[00:00:00] Vesna: Welcome to the Peak Revival Podcast. My name is Vesna Herster, and today we're going to talk about stress, weight gain and belly fat for women over 35. After the age of 35, I hear a lot of women say to me, my body changes and the things that used to work do not work anymore. And sadly that accelerates or that change is more significant after the age of 40.

[00:00:24] as we get into our forties, we're more prone to. Insulin resistance. And this is, I'll explain more about this, but basically it means that we're more prone to weight gain. We're more prone to belly fat due to the hormonal changes that occur as we enter our forties, right? there are many things that we can do.

[00:00:40] And I really want to discuss this because this is completely preventable and reversible.

[00:00:45] So, insulin resistance makes us prone to weight gain, and it occurs when our cells become resistant to insulin. And what that means is that when we've had too many glucose spikes from, say, a higher carbohydrate diet and stress and I'll explain more. Then the dose of insulin that our cells need in order to move the glucose into the cells is much higher.

[00:01:08] So for example, a very arbitrary number is say, you know, you would eat some kind of carbohydrate food. You would need about two mils of insulin in order to move that glucose into the cell with insulin resistance. You now need say 10 mils. Okay, and so the cells have become resistant to the effects of insulin.

[00:01:27] We need more insulin and The more insulin that we have, the more body fat that we store and the less we're able to utilize the Excess fuel on our body, which is body fat. Now, again, those numbers are completely arbitrary, but I just wanted to give you an example of kind of what that looks like in the body.

[00:01:43] So after the age of 40, so women start noticing at 35 and then 40 and onwards that we get changes to our body shape and we can get the belly fat, but we also get the saggy arms. It's the flat butt or the sagging anything, right? And this is [00:02:00] because insulin resistance is linked with muscle loss or age related muscle loss known as sarcopenia.

[00:02:07] So this is where you start to see that, Hey, the things that I was doing before in my twenties and thirties is not really working anymore in terms of exercise, in terms of diet, you're losing more muscle, things are losing tone and perhaps the exercise you've been doing for such a long time isn't having the same effect. Now besides just an aesthetics thing right, it's always nice to look toned and fit into your clothes nicely and not have anything overhanging and too many soft spots but insulin resistance and sarcopenia mean that there's too much inflammatory fat.

[00:02:40] When we have muscle loss, muscle loss or muscle is an indicator of health and longevity so we do not Want to lose this as we get older. We really want to retain it. We even grow some more muscle and it is possible. Okay. So we don't need to be getting sarcopenia. There are things that we can do to offset this.

[00:02:58] So what causes insulin resistance? Well, there's two big factors. Number one is stress, long term recurring stress. So when there's been an impact to the HPA axis, Uh, which is basically a part of the stress response system. If you've been in a long term period of stress or burnt out or adrenal fatigue, that those periods of high cortisol, the high stress hormone, when our body is in fight or flight mode, our body is flooded with glucose.

[00:03:27] And when there's high glucose, there's going to be high insulin as well. And so we're going to start laying down more fat and our cells become more insulin resistant. So I had a client that, When we were tracking her glucose through glucose monitors, she found that when she was in a meeting, she hadn't eaten anything for hours prior to that meeting, but her glucose levels were going up in that meeting because she was quite stressed, right?

[00:03:49] And she was really surprised to see how her body was responding to stress. So it's really like I say that when our cortisol increases, it's really like we're [00:04:00] eating some kind of processed food. Carbs or sugar because the body is having that surge in glucose.

[00:04:06] The other thing with stress is that long-term stress or stress causes us to self-soothe with food. So we look for the sugar, the carbohydrates, the alcohol, whatever it is. to, you know, help us to relax and help us to get over a bad day and help us to deal with our stress. And that also increases glucose and insulin spikes.

[00:04:26] And then weight gain. So weight gain and insulin resistance kind of go hand in hand. But if you've gained weight due to whatever reason, if your measurements, generally if your measurements are over 88 centimeters or 34 inches, it is an indicator of insulin resistance. As determined by studies. Okay. I have some women who kind of throw back and go, well, that can't be true for every woman.

