Denise: Welcome back everybody. Today I have a very  special guest today who’s going to be answering all of our questions about. Weight loss medications, specifically GLP one. 

Welcome to the Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit Podcast, where Catholic women come to learn simple and practical tools to get to and maintain a healthy weight. I’m your coach, Denise Lennick, and I’ll show you how to walk closely with the Holy Spirit and eat foods you love without guilt, no matter what season of life you’re in. 

And before I get into the interview, I want to remind you that the wait list is open for the next intensive that starts May 12th, making a plan you actually want to stick to, which is a skill. And you’ll hear during this interview that skills cannot be learned with a medication. And I don’t want you to not get the whole story.

I want you to have a complete and permanent. Solution to food noise. I want you to have a complete and permanent solution to getting to your healthy weight and maintaining it and being able to make a plan that you can stick to is the number one skill that will help you get there. All right, let’s kick off this interview.

Dr. Claudine Halt, and Dr. Claudine is a published author, speaker, and diplomat of the American Board of Preventative Medicine and the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. She has a Master’s of public health and is a certified functional medicine practitioner, and probably most important to all of you listening here is she’s a Catholic physician who helps women feel fantastic, especially with their hormones. So welcome Dr. Claudine.

Claudine: Thank you so much, Denise, for having me today.

Denise: So I know I just said that you help women feel fantastic about their hormones, but in general, if you had to tell our audience. What is your work? What is your specialty? Can you share a little bit of that?

Claudine: Yeah, in 2024, I felt called to start a medical practice and then I got the ball in motion and then waited on it, and then in exactly a year later that’s how the Holy Spirit speaks to me. It just came back very strongly and I actually had the practice up in about two weeks time. This is not my full-time work in medicine, but this is a sort of a micro practice that I do.

I’ve always felt called to serve women when I finished medical school, I actually did OB GYN for two years. This is Pre-Catholicism and then had a conversion and then ended up changing specialties. But it’s been so just. Interesting for me to see how God has really crafted this journey for me, even in my medical career.

And going from medicine and starting the coaching practice and now this medical practice. So it’s really like a full circle moment of completion where I have a very strong desire to help women ultimately feel at peace in their bodies and their hearts. To really just know who God created them to be.

And ultimately, it’s not just a one dimensional thing, it’s mind, body, and spirit. And so in this practice, that’s what I’m really doing is integrating all of these different pieces of myself, even, the medicine and the somatic nervous system work and all of it is just coming together in a beautiful way. So that’s what I do in a nutshell.

Denise: I really love that. My goal with helping women feels very much in line with yours, which is just helping them live spiritually aligned with the Lord, mentally aligned with the Lord. Physically aligned with the Lord.

Claudine: Yes.

Denise: Emotionally aligned with the Lord. And your work. Just combine all of that and bring it all together.

Claudine: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And it’s always interesting to see how, and I’m sure you have your story as well, but how God, I always say he drops these breadcrumbs and we’re just picking them up as we live out our calling and as we go along and yeah it’s just beautiful to see the story that he’s weaving, for each one of us.

Denise: Yeah. So let me get two fun facts from you. When did you convert? How long have you been Catholic?

Claudine: So I joined the church in 2012. So when are we at 14, 15 years now? Yeah.

Denise: And how long have you been practicing as a physician?

Claudine: Wow. So I graduated medical school in 2009. So it’s, yeah, it’s been a while

Denise: And I only ask that Dr.Claudine, because you said in 2024, I had this idea to start a practice. So you’ve actually been practicing a long time. You got the calling to now start this practice that involves physically, emotionally, spiritually, aligning women with the Lord and who he created them to be.

Claudine: Exactly. Yeah. I’ve been in practice for a long time, but again, it’s like this evolving journey and I feel like sometimes I’m just along for the ride here. Like I’m just..

Denise: You’re so obedient though.

Claudine: I’m just saying, yes, Lord. Okay. What are we doing today?

Denise: Yeah. And that’s exactly what we’re all supposed to be so docile to say, Hey, what’s today? Hold. Hey boss. And then he gives us our marching orders.

Claudine: Yes.

Denise: So let’s dive into the topic at hand about GLP ones. And for all of you, this is a conversation that I’ve been wanting to have for such a long time. And as we know, we cannot think about weight loss anymore. Go online without having GLP medications. As an option on TV online, there’s just so many options.

And I don’t know if there’s confusion, but I want to make sure that I am a voice. Of Catholic truth in this space. And so often I feel like the whole truth isn’t really given to people and I don’t even know if that’s the case. That’s why I wanted to bring you on so that I actually am knowing the whole truth. And from here I can use this podcast as a resource so other women find a Catholic source of truth about GLP ones. So thank you so much again.

Claudine: Yeah.

