Your Body Isn't Broken: Weight Loss, Hormones, and Cortisol with Dr Shami

Dr. Shamistra Barathan breaks down the science of midlife weight gain and reveals the three missing pieces of the puzzle for women struggling despite diet and exercise changes. Some key points:

• Weight loss struggles are often tied to hidden hormonal imbalances
• Calories-in/calories-out model outdated – it's about hormones telling your body to store or burn fat
• Insulin resistance can exist for years despite normal blood sugar readings
• Chronic stress creates cortisol patterns that tell your body to store fat
• Muscle loss accelerates after 40, reducing your ability to burn calories
• Simple habit changes like morning protein, standing breaks, and basic resistance exercises can create significant results
• Perimenopause accelerates these challenges as estrogen declines

Take back control of your health with these practical, science-backed strategies to address the root causes of midlife weight gain!

MEG

Web: https://www.meganwebb.com.au/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/meganwebbcoaching/
Unwined Bookclub: https://www.alcoholfreedom.com.au/unwinedbookclub
ConnectAF group coaching: https://www.elizaparkinson.com/groupcoaching


BELLA

Web: https://isabellaferguson.com.au
Insta: @alcoholcounsellorisabella
Bi-Yearly 6-Week Small Group Challenges: Learn more: https://www.isabellaferguson.com.au/feb-2025-challenge
Free Do I Have A Drinking Problem 3 x Video Series: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/JTFFgjJL/checkout
Free HOW DO I STOP DRINKING SO MUCH Masterclass: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/7fvkb3FF/checkout
Online Alcohol Self-Paced Course: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/fDzcyvWL/checkout...

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Weight Gain Introduction
• 7:39 Understanding Insulin's Role in Weight Gain
• 15:21 Breaking the Snacking Cycle
• 24:41 The Hidden Impact of Chronic Stress
• 30:37 Dangers of Sedentary Lifestyle
• 36:08 Muscle Mass & Protein Importance
• 41:06 Perimenopause, Hormones & Practical Solutions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:33

Today we are welcoming Dr Shamistra Barathan, or Dr Shammy, to everybody else, including her clients. Dr Shammy is an integrative GP, founder of the Mint Clinic, host of the Six Hats podcast, and today Dr Shammy is joining us week four of the Alcohol Freedom Challenge, and today we're focusing on a few things, specifically alcohol, weight gain and perimenopause that trifecta that tends to impact well so many, if not most, women in midlife. A huge welcome, Dr Shammi.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Thank you. I'm really excited to be here, isabella, and this is a topic I absolutely love talking about, and just because there's a lot of myths out there and there's a lot of confusing information whether it's social media, whether it's going to see your GP, whether it's specialists and so many many women struggle around you know, from late thirties, forties, just reaching perimenopause to menopause, and so over the years, just researched, worked it out and so just made it really simple and it's actually not hard, and once you know what your body's doing, it's actually really easy to take back control. So today it's all about why do we gain weight and, especially during those hormonal changes, why is it accelerated? Fantastic, so just to start actually on your journey, and it's really interesting. So when clients come to me, they've often gone I'm eating less, I'm exercising more, but I'm still not losing weight. So you may have tried a bit of fasting, may have gone to your doctor and said, right, let me do a blood test. Often the thyroid is tracked, maybe the sugars are tracked, that's all normal. And then you might have gone maybe to a naturopath or a functional doctor and go right, I'm going to look at my gut health. Is there anything going on there. So what's next? And that's where we're going to go today. So what else can we do? And often many women are stuck. They're stuck. Well, I'm exercising more, I'm eating less. Why am I not losing weight?

