I Wish I Knew These 6 Things About Fat Loss 20 Years Ago

Hey, it's J.J. here. You know I've been talking about environmental toxins forever and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything. They just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family's sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order.

Hey JJ here.

Every year around this time, I get the urge to make my home feel a little extra special. A space that feels just like the holidays. And Wayfair is my go to for that. Think cozy textures, twinkly decor, warm lighting, and all those little touches that make you want to curl up with a good book and a blanket. You'll usually find my book stacked on a great little end table I got from Wayfair, proof that function and style can coexist. Now, whether you're adding last minute hosting essentials, picking out gifts for loved ones, or refreshing your decor for the season, Wayfair makes it easy with beautiful finds, great prices and fast delivery. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Plus, with free shipping for any order over $35, that's fast delivery and a total peace of mind. It's the perfect mix of joy and order, bringing the holiday spirit in, then storing it all with ease. It's if you're ready to make your home feel as good as it looks, get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home Wayfair Every style, every home that's W a Y F A I r dot com.

Ray Ban Meta Glasses come with open ear audio so you can listen to your favorite music without blocking out the world around you.

Hey Meta, play Gorgeous.

Here's Gorgeous by Doja Cat.

You can also ask Meta AI questions.

Hey Meta, when's Doja Cat's next concert?

Doja Cat is playing at the Los Angeles Theater next Tuesday.

Sweet Ray Ban Meta Glasses available at Ray Ban stores and other authorized retailers.

I'm JJ Virgin, PhD dropout.

Sorry, mom turned four time New York Times bestselling author.

Yes, I'm a Certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness.

Hall of Famer, and I speak at health conferences and trainings around the globe.

But I'm driven by my insatiable curiosity and love of science to keep asking.

Questions, digging for answers, and sharing the.

Information I uncover with as many people as I can. And that's why I created the well.

Beyond 40 podcast to synthesize and simplify.

The science of health into actionable strategies to help you thrive. In each episode, we'll talk about what's.

Working in the world of wellness, from personalized nutrition and healing your metabolism to.

To healthy aging and prescriptive fitness.

Join me on the journey to better health so you can love how you look and feel right now and have.

The energy to play full out at 100.

Hey jj, Virgin here. Okay, real talk. So often the holidays sneak up on me, travel, gifts, hosting, you know, all the things and suddenly it's like, wait, who spent what and where? And I know I'm not the only one who's looked at a bill in January and thought, wow, that escalated quickly. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface. On your laptop or on your phone, Monarch lets you link everything and gives you real time visibility so you're not shocked later. Right now, I've been checking the holiday spending category so I don't accidentally start the new year with that dreaded debt hangover. And honestly, just seeing everything laid out is already helping me stay more aware. This season, Monarch does the heavy lifting. It links your accounts in minutes, gives you smart categorization and super clear visuals. Yes, that end of year reset could be a real goal. This time. Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code virginonarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with the code Virgin.

This episode is brought to you by Pacifico. Here's a story you've probably never heard. Legend has it, decades ago, a couple surfers went down to Mexico in search of epic swells. But they found something unexpected instead. It was still crisp, lively and smooth. But it had nothing to do with waves. It was Pacifico, a delicious Mexican lager. It's like it was brewed to be discovered. Pacifico. Find your own way 21 Discover responsibly Pacifico Clara beer, imported by Crown Import, Chicago, Illinois.

