Fats don't make you fat: the real culprits behind weight gain in perimenopause

Are fats really the enemy, or have we been misled all these years? 

It’s time to explore what is the truth behind the myth and discover how healthy fats can actually help you lose weight and feel better.

If you’re still battling the repercussions of growing up in the low-fat craze years of the 80s and 90s, this episode is a game-changer! Join me as we put the myth that fats make you fat to bed. We’ll discuss the essential role healthy fats play in your body, even how they can help you lose weight.

• Why fats are essential: Learn about the crucial functions healthy fats serve, from hormone production to brain health, and why your body needs them more than ever during perimenopause.
• Understanding different types of fats: Get a clear, concise breakdown of the types of fats, and why not all fats are created equal.
• Healthy fats vs. crappy fats: I’ll talk you through which fats to embrace and which to avoid, helping you make smarter dietary choices that support healthier hormones, as well as your overall health and well-being.
• Weight gain and hormones: I’m naming names! Or in the case, the real culprits behind weight gain and how they disrupt your hormones, leading to fat storage.
• Practical tips for incorporating healthy fats: As always, I’m giving you actionable advice on how to easily add healthy fats to your meals, ensuring you stay full, satisfied, and energised throughout the day.

By understanding the truth about fats, you’ll not only feel more confident in your dietary choices but also start to see improvements in your energy levels, mood, body composition, and overall health.

Find out more about Sarah, her services and the Freebies mentioned in this episode at https://www.ThePerimenopauseNaturopath.com.au

• OPEN NOW: Discover how to use food as your most powerful medicine, smoothing hormonal fluctuations and easing perimenopause symptoms naturally. (Yes, you have more options than hormone therapy!) Say goodbye to feeling out of control and hello to feeling more like your old self every day, with PerimenoGO (because who wants to pause anyway?!)
• The Perimenopause Decoder is the ultimate guide to understanding if perimenopause hormone fluctuations are behind your changing mood, metabolism and energy after 40, what phase of perimenopause you're in and how much longer you may be on this roller coaster for.
• Been told your blood test results are "normal" or "fine" while you feel far from your best? Discover the power of optimal blood test analysis with The Blood Test Decoder: Optimal Ranges for Women Over 40.
• For more, follow on Instagram at @theperimenopausenaturopath.

Transcript

Hello. And welcome to chaos, to calm podcast, episode number 50, I'm so excited that we've made it to 50 and we're gonna zoom right past it to the next 50 as well. I am Sarah, the Perimenopause Naturopath, your guide through the journey of peri-menopause. So if you're over 40 and feeling like your changing hormones are hijacking your mood, energy weight. And you want to change that in a holistic way, then this is the place for you. Because each episode I share with you my views on what the heck is happening in your body while you're feeling the way that you are and what you can do about it with actionable advice to help you feel more calm and control, less stressed and more comfortable in your body. Thank you so much for joining me today, let's dive into our discussion of today's topic, all about fats. 

And so we can start shifting your peri-menopause experience from chaos to calm . 
So welcome to what feels like a milestone episode number 50. You've listened to me talk for some or all of those 50 episodes, and I hope that they have provided you with learning and value and helping you, change your life by the way that you eat and the things that you do. I still have lots of ideas of things to talk about, and I seem to get more come to me, each and every week. 

So I hope you'll stay with me as I talk through the next 50 episodes as well. And I do hope you share your questions with me so I can keep talking about topics that are really relevant to you and what you want to hear about. So don't forget, in the show notes at www.chaostocalmpodcast.com, you can find at the bottom of the show notes, a link that you can tap on and send a message to me. So please do send your questions, send your feedback, send it all in there. Now I want you to dive right back into the memory banks to when you were a kid. 

And I wonder if you remember when the low-fat era dawned. I remember going from we didn't even think about the fat content of things to suddenly seeing all of this low fat stuff appearing and margarine. You remember when margarine came about, Eric and in the 80s, it really dawned and hit hard and took a hold and stayed, into the 90s and beyond. 

