Carbs After 35: Why Cutting Them Is Keeping YOU Stuck (Lose Fat + Build Muscle)

0:05 This is the body recomposition revolution. I am a former personal trainer and educator for over a decade who is obsessed with teaching women 35 plus how to finally drop fat and completely reshape their bodies through science backed nutrition and training protocols optimized to meet your body's changing hormones. Classes in session.

0:31 Welcome back to episode 4 of the Body Recomposition Revolution. This is Robin and today we are talking about that macronutrient we all love to hate and hate to love Miss carbohydrates. It is so profound to me the amount of knowledge I have gleaned over the last two years on nutrients and how they impact women aged 35 and above. It's profound because I have a couple different certifications regarding nutrition. One is new and none of them, none of them touch on the science that I've learned from Doctor Stacey Sims and other exercise physiologists that focus on women above the age of 35.

1:17 It is, as I said, profound. We're going to get into that today. But as always, channeling my teacher background, we are starting off the episode with a learning objective. And I had, I had someone ask me why I start with learning objectives. It's not just because I'm a teacher, It's because as a teacher, I learned how important having an objective at the beginning of a lesson is. It tells you exactly what you're going to learn. And if you know the learning goal ahead of time, it inadvertently kind of keys your brain into organizing that information so you retain it.

1:51 And it also kind of gives you a motivation to understand and comprehend and file away the information. So that's why I do the learning objective. And today's learning objective is as follows. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why carbs are essential for women over the age of 35 to build muscle, burn fat, and balance hormones, and how if we cut them too low, it actually sabotages that progress. You heard me right. If we cut carbs too low, you will keep your belly fat. Now, I have learned so much about carbohydrates and the way they affect women in the past year and a half, two years.

2:36 It blows my mind that we have been so lied to. And I'm not sure if that's intentional or unintentional or if we just did not have the research. I'm gonna go with the latter because it feels less icky, but if any of you were around for things like the Adkins diet, where you are basically eating no carbs whatsoever, you probably saw results. I mean, you did see results, or if you were like me and was really into nutrition and fueling your body, you did eat carbs, but it was a small amount. I did a figure competition years and years ago and I remember having days where I could only eat 25 grams of carbs and I was dying.

3:19 But it worked. I was shredded and that was the point. That was the point when you're going on stage. So if you're a competitor on stage, you're a bodybuilder. Whatever, I get it. I got it. Good. Respect it, but for the average person who's not, you know, oiled up on stage, you need carbs. And anyone who has been oiled up on stage and knows what happens to your body after you depleted of carbs will understand why carbs are absolutely imperative to keep that body fat away. I remember after my first and last figure competition, I was lean.

3:53 I was cut. I was completely emptied of carbs for a two week process. And I ignorantly thought that I would maintain that amount of leanness just by going back to my normal maintenance phase. I thought, well, I will just maintain at this phase and go back to eating my sweet potatoes, my rice. Oh my gosh, I blew up. I think I gained 15 lbs in two weeks. And I'm not kidding you. And if you're a figure competitor, you're not surprised. And I was much younger at the time, so I got it sorted out. My hormones recovered.

4:23 But if you are a woman over the age of 35, you cut carbs too low and you are going to lose muscle, slow your metabolism and keep if not gain belly fat even if you are training hard and eating next to nothing. First I want to touch on why your age matters. Why does it matter more at the age of 35 and beyond if you are not getting enough carbs? In terms of your body's composition, starting at age 35, your body is experiencing hormonal shifts. OK, they might be really moderate if not unidentifiable or non existent at 35, but as those years creep on 3637, those hormonal shifts are wreaking havoc in your body.

5:07 And that's normal. It's natural. It's completely what your body is supposed to do as it ages. Now, if you're age 40 and beyond, you are well aware of the hormonal fluctuations that your body is going through. You can see it, you can feel it, you can and identify all the frustrations that come along with those hormonal shifts. And it's not just hormonal shifts. After the age of 35, you are losing muscle every single year and your recovery time is slower. So carbs are not a threat. They are a tool.

5:39 They are a tool. Carbs do not make you fat. They make your muscle building machinery work, but that does not by any means mean that you should go sit down and have a doughnut and say it's helping, because it's not. It's all about what kind of carbs you're getting. And I have learned through working with women that it is really helpful for me to go through what that means in terms of what carbs are acceptable and which carbs are not. And I won't say they're not acceptable. They're just not ideal, right?

6:11 Because if we have a goal of dropping fat and gaining muscle, we're going to talk about carbs in a factual way. And there are carbs that are ideal for that and there are carbs that are not ideal for that. So I don't even need to go through the bad carbs because if it doesn't have a mom or come from the ground, that's a bad carb. Let's go through the good carbs, the carbs that are going to fuel our fat burning machine. OK, good carbs, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, but you can also have sourdough bread, sprouted grain bread, sweet potatoes.