Speaker 2: 3:49

So the key areas that we're going to talk about is just debunking those myths of weight loss, the three missing pieces of the puzzle that we're not talking about enough. And especially during these hormonal changes, why are we struggling? But the ultimate goal, like today, you will actually walk away with easy, practical changes that you can actually start tonight, tomorrow and you will see change. But I'm going to start with some really crazy statistics. So 90% of women in Australia have one risk factor for heart disease, which is unbelievable. Over 50% have two or more risk factors and 73% of women around this age bracket are overweight. So it just kind of puts things in perspective. How many women are suffering almost in silence, trying all sorts of different remedies, maybe yo-yo dieting, whether it's medication, but we haven't really found the answer at all.

Speaker 2: 4:51

So we're going to look at a new approach. We're going to look at weight differently and what I normally say to patients the first thing is to ditch that whole calories in, calories out. It's not the way the body works at all. And, more importantly, let's ditch the scales, because weight BMI is inaccurate and it can have a really psychological impact, because if you're not seeing the numbers go down, you go right. I'm going to give up, I've had enough, I'm just going to go back to what I'm doing.

Speaker 2: 5:20

What's more important is body composition. More important is visceral fat. So what's the fat around your organs? Because, especially for women, we're dealing with estrogen. We're dealing with female hormones that can cause fluid retention. So it's much harder to gather that information just, and it's not worth just jumping on the scales thinking, oh my God, nothing's working.

Speaker 2: 5:43

So what I want to do is move away from just scales and really reframe weight to go right. Why is my body storing fat and not burning it? And when you reframe it in that way, it's actually just brings curiosity, brings a bit of excitement going right, what's this missing piece of the puzzle? Why is my body telling my body to store fat and why isn't it burning? So a much better marker is actually just waist circumference. Keeping it simple, because you will see change with the strategies I'm going to talk to you about Fantastic. So this is going to pop up a couple of times. We're moving away from how much do you weigh to why is my body well? How can I get my body to burn fat instead of storing it? So that's the key.

Speaker 2: 6:33

So this is when I go about hormones. Weight is actually all about hormones, and the key four hormones include insulin, which we're going to talk a lot about. Thyroid. We need to talk about cortisol. This is not talked about. It's so important. I'll give you some couple of patient stories. And then you've got estrogen. I'm going to put it all together. And then you've also got leptin, which you'm going to go into. So it's actually about hormones and all of these hormones speak to one another. For example, like as estrogen declines, you're more likely to become insulin resistant. Higher estrogen affects thyroid. High cortisol affects thyroid. High cortisol affects insulin. It all interacts and all speaks to one another. So we want to gain a bit of balance.

Speaker 2: 7:27

So let's talk about insulin and we're going to make it really easy. So insulin is the hormone that the pancreas pushes out. The key thing, the key message here, is insulin tells your body to put sugar into the cells, and the key thing is insulin's released every time you eat. So we're going to go into that a bit further. So these are the key messages it's released every time you eat. It tells the body to put sugar into the cells. Now what happens when there's insulin resistance is that when it's not working well, so the cells are not hearing the messages correctly, so sugar stays in your blood, not getting into the cells, which is then converted to fat.

Speaker 2: 8:07

So what I really want to bring to home here is that when you do a blood test, you can have a completely normal fasting sugar but a very high fasting insulin, and I see that a lot. It's something that I routinely do in many, many patients in fact all my patients, because metabolic health is linked to so many different conditions. And so how do we work out insulin resistance? It's actually glucose times insulin divided by 22. And we want a HOMA index less than two.

Speaker 2: 8:38

But the point I'm trying to make here is you can be having normal glucose levels for years and have no idea you're insulin resistant. And it's quite a wake-up call when you actually check fasting insulin and go oh my God, this is why I'm not losing weight, because I've been told my sugar is fine. But in actual fact, what's happening behind the scenes? So insulin resistance can be going on for years and maybe two to three years later, diabetes. So we see that a lot and after this webinar you're going to notice, you're going to go, oh, people around you when you think about insulin resistance. Go, oh, people around you when you think about insulin resistance. So many people are walking around insulin resistant, not knowing it, and that leads to weight gain around your tummy. So when insulin's high, that weight gain around your tummy increases. Now, over time, actually, insulin resistance relates to fatty liver, but over time, many years later, that's when you get the diabetes, the heart disease and stroke.

