Exercise & Nutrition Scientist: The Truth About Exercise On Your Period! Take These 4 Supplements!

A lot of women come with their partners. to see me and say, "I don't understand. We're both doing the same training. He's. leaning up and getting fitter. I'm. putting weight on getting slower." And. that is because we have puberty. We have. our reproductive years. We may not have. pregnancy in there. We have. permenopause. We have postmenopause. We. have a menstrual cycle. Each one of. those is a different hormone profile. that can affect the way we eat and the. way we train. But no one told us this or. what we can do until right now. Dr. Stacy Sims is an exercise physiologist. and nutrition scientist whose. bestselling books and over 100. peer-reviewed studies is revolutionizing.

how women can optimize their health, fitness, and longevity by working with. their unique physiology. We're looking. at sport science research. Everything. from training to eating, recovery, it's. based on male data, and women have been. generalized to that data. Things like we. see men do really well on calorie. restriction and fasting, but for women. doesn't happen that way and we'll talk. about that. And we also know that during. puberty, girls hips widen, shoulders. widen, which changes our angle of knee. to hip, what we call the Q angle. So. they don't feel comfortable running or. swimming or jumping. And because they're. not taught this stuff, we see that by.

the age of 14, girls who previously were. sporty, over 60% of them drop out of. sport. The problem is it's never about. how we can empower women to use their. physiology to their advantage. So let's. change that. Let's go. As it relates to. nutrition and exercise, how do I need to. adapt across the menstrual cycle? What's. your view on cold plunges and. supplements like creatine? And what's. the variant between men and women as it. relates to sleep? And then let's talk. about menopause. Starting with per. menopause. I'm excited. The diary of a CEO is independently fact.

checked. For any studies or science. mentioned in this episode, please check. the show notes. This has always blown my. mind a little bit. 53% of you that. listen to this show regularly haven't. yet subscribed to the show. So, could I. ask you for a favor before we start? If. you like the show and you like what we. do here and you want to support us, the. free simple way that you can do just. that is by hitting the subscribe button. And my commitment to you is if you do. that, then I'll do everything in my. power, me and my team, to make sure that. this show is better for you every single. week. We'll listen to your feedback. We'll find the guests that you want me. to speak to and we'll continue to do.

what we do. Thank you so much. Dr. Stacy Sims, what is the work that you do and why is. it so important that you do it? I look at sex differences in exercise. and nutrition because when we think. about everything that we know for. protocols from training to eating. recovery, it's based on male data. And. as a female athlete and working with. women across all ages, just trying to.

maximize their potential, you have to. lean into different data, but people. aren't aware of it. So as I'm looking at. what I do and trying to empower women to. understand their own bodies, realize. that there's a lot of research that. still needs to be done. So if we think. about something like caffeine and. caffeine intake, right? And people are. talking about how it either boosts them. or not. Yeah. If we look at all the data. on performance about caffeine enhancing. performance, there isn't anything that's.

been done on women. So if we're looking. at how does that work for a woman, we. have to look and say, okay, how much. exercise have you done? Where are you. using the caffeine? When are you using. it? Because we fuel differently during. exercise. So we go through blood sugar. quickly. Caffeine clears blood sugar. So. a woman is going to have to eat when she. uses caffeine, whereas a man doesn't. have to. You said it's based on male data. How. can you quantify that? like paint the. picture for me that proves this this is.

the case for someone that might not. understand the significance of what you. just said. So if we're looking at sports. science research and I'll just bring it. down to sport science because that's the. exercise and nutrition research. If. we're looking at who's around the room. when we're recruiting for studies for. the most part the language around. recruitment is geared for. getting men because we're using a lot of. aggressive language in sport. So it's. offputting to a lot of women. The other. aspect about sport science research is. there's limited funding. So then we're.

looking at okay, how can we get people. in that can come in for day after day or. week to week. Most often it's men. When we look at what we're doing, we. might be doing muscle biopsies. We might. be doing blood draws. And if that's not. explained in advance, it's a little. off-putting to people. So when we're. looking at the major recruitment. strategies and the people that will say. yes, I'll come and do this study, it's. 18 to 22 year old college age men. And.

that's just been the norm. And when we. look at how studies are designed, and. we're looking again at who's in the room. who's designing the studies, primarily. it's men. Why? because we see that most. of the PIs on the studies and most of. the um I guess scientists that are. coming up in academia are primarily men. When did you realize this? The first. time I realized it from an academic. standpoint was when I was a second year. at university and I was a participant in.

metabolism lab and I was one of the only. women and I standardized properly. I did. all the things I was supposed to do cuz. I come from a military family. I know. how to follow rules. And at the end of. the two weeks of experiments, they threw. my results out. Why exactly? So I asked. why. And they're like, "Well, your. results don't jive with what we thought. we were going to see. They don't mesh. with the results that we got from the. men. So they're an anomaly. So we're not.

going to put them in for the the context. of talking about how carbohydrate. metabolism was going." And I thought. that was very strange and I was. like,"Well, I've done everything. properly. How come mine are the anomaly. and those guys aren't the anomaly? How. do you know that?" And they didn't have. an answer for it. So that was like the. sticking point for me to understand why. would my results be an anomaly when I. have done exactly the same thing as what. the men had done. And it came down to. menstrual cycle. came down to. understanding that one week I was in a.

low hormone state and then the next week. I wasn't. So when I started talking. about that, this is where the um. professor who was in charge of the. metabolism labs like well we don't study. women because they have a menstrual. cycle and we just study men because. they're easier and we don't have to. worry about hormone fluctuations. interfering with our results. And at. that point I was like, "Excuse me, what? What are you talking about?" So that was.

a defining point from an academic. standpoint. But the seed had been. planted two years prior when my dad who. was a colonel in the army was like, "So. what do you want to do when you finish. graduate or when you graduate from high. school?" And I said, "I wanted to be an. Army Ranger or Navy Seal." And he said, "Well, you can't." And I said, "Why. can't I?" And he said, "Cuz you're a. girl." I was like, "What? what does that. mean? And he said, "Well, they don't. accept women in in the SEALs or the. Rangers. It's a special ops and they.

don't accept women." And that was the. first time in my life I've ever heard. that I was limited because I was a. female and I didn't match what the norm. was cuz my whole life I'd been playing. with boys, competing against boys. I. mean, like, it was just a normal. Didn't. matter if you were a boy or a girl. It. just was what you wanted to do. And then. when my dad said, "Well, you can't. because you're a girl." That was the. first seed that had been planted and. really made me upset and said, "Well, this doesn't make sense." And then when. I got to university and that happened,

that was the definitive seed that just. really pushed me into the whole academic. and sporting career that I've led over. the past 20ome years. Give me an. overview of that career, the sort of. significant milestones and the research. that you've done that's fed into. everything that you know today. I've. been a competitive athlete most of my. life. So I would I raced bikes. professionally. I did Iron Man. I did. Xterra. And I would have teammates who. would ask me questions of um you like.

how am I fueling? How am I going to. perform my best? So we take those. questions into the lab. So we were. looking at how do we optimally fuel or. how do we optimally uh climatize the. heat when we're at a point in our. menstrual cycle where we don't have as. much heat tolerance. So that we see when. progesterone comes up after ovulation, our core temperature comes up, we don't. have as much heat tolerance. So how do. we adjust for that? So there are a lot. of questions that would come through. just by the nature of being surrounded. by competitive athletes and being a.

competitive athlete. So, we look at. things like we know now that when you. want to do um acclimatization to the. heat and I bring this up because if I. live in New Zealand in the wintertime. and I'm trying to train for something. like Kona that happens in Hawaii and we. max out at uh you know 10° C in the. winter but we have to face 40° C to race. Iron Man and we get into a sauna and we. want to accommodate for that heat. We.

know that men can go seven days in a row. and be fine to then race in the heat. But for women, depends on which phase of. the menstrual cycle and if you are going. in the high hormone phase, then we say, "Okay, well, you don't need a primer. You can just go in and do nine days in a. row. But if you start in the low hormone. phase, you actually have to go into the. sauna for five minutes, come back out, and then go back in and do that during. the low hormone phase for nine days in a. row." So there are different nuances in. the way that your body responds to the.

heat and is able to accommodate for. those heat shifts versus a man can just. go in and accommodate for that and be. ready for the race. So give me your CV. Oh gosh, not the whole thing. It's it's. pretty varied. Um what did you study? Uh. exercise physiology and metabolism. Okay. And then um got into ultr running. when I was doing my masters at. Springfield. Um and then I started.

getting into more Iron Man distance. stuff. um before I started my PhD. And you went. to Springfield College as well. Yeah. So. that was my masters. Your masters. What. did you study in your masters? That. again was exercise fizz and metabolism. And then you did a PhD. Yep. Uh what was. your PhD on as well? So my PhD was. looking at differences between men and. women in heat performance. Okay. And how. you climatize to it and how you hydrate.

for it. Um as well as looking between. menstrual cycle phases and oral. contraceptive pill use in women. Um and. again all of these topics were designed. because of questions I had for myself or. teammates had. And then from PhD I went. to Stanford and was working um in the. high performance lab and then moved over. to do a posttock with Marcia Stefanic. who was the PI for the women's health.

initiative. So looking at um hormone. replacement therapy in menopausal women. but also looking at exercise as a cohort. to that. And I had another hand in the. high performance um research in human. biology. So I would mesh human. performance with public health and then. that transcend into a lot of the stuff. that I do now looking at what can we do. taking some of the ideas from high. performance and apply it to general. population and how does that improve.

people's longevity well-being but also. for those who are trying to be parents. who have a high performing job who want. to do well in their age group race. whatever it is how can we maximize some. of the things we know from high. performance with regards to sleep, heat, cold, and apply that to a person who's. just trying to get everything done, and. what small things they can tweak to. improve their own training and. performance. And you've authored more.

than 100 peer-reviewed studies on. exercise physiology. Yeah. And you're a. research scientist at the University of. New Zealand. I am a research scientist. at AUT. It's where most of my PhD. students are. and we have a women's. health program and then I also have an. adjunct with the lifestyle medicine um. at Stanford. So that's where a lot of. the public health research comes in. And. when we talk about the the differences. between men and women,

what exactly are those differences? Is. it just the menstrual cycle that causes. these differences or is there other. physiological differences that we need. to understand in order to understand the. subjects we're going to talk about today. around exercise, nutrition, and the. variances between men and women there? There are sex differences in uterero. I. mean when we look uh what does that. mean? So the sex differences when the. baby's developing. Okay. So we look at. stress and the mom under stress. We see. that there's a higher incidence of a. miscarriage if it's a developing boy. fetus than a girl fetus. And it has to.

do with XX versus XY. Then after birth. we see that there's relatively little. sex difference that is apparent until. the onset of puberty. But when we're. looking at those sex differences that. aren't that apparent, there are there. We see that there's a sex difference in. what we call muscle morphology. So that. means that men are born with more fast. twitch fibers. So they have more. anorobic capacity as they get older. They have more ability to produce power. We see that um girls are born with more.

endurance type fibers. So this means. they have more mitochondria for oxygen. consumption and oxidative stress and. being able to go along and slow. Then. when we get to the onset of puberty, we. see an expansion of these sex. differences with the exposure of the sex. hormones. So what we're seeing is now. the boys are getting leaner, they're. getting faster, they're getting more. aggressive, but girls bodies completely.

change because center of gravity drops. from the chest down to the lower abdomen. area because their hips widen and their. hips widen because you know being XX. they have to then accommodate for. getting pregnant and eventually having a. baby from a biological standpoint. Hips. widen, shoulders widen. This changes the. um angle of the knee to the hip. So we. then have a Yep. So for anyone. listening, this is there's an image I. have here which I'll put on the screen. and I'll also link below and it's called.

the Q angle. Q angle. Yes. Which is like. the angle of my knee to hip. Yeah. And. it's showing that women's Q angle. basically like the shape of the gap. between your leg is is it roughly 15°? What is it? Do you know? Yeah. Yeah. And so when we're looking at girls whose. bodies are changing, we see that by the. age of 14, girls who previously were. sporty, over 60% of them drop out of. sport because they're not taught that. their bodies are changing. So they don't.

feel comfortable running or swimming or. jumping or landing because they have a. new um Q angle. They become quad. dominant. Their center of gravity is. different. Their shoulders are wider. So. they don't feel comfortable running. because their whole running mechanics. change. So, you know, when we're looking. at girls who are eight, they can keep up. with the boys, right? Their bodies. haven't quite started changing yet. By. the time they're 10, they're starting to. see a discrepancy. And I say that cuz my. daughter's now 12 and I've seen it over.

