What GLP-1 Drugs Are Teaching Us About Appetite and How It Affects Weight Loss for 40+ Women | 61

0:00 SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that on some days eating well feels almost effortless?

0:04 SPEAKER_00: That you're not white knuckling it, you're not fighting your hunger, you just feel satisfied.

0:08 SPEAKER_00: You eat normal amounts, you're done, you move on with your day, and you don't think about food again for hours.

0:15 SPEAKER_00: And then there are those other days when no matter what you eat, you cannot feel full.

0:19 SPEAKER_00: You finish a meal and you want more.

0:21 SPEAKER_00: You're standing in front of the pantry an hour later, you're craving things you don't even particularly like, and you feel like something is wrong with you, like you just don't have the willpower that other women seem to have.

0:32 SPEAKER_00: What if I told you that both of these experiences, effortless satisfaction and relentless hunger, are not about willpower at all?

0:39 SPEAKER_00: What if they're about hormones most women have never heard of?

0:43 SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking about GLP1.

0:45 SPEAKER_00: You've probably heard of those drugs, Zempix and Mohanero, and they're everywhere right now.

0:51 SPEAKER_00: But here's what's really interesting and what I think is actually the most valuable conversation to have.

0:57 SPEAKER_00: These drugs are teaching us something profound about how our appetite actually works.

1:02 SPEAKER_00: And that information is useful to every single woman listening, whether you are on one of these medications, considering them, or have zero interest in them whatsoever.

1:12 SPEAKER_00: Because if you understand how your appetite hormones work, you can start working with them and not fighting them.

1:19 SPEAKER_00: And that is when everything changes.

1:21 SPEAKER_00: So put those earbuds in, take a deep breath, and let's prioritize the best version of you.

1:31 SPEAKER_00: Hey beautiful, and welcome to Weight Loss in Midlife, where we ditch the diet cycle and finally lose fat, build muscle, and feel confident again.

1:39 SPEAKER_00: I'm Jennifer, a certified women's coach who's been where you are, stuck in the all-or-nothing cycle, navigating midlife changes and wondering why what used to work doesn't anymore.

1:50 SPEAKER_00: After years of restriction and burnout, I found a better way, built on macros, mindset, and muscles.

1:55 SPEAKER_00: Each week, I'll share the strategies to help you lose fat, boost your metabolism, and build lasting strength and confidence.

2:02 SPEAKER_00: Let's dive into today's episode.

2:11 SPEAKER_00: Hey beautiful, welcome back to the Weight Loss in Midlife podcast, a show for busy women in midlife who want to finally lose fat for good, feel confident, and have the energy to live their best life.

2:20 SPEAKER_00: If you're listening right now and thinking, this is exactly me, I do so well during the week, and then everything unravels by the weekend.

2:27 SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear this.

2:28 SPEAKER_00: This isn't about more willpower.

2:30 SPEAKER_00: It's not because that you are lazy, and it's definitely not because you need another stricter plan.

2:35 SPEAKER_00: What's actually happening is there's a disconnect between what plan you're trying to follow and the life that you're actually living.

2:41 SPEAKER_00: And until that gets solved, you'll keep repeating the same cycle, starting over every single Monday, feeling frustrated and wondering why this just doesn't stick.

2:50 SPEAKER_00: That's exactly why I created my midlife and fat loss strategy call.

2:54 SPEAKER_00: This is a private one-on-one 60-minute session where we take a deep look at you, your habits, your schedule, your triggers, your patterns.

3:02 SPEAKER_00: We uncover what's really causing the weekends overeating, where you're unknowingly being too restrictive, and what's happening in those moments when stress or emotions take over.

3:12 SPEAKER_00: But here's the difference.

3:13 SPEAKER_00: We don't just talk about it.

3:14 SPEAKER_00: Together, we're gonna build a simple, realistic plan that actually fits your life.

3:18 SPEAKER_00: So instead of being good all week and losing control on the weekends, you'll know how to eat in a way that feels balanced, satisfying, and consistent.

3:25 SPEAKER_00: Instead of guessing what to do, you'll have a clear, personalized 30-day approach.

3:29 SPEAKER_00: Instead of starting over again and again, you're gonna finally feel in control of food.

3:32 SPEAKER_00: And the best part, you're gonna start feeling like yourself again.

3:36 SPEAKER_00: You're gonna lose that weight.

