Episode 25:Boost Your Metabolism: Tips for Better Health:Expert Insights from Tammy & Lyssie Lakatos
Nutrition experts Tammy & Lyssie Lakatos share insights on how to boost metabolism for better health and weight management. They discuss the role of diet, exercise, muscle mass, and stress management in maintaining an efficient metabolism, offering practical tips to help you stay energized and healthy.
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Hello world and welcome to Choices, Books and Gifts, where You Always Have Choices. We had these ladies on before. They're a big hit and I'm going to tell you a little bit about them is Tammy and Lyssie, and I'm going to read you a little bio on these lovely special ladies.
So Tammy Lakatos and Lacey Lyssie Lakatos make up the aspiration nutrition Duo here to help you transform the way you think about food. These twin sisters are nationally recognized, registered dietitian, nutritionist, nutritionists, and personal trainers. So you know you are definitely in the right hands .With 15 years of experience, Tammy and Lyssie helped thousands of clients boost their energy naturally, achieve their health goals, become happier and reach tip top shape. The pair was voted among the top 20 nutritional experts to follow on Twitter by The Huntington Post, and they're named a top influencer on Pinterest. With over 4 million followers. That's quite that's quite the report.
That's wonderful. Thank you. You guys are top notch and special. I'm so glad we get to have you on our show. Thank you for having us. Excited to be here. We yeah. I'm so excited you're here with us too. So if you don't mind, I'm going to jump into some questions and you guys answer the way you feel. You want to answer. Okay Perfect. Number one,
Can you explain the concept of metabolism and why it's crucial for weight management and overall health? Of course. And I will start by saying that our first book was about metabolism is called Fire Up Your Metabolism many years ago. But the thing about it is, is that the definition of metabolism is a little bit tricky. So I make it really as simplified as possible. And it's kind of the way that your body uses your food to make energy. So very simplified. Right. So when we're using food to make energy, there's different things that come into play. And so usually for most of us, the majority of our energy is something that goes into keeping our organs alive, so that the food that we eat, those calories that we eat, it goes to keeping our heart beating and keeping those organs just working. And then there's a component of our metabolism that we can't control. And that's going to be our genetic, age, whether we're male or female, those kinds of things. Yeah. So those things we can't change. But the great news is, while a lot of people in mistakenly think that we're doomed by our like, oh, I have the worst metabolism, you know, and then we feel like, why is that that?
Well, then you're then it's because you feel like you're eating your food. It's just all not being used to make energies are being used to store fat. And instead, what the truth is, is that we have a lot of control over our metabolism. And we're excited to share those things with you today, because it's really inspiring to know that we can actually do a lot with our metabolism to really boosted, and that's what we do with our clients. And I have to tell you, we used to do that with ourselves because we do genetic testing in our practice as well. And we have to tell you that we have every obesity gene and we have if they show it in a picture and that genetic pathways of your metabolism and they have a picture of us pushing how hard it will be for us to maintain our weight.
We're probably like 40, not just we're pushing like a boulder that's bigger than us up a hill. So does that mean metabolism is a little off or it's off because of the... it's all very genetically. It's very it's all sluggish. So meaning if genetically it really wants to conserve everything we eat and not create energy, but it wants to conserve it as fat.
So it takes a Why does the body do that? I mean the goes back. I mean, if you look really at the research that we did, you know, we don't talk about this a lot, but it looks if you go back to generation after generation, probably we had some kind of family members who had to probably, eat and then they couldn't get food for of their body learned how to slow the metabolism down to our nation. Like a hibernation
I mean, a lot of us have that, but some of us have muscle. Come from different areas. However, our genes turned out we didn't fit our genes, didn't feel like it was as protected in our mind, were this way because our it was our advantage. So it was like our survival of the fittest. We have the survival of the fattest.
It's fitness. Teen. I like the way you're thinking because I don't think of it so positive. She's always so down about our darn metabolism. Let me ask you this. So for me, you know, I think it's later on in life I have a slow metabolism. So a doctor put me on a medication. Is that something you suggest, or should I do it with just diet and exercise? What are your thoughts?