Denise: For being here.

Claudine: Of course.

Denise: So let’s just start. Can you give us a bit of a CliffNotes version of what a GLP one actually does in the body? And then so what it does, but then well, why does it help women lose weight?

Claudine: Yeah. So, GLP one first of all, it stands for glucagon like peptide one, and it’s actually a medication that mimics a hormone that we already make in our bodies. So that’s important to know. It’s something that we actually already have. And this is an agonist. This medication is an agonist that’s mimicking that.

And it is very much involved in how our appetite is regulated, how full we feel, how well we digest our food, and also our blood sugar regulation as well. So the way these medications really work is helping people to feel less hungry, feel fuller. Sooner, so less food will make you feel fuller. And also having less of this sort of preoccupation with food and thinking about food.

These medications also slow down how fast food is moving through the system, through the GI tract. Which also helps you to feel fuller, longer and. I think this is really the interesting piece, and probably for you too with your coaching background, is they also act on the brain and specifically those parts of the brain that are involved in appetite and the reward center where food can light up these reward center certain types of foods.

And so this is why when people are on these medications. They’re not even thinking much about food or they have less of that drive to eat as a reward. So that’s the high level Cliff Notes version.

Denise: We’re gonna be getting back into that everybody about how does this helps us think less about food because from my audience, that is the biggest interest of them. But let me go back to one thing that you said. You said that this mimics something our body already produces and that is an agonist for everyone listening.

Claudine: Yes.

Denise: Who doesn’t know what agonist means? Can you explain that?

Claudine: Yeah. So agonist means like helper, so it’s like the opposite of an antagonist, which most people know what that word means. But yeah, so an agonist is, I think of it like a helper or a friend. So certain medications can function as agonists that are helping something that, again, our body already either has or already uses or a process that our body does. The medication can help to enhance that. So that’s how this medication functions.

Denise: Okay. So if it’s already in our body and Claudine, I’m asking out of sheer curiosity. Now, if it’s already in our body, do we take a GLP one because it’s deficient or you’re just simply saying, Hey, it’s in our body and now we can make it work better.

Claudine: It’s helping it to work better, but it’s also that in the case that there are certain people where it’s not working as well and the medication is helping to enhance that hormones work on receptors, and this is. Probably a little, I don’t wanna get too technical.

Denise: It feels great. I love the science.

Claudine: But receptors can be upregulated or downregulated, and a lot of that has to do with our genes, but it also has to do with environment. And that’s also a very kind of complex conversation as well.

But there are things that we might do or not do that can upregulate or down regulate genes that. Code and code for receptors. And so it might be that a person has not enough receptors in the body, so the GLP one is not able to function as well as it should. So these medications can help with that.

Denise: So you’re saying. Depending on your lifestyle, there are different things that have made the GLP one work better in your body or not work better, or the GLP one that your body already creates.

Claudine: Lifestyle is a very big piece of this. It’s not the only piece. ’cause there are certainly genetic factors. There are certainly, we talk about something called epigenetics, which is, this is when it’s not just the genes, but it’s things that actually influence the genes in the body. So it’s a multifactorial conversation whenever we’re talking about overweight and obesity.

And I think. In general, people tend to think if you have a weight problem, it’s the answer is the same for everybody. Eat less, exercise more. And it’s just a simple, like calories in, calories out equation. We know that is not actually the case. For the vast majority of people, which is why we’re seeing this conversation about obesity in.

The sort of general sphere now. We’re really classifying it in medicine as a disease. It’s not a deficiency in willpower. It’s not a, you’re just a terrible person. You just lack self-control, which is unfortunately the label that you know. People get slapped with.

But it is so much more complex than that. And for anyone listening who is in the midst of that struggle, that’s really one thing I would want them to know is it’s not because you’re bad or you’re lazy, or you’re stupid or whatever. It really is a complex issue, and this is just one piece. I know we’re focusing on GLP ones, but it’s just one piece of a bigger solution.

Denise: Yeah. And actually, if nobody takes anything, if someone doesn’t take anything else from this podcast, but just to know that there’s nothing wrong morally with a human who is suffering from obesity other than it is a complex condition. We just don’t have one answer for each individual.

Claudine: Yes. There’s no one right way to manage obesity for every single person with obesity. It is something that is. Personalized. It is individualized. This is why you can have people on GLP ones who lose. I have a friend who lost a hundred pounds in six months.

And then you can have people who maybe lose 20 pounds in two years and you might think, wow one is a success, one is a failure, but that’s not necessarily the case. Again, it’s such a bigger conversation because there are other markers that we look at to determine success versus failure when you’re talking about medication. But it is very nuanced, is what I’m saying. And yeah.

