GLP-1s Cause Weight Regain in 90% of Women. The Hormone Reset Nobody Explains | #190

You aren't what you eat, you're what you absorb. So you could be eating the cleanest diet out there, but I had very low stomach acid. I wasn't breaking down my protein. My body wasn't recovering.

Wait, you're still here on GLP-1s?

They got off and gained all the weight back. Oh yeah, they're gaining 20, 30 pounds back because they're not changing their training. They're not looking at their nutrition. Now they're dealing with constipation and gut issues. You're having less cravings. But it doesn't change your food quality. When you have such chronic gut issues, do not try to be your own practitioner. Of course I did that. It took me so much longer to heal because of it.

This journey of yours, um, like, what are some of the, the things that you did that made the biggest difference, you think? Like, what, what was it, the variety of tests that you did, and then how you were able to put the pieces together, or were there any major, like, remedies that you used that, that made a big difference?

I think my health was like such a big puzzle piece. I think my health— I have all those degrees, but my health was almost like another degree of mine to figure out. I was my puzzle piece so that I'm able to fix things so fast for my clients now. So I had a lot of ups and downs on mine. I think the key components that I believe is really nervous system. I never addressed the stress in the nervous system. That was huge for me. Um, the second thing is less was more. So I was spending thousands of dollars on all of these supplements and things that were marketed to me that would just leave me feeling worse because I was drawn into the marketing scheme of it. And I think that's huge. Um, another thing is I was always focused on what I can't have and eliminating things to go to the most extreme diet. What's the top trending diet out there that everyone's talking about with gut health to get them there? And I would go that hardcore and be all in. I didn't heal myself until I started expanding my diet, healing my nervous system, and doing less supplements but more strategic with it. And I think those are 3 very big elements. Um, and also I would throw this one out for other people. When you have such chronic gut issues, do not try to be your own practitioner. Um, of course I did that and I learned so much on it, but it, it, it took me so much longer to heal because of it. But I went to wrong people that didn't know what they were doing. So find someone that could be your guide, because if you have chronic stress and anxiety and you can't go to the bathroom, you don't know what to eat, it is— you're going to be cutting your food out, you're going to be second-guessing yourself, and ultimately you're not going to heal because you're going to be changing things every single day. You need someone you can trust.

And when you optimize your gut function and you, and, and at the same, so at the same time you started expanding your, your diet intake, like your variety of the foods you're, you're eating, were you, um, did that set you back sometimes and then you had to back off?

Yeah.

So you were testing what you can add back in, kind of.

Absolutely. So I was so sensitive, I had to look at every chemical compound of a food. I had to look at my fiber, my fructose, histamine, because I had mast cell activation, fermentation rates of food, FODMAPs of food. So it left me very narrow. And then I was down to no fiber too. So I had to find sources and ways of doing it to where the food wasn't going to ferment, where I was able to slowly increase my fiber. But also you look at things like, hey, how am I going to add in this vegetable and this fruit when I can only have a few little pieces and it's ripe and it's ready? So I would call myself like, I had to baby myself back onto food and find unique ways of incorporating it to slowly expand. And I also had to learn that it takes up to 3 to 4 days to have a reaction to a food. So I would throw something in, be like, oh, I feel great, everything's awesome, increase it a lot the next day, same the next day, and then all of a sudden day 3, day 4 in, huge reaction. So I think that was a big part of my journey is when you're so limited, you're desperate to expand. That you have one thing and you're like, oh my God, give me all the blueberries. Um, I had to go slow and steady and know that it's not a race.

I'm curious about, um, you know, concern of metabolism, because we've all have met women who just cannot lose the weight, right? They, they tell you that they are eating very little and they're exercising and they're stuck. So how do you approach women like that?

Oh man, that's like every client that comes to me. We got the chronic fatigue, stubborn belly fat, low libido. They're told the labs look normal, thyroid looks normal, yet they're on like 800, 1200 calories, hitting their protein, can't lose nothing. So the biggest things that I do is we need to look at blood sugar regulation because as we get older, we're more insulin resistant. So if we're not sleeping, we're waking up throughout the night, we're having energy crashes, that's something we need to address. Um, with my older clients, women 40, 50 beyond, because we're going through perimenopause for 7 to 14 years and our body and hormones are changing, I love running a Dutch test to look at not just where your hormones are in one point of the day, but to see where your cortisol is trending throughout the whole entire day and your night, to see if we have estrogen dominance going on, if we're moving the ex— excess estrogens from the body too. Um, Those things matter. So when I'm able to look at, you know, our blood sugar to see what's actually going on with our hormones, I get my clients so many answers. And then I set up their food and their nutrition and even their workouts. They start getting their hunger cues back. I had a client, she did up to carnivore, couldn't lose weight. One week into my program, we just hopped on our call yesterday, she's down 3 inches in her waist. She's like, Elizabeth, my inflammation is dropping. I cut no calories from her. She's eating more, actually. No added cardio. She's like 6K steps, so 5K sedentary, not a lot. This was all through food nutrition practices. And then if we have the bloating and more underlying gut issues, that's when I throw in more gut testing. But it's not always necessary. But I do believe that we're so focused on calories in versus calories out, but not looking at how our hormones are changing Also, if our thyroid's functioning— I mentioned that earlier— this is a huge one that I test all my clients for. And then it's not about what you eat, it's about what you absorb. So you could be eating all the protein in the world, but if you have very low HCl, we're not making stomach acid. Are we actually denaturing the protein and absorbing our nutrients? Hello, my loyal listeners.

