The Mel Robbins PodcastSimple Steps To Losing Weight & Feeling Better: The Science of Lifting Weights | Mel Robbins Podcast
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
125 min read · 25,252 words- 0:00 – 5:32
Intro
- MRMel Robbins
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-
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
That stops today. Everybody listening to this, they are going to stop yo-yo dieting. That, this is our deal, right, Mel?
- MRMel Robbins
That's right. Did you hear Dr. Lyon? She's telling you, stop yo-yo dieting, put the soda down, pay attention, sit up, because we are going to give you the step-by-step way that you can take control. So if we're gonna stop yo-yo dieting, what are we gonna do? (upbeat music) Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. So I've decided that you and I, uh, have been at this podcast thing for long enough that we can cover a topic that everybody talks about, everybody wants advice on, but for some reason, we're not supposed to talk about it. I don't know why this is so controversial, but it is, and today we're gonna go there. What's the topic? Weight loss. Weight loss. We're talking about weight loss. And the reason why I want to talk about this is because we've all been there. (laughs) You know, we've all been at that point in our lives where we're frustrated with how our clothes feel, where we feel like shit, where everything we're trying, uh, is not actually working, or the things that we've been doing forever, in my case, this is me, are no longer working and having the same impact, and you start to feel like your weight, your waistline, your attitude, everything's out of control, and I want to talk about it today. And so if you're like me, it probably means that you've spent most of your life trying to either lose weight or trying to stay in shape. And this goes all the way back to when I was a little kid. I mean, I can remember my mom on the living room floor and Jane Fonda was on the television. She had those leg warmers on and my mom was doing all the stuff, and then the next thing I remember, remember the ThighMaster, that thing that showed up at your house, where you were supposed to like squeeze it in and out? And then as I got older, I've tried everything, step class, spin class, Jazzercise, which I think we now call Zumba. I've gone to classes in person, online. I've done Pilates on a mat, on a Reformer. I've tried everything, and don't even get me started with the number of diets. Anybody remember the cabbage soup diet? Why on earth was that a thing? Eat for your blood type, I've done that. Low fat, high fat, no carbs, complex carbs. No wonder we are all yo-yo dieting. I mean, simply listing all of this off makes me start to feel like a human yo-yo. And as I've been thinking about this topic and researching it, it occurred to me, if this is such an enormous problem for almost all of us, maybe we've been thinking about it all wrong. In fact, the expert that you are about to spend an hour with says that you and I are going to stop talking about losing weight right now, no more, it's the wrong approach. You and I need to start leveraging what she calls a muscle-centric medical approach to our health. Dr. Gabrielle Lyon is a medical doctor. She has completed two research and clinical fellowships in nutritional science and one in the science of aging. She has spent 20 years conducting groundbreaking research and treating private patients in her clinical practice. Her first book, Forever Strong, is filled with evidence-based strategies, and you're going to learn a lot of them here during our conversation today. Doc G. is here to teach you about the largest organ in your body. I know you're thinking, "What is that? What is the largest organ in your body?" Believe it or not, that's your skeletal muscles, and your skeletal muscles are not only the largest organ in your body, they make up the entire architecture of your body and they are key to effective weight loss, to boosting your energy, burning fat, and she's going to talk to you today about how you can use a muscular-centric medical approach to reverse diabetes and to fight heart disease and cancer, and my job in all of this is to translate all that she's saying into simple, actionable takeaways. In fact, I'm going to try to reduce all this research to two changes that you can make starting today to leverage all of the things that she's going to teach us. So if you want to lose belly fat and live a strong, long, healthy life, there is no more important thing for you to do than to listen to this conversation right now. Get your pens out and get ready to change your life, 'cause Doc G. is in the house. All right, please help me welcome Dr. Gabrielle Lyon to the Mel Robbins podcast.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be able to sit down and talk with you.
- MRMel Robbins
So Dr. Lyon, I'm so excited that you're here, and I just want to start with the basics. What significance does it have that your muscles are an organ?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah, this idea, well, first of all, skeletal muscle makes up 40% of your body weight, period, which is a huge amount of your tissue.
- MRMel Robbins
Wow.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And I think that this is a really important point is this idea that when we think about skeletal muscle, we often hear about just exercising the bicep and really just is it toned or not, can I see it or not? And that's why this concept of muscle as the organ of longevity is so critical to get out to the public, because skeletal muscle is so much more than that.
- 5:32 – 7:48
How is skeletal muscle the largest organ in your body?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
- MRMel Robbins
Well, I'll be honest. (laughs) I have only ever thought about muscles in a one-dene- dimensional fashion. Can I see them or not? Do I have a six-pack, which I do not? Do I have, uh, flabby arms that flap like skin wings, or do I have nice, tight, you know, biceps and triceps and all that stuff? So I have thought in such a... I don't know, it's, uh, I'm sort of embarrassed about how little I know, because I honestly...... did not even know that muscles were an organ. And there is so much research that you have in your new book, and we're gonna dig into it. But I wanted to start at that baseline so that, you know, anybody that's intimidated by the gym, anybody that can't see, uh, you know, any muscle definition, we're not here talking about a Beachbody Blast workout program. We're talking about using muscle-centric medicine as a way to unlock all of these health benefits that I personally, I had no idea that that's the major benefit of doing weight training and why we all need to do it. I've got a little, like, five-pound weight here. Like, when you do a bicep curl or you walk up a flight of stairs, what is actually happening as I am, you know, curling my muscle here and attempting to strengthen the bicep? What's happening in this organ in my body when I do that?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
There's a ton of things that happen, and we're gonna break it down very simply. Number one, you get stronger, which is the obvious. Number two, the non-obvious, is that when you contract skeletal muscle, it secretes these myokines-
- MRMel Robbins
Yup.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
... that then go throughout the body that help with bone health, brain health, and nutrient utilization, which just means the food that you eat. When you contract skeletal muscle, it moves glucose, which is simply the sugar, in your bloodstream into the cells, into skeletal muscle. That's incredible, especially with this epidemic of obesity that everybody is talking about, this idea of insulin resistance that everybody is talking about. Skeletal muscle is your architectural
- 7:48 – 11:14
The connection between muscles and longevity.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
infrastructure of everything.