Denise: Yeah. All right, so before we move on, you said some people’s, maybe deficient in GLP one

Claudine: So GLP one is a peptide that we naturally make in our body. And yes, there are some people who are gonna be deficient in that. There are some people who, there are ways to, you might have, seen. Of course when there’s like a trend, there are companies who try to figure out how can they like, get involved in it, right?

So you may have seen advertising increase your GLP one naturally, or, take this supplement to enhance your GLP one. And again it’s all focused on the same thing, which is helping your body, fine tuning your body to do what it’s supposed to do and to function the way God created it to function.

And there are various ways to do that. There are some people who can regulate their insulin and their hormones with dietary changes, maybe with intermittent fasting, maybe with more resistance training and more cardiovascular exercise at the gym.

And then there are other people who might be doing those things, but they still need a little bit of help in the form of a medication like a GLP one. So it’s again, very. Complex thing. Obesity is a very complex metabolic disease and there are going to be many different factors that go into solving the issue for each patient. That’s why it’s an individualized risk assessment and targeted.

Denise: Yeah, for sure.

Claudine: Yeah.

Denise: So is there a way to measure if someone is deficient?

Claudine: No, this isn’t like a test that you can. You can measure in the body you can measure hormones in the body like insulin. So we can look at your fasting insulin levels to see if you’re insulin resistant.

We can certainly look at other hormones we can look at. Other markers like your blood sugar level, we can look at levels of inflammation. We can look at various metabolic markers that are giving us hormones that are giving us like a fuller picture of what’s going on. But not specifically measuring the level of GLP one.

Denise: Interesting. So let’s move on to the concept of food noise. So one of the things that I see a lot in the women that I work with is this concept of food noise, constant preoccupation with food, cravings, or even just thinking about food when they don’t wanna be thinking about food.

And for all, everyone listening, I want to just put the little asterisk that it’s easier to see what food noise is when you see what someone who does not have food noises and somebody who does not have food noise simply thinks about food when they’re eating food or planning food, or when they smell something really great, but not just at random times.

So from a medical perspective. You say that the GLP ones help have less preoccupation with food. Why is that? What is happening?

Claudine: Yeah. So the reason people have less of that food noise is that these medications. Can help regulate the hormones that are contributing to the food noise. So at first I wanna back up and say food noise is, again, not just this willpower issue. It’s a very real phenomenon and it can reflect. A mix of, there’s biological hunger signals that we have in our body, and that just means that you do have a physiological drive to eat. We all get hungry.

And that’s a normal drive that we have, it’s influenced by a hormone called ghrelin. And some people may naturally have more ghrelin in the body, and so they have more of a desire to eat. So medications like GLP ones can help to rebalance that.

Then there’s also this disruption in feeling full, or satiety is like the clinical name that we use for it. So that is influenced by another hormone called leptin. So again, if you have a deficiency in leptin, you’re not going to be someone who feels. Full often. And so again you’re feeling that drive to always eat.

There’s also this sort of reward system that we have in the brain. So when we eat something that is tasty or, maybe sugary or maybe salty, depending on what you like, it does stimulate that reward center in the brain. And so we get a boost of dopamine or other neurotransmitters that say, yeah, that felt really good.

Food noise can also be the result of blood sugar swings. So if we’re eating really highly processed foods that lack nutrient density, nutritional value, that can impact our blood sugar levels, and so they’re swinging all over the place that can lead to food noise.

And then stress. Of course we’re living in a very stressful time right now, so stress impacts the body that usually raises our cortisol. Cortisol is going to drive us to want to eat as well so that we can be prepared for danger and feed ourselves to be ready to take action.

And then also, and this is an important piece, is that for some of us. It’s a learned emotional behavior when it comes to food. So it may be that you grew up in a family where food was like the thing that everyone bonded around and celebrated using food, but it may also be the situation where you experienced trauma or emotional neglect.

And so that food became a comfort or a source of some kind of sense of warmth and comfort for you. So, those are all the things that are really going into food noise. And so what these medications can do is because they’re acting at the level of our physiology, they’re helping us to feel fuller sooner and also to feel less hungry.

So even smaller portions of food, whereas maybe you used to have a big plate at dinner, maybe you could eat half of that and feel just as full. There’s less of that drive to snack in between meals, which is gonna help regulate our blood sugar and our insulin.

And then you also just generally have less of an interest in food. I’ve just had. Patients say they just aren’t interested in eating and they don’t necessarily wanna eat. And of course that’s a problem too. Because we need a certain number of macronutrients, protein to help us to maintain muscle mass and all of those things.

So we don’t wanna swing. Too far in the opposite direction. But that’s basically how these medications work at the level of both the body and the brain to help deal with that food noise.

And I wanna say, for a lot of people, that is like the biggest win on these medications because so many people have struggled for their whole lives with that constant, like thinking about food, obsessing about food.