the course of the elementary school. years where they used to be on par with. the boys playing soccer and rugby and. stuff on the field. And then you start. seeing a more where the boys are. becoming more aggressive and they're. kicking the balls faster and running. faster. And the girls are starting to. develop a little bit more, getting a. little bit more body fat, feeling a. little bit more comfortable running. They can't do the monkey bars anymore. because their center of gravity is. lower. So they can't get up and do the. monkey part bars as well. But no one. explains this to them. So then when we.

see this discrepancy of being sporty, not sporty, we see um you know changes. in body composition and all of this is. in those early stages of the teen years. which is another knock because we also. have brain changes where girls become. more um self-aware and boys don't. They're like, "Okay, you know what? You. piss me off. I'm going to beat you up. and we're going to get on with it." But. girls are very self-aware and they hold. things to themselves in a more negative.

fashion. And this creates a lot of mood. changes. And this also creates a feeling. of of of negative body positivity. So. they don't feel that comfortable with. how they look or who they are. And. society doesn't help that either. So. this all perpetuates in a socioultural. as well as a biological change with. regards to exercise. And as it relates to we'll talk about. the Q angle a little bit more in a. second when we talk about exercise but. the as it relates to the other changes.

um fat differences in men and women. Yeah. So if we see essential fat for men. is around 4 to 8%. So that means what we. need for our nerves and just survival. Okay. For women essential fat is around. 12%. Okay. So this is for nerves and and. looking around our essential organs to. survive. We look at body composition. itself, we see that women tend to sit. around 20% as a normal healthy.

individual, although the data has. changed over the years. Um, and men sit. around 15%. And what about the heart? How's the heart different in men and. women? So, women have smaller heart and. lungs. Yeah. Relative to relative body. size to men. We also have less. hemoglobin. So, that means our oxygen. carrying capacity is lower. uh because. if we are looking at our red cells and. we have four different what we call heem. molecules in a red cell and each one.

carries oxygen our red cell count is. lower as compared to men because the red. cell count is driven by testosterone. So. men have around 100% more. um aromatized testosterone as compared. to women. So this increases the carrying. capacity of oxygen which means it goes. to the muscles can deliver more fuel to. the muscles to be able to contract. better have more power more strength. Does that mean women breathe more.

exercising the same? Not that they. breathe more. When we're talking about. oxygen carrying capacity, this is the. amount that you're taking into the. lungs, how it transfers to the red cells. to then be able to go to the working. muscles to give the muscles the. available fuel to do a contraction. So, it's not a respiratory rate, it's the. ability for you to breathe in and how. fast that can be conducted to the. muscle. But, so there's going to be an.

impact on endurance then. It's more of a. power and speed factor. Okay. Okay. Okay. Because the speed in which the. oxygen can get to the muscles is what's. being impacted and the volume of oxygen. that can get to the muscles. Yep. Okay. Fine. And then you said the lungs are s. sort of I read 25 to 30% smaller. than a man's lungs typically. Yeah. And. what's the impact of that as it relates. to exercise? So when we're looking at um I guess. world records right that have been kept.

and we see there's a gender gap there. and this is slowly closing in the. endurance world but that has to do with. muscle morphology with regards to being. able to go along and slow. We're looking. at the sprint capacity where we have to. have a quick transference of oxygen and. quick muscle contraction. that gap isn't. closing and that is because we have. smaller lungs, smaller heart, we have. less blood volume, we have less red. cells. So the overall capacity for.

quickly developing power and speed is at. a smaller um I guess it's a limited. capacity in women versus men. And in your book raw and page four in. the opening of the book, you talk about. how women are 52% as strong as men in. their upper bodies and 66% as strong as. they are in their lower bodies. But when. women train, they can become 70 to 80%. as strong as men. Mhm. So when we're. looking at resistance training itself, we see that women relative to men can.

accommodate and develop muscle just as. well as men in the lower body, but upper. body not so much. Okay. Um, we talked. about this Q angle thing. One of the. things that I've I'm really fascinated. by is there's been a big conversation. recently around ACL injuries in sport. Yeah. And from reading your work, it. seems that and just doing some research. online, it seems that this increase in. women getting ACL injuries links. somewhat to this Q angle situation, which again is the I don't know how to. explain it for someone that is listening.

on audio and can't see, but I will link. it in this description. So, I highly. recommend you look at this picture cuz. the minute you see it, it makes a ton of. sense, but it's essentially like, and. this is me probably butchering it, as a. man, because my hips don't widen, my. legs are effectively quite straight. Yep. So, from my hip down to my toes, it's quite straight, which means that. I'm going to be more sturdy. Say if I. jump up in the air, when I land this, I. know this cuz my dad's an engineer, the.

center of gravity being straight means. that I'm less likely to get injured. But. if you're Is that right right? Yeah. Because your forces are going to be in a. more linear fashion. So you have more um. even distribution of the force through. the knee. Mhm. But for women, as you're. going to describe, our hips are wider. So we have more of an angle to the knee. and the forces aren't distributed evenly. when we land. So when we look at that as. well as the quad dominance that develops. for women because quad dominance so that.

means that we use our um front muscles. of our legs our quads a lot more than. our hamstrings our posterior chain. So. we don't use our glutes and our. hamstrings by default um as well as men. do. So, we're being pulled forward more. and we let we put more emphasis on the. front of our body. Mhm. Um because those. tend to take the the quads tend to take. the bulk of the muscle work that we're. trying to do unless we're really trying. to train hamstrings and glutes to fire,

which isn't the default for women's. bodies because center of gravity again. is lower and you tend to lean forward. So, when we're looking at ACL injury, again, it comes down to one, training. stress, two, mechanics, and if we're not. taught again how to land, how to run, how to jump with the new angles, it. predisposes people to severe ACL injury. And how much more likely is a woman to. have an ACL injury than a man? it is a higher rate but the thing about.

the research is that there hasn't been a. direct comparison because we hear. incidentally that women tear their ACL. and so we see a lot of observational. studies that women have torn their ACL. and we have lots of retrospective. studies that are going back to oh where. are we in our menstrual cycle when we. ACL but there hasn't been a definitive. comparison between men and women. If we. were to look at the current research, we.

see a 3 to four to one ratio of ACL. tears of women versus men. So 3 to four. So So either 3:1 or 4:1 depending on the. research that you look. So three women. for every one man or four women for. every one man. Okay. So 300% difference. Yeah. Okay. So. interesting. I absolutely never knew. that. And in fact, it wasn't until I was. looking through your work that I I'd. seen um I went and did some research and.

there's a big conversation online, a lot. of sort of news coverage around women's. football because it's I think it's the. fastest growing sport in the world. But. I read that this the probability that a. woman tears her ACL muscle is. significantly like hundreds of percent. more likely than a man because of this. in part because of this Q angle. in. professional sport is not as much as. when we're looking at recreational sport. because when we get into professional. sport we have specific warm-ups. especially for football um put out by. FIFA to prevent ACL tear to make sure.

that you are actually properly warmed up. and engaging the right muscles and. learning how to stop pivot because it's. a it's a a mechanism in action usually. is a twisting angle. But if we're. looking at more age group or grassroots. sports because people aren't aware of. this Q angle, they aren't aware of the. quad dominance, women haven't been. taught again how to work with these new. mechanics. Then we're seeing a greater. incidence of ACL tear. 30 female.

football players missed Women's World. Cup in 2023 due to ACL injuries, including in the UK, Lioness, Beth. Meade, and Leah Williamson. Mhm. Which. is staggering to me. Yeah, it's very. high incidence. Y So, is there something. that can be done if you're a woman. that's exercising, that's doing things. like jumping and running and sprinting. and the fast sort of twitch uh sports, is there something you can do to avoid. having an ACL injury? It's all about. being strong. So, if we're looking at.

how what is the biggest thing for ACL. prevention? And I'll bring in one of my. PhD students just graduated looked at um. ACL rehab after surgery. And it comes down to the definitive. difference between quad and hamstring. strength. So if we're looking at. improving the um strength capacity of. the hamstrings, then it offsets some of. the. default strength that the quads are. taking. So if we're able to balance it. from being front loaded to being more.

even loaded, it comes down to, you know, how we were talking about distribution. of forces through the knee with men. being more linear and women having an. angle. Well, if we're able to take that. angle and we can evenly distribute the. load between the muscles of the. hamstring and the quad, so the front and. the back, then it pulls the forces more. centrally. Okay. Which reduces the. stress of one point of contact. Got you. So if we're developing the strength. through the whole posterior chain, we're. looking at glutes, we're looking at.

hamstrings, we're doing a lot of calf. work and we can develop that whole. posterior part. It reduces the incidence. of being pulled in one direction and the. misalignment of forces. The other is the. cutting motion where we're looking at at. um lateral movement. So a lot of times. when we're looking at warm-ups and. you're observing on like kids sports, there's not a lot of lateral. development. So if we're looking at at. um prevent prevention of ACL tear, we. have to work a lot of the explosive. lateral movements as well as jumping and.

single length single leg jumping. And. these are things that aren't really done. in grassroots. But as we start to get. more into professional sport, it's. becoming more and more apparent that we. have to do specific mechanism of injury. prevention. So they're looking at the. sport. We're a football player. We have. a high incidence of ACL potential. So, we have to really develop our posterior. chain. We have to work on our power for. our lateral movements, our step and our. jump. Um, so this is part of what FIFA's.

put in for the warm-up because there is. such a draw. And as you were saying that. 33 women in the World Cup tore their. ACL. Part of it is loading, part of it. is a little bit maybe overtrained before. they go into the World Cup, but a lot of. it has to do with um this imbalance. between the muscles and now having to. address it. Did science just look at. women as. a different version of men? Like sorry, did they just look at women as like a. smaller version of men? Is that what how.

they looked? Yeah, for the most part. because I mean a lot of the stuff when I. was going through school and even now. textbooks. So, I was standing in the. metro in DC uh a few months ago and. there was a young girl who has just. gotten into exercise physiology and I. overheard a conversation and she was. talking about some of the experiments. that they were doing but it never she. never talked about like we have to make. uh you know we're doing women specific, we're doing men's specific and I asked.

her I was like has anyone you know. talked to you about how women's bodies. are different than men's from angles and. muscle morphology? And she's like, "No, what are you talking about?" I was like, "This is a second year in X-Viz." Now, if you look at the textbooks, it's still. a representation of men in the textbook. with regards to images. You have him or. they. You never have her. They might. have a very small section in there about. the female athlete, but usually it's. about the female athlete and anemia or. relative energy deficiency in sport.

