48: Beyond the Hype – The Truth About GLP-1s, Weight Loss & Healing with Melissa Afflerbach

Welcome to Modern Thyroid and Wellness, the podcast that explores the intricate dance between health, wellness and thyroid, unraveling the threads that weave our vitality together. I'm your host, McCall McPherson, and I'm so thrilled to guide you on this journey to optimal wellness. Welcome to a super special episode of Modern Thyroid and Wellness. Obviously, we are doing an in person episode today with none other than our program director at Modern Weight loss, Mel Alerbach. Mel, thank you so much for being here. Today we are going to have a super casual, fun chat just like you're hanging out with your besties, Talking all things GLPs, debunking myths, encouraging you understanding. Let's go deep guys. We are going deep. So Mel, thank you for being here.

Well, thank you for having me. And I'm so excited to be on this beautiful podcast and be so across the room from one of the most amazing, intelligent women I've ever known and to be able to talk about GLP is y'. All. I'm so excited. There are so many different points around this topic. I think it is extremely important that you listen into this episode because I think that GLPs can have a bad rap sometimes. We're just not educating ourselves correctly on it. So I'm excited to share all the things.

Yeah, you guys will hear a different perspective than you certainly hear in the media and hear facts and findings and just I am so proud of this program that we've built and I think it already has changed literally thousands of lives and I'm so excited for this next iteration of it because it's just one of the most sacred journeys I've been on in medicine. So let's start maybe by talking about how we developed the program.

I think that's important. I think one thing y' all that we're starting to notice, I think even on the consumer side we are seeing semi glutide tirzepatide, just GLP all over the place where you can literally get on the Internet and google things around and you'll probably have a hundred different pop ups and it is scary. It's scary to figure out what direction is best for you that you are going to get safety and support and guidance in the absolute right way that's best for your body. And that's what makes our program so different than any other med spa or primary care physician office or I don't know, even black market stuff y'. All. Like you want to make sure that you are pairing with a program that's going to be safe, make you Feel confident and that you know that you're getting exactly what you're being marketed to.

Yeah.

So just a little tidbit there before we dive in deep, because Modern weight loss program. I know I'm biased, right. But it's the best, y'. All.

Yeah.

No, part of this community, I think, is one that everybody wants to be part of.

Yeah. It's interesting. Like, there's two sides to this coin of you can go online and you can hear in the news all of these terrible things that are happening to people on these medications. But the flip side of that coin is when they are properly used, when they're responsibly used by people who know how to effectively use them and are invested in the process. With you, there's completely, completely opposite. Things happen. Like, we don't really have a lot of side effects. I'll kind of take you back to the beginning of our program and how we kind of came about this. It was really at Modern Thyroid Clinic. Right. My other practice, my life's work. The one issue that I couldn't really solve in my patients. I could give them their lives back. I could give them a high sense of vitality, energy, all, literally everything. But they would not be able to effectively lose weight with effort. Right.

And that was me, sis.

Right. Mel is like a yoga instructor, a Pilates guru. Like, she leads incredibly incredible women's yoga retreats. You've probably heard about me talk. You've heard me talk about them. You've heard me, you've seen me go on them on social media. She's incredibly healthy, incredibly active, and couldn't.

No, I, I, y', all. Let me just tell you, I'm a green juice fanatic. I am like, I eat based on my aetic dosha. I've tried every single program you can think of. I've done it because I've been leading patients and clients on nutrition journeys for almost 20 years now. And it was probably about four or five years ago. So this is when you're starting to inch into your, like, perimenopause phase, where all of a sudden, like, 20 pounds, I was working out seven days a week. I was on a caloric deficit, which I don't suggest, obviously, people to go do any of these things. I was like, okay, I'm gonna do juice cleanses. I'm gonna try to get all of this extra fluff that started to pack onto my body. And it was so frustrating. You're almost to the point where you're like, okay, I'm getting older. I've got a couple kids. At least I'm solid in my marriage. I don't feel like I need to, like, try to go out there and win somebody over, because I do not feel confident. And I'm going to be wearing a moomoo on the beach. This is where I'm at right now. So, yes, when this was my life, that I had to start learning how to accept, and I was not okay with that. And the conversation of, hey, JFP is available and this is what it can do for you. I think at that point I was like, I will do anything that you tell me to do.

