35. Combatting Fatty Liver Disease for Better Menopausal Health

Ever wondered how fatty liver disease could be sabotaging your weight loss efforts, especially during menopause?

Join us as we unravel the intricate relationship between non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis and weight management. This episode dives into the silent epidemic affecting nearly 40% of the population, primarily driven by excessive sugar intake.


Let's address the startling ways fatty liver disease disrupts your body’s ability to convert fat into energy, contributes to insulin resistance, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, and toxin accumulation. But there’s hope—tune in to learn actionable lifestyle changes that can reverse this condition and set you on the path to successful weight and belly fat loss.

But that’s not all. We also focus on empowering you through your menopause journey with practical advice and unwavering support.

Connect with our vibrant community on social media, subscribe to our podcast, and share these invaluable insights with others. Discover how menopause can be a time for growth, renewal, and self-care.

We’re grateful for your participation and invite you to join us for future episodes packed with resources to help you thrive through menopause. Let’s navigate this transformative phase together!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, my friends, welcome to my channel. We will be talking about how fatty liver disease can slow down your weight loss, can slow down your belly fat loss. Today we are talking about fatty liver and most of the time, if you're someone who's been struggling with your weight, you're doing all the things that you did previously and those are not working right now. One of the problems that you may have, without knowing it, is a fatty liver.

Speaker 2: 0:29

Welcome to the Thriving Through Menopause podcast. Dr Inaka Yembe, your host, is dedicated to helping you navigate the transformative journey of menopause and perimenopause, particularly focused on achieving menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat. As a post-menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat as a post-menopausal physician herself, who has helped thousands of women experiencing the significant life stage, she understands the unique challenges you face. Listen in as we explore a wide range of topics aimed at supporting you in your health and wellness journey. Hopefully, the practical tips and strategies offered potentially help you adopt an empowering approach towards menopausal weight loss and belly fat reduction. And now here's your host, Dr Inaka Yembe.

Speaker 1: 1:14

Fatty liver disease is called non-alcoholic hepatosteatosis, and that just means fatty deposit in the liver. What are the symptoms? They have no symptoms. You may not even know. It may not even show up in your blood work right away. So most of the time if you're overweight you want to assume you've got some fatty liver disease. Worst of, if you go to the doctor and your blood tests are abnormal and they do some additional tests, you may be told that you have fatty liver disease. And they do some additional tests, you may be told that you have fatty liver disease. So now, if you're struggling to lose weight or to lose that belly fat, that could be the reason.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Fatty liver disease now affects about 40% of our population, including children. What is the cause? The main cause of fatty liver disease for the most part is consuming fructose and sucrose, so table sugars, added sugars in your foods. That's really where the problem comes from. Sugar causes a cascade of inflammation and problems and if you have consumed too much sugar, with time part of it gets transformed into fatty acids and it gets deposited in your liver. Fatty liver disease is reversible before it progresses to liver cirrhosis. So there's a lot of things that you can do to reverse that, and we'll talk about it right now.

Speaker 1: 2:38

So, really, how does fatty liver disease prevent you from losing that belly fat and from losing weight? Number one only the liver can convert body fat into energy that you can use in your body. So, of course, if you have a diseased liver, if you have fatty deposit in your liver, then that process is changed. Example if your drainage system is clogged, it doesn't matter how much water you pour into the sink, if you don't fix that clogged up drain, then it's not going to work. It's the same thing with your liver. If your liver is clogged up with fatty deposit, then it cannot do its job properly. The next thing that fatty liver disease causes it is associated with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is that condition where your blood sugar is too high. Because you consume too much sugar, your insulin spikes and spikes and at a certain point insulin stays high, and it is one of those reasons that causes us to store fat in our body. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. If you have fatty liver disease, it just makes the whole situation worse. Fatty liver disease also causes hormonal imbalance, including disruption of those hormones that are responsible for fat storage. So if you have fatty liver deposit, your hormones are out of whack. If you are menopausal like myself, 56 now then my hormones are upside down. Fatty liver disease will just make that hormonal imbalance worse and then you easily store more belly fat. Fatty liver disease also causes some symptoms. The biggest one is fatigue. You have low energy levels, decreased desire and energy to even exercise and overall you're storing more body fat and it's just a vicious cycle. Lastly, fatty liver disease causes toxin accumulation which can further impair the liver function.