- MRMel Robbins
You know, you've got so many medical degrees and fellowships. Like, what the hell made you go from psychiatry and a, a practice that was in general medicine and all of these degrees that you have? What had you make the connection between muscles and people's health?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Thank you so much for that question. This has been a very long journey, which, by the way, I don't recommend anybody doing that.
- MRMel Robbins
(laughs)
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Uh, (laughs) there's a lot of other ways to go about that. When I graduated high school, I graduated high school at 17, pretty early, I moved to Hawaii. I moved to Hawaii, and I moved in with my godmother, who was a functional medicine OG.
- MRMel Robbins
Oh, cool.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And she was and is a PhD in nutritional sciences. I began sitting in on her patients, and I believed that nutrition from a very young age was the key. Fast-forward to then going to my undergraduate, which was also in human nutrition, vitamin, mineral me- metabolism at the University of Illinois.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
My life changed because serendipitously, I landed in the lab of Dr. Donald Layman. He is one of the grandfathers of protein metabolism.
- MRMel Robbins
Huh.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
A lot of the things that we take for granted now, he discovered in his lab 20 some years ago.
- MRMel Robbins
And you were standing there?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yes. As an undergraduate, I was working in his lab, and I was deeply influenced by this idea of protein, dietary protein, and skeletal muscle as it relates to women's health, women and men. But the studies that we primarily did were, at least the ones that I was working on, were women, postmenopausal women. Fast-forward through medical school. I knew that I wanted to go to medical school. Did two years of psychiatry, realized that that was not my bag.
- MRMel Robbins
Mm-hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
So did family medicine for three years, and then finally did a fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis in nutritional sciences and geriatrics, which looked at aging, individuals over the age of 65. And my research at the time, because I was a combined fellow, I was, uh, in charge of, um, seeing geriatric patients, but also doing obesity medicine research. And this concept of muscle-centric medicine had been building, but there was a flash of insight, and I would love to share how it came about and what really changed everything for me.
- MRMel Robbins
Absolutely. What was the insight?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Uh, well, at the time, I was seeing patients in the hospital and in the nursing homes. I was doing that during the day and then on the weekends. And then in the evenings, I was doing obesity medicine research, where I was running a weight management clinic, and we were also looking at brain imaging. We were looking at the influence of obesity and brain function. And there was just one participant in particular. We'll just call her Betty. Betty was in her mid-50s. She had big brown eyes, dark curly hair. She was a mother of three. She was someone who had struggled with yo-yo dieting her whole life, had been told to lose the same 10 to 20 pounds that she put on after her first baby. She had been cycling through diet after diet. The information
- 11:14 – 17:19
The effects of yo-yo dieting on your body.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
was to lose more weight, exercise more, do this cardiovascular training, um, and reduce her calories. And by doing that, what ended up happening is we destroyed her muscle.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
She would go through yo-yo dieting. And overseeing all of these patients cumulatively, I realized that this information and this obesity epidemic that people have been trying to fix for the last 50 years, wasn't obesity at its core the problem. But the one thing that the patients that I was seeing, from the Alzheimer's patients, to the cognitive impairment patients, to the obesity, the struggling with weight, wasn't being overfat. It was actually about being under-muscled, and it was the unhealthy muscle that was driving everything else.
- MRMel Robbins
Wow. I wanna be sure everyone gets the benefit of that epiphany. Can you say that again, that from your medical and research background, you had this epiphany that the problem wasn't that people were too fat.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Right.
- MRMel Robbins
It was?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
That they had unhealthy skeletal muscle.
- MRMel Robbins
Wow. And I gather that what you're going to prove to us today is that developing healthy skeletal muscle turns it around and unlocks all kinds of health benefits.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yes, Mel. And in fact, it's never too late to start, and that's actually where I got the, the title of the book. It's... Which is Forever Strong. It's never too late to be forever strong. And, uh, I know that together we can change the trajectory of aging. We've been trying to combat this, quote, "obesity epidemic" w- for the last 50 years, and we haven't gotten anywhere. And in fact, we've gotten worse. And one thing I know for sure is that if you are trying to fix the wrong problem, you'll never get there. If you are working under a paradigm of thinking about a problem and you are not making any improvements, then perhaps we are looking at it from a perspective that really needs adjustment. So what I would say is that obesity in and of itself, in part, obviously it's very complex, but a huge portion of obesity and the issues that ride alongside with obi- obesity, like cardiovascular disease, like hypertension, like Alzheimer's disease, all of these common diseases that we're beginning to see more of, they're not diseases of being overweight. They're diseases of skeletal muscle first that begin decades before.
- MRMel Robbins
I think you're so cool.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
And I love your passion and your heart. And one of the reasons why I was so excited to talk to you is because I feel like the conversation about muscle and strength has been hijacked by the fitness industry that is very much about surface, at least when it's marketed, and by men. And this is such an imperative aspect of living a healthier life, creating a better life for yourself. There are implication here that go way beyond the diseases and the issues that your patients were talking about, the biggest organ in your body most of us have ignored. And women in particular have... I personally speak for myself, I'm intimidated by the gym. I hear muscle, I think weightlifting, I think a neck a mile wide, I think veins popping outta my arms. I think that, like, "I can't do that. That's not for me." And we have been robbed of a very important, actually your work says critical, frontline habit that every single human being needs to put front and center in their lives, which is strengthening your muscles.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. And keeping... Exactly, and keeping them healthy. There's no such thing as a healthy sedentary person. And there was some earlier research that looked at 18-year-old, quote, "healthy sedentary college students." The research shows that these individuals were beginning to have signs of unhealthy skeletal muscle with no overt signs of being overweight. If we address this early, if we address the health of skeletal muscle, which by the way, there's really two primary ways to do that, which I know we're gonna discuss, is dietary protein, really nutritional planning, and then exercise training.