It's never about how we can empower. women to use their bodies and their. physiology to their advantage and it's. what almost 2025 now. Is there any element of it of people. being too scared to talk about. differences in physiology amongst men. and women? I don't think so. I mean I. always explain it from historical. perspective when we're looking at the. history and when we started seeing the. modernization of medicine medicine prior.

to the modernization of medicine it used. to be women who are the caretakers if. you're thinking about you get sick you. go and someone has an herbal remedy for. you but when we started medicalizing and. becoming more nuanced in the medical. education women were excluded. So when. we start looking at at the origins of. medicine and who was in the room, it was. men. We start looking at the origins of. science and science development, it was. men. So all the scientific experiments. and everything have always been a. default to men. We look at AI now and.

they're learning from algorithms based. on male data. So even now, healthc care. is still heavily maleoriented. So when we start looking at why women. haven't been included or why women have. been generalized to male data, it's just. been the nature of how things have. developed. Now that we're aware of it. and now we have more research money. coming into women's health, we're. starting to see a change. And part of. the two definitive moments in healthc. care research that really invoked this.

change. One was when we started seeing a. lot of incidences with ambient and the. dosage of medicines where women were. getting into a lot of accidents, car. accidents after they taken ambient. because it was still in their system the. next morning. It's ambient. It's a sleep. aid. Okay. It's a a prescription. strength sleep aid. So then people are. like, whoa, what's going on here? Oh, the dosage for 180 pound man is the same. as 120 pound woman. And we also know. that there's differences in body. composition and metabolism. So a 180lb.

man can take this dose and be fine in. the morning. But 120 lb woman can't take. that same dose and be fine in the. morning. And then we have COVID and the. outcomes of um long COVID and the. differences between the sexes with. regards to women ended up with more long. COVID, men ended up dying. So then in. during the COVID time period, people. were like, whoa, there's sex differences. in the outcomes of this disease. We have. to really start looking at that. So. there are slow things that are really.

impactful on society that now people are. starting to step and say, wait, we have. to really look at women as women. We. have to look at men as men. And is there an element of hormones. impacting injury at all? There's always. an in an impact of hormones when we're. looking at the overlay of hormones and. sex hormones and then the protocols that. have been developed, they don't take. into account estrogen, progesterone, and. to some extent testosterone. So, if.

we're looking at injury and the way that. estrogen makes more um laxidative. ligaments. So, that means that our. ligaments become more lax when estrogen. comes up, which is why people assume. that around ovulation is when people. will have more ACL tears. It's not. because we also see that progesterone. comes in and can have a different effect. on the tendons. But that isn't accounted. for in a lot of of the protocols that. are out there for training and.

prevention of overtraining. We see that. when we're looking at male and. testosterone, there tends to be the more. testosterone, the better for developing. muscle and recovery, but that's not. necessarily true either. So there's. nuances in the socioultural idea around. sex hormones that also impact on our. actual guidelines and protocols. If a. man and a woman came to you and said, "I. want to lose weight." They said, "I'm. 200 lb um and I'd like to lose some. weight." Would you give them different.

advice on what to do? Absolutely. Absolutely would. And it comes down to a. lot of we see this on social media all. the time, calories in, calories out, right? So when we're looking at calories. in, calories out, that idea of that. algorithm can work well in men. And the. reason for that is the hypothalamus. So. if we're looking at the hypothalamus, which is an area in the brain that. controls appetite, it also controls our. endocrine system. So for men, they don't. have as many of what we call our kispin.

neurons activated. So this is uh neurons. that are responsible for when we have. nutrients coming in, they fire and. they're like, "Yeah, okay. We got enough. nutrition coming in that we can now. accommodate for developing muscle and. losing body fat." For women, we have. more areas that are very sensitive. sensitive to to nutrient density. So. when I say this, when we're talking. about.

uh four grams of carbohydrate that come. in and say they're carbohydrate from. fruit and veg, not from ultrarocessed. stuff, those four grams of carb will. affect the bodies differently between. being a man and a woman. For a man, this. four grams of carb coming in primarily. will go blood sugar and then be stored. as liver, muscle, glycogen. For women, it's blood sugar. it doesn't get stored. because for women in order to store. muscle um and liver glycogen you have to. have an activation of uh some enzymes.

from the liver as well as some enzymes. within the skeletal muscle itself to say. yeah okay we want to store this we don't. want to circulate it so then we start. looking at how the brain is perceiving. that so if the brain is saying yeah we. can store this because there's still. enough muscle tissue around there's. still enough blood glucose that we can. keep going and we can survive survive. the day. But for women, it sits there. The blood glucose sits there and when it. starts being used, the hypothalamus is. like, "Okay, where's the extra food.

that's coming in so we can keep going. and countering the stress that's coming. in?" And the best way from a numbers. perspective to look at it is when we are. looking at calorie, baseline calorie. intake just to exist and not get into. any kind of endocrine or hormone. dysfunction and appetite dysfunction. For men, it's 15 calories per kilogram. of fat-free mass. For women, it's 30. So, we start to see men do really well. on things like fasted training. We see.

men do really well on calorie. restriction because the hypothalamus is. not as sensitive to lower calorie intake. or to low carb intake or to high protein. and um high fat intake. But for women, because the hypothalamus has more areas. that are sensitive to nutrient density. What does that mean? Sorry, I'm not even. sure what the hypothalamus is. So, the. hypothalamus is an area in the brain. Yeah. And it's sensing. So, you have.

blood that circulates through the brain. It senses temperature, how hot your your. blood is. Like the thermostat or. something of the body. Yeah. Okay. So, it's Yeah, it is a thermostat. It's the. appetite control center. It's how your. body responds to salt, how your body. responds to protein, carbohydrate, do I. need more, do I need less? So, it's it's. like the control center for the most. part. So, for women who come in and. they're doing fasted training, the. hypothalamus is like, "Wait a second, we.

don't have any blood sugar. We don't. have enough carbohydrate to actually do. this kind of training." So, what I'm. going to do is I'm going to create a. little bit of dysfunction here and I'm. going to start downturning all the other. systems that need the same kind of fuel. because I don't have enough just to do. these muscle contractions. So, that. means you could end up losing muscle. Absolutely. So, if a woman comes to me, it's like, I want to lose weight and. I've been doing fasted training. I get. up, I have a black coffee, I go to the. gym, I do my lifting, I do some of my.

cardio. So, my girlfriend does exactly. that. and then I'm not that hungry. because I did a hard workout at the gym. I might have a protein recovery shake. and then I'll hold off eating my first. meal until noon. I always turn to them. and go, "Well, why did you go to the. gym?" Because all you've effectively. done is burn through your lean mass. Your body needs to have some fuel and. the first thing that goes is lean mass. because it's a very active component of. the body. So, it would be better for you.

as a woman to have maybe 15 grams of. protein if you're going to do strength. or 15 grams of protein with 30 gram of. carb, which isn't a lot before you go do. cardio and strength because this is just. enough to raise your blood sugar to. circulate to the hypothalamus that yes, there's some nutrition coming in. I'm. able to get that blood sugar working. I'm able to get that blood sugar into. the muscle. I'm able to stimulate the. mitochondria in the muscle to actually.

use some more free fatty acids. I'm a. able to tell the liver that I can. actually get through this and use these. free fatty acids instead of storing. them. It only takes a little bit of food. to then have benefit for what you're. doing. For a man, if he's like comes in, I have a black coffee, I go to the gym, I do my strength, I might do a little. cardio, I have my protein afterwards, and then I might delay my meal. like. that's all right because you have a. longer window for recovery. The. hypothalamus isn't as sensitive. You're.

not burning through lean mass. You're. developing a stress on the body and we. know that it's really good that you had. that protein post exercise because. that's going to create some muscle. protein synthesis and hold you over till. you have your meal. Okay. So, I'm going. to try and explain this to you um like. I'm a 10-year-old, which is the exact. level of IQ I have on this subject. matter. So, you've got this hypothalamus. in the brain, which is basically this. sensor. It's trying to figure out, make. sure everything is in I'm trying to. think of that big word that someone.

taught me. Homeostasis. Homeostasis. Everything is. level, right? Yeah. And a woman's. hypothalamus is more sensitive. So if my. partner wakes up, goes to the gym, has. her black coffee, goes to the gym, does. a big workout as she always does, her. body, her hypothalamus is going to. panic a little bit more because it's. going to assume that there's stress on. the body now and it's going to look.

around to see if it has sufficient blood. glucose levels. And it's and it's not. going to because she's not had anything. for a while. She's not going to have the. sufficient blood glucose levels. So, it's going to start burning her lean. muscle mass. Exactly. Which means that. she's she's essentially going to it's. like one step forward, one step back. Right. Super simplified. For a guy has. his black coffee in the morning, goes to. the gym, does the workout, the body. looks, and because the hypothalamus is. less sensitive, it's less requiring of.

there to be higher blood sugar levels, doesn't care as much. So, it's going to. it can also tap more into our liver and. muscle glycogen stores. So, it's going. to say, "Yeah." Okay. Well, we have a. little bit of blood glucose. We need a. little bit more. So, let's tap into. those stores and pull them out. So, it's. less reluctant to go straight for my. lean muscle mass. Exactly. It has an. alternative fuel source. That's interesting. And what's the.

evolutionary story of this? Why why does. this make sense? When we look tribally. like there and I might get hit by some. sociologists are like wait this isn't. completely true but for the exception. there are some tribes that didn't fit. into this but for the general idea from. a biological evolutionary standpoint. when we had times of low calorie intake. so we had to go find the beast or we had. to go out and find calories. It was at a. disadvantage for the woman to be. pregnant or to have a baby an extra.

mouth to feed. So in times of low food. intake, the reproductive system or the. endocrine system of a woman would wind. down. So she would become amenoric or. lose her menstrual cycle for a while. But it didn't affect men in that same. way because they had to lean up and get. fitter and faster because they had to go. fight the beast or they had to go find. the calories and bring it back. So, when. we're looking from that evolutionary. standpoint, in times of low calorie.

intake or low food intake, a woman's. body will start to conserve and wind. down because it thinks that there's a. famine coming. But for men, they're not. as sensitive and the body's like, "Oh, not a lot of calories coming in. That. must mean there's a fight that I have to. prepare for. So, I'm going to lean up. I'm going to address all of my fuel. systems so that I can tap into all these. alternative fuel systems so that I will. have the energy to be able to go and. fight the beast to bring the calories. back. Mhm. So when there's adequate.

calories available, we see that women. will lean up. They'll become uh more. acutely aware. Cognitive function comes. up. Carbohydrates are really important. So we see that there is a development of. egg maturation. we have better endocrine. pulse. So that means that our hormones. that pulse on a daily basis, they. actually have the full pulse um and. return to baseline to encourage the body. to have a really robust endocrine. system. So that's thyroid, that's our.

menstrual cycle, it's all the things. But when we start pulling the calories. back, all that stuff winds down. So what. does that say about fasting? So this is the big debate, right? So we. look at fasting and where it first came. out and it's like okay we see that obese. sedentary individuals who had to lose. weight rapidly for surgery they're put. on a fasting type program to lose weight. quickly in order to survive surgery. And. unfortunately a lot of the times we look.

at clinical research and it gets. transposed over to health and fitness. without actually asking if it's viable. So then we look at the lower end of the. fitness population, people who are just. learning to move and wanting to move and. like I also want to lose more body fat. so that I can move better. Oh, I'll. start fasting. And when we see a lot of. the like push on it, it comes from male. data again. So when we start looking at. women and a lot of women used to come.

with their partners to see me and say, "I don't understand. We're both doing. the same kind of fasted training. He's. leaning up and getting fitter. I'm. putting weight on and getting slower. I'm like, okay, well, we have to. separate it out, right? If you're a. woman and you want to fast for all the. health reasons that we hear about with. regards to telmir length, improving. longevity, improving our body's. metabolic control. Then we work with our. circadian rhythm where we stop eating at. at dinner. So, we have dinner, we don't.

eat 2 to three hours before bed. We have. that overnight fast. And then you want. to have food within a half an hour of. waking up to blunt that cortisol peak. that's natural upon waking. For men, you. can have variations of fasting. You can. do intermittent fasting, you can do a. warrior fasting, and you can still have. benefit. But for women, when we look at. the data, and if we were to do a warrior. fast, which is a 20-hour fast, 4-hour. eating window, for men, we see more.

parasympathetic drive. So, they get that. more focused They have better blood. glucose control. They get uh an. acceleration of body fat loss. They. become more metabolically flexible, meaning their body's able to transfer. between carbohydrate and fat. utilization. For women, it doesn't. happen that way. For women who do a. warrior fast, so that's a 20our. uh fasting and 4hour eating window. They. end up with less blood sugar control. We.

have higher resting blood glucose. We. have more fat storage. we have more. sympathetic drive. So that means the. body's under stress and you're not going. to be able to sleep or recover well and. we see a downturn of the thyroid within. 4 days of doing this. So when we're. looking at the data of fasting again, it's pulling from the men and. generalizing to the women. But when we. start really looking and narrowing it. down and looking at female specific. data, the type of fasting that's out. there in the health and fitness world is.

not appropriate for women. But you would say that the sort of. overnight fast. eating dinner at a earlier time at 6 7. 6:00 and then eating breakfast when you. wake up at say 8 in the morning or 9 or. something 6 or 7. What about the like. 3-day fast you hear about to get into. like autophagy or whatever is? Exercise. is a stronger stimulus for autophagy. than fasting because if we look at. exercise in itself is a fasting state.