3:37 SPEAKER_00: You're gonna feel more confident, more energized, feel stronger in your body, and love to see the reflection in the mirror.

3:43 SPEAKER_00: If you're ready to stop the cycle and actually make this work for your life, go to jenniferpeak.com backslash coaching and book your strategy call today.

3:51 SPEAKER_00: Today, I'm starting with one of my clients.

3:54 SPEAKER_00: I'll call her Diana.

3:55 SPEAKER_00: Diana was 52.

3:57 SPEAKER_00: She had been managing her weight her entire adult life, always watching what she ate, always being careful.

4:02 SPEAKER_00: She wasn't someone who over ate dramatically or lived on junk food.

4:05 SPEAKER_00: She ate reasonably well.

4:07 SPEAKER_00: She exercised and still she carried about 30 pounds more than she wanted to.

4:10 SPEAKER_00: And no matter what she tried, she just couldn't get the weight, the budge.

4:15 SPEAKER_00: When what Diana described to me when I first met her, and what I hear from so many women that I work with, was this constant low-grade hunger that never quite went away.

4:25 SPEAKER_00: That food noise in your mind where you're always thinking about the next meal.

4:29 SPEAKER_00: Even after a full meal, she never felt truly satisfied.

4:32 SPEAKER_00: She always wanted just a little bit more.

4:34 SPEAKER_00: Food was always somewhere in the back of her mind, and she spent an enormous amount of that mental energy every single day just managing that hunger, talking herself out of going back to the kitchen, white knuckling it through the afternoon and negotiating with herself at night.

4:48 SPEAKER_00: She wasn't exhausted from exercising.

4:51 SPEAKER_00: She was exhausted from the mental load of managing her appetite every single hour of every single day for decades.

4:57 SPEAKER_00: So when GLP medications became more widely available, Diana's doctor suggested that she try one.

5:02 SPEAKER_00: And a few weeks in, she said something to me that I never have forgotten.

5:07 SPEAKER_00: She said, For the first time in my life, I understand what it feels like to not think about food.

5:12 SPEAKER_00: I eat a meal and I'm actually done.

5:14 SPEAKER_00: I walk past the kitchen.

5:15 SPEAKER_00: I don't even try anything.

5:17 SPEAKER_00: And she asked me a question that made me think of so many of you out there.

5:23 SPEAKER_00: Is this what other people or women feel like all of the time?

5:27 SPEAKER_00: And it absolutely stopped me in my tracks because what she had discovered wasn't just a medication working.

5:33 SPEAKER_00: She had experienced maybe for the very first time what normal appetite signaling actually feels like.

5:38 SPEAKER_00: She can suddenly see the gap between what the hunger hormones have been telling her for all these years and what a well-regulated system is supposed to feel like.

5:46 SPEAKER_00: And that gap, that difference, that is exactly what we are talking about today.

5:50 SPEAKER_00: Because whether you are taking a GLP1 medication or not, understanding that gap is going to be the key to changing your relationship with hunger for good.

6:00 SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in today's episode.

6:02 SPEAKER_00: Put in those earbuds, take a deep breath, and let's prioritize the best version of you.

6:07 SPEAKER_00: What is GLP1 and why is everybody talking about it?

6:11 SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the basics.

6:12 SPEAKER_00: GLP1 stands for glucin-like peptide one.

6:17 SPEAKER_00: But here's the simple version.

6:18 SPEAKER_00: GLP1 is a hormone your body already makes.

6:21 SPEAKER_00: Your gut produces it naturally, primarily in response to eating.

6:26 SPEAKER_00: When you eat food, especially protein and fiber, your gut releases GLP1 into your bloodstream.

6:31 SPEAKER_00: And GLP1 does several really important things in your body.

6:34 SPEAKER_00: It signals your pancreas to release insulin to manage your blood sugar.

6:38 SPEAKER_00: It slows down how quickly food moves through your stomach.

6:41 SPEAKER_00: So you feel full longer, and it signals to your brain to say that you've eaten enough and you can stop now.

6:47 SPEAKER_00: In other words, GLP1 is a key part of your body's built-in fullness and satisfaction system.

6:52 SPEAKER_00: It is literally the hormone responsible for the feeling of being done with a meal.

6:57 SPEAKER_00: So those medications on the market, like Ozempic, work by either mimicking GLP1 or boosting the action of related hormones.