Right? I mean, and that was. Her story is exactly what was happening with thousands of patients. Right. I mean, I vividly remember having a patient tell me, I exercise, like, five or six days a week. I've been on the whole 30 since 2017. It was like 2022 or 2021.

Yeah.

It's like, what, you've been on the whole 30? That's supposed to be 30 days for like, three or four years. She's like, I can't lose five pounds to save my life. And that was the story of so many people. And early, early on, when GLP started to be used for weight loss, I, like, dove in deep. I really immediately was like, I need to understand everything. And you know me well, like, what I'll do is I'll just mine everyone for data. So I started collecting massive amounts of data on our thyroid patients, doing really deep metabolic panels, put them on these meds, the standardized dose, and guess what? I mean, people were having a lot of side effects. We were sending in multiple Zofran prescriptions every day. Right. Like, people were not feeling well. So very early on, we started pulling back the dosing more and more and then tailoring the dosing to each individual person. So what does that mean? It means what we figured out was like, hey, maybe we shouldn't be applying diabetic dosing to people who are non diabetics and then increasing everyone, even when they don't need to be increased.

Because what happens when you put someone on diabetic dosing? Which, by the way, is pretty standard across the board with so many different other clinics who are not doing this model that we're doing with modern weight loss. But that's when you're getting, like, the ozympic face. You're losing hair, you're losing. You're completely nauseous. So you're not eating enough food, so you're constipated. So all of those like scary things that we were seeing all over media on the negative effects. Those were based on more of a diabetic dosing.

Totally so. And. Exactly. And what I don't think people understand is the side of the scary things that you hear about online with these meds are due to people not eating food. Like, they are on too much medication. So they're eating 400 calories a day. They're rapidly losing weight. Guess what rapid weight loss does. It increases your chance of collagen loss, muscle loss. It increases your chance of gallbladder issues and pancreatitis. It increases your chance of osteoporosis, osteopenia, of hair loss. All of these things that. That people hear about online to create fear about these meds boil down to two things. Number one, too much medication. And number two, clinicians who are not tailoring the dosing regimens to patients uniquely. They are just. If I had a dollar for every person who just gets sent these meds and then they manage it on their own, like, it's terrifying. That is becoming. Accept it as normal. And so the flip side of that is I haven't sent in a Zofran prescription in probably 18 months. Like, we've tailored and refined our dosing so well that people do not get nauseous if they're not eating food. They're on too much, and we pull their dose back. Right?

Yeah. Well. And when I started the program as a patient and being able to actually get my hands on GLP1, I was like, oh, I feel so safe. And this is a trusted company. McCall is amazing. I feel. I know that I'm not going to put myself in a situation where I'm going to be sick or scared. Right? Because, like, it's such a scary thing to inject something into your body. Let me just tell you, though. Signs off.

I remember. I know exactly what.

I don't inject myself with anything. I don't even know how to use insulin needles. So when this whole thing started, we were on like, the guinea pig phase. I remember calling McCall. I think on FaceTime. It was like 8:30 at night. You were already in bed with your husband and like, hey, I'm about to pass out here.

How do I do this?

I'm like, pulling the syringe. I didn't know you had to push air. I was like, what are the swabs for? And then I'm like, you just stick it in. You just. You just pop that needle in to what part of my body?

Five minutes to, like, get the nerve.

We shot myself up. Which, by the way, was not bad, y'. All. It's like you can't even feel it. You can do it on your stomach. I thought I was going to have to do it on my tush. That's what that was, where my anxiety was coming from. But then once I put it, and I was like, okay, this is not. This is not so bad. I don't need, like, my husband to come and shoot my tush up with semi glutide. So anyways, it's not scary. It's okay. We're here to guide you and hold your hand every step of the way. Even when it comes down to injection instructions. Which, on that note, when you're going through these programs with everybody else, nobody knows what they're doing. There's no video that comes in the box, right. With your GLP product, whether it's preloaded or compounded.

I actually had to redo our video of how to do this because Mel's like, you went through that way too fast. Like, you just think people know what they're doing. I had no idea. They don't know what we're doing. So you need to redo that video and go slower. So I did. No clue.