[00:04:46] This is what the studies show. So if there is an increase in belly fat, over 88 inches, there's a predisposition there to insulin resistance.

[00:04:56] So the good news is. This is completely reversible. You can prevent it and you can do it without being so restrictive or feeling hungry or cutting out so much from your diet. And the benefit of reversing this is that you'll have so much more energy, right? Because Right now, if you've got excess fat, your body, that's excess fuel that your body can tap into for energy.

[00:05:19] And body fat gives us a high source of energy that lasts all day long. So we want to tap into that, right? And so you'll have so much more energy, you'll have less weight, and you'll improve your muscle tone. Again, that all looks great, feels great, but you will be much healthier For years to come and for women offsetting things like high cholesterol, fatty liver, which is really common that I see with women and non alcoholic fatty liver, and this is all coming from the diet and from stress.

[00:05:46] And the other major factor is reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. and. We're looking at dementia, right? They say dementia is type 3 diabetes. So, you know, insulin resistance is a, is a marker before diabetes. So [00:06:00] we want to make sure that we're, if we're there, we want to pull back. We want to make sure we improve all of our health markers, reduce insulin resistance, burn the belly fat, get more energy, improve our muscle mass in order to have long term health.

[00:06:12] Okay, the first thing that you want to do to reduce the insulin spike. So this is what we, how you want to look at it. You want to reduce glucose. Okay. Spikes. So the big increase in your glucose levels. So sometimes you can have a carbohydrate food and the glucose rises very steadily, and then it comes down very steadily.

[00:06:29] But some foods will cause your glucose levels. Once I had a glucose monitor on and I drank a bubble tea, and uh, my glucose went boop, and then boom. Right? And so that is a very sudden shock of glucose to the system, which requires a lot more insulin, right? So it's a, it's a safety mechanism for the body when they.

[00:06:48] Glucose is rising too high. The body will release a lot of insulin to pull that back down to normal levels. So we want to make sure that we're reducing the glucose spike. So regular meals do not go too long in between meals to begin with. As that can cause sugars levels to plummet. And then we crave, or our body goes through this process where it breaks down muscle tissue to convert that into glucose.

[00:07:13] And then it goes back up, right? So we want to make sure we keep a nice routine with our meals. Not going too long, not missing breakfast. Not going too long before having breakfast and having this nice rhythm and regular meals to begin with. And you want to make sure that you balance your meals. Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats. And you want to eat the protein portion first. The proteins and the fats first, right? So, the reason for this is that if you had a nice balanced meal and you ate all the carbohydrates first, that can cause a spike in the glucose levels, right? So you want to go for the protein and then have the carbohydrates to create that nice balanced meal.

[00:07:46] Smooth glucose curve. The second thing that you want to do is reduce the mental stress. So as I told you about my client, it wasn't even food related for her. It was definitely stress. And so I did an episode, episode five, where I talked about escaping the overwhelmed [00:08:00] trap, how to reduce stress and anxiety.

[00:08:01] So it's really the mental game because most of our stress, 80 percent of our stress is mental and emotional stress. So this is where we can make the biggest difference to our health. If we can get a handle on this. And it also means we won't be going for processed foods to kind of self soothe, right, to get us over a bad day.

[00:08:22] And then other routines, like making sure you get, you know, good amounts of sleep, getting to bed by 9. 30, 10pm. Like having a good sleep routine really reduces the stress hormones. Exercising helps to remove the stress hormones in the body once they've been released. So instead of just sitting down at your desk, getting up, going for a walk, or going for a run, or whatever it is that you do, to get rid of the excess stress hormones.

[00:08:42] So that's number one. That's reducing the glucose and insulin spikes by reducing stress.

[00:08:48] And secondly, and equally as big factor, is reducing processed foods. Okay, so we know that processed foods, It causes that really sharp rise in the glucose levels, which then floods the body with insulin. And so the other thing to note is that when our glucose levels rise very, very high and very quickly, it causes a sudden drop later on.