- MRMel Robbins
Wait, Dr. Gabrielle, are you saying that you can strengthen and build muscle simply by changing your diet?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
You can simply build muscle, if you are protein deficient, by increasing the dietary protein of, of your nutrition plan. Uh, the other thing is when you design a nutrition plan that is protein-forward, you will be able to support the health of skeletal muscle. And we're not talking about, again, bodybuilding, slamming protein shakes. None of that is necessary. These are things that are super simple, incredibly simple. So by... Here's my, here's my-
- MRMel Robbins
Well, you're gonna make it simple. I already love what you said, which is there's two things we need to focus on, the dietary protein, which we will unpack, we'll get into the science, and actually the exercise and focusing on exercise and strength training that will help you build a healthy skeletal muscular system. I also love something that you wrote about in your book that you say, "We all need to stop looking at how much fat we need to lose, and we need to start talking about, 'How much muscle do I need to gain?'"
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
And how liberating would it be if instead of going, "I need to lose 10 pounds,
- 17:19 – 19:38
Shift your thinking to what you gain instead of what you lose.
- MRMel Robbins
I need to, like, do do do," that you actually said, "I need to put on about five pounds of muscle. That's what I need to do." I mean, that's such a positive reframe, but why, how did you arrive at that?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
I realized that, number one, the strategies that have been put in place have failed people. And when you focus on losing weight, which I don't know one person that hasn't done that, over years and years of yo-yo dieting, you actually destroy skeletal muscle. As we age and become more mature, it becomes much more difficult to put it on and regain the health of skeletal muscle if you've spent years yo-yo dieting. By thinking of always what we have to lose, it becomes very demotivating for people.
- MRMel Robbins
Yeah.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
This really crazy thing that creeps in is sometimes they don't feel worthy of health and wellness in the way that potentially we would want them to feel.
- MRMel Robbins
Mm-hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
So by shifting the conversation as it relates to what people have to gain, and understanding that muscle is this currency of health, and in fact, it's the only currency that you can't bargain for. You can't buy it, you can't sell it, but you have to earn it. And by thinking about the skeletal muscle as currency you earn and put in effort, this crazy thing happens. You begin to cultivate a lot of internal strength. You begin to cultivate this can-do attitude and this way of confidence because you are able to kind of move within a physical domain. You're not worried about if you're going to fall and break a hip. You're not worried about, you know, "I can't eat that." You're not worried about these other things. You have this capacity to shift to a much more positive mind frame, and it's the one thing that you also have direct control over. The last time I checked, you cannot exercise your liver, but you can exercise skeletal muscle.
- MRMel Robbins
That's true. That's absolutely true. So it is within your control. I want to, um, have you talk directly to the person that when you said, "If you've been spending a lifetime yo-yo dieting, you've really destroyed your muscles," and just tell them the hopeful message here and why it's imperative that, you
- 19:38 – 26:45
If you’ve been yoyo dieting, listen to this hopeful message.
- MRMel Robbins
know, if you've been yo-yo dieting, like most people have, 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, why is it never too late to put taking care of your muscles and making them stronger the most important thing you could do at the center of your health?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Number one, it's never too late. And number two, just like you said, people have gone through periods of yo-yo dieting, which again, we've all seen. That stops today. Everybody listening to this, they are going to stop yo-yo dieting. That, this is our deal, right, Mel?
- MRMel Robbins
That's right. Do you hear Dr. Lyon, damn it? She's telling you, you are stop yo-yo dieting. Put the soda down. Pay attention, sit up, because we are going to give you the step-by-step way that you can take control. So if we're going to stop yo-yo, yo-yo dieting, what are we going to do?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
The first thing that we're going to do is we're going to leverage dietary protein. But first, let's talk about what protein is. Protein is actually not one thing. Are you ready for this, Mel? It's 20 different amino acids that make up protein.
- MRMel Robbins
Can you a- can you just des- what the hell is an amino acid? Like, everybody throws around these terms. I don't even know what an amino acid does.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Great ques- this is brilliant. Um, amino acids are those little tiny building blocks. Think about a sandcastle, and think about all the little grains it takes to build a sandcastle. If you think about the sandcastle as protein and all those little sand grains are the amino acids.
- MRMel Robbins
I love you.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
But-
- MRMel Robbins
I get that.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
And now I'm thinking about the fact that my bicep is tiny little particles of sand. Is that right?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Pretty close, but I don't know. Yours looks pretty jacked, so-
- MRMel Robbins
(laughs)
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
... uh, yours is not, yours is not sand. Yours is more like concrete.
- MRMel Robbins
I've been working out for this. I did a set-
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay.
- MRMel Robbins
... just so they'd look really, you know, greased up for you when we did this. (laughs) Okay, so how do I know what protein is the best protein? 'Cause I, I, I would reckon you're about to tell us we all need to start eating more protein because these sand particle amino acid things are very important for our skeletal muscular health, correct?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
That's right. But before I tell you that, I'm going to tell you why, just overarching why protein is important.
- MRMel Robbins
Yes, yes.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And then we'll get to the nitty-gritty.
- MRMel Robbins
I love it.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
You like that?
- MRMel Robbins
Yes.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Sand, nitty-gritty?