Well, when I was running a GLP program for another practitioner, we would have patients, like, actually come into the office. Cause they were so scared to inject themselves.

Right.

I'm like, you can do it, sis. I believe in you.

Right? And then it's just access is so limited.

So, so limited.

Right.

But y'. All. So I started this glp. We go from this, like, heavy dosing, which was no bueno, and then we go down to more of a microdosing. I can't tell you the benefits. Like, let me list off a couple of things personally that impacted my life. So, one, I was having chronic UTIs.

Yeah.

And it took me 18 months to try to figure out, like, why in the world are these things not gone away? Started microdosing.

Glp.

No more uti. That was wild for me, right to the inflammation that I didn't even realize I had until I started a glp, an inflammation that was impacting my joints, my wrist, my shoulder, my knees. It was wild. Like, I woke up one morning, I'm like, my wrists do not hurt today. So that was the other thing. And then the last thing, when it comes to the fact that side effects. For me, I had so much food noise in my head since I. Since I can remember. I think when I was 12 or 13. Years old. That is when food noise was very predominantly in my memories, y', all, that went away. That was a huge pivot for me. I had managed disordered eating for a very long time and managing it in a way where I'm like, okay, I'm have a healthy relationship with my food. But how many of you ladies out there. And I have yet to meet one person who doesn't have some sort of weird relationship with food where you are constantly thinking, okay, I'm gonna wake up in the morning. I'm gonna have my cup of coffee. I'm gonna have this breakfast. I need to create space because I know I'm going out to dinner tonight, and I'm gonna have bread, so I'm gonna have heavy protein. You are constantly negotiating in your head and in your thoughts your food cycle for the whole day, y', all, that goes away. It is the most liberating piece of this entire thing that, for me, at least personally, Brian, like, okay, I'm just not thinking about it. And it's like, you do you just have a better and healthier relationship with your food when you're on a glp. Now, managing your food is a whole other story. However, those very specific pieces, at least for me, on the first six months of being on a glp, impacted.

Yeah. One of the most surprising things that I found walking patients through, like, this journey was literally watching them heal from disordered eating. And so what ends up happening with women with metabolic issues, right. And thyroid people, Hormonally disadvantaged people. Metabolically disadvantaged. Those were my people. So those are the people that I serve. So, you know, in the end, by the time they get to the place that they're considering a glp, they've done all the things. And my patients are really generally, like, just invested in their health. They are not afraid to put in the work. And so these are women who had been exercising, eating well, and the world begins to get smaller and smaller when you're putting in effort to achieve an outcome, whether it's maintaining your weight, losing weight, and you can't. So you start restricting more and more, and you get these negative patterns associated with eating almost where you eat, and you beat yourself up, and there's this guilt, shame cycle. And what I watched unravel, like, in real time with these GLPs, is there was a rewiring of these women's brains that was fascinating. They would. Instead of trying to eat really well and making a mistake or two a week and then gaining weight, they would eat well, but also incorporate things that they wanted to eat and they wouldn't gain weight and then they wouldn't feel guilt and shame. In fact, they would lose a little weight over time. And then you rinse and repeat that cycle enough times, that different neural pathway gets stronger in your brain where you no longer feel guilt and shame for eating food in a normal, reasonable way. And that is so incredibly healing for these women because they have literally tried everything short of starving themselves. And, I mean, I'm not kidding. There are patients that I have that could not eat food and not lose weight. So, yeah, it's so fascinating. And I personally believe that these drugs will have a future role in disordered eating, even potentially with eating disorders. I have treated a very limited number of patients myself with a history of eating disorders, with a team of supportive people with them. And every single one, it's been life changing for them and shifted their eating disorder patterns, and it was incredibly powerful. So I'm glad you brought that up.

Yeah. Well, disordered eating, it's. It's a neurological disorder. Right. So it's. You're constantly having to negotiate and fight yourself on a daily basis when it comes to food. And when you're on your healing journey with disordered eating, when you finally get to the point where you feel confident enough to be with food, there, it's a journey you'll be on for the rest of your life. So the fact that we're able to talk about how GLPs quiet the food noise, which I hear so many women especially, who have been on the GLP journey, that that was the. One of the first takeaways was the food noise has quieted down.