That's a great question. I don't know what medication he puts you on. There's a lot out there right now, but it really depends because a lot of times, we come from the school of thought that we, we always want to try to get our body to do what it can first and then get the help of medication, because usually with medications, there are side effects. You know, if you're talking about like, we'll go over here or zepet it, you know, right now there's a lot of really positive things, but they're also a lot to still know. So that's and it works very well for some people. But we just there's, there's some suspicions about things to be watching out for, for the long run.
So if we can regardless of that, we really want to boost our body's own metabolism. Right. And one thing I want to add in here was that, you know, so a lot of people say, oh, my metabolism slowed as I got older, which it's very true. It's very related to muscle lean muscle tissue. But the thing that people don't and other things about that is say, the thing that people don't realize that affect metabolism, no one ever thinks of things like inflammation, stress, what causes inflammation. Insulin toxins, right. Blood sugar swings, like if you can keep your blood sugar, even your metabolism is going to stay fired up. Yeah, we'll share that, I have a feeling you have lot of questions. It's amazing because you mentioned those things and I see the questions coming up that will handle those answers. I love our first question. Took so long because it was so informational.
So I'm going to go to question two. Thank you ladies okay What are some overlooked causes of a slow metabolism. Is it lack of eating right and lack of exercise is or you tell me. Oh well, there's many things, but the overlooked one, I mean, I think people realize more. There are certain things they can do with their eating or their muscle tissue.
Right? The things that are really overlooked that people don't realize. Well, there's many. And if we even just name a few, one being, nutrients, if we don't have certain nutrients, nutrients are needed to fuel our metabolic processes. So if we either have a genetic, and we all have metabolize vitamins through our genes, if we all have something that makes it a little bit harder for us to metabolize B vitamins, which are energy, or if we eat in a way when we're rushed and we don't release the enzymes that break down the food to cleave the nutrients that we need, then I mean, that's a huge issue.
That is a huge issue that we should spend the second there. Because if you don't break, we assume, oh, we're eating all this healthy food. Well, we must be getting all of the nutrients we need to fuel our metabolism. Not so fast. If you eat like Tammy when I tell her, get over here on time. She had a class.
I'm like, I swallowed that whole. Yeah, you're eating your food whole. You're. You're not giving your body any notice that you're not breaking down the food. You're not leaving the nutrients. You're not giving your body the notice that needs to release enzymes. And that's assuming that your enzymes work well. So these are all sorts. And as we get older, after the age of 40, everyone's, digestive enzymes just start to take a dive. Especially in hydrochloric.
Is it important that we chew our food well and not swallow it after? It is, also that takes our body out of what? So is the fight or flight mode. And we cannot digest our food if we're in that fight or flight mode. We have to be in a parasympathetic, relaxed state for rest and digest to actually absorb those nutrients. Otherwise, we're not even getting that.
You might be eating all of the healthy foods. Before I ran over here, I eat a very healthy meal. I don't think I absorb that much of it because I see it in here. I'm like it might have been veggies, but it doesn't matter probably it's going to ferment in our stomach. And that's the other thing.
If your digestion is off, say your microbiome is off, which happens due to stress or diet or drinking alcohol, toxins in the environment. That makes our microbiome a little bit our gut, a little bit leaky. And that means we're not going to be absorbing our nutrients so well. And that also changes the gut so that your gut favors metabolic weight gain, favors weight fat gain. these are things we look at. We look to see if our clients are digesting their food okay. Because then of course if they're not then we're not they're not we already know their metabolism is an optimized if their gut microbiome is off and it's got the bacteria that's favoring weight gain, then that, then those are throwing it off. And then you have things like inflammation. And we all know about inflammation. It's like if we have an injury it comes in and it tries to heal us quickly. But it's the chronic inflammation that we hear about that leads to all diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and that inflammation. It changes our metabolism. It makes our metabolism favor fat gain inflammation, chronic inflammation makes it harder to lose weight and easier to gain weight.