- MRMel Robbins
Oh, oh, I didn't even get it. See? (laughs)
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Come on, some mom jokes coming in here hot. Uh, cannot be wasted. This idea that protein is really imperative is really important for a few reasons. Number one, protein, again, ha- is made up of these 20 different amino acids. What's so fascinating about protein from the big picture is that dietary protein improves satiety, just meaning you're not hungry.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Here is the test that I tell people. If you're really hungry, go ahead and sit down with that chicken breast. That will tell you immediately are you really hungry, versus a bag of chips. And you, you know, you could probably eat that forever. Dietary protein improves satiation. You are not hungry from eating dietary protein. The other reason why protein is so valuable is that it is very difficult to eat a high protein diet and actually gain fat, because protein is so valuable to the body. It is what we call an essential macronutrient, meaning you can't make it. You literally cannot make it. You have to eat it. Versus carbohydrates. Your body can make carbohydrates. In fact, your body can make some carbohydrates from proteins. And then the need for fat is not huge, right? There's some essential fatty acid need, but, but nothing major. Because of these amino acids that are in protein and just protein in general, it is very difficult to overconsume so you... it's very difficult to ultimately gain weight from a diet that is high in protein.
- MRMel Robbins
So, the main benefit is that the macronutrient or the 20 sand molecules in a protein, in protein when you eat it, it gets used up by the body. It also makes you less hungry. So you have this benefit of being more efficient in terms of the fuel that you're putting in versus just snacking mindlessly on all this stuff that ends up getting stored somewhere in your body. Is that correct? Am I following you?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yes, yeah.
- 26:45 – 28:30
What bothers Dr. G about social media health advice.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
hearing it from the influencers on, um, Instagram, or TikTok, or Facebook, or wherever she's hearing it, that window of getting it right closes. There, there comes a time where we have to, which is exactly what we are doing today, is we are getting it right, so there's no longer confusion, and there's no longer this distraction of trying to figure out what to eat or why we're eating it, or ultimately, the way in which we age can be strong, can be resilient, doesn't have to be riddled with obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, all the ways that we think an individual has to age. It doesn't have to be that way. So that is why I wrote the book, because I, I wanted to really put something out there to end confusion.
- MRMel Robbins
Can you just give everybody a quick list of all the health benefits that happen when you embrace what you're saying and you start embracing a protein, a protein-forward diet, and you prioritize exercise that strengthen, strengthens your muscles? What are the health benefits and the cognitive benefits of doing this?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Number one, better blood sugar regulation, better energy. You'll be stronger. You'll have better survivability against nearly any disease, or issue, or problem that life throws in front of you. Skeletal muscle, again, is the largest endocrine organ, organ system in the body. And what else skeletal muscle is, is it's a nutrient-sensing organ. It senses nutrients. Blows your mind, right? It
- 28:30 – 33:06
5 major health benefits of prioritizing your muscle mass.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
actually senses the quality of the diet. It senses the protein quality of the diet, which is incredible. And one of the things that happens as individuals age is that efficiency of sensing protein and those amino acids decreases.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
So how do you overcome that? And, and what does it look like when that efficiency decreases? From a very visual perspective, it looks like sarcopenia, which looks like skinny, smaller, frail, elderly individuals. But you can overcome that efficiency issue and make older muscles act like younger muscles by increasing dietary protein, number one. So now, you've taken a older, more mature muscle, you've increased the dietary protein intake, and you can get your skeletal muscle to respond as if it was in your 20s.
- MRMel Robbins
Wow. What is another health benefit?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Incredible.
- MRMel Robbins
It's incredible. What's another health benefit-
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
It's incredible.
- MRMel Robbins
... of following this protocol and paying attention to this?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
The other thing is that healthy skeletal muscle is your metabolic sink or your metabolic disposal unit. You'll go to your yearly doctor, and they'll say, "Here's your blood sugar. Here's your triglycerides. Here's your cholesterol." The biggest way you can make sure that those numbers are exactly where you want it to be is by having healthy skeletal muscle. So n- number one, we take care of skeletal muscle, and we improve its efficiency. Efficient muscle is healthy muscle. Number two, we use skeletal muscle, healthy skeletal muscle, to make sure we don't get diabetes or insulin resistance and all the things that come alongside with that. So that's number two.Number three, healthy skeletal muscle makes us strong and capable, which I would say arguably that's the obvious. And of course, healthy skeletal muscle is, uh, some tissue, it is the tissue that you leverage through exercise to improve brain health. You know, we talked about those secreting molecules, those myokines. When those myokines are secreted through exercise, they also impact the brain. So ouch. Which is, which is incredible. And this is where some of the confusion comes into this space, because you're hearing a lot of, quote, "longevity experts" saying, "Cut back on dietary protein, you're gonna live longer." Okay. Well, let's say potentially that would be true. Let's just say, for, for fun. Number one, how lo- how much longer do you think someone is going to live with no or low healthy skeletal muscle mass?
- MRMel Robbins
Not very.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
That's right, because I didn't tell you the other thing. I think we're at number five?
- MRMel Robbins
Five, yeah.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um, the other thing is that if you get injured, if you get an illness, what do you think your body relies on to protect you? Where do you think it pulls from, those building blocks, those grains of sand, where do you think it pulls from?
- MRMel Robbins
Your muscles.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
That's right. Do you know that if an individual were to get cancer, one of the things that they oftentimes pass away from is this sum- is this thing called cancer cachexia, which is this highly metabolic state which ends up destroying skeletal muscle. You cannot survive without skeletal muscle.
- MRMel Robbins
The list of benefits from the long term is absolutely... I'm sure you're just getting started. Can you give everybody a sense, if you were to make this change of having protein forward, we're gonna explain this more, and you were to start resistance training, what are you gonna feel day to day? Like, what are the benefits of doing this almost immediately on your day-to-day life?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
If you get your first protein meal right, you will feel better immediately. I mean, it might not be in the first 30 seconds, but after that first meal, you will have more energy, you'll have bl- better blood sugar regulation. You will feel... You will feel better. Just, you know, anecdotally, we've seen it. And not only anecdotally, we see it in the literature. If you design a diet that is protein forward and balanced with carbohydrates, meaning you're not having too much carbohydrates, so you're not going to have this huge ebb and flow and crash where all of a sudden you're reaching for cupcakes or donuts, which you better not be at 10:00 AM, but if you were. And then the other aspect of that is, you will not be
- 33:06 – 34:40
What you’ll feel day to day once you start resistance training.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
hungry. You are using nutritional science to leverage willpower.
