The Mel Robbins Podcast - Do THIS to Boost Your Metabolism, Lose Fat, & Feel Better Now With Dr. William Li

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

In today’s episode, you will learn how to boost your metabolism at any age and the simple changes that lead to better health, longevity, and fat loss. You’ll discover the 4 biggest myths keeping you stuck, how to reset your body’s natural fat-burning system, and what foods to eat (and avoid) to finally feel better in your body. Here to share this information is the world-renowned physician and metabolism expert, Dr. William Li, MD. Dr. Li is one of your favorite experts of all time on The Mel Robbins Podcast, and Mel is thrilled to invite him back to the show to share more tools, research, and insights. He is a physician and scientist whose groundbreaking work on angiogenesis (the study of blood vessels) has impacted more than seventy diseases, including cancer, diabetes, blindness, heart disease, and obesity, and his foundation has educated 40,000 physicians. He has also spent over 30 years researching the connection between food and health, and his findings that he is sharing with you today are nothing short of revolutionary. In this episode, you’ll learn: - The 4 biggest myths about metabolism (and why your “slow” metabolism isn’t the problem). - The top 5 foods that burn fat, fight disease, and fuel your body better. - The real reason you overeat – and how to break the habit. - How you can slow aging, boost energy, and feel better by making a few powerful changes to your daily routine. Dr. Li’s research and advice will change the way you think about your metabolism, food, and your health. For more resources, click here for the podcast episode page.  If you liked the episode with Dr. William Li, check out his first appearance: Eat THIS to Lose Fat, Prevent Disease, & Feel Better Now With Dr. William LiConnect with Mel:  Get Mel’s #1 bestselling book, The Let Them TheoryWatch the episodes on YouTubeFollow Mel on Instagram The Mel Robbins Podcast InstagramMel's TikTok Sign up for Mel’s personal letter Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes ad-freeDisclaimer

Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. Are you ready? Good, because the person that you're about to meet today was so popular the last time he appeared on the Mel Robbins podcast. We were talking about burning fat and weight loss. Well, let me tell you something. You crashed my inbox begging for more incredible research from him. So now, the world, old renown, Dr. William Lee is back to unpack the science of metabolism. Whether you're looking to lose weight, burn fat, or just be healthier, or maybe you're trying to manage a medical condition, Dr. Lee is here in our Boston studios, and he has everything that you need to know to take control of your health and jumpstart your metabolism. He's also going to address the four major

myths about metabolism. These are things that you believe that are just not true. I believe them too. And after this conversation today, my jaw on the floor. Dr. Lee has the science, the research, and the simple steps to help you unlock the power of your metabolism. Yes, you can make it better. Yes, you can feel more energized. And yes, even you can have a faster metabolism using the research you're going to learn today. Hey, it's your friend Mel Robbins. I'm so fired up that you're here. You can hear it in my voice. Now, it's always an honor to be able to spend some time with you and to be together. And if you're brand new, I just want to take a moment and welcome you to the Mel Robbins podcast family.

And because you hit play on this episode, here's what I know about you. You're the type of person who values your time. And you're also interested in learning about ways that you can improve your life, you can improve your health, and you can improve the life of those people. that you love and care about. And this is one of those conversations that has information that every single person that you care about needs to hear. So I want to thank you in advance for sharing this and for taking the time to listen to this, because this episode is going to change how you think about your health, and more importantly, it's going to empower you to make some changes that improve your health. And today, we're going to dive head first into the science of metabolism with the extraordinary Dr. William Lee. Now, before we jump into all the amazing science

and the things you're about to learn, I just want to tell you a little bit about the incredible Dr. William Lee. Dr. Lee is a world-renowned physician and scientist, and he's also the founder and president of the Angiogenesis Foundation here in Boston, where he's educated over 40,000 physicians and is working to provide cutting-edge research on how food can help heal and prevent diseases. Dr. Lee's work has impacted more than 50 million people worldwide and has led to the prevention treatment and even reversal of diseases spanning cancer, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. He has over 100 scientific publications in leading medical journals and textbooks and has published two bestselling books. He's also served on the faculties at Tufts, Dartmouth, and Harvard

Medical School. And I'm just thrilled that he found the time to come over here to our Boston studios and be able to share everything that he knows about metabolism with you and me. So please help me welcome the amazing Dr. William Lee to the Mel Robbins podcast. Dr. Lee, I'm so excited that you're here. And the way that I wanted to start is could you tell the person that's listening how they could experience life differently if they take to heart everything that you're about to teach us about the science of metabolism and they put that to use in their life today. your body's metabolism is your energy source.

