting stuff out of a bag. Okay. That's going to be more possible in the vegetarian and or vegan diet, as opposed to the paleo or Mediterranean diet. And to a degree that's true also in the keto diet, these are the main reasons that I say that these diets don't , typically have as much benefit. If you want to follow just the keto rule or just the vegetarian slash vegan rule. Now when you're apply whole foods to any of those diets. You get more benefit? Whole foods are really those things that come out of the ground off the tree or out of the field. Or out of the water.
Those are going to be the things that God has made and they're going to be minimally processed. Okay. And so that's going to be the big key a lot of times, it's the processing and the preserving process, [00:06:00] which causes so many. Issues. Now every single one of these diets, keto, paleo Mediterranean, vegetarian vegan can all result in weight loss.
They can all result in benefits that you get from weight loss. They all, tend to have some sort of mineral or vitamin deficiency. That isn't accounted for in the diet. Part of that is just the way our food is grown. Now it is not as fully nutritious as it was even 50 years ago. Just from different farming practices. Pesticides, herbicides that are used. And, hormones, antibiotics that are given to animals. It's just not quite as, nutritious as it was, definitely a hundred years ago, but really even. In 50 years ago. And for this reason, this is why I have my clients go [00:07:00] through testing to really test and see what their nutrient deficiencies are. The other thing I really like people to do is go through an elimination diet. Really determine, Hey, if I eliminate all these things then as you add them back in, you can really measure and see what your body's response to them is.
So it will help you determine how to build your diet going forward. And so I don't recommend any one specific diet, I think really the most important. Thing is varying them for your specific body's needs for your specific underlying. Pathology or lack there of that requires certain elements in the diet more or less than someone else might. And so that's why I don't recommend just flat keto [00:08:00] flat paleo flat. Mediterranean, vegetarian or vegan. I really think you have to personalize the diet for yourself.
And so that's what I think works best. And having said that kind of leads us right into the, to the next topic, which is exercise. I get this question a lot too. What's the best exercise for X, Y, and Z? There's some general principles that are going to apply, but what I always say about exercise it's going to be one that's accessible to you and more importantly, one that you will do.
And so that's going to be the most. Important thing and then incorporating specific elements primarily. Resistance training being it bodyweight, being it resistance bands. Free weights, any of those things are going to be beneficial. And sometimes incorporating the resistance training along with high intensity interval training really shows. Increased [00:09:00] benefits.
It does a couple things, usually shortens your workout and it really helps to increase that muscle mass, which is again, like we've talked about so important. To our health and our longevity. Much like fasting, exercise is really involved in our hormone profile from increased levels of dopamine and serotonin in the brain.
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That's that runner's high that you get after a workout and you just feel really good afterwards. That's usually going to be because of that. In addition, you have increased HGH or human growth hormone, which really helps with body recovery.
It helps with decreasing insulin resistance and managing glucose levels. And then you also get boosts in a testosterone and estrogen which again are going to be very important in maintaining a healthy libido as well as muscle mass and energy levels . And exercise is very important, but exercise really only contributes in weight loss [00:11:00] about 10 to 20%. The main issue with health is really going to be the food that you're eating and quite honestly, your sleep. And so that brings me to the next point.
So sleep is going to be extremely important for regulation of your hormones and how much sleep do we really need? Quite honestly, it depends on the individual you need, for sure. A minimum of six hours of sleep. About seven and a half to nine hours of sleep is going to be best depending on the individual.
Now, why do we say that? Why is it seven and a half? Why is it six? Why is it nine? Why isn't it eight? Like we've always said the reason we say that is because. The sleep cycle is about 90 minutes in length. And so you really want to get all the way through a sleep cycle to get the full benefit.
Sometimes waking up too early in a sleep cycle. [00:12:00] Can cause increased stress hormones, like cortisol . And so that can cause increased issues with weight gain and insulin resistance. So it's really important to. Really try and figure out what your best sleep is. And so adjusting your schedule to do that is going to be important if you can adjust your schedule so that you're really not having to wake up with an alarm and your body naturally wakes up at a certain time. Prior to the alarm going off, that is going to be best.
