Change This One Thing... The Body Fat Will Fall Off | Dr. Mindy Pelz

1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

   I want to get to some particular ages now, 'cause I know there's women-

2. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:03

   Yeah

3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:03

   ... of all different ages who listen to this show, and I think the approach they may need to take might be quite different.

4. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:11

   Yeah.

5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:11

   So I know for you, something quite key happened in your 40s, where you were trying to get into the shape of your life, you were trying to be fit, healthy, but the things that you were doing in the past that did work suddenly no longer were working. And I know-

6. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:28

   Mm-hmm

7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:28

   ... from friends, from patients, from the public, many women in their 40s feel this, that, "Oh, my God, why am I putting weight on now? Why am I seemingly not able to cope like I used to?" Now, this can be the perimenopausal phase, can't it? And-

8. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:44

   Yes

9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:44

   ... for someone, for a lady who's in that phase, how might they apply the principles that, you know, you've talked about so far? Can we get specific to people in that phase perhaps?

10. MPDr. Mindy Pelz0:55

    Yeah, absolutely. So here's another highlight that I think women need to know, is that at 40s, your ovaries are going into retirement, and it's gonna take about 10 to 15 years, and over this time, your sex hormones start to decline. And one of those major sex hormones, as we've talked about, is estrogen. So as estrogen goes down, you become more insulin resistant. I really want you to, women to own this, because you're not all of a sudden becoming more in- uh, you know, undisciplined at 43. There's not a reason why, other than a hormonal reason, usually, that you're starting to gain weight. The diet that you used at 35 to keep your weight in, where you want it is not gonna work for you at 45 because you're losing estrogen, making you more insulin resistant. So that is really important, because there's so much guilt, so much shame that happens to women as they go through the menopausal experience. So with that in mind, this becomes, fasting becomes this imperative tool for perimenopausal women to start to use, because we can make ourselves insulin sensitive, again, through the, the concepts we've been talking about. The second thing that I want to highlight for the woman going through perimenopause, and even into the menopausal years, is that we, as we lose estrogen, we also are l- losing a lot of our cognitive ability. We have the most amount of estrogen receptor sites in our prefrontal cortex. So as we lose the, our ability for memory and, and to hold onto new information, to keep our focus, our mood disorders that are appearing during this time, that is because estrogen has gone to the, its ultimate low, and it's a whole new experience for the menopausal brain. But we can use ketones as a way to, to substitute and power up what the brain needs as it learns to recalibrate to this loss of estrogen. So that perimenopausal time from about 40 to the early 50s, this is where fasting has to be a, a mandatory go-to tool to support women through that process.

11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:11

    I mean, just so much gold you've just said, Mindy. Just one thing I wanted to highlight there, just so women don't feel guilt, is that-

12. MPDr. Mindy Pelz3:21

    Yeah

13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:22

    ... let's think about it through the lens of Type 2 diabetes, right? So let's say you're well and fully insulin sensitive. You can get away with a certain diet because you're insulin sensitive. Let's say you're very, very insulin resistant, as, you know, Mindy, you've already explained what that means early on in this conversation. I think we all understand that then, with Type 2 diabetes, the same diet that worked 10, 15 years ago when we were insulin sensitive is no longer going to be the right diet for us as our hormones have changed. It's the way our body's signals have changed. And you're effectively saying forget a disease state. Just in the natural process of women getting older, in their 40s, ovaries, as you say, starting to shut down for retirement. Of course, with different women, it will happen at different times. Your signals are changing. Your hormones are changing. You are becoming insulin resistant. So of course, the diet that worked for you in your 30s may no longer work for you in your 40s. There's nothing wrong with you, right? A lot of women get frustrated with the weight gain, but I think through that lens, it's like, well, yeah, maybe I need to change my diet. Maybe, for example, a lower carb diet may be brilliant in my 40s. Maybe I didn't need it in my 30s, but I now need it in my 40s.

14. MPDr. Mindy Pelz4:42

    That's right. That's right. And, and I just, I love your heart because this is the burden we need to take off of women. There is so much guilt and shame around our, our relationship with food, and what we're seeing in the 40s is there's these dramatic body shifts and, and I, and I've experienced it myself. I'm 53, and I've just gone through that whole process, and you don't understand yourself. You're like, I've been... You know, for me, it was I love to work out. I was doing a lot of paleo. I was, you know, really... And, and then I'd moved into the ketogenic diet. I had found fasting. I was, like, trying to play with all these tools because s- I felt like somebody hijacked my body. Like, I was not able-

15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:23

    Mm

16. MPDr. Mindy Pelz5:23

    ... to use those old tools anymore. I needed a new set of tools, and I need to learn how to cycle them like I teach in the book. But what happens, you know, I don't know if y- if you've seen this statistic, 45 to 55 is the most common decade for women to commit suicide. Now, why is that? There is a hormonal decline that is changing our brains and our bodies, and we are not understanding each, ourselves, and we as a society are not talking about this hormonal shift. So the 45-year-old woman is depressed. She's not sleeping. She's gaining weight. Um, she's having all these new health challenges, but she's throwing the old strategies at them that are-

17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:07

    Yeah

18. MPDr. Mindy Pelz6:07

    ... no longer working, not realizing that something in her lifestyle has to shift.

19. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:12

    Yeah. And not only that-The medical profession, and, you know, I've been part of it for over two decades now, we're just not trained that well on the things that you're talking about. So if a woman does go, "You know what? I need some help here," often they'll end up with a healthcare professional, maybe a doctor, maybe someone else, and maybe... You know, I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus here, right? I do think medical professionals are trying their best, but I, I just imagine 20 years ago, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have known what to do for that woman. I, I genuinely... Like, I would've done my training and passed my exams.

20. MPDr. Mindy Pelz6:51

    Yeah.

21. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:51

    But 20 years ago, I just would not have known.

22. MPDr. Mindy Pelz6:53

    Yeah.

23. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:53

    And therefore, that woman then goes out thinking, "Oh, well, the doctors can't help me." Or a common one, which you will have heard, I've heard a million times is, "My doctor tried to put me on, on an antidepressant."

24. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:04

    That's right. Yep.

25. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:05

    I mean, that's the common one. And-

26. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:07

    Yeah

27. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:07

    ... at that point, women feel unheard. They feel-

28. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:10

    Yes

29. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:10

    ... unseen. They've lost faith in the medical profession, quite understandably.

30. MPDr. Mindy Pelz7:15

    Yeah.

Episode duration: 25:59