And if you want more energy in your life, what you want to do is tap into your what's already hardwired into you in order to unleash that energy. And everybody can do it no matter where you are in your health journey, no matter what type of struggles you've had previously in order to be able to lose weight and be able to achieve better health. Wow. Well, about a third of our listeners have set a goal to either. lose weight or to start a new diet, and I would love to know how to leverage my metabolism,

to be healthier, to be in better shape. But what does metabolism mean? Because maybe when you say metabolism, I'm thinking something else. Let's start there. What does metabolism actually mean? Okay. So if you go to Google, when you look at metabolism, they'll give you as a chemistry definition, a science definition of it. It's the sum of all the chemical reactions to your body, blah, blah, blah, to give you energy. I like to think about it in a much simpler way. Okay. The metabolism is how your body gets energy and burns down energy, just like if you are a car.

Okay? So think about it. I mean, most of us have driven a car that uses gas. And, you know, when you're driving a car, which relies on fuel to actually drive forward, you were just sitting in the driver's seat going about your way. thinking about how to get to point A to point B. You're not thinking about the fuel. And that's basically how we operate with our metabolism.

We just keep going, doing our thing. We've got the checklist. We've got to go shopping. We got to go pick up the kids from school or whatever. Okay. We don't think about our metabolism. But like a car, which requires fuel, when the fuel gauge goes towards empty, suddenly if you're sitting in your car, all of a sudden you're like,

where do I find that filling station? Right. I've got to get some gas. Yes. Okay. Same deal on your body. When your energy runs low, suddenly you got to get fuel. And it turns out the fuel that we use for a car, which is gasoline, petrol, depending on where you live. If you actually look at what happens in the body, the fuel for our body is our food. Yeah. We call gasoline in gallons or liters, depending on where you live. Food, the measures in calories. So it's very simple. When we eat food, we're actually putting in fuel into our bodies. All right. And we call them calories. Don't get. confuse about the word calorie. There's a lot of misunderstanding about that. It's just fuel. Now, in the car, you're putting, pull by the filling station, you're taking out the nozzle, you're filling up the tank in your car with fuel. It fills up to the top, and now it goes

click, and now no more fuel will come out, thank goodness. Yep. And you put the nozzle back on the pump, get back in your car. Now you're not even thinking about the fuel anymore. Right. You're on your way. Yep. In our body, the same deal. We sit down, we're looking, we're fuel is running low. Our body says, go find some fuel. We sit, go to the dinner table, go to a restaurant, go get delivery, food delivery. Or stand in front of the fridge and open it up or pull out the drawer and put your hand on the chips. If you're with me last night. It's your choice. And this matters. This matters a lot. And I'm going to tell you, this is how you derail your metabolism. So this is actually the unlock, what you just said, is about the choice that you can make when you

need fuel. All right. You can put good quality fuel into your body or poor quality fuel. So think about it. Pull your car up to the filling station, and you got a choice of three or four different kinds of gasoline you're going to put into your fuel tank. Now, most of people will tell you put the best quality of fuel you can into the tank. Yep. But, you know, all of us, you know, I'm running a little low on cash this month. And so what do you do? You go out and like, I'm going to put some of that cheap stuff in there.

Right. You know what? You fill up your car with a tank full of cheap gas once in a while. You're not going to know the difference. But if you do that every single time, you go. fill up your tank, day in and day out, week after week, month after month, I guarantee you your car is not going to run as well or as long as somebody who really takes care of their car by putting higher quality of fuel into their car. And by the way, beyond the quality of the

fuel, that person who's choosing, making that choice is probably also taking better care of their car in general. And that's exactly what happens to our body. When we're actually needing fuel, we go for food, we reach for choice, just like at the fuel tank. And what we know is that if you actually choose higher quality fuel for your body, it's actually going to be a lot better for you in the long run. Dr. Lee, what are the misconceptions when it comes to the topic of metabolism? Well, I love the fact that you are inviting me to myth bust because there's so much myth when it comes to weight loss and metabolism and everyone thinks they know a lot about metabolism but there are a lot of myths about it that everyone needs to find out because we've all heard of them

right yeah so you basically say well uh everyone's metabolism's different it's the roll of the dice my sister's skinny as a stick and she didn't anything and i've been fighting with with weight my whole life and i have to be careful with food that's one myth uh or one idea well hold on let me just stop you right there. Yeah. So are you saying, Dr. Lee, that it's not true, that everybody's metabolism is different? Not true. What? Not true. We're all born with the same metabolism, because our metabolism is like the operating system of a computer. So, Mel, if you went to the computer store and I went to a different computer store, we bought the same model of laptop, out of the box, plug it in, charge it up, start it, operating system be the same. You hear the same,

sound and then the screen to come on the same way. That's how we're born. We're born with the same kidneys, the same eyesight, the same brain function, the same ability to move our tongue. What makes us think metabolism is different? Well, I guess because I've just always thought that some people have a metabolism that's faster and some people have a metabolism that's slower. And is, I mean, is that true? It's not true. So let's come back and talk about that myth based on a research study that was done. So that's one myth. Okay. The second myth is that when you've got teenagers and they are growing up and they're eating two or three dinners and bouncing off the walls, you're thinking that in their adolescence, their metabolism is going sky high. Yes. Right? Because they're feeding