I wasted so much time not knowing these six fat loss secrets sooner than. And I don't want that to happen to you. So let me tell you exactly what you should do to finally lose that fat you've been hanging on to for years. Now, the first one is I want you to do what I call a macro audit. You're going to start tracking. So here's the thing. You've heard this, that we underestimate what we eat by as much as 40%. And there are multiple studies, like every time I turn around, there's another study showing that when you track what you're eating, you lose more weight. You keep it off. I think of one, the Kaiser study that showed that the number one determinant of diet success was how much someone tracked. Now, here's the thing. This isn't forever, all right? This is why I call it the macro audit. What we are going to use this for is to really get clear on what your body really needs, how it operates at its best. And we're also going to make sure that we can get that optimal protein in, right? That you're getting the water you need and that you're getting the fiber you need. And that you've really dialed in the right amount of protein. And then you can play around with those fats and carbs. So you get to that point where you've got great satiety, great energy, and you are a fat burning machine. Now, in the notes, I'm going to give you a link to my tracking app and also to my Eat Protein first calculator so that you'll know exactly where you need to get started there. The next one is the thermic effect of food. Holy smokes. This is like a gimme. This is like a freebie. You probably heard this, that protein requires more energy to be metabolized and assimilated by your body. Protein uses about 20 to 30% of its calories in the digestion and assimilation process. Now a lot of that is when it's going through muscle protein synthesis, a very, very expensive thing that your body has to do, right? Carbohydrates on the other hand, only take about 5 to 10% of their calories to be digested. And fat, like it's basically not Even there, it's 0 to 3%. So think about what would happen if all you did was increase your protein like I have you do with eating protein first. And that's again why I want you to use the protein calculator to determine exactly how much protein you need. Just check below for that. But if all you did was increase your protein to the optimal amount and bumped out a little bit of fat, you will have a bigger thermic effect from that food. And by the way, you'll also eat less because here's what we know. When you increase your protein, you also are going to activate these hormones that you've heard about that are part of the weight loss like phenomenon going out there. You've heard about the weight loss drugs and the fact that they're GLP1 Agnes and GIP Agnes. Well, so is protein. So protein not only helps with satiety, it has a bigger thermic effect, it helps with blood sugar control, but also helps with that GIP in GLP1. Now here's what's crazy about just the macronutrient ratios and why I want you to start with tracking and then start playing around here. Because of this thermic effect, ultra processed foods can have a lower thermic effect. And by the way, this can be as much as 50% difference. So there was a study done and they compared two different types of sandwiches. Now first of all I was like really sandwiches. But they took a white bread processed cheese product sandwich and they compared it to a whole grain bread real cheddar cheese sandwich. And what they found was that not only did people overeat, when they overate the ultra process like 500 calories more over 8. Holy smokes. But that also they had a lower thermic effect from the food. They did this for two weeks. Two weeks they did the whole foods diet, two weeks they did the processed foods diet. They made sure that those meals were matched for calories and macros and sodium and fiber and sugar and energy density. And that is the big difference. And here's what's crazy. They let them eat what they wanted. And what happened is the people eating the processed food diet Gained two pounds during those two weeks and they lost two pounds during the Whole Foods week. Right. So here's the thing. What do we know from this? That when you're eating more protein and when you're eating unprocessing, your diet, you will be more satiated, you will eat less, and you'll have a bigger thermic effect. And one more important thing here about this, when you eat the standard American diet, it's low in protein. Can we all agree the RDA is a joke? You need twice as much as you're getting there and it's high in carb and fat. Do you know what that formula really is? It's an obesogenic formula. Yep. Low protein, like 10% of calories plus high carb and high fat equals fat gain. So do the opposite. Now. Next one we think about exercise. I want to lose fat. I'm going to go exercise. But we don't think about is something called non exercise activity thermogenesis. Our metabolism, we have our basal metabolic rate and that's really, that's how many calories you burn. If you just sat on the couch all day long. Things that were going to impact that is having more muscle mass and having good thyroid function and not being insulin resistant. If you are insulin resistant, you lower your metabolism, your bmr. Next thing that you can do is exercise. Exercise can raise your metabolic rate like 5% over the day you'll probably spend 5% more calories. Neat. Non exercise activity thermogenesis can be 10 to 15% or more. So what does this look like? This is you finding ways to incorporate more movement into your life. My mantra for you is you're just going to move more. That means if you're sitting, stand. I'm standing here in front of a stand up desk. It goes up and down with it. I've got a walking treadmill underneath. So if you're doing meetings, see if you can just walk on a treadmill or take the meeting and go do a walking meeting and then track. Because of course, as you know, what you measure and monitor, you can improve. So what do you want to do? Use an OURA ring, an apple, watch a whoop and track how much you're moving. And what I like to do here is take a week and check your average of how many steps you're getting in a day and then go. All right, what I'm going to do is I'm going to challenge myself now to increase this by 10%. Maybe you'll do that for just a Week, maybe it'll take you a month to increase it 10%. Once you've got that totally dialed, what are you going to do? You got it. Increase it again because it is always going to be great