#77- FAQs: Protein, macros, 'forbidden' foods & maintaining weight loss

I recently asked my followers what questions they want answered, and in this episode, I answer some questions I received about protein, macros, 'forbidden' foods, and weight loss. 

In this episode, I answer the following questions:

⭐ How can I get enough protein without gaining weight?

⭐ What should my macros be?

⭐ Are there any foods that are off-limits during this perimenopause?

⭐ How can I keep the weight off once I've lost it?


Enjoy the show!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Overview
• 1:33 Question 1: Getting Enough Protein Without Gaining Weight
• 8:52 Question 2: Understanding Macros for Midlife Women
• 11:05 Question 3: Foods to Avoid During Hormonal Changes
• 14:33 Question 4: Keeping the Weight Off After Losing It
• 22:09 Conclusion and Additional Resources

Transcript

POD77: Q and A about Nutrition

Welcome to 40+ fitness for women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto , your host. And today we are going to be answering some questions, some frequently asked questions regarding diet and nutrition. So a few days ago, and by the time you hear this, it'll be a couple of weeks ago, I put up a reel that said, Hey, if you could sit down one to one with a menopause fitness coach, what is the first question you would ask?

And I got a lot of questions around, you know, weight and how to eat and these kinds of things. So I thought that these would be good for all of you. to here. And maybe some of you have these same questions. So there are five questions. I'm going to try to go through them kind of succinctly so that this doesn't take all afternoon.

Okay. Question one, how do you get enough protein without gaining weight? And I think this is one that I have heard so many times, you know, women. Try to increase their protein and then they notice that, Hey, wait a second, my calories have gone up. Well, right. You know, if you simply increase something to what you're already eating today, then of course your calories are going to go up.

It's like if you have always been eating a certain way, then you add a candy bar every day, you know, that is extra calories and it'll throw you into a calorie surplus. So yes. It does require kind of a revamp of how you're eating. And so first of all, I would say, try to choose protein sources that are low fat and low calorie.

All right. So instead of having. full fat cottage cheese, choose the low fat or the nonfat. Same thing with Greek yogurt, choose chicken, which is low fat ground beef. That's low fat. And the protein powders. Now here is a key one, the protein powders. There are huge differences in the calories per gram of protein and protein powders.

So for those, you really want to pay attention to the label. And here's what you want to do when you're looking at the label. So usually, well, I live in Europe, so they have it based on a hundred grams of the protein powder. But whatever the serving size is, It goes like this, if you were eating pure protein with nothing else, it would be four calories per gram of protein.

All right, so that's kind of the gold standard of like a protein powder. I don't know if there's any protein powder who gets down that low, but that would be if it was 100 percent protein that you're eating. So what you want to do is for the serving size, you look at how many calories that serving size, whatever that line is on the nutrition guide.

You know, if it's the serving size, if it's for a hundred grams, whatever, like look down that same, uh, column. So you look at the number of calories. Let's say in a serving size, there's hundred calories, just to make the math easy, and then you look at how many grams of protein you are getting in that serving size.

Let's say you're getting 10. Well, What you know, in that case, you divide the calories, a hundred by the grams of protein, 10, and you discover that actually you are paying 10 calories for each gram of protein. Now that's fairly high. I would not choose a protein powder that has 10 calories per gram of protein. That's just too much. 

The ones that I've been able to find here, the best ones, are about five calories per gram of protein. So that's pretty good. And I also have noticed that the, the non flavored, they might have a little bit lower calorie count than the flavored ones, but kind of depends on the brand.

 So that's one place where you may inadvertently be taking on a whole ton more calories than you bargained for. And another thing that you should definitely look out for is everything that's labeled like high protein.

It's not necessarily, I mean, high protein compared to what, right? So there again, if you're looking at a protein bar, if you're looking at anything, I look at the high protein, uh, dairy, like their yogurt y things and, and quark and these kinds of things. I always look at how many calories that serving size has in it and how many grams of protein that serving Is gonna give me and then I do the math.

So I divide the calories by the grams of protein and I want to get as close to four as possible and if it's 10, yeah, and then I really questioned that. Yeah. Are there any better options out there? Just to be aware. Okay. So that was a lot on the protein powder and the protein products, but I think that is one place I've had clients who start looking at the label and they realize they're, you Quote unquote protein powder.

And that's not really just a protein powder. I mean, I would maybe feed something like that to my son who is like a stick still growing, like he's just gone going through his growth spurt. So we need to like get calories on him, but none in midlife woman. Nope. Okay. Like different use cases for that kind of protein powder.

. But in general, like when you're thinking about your food choices also, you may need to revamp your recipes a little bit. And I guess one trick or tip, I guess it's more of a tip than a trick for making sure that you're not going overboard with the calories and you're still getting in your protein, is that you really find some recipes that you can do on repeat. So for me, that is my spaghetti and meat sauce. I know that that does not have very much fat in it.