themselves. They're packed with energy. That's also a myth. Not true. You're kidding. I remember my mom saying to me when I was a teenager, oh, you better enjoy that, you know, hamburger now because it's going to not be, you know, you're not going to be able to eat like that when you get older. And I've said that to my kids. That's not true. Not true. Third thing, that's a myth. We all think that when we reach middle age, 40, 50, and beyond, our metabolism is going to automatically slow down. And we all dread that kind of portion of our lives who are saying, you know what, I'm not going to fit these clothes anymore. I just got to get used to it. You look at other people and you go, well, they must be entering their middle age. And you sort of just have this culture of like giving up with

your former body relationship. Yeah. And you're like, my metabolism is shot now. I'm going to gain weight. I'm not going to fit into the clothes anymore. Also a myth. Fourth myth is that when our metabolism is slow, that that's why we gain body fat. Okay. Not true. Then why do we gain body fat? Different reasons why we gain body fat, but it turns out the truth is that it's our body fat that slows our metabolism, not the other way around. Oh my God. Okay, so I just want to make sure that I am digesting, no pun intended, the things that you've come right out of the gate and said, which is we're all born with a metabolism that works the same way. Yep. That the idea that some people have a fast or a slow metabolism and that's just what you got and that's what you're stuck with is not true.

The fact that your metabolism is faster when you're younger and slower when you're older, also not true. Correct. Holy cow. And what are you going to teach us today? Because now I'm like, dude, how do I get my metabolism to get cranking? All right. So let's go at this because I think that, you know, for the people who are listening and watching this, you know, it's good to know that the breakthroughs actually give you power. And here's what it is.

we are all born with our metabolism hardwired in our body, just like an operating system of your computer. Okay. Our metabolism, we come out of the womb exactly packaged to work in exactly the same way. Okay. It is what happens afterwards that starts to change. But a recent study that was done a couple of years ago by Herman Ponzer at Duke University that he collaborated with 90 other researchers. This is a big research study.

It was the largest study of human metabolism across the entire lifespan ever done. Okay. And it was done with just a drink of water. What does that mean? Well, what he was trying to do is to figure out, if you take a look at people from two days old, newborn, to 90 plus years old, what does your metabolism look like? And how does it change over the course of your life? So how did he study everybody in exactly the same way?

This was across 20 different countries. 90 researchers, 20 countries, 6,000 people from two days old to 90-plus years old. The most ambitious landmark study in metabolism ever. Okay. Okay. This is how we know that those myths are actually myths. Okay, but how did he measure it with a glass of water? Like, you're way smarter than me, Dr. Lee, so you've got to explain this to me.

I'll tell you. So now water, most people know is H-2-0, right? the H is a hydrogen, the O is the oxygen. And what the researchers were able to do is to tweak the hydrogen and tweak the oxygen so that when you drank the water, you could measure the breath, the blood, the urine, the sweat. And you can actually calculate what the metabolism actually was. All right? Simple way of actually measuring metabolism applied across 20 countries in 6,000 people across the lifespan.

So, when they actually got the results of this study, initially, it looked exactly like the myth. Everybody's metabolism was all over the map. Which I would expect. Which you would have expected. Right. But we now live in the era of machine learning, artificial intelligence, like we can use computers to really crank data. Okay. So here's what they did.

they said, I wonder if we corrected the results of this study of metabolism by adjusting the metabolism to what the individual's body size is, personalizing it. Okay. So by mass. By mass. So they knew the gender. They knew the height and they knew the body weight. And they could actually figure out, well, how much excess body fat did this individual have

and subtract out from the results? So the metabolism, the effect of excess body fat. Okay. So when they did that, so 6,000 people subtract out the effect of excess body fat. I'll tell you, Mel, it was like pulling the cloak off the statue of David for the first time. They discovered that human metabolism across a lifetime follows only four phases. Okay. What are they?

We're all born in the phase. Phase one, we're all born the same way. Phase one is from day zero to one year old. human metabolisms go skyrockets, higher, higher, higher, 50% higher than the adult level of metabolism. So one-year-old is firing up their jets big time. The have-takes, they've got to grow fast. Totally, okay?

But I'll tell you what it tells us. It tells us whatever we're exposing them to in that first year of life, we better think about that, the microplastics, the whibis, the pacifiers, the binkies. what are we putting into this metabolic engine, jet engine, all right? So, phase one is zero to one years old. Phase two is from one year old to 20 years old. This is that time where the teenagers are bouncing off the wall, eating two or three dinners, right?

And you would think that their metabolism is going up, but this research shows that between the ages of one year old and 20 years old, metabolism going down, down, down, down, down to adult levels. Okay? So the teenager is getting bigger, but the metabolism is slowing down. Okay. Now, and this is the mic drop discovery. All right.

So if anybody who's watching this, like, you're going to want to rewind and listen to this again. This research discovered between the third phase is between the age of 20 and 60. Right the time when you think that, you know, your waistline is going to expand and you're going to gain all this weight, it turns out that when you remove the effect of excess body fat are hardwiring for metabolism. between the age of 20 to 60 is rock solid, flat as an ocean on a calm day. Does not change. And what that means is that the way that we're hardwired is that 60 can be the new 20 when it comes to your metabolism if you follow what your body wants to do. Wow.