- MRMel Robbins
Ooh, that sounds sexy.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
Let's use nutritional science to leverage willpower, everybody. I want to keep digging into the protein.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And I, I think that that's really important to understand, because the average American, by the way, the average woman is getting around maybe 60 to 68, if I'm gonna be generous, grams of protein a day.
- MRMel Robbins
And how many do we need to be getting as women?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs) I recommend one gram, close to one gram per pound ideal body weight.
- MRMel Robbins
What?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. And I even calculated this out for you. Okay, you ready for this? I did this calculation for you.
- MRMel Robbins
My ideal body weight is 138. That's when I always feel my best.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay. So for you, if you were my patient, I would say, "Listen, Mel, in order for us to correct for muscle health, metabolism, satiety, then I would put you at roughly easily a minimum of 100 grams of protein, but between 100 to 120, maybe even 130 grams of protein."
- MRMel Robbins
I feel like I'm gonna gain weight. There, there, I said it. There, I said it.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
No way.
- MRMel Robbins
I said I'm gonna gain weight.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
There's no way.
- MRMel Robbins
I... That, that sounds like a lot. See that... But see, I think, like, I'm so indoctrinated. I don't know if there's a salad lobby that has been petitioning all of us psychologically, but I hear that. Intellectually, I know I got to start taking care of my muscle organ. I'm in. I want to think clearer,
- 34:40 – 42:39
How much protein Dr. G recommends in grams.
- MRMel Robbins
I want to lose the belly fat. I wanna have more energy. God forbid something happened to me, I want to be strong enough to fight it off. I also look at my 85-year-old mother-in-Law who has biceps and exercises and resistant trains, and the woman is an Energizer bunny at the age of si- 86. I want to be like that. And so I'm in. The second you said, "Mel, it's between 100 and 130 grams of protein a day," I'm like, "I am not becoming a weeble wobble on legs, Dr. Gabrielle."
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Not a chance. It's brutal.
- MRMel Robbins
And I think that's exactly what a lot of us women who've been socialized to think that we have to be thin, that's our reaction. But it just goes to show you how fucked up this all is.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs) Yes, it is.
- MRMel Robbins
The science isn't fucked up. M- Our psychology and the mixed messages and the diets we've been sold and the fact that m- I- I'm just gonna speak for me, but everybody listening has no idea that this is what your muscles do.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Right. And by the way, I calculated the amount of calories that we would be talking about so I could clarify it for you.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Are you ready?
- MRMel Robbins
Lay it on me.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um, so let's say you increase your dietary protein to 100 grams of protein a day.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
That would be a total of 400 calories.
- MRMel Robbins
Wait, what?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Now, that's it.
- MRMel Robbins
What are you eating?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Wait, that's it. But there's something I didn't tell you.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
What I didn't tell you is that the thermic effect of food or this thermic effect of feeding, meaning when you eat dietary protein, it... Because of its impact on muscle, increases metabolism. So while you're thinking, "Well, I'm gonna eat 100 grams of protein and I'm gonna get 400 calories,"-Sometimes, depending on how you dose it, you will use 20% of that energy.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Just metabolize that protein. It would be very difficult to gain weight. And it would be so difficult to gain weight, you are not going to put on weight from increasing your dietary protein. It would be... And in fact, the studies show that. So they've done overfeeding protein studies. Do you want to know what happens when people, quote, "overeat protein"?
- MRMel Robbins
I do.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Their body compositions get better. And you know what that means? It means they lose fat.
- MRMel Robbins
So by eating more protein, the research shows in all these studies and in the work that you've done for 20 years, that when people focus on muscle health, resistance training, and a protein-forward diet, they lose fat.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
They lose fat. Obviously calories have to be controlled, but they lose fat and they gain muscle. You gain tissue, your body composition improves.
- MRMel Robbins
Yeah. You know-
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Good job.
- MRMel Robbins
... I just had this visual, that traditionally, you know, I keep saying, we keep thinking about this in reverse, everybody. You're focused on losing fat when you should be focused on gaining muscle. And when you gain muscle, you actually lose the extra weight that you don't want. And I keep thinking about the fact that you look at somebody that's sedentary or heavy and you see the extra weight that they're carrying, and you think about, "Okay, well how am I gonna- how am I gonna get them to diet and do stuff so that we can get rid of that weight?" And what I just got is, inside that body is an organ called muscles. There's the architecture of a healthy human being, and you can activate the healthy human being that is inside the unhealthy body. And as you start to really strengthen your muscles, we'll get into resistance training in a minute, that starts to emerge from the inside out.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yes. Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
And all of the extra weight and all of the disease and complications and symptoms that come with having what is an insufficient muscular system, if you start with strengthening from the inside out, it overtakes all of the unhealthy stuff on the outside, and that's what you see emerging. And if you think about these before and after photos that you see in these big, you know, c- these challenges online or whatever that people use to market diets or weight loss programs or weightlifting programs, we are looking at them wrong. Because what we're thinking is we're thinking that somebody is, like, somehow dieting and shrinking. What you're actually seeing is the muscle health emerging.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yes.
- 42:39 – 46:02
Switch out your breakfast for major body composition change.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
I'm gonna say, "You know what? Go right ahead. You're not gonna have over 30 grams or so of carbohydrates for that first meal." 'Cause we don't wanna kind of askew this insulin and, and give you this robust response. Again, I'm giving broad generalizations.
- MRMel Robbins
Got it. Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um, but, you know, we're just going to d- define it and design it so that people can execute right away.
- MRMel Robbins
Great.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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 kind of smaller meal in the day. Maybe it has 20 grams of protein and 20 gram- grams of carbohydrates. What does that look like? That could be, uh, three eggs. It could be your chicken salad. You know, it could be whatever it is you want. I- I'm not so crazy about that one.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay, love you for that. Thank you.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Y- Yeah, 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.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
So you've woke, 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, um, signaling. You've made your muscle youthful. You are no longer hungry. Your body is now metabolizing things. You know, we're not gaining weight. We are really setting you up for success. Your next meal is a little smaller. Your meal, your last meal of the day, is going to mirror your first meal.