And again, the things that cause inflammation aren't things you necessarily think about. Short stress. Yes, it's a poor diet, but it's also exposures to toxins in our environment, the air that we breathe if we're not breathing clean air, the water that we drink, heavy metal exposure from, say, we're doing all the right things. We think we're having that organic protein powder.
But if it's not a good brand, is there are there heavy metals in there that then contribute to inflammation and that inflammation is something? These are all things we can measure and check. We have all of our clients. We have them, we check certain measures of inflammation and we want to make sure that it's low. And if and we keep testing, we make changes and we make sure it keeps working. So we know the metabolism is getting better. And then on top of the inflammation and the nutrient, there's also cortisol the belly fat hormone. And how do we get that. Well if we're stressed that's when it comes out. If we're living this fast paced life and we're running around and we're in a fight or flight mode all the time.
So cortisol is called the belly fat hormone because it changes our metabolism so that we're favoring fat game. We're storing fat. See, that's more interesting to me because it seems like you chew your food, you know, you I mean, you just swallow it and run out the door. And you, I've seen her on the machines in the gym.
She's a maniac. And, well, you know, I've got to counterbalance. I would think that was. That was something that would help the metabolism and to help late weight loss and help calories. But it’s not necessarily true.
Well, if you’re saying exercise, exercise is always going to have to burn calories. And it's also if you're you need to be doing that strength training and I'm sure you'll be asking about that as well. But strength training is what keeps your lean muscle tissue. And lean muscle tissue is the most important thing when it comes to metabolism, because the more lean muscle tissue that you have, the faster your metabolic rate. And that like men. So it's better to lift than cardio, or you need a mixture of both. You need a mixture of both.
But a lot of females especially will just say, oh, I don't feel like lifting weights, but it's so critical when it comes to metabolism, especially as we age. So if you've seen people that are in the gym, they tend to look a lot better when they're older than people their same age. They don't go to the gym. And because they're maintaining that muscle mass that is valuable real estate on the body because it's burning calories even when you're sleeping versus fat. No, it's really not active that that muscle tissue is active. And that's why men have a faster metabolism than women. They just have more muscle tissue, and they're genetically engineered to have more tissue, but they can pop up their metabolism.
Some women especially can bump up their metabolism. Really makes a difference as they get older, when we've already started to lose a lot of the muscle mass. Right? And actually it's surprising. But most men well, men start losing their muscle tissue if they don't do anything to preserve it. Meaning lifting weights by age 30, 25, is the one thing that women have on men. They start losing their muscle mass sooner or 25 men and women, they actually lose it quicker, more quickly than when women start at 30, start at age 30 using it. But 30 you start off with more. And also if they're lifting weights, you can completely preserve that muscle tissue, right? Which is why you see people in the gym that are 60, 70.
You know, that look fantastic, like you look amazing. I don't know your age and talk about working out hard. You play pickle ball for hours and hours, then you straight train. I do everything I can. I'm like you, Tammy. don't know, Lyssie how much you work out, but I work out like Tammy, trust me. We do the same Remember, we're fighting those genetics But it is possible. It's just, you know, as we get older, it's going to get more difficult. All right. So question three ladies. How can someone determine if their metabolism is working efficiently. Is it only by testing it or what are your thoughts I mean first of all, if you if you know that you wake up tired all the time, you're tired, that's just a sign because you're not getting good energy.
Why are you not getting good energy? Then your mitochondria suffer suffering and you can pretty much assume, well, maybe you have insulin resistance, maybe you have. We didn't even talk about that as a situation. But maybe you have high cortisol. Maybe you aren't sleeping well, which that can play with your metabolism. Maybe you just, you're not, breaking down your nutrients in getting your nutrients from your food.
So you can assume it's pretty easy to assume that if you don't feel like your eye full of energy, that something is affecting your metabolism, then that's where it can be a little tricky to dig in. That's what we do with our clients. And they're not rocket science tests. We just make sure we test them. And one of the things that's super important is with something like insulin, which we didn't talk about.
But insulin is our fat storage hormone and we need it. And when we eat carbohydrates, we want to have very sensitive insulin. So our insulin comes in and it sees that carbohydrate is like yes, it's like a Pac-Man. It gobbles it and takes it to the cell. But over time... To give my lack of knowledge, but is insulin something we produce in ourselves or is that something we have to take?
