JJ Virgin4x NYTimes Best Selling Author, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness Hall of Famer

Metabolic Health

13 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this excerpt from the YouTube video "Metabolic Health," JJ Virgin argues that the conventional bathroom scale has caused significant damage to women’s metabolic and mental well‑being by encouraging a fixation on weight rather than body composition. She stresses that before anyone pursues fat loss—especially when considering GLP‑1 medications—two nutritional foundations must be in place: adequate protein intake (dialed in) and, if needed, supplementation with essential amino acids. Because calorie restriction increases protein needs, she warns that without meeting these protein and resistance‑training requirements, women should not engage in caloric restriction at all.

Chapters

What do you think about women that have chased the scale for so long, to get them to see how important like muscle and this body recomp is?
I think single-handedly the traditional scale, not the bioimpedance scale, has done more damage to women's metabolic and mental health than anything else in history of women. So I always think the first thing that you should do before you ever think about losing fat, and especially if you're going to do a GLP-1, is the first thing you must do— like, I don't believe anyone should ever do a caloric restriction diet unless they have their protein dialed in and probably augmenting with essential amino acids, because when you cut calories, you need even more, and you're doing resistance training. If you will not do those two things, you have no business restricting calories.