Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - The Weight Loss Mistakes That Backfire Every Time (Your New Years Resolution is a TRAP!) with Jackie Kirschen

Starting point is 00:00:00 you can't change that the pumpkin pie is going to be in front of you when you go into your Thanksgiving dinner or whatever because it's going to be there. But you can change your thought. Welcome to another episode of Bite Back with Abby Sharp, where I dismantled diet culture rules, call out the charlatans spinning the pseudoscience, and help you achieve food freedom for good. Happy New Year, friends. It is officially 20. 26, which as many of you guys listening surely know, is also the official season of bad diets. Ah, yes. Honestly, I don't think I've had long enough of a vacation to prepare myself for this, but here we are. And to help me tackle the season of diet delusion is fellow dietitian and host

Starting point is 00:00:50 of the podcast, Lose Weight Mindfully, Jackie Kirshin. Jackie's approach to eating absolutely echoes mine, grounded in her own experience using sustainable strategies to achieve her own impressive weight loss. Today we're going to be breaking down the biggest weight loss mistakes you are probably making and some actionable evidence-based alternatives for long-lasting change. Now, before we get into it, I want to quickly note that we will, of course, be talking about weight loss in this episode, including evidence-based tips and gentle strategies. So I just want to clarified that this episode is not for everyone. Not everyone needs to or wants to lose weight. So this is absolutely not a weight loss prescription. Ultimately, you guys know I believe in body autonomy and not

Starting point is 00:01:40 censoring science. So my goal here is always to communicate the safest strategies that you should ideally then discuss with your health care provider. Take what makes sense to you and leave what doesn't. And that also might mean sitting out on this episode. Also, we are T minus one week, or even less, depending on when you're listening to this, to the release of my new book, The Hunger Crushing Combo Method. So now is your time to please pre-order. It is really important that we get those pre-orders in and those first week orders, and it really, really would help me spread more moderate and evidence-based messages about eating well on mass.

Starting point is 00:02:23 And if you pre-order right now, you'll have a chance to win my new theory probiotic protein powder prize pack. So check out the link in the show notes on how to enter today. All right, friends, let's get into it. All right, Jackie, thank you so much for coming on. I'm really just such a big fan of your content and totally aligned with your approach of, you know, trying to find those sustainable strategies for weight loss without necessarily strict calorie counting. So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for being here. I'm so excited. Okay. So for folks listening who, you know, perhaps are on a weight loss journey and they feel like there is no way in hell that they could lose weight without tracking meticulously because that is what they've always done.

Starting point is 00:03:15 Can you just like gives a little bit of background on your weight loss journey? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I grew up as cute chubby little Jackie and it was something that my relationship with food got tarnished very early and I feel like a lot of the women probably listening can totally understand my grandpa at the age of nine called my legs chicken polkas like a like a chicken leg and that's when it kind of like oh that's not really cute so it started to really have me feel uncomfortable with like well what's wrong with my legs what's wrong with me? me. So growing up, you know, again, I love my parents. They always wanted me to be healthy. But what did they know? Oh, our daughter's gaining weight. We have to put her on a diet. So that is something that before my bat mitzvah, so I was 12, I went to Weight Watchers, my first meeting. And I just remember sitting there next to someone in their 50s. And I was 12. I don't even think I had my period. And that's when the cycle started. So it was back in the day when it was like the slider scale. And so it was all the points, right?

Starting point is 00:04:23 So I was learning about nutrition, but it was learning about a point system, which our bodies don't go off of a point system, right? So it was really a struggle because it was constantly losing gaining, losing gaining. And then when I learned that certain foods that I loved were nine points, I avoided them because it would use up half of my points for the day. So what do you think happened when I went to all of my friends' houses growing up? I mean, it was this forbidden food that I just binged on or ate because of what I wasn't allowed. So it started this very unhealthy relationship with food.

Starting point is 00:04:59 So when I was 19, I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. When my doctor asked me how many alcoholic drinks I was having at the age of 19. I mean, let's be real. I was in college. I was having fun, but not that much fun. And that scared the shit out of me. And that is when my late grandpa died from diabetes. My aunt has had bariatric surgery, been on semi-glutides.