Oh right. Sorry. Okay. So insulin. Yes. We produce it ourselves. Our pancreas produces insulin and it's a normal healthy response. Not everyone's produces much because well that's not how we resist. And I make too much. So what happens is what we want to do is we want to eat a low carbohydrate and the insulin is very sensitive. We just put out a little insulin. It takes it to the muscle for energy. But what happens in our for a lot of us is we eat a lot of carbohydrate and in some puts out and puts out and then finally insulin like the body becomes like less efficient at using it as like so it starts pumping out more insulin and become more insulin resistant. So what means what this means is we're pumping out all this insulin, which is our fat storage hormone, but it's not taking it to the muscles in the cell. It's just creating more and more fat storage. And what we will tell you, what we see with our clients is that a lot a lot of doctors will check and we'll say you're okay if your insulin level is up to 23, that's okay.
Right? But that's not optimal. We don't want anyone's above seven. So people like this go down. There's a lot of things thyroid like that too. With a lot of women their doctor's like, oh I checked your thyroid Check the one that really is the active thyroid that some of them don't. Most of them don't even understand how to read it.
And that's why they don't even check for some of the things we have. We send these things to the doctor. There's a lot that they're overlooked, so you might get a clean bill of slate from your doctor. Oh, okay. Shoot. Nothing's going wrong with my metabolism. And like I said, if you wake up and you just don't feel like you're full of energy, that's a good sign. And then you can dig into it where it might be. Is it your what's the root cause? That's how we do a lot of digging to find out what's, what's are you exposed to a toxin? Is it inflammation.
And to get that information they would talk to either you guys or a doctor or something to figure out. Yeah, sure. Some doctors might not be aware, but Yeah. if you go to a functional practitioner though, I think if they watch this show, they'll understand that it's something they need to do. Like go to the doctor and say, listen, can you check my metabolism because I'm off. You know, I got eight hours sleep yet I'm sluggish. It’s like crazy.
Yeah. Right. Right, right. But they'd want to check you, right? They want to check their inflammatory markers, CRP, homocysteine, anything. That's, cortisol levels. I think that's great because sometimes if we educate the doctor, you know, like listening to you guys, then they can work. Yeah. So they can go to their doctor and direct the doctor what they need.
Like, we'll want to test these nutrients. I want to check for These inflammation marks. markers. I want to check my insulin. Fasting insulin is a big one. They usually second on insulin. But you want to check your fasting and you don't want you just want your CRP which is an inflammation marker. You want your high sensitive. So it's HSCRP.
And so there's a lot of things like that. And then there with the thyroid that's a whole other can of worms. You could affect metabolism very direct. It's 100% effective. And a lot of people fly under the radar because their doctor just checks the state, which is basically like if you had a Ferrari and you looked at on the outside, you said beautiful, but you didn't pick up the hood and make sure or the gas check the gas, there's no gas inside. And so that's the wrong side. They're fluid. They're not checking any of the active Ferrari. So it's like, it's all right. You think you're driving a Ferrari going inside. It's like you're puttering along and they don't check that. So it can be people switched forever. We like to tell we have almost all of our female clients who come to us.
We always have their doctors check for things, and sometimes the doctors say, well, I don't want to check for that because I don't know what it means. And well, I don't worry, we'll take care of it because you want to check. That's another thing. If the liver sluggish, you're not going to be able to make active thyroid hormone.
So it turns into all of these things. And the liver can be sluggish with too many toxins and alcohol. Yeah. It's just it's we're in a world where our, our life can be taken and our health can take a number of hit, and we can also do a lot to keep it the metabolism doing that. Great Great.
So that was number four. But you seem to have answered. So I'm going to go to number five. Can you share specific foods or dietary strategies that are particularly effective for enhancing metabolic function? Okay. Sure. So okay so one that we love is green tea and matcha green tea because it contains something called EGCG which actually can speed up metabolic rate.