6:46 Those are all fantastic carb sources. But keep in mind you need to pair that with a protein when you eat it because that's going to balance your blood sugar. You pair it with the protein and that moderates your blood sugar. That's important. I just want to share a little quote from the Goat Sims about carbohydrates being paired with protein. Carbohydrate Co ingestion with protein significantly increases MPs which is muscle protein synthesis building muscle in women due to heightened insulin sensitivity around training.

7:18 That was in 2020. Here is another one. Without adequate carbs, women may fail to trigger the full anabolic response to training, regardless of of protein intake. That's from the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise, and it was in 2020. What that means is even if you are eating as much protein as I am always preaching about and everybody else is preaching about, that's great, but it's not going to trigger the full anabolic response to training. So you are not going to see the full anabolic response to your training if you are not eating enough carbs.

7:56 OK, back to talking about what are the good carbs. And I know I listed veggies and fruit and I know what you're thinking. You are thinking vegetables are not carbs and who would even count fruit as a carb? Well, we don't in America and look at our population. But they are every other society. Every other culture does not view fruits and vegetables as a sideline item. Fruits and vegetables are the main course and then you have some protein sprinkled in. Our Americanized plates are just a big slab of meat or you know, a ton of noodles.

8:29 And vegetables are irrelevant. They are non existent. But vegetables and fruits, those are the carbs we're going after. Those are the carbs that are ideal for body composition. When we talk about body recomposition for women above the age of 35 or body recomposition in general, it is a formula. Carbs plus protein plus lifting, not just a calorie deficit. And that is so hard for me to accept. I, I constantly fall back into that eliminating carbs in general mindset. It's been really hard for me to overcome that actually in the last few years.

9:04 But it is so imperative it, I was forced to overcome that when I was not seeing the results because carbs do not make you fat. They make your muscle building machinery work. The low carb approach, the zero carb approach that men can do that was not designed for women. I think I mentioned this in a previous episode, but those foundational nutritional studies about how women drop bat, those were conducted on young, healthy, active men, not women. We are physiologically different. What that means is the studies that analyze how carbohydrates affect body fat, those do not account for hormonal fluctuations, perimenopause or female specific metabolism.

9:50 So if we are going to apply those protocols to women, it has really adverse effects, especially on your energy and your hormone balance. It might work in the beginning, but then you're always going to have this feeling of being wired and tired. And I, anybody who knows me knows that I battle that always. And what I have been doing a lot of studying on and re studying and rereading because it is so deeply ingrained in me. And what I have learned is that after age 35A low carb, low calorie approach is the literal perfect storm to derail all the progress that you've been making in the gym, in the kitchen.

10:31 It is the perfect storm to undo that. So a few things happen when women follow that advice of doing low carb, low calorie. Now I just want to add this in because you have to be in a calorie deficit to drop that. That is facts. It is the law of thermodynamics, it's true. But there's a difference between going in a calorie deficit and starving yourself. If you are sitting at a thousand 1100 calories a day, none of which are from carbs, you are starving yourself. That is going to unravel all of your progress.

11:05 You are going to be larger in the stomach than you were before you started crash dieting. OK, So what exactly does go wrong when women follow the advice of going super low carb and super low calorie? Number one, you have a reduced insulin sensitivity. What does that mean? It means your body doesn't respond to insulin well. So normally you eat carbs and that insulin helps shuttle glucose into your muscles for energy and storage. But if you have a reduced sensitivity, which means your muscles don't hear insulin as well, which means more glucose stays in your blood and your body stores more as fat.

11:41 So remember this when you hear the term reduced insulin sensitivity. Because to me, I was like, what does that even mean? Reduced insulin sensitivity means you're going to have a higher blood sugar and fat storage, especially around the belly. That's your body's response. Another thing that happens when you are doing way too low carb and way too low calorie is you have cortisol increases. That happens from the stress and the under fueling and that also equates to more belly fat and muscle loss. The two exact things we do not want to happen when you are trying to look toned.

12:15 As much as I hate that word #3 muscle protein synthesis slows down. So that means how your body is building muscle that slows down without insulin, that's triggered by carbs. And the fourth thing that happens when you go drastically low calorie, low carb is your thyroid function. Your T3 drops under chronic carb restriction and that slows your metabolic rate. I know you know what that means. That means you are burning less calories at rest. All of these things are the exact opposite of what you want to happen in your physique.