Speaker 2: 9:39

So there's a lot of work you can do now by reversing it, and we're going to talk about how it's so easy to reverse. So, first of all, it's easy to pick up if we do the test and it's actually really easy to reverse by looking at a couple of strategies. So you can do a lot of protection for yourself. So the message here is insulin tells your body to store fat. It's all about insulin. So if we can get that insulin down, you will be fat burning, there is no doubt. So this is a really good reminder. Insulin's released every time you eat and it tells your body to store fat. So so a big, big factor that I say to patients is to stop snacking, because every time you eat you're triggering your insulin.

Speaker 2: 10:25

It's actually a really quick method to go towards weight loss just by not snacking. And I've just highlighted a few areas. For example, snacking after dinner, snacking after lunch, and the key thing is we actually just want to bunch our meals together. So, whatever you're snacking on, put it to your dinner, bring it to your lunch, bring it to your breakfast and learn to go without those meals in between, and your body loves it. Your body's not designed to constantly process food throughout the day, not to constantly have these spikes of insulin. So you can imagine, constant spikes of insulin will lead to insulin resistance. So it's actually a really quick strategy.

Speaker 2: 11:07

And often you know why are we snacking? Is it a habit? Is it hunger? So we're going to go into that. Or majority of the times it could just be a habit. Like an hour after dinner you're going, I'm going to have my cup of tea and a biscuit, so it could easily just be a habit. That's now. You're conscious of that. You go right. What can I do differently?

Speaker 2: 11:29

So the next thing is what triggers insulin? So carbs is the highest. Then comes protein, but fat is not triggered to release insulin. So that's why keto diets work so well. It's sitting around fat and protein. What actually satiates you is fat. What actually keeps you full is protein. So this is where we sort of hone in, why you know, a high protein diet good fats work so well.

Speaker 2: 11:58

Now, 50 years ago, when fat was demonized, in comes sugar and as a result, you couldn't eat food without the fat because there was no taste to it, so you had to put the sugar in, and that's when everything skyrocketed. So we need to go back and understand how important the good fats are and why protein is so important, which I'm going to go into. So let's do a quick summary. So what raises insulin? We know it's sugar, we know it's carbs, but I want to make a point about wheat. So wheat, that's breads, pasta, maybe croissants that you're snacking on, or biscuits.

Speaker 2: 12:39

Wheat by itself contains amylopectin B, which triggers a spike in insulin, and it's quite phenomenal that just by even removing wheat in someone's diet, and especially if they're diabetic, how quickly the sugars decline. It's so scary to watch and think, wow, this is just one simple food group, but if you remove it, it can have a significant impact on your sugar levels. And in today's Western world, wheat is very heavy, so it features in a lot of places For example, your breakfast, then your snack, then your lunch and then your snack again and then your dinner. So it's very wheat heavy. So what lowers insulin? Absolutely. We all know about reducing sugar intake, we all know about low carb intake, but, yes, we're going to add in two other steps. You know, just by looking at alternatives to wheat um, avoid and avoid snacking. So that's the two things that we've already learned massive impact on your sugar levels. So we's the two things that we've already learned. Massive impact on your sugar levels. So we're going to learn three more.

Speaker 2: 13:41

So, three of the missing pieces of the puzzle, one that's not talked about enough is the stress response. So I'm just going to do a quick reminder of what exactly is the stress response. What's going on in your body? And it's actually all starts with a thought, and that thought can be very automated. So the logic mind goes I'm doing fine and my life is great, but internally it could be releasing a fear response and it's detected by the amygdala, which is the glands that sit in your brain and what it does? It just sends signals to the rest of the body, especially to the adrenal glands that sit on top of your kidneys, releasing cortisol, adrenaline or adrenaline. The point I'm going to make here is your amygdala can sit at your baseline and your baseline is whatever is familiar to you. And that's really important because you could be in years and years and years of chronic stress.