And there are not too many foods that can do that. But also it the other interesting thing about it is that these really potent antioxidants that go in and they help to mop up cell damage. And so damage is what causes inflammation. So drinking the green tea and I drink matcha green tea every morning. It helps to lower the inflammation and quell it.
I'm gonna start drinking green tea, I promise you. After that endorsement, I'm gonna do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just have to tell you, it's real. It's a real nuisance. I have to brush my teeth right afterwards, and my teeth literally look great. That's a much green tea. And they literally look green. So just have to brush right after. Just the trick. Trick of the green matcha. We all have such nice teeth. We have to work after our teeth. Thank you, you're great Yours are very white. I will say that it's easy to know if you're a matcha drinker or a red wine drinker because either you're going have green or red.
you know. Yeah, absolutely. But that's a good one. So number ladies, how does exercise influence metabolism and what types of workouts are most beneficial for us
okay we love it. Yeah. So when it comes to exercise you can never go wrong. Right? So no matter what you've heard it can't go wrong. Like it's not like what you only want is good. So at something like cardio, you're gonna burn a lot of calories while you do it. So you're increasing your metabolic rate as you do it. Now there is a burn on for like a continuous and after burn after.
Like if you like, if you're like, throw an ember in the fire. It's kind of like that after burn. So you meaning you continue to burn excess calories even after you stopped exercising. Right. And so and one of the best ones would be the hit exercise which is high intensity interval training. So that's the type what I see you do in the gym I do, I do.
So I'm a little bit limited based on what my cardiologist, my cardiologist talking about. You do see me do some of it, but it's basically what you do is you go for a certain a short amount of time at a faster pace, and then you cut back and faster at its timed intervals increasing It can be fast. I do that with rooting. I'll run real fast and walk a little. I'll run real fast and walk.
Awesome. You're doing that's really good for metabolism. So that's one thing. And as I were saying earlier, the other thing that's amazing for the metabolism is the weight training. Because that muscle is such a valuable resource on the body. Is that calorie blasting part of your body you want? It's it. As we get older, it's our hottest commodity. Like we the more muscle we can have, the better. And we now also know that it's linked to increased a lot of the more muscle mass you have, the more muscle tissue. It helps increase your age, live longer.
Yeah. So, excellent. Thank you so much for that. All right. So number seven, what are the key lifestyle changes that can help increase metabolic rate and improve energy levels? Oh okay. So there's a lot of them. So again the exercise is big. Stress management is huge because stress increases cortisol which is the belly fat hormones. And so anytime we contain stress that's really good because stress also opens up that gut lining which then things that are supposed to go out and out through waste come and enter our bloodstream and cause more inflammation. So the stress management secondly, meditation that could be massages, that could be taking a walk, exercise, deep breathing, you know, just a few minutes before a meal would take you out of that fight or flight so that you can be in the rest and digest mode. And then you can digest your food, you can absorb more nutrients. So it can be a major win there because you're getting out of the fight or flight.
You're shutting down the cortisol. You're opening up your pathways so that you can start being receptive to digesting your food. So it's a real win to be able to do that. Just take a few deep breaths before a meal. So yeah, Sometimes it's amazing. It's the simplest things that can help us so much. Yeah, yeah, it's so true.
That's all information. And you're giving us that. So I appreciate you. Oh thank you. And sorry we made it a little bit complicated about the inflammation. No, it wasn't complicated. But the ways that you end the inflammation in the cortisol. But those are the important hidden things. But there's simple things that you can do to like the deep breathing. So it's like drinking the green tea. Yeah. Like a good night's sleep.
I meditate every day for 20 minutes. I'll tell you this, I meditate every day for 20 minutes in the morning. I wake up, I wash up, and then I meditate for 20 minutes. I've been doing it since I'm a kid. Since you’re a kid that’s amazing , My brother made me meditate since I'm 16. How did you get into it? So young. That's incredible.
Well, I was I was a squirrely little kid and I have a brother that's five years older than me. And we went. He said he was going to transcendental meditation and he dragged me along. They wouldn't even let me meditate in the beginning for 20 minutes. I used to have to meditate for seven, eight. They made me build up to the 20 minutes because I was so young and they didn't think I could sit, you know, calm for 20 minutes and you did it.