What happens during exercise? You start. exercising, your body is trying to. provide fuel. So, it's breaking down. fat. It's breaking down glucose. It's. breaking down amino acids. It's also. creating in a recovery standpoint a. boost of growth hormone, a boost of. testosterone in both men and women that. creates the cell cleanup, which is. autophagy. Right? So, if we're looking. at the difference between fasting and. exercise, exercise is a stronger stress. All the things that we hear about. fasting and longevity, exercise does the.

same. It's a stronger stimulus for it. But the problem is we've become a lazy. society and people think exercise is too. hard. As an exercise physiologist, it. breaks my heart to see people who are. struggling to walk down the street. because we are so used to being. conditioned to a certain temperature in. a room to having a car automatic opener. or Uber come so we don't have to walk. down the road. And I bring up that movie. Wall-E from the early 2000s with the.

little robot who's like wandering around. society and you see all these people on. these floating beds watching a screen. and one of the guys gets kicked off by. Wall-E accidentally falls down. He can't. get up and he's looking around going, "What? Why can't I get up? What what's. going on?" I'm like, that's today's. society where people are are not able to. actually pull their own body weight. around for a significant amount of time. because it feels too difficult. Whereas, if we look at all the stuff that comes.

out with nutrition and all the trends. that come out with nutrition from. fasting to carnivorous diet to, you. know, the oldfashioned paleo, all these. things that people are trying to do, we. turn to exercise and we change the. modalities of exercise. Are we doing. intense exercise? Are we doing low. intensity? Are we doing resistance. training? Are we doing cardio? What are. we doing? All of these things in. exercise are significantly stronger. stress on the body that create more. adaptive changes than all these crazy. diets, but people find exercise too hard.

or they don't have time. So, if I in. that example where a man and woman come. to you, you would you wouldn't recommend. the woman to fast in the same way that. you'd recommend a man to fast. Is there. any differences that you'd recommend in. training if they were if their goal was. to lose weight? Yep, absolutely. So, when we're looking at regardless of age. for women because we see that women. don't age in a linear fashion like men. So, we had definitive points. We have. puberty, we have our reproductive years,

we not have pregnancy in there, we have. pmenopause, we have postmenopause. Each. one of those is a different hormone. profile that it can affect the way we. train. for men, you know, you just kind. of go and we start to see a decline of. testosterone, we get into our late 50s. So, we're talking about women and. training. If someone is coming in and. they're in their mid30s and they're. like, I want to lose weight. Okay, resistance training. If someone comes in. and they're in their mid-40s and. pmenopause, resistance training doesn't.

matter. Resistance training is key for. mobilizing abdominal fat and for. creating more lean mass and also. increasing the amount of cross talk. between their skeletal muscle and our. stored fat through little things called. myioines which are hormone signals that. are released during exercise and. released from the skeletal muscle. So if. we say okay let's do resistance training. to really recmp the body we also want to. increase our protein intake because we. see if you're doing resistance training.

with a higher protein intake then we. have complete remp over the course of 12. weeks and it's a very powerful. motivating tool for women because for. the most part women have been. excommunicated from the strength world. until recently it wasn't kosher for. women to have a lot of muscles we see. like I grew up in the '9s with the. supermodels that were super skinny, right? It wasn't kosher for women to be. in the gym lifting weights. But we see. this evolution change. And so we're. starting to see more research come out.

in women in resistance training. And. it's so imperative for body composition. change to invoke that resistance. training. What about a Zmpeek? A Zimp. Yeah. So I find it interesting because. of all the impact it's having on society. and it is a very powerful tool. The. problem with it is no one is being. necessarily taught how to come off it.

So if we look at osimp and how powerful. the GPL1 is, we see it does invoke an. appetite switch where it mutes the. appetite. It dampens cravings. So we see. as rapid weight loss, but the rapid. weight loss is lean mass. So that comes. back to the wallally picture where you. can't get up because you don't have lean. mass. I fear for society who doesn't. have the opportunity to learn how to. come off it through proper strength. training, exercise modalities, and.

nutrition to support the weight loss. that comes with those impecc. It's. absolutely brilliant tool. is absolutely. a brilliant tool, but we're falling on. the behavior change. If we were to. really teach people how to create that. behavior change while they're using the. tool, then they can come off it and not. be afraid of putting weight back on. Okay. So, would you recommend it for. your for people that come to see you or. ask you for advice? No, because most of. the people that come to see me have. those 10 vanity pounds they want to.

lose. I call them vanity pounds because. they're the ones that creep up and you. can instigate little changes within the. daily life to actually lose them and. keep them off. For people who are. struggling who have severe obesity, they're pre-diabetic, they have other. medical conditions and exercise is. definitely in the too hard basket. because they get breathless just getting. up out of their chair. We need to lose. some weight first so that we can then. implement some of the adaptive changes. of exercise. And do you think women.

should be eating immediately after they. exercise and men or is it does it is. there a variance there at all? There is. a variance because when we look at um. what we call metabolism coming back down. to baseline. So that's your overall body. coming back down to its resting state. For women it happens within 30 to 40. minutes after exercise. For men it's 2. to 18 hours depending on the intensity. So in that we see that if we want to. maximize our body's resistance training.

and muscle building capacity, we need to. give it some food. We need to give it. some really good hit of protein. For. women who are in their reproductive. years, we see 35 grams of protein post. exercise within 45 minutes will tip the. muscle into muscle protein synthesis. For men, it's 20 grams and it can be. two, four, whatever hours later. When. we're looking at returning our muscle. glycogen back to normal, we don't need. as much carbohydrate post exercise as a.

woman as men need more because they tap. more into their stores. So the window of. opportunity for women post exercise is. around that 45 minute mark, but for men. it's open a lot wider. What about the. keto diet for women? I am kind of anti- keto for both sexes. And I say this because when we look at. the gut microbiome, that is so. important. We see a decrease in. diversity as we become more and more I.

guess city dwelling and we are having. less and less of uh variety in our food. chain. We have to take care of the gut. microbiome. If we look at the ketogenic. diet and the high fat intake that comes. with it, it significantly decreases that. gut microbiome diversity, which reduces. the body's ability to synthesize. vitamins, to produce serotonin, to have. this conversation between the gut and. the brain. And for women, we're already. metabolically flexible by the nature of.

being born with more of those endurance. fibers that there's no reason to try to. do a ketogenic diet. Could I not take a. prebiotic or something or just eat more. fruits and veggies and stuff? So, if. you're eating a lot of fruit and. veggies, sorry, not fruit, veggies. No, if you're eating a lot of fibrous fruit. and veg, then that's how we increase the. diversity. Taking a probiotic pill, it. just affects the upper intestines. But. even that is a little bit suspect. because there's only two to three.

companies that are making all the. probiotics that are B2B. So that means. business is business and we don't really. know the long-term outcome and we can. have the overgrowth of some probiotics. that again can cause some dispiosis. Could I be on the keto diet and still. protect my gut microbiome? I don't think so. Not from what I've. seen. Cuz I thought the gut microbiome. was predominantly about like plants. It is. But you also need some protein. that comes from a wide variety of. different sources. And the amount of fat.

that is taken in through a true. ketogenic diet is 70 to 80% of your. total intake coming from fat. And then. that will cause the overgrowth of the. bacteria that relies primarily on fatty. acids, which downregulates all the good. bacteria that relies on our fibrous. fruit and veg. because you're not going. to be able to consume as much fiber as. you need on a ketogenic diet to really. invoke this diversity. For thinking.

about invoking diversity, you want 30. different plants across the week. And on. a ketogenic diet, you're just not. capable of being able to eat as much to. create that diversity. And the reason. why it's really important for women to. have that diversity is because we have. some gut bugs that are responsible for. our sex hormone metabolism. So, we think. about estrogen, progesterone. People. think, "Oh, yeah, well, it's released. from the ovaries and the adrenals and it. goes and it hits our target tissues.". But we have this thing called a second.

pass where our sex hormones will be. taken up by the liver, bound by sex. hormone binding globulin, shot into the. intestines through bile, unconjugated or. unpacked by these little gut bugs, and. then shot back out in the circulation to. work. If we have a lower diversity of. the gut microbiome, we don't have those. bugs that will help with our sex. hormone. um I guess reactivation and the. ability for the sex hormones to work. optimally. What about things like sauners and cold.

plunges? Yeah. Is there a difference of. variance there between men and women? Absolutely. So if we're looking at cold. plunge and it's all the rage, right? So. we're seeing let's get into ice water. It's going to invoke this massive. parasympa parasympathetic response. I'm. going to have lots of cognition and. focus. It's going to create a hormonal. response that improves my blood glucose. It's going to invoke a lot of autophagy. and all the things that we see with. fasting as well. And it gives me this.

incredible sense of being in control. Male data. We look at women who are in. ice bath. It's too cold to invoke those. responses. And the reason for that is we. have differences in um our skin. sensation between men and women in with. regards to thermmorreulation. So women. have more um subcutaneous fat. So more. fat under the skin and we tend to vasoc. constrict and vasoddilate first. So that. means that um blood vessels will.

constrict tightly and then we'll start. to have some internal changes or if. we're too hot we'll vasoddilate first. and then we'll have internal changes to. create sweating. So we look at a cold. plunge there's too much constriction and. it becomes too much of a threat to women. and their bodies don't have the same. response to ice water. We see that 15 to. 16° C or around 55° F is optimal. temperature for women to experience the.

same effect that men have with ice. So. there's a sex difference in the. temperature to invoke the same response. between cold water um immersion. responses. In the sauna, everyone. responds. And we see that the adaptation for sauna. is different again for men and women. because for women with the difference of. the vasoddilation in the heat before. they start sweating, it takes a longer. time for core temperature to come up. So. women can spend more time in the heat.

before they start to get changes in. their hormone responses and blood volume. adaptations. For men, they can go in and. I kind of laugh. My husband will come in. with me in the sauna and I'll sit there. for like 10 minutes. I'm not sweating. yet and he's like pouring. He's like, I. got to get out. And it takes me like 20. or 30 minutes in order to get the same. response. So when we look at the the. actual research and data that looks at. acclimatization and looks at sauna. invoking changes, we see again that.

women need more time both long longer. time for an acute bout and longer time. across the weeks in order to get the. same cardiovascular adaptations as men. Interesting. Didn't realize that. A. typical ice bath is what temperature? It's what? Minus 1 or something. Or is. it I think it's 0 to 4° C. Oh, okay. 0. to 4. Okay. So, you're saying that a. woman should be nearer 15. Mhm. For the. same benefits. Mhm. Yep. At my company,

Flight Studio, which is part of my. bigger company, Flight Group, we're. constantly looking for ways to build. deeper connections with our audiences, whether that's a new show, a product, or. a project. It's why I launched the. conversation cards. I've relied on. Shopify before, who's a sponsor of. today's podcast, and I'll be using them. again for the next big launch, which. you'll hear about soon. And I use them. because of how easy it is to set up an. online store that reaches all of you, no. matter where you are in the world. With. Shopify, the usual pain points of. launching products online disappear.

completely. No matter the size of your. business, Shopify has everything you. need to make your business go to the. next level and better connect with your. customers all over the world. To say. thank you to all of you for listening to. my show, we're giving you a trial, which. is just $1 a month. You can sign up by. going to shopify.com/bartlet. That's shopify.com/bartlet. or find the link in the description. below. One of the um conversations I had. with my partner last year at New Year's. Eve was about creatine. Yeah. Um, I had.

it had some with me on the counter in. our in our home and we were away from. home and I said to her, I said, "Oh, you. should take some." And her response was, "No, that's not for women." And she went. on to explain that she felt it was for. effectively like bodybuilders. Yeah. And. that it would like put on weight. And I. was like, I don't think that's true. I. said, some people on my podcast have. told me that that everyone should be. taking it. And so we sat there and. Googled it. and after googling it for a. couple of um minutes, she was like.

scooping it into her drink as fast as. she possibly could. But there is a. prevailing narrative here. Actually, before you came, I asked AI a couple of. questions about women's perceptions on. creatine and the number one thing was. women thought that it would gain muscle. and gain weight and they thought it was. um for bodybuilders. Yep. That is the. prevailing myths surround creatine. And. what's the expression people use? The. dose or the poisons in the dose, right? So that's part of the creatine. So if.

we're looking at the bodybuilding set. and how it increases muscle capacity and. training status, so if we're using a lot. of creatine, the dosing for bodybuilding. is five grams four times a day with one. gram of carbohydrate. And we see that. creatine helps store water within the. muscle with glycogen. And we want that. for muscle performance because the idea. of being able to train harder with. creatine is to enhance the amount of of.

enzymes that are available for muscle. contraction. And creatine is part of the. buffering system of that. If we're. looking at creatine for health and for. women, the dose is 3 to 5 grams only. once a day without carbohydrate. And the. reason for that is women have around 70%. of the stores that men have by the. nature for the most part don't eat as. much creatine fil food as men and we see. that we use it for a lot of our fast. energetics. So like for our gut health,

for our brain health um and then also. for muscle performance. So, if we're. having women take three to five grams. once a day, it does not have the same. side effects as the bodybuilding set of. taking five grams four times a day. Yeah. Because on the label, it tells me. to take it a few times a day. Yeah. You. don't have to. And it says about. loading. So, this is all the. bodybuilding stuff, right? So, if you. want to load, we see a loading protocols. over the course of two weeks and you're. starting to really saturate the body.

