Ozempic for Menopause Weight Loss
Julie Gordon White: Hi everyone. Welcome to the MenoLounge. I'm Julie Gordon White, CEO of MenoWell, menopause energy and protein bars, and I'm really excited for this topic today. We hear this word in the news every day, especially in the meno conversation. I'm going to bring up our expert today as, um, I'm chatting about it, but you know, Ozempic impacts us in menopause. Is it a good option? Is it not a great option? All the things, and I'm excited today that we're going to talk to our in-house clinical nutritionist, the most amazing superstar, Barb Sobel. Hi Barb.
Barbara Sobel: Hi, Julie. How are you? I'm great. Um, you know, I'm doing this, I'm super excited today.
Julie Gordon White: I know, right? We've been talking on our Slack channel like, oh, I can't wait for this. And I have to say, you know, I'm actually, oh, uh, handle the holidays post here, and I'm not handling it that well. I am from food, but not from schedule. So, I don't think I need a Ozempic though. We've got that covered, but let's talk about it because this is a no judgment zone and we're here to talk about Ozempic, Wegovy, all the alternatives, what the pros and cons are, especially as it relates to menopause. Right.
Barbara Sobel: Yeah, it's a great topic. I'm sure people have heard about these drugs in the news, they started out as diabetes drugs, and there's a whole class of them with a lot of different names. But, you know, for some people they can be great, but just like anything, there can be side effects and consequences, and I think for menopausal women, that's a big issue.
Julie Gordon White: Barb, we know, we hear the name, uh, Ozempic the most, and that's what really was, is the biggest brand, but there's Wegovy also. Any others?
Barbara Sobel: Um, yeah, there's a bunch of them. They all come from a peptide called sema-glutide and um, you know, different companies have different names and some of them have some other things in them. They're basically a class of glucagon-like peptide one. Um, and they are. GLP 1, because it's way easier to say you know, you, and what they do is, um, they mimic a natural protein, peptide, that we have, it gets formed in our gut, but we have receptors all over our body, and it mimics this hormone, But, you know, hormones in our bodies are very small.
They can have really intense messages and changes in our body, but we put out little bits of hormones. So, this is a pretty big, much bigger dose. Um, and so it's interesting that it mimics what we already have.
Julie Gordon White: And so that mimick, the way I actually learned about it the first time, I was at an event and a woman told me that she was taking Wegovy and she had lost a lot of weight. She was very clinically obese and had some medical related issues, but it made her sick. It made her really uncomfortable. And so, she told me she actually was eating our bars because it was like one thing that she could eat to not completely kind of fall apart with no energy, because she couldn't eat very much or anything because she didn't feel good.
So, I want to talk a little bit about those side effects because that's how the drug actually works, right? It makes you feel full already?
Barbara Sobel: Right. It has a lot of different, um, pathways and let's start with that. That's a good place to start. So it was developed as a diabetes drug. One of the things it does is it triggers insulin from our pancreas. and that helps take blood sugar or glucose from going around our body and put it in our cells. So it brings down your blood sugar, which is great, especially if you're diabetic. It helps keeps our liver from producing more glucose, which is something that we do when we're low in it. Like if you were out exercising or sometimes even overnight, you need to make a little bit more. So it dampers that it slows our stomach emptying, which is makes us feel full longer. So we don't really want to eat. Um, and a lot of people lose complete interest in food.
Julie Gordon White: Not mad about that. Yeah. Well, not every day, but you know, like on Fridays and yeah, yeah, yeah. No!
Barbara Sobel: And then it makes you feel full. And so it does a couple other things, like they're finding that it stimulates our brown body fat, which helps us burn more calories or more fat burning, more fat burning, and it can decrease inflammation. Um, but, you know, there, for some people, they, you know, the loss of appetite is great. Sometimes it goes a little too far. I've read about people who, um, just no longer like things they loved, like their morning coffee. Um, and that's. sort of joy is gone from food.
Julie Gordon White: That is an important part of our lives. I mean, just eating and social but just enjoyment of taste. So that's kind of a sad thing. But I understand them. If there's something important for your health, then we have to do what we have to do. Right?