7:05 SPEAKER_00: They essentially flood the system with a much more powerful, longer-lasting version of this fullness signal, which is why people in these medications describe that dramatic reduction in hunger and food noise, that constant background chatter about food that is so many of us are used to living with.

7:21 SPEAKER_00: And when millions of people started talking about these drugs and reporting the same experience, saying things like, I had no idea that I didn't have to occupy my brain with all this food noise, the scientific community started paying very close attention to what these women were saying and what was actually happening and what these drugs are revealing about how our appetite actually works.

7:40 SPEAKER_00: So here's where it gets really interesting and really relevant to you and weight loss, regardless of whether you're taking anything or not.

7:48 SPEAKER_00: What the GLP1 research is revealing is that many people, especially women in midlife, the appetite signaling system is not functioning the way it's supposed to.

7:56 SPEAKER_00: And there is a specific identical reason why.

7:59 SPEAKER_00: First, chronic dieting is going to disrupt your appetite hormones.

8:03 SPEAKER_00: Years of calorie restriction, especially the severe restriction that most diets require, actually suppress your body's natural GLP1 response.

8:12 SPEAKER_00: And studies have shown that after significant weight loss through dieting, hunger hormones like your ghrelin, that's the hormone that makes you feel uh hungry, go up and satiety hormones like GLP1 go down.

8:23 SPEAKER_00: Your body is essentially fighting back, making you feel hungrier than you naturally would be and less satisfied when you eat.

8:30 SPEAKER_00: This is not a character flaw in you.

8:32 SPEAKER_00: This is your biology, and it's the one of the main reasons most diets fail over a long period of time.

8:38 SPEAKER_00: Second, is that your blood sugar's inability to silence your society signals.

8:43 SPEAKER_00: When your blood sugar is constantly spiking and crashing from skipping meals, eating too many refined carbohydrates and processed foods, and not getting enough protein, your GLP1 response is blunted.

8:54 SPEAKER_00: You eat a meal and your body doesn't register the fullness signal properly.

8:58 SPEAKER_00: So you just keep eating or you feel like you're hungry again very quickly.

9:01 SPEAKER_00: That roller coaster of blood sugar is directly connected to the roller coaster of hunger as well.

9:07 SPEAKER_00: They're on the same ride.

9:09 SPEAKER_00: All right, and the third is poor sleep dramatically reduces GLP1 and your fullness hormones.

9:14 SPEAKER_00: This one is significant for so many women over 40, especially if you're dealing with disrupted sleep from perimenopause, like having the hot flashes as your as the night goes on.

9:24 SPEAKER_00: When your sleep is deprived, ghrelin, your hunger hormone goes up, and leptin, your fullness hormone, is going down.

9:30 SPEAKER_00: And your GLP1 response is impaired when this happens.

9:34 SPEAKER_00: So studies have shown that even one or two nights of poor sleep can make you significantly hungrier the next day and significantly less satisfied with the same amount of food.

9:42 SPEAKER_00: And that is why when you are tired, you're gonna notice that you are craving sugar, you are craving processed foods, things that are not good for your body.

9:50 SPEAKER_00: It's not your imagination, it's actually what your hormones are doing and how they're reacting to not getting enough sleep.

9:58 SPEAKER_00: Okay, the fourth reason is chronic stress dysregulates the entire appetite system.

10:03 SPEAKER_00: Elevated cortisol, which is again your stress hormone, directly interferes with GLP1, signaling this that stress makes you hungry in a very specific way.

10:12 SPEAKER_00: It drives cravings for high calorie, high reward foods like sugar, like fat, like salt, because your brain is trying to manage the threat it perceives.

10:21 SPEAKER_00: And it makes it much harder for your body to register fullness after eating.

10:26 SPEAKER_00: And if you've noticed that you eat more when you're stressed and it still doesn't feel like enough, this is why it's happening.

10:33 SPEAKER_00: And the fifth one is low protein intake means a weaker GLP1 response.

10:38 SPEAKER_00: Here's one you can act out on, I'm sorry, act on immediately.

10:41 SPEAKER_00: Protein is one of the strongest triggers for GLP1 release.

10:45 SPEAKER_00: When you eat enough protein, your gut releases more GLP1 and you're gonna feel fuller faster, you're gonna stay satisfied longer, and your blood sugar is going to stay more stable.