That's impressive. Yeah, thank you. That’s actually a habit you could ever have. I know I have to try so hard every night to force myself to. All right. Now it's habit then I really enjoy it once I do it. But I'm like, I've got too much to do. So you do the Transcendental Meditation Transcendental Meditation. So I have a bit of a mantra you supposed to. Yeah, I've done it.
Yeah, I have the mantra and then move on and try to quiet your mind as, as much as you possibly can. And you know, we've been doing it for so many years, I'm good at it. Matter of fact, say it is seven o 'clock in the morning. I'll start and I'll open my eyes and I swear, 95 % of the times it's 7:20. My body is so used to doing it for 20 minutes. you know, I'll start it and it'll know 20 minutes later.
That's so cool. That's amazing. That's so cool. Great. Alright. That's of the best things you can learn as a kid because it's instilled in you. Where most of us have to be like, right, okay now, in the middle of my craziness when I have so much to do, all right, deep breath. That's me before I my dinner. like, okay. Don't talk to me, I need to do my deep breathing. I’m silencing everything.
There are many different ways of meditation. So sometimes, you know, you got to try a few different ways. But for a lot of people like guided meditation, I do one on one of the podcasts, I do a guided meditation. There's, that's great music. There's so many different ways to do it that, you know, the answer is do it. And I found this the best advice I can give is if your body stays in the seat, don't get up. The mind will follow. It will eventually just you know, that urge, that squirminess to get up and then. Yeah. Oh, stay there. And the mind does follow I love that. That's amazing advice. Yeah, I love it. All right.
So number eight my lovely ladies how does sleep affect metabolism and what are recommendations for improving sleep quality. Now I can fluctuate between this you know sleeping well and not. So I'm really excited about hearing from you. Yeah. Well sleep is a big one when it comes to metabolism. We brought a lot of attention in our first book, first of all.
And when you don't sleep well, it favors weight gain for many reasons. First of all, it throws off the balance between Garland and left, in which are your hunger and satiety hormones, so it makes you less satisfied and hungrier. Plus, it also interferes with your body's lean muscle mass and building lean muscle mass. So remember we said lean muscle mass is what keeps your metabolism speedy.
And when you're not sleeping well, you have a harder time getting lean muscle tissue. It also increases cortisol. And remember cortisol is a belly fat hormone. So it's promoting it's for a body telling our metabolism to store fat. So it hits us from many ways. And blood sugar it doesn't. And the blood sugar rises also. And it does not allow your body cannot be sensitive. It makes you more insulin resistant, which you can't keep up with. The insulin. And that is our fat storage hormones. You're pumping out more and more insulin is not working. So staying in our blood and just a constantly talking.
So I've heard that. So you know in essence I know like what I've been taught over the years is the more you rest and the better sleep you get, the more your muscles heal and grow as well. So I guess that goes for the whole body, right? That's true, that's true. And not overdoing it. Like you don't want to have 10 hours, but somewhere between like 7 and 9 is good. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, but that's very true. What you've heard. And on top I get 15 hours of sleep every night. No, I'm just. No, because some people think it's... Well, some people actually think like I, they're like, I get 10 hours every night. It's really good. And they don't realize that 10 hours is actually too much. I mean, who has time for 10 hours? Yeah, yeah, My body would not be able to sustain 10 hours of sleep. It just wakes up too quickly. wakes up.
Their daily living activities would be so low though that would be counterproductive with metabolism.
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Question number nine. Can you discuss the impact of stress on metabolism and ways this is important ways to manage stress effectively. Yeah that's good. So I think we kind of already talked about that stress what it does it causes cortisol. It increases the it's the same thing as a bad night's sleep. It's increasing the insulin. We also feel hungrier and we're more stressed. You know, we're in that fight or flight. Get me quick fuel. The stress also opens up the lining of that gut microbiome. So it allows the toxins to go into the system, which then also burdens the body. It makes metabolism inflammation, makes it harder to lose weight and easier to gain weight.