And I wonder if your mum's still have those low fat diet books. You remember, there were so many of them, there was always the women's weekly books. They always had whatever the trend was. They had some diet books there. The aerobics instructors, because remember too in the 80s was when aerobics started to take hold there as well. 
They all had their diet books has too. And the thing that they all had in common was low fat and restricting calories and really it's quite a miserable time for most women. Because they were hungry or hungry all the time, and fat is where the flavor is. So without fat in your food, it's pretty bland and boring. 

Isn't it. So I always remember the Pritiken diet as well. Mum had books on that. I remember she cooked from that for a while. I don't think it was a very long maybe because the flavor wasn't there, it was a bit bland and cardboardy, margarine was around in the house for a long time, too. But there was always butter in our fridge, old habits die hard and taste, it's where it's at, because there's nothing like we, I remember apricot and brand loaf that she mum used to make which was tasty. 

Don't get me wrong. Can't eat it now because the brand, they usually use his wheat. Brandon, I'm a celiac, but, I remember we loved it, with lots of butter on it. Sorry. Butter and fat is where the flavor is at. And I do notice, we've been sold that lie, that cutting out fats is going to help us lose weight. 

And as I said, most people are pretty miserable when they're doing that low fat. 'cause food just doesn't taste as good. And you'll be hungry, even hangry. But I noticed many women like cutting out fat and calorie restriction is really their go-to. Yeah. If you're doing calorie restriction. Naturally cutting out fats is helpful with that because, fats lose out in the calorie account. 

They have a high calorie count and that's why people knock them off the plate. And I hate calorie counting. I really do it so harmful. It doesn't work.
It's a whole podcast episode on my view on calorie counting. I'm not going to do it today because I'll go sideways here. But I think that it is a side effect of calorie counting and that's why I see it so much. I've got lots of clients who come to me and they're kind of fat phobic, as in they're a bit frightened of eating fats, even the ones that we consider as healthy fats. 

And I'm going to talk through, what's a healthy fatten today as well. And so let's call a client Jane. When does there's so many of them. So we'll just say, Jane. And, as I said, calorie counting or calorie restriction is often lower fat and exercising, doing all those right things, but still gaining weight. 

She was, avoiding yummy things and, and really nourishing and nutritious foods. Avocados, nuts, seeds, butter, those sorts of things. When Jane started working with me in the cast to calm method. She was really skeptical. It was really hard for her to introduce the fats that I wanted her to introduce. 

But when she did, she had more consistent energy across her day and her week because her blood sugar levels went bouncing and spiking and crashing because that's part of what fats do for us. And I will talk more about that today as well. So she also started losing weight, which was counter intuitive for her because she was eating more and eating more fats as well. 

So they definitely don't make you fat. Fats don't make you fat. And that's what we're going to talk about today. And, eating the right kind of fats, those healthy fats can really elevate your health and how you feel across the deck. So, first of all, let's start with understanding the different types of fats, what people are talking about. 

So we have, polyunsaturated fats. When we're talking about their chemical structure, you have to go all the way back to chemistry at school, which you may or may not have listened to. It may not have even done. All of the molecules in our body are made up with carbons, hydrogens, oxygens, and they're held together with bonds, single, double, triple bonds. So polyunsaturated fats have multiple double bonds in them, and there are liquid at room temperature. I'll talk more about what the bonds mean in a little bit of time. So some examples of polyunsaturated fats or flaxseed oil, walnut oil, sunflower oil, and I'm going to talk more about sunflower oil in a little bit and fatty fish, like sardines, salmon, mackerel, as long as you're eating the skin there, of course. Then we've got monounsaturated fats, so they have one double bond. They are liquid at room temperature, but if you put them in the fridge, they'll go solid. So polyunsaturated oils, don't do that, they'll stay liquid in the fridge. So monounsaturated fats, things like olive oil, avocado oil, nut oils and peanut oil. And again, I will talk some more about peanut oil in a minute. Then if they're liquid at room temperature, they're an oil. 
If they're solid at room temperature, they're a fat. So we've got saturated fats, which are much maligned, but I love those like butter and ghee and coconut oil, even animal fats, like lard and tallow have a place in people's lives. And they have a single bond and a solid at room temperature, as I said. So they have a single bond.

