Ep #396: Part 1 – Weight Loss Coaching Myth Busters Series

Well, hello there my friend. Welcome to today's episode. I am really excited to do a little three part series for you here. What we're going to be talking about today and over the subsequent next two episodes is a little something I'm calling MythBusters. 

Maybe you're familiar with the show MythBusters. I did not spell it similarly, because I certainly don't want any trademark infringements or anything like that. I didn't spell it as one word as they do, but we're going to be busting some myths today and over the next couple of weeks about some things that a lot of people seem to think about weight loss coaching somewhat, particularly as it pertains to working with me and my program, but also just broadly and more generally as well. And I'm excited to do this because, as you may know, I'm going to be hosting or holding one more round of my weight loss for Doctors Only coaching program. We're going to kind of go out with a bang and do one last group in October. And so I wanted to take this opportunity to bust these myths and to just clear the air, make sure that it's super, super clear for everybody and what I offer and set the record straight, so to speak.

But also, if you end up listening to this after that program has passed and you're thinking, hey, I want to work with a weight loss coach, or even now if you don't qualify for my program and you'd like to work with a weight loss coach, I think it's really important that you understand these concepts. So I believe that this is the case. And can be the case. What everything we're going to talk about for anybody that you work with, of course you'd have to talk to them specifically about it. 

But I think it's really important for people to understand. I think people, even though I've been doing this for years and I sometimes feel like I'm like, how do I sometimes, to be honest, feel like I'm beating my head against the wall? I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel like I've said this so many times, but the same misconceptions pop up again and again and again. And so I just want to take again this opportunity to really set the record straight and make sure that you totally understand and make sure it's really clear what this is all about. So let's start off today. Today we're going to talk in this part about what I consider to be sort of the nuts and bolts of being in a weight loss coaching program.

 

And we'll kind of use mine as an example. But this could apply, as I said, to other programs as well. So the thing that I notice a lot of is people being really focused on the details of what is sort of recommended or specific guidelines as it pertains to how to lose weight. Now, of course, this makes sense because if you're joining a weight loss coaching program, you're probably doing it because you want to lose some weight, right? Like obviously like that would be clear. But I think the thing that people really get confused about is in thinking that is even really that important. I know why people get confused. 

 

I know why folks are thinking that's the most important thing to focus on, and it's because food and exercise and all of that stuff has been all we've really known. When it comes to weight loss, it's It's an old pattern. It's a habitual way of thinking. It's something that we're familiar with changing, particularly when it comes to wanting to change our weight or relationship with food. And so it's the familiar. So of course, our brains go to that. So I'm going to talk about some of these myths specifically. But I want to just tell you big picture. Please hear me. That is such a non-important part of doing this.

 

I mean, do you need to choose something? Some way of eating? Probably. I mean, if you're eating in a way that's creating weight gain, like that's probably not working for you, and probably we need to find something else. So yes. Does it make some sense to spend a little bit of time on that? Of course. But it is by far two things. Not really what weight loss coaching is about, but also not where weight loss coaching really shines. The thing that weight loss coaching is really, really, really good at is helping you with all the reasons why you want that food in the first place. 

 

Focusing on your thoughts and your emotions. And that is something that many folks really tend to gloss over or sort of forget about or think is just this, like cute little thing on the side if you happen to get extra time or something. And I want to just be really, really, really clear with you here that joining a weight loss coaching program and focusing mostly on the food and the exercise and not doing the actual coaching work. Not really doing the mindset work, the thinking and feeling work. What you will get is maybe some weight loss, but you won't maintain it. It will be no different than any other diet. And I know that there have been people who've come into my program and approached in a similar way, and they've gained the way back, and this is not like an accusation.

 

I'm not blaming anybody, but that's how that works. Basically, I just want to like, share that information with you so that you know that the people who go through my program and who have the best results across the board consistently program after program, year after year of doing this, are the people who dig into the mindset component and the thinking and feeling work. So I just want to start off with that, that if you're really looking for someone to, like, help you fine tune the specifics of your eating, give you like an exercise routine or things like that, you probably shouldn't sign up for weight loss coaching. You probably should go find like a trainer or a dietician or nutritionist or like somebody like that. 

 

Those people really are the experts in that. And I'm not saying that they don't play a role in this. For some people, maybe they do, but for people who've maybe tried that and it still hasn't worked, or it's not something that they want to continue, or they just know that's not the right thing for them. Weight loss coaching is what helps you to get to the root of why there's all these issues with food in the first place, right? Like it's not so much that you need to be told how to exercise, right? If you're not exercising, it's more, why aren't you? What's your relationship with your body? With exercise? What has it been like for you to exercise in the past? Is there a different way for you to to think about exercise, to change that relationship with exercise? So that actually becomes something that you want to do that you enjoy doing.