It has a lot of protein in it then I might add, cottage cheese with it. You know, I have certain meals that I just know are good bang for the buck, and I make those over and over again, and yes, it is effort on the front end, you know, to find those recipes. Of course, if you google online, you can find a whole bunch of them, but find something that you like and then do those over and over again.

Because yes, you do need to be paying attention to your overall calorie consumption, as well as the amount of protein you're eating. And just a reminder, the recommendation for building and maintaining muscle is the one gram per pound of ideal body weight. So if you're very much overweight, then think about what is like a reasonable body weight that you could try to get down to.

And that calculated according to that. And the minimum per day, I would say is a hundred grams of protein. So if you're eating barely any protein right now, jumping to whatever that target number is. So for me, it's 140,, your stomach may kind of rebel and, and it may feel really, really tough.

So do it in steps, get used to eating more protein, adding it in to your life.

Okay, question number two, which is really very related to this is what should my macros be? Now, a lot of people online talk about, Oh, you know, you should know your exact macros, how much carbs, how much protein, how much, , fat you're consuming. But honestly, the thing that you really need to be looking at as a midlife woman is what your total calorie consumption.

So if you want to maintain your weight at what it is, then how many calories do you need to be consuming in a day to maintain that weight? And then hitting your protein goals. So if you can get those two things. to work, then you're golden, okay. And when you've gotten those two things to work for a long time, right? That feels comfortable.

You're used to that. It is a habit for you. Then start like tweaking, adding some more requirements, like for example, increasing your fiber. That would be the next one that I would tackle. But whether you want to have fat or carbs, To fill the calories that, you know, you'll hit a certain number of calories from the protein and whether the rest of it is carbs or fat, it kind of doesn't matter what I have noticed is that if I've gone and done, uh, an aerobic workout, then I will crave more carbs.

Then if I've just done weight training and of course I crave more fat and carbs in general, if I haven't slept enough. So, but that's another topic, but so don't get too hung up on the macros. Think about the protein and your full calorie amount. If you want to know more about how to get in enough protein each day, check out episode number 32 of this podcast. 

And I also have episode number 10, which talks about protein and what it does to help you build muscle and how to make sure you're getting enough. So those two episodes are real good. If you want to know more about protein.

The next question is, are there any foods that are off limits during this hormonal time? And the answer is no, there are no foods that you can't eat. Now that said, that doesn't mean go to town and eat everything that you want to eat. You know, I am no longer my 16 year old son who is just going through a growth spurt and can literally sit there and put away the Ben and Jerry's eat, uh, like a kilo of chocolate every day and still look like he hasn't been fed, right? That's not our situation. So you need to make choices 

Obviously, if you're going to choose something which is more calorie dense, like an ice cream or a slice of pizza, then you need to also balance that out with some things that are less calorie dense or so eat less of that ice cream than you would of, let's say, fat free yogurt. Okay. So, you just need to be smart about it, but you can eat. Any thing you want. 

Now, whether you will feel better by, you know, reducing sugar or all those things, that is something you need to test out for yourself. And the thing that I would recommend, and this is related to the earlier question and answers is protein, right? 

Focus on the protein. And what I have found and what a lot of my clients have found is that once you start thinking protein first, you feel more satiated. So you don't get as many cravings for like, Oh, I don't really know what I want, but I want something and then you try eating this and you realize that wasn't it.

And then you try something else. Like you, you get so much less of that. And the other thing that will help with cravings is getting enough sleep because honestly, when you are not getting enough sleep, then your hunger and satiety hormones, which tell you that, Hey, I'm full or ham hungry. Those just go haywire.

And that's why you will notice on days when you've slept badly that you kind of crave more food. Uh, you know, it's easier to kind of fall off the bandwagon with your food. So, try to get enough sleep and eat enough protein and but essentially you can eat. Anything.

One more note is just that alcohol. So if you are having a lot of these perimenopause symptoms, um, like hot flushes and, and these kind of vasomotor symptoms, they can be exacerbated by alcohol, uh, like just flushing all kinds of things, and I know a lot of women notice that when they hit a certain age, it's like alcohol just doesn't treat them quite the same way. You don't feel as good when you're drinking, you don't want to drink as much and, and you certainly don't feel so good the next day. So alcohol is something that you may want to limit a bit more as you go through menopause and get older..

And finally, the million dollar question, which is how to keep the weight off once you've lost it. Now I was thinking, should I do a whole separate podcast episode on this one? Because it is such a multifaceted topic and maybe at some point I will, but I will point out a few things. 

First of all, one of the reasons why I don't offer like a weight loss program where I would give you, you know, this is what you need to eat over the next whatever, 12 weeks is that what ends up happening is that , you can stand on your head for 12 weeks, right? As long as you see there's a light at the end of the tunnel and soon I'll be able to get back to normal life, right?