Then we've got trans fats. You might, you probably heard about them and seen them before. They're partially hydrogenated, which means that they solid at room temperature and quite inflammatory in our body there as well. So they're in things like margarine , process baked goods like cookies, cakes, pastries, because often they use margarine to make them vegan. Fried foods from fast food restaurants will have trans fats in them and packaged next. Crackers chips, that sort of thing. 

They are generally phasing out trans fats as people become more aware of them. But margarine is still included in many of those products. So some of our fats are considered essential and because the body can't produce him on their own fat metabolism is really complex. I'm not going to go into it today. But there are some fats that we need to make the cells in our body. 

Every single cell in our body has a double layer of fats creating it, and it's important that we consume the right fats so that our cell membranes, the outside layer are made in the way that we need them to be. So those essential fatty acids, the omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in things like flaxseed oil, chia seeds, the fatty fish, that kind of thing, and some vegetables, and omega-6 fatty acids are also essential fatty acids. 
Generally speaking, we don't have any trouble getting those in our diet, but the omega-3 ones are a bit harder for most people to get in omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory as well as being used for our cell membrane. 

And getting the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6, right is very important there as well. So our body can produce some fats from others, but it cannot produce the Omega-3 fatty acids and some Omega-6. And the reason that we want those omega-3 fatty acids is because they are still, fluid and flexible in a body. 

When we use them as a cell membrane. And why is that important? Well, if we're using fats that aren't or oils that aren't the right structure to form our cell membranes, cells are not as flexible, so they can't squeeze through different places. They can't form a wall together nicely. But also the receptors on them, like the locks that I talked about that last time when I was talking about estrogen receptors. The lock is not the right shape for the key. 

The key might be a hormone. It could be a neuro-transmitter, it could be a vitamin and mineral. It could be glucose. So if we're not using lots of omega-3 fatty acids to form our cell membrane, then it can be difficult for, those compounds to bind to ourselves or get inside the cell, and help the cell do what it needs to do. So other things that healthy fats do in our body as they help with the absorption of vitamins, like the fat soluble ones, like vitamins A, D, E, and K. 

I talked about how they help form our cell membranes. They're used in hormones and our hormone production, blood clotting with our muscle movement, nervous system function, they are a preferred energy source for the brain and they can help pull fat out of cells to use it as an energy source. Can eating fats and oils can actually help you use the stored energy in your adipose cells? 

So fat eating fats and oils can help you burn fat. Hmm. So, the other thing I like about fats and oils, it's really hard to over-consume them. So if you're eating things like avocados. Like it's really, you couldn't sit down and eat three or four avocados in a row, or even in a day. Your body has feedback loops for things like protein and fat to tell you when you've had enough. Those feedback loops, join exists for carbohydrates, and that's why you can sit and eat. A whole pack of the chips and then be like, oh, I can't believe I did that. 

I still don't even feel full. Because there's not the feedback loop that there is with fats and oils and proteins. So if we're thinking about, your optimal wellbeing, I like my clients to have a thumb size portion of fats or oils per meal about a tablespoon is good. So, they may use things like coconut oil and coconut cream is great as well. 

Avocados, avocado oil, oily fish, flax seed oil. I love it. And I talked about it in phytoestrogen. So two episodes ago, I was talking about that nuts and seeds, almonds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds are used as well as I don't just use the oil is the flaxseeds is too. Olive oil is wonderful , and so as butter, if you don't have a problem with cow's dairy, then butter's fine. 

But if you do then ghee, it might be a better choice for you because it doesn't have the milk protein in it. So, what do you want to avoid? What are the fats to not have? Well, hopefully you've already gathered that margarines not on my yes list. It's a definite no. Vegetable oil. When they write vegetable oil, it's generally going to be canola or rice bran. And I suggest you avoid these as much as you can. 