So it's all a vicious cycle. Our whole bodies connected. So Jim, when you said we know it affects the muscles not to sleep well it our whole body's connected. So we used to say oh with something feels off in the head. I'll just see the head doctor. But many times it's a whole body connection. So it's something like that. So regarding the stress and ways to manage stress, we talked about the deep breathing. We talked about massage, meditation, meditation and exercise is surprising. It's been shown even if you think, oh my gosh, I'm stressed. I don't have time to exercise. That'll stress me out to think about it. It really, really releases endorphins that lower stress in the body.
Yeah. So even just going for a walk outside your front door really helps. Being in nature and, you know, putting your feet in the grass, that's a good grounding. Just putting your feet in the grass or like you're at the beach like we are, then, you know, you just put your if your toe is in the sand, love it, love it. That's fantastic. Great. Thank you for that. What role does hydration play in metabolic health and how much water should one aim to drink a day?
Yeah, this is such a good question. Most of us, you know, we hear, we should just drink more. I should drink more water, should drink more, and, we don't understand why, but water, it fuels every process in our body, even our metabolism, even for us to blink our eyes. But metabolism is fueled by fluid and by hydration. That's what gets you never heard of ATP. And the energy water is part of that reaction cycle has to have water. So if you're even at oh, 1% dehydrated, your metabolism is suffering and 1% dehydration just happens overnight just due to even if you start off hydrating just because hydrated, just because you're exchanging, oxygen as you breathe, just sweating anything, you lose water.
And so 1% dehydration. It's pretty easy to happen at night. So what would we drink on a date? What's our aim? What do we want? Yeah a general recommendation is half your body weight in ounces. And that's very general because if you're someone that eats a lot of protein. So okay, so let's say you're 150 pounds then it'd be 75ozunses of water.
Wow. So and then I'm talking that's like nine cups. Yeah. And the thing about that too is that if that's possible, but also if you're someone like us, we eat a ton of fruits and vegetables. They're so full of water that for me, if I'm drinking with my dinner, which I get a ton of vegetables, I get way too much water and I'm up the whole night having to use a bathroom.
So you have to be. It's a balance, so it's hard to give someone an exact amount is hard to do. If your diet is high in, say, meat and dairy, then you're not going to have as much water. It's more the diets that are high in produce that fruits and vegetables. They're 90 % water. Well, let me ask you this. A lot of times when I'm at the gym and I won't drink Gatorade, because it has, in my opinion, too much sugar, but I will drink Gatorade zero. Is that sort of along the same line or water is water and Gatorade is Gatorade?
Well, it's a great question. So it's a little bit tricky. So in terms of meeting your fluid needs, yes it would help you to meet your fluid needs in terms of being like water which water. One of the benefits of it is it flushes your kidney out and your kidney is also then your kidney and liver work hand in hand. So we know as we get older, all of our livers get burned from everyday toxins. And that kind of thing. So, you know, just alcohol, poor food choices. So our liver's burdened and then we're burdening our kidney more. And it just everything backs up. So in the way of flushing your kidney, pure water is good in that way.
But in terms of you staying hydrated the Gatorade gator zero that’s work. Especially while exercise. Yeah, right. It might really encourage you to drink enough. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool. Can you provide insights into how metabolic health influences disease prevention and overall wellness? And we all don't want to get diseases and stay healthy. And the metabolism has a lot to do with that.
Absolutely. Like when you hear the words metabolic health that's referring to, you know, like the sugar control for diabetes, Cardiovascular control. hypertension, that's all. Those are all metabolic processes. So metabolism, it is like when I said in the beginning of part metabolism is mostly used to fuel our organs. That's those are metabolic processes. So we want to make sure just from a health perspective, let alone a weight perspective, that our metabolic processes are functioning at their peak.
Okay. Cool. Cool. All right. So what are some common pitfalls or mistakes people make when trying to boost their metabolism and how can they avoid them. Yes. Oh this is such a good question. I will tell you the one that I see all the time, and it really is such a doozy for the waistline. It kills me is when we want it.
