86. Q&A: Gaining Weight When Leaving a Deficit, Maintaining Weight Loss After GLP-1, Sneaky Ways to Consume More Protein and More!

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Welcome to the Mind and My Wellness Podcast. Your podcast for all things macros, movement, mindset and everything in between. I'm your host, Dani Merenberg, an ex yo yo dieting cardio junkie turned sustainable nutrition coach who's helped over 1000 women feel confident in their skin by learning.

How to eat for their goals without.

Sacrificing a life well lived. I created the Mind and My Wellness Podcast to give you simple, effective and manageable tips you can take away from each episode and implement in your daily life to look and feel like the best version of you. Each week, my guests and I teach you the secrets to mastering your health and owning your power. Nutrition, mindset, movement and women's health are all topics you'll find here. Think of our time together as your productive little health break from the day. So grab your headphones, fill up your water and let's dive into today's episode.

Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of the Mind, my Wellness Podcast with your host Dani. I am excited to do a quick bite sized episode with an episode that you guys absolutely love and it is the Q and A episodes where I post a question box on my Instagram over at mindedmymacros. You guys send me in your questions. Some of them are more broad, some of them are very specific and we're going to dive into them on these episodes. So anytime you want questions answered here in a Q and A episode, drop them in the Q and A box when I host them. But also feel free to just DM me with your questions. I consolidate a lot of common themes and frequently asked questions for these episodes and I get so much response with just how beneficial these episodes are. So that is truly why I do them. And I love answering your guys direct questions. So without further ado, let's jump into a handful of questions for this episode with the first question being Someone is looking to rebuild their metabolism after eating too few calories for too long, but they swear that when they eat 1700 calories they immediately gain weight. So there is a lot around this. The first thing that I want to address, which I talk in detail in my free training, which if you have not taken my free training, pause this episode, go sign up for my free training because we're going to dive into this one thing that is the missing link between most diets. If you've ever done a diet, have you ever asked yourself like, okay, well what do I do after this diet? Am I just supposed to stay in this diet forever? And can I possibly even stay in this diet forever? Chances are if you're anything like me, you've tried that. You've tried to just consistently eat low calorie and it's just not sustainable. The holidays come around, an event comes around, a vacation comes around and you feel like all of that progress just immediately goes away. That's because we're not meant to be eating in a deficit long term, which again is what I cover in my free training. I'll post the link down below, but you can go to mindmymacros.commasterclass to sign up. And this one thing is a reverse diet. It has not talked about enough. This is why I love talking about reverse diets. And I have so many episodes on reverse dieting. One in particular that really dives into what it is, how to do it. And I'll post that down in the show description as well. But with a reverse diet, this is the process of rebuilding your metabolism after a period of dieting. I'm not going to give too much away in this episode because I detail it in my free training and it's about a 40 minute free training that really dives into it. So if you wanted to learn more about reverse dieting, take that training. But the reason why you might be feeling like you're gaining weight as soon as you eat 1700 calories could be a couple things. It could be that you immediately increase your calories from whatever your deficit number was up to 1700 calories. It could be that your tracking isn't actually accurate at 1700 calories. Maybe you think you're being accurate, but you're having little bites, licks and tastes here and there and it's not accurate actually being tracked. And maybe you're eating over 1700 calories, maybe you're still in a deficit as 1700 calories and your body is trying to reserve energy and it doesn't want to reduce any more body fat because it needs that body fat for energy. Because you're not truly at your maintenance yet. And in order to get there again, we want to reverse diet. I cannot say it enough again. I'll post the reverse dieting episode for you down in the show notes. But also take that free training because it's going to answer all of this. So the reason why you might be experiencing weight gain again at 1700 calories is because A, you went from a diet right back to how you were eating or maybe B, you went into a diet and you've just been stuck in a diet. And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work where you're able to sustain it. And then other days you're not able to sustain it. Your body is looking at trends over time. So if you are not consistent and this doesn't mean you have to be perfect a hundred percent of the time, this does not mean you have to be perfect even 80% of the time. What it means is that overall consistency is going to trump everything. So if your Monday through Thursday, you're like, I killed it. But your Friday through Sunday is totally off the rails. You're eating, you know, 2,800 calories and maybe your maintenance is 2,000 calories. Well then you are going to gain weight. There's this distribution between calories in and calories out. But also how much muscle mass do you have? Where is your metabolism? If you have not retrained your metabolism after a deficit period, especially this question is saying they've been eating too few calories for too long. Your metabolism adapts over time. So as your metabolism adapts to that lower caloric floor, anytime you eat above that, you'll see weight gain more rapidly again, reverse dieting is the answer here. Check out my free training. Check out the episodes I dive in more to it there. Next question is when you're in a cut or a calorie deficit, a fat loss phase. How often do you recommend taking measurements and photos? I love that this individual said measurements and photos, not just the scale, because the scale is only one data point and it is my least favorite data point. Measurements are actually my favorite data point to use and I recommend doing those bi weekly so every other week, that gives your body enough time to see those changes. And if you try to do them more frequently, you might be a little bit discouraged. Doesn't mean it's not working. That's why I recommend every other week taking measurements and then for photos, I recommend once a month. So when you're in a calorie deficit, depending on how much body fat you have to lose, it could be a four week cut, it could be a 16 week cut. It depends on how long you want to be in a deficit, how much body fat you have to lose, how your biofeedback is responding, your responses from your body telling you whether or not the calorie level that you're at is it's feeling good, or if you're like, whoa, this is way too low, it's going to depend. But regardless, I recommend taking photos once a month. This gives your body enough time to really see those changes. Really, you can take measurements and photos as often as you'd like. But for a majority of people, we get very discouraged if we aren't seeing movement or progress.