- MRMel Robbins
Oh. I, I thought you said-
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
It's, it's different.
- MRMel Robbins
... it was smaller.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
No, your middle meal is smaller.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay, got it. So now I'm doing my 30 to 50.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Dependent on-
- MRMel Robbins
I would have my protein shake or my s- hamburger with my salad or whatever else.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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.
- MRMel Robbins
Same.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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 d- 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 isocaloric, meaning people h- both had the same amount of calories. They were taking, they were both taking in 1,600 calories. And the postmenopausal 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, um, uh, 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 they... 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.
- MRMel Robbins
Can you talk a little bit to the vegetarians and folks that have a vegan diet? Like, what are the considerations as you're thinking protein forward
- 46:02 – 50:55
Advice for our vegans and vegetarians.
- MRMel Robbins
and the amino acid sand particle aspect of the macronutrient in protein?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yes. All dietary protein is not created equal.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
It is considered a high-quality protein. And what defines high-quality protein is we talked about that there are 20 different amino acids.
- MRMel Robbins
Got it.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
We're obviously not going into those 20, but there are a handful of essential amino acids.
- MRMel Robbins
And are those not present in plant-based proteins?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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.
- MRMel Robbins
Got it. Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And I'm gonna give you a very clear example.
- MRMel Robbins
Great.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And I'm just gonna lay it out on there so nobody-
- MRMel Robbins
Do it.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
... has to do any math. Okay. So let's say you are going to eat three or four ounces of a, a beef patty, a lean beef patty. That has this essential amino acid leucine. Leucine is the critical amino acid for muscle health.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Now, remember you and I were talking about how each amino acid had these dual roles, and we weren't gonna go into all 20. But there are a handful that are really important and critical for health and well-being.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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, uh, under that amount, then you're not actually stimulating this mechanics of skeletal muscle.
- MRMel Robbins
Oh.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Three ounces of, you know, three to four ounces of a lean beef patty would, 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.
- MRMel Robbins
Wow.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
That's not a good plan.
- MRMel Robbins
(laughs) .
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
First of all, that's a lot of quinoa. Second of all, that's like carbicide. You don't want to be doing that.
- MRMel Robbins
Carbicide is a word?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. No. Well, it can be now.
- MRMel Robbins
Wow, that's... I think you should trademark that.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs) .
- 50:55 – 52:32
What is the best type of exercise for your body?
- MRMel Robbins
get it. But the weight thing, the resistance training?"
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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? Like, it, it's very confusing. Here is the one non-negotiable that everybody is going to take away and build on. No, uh, pun intended here. Resistance training is any move against, um, weight. So that could be body weight. You could be doing push-ups. 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.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
I will say, all exercise is important. And a-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 is a non-negotiable, which again, could be weights, could be machines, could be at home, um, push-ups or band workout. Even, you know, 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.
- MRMel Robbins
Gotcha.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay?
- MRMel Robbins
Gotcha.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
But again, we are going to focus on moving some kind of weight. And-
- MRMel Robbins
Okay. What's the minimum amount of time? I realize you say some is better than none, but for just somebody going, "I'm gonna take this seriously."
- 52:32 – 55:31
This is the minimum amount of training for someone just starting out.
- MRMel Robbins
Three days a week, two days a week, one day a week? Where's a starting point for somebody where this is, like, a whole new world?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yes. Here is what the general guidelines will tell you.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
They will say 150 minutes to moderate and to vigorous activity, whether it's cardio ba... And that's a week.
- MRMel Robbins
'Cause that's about 22 minutes a day. But what does Doc G say?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Right. Her- here's what I say. I say that you should be lifting a minimum of two days a week. Okay?
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And that would be if you're only gonna do two days a week, then you're gonna do full body. And I love the idea that you are doing, um, what we call multi-joint movements. So for me, what did I do this morning? I go, "Oh, man. I'm gonna be on Mel Robbins' podcast. I'm getting my butt in the gym," and we did deadlift.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay? I don't necessarily think that people need to start with that, but again, I've been training for, you know, a period of, of, of years. So for me, deadlift. But for, you know, 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. Um, 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. Uh, all of those, again, two days a week.
- MRMel Robbins
Gotcha. 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 sort of something happening?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Here's the great news if 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-
- MRMel Robbins
Oh, my God. That long? Can we see a little-
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
But that-
- MRMel Robbins
... something better? Like, we're gonna feel better though, right?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
You will feel better immediately.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay. That's all I need to know.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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.
- MRMel Robbins
Are there some aspects to resistance training that women should be doing differently for maximum benefit?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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 believed that you had to lift heavier weights, and I, I personally prefer to do that. But the evidence would suggest as long as a woman is really taxing herself, you know, she's not on her phone, and she's not kind of distracted, but going to where she really goes to fatigue.
- MRMel Robbins
Mm-hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Then
- 55:31 – 58:19
Why women need one high-intensity interval training episode per week.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
I, I think that it... It, it's not necessarily for women, but, you know, again, there is some evidence in the literature or some speculation that some women need more volume. But again, I, I do think that we shouldn't get caught up in the weeds, but we should understand that two to three days a week of resistance training, if you're gonna 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.
- MRMel Robbins
Tell me.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Uh, one high-intensity interval training session a week.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay. What does that actually mean?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
I think that we should do 'em, Mel. I heard you're in Vermont. I heard from a mutual friend we're in Vermont, and I think I should come down there-
- MRMel Robbins
I think you should do.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
... and I think we should do.
- MRMel Robbins
I think you should. I'm terrified already.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And here's one-
- MRMel Robbins
Okay, go ahead. (laughs)
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs) And so this could be on, say, an Airdyne 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 sec, uh, uh, s- session all-out effort. But you're really going to put in high effort for a minute, and then you're gonna 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, 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 gonna be stronger. Over a period of time, you are going to be stronger from following that.