Speaker 1: 4:46

The good news is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is reversible. You know, back in the days this fatty liver disease was only common in alcoholics. But now in these modern times, because of convenient food, low-lying foods, quick fast foods those foods are loaded with sugars, unhealthy fats, lots of salts just a lot of things that can damage your liver. So now even people who do not drink any alcohol at all have fatty liver disease. That's why it's called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease Good thing.

Speaker 1: 5:24

You can reverse it and if you do all the things that we talk about here, and even more, to reverse your fatty liver disease, you may notice that your belly fat now goes away a little bit easier and you lose weight even a little easier. Now studies do show that losing 7% just 7% of your body fat can totally reverse fatty liver disease. So here are seven tips to help you. Number one, number one, yay reduce the consumption of processed foods, low-lying foods, convenient foods, foods that have no nutrition. All they do is give you more sugar, more fat. Example Sodas we know those. Processed foods. Cakes, cookies, fast foods all those are loaded in unhealthy things.

Speaker 1: 6:17

All right, some of the ones that we don't really think about. That are also unhealthy. Sports drinks have so much sugar. Other things like granola. Other ones like fruit juice. Fruit juice is bad news waiting to happen, even if you produce it at home. Why? Because it is a concentrated amount of fructose and because you have juiced it now you took the fiber out of it. So if you eat a whole fruit, you're consuming fructose and fiber. The fiber slows down the absorption of the sugar into your body. But if you juice it, even at home, then you have a huge input of fructose. Huge load there goes to your liver. It's too much for your liver to handle. It just takes it and packages it up as free fatty acids that are stored in your liver.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Reduce the consumption of processed foods. Other ones dried fruits bad news. Fruits that are stored in fruit juice. Don't do it. And we see things like 100% juice. Don't do that. When you go to the store it says 100% juice, no sugar added. Store it says 100% juice, no sugar added. That's bad for your liver. Stay away from that. Other things like processed meats. So we buy bacon. They all have sugar, lots of unhealthy fats. Now, all this said, we don't want to really demonize any foods. I'm just saying don't consume them every single day. Once in a while, 15 to 20% of the time, go out there and eat what you want, even juice. However, don't do it on a daily basis is what I mean. Tip number two intermittent fasting. That's a good way to get rid of belly fat. Intermittent fasting is great. You spend some time not eating and some time eating. It is not starvation, it is just scheduled eating. I do have some videos in intermittent fasting. That's a whole other conversation. However, don't make the same mistake like I did.

Speaker 1: 8:25

When I started intermittent fasting years ago, when I was 300 pounds and over. I just thought all I needed to do was fast, and when I wasn't fasting, I ate what I want. Don't do that. When you're fasting you're not eating anything, but during your eating window, get this. You still need to consume an appropriate amount of protein and you still need to eat healthy foods when you're not fasting, Because if you eat just any foods that you want, like I did back then it's the same thing. Unhealthy foods will cause you to have fatty liver disease, slow down your weight loss and slow down your belly fat loss. Next thing, still on nutrition reduce the consumption of saturated fats. You know, I know some of you are doing the keto diet. I don't have any problems with the keto diet. Actually, if you do the keto diet correctly, you can be healthy. Now, what most of us did, like I did the keto diet once upon a time and I just thought I could fry the eggs in any kind of oil.

Speaker 1: 9:31

I could eat as much butter, cheese, any kind of butter, and any kind of cheese that I want. I was just loading myself with unhealthy fats. Those are the ones that can cause significant liver damage. So if you're on a keto diet and you're trying to reduce your carbohydrates and it wasn't sustainable for me okay, too low for carbohydrates, I couldn't couldn't hang in there for too long. Anyway, if you're doing the keto diet, spend some time doing some research and eat the healthy fats avocado, olive oil those fats that are healthy. The unsaturated fats cause lipotoxicity to the liver, meaning that they just get deposited in your liver and make your condition worse, cause liver damage, decrease ability for you to lose weight overall and cause you to have the belly fat on and on and on. And you could be wondering you're doing the keto diet and it's not working. It's just because you're eating too many of the unhealthy kinds of fats.