for you to move more. Now I'm going to throw one more thing in there. If you can happen to move more after you eat, especially go out for a walk, even better, because it lowers the blood sugar response to the meal. The next one. And I did a podcast with Rick Johnson, who wrote the book nature wants you to be fat. So Dr. Rick Johnson taught me about the fact that when we are dehydrated, we actually will store fat. Here's what happens. Dehydration causes a little cortisol bump. Now, this doesn't take much. You can be even 1% dehydrated, mildly dehydrated. And we know that our thirst appetite stinks like our hunger app stat. Hey, that's overworking. But we never really can tell when we're thirsty until we're way too thirsty. So we're mildly dehydrated. Our body goes, uh oh. What we need to do now is we need to take glycogen stored in the liver. Those are your sugar stores in the liver, your carbohydrate stores in the liver. And we are going to free them up, we're going to convert them into fructose, and we're going to store them as fat. Why would we do this? Well, I want you to think of the camel going across the desert with the big fat pad. I actually got to ride a camel a couple years ago in Dubai. And yes, big fat pad. Why is that fat pad there? That fat pad's there because as they start to use fat for fuel in this long so distance, they free up water. So it's effectively their water storage. And so that's what's happening with you, too. You do not want to be the camel. Now, what do we know too? When you're drinking water, it actually can boost metabolism for as much as 30 minutes and 30%. So what do you need to do? What's the takeaway? First of all, you want to drink at least half your body weight in water in ounces every single day, plus 4 ounces for every 15 minutes of exercise. And if you live in a hot, humid environment, kick it up a little bit more. What's your test? Is my pee clear? Now, if you took B vitamins, the test is not going to work right. But the rest of time, you should be able to monitor your urine. The other Thing that I like to do with my water is add in electrolytes, especially if you're doing exercise, if you're in a hot, humid environment. So I use my electro replenish. I do that one or two times a day. Okay, the next one. Oh, I wish I'd taken this one on way way earlier. This was my nemesis. This was my kryptonite for 35 years. Like that long. So during the pandemic, I decided that I was going to go to a Dr. Joe Dispenza meditation retreat and finally get into meditation. This had been something I'd struggled with forever. I could not stop my brain from going like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? And I always was a little bit anxious, a little bit stressed. So I go to Dr. Joe's first event. For a week long, my friends all around me are having amazing results. I'm like struggling with myself and I just decide, you know what? I wouldn't go to the gym for one week and think I'm going to get fit. And it's the same here. I'm taking my nervous system to the gym so that it can handle stress better and I'm going to give myself six months to get it in shape. And so I just committed for six months. Why is this important? If you are under stress, what happens? That cortisol is catabolic. It can break down muscle, which then raises blood sugar, which then can lead to insulin resistance. It can lead to leaky gut, which can lead to inflammation, which can stop muscle protein synthesis, and it can lower serotonin, which can lead to cravings and interrupt your sleep. All problem things. So what was super cool was here I was doing the Dr. Joe work. That's all I added in. I added in meditating, sitting. Six months later, I go, I was sitting at dinner with him. I go, you know, I lost five pounds meditating, which is just. I knew the science behind it, but still crazy to see it actually happened. And he goes, yeah, that's called the no thing diet. Because he always talks about become no one, nowhere, nobody, no thing. So I stress this to you because remember, your body's not a bank account, it's a chemistry lab. And all of these things are powerful information. If your body's under stress, it's going to break down your valuable muscle and it may hold onto fat if you're insulin resistant. You don't want that. All right. I talked about how stress can impact sleep. Sleep is a non negotiable. Just one poor night of sleep, you wake up, you're more insulin resistant. And remember, if you're more insulin resistance, that means your insulin is running higher than it should. You cannot access stored fat for fuel. It basically locks the doors to your fat cells. Your ghrelin is actually is higher too. And when your ghrelin's higher, you know what that's telling your body tells your brain. Rather, it says I'm hungry and I'm not hungry for salmon, thank you very much. Get me the Pop Tart. Get me the muffin. So what is quality sleep? Quality sleep is somewhere between seven and nine hours of sleep. I know for me it's about eight and a half hours of sleep. And it's not just how much time you're in bed, it's the quality of that sleep, which is why it's so important to track I'm a big fan of the Oura ring for this. I think it's the best of all of these. None of them are perfect, of course, but it gives you a really good indicator of how well you're doing. It's so important because sleep is when you repair, it's when you recover. It's when growth hormone is really coming up. And what's super interesting about this, they did a study out of University of Washington where they found that the failure to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep every night, even if you're eating well, even if you were exercising, set you up for obesity. Now maybe you're getting your sleep in every night, but you're still waking up exhausted. And hello, that is a problem. The quality of your sleep matters. And a good night's sleep starts during the day. So watch this next video on the hidden reason you wake up tired every day to start getting more restorative sleep that makes you feel energized and motivated to take on the day and keep moving on your fat loss journey. Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great and more. More importantly, that you're built to last.

And check me out on Instagram, Facebook.

YouTube and my website jjvirgin.com and make sure to follow my podcast so you don't miss a single episode@subscribetojay.com See you next time.

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 take 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.