- MRMel Robbins
I love this, and I love that you're saying 10 to 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 know, 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, like, one of those small weight things. And you are doing your arms up and down, and you've been holding 'em up for five minutes, and you're like, "I can't do this anymore," and you drop your arms. Is that what you mean by failure?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
Great.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And by the way, I did say 10 or 20 minutes, you know, 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 kind of just all-out, 80 to ni- you know, 90% more effort, that's good. Y- it could literally take you four minutes to w- There i- there are ways to navigate this. It doesn't have to take a ton of time.
- MRMel Robbins
Um, you did mention make muscle magic. What are the five ways to make muscle magic, and what is muscle magic?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
So
- 58:19 – 1:04:30
What the heck is ‘muscle magic’ and how does it help?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
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 gonna do about health and wellness that's gonna take two seconds to do and gonna be at the forefront of our mind? Every hour, complete number one, you like numbers, number one, every hour complete 10 to 20 air squats. 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 ten times a day.
- MRMel Robbins
Great.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Easy. You literally, if you had a glucose monitor, you ate lunch, you have that glucose monitor on, you can see improvements in your blood sugar just by leveraging skeletal muscle, instantaneously. Um, we're at number four. Bring a resistance band to your office, uh, and get in a quick ten reps of Mel's bicep curls.
- MRMel Robbins
(laughs)
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs) Doesn't have to be much.
- MRMel Robbins
Or any exercise of choice, just resist the band, people.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah, you could do, uh, overhead press. You could do, um, whatever you wanna do.
- MRMel Robbins
I have a question. So, a lot of us have these wrist weight things. You can hear me opening it up. They were very popular when we were all in lockdown.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
The hot mom walk. So as a one-pound wrist weight, if I just wear these all day long, is that like something that I can do that will help, or is that not a good thing?
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
It will help. Is it going to be optimal? Maybe not, but it'll help.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay. And when-
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
U- uh...
- MRMel Robbins
... when you said-
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
I, I think you could put, like... I, I think we could put a little more probably.
- MRMel Robbins
Yeah. Given that you've practiced as a psychiatrist, as, uh, a, in a family medicine practice, and you've spent 20 years and are a fellow in nutritional medicine, I wanted to g- ask you some questions from our audience and see if you would give people advice. So Vicki writes, "Doc G, 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 'cause 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?"
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Aw. Well, first of all, don't worry, we've got this, and I'm gonna 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 Vicki's daughter cares about building-
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
... 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, burn, you know, like 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 gonna happen. Number one, you're gonna get to her early and you're gonna 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's going to be able to perform better at work and dominate, and that is how you are going to change her mind.
- MRMel Robbins
Dr. G is in the house. That was genius. You know why? It's manipulative, and it works.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs) .
- MRMel Robbins
Because you've attached motivation to something that she's demonstrating that she actually cares about, which is her success, and when you carve out a little bit of discipline to start to weight train, by the way, because of all the benefits with sharper thinking, with the discipline that it takes to fit it in, with the fact that you get this rush of endorphins and adrenaline and you're able to focus, it translates directly to you being better at your job or taking care of your kids or anything that you want to do. And in fact, for you stay-at-home moms, let me tell you something. 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 fricking love that you just said that. I've got another one, um, from Maddie, and I know that you had, um, some issues with binge-eating when you were a teenager, and so I think you'll be in a very, um, you're in a really important position to make a difference here. Maddie writes, "I'm 19 years old and my social media feeds are filled with fitness influencers. I enjoy fitness a lot. I love the way the gym makes me feel and the reward of how my body can look, but I get too carried away with my image sometimes and let it control my day and my mood. I struggle with binge-eating at night, but I haven't been diagnosed with an eating disorder. Do you have any tips for comparing myself to other people, comparing my body to other people's bodies, and even more importantly, how do I just build a better relationship with myself and my body?"
- 1:04:30 – 1:15:28
Do this to have a better relationship with your body.
- MRMel Robbins
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
That is a very deep question, and I absolutely can relate because when I was her age, I also struggled, and I think a lot of younger women struggle. One of the things that younger women now th- that are up against that I didn't have and many of us didn't have is that social media has no rules. So the first thing that Maddie has to do is limit time on social media, and I mean really limit it to what is she trying to gain out of it, and this is going to take some internal fortitude because it is addictive, and that is how these apps, which we all love, but are designed and they allow for dopamine release and we want to keep going back for more. I personally have a lock on my social media. I can spend 30 minutes a day on social media max until I'm locked out. And that is exactly what Maddie should do because comparison is a kiss of death for people. We have no idea what is happening. It really truly is about being one's best version of oneself and shifting away from the external. Again, this whole conversation hasn't been focused about the external drivers of, of looking good-
- MRMel Robbins
Mm-hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
... but understanding that the better you treat yourself, we only have one body, the better an individual treats themselves from the inside, the more capable Maddie's gonna be throughout her entire life. And ultimately, she's going to go through a period where, you know, each decade we compare less, right?
- MRMel Robbins
So true.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Right now, Maddie, you're at the height of comparison, and that's just-
- MRMel Robbins
So true.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
... also part of being a 19-year-old y- woman, you know, a 19-year-old girl is, is you are in the zone of comparison, but this is an amazing opportunity to develop some mental toughness. And what I, what do I mean by develop mental toughness? I mean having a lot of discipline to say, "You know what? I am not gonna go and look at those things and compare whatever it is that those people are doing." And the other thing is, "I'm actually going to focus on a goal that I set for myself that is not external." It shouldn't be based on external looks. It could be based on... So she said something very important, she said something about the progress in the gym, right? "I don't see progress in the gym." Well, what about saying you are gonna do 10 dead hang pull-ups?That has nothing to do with how you look. It purely has to do with embracing the discomfort of becoming more skilled at a movement.