Like we're like, oh, I'm going to boost my metabolism. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm not in any of carbs. I'm not going to eat any of this. I'm going to go on a really strong diet, and then they lose like 10 pounds in like ten days. And then 20 days later, the 30 pounds heavier. I'm exaggerating, but this is the first 2 pounds water weight anyway.
So some of it is. Some of it definitely is 50 pounds on the person. And if they were eating really tons of food and horribly, it's just a calorie reduction, they're going to lose body fat, but also muscle when you lose it that quickly. And that's the problem. So the yo yo dieting, which is a huge mistake because yo yo dieting has been shown to severely affect metabolism and not it's not recoverable. So over time the body just gets more and more like, oh, it's happening again. Let me conserve the way that we think our ancestors were. They gave us these genes, you know, like, let me conserve very. Yeah. That's what the metabolism does when we do yo yo. So I mean, who knows, maybe our in a way our ancestors even though were at, they were like going out for the catch in a way they were yo yo dieting.
They'd be like, I'm gonna eat this huge amount of food. And I'm like, no, I. And then the body becomes weight loss. Resistance is what happens because then you, you, you're you're so many times or your body's got used to the starvation. So it starts to conserve calories, it slows down the metabolic rate after you've done it enough times.
And then your body no longer responds. And we have people who come to us all the time. They say, you know, I tried my old tricks, I used this, I used to eat this when I over, I want to lose weight and I would lose weight. And now it's not working and they're panicked and we don't blame them, you know?
But there are things just so you know, there are things. It takes a little tweaking, but it's you can't use those same old tricks anymore because your body is too smart for that. wants you not to. Alright So I'm curious about two things. First of all, I hear a lot about fasting. Is that good or bad? Second part is what about people like sometimes this is me, I get busy, I get crazy, I have coffee in the morning and I wind up eating one large meal a day. What do you think about those two things?
Well, when you say fasting, are you referring to intermittent fasting? Are you referring to like some people? I hear a fast for three days and then eat, and then they'll fast again for two. And they say, oh, it cleans out my system.
It's interesting and it can be beneficial. The thing is, a lot of times it can be beneficial for some people, but there's a very fine line because again, some people who will fast say they we hear about these, we think you cannot maintain your maintain your lean muscle mass and they lose a lot of weight and a lot of it's only muscle tissue. And it messes with them. So we don't always promote that or we understand that because there are benefits for the brain health. But it's kind of a trade off because you do lose that metabolic lean muscle tissue, metabolically active. The other thing is females, they cannot their bodies are not designed the same way that males are.
And they it's a very delicate hormonal balance. And it gets completely thrown off if some females fast. So we don't suggest it for women. Yes, but it depends on the range and how much it's really affected the stress on the body.
So it's a very delicate hormonal balance for women. Some we know that it's a real challenge. There's what happens is, fasting is a stress on the body, and it's too much of a stress for many females. And just mess with that delicate hormonal balance.
Men can get away with a lot more than women. However, sometimes it's too much stress on the body and it causes extra inflammation when they fast that long. So it really depends. And but there have been beneficial there. They're very, I guess you said they're led by experts and people really know what they're doing and, you know, doing a regular fast that's certain in certain ways has been shown to be there's something called autophagy where we're, regenerating. We're kind of like recycling the old cells, getting rid of them and making new ones from them. And that can be very beneficial. But you really want to know what you're doing when you do that, and you want it to fast correctly. And for a lot of people, it's just not appropriate for them. But for some people it is.
So I don't we don't want to say fasting isn't good for everybody, but there's definitely the stipulations is very individualized. There's not a and it's not a one size fits all. That's wild. That's wild. So I got to tell you you guys are just amazing. You're both so beautiful. Thank you. You Answered all our questions wonderfully. I mean, this people will listen to this and really, really learn.
They really, really will. So I want to thank you both. But let me ask you this before we go. Is there anything I didn't cover? I didn't ask that you'd like to add? If so, let me know. If not, those are some really good questions. Yeah, cool. I thank you so much. And I think that we'll leave both Thank you.