And that is what your body is really liking and wanting. And this varies for everybody but some typical things that we want to try to do to improve our sleep is one no, no eating or drinking. Three hours prior to bed. So by drinking, nothing more than water. Water that hasn't had anything added to it.
So that's going to be very important. And why is that? Because that is going to allow the [00:13:00] gut to actually rest a lot of the reasons that people wake up in the middle of the night. Is because their insulin has spiked and, it has shot down their blood glucose levels. And so they have changes in temperature and they don't feel well.
Sometimes they'll have some abdominal pain or headache or night sweats. And this is all because we're eating too close to bedtime. The other issue that we'll see quite frequently. Is we'll see an active mind, a mind that is just going and going. A lot of this is induced by our phones and TV and blue light and those things.
So I really recommend at least one hour Nothing right in front of your face, two hours is best. If you can do that.
But why is sleep so important? Why am I talking about it here with weight loss? The reason I'm talking about it with weight loss is because of a couple of things called leptin and grehlin.
Leptin is a molecule that allows [00:14:00] us to really control our appetite. It lets us know when we're full, it's essentially an appetite suppressant. And so when you have decreased sleep, your leptin levels go down. And so you don't really ever feel full.
You are constantly hungry and that's because what has happened is now because of that, Regulation between the leptin and grehlin. It is now out of balance. And now grehlin is secreted in higher quantities and grehlin is a pro appetite hormone. And so it really encourages you to eat and typically eat carbohydrates, typically eat a salty foods. These things, because also when you aren't getting sleep or you're having sleep apnea and those things. Your cortisol levels and inflammation increases as well. Which drives [00:15:00] again. That, that desire for carbs.
And so having worked in a ER for 20 years and worked a lot of night shifts and this is something that I struggle with as well. It's difficult, also knowing and understanding what is going on and trying to eat better foods to help
when you do get that hunger that's associated with that sleep loss is going to be helpful to you. in fighting that, and really what we're talking about is shifts in hormones. And when we see that there are issues with sleep, that then is going to affect your hormones. And when you have insulin resistance and those things, you are seeing changes in hormone profiles, we see a lot of changes with regards to the thyroid. Levels tend to plummet.
This tends to cause us to increase our weight gain and causes more issues as well. And so sometimes it's not that you're not getting sleep, but that you do just have. A thyroid [00:16:00] issue. We see thyroid issues. With regard to infection. We see them compounded. With sleep apnea .
Thyroid being off and not adequate is going to cause you a difficulty in losing weight. In addition, if you're having low testosterone or low estrogen or out of balance estrogen and testosterone ratios and conversions that is going to cause increased. Adipose tissue in the stomach or belly fat .
And so those are things that we really need to look at as well. when you have increased cortisol due to inflammation or lack of sleep. Or any of these things you're going to have increased blood sugar levels.
If that continues quite chronically, because stress in and of itself will increase those cortisol levels. Your body doesn't differentiate. Whether it's a stress from work, a stress from a [00:17:00] finances, stress from relationships or stress from a lion chasing you. So cortisol response and stress response is going to be the same. And it's going to manifest itself with increasing glucose levels.
Increasing insulin resistance. Increasing inflammation. And so really getting those hormones check, getting those vitamin deficiencies check is going to be important. And so checking your vitamin D levels, checking your vitamin B12 levels, your folate, how well you are metabolizing.
So looking at the levels of your hormones, as well as some vital nutrients. Is going to be important. And so really understanding that can then help you decide is this diet really work? Is this exercise program really working is my sleep helping is fasting even right for me to try if I have really low thyroid. [00:18:00] So all these are questions that can be answered through a few simple blood tests.
And so I would encourage you that if you have struggled with weight loss in the past really get with your physician or get with a functional medicine practitioner. Who's willing to do a deep dive into the science of you and really understand where your hormones are, where your vital nutrients are and what things are going to be best for you. So I hope this has been informative.
I hope this is helpful to you. And as always. If you're enjoying the podcast, I would ask that. You leave us a review and follow on whatever medium you're following us on whether that's on YouTube via video or on apple or Spotify. Thanks. And God bless.
That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. If you like what [00:19:00] you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic. com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