I do find if my clients and me as well, if we're eating fried foods. You may notice that you get, like, you don't feel right. It feels a bit blah. And maybe even a bit nauseous after eating fried foods, if you're out. And that can be, I think the canola oil in it, I don't have as, sorry, I haven't done the research to see what it might be, but just think that they don't sit well and don't feel good in our bodies. So, vegetable oils. 

 It could be canola, sunflower, rice bran. Something else. Safflower oil, peanut rice bran. I mentioned, and as vegetable oil now, sunflower oil is a bit tricky because it's not something that I use at home. It's not on my healthy fat list. But if I am buying packaged or processed foods or I mean, eating out and they're using sunflower oil. I would choose that over, say a vegetable oil or canola or, or rice brown or something like that. So I guess it's the lesser of the evils for those vegetable oils.

Okay. So we've talked about the different types of fats, what they do in your body. What's on my yes list. What's on my no list. So if fats are not making you fat. Then what is, so let's talk about how weight game works. I'm going to, again, simplify because time constraints, but also, we don't need to know all of it or what, how it's happening. 

We can understand the basics and still be able to use that information to change what we're doing. So there's lots of hormones, there's lots of chemical reactions going on in our body with the weight gain, but here's the basics. Body fat is stored energy. We store the excess glucose from the food that we eat. So it could be used for our survival when there's a famine. 

The glucose is carried to the cells in your bloodstream and insulin unlocks. The cells so that the glucose can pass through and be turned into energy. We have those little mitochondria in our cells that are energy factories.

If there's an excess of glucose in the bloodstream, then it gets converted to glycogen, but we don't have very much storage space for glycogen. We have less than 500 grams of storage for it in the body. In the other hand, our fat cells have unlimited capacity for storage and we can just keep expanding on those fat cells. So whatever's not used by the sales straight away or and converted to glycogen can be go straight to your adipose cells, your fat cells. And in peri-menopause that's more likely to be around your middle there as well, or if you're stress issues and cortisol issues. Around your abdomen there as well, which is not great for us in terms of our risk of chronic or long-term health issues. So the three key hormones at play at insulin. 

It's our master fat storage hormone. If this is high, your body will prefer to store energy rather than use it. And Ghrelin is our hunger hormones is one that makes you a tummy growl. It'll increase before meals and then drop off around 30 minutes after eating sometimes. So if you do have excess fat adipose cells around, around your body, That can impact your grill and levels and keep your levels high, making you feel hungry more often or all the time. And then we have leptin, which is acid tighty hormones. 
Leptin tells us when we've had enough and we're full and communicates with the brain. It can like insulin so we can have insulin resistance where our cells are not listening to it at the insulin in our bloodstream, your cells can become resistant to leptin as well. And again, you'll feel hungry all the time because it's not your brain's not listening. 

Your cells are not listening to it. That you're full. And you've had enough. So, if you want to maintain a healthy body composition, you need your insulin level to stay relatively steady on the lower sides. We don't want it spiking or staying high. We just want a nice smooth flow across the day. And after your meals. You do want your ghrelin levels to spike before your meal and then drop off and you want your leptin to kick in once you've eaten. And as I said, this can be a challenge. And it can be challenging if you've got an imbalance in your, in your biochemistry and your body, or if you've got an excess of adipose cells and fat cells. 

So that's how appetite and satiety and weight gain works. We have an excess of glucose glucose in the bloodstream and energy. Some of it can get chanted, glycogen and stored in your muscles for use later on. Not very much though. So at any other excess, it's going to the cells, at your fat cells. 

Now. If fats are not making us fat. And we understand that sometimes there can be biochemistry or hormone issues there. What contributes to that? What makes that happen? So the biggest things that I see that are contributing to weight gain, increasing your fat stores is eating a low fat diet. That's high in refined, carbs and sugar. Because this, where they take fat out, they need to add flavor in and they'll often add flavor with sugar or sweeteners, and we know. Oh, gosh, I know I've talked about this in an episode, but I'll have to pop it in the show notes, which one it actually was. 