So you may lose the weight and then you stop your diet and then you go back to normal life and then you start regaining the weight very quickly or maybe more slowly, but eventually you'll regain it because you haven't made changes really to your habits. 

So earlier I talked about how you want to choose a few meals or a collection of meals that you can eat on repeat. You know, maybe you have three breakfasts that you know have the right calorie protein, you know, combination and some lunches and some snacks and these kinds of things.

So you really want to build habits. And keep those. So if I'm coaching somebody and they want to do a fat loss phase, then instead of me giving them a whole bunch of recipes, I really want to look at what are they eating now? And what kinds of habit shifts can we make? Can we make some tweaks? Because, you know, all of us like different kinds of foods, like food texture and all that thing.

So the things that I eat that work for me, if I give them to you, you might be like, Oh my God, if I had to eat these for the rest of my life, I would be like. Yeah, I wouldn't want, that would, that would be the end, right? So, so it needs to be something that you can adhere to. And so it is far more useful to find things that you like.

Maybe you like Tex Mex, maybe, , whatever the thing is that, that you like and, and find something individual. But the point is to build habits that aren't just for 12 weeks, right? That they're for the rest of your life. And yes, in the diet, you are in a calorie deficit, so you're eating less than what you need.

But actually, once you've established those meals that work in the calorie deficit, when you shift into maintenance mode, it just means that you might make some tweaks to those to bring the calorie level to the maintenance level. Maybe it is that you allow yourself an ice cream once a week, or maybe it is that you eat a slightly bigger portion size, or you have some fruit for dessert every day, or whatever, but essentially, when you're doing the calorie deficit, that you learn ways of eating that you can continue with after you're out of the calorie deficit. I hope that makes sense.

And then the other piece of this is actually very much like in your mind. So studies have shown that of people who go on a diet, lose weight and are able to keep it off for years afterwards, one of the biggest correlations that they have found is that these are the people who have made a mindset shift, right.

They've kind of changed their identity around food. So instead of being like the person who sits down in front of the TV every evening with bag of chips or some ice cream, maybe they've swapped that out for carrot sticks or maybe their new lifestyle or how they identify themselves is that they don't eat in the last hour that they're awake.

Which by the way, is a really good tip. That has helped me a lot. I noticed that, holy cow, that's when the calories are really getting consumed in that last hour when you're kind of tired and you're distracted watching TV. But having this kind of mindset shift and thinking of yourself as, you know, I'm somebody who eats healthy.

I'm somebody who eats , four healthy meals a day, or I'm somebody who eats protein and vegetables. I'm somebody who, , doesn't buy chips at the store. I don't keep candy around my house. I don't need candy. Like when you start thinking of yourself and identifying in a new way, you're able to sustain those habits much better.

And by the way, this pertains also to fitness habits. So instead of thinking of yourself as, Oh, I was always the one who was picked last or I'm the cardio queen. You know, if you start thinking of yourself as I'm the one with muscle, I'm the strongest 50 year old in the gym. , you start thinking about that is your identity, then it becomes much, much easier to maintain that habit or those habits going forward.

So hard to create the habits. That's always the hardest part. And then maintaining them is much easier when you become that person, right? That you have just been practicing in that habit making stage.

But for sure, the short answer to that question of how to keep the weight off once you've lost it is that you need to eat in maintenance.

In other words, your calorie level needs to be such that you are not eating in a surplus. So if you're eating more calories than what your body is consuming in the course of the day, , then your weight is going to go up and actually, okay, I said, then your body's consuming over the course of a day, but it is, it's enough to think on a weekly basis.

So if you, for example, for me, 2000 calories a day is about what I can eat without my weight going up. So over the course of a week. You know, 2, 000 times seven is 14, 000, then I don't need to eat 2, 000 every day, right? If I know that I'm going to go to a party on Saturday or that I have more time to eat or that I want a glass of wine or maybe a gin and tonic on the weekend, then I can organize my life so that I'm used to eating a little bit less Monday through Friday, still not in a starvation state though, right?

I don't want to be hungry, hungry, but I can be like not full, full on Monday through Friday or let's say Sunday through Friday or whatever on the weekdays. And then that leaves a little bit more leeway for me to eat a little bit more on the weekends. . And I always answer these questions rambling a little bit, but I hope it's helpful to understand the thought process and the logic behind these things and not just kind of get the black and white answer.

All right. So those were the diet and nutrition questions that I had gotten so far. Please let me know if these were useful to you and whether you want more episodes on diet and nutrition. And I've actually been thinking about adding a little bit more diet stuff into my group program because now it's been very much focused about around getting started weight training.

And if that sounds like something that would be interesting to you, I would love to hear just to give some feedback of what you all are interested in getting some more help with. So drop me a message in my DMs or send me an email. All the links to get in touch with me are in the show notes. . And with that, I wish you happy training.