with those five grams four times a day. But for women, we see that 3 to five. grams will fully saturate the body over. the course of three weeks. So that means. that all our fast energetics, like I. said, our gut, um, the intestines, and. we're looking at the integrity of the. intestinal cells and the mucosal lining, and we see that there is a greater. incidence of GI distress in women. I. think it's something like a 5:1 ratio of. women to men having GI distress running. And it has to do with estrogen, but also.

has to do with what we call the mucosal. lining of the intestines. So we want to. maintain the integrity of the mucosal. lining. And creatine is really important. for that. So if we're looking at. saturating the body over 3 weeks with 3. to 5 grams, we improve that integrity. So we have less GI distress. We also see. that there have been randomized control. trials looking at u mood and with. specifically with regards to depression. and anxiety and women who are taking. three to five grams of creatine.

will come out of a depressive episode. more so than women who are just using an. SSRI. So it's really important for brain. metabolism. And when we're looking at that whole. loading strategy for men, that's all. about muscle performance. It's not about. gut health. It's not about brain health. about muscle performance. Just looking at some studies, creatine. supplication, creatine supplementation. for both men and women enhances muscle. strength, increases lean muscle mass, improves highintensity exercise. performance. Yep. Improves recovery, has.

potential cognitive benefits, and. supports in neurodeenerative diseases. Yes. So Abby Smith Ryan is a colleague. out of UNCC and she's done a lot of work. in creatine for women. Um, and yes, we. see that there is an improvement in. muscle capacity because you're. increasing the amount of buffer that's. available for muscle contractions, but. it doesn't have to be the same loading. dose as men. If you are looking for. performance enhancement because you want.

to improve a training block or you're in. physique building or you're going to do. something like high rocks and you need. to have greater muscle capacity, you. might want to try the loading strategy. Yes, you will gain water weight because. you're also storing more within the. muscle. But for the general woman who's. looking for health and performance. benefits, you don't have to do a loading. strategy. You just have to do that 3 to. five grams a day. That loading strategy, for anyone that doesn't know, is. basically some of the creatine boxes. will tell you the labels will say for.

the first week or two weeks, whatever, have a huge dosage of it, and then. thereafter you can kind of ease down the. dosage. M but I think that's kind of. been debunked as something that we all. need to do in all cases. Yeah. Are there. any other supplements that you recommend. women to take based on the way that we. live our lives and the food that we eat? Vitamin D. Okay. Um and why and what. does that do? So if we're looking at. vitamin D, especially vitamin D3, what's. the difference? So you have vitamin D2. and vitamin D3. Vitamin D2 is more of a.

storage form. It's not converted to. being a functional form. So if you take. D3, it's already a functional form. So. that means your body is going to take it. in and use it as it should be. So we're. looking at a vitamin D3 supplement. Then. we are able to boost circulating levels. of vitamin D3 or vitamin D that's usable. and it's used for every system in the. body. And it's really important now. especially I'm coming from the southern. hemisphere just out of winter. You're in. the upper parts of the northern. hemisphere in the middle of winter and.

we don't get enough sun. And when we're. looking at now all the worries for skin. cancer, people are slip, slap, slop, you. know, sunscreen, hat, clothes, and we. don't get enough. And then if we're. looking at our food supply, there's not. a lot of proper vitamin D rich foods. You're looking at mushrooms or fortified. dairy products. And those tend not to be. consumed a lot nowadays. So, if we're. improving the amount of vitamin D3 that. we're taking in and the amount of. vitamin D that's circulating, we have. better recovery. We have better muscle.

function. We have better brain health. We have pretty much every system is. affected in a positive way. Omega-3. Yep. Omega-3s are good. Especially as we. get into perry and postmenopause, we. want to look at uh how inflammation. affects the cells. So, if we look at. using a really good vitamin or sorry, a. really good omega-3. um and omega uh I guess we're looking at. the types of omega-3s that are in there. then we're enhancing cellular integrity.

that our estrogen used to help with. anti-inflammatory properties. It's not. something that everyone needs to take. It's something that we have to consider. when we start getting into our late 30s, early 40s. Maybe get a blood test for. it. See how your omega-3 levels are and. then consider dosing with a really good. fish oil. What about iron levels? Because I've had. a friend of mine who is a woman um tell. me that their iron levels were low. This is common and we see that there's.

the incidence of. a change in the. norms when we're looking at the. reference ranges. And I find it really interesting that. the reference ranges that we have for. all of our blood markers are shifting to. a sicker population. What's that mean? So if we're looking at the bell curve. and we're taking population data, overall our society has become sicker. So now we're seeing that the norms for.

iron used to be a ferotin of 50 or lower. was considered low ferotin. Now it's 26. for women. We look at testosterone. Lower testosterone now for men is. normal. And it is because that is just. what a sedentary population now. presents. But if someone is active and. comes to me and says, you know, I had my. iron tested and it's sitting at 26 and. they say that it's normal, but I feel. awful. It's like that is not normal. If.

you were part of my high performance. athletic crew, we want to see minimum. 50, preferably 100. So, we have to. supplement you to bring it up. And it's. a really specific area of how we. supplement. It's supplementing every. other day with a very high bioavailable. iron. And when we start looking at how. we are supplementing every other day. with either carbonyl or glycinate, then. we're really able to boost that ferotin. and people start to feel better. What.

does iron do and how does someone who's. iron deficient feel? So iron is. responsible for that those hem groups. that I was talking about with oxygen. carrying capacity, hemoglobin, the. blood, the blood cells. Yeah. Their. blood cells. So iron is responsible for. allowing those hem groups to carry. oxygen. If we have low iron, then we. don't have enough oxygen circulating. throughout the body or being used by the. body. So you feel very flat, very tired. You start to get really dark circles.

under your eyes. Um it a mission to do. anything. So it's like a deadended. fatigue. And people are like this this. isn't stressoriented fatigue or jet lag. oriented fatigue. This is fatigue where. I can't even walk up the stairs without. getting winded. What foods have iron in. them or iron rich? So, primarily red. meat is where a lot of people turn to. But if you are more plant-based, then we. look at leafy greens. We look at nuts.

and seeds, but using a lot of vitamin C. with that, preferably adding um a little. bit of olive oil on our salads. uh maybe. cooking in an iron skillet to improve. the amount of iron that comes into the. food. And we also know that we have to. time it with what we call hepsidin or. hepsetin depending on where you come. from in the world. It's an enzyme that. decreases the body's availability of. iron absorption. It increases with.

inflammation. So it's higher after. training for about 5 hours in men and in. reproductive women. And it can be. elevated for up to 24 hours in late. perry and early post-menopausal women. So basically, how do I supplement? Supplement before training or at night. away from training. When you think about. men's and women's diets, is there. anything to be aware of when we're. thinking about because you know, me and. my partner will sit down for dinner and. we share the food. Yeah. So we the food. comes out, we even when we go to a.

restaurant, sometimes we'll order the. exact same thing and we'll both finish. it. Yeah. Is that okay? Is it is it working for. you guys? I think part of the reason I. ask is when I did some um blood glucose. tests. Yeah. I think I I think if I. recall this correctly, my partner was. more sens glucose sensitive than me. And. I recall them telling me that women are. have a greater blood sugar sensitivity. than men. So this is the interesting. part. So when we're looking at blood.

glucose and insulin sensitivity, it changes across the menstrual cycle. So it depends on is she in the high. hormone phase or not. If she's in the. high hormone phase which is after. ovulation. uh we have more insulin resistance and. the reason for that is when progesterone. comes up it's trying to take in. everything as a building block for the. uterine lining. Insulin resistance what. does that mean? So insulin is the. hormone that that is.

a signal for your muscles to uptake. glucose to store it. Okay. So it sends a. signal to grab the glucose out my blood, store it, which brings my glucose levels. down. Exactly. Okay. Exactly. When. progesterone's in the picture, insulin. doesn't do its job very well. Okay. Because pro progesterone wants to have. more carbohydrate available to be able. to then send it to the developing. uterine lining, the endometriosis,

because the endometriosis becomes a. really thick layer of. tissue that is really rich in glycogen. So progesterone increases lean mass. breakdown or you increase your protein. intake to have more circulating amino. acids. It also makes your body less apt. to store glucose because it wants both. amino acids and glucose to build this. lush uterine lining. When we get into. pmenopause, we have more insulin resistance because.

there's confusion across all systems of. the body and the body is like, I don't. know if I'm going to need this glucose. or not, so I'm not going to store it. And there's a misstep in the liver and a. misstep in the mitochondria. which is responsible for tapping into. using free fatty acids with. carbohydrate. So the body is having a. higher level of blood glucose because. the body doesn't know if it should store. it or not. So when your partner gets. tested depends on how old she is and.

what phase of the menstrual cycle or if. she's well beyond that. So that the part. of the menstrual cycle where her. progesterone is highest is when she's. going to be most sensitive to sugar. Exactly. And that is typically between. day 19 and 23 if she has a normal cycle, a regular cycle or whatever. Well, the. caveat there is ovulation. Is she. ovulating or not? Okay. And. unfortunately, we're seeing in the. modern fertility literature that women.

are having more and more anovulatory. cycles. But you won't necessarily know. that because you'll still have a bleed. What's an an ovulatory cycle? You don't. ovulate. Why? They're looking at a lot. of the stress that's coming on today's. society, the food system, a lot of the. um I guess trendy diets that are out. there. A lot of women aren't eating. enough to support their immune or their. menstrual cycle function to allow the. egg to actually develop to then. instigate ovulation. And it's not just.

in active women, it's across the board. So, as it relates to this menstrual. cycle, 28 days, I'm going to put it on. the screen for anyone that doesn't. understand it, um, or doesn't know what. I'm referencing right now, but I'll also. link it below in the comments in the. description. Sorry. Um, 28 days long. There's the early felicular stage, the. late felicular stage, the mid lutulu. lutio. It's exactly what I said. Yep. And the late lutio phase. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. As it relates to nutrition. and exercise. Yeah. How do I need to. adapt across these 28 days and why do I. need to adapt? So again, it comes down. to the ovulation. Right. So if we're. looking at the low hormone phase, so. that's your follicular phase. Day one to. six roughly. Yep. And even up to. ovulation, which is where? So around day. 12 or 13 on 28 day cycle. So right at. that peak 12 to 13. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. there. So, this is where um the immune.

system is really robust and we're really. resilient to stress and we can have a. lot of carbohydrate and protein intake. and we're not going to be that affected. We're more sensitive to glucose. It's. going to be pulled into places it needs. to be. If we ovulate after ovulation, like I said, progesterone comes up. It's. only produced if we ovulate because. progesterone is produced from the. breakdown of the housing of the egg.