12:48 If you are listening to this podcast, you want less body fat, you want more muscle because those two components combined give you that toned look. To put it simply, when you look at a woman body, we need carbs to burn fat because our bodily systems need carbs to function, to get the mitochondria working, to get those free fatty acids that are in our blood, not to be stored, but to be used as energy. If we want body recomposition, we have to fuel for that, and fuel includes carbs. Now, I have a few clients who are women above the age of 50 or just before 50, and they had this problem.

13:24 They were so active, they were so fit, but they had complaints about belly fat. They had complaints about their overall physique. And these are metabolically active women. So when you are too metabolically active, your brain says, hey, I need to break down the most energy expensive part of your body, which is going to be your muscle. Since you're not giving it enough carbs to fuel for what the task at hand is, it's going to breakdown your muscle first. O When that happens, if you are a super active woman and you're struggling with belly fat, you are not fueling appropriately.

13:59 You're going to put on belly fat. It's subcutaneous fat. So again, for my super active ladies, many of which are my clients, my super active ladies who are above the age of 35, this is their number one complaint. But they're barely eating, They're moving a ton and they're sporting a little tummy. They look puffy. In their mind they have an idea of how they should look because that's how they're training and they're barely eating but they can't sleep. It's because their bodies are in a sympathetic Dr. They are in this super high stress state.

14:31 There is not enough nutrients in and your body is ready to fight or flight. So when not fueled appropriately, your body goes for that most expensive part, which is your muscle, and it takes that apart and you're left with a skinny fat look, a flabby tummy, whatever you call it, it's not what you want because all that hard work is being wasted. And if you're transitioning into menopause, unfortunately there is a big shift in your body composition regardless of what you do. It's a hormonal change and it's, it's natural.

15:03 It's totally natural, but it is also under a sympathetic Dr. just because of the onset of menopause. You know, that's what I talked about where you're tired, but you're wired. Your body is naturally in this state of OverDrive and that's why we have to feed the body and train appropriately. So if we are fueling the body properly and we are training the right way, our organs, they just start working better. They work Better Together, which stops our body from having that visceral fat, that belly fat, and it allows our body to use the fatty acids for energy instead, even when it rest.

15:38 And it also helps muscles to pull glucose more easily without relying on insulin, which improves your overall for all metabolic health. But if we don't give the body enough fuel, if we are taking away all of our carb source, if we are in too steep of a caloric deficit, none of those processes can happen. They don't happen efficiently. And what happens is you store the belly fat, as I mentioned before. So as our episode approaches an ending, I want to go over briefly a quick synopsis of what we talked about.

16:08 So what happens without enough carbs? You eat protein, you lift weights, but muscle protein synthesis stays really low because your insulin isn't triggered. So even though you're doing everything right, your body cannot build or maintain that muscle. And believe me, I can speak to this. I was going in extreme carb deficits to try and drop weight. I'm like, what is going on? Why am I losing muscle mass? That never happened to me in my early years. It really didn't. Why was I, why was I gaining belly fat?

16:41 Your body is different. You have to give it enough fuel so that all the systems work properly to shuttle that body fat out. Because what's happening is instead of losing body fat, you might. The scale will tip downward, but it's going to be water weight, it's going to be glycogen, It's not going to be body fat, and you're actually going to burn muscle instead of fat, which in turn will slow your metabolism and give you that skinny fat look. You'll feel tired, inflamed, bloated. It's just an overall stuck feeling and it sucks.

17:11 But what happens with enough carbs? And we're going to go over how much that is because I know in your head you're probably thinking sweet, how many sweet potatoes can I have during the day? Enough. Probably not as much as you're thinking, but enough. So what happens with enough carbs at the right time? Your carb intake triggers insulin, which is great because then it shuttles nutrients like protein into muscle, flips the switch on muscle building. So we are engaging that muscle protein synthesis process we are building and it supports your recovery and your hormone balance and gives you enough energy.

17:42 If you've ever gone super low carb, you are burned out. You're burned out. But when you're eating enough carbs, you have that energy back. And if you combine it with strength training, now you are preserving that hard earned muscle and you're even building muscle. So with enough carbs, you are preserving and building muscle. You are burning more fat. And I promise you, talk to any of my clients, they can attest to that. And you are going to keep that lean, strong shape and you're going to feel energized instead of depleted.

18:10 Now let's talk about carb timing because you want a little bit of carbs with each of your meal. And I touched on you're going to be eating a lot more vegetables. Yes, there's carbs and vegetables. That's a normal realization for anybody else but an American. Vegetables, fruits, those are your main dish. Now, I've noticed a lot of people will call this disordered eating rhetoric. They will say, oh, you're only eating filler foods if you're in a caloric deficit. A filler food meaning a bunch of vegetables because they are filling but not high in calories.