10:56 SPEAKER_00: Women who are chronically undereating protein, which is most of us women, especially those who have been on low calorie diets because you're not getting in enough calories from protein, are essentially leaving their own natural fullness system under-resourced.

11:10 SPEAKER_00: More protein means more of your own GLP1.

11:14 SPEAKER_00: That is a good result of eating protein.

11:17 SPEAKER_00: So I want to step back for a second and make sure the bigger message is landing here because I think it's super important.

11:24 SPEAKER_00: For a long time, we've been told that weight management is simple math: calories in, calories out.

11:29 SPEAKER_00: And if you're struggling, it's because you're eating too much, or you're not trying hard enough, or you need to do more cardio to burn off the calories that you're eating, or it's just a simple lack of self-control.

11:40 SPEAKER_00: What the GLP1 research is making undeniably clear is that this is a massive oversimplification.

11:46 SPEAKER_00: Your appetite is not a willpower issue, it is a hormonal system.

11:50 SPEAKER_00: It's a complex responsive influence.

11:53 SPEAKER_00: And when the system is dysregulated, struggling with hunger is going to be expected.

11:58 SPEAKER_00: It is the biological outcome of having your system not working the way that it should.

12:03 SPEAKER_00: So the women who seem to eat effortsly and stay a healthy weight are not more disciplined than you.

12:07 SPEAKER_00: Their appetite hormones are working better.

12:10 SPEAKER_00: And the good news is the really good news here is that you can influence how those hormones work without having a prescription to a GLP1.

12:19 SPEAKER_00: And it may not happen overnight, not with just one change, but consistently over time with the right inputs, the right changes.

12:26 SPEAKER_00: You can shift how your appetite hormones behave.

12:28 SPEAKER_00: You can feel more satisfied after meals, you can experience less food noise.

12:32 SPEAKER_00: You can reduce the mental load of managing your hunger every single day.

12:36 SPEAKER_00: That is what I want for you.

12:38 SPEAKER_00: And here's how we can get there.

12:40 SPEAKER_00: So before I give you the action steps, I want to give you the mindset shift that matters more than any tactic.

12:46 SPEAKER_00: Stop thinking of hunger as a character flaw to be overcome through your willpower.

12:51 SPEAKER_00: Start thinking of hunger as a signal from a system, a system that maybe dysregulated and a system that you can help to regulate by doing things consistently.

13:00 SPEAKER_00: When you're overly hungry or can't feel satisfied, or stop thinking about food and that food noise that spirals around in your brain, ask yourself, what is my body trying to tell me?

13:10 SPEAKER_00: What does this system need right now?

13:13 SPEAKER_00: Am I tired?

13:14 SPEAKER_00: Am I underfueled?

13:15 SPEAKER_00: Am I under too much stress?

13:17 SPEAKER_00: Have I been restricting too hard for too long?

13:20 SPEAKER_00: This is not permission to eat everything in sight.

13:22 SPEAKER_00: This is an invitation to get curious instead of judgmental about what is happening, what is going on in your body.

13:29 SPEAKER_00: Because the path forward, the path to weight loss and feeling better and to looking better, and to having the confidence and the strength and the energy that you're looking for is not going to come through shame and the way that you talk to yourself.

13:42 SPEAKER_00: It's through understanding and taking that understanding and making intentional changes in your life and working on the daily things, your daily habits that make the biggest difference.

13:54 SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here are three things you can start doing right now that are going to support your own natural GLP1 response and your body's built-in fullness system.

14:02 SPEAKER_00: Action step one, front load your protein at every meal, especially breakfast.

14:07 SPEAKER_00: I cannot say this enough.

14:08 SPEAKER_00: I think I've said it on the last three or four episodes.

14:11 SPEAKER_00: Breakfast is the most meal that women underfuel with protein and it sets the tone of hunger for the entire day.

14:18 SPEAKER_00: Listen, I know that we're busy, but with just a little bit of planning and a little bit of prep, a breakfast with 25 to 30 grams of protein triggers a much stronger GLP response than a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast.

14:30 SPEAKER_00: Think eggs with the Greek yogurt, a protein smoothie, a cottage cheese with fruit.

14:35 SPEAKER_00: When you start your day with a strong protein anchor, you can give yourself fullness hormones that are best possible chance to work for you from the moment you wake up.

14:45 SPEAKER_00: Please don't forget that I have included in the show notes a guide to balanced meals that is completely free, where it gives you foods that you can eat and create a balanced meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and healthy snacks.