I'm going to come back to this because obviously people's weight changes and their size changes, but there's a reason for that. And the fourth phase, the final phase, is from 60 to 90 years old. guess what happens to metabolism. It does start to slow down a bit. I mean, come on, you deserve it, 60 to 90, but only by 17%. By the time you're 90 years old, your metabolism is only 17% slower than when it was at 60. And 60 should be rock solid at 20.

I have a couple things, though, that I want to repeat back just to make sure that I understand this. So phase 1, 0 to 1 through the roof. Phase 2, 1 to 20. It's actually coming down to hit adult levels, which is what you're in from phase three, which is 20 to 60. And you're going to tell us the factors that can impact your metabolism, but if we remove those factors, your metabolism underneath the hood is hardwired to just work as well as the healthiest person you've ever seen your age. And then the fourth phase is 60 to 90, and it only comes down 17%, which basically means you're still cooking with a great engine. And I guess where I think maybe we should start as we start to unpack not only the myths you've just dropped a bomb on, but also how we unlock this exciting research,

because I can tell you're very excited about it. And what do we need to understand about just the science of metabolism because I think your message is really hopeful and it's very empowering because you're basically through the research reminding all of us, listen, your body is designed to burn fat. Your body is designed to burn through fuel. If you understand the science, then you're going to look at the topic of losing weight for overall health in a very different way because you can tap into your metabolism. Yeah. So our metabolism is hardwired in our body, just like in a laptop, you know, the operating system is hardwired out of the box. It's going to be firing up. And our metabolism is designed to store energy and it stores it into our body fat. And it burns

energy just to allow us to do ordinary things. You don't have to run a marathon to burn energy. I mean, that'll burn a lot of energy. But doing the laundry, washing the dishes, walking up a bunch of steps, making the bed, that also burns energy. Okay, talking on the phone, burns energy, moving your fingers to scroll down your social feed burns energy. But it's not getting rid of the visceral fat that, you know, none of us really want. Right. So movement of any sort will actually burn some energy. So I'm trying to make sure people understand that any kind of movement is a good start. By the way, studies have actually shown that even fidgeting, you know, shaky the leg, tap, tap, tap, tap, all right, those actually

rev up your metabolism as well by burning down some energy. energy, but nothing substitutes from a burn perspective from actually really getting into motion because when you're burning down, when you need fuel to burn, it's like driving really fast on the highway, you're going to burn down the fuel in your tank a little bit more, and that fuel is really the energy stored in body fat. So what are some of the great ways to actually burn down body fat? Going for a walk, you know, for 30 minutes anybody can do. Going for a run, if you can do it. If your knees are good, I would consider doing that swimming. Great way to actually burn down extra body fat. It doesn't put too much stress on your bones or your muscles. Dancing is a great

way to actually burn body fat as well. So the amount you intake food, the quality of the fuel that you're actually putting into your body, the amount of fuel you're putting in your body is one side of the equation and you can control that. So that's super good news because just cut down a little bit, and then burning it, burning down the fuel that's been accumulated. Now, some people say, well, look, I have a really big body and I haven't been able to lose this fat. It's not going to happen overnight because guess what? You have been accumulating those extra tanks on your pickup truck for a long time, those extra cans of gasoline that you fuel, you've been piling up for a long time. It's going to take some time to burn it down. You've got to be patient. So whenever you see

these things like lose X number of pounds in two weeks or 10 days. If you can do that, all right, it won't be sustainable. You're looking for sustainable, healthy fat burn. You know, on this topic, it would probably be helpful if you could just explain what fat is. Because it's a, like, I think it's something that we talk about in culture and then we get upset at ourselves over when it starts accumulating. But as a medical doctor and a researcher and an expert on metabolism. What is fat? All right. So fat is a substance that we all recognize and maybe recoil from hearing like, I don't want to, don't too much fat, you know, you want to cut it off on your plate and put it on to the side. But I can tell you, fat is one of the most important tissues

in your body. And in fact, it forms within weeks after your dad's sperm met your mom's egg and you were just a ball of cells, your fat form before you had a face, before you had a waist, before you had thighs, you had body fat forming. And here's how it's really interesting about how fat forms. The first organ that forms are your blood vessels because everything needs a blood supply. So again, you're just a ball of cells a few days old, a few starting to be a few weeks. The first organ to forms is your circulation. Second organ that forms are your nerves because every organ needs an electrical system. Think about building a house. You got to start with the basics, right?

Yeah. You need the circulation. You need an electrical system, a nervous system. Third tissue that forms body fat. And body fat forms around the blood vessels. Okay. No face. There's no arms.