Starting point is 00:05:21 it's all off all you know there's just complications in my family when it comes to diabetes and that's when I said to myself okay I've got two options I can either continue doing what I'm doing for the past however many years and keep going through the cycle of losing 20 gaining 30 losing 30 gaining 40 or I can actually like start listening to my body and figure out what my body needs and that's when I decided to work with a coach who helped me and I lost 65 pounds over my entire sophomore year of college. And that's when I kind of stumbled upon mindful eating. It wasn't that she taught me what it was, but when now I understood what I was doing, I was being mindful. I was making mindful choices. I was making mindful swaps. I was enjoying myself. I was at Emory.

Starting point is 00:06:09 I was in Atlanta. I was having fried chicken and waffles and experiencing life, but I wasn't binging on it. I wasn't eating at all, cleaning my plate. I wasn't cutting out things the next day. So that's when I was like, oh my goodness, like I can lose weight, eating the foods I love and still making healthy choices, but also having fun in life. Like, hell yeah, sign me up. So here I am 15 years later. You know, that was when I was 20. So that was in 2010.

Starting point is 00:06:38 And I've got two babies. And people are always like, how did you lose your weight postpartum? I'm like, the same fucking way, the same exact way. And like my life looks different. I might not have an hour to go to the gym. did when I was 20 because now I have a baby and a toddler but like again I can still change my non-negotiables of what mindful looks like for me but I can practice it for the rest of my life so that's why I eat sleep breathe preach mindful eating to everyone because it's a way of living

Starting point is 00:07:10 and it's something sustainable I love this yeah your story I'm sure is so inspiring for so many people. And this is exactly the purpose behind, you know, my hunger crushing combo method as well. You know, we add things. We don't restrict because we need to shift that from a state of scarcity mentality to one of abundance if we don't want to end up binging like you did, you know, in those early days on Weight Watchers. But speaking of restriction, I want to kind of like break down some, you know, weight loss mistakes that I, you know, I'm sure you and I both see people making. And I want to start with one that honestly, I have gotten, I got a lot of shit for saying

Starting point is 00:07:58 before because I don't even know this was that controversial. But most people, for most people, I would say, meticulously tracking calories in versus out in my experience is a weight loss mistake. You know, if you're going like, you know, point by point or, you know, calorie by calorie, you're measuring everything out and you're thinking, okay, this is an exact science. I got a lot of thoughts on this. But from your perspective, why have you tried to distance yourself from like strict calorie counting like this? Yeah. So a couple of reasons. personally I am a type A perfectionist recovering I say but not recovered so I was the perfect storm

Starting point is 00:08:36 for setting myself up for an eating disorder which I struggled with for about six years because once I lost the weight and again I came back for my junior year that's when of course oh my god you look amazing like in my my goal at that time was a thigh gap or a six pack right that's what I wanted when I was 20 years old so that fueled the fire and that was like, okay, I can eat less and move more. And it just kept going and going and going. So the reason why I think it is unhealthy is because, number one, let's be honest, the body is such an incredible mechanism. It'll do anything in its power to protect itself.

Starting point is 00:09:17 So the more I ate less and moved more, the more my body said, fuck no, you're hungry. So when you eat 500 calories and run a 10K, that when you walk into your my room with my roommate and you see her peanut butter go freaking eat the whole jar and like I was rat I didn't realize I was just destroying and I hate when people are like your metabolism slow and blah blah but like I was literally destroying my metabolism in my body so I think that people who are hardwired the way that I am can get super obsessive so when I would include carrots and cucumber and tomatoes because it was nutritious and colorful phytonutrients, all the things. But my fitness pal said X amount of sugar, X amount of calories to the point

Starting point is 00:10:07 where I was counting 10 carrots. That's all I love myself. So it became obsessive because I was trying to continuously, again, my head was I needed to be in a deficit and I needed to burn more. And the skinnier I got, the less efficient I was burning because I was smaller. So I had to keep decreasing that calorie deficit. And it was just so unstable. My lowest was 97 pounds. I lost my period. My parents, when they picked me up from Emory, said, I looked like a Holocaust survivor.