Sweeteners impact our blood sugar in the same way that sugar does. So they still drive insulin production and can contribute to insulin resistance there as well. Which will cause you to store more energy, more excess glucose in your fat cells. 

So if we , go back to high school chemistry again. Carbohydrates are made up of carbon, hydrogen oxygen molecules. And they have a simple single bond connecting them. So these bonds are easily broken in our body, and the nutrients, the stored and the energy stored in them are quickly pulled into your blood. And so this is not the case with our healthy fats, because they have those complicated double bonds. Which require more time to be broken down in your intestines and then travel into your blood. So, this is why having some fats and protein is similar too, because it's more complex to break down. 

 It increases, your satiety keeps you fuller for longer. And that's why if you're going to eat carbohydrates, particularly if they're refined ones, you want to eat it with some fat and some protein, so it can slow down the absorption of it and keep you fuller for longer and avoid that spike in your glucose and your insulin. And just as an aside, I want to say that fats don't drive your cholesterol levels up. 

Often people think they want to do low fat so that because their cholesterol level is high, your body will reduce its own production of cholesterol. When the intake from your diet is higher. But your diet in terms of having eating fats and oils only contributes about 20, or it has about 20% influence on your cholesterol levels, what's happening in your body, has more, and your genetics has more of an influence there. But I'll tell you what will drive up your, cholesterol and your triglycerides is refined carbohydrates and sugars and I look more to people's triglycerides than cholesterol, because that's a bigger indicator of their risk of cardiovascular disease. 

In my opinion and again, there's a whole nother podcast episode waiting in there on cholesterol. So we'll do that another time. Yeah, as I mentioned, calorie restriction, because it often ends up being low fat. Doesn't it? And yo-yo dieting. They put a lot of stress on your body and that triggers cortisol and insulin production messes with your thyroid. 

So that can, how that contributes to weight gain. Fasting and skipping meals is similar. Like it's a stress on the body because especially for women's bodies in the second half of your cycle. If you're still regularly ovulating and having a period. Progesterone's rising and it's driving your hunger because it wants you to be eating enough just in case there is a baby growing. And even though you might be no, that there's no baby growing our brain and our bodies are quite primal still, and they don't know that and they will drive you to do that. 

So if you're fasting and ignoring hunger, trying to suppress it with caffeine or coffee, then. It's going to impact your cortisol levels, insulin, thyroid, all of that as well. Excess intense exercise. This is the same effect as calorie restriction and fasting and skipping meals. It's increasing your stress hormones as well. And it's not very nice to live that way, but it's really horrible for your body as well. And that's why, fasting might work well for men, but it doesn't always work well for women because of our hormones and that primal aspect. That's looking to help grow a human inside of us. 

One last thing in perimenopause is of course our estrogen, as it fluctuates in early perimenopause. When it goes, high, it will go high, but as it decreases, it can contribute to insulin resistance puts us more on a natural state of insulin resistance, and this is what can contribute to weight gain there as well. All right. Just before we finish out, let's talk about how to get those fats into your diet. As I said, a thumb size one, tablespoon per meal is good. And you want some at every meal yes. Even breakfast. And that can feel that, depending on what you have, that might feel a bit tricky. But maybe, if you're a smoothie lover, Pop some avocado in your smoothie or some nuts or some seeds. It doesn't have to be like a little glug of flaxseed oil or olive oil. You can use some flaxseeds. 

Nice. Almonds or walnuts, that kind of thing. You don't need to use almond milk. Why not use some actual almonds and some water or ice, and then you get the full benefit of the fiber and the fat and everything. That's in that, in those nuts there. When you're using oils to cook with, and to dress your foods, choose things. Olive oil, coconut oil, ghee. Don't forget about oily fish. I know that they can be a bit polarizing. I have a wonderful sardine recipe to help make it less fishy. And my kids love it too. I always forget to give it to us, but we do all love it as well. If you want that, send me a message and I will send it through to you there. If you're cooking, remember to use oils with a higher smoke point. So avocado. Really great for that. Coconut oil ghee. But research is actually showing us that olive oil is okay for pan frying and sautéing, and that it does have a lot of natural antioxidants in it that protects the oil from going rancid. 