Speaker 1: 10:35

Tip number four eat more protein. It's very, very important. You wake up in the morning. Your biggest meal should be protein and healthy fats and healthy carbohydrates, but at least if you're eating three, four times a day, you want to get in at least 40 grams of protein in that first meal. Why is that? Proteins are satiating. They're going to increase your basal metabolic rate. They reduce your cravings for junk food later on in the day, so you want to have your biggest meal in the morning. It's going to also help you decrease the amount of fats that are stored in your liver.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Tip number five exercise. All right, you can see me, I'm a little sweaty here. I have an online bootcamp and I just completed a walkathon. In fact, I have almost four miles here on my counter. Let's see 4.2 miles, 7,368 steps in the morning. We did that.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Now studies do show that you want to exercise moderate to intense cardiovascular exercise 150 minutes per week. So what that means is about 30 minutes five times a week, things like that. Walking is great. My goal. If you want to join me, let's do 10,000 steps every single day. You can do it. You just need to start early in the morning. So cardiovascular exercise is important.

Speaker 1: 12:02

Resistance exercises are also important. In fact, while we did a walkathon in my bootcamp today, we did some squats, lunges and things like that. They help with resistance exercises using your body weight. Doing that at home. You don't have to go anywhere. Resistance exercises help build and maintain your muscle tone, and muscle is a great metabolic buffer that would help you good landing pad there for your sugars and also keeps the basal metabolic rate up, in addition to several health benefits. All right. Tip number five hydration, hydration, drink lots of water. How much water should you drink? Now, if you don't have any medical contraindication to water consumption, this one is for you. Women you need to consume at least two and a half liters of water per day. Men at least 3.2 liters of water per day.

Speaker 2: 13:01

That is if you're a healthy person. Now, if you're walking outside.

Speaker 1: 13:04

Where I live, this is the summer you want to drink at least another half a liter of water per hour if you're walking outside. Why is that? Dehydration will also slow down your weight loss, and we're talking about getting rid of belly fat loss. So talking about things that we should not be drinking, especially if you have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Alcohol. I'll get so many, so many bad, lots of bad feedback when I talk about alcohol. Yes, you have a little bit of liver disease and we technically don't know exactly how much. Last thing you need is to make things worse. The liver is a single organ, just like the heart. You damage it If it's completely damaged. So end-stage liver disease, the only treatment for you at that point is a liver transplant.

Speaker 1: 13:59

A lot of women now are heading to liver transplant. Those of us postmenopausal we're not really watching our diet. We're eating the wrong things too many times. All right, the very next thing you want to do is increase fiber consumption. This is the reason why, ladies, you need to stop juicing, stop taking out the good fiber in your fruit and eat the whole fruit.

Speaker 1: 14:22

Fruit is healthy. Eat it whole, just like it came from the ground. Why would you take the fiber out and drink just the fructose? That would make your liver worse. So increased fiber is good for your gut health.

Speaker 1: 14:35

You also get lots of macronutrients when you eat the whole fruit. You also get lots of macronutrients when you eat the whole fruit and when you eat fiber, as in vegetables. That helps your gut health and it also helps your liver function. So your liver functions better. And that belly fat you can lose it a little bit easier. Now all your efforts start to work when you reverse that fatty liver disease.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Lastly, cortisol this is a hormone that's a stress hormone, so low level stress that is chronic. It makes that hormone called cortisol high and cortisol is a belly fat storage hormone and it can promote storage of fat in your liver as well, just making the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease even worse. Now, if you have fatty liver disease, the liver doesn't work well. You're going to have such a hard time losing the belly fat and losing the weight as well. So I hope these tips help you. I want you to come back to the chat. Ask me some questions, tag your friends, go to YouTube, follow me there. So each time I put a video out like this, it can help you, my friends, thank you. Thank you, happy new month and have a fantastic week ahead. Thank you, bye, bye.

Speaker 2: 15:53

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Thriving Through Menopause. We hope you found valuable insights and practical advice to support your journey. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, share it and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Remember, menopause doesn't have to be a challenge. It can be an opportunity for growth, renewal and self-care. Connect with us on social media, where we share additional resources, tips and advice to help you along your path. Once again, thanks for listening in and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of Thriving Through Menopause. Until then, Thank you.