Even if they’re in like a dieting season or okay I’m gonna lose the weight. Then it’s okay, what do I eat? How much do I eat? How long should I eat? So the medications can really help with the folks struggling with that.

Denise: Thank you so much for that. I think that piece is just such a golden nugget for the women that I work with. And so for a woman who is not on a GLP one and , she does have what you call the learned emotional behavior. And stress in her life. So maybe she’s grown up and food has been that source of comfort or that bonding, or that’s how she shows love. It’s just very much tied to all of the emotional piece. Will the GLP one help her?

Claudine: Yes, but indirectly. So GLP one is not going to resolve emotional trauma or why food became the emotional support system for that person in the first place. It’s not gonna automatically disrupt that, that process.

And that’s why I say like GLP ones are a tool. They’re not the whole story because if, let’s say emotional eating or binge eating, which is an actual disease, if that is underlying. The weight, or it’s a, let’s say, a big component of someone’s weight struggle. Yes, the GLP one will help with the physiological piece of this and then the sort of brain physiology piece of this.

But it’s not going to eliminate trauma. So this is where a sort of comprehensive approach, if someone is struggling with emotional eating, working on that. Maybe it’s with a coach, maybe it’s with a therapist, maybe it’s, a group for overeaters if you do have binge eating disorder, overeater anonymous.

But the reality is it’s not going to get rid of the trauma or the emotional neglect or the abandonment that maybe you experience when you are younger. And so that’s why it’s part of, again, a comprehensive program to address all of the different factors that are contributing to a person’s weight and weight struggles.

Denise: Yeah. That’s so interesting. You said it won’t interrupt that process of the trauma piece. Can you and I maybe, I don’t even know how to ask this correctly. But what would that look like if someone was on a GLP one? She would still have an emotional experience and then still look to food for comfort, even if she had the like satiety hormones.

Claudine: That’s very possible. Okay. The medication might make it easier to resist, right? Because we know that this medication helps someone to feel full. Or to not necessarily be thinking about food all the time. But that doesn’t mean that she may not have, say, a bad day at work or she gets a bad review at school, or, whatever the situation is, something that triggers. An emotional response.

And if her pattern is typically to turn to food, right? We all have habits. Coping mechanisms is how I would describe it. If we were looking at like a nervous system way of describing this, but we have coping mechanisms that we have all developed over time to deal with things. So for some people that’s food.

Denise: I wanna take a tiny pause here to remind you of the next intensive I have coming up, which will help that woman that Dr. Claudine just described. The woman who does turn to food when she’s stressed, who is an emotional eater. The next intensive is how to make a plan that you actually want to stick to.

And this is a skill that is necessary for women who are emotional eaters, who are stress eaters. To be able to get to their healthy weight. It’s a skill that a medication cannot teach you, and every woman needs to know how to use this skill. So please go to the description, get on the wait list, and you’ll be notified immediately when the doors open. Okay, back to the interview.

Claudine: So for some people that’s food. For other people, that’s maybe alcohol, that could be tobacco, that could be scrolling on social media, that could be shopping excessively. It could be sex. It could be all the things, right? All the things that if we are not careful can take us in the wrong direction.

Because they give us that dopamine spike, it’s easy to go back to those habits again and again because we know that at least in the moment, you’ll get that quick release and you’ll feel better. But we know that those strategies are not effective in the long term, right? They don’t solve the underlying trauma.

And so what we do from a trauma informed coaching perspective, or from a therapeutic perspective or nervous system perspective is to, instead of hide from the emotion or the underlying issue, is to actually just to enter into it and ideally to enter into it with Jesus. So that he can help you to heal that whatever it is that’s causing that in the first place.

And being present to it is the first step. Then knowing how to regulate out of it, instead of cope out of it, regulate out of it. And then make a different choice. This is how we start to create a new neural pathway instead of defaulting to that old knee jerk reaction of, okay, I grabbed the cookie because I had a bad day at work.

It’s okay. I had a bad day at work. I’m gonna feel it. I’m gonna cry if the tears are coming, I’m gonna be angry. If the anger is coming, I’m gonna allow it. I’m going to pray and be with Jesus in it, and then I’m going to choose to regulate instead of that default to go for the cookies. So even if you’re on a GLP one, yes, you still might have that reaction.

The GLP one is not gonna automatically dampen the stress in your life. It’s not gonna dampen those familiar pathways that you’ve already created over the course of your life. But it does make it a bit easier to. Not go for the food, if that makes sense.

Denise: It makes a lot of sense. And so you’re saying that our brains are really good at doing what they know what to do.

Claudine: Yes.

Denise: So gonna default to that and the GLP one will help potentially not have such a drive to do that, but it will not create a new neuro pathway in your brain.

