Jul 5, 2020
Is it Carbs or Keto? The Confusion About What to Eat for Menopause Fitness
It's a subscriber Q and A episode today.
Is the right kind of carbs – resistant carbs – and cycling them during the day, and during your week or keto? I've done Flipping 50 programs where you emphasized carbs. So why would you share a Keto program? It’s so different and seems opposite, I’m confused!
This episode answers Stephanie’s question posted after a recent podcast episode I did with Dr Anna Cabeca.
I recently did Keto Green 16 – my friend Doctor Anna Cabeca’s program outlined in her book by the same title. She made Keto female friendly. Her tricks for optimizing alkalinity (on what is typically a highly acidic diet) create the right environment for your body to thrive.
The Question
So, a reader question from Stephanie asked, why I’d share something so contradictory to my own programs.
I completely understand why you might think that too and it’s important to clear the confusion.
Key Points in this Episode
First, I would always start with you.
- What’s happening for you right now?
- How’s your energy, your gut, your digestion, elimination, your sleep and how well are you dealing with stress?
- How have you been eating regularly in the last 3-4 weeks?
What we do next is an “if this, then that” step-by-step process.
Look, full disclaimer, I’m not a nutritionist, or a Registered Dietitian. I don’t play one on TV or on the internet. I do have 36 years working with clients on their exercise nutrition. Inevitably their relationship with food, cravings, energy crashes, all of this combined either hurt or help the results they get with even the very best exercise prescription.
So we each need to know how to interpret messages our body sends, and do some investigating on our own behalf. Sometimes we need to test and pull in experts on the gut or microbiome. First though we owe it to ourselves to do some homework.
Where are you starting?
Most women coming to me at Flipping 50 can’t sleep and have high stress levels. Look you don’t need a lab test to tell you that you’re not losing weight, in fact you’re gaining it, you’re putting it on around your belly, you’re unable to sleep, and you have cravings even shortly after meals.
Those are signs your cortisol levels are not dialed in to help you with energy and optimal weight.
I start with reducing cortisol by getting the right carbs at the right time. If you’ve all but cut them out, your body is potentially craving them. We produce serotonin with carbs. We can stabilize blood sugar with the right carbs. That can help you relax, have energy again, get a better night sleep, and be more likely to want to exercise in the morning and kick cravings and crashes to the curb.
If it's cortisol
Doing that along with using a blueprint to find the foods that work for you now is foundational. Your hormones change your gut health. So does stress. So rather than a lab test, or in combination with one, I suggest you remove foods and then reintroduce them. Inside our Flipping 50 Virtual Gymbership.. it’s exercise for women in menopause and SO MUCH More… We have programs and challenges that you can do to feel so much better fast. You can stop tolerating bloating, gas, constipation or diarrhea.
Keto or Carbs may never be a question
For many women that’s enough. For me it was, for 7 years, from 2013 through 2019 and then… it wasn’t. Perfect storm. More stress, more cortisol, and I gained weight even during training for an Ironman (which you’ll come to think of as because I was training for an Ironman).
So KetoGreen16 came at just the right time for me to make a pivot for my body. During COVID19 I lost 5 pounds overall, gained 2 lbs of muscle, and improved my body composition by 5%. That’s’ the power of changing the strategy when what you’re doing isn’t working.
Less Exercise and Keto During COVID19
Read more about less exercise when cortisol is the problem -as it so often is for midlife women. How did I lose 5% fat and 5 lbs during the first 12 weeks of COVID19?
But the best point is that you have a set of habits to return to. During COVID19 I’m doing a small fraction of what I was doing 7 months ago. I haven’t gone for a bike ride, let alone a 3, 4 5, or 6-hour ride since. I haven’t done a 12 or 18-mile run. I’ve walked. I’ve done 20-minute intervals and strength trained twice a week – all timed right.
A Lifestyle or a Temporary Reset?
So now as I or as you might after a short time on a new program, move back into your best eating plan, we continue to feel great, maintain that optimal body comp and energy.
I know you get panicked about changing things when it’s working. But it’s important to keep feeding your body and listening to what it’s telling you. For a short time a change may work. You can also find yourself getting tired, more hungry, bored and need to make a change for optimal health long term.
There you have it. How to use Carbs or Keto, or when, to support your exercise results.
Can I answer your question?
If you’ve got a question, leave it in the new Flipping 50 Insiders Facebook group for our listeners and our blog readers and YouTube channel subscribers. It’s where we keep the conversation going and I answer your questions every week.
It’s opening soon… or may be open when you listen to this episode. We’re shooting for the 4th of July weekend!! Literally the end weekend… so see you on the flip side in the Insider’s community.
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