Starting point is 00:10:38 Like it was just, and I was scared. My bones were, and I slept with a pillow between my knees because that's how I could literally, I had no fat. So I think it's twofold. you can get super unhealthy and get into the scary to me being overweight is unhealthy but being underweight is even more unhealthy in my opinion it is you can get to that right that's scarier of having an eating disorder a disordered eating or on the other end i have PCOS so there was a time in my life when i was like everyone is doing i don't know i always mess up her name so i won't say the

Starting point is 00:11:15 her the bikini body guide. Kayla, the Ozzy girl. Yeah, yeah. It's new. I always miss it. I don't know how to say her last name either. Good for her. Love her.

Starting point is 00:11:23 So with my body, I would see these testimonials of, you know, she would show her like six pack and all the stuff. So when I'd come home for summer breaks, I'd be like, I want that. That's what, that was my vision. So I would eat half of a, sorry, excuse me, a quarter of a Quest protein bar. Because I knew, again, if it's 200 calories, I would eat 50 calories, a quarter. quarter. No joke. I'd cut it up into four. I'd go do the Kayla, it's whatever, 28 minutes. I'd be schvitzing, just sweating. And I was gaining weight. And I was like, what is this?

Starting point is 00:11:57 I was like, oh. So finally as a dietitian and learning like that stress on my body with PCOS and underfeeling and all the things. So again, I just always feel like it will backfire. Sure, you'll be in a calorie deficit. Sure, you may see weight loss. But you, if you're a not actually nourishing, and this is where I talk about with my clients, your brain needs glucose, your heart needs calories, your liver needs calories. If you are severely under eating, it's going to backfire and your body is efficient. It will protect itself. So whether it's going to make you go eat something else because you're starving, or it'll actually have your body be less efficient at burning calories or not gaining muscle, which is metabolically active. So it's so interesting where

Starting point is 00:12:43 I believe knowledge is power. I believe you should understand how much protein, how much fiber, how many calories. Yeah, I don't want someone eating an entire Costco pumpkin pie. I want them to be aware of how many calories and what nutrition it's giving them. But you don't need to be eating quarter of a Quest protein bar or counting 10 carrots. Yes, it's calories in calories out. That's the science. But it's so much more nuanced.

Starting point is 00:13:06 There's so many other things that we're learning. Blood sugar ballots, hormone, endocrine deficiencies, right? insulin resistance so you could be eating the same exact calories but metabolizing and processing things differently so you and I I was actually thinking before I joined this podcast I was thinking about like what if Abby and I ate the same protein oatmeal this morning I'm five foot I know you're not five foot no you're taller right you're going to right there we go like we are going to use the same calories like differently and I was just like that is mind blowing that like my body can appreciate certain foods and portions differently than yours.

Starting point is 00:13:46 And that's what makes us unique. That's what makes bio-individuality, like an important topic that we need to be talking about. It's not about points. It's not about macros. And it's not only about calories. It is about individualization. 100%. And, you know, and it's not just individualization between people, but also the fact that, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:07 in a lot of these cases, all of these kind of calorie, calculations and needs and the numbers on the back of the, we're not machines. These are widely inaccurate. Like even the best equations that we use to kind of like estimate how many calories you need and you plug that into your My Fitness Pal, those are shown to be overestimating needs by like 25 to 28%. And then on the other hand of the spectrum, we got those smart watches and we're like, okay, I burn this many calories today. So now I'm earned this many amount of, you know, how many glasses of wine. Those are off by like 30%. So right there, there's hundreds of calories off of your true needs that could potentially, you know, really mess with

Starting point is 00:14:45 that perfect calorie deficit that you've been like meticulously trying to reach. And then like the calories on packages can be up to 20% off, how you prepare food versus like raw versus cooked, ground, whole. All of these change the absorbable calories. And then also your microbiome, like you said, the individualization, like even if you and I were 5'7 and we had the same muscle mass and the same fat mass, like we are twins. Maybe my microbiome is different than your microbiome and mine is going to maybe gobble up calories more efficiently than yours. And so this is why, you know, if we put even mental health aside, it doesn't even make that much sense because calories, yeah, calories in versus calories that creates a calorie deficit. But it's, it's so much more complicated than that just

Starting point is 00:15:30 based on your unique body, your cells, your microbiome, like all these things influence how many calories you can extract from food. Totally, absolutely. And I feel like people don't talk about that. And I want to talk about, you know, kind of building on this, another common mistake, which you alluded to, which is like these crash diets slashing calories too low. You know, I think people just think that less is more, faster is better. I mean, obviously people don't are impatient. We're all impatient. Can you talk a little bit about like what's happening metabolically or physiologically, you know, kind of mentioned the psychological piece. But when someone's restricting too much as you did. What's happening inside the body that's causing us to fight back?