Claudine: Not in and of itself. No, the underlying work still has to be done. It will dampen that sort of craving that we might have towards certain foods. It might dampen that reward drive that we have for certain foods.

But a GLP one is not gonna fix that life happens, that things are gonna happen, that we’re gonna get thrown, monkey wrenches and challenges are gonna come our way. And that we still have to have other skills to help us to deal with that as well.

Denise: Dr. Claudine, I cannot tell you how, this was the number one question that I wanted to get answered so that you were given the complete story.

Claudine: Yeah.

Denise: I think so often they have been told the food noise will go away. It will get easier. And I kept thinking, is that true? But then, knowing what I know about the brain and how these learned behaviors in the stress piece, so physiologically, it totally makes sense that a medication could act on the Ghrelin and the leptin and the dopamine. I get that.

But I thought, what about this whole thing of stress happens? There’s the ups and downs of life, and what about this whole thing of, I’ve learned to cope this way, and you just said, Hey listen, don’t we still need to care for ourselves and we still need to learn tools and heal in those areas and the medication can’t heal us.

Claudine: Yeah. That is true. And that’s my concern with, I know access is a real thing and not everybody has access. And it is good in a sense that people can get more affordable access to these medications now. But my concern with some of these ways that people can get access is that they don’t have that comprehensive support along with the medication.

So what happens is you take the GLP one, you lose the, let’s say the 50 pounds you get off of it. And we know that people regain the weight when they stop these medications. Not everybody, but for, I’m gonna say most people, this is going to be a lifelong. Pathways that they do have to be on the medication.

Because again, if we’re looking at obesity as a disease, just say hypertension is a disease. We know that people might get started on an anti or diabetes. People might get started on an anti-hypertensive or diabetes medication. Generally, they’re gonna be on that for life.

Now, of course, lifestyle changes, you can totally reverse diabetes. You can manage hypertension to the point where you might not need medications. But I’m gonna say most people will end up on medication permanently for chronic disease. So that tends to be the case with these medications as well.

However, the people who either get off these medications successfully or they get to the point where they’re on a very light maintenance dose, right? So they’re not on the full dose weekly, maybe they’re taking one of those doses on a monthly basis just for like maintenance. The people who are gonna be most successful are the ones who learned to deal with the underlying issues as well.

That it wasn’t just the medications. They learned how to handle their emotions. They learned how to regulate their nervous system. They learned how to coach their brain so that when stuff happens in real time, they don’t go back to those old habits, those old pathways. Because as human beings, it’s very easy for us to fall back into those old ways of being.

Denise: Yeah. And it’s not because we don’t want to change, it’s because we just haven’t been taught how and practiced it over and over to create those new neural pathways.

Claudine: Yes.

Denise: And so what I hear you saying is, friends, we have medication. It’s helpful, but there is no shortcut to healing. There’s no shortcut to really learning how to cope without food.

Claudine: Yeah. And my perspective is, I think healing is a lifelong journey.

Denise: Totally.

Claudine: I don’t think we arrive at a destination of healing and then we’re like, okay, I’m done because there’s always going to be, I think God is always calling us to a higher level, and of course with every, what’s the saying? New level, new devil. So there’s always gonna be.

Denise: I love that.

Claudine: Yeah. There’s always gonna be something new that comes along and maybe pokes at either. The same wound that you did work on, but now there’s just a new angle to it that you didn’t get the first time around when you healed. Or it’s a totally new wound that’s being unveiled.

So yeah, it is a lifelong process and we have to, we just have to accept that this side of heaven, like Paul says, work out your salvation in fear and trembling that yeah, it’s gonna be a bit of a struggle, to get to heaven. So.

Denise: You mentioned that people coming off, what can a woman expect and what kind of support does she need coming off if her doctor says now it’s time. Maybe she’s not a candidate to stay on it forever, but for some reason now the next step is coming off it. How can she support herself? What support does she need to seek and what can she expect?

Claudine: Yeah, so generally I taper patients down off of the GLP ones in a very like specific protocol. So ideally you’re not just stopping the medications. One thing that people will notice is when they do stop the medications, let’s say they have to stop it for a procedure for a couple weeks, is that food noise? Comes back and it comes back really strong.

But again, having a plan for that weaning down carefully in a controlled fashion and also just giving yourself time. It might take a few months to either taper down to a very low dose or to get off it, but just being prepared.

And I think just at every step of the way, noticing again that kind of interior, paying attention to what’s happening in your body. Is the hunger coming back a little bit stronger? Are you noticing that you’re wanting to eat more, to snack more? Do you need to maybe make a tweak in the amount of protein that you’re getting? Do you need to adjust your workouts to match what you’re eating now?