There's no thigh. Okay. There's no waistline. It forms around the blood vessels like bubble wrap does. And the question you ask is exactly the interesting question. Why does fat grow around blood vessels very early in life? because fat winds up becoming the fuel tank and you want the fuel tank to be near where the fuel is

when you eat food, you're eating fuel, the fuel goes into your blood vessels and how do you store the fuel from your blood vessels into the fuel tank? It's right there, right next to the blood vessels. That's why the fat started forming very early on in that configuration. Wow.

Are fat cells like all the other cells, or how are they different? They can stretch and expand They fill up with the energy from food, all right? They can expand 300%. So they can expand 300% in size? They can expand three times in their size. So a regular fat cell you can't see with a naked eye.

Under a microscope, you can see it. But I'm telling you, and this is why when fat expands, when you're loading it with fuel, which is the food that we eat, which is the energy that we actually need, I mean, think about it. Our body is designed to find fuel, put the fuel, put the food. fuel into our body by eating it, storing it, stores it in our fuel tank, which is our fat. And then when you're ready to burn the fat, it takes the fuel from the fuel tank, just like your

car, and runs it through the engine so you can actually burn it down. It's very simple. That's what metabolism is, the very simple way to think about it. That is unreal. I just love listening to you. And I almost hate to say this, but I got to hit the pause button and give our extraordinary sponsors a chance to say a few words. And while you're taking a listen to our amazing sponsors who are bringing you Dr. William Lee and all this extraordinary information at zero cost, share this with people that you care about because we all deserve to have the benefit of this research at our fingertips and in our lives. And don't go anywhere because we got so much more to dig into and we're going to be waiting for you after a very short break. So stay with me.

Welcome back. It's your friend Mel Robbins. And today you and I are getting to learn the science and the research around how we can boost our metabolism from the extraordinary Dr. William Lee. So Dr. Lee, I'm thinking about my two daughters. I know that my daughter will not be upset that I shared this because we wrote about it in the let them theory book. And one of the first myths that you talked about is that underneath our body type and underneath how much fat we have or how little fat we have, everybody's metabolism works the same and everybody's metabolism is capable of rewiring. And when somebody like my daughter Sawyer hears that and she for her entire lifetime has looked at her younger sister and been like, it's not fair.

You can eat anything you want and you don't balloon. I, you have a very fast metabolism. I have a slow metabolism. I have a hard time losing weight and staying in shape. And so it just doesn't seem fair. If you could talk specifically to a person who's listening who feels like my daughter does, who's like, well, I don't believe you, Dr. Lee, because I see people with a fast metabolism. I see people that can just like, you know, eat whatever they want and just sheds right off their body. What do you want them, first of all, to know that the science says and what's possible for them if they embrace what you're sharing with us in understanding how to turn your metabolism back on. Yeah. Well, first, the first and most important thing is don't compare yourself

to other people. Okay. You're comparing yourself to yourself. Okay. That's where healthy weight loss starts. So you want to fight body fat. It's true. And you said we all have the same metabolism underneath it all. And if I'm struggling, I basically go, bullshit. You know, like, you know what I'm saying? That's not true. But you're saying it's something you can activate in yourself. You want to actually get back to your own body's operating system. Okay.

Okay. And remember that analogy I gave you, like, you know, out of the box, the computer looks really great and works really well. And over time, you know, it slows down the processing, the functions don't work quite as quickly. it's just accumulated all kinds of little things over time. Well, I've got a question for you. What are four things that slow down your metabolism that you may not know slow it down? Like, I think we all understand that if you're carrying a lot of extra weight or you're eating really crappy food, that that probably doesn't help.

But are there other hidden things that you may not be aware of that are actually slowing your metabolism now? Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, so I think that there are some actual food items that people consume that they don't realize that we'll do that. Alcohol is one of them. Really? Yeah, because alcohols, first of all, it's carbs. But when you have a lot of alcohol, it changes the chemistry in your body, affects your hormones, and it makes you less eager to actually exercise the next day. You don't get as good enough quality of sleep. We haven't talked about sleep in metabolism, but you don't actually get to that real fat-burning part

of sleep if you're not getting good quality sleep. You want deep. deep sleep in order to be able to really burn as much fat as possible. Gotcha. So alcohol and not getting a good night's sleep in terms of deep sleep. Which kind of go hand in hand. You're right. And that impacts your metabolism. And that will impact your metabolism. And not only the alcohol is sort of the empty calories that will have you grow more body fat, but now it's actually affected your behavior as well. And one of the things that we haven't really touched on that I think it's important is

that remember I told you that the research shows that between the third phase of metabolism, between age of 20 and 60 is rock solids, a flat line, and that's how we're hardwired. But obviously, people in their 40s and 50s and even 60s, and they see, you know, they're gaining weight, their body shape changes. And so what's actually happening there? Well, life is happening there, okay? By the time you're 40 and 50, you've got so much going on in your life that you're less likely to have the same time that you had when you were 20 or 30.

to be able to exercise regularly. We didn't talk about stress yet, but when you're super stressed out, you're in a constant fight or flight mode, and you're not burning fat as efficiently as you could. Hold on a second. Let me ask you a question about that. That's really interesting,

because there's been a lot of experts that have come on the show that have talked about the fact that, like, 80% of people are stuck in a state of chronic stress. So if you're somebody that struggles with anxiety or depression, and you're in that kind of fight, flight, or freeze, that impacts your metabolism? Yeah, absolutely. So a small hit of fight or flight, your catacolamines, your sympathetic nervous system, firing up, all right?