Yeah. So I love that we've kind of touched on this a little bit. But, like, I get this question a lot on social media of, well, how do I know if I should consider a glp?

Yeah.

Right. Like how. What are some indications that, oh, maybe this is something I should consider? Do I need to be obese? I'd love to pick your brain on that.

Yeah. I honestly, I'm on the same page with you when it comes to who's the right candidate to be considering a glp. Because in our minds, I think when we hear diabetic medication, we're like, oh, you have to be overweight, you have to be obese or have diabetes. Absolutely. That's not the case, y'. All. We are. When we are taking the approach of microdosing, especially with the glp, we're seeing impacts and changes in the body on an inflammatory level. Right. So these Are people who are. I think honestly it could be for absolutely anyone, men and women. I know we've been talking a lot about women, but like, goodness, even like spouses and our male patients who are struggling with like cardiovascular disease or high cholesterol. I think honestly, on a microdose level, anyone could be a candidate for this. If you are someone who has tried absolute everything, which really breaks my heart. I know we're ti. We're talking like scientifically here, but like breaks my heart with people who come through our doors crying that they have done everything they possibly can and they have done every single type of workout, every single type of eating regimen, that they have pre genetic disposition on these different diseases and there's no hope.

Right.

And when we don't feel hopeful, it's not motivating to keep going. So I honestly think if you're someone who has tried everything, it doesn't work. That you are constantly inflamed. Like you're, you've got your puffy, you have chronic pain. If you're someone who maybe does have things like pcos and hormone issues or thyroid issues and you're doing all of the baseline medications and HRT and it's not enough. Or if you're someone who maybe even has like major anxiety, like I think like on a neurological level, people who are super, super anxious just get really caught up on rituals of doing all of these different things and it's not working. So I don't think it needs to be categorized as like, okay, you have to fit this box. Here's the answer. I think it really needs to be like, this needs to be open to everyone.

And I think the reason, like to put a pin in that, the reason we say that and that we believe that is that yes, these drugs are FDA approved to treat diabetes, they're FDA approved to treat obesity. And the weight loss is amazing. Like, it is amazing. The weight loss pretty much ubiquitously for people that move through our program becomes an added of all the other benefits that they get from this. And we can dig into this in a little bit deeper later. But what Mel's alluding to is that these drugs have an impact in so many aspects of our physiology from a longevity standpoint, from a long term health outcome standpoint that are independent of weight loss. When I say these things online, like your chance of dying of a heart attack or a stroke is reduced by 50% if you're on a GLP, and that's 40 to 50% depends on the study. I think I've even found one that it goes up to 60. And that's amazing. Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in our country. People say, oh, well, that's because they lose weight. And it's not like those mechanisms are in place and measurable objectively in blood before people lose any substantial amount of weight. Studies go as early as six weeks. I've measured people after one microdose injection. So the through line here is there are so many benefits to these medications. People are so concerned about side effects. And like, side effects. The side effects are less heart disease risk, less autoimmune disease risk, less fatty liver, like all of these, less cancer risk, like all of these things are the real side effects when it's properly used. I wanted to also just speak really quickly to. And I can totally answer this, but who are not right for these medications because I hear a lot of nonsense online of, well, I have Hashimoto's, so.

I can't take them.

Or, oh, I had papillary thyroid cancer 20 years ago and I had my thyroid removes. I can't take them. Right. There are very few people that cannot take these medications. Number one is a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or multiple endocrine. Neoplasia. That is a rare form of thyroid cancer. Medullary thyroid carcinoma is one of the most rare forms of thyroid cancer. And that is the only kind. Like, that is the only kind with a history of any other thyroid cancer. Of course, you talk to your provider, your clinician, and you do risk benefit analysis of Is it worth it? Hashimoto's is not a contraindication. Hypothyroidism is not a contraindication. In fact, these meds reduce Hashimoto's antibodies. I have seen it for three and a half years. It is unignorable. Like, it's. I can't. I didn't even expect it, but it was very clear in the data. Someone who had a recent history of pancreatitis, personally, even an extended history of pancreatitis, even if you had it a couple of years ago, that would make me second guess if I would want to do that. Someone who is pregnant, someone who is breastfeeding or actively trying to get pregnant. Those are really. Those are the contraindications, y'.

All.

So.