Speaker 2: 14:33

And in my intake form and also in my first consult, we just go right back. You know what was life growing up, what was life like as a child, you know, were your parents anxious? Were you on edge? Were you in a fight or flight response from childhood? And that tells me a lot of how long the body's been in this automated chronic stress response. And why is that important in this automated chronic stress response and why is that important?

Speaker 2: 15:01

Chronic stress affects every part of the body and we're not talking about it enough. So it could be years and years of this high cortisol, this fight or flight response, this sympathetic nervous system causing imbalances to your body. And one thing of course is weight gain, but also, you know, to your body. And one thing of course is weight gain, but also you know our irritable bowel, sleep issues, anxiety. So what I often see in the clinic, a lot of patients will come in I'm tired, I've got anxiety, I've got gut issues and, yes, there's weight gain. And when we look at their story, they've been in chronic stress for years and so we want to make the connection. We want to talk about the connection because if you're in chronic stress on a day-to-day basis where you're in that hyper vigilant state you go, oh my god, I've got so much to do, so many things.

Speaker 2: 15:48

Um, there are some aspects of it that we're going to go into where you could be shallow breathing. Then it affects your food choices, it affects your sleep and it really has an impact throughout your body. So this is just a great reminder. We want to go back to a beautiful circadian rhythm. We want to go back to just spiking cortisol once in the day, at nine in the morning. That's what our body designed for. But in today's world we're spiking throughout the day. So we could be spiking in high in the morning, we could be spiking high in the evening, and that could be for multiple reasons, which I'm going to go into. For example, shallow breathing, blue light exposure, alcohol. So many reasons why we're going to be spiking cortisol. And the other aspect is the melatonin. Melatonin could be so low, so you've got this complete imbalance.

Speaker 2: 16:47

So I'm actually seeing so many, so many women actually who go, right, I'm eating so well, I'm exercising, but why am I not losing weight? And we actually do a saliva test or urine cortisol test and that's when we get sort of the results and the confirmation. Well, actually, do you know what? Your cortisol is sky high throughout the day. It's not designed for that. Remember, cortisol tells your body to release sugar. So you could be eating well, you could be exercising, but your body's releasing sugar throughout the day, telling your body to store fat.

Speaker 2: 17:20

So this is a really good reminder of why it's so important, how we need to go back to that stress response and that's often the basis. Looking at root cause work. That's one of the root cause strategies we've got to look into. So this is going to be a reminder for all of you. You know all of this. It's just a great reminder of how you know, of connecting the dots.

Speaker 2: 17:44

So the first thing I always say is it can be quite overwhelming to start the strategies of stress reduction, so just to pick one. It's always about picking one habit and working on it, but a great place to start is to ensure you've got great sleep hygiene. It sets the stage for everything, and that means you know if you get beautiful deep sleep. So great way of assessing it is can you get to sleep quickly, stay asleep and wake up with energy? Many, many people are waking up in the middle of the night, maybe going to the toilet, and that's normalized. It's actually not normal. We want beautiful deep sleep throughout the night and if example I'm just going to go back to here If you're waking up in the middle of the night, you're spiking your cortisol in the middle of the night, and so that's the best time, for fat burning is actually at night, when cortisol is the lowest, insulin is the lowest. So if you're a light sleeper, you're awake, you're getting out of bed a couple of times, and now it's so normalized you're spiking your cortisol. So we want to work on deeper sleep. But when we work on deeper sleep, you will see a huge domino effect. For the rest of the day you wake up with energy, you're alert, you're focused, you make better decisions, you make better food choices. You're consciously making those choices, whether it's alcohol, whether it's food or whether it's your stress response.

