Friday Q&A: The Truth About Diets & Gastric Bypass Surgery

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Obesity is not you being a bad human. Obesity is your metabolism not working correctly because of a variety of different factors.

Here's JJ Virgin triple board certified nutrition and fitness expert and four time New York Times best selling author. It's time to reignite wellness.

All right, welcome to Friday, a Q and a. This one comes off of Instagram during a live that I was doing about chocolate. And it comes from ImperfectShark3 and Imperfect Shark3 asks. Hi, can this diet help with people who have had failed gastric surgeries? Okay, this is going to give me a chance to walk through the way. I really think that we need to approach diets. See, I think that the reason that we have a big issue out there. Well, there's a whole lot of reasons we've got issues with obesity. Remember obesity? Obesity is not you being a bad human. Obesity is your metabolism not working correctly because of a variety of different factors. It could be food intolerance, it could be stress, it could be sleep problems, it could be insulin resistance, could be toxicity, could be hormonal imbalances due to xenoestrogens, due to menopause. Um, it could be sleep issues. It could be the wrong type of exercise, generally over exercise or not exercising enough. I hope that's not the case. It could be eating too much sugar, too many carbs for you. And we don't need sugar, by the way. My mom was like, but we need to eat sugar. I'm like, no, mom, we don't. It could be. Did I get. Oh, could be your gut microbiome, could be some of your genetics which load the gun but don't pull the trigger. Remember that. So there's all these different things that could contribute to weight generally. It's not because your stomach's too big. So that's the big challenge with gastric bypass. And maybe it's just who I see, but I've seen a lot of failed gastric bypasses and what they don't tell you is what the heck that surgery is going to do to you and how it's going to set you up for nutrient deficiencies and imbalances forever. So I'm not a fan. I am a fan, though, of figuring out how to become your healthiest you. And here's the process that I like to walk you through, and here's the big challenge I see is people say diets don't work. I believe that diets do work, we just are not using them correctly. You need to figure out what the current issue at hand is and what your goals are based on your genetics, your age, your sex, what else is going on in your life, what your lifestyle is like and what your goals. And then you pick the diet that's going to help you in the short term to make those improvements and also to help you find some things out about yourself that you can pull into the way that you eat every day. So what I think here is that the first thing that we should do is assess where we're at. What's going on with my whole body? Like what's going on in terms of where's my body fat, what's my waist measurements, how's my energy, how's my focus, how's my fatigue, how's my inflammation, how's my mood? And then looking at some of those other factors that I just went through, then first, improve the quality of your food. Improve the quality of your food. Start eating more non starchy vegetables. Start, start making sure you're getting water in between your meals. Add some green tea into your diet. Start taking a good basic multivitamin, mineral antioxidant formula and essential fatty acids. Start eating, make an oil change. Have anti inflammatory fats. Get some good CLE protein in. All right, unprocess your diet. As my buddy Natalie Jill says, that's step one. Then detoxify. Start to make sure that you are pulling out the things that are toxic in your diet and in your life. And that might meet some people too. Oops. And get the detox nutrients on board and the detox habits on board. Epsom salts baths and dry brushing and sweating from like, from saunas. And we'll put in the notes, by the way, we always@jjvirgin.com questions, which is where we put the podcast question info. We'll put a link into sunlight and saunas, which I'm going to go hit right after this before I go get a massage. And then of course, a lot of deep green leafies, good nutrients, digesting your protein, things that are going to help you detoxify. Well, once you've done that, next step, figure out your hidden food intolerances. Which foods work for you and which foods don't. That's virgin diet. Next step, figure out how many carbohydrates you should have in your diet. And where the sugar sneaking in, that's the sugar impact diet, by the way. Along the way, we've put in in between those things that are giving you a chance to stabilize on your new eating plan, we're putting in some mindset work, some stress management work, some building into a community of support, some moving more, some getting in some five minute flexibility, some starting to burst train, some starting to add, some resistance training. And then we're going to really start to look at sleep and stress and gut microbiome. So is a process. You didn't get here overnight. You're not going to get to the place where you're super healthy overnight either. But once we get you healthy, then the next part is making sure that you've got what you need in place to stay healthy for the long term. And that's really, really important. And I kind of feel like the forgotten element of all of this is we get healthy and then we're like, all right. It's like, well, that it's not just going to stay there unless you continue to do the things that we're helping you get healthy. And what's super interesting is the things that we're helping you get healthy aren't necessarily the same habits and behaviors that will keep you healthy. In fact, there was an interesting study on weight loss that showed that there was like 37 different health habits. There was only like a crossover of eight between getting you healthy and keeping you healthy. So, you know, this whole thing is a journey. It's a process. It's like peeling the onion and. But as far as like what you need to do initially, I don't really see the role of a gastric bypass. I just don't. I just don't see the role of it. It doesn't make sense to me when I really look at why we gain weight, why we struggle with weight and where the issues are and then the long term ramifications of what that surgery does. All right, that is it for the answer to the question. So here's the deal. If you have a question for me, pop on over to Instagram JJ Virgin or Facebook JJ version official. Or you can also leave a review hint, hint, hint, hint on itunes or any of the platforms you're listening to. And when you do, you can also leave a question because we pick them up there too. So love to shout you out as one of the endorsements on the podcast and I'd love to answer your question next. All right, see ya.

Hey, jj, Virgin here.

Okay, real talk.

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What can I help you with today?

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Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I tag all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately. And I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader, and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.