Barbara Sobel: Exactly, exactly. So nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, you know, it affects everyone's body differently. Um, some people get some muscle pain and then you inject yourself. So, you know, there could be an issue of, you know, a pain point where you actually injection site. So, um, so that can be another thing too. And then there's some like longer term effects. But those are, um, affect people kind of most. Mostly at the beginning and especially as they are ramping up their doses. Um, and you know, everyone's different. Some people don't have those. And, you know, some people diarrhea, some people constipation, they're opposite, right? So, there's not just one, um, side effect.
Julie Gordon White: So, and these drugs have been around for a long time, right? So, it's not like they're new to the market. In terms of studies and, um, efficacy, we, it's legitimate.
Barbara Sobel: Yeah. Yeah. But they were brought to market for diabetes, so not as weight loss. So we don't know long term, um, you know, if you don't have diabetes that maybe you've tried other ways to control it, what happens? And, you know, one of the things I worry about is if you're, you are. So, um, it's really about bringing down the amount of calories you're eating significantly because you're not hungry. It's great for weight loss, but are you getting enough nutrients to really fuel yourself long term? You know, you've talked about this a lot. Um, bone loss is a really big issue. Muscle loss. Really big issue. Are we getting enough nutrients so that our brain stays strong and engaged? There's a lot of questions about that, and I'm not, you know, those things haven't been studied yet because the drug wasn't studied in that capacity and I hope someone is doing that.
Julie Gordon White: I'm so glad you brought that up. That's, you know, of course, I've done a lot of research, and we've talked so much about it as well. And that is my concern, that, um, you know, we see in certain areas of the country, in California, Hollywood, you know. Yeah. Like, whoo, what happened to her? You know, she's gone, you know. So, I can understand why it's so attracting for people to, you know, And there’s the idea of like, let's just drop, especially in menopause, it's so that weight is so frustrating and what we did in our forties, all that cardio, you know, it actually worked and now it doesn't and starving yourself doesn't work. Actually it does, but it doesn't, it has a boomerang effect. So that's what I'm concerned about with these drugs, Ozempic, Wegovy, et cetera. Is that yes, we can lose that meno middle. Thank goodness. However, are we sacrificing muscle and bone density and especially on the muscle side when we lose that muscle, that muscle mass as soon as you stop taking that drug and start eating normally, we're going to gain all the weight right back, right, because you don't have that muscle mass that keeps our metabolism burning, burning, burning, not to mention strength. And when we don't have strength, then, you know, that speaks to the whole bone density thing, weakness, all that stuff. So longevity, long term health I’m concerned.
Barbara Sobel: my take on it. I think that there is a way to take these drugs and ramp on with them, be on them, even ramp off with them. If you are really mindful about nourishing your body. Mm-Hmm. And you're still doing, you know, you're really focusing on a higher protein diet and you're focusing on lifting weights and building muscle, and you're making sure that you're getting all of the basic things you need to get to build bone tissue. Um, but what happens is a lot of times for a lot of people, it's just. They're not really hungry, and it's so easy, so you still have to do all the work if you're on these, if you really want to have the long-term benefit, and you know, these drugs are expensive, right? They're covered for diabetes, but they can be very expensive for weight loss. And if you go off of them, you know, um, you run the risk of gaining all the weight and then sometimes even more. I saw one study that said 40 percent of the weight loss people are losing on these drugs is muscle. And that's a lot.
Julie Gordon White: And that makes perfect sense, right? Because what we want is actually fat loss. We don't want weight loss. So these drugs in general, if you're not working out, lifting weights, heavy weights, resistance training, heavy weights, you know, working your way up, don't start with 20 pounds, start with wherever you are, but if we're not lifting heavy weights and, um, and we're not focusing on getting protein and a nutrient dense diet, then we're losing weight, but we're losing muscle as a part of that weight. And so what we want to focus on is fat loss. So when we eat, you know, prioritize protein and nutrients and resistance, weight training, then we're losing fat. And that's really the conversation we need to be having. Not weight loss, fat loss.
Barbara Sobel: Right. Exactly. And we'll lose some muscle, but that happens in any time you lose weight, you're going to lose a little bit. But we want to minimize that. Minimize.
Julie Gordon White: Significantly. Yeah. Yeah.