Yeah, right. Well, I'm just like. And taking all of this information that we're sharing with y' all now, moving into this direction of like, our program that we've created specifically for all of these categories of people. And so I'm going to tell y' all right now, I have done so many different types of outreach to different patients and friends and even family members who have tried other GLP programs, and they always end up. And I'm sure you get a ton of friends and family that are like, I'm taking this dose and I'm feeling this way and I'm losing all my hair and all the things, and I'm scared to take this. And, like, I didn't get any nutrition advice. I don't know, like, what, is there a dosing schedule I should be following? Is the same dosing schedule good for Joey, who's 250 pounds, and Cindy, who's 160 pounds? Like, that is what makes our program, y', all, so incredibly special and. And efficient and how we work with each patient and that we literally tailor and curate to every single person. And so, like, maybe let's even discuss, like, the steps to modern Weight loss and how you can become a patient with modern weight loss and what you get from modern weight loss, because I'm going to tell you right now the curated personal connection and community that we have built with Modern Weight loss to help you every step of the way. You are not going to get that treatment with any other company, peptide company or program, at least that I have found.

Right. No, I mean, I think that's the whole thing that makes us unique. Right. Is number one. Well, we've arrived at our program in the same way that Modern Thyroid Clinic arrived at our treatment algorithms, which, in my opinion, call me biased, but it's the best in the world. It's by starting one way and analyzing data constantly to make it better. And so I really, truly believe that our program is the best because we have taken the data of thousands of people for years on microdosing. We have. And we can talk about what microdosing is. I think we should. But we have been microdosing since before that was a word that was applied to the use of GLPs. So we have been doing this before you ever heard another human talking about it. And when I was doing it, I heard one person talking about it and one person only over the months subsequently. So now, thankfully, honestly, it's become a more common conversation. And what we mean by microdosing is a smaller dose of the medication, for example, it could be a quarter of the lowest dose. It could be a tenth of the lowest dose.

It.

That's the thing. People are like, well, what is technically a microdose it's just a smaller amount of the medication, and it is only the amount that you need for it to be effective. And that's all you need. You don't need extra. And the less you use, the more longevity you'll have. In programs like this, the way less side effects, better outcomes, lower downsides. Anything else you'd add about microdosing?

Well, I think, like, when we talk about microdosing, too, I think people are very confused on, okay, like, viral concentrations for different compounding. That is a huge piece, I think, to how we specifically microdose at modern weight loss. But I know we've had some patients ask, oh, my friend is taking X amount of units, and they're doing it once a week, or they're doing it twice a week, or they're doing once every two weeks. And their vital concentration for their compounding is way higher. Concentrate, like, there. I've seen some concentrations of like, 50.

Yeah.

With files. I'm like, are you doing, like, right? Are you taking 1.5 units?

Because only.

So I think microdosing can come in.

Different forms, and it's not about units because it's very difficult to calculate, like, milligrams. When you're dealing with milligrams per X amount of mls in a vial, you don't even want to go there. But what Mel's trying to say, which is really important, is you're not comparing apples to apples when you're talking to a friend who got her medications somewhere different and she's taking a different amount of units than you. Those are two very, very different things. So keep that in mind for sure.

But microdosing, and I know you've talked about it in previous podcasts, is that y', all, even one microdose, you have seen an impact on lab results. I had a friend of mine, and I'm going on a side note here, a story who definitely was on the verge of being an alcoholic and had tried everything to try to get off alcohol, literally did one microdose of Synthide, and she literally did not want to even pick up even, like, a half of a beer for that whole week. And like, her before and after picture after four weeks was insane, y'. All. She didn't lose a ton of weight. She lost a couple pounds of water weight. Inflammation. It looks like a completely different person from just one single microdose.

And that's the thing. I get the question a lot. Well, can we get the benefits of these medications for longevity, for inflammation, for whatever, if we're on A microdose. And the answer is yes. So I'll share another patient story with you. So we measure a lot of data in our programs. One of the data points that we really like to measure is called HS crp. Well, your HSCRP is an inflammatory marker. It can be used as a gauge for general inflammation, but it can also be used to risk stratify the likelihood that you will have a heart attack or a stroke later on. And this person had her baseline labs drawn. It's so important to get labs before, during, after any program you're in.