Progesterone, like I said earlier, will. hold everything in the blood. It will it. will tell the body, we need more blood. glucose, and we need that glucose to. come to the endometrial lining. We also. need more amino acids. So, we're going. to break down lean mass or I'm going to. make this person crave more protein. oriented foods so that I can have amino. acids to come in. So, if we're looking. at adapting, right, the only real thing. that we need to be aware of is after. ovulation, if we're going to do a. highintensity workout, we need to make. sure that we have some more.

carbohydrate. So, we're actually eating. before and after having some good. carbohydrate that comes in, which is. from day 14 onwards. Yep. So, from day. 14 onwards, if we are going to do a lot. of high intensity workout or high um a. big workout, y then we need to just make. sure we're having more carbs. Yeah. And then we have around a 12% increase. in our protein needs because we have a. higher amount of amino acids that are. needed. One, because we're developing. tissue, but two, we also have skeletal.

muscle turnover that we need to keep up. with. Interesting. So, is there any day in the cycle where. we shouldn't be working out hard? That's. individual. So, it used to be early days. when menstrual cycle research was coming. out. We saw on a molecular level that. the low hormone phase was where we could. really push it and we could really get. really good adaptations because our body. was really responsive to stress. Then.

after ovulation, we see a fuel shift. Like I said, progesterone is is really. conserving or pulling glucose away. Estrogen's also sparing it and saying, you know, you need to go to the uterine. lining. So, with the change of hormones, we have a change our fueling system. We. also have a change in our core. temperature where it goes up by about. 0.5 or 0.5 degrees Celsius or around 1°. Fahrenheit. So our heat tolerance isn't. as great. But because we're seeing more. and more an ovulatory cycles, we have to.

rely on the woman to track her own. cycle, which is hard. Well, it doesn't. have to be as hard as what people think. Okay? It's the nuance of how do I feel. today? So, I tell women instead of. really dialing it in and saying, "Oh, well, I think I ovulated today, so that. means I should back it down." When you. go to the gym, use what we call. sessional rating of perceived exertion. So, I tell people most of the time. you're going to go in, you're going to. have a physical and a mental, right? Physical, how are you on a 1 to 10? Mental, how are you on a 1 to 10? If.

physically you're an eight and mentally. you're a two, warm up really well and. see if that mental capacity comes back. up. If not, then we're not going to push. too hard. We're not going to work on. technique because mentally you're just. not there. Physically, maybe you are. If. you go in and you're low on both of. them, then it's going to be a technique. and recovery day. You're not wasting. time at the gym. You're going to make it. work for you by really working slow. under the bar, nailing technique, not. getting the heart rate up so much. And. as we're going through and tracking how.

we feel, we're going to start to see. patterns across our cycle. And we can. anticipate those patterns and say, "Okay, well, I know on day 21 I always. feel flat. So, I'm not going to schedule. a highintensity workout that day. I'm. going to sleep in, maybe do some. mobility, recover, and really know that. I'm not going to nail it that day. So, I'm not going to go push myself because. I don't want to beat myself up. mentally." Because women do this. They're like, "I suck. I don't know. why." But it comes down to that.

physiological variability. And for a. woman to track her own cycle, understand. her own nuances. If you're really on to. it and you know when you ovulate, then. you can take those molecular structures. into play where you know you can hit. your PR and you can really push it in. the low hormone phase. After ovulation, you're going to switch it to more. endurance, maybe not so high intensity, but more tempo type work. And then about. the four or five days before your period. starts where your immune system's more. compromised, you just kind of want to.

dial it down, use it as D lo because we. can take the strength and conditioning. ideas of building up macro micro cycles. and de lo across the menstrual cycle. So. where in the cycle am I going to be. strongest if I'm a woman? So if we're. looking from a cognitive and a. physicality aspect, it's right around. where that estrogen starts to come up. So around day six. Day six to about day. 13. Day 13. Yeah. Okay. And where am I. going to be least strong? Theoretically.

from about day 23. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. As those hormones start. to come down. Yeah. To 28. Oh, okay. To. the very end. Okay. The very end. And. the variation of those hormones coming. down is what instigates a total. inflammatory response. So if we're. looking at inflammation which drives the. menstrual cycle to start the bleeding. phase, we have a change in our immune. system. Bleeding happens at 28 around. day 28. So we say bleeding is day one in.

a cycle is day 28. Of course. Yeah. Day. one to day six typically. Okay. Fine. Yeah. What questions should I be asking. about the menstrual cycle? Well, you. know the questions that are never asked. is like what is a typical menstrual. cycle? Yes, we have a textbook like from. 1 to 28. That's very, very rare. Most. women have a cycle that might be 21 to. 40 days. The bleed cycle is something. that's never talked about. What does a. bleed cycle look like? Is it really six.

days? No. Every woman has a different. one. And if you're tracking what that. bleed is, maybe you have two heavy days, a light day, and another couple of days. of spotting, and then a heavy day. That's your norm. When you start having. changes in the norm, that's when you. want to look and say, "Am I getting into. low energy availability? Am I not. recovering well enough or am I in my. late 30s early 40s and I started getting. into pmenopause. The bleed pattern is so. important for people to understand. because that's how we have a true.

inherent. identification of stress. So we see. changes in the bleed pattern as well as. the length of the menstrual cycle itself. when the body is not adapting to stress. And stress isn't just our daily life. stress. It's exercise stress. And that. disruption could also be just not having. a a bleed. Yes. Because a lot of women. talk about that. They talk about having. irregular periods or just the period. didn't come this month. Is that often an. indicator of the body being under.

stress. Yes. And that stress can be not. just a bad emails at work, but it could. be you're working out too much or. something. Yeah. Working out too much, not eating enough is a big one. We've. done some really interesting research. looking at recreational female athletes. So, people who go to the gym three or. four times a week, right? They're not. training specifically for anything but. life. Mh. And they tend to fall into. some of these trendy diets like fasted. training or maybe they're eating too low. carbohydrate because they're on a low. carb, highfat or high protein diet and.

they're missing on the carbs. And again, that interrupts the hypothalamus. So, we. call it low energy availability. when. someone isn't eating enough for the. hypothalamus to say, "Yeah, all of our. systems can work and we can adapt to. exercise." So, we see on the upwards of. 55% of recreational female athletes in a. low energy state or subclinical low. energy state and it comes out as changes. in the bleed cycle or a missed period. That's why I tell women, look, if you're.

tracking, you can do sessional RP, but. really track that bleed pattern and the. length of the cycle because if you start. to see changes in the length and changes. in the bleed pattern or just changes in. the bleed pattern, it's an opportunity. for you to take a pause, say, what have. I done from a training perspective or a. sleep perspective or somehow increased. my stress that my body's not adapting. well? Because if we do that first then. we don't get into a clinical position of. amenorhea which is no menstrual cycle.

and poor bone health and psychological. issues and things that all come with. endocrine dysfunction. Why is bone. health so important for women in. particular? When we see bone it is. driven by estrogen progesterone and an. interplay between estrogen progesterone. we see a peak velocity or peak bone mass. hitting around the time we're 20ish and. then we'll start to degrade it if we're.

not creating multi-directional. stress on the bone through jumping. through resistance training and if we. start to lose bone density and we become. osteopenic or osteoporitic meaning we. have very thin bones they break easily. and it's really really difficult for. someone who is in their reproductive. years to to be able to do all the things. they want to do if they don't have a. really strong robust skeletal system. And this is why vitamin D is also so.

important. Yes. Okay. And men and women. have different bone density. Yep. Men. have thicker bones and tend to not have. as much degragation of the bone because. they don't have estrogen progesterone. perturbations that are changing the. signaling to. increasing bone density or stopping the. growth of bone. Right? So women have. this perturbation throughout their. menstrual cycle that will change how. their bones are responding. And then. when we don't have a menstrual cycle or.

we get put on an oral contraceptive. pill, we have changes in that signaling. which changes our bone density. And you. mentioned sleep a second ago. Yeah. How. is sleep relevant and what's the. variance between men and women as it. relates to sleep? Sleep's really. important because that's where we have. our parasympathetic drive and our. ability to recover. So the whole I. shouldn't say the whole reason because. nobody really knows why we need to sleep. other than the fact this is where our. physical and our mental capacities. become solidified. So that means that.

our body fully repairs while we're. sleeping. Our memories get solidified. Our brain becomes a little bit relaxed. and can repair itself while we're. sleeping. For women, we see changes. across the menstrual cycle in our sleep. phases. So when we are slow sleep phases. meaning our deep sleep versus our late. sleep versus our dream sleep and we need. to get in that really super deep sleep. in order to have optimal reparation. When we are getting close to the bleed. phase then we see more interruption in.

the sleep and it's really really. apparent for women who have really bad. PMS or uh other conditions that happen. to affect estrogen progesterone. We have. an increase in our core temperature from. progesterone. We have changes in. melatonin pulse because of of estrogen. So when women are talking about having. really poor sleep right before their. menstrual cycle, it is because we have. these sex hormones that are interfering. with our sleep phases. For men, they. don't have that perturbation. For men,

we see that um chronologically they tend. to have a melatonin peak that's later. than women. So they tend to want to stay. up later and they can sleep in but they. can also have shorter sleeps. So there's. a chronobiology aspect that comes to it. with regards to how our body actually. falls asleep and wakes up. And there's a. sex difference in that chronobiology. Do. men or women suffer more with jet lag? Women suffer more with jet lag. And if.

so, why? Why is that? Because if we're. looking at our circadian rhythms and how. long they are, like I said, melatonin. peaks earlier for women than men and we. have a slightly different What does that. mean? Sorry, melatonin. So melatonin is. what allows our body to actually get. into sleep and our wind down for that is. melatonin production. So a lot of people. will start to feel really sleepy at like. 4 in the afternoon, right? It's just a. natural occurrence. Our core temperature. comes up, we start to have melatonin. production. And for women, a melatonin.

peak for sleep to for sleep onset hits. around 900 p.m. on average. For men, it's about 10 or 11 p.m. because our. circadian rhythms are different. So. women are on a shorter side than men. So. if we're talking about jet lag, for. women going east, it's a little bit. easier because it's a shorter. For women. going west, it's a little bit harder. because it's longer. So there's a. difference. Men will do better going. west and worse going east. Women go. better east than going west.

Quick one. I want to tell you about a. new health product/gadget that's had a. big impact on my life, but also my. partner's life. They are a sponsor of. this podcast, and me and my partner are. both quite obsessed with it. Now, it is. the Bon Charge infrared sauna blanket. Have you ever heard of an infrared sauna. blanket before? Infrared sauna blankets. are designed to give you the exact same. benefits of infrared sauners that you. find at gyms and spas and health clubs, but they're portable. You can use them. at home. You can use them when you. travel and anywhere in between. It heats.

the body directly rather than the air. around you. And for me, when I use the. Bon Charge infrared sauna blanket before. I sleep, my sleep scores go up. I'm. better recovered the next day when I go. to the gym because it helps with. circulation and stiffness and muscle. soreness. But also, infrared is. associated with really improving your. skin. They are a sponsor of this podcast. and because of that, they've offered all. of you listeners a 25% discount when you. try Bon Chargers infrared sauna blankets. today. To get that discount, use the. code diary at checkout and you'll also. get free shipping and a year-long.

warranty. Head to bondcharge.com/diary. and get started on your infred sauna. journey today. When it comes to food, I. trust my gut and I trust Zoe, a business. I'm an investor in and today's sponsor. of this podcast. All the nutritionists. I've spoken to have highlighted just how. misleading information is out there when. it comes to food. Take healthy halos. The claims you see on packaging that say. things like low sugar and nothing. artificial are often a sign of foods to. avoid. Have you ever noticed a health. claim on fresh fruit? You probably get. my point. Understandably, there's loads.

of distrust out there. Who should you. turn to for accurate information? I use. Zoey, which is backed by one of the. world's largest microbiome databases and. most scientifically advanced atome gut. health tests. Zoey gives you proven. science whenever you need it. As a Zoey. member, you'll get an athome test kit. and personalized nutrition program to. help you make smarter food choices that. support your gut. To sign up, visit. zoey.com and use my code steen10 for 10%. off your membership. That's zoie.com.

code Steven10. Trust your gut. Trust. Zoe. Use this term chronobiology. Mhm. I have. no idea what that word means, but that's. the biology of our chrono circadian. rhythm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And is. there anything else that men and women. should understand about our. chronobiology. that's pertinent to making sure that. we're high performing and healthy? Yes. So this comes down to our hormone and. pulses throughout the day. So we see. that cortisol which everyone talks about.

as being a bad thing. It's not a bad. thing. We have a peak about a half an. hour after we wake up. And for women we. need to eat in order to dampen that. peak. For men it just naturally dampens. So you don't need the food to instigate. dampening of that peak. We see a. luteinizing hormone pulse in both men. and women. But the um amplitude of that. pulse is greater in women because it's. responsible for how our body responds to. developing an egg so that it can be.

fertilized. We also see estrogen pulses. again to pulse throughout the day and. then throughout the week before we can. come to one of those estrogen peaks. So. our body is is aligned for these pulses. and we have a 20ish 24ish hour clock and. within that we have cellular clocks. So. we have a cellular clock that's telling. us to pulse luteinizing hormone every so. often. We have a internal cellular clock. that's telling estrogen to pulse every.

so often. And we can change that through. differences in sleep, change that. through our light wake time, and through. food intake. How important is it to time. our meals and be intentional about when. we eat? It's pretty important if we're looking. about how our clock is aligned. Yeah. And how we are repairing while we're. sleeping. Because if we're eating late. and we've shifted everything late. because people eat late, they go to bed, they wake up, they're not hungry, they.