Barbara Sobel: So there, well, I think one thing that's, or a couple of things that are really interesting about these drugs is since we have GLP 1, we create it in our body, there's a bunch of foods that help us increase our own natural GLP 1 hormone and um, one of them is protein rich foods, which is so fascinating because that's what we need to be eating anyway, um, another one is fiber.
Julie Gordon White: Check check.
Barbara Sobel: Those are things that we should be focusing on anyway,
Julie Gordon White: right? I love that so Protein, because protein makes you feel really full and flavor makes you really full. That's, that's the whole point of, of Ozempic and Wegovy, et cetera, is so you feel full so you don't want to eat. So, let's do that with food. Wow, what a concept. And when you work out with heavy weights, uh, I don't really want to eat for a little bit, because my body's like, ooh, that was a lot, you know, so natural approach to feeling full, right? Good. I knew it. Here we go. Um, parent in real life. I'm a parent in real lifetime. Yes.
Barbara Sobel: Great examples. You know, it can be, um, uh, animal protein, you know, your chicken, your fish, anything like that. Meat, if you eat it, Um, some of the vegetarian proteins are high in fiber and in protein. So your proteins and legumes, pea protein, yeah, lentils, black beans. Um, so those could be a twofer.
Julie Gordon White: Can I offer to, um, for those who can eat dairy, I'm gonna do a video on this if not today, tomorrow. Barb, hold me to it. I always say I'm gonna do that. I'm like, ah, I'm too busy, but if you can eat dairy, um, cottage cheese and Greek yogurt.Yeah. So here, here's my go to. I think I finally nailed it for my protein forward. Um, for breakfast I have a protein oatmeal because I want all my fiber, a scoop of clean protein in that, plus a tablespoon of flax seed and a half a cup of blueberries.
Barbara Sobel: Awesome. It's like great. You can put little cinnamon in there too. Okay. Cinnamon helps bring down your blood sugar. Um, it will give it a sweet flavor, but it has no sugar. Um, and then, um, I've also read What is it? A teaspoon, a teaspoon of, um, cinnamon can increase your natural GLP one levels for two and a half hours.
Julie Gordon White: I am adding that. I'm also trying to stick with my 12 hour intermittent fasting or, you know, eating windows sometimes to 16, but I, I know you told me 12, 12, 12, at least 12. So, um, So I'm past that now, right. It's easy on Tuesday after the MenoLounge, no eating till after the MenoLounge.
Barbara Sobel: And that just depends on how your body responds. Yeah, right. Um, and if you are a morning exerciser, you might need to eat half of that.
Julie Gordon White: I always say like a half a minimal bar, not more than that because of the fiber, but you're going to get those fats, some protein, fiber, just enough to fuel you up. Yeah. Not too much.
Barbara Sobel: I want to tell you one other time I'm really enjoying the meno bars. If I go out to lunch, I sometimes feel like I don't get enough protein. If I get like a salad or something, it's a little like, I like, I want the vegetables and stuff, um, or even a soup sometimes. And just don't have enough, so I'll have a little meno bar as my dessert and I can kind of, I feel like I'm topping off.
Julie Gordon White: What's your flavor this week? I know we all switch around.
Barbara Sobel: You know what? It's peanut butter right now. We're sticking on the peanut butter. I know. And I was chocolate diehard for a long time. Diehard, but now I'm kind of, like, I find myself going to the peanut butter.
Julie Gordon White: Me too. I go back and forth. Okay, so. That's what I'm having that protein power oatmeal and I'm gonna add cinnamon. That's a no brainer. I love cinnamon. Okay, right lunch and then parent in real life said yes, she's good with tomatoes and pistachios in the cottage So I do too. I actually get those individual containers because I was only eating one. Here's another piece Don't be afraid to eat especially if it's protein Okay, if it's protein, don't be afraid to eat it. So now I eat two of those. So in my breakfast I have over 30 grams, 34 grams of protein. Now at lunch, I have 34 grams of protein from cottage cheese and I just pile on whatever veggies on the side, not, not mixed in, but I want that crunch because all that mush from the cottage cheese. You know, I carrots, cucumber, snap peas, any crunchy thing I have that really satisfies me. So you've got that now look at I'm already at 68 grams of protein by lunchtime.
Barbara Sobel: That's awesome. That's a win. Yeah. So then you can eat something for dinner and you don't have to go overboard.