If a program is not taking labs, I think you should run.

Totally.

I don't think you should do that.

Program and not labs to cover their ass like a CBC and a cmp. No labs to track your data.

You want to see results and effects. Like you want to see that there has actually been changes even though your body is not dropping £30 in a month.

Yeah.

But you're seeing an impact on your lab results and you're like, oh my gosh, this is working. Like this is actually doing what everybody's saying it's doing.

So I had a patient whose CRP was like 11, which any you want it less than 3 in a perfect world, like less than 1. Okay. Anything above 3 and clearly you're at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, you're inflamed, et cetera. So she took one microdose injection and then we rechecked her CRP five days later, seven days later, just after one and it was down to like 3.6, 3.8.

That's incredible.

It's crazy there. And people say, oh well, change your diet. Right. This is what really, really makes me frustrated with these people and my comments that make that shame.

And like we need to talk about the shaming we do.

We'll talk about that.

Seriously.

Like they'll be the instant they'll say, well you just need to change your diet and that will reduce your inflammation. And here's the deal, right? Like the inflammation that we have as humans is not just due to food. It's not even just due to our environment, our biology, our genetics, the, our physiology creates inflammation as a byproduct of living. Like, and genetically, some people aren't prone to very much inflammation. For example, my husband, right. Then other people like myself are extremely hardwired for inflammation. And there is no lifestyle, no diet, no exercise, nothing that you can do full stop. That can elicit the anti inflammatory effects of a GLP1 period. I found four pathways that they Disrupt inflammation in. In the literature. I have been preaching this since before this was ever a topic in research because I saw it in black and white in people's labs. It's undeniable. So, anyway, let's talk a little bit. Anything you want to add about the inflammatory piece? I have to tell one other story.

Too, but I was going to just piggyback on that when. When you're in an environment that is stressful. For instance, like if you have. Like, let's. I've. We've had patients who are ER nurses that work 12 hour shifts that are not sleeping and they work out. They do all the things. They're still so incredibly inflamed. Like, there's not enough green juice in the world to bring the inflammation down as quickly as a GLP and a microdose, not even water fasting layer and.

Will be shutting down.

I just feel like, God, y', all, if we can disrupt, like, the holistic wellness community, because I think that's the confusing piece of this. Yeah, we've got the medical industry who is amping out medical studies. We're seeing, like, ovarian cancer being studied, dementia, cardiovascular disease. Like, we know that this medication can impact the body in a positive way. Right. And then we have the other side of this, right. Where it's the holistic medicine who are poo pooing on GLPs. And I. It breaks my heart a little bit because I, like, it's making the client and the consumer so confused. Right. Because the holistic community, I mean, I had a podcast called Green Juice and Tequila and I wanted to put that out there because I wanted people to give people permission that you don't have to be this perfect green juice girl are dude all the time. That you can be a little bit of both. But in the holistic community, we cannot demonize this. Y' all like it. It. We're seeing the impacts more than we're seeing the side effects and the risk. Like, I love that on one of your podcasts you had said, like, Tylenol.

Has more way, way more. Like you want to be afraid of something, choose Tylenol over a GLP every single time.

And that's something that we've used for.

Yeah.

Tens of thousands or hundreds of years. Like, we're. We give it to our kids. So, yes, inflammatory markers go down. I think that is a huge selling piece. Like, regardless if you're trying to lose weight or not, you're just trying to, like, feel better in your body and not be so puffy. And inflamed.

I have to tell you guys one more story, too, about another one of my. One of my favorite patients. She was so doing so well. She was, like, thriving from a thyroid perspective, a hormone perspective, just doing incredible. And took a trip to Mexico and got a. An infection. Like some kind of a bug, a parasite. We're not sure. It was initially, like, acutely, like a GI issue. This woman who invests so much in her health overnight had such high inflow. I think her CRP at one point was over 35. Yeah. She went to Stanford. She went to every major medical institution to get help. It took her an hour and a half to get out of bed every morning because her joint pain was so severe. And this is a woman who's active, healthy. Overnight this happened. So she's doing all these things. At the end of the day, medicine's only answer was methotrexate, like an immunosuppressant. And I'm like, listen, what if we just. What if we just try a microdose? She didn't need to lose weight. Like, let's just try it and let's see what happens 24 hours later.