Intruder's in your house. Boom, you know, like car accident, like you're like totally awake. A little jolt like that, actually will burn fat, right? Because you're ready to, you're ready to fend off the enemy or react to the disaster. Chronic stress where the hormones, stress hormones are continuously high, they interfere. with your ability to burn down body fat. So people who are depressed, people are carnically stressed, PTSD, all those kinds of things actually will interfere with that body.

And this is starting to explain why when you get to that stage in your life, 40s and 50s, okay, and it's not just exclusively there, but most of us, you know, is that middle age level, we're dealing with so much. You're worried about your employment. You're worried about your boss. You're worried about the job. You're worried about the war. You're worried about the economy.

And what about the climate? What about your kids? What about your mortgage? You know, like so many things pile up that you're in a constant state of fight or flight. So this is why I think one of the most powerful things that you can do to reset your health is to really address the stress set in your life. You know, people talk about self-care. I'm just telling you, like, if you want to look better and feel better and you want to live longer,

address that stress. It's the silent thing that robs us of our ability to be able to be able to be. burn down body fat. Wow. Well, I think it's true. We have a lot of really young listeners, and there's so many of them that are struggling with the cost of living and the sense of not knowing what they want to do with their life or hitting their 20s and feeling completely lost as their friends scatter and people move in different directions and loneliness. And I think that's a really important thing that a lot of us don't stop and think about. Like, it makes sense that if you've been struggling to lose weight and you've got any one of those factors, you're not

sleeping well. You got a lot of stress at work or something going on in your personal life where you're struggling with any kind of issue like anxiety or depression or like I used to, you drink a little too much to take the edge off the stress. All of that's impacting your metabolism, which is what's making it hard to lose weight. And then think about stress eating, right? Now you're super stressed. Do we have to go there? Because I'm like, I need one good thing, Dr. Lee. What I'm saying is that all these things conspire. If I'm not drinking, I got a stress eat for God's So this helps explain why, even though we're hardwired to have a stable metabolism between 20 and 60, when life happens to us and all these things start to penetrate our lives,

it's harder to get back to that baseline of your metabolism, but it's possible. You know what I love about you and this conversation, Dr. Lee, is that I think when you're not happy in your body and you're not feeling healthy and good just day to day, you literally think there's something wrong with you. And this research I find to be very empowering because you can then look outside yourself and say, oh, all of those factors make sense. And if those makes sense and they're impacting my metabolism, it makes sense why this weight's not coming off. It makes sense why I feel down and discouraged about this. And then the flip side becomes also true, which is if you see all of these things based on research are negatively impacting your metabolism

and we accept at face value everything that you've taught us that your research of 30 years has shown and is helping people beat diseases and lose weight, you're also offering us a pathway to reactivate and rewire our metabolism in a very positive way. Dr. Lee, this feels like the perfect moment to hit pause. I know we got a lot more to cover, but I want to give our amazing sponsors a chance to share a few words. And I also want to give you as you're listening a chance to share this with people that you love. But don't go anywhere because there is so much more to dig into with Dr. Lee when we return from a short break. So stay with me. Welcome back. It's your friend Mel Robbins. And today you and I are learning all things

metabolism and better health with the extraordinary Dr. Will William Lee. Tell me something about weight gain, Dr. Lee, that nobody would know. Okay. Weight gain does not start with your muffin top, all right? Or your thighs. Weight gain starts with in a very subtle way, and this has been studied with clinical research. It's the visceral fat, the fat that's inside our body. You can't see it that starts to grow early. So when you have too many calories and you overflow your field tank, the first fat that grows is inside your body you can't see it. Can you guess where you start getting fat accumulating first?

Well, I'm thinking about my own body right now. Well, I was going to say like I kind of grow like a pair. I go from a twinkie to a pair, so the rear end. It's not there. The first place anybody starts to gain body fat is in the tongue. The tongue? The tongue.

Now, this is amazing because it's been studied in skinny people, actually. Even skinny people start to gain weight and the first place they gain it is in their tongue. So check this out. The human tongue

is made of three parts. You got the tip of the tongue, which is like a cirque de salate acrobat. You got the middle of the tongue which is really strong, packed with muscle. And the back of the tongue is a big fat pillow,

a pillow with fat. third of it is all fat, okay, like marbly fat in the back of your tongue, to allow food that you've chewed up to slide all the way back down to your stomach, okay? And so the back of your tongue is mostly visceral fat, and when you gain weight and start to grow extra body fat, one of the first places that it grows is in the back of your tongue. Okay, the last third of your tongue. Now, how do you know this?