don't dampen that cortisol peak for. women and then they don't sleep very. well because if you are eating right. before bed, your body is using. parasympathetic response to digest. instead of invoke really good sleep. So. we see a lot of this circadium. misalignment that's occurring. We see it. a lot in shift workers. We see it a lot. in our global society of staying up late. and working and having screens. And the. impact on metabolism is that it changes. appetite hormones for women where it.

will increase the craving for. carbohydrates and the desire to eat more. and they don't ever feel full. For men, it's just a craving aspect and so. they'll eat according to cravings. It's. called hedonistic eating rather than a. true change in appetite hormones. So. people who are having difficulty. sleeping and difficulty changing body. composition for overall health, we shift. it. We're like, okay, we want to shift. to be able to eat during the day and to.

have regular food at regular intervals. so that our body has fuel to do what it. needs during the day. We stop eating at. dinnertime, which is around 6 or 7, have. a good 2 to three hours before we go to. bed. so that when we do go to bed all. our parasympathetic responses can go. into getting really good sleep. architecture. So that means that we get. really good um phases of sleep for. optimal physical mental recovery because. if we have that then we have better. blood glucose control so better insulin.

responses. We're able to have more. energy during the day and our all of our. systems work better. I I had noticed. something intriguing about me which is. when I wake up early to go to the. airport. So, say I have to wake up at. like 4:00 a.m. to go to the airport. I. am so hungry. Yeah. And I've never. understood why. Because if I wake up at, say, 9:00 a.m., I don't wake up as. hungry. Yep. Why? Your brain is. perceiving a stress. And this is that. hedonistic where you're like, uh, my.

brain is like, I'm under stress and I. need fuel. I need glucose. So, it thinks. like a line has woken me up. Yeah. [ __ ] hell, that makes so much sense. Honestly, it's so it's so it's always. confused me because sometimes I have to. wake up super early, so 2 3 a.m. to go. get a plane or something. And when I get. to the airport, I'm so hungry. But like. a day today, what time is it? It's 1:00. p.m. Mhm. And I haven't eaten yet. I. know you're mad at me, but I haven't. eaten yet because I don't want to eat. before I do a podcast because then it's. going to like it like messes with my.

articulation. So, I can't get the words. out my mouth. Okay, that's maybe that's. [ __ ] I'm saying this to someone. that knows what they're talking about, but maybe there's something else I could. eat. But I just find that if I eat. something heavy or if generally if I eat. the way that I've always rationalized it. is all the oxygen's like going to my. digestive system. Is that nonsense? That's nonsense, is it? Actually, yeah. So, can I eat before I do a podcast? Yes, you can. And it won't impact my. ability to articulate myself. If you're. really worried, then you can have like a. protein shake or protein water. You. could sip protein water while you're.

having a podcast. So, then you're. getting amino acid circulating. Your. hypothalamus is like, "Sweet. Okay, we're all good to go. But I hear you. because I don't like to have a lot of. food in my stomach when I'm going to be. concentrating a lot or trying to. articulate. So, I eat things that are. high in protein but easy to digest. Okay, try that. So, like protein, water, a protein shake would be a good idea. before or hard-boiled eggs. Hard-boiled. eggs. Okay. Okay. Let's talk about. menopause then. Yeah. Starting with. permenopause. Yeah. You got a smile on. your face. Oh, it's something that I'm.

really excited is coming into. conversations now because three years. ago, no one would say the word. I knew. we had made it as women in society when. the nightly news was talking about. menopause. So, let's go. I'm excited. One thing I saw which was quite an. interesting observation is in the UK. this year on Apple. Mhm. The most shared. podcast episode in the whole country of. all podcasts was a conversation I had. about menopause. Nice. And. congratulations. That's awesome. It gets. even better. And in the US, the most.

shared podcast episode of all podcasts. in the US on Apple. was the same guest on Mel Robbins. podcast talking about menopause. I go, that's that's incredible. And also crazy. that in both countries, the number one. most shared podcast episode was the same. guest talking about the same topic. Yep. That doesn't surprise you? Nope. Why? Well, I know this guest and she's very. good at articulating, but also we have.

seen this upsurge of women like myself, my age group, put myself out there. We. all grew up on the understanding that we. were women, we were a little bit. different from men, but no one told us. about menopause. And now all of a sudden, there are these. extreme changes that are going on. And. people are like, "What's going on?" And. if I were to take a typical case.

scenario of a woman who's in her 40s and. goes to a doctor and goes, "You know. what? I can't sleep. I am trying to. exercise, but I'm so tired. I can't do. it. My body is changing, and I just. don't know what's going on.". The general response to her three years. ago would have been, "Well, look, you're. a woman in her 40s who's highly. stressed. You have kids on one side. You. have older parents on another. You're.

trying to You're right in the middle of. your career. You have a really busy. life. Here's an SSRI for anxiety and. depression is going to help you sleep. But now with all the conversations that. have been going on, a woman in her 40s. will go to a GP and for the most part. will be told, "Well, you're in your 40s. It might be permenopause.". And this is such a relief to so many. women because they're not being gaslit. anymore. They're not being told that. what they're feeling isn't true. It's. just something to do with stress. Now.

they're being told, "You know what? All. your systems in your body are being. affected because your sex hormones are. changing. So remember puberty when. everything was changing and no one wants. to live through puberty anymore. You're. on the other side of that. You're in. reverse puberty where all of your. hormones are starting to downregulate. So every system in your body is being. affected. Let's unpack it. Let's see. what's going on. So when Mary Cla comes. on and talks about menopause as an MD.

and talks about all the things that. she's seeing in her clinic, women are. like, "That's me. Now I understand I'm. not alone." And that's the power that's. coming through all of these. conversations and all of these groups. like Naomi Watts Swell Group, right? They're talking about menopause. So now. women are listening and keying in and. going, "Wait a second. there actually. are things that are occurring to me and. I can get information which is why these. podcasts are taking off because now. women are like I'm not just crazy there.

are actually things happening to me and. people understand that now what can I do. to help myself because it isn't being. taught in med school a lot of the. doctors that are out there are getting. information because they are seeking it. out themselves. and looking to people like Mary Cla and. other like Louise Nuome in the UK who. are actually talking about it and saying. these are the things that are happening. and these are the things that we know. that we can do. Gosh, it's a shame,

isn't it? It's a shame that there must. have been so many women over the years. that went to their doctor and got really. bad advice. Yeah. And were given. anti-depressant medications and stuff. like that. M well the other side is. women who are in their reproductive. years who have something like PCOS or. endometriosis. or they're having irregular periods and. they're put on an oral contraceptive. pill because the doctors don't. understand that there are other things. that are going on that will cause a. misstep in menstrual cycle. So I get. frustrated when teenage girls go to a. doctor with irregular cycles and they're.

handed OC's like Skittles. It's like. that's not appropriate either. We have. to actually understand what's going on. We know that there's irregularity in a. menstrual cycle until people are around. 3 years post the onset of their first. menstrual cycle. It's not unusual and OC. is not the answer. If someone's still. having irregularity, we have to look at. lifestyle and say, "Hey, what's going. on?" They're having really heavy. menstrual bleeding. It's not about using. an OC to control it. Let's look and see. why is that happening. Maybe we use an.

IUD or maybe we use some other. medication to help. But there's a lot of. things that are not taught in med school. that women are having to find out for. themselves. And so when we listen to. podcasts and we're hearing information. from medical doctors who now have a like. a vocal aspect of being able to touch so. many people, it resonates. So now. doctors are trying to find that. information if they have the time. But. we know the health care systems in most. countries, doctors are so pressed for. time, they don't have that opportunity. So let's talk about perry menopause.

What do I need to be thinking about? What what age group typically is. pmenopause? Um I guess it can be a wide spectrum, but when does that typically start and. how do I need to be thinking about my. nutrition and exercise in that phase? So. around age 35 up to I think they say now. the average age of menopause is 52 years. old. Okay. So what's happening in that. 15 to 17 year span is you're having such. a change in the ratio of estrogen and.

progesterone. Early days, a lot of it appears as I'm. not adapting to my training. It's not. working well. I'm putting on more body. fat. I'm becoming squishy. I'm not. sleeping well. I'm having lots of mood. changes. It must be. This is why a lot of doctors. say, "Oh, it's because you're busy and. stressed out. Here's a serotonin. reuptake inhibitor." But no, it's. changes in the ratios. How can we dial. it in? We look at menstrual cycles and.

is it becoming shorter or longer? What's. our bleed phase? We get into our mid to. late 40s. It's very apparent because. there are a lot of different changes. that are occurring. We're seeing a. change in our blood lipids. There's an. increase in our low density lipoprotein, which is the quote bad cholesterol. Even. if a woman's never had an issue with it, now all of a sudden she's having issues. with her cholesterol. We see A1C coming. up, which is a marker for diabetes, pre-diabetes, without any real change in. what they're doing other than the fact.

that their exercise isn't working. Their. sleep is a little bit disrupted and. their body composition is completely. changing. And when we're looking at. what's happening, we see that decrease. in gut microbiome diversity because we. don't have as many sex hormones. So that. impacts serotonin, that impacts vitamin. production, that impacts parasympathetic. drive, and we're also seeing a misstep. in the way liver is reading fat and fat. circulation. So we're seeing free fatty.

acids that are coming around. And. because we don't have as much estrogen, we don't have as much anti-inflammatory. responses. So we can't pull as many free. fatty acids into the mitochondria and. the skeletal muscle to be used as fuel. So they circulate and the liver has a. signal that goes we're going to change. that free fatty acid into what we call. estrified fatty acid which then gets. stored as visceral fat and visceral fat. is that dangerous fat that gets stored. around the organs which is why women.

start to get like a minnow pot or. develop a lot of abdominal atyposity. So. people will start seeing this and going. I don't understand what's going on over. the past six months I put on 10 pounds. or or I put on four stone right what's. going on my training is not working. become very despondent and if they don't. know they're in perry menopause then. they don't know that that's what's. happening and how can they find out if. they are well it's really symptomatic. because we can't use blood tests there. isn't a definitive blood test to say hey. you're a permenopausal you have to have.

a a history of everything of getting. blood tests like every week and no one. does that. So we have to go on. symptomology. really using the socioultural aspect of. how a woman is experiencing life with. her symptoms and really listen and say. okay well here are the things that are. going on and we try to instigate non. hormonal options there's exercise. there's lifestyle and then if all else.

is really going to [ __ ] then we can look. at using some menopause hormone therapy. just like we were talking about oimpact. being a tool so hormone therapy can also. be a tool does it matter my pre-existing. health when I approach menopause if I'm. if I've got more weight on my body is. that going to impact the amount of. symptoms that I experience of menopause. it can yeah it can we see that there is. a greater incidence of vasom motor. symptoms or hot flashes es for women who. have a greater amount of body fat. Um we.

also see that if you have more lean mass. then you're going to have less of an. incidence of insulin um resistance. So. body composition has a huge play in. symptomology. And then you also have to look at what. your mom went through because if your. mom had a really really horrible time. with lots of vasom motor symptoms and. body composition change there's a. genetic link. doesn't necessarily mean. that you're going to experience the same.

thing, but you have a greater. predisposition to having more severe. symptomology. How should I be thinking. about exercise as I'm going through my. menopause journey? So, we look, as I. said earlier, exercise is a really good. stress for adaptive change. So, when we. start getting into all these ratio. shifts of estrogen, progesterone, we. can't rely on our hormones to create. those adaptive changes. And so what I. mean by that is like estrogen is. responsible for muscle protein synthesis.

and and strength and power for women. Progesterone and estrogen responsible. for bone bone growth, bone density. We. can't rely on our hormones for that. anymore. We have to look for an external. stress. So this is where exercise comes. in. So if we're looking specifically at. how to invoke a stress to change our. insulin sensitivity in in other words. improve our blood glucose control we. need to do proper highintensity work. So. that's sprint interval or it's true. highintensity work to create a stress.

that's high enough to have the brain say. hey this is a really really really. strong stress I need to invoke changes. within the skeletal muscle to be able to. store more glucose. I also need to. invoke more changes in the mitochondria. so that it can use and store more free. fatty acids and I'm going to have more. miaakine released from the skeletal. muscle to tell the liver don't estify. those fatty acids. I want to use them at. rest so we don't get viscerial fat gain.