Julie Gordon White: Okay. Here's my go to my go to egg roll in a bowl.
Have you had that?
Barbara Sobel: Um, no, explain.
Julie Gordon White: I should share this. We might be having it tonight. I know, see, these are alternatives to Wegovy, by the way, because we're talking about Ozempic, about, you know, staying full, because that's what those drugs do. So if we eat a protein forward diet, Then we're staying full. Um, so I'll have my bar usually in the afternoon because that's when I start like walking around, like looking at them.
I need to drink water, water, water, and I'm hungry. Right. So, um, I'll usually have peanut butter or peanut butter, chocolate, or it depends. Double chocolate brownies. Sometimes I really need blueberry almond and occasionally toasted vanilla almond, but usually in the afternoon I need something with that powerful flavor and fiber. I'm full, good to go. Dinner, egg roll in a bowl. Which is ground turkey. Yeah. And then, you know, season it the way you like. And then, um, shredded cabbage. You buy the bags of shredded cabbage, one, a whole pound of ground turkey, one or two shredded cabbage, mix that up, put whatever you want. If you want a little drizzle of sesame oil, I wait till the end.
Don't use it in cooking because you use too much, but you get the good flavor at the end, like a topper. Oh, Barb. It's so good.
Barbara Sobel: Okay, I’m going to try that. Yeah, you know what? I've been buying the shredded broccoli and doing kind of the same thing. Yeah, and it comes in two seconds.
Julie Gordon White: Two seconds and then you've got all that core protein, which is the ground turkey. Have hamburger if you want, um, paired in real life. You can find them on mymenowell.com or on Amazon. Just search Menowell. Thanks for asking. Um, and so having that now with five ounces, so I upped my turkey. Yeah. I used to have four, you know, palm size, which is fine, but I glob it on to five. Now here I am at 40 grams of protein. So now those three meals plus the bar and I'm at what, like 120 grams of protein. Boom. Yeah.
Barbara Sobel: Yeah. So you don't have to get your protein all in one serving of whatever. So say you did, um, your turkey and you wanted to put some sliced almonds on it or a little bit of. Feta or goat cheese, and you changed up the flavor with the same basic recipe. Those things count as well. So you don't, you know, if you wanted to stay with your four ounces of ground turkey and you wanted to kind of supplement with protein rich condiments, that would work too.
Julie Gordon White: Like, uh, uh, Parmesan, shredded Parmesan. Yeah, exactly. That's a winner there. Yeah. So these are just my hacks because I'm, I always try to, Focus on especially during the week. I don't know how you guys all are Barb. You're great. You make wonderful meals I see you post if you wanted to have some food porn, that's super healthy.
Barbara Sobel: But you know what one of my hacks is almost every Sunday night if we're home I will make a whole chicken and there's only two of us so I can get three meals out of that So, or I can get a couple lunches, one dinner and a couple lunches. So that sets me up at the beginning of the week.
Julie Gordon White: I’m all about that. Yeah. Make your protein on the weekend if you can. I'll usually make three pounds of ground turkey if I'm doing that for the week. Or, um, my mom told me the whole time I'm raising three kids and I never did it. And I'm now, at 58, I have no kids, like in the house. Like, why did I not do this? It's a slow cooker. I will put three pounds or two pounds of chicken breast in the slow cooker, and then you've got shredded chicken in any, for any topping, tacos, eggs, salad, anything you want. Easy, easy peasy for the whole week.
Barbara Sobel: So, yeah, I agree. And you, once, you know, in the slow cooker, you can, you put it in and forget it, go do whatever else you want to do around the house and a couple hours later, and your house smells delicious.
Julie Gordon White: It smells good and it's hard to wreck, uh, by the way I do, it's hard to wreck use a neutral, um, seasoning salt and garlic and pepper because then I can use it for different applications. Like, I really don't want taco, well actually I do like taco for, for, um, breakfast with eggs sometimes, but you know, that way it's got a neutral and then you can just add whatever.
Barbara Sobel: Yeah, that's what I do. Um, I'll do it super plain so that you can dress it up once it's cooked.
