JJ Virgin explains why 95% of dieters regain weight within five years: fat returns faster than muscle, tanking metabolism and increasing hunger. Building muscle through resistance training reverses this, improving insulin sensitivity, reducing inflammation, and lowering risks of diabetes and dementia.
Hey, it's JJ Virgin here. I am beyond excited to kick off a brand new series. It's designed specifically for you, the 40+ year old woman ready to take back her metabolism and age powerfully. Now, to celebrate this launch, I'm doing a super special giveaway. I'm gonna be giving away an exclusive Metabolism Makeover Bundle. Here's what's got in it. First of all, it's got my new Take Me to the Gym Kit, which of course has the most important chiotine, powder, my Amino Acid Power powder and Electro Replenish, and also my plant-based protein powder that has the essential amino acid profile that mimics whey protein. Super cool. I'm even including some helpful tools that are going to be revealed after we choose the winner, and they are big. All you have to do is subscribe to my channel, hit the like button, and drop a comment below about your biggest metabolism question or goal. Now make sure you've got notifications turned on because you don't want to miss a thing. This series is all about empowering you with the latest science-backed strategies to build muscle, balance your hormones, heal your gut, and finally break free from weight loss resistance. Remember, you gotta get healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to get healthy. So let's get you healthy. Let's get you strong. And let's get you feeling unstoppable. And good luck on the giveaway. I cannot wait to read your comments and hear what you would love to achieve. There was a study in Obesity Reviews that found regaining lost weight is actually the norm. Between 1/3 and 2/3 of lost weight is typically regained within just 1 year. And guess what? 5 years in, 95% of people have regained their weight. The researchers observed that fat often comes back faster than muscle. This is a process called fat overshooting, and this can leave people with a higher fat-to-muscle percentage after dieting. And they explain that this happens because we're hungrier, we have reduced satiety, and we have that lower resting metabolic rate and lower energy expenditure overall. So what happens when you just keep doing this repeated diet And then repeated weight gain over time, you know what it does? It damages your metabolism and it worsens your metabolic health. It's gonna increase your risk of insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome. Here's the reality. Muscle is metabolic magic. Muscle is truly your best friend. I want you to think of muscle as metabolic gold. Here's why. Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. I like to think of muscle as your metabolic Spanx. It holds everything in tighter and it keeps your metabolism boosted. Now, this is not a huge amount. It's maybe 5 or 10 calories per pound of muscle. But the reality is you had to burn calories to get the muscle on, and then you have more calories expended to keep it on. And plus, there's more. There's only side benefits to having muscle here. First of all, muscle is insulin's best friend because muscle acts like a sugar sponge. Soaking up glucose after meals and exercise. In fact, resistance training is proven to improve insulin sensitivity in midlife women. And this is a huge one for us because as estrogen goes down, guess what? We can become more insulin resistant. Also, it's a hormone helper. Muscle releases myokines. These are these chemical messengers and they can do great things like reduce inflammation. Another thing that goes up as estrogen goes down. Boost your mood. And help support hormonal balance. Now, if exercise were a drug, literally, it would be the most powerful anti-aging, mood-supporting prescription available. And of course, muscle's gonna help you stay stronger for longer. As we age, we lose muscle, but likely we're losing muscle and that's making us age more. And we know aging can speed this up, but the good news is that you can stop and even reverse that loss with the right training and nutrition. And when you have more muscle, guess what that's linked to? Lower risk of diabetes, lower risk of dementia, and lower risk of heart disease. Now here's the reality. You've probably heard that starting at around age 30, we start to lose up to 1% of muscle, our muscle mass a year. It can be 3 to 8% a decade, twice as much strength and 3 times as much power. Those are even more damaging. But here's the reality. Again, are you losing muscle because you're aging or are you aging because you're losing muscle? I would contend that it's the second one, because I will tell you that I did a dex at 39 and 59, and they were exactly the same because I'd done everything I needed to do to keep that muscle on. And that's what I want to help you do too.