I was just about to ask you. How do you know it is if your bed partner you're sleeping with, starts to say, hey, you're starting to snore. Okay, you didn't snore before. You're starting to snore. So this is, by the way, studying the skinny people. What happens is that when you actually start to gain weight and body fat grows in the back of your tongue, you've got a fat tongue.

All right? Your tongue's getting fatter. Now, what happens when you're sleeping? You're relaxing, including your fat tongue starts to relax. And now your fat tongue is occluding your airways, is blocking your airway. So you wake up and you snort, you start to snore, and you wake up. And this is what your bed partner notices. So this has been studied in Scandinavia with thin people who are gaining weight and trying to figure out where is it a beginning.

And the telltale sign is snoring or being startled when you're sleeping because the tongue is the first place to get fat. Wow. And it's also then a sign that your metabolism is slowing down. It's a warning bell that things might actually be slowing down for you. So what are like the top thing? that you recommend in your practice and in the books that you write based on research, that somebody that's like, ding, ding, ding, that's me. What do I do to jumpstart my metabolism?

The first thing is intermittent fasting. Now, can you explain what that is in case the person listening has never heard of it or done it? Fasting means that you're not eating. And when you're not eating, your body will actually switch into a mode where it begins to burn down extra body fat. So intermittent fasting is really just when you are not eating periodically, which is exactly what happens when you're sleeping. When you're sleeping, you're not eating, when you're not eating, you're fasting. And because we don't sleep all the time, you know, we're awake most of the time, but then we go to sleep. That's intermittent fasting. It's a most natural way for you to lose weight is when you're actually asleep. And that's right. You're losing and burning fat when you're sleeping and not in motion. Amazing. Number two is actually get in motion. We are in a work society now.

We're mostly sitting down, particularly younger people, are just sitting down all the time. Get up and walk around. I'm not talking about, you know, you don't have to get a treadmill to work on. Like I see that stuff all the time. I'm just saying to go out and enjoy, get some fresh air and enjoy walking around with a friend is even better.

And I get some social bonding, which lowers stress. That's actually really helpful as well. And I mentioned raise stress. Lowering stress is important. It's our human instinct to focus on all the things that bug us. I would encourage people to lower stress by thinking one thing that makes you really, really happy and content and focus on that. Because even just imagining that mentally can actually help to lower your stress.

Remember, stress actually interferes with your body's ability to burn down fat. Third thing is whatever you eat, don't eat too much. All right. Quit the clean plate club. Now, we all grew up, you know, with our moms and a lunch lady telling us you got to clean up the whole plate. You know what? Don't eat it all. You don't have to eat it all.

If you eat only half the plate, that's totally fine. All right, don't feel guilty about that because if you clean that plate, you are loading all that extra energy calories into your body. And then you've got to carry it in your carcass all the years down the place. So don't even put it in. That's the easy way. And then finally, what I would say is eat the highest quality food that you can actually have. If you could recommend three foods, Dr. Lee, that somebody add that would improve their metabolism and help them lose weight, what would those three things be? Beans, okay, cook them in a

healthy way with extra virgin olive oil because they actually feed your gut microbiome, which lets your bacteria, have 39 trillion trainers in your gut, actually help you lose weight, all right? Burned down body fat. Number two, tomatoes. So many ways that you can make tomatoes, absolutely. absolutely delicious. Raw, sliced, cooked, sauteed, seared, grilled, so many ways you can have tomatoes. Tomatoes actually contain lycopene that burned down harmful body fat. And then, you know, here's one that, you know, I think people might be surprised by, but onions. Turns out that onions have something called quercetin. And quercetin is a natural bioactive that fires up your brown fat to burn down extra harmful body fat. Now you might say, man, onions are a little too strong for me,

caramelize them. Okay. In olive oil. In an extra virgin olive oil. Let the natural sweetness within an onion, soften it up and it just takes off all that extra onion-y stuff. I mean, look away so you don't have to breathe it in or turn on the fan. And then you actually have this nice soft onion stuff that you can put on anything, put it on a salad, put it on a sandwich. It's actually absolutely delicious. Put it in the sprinkling and pasta. Those are three simple foods, quercetin, also found in capers. Now, you made me think about something I personally love that most people might

not be familiar with. Capers are a small little flower bud that is picked by hand from the Mediterranean but you can find it in the middle aisle of a grocery store. It's in a tiny little jar usually packed in a little bit of vinegar like pickled kind of thing

and you just pull them out or packed in salt. You pull them out, rinse them off, and you can chop them up and sprinkle them to anything. A salad, chicken, fish, whatever it is, pasta, you'll really light up the thing. And the reason I'm saying that is because capers are bombs packed with quercetin. So do you know what I care about quercetin? Quercetin burns down harmful body fat. It activates your good fat, your brown fat to burn down your bad fat, which is white fat. And it's a super activator of your taste buds. Now, I'm almost nervous to

ask you this question because you have such positive advice. And I notice that everything that you basically are sharing with us are about ways to think differently about the topic of metabolism and losing weight and also things to add. But I have to ask you, do you talk about calories with your patients? Is there like a way to think about calories? Because I feel like I've spent my entire life counting calories and then looking at steps and then looking at how many calories I've burned. And so as we add in capers, as we try to get a better night's sleep, as we are managing our stress in a better way, as we are eating less, as we're taking breaks from eating to give our metabolism a chance to fire up and actually burn the calories and the fuel that's stored in our bodies, how do we think about calories? Should we be counting them? What do you say, Dr. Lee?