Starting point is 00:16:10 When you just think about it, your body is like a car. Cars burn gas most efficiently when it's actually halfway full. When it's not too much and not too little, and this is like in simplest layman's terms that they can say. And that is why I love mindful eating, because that is what's satisfaction. It's enough food. It's not too much. It's not too little. It's just enough so this is why when i have new clients coming in and it's so funny i look at their food journal and i can see their first week they're being like super quote unquote good i'm like girl you are where's your color where's what is going on here and some of them are like what do you mean i'm like because they go back to that very restrictive like i started my diet with jacky on monday like i'm just

Starting point is 00:16:58 going to be super and i'm like no no no no adding nutrition not taking away okay great you have a bareball protein bar, add an apple to it, like add nutrition to it. Don't just take it away to get in that severe calorie deficit because, again, you want your body to be efficient. And so you cannot be efficient and drive from San Diego to LA on a like no energy, no gas. And that is again, the simplest way, like think of it like a car. You need gas to go. You want good quality gas and you need just enough. plain and simple right you don't have to get into the whole like your bmr and go do indirect calimetry and like look at like how much no no no we don't have to get that crazy but and again like you said it's so funny

Starting point is 00:17:49 the amount of times i looked at my treadmill and it told me i burned or my elliptical with no resistance that told me i burned like 800 calories right i had no idea how inaccurate it didn't know i was five foot it didn't know i was 20 years old it probably thought it was a 160 pound middle-aged man right it's just you're never gonna get exact and neither is your body so something that I want to remind people is about your body changes day to day hour to hour has more needs so it's just giving this example I'm postpartum when I was breastfeeding I needed to eat more because I was creating breast milk for my son now it's interesting how I notice that I don't need as much And I find that fascinating because my body already knew I needed more energy.

Starting point is 00:18:41 And so the more that I tried to my postpartum weight loss, I knew it was going to backfire because it would dip my supply. I wouldn't have the energy. So I said, I'm giving myself grace. When I stop breastfeeding, that's when I can actually experiment with actually eating a little bit less, mindfully, right? I wasn't starving myself. And of course, I'm back at my pre-baby weight, whatever you want to call it, because

Starting point is 00:19:05 I actually gave my body what it needed and it worked with me, not against me. So when you think about metabolism, you got to feel your body. You can't build muscle if you don't give it the building blocks. You cannot get stronger. You cannot get faster. You cannot go further without nutrition. Yeah. And I think that's one of the big issues that I see with these crash diets and these

Starting point is 00:19:31 slashing calories too low is they, of course, are going to end up, compromising protein intake, which means compromising muscle mass, which does mean overall lower metabolism because our muscle is going to burn like six calories per pound versus two pounds per fat. So when we lose muscle, every single movement we make just like live in our life is going to cost our body less energy. And plus there's like so many these metabolic adaptations that happen in the body because we like to maintain a specific little set point weight. We like to be in this comfortable range. And like you mentioned alluded to with the mindful eating, like when we're actually being more in tune with our body's true needs and not like looking at the elliptical saying,

Starting point is 00:20:16 oh, I burned 800 calories. Now I can eat 800 calories. Maybe even though I'm not hungry for 800 calories, we're able to find ourselves at that kind of healthy, happy weight without it like taking over our life, so to speak, you know, running everything, you know, just clouding every thought and you know moment of our day with these obsessive ideas about oh how many calories was that how many calories they burn how do I save calories so I can have a glass of wine you know the mental gymnastics are exhausting for people it is gymnastics I mean when you think about I was doing some research there's the average human has over 200 food thoughts a day like can you and what happens is a hundred and ninety nine out of the 200 are actually freaking out about what to