So hit workouts. Yeah. Plyometrics. Yeah. Which is what jumping and stuff. Resistance training. Absolutely. Weights, right? Yeah. But specific to. the type of weights that you're doing. What about frequency of training and how. long I train for? We want to think about. less volume and more quality. Okay, so. we're not going to the gym for an hour. and a half every day. We're looking at. doing short, sharp, highintensity cardio. or we're looking at doing powerbased. resistance training three times a week.

and the cardio can be uh two to four. times a week. Why why shorter durations. of training? We're looking at intensity. So, if we're doing long slow stuff or. we're doing moderate intensity zone 2. stuff, that's not really going to create. the kind of stress that we need to. invoke change. What about um sauners and. stuff like that? Yeah, absolutely. We. see that women who go into the sauna um. get better control over things like hot. flashes because it's all about.

temperature and temperature control. So. if the blood going through the brain is. really hot, it understands, hey, this is. what hot is and can then have subsequent. peripheral changes for controlling heat. and understanding heat as well as. sensual changes to understand heat. And. what about food through menopause? Is. there a specific diet that I should be. thinking about for menopause? We want a. higher protein intake, of course, because as we get older, we become more. anabolically resistant to protein. So.

that means our body isn't responding as. much to the amino acids. So we need a. higher dose to invoke muscle protein. synthesis and bone regeneration, nerve. regeneration. Also knowing that the recommended daily. allowance that's out there for protein, especially for women, is based on. sedentary older men. So it's not really. adequate for what we're looking for. Uh. so we want higher incidence of protein. at regular intervals across the day. And. again taking care of that gut. microbiome. So we want a lot of colorful.

fruit and veg that also helps with uh. blood glucose control as well as. creating that diversity so that we are. able to reduce the amount of of bacteria. that is responsible for storing body. fat. We want to have that great amount. of diversity of gut microbiomes to or. great diversity of the gut microbiome to. have more of the bacteria that says, "Hey, you know what? We want more lean. mass. We want to have less body fat." I.

noticed earlier on when you talked about. hormone therapy, you referred to it as. menopausal hormone therapy as opposed to. hormone replacement therapy. Yeah. Most. people say HRT, right? Right. Why do you. say something different? Yeah. I got a. lot of my chops and menopause work. through the women's health initiative. and I'm not going to apologize for that. cohort because this study was designed. to look at older women going through.

perry menopause or going through. menopause and does it work. So there's a. whole issue around WHI and other things, but when we look at specifically women. who are going through menopause or. pmenopause into menopause, we're not. looking to replace hormones. We're. looking at a therapy to attenuate. change. If we're looking at hormone. replacement, that could be thyroid, that. could be uh premature ovarian failure. that we need to have some um estrogen,

progesterone. We're looking at menopause. and pmenopause in itself. We're looking. at using a hormone dose that is a very. low physiologic. um level so that we don't have. symptomology. So the body is not going. to have vasom motor symptoms and is not. going to have mood changes and is not. going to really have an incredible. amount of body composition change. If. we're replacing hormones, people have.

the idea that it's going to be the same. physiologic level as when we were in our. reproductive years, and that's not the. case. Is there also bit of an underlying. notion that women are using these. hormones to as a way to stay young? And. when you say replace, you're kind of. implying that they're fighting against. something. Yep. That we are replacing. our hormones to stay young and be in our. reproductive years. So if we look at. western society and I like to use um the. cast of friends as an example from you.

know 90s to now right and we see that. the cast of friends women all have a. certain look that they've had to. maintain in order to be viable in. Hollywood which means that they're thin. they have good body composition they are. don't have any wrinkles they have really. good lustrous hair and that's the image. that women have now of how they're. supposed to age where men not so much we. see the images of men who are aging. becoming more uh demure I guess so they. have gray hair they have some wrinkles. they're very distinguished and that's.

the image we have of men aging there's a. huge disconnect in society so when women. start to experience pmenopause it's a. definitive point of aging and people are. afraid to age everyone's afraid to age. for the most part the idea of aging. gracefully or embracing it hasn't quite. gotten to mainstream So when someone's. like, "Here's some hormones to replace. so you can stay young." People are like, "Great." But we look at the research and. it's not about staying young. It's about.

slowing the rate of change that's so. severe that creates quality of life. distress. And we also see that the. research isn't there for maintaining. brain integrity to prevent dementia, which is the other thing that's floating. around. It's not there. there's no. evidence to show that taking hormone. therapy is going to stop dementia. So, there's lots of things out there that's. a a disconnect and trying to say it's. menopause hormone therapy is one way of.

getting people to understand that it's. not an anti-aging agent. It's something. to help with this phase of a life and to. help get through so that we don't have. severe changes to our daily life and who. we are as a person. Is there anything. else that we need to talk about as it. relates to menopause? Just want to make. sure we've covered it all. Covered it. all. It gets better on the other side. I. think that's something people don't talk. about is pmenopause is such the. conversation now with all the the.

conversations around hormone therapy, exercise, lifestyle, but no one talks. about the other side once you've gotten. through pmenopause. Do my joints stop. hurting? Do I stop having all these. sleep interruptions? Do I stop having to. worry about my bones? And if you're. putting in the right lifestyle changes. to maintain bone health, yes. On the. other side, everything becomes a new. normal without the pain and dysfunction. because it's the shift in hormones. that's creating so many different issues.

with every system of the body. So if we. get through this with really good um. interventions for preventing or. attenuating the changes that are. happening, the other side is much. better. And for women with PCOS or. endometriosis, is there anything that. they need to be thinking about as it. relates to exercise or nutrition? Yeah. So there's. I guess a huge misstep in the. understanding that endometriosis. uh is an inflammatory.

um response. Yes and no. There's some more emerging. evidence that it could be a bacterial or. a viral um cause. But with regards to. endometriosis, we see that if you're. able to use some cold water. uh therapy for the most part, so a cold. water plunge around the time that you. think about ovulation where after. ovulation you have endometrial growth. It reduces the total inflammatory.

response so that the endometrial lining. doesn't grow as much. So you don't have. as much growth of endometrial tissue. outside of the uterus. Okay. So we're. looking at how do we stop that extra. growth. We can use environmental cues to. help with that. So that's that cold. therapy. If we look at PCOS, it's all. about um a higher androgen count and we. have more insulin. resistance and how we're training for. exercise is all about how do we control.

that insulin resistance. So we look at. high intensity, we look at using. resistance training. So women who have. PCOS, they have irregular cycles. So we. can't use the menstrual cycle as an. indication of stress. So we have to look. at things like heart rate variability. We have to look at properly putting in. intensity and resistance training to. work with blood glucose levels to again. attenuate some of the symptomology that. comes with PCOS. What is the most important thing we.

haven't talked about that we should have. talked about? That this conversation. isn't just for women. I'm very grateful that you're very. excited about the menstrual cycle, but. um I think a lot of people kind of tune. out when we start to hear conversations. about women and conversations about sex. differences, but it's for everybody. because if we're going to push forward. and understand how we need to do. research to improve the health of women. and men, then it's a combination in the.

conversation. So I yeah I'm very appreciative to men. who come into the conversation and men. who are in the room and very. appreciative of you for having these. conversations because then it pushes it. out and makes it normal across the. board. Yeah. And the reason I I have. these conversations is because it's a. lot of my conversations at home with my. partner. We spend so long talking about. her menstrual cycle and about uh when. she's ovulating and she talks to me a. lot about how she's feeling because of. that and uh certain things we should be.

doing even when we're thinking about. like how to spend the weekend. It's. often decided through the context of. like her cycle and then obviously we're. trying to we're in the phase of life. where we're going to try and have kids. now. So we're thinking a lot about it. there. But then just more broadly, you. know, if something is having such a. significant impact on a woman's life, which I think it does. I think it does. have significant impact, things like. menopause and the menstrual cycle. generally, then I'm going to interface. with women my whole life. If I have a. daughter, I have sisters, I have a mom,

I have a partner. So, if I can better. understand um them because I understand. how their body is working, then we're. going to have more successful. relationships. And frankly, a year ago, I didn't even know what menopause was. Yeah. So, yay. To be fair, I didn't even. know what a menstrual cycle really was a. year ago. I knew that women had periods, but I couldn't tell could have told you. with great confidence that different. things happen throughout the cycle and. that it was 28 days long. I really had. no idea. And I'm like 32 years old and I. don't really care about admitting that. People like you, but I don't really care.

because I know there's a lot of people. out there that feel the same way and and. we're like not allowed to admit that. because then you get people attack you. or whatever, but who cares? I had a PhD. student who came up to me and he's like, "My partner has something to tell you. and it's going to come through me." I. was like, "Okay, what is it?" He said, "She said to tell you that I know more. about the menstrual cycle than she. does." I was like, "Awesome." Cuz he was. looking at women in the heat versus men. in the heat. So, we had to understand.

the menstrual cycle and how all that. came. And then that upskilled her. So, it came in the opposite. Instead of her. trying to upskill him, he upskilled her. We don't really learn about this stuff. in school. No, nobody ever told me about. it in school. Do women learn about it in. school? Not anymore. It's been cut. All. the health programs and everything have. been cut. So, um, yeah, it's really like. I give talks and the rooms get full of. parents who want to know what's. happening. Like I give talks for young. kids who are, you know, surf life-. saving or whatever, just explaining it.

all. And then I'll get questions for. women, well, what about pmenopause? What. about menopause? What about IUD? What. about this? What about that? because. it's not taught and it's it's um yeah, it's really scary. All of the subjects. we've discussed today are in these two. excellent books. Well, there's even more. in the books, but all the subjects that. I touch on pretty much all of them are. in either of these two books. Next. level, which is your guide to kicking. ass, feeling great, and crushing goals. through menopause and beyond, and your. book raw, which is match your food and. fitness to your unique female physiology.

for optimal performance, great health, and a strong body for life. I would not. have been able to read that if I had. eaten today. I would not if you if you. had had a protein shake, you would have. been able to read it. Even better, maybe. we have a closing tradition on this. podcast where the last guest leaves a. question for the next guest, not knowing. who they're going to be leaving it for. And the question that's been left for. you is, if you have children, what is. the most important message you would. pass on to them? If you don't, then what. is the most important message you would.

have passed yourself as a child? I have. a daughter. Mhm. And the most important. messaging that I keep giving to her is. to be empowered, to ask questions and to. be empowered. And she'll often say, "Well, what does that mean, Mom?" I'm. like, "You have a question, you ask it. Don't be afraid to ask it because if you. don't know, you don't know." So, society. is very changing. I want you to be. empowered and be educated to and have. the confidence to ask questions. Stacy, thank you so much for the work that you. do. It's incredibly important and it's.

so wonderful that people are shining a. light on some of these differences. between men and women. Um because yeah. like me and my partner train together we. work out we it's a big part of our. relationship in life and now having. studied your work which was absolutely. fascinating to me because it was again. it was a first for me to understand that. there was any differences in these sort. of things that have been pushed on us in. ter in culture in terms of exercise. nutrition cold plunges fasting etc. Absolutely fascinating. But it's been a. huge conversation now between me and. her. We were talking before I came on. air um about this and it's really turned.

the lights on and it's actually made a. lot of things make sense. Excellent. A. lot of things make sense that we were. pondering. So, thank you so much for the. work that you do and I highly recommend. everybody goes and checks you out. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Are you. going to make her eat before you go. training now? Well, I don't know. I. actually did send her a screenshot of. that of that particular part. Um because. we have the same routine, especially on. like the weekends when we're together. We get up, we have the coffee, then we. go to the gym. Yeah, we train and then. we go and try and find something to eat. after. So, she could have cracking coffee.

Yeah, maybe that's a good idea. Maybe. I'll leave it up to her. I listen, I'm. never going to tell her what to do, so I. just sent her the research. Okay. Encourage her. Yeah. I was like, look at. this. You'll find this interesting, so. we'll see. Awesome. Thank you so much, [ __ ]. [Music]. Do you know that 80% of New Year's. resolutions fail by February? It's. because we focus too much on the end. goal and we forget the small daily. actions that actually move us forward. Those actions that are easy to do are. also easy not to do in life. It's easy.

to save a dollar, so it's also easy not. to. Making one small improvement each. day, one tiny step in the right. direction has a big difference over. time. And that is the 1% mindset, which. is why we created the 1% diary, a 90day. journal designed to help you stay. consistent and focus on the small wins. and make real progress over time. It. also gives you access to the 1%. community, a space where you can stay. accountable, motivated, inspired along. with many others on the same journey. We. launched the 1% diary in November and it. sold out. So now we're doing a second.

drop. Join the wait list at the. diary.com and you'll be the first to. know as soon as it's back in stock. I'll. put the link below. [Music]. [Music].