Speaker 2: 19:03

So sleep is number one priority and it's something that I always talk about is caffeine intake. So if you're not sleeping, you've got to look at your caffeine intake. So, again, we've normalized it. One caffeine in the morning should be okay. Some have got three, some have six cups of coffee. But caffeine is dependent on your genetics. So, yes, you could be metabolizing it great. But also there's another couple of chemical reactions that go right, I'm going to create cortisol really quickly in you and not get rid of it. So get rid of it slowly. So you can be in a false fight or flight response with three weeks with caffeine. So I always say really, have a look at your caffeine intake.

Speaker 2: 19:45

And on a side note, I had a patient who was doing all the right things but just not losing weight. When we did the saliva test it was sky-high cortisol. We go, okay, what's going on here? Because she's she's doing really well, she's spiritual, she's deep breathing. She suddenly had this light bulb moment. She was sipping on caffeine for the first six hours of the day, just sipping on caffeine, and it just spiked her cortisol. So massive realization there caffeine is a stimulant. We've normalized it, we've said it's okay, but it's actually could be just one simple factor why what's up? Why some women can't lose weight? Then you know all about alcohol and the impact it has on sleep. It can make you anxious the next day. So, and of course, that sugar intake, and of course sugar.

Speaker 2: 20:31

I do want to mention blue light. In today's world, we are sitting in front of blue light throughout the day. At night, whether it's our phones, laptops, tv. We go to bed with blue light. It is triggering the release of cortisol, it is affecting your insulin, and so we're, as humans, we're designed to be outdoors in nature for six to eight hours a day. We're not designed to be indoors, and so I make a massive. I really encourage my patients to think about blue light blockers, putting blue light blockers on your laptop, wearing blue light blockers at night huge impact. You suddenly feel wow, I'm just so less stressed, I have more energy, I'm sleeping deeper. And then the whole spiral starts the next day, where you can make conscious choices when it comes to your habits and, of course, emotional health.

Speaker 2: 21:20

I see so many women who, when I ask the question what brings you joy in the week? They stumble and they don't know what brings them joy, because life has just taken over the carers, the problem solvers or, you know, everyone goes to them to get things done and they've forgotten about themselves. So how it's so important to carve out me time and the magnesium I love talking about. Magnesium, it's the mother nutrient. It's needed for over 600 chemical reactions. And why is that important? You lose it by drinking caffeine. You lose it by drinking alcohol, by sugar. So can you imagine on a day to day how much magnesium we're losing, not only only from stress, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and that means magnesium. As you're deficient in magnesium, it makes you more prone to stress, which you lose and you're caught up in the cycle. So I really advise my patients, which I advise, on the right dosing for magnesium, how it's important almost just to start with that nutrient. It's vital nutrient. It's vital.

Speaker 2: 22:25

So let's go to the next thing. It's actually being sedentary. Again, we've normalized it. We've normalized how it's okay to sit for six to eight hours actually more because if you're not in a really active role in a job, you are sitting for long periods of time. And going to the gym for an hour studies have shown it it's really counteracts the fact that you're sitting for long periods of time. So I really want to just highlight it. It was great.

Speaker 2: 22:55

So Jean Vernicost wrote the book Sitting Kills and she was working with NASA. She was a research scientist, so she looked at the problems weightlessness cause and I'm going to link it to what it means, how it's linked to being a sedentary. So weightlessness going up to space caused bone loss, muscle loss, insulin resistance develop, so that's you know, highlight that Suppressed immune system and a sluggish gut. Then she realized that when she did the study on people who were sitting for long periods of time, the exact same thing happens. So again, we're not designed to sit for long periods of time. It's all about moving. I'm just going to highlight, just for sitting develops insulin resistance, muscle loss, bone loss, all these things that women have to think about as they approach 50s and above.

Speaker 2: 23:49

So practical steps to avoid sitting because, you know, often patients go. Well, that's my job, that's my role. I need to be focused. I'm there for four hours without moving. You can create an environment where you are getting out of your chair. So, whether it's right, I'm going to put my printer on another side of the room. I'm going to get up and get some water. I'm going to do walk and talk meetings.