14:59 SPEAKER_00: Action step two, pair every carbohydrate with protein, fat, or fiber.

15:04 SPEAKER_00: Always.

15:05 SPEAKER_00: This is a practical blood sugar stability habit that you can build.

15:08 SPEAKER_00: Every time you eat a carbohydrate, fruit, bread, rice, oats, whatever it is, pair it with something that slows the blood sugar response.

15:15 SPEAKER_00: Protein, a healthy fat or fiber.

15:18 SPEAKER_00: This one habit blunts the spike and crash cycle, that roller coaster of feeling starving, eating everything in sight, and then crashing afterwards.

15:28 SPEAKER_00: This keeps your GLP1 most active and dramatically reduces the mid-afternoon cravings and evening hungers that can derail so many of us.

15:36 SPEAKER_00: You don't have to give up carbohydrates.

15:38 SPEAKER_00: You just have to stop eating them alone.

15:41 SPEAKER_00: And if you feel stuck here, grab my free guide, What to Eat After 40 Fat Loss.

15:45 SPEAKER_00: In the guide, I give you the foods that you should be eating for a balanced meal.

15:48 SPEAKER_00: Action step number three, treat sleep like a fat loss strategy.

15:52 SPEAKER_00: I know this sounds way too simple, but the research on sleep and appetite hormones is some of the most compelling data that we have.

15:59 SPEAKER_00: Seven to nine hours of sleep is not a luxury.

16:02 SPEAKER_00: It's a biological requirement for a well-functioning appetite and for your system to work the way that it needs to in order to lose weight.

16:11 SPEAKER_00: If you're chronically sleeping six or less hours, you're going to be fighting your hunger hormones every single day.

16:17 SPEAKER_00: And no amount of willpower or discipline or meal planning are going to fully compensate for that.

16:22 SPEAKER_00: Pick one thing this week to protect your sleep.

16:25 SPEAKER_00: A hard stop on screens at 10 p.m.

16:27 SPEAKER_00: A consistent bedtime, a cooler bedroom, something that is going to help you sleep better or get to bed earlier.

16:34 SPEAKER_00: Your hunger the next day is going to thank you.

16:37 SPEAKER_00: All right, I want you to understand your appetite system and how it works here.

16:41 SPEAKER_00: You can't make changes to something if you have no idea what to change.

16:44 SPEAKER_00: Start by eating more protein.

16:46 SPEAKER_00: Prioritize your sleep.

16:47 SPEAKER_00: Stop restricting so severely and start making the intentional changes to work with your hunger hormones and keep them regulated so that you can lose weight and just feel more confident and sexy.

16:57 SPEAKER_00: That is what I want for every woman listening to this episode.

16:59 SPEAKER_00: Whether you take a GLP1 drug or not, you deserve to understand how your appetite actually works.

17:05 SPEAKER_00: You deserve to stop blaming yourself for something that was always hormonal.

17:09 SPEAKER_00: And you deserve to know that your body is just waiting for the right support.

17:13 SPEAKER_00: Let's give it that support.

17:14 SPEAKER_00: Let's show our body the love that it deserves.

17:16 SPEAKER_00: If this episode opens something up for you, please share it with another woman in your life who needs to hear it too.

17:21 SPEAKER_00: And if you are ready to stop managing hunger through sheer willpower and start building an approach that works with your body and your hormones, that is exactly what I want to do with the women I coach.

17:32 SPEAKER_00: Come find me at jenniferpeak.com backslash coaching.

17:35 SPEAKER_00: I would love to work with you.

17:36 SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening and for choosing to invest in your health today.

17:39 SPEAKER_00: These small moments of care are what's going to be build your real confidence, your lasting strength so that you can live your best life for good.

17:48 SPEAKER_00: All right, ladies, remember that you are beautiful and strong.

17:50 SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep showing up for yourself.

17:52 SPEAKER_00: Keep celebrating those small wins and remember one choice, one change, one meal at a time.

17:57 SPEAKER_00: I hope you have an amazing week.

18:05 SPEAKER_00: Before you go, I have one quick favor to ask.

18:08 SPEAKER_00: If this episode empowered you, it would mean so much to me if you could help spread the work so more women can use back to build the muscles and feel unbelievably strong and confident.

18:18 SPEAKER_00: The best way to do this is to make three feet.

18:22 SPEAKER_00: It takes just ten seconds.