So again it’s a very deliberate and intentional process and I think there needs to be as much care, attention pay to the process of weaning off as we do with titrating people up to get them to the goal. Because ultimately the goal is to maintain the weight that you’ve lost and to not put it back on.

The other piece of this too is with the weight loss, you have to make sure that you’re tracking the body composition. As you’re losing the weight, ’cause we know we can lose. Weight is weight, right? So when you look at the scale, unless you have a body composition scale. A pound is a pound, it could be a pound of fat, it could very well be a pound of muscle. And of course we don’t wanna lose. Muscle because the muscle is helping with our metabolism, et cetera.

So it’s very important as we are losing weight and if we are losing GLP ones. And of course this medication works really well to help people lose weight quickly. Ideally, it shouldn’t be like super fast, it should be controlled. Because the more controlled it is, the more you can monitor and better ensure that you are not losing important muscle tissue, and that it is the fat that is coming off. So we have to be aware of that as well.

Denise: I’m really glad you brought that up. For my weight loss clients I have different programs. When people are learning certain skills they’re not allowed to weigh. So that they can stay focused on learning new skills.

And then there’s people that advance and then there’s an opportunity. To actually watch their weight every single week. And it’s simply, or every month we weigh them and I have a scale and I send them a scale so that.

And the reason why, and it’s about, it has electrical impedance. So we can see in general. Where’s your fat weight? Where’s your lean weight? You guys muscle mass. So I can see when they do have a decrease of weight, is that from fat or is that from muscle?

Claudine: Yeah.

Denise: And I’m telling you what I see when people lose slowly, and you guys, I’m not talking about GLP ones now. I’m just talking about when people do weight loss with the Holy Spirit. My clients are losing about 10% of that weight. Less than 10% is muscle.

Claudine: Yeah.

Denise: And GLP ones we find You do have to be careful because it’s easy to lose muscle.

Claudine: Yeah.

Denise: Isn’t it? What’s the percentage that people usually lose?

Claudine: I don’t have the percentage of muscle loss. I’ve read studies where the proportion of muscle loss to fat when you’re comparing not using a GLP one, that it’s actually not that different.

But because people are losing weight quickly on a GLP one, you do have to monitor it more carefully because again, if you’re just losing weight rapidly, there are a lot of. Issues with that can affect your gallbladder, it can affect your skin.

You may have heard of the term, quote unquote ozempic face where people lose weight so quickly that it actually causes them to look older because their skin is sagging a bit. Their face is hollowed out.

And I know it’s frustrating, but really slow and steady. Really does win the race when it comes to weight loss. Even though you want that weight gone like tomorrow or like today, I get it. It is actually much better if you’re losing at a steady. I know they always say one to two pounds a week. That really is like the sweet spot. If you’re like, consistently just staying in that zone, maybe three pounds, nothing crazy. That’s gonna be much better for you in the long run.

And it’s also more likely that weight is going to stay off. Now, one of the challenges is when, if and when people do regain weight, what we tend to see is the weight that they’re putting back on is, unfortunately, it’s more fat, it’s more adipose.

And they’re already. Metabolically deficient because what happens is, and this is for anyone who’s losing weight, whether it’s with a GOP one or not, your metabolism naturally goes down as you lose weight because your body has to do less work because there’s less mass.

But unfortunately, when you regain that weight, your metabolism doesn’t rebound with that. It’s the big loser effect. You may have heard of this or the Big Loser studies where those folks really damaged their metabolism by losing that weight so rapidly and then gaining it and then some, and now their metabolism is really low and it’s even harder to get that weight off at that point. ’cause your metabolism is shot at that point.

Denise: So friends, everyone listening, stay slow, let you know. We just weren’t in this for one year. We’re in it for the rest of our lives.

Claudine: Right.

Denise: And we don’t want this to just be another thing. That leaves us in five years saying, wow, I’m worse off than I started.

Claudine: Yeah.

Denise: So go slow. Make sure that you are. Getting support that someone’s watching your body composition, which just means they can tell, are you losing fat, are you losing muscle? So that can be tracked. Yeah. Let’s move just one more into the physical aspects of people are told they need to start strength training. They need to be eating at least a hundred grams of protein. Are those things true while you’re on a GLP one?

Denise: Yes, absolutely true. The protein is very important for what we were discussing earlier. We don’t want to be losing any muscle mass, if at all possible, and protein is a macronutrient that is important for our body. It also helps us to feel fuller.

So you get a lot more bang for your buck when you’re eating, say, proteins compared to simple carbohydrates. So yeah, a balanced plate would definitely include maybe about 30 grams or so of protein, whole grains and a lot of vegetables and healthy fats. Of course, fats are also important.