 

That is a positive contribution to your self and your life. That's what weight loss coaching can help you with, right? Because you can work with a trainer. But then like say that you stop working with the trainer for whatever reason, you stop exercising. It's like we're right back where we started. So the in my opinion, the whole point of participating in weight loss coaching is to actually change the way you think, to change essentially a bit of who you are, so you can become somebody who consistently interacts with food and your body and exercise and all of that in a way that not only helps you to get to where you want to be weight wise and everything, but helps you to maintain it, because you have to change that part in order for you to maintain those results. 

 

So what I would say is weight loss coaching is really a great option for people who want to pursue creating a permanent solution. I think that's probably like the what do they call the TLDR too long didn't read. I think that's the main point. But anyway, how many do I have here? I think about seven different myths that I want to discuss.

 

So we're just going to touch on each of these, and you're going to see some things that are kind of similar and some that are a little bit different. So the first one is I can never eat flour and sugar ever again. And I always find it so interesting. I totally understand like just understanding the brain. I'm human too. Like sometimes we read something or hear something or expose to something that kind of essentially sort of triggers our thinking. It's like before we've even really read it, we've already been activated and we kind of decide. We think we know what the thing means. So I have never, ever, in all these years, ever said that you can't eat flour and sugar ever again. I just sometimes like, where does this come from? 

 

I don't understand. So to be clear, you don't have to do anything you want to eat flour and sugar. You're welcome to do that. But my recommendation or my guidance for people who have never tried taking a break from it, is to take advantage of seeing how different you feel taking a break. That means not permanently. That means take a break from eating it. Let your body reset itself physiologically so you can learn to reconnect with your actual hunger and satiety cues that exist within you. So you don't need to be measuring, weighing food, putting food in boxes, like doing any of that kind of stuff when you know what your body is asking for.

 

When you're eating flour and sugar regularly, it is much, much harder to do that. So not saying impossible, just a lot harder. And why not do it the easy way is what I have to say about that. I also know from working with people for years and years that everybody is like, oh, I don't know about that. And within a week or two, if they do it consistently, they're like, okay, I didn't love that, but that was not that bad. It was not as bad as I expected, including me. I didn't want to do it either. This is the worst the first time I did it. Now it really doesn't matter to me. Either way is fine. 

 

But what I love about that is that it just goes to show how much work I've done on my thinking and my over desire to get my desire in check. It doesn't matter to me if I eat it or not, because it has an appropriate amount of importance in my life, and that comes from doing the thought work part that didn't come from it didn't just magically happen by not eating that food for a while. Okay, so I never tell anybody what they can and can't eat. You're an adult. You get to do whatever you want. But if you want to try something different than what you've tried before, it might be something to just take a break from it and then practice reincorporating it into your life in a way that is, you know, controllable and doesn't seem to like take over and drive you to overeat a whole bunch.

 

And how to do that is a significant portion of my program. Right. So a big part of my program is teaching you how to reincorporate it. So it just really doesn't make any sense to think that you can't eat flour and sugar ever again. But in case you were wondering, you absolutely can if you want to. Are there some people who decide, you know what, my life's better without it? Few. Not many, but some. And that's also your prerogative. But you absolutely can eat foreign sugar if you want to. 

 

Okay, I can't join the program, or I can't participate in weight loss coaching. If I'm on weight loss medications. And I can see a lot of that is a newer thing and I can see how people are thinking, well, I just need to focus on like on one thing at a time. And I mean, I think there's a million ways to do everything and have success. So you could definitely just like, focus on getting the weight off with medication and then work on your thoughts. I personally think that is a longer and harder road than taking advantage of the benefits that you get from the medications, helping you to lose weight, and then you are transitioning right into a long term maintenance phase where you have already been working on your mind.

 

It seems to me that it would be harder to make that transition from one thing to the next. I guess if you're planning on staying on the medications for the rest of your life, then maybe you don't need to do the thought work. But I think a lot of people are kind of not thinking that they probably want to take it forever. And so if you're thinking, oh, eventually, someday I might want to come off of this, wouldn't it make sense to have done a lot of other work so that you could create a relationship with food and eating, and all of that helps you to maintain those results? 

 

So I think some people think they can't participate in weight loss coaching if they're on the medications, because I'll just tell you what people have said. People are going to think I'm cheating. People are thinking, I'm going to think I'm taking the easy way out. The thoughts along those lines. Now, what I have to say to that is people aren't thinking that that's what you're thinking. And so if anything, we think that other people are thinking about us is actually what we think about us. And so coaching can be really helpful for you to figure out why you think that getting medication help is cheating for taking the easy way out.