The truth of the matter is these.

Are going to take a little bit of time. So if you want to remove any of the noise, take your measurements every other week and take your photos once a month. This should be a great indicator of overall progress. Here's another question. What are some strategies for getting enough protein when you're not hungry due to grief or stress? Now, I don't know about you, but during stressful times, my appetite can completely shut down. Or on the flip, I can be a very emotional eater. That's something that I've had to work through personally is the emotional eating side. But when your appetite shuts down due to stress or grief, it can be really, really challenging to get in protein. Especially because protein is so satiating and protein is very filling in and of itself as a macronutrient. So a couple sneaky ways that you can get in protein and this can be for anybody, it doesn't have to be just if you're dealing with stress or grief. Really, if you're struggling hitting protein and you just don't want to eat more chicken breast, to be honest, these are some sneaky ways that you can add in some protein as well. One is going to be you can utilize protein powders, protein powders that are more clean. Look for ingredients. Those are going to be really important because there are so many protein powders out there on the market. A lot of them are just filled with junk. You guys, a lot of them, sadly, are filled with junk. But there are now a lot of really great protein powders that aren't. A couple of my favorites are I love clean, simple eats. I like Truvani just ingredients has a really great protein powder. Any protein powder that you're looking for, make sure you're looking at the ingredient list. Make sure that you're looking at the amounts of sugars in them. And you want to opt for protein powders that are gonna be derived from more whole food ingredients versus ingredients that maybe you can't read that are artificially flavored. Those sort of things. So when it comes to, again, increasing your protein, protein powders can be a great way, even if it's just in the interim to help increase your protein. Protein bars, things like IQ bars, healthy Eating on the go bars. Again, bars that are minimally processed. These are going to be key. And then other ways too are if you make a smoothie, you can add in the protein powder, you can add in some Greek yogurt. I oftentimes will recommend trying to sneak in protein in a way that you can drink rather than eat, because it doesn't feel as hard to drink something versus eat when you're feeling like your appetite is super suppressed. So any way that you can sneak it in? Right now, I have my. If you're watching on video, I've got my matcha here. I have collagen in my matcha, my protein matcha. There's another sneaky way. Doesn't feel like I'm eating anything. Feels like I'm just having my morning matcha, and I am. But there is protein in there. So there are a lot of sneaky ways that you can get in your protein that doesn't feel like you're eating endless amounts of meat. Let's just say another way to get in protein, too, is to think about protein sources that are also carbohydrates. And if you're making a meal. So let's say instead of building a bowl with rice, maybe you build a bowl and it has quinoa. Well, quinoa is an amazing fiber source. It is also a source of protein and a carbohydrate. So that way you are still eating kind of like ideally the same type of bowl, but you've just swapped rice for quinoa or maybe rice for lentils. Those are gonna have more protein in them than just strictly carbs. So that's another way you can increase your protein. Okay, and the last question I'll answer on this episode is, do you think you can keep weight off if you come off a GLP one. So a GLP one. Most of us now know what these are, but think of Ozempic, WeGovy, Manjaro, these types of medications that help women to lose weight. Can you keep that weight off if you transition off of that medication? I have an entire episode on this. It's really going to depend on the individual and how they set themselves up for success with the transition off. Now if you're somebody who has listened or who's listening and you are like, well, I have already transitioned off and I'm experiencing weight gain, is it too late for me? It is not at all. What we want to do is we want to catch it now and we want to implement the strategies that I teach inside my programs and that I also talk about in the podcast episode I have on this topic to really make sure that we are building out those sustainable habits that are going to help interfere with bringing additional weight gain back on progress that you made with those medications. So yes, you can absolutely keep weight off from a GLP1. However, you need the necessary playbook in place and the strategies in place to maintain it. You can't just go right back to how you were living life before. Not to say that it's anything that you have to like completely uphold your life and change everything. But you may notice that you will have to make some lifestyle changes in order to maintain those results. But those lifestyle changes don't necessarily have to be super, super drastic. And I go over all of those in that episode. So I will link that episode down in the show notes for you as well. But if you go to mindedmymacros.com podcast and then you scroll down and search for an episode, type in Ozempic and you'll be able to find it or wherever you're listening to your podcast, whether that's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, you can also go to my podcast and search for it there. I believe it's from last February or March of 2024. So yes, you can absolutely keep off. Wait after a GLP1 or if you're planning to transition off. If you're planning to transition off of a GLP1, I highly recommend that you get these steps in place first to maintain that weight loss. So to answer this question, long winded answer. Yes, you can keep it off, but you'll need the necessary steps in place to maintain that progress that you've made with the medication. Because it is very common to see weight regain as well as notice a very large loss in muscle mass, so I can help you mitigate both of those. Build some muscle mass while also maintaining the reduction in body fat as you're transitioning off of a GLP1 all right my friends, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. I hope you loved this episode as much as I love doing them. If you have any questions that you want featured in the next Q and A episode, send me a DM over on Instagram at Mind in my macros. Follow along in my stories. I am constantly doing Q and as, so drop them in there too anytime you see them. And until next week, keep minding your wellness.

Thanks so much for tuning in to today's episode. I love hearing from you, so shoot me a DM over on Instagram mindandmymacros to keep the convo going. If you've learned anything from this episode or any of my past episodes, I'd really love it if you took a few seconds to leave a quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I love hearing what you've learned or what you've taken away from any of these episodes. It means so much to me when you do that. And if you have any friends you know that need a little help kicking some old dieting mentalities to the curb and want some simple, effective and sustainable tips to feel their best, share a link to this episode with them. Thanks so much for listening and I'll catch you next time.