Julie Gordon White: Yes. So these are alternatives, by the way, if you're just jumping in to, um, uh, Wegovy or Ozempic, but talking about if Ozempic is something that. You feel is good for you, Barb, what, let's go back to what do women need to do if they feel like that's a good option for them to make sure that they're losing fat and not just losing weight?
Barbara Sobel: Yeah, so a couple things. So you want to have a protein forward diet. Um, you want to make sure that you're getting enough fiber in your diet. The recommendations for women are 25 grams a day and men are 38. Uh, you still want to be getting healthy fats. So think olive oil, think nuts and seeds. Um, think avocado, think fatty fish like salmon. Um, our bodies need that. They actually are very satiating. Even you know, fat has more calories, they are very satiating and they help support your own natural GLP1. Um, but we need those in our body, especially for our brains. Um, you want to be doing strength training. You still want to be doing some cardio. Um, you might need to change it a little, change it up a little bit. Um, maybe decrease some of the Endurance type of things and add in a little bit more high interval, high intensity interval training around it out a little bit. Um, we need to be moving during the day. Right? We can't just do our 1 hour of exercise that doesn't cut it. We need to move during the day. Um, you need to sleep. Yes, right, which has a really hard thing in menopause for many of us, post-menopausal.
Julie Gordon White: Last night I had the most amazing eight hours of sleep, but the night before I had horrible sleep, woke up at two, couldn't go back until four, ended up sleeping later than I wanted to because I was so tired in the morning.You know, I get up, I like to get up early and I hate it when I sleep until seven because I didn't sleep well from two to four. Right,
Barbara Sobel: So that's important and if you know, if you're not sleeping, well, you gotta get to the bottom of it. Okay, that might be a sleep study. It might be really being accountable for your habits, right?
Julie Gordon White: True confessions. Yeah. I drank so much water that day that I had to get up. I was, I, you know, I had to keep getting up, I had to keep getting up. I was so excited that I was actually hitting my water goal for the day, you know, like, I'm almost there. Oh, not worth it. Not worth it.
Barbara Sobel: Yeah. Um, so let's see. Um, stress is another thing. And we know stress. It's, it messes up our insulin and it makes us crave different food, you know, the higher carb, sugar, fat type of foods. So we need to work on that as well. Yeah. And, um, so you have to really do all the same things that you'd be doing if you were not on one of these medications, but you're window of food is a little bit smaller, right? Because you're just not as hungry, so you're not eating as much. So, you're, you have to really dial in. There's not as much wiggle room for fun food. Because you're eating so much less. So, it's not the time to be, you know, going and having french fries.
Julie Gordon White: French fries are not, it's not a vegetable group. I
Barbara Sobel: mean, it is a potato according to Congress, it might be, but you just have less room for those fun foods. If you're eating so much less food, right? And, you know, I mean, a couple of things I would, I recommend my clients to stay on top of is get your blood tests, your blood tests done regularly. So you can see if you're getting low in any nutrients. Um, and that would be related to intake. Um, especially. Yeah, exactly.
And your B vitamins, um, which you can tell from a standard blood test. So I think that's important. If you have not had, uh, an initial DEXA scan, go ask your doctor to look at your bones, get that initial, initial baseline. And if you're on one of these drugs and you haven't done one in a while, do a DEXA scan because if you see that you are having bone and muscle loss, And muscle loss, because you can see that on a dex app, then you need to implement some strategies. And then you want to make sure those strategies are working. So you want to follow up with that. You know, you can get a bioimpedance scale for your bathroom. Um, it's not as, um, it is not on the same level as…
Julie Gordon White: That's what I was going to say. I know. Can we trust those Barb?
Barbara Sobel: I always feel like, you know what I like to say, if you're consistent, you can see changes. I would not use it as a baseline thing, but if you are, you have your baseline and you know what it is, and you're tracking changes, then you can see, are you losing muscle? Are you losing fat? What's happening in your body?
Julie Gordon White: So write that down, everyone, because even if it's a regular scale, but you know, these specialized scales, we tend to, I was listening, um, to Dr. Peter Attia the other day and his guests and how, you know, we're so skeptical of certain things, but we'll take anything that we have on our watch or on the scale is the gospel. Right. So. Um, and we know that there's some fudge room in there. However, if you track it over time, because over time is what matters, especially when, if we're watching the scale, looking every day to go down as women, come on, we know one, you know, extra water or certain time of the month, if you still have a cycle on, on, you're going up and down and you don't want your emotions to fluctuate with the scale, but looking at over time trends. With a baseline. That is a beautiful way because data numbers, you know, they tell us they tell a story, but don't get all hung up on exactly what the number is. Right. Right. Right.