[00:09:08] And this is where we're going to crave more carbohydrates. It's, we may feel hangry, we'll feel tired. And it's very hard to resist the carbohydrate or the sugar cravings because the glucose levels is very low. And so it ends up meaning that you can be on this kind of highs and lows rollercoaster all day, affecting your energy and affecting your mood and affecting the way that your body uses fat for fuel.

[00:09:32] So removing processed foods is huge and it can, and for some it can be a big endeavor if your diet is. So the first thing that I say is cut out the obvious sugars first, Any, you know, chocolates or confectionery desserts, biscuits or cakes or ice cream or soft drink or Any of those things, the obvious sugars cut them out first.

[00:09:56] And if you are a sugar addict, I do understand. I used [00:10:00] to be a sugar addict very badly and I know that giving up sugar can be hard, but it's absolutely doable, okay? I want you to remember that because once you start to have regular meals and you have balanced meals with good sources of protein, eating the protein first, you're going to have less of these highs and lows and less cravings.

[00:10:19] It makes it so much easier to cut out sugar, right? So we find that women in our program, once they come in, they're used to kind of having breakfast late and then they might have lunch late or they might skip lunch, right? Lunch might not even happen. And then come the afternoon, they have huge cravings for sugar, right?

[00:10:37] And it's hard to resist that because it's all about biochemistry at the end of the day. I always say biochemistry always wins. Okay. So we want to work with it. So if we have regular meals throughout the day, okay. you're going to offset the triggers for cravings. Okay. And making sure that you have the good quality protein.

[00:10:53] So the other thing I want to mention, like when we're looking at reducing insulin resistance, at some point, it's going to be important to create some fasting windows throughout the day. But if you're perimenopause or been through a period or you're currently in this kind of high stress state, that's not going to be possible, right?

[00:11:11] Because we need the carbohydrates for one, or mainly for this. adrenal or stress response system. So when we're stressed, we rely on the adrenals. They produce all the stress hormones, right? And in perimenopause, they are also the glands that help to produce the hormones that transition into menopause. So if we take those away right now, the carbohydrates completely, that is going to crash you, right?

[00:11:35] It's going to make it very hard for your body to do what it needs to do. Or if we completely put you on a fasting schedule, right? So we don't want to do that, right? The first thing that you want to do is reduce your obvious sugars, create some fasting blocks later on down the track. When you're feeling better in terms of energy, in terms of the belly fat reducing, you can create the fasting blocks of windows.

[00:11:55] And what that does, it creates like, so you have your breakfast, you don't have any snacks in [00:12:00] between you have your lunch, nothing to eat in between. And then you have your dinner and then nothing until breakfast the next morning. So you're almost creating this like. 12 hour fast window, overnight. The reason why that's important is because there's no glucose or insulin in those fasting blocks, right?

[00:12:16] So it's really again going to lower insulin resistance and increase insulin sensitivity in the cells.

[00:12:23] And as I said, Carbohydrates is still important if you're stressed or perimenopause because we need to support the system that's going to help with the functions that you need right now. And that is Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates switches off the stress response, okay? But we want to choose our Carbohydrates wisely, not processed foods, not obvious sugars, but like your starchy vegetables and your veggies, they help to give you a better source of Carbohydrates.

[00:12:45] So, with all of that said, right, it can seem like a lot. This is where I would start. If you're right at the beginning and you're like, Oh my goodness, that sounded like a lot that I needed to do. This is where I would start. Start with regular meals, breakfast, snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, dinner. And make sure that you're eating protein carbs and fats with each of those, right?

[00:13:06] And eat the protein portion first, if you can, for like your main meal, That's where I would start. I would reduce mental stress. So listen to that episode that I did, episode five on the overwhelm trap. I really talked about the mental game, the mental aspect of stress and then remove obvious sugars.

[00:13:22] They would be the three places that I would start. If you're at the beginning, and that sounds overwhelming to bring your insulin levels down, improve insulin sensitivity, and start to lose weight, right? Start to reduce that belly fat. Start to tap into that excess fuel that you have on your body. So you have energy that lasts all day long.

[00:13:40] I would love to hear your comments below on one, what you're going to start first, or kind of where you are at with what have you tried before in terms of insulin resistance and reducing belly fat? Let me know in the comments below.

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