Starting point is 00:20:59 in that mental stress and when people throw out stress insulin resistance cortisol inflammation it's just like it's just no it's not any of that you're just literally overwhelming yourselves you're you're you're again overloading your nervous system so when you are not in a comfortable state like you were saying then of course your body is not going to do the things that it needs to do efficiently because it's just trying to survive 100%. Can you maybe give us a couple, like, of your go-to small, like, realistic little habits that people can put into action, like, literally today to get started? Yeah. So something that every single client who comes through Mindful Weight Loss Academy, my coaching program, their very first week when I onboard them, every single person needs to create three non-nobstance. negotiables one nutrition one movement one mindset you literally cannot move into coaching and start

Starting point is 00:22:05 until you do these three things because what i've noticed having been doing this for a long time is that when you start something new and i say in air quotes again you go back to what are the restrictive i'm going to be super good i'm only going to eat chicken i'm only going to eat broccoli you know and that is not sustainable and backfires so i want people to think individually for their life what is one nutrition one movement one mindset non-negotiable every freaking day that i can actually check off the list who doesn't like checking something off the list right it's amazing right it feels so good as a dietitian it's like highlighters and check and it feels so satisfying oh yeah type so this is something right that type a this is something that when you think of like james clear

Starting point is 00:22:49 when he talks about an atomic habits it's the small daily actions so for me i'm going back in time to when I was 19 starting my journey. My nutrition was actually getting my breakfast ready. Because I used to wake up five minutes before biolab or whatever and sprint out, grab my coffee and a bagel on a potato. Like it just was to think about what I was eating in college was while. I wasn't thinking. So like now back in time, for me, that's when my yogurt bowl became my staple.

Starting point is 00:23:22 I ate it every day. I've been eating it for the last 15 years. I maintain my 60 pounds, 65 pounds. And people are like, can you eat the same thing? And I'm like, yes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I do yogurt, half a scoop of protein powder to give it a cookies and cream or some sort of flavor to boost the protein. Not too much, of course.

Starting point is 00:23:40 I do some blueberries and some chopped walnuts with some cinnamon. I literally have that prepped five of them. It just, it works for me. I love it. I don't have to think about it. It's ready to go. To me, I'm starting my day with at least 30 plus grams of protein. and I feel satisfied for four plus hours.

Starting point is 00:23:58 So I want people to think about what is that? Is that having ready-made egg bites? Is that getting the Starbucks drive-through? I don't care. It has to be something that has to support you making a mindful choice. For me, not skipping breakfast, having something high-protein and having ready-made. That's easy, simple. You can Google all of the recipes.

Starting point is 00:24:20 I'm sure we both on our pages. It's so simple. but having something where you don't have to think about it and it's nutritious for you and it's ready made, sign me up. I love that. When it comes to movement, so that is where I didn't want to be in the gym for an hour sweating. I don't enjoy that. So my movement non-negotiable is I have to get at least some form of walking, whether it's walking on my walking pad and I'm sending voice notes to clients doing check-ins. I'm walking with my son in the stroller and my daughter's riding your scooter.

Starting point is 00:24:53 Every day, that's my non-negotiable. It doesn't need to be 10,000 steps. It doesn't need to be 6,000. For me, at least 10 to 15 minutes of movements, intentional movement. So for you, it could be that. For me, I'm standing because that's what I do. When I record podcasts, I am not sitting. I am standing.

Starting point is 00:25:12 That's, I'm fidgeting, all of the things. Like, that's a little bit of my neat, right? Non-exercise activity thermogenesis. like that is something that okay how can I add more movement to my day 10 15 minutes non-negotiable and it's about the consistency I do it every freaking day I guarantee everyone listening to this podcast you can walk for 10 minutes you're on a phone call you're waiting for your kid to get out of gymnastics you can yep you just don't prioritize it and lastly mindset I call it mindset slash self-care what I noticed is that when I would sit there and you know watch a show or be on my computer late at night it made me so tired the next day

Starting point is 00:25:55 i didn't get good sleep for me switching my phone off at nine o'clock actually being and i tried the whole do not disturb and i would always override it i actually phone off upside down away from me i know people do things like out of their room and blah blah blah but good quality sleep people don't realize your sleep impacts, your leptin and your groin, your hunger hormones, it affects your metabolism, all of the things. And if you're tired the next day and running off of six cups of coffee, like, no, you're just not going to have the energy to do anything else. So for me, I really want people to think about, sure, they're hacks, but their foundation. Yeah. They're basic. What is something that you can do every day that has to support your nutrition, support

Starting point is 00:26:45 your movement and support yourself care. It could be taking a freaking bubble blast. Like, I don't care. It could be doing your devotional or starting your day with your morning coffee and listening to a sermon or reading five minutes or writing five minutes. What is actually going to support you and what can you do consistently? Because when you do that every single day for seven days straight, for four weeks, for however many months, you will be light years ahead than if you try to do it perfectly.