 

Do you on some level believe that? Why? And does thinking that way actually serve you and benefit you? Maybe it doesn't, but it's worthwhile looking into which is one of the great things that we do in coaching is finding out what we think and believe, and then deciding if we want to continue thinking that way. Right? We find out what it is and also what the result is of us thinking that way, or believing that, and then deciding if we want to keep that or if we want to change it. But as far as my program is concerned, you absolutely can be on medications while you're in the program for sure. 

 

I can't speak for any other weight loss coaching programs, but we can coexist. We can. It's a Venn diagram, right? You can definitely have that overlap and I would recommend it. I really would recommend it for sure. Okay. The next myth I need to stop or start exercising to be successful with the program. So a lot of people get confused about the exercise thing too. And that's actually another one is like Katrina recommends not exercising. I'm an exerciser, so I can't join the program, and that's absolutely not what I recommend. And I'm really, again, just not sure why this is constantly misconstrued. So I'm going to just completely clarify it for you here. This is what I say about exercise.

 

And this has not changed. This is the same as it always has been. In case you're wondering, if you exercise currently and you do it for any reason other than trying to lose weight, you do it because you love it, because it's fun. Because it's how you hang out with your friends, because it helps you to relieve stress. It helps you to sleep better. All the amazing things that exercise does for you. If you do it for those reasons and you like it and you want to continue. God bless. Absolutely. 

 

Please continue exercising if you are doing it for the purpose of losing weight, then I ask you to stop doing that because all of the research shows that exercise does not help you to lose weight. It helps you to maintain weight loss. So it is something that we incorporate for sure later. But if you are doing it for weight loss, it doesn't work for that. And a lot of us really struggle when we're in that kind of weight loss exercise mindset. If we struggle with the old way of thinking, which was that you can essentially out exercise your eating habits so you overate, I'll just exercise more or I'll exercise more now so I can overeat later. And that is diet mentality. And that's not the kind of relationship with food and exercise in our bodies that I recommend or try to help people to cultivate.

 

So if you can transition, if you've been doing that and you can transition to something else that you don't do for exercise, that's fine. But a lot of people are doing it just kind of like suffering through just trying to get the weight off. I asked them to stop doing that because that exercise can make them hungrier. They may be changing how they're eating. They're working on their thoughts. It's a lot of things. It's too many things at once. And you can look at all the habit. Literature changing too many things at once. The likelihood of you being able to continue is low. It's much better to add one thing, maybe to then build on it. So of course we bring exercise in. 

 

Now, somebody who hasn't been exercising, I tell them, hey, don't even start right now. First, when we're starting, you don't need to because I know in a couple of months I'm going to be talking to them about getting started with it. But often there's a lot of other work that we need to do mindset wise, before we're even in a position where exercise is going to be something that is a positive contribution to them in their lives or anything that they can sustain or enjoy or anything like that. And so we wait until it's the right time to introduce it. And finally, I will tell you that on occasion I have worked with some people who are doing really very intense exercising.

 

So this often looks like intense endurance exercise. So this would be like running marathons, training for marathons or really long triathlons, ultra marathons, things like that, or doing a lot of really intense heavy weight lifting, like powerlifting competitions, like things like that. And so in those cases, what I recommend is that those folks take a break from the competition part. So I'm not saying you can't run anymore. You can't work out. I would just say not like the training that's required to run a marathon or more you'd like still be maintaining your muscle mass and everything, but not actively working to build and add more muscle. 

 

And the reason for that is because both of those things really strain your body, that endurance exercise. I mean, you can talk to tons of people. I know so many people I've talked to over the years who are like, I trained for a marathon, didn't lose a pound like your body when it's strained like that, often will not release extra weight. So if you're training and exercising like that and trying to lose weight, often people don't have great success. So I want people to have success. So I usually recommend, hey, just take a break from those races for a few months, get to where you want to be, and then you can totally do it again. And same for the heavy weight lifting. And this is I think I just talked about this on a recent episode.

 

It doesn't work very well when you're trying to anabolic Lee like put on more muscle on your body while catabolic trying to lose fat. It doesn't work very well. And even the professional bodybuilders and all the people who compete in that, they don't do it that way either. And it's because it doesn't work well. They put on muscle, and during that time they add fat because they're eating a lot, because they you need food to be able to put that muscle on. And then they go through what they call cutting period where they lean out, and that's when they're losing that fat. 

 

And during that time they're maintaining their muscle mass, but they are not trying to add a ton more. So that's it. On exercising I love exercising. I just exercised before this. Exercising is amazing, but it would make sense that if we do exercise that we do it in a way that serves us and a lot of people don't. And if they're not doing it in a way that serves them, then we need to take a break from that until we can create a way that does serve them. All right. I have to do intermittent fasting, another meth thinking. You have to do intermittent fasting. You absolutely don't. And I'm actually super clear that you don't because it's not the right thing for some people.