So still keeps it really lovely for your body. If you're cooking with it, then I wouldn't deep fry with it. It's probably really expensive. But also probably I don't really deep fried home anyway. And I guess most of you have air fries these days. So if you want to make something tastes like that, then that's how you're doing it. And something that I do is make a really nice dressing. 

 I've got a honey mustard, one that I make that my kids love and, I reduced the honey in it. So it's not so sweet. And that means that they'll eat more grains, but also you can use, don't be, you don't have to use them on salad. You can use those things on cooked foods as well. On your cooked veggies. 

So I mentioned before about avoiding the carbs and the sugars. Replace those with the nutrient dense foods that include healthy fats. So here's a classic example is yogurt. You buy those flavored yogurts. It's full of like, they trick you that it looks like they're not adding sugar, but if you look at the label, there's a whole bunch of added sugar in there and it's because they're using fruit pastes or fruit things, swirls like that. They're often also low-fat there's one popular one. That's always low fat. I understand why, but it's often got lots of sugar in it, too. My suggestion is buy the full fat by plain natural little Greek, and then add your own flavoring to it. Maybe that might be a bit of maple syrup. 
It might be a bit of honey. I definitely add fruit to mine in the morning and I had my ground flax seeds to it as well. So the yogurt's got some nice fats in it. I shaped yogurt and the flax seeds, I had a couple of tablespoons of flaxseeds cause they're my favorite fighter, Eastern gin, rich foods, but also they have lovely fats, magnesium, and many other things in them as well. I am said before, if you're going to eat. Those carbs, particularly those high carb refined snacks, crackers, that kind of thing. Don't eat them on their own. So first of all, I'm a don't snack, whatever you do, don't snack. And so it's so that you don't have to reach for those snacks. 

You can balance your meal so you don't feel hungry in between them. That's a better option. Balance them with protein fats and some whole complex carbohydrates. If you want to know how to do that. And you can download my balanced meal formula. The link is in the show notes. So www.chaostocalmpodcast.com and you'll find it there. If you absolutely must snack, then choose a small amount of nuts. 

A couple of fingers with is a good serving size for the nuts and seeds, or a piece of cheese. If you want to have some carb with it, have some fruit. But have it with the protein and the fats here in the forms of the nuts and the seeds or nut butter or some cheese, or, the cream goats, cheese or something like that. As I mentioned, the chaos to calm balanced meal formula is your friend that will help you keep your fat carb protein balance in check. Low-fat high-carb is no good, but high, fat and high carb is also no good. So use the balanced meal formula to help you get it just right. And I tell you how to do it with your thumb, your fist, your palm. I tell you how to measure out your meals in that way. 

And if you need some ideas on how to add fats to a particular meal, send me a message from the show notes and I will teach you how to do that. I'll pop it into my socials and show you how I would do that. So making these changes, and adding fats in will really support your hormones. Health improves your energy levels and keeps you much more stable across the day in the week. Stops you feeling hungry between meals and needing to snack and it does help you lose weight. So that is a wrap for today. 

 We've gone over a lot. All the essentials to help you understand the different types of fats what's on my yes list, and the ones on my no list. Why they don't make you fat? What actually contributes to making you have more fat mass and how to eat those lovely fats in your diet. So the key take-home message for you is that not all fats are created equal focus on the ones on my yes list and avoid refined carbs and sugars because they're the real culprits behind your weight gain. And, other health factors like your triglycerides and cholesterol, And include healthy fats in every meal for your best hormone balance, and sustained energy there as well. I remember if you're looking for more resources or you want to submit a question. Please visit the show notes at www.chaostocomepodcast.com. And while you're there, you can subscribe and make sure that you never miss an episode. 

Thank you so much for listening and sharing your time with me today. I'm looking forward to speaking with you next time and sharing more information and actionable advice to help keep you shifting your peri-menopause experience from chaos to calm.