Speaker 2: 24:12

We can create an environment. We can be creative. It doesn't have to be that way where you're sitting for long periods of time and all she said was all you need to do is stand up every 30 minutes, that's all. Sit and stand. It's so simple, it's so achievable. But there's so many other ways. So nice, now just be creative. What does that look like if you weren't sitting for long periods of time and so many, so many businesses can start actually implementing it? You have much better focus. You have, you know, it's so much more productive rather than sitting for long periods of time. So I'll let you be creative on that one. Design your environment that you can move more.

Speaker 2: 24:54

We've created an environment where it's so convenient that you know some people sit in a chair and can reach for absolutely everything, when actual fact, we don't want that. We actually want movement. We actually want you to get out of your chair. Why Movement is so, so important? Excellent. So again, sitting and weight gain.

Speaker 2: 25:17

So the third missing piece of the puzzle is muscle mass, and I can't talk about it enough, especially especially for women. So we lose muscle mass from the age of 30, at least 1% every year. And muscle mass is so important for mopping up your sugars, managing your sugar levels, and literally it's a massive risk factor for insulin resistance. Yes, for aging, but these are the risk factors, not only aging, but that sedentary lifestyle, that what we talked about previously just sitting for long periods of time so it's working against you. Sitting for long periods of time loses muscle mass. But also that's actually already happening as you age, and then you've got you know if you're sitting, that's an added risk factor. So these are just a couple of you know strategies to how I really encourage women to do some resistance training. So what actually works is not going to jump into a HIIT class or a boxing class when you haven't exercised for a long period of time.

Speaker 2: 26:24

What's brilliant is to start weight training and if you haven't been to the gym for many, many years, start at home. It could be 10 squats while something's boiling. It could be choosing the stairs rather than the escalators. It could be having a stair at home and going up and down. So anything against gravity, so arms above your head squats builds muscle. It's creating resistance and that builds muscle. And so there's so many ideas that you can actually just start at home and it could just be right. I am going to start standing every 30 minutes and doing 10 squats, I'm going to take the stairs rather than the lift and the whole idea is to start moving. And yes, you can always go to a gym, find a personal trainer and get into a brilliant program.

Speaker 2: 27:14

But what can be quite challenging is the whole idea of going to a gym. How do I start? What do I do? So I always advise think about a personal trainer, because that will just guide you, give you the confidence. Know exactly what you're doing, because you haven't exercised in years. There's such a high risk for injury because we don't know where you are, we don't know what your joints are doing, we don't know what your ligaments or tendons are doing. You could be really tight in some areas and all of a sudden, when you pick up a heavy weight, you can injure yourself.

Speaker 2: 27:51

And the great thing about resistance training, which I absolutely love, is you start low. You start with two kilos it's so achievable and you work on your own program. It's not about looking at the people around you going oh my God, they know what they're doing or they're carrying heavy weights. It's your journey and it's so personalized, and it's that consistency will lead to muscle gain and you will notice it in so many other ways not only weight, but mental health, sleep, but also reducing the risk of injury and increased function, for example, going up hills. Walking up hills is suddenly easier. You feel amazing. You've got so much more energy. So when we think about resistance training, it's such a great start on your exercise journey because the whole idea of a HIIT program or boxing can be overwhelming. This is easy, it's almost like meditation and it's doing so many good things for you, rather than a massive cardio workout when you're not nourished, when you're not sleeping and when you're in high cortisol state excellent.

Speaker 2: 28:58

So another really important factor here is protein, and I see a lot of patients are just not eating enough mainly animal protein that I focus on. So how much protein do you need? You need about one gram per kilo per day, but that's bare minimum. You can actually go up to 1.5. For example, if someone weighs 60 kilos, it's about 60 grams, and how do I calculate it? That means you times it by four. You need about 240 grams of animal protein. So that make it even easier 100 grams of animal protein with each meal, and that's the best form, that's the most protein that you're going to get. So one egg is only six grams of protein, but 100 grams of meat is 25 grams of protein.