Starting point is 00:27:14 Love that. And I just want to ask one last question here because, I mean, we could talk all day, but this I think is really important to end with. And that is, you know, I think one of the other big mistakes that I see people on weight loss journeys make is that they think that weight loss just comes down to like a good diet or a good plan and or how strong your willpower is. But I think that really just ignores like the complexity of eating in response to human emotion, which is totally normal. And I just remember I look back and when I was doing my internship to become a dietitian and my preceptor said to me, you know, Abby, it's never just about the food. It's never just about the food. It's often about the why or the how you're eating. And the how definitely speaks to the kind of like mindful eating piece, which is, you know, and I'm sure like sometimes your sessions with your clients feel more like like a therapy session to start than just like doling out a meal plan. Do you want to going to speak to how important that is and just like any little simple exercises that people can do to kind of help them get started when they feel that that emotional eating piece is a really big part

Starting point is 00:28:19 of their story. Yeah, I tell my clients, if you haven't cried in the four months of being out of my program, I have not done my job. Like every time I'm on people always like, are you sure you're not a therapist? I'm not a licensed therapist. I am a registered dietitian, but it's really an emotional thing that we're talking about. So when it comes to mindless and emotional eating. And look, the best example that I can give is I'm Jewish. We do everything that revolves around food, whether we're sad, happy, whatever. Like, we call, it's called a Polish mother, which is my mom. It's like, are you hungry? No. Okay, I'll make you a sandwich. Like, that's just how a Jewish mother will be like taking care of you. And so it's something that I grew up with everything

Starting point is 00:29:00 revolves around food. And food is to be enjoyed. So a part of my pillars of my program, balance, mindfulness and lastly satisfaction you have to feel satisfied you have to eat the real thing that actually makes you feel satisfied so for me you will never find me eating the low calorie healthier version of erases i'm going to eat the real reases because i'd rather eat one of those than have 15 different other things that are going to quote unquote cure my sweet tooth or whatever so when it comes to the mindless eating, I like to implement, we call it a speed bump. And what does speed bumps do? Back to my like car analogy, it slows you down. So when it comes to, you're going back to that habitual eating because the food is there or, oh my God, it's the pumpkin pie and I never get this

Starting point is 00:29:54 or whatever it is for you. And you're feeling that like, oh my God, this is kind of a bad food, like I shouldn't have this. Oh, I've been good all day. I deserve this. When those feelings are coming up, when you are taking a second to pause you can decide what your speed bump is for me i ask myself questions or you can use a physical speed bump but for example i ask myself and my clients simple questions number one am i physically or emotionally hungry take the emotion out of it be honest right two what nutrition is this giving me be honest three how is this going to make me feel lastly how is this going to help me reach my goals i asked myself those questions during my journey and it could have been well i'm emotionally hungry this is all sugar i don't really feel good after

Starting point is 00:30:48 eating a whole pint of ice cream and it's not going to help me so it actually slowed me down to be like okay but i still want but maybe i don't need the whole pint oh maybe i'll put it in a bowl and actually sit down and eat the ben and jerrys like and i ate a normal portion and a decent amount of calories versus thousands of surplus. Right. So just slowing down, taking again a breath. And so what I want people to recognize is when you have those emotions, it's kind of like this gray cloud over you.

Starting point is 00:31:21 It's super yucky. It's uncomfortable. Is it going to rain? It's got lightning. What's going on? But what happens with the weather? What happens with the cloud? It'll pass.