I know there was a time when fat was demonized, but now we realize, no, we need that good fat that healthy like avocados and healthy fats, nuts and things like that. Our brain has a lot of fatty tissue. So we need that for our brains.

But yeah. And so resistance training is also very important as well. So that’s not only going to help with your basal metabolic rate, so that’s like how many calories your body would be burning if you didn’t do a single thing in the day. So we want that number to be as high as possible. And one thing that drives that up is exercise.

Exercise is gonna naturally raise that basal metabolic rate. Yeah, and resistance training of course is gonna help with that body composition piece as well as you’re losing the weight, losing the fat, we wanna make sure that we are building the muscle, toning up that skin.

And that’s why some people can lose weight nice and steady, and they don’t have any major issues with skin. And again, people can lose weight really rapidly and they’re not doing the resistance training and the exercise. And then they have all of this skin that they need to know to take care of. Yeah.

Denise: And I think it’s really important for women to hear that one of the reasons that your basal metabolic rate increases is because you have an increase in lean muscle mass, which is muscle.

Claudine: Yes.

Denise: So you’ve now created more muscle, which is metabolically active, so you’re burning more calories when you’re sleeping or in the shower. But cardio doesn’t necessarily do the same thing. So it really is important. So cardio will burn calories in the moment, friends. But it won’t increase your muscle mass.

Claudine: Yeah.

Denise: So aren’t strength training and everybody’s what? Can’t, but I walk.

Claudine: Yeah. That’s the conundrum about cardio because I feel like everybody, and cardio is very important for your heart health, obviously. And it makes you feel happy and it’s good for your mood and all those things. So very much encouraging people to do cardio.

But when it comes to weight loss, the research actually shows that it’s not as a big driver for weight loss as people think it’s more important for maintenance, but not so much for getting the weight off.

So resistance training though, like you mentioned with the muscle building, the metabolic active tissue, the BMR, that’s really where it’s at when you’re. Purely just focusing on like the weight loss phase. So cardio good, but don’t forget to add in the strength training in addition to that.

Denise: So Dr. Claudine, I have to ask this because I’m, my background is in exercise science, and I worked for many years as a fitness professional, personal trainer, et cetera. And so when I hear someone say, talk about GLP ones, and you have to eat a hundred grams of protein and you have to strength train, I think why don’t we just do that?

And I mean that in a totally non-judgmental way because it’s almost like the, it’s almost like when someone pays to have something, they feel more committed. Or if you’re on the medication, you feel more committed to now I have to get a hundred grams of protein. Now I’ve gotta get to the gym. And I don’t know, I just wanted to bring that up. Why don’t we just do that?

Claudine: Those things will always be foundational to any lifestyle advice or wellness journey that those are like the things that we should all be doing. You’re absolutely right, but this, where the GLP ones really come in and make a difference is there are people who are metabolically. Dysfunctional, if you wanna say it in that way.

And this is where the GLP ones are really working, is to reverse that metabolic dysfunction. And these medications have a lot of other benefits. They’ve actually been around since about 2005, so they’re not new. They’re newer for the indication of weight loss, of obesity. But these medications have been around for a long time in terms of treating diabetes.

Diabetics were the first ones to to use these medications to help with the blood sugar and regulate the insulin. And then, oh yeah. And they’re losing weight too. Great. So these medications have been around, but again, I wanna go back to obesity as a syndrome, a disease process of metabolic dysfunction.

And this is where the GLP ones can really help. If you’ve got someone who is doing fine with exercise resistance training, making some dietary changes, and they’re able to lose weight steadily. That’s fine. That person doesn’t necessarily need a GLP one.

But these medications have been really life-changing for the people who have been trying to do those things. And maybe they’ve got PCOS, maybe they’ve got some perimenopause. We are actually seeing that perimenopause.

Menopause with, GLP ones and HRT is also like a very powerful combination for women who unfortunately when you start to hit perimenopause and menopause, the way it starts to become harder to manage. So again, it’s that physiological aspect of it.

Denise:Yeah. And I think what you’re saying essentially is there is a metabolic dysfunction and a hundred grams of protein and strength training will not. Fix that dysfunction.

Claudine: Not if that’s the underlying cause of the, that’s the underly of the weight. And again, there are different phenotypes of obesity and you know why someone is overweight and the thing is you can’t look at someone and necessarily know. Yeah, there are some like. Medical conditions that, as a physician if you see this, that it’s probably that. We can correlate some things that way.

But, and this is why I think it’s very hard for people with who struggle with this is there is a lot of judgment. There is a lot of shame that comes along with it. And it’s, again, it’s not just stop eating or close the fridge or it’s just not that simple. I wish it was. I think if it was. People who struggle with their weight are. A lot of them are very knowledgeable actually about it because they have worked so hard to try to solve the problem and just have been unable to do

Denise: A few other things that we just wanna touch on. What are some of the side effects that people might want to look out for? And then who’s a good candidate for this?