Barbara Sobel: Right. And there's some doctor’s offices and gyms that have really, um, you know. Expensive, well calibrated. That's not something you'd have at home. So if you have access to that, it's worth checking out. You know, a tape measure can be great to, um, look at your waist size. Look at your, you know, your leg or your arms. Are you, you know, and you can also see in your body how it's changing.
Julie Gordon White: Yes, I love, I love a tape measure because the tape measure doesn't lie, especially on the thighs and arms because you can't suck in your thighs and arms, but when I do my waist measurement because of hip to waist ratio, and if we want to talk about that, but, um, You know, I suck in my stomach as hard as I can to try to get, and not just because I want this small number, because I don't want to trick myself in like, you know, doing it a medium, just a little bit and think that's it. Or if you try to push it out as far. So I try to go the other way. I don't know if that's very, that's just my mind game. But what is that? As women, we held our stomachs in for our whole ding dang lives. We'll talk about hip to ratio, uh, waist ratio on a different because I think that's important. We'll come back in January and do that.
Barbara Sobel: So, you know, another thing that's really important that we haven't talked about our gut microbiome influences our and we can't, there's different filas or families of bacteria. And if we are high in one family. The way we process the food and carbohydrates is the way they, the bacteria does is different. So if we are high in a family called formicides, we're going to be more, it's going to make us more fat.
Julie Gordon White: You lost me at formicides.
Barbara Sobel: Yeah, I know. Don't ask me to spell it.
Julie Gordon White: Okay I won't, but give us a definition, explanation.
Barbara Sobel: It's a phyla, a family of bacteria. So a lot of different bacteria fall into this family. Then there's another one called, um, Firmicutes and, um, oh my god, I've gone blank on it. I need some MCT oil.
Julie Gordon White: I know. Get out your bar. Eat it really fast. Um,
Barbara Sobel: but, um, it starts with a B. Firmicutes and bacterioides.
Julie Gordon White: See? Right. Say those things fast.
Barbara Sobel: Okay. So, if you're higher in formicides, your ratio, your, your body's gonna have higher fat.
Julie Gordon White: Look at, Sarah just shared for you. Sarah sent it in. Thanks Sarah.
Barbara Sobel: Do you see how to say it phonetically? If you're higher in bacteroides, you are going to be, um, you're gonna burn more fat. And, um, if your gut isn't healthy, and you're not eating fiber to keep those, that gut healthy, it's like aliens, right? It's these other beings that are inside of us. That are affecting our weight, and it doesn't even have to do with all the other things that we're doing. So that's another thing that we really want to make sure that our gut is healthy. And, um, to support us in so many ways, but that's another way.
Julie Gordon White: I love that. That's just, that's why if you're going to take one of these medications, drug, um, a Ozempic or Wegovy, you have to prioritize your nutrition, right? You have to, because you eat, you want your gut health to be. In order, because it impacts so many things in our body, including our brains and in the medical cause, we're struggling enough with brain fog, et cetera. So you've got to prioritize that nutrition in the small window along with protein to get that gut health as optimal as possible.
Barbara Sobel: Right? Right. So a lot of things like, you know, we have to, I think that these drugs have a place and they've been really effective for people and there's a lot of people that have combinations. I mean, there's so many reasons why we could be gained weight, you know, there's just what happens in normal menopause, but there's just, there's all sorts of factors, socioeconomic factors, access to food, things, emotional issues. We could be on medications that made us gain weight. Um, you know, there's all sorts of reasons. Um, and sometimes these drugs can be really helpful for people who have tried everything. But we still need to be doing, even if we're on them, all of the things that we need to do if we're not on them.
Julie Gordon White: That's the big takeaway right there. Like the rules don't change. The best practices don't change. Whether you're, you're shedding, um, meno middle or, or weight loss or fat loss, which is the goal. Naturally with whole foods with, um, with things to help you, uh, when you need support like a MenoWell bar or you're using a weight loss drug, but the rules don’t change right?