- MRMel Robbins
You know what? This actually points to the whole reason why I wanted to have you on, because the reason why Maddie, and just about everybody on the planet, particularly in that age group, has trouble with comparison is because they're focused on what they look like.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Mm-hmm.
- MRMel Robbins
Versus being in the gym to take care of your muscular health, being in the gym because of the different amino acids and the, uh, way that your neurotransmitters, and your thinking, and your mood, and your mental health are impacted. And one thing that helped me a lot, 'cause I struggled, like everybody, with profound comparison, is if you're going to compare yourself, right? If you just have this habit of looking around and laser-focusing in on the one person whose body type is exactly the opposite and genetically impossible for you to ever achieve, and then beating yourself up for the fact that you're not 11 feet tall, or three feet tall, or whatever it is that you wish that you were; if you're going to do that with one person, try for a day admiring everybody. Admire everybody in the gym. Admire the freckles on that person over there. Admire the curly hair on that person over there. Admire the monster calves that that person over there has. Admire the gap between the teeth of the other person over there. Find something that you admire that's unique about every person that you pass by, just, you know, casually, and you'll start to notice that you can flip it from this seeking of someone looks better than training yourself to see something unique and beautiful in everybody, because we all look very different. And, you know, I think intellectually we know this, but that's a way to start to train your mind to default in a very different way. Um, Pamela wrote, "Mel, I need mental strategies and thoughts to lose weight, because I, uh, really want to stay in shape. I'm tired of calorie counting, intermittent fasting. What do, what, what do in-shape women tell themselves? Because the old strategies are no longer working for me, and I need an epiphany." So, Doc G.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Mental neutrality. Have a neutral mind. This next meal is not that big of a deal. This one last cheat meal, this, "I need these cookies, it's so good, I can't not have X, Y, and Z." Neutral. Be neutral. All of this hype around food and dieting is all so- stuff that we made up. Doesn't have to be that way. Just neutral mind, my friend. It's not that big of a deal. It's not just o- it's just one more meal. Allow yourself to gain control. Take actions to become the person that you know that you can be, and ask yourself, "Are these actions and these behaviors, is this in line with who I want to be?"
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
And you close the gap. I think that people always put together and put forward weight loss goals, and when you have goals, that means when you hit a goal of ten-pound weight loss, you're now back at the starting point of, what's your next goal? As opposed to putting together standards. What is the standard? How are the standards of how you function? You are going to execute on an appropriate training program. You're going to set a standard for the kinds of foods that you're going to eat. You are going to set a standard for yourself for how strong you want to be. We're not chasing goals here. We're setting standards for our life that allow us to execute and live a life of longevity, of strength, and resilience.
- MRMel Robbins
Doc G, you have given me so many epiphanies today. You've changed the way that I think about what I'm eating. You have, uh, had me learn so much, and everybody listening, about muscle-centric medicine, the importance of this. I feel a sense of freedom and liberation from decades of thinking about calories and losing weight, and I really am empowered by what you've taught us today, and how it impacts my health, how it could help, uh, shape my body, and my future, and my longevity, and so what a fricking gift. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for spending so much time with us and going into such detail. I cannot wait to have you back, and everybody, the book is Forever Strong: A S- New Science-Based Strategy for Aging Well. Doc G, everybody.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
- MRMel Robbins
I love these conversations, don't you? When it's like, pew, pew, pew, pew, epiphany, epiphany, epiphany. I think the biggest one for me is really thinking, for real, about my muscles, about this organ I've been neglecting, about how I could build health from the inside out by taking care of the largest organ in my... This is so cool. It has changed me forever. Okay. So, um, I, I, I know you got a lot out of it, and I want to just say something else. Everything that I talk about with you here on the podcast, it is meant to open up possibilities. If you feel inspired and empowered, and it's safe to do so, try it. But only you know whether or not it works for you. So, take what she says, try it out if you feel inspired, and make sure that you're constantly checking with yourself, and I'll be checking in with you about this too.All right. I gotta go prepare a, uh, snack that's about 30 to 50 grams of protein, and now I know the collagen is, eh, zero protein. I feel so empowered, and I hope you do too. And the reason why is because I love you, and I tell you that every time I talk to you. I love you, I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to be smart about the decisions that you're making, especially those that you're making about your health, 'cause you deserve to live a long and strong and healthy life. And now you have the research and the tools to do it. Let's go get 'em. I'll talk to you in a few days. (beep) Hey. Oh my God. Okay, I gotta get in here. (laughs) Let me put these on. (beep) All right. Are we ready everybody? Okay, great. (beep) And they are the key to effective weight lo- but oh my God. (beep) Pew, pew, pew, pew. Epiphany, epiphany, epiphany. (beep) World class medical upska-rt. Pfft. Okay, let me try that again. (beep) The number one change that I need to make in order to start to melt away the bel- pfft. (beep) The number one thing we all need to do in order to melt body fat.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Do you want to say body fat or belly fat?
- MRMel Robbins
Belly fat. Fuck. Okay, here we go. (beep) I don't know who that is. (laughs) (beep)
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Good job on those bicep curls.
- MRMel Robbins
(laughs)
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
I'm really liking that form. (beep)
- MRMel Robbins
So what is mir- mitr- mitochrombia? M- what? Mitochrombia? I'm sorry, I can't talk. (laughs)
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
(laughs) That's like... wait, that's like, um, Abercrombie?
- MRMel Robbins
Yes.
- GLDr. Gabrielle Lyon
Call them Abercrombie.
- MRMel Robbins
Yes. Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper. (laughs) This is the legal language. You know, what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode. (instrumental music) Didn't you love her? Well, guess what? You're gonna love this episode. It's with Dr. Mark Hyman, and it's using food as medicine. We talked about him in this episode. Go.
Episode duration: 1:15:28
Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript
Transcript of episode F4jxN4v50iI
Get more out of YouTube videos.
High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.
Add to Chrome