Starting point is 00:31:31 And that's the same thing with emotions. so you can't change that the pumpkin pie is going to be in front of you when you go into your Thanksgiving dinner or whatever because it's going to be there but you can change your thought and that's where I implement those questions because you can either have an unhelpful thought of I never get this I deserve this I've been a good you know I'll just start over tomorrow which are unhelpful thoughts you can change it to well I don't necessarily need all of this but I kind of want it I'm going to honor and I'm going to have to have it and I'm going to move on and you're always going to be out in the end and if you

Starting point is 00:32:08 practice mindful eating you'll balance and be in a calorie deficit that you can maintain or be in maintenance that you can maintain because you're not going to be gorging on these foods because they're number one not forbidden and you're making a mindful choice you're deciding this is a hell yes so for me a Reese's is a freaking hell yes but also some of these other things like for example I remember as you know when you like eat a piece of cake and it's like so rich and you're like oh it's like too much people will go into that all or nothing like well i already fucked up i might as well keep going like no stop yourself any time you can stop yourself sooner whether it's one bites three bites or there's one bite left that is change that is positive

Starting point is 00:32:50 and the more and more you practice your speed bump in slowing down the more confidence your builds and the more you will feel in healthy control around food i love that so many fantastic tips here and absolutely echoes what we talk about, you know, with the hunger crush and commo method. It's really about having that peanut butter cup, the one that you really love. But, you know, knowing that you're probably going to feel better if you pair that peanut butter cup with some with some edamami or some like nuts or some, you know, yogurt on the side or some fruit or whatever it might be versus having like five or six of them raiding your kids Halloween hall. So this is really, really helpful. I will, of course, be leaving links to where everyone

Starting point is 00:33:28 can find you in my show notes. And of course, your coaching program and your a podcast, which I'm going to be on as well. So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. I loved this episode so, so much. And I really wanted to build on what Jackie and I were talking about by bringing it back to my signature framework, the hunger crushing combo. As Jackie and I discussed, you know, strict calorie counting and crash dieting tends to

Starting point is 00:33:56 leave a lot to be desired, mainly that it puts you in a state of scarcity and denial that your body fights too thin nail to get itself out of. But of course, as we pointed out, weight loss will always still require a calorie deficit. Hard stop. So then how can an additive system like the hunger-crushing combo support weight loss goals without us falling into the traps and mistakes that we discussed today? Well, when you build your meals and snacks around hunger-crushing compounds, foods that are naturally satiating and nutrient-rich,

Starting point is 00:34:34 you start to crowd out those less-filling, high-calorie options that leave you rummaging through the pantry soon after. Rather than having that piece of white toast with a sweetened coffee for breakfast and then crashing head-first into the communal donut box by 10 a.m., you learn that if you were to add a little avocado and some egg to that toast and maybe even serve it with some yoker and fruit, you have the staying power to make more mindful decisions as the day unfolds. And this is evidence-based.

Starting point is 00:35:07 So, for example, one study found that when people doubled their protein from 15% to 30% of their total calories, they spontaneously and non-restrictively ate approximately 400 fewer calories. Another study found the same thing with fiber. We're upping fiber intake from 16 to 28 grams per day, resulted in them naturally slashing 300 calories per day. All without having to white knuckle your way through the day or giving up with a screw it, diet starts again tomorrow binge. In the book, The Hunger Crush and combo method,

Starting point is 00:35:43 I give a lot more specific details on how to structure your meals optimally if sustainable weight loss is your goal, along with chapters for insulin resistance, diabetes and PCOS, sports and fitness goals, paramedopause and menopause, and feeding a healthy family. Plus, you get loads of cheat sheets, creative combo ideas, and 30 adaptable recipes. We are one week away from the launch, and pre-sales and first week sales mean everything. So it would truly make my whole life, my whole career here, if you would consider ordering the book. It is such a treasure trove of nutrition science distilled into digestible bites using my signature, Science and Sass.

Starting point is 00:36:27 And of course, if you are more of an audiobook person as I am, you can also pre-download that as well, and you can listen to my beautiful voice on your commute or your daily walks. But thank you again to Jackie for joining me for this very important conversation, and thank you for all of your support on the show and the book. Signing off with Science and Sass, I'm Abby Sharp. Thanks for listening. You know,

Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - The Weight Loss Mistakes That Backfire Every Time (Your New Years Resolution is a TRAP!) with Jackie Kirschen

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.