Barbara Sobel: They don't, not for optimal outcome. And they become even more important. Honestly, because you're, you know, that those diet and lifestyle things, because you're bringing in less food. So you have to be even more vigilant.
Julie Gordon White: Yeah and we don't want it back. That's the other thing that, you know, if you're taking it for, um, for medical reasons, such as diabetes or things like that, then maybe you're going to be on that drug for life.
Who knows? But if you're taking it just for weight loss and fat loss, maybe it's temporary, but you don't want to gain it back because Barb Do you know that percentage? I want to say 80 percent of people that go on a diet, um, gain weight back and I might be making that up.
Barbara Sobel: So no, I think it's 70, 80%. It's pretty high. It's very high. And what happens is a lot of people, exactly, because you've lost muscle. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, that's the whole big loop. What was the biggest loser? Yes, exactly. That on those people. Yeah.
Julie Gordon White: Because even though they were working out, but they were losing so quickly. Um, you know, one thing I thought of, and I hope you have another minute for this, is that when we lose weight quickly and without nutrients, many women have hair loss. Yeah, so I don't know if any studies have come out about weight loss drugs and hair loss yet. If maybe you can take a look if we haven't that's
Barbara Sobel: something we can yeah I think I'd be really interesting to look at that nails nail strength. You know, we do see Ozempic face right? Where people lose the fat in their face and they look much more, they look like they've aged.
Julie Gordon White: That’s when we like a little bit of fat in our cheeks, my mom, who's 83, she's like, I'm not going to lose. My mom is slim and she's five feet and she weighs like 119 or something, but she's like, I'm not losing any more weight because I don't want to get all wrinkled. I mean, exactly. Yeah. So. Yeah.
Barbara Sobel: Yeah. Yeah. I think that those are things that, you know, we have to, we don't get deficient in nutrients for a while. Mm-Hmm. . And so we have, I, I mean, I would love to see some studies on what happens, you know, and we get upset about muscle and bone too.
Julie Gordon White: Muscle and bones. But you know, there's something about her hair. Yeah, there's something about our hair. So it's really scary and we're already at risk of losing hair during menopause I still shed a lot of hair more than I ever did. I used to have so much hair And so I had hair to lose but um, but still and so I know that that can happen as well when you're not Prioritizing nutrients. So right so big takeaways Barb.
Barbara Sobel: Yeah big takeaways. I think there's a time and a place for these, and they can be really helpful for people. Um, but still paying attention to the same diet and lifestyle things, um, that we would as. You know, perimenopause, menopause, women, we still have to do, um, without, when, if we are to take these medications, and those same things help support our own natural production of GLP 1. So, it is a win win.
Julie Gordon White: It's that. Which keeps you full. Right. That's a pretty neat thing. I didn't know that. Got it in my toolbox now.
Barbara Sobel: It keeps your blood sugar stable, so, which is huge, which you need to do to lose weight. So it's higher protein, fiber, some good fats, um, staying hydrated, sleeping well, moving and um, with weights, um, and um, sleeping and dealing with stress. No surprises. All the things. No surprises. Yeah. Yeah, I love it.
Julie Gordon White: Oh, yeah, you heard it here on Menowell from Barb Sobel, clinical nutritionist.
Barbara Sobel: I’m so glad you brought this topic today because it's something that I think people are talking about a lot and there's a perception that it's like the be all end all and it's all you have to do and with weight loss it's never a one, one thing and that's it. It's hard and it takes work. And, um, I think that's the message.
Julie Gordon White: And we can still shed weight menopause weight during and after menopause. Correct? Exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely. The idea that you have to be stuck with meno middle for life is not true.
Barbara Sobel: Correct. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Or
Julie Gordon White: That’s why I started MenoWell in the first place. Yeah. Barb, Thank you. If viewers, people who watch this or the recording have questions and that they would like to ask, can they post them in the comments and then will you come back and we can answer some questions?
Barbara Sobel: Yes. Love to, love to.
Julie Gordon White: All right. So if you want to ask Barb more things in the comments and we'll, we'll circle back. Thanks everyone for being here. Thanks. Barb. Thank you. Thank you. Take care.