Claudine: Yeah. Many people at the start of using GLP ones. Notice things like nausea, vomiting, maybe some bowel changes. It could be constipation because that GI tract is slowed, slowed down. So that’s a common one. Some people might get a little diarrhea, but the more common one is constipation.

Some people notice fatigue, actually. Just feeling more, more tired. This is usually when they either start the medication from the beginning or as they’re like going up, changing to a new higher dose, they might notice those symptoms again.

Now there are some more serious issues with these medications that we wanna screen people for. So people who have a history of maybe pancreatitis or like gallbladder issues where you want it to be more careful with those folks. People who have a history of thyroid cancer. A type of cancer called me N two, those folks are not going to be candidates for this medication. But those are some of the general risks and side effects and contraindications.

Denise: And so a good candidate would be.

Claudine: So generally someone who falls into the category of obesity. So that’s the BMI body mass index of 30 or more. If your BMI is under 30, if you’re in like an overweight BMI, so typically 26, 27, if you have what we call a comorbid condition type two diabetes.High blood pressure, your cholesterol levels are abnormal sleep apnea, you might qualify for this medication, even though you’re not in the obese BMI range.

Someone who is pregnant or planning to become pregnant shouldn’t take these medications. And again, someone with any of what I mentioned before with that family history or personal history of the thyroid disease or cancer, should not take this medication.

Denise: Wow. So wonderful. Finally when I ask women who start our programs, I say, what would be 100% success to you? And they often say, I just want peace around food. And so for that woman who says, I just don’t wanna feel controlled, I’ve been feeling out of control around food, I just want peace. What would you want her to understand before taking the GLP one?

Claudine: Yeah, that’s a really good question, and what I would want her to know, first of all, is I do believe that peace around food and peace in your body. I do think it’s possible. I think this is something that so many women struggle with, whether it’s a weight problem or not. It could be you don’t like your nose or you don’t like your hair or whatever. Your skin isn’t clear enough or you’ve got acne, whatever it is.

I feel like women we are, we’re so hard on ourselves sometimes. But yeah, that desire for peace is a good one. It’s a holy one and I do think it is possible. GLP ones, and I think I said this earlier, but I’ll say it again.

A GLP one is a tool. In your toolbox? In my opinion, it is not the whole toolbox. It’s not the whole kit and caboodle, but it is a tool, it is a powerful tool in the right person who is willing to also do the other work, along with using that particular tool.

So the goal isn’t just, eating less. It’s full body freedom in my opinion. So that’s freedom in your body, but that’s also emotional freedom. That’s spiritual freedom. And in my opinion, this is what God created us to experience. He created us to feel this sense of peace.

We know that the world is not peaceful. We know that, you know that we’re gonna have challenges, but Jesus reminds us to take heart because he is already overcome the world. And we can do this with him and through him. And it’s using all the tools in our toolbox. So putting all of it together to experience that piece.

Denise: Thank you. I love that term, full body freedom. Dr. Claudine, this has been so educational. I know so many women are going to find this as a resource and they’ll probably listen to it multiple times. So tell us a little bit about where people can find you and you’ve got a couple really cool free resources on your website.

Claudine: Yeah, so my website is sacredhealthsanctuary.com. That’s my medical practice for women and they can find me there, they can find me on instagram at sacredhealthsanctuary.com. And yeah, I do have some free guides on my website about perimenopause. I have guides for women with PCOS and there’s also a hormone quiz on. The website as well to help women understand what their hormone type might be.

Denise: So wonderful. Do you have any closing words before we say goodbye?

Claudine: I think what’s coming to me maybe to close this out is I understand that if it feels like your body hasn’t been cooperating with you or if it feels like, this has been a struggle for a while, I just wanna speak to that woman who might be feeling that way to not give up or to not feel like your body is fighting against you. Ultimately your body really is doing the best that it can.

And it’s ultimately just trying to keep you alive. And it’s literally from moment to moment making adaptations. And there are changes that are happening in your body in real time to do that. So it’s just a matter of. Accepting where you are.

Acceptance is always gonna be that first step, okay, this is where I am today. And still holding that vision for who you wanna be in the future. That woman that God created you to be. And just being willing to take that next step along that path that’s going to get you there and to do it. Get the support that you need, and to also stay lockstep with Jesus as you go down that road.

Denise: That is so beautiful. Perfect. Last words. So thank you so much for being here, Dr. Claudine.

Claudine: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Denise: Wow, that was so amazing. Thank you. And before you go directly, when you get finished here, click the link in the description and get on the waitlist for the next intensive making a plan that you actually want to stick to. We kick off May 12th. Don’t be left behind.