I want to interrupt this podcast for just a second because I want to let you know that if you're looking to help solve a major health issue or you're looking for health optimization, and just for longevity purposes, you can find us at Chara Health. We are considered the leader in the regenerative medicine and longevity space, and we utilize modalities like stem cell therapy, peptide therapy, plasmapheresis, ozone treatments, laser therapy, all to create a beautiful symphony to get you to where you want to be. You can find us at www.chara-health.com. Chara.com. That's C-H-A-R-A.

And you mentioned, um, as we get older, there's more insulin resistance. So how would you explain to somebody why, why they're getting more insulin resistant?

Just, I think the biggest thing is that, like, as we get older, like, our hormones are different. As women, our hormones change on a day-to-day basis. So we can have water retention one day, um, we could the next day have a flat stomach and be pooping. We go through chronic stress with life, business, family, you name it. So over the time, it leads to more of that, um, what do you call it, the metabolic chaos. And those stressors add up. And then we're fasting all morning, we're living off of shakes and bars because they're convenience foods, and it's not, um, it's not supporting blood sugar regulation. The blood sugar—

and what do you think the role of the GLP-1s are in, in these, in, in women, maybe all of the women? You know, since there's, well, broad, you know, yeah, benefits from, from these, uh, these peptides.

So I see a good 90% of women, I'm seeing more and more often them coming to me on them and already like in a worse place a few months in. They're gaining 20, 30 pounds back because they're not changing their training, they're not looking at their nutrition.

Wait, you're saying they're on GLP-1s?

They've gotten off and gained all the weight back. Oh yeah, and they have So GLP-1s slow down the gut motility, so now they're dealing with constipation and gut issues. And GLP-1s work on your leptin and your ghrelin, so your hunger and satiety cues. So you're eating less food, you're having less cravings, um, but it doesn't change your food quality. It doesn't change the fact you're in perimenopause and losing muscle at a faster rate. So if we're not doing things to actually make sure we're getting all of our nutrition in, we're going to get nutrient deficiencies. If we're not doing the strength training in the proper food to actually keep our metabolism high, keep the gut motility working, then a lot of it's backfiring. So it's like, to me, those are more of like last resort versus that immediate— we need to set all the foundations.

How do you rev up the metabolism and making sure a person is getting the proper amount of nutrients and, uh, and enough to, to fuel muscle, right? Maintenance and growth.

Absolutely. So I do have my clients track for like 3 days for me so I can get a baseline of what they're consuming on a day-to-day basis. And then I strategically set up their meals. I make the meal plans, everything as a start guide. And then as we're checking in each week, I'm looking at energy, sleep, hormones, gut, poop, um, recovery, how inflammation's feeling. If we're sleeping through the night and adjusting the amount of meals, the amount that's at the meals. I even do all their training so that we're able to start getting that stimulus for building lean muscle, which improves your metabolism. We're building lean muscle, we have more hunger cues back. Now we're sleeping better, recovering better, and then we're slowly able to bring that food up.

And you actually, while you were healing your gut, you drastically improved your athletic performance. I mean, that's pretty astounding, right? From— how do you think that, you know, from, from healing the gut, how did that translate into athletic performance?

So you aren't what you eat, you're what you absorb. So you could be eating the cleanest diet out there, but I had very low stomach acid. I wasn't breaking down my protein, my body wasn't recovering, it was in chronic stress due to all the dysbiosis in that gut. So when I was able to remove that the stress that was in my gut, and then actually restore all of the insufficiency. So I was breaking down and absorbing my food. My body was just starting to become nourished. I was recovering better. I was, you know, getting faster and feeling stronger, all of it.

Well, you're bringing so much hope to everybody that's suffering out there. I mean, even yourself, going into multiple providers and, you know, looking for solutions and And it took a while for you to get on the right track. And I've seen your pictures on Instagram, your before and after. It's absolutely astounding. You know, anyone want to check it out? It's, yeah, it's very, very impressive how you were able to save your body, right? To get it to a place of vibrancy. And how do people find you?

Yeah, so I am Elizabeth Aylor Fitness, not Taylor, all over the internet. I am on Instagram and YouTube are my top two platforms. Um, I have so much long-form content. I know we got some freebies below for everyone, but I do work with clients all around the world. I do functional lab testing, get to the root cause. So you could just send me over that DM ready on Instagram, and then I'll be reaching out to you.

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