18:40 What's wrong with that? What it literally what is wrong with that? There is nothing wrong with eating filler foods. It is not disordered eating rhetoric. That's a healthy eating practice. Maybe not to an average American, but that's the problem. One of many that is not disordered eating. Anybody can is welcome to their opinions, but in my opinion, that's a healthy eating practice. And if you want to sit down and have a steak and potatoes, yeah, that's that's great too fabulous. But if you're in a caloric deficit and you're hungry, eat a bunch of veggies, you're you're making a great health choice because of the micronutrients.

19:18 We'll, we'll get into that in another episode. So you're going to want a little bit of carbs with each of your meals throughout the day. But as the second-half of the day passes, you want the carbs after lunch to come more from vegetables because then you have that fiber compound and you don't get the big spikes and blood sugar. Because we want to signal to our hypothalamus that, hey, you do not need to be storing this fat. We are going to be fed again. Let go of this body fat. Use it as fuel. You want to keep signaling that to the hypothalamus by eating meals throughout the day.

19:51 That way it knows it's safe here. This is a safe place. We don't need to store the belly fat. Let it go. We're going to get fed again. No worries. And as Doctor Stacey Sims says, she talks about training and lifting weights as a way. To kind of manipulate the signals we send to the brain to change our body's composition. That's what we're doing. We're signaling to the brain, hey, let go of this fat, let's build muscle. We're never training fast it ever. Never. You're always eating before and after training.

20:20 We do not abide by the same training principles as men. We're not men because if you're doing silly things like fasting and believe, believe me, I've fasted this year. Even I learned the hard way. If you are doing things like fasting, you are signaling to that hypothalamus we're in trouble. We have a lot of stuff to accomplish. She's asking us to run and lift things and I don't have enough nutrients to accomplish these tasks that are being demanded of me. So I better store this body fat because I know what she's going to ask me to do it again tomorrow.

20:52 She's been doing it for years. That's why I'm going to keep harboring this body fat exactly where you don't want it, in your belly. That's what your hypothalamus is thinking, OK, how you're going to use carbs strategically to build muscle and burn fat. So how you're going to use carbs to continue body recomposition? You're going to have a pre workout with carbs and it's only maybe 15 to 30 grams of fast digesting carbs. What is that? Bananas, dates, rice cakes, oats, honey. And this blunts your cortisol.

21:24 It fuels your performance. OK, so pre workout, 15 to 30 grams toast workout, you get a big one here, 30 to 40 grams of carbs plus 20 to 30 grams of protein. This is going to support your recovery after you tore those muscles up in the gym. And if you're recovering, you are building you that protein is getting shuttled into those muscles where you have those microscopic tears from lifting. And it's patching up the holes we're building. And then it's replenishing your glycogen. And other benefits of having your carbs post workout is it improves your sleep quality and it improves your metabolic rate.

21:58 OK. This is going to increase your metabolism. And as I mentioned, you're going to have a little bit of carbs with each of your meals, but try to keep those carbs to things like whole carbs, oats, sweet potatoes, quinoa, berries. And then the second-half of the day, you want your carbs more from veggies, fruit. This is a quote from Doctor Stacey Sims. Timing carbs around your training is one of the most powerful body recomposition tools women have, but most are told to fear them. To fear carbs. That's me.

22:29 I am 100% afraid of carbs. And as I rewire all of my thought processes to align with this new way of thinking and training and doing this polarizing method, I am seeing progress. But I am learning the hard way. I've been learning the hard way for two years. And it's hilarious because I had a nutritional certification about a year ago. So funny how opposite it is to all of this. Because it doesn't apply to us. It's different. It's different after age 35. S keep learning alongside me. I'm learning every day.

23:01 Let's go over that learning objective one more time. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why carbs are essential for women over 35 to build muscle, burn fat, body recomposition and balance hormones, and how cutting them too low can actually sabotage your progress. Now here's the take away. Carbs are your recomposition weapon, not your enemy. If you're 35 and beyond training and cutting carbs, you're sabotaging yourself. Believe me, I've been learning this the hard way the last two years of my life.

23:35 So these big mental blocks we have in our brain with carbs, we need to tear them down after age 35. We need to tear them down. But that does not mean you get to sit down with a bag of potato chips and and think that's going to help you with your recomposition journey. It's not, it's about the right kind of carbs. It's about timing your carbs. And I'm going to provide a little resource in the show notes, a list of carbs that are great choices for women and anyone in general. And I'm also going to put a little blueprint for how you can time your carbs throughout the day.

24:07 And this is a general rule of thumb for women above the age of 35. Just kind of a bare bones outline of when you should eat your carbs and how much you should be consuming and what those carbs should consist of. So thank you again for joining me. I love any and all feedback you can send my way. It all helps me to deliver information to you that is helpful. I absolutely love teaching and appreciate every single listener that tunes in each week with me. Have a fantastic day and you will hear me again next week.