Stop it.

I believe she emailed me and said, you will not believe this, but 95% of my joint pain is gone.

I believe it.

Yeah.

It's so true. Y' all.

Just turns that volume down on inflammation. Let's go back to the conversation and. And it is changing. It is evolving. I am so ashamed of so many people in my field of holistic and functional medicine that I had to sit back and watch poo poo these medications, because they make you lose muscle mass. These meds actually have a muscle protectant in them. Like, they inherently are muscle preserving, but you will never preserve muscle mass if you don't eat food.

Has any of these people who are talking negatively about this, they've never even been on glp.

Right. Nor have they put people on it.

Like, I'm a big thing where I'm like, I'm going to try everything first before I have an opinion on it. And if it's negative, I'm going to be honest with you.

Yeah.

But I microdose on a glp and I have seen more muscle definition than I have in my entire life. And I was, like, doing CrossFit and eating protein off the wazoo on a GLP.

Yeah. And I mean, and here's the other thing is, like, the whole time that I'm seeing my friends and colleagues do this, I'm saying, put a time clock on this because this will not continue to happen. They will change. They will change their mind. And a lot of them have, like many of them have, because the research that has come out about the benefits of these medications, independence of weight loss is undeniable. It cannot be denied. You cannot turn that volume down. Somehow the media has. Like, people are still grossly unaware of all of this, but people in medicine cannot. So I think, are they scared?

Like, why do we think this is happening? Do we think that they're.

Like, they assume that calories and equals calories out and that people should be able to influence their inflammation and their weight without medication. And that is not true. Like, if there's one thing we take away today, it's that calories in does not equal calories out. We are not all metabolically equal.

Yeah, it's. Well, like, here's another example. I have a family member, and I'm a friend of mine who is obese, overweight, and this girl eats like a bird. Like, barely. I mean, in heavier set, girl plus size, eats like a bird. Definitely has PCOS and some other underlining issues, but bless her heart, like, she. This girl was eating so healthy, she was taking metformin, all of these other medications, all the supplements you can think of. What are the supplements that they're telling you? Berberine inositol powder. I'm sorry, those things are not going to move the ticker, right?

Please don't think that berberine is going to have the same effects as a glp.

Well, or. I see, like, some. And I'm not trying to badmouth some of these supplement companies, but the Akkermansia and the glp, I'm like, I tried it, by the way. I did try that. I'm sure it did not do anything for me, but so this, this friend of mine did all of those things and it did not work for her. And so it's. It makes me sad when people like that who are like, I'm. They're like sitting there watching every single podcast and video and social media post from these individuals in the holistic community that we look up to, and they're making them. They're like, okay, this girl's like, I'm ready to do the glp. I've done all the things like, I want my health to be better. I need to feel better, because if I don't, my mental health is going to decline. And so then you're having to fight all of these narratives from people that you look up to that are not speaking Truth about something that could potentially change someone's life. So that's, like, what's irritating to me is your. Your voice in the industry is so powerful, and you've got these people who are scraping for answers and need something, and you're making them feel guilty and shameful, right? That they're deciding, like, I'm going to do this glp. And guess what happens? They feel better. They lose the weight. Their inflammatory markers go down. They actually are more confident in their relationship with food. And guess what? They're keeping it a secret. They can't tell anybody because they are so scared to be judged and to be in that they're ashamed because they feel like they're cheating and copying out. That is the narrative we need to change, and that's the narrative we're going to change in modern weight loss. In our whole program, we are about inspiring people. We're about putting you on the right dosage so you feel better. We have the labs that are reflecting those dosages. We are putting together nutrition protocols and programs so you are getting optimal amount of micronutrients and protein. And guess what? You don't have to do it by yourself, because we have a community that we've built. So you're doing it alongside all of these other people. And so if we come up on our. We have weekly zoom calls that we put together, and there's people that come on there and they're like, I've been on this. I'm losing weight. I'm feeling good. But I'm also scared to, like, share this with my. With my sister or with my mom. And so that's the narrative. I really feel like the holistic community, if you're listening, y', all, we've got to stop demonizing these things.