Speaker 2: 29:43

And often we go slightly astray because we think oh, I'm eating lentils, that's actually more carbs than protein. I'm eating chickpeas, I'm snacking on chickpeas, that's actually three times more carbs than protein. And even oats, that spikes your sugar. So it's finding those hidden sugars and a lot of many, many people are lacking in protein. So why is protein important? It switches off that switching your brain for sugar. It literally just switches it off. It makes you so satiated, full, you don't even think about snacking. It's just quite amazing and when you've got to and I always say, start the morning with a really good protein breakfast and the rest of the day just falls into place because you're not even thinking about snacking before lunch and you're ready for lunch, and then you've got good protein for lunch and then you're ready for dinner. So protein satiates you and it literally switches off that sugar craving. But more importantly, protein breaks down, obviously, to amino acids, and amino acids are important for every part of the body, from serotonin, your happy chemical to detox pathways to enzyme reactions. So we underestimate the power of protein and all of a sudden energy spikes, you're sleeping better, you feel better in the day. So let's put all our knowledge together.

Speaker 2: 31:04

And what happens during the change? What happens from the 40s? Estrogen declines. So what? The definition of menopause is no periods for 12 months, and all the symptoms that lead up to it can be classified under perimenopause. So you've got the range of symptoms that many of you are familiar with. But what really falls into this category is that weight gain that people struggle with. So this is a good reminder. As Eastern falls, you're more likely to become insulin resistant, and so literally that's what your body's doing anyway, and as a result, we can go back to all our great strategies to even prevent that. Excellent.

Speaker 2: 31:45

So it is actually when you're reaching your fifties. The muscle mass has declined, you've got that lower estrogen. You might have a very sedentary lifestyle. You might be in a period of high stress with high functioning jobs. Your sleeping is worse, um, and then you've got all the mood swings. So that affects a lot of things, from food choices to activity levels. So a lot of things are happening in a woman's life during the change. But now we've got amazing strategies to actually support you through it so you can actually sail through it. So this is just a good reminder. So remember, insulin tells your body to store fat. We want to lower insulin to trigger fat burning. So we know all about those key strategies from sugar, carbs, wheat. Now we can add on the importance of really focusing on stress reduction, building muscle and how we can keep moving. So it's actually really simple strategies and it's so incredibly effective.

Speaker 2: 32:47

So the key take-home messages that I often find are not being talked about the impact of stress. And then we go into the alcohol, the caffeine, the sleep, the emotional eating. We forget about strength training. We don't even often put it into our list of things to do for the year. It's you know, a lot of people focus on cardio, but it is strength training, you know, such an easy missing piece of the puzzle and, of course, to keep moving and, of course, protein, amazing. So the key thing is what's your next step? And remember, this is just general advice only and, of course, see your own doctor for more support.

Speaker 1: 33:31

Dr Shammy, thank you so much. You so beautifully described in an understandable way. In an understandable way, the vicious cycle that the modern woman in midlife is caught in, struggling with that fatigue, the stress, the sleeplessness, then reaching for caffeine, sugar, alcohol, not enjoying the way she looks I'm speaking for myself, not anybody else here and then exercising madly, which. So you're really in a cortisol, insulin, sugar cycle. You've just I had a penny drop moment of my next steps. What's your next step? I've got my caffeine. So I wake up first thing and it's a double shot of caffeine and I do what I tell my clients not to. I don't have breakfast, that's what I have first of all, and my cortisol, I know, is like that throughout the whole day.

Speaker 2: 34:30

Yeah, and it's really. I'm so glad you shared that, because even if you just put a couple of eggs before your caffeine, it could make a huge difference. Yeah, and that, and sugar as well, if you just had caught caffeine.

Speaker 1: 34:46

This has been great for me. I've got a lot of questions, but I'm going to open up to people here. Does anybody have a hot question to ask Dr Shammy?