Well, look, calories are just a unit of measure like for fuel. If our food is our fuel, and we call the fuel calories, you don't want too much fuel, so you don't want too many calories. But here's the thing when people really try to create a little, a number to say, you've got to count to hit this. And I understand this, by the way, this is like the basis of biohacking, right? People go, I want to know everything there is to know. I'm a quantitative person. I want to get all my numbers. That's fine, okay?

But I can tell you the reason I try to discourage people from counting. calories or tracking their blood sugar on an hourly basis or, you know, macros or whatever the heck, yep. The problem is that actually that's quite stressful. And when you're stressed, it actually counters what you're exactly trying to do, which is lose weight and burn harmful body fat. It's very stressful for me if I had to sit there to calculate my calories, calculate my protein.

So what are you do instead? Well, you know, I think that it, this is again, where working with. the nutritionist is really, really helpful because it's personalized. Somebody's sitting with you, even it's like a one-off consult, they're going to ask you, what is your life like? Tell me what you're doing on an average day. What do you want to do that you're not able to do? And what are your overall goals?

And then based on that and based on your height and your weight and your gender and any other diseases you might have, that's actually a better way to come up with, you know, the number of calories that you should have every day. And again, by the way, if you're more active one day, you're going to need more calories. And so that's why I think the range of calories is probably working with a nutritionist is going to be a healthier way that decreases your stress. You know, you want a consultant to come in that tailors it to you, which is why I'm reluctant now to give you kind of like, okay, Dr. Lee, what's the range that we should be aiming for?

You know what I was thinking. I'm like, what about a low? What about a high? You're like, don't do it. Don't go there because it's too stressful. And whatever I say might not fit the person you who's listening to this, it might not actually fit your situation. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, I can't achieve that. And now you're feeling stressed again.

So, you know, there's something to be said about not worrying so much about numbers. Stop counting. Be aware that the amounts matter. And by the way, if you consume too many calories one day, consume less the next day. So it's very hard to hit that number every single time. And that's what I want to let people know is that focusing on the numbers is a big source of modern stress when it comes to nutrition and dieting and weight loss. It's much better to flip the script to recognize the ingredients that actually fight body fat that can tap into your and activate your body's hardwiring to burn down extra body fat. And in order to be able to live a more, I would say, a smoother, more integrated life so you're not focused on those numbers.

And earlier this year, you did a extraordinary episode where you spent over an hour going through all of those foods that you can add in that tap in your body's natural ability to burn fat, and we're going to link to it in the notes section. I'm curious, Dr. Lee, what is your message to the person who's listening to us right now who has struggled with their metabolism or with their weight for their entire life? My message to that person to you is that, you're perfectly normal. You've got everything inside you that's hardwired for you to be able to tap into who you actually are because you're no different than anyone else. We're all born with the same hardwiring. What you've got to do is to figure out what works for you to tap into that

inner strength that's your core and don't compare yourself to other people. Compare yourself to you. The progress you're making is about you, not about how you look compared to somebody else. And what are your parting words, Dr. Lee? My parting words are to love your food in order to love your health and love your metabolism at the same time. Dr. Lee, thank you, thank you, thank you for being here in our Boston studios with us and teaching us everything that you did today. And I also want to thank you for listening all the way to the end, spending time together

with me and Dr. Lee. Thank you for sharing this with the people that you care about. And in case no one else tells you, I wanted to be sure to tell you that I love that I love you, and I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to change your life. And there's no doubt in my mind that after what you learned today, you will. And I'll see you in the next episode. You're absolutely, is it normal for somebody to talk to you and be, like, salivating? Like, I feel my mouth watering. And the fact that you've hit play and you've taken the time to listen to this tells me that you're the kind of person who not only values your time, but you're also

I got too much saliva in my mouth. Dr. Lee is a renowned physician scientist, and he is the founder and president of the aniogenesis. Oh, Jesus Christ. There goes our bloopers. How do you say it? Can you just give me the word angiogenesis? That I understand. Okay. Whenever you drink your tea, you never put the tea nearby. This is my husband. It's super annoying. Okay, keep going. Don't nuke your gut. Don't nuke your gut. Don't nuke your gut. And the more you actually I'm sorry to laugh. The yin-yang. Is that a medical term?

That's a medical term. I'm sorry to do you, Tracy. Are you not just loving this? You're amazing. Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper. This is the legal language. You know what the lawyer's right and what I need to read to you.

This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it?

Good. I'll see you in the next episode. Serious XM Podcasts.