And we need to start believing women, right? Like, when they show up to your office and they say they're doing all the things, don't treat them like they're not like. Nor should we treat women like they need to control every aspect of their entire life, every food, every day of movement like that they should be expected to live in a lifestyle bubble of perfection, to simply maintain their weight, that if that's what it takes, then something is wrong. Right? And the biggest thing, too, that I think people need to recognize is not only are these medications allowing people to lose weight, they're improving all of these longevity markers. They are reversing metabolic dysfunction. These people can often, many people don't want to, or several. Like, some people don't want to because they feel so good, and their health benefits are undeniable. But very often people come off of these medications, and not only are they able to maintain their weight, if they want to continue to lose weight, they can actually lose weight with effort. Why? Because they're no longer metabolically disadvantaged. They're no longer insulin resistant, they're no longer leptin resistant. We are reversing those mechanisms that created this problem in the first place. And so they're set up for success, for the future. Right. Which is incredibly powerful. So the answer, too, to the question is, do I have to be on these meds forever? If I started, I'm just scared. I don't want to do it. The answer is, you don't. In fact, most people, and we don't share publicly the labs that we look for to show that people are ready to come off of medication, because it's the one thing that I don't share publicly, that we don't share publicly. But it's very possible that when you get to these certain markers in your blood that are objective and measurable, there's a good indication that, hey, you can successfully come off of this and very likely maintain your weight with normal amounts of effort.

And that's another point into our program. Like, we literally are teaching and educating every single person that comes through the program how you can start to heal on a metabolic level using our glp, but also change, like. And I know lifestyle is a big deal. Yeah. Right. So those are. Those are fundamental things when you're trying to balance and ground your body a little bit. So.

And if you don't have the tools, if you don't. If you're not empowered and educated on your journey, the chances are when you come off of these beds, you will regain your weight. Right. If you're not partnered with someone who's looking for the data, who's helping you get. Get there, who's helping you set up your life now so that when you come off you can successfully maintain your weight, then you might end up like the people in the data that show that. Oh, if people come off of these beds, they lose weight, and there is data that shows that. But my goodness, let me tell you, we have the data that shows that that is not the case when it's done correctly. And again, there's a difference in programs here. There's a difference in approaches, and you want to align yourself with the right one. I love that.

It's so true.

Yeah. I think. Think about one piece of advice that you would give women who are Considering a glp, One piece of advice, one piece of wisdom. If you could communicate one thing to them.

Yeah.

What would it be?

I would say, sis, you need to do what's best for you and get all of the other chatter out of your mind. Don't be influenced by whatever doctor is speaking on the antis of glp. But I think the biggest advice, every single one, aside from using glp, this is just advice in general. Like, we only have this one life. So if we are going to sit here and put all of these roadblocks to why we can't do certain things to make us feel better and feel more confident in ourselves, no, we're gonna. We're not gonna live this long lasting happy life. We're gonna be stressed and disappointed and feel guilty. So the best thing I can say is you need to do what's best for you. If you want to get on a glp, you do it. If you want to go get a little botox on your forehead, then you do it. If you want to drink green juice every morning because it makes you feel good, then you do it. I just think we need to alleviate the women from making decisions that are influenced by other people based on guilt and shame. Yeah, that's not okay. You do you, sis.

Yeah.

And we are always open door here and welcoming and encouraging and inspiring people. That's my biggest takeaway with anything that we do with modern weight loss.

Yeah. Yeah. And I would say my one piece of advice is like, gosh, it's so hard to boil it down to one, but it's like, you know yourself, right? If you are putting in the work and you're not seeing the outcome that you should. And the answer is not to beat yourself up. The answer is not to always just keep putting in more work, more work, more work. Because again, that's what leads to disordered eating. That's what leads to even more metabolic dysfunction. Right? Like, you can't thrive and be healthy when you're constantly further restricting yourself and beating yourself up every time you eat food. So tune into yourself. You know your own truth. And of course, never act and make decisions based on guilt and shame. Make them in empowerment, in education, and then you can feel confident in that decision. And of course we are. Again, we're always here at modern weight loss. Modernweightloss.com we are so thrilled to have Mel here to support you all. She's the freaking best, so.

Oh, I'm so excited.

You'll see more and more of her around for sure.

Yes, I'M excited for this.

Yeah. Be well, guys. See you next time.