Speaker 2: 34:55

What could happen. So each body is so different. So if you're in a stress response, skipping breakfast can actually create more of a cortisol response, stopping you from losing weight. But if you're in a different stage in your life and doing really well, absolutely fasting could help. But it's so individual. So when I see patients, when I see the entire story, I go just stick to a great breakfast with great protein and just see how you feel and all of a sudden I go, oh my God, I'm feeling so much better. I'm actually starting to lose weight.

Speaker 2: 35:27

So it's so individualized rather than one size fits all, so the body doesn't know what's a good or bad sugar. We've just labeled it. Sugar is sugar. It will spike. Fruit will spike as sugar. So a lot of the times you know the high sugars, the apples, pears, bananas, watermelons. The low sugars would be berries yeah, it's just sticking around berries, maybe melon, the low sugar. So think of fruit as sugar. So when I see someone's diet, I go, wow, like exactly what you said the yogurt, fruit and granola, it's actually all high sugar. Oats, fruit is actually all high sugar. So I would put a couple of eggs before it if you don't want to give it up or you know, fruit behind protein works really well, just to avoid a spike. Think of fruit as sugar.

Speaker 1: 36:11

But I've got one question I'd love just to finish up on, if that's all right. You know we've all got our GP, uh, and we go in there, particularly at this stage of our life. What's going on with my hormones? What's going on with my hot flushes, my weight gain, all the rest of it, in fact? I've literally just gone through that process in the last two weeks, but we don't tend to get the blood tests ordered that you're referring to, or they don't tend to come back with additional help around supplements and also those other recommendations around cortisol management. But just back to the blood tests. How do we feel confident that our doctor is getting the full range? Or is it find your integrative GP? Find you Dr?

Speaker 2: 37:04

Shammy. So it is. Find an integrative GP. You could say I'd like to test fasting insulin, yeah, and it depends what relationship you have with your doctor. They might be great, a beautiful relationship. We go. Yeah, let's test it, let's find out, let's figure it out. You know, some can be go. I don't know what it is, I'm not going to test it, so it can be. It depends on your relationship with your doctor. And the thing is they may not know how to interpret it because obviously it comes in a range of going. Oh, you're in the range, but we interpret it so differently, for you know metabolic health, energy, you know dementia prevention. It's so different in the functional world compared to just looking at a range and saying you're okay okay, thank you very, very much.

Speaker 1: 37:48

Uh, just the final bit of information here is if anybody uh is part of this challenge or anybody who's going to listen ultimately to um the recording, uh, where can they find you?

Speaker 2: 38:00

Absolutely so on this slide as well, so on socials, instagram. So we've got Mint Clinic and also Dr Shammy, and so those are the two areas of followers on the Six Hats podcast as well.

Speaker 1: 38:16

Thank you, and I can only imagine the range of questions you get asked. If anybody has you sitting next to them at the dinner table. You know you don't want me sitting there because I would just go through my entire history and just ask the strangest, weirdest questions I've got.

Speaker 2: 38:34

so many of them. I get it all the time and I try, and even when I'm relaxing, like going for a treatment, I get it and I go oh, oh, my God, I need to switch off. I've got it.

Speaker 1: 38:44

Exactly, um, just a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for your time, your energy, your knowledge. Uh, on this topic, I've learned a lot, a lot of takeaways. So thank you Amazing.

Speaker 2: 39:02

And, yeah, it's so awesome to get this knowledge out, help as many women, because it's so confusing out there and I hope you know when you look at it it's actually so achievable, so doable, and then you can just take it on board and take the power back back in your you know, take the power back that you can actually control your health. You can do this for sure.

Speaker 1: 39:22

Yeah, I felt very powerless quite recently just with the changes happening to me at the moment, just with all of it, with fatigue and weight gain. So thank you. So, just from everybody here, I hope you have a lovely night. We'll all sort of wander off and go our own way into the evening. And, yes, thank you again, dr Shammi.

Speaker 2: 39:46

And all the best on your journeys. Thank you, thank you.