 

They're definitely people where it's not the right thing. Now, can it be something really nice for doctors? Absolutely. For the people who it is the right thing for. One of the reasons why it can be so nice is because a doctor's lifestyle. I mean, it's so nice to be able to just have a super crazy busy day and be able to just work completely through lunch and have it be no big deal. And then you eat a great dinner and plenty of food and you feel good, and it's no big deal if you don't feel good while you're trying to do intermittent fasting, then maybe it's not for you. 

 

Or maybe we have to try doing it in a different way or easing your body into it. But it's not like the goal is you have to do a lot of intermittent fasting. I actually did a podcast episode many years ago about doing excessive fasting, and that's what I really saw from a lot of people, was like, they were like, well, if I eat a little bit less, like, what if I just eat a lot less all the time? And I've seen that's kind of out of the scope of this, this episode, but I've seen that not work for people, especially when it comes to a long term solution. So I think it is really nice to have your body be in a position where if you need to fast or decide you want to fast, your body will happily do it.

 

You feel amazing and that's awesome. Do you have to do it? Absolutely not. And like I said, for a lot of people, it's not the right thing. You're going to ask any of the people who work with me, particularly in the last couple of years, if somebody comes to me and says that they're doing fasting and they're not losing weight. When the first things I talk to them about is actually eating more often. So you know what I mean? It's like it's not always going to be the end all, be all thing, and just specifically not for each individual person. 

 

And that's kind of one of my problems with a lot of the recommendations that are out there where it's just like, oh my gosh, my friend read this book about intermittent fasting for women. It's amazing. It's working so well, but when I do it, I'm not getting those results. Well, maybe because that's a great fit for her and her body and her life and everything, and it's not great for you. So we just got to figure out what works for you, that's all. And that's what I've always been working toward, which is creating an individualized program for each person. What is going to work for you if it doesn't work for you, you're not going to be able to maintain it, and then you're not going to maintain your results.

 

So for some people, fasting is the best thing ever. For other people, it's contraindicated or it is not a good idea or their body just doesn't like it. Cool. Figure it out another way. There's so many other ways. Okay, so that leads me into the next one, which is the program recommends eating keto. And this has been from the beginning. People are confused about thinking that this program is low carb or keto or anything like that, particularly going back to the taking a break from flour and sugar thing. And that's not the case at all. Now, there are some people who feel better eating low carb, and if that is the case, they are more than welcome to do that. 

 

That's fine for them, but that's definitely not something that I like, encourage or even recommend or anything like that. What a lot of people get confused about is in thinking that flour and sugar is the main way that you get carbohydrates in your diet, and it it doesn't have to be. I mean, it might be for specific individuals, but it doesn't have to be. You can not be eating flour and sugar and still be eating starchy vegetables, whole grains, fruit. There's naturally occurring sugar in a lot of food. What we're not eating is added sugar. That's what we're taking a break from refined sugar. So I don't actually recommend keto mostly because the vast majority of people who use keto can't maintain it long term.

 

There are people who can maintain a just more of like a low carb lifestyle, not so low carb that it ends up being keto. But for some people they really do feel so much better. And just like life is so much better when they're low carb, I happen to not be one of those people, so it's not for me, but for some people it is. And if you know that about yourself, you absolutely can do that. But absolutely. I mean, you can eat tons and tons of carbs. Absolutely you can. All right. And then the final question is a little bit different because it's not specifically about the the food stuff and exercise, but another one that a lot of people get confused about is thinking that they can't join my weight loss for doctors only program if they're retired, and that's not true at all. 

 

We take all women physicians we actually have several retired people who are working with us right now, or people who are kind of right on the cusp there. And actually, they often do super well in the program because they have a little bit more bandwidth and space in their lives to be able to participate and participate fully. Right. Really take advantage of the resources that are made available to them. So if you're retired, you absolutely can be and you can be retired at any stage of life, right? So if you are someone who has gotten an MD degree or a DO degree or an international equivalent of that, and you're a woman, you are welcome to come into the program and get that help. Okay. Well, this ends part one of weight loss coaching myth busting. That was fun. I love being able to just share this with you. Something that I've learned from doing my own work over all these years is that one thing that is hard for me is when I misunderstood, when I feel like I'm misunderstood, and these are things that I feel really misunderstood about. Sometimes I'm like, oh my gosh, how many times do I have to say this? And yet I'm still misunderstood? So if some of that frustration was coming through, please forgive me. 

 

My apologies. I want to just try to make it as clear as possible. And like I said, if this is something that you're coming across at some time in the future, just know, like what you're looking for. Like the real gold in weight loss coaching has nothing to do with any of the stuff that I just talked about. Okay. The real gold is in the mindset work and learning how to process your feelings for real. Okay. All right. I'll be in the back next week with